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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wacousta (Volume III), by John Richardson
+#3 in our series by John Richardson
+
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+Title: Wacousta (Volume III)
+       or The Prophecy
+
+Author: John Richardson
+
+Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4911]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on March 25, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WACOUSTA (VOLUME III) ***
+
+
+
+
+This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan with help from
+Charles Franks and the distributed proofers.
+
+
+
+
+
+WACOUSTA;
+  or
+THE PROPHECY.
+
+Volume Three of Three
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+The night passed away without further event on board the
+schooner, yet in all the anxiety that might be supposed
+incident to men so perilously situated. Habits of long-since
+acquired superstition, too powerful to be easily shaken
+off, moreover contributed to the dejection of the mariners,
+among whom there were not wanting those who believed the
+silent steersman was in reality what their comrade had
+represented,--an immaterial being, sent from the world
+of spirits to warn them of some impending evil. What
+principally gave weight to this impression were the
+repeated asseverations of Fuller, during the sleepless
+night passed by all on deck, that what he had seen was
+no other, could be no other, than a ghost! exhibiting in
+its hueless, fleshless cheek, the well-known lineaments
+of one who was supposed to be no more: and, if the story
+of their comrade had needed confirmation among men in
+whom faith in, rather than love for, the marvellous was
+a constitutional ingredient, the terrible effect that
+seemed to have been produced on Captain de Haldimar by
+the same mysterious visitation would have been more than
+conclusive. The very appearance of the night, too,
+favoured the delusion. The heavens, comparatively clear
+at the moment when the canoe approached the vessel, became
+suddenly enveloped in the deepest gloom at its departure,
+as if to enshroud the course of those who, having so
+mysteriously approached, had also so unaccountably
+disappeared. Nor had this threatening state of the
+atmosphere the counterbalancing advantage of storm and
+tempest to drive them onward through the narrow waters
+of the Sinclair, and enable them, by anticipating the
+pursuit of their enemies, to shun the Scylla and Charybdis
+that awaited their more leisure advance. The wind increased
+not; and the disappointed seamen remarked, with dismay,
+that their craft scarcely made more progress than at the
+moment when she first quitted her anchorage.
+
+It was now near the first hours of day; and although,
+perhaps, none slept, there were few who were not apparently
+at rest, and plunged in the most painful reflections.
+Still occupying her humble couch, and shielded from the
+night air merely by the cloak that covered her own
+blood-stained garments, lay the unhappy Clara, her deep
+groans and stifled sobs bursting occasionally from her
+pent-up heart, and falling on the ears of the mariners
+like sounds of fearful import, produced by the mysterious
+agency that already bore such undivided power over their
+thoughts. On the bare deck, at her side, lay her brother,
+his face turned upon the planks, as if to shut out all
+objects from eyes he had not the power to close; and,
+with one arm supporting his heavy brow, while the other,
+cast around the restless form of his beloved sister,
+seemed to offer protection and to impart confidence, even
+while his lips denied the accents of consolation. Seated
+on an empty hen-coop at their head, was Sir Everard
+Valletort, his back reposing against the bulwarks of the
+vessel, his arms folded across his chest, and his eyes
+bent mechanically on the man at the helm, who stood within
+a few paces of him,--an attitude of absorption, which
+he, ever and anon, changed to one of anxious and enquiring
+interest, whenever the agitation of Clara was manifested
+in the manner already shown.
+
+The main deck and forecastle of the vessel presented a
+similar picture of mingled unquietness and repose. Many
+of the seamen might be seen seated on the gun-carriages,
+with their cheeks pressing the rude metal that served
+them for a pillow. Others lay along the decks, with their
+heads resting on the elevated hatches; while not a few,
+squatted on their haunches with their knees doubled up
+to their very chins, supported in that position the aching
+head that rested between their rough and horny palms.
+A first glance might have induced the belief that all
+were buried in the most profound slumber; but the quick
+jerking of a limb,--the fitful, sudden shifting of a
+position,--the utter absence of that deep breathing which
+indicates the unconsciousness of repose, and the occasional
+spirting of tobacco juice upon the deck,--all these
+symptoms only required to be noticed, to prove the living
+silence that reigned throughout was not born either of
+apathy or sleep.
+
+At the gangway at which the canoe had approached now
+stood the individual already introduced to our readers
+as Jack Fuller. The same superstitious terror that caused
+his flight had once more attracted him to the spot where
+the subject of his alarm first appeared to him; and,
+without seeming to reflect that the vessel, in her slow
+but certain progress, had left all vestige of the mysterious
+visitant behind, he continued gazing over the bulwarks
+on the dark waters, as if he expected at each moment to
+find his sight stricken by the same appalling vision. It
+was at the moment when he had worked up his naturally
+dull imagination to its highest perception of the
+supernatural, that he was joined by the rugged boatswain,
+who had passed the greater part of the night in pacing
+up and down the decks, watching the aspect of the heavens,
+and occasionally tauting a rope or squaring a light yard,
+unassisted, as the fluttering of the canvass in the wind
+rendered the alteration necessary.
+
+"Well, Jack!" bluntly observed the latter in a gruff
+whisper that resembled the suppressed growling of a
+mastiff, "what the hell are ye thinking of now?--Not got
+over your flumbustification yet, that ye stand here,
+looking as sanctified as an old parson!"
+
+"I'll tell ye what it is, Mr. Mullins," returned the
+sailor, in the same key; "you may make as much game on
+me as you like; but these here strange sort of doings
+are somehow quizzical; and, though I fears nothing in
+the shape of flesh and blood, still, when it comes to
+having to do with those as is gone to Davy Jones's locker
+like, it gives a fellow an all-overishness as isn't quite
+the thing. You understand me?"
+
+"I'm damned if I do!" was the brief but energetic rejoinder.
+
+"Well, then," continued Fuller, "if I must out with it,
+I must. I think that 'ere Ingian must have been the devil,
+or how could he come so sudden and unbeknownst upon me,
+with the head of a 'possum: and then, agin, how could he
+get away from the craft without our seeing him? and how
+came the ghost on board of the canoe?"
+
+"Avast there, old fellow; you means not the head of a
+'possum, but a beaver: but that 'ere's all nat'r'l enough,
+and easily 'counted for; but you hav'n't told us whose
+ghost it was, after all."
+
+"No; the captain made such a spring to the gunwale, as
+frighted it all out of my head: but come closer, Mr.
+Mullins, and I'll whisper it in your ear.--Hark! what
+was that?"
+
+"I hears nothing," said the boatswain, after a pause.
+
+"It's very odd," continued Fuller; "but I thought as how
+I heard it several times afore you came."
+
+"There's something wrong, I take it, in your upper story,
+Jack Fuller," coolly observed his companion; "that 'ere
+ghost has quite capsized you."
+
+"Hark, again!" repeated the sailor. "Didn't you hear it
+then? A sort of a groan like."
+
+"Where, in what part?" calmly demanded the boatswain,
+though in the same suppressed tone in which the dialogue
+had been, carried on.
+
+"Why, from the canoe that lies alongside there. I heard
+it several times afore."
+
+"Well, damn my eyes, if you a'rn't turned a real coward
+at last," politely remarked Mr. Mullins. "Can't the poor
+fat devil of a Canadian snooze a bit in his hammock,
+without putting you so completely out of your reckoning?"
+
+"The Canadian--the Canadian!" hurriedly returned Fuller:
+"why, don't you see him there, leaning with his back to
+the main-mast, and as fast asleep as if the devil himself
+couldn't wake him?"
+
+"Then it was the devil, you heard, if you like," quaintly
+retorted Mullins: "but bear a hand, and tell us all about
+this here ghost."
+
+"Hark, again! what was that?" once more enquired the
+excited sailor.
+
+"Only a gust of wind passing through the dried boughs of
+the canoe," said the boatswain: "but since we can get
+nothing out of that crazed noddle of yours, see if you
+can't do something with your hands. That 'ere canoe
+running alongside, takes half a knot off the ship's way.
+Bear a hand then, and cast off the painter, and let her
+drop astarn, that she may follow in our wake. Hilloa!
+what the hell's the matter with the man now?"
+
+And well might he ask. With his eyeballs staring, his
+teeth chattering, his body half bent, and his arms thrown
+forward, yet pendent as if suddenly arrested in that
+position while in the act of reaching the rope, the
+terrified sailor stood gazing on the stern of the canoe;
+in which, by the faint light of the dawning day, was to
+be seen an object well calculated to fill the least
+superstitious heart with terror and dismay. Through an
+opening in the foliage peered the pale and spectral face
+of a human being, with its dull eyes bent fixedly and
+mechanically upon the vessel. In the centre of the wan
+forehead was a dark incrustation, as of blood covering
+the superficies of a newly closed wound. The pallid mouth
+was partially unclosed, so as to display a row of white
+and apparently lipless teeth; and the features were
+otherwise set and drawn, as those of one who is no longer
+of earth. Around the head was bound a covering so close,
+as to conceal every part save the face; and once or twice
+a hand was slowly raised, and pressed upon the blood spot
+that dimmed the passing fairness of the brow. Every other
+portion of the form was invisible.
+
+"Lord have mercy upon us!" exclaimed the boatswain, in
+a voice that, now elevated to more than its natural tone,
+sounded startlingly on the stillness of the scene; "sure
+enough it is, indeed, a ghost!"
+
+"Ha! do you believe me now?" returned Fuller, gaining
+confidence from the admission of his companion, and in
+the same elevated key. "It is, as I hope to be saved,
+the ghost I see'd afore."
+
+The commotion on deck was now every where universal. The
+sailors started to their feet, and, with horror and alarm
+visibly imprinted on their countenances, rushed tumultuously
+towards the dreaded gangway.
+
+"Make way--room, fellows!" exclaimed a hurried voice;
+and presently Captain de Haldimar, who had bounded like
+lightning from the deck, appeared with eager eye and
+excited cheek among them. To leap into the bows of the
+canoe, and disappear under the foliage, was the work of
+a single instant. All listened breathlessly for the
+slightest sound; and then every heart throbbed with the
+most undefinable emotions, as his lips were heard giving
+utterance to the deep emotion of his own spirit,--
+
+"Madeline, oh, my own lost Madeline!" he exclaimed with
+almost frantic energy of passion: "do I then press you
+once more in madness to my doting heart? Speak, speak to
+me--for God's sake speak, or I shall go mad! Air, air,
+--she wants air only--she cannot be dead."
+
+These last words were succeeded by the furious rending
+asunder of the fastenings that secured the boughs, and
+presently the whole went overboard, leaving revealed the
+tall and picturesque figure of the officer; whose left
+arm encircled while it supported the reclining and
+powerless form of one who well resembled, indeed, the
+spectre for which she had been mistaken, while his right
+hand was busied in detaching the string that secured a
+portion of the covering round her throat. At length it
+fell from her shoulders; and the well known form of
+Madeline de Haldimar, clad even in the vestments in which
+they had been wont to see her, met the astonished gaze
+of the excited seamen. Still there were some who doubted
+it was the corporeal woman whom they beheld; and several
+of the crew who were catholics even made the sign of the
+cross as the supposed spirit was now borne up the gangway
+in the arms of the pained yet gratified De Haldimar: nor
+was it until her feet were seen finally resting on the
+deck, that Jack Fuller could persuade himself it was
+indeed Miss de Haldimar, and not her ghost, that lay
+clasped to the heart of the officer.
+
+With the keen rush of the morning air upon her brow
+returned the suspended consciousness of the bewildered
+Madeline. The blood came slowly and imperceptibly to her
+cheek; and her eyes, hitherto glazed, fixed, and
+inexpressive, looked enquiringly, yet with stupid
+wonderment, around. She started from the embrace of her
+lover, gazed alternately at his disguise, at himself,
+and at Clara; and then passing her hand several times
+rapidly across her brow, uttered an hysteric scream, and
+threw herself impetuously forward on the bosom of the
+sobbing girl; who, with extended arms, parted lips, and
+heaving bosom, sat breathlessly awaiting the first dawn
+of the returning reason of her more than sister.
+
+We should vainly attempt to paint all the heart-rending
+misery of the scene exhibited in the gradual restoration
+of Miss de Haldimar to her senses. From a state of torpor,
+produced by the freezing of every faculty into almost
+idiocy, she was suddenly awakened to all the terrors of
+the past and the deep intonations of her rich voice were
+heard only in expressions of agony, that entered into
+the most iron-hearted of the assembled seamen; while they
+drew from the bosom of her gentle and sympathising cousin
+fresh bursts of desolating grief. Imagination itself
+would find difficulty in supplying the harrowing effect
+upon all, when, with upraised hands, and on her bended
+knees, her large eyes turned wildly up to heaven, she
+invoked in deep and startling accents the terrible
+retribution of a just God on the inhuman murderers of
+her father, with whose life-blood her garments were
+profusely saturated; and then, with hysteric laughter,
+demanded why she alone had been singled out to survive
+the bloody tragedy. Love and affection, hitherto the
+first principles of her existence, then found no entrance
+into her mind. Stricken, broken-hearted, stultified to
+all feeling save that of her immediate wretchedness, she
+thought only of the horrible scenes through which she
+had passed; and even he, whom at another moment she could
+have clasped in an agony of fond tenderness to her beating
+bosom,--he to whom she had pledged her virgin faith, and
+was bound by the dearest of human ties,--he whom she had
+so often longed to behold once more, and had thought of,
+the preceding day, with all the tenderness of her
+impassioned and devoted soul,--even he did not, in the
+first hours of her terrible consciousness, so much as
+command a single passing regard. All the affections were
+for a period blighted in her bosom. She seemed as one
+devoted, without the power of resistance, to a grief
+which calcined and preyed upon all other feelings of the
+mind. One stunning and annihilating reflection seemed to
+engross every principle of her being; nor was it for
+hours after she had been restored to life and recollection
+that a deluge of burning tears, giving relief to her
+heart and a new direction to her feelings, enabled her
+at length to separate the past from, and in some degree
+devote herself to, the present. Then, indeed, for the
+first time did she perceive and take pleasure in the
+presence of her lover; and clasping her beloved and
+weeping Clara to her heart, thank her God, in all the
+fervour of true piety, that she at least had been spared
+to shed a ray of comfort on her distracted spirit. But
+we will not pain the reader by dwelling on a scene that
+drew tears even from the rugged and flint-nerved boatswain
+himself; for, although we should linger on it with minute
+anatomical detail, no powers of language we possess could
+convey the transcript as it should be. Pass we on,
+therefore, to the more immediate incidents of our narrative.
+
+The day now rapidly developing, full opportunity was
+afforded the mariners to survey the strict nature of
+their position. To all appearance they were yet in the
+middle of the lake, for around them lay the belting sweep
+of forest that bounded the perspective of the equidistant
+circle, of which their bark was the focus or immediate
+centre. The wind was dying gradually away, and when at
+length the sun rose, in all his splendour, there was
+scarce air enough in the heavens to keep the sails from
+flapping against the masts, or to enable the vessel to
+obey her helm. In vain was the low and peculiar whistle
+of the seamen heard, ever and anon, in invocation of the
+departing breeze. Another day, calm and breathless as
+the preceding, had been chartered from the world of light;
+and their hearts failed them, as they foresaw the difficulty
+of their position, and the almost certainty of their
+retreat being cut off. It was while labouring under the
+disheartening consciousness of danger, peculiar to all,
+that the anxious boatswain summoned Captain de Haldimar
+and Sir Everard Valletort, by a significant beck of the
+finger, to the side of the deck opposite to that on which
+still lay the suffering and nearly broken-hearted girls.
+
+"Well, Mullins, what now?" enquired the former, as he
+narrowly scanned the expression of the old man's features:
+"that clouded brow of yours, I fear me, bodes no agreeable
+information."
+
+"Why, your honour, I scarcely knows what to say about
+it; but seeing as I'm the only officer in the ship, now
+our poor captain is killed, God bless him! I thought I
+might take the liberty to consult with your honours as
+to the best way of getting out of the jaws of them sharks
+of Ingians; and two heads, as the saying is, is always
+better than one."
+
+"And now you have the advantage of three," observed the
+officer, with a sickly smile; "but I fear, Mullins, that
+if your own be not sufficient for the purpose, ours will
+be of little service. You must take counsel from your
+own experience and knowledge of nautical matters."
+
+"Why, to be sure, your honour," and the sailor rolled
+his quid from one cheek to the other, "I think I may say
+as how I'll venture to steer the craft with any man on
+the Canada lakes, and bring her safe into port too; but
+seeing as how I'm only a petty officer, and not yet
+recommended by his worship the governor for the full
+command, I thought it but right to consult with my
+superiors, not as to the management of the craft, but
+the best as is to be done. What does your honour think
+of making for the high land over the larboard bow yonder,
+and waiting for the chance of the night-breeze to take
+us through the Sinclair?"
+
+"Do whatever you think best," returned the officer. "For
+my part, I scarcely can give an opinion. Yet how are we
+to get there? There does not appear to be a breath of
+wind."
+
+"Oh, that's easily managed; we have only to brail and
+furl up a little, to hide our cloth from the Ingians,
+and then send the boats a-head to tow the craft, while
+some of us lend a hand at her own sweeps. We shall get
+close under the lee of the land afore night, and then we
+must pull up agin along shore, until we get within a mile
+or so of the head of the river."
+
+"But shall we not be seen by our enemies?" asked Sir
+Everard; "and will they not be on the watch for our
+movements, and intercept our retreat?"
+
+"Now that's just the thing, your honour, as they're not
+likely to do, if so be as we bears away for yon headlands.
+I knows every nook and sounding round the lake; and odd
+enough if I didn't, seeing as how the craft circumnavigated
+it, at least, a dozen times since we have been cooped up
+here. Poor Captain Danvers! (may the devil damn his
+murderers, I say, though it does make a commander of me
+for once;) he used always to make for that 'ere point,
+whenever he wished to lie quiet; for never once did we
+see so much as a single Ingian on the headland. No, your
+honour, they keeps all at t'other side of the lake, seeing
+as how that is the main road from Mackina' to Detroit."
+
+"Then, by all means, do so," eagerly returned Captain de
+Haldimar. "Oh, Mullins! take us but safely through, and
+if the interest of my father can procure you a king's
+commission, you shall not want it, believe me."
+
+"And if half my fortune can give additional stimulus to
+exertion, it shall be shared, with pleasure, between
+yourself and crew," observed Sir Everard.
+
+"Thank your honours,--thank your honours," said the
+boatswain, somewhat electrified by these brilliant offers.
+"The lads may take the money, if they like; all I cares
+about is the king's commission. Give me but a swab on my
+shoulder, and the money will come fast enough of itself.
+But, still, shiver my topsails, if I wants any bribery
+to make me do my duty; besides, if 'twas only for them
+poor girls alone, I would go through fire and water to
+sarve them. I'm not very chicken-hearted in my old age,
+your honours, but I don't recollect the time when I
+blubbered so much as I did when Miss Madeline come aboard.
+But I can't bear to think of it; and now let us see and
+get all ready for towing."
+
+Every thing now became bustle and activity on board the
+schooner. The matches, no longer required for the moment,
+were extinguished, and the heavy cutlasses and pistols
+unbuckled from the loins of the men, and deposited near
+their respective guns. Light forms flew aloft, and,
+standing out upon the yards, loosely furled the sails
+that had previously been hauled and clewed up; but, as
+this was an operation requiring little time in so small
+a vessel, those who were engaged in it speedily glided
+to the deck again, ready for a more arduous service.
+The boats had, meanwhile, been got forward, and into
+these the sailors sprang, with an alacrity that could
+scarcely have been expected from men who had passed not
+only the preceding night, but many before it, in utter
+sleeplessness and despair. But the imminence of the
+danger, and the evident necessity existing for exertion,
+aroused them to new energy; and the hitherto motionless
+vessel was now made to obey the impulse given by the tow
+ropes of the boats, in a manner that proved their crews
+to have entered on their toil with the determination of
+men, resolved to devote themselves in earnest to their
+task. Nor was the spirit of action confined to these.
+The long sweeps of the schooner had been shipped, and
+such of the crew as remained on board laboured effectually
+at them,--a service, in which they were essentially aided,
+not only by mine host of the Fleur de lis, but by the
+young officers themselves.
+
+At mid-day the headlands were seen looming largely in
+the distance, while the immediate shores of the ill-fated
+fortress were momentarily, and in the same proportion,
+disappearing under the dim line of horizon in the rear.
+More than half their course, from the spot whence they
+commenced towing, had been completed, when the harassed
+men were made to quit their oars, in order to partake of
+the scanty fare of the vessel, consisting chiefly of
+dried bear's meat and venison. Spirit of any description
+they had none; but, unlike their brethren of the Atlantic,
+when driven to extremities in food, they knew not what
+it was to poison the nutritious properties of the latter
+by sipping the putrid dregs of the water-cask, in quantities
+scarce sufficient to quench the fire of their parched
+palates. Unslaked thirst was a misery unknown to the
+mariners of these lakes: it was but to cast their buckets
+deep into the tempting element, and water, pure, sweet,
+and grateful as any that ever bubbled from the moss-clad
+fountain of sylvan deity, came cool and refreshing to
+their lips, neutralising, in a measure, the crudities of
+the coarsest food. It was to this inestimable advantage
+the crew of the schooner had been principally indebted
+for their health, during the long series of privation,
+as far as related to fresh provisions and rest, to which
+they had been subjected. All appeared as vigorous in
+frame, and robust in health, as at the moment when they
+had last quitted the waters of the Detroit; and but for
+the inward sinking of the spirit, reflected in many a
+bronzed and furrowed brow, there was little to show they
+had been exposed to any very extraordinary trials.
+
+Their meal having been hastily dispatched, and sweetened
+by a draught from the depths of the Huron, the seamen
+once more sprang into their boats, and devoted themselves,
+heart and soul, to the completion of their task, pulling
+with a vigour that operated on each and all with a tendency
+to encouragement and hope. At length the vessel, still
+impelled by her own sweeps, gradually approached the
+land; and at rather more than an hour before sunset was
+so near that the moment was deemed arrived when, without
+danger of being perceived, she might be run up along the
+shore to the point alluded to by the boatswain. Little
+more than another hour was occupied in bringing her to
+her station; and the red tints of departing day were
+still visible in the direction of the ill-fated fortress
+of Michilimackinac, when the sullen rumbling of the cable,
+following the heavy splash of the anchor, announced the
+place of momentary concealment had been gained.
+
+The anchorage lay between two projecting headlands; to
+the outermost extremities of which were to be seen,
+overhanging the lake, the stately birch and pine, connected
+at their base by an impenetrable brushwood, extending to
+the very shore, and affording the amplest concealment,
+except from the lake side and the banks under which the
+schooner was moored. From the first quarter, however,
+little danger was incurred, as any canoes the savages
+might send in discovery of their course, must unavoidably
+be seen the moment they appeared over the line of the
+horizon, while, on the contrary, their own vessel, although
+much larger, resting on and identified with the land,
+must be invisible, except on a very near approach. In
+the opposite direction they were equally safe; for, as
+Mullins had truly remarked, none, save a few wandering
+hunters, whom chance occasionally led to the spot, were
+to be met with in a part of the country that lay so
+completely out of the track of communication between the
+fortresses. It was, however, but to double the second
+headland in their front, and they came within view of
+the Sinclair, the head of which was situated little more
+than a league beyond the spot where they now lay. Thus
+secure for the present, and waiting only for the rising
+of the breeze, of which the setting sun had given promise,
+the sailors once more snatched their hasty refreshment,
+while two of their number were sent aloft to keep a
+vigilant look-out along the circuit embraced by the
+enshrouding headlands.
+
+During the whole of the day the cousins had continued on
+deck clasped in each other's arms, and shedding tears of
+bitterness, and heaving the most heart-rending sobs at
+intervals, yet but rarely conversing. The feelings of
+both were too much oppressed to admit of the utterance
+of their grief. The vampire of despair had banqueted on
+their hearts. Their vitality had been sucked, as it were,
+by its cold and bloodless lips; and little more than the
+withered rind, that had contained the seeds of so many
+affections, had been left. Often had Sir Everard and De
+Haldimar paused momentarily from the labour of their
+oars, to cast an eye of anxious solicitude on the scarcely
+conscious girls, wishing, rather than expecting, to find
+the violence of their desolation abated, and that, in
+the full expansion of unreserved communication, they were
+relieving their sick hearts from the terrible and crushing
+weight of woe that bore them down. Captain de Haldimar
+had even once or twice essayed to introduce the subject
+himself, in the hope that some fresh paroxysm, following
+their disclosures, would remove the horrible stupefaction
+of their senses; but the wild look and excited manner of
+Madeline, whenever he touched on the chord of her
+affliction, had as often caused him to desist.
+
+Towards the evening, however, her natural strength of
+character came in aid of his quiescent efforts to soothe
+her; and she appeared not only more composed, but more
+sensible of the impression produced by surrounding objects.
+As the last rays of the sun were tinging the horizon,
+she drew up her form in a sitting position against the
+bulwarks, and, raising her clasped hands to heaven, while
+her eyes were bent long and fixedly on the distant west,
+appeared for some minutes wholly lost in that attitude
+of absorption. Then she closed her eyes; and through the
+swollen lids came coursing, one by one, over her quivering
+cheek, large tears, that seemed to scald a furrow where
+they passed. After this she became more calm--her
+respiration more free; and she even consented to taste
+the humble meal which the young man now offered for the
+third time. Neither Clara nor herself had eaten food
+since the preceding morning; and the weakness of their
+frames contributed not a little to the increasing
+despondency of their spirits; but, notwithstanding several
+attempts previously made, they had rejected what was
+offered them, with insurmountable loathing. When they
+had now swallowed a few morsels of the sliced venison
+ham, prepared with all the delicacy the nearly exhausted
+resources of the vessel could supply, accompanied by a
+small portion of the cornbread of the Canadian, Captain
+de Haldimar prevailed on them to swallow a few drops of
+the spirit that still remained in the canteen given them
+by Erskine on their departure from Detroit. The genial
+liquid sent a kindling glow to their chilled hearts, and
+for a moment deadened the pungency of their anguish; and
+then it was that Miss de Haldimar entered briefly on the
+horrors she had witnessed, while Clara, with her arm
+encircling her waist, fixed her dim and swollen eyes,
+from which a tear ever and anon rolled heavily to her
+lap, on those of her beloved cousin,
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Without borrowing the affecting language of the unhappy
+girl--a language rendered even more touching by the
+peculiar pathos of her tones, and the searching agony of
+spirit that burst at intervals through her narrative--
+we will merely present our readers with a brief summary
+of what was gleaned from her melancholy disclosure. On
+bearing her cousin to the bedroom, after the terrifying
+yell first heard from without the fort, she had flown
+down the front stairs of the blockhouse, in the hope of
+reaching the guardroom in time to acquaint Captain Baynton
+with what she and Clara had witnessed from their window.
+Scarcely, however, had she gained the exterior of the
+building, when she saw that officer descending from a
+point of the rampart immediately on her left, and almost
+in a line with the block-house. He was running to overtake
+and return the ball of the Indian players, which had, at
+that moment, fallen into the centre of the fort, and was
+now rolling rapidly away from the spot on which Miss de
+Haldimar stood. The course of the ball led the pursuing
+officer out of the reach of her voice; and it was not
+until he had overtaken and thrown it again over the
+rampart, she could succeed in claiming his attention. No
+sooner, however, had he heard her hurried statement,
+than, without waiting to take the orders of his commanding
+officer, he prepared to join his guard, and give directions
+for the immediate closing of the gates. But the opportunity
+was now lost. The delay occasioned by the chase and
+recovery of the ball had given the Indians time to approach
+the gates in a body, while the unsuspicious soldiery
+looked on without so much as dreaming to prevent them;
+and Captain Baynton had scarcely moved forward in execution
+of his purpose, when the yelling fiends were seen already
+possessing themselves of the drawbridge, and exhibiting
+every appearance of fierce hostility. Wild, maddened at
+the sight, the almost frantic Madeline, alive only to
+her father's danger, rushed back towards the council-room,
+whence the startling yell from without had already been
+echoed, and where the tramp of feet, and the clashing of
+weapons, were distinguishable.
+
+Cut off from his guard, by the rapid inundation of
+warriors, Captain Baynton had at once seen the futility
+of all attempts to join the men, and his first impression
+evidently had been to devote himself to the preservation
+of the cousins. With this view he turned hastily to Miss
+de Haldimar, and hurriedly naming the back staircase of
+the block-house, urged her to direct her flight to that
+quarter. But the excited girl had neither consideration
+nor fear for herself; she thought only of her father:
+and, even while the fierceness of contest was at its
+height within, she suddenly burst into the council-room.
+The confusion and horror of the scene that met her eyes
+no language can render: blood was flowing in every
+direction, and dying and dead officers, already stripped
+of their scalps, were lying strewed about the room.
+Still the survivors fought with all the obstinacy of
+despair, and many of the Indians had shared the fate of
+their victims. Miss de Haldimar attempted to reach her
+father, then vigorously combating with one of the most
+desperate of the chiefs; but, before she could dart
+through the intervening crowd, a savage seized her by
+the hair, and brandished a tomahawk rapidly over her
+neck. At that moment Captain Baynton sent his glittering
+blade deep into the heart of the Indian, who, relinquishing
+his grasp, fell dead at the feet of his intended victim.
+The devoted officer then threw his left arm round her
+waist, and, parrying with his sword-arm the blows of
+those who sought to intercept his flight, dragged his
+reluctant burden towards the door. Hotly pressed by the
+remaining officers, nearly equal in number, the Indians
+were now compelled to turn and defend themselves in front,
+when Captain Baynton took that opportunity of getting
+once more into the corridor, not, however, without having
+received a severe wound immediately behind the right ear,
+and leaving a skirt and lappel of his uniform in the
+hands of two savages who had successively essayed to
+detain him. At that moment the band without had succeeded
+in forcing open the door of the guard-room; and the
+officer saw, at a glance, there was little time left for
+decision. In hurried and imploring accents he besought
+Miss de Haldimar to forget every thing but her own danger,
+and to summon resolution to tear herself from the scene:
+but prayer and entreaty, and even force, were alike
+employed in vain. Clinging firmly to the rude balustrades,
+she refused to be led up the staircase, and wildly
+resisting all his efforts to detach her hands, declared
+she would again return to the scene of death, in which
+her beloved parent was so conspicuous an actor. While he
+was yet engaged in this fruitless attempt to force her
+from the spot, the door of the council-room was suddenly
+burst open, and a group of bleeding officers, among whom
+was Major de Haldimar, followed by their yelling enemies,
+rushed wildly into the passage, and, at the very foot of
+the stairs where they yet stood, the combat was renewed.
+From that moment Miss de Haldimar lost sight of her
+generous protector. Meanwhile the tumult of execrations,
+and groans, and yells, was at its height; and one by one
+she saw the unhappy officers sink beneath weapons yet
+reeking with the blood of their comrades, until not more
+than three or four, including her father and the commander
+of the schooner, were left. At length Major de Haldimar,
+overcome by exertion, and faint from wounds, while his
+wild eye darted despairingly on his daughter, had his
+sword-arm desperately wounded, when the blade dropped to
+the earth, and a dozen weapons glittered above his head.
+The wild shriek that had startled Clara then burst from
+the agonised heart of her maddened cousin, and she darted
+forward to cover her father's head with her arms. But
+her senses failed her in the attempt; and the last thing
+she recollected was falling over the weltering form of
+Middleton, who pressed her, as she lay there, in the
+convulsive energy of death, to his almost pulseless heart.
+
+A vague consciousness of being raised from the earth,
+and borne rapidly through the air, came over her even in
+the midst of her insensibility, but without any definite
+perception of the present, or recollection of the past,
+until she suddenly, when about midway between the fort
+and the point of wood that led to Chabouiga, opened her
+eyes, and found herself in the firm grasp of an Indian,
+whose features, even in the hasty and fearful glance she
+cast at the countenance, she fancied were not unfamiliar
+to her. Not another human being was to be seen in the
+clearing at that moment; for all the savages, including
+even the women assembled outside, were now within the
+fort assisting in the complex horrors of murder, fire,
+and spoliation. In the wild energy of returning reason
+and despair, the wretched girl struggled violently to
+free herself; and so far with success, that the Indian,
+whose strength was evidently fast failing him, was
+compelled to quit his hold, and suffer her to walk. No
+sooner did Miss de Haldimar feel her feet touching the
+ground, when she again renewed her exertions to free
+herself, and return to the fort; but the Indian held her
+firmly secured by a leathern thong he now attached to
+her waist, and every attempt proved abortive. He was
+evidently much disconcerted at her resistance; and more
+than once she expected, and almost hoped, the tomahawk
+at his side would be made to revenge him for the test to
+which his patience was subjected; but Miss de Haldimar
+looked in vain for the expression of ferocity and impatience
+that might have been expected from him at such a moment.
+There was an air of mournfulness, and even kindness,
+mingled with severity, on his smooth brow that harmonised
+ill with the horrible atrocities in which he had, to all
+appearance, covered as he was with blood, been so recent
+and prominent an actor. The Indian remarked her surprise;
+and then looking hurriedly, yet keenly, around, and
+finding no living being near them, suddenly tore the
+shirt from his chest, and emphatically pronouncing the
+names "Oucanasta," "De Haldimar," disclosed to the still
+struggling captive the bosom of a woman. After which,
+pointing in the direction of the wood, and finally towards
+Detroit, she gave Miss de Haldimar to understand that
+was the course intended to be pursued.
+
+In a moment the resistance of the latter ceased. She at
+once recognised the young Indian woman whom her cousin
+had rescued from death: and aware, as she was, of the
+strong attachment that had subsequently bound her to her
+preserver, she was at no loss to understand how she might
+have been led to devote herself to the rescue of one
+whom, it was probable, she knew to be his affianced wife.
+Once, indeed, a suspicion of a different nature crossed
+her mind; for the thought occurred to her she had only
+been saved from the general doom to be made the victim
+of private revenge--that it was only to glut the jealous
+vengeance of the woman at a more deliberative hour, she
+had been made a temporary captive. The apprehension,
+however, was no sooner formed than extinguished. Bitterly,
+deeply as she had reason to abhor the treachery and
+cunning of the dark race to which her captor belonged,
+there was an expression of openness and sincerity, and
+even imploringness, in the countenance of Oucanasta,
+which, added to her former knowledge of the woman, at
+once set this fear at rest, inducing her to look upon
+her rather in the character of a disinterested saviour,
+than in that of a cruel and vindictive enemy, goaded on
+to the indulgence of malignant hate by a spirit of rivalry
+and revenge. Besides, even were her cruellest fears to
+be realised, what could await her worse than the past?
+If she could even succeed in getting away, it would only
+be to return upon certain death; and death only could
+await her, however refined the tortures accompanying its
+infliction, in the event of her quietly following and
+yielding herself up to the guidance of one who offered
+this slight consolation, at least, that she was of her
+own sex. But Miss de Haldimar was willing to attribute
+more generous motives to the Indian; and fortified in
+her first impression, she signified by signs, that seemed
+to be perfectly intelligible to her companion, she
+appreciated her friendly intentions, and confided wholly
+in her.
+
+No longer checked in her efforts, Oucanasta now directed
+her course towards the wood, still holding the thong that
+remained attached to Miss de Haldimar's waist, probably
+with a view to deceive any individuals from the villages
+on whom they might chance to fall, into a belief that
+the English girl was in reality her prisoner. No sooner,
+however, had they entered the depths of the forest, when,
+instead of following the path that led to Chabouiga,
+Oucanasta took a direction to the left, and then moving
+nearly on a parallel line with the course of the lake,
+continued her flight as rapidly as the rude nature of
+the underwood, and the unpractised feet of her companion,
+would permit. They had travelled in this manner for
+upwards of four hours, without meeting a breathing thing,
+or even so much as exchanging a sound between themselves,
+when, at length, the Indian stopped at the edge of a deep
+cavern-like excavation in the earth, produced by the
+tearing up, by the wild tempest, of an enormous pine.
+Into this she descended, and presently reappeared with
+several blankets, and two light painted paddles. Then
+unloosing the thong from the waist of the exhausted girl,
+she proceeded to disguise her in one of the blankets in
+the manner already shown, securing it over the head,
+throat, and shoulders with the badge of captivity, now
+no longer necessary for her purpose. She then struck off
+at right angles from the course they had previously
+pursued; and in less than twenty minutes both stood on
+the lake shore, apparently at a great distance from the
+point whence they had originally set out. The Indian
+gazed for a moment anxiously before her; and then, with
+an exclamation, evidently meant to convey a sense of
+pleasure and satisfaction, pointed forward upon the lake.
+Miss de Haldimar followed, with eager and aching eyes,
+the direction of her finger, and beheld the well-known
+schooner evidently urging her flight towards the entrance
+of the Sinclair. Oh, how her sick heart seemed ready to
+burst at that moment! When she had last gazed upon it
+was from the window of her favourite apartment; and even
+while she held her beloved Clara clasped fondly in her
+almost maternal embrace, she had dared to indulge the
+fairest images that ever sprung into being at the creative
+call of woman's fancy. How bitter had been the reverse!
+and what incidents to fill up the sad volume of the
+longest life of sorrow and bereavement had not Heaven
+awarded her in lieu! In one short hour the weight of a
+thousand worlds had fallen on and crushed her heart; and
+when and how was the panacea to be obtained to restore
+one moment's cessation from suffering to her agonised
+spirit? Alas! she felt at that moment, that, although
+she should live a thousand years, the bitterness and
+desolation of her grief must remain. From the vessel she
+turned her eyes away upon the distant shore, which it
+was fast quitting, and beheld a column of mingled flame
+and smoke towering far above the horizon, and attesting
+the universal wreck of what had so long been endeared to
+her as her home. And she had witnessed all this, and yet
+had strength to survive it!
+
+The courage of the unhappy girl had hitherto been sustained
+by no effort of volition of her own. From the moment
+when, discovering a friend in Oucanasta, she had yielded
+herself unresistingly to the guidance of that generous
+creature, her feelings had been characterised by an
+obtuseness strongly in contrast with the high excitement
+that had distinguished her previous manner. A dreamy
+recollection of some past horror, it is true, pursued
+her during her rapid and speechless flight; but any
+analysis of the causes conducing to that horror, her
+subjugated faculties were unable to enter upon. Even as
+one who, under the influence of incipient slumber, rejects
+the fantastic images that rise successively and indistinctly
+to the slothful brain, until, at length, they weaken,
+fade, and gradually die away, leaving nothing but a
+formless and confused picture of the whole; so was it
+with Miss de Haldimar. Had she been throughout alive to
+the keen recollections associated with her flight, she
+could not have stirred a foot in furtherance of her own
+safety, even if she would. The mere instinct of
+self-preservation would never have won one so truly
+devoted to the generous purpose of her deliverer, had
+not the temporary stupefaction of her mind prevented all
+desire of opposition. It is true, in the moment of her
+discovery of the sex of Oucanasta, she had been able to
+exercise her reflecting powers; but they were only in
+connection with the present, and wholly abstract and
+separate from the past. She had followed her conductor
+almost without consciousness, and with such deep absorption
+of spirit, that she neither once conjectured whither they
+were going, nor what was to be the final issue of their
+flight. But now, when she stood on the lake shore,
+suddenly awakened, as if by some startling spell, to
+every harrowing recollection, and with her attention
+assisted by objects long endeared, and rendered familiar
+to her gaze--when she beheld the vessel that had last
+borne her across the still bosom of the Huron, fleeing
+for ever from the fortress where her arrival had been so
+joyously hailed--when she saw that fortress itself
+presenting the hideous spectacle of a blackened mass of
+ruins fast crumbling into nothingness--when, in short,
+she saw nothing but what reminded her of the terrific
+past, the madness of reason returned, and the desolation
+of her heart was complete. And then, again, when she
+thought of her generous, her brave, her beloved, and too
+unfortunate father, whom she had seen perish at her
+feet--when she thought of her own gentle Clara, and the
+sufferings and brutalities to which, if she yet lived,
+she must inevitably be exposed, and of the dreadful fate
+of the garrison altogether, the most menial of whom was
+familiar to her memory, brought up, as she had been,
+among them from her childhood--when she dwelt on all
+these things, a faintness, as of death, came over her,
+and she sank without life on the beach. Of what passed
+afterwards she had no recollection. She neither knew how
+she had got into the canoe, nor what means the Indian
+had taken to secure her approach to the schooner. She
+had no consciousness of having been removed to the bark
+of the Canadian, nor did she even remember having risen
+and gazed through the foliage on the vessel at her side;
+but she presumed, the chill air of morning having partially
+restored pulsation, she had moved instinctively from her
+recumbent position to the spot in which her spectre-like
+countenance had been perceived by Fuller. The first moment
+of her returning reason was that when, standing on the
+deck of the schooner, she found herself so unexpectedly
+clasped to the heart of her lover.
+
+Twilight had entirely passed away when Miss de Haldimar
+completed her sad narrative; and already the crew, roused
+to exertion by the swelling breeze, were once more engaged
+in weighing the anchor, and setting and trimming the
+sails of the schooner, which latter soon began to shoot
+round the concealing headland into the opening of the
+Sinclair. A deathlike silence prevailed throughout the
+decks of the little bark, as her bows, dividing the waters
+of the basin that formed its source, gradually immerged
+into the current of that deep but narrow river; so narrow,
+indeed, that from its centre the least active of the
+mariners might have leaped without difficulty to either
+shore. This was the most critical part of the dangerous
+navigation. With a wide sea-board, and full command of
+their helm, they had nothing to fear; but so limited was
+the passage of this river, it was with difficulty the
+yards and masts of the schooner could be kept disengaged
+from the projecting boughs of the dense forest that lined
+the adjacent shores to their very junction with the water.
+The darkness of the night, moreover, while it promised
+to shield them from the observation of the savages,
+contributed greatly to perplex their movements; for such
+was the abruptness with which the river wound itself
+round in various directions, that it required a man
+constantly on the alert at the bows to apprise the helmsman
+of the course he should steer, to avoid collision with
+the shores. Canopies of weaving branches met in various
+directions far above their heads, and through these the
+schooner glided with a silence that might have called up
+the idea of a Stygian freight. Meanwhile, the men stood
+anxiously to their guns, concealing the matches in their
+water-buckets as before; and, while they strained both
+ear and eye through the surrounding; gloom to discover
+the slightest evidence of danger, grasped the handles of
+their cutlasses with a firm hand, ready to unsheathe them
+at the first intimation of alarm.
+
+At the suggestion of the boatswain, who hinted at the
+necessity of having cleared decks, Captain de Haldimar
+had prevailed on his unfortunate relatives to retire to
+the small cabin arranged for their reception; and here
+they were attended by an aged female, who had long followed
+the fortunes of the crew, and acted in the twofold
+character of laundress and sempstress. He himself, with
+Sir Everard, continued on deck watching the progress of
+the vessel with an anxiety that became more intense at
+each succeeding hour. Hitherto their course had been
+unimpeded, save by the obstacles already enumerated; and
+they had now, at about an hour before dawn, gained a
+point that promised a speedy termination to their dangers
+and perplexities. Before them lay a reach in the river,
+enveloped in more than ordinary gloom, produced by the
+continuous weaving of the tops of the overhanging trees;
+and in the perspective, a gleam of relieving light,
+denoting the near vicinity of the lake that lay at the
+opposite extremity of the Sinclair, whose name it also
+bore. This was the narrowest part of the river; and so
+approximate were its shores, that the vessel in her course
+could not fail to come in contact both with the obtruding
+foliage of the forest and the dense bullrushes skirting
+the edge of either bank.
+
+"If we get safe through this here place," said the
+boatswain, in a rough whisper to his anxious and attentive
+auditors," I think as how I'll venture to answer for the
+craft. I can see daylight dancing upon the lake already.
+Ten minutes more and she will be there." Then turning to
+the man at the helm,--"Keep her in the centre of the
+stream, Jim. Don't you see you're hugging the weather
+shore?"
+
+"It would take the devil himself to tell which is the
+centre," growled the sailor, in the same suppressed tone.
+"One might steer with one's eyes shut in such a queer
+place as this and never be no worser off than with them
+open."
+
+"Steady her helm, steady," rejoined Mullins, "it's as
+dark as pitch, to be sure, but the passage is straight
+as an arrow, and with a steady helm you can't miss it.
+Make for the light ahead."
+
+"Abaft there!" hurriedly and loudly shouted the man on
+the look-out at the bows, "there's a tree lying across
+the river, and we're just upon it."
+
+While he yet spoke, and before the boatswain could give
+such instructions as the emergency required, the vessel
+suddenly struck against the obstacle in question; but
+the concussion was not of the violent nature that might
+have been anticipated. The course of the schooner, at no
+one period particularly rapid, had been considerably
+checked since her entrance into the gloomy arch, in the
+centre of which her present accident had occurred; so
+that it was without immediate injury to her hull and
+spars she had been thus suddenly brought to. But this
+was not the most alarming part of the affair. Captain de
+Haldimar and Sir Everard both recollected, that, in making
+the same passage, not forty-eight hours previously, they
+had encountered no obstacle of the kind, and a misgiving
+of danger rose simultaneously to the hearts of each. It
+was, however, a thing of too common occurrence in these
+countries, where storm and tempest were so prevalent and
+partial, to create more than a mere temporary alarm; for
+it was quite as probable the barrier had been interposed
+by some fitful outburst of Nature, as that it arose from
+design on the part of their enemies: and when the vessel
+had continued stationary for some minutes, without the
+prepared and expectant crew discovering the slightest
+indication of attack, the former impression was preserved
+by the officers--at least avowedly to those around.
+
+"Bear a hand, my lads, and cut away," at length ordered
+the boatswain, in a low but clear tone; "half a dozen at
+each end of the stick, and we shall soon clear a passage
+for the craft."
+
+A dozen sailors grasped their axes, and hastened forward
+to execute the command. They sprang lightly from the
+entangled bows of the schooner, and diverging in equal
+numbers moved to either extremity of the fallen tree.
+
+"This is sailing through the heart of the American forest
+with a vengeance," muttered Mullins, whose annoyance at
+their detention was strongly manifested as he paced up
+and down the deck. "Shiver my topsails, if it isn't bad
+enough to clear the Sinclair at any time, much more so
+when one's running for one's life, and not a whisper's
+length from one's enemies. Do you know, Captain," abruptly
+checking his movement, and familiarly placing his hand
+on the shoulder of De Haldimar, "the last time we sailed
+through this very reach I couldn't help telling poor
+Captain Danvers, God rest his soul, what a nice spot it
+was for an Ingian ambuscade, if they had only gumption
+enough to think of it."
+
+"Hark!" said the officer, whose heart, eye, and ear were
+painfully on the alert, "what rustling is that we hear
+overhead?"
+
+"It's Jack Fuller, no doubt, your honour; I sent him up
+to clear away the branches from the main topmast rigging."
+Then raising his head, and elevating his voice, "Hilloa!
+aloft there!"
+
+The only answer was a groan, followed by a deeper commotion
+among the rustling foliage.
+
+"Why, what the devil's the matter with you now, Jack?"
+pursued the boatswain, in a voice of angry vehemence.
+"Are ye scared at another ghost, and be damned to you,
+that ye keep groaning there after that fashion?"
+
+At that moment a heavy dull mass was heard tumbling
+through the upper rigging of the schooner towards the
+deck, and presently a human form fell at the very feet
+of the small group, composed of the two officers and the
+individual who had last spoken.
+
+"A light, a light!" shouted the boatswain; "the foolish
+chap has lost his hold through fear, and ten to one if
+he hasn't cracked his skull-piece for his pains. Quick
+there with a light, and let's see what we can do for him."
+
+The attention of all had been arrested by the sound of
+the falling weight, and as one of the sailors now advanced,
+bearing a dark lantern from below, the whole of the crew,
+with the exception of those employed on the fallen tree,
+gathered themselves in a knot round the motionless form
+of the prostrate man. But no sooner had their eyes
+encountered the object of their interest, when each
+individual started suddenly and involuntarily back, baring
+his cutlass, and drawing forth his pistol, the whole
+presenting a group of countenances strongly marked by
+various shades of consternation and alarm, even while
+their attitudes were those of men prepared for some fierce
+and desperate danger. It was indeed Fuller whom they had
+beheld, but not labouring, as the boatswain had imagined,
+under the mere influence of superstitious fear. He was
+dead, and the blood flowing from a deep wound, inflicted
+by a sharp instrument in his chest, and the scalped head,
+too plainly told the manner of his death, and the danger
+that awaited them all.
+
+A pause ensued, but it was short. Before any one could
+find words to remark on the horrible circumstance, the
+appalling war-cry of the savages burst loudly from every
+quarter upon the ears of the devoted crew. In the
+desperation of the moment, several of the men clutched
+their cutlasses between their teeth, and seizing the
+concealed matches, rushed to their respective stations
+at the guns. It was in vain the boatswain called out to
+them, in a voice of stern authority, to desist, intimating
+that their only protection lay in the reservation of the
+fire of their batteries. Goaded and excited, beyond the
+power of resistance, to an impulse that set all
+subordination at defiance, they applied the matches, and
+almost at the same instant the terrific discharge of both
+broadsides took place, rocking the vessel to the water's
+edge, and reverberating, throughout, the confined space
+in which she lay, like the deadly explosion of some deeply
+excavated mine.
+
+Scarcely had the guns been fired, when the seamen became
+sensible of their imprudence. The echoes were yet
+struggling to force a passage through the dense forest,
+when a second yell of the Indians announced the fiercest
+joy and triumph, unmixed by disaster, at the result; and
+then the quick leaping of many forms could be heard, as
+they divided the crashing underwood, and rushed forward
+to close with their prey. It was evident, from the
+difference of sound, their first cry had been pealed
+forth while lying prostrate on the ground, and secure
+from the bullets, whose harmless discharge that cry was
+intended to provoke; for now the voices seemed to rise
+progressively from the earth, until they reached the
+level of each individual height, and were already almost
+hotly breathing in the ears of those they were destined
+to fill with illimitable dismay.
+
+"Shiver my topsails, but this comes of disobeying orders,"
+roared the boatswain, in a voice of mingled anger and
+vexation. "The Ingians are quite as cunning as ourselves,
+and arn't to be frighted that way. Quick, every cutlass
+and pistol to his gangway, and let's do our best. Pass
+the word forward for the axemen to return to quarters."
+
+Recovered from their first paroxysm of alarm, the men at
+length became sensible of the presence of a directing
+power, which, humble as it was, their long habits of
+discipline had taught them to respect, and, headed on
+the one side by Captain de Haldimar, and on the other by
+Sir Everard Valletort, neither of whom, however, entertained
+the most remote chance of success, flew, as commanded,
+to their respective gangways. The yell of the Indians
+had again ceased, and all was hushed into stillness; but
+as the anxious and quicksighted officers gazed over the
+bulwarks, they fancied they could perceive, even through
+the deep gloom that every where prevailed, the forms of
+men,--resting in cautious and eager attitudes, on the
+very verge of the banks, and at a distance of little more
+than half pistol shot. Every heart beat with expectancy,
+--every eye was riveted intently in front, to watch and
+meet the first movements of their foes, but not a sound
+of approach was audible to the equally attentive ear. In
+this state of aching suspense they might have continued
+about five minutes, when suddenly their hearts were made
+to quail by a third cry, that came, not as previously,
+from the banks of the river, but from the very centre of
+their own decks, and from the top-mast and riggings of
+the schooner. So sudden and unexpected too was this fresh
+danger, that before the two parties had time to turn,
+and assume a new posture of defence, several of them had
+already fallen under the butchering blades of their
+enemies. Then commenced a desperate but short conflict,
+mingled with yellings, that again were answered from
+every point; and rapidly gliding down the pendant ropes,
+were to be seen the active and dusky forms of men, swelling
+the number of the assailants, who had gained the deck in
+the same noiseless manner, until resistance became almost
+hopeless.
+
+"Ha! I hear the footsteps of our lads at last," exclaimed
+Mullins exultingly to his comrades, as he finished
+despatching a third savage with his sturdy weapon. "Quick,
+men, quick, up with hatchet and cutlass, and take them
+in the rear. If we are to die, let's die--" game, he
+would perhaps have added, but death arrested the word
+upon his lips; and his corpse rolled along the deck,
+until its further progress was stopped by the stiffened
+body of the unhappy Fuller.
+
+Notwithstanding the fall of their brave leader, and the
+whoopings of their enemies, the flagging spirits of the
+men were for a moment excited by the announcement of the
+return even of the small force of the axemen, and they
+defended themselves with a courage and determination
+worthy of a better result; but when, by the lurid light
+of the torches, now lying burning about the decks, they
+turned and beheld not their companions, but a fresh band
+of Indians, at whose pouch-belts dangled the reeking
+scalps of their murdered friends, they at once relinquished
+the combat as hopeless, and gave themselves unresistingly
+up to be bound by their captors.
+
+Meanwhile the cousins experienced a renewal of all those
+horrors from which their distracted minds had been
+temporarily relieved; and, petrified with alarm, as they
+lay in the solitary berth that contained them both,
+endured sufferings infinitely more terrible than death
+itself. The early part of the tumult they had noticed
+almost without comprehending its cause, and but for the
+terrific cry of the Indians that had preceded them, would
+have mistaken the deafening broadsides for the blowing
+up of the vessel, so tremendous and violent bad been the
+concussion. Nay, there was a moment when Miss de Haldimar
+felt a pang of deep disappointment and regret at the
+misconception; for, with the fearful recollection of past
+events, so strongly impressed on her bleeding heart, she
+could not but acknowledge, that to be engulfed in one
+general and disastrous explosion, was mercy compared with
+the alternative of falling into the hands of those to
+whom her loathing spirit bad been too fatally taught to
+deny even the commonest attributes of humanity. As for
+Clara, she had not the power to think, or to form a
+conjecture on the subject:--she was merely sensible of
+a repetition of the horrible scenes from which she had
+so recently been snatched, and with a pale cheek, a fixed
+eye, and an almost pulseless heart, lay without motion
+in the inner side of the berth. The piteous spectacle of
+her cousin's alarm lent a forced activity to the despair
+of Miss de Haldimar, in whom apprehension produced that
+strong energy of excitement that sometimes gives to
+helplessness the character of true courage. With the
+increasing clamour of appalling conflict on deck, this
+excitement grew at every moment stronger, until it finally
+became irrepressible, so that at length, when through
+the cabin windows there suddenly streamed a flood of
+yellow light, extinguishing that of the lamp that threw
+its flickering beams around the cabin, she flung herself
+impetuously from the berth, and, despite of the aged and
+trembling female who attempted to detain her, burst open
+the narrow entrance to the cabin, and rushed up the steps
+communicating with the deck.
+
+The picture that here met her eyes was at once graphic
+and fearful in the extreme. On either side of the river
+lines of streaming torches were waved by dusky warriors
+high above their heads, reflecting the grim countenances,
+not only of those who bore them, but of dense groups in
+their rear, whose numbers were alone concealed by the
+foliage of the forest in which they stood. From the
+branches that wove themselves across the centre of the
+river, and the topmast and rigging of the vessel, the
+same strong yellow light, produced by the bark of the
+birch tree steeped in gum, streamed down upon the decks
+below, rendering each line and block of the schooner as
+distinctly visible as if it had been noon on the sunniest
+of those far distant lakes. The deck itself was covered
+with the bodies of slain men--sailors, and savages mixed
+together; and amid these were to be seen fierce warriors,
+reclining triumphantly and indolently on their rifles,
+while others were occupied in securing the arms of their
+captives with leathern thongs behind their backs. The
+silence that now prevailed was strongly in contrast with,
+and even more fearful than, the horrid shouts by which
+it had been preceded; and, but for the ghastly countenances
+of the captives, and the quick rolling eyes of the savages,
+Miss de Haldimar might have imagined herself the sport
+of some extraordinary and exciting illusion. Her glance
+over these prominent features in the tragedy had been
+cursory, yet accurate. It now rested on one that had more
+immediate and terrifying interest for herself. At a few
+paces in front of the companion ladder, and with their
+backs turned towards her, stood two individuals, whose
+attitudes denoted the purpose of men resolved to sell
+with their lives alone a passage to a tall fierce-looking
+savage, whose countenance betrayed every mark of triumphant
+and deadly passion, while he apparently hesitated whether
+his uplifted arm should stay the weapon it wielded. These
+individuals were Captain de Haldimar and Sir Everard
+Valletort; and to the former of these the attention of
+the savage was more immediately and exultingly directed;
+so much so, indeed, that Miss de Haldimar thought she
+could read in the ferocious expression of his features
+the death-warrant of her cousin. In the wild terror of
+the moment she gave a piercing scream that was answered
+by a hundred yelling voices, and rushing between her
+lover and his enemy, threw herself wildly and supplicatingly
+at the feet of the latter. Uttering a savage laugh, the
+monster spurned her from him with his foot, when, quick
+as thought, a pistol was discharged within a few inches
+of his face; but with a rapidity equal to that of his
+assailant, he bent aside his head, and the ball passed
+harmlessly on. The yell that followed was terrific; and
+while it was yet swelling into fulness, Captain de Haldimar
+felt an iron hand furiously grappling his throat, and,
+ere the grasp was relinquished, he again stood the bound
+and passive victim of the warrior of the Fleur de lis.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The interval that succeeded to the last council-scene of
+the Indians was passed by the officers of Detroit in a
+state of inexpressible anxiety and doubt. The fears
+entertained for the fate of their companions, who had
+set out in the perilous and almost forlorn hope of reaching
+Michilimackinac, in time to prevent the consummation of
+the threatened treachery, had, in some degree, if not
+wholly, been allayed by the story narrated by the Ottawa
+chief. It was evident, from his statement, the party had
+again met, and been engaged in fearful struggle with the
+gigantic warrior they had all so much reason to recollect;
+and it was equally apparent, that in that struggle they
+had been successful. But still, so many obstacles were
+likely to be opposed to their navigation of the several
+lakes and rivers over which lay their course, it was
+almost feared, even if they eventually escaped unharmed
+themselves, they could not possibly reach the fort in
+time to communicate the danger that awaited their friends.
+It is true, the time gained by Governor de Haldimar on
+the first occasion had afforded a considerable interval,
+of which advantage might be taken; but it was also, on
+the other hand, uncertain whether Ponteac had commanded
+the same delay in the council of the chiefs investing
+Michilimackinac, to which he had himself assented. Three
+days were sufficient to enable an Indian warrior to
+perform the journey by land; and it was chiefly on this
+vague and uncertain ground they based whatever little of
+hope was entertained on the subject.
+
+It had been settled at the departure of the adventurers,
+that the instant they effected a communication with the
+schooner on Lake Huron, Francois should be immediately
+sent back, with instructions so to contrive the period
+of his return, that his canoe should make its appearance
+soon after daybreak at the nearest extremity of Hog
+Island, the position of which has been described in our
+introductory chapter. From this point a certain signal,
+that could be easily distinguished with the aid of a
+telescope, was to be made from the canoe, which, without
+being of a nature to attract the attention of the savages,
+was yet to be such as could not well be mistaken by the
+garrison. This was a precaution adopted, not only with
+the view of giving the earliest intimation of the result
+of the enterprise, but lest the Canadian should be
+prevented, by any closer investment on the part of the
+Indians, from communicating personally with the fort in
+the way he had been accustomed.
+
+It will easily be comprehended therefore, that, as the
+period approached when they might reasonably look for
+the return of Francois, if he should return at all, the
+nervous anxiety of the officers became more and more
+developed. Upwards of a week had elapsed since the
+departure of their friends; and already, for the last
+day or two, their impatience had led them, at early dawn,
+and with beating hearts, to that quarter of the rampart
+which overlooked the eastern extremity of Hog Island.
+Hitherto, however, their eager watching had been in vain.
+As far as our recollection of the Canadian tradition of
+this story serves us, it must have been on the fourth
+night after the final discomfiture of the plans of Ponteac,
+and the tenth from the departure of the adventurers, that
+the officers were assembled in the mess-room, partaking
+of the scanty and frugal supper to which their long
+confinement had reduced them. The subject of their
+conversation, as it was ever of their thoughts, was the
+probable fate of their companions; and many and various,
+although all equally melancholy, were the conjectures
+offered as to the result. There was on the countenance
+of each, that deep and fixed expression of gloom, which,
+if it did not indicate any unmanliness of despair, told
+at least that hope was nearly extinct: but more especially
+was this remarkable in the young but sadly altered Charles
+de Haldimar, who, with a vacant eye and a pre-occupied
+manner, seemed wholly abstracted from the scene before
+him.
+
+All was silence in the body of the fort. The men off duty
+had long since retired to rest in their clothes, and only
+the "All's well!" of the sentinels was heard at intervals
+of a quarter of an hour, as the cry echoed from mouth to
+mouth in the line of circuit. Suddenly, however, between
+two of those intervals, and during a pause in the languid
+conversation of the officers, the sharp challenge of a
+sentinel was heard, and then quick steps on the rampart,
+as of men hastening to the point whence the challenge
+had been given. The officers, whom this new excitement
+seemed to arouse into fresh activity, hurriedly quitted
+the room; and, with as little noise as possible, gained
+the spot where the voice had been heard. Several men were
+bending eagerly over the rampart, and, with their muskets
+at the recover, riveting their gaze on a dark and motionless
+object that lay on the verge of the ditch immediately
+beneath them.
+
+"What have you here, Mitchell?" asked Captain Blessington,
+who was in command of the guard, and who had recognised
+the gruff voice of the veteran in the challenge just
+given.
+
+"An American burnt log, your honour," muttered the soldier,
+"if one was to judge from its stillness; but if it is,
+it must have rolled there within the last minute; for
+I'll take my affidavy it wasn't here when I passed last
+in my beat."
+
+"An American burnt log, indeed! it's some damned rascal
+of a spy, rather," remarked Captain Erskine. "Who knows
+but it may be our big friend, come to pay us a visit
+again? And yet he is not half long enough for him, either.
+Can't you try and tickle him with the bayonet, any of
+you fellows, and see whether he is made of flesh and
+blood?"
+
+Although this observation was made almost without object,
+it being totally impossible for any musket, even with
+the addition of its bayonet, to reach more than half way
+across the ditch, the several sentinels threw themselves
+on their chests, and, stretching over the rampart as far
+as possible, made the attempt to reach the suspicious
+looking object that lay beyond. No sooner, however, had
+their arms been extended in such a manner as to be utterly
+powerless, when the dark mass was seen to roll away in
+an opposite direction, and with such rapidity that, before
+the men could regain their feet and level their muskets,
+it had entirely disappeared from their view.
+
+"Cleverly managed, to give the red skin his due," half
+laughingly observed Captain Erskine, while his brother
+officers continued to fix their eyes in astonishment on
+the spot so recently occupied by the strange object; "but
+what the devil could be his motive for lying there so
+long? Not playing the eaves-dropper, surely; and yet, if
+he meant to have picked off a sentinel, what was to have
+prevented him from doing it sooner?"
+
+"He had evidently no arms," said Ensign Delme.
+
+"No, nor legs either, it would appear," resumed the
+literal Erskine. "Curse me if I ever saw any thing in
+the shape of a human form bundled together in that manner."
+
+"I mean he had no fire-arms--no rifle," pursued Delme.
+
+"And if he had, he certainly would have rifled one of us
+of a life," continued the captain, laughing at his own
+conceit. "But come, the bird is flown, and we have only
+to thank ourselves for having been so egregiously duped.
+Had Valletort been here, he would have given a different
+account of him."
+
+"Hist! listen!" exclaimed Lieutenant Johnstone, calling
+the attention of the party to a peculiar and low sound
+in the direction in which the supposed Indian had departed.
+
+It was repeated, and in a plaintive tone, indicating a
+desire to propitiate. Soon afterwards a human form was
+seen advancing slowly, but without show either of
+concealment or hostility in its movements. It finally
+remained stationary on the spot where the dark and
+shapeless mass had been first perceived.
+
+"Another Oucanasta for De Haldimar, no doubt," observed
+Captain Erskine, after a moment's pause. "These grenadiers
+carry every thing before them as well in love as in war."
+
+The error of the good-natured officer was, however,
+obvious to all but himself. The figure, which was now
+distinctly traced in outline for that of a warrior, stood
+boldly and fearlessly on the brink of the ditch, holding
+up its left arm, in the hand of which dangled something
+that was visible in the starlight, and pointing
+energetically to this pendant object with the other.
+
+A voice from one of the party now addressed the Indian
+in two several dialects, but without eliciting a reply.
+He either understood not, or would not answer the question
+proposed, but continued pointing significantly to the
+indistinct object which he still held forth in an elevated
+position.
+
+"The governor must be apprised of this," observed Captain
+Blessington to De Haldimar, who was his subaltern of the
+guard. "Hasten, Charles, to acquaint your father, and
+receive his orders."
+
+The young officer willingly obeyed the injunction of his
+superior. A secret and indefinable hope rushed through
+his mind, that as the Indian came not in hostility, he
+might be the bearer of some communication from their
+friends; and he moved rapidly towards that part of the
+building occupied by his father.
+
+The light of a lamp suspended over the piazza leading to
+the governor's rooms reflecting strongly on his regimentals,
+he passed unchallenged by the sentinels posted there,
+and uninterruptedly gained a door that opened on a narrow
+passage, at the further extremity of which was the
+sitting-room usually occupied by his parent. This again
+was entered from the same passage by a second door, the
+upper part of which was of common glass, enabling any
+one on the outside to trace with facility every object
+within when the place was lighted up.
+
+A glance was sufficient to satisfy the youth his father
+was not in the room; although there was strong evidence
+he had not retired for the night. In the middle of the
+floor stood an oaken table, and on this lay an open
+writing desk, with a candle on each side, the wicks of
+which had burnt so long as to throw a partial gloom over
+the surrounding wainscotting. Scattered about the table
+and desk were a number of letters that had apparently
+been just looked at or read; and in the midst of these
+an open case of red morocco, containing a miniature.
+The appearance of these letters, thus left scattered
+about by one who was scrupulously exact in the arrangement
+of his papers, added to the circumstance of the neglected
+and burning candles, confirmed the young officer in an
+impression that his father, overcome by fatigue, had
+retired into his bed-room, and fallen unconsciously
+asleep. Imagining, therefore, he could not, without
+difficulty, succeed in making himself heard, and deeming
+the urgency of the case required it, he determined to
+wave the usual ceremony of knocking, and penetrate to
+his father's bedroom unannounced. The glass door being
+without fastening within, easily yielded to his pressure
+of the latch; but as he passed by the table, a strong
+and natural feeling of curiosity induced him to cast his
+eye upon the miniature. To his infinite surprise, nay,
+almost terror, he discovered it was that of his mother--the
+identical portrait which his sister Clara had worn in
+her bosom from infancy, and which he had seen clasped
+round her neck on the very deck of the schooner in which
+she sailed for Michilimackinac. He felt there could be
+no mistake, for only one miniature of the sort had ever
+been in possession of the family, and that the one just
+accounted for. Almost stupified at what he saw, and
+scarcely crediting the evidence of his senses, the young
+officer glanced his eye hurriedly along one of the open
+letters that lay around. It was in the well remembered
+hand-writing of his mother, and commenced, "Dear, dearest
+Reginald." After this followed expressions of endearment
+no woman might address except to an affianced lover, or
+the husband of her choice; and his heart sickened while
+he read. Scarcely, however, had he scanned half a dozen
+lines, when it occurred to him he was violating some
+secret of his parents; and, discontinuing the perusal
+with an effort, he prepared to acquit himself of his
+mission.
+
+On raising his eyes from the paper he was startled by
+the appearance of his father, who, with a stern brow and
+a quivering lip, stood a few paces from the table,
+apparently too much overcome by his indignation to be
+able to utter a sentence.
+
+Charles de Haldimar felt all the awkwardness of his
+position. Some explanation of his conduct, however, was
+necessary; and he stammered forth the fact of the portrait
+having riveted his attention, from its striking resemblance
+to that in his sister's possession.
+
+"And to what do these letters bear resemblance?" demanded
+the governor, in a voice that trembled in its attempt to
+be calm, while he fixed his penetrating eye on that of
+his son. "THEY, it appears, were equally objects of
+attraction with you."
+
+"The letters were in the hand-writing of my mother; and
+I was irresistibly led to glance at one of them," replied
+the youth, with the humility of conscious wrong. "The
+action was involuntary, and no sooner committed than
+repented of. I am here, my father, on a mission of
+importance, which must account for my presence."
+
+"A mission of importance!" repeated the governor, with
+more of sorrow than of anger in the tone in which he now
+spoke. "On what mission are you here, if it be not to
+intrude unwarrantably on a parent's privacy?"
+
+The young officer's cheek flushed high, as he proudly
+answered:--"I was sent by Captain Blessington, sir, to
+take your orders in regard to an Indian who is now without
+the fort under somewhat extraordinary circumstances, yet
+evidently without intention of hostility. It is supposed
+he bears some message from my brother."
+
+The tone of candour and offended pride in which this
+formal announcement of duty was made seemed to banish
+all suspicion from the mind of the governor; and he
+remarked, in a voice that had more of the kindness that
+had latterly distinguished his address to his son, "Was
+this, then, Charles, the only motive for your abrupt
+intrusion at this hour? Are you sure no inducement of
+private curiosity was mixed up with the discharge of your
+duty, that you entered thus unannounced? You must admit,
+at least, I found you employed in a manner different from
+what the urgency of your mission would seem to justify."
+
+There was lurking irony in this speech; yet the softened
+accents of his father, in some measure, disarmed the
+youth of the bitterness he would have flung into his
+observation,--"That no man on earth, his parent excepted,
+should have dared to insinuate such a doubt with impunity."
+
+For a moment Colonel de Haldimar seemed to regard his
+son with a surprised but satisfied air, as if he had not
+expected the manifestation of so much spirit, in one whom
+he had been accustomed greatly to undervalue.
+
+"I believe you, Charles," he at length observed; "forgive
+the justifiable doubt, and think no more of the subject.
+Yet, one word," as the youth was preparing to depart;
+"you have read that letter" (and he pointed to that which
+had principally arrested the attention of the officer):
+"what impression has it given you of your mother? Answer
+me sincerely. MY name," and his faint smile wore something
+of the character of triumph, "is not REGINALD, you know."
+
+The pallid cheek of the young man flushed at this question.
+His own undisguised impression was, that his mother had
+cherished a guilty love for another than her husband. He
+felt the almost impiety of such a belief, but he could
+not resist the conviction that forced itself on his mind;
+the letter in her handwriting spoke for itself; and though
+the idea was full of wretchedness, he was unable to
+conquer it. Whatever his own inference might be, however,
+he could not endure the thought of imparting it to his
+father; he, therefore, answered evasively.
+
+"Doubtless my mother had some dear relative of the name,
+and to him was this letter addressed; perhaps a brother,
+or an uncle. But I never knew," he pursued, with a look
+of appeal to his father, "that a second portrait of my
+mother existed. This is the very counterpart of Clara's."
+
+"It may be the same," remarked the governor, but in a
+tone of indecision, that dented his faith in what he
+uttered.
+
+"Impossible, my father. I accompanied Clara, if you
+recollect, as far as Lake Sinclair; and when I quitted
+the deck of the schooner to return, I particularly remarked
+my sister wore her mother's portrait, as usual, round
+her neck."
+
+"Well, no matter about the portrait," hurriedly rejoined
+the governor; "yet, whatever your impression, Charles,"
+and he spoke with a warmth that was far from habitual to
+him, "dare not to sully the memory of your mother by a
+doubt of her purity. An accident has given this letter
+to your inspection, but breathe not its contents to a
+human creature; above all, respect the being who gave
+you birth. Go, tell Captain Blessington to detain the
+Indian; I will join you immediately."
+
+Strongly, yet confusedly, impressed with the singularity
+of the scene altogether, and more particularly with his
+father's strange admonition, the young officer quitted
+the room, and hastened to rejoin his companions. On
+reaching the rampart he found that the Indian, during
+his long absence, had departed; yet not without depositing,
+on the outer edge of the ditch, the substance to which
+he had previously directed their attention. At the moment
+of De Haldimar's approach, the officers were bending over
+the rampart, and, with straining eyes, endeavouring to
+make out what it was, but in vain; something was just
+perceptible in the withered turf, but what that something
+was no one could succeed in discovering.
+
+"Whatever this be, we must possess ourselves of it," said
+Captain Blessington: "it is evident, from the energetic
+manner of him who left it, it is of importance. I think
+I know who is the best swimmer and climber of our party."
+
+Several voices unanimously pronounced the name of
+"Johnstone."
+
+"Any thing for a dash of enterprise," said that officer,
+whose slight wound had been perfectly healed. "But what
+do you propose that the swimmer and climber should do,
+Blessington?"
+
+"Secure yon parcel, without lowering the drawbridge."
+
+"What! and be scalped in the act? Who knows if it be not
+a trick after all, and that the rascal who placed it
+there is not lying within a few feet, ready to pounce
+upon me the instant I reach the bank."
+
+"Never mind," said Erskine, laughingly, "we will revenge
+your death, my boy."
+
+"Besides, consider the nunquam non paratus, Johnstone,"
+slily remarked Lieutenant Leslie.
+
+"What, again, Leslie?" energetically responded the young
+Scotsman. "Yet think not I hesitate, for I did but jest:
+make fast a rope round my loins, and I think I will answer
+for the result."
+
+Colonel de Haldimar now made his appearance. Having
+heard a brief statement of the facts, and approving of
+the suggestion of Captain Blessington, a rope was procured,
+and made fast under the shoulders of the young officer,
+who had previously stripped himself of his uniform and
+shoes. He then suffered himself to drop gently over the
+edge of the rampart, his companions gradually lowering
+the rope, until a deep and gasping aspiration, such as
+is usually wrung from one coming suddenly in contact with
+cold water, announced he had gained the surface of the
+ditch. The rope was then slackened, to give him the
+unrestrained command of his limbs; and in the next instant
+he was seen clambering up the opposite elevation.
+
+Although the officers, indulging in a forced levity, in
+a great degree meant to encourage their companion, had
+treated his enterprise with indifference, they were far
+from being without serious anxiety for the result. They
+had laughed at the idea, suggested by him, of being
+scalped; whereas, in truth, they entertained the
+apprehension far more powerfully than he did himself.
+The artifices resorted to by the savages, to secure an
+isolated victim, were so many and so various, that
+suspicion could not but attach to the mysterious occurrence
+they had just witnessed. Willing even as they were to
+believe their present visitor, whoever he was, came not
+in a spirit of enmity, they could not altogether divest
+themselves of a fear that it was only a subtle artifice
+to decoy one of them within the reach of their traitorous
+weapons. They, therefore, watched the movements of their
+companion with quickening pulses; and it was with a lively
+satisfaction they saw him, at length, after a momentary
+search, descend once more into the ditch, and, with a
+single powerful impulsion of his limbs, urge himself back
+to the foot of the rampart. Neither feet nor hands were
+of much service, in enabling him to scale the smooth and
+slanting logs that composed the exterior surface of the
+works; but a slight jerk of the well secured rope, serving
+as a signal to his friends, he was soon dragged once more
+to the summit of the rampart, without other injury than
+a couple of slight bruises.
+
+"Well, what success?" eagerly asked Leslie and Captain
+Erskine in the same breath, as the dripping Johnstone
+buried himself in the folds of a capacious cloak procured
+during his absence.
+
+"You shall hear," was the reply; "but first, gentlemen,
+allow me, if you please, to enjoy, with yourselves, the
+luxury of dry clothes. I have no particular ambition to
+contract an American ague fit just now; yet, unless you
+take pity on me, and reserve my examination for a future
+moment, there is every probability I shall not have a
+tooth left by to-morrow morning."
+
+No one could deny the justice of the remark, for the
+teeth of the young man were chattering as he spoke. It
+was not, therefore, until after he had changed his dress,
+and swallowed a couple of glasses of Captain Erskine's
+never failing spirit, that they all repaired once more
+to the mess-room, when Johnstone anticipated all questions,
+by the production of the mysterious packet.
+
+After removing several wrappers of bark, each of which
+was secured by a thong of deerskin, Colonel de Haldimar,
+to whom the successful officer had handed his prize, at
+length came to a small oval case of red morocco, precisely
+similar, in size and form, to that which had so recently
+attracted the notice of his son. For a moment he hesitated,
+and his cheek was observed to turn pale, and his hand to
+tremble; but quickly subduing his indecision, he hurriedly
+unfastened the clasp, and disclosed to the astonished
+view of the officers the portrait of a young and lovely
+woman, habited in the Highland garb.
+
+Exclamations of various kinds burst from the lips of the
+group of officers. Several knew it to be the portrait of
+Mrs. de Haldimar; others recognised it from the striking
+likeness it bore to Clara and to Charles; all knew it
+had never been absent from the possession of the former
+since her mother's death; and feeling satisfied as they
+did that its extraordinary appearance among them, at the
+present moment, was an announcement of some dreadful
+disaster, their countenances wore an impress of dismay
+little inferior to that of the wretched Charles, who,
+agonized beyond all attempt at description, had thrown
+himself into a seat in the rear of the group, and sat
+like one bewildered, with his head buried in his hands.
+
+"Gentlemen," at length observed Colonel de Haldimar, in
+a voice that proved how vainly his natural emotion was
+sought to be subdued by his pride, "this, I fear me, is
+an unwelcome token. It comes to announce to a father the
+murder of his child; to us all, the destruction of our
+last remaining friends and comrades."
+
+"God forbid!" solemnly aspirated Captain Blessington.
+After a pause of a moment or two he pursued: "I know not
+why, sir; but my impression is, the appearance of this
+portrait, which we all recognise for that worn by Miss
+de Haldimar, bears another interpretation."
+
+Colonel de Haldimar shook his head.--"I have but too
+much reason to believe," he observed, smiling in mournful
+bitterness, "it has been conveyed to us not in mercy but
+in revenge."
+
+No one ventured to question why; for notwithstanding all
+were aware that in the mysterious ravisher of the wife
+of Halloway Colonel de Haldimar had a fierce and inexorable
+private enemy, no allusion had ever been made by that
+officer himself to the subject.
+
+"Will you permit me to examine the portrait and envelopes,
+Colonel?" resumed Captain Blessington: "I feel almost
+confident, although I confess I have no other motive for
+it than what springs from a recollection of the manner
+of the Indian, that the result will bear me out in my
+belief the bearer came not in hostility but in friendship."
+
+"By my faith, I quite agree with Blessington," said
+Captain Erskine; "for, in addition to the manner of the
+Indian, there is another evidence in favour of his
+position. Was it merely intended in the light in which
+you consider it, Colonel, the case or the miniature itself
+might have been returned, but certainly not the metal in
+which it is set. The savages are fully aware of the value
+of gold, and would not so easily let it slip through
+their fingers."
+
+"And wherefore thus carefully wrapped up?" remarked
+Lieutenant Johnstone, "unless it had been intended it
+should meet with no injury on the way. I certainly think
+the portrait never would have been conveyed, in its
+present perfect state, by an enemy."
+
+"The fellow seemed to feel, too, that he came in the
+character of one whose intentions claimed all immunity
+from harm," remarked Captain Wentworth. "He surely never
+would have stood so fearlessly on the brink of the ditch,
+and within pistol shot, had he not been conscious of
+rendering some service to those connected with us."
+
+To these several observations of his officers, Colonel
+de Haldimar listened attentively; and although he made
+no reply, it was evident he felt gratified at the eagerness
+with which each sought to remove the horrible impression
+he had stated to have existed in his own mind. Meanwhile,
+Captain Blessington had turned and examined the miniature
+in fifty different ways, but without succeeding in
+discovering any thing that could confirm him in his
+original impression. Vexed and disappointed, he at length
+flung it from him on the table, and sinking into a seat
+at the side of the unfortunate Charles, pressed the hand
+of the youth in significant silence.
+
+Finding his worst fears now confirmed. Colonel de
+Haldimar, for the first time, cast a glance towards his
+son, whose drooping head, and sorrowing attitude, spoke
+volumes to his heart. For a moment his own cheek blanched,
+and his eye was seen to glisten with the first tear ever
+witnessed there by those around him. Subduing his emotion,
+however, he drew up his person to its lordly height, as
+if that act reminded him the commander was not to be lost
+in the father, and quitting the room with a heavy brow
+and step, recommended to his officers the repose of which
+they appeared to stand so much in need. But not one was
+there who felt inclined to court the solitude of his
+pillow. No sooner were the footsteps of the governor
+heard dying away in the distance, when fresh lights were
+ordered, and several logs of wood heaped on the slackening
+fire. Around this the officers now grouped, and throwing
+themselves back in their chairs, assumed the attitudes
+of men seeking to indulge rather in private reflection
+than in personal converse.
+
+The grief of the wretched Charles de Haldimar, hitherto
+restrained by the presence of his father, and encouraged
+by the touching evidences of interest afforded him by
+the ever-considerate Blessington, now burst forth audibly.
+No attempt was made by the latter officer to check the
+emotion of his young friend. Knowing his passionate
+fondness for his sister, he was not without fear that
+the sudden shock produced by the appearance of her
+miniature might destroy his reason, even if it affected
+not his life; and as the moment was now come when tears
+might be shed without exciting invidious remark in the
+only individual who was likely to make it, he sought to
+promote them as much as possible. Too much occupied in
+their own mournful reflections to bestow more than a
+passing notice on the weakness of their friend, the group
+round the fireplace scarcely seemed to have regarded his
+emotion.
+
+This violent paroxysm past, De Haldimar breathed more
+freely; and, after listening to several earnest observations
+of Captain Blessington, who still held out the possibility
+of something favourable turning up, on a re-examination
+of the portrait by daylight, he was so far composed as
+to be able to attend to the summons of the sergeant of
+the guard, who came to say the relief were ready, and
+waiting to be inspected before they were finally marched
+off. Clasping the extended hand of his captain between
+his own, with a pressure indicative of his deep gratitude,
+De Haldimar now proceeded to the discharge of his duty;
+and having caught up the portrait, which still lay on
+the table, and thrust it into the breast of his uniform,
+he repaired hurriedly to rejoin his guard, from which
+circumstances alone had induced his unusually long absence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+The remainder of that night was passed by the unhappy De
+Haldimar in a state of indescribable wretchedness. After
+inspecting the relief, he had thrown himself on his rude
+guard-bed; and, drawing his cloak over his eyes, given
+full rein to the wanderings of his excited imagination.
+It was in vain the faithful old Morrison, who never
+suffered his master to mount a guard without finding some
+one with whom to exchange his tour of duty, when he
+happened not to be in orders himself, repeatedly essayed,
+as he sat stirring the embers of the fire, to enter into
+conversation with him. The soul of the young officer was
+sick, past the endurance even of that kind voice; and,
+more than once, he impetuously bade him be silent, if he
+wished to continue where he was; or, if not, to join his
+comrades in the next guard-room. A sigh was the only
+respectful but pained answer to these sharp remonstrances;
+and De Haldimar, all absorbed even as he was in his own
+grief, felt it deeply; for he knew the old man loved him,
+and he could not bear the idea of appearing to repay with
+slight the well-intentioned efforts of one whom he had
+always looked upon more as a dependant on his family than
+as the mere rude soldier. Still he could not summon
+courage to disclose the true nature of his grief, which
+the other merely ascribed to general causes and vague
+apprehensions of a yet unaccomplished evil. Morrison had
+ever loved his sister with an affection in no way inferior
+to that which he bore towards himself. He had also nursed
+her in childhood; and his memory was ever faithful to
+trace, as his tongue was to dwell on, those gentle and
+amiable qualities, which, strongly marked at an earlier
+period of her existence, had only undergone change,
+inasmuch as they had become matured and more forcibly
+developed in womanhood. Often, latterly, had the grey-haired
+veteran been in the habit of alluding to her; for he saw
+the subject was one that imparted a mournful satisfaction
+to the youth; and, with a tact that years, more than deep
+reading of the human heart, had given him, he ever made
+a point of adverting to their re-union as an event
+admitting not of doubt.
+
+Hitherto the affectionate De Haldimar had loved to listen
+to these sounds of comfort; for, although they carried
+no conviction to his mind, impressed as he was with the
+terrible curse of Ellen Halloway, and the consequent
+belief that his family were devoted to some fearful doom,
+still they came soothingly and unctuously to his sick
+soul; and, all deceptive even as he felt them to be, he
+found they created a hope which, while certain to be
+dispelled by calm after-reflection, carried a momentary
+solace to his afflicted spirit. But, now that he had
+every evidence his adored sister was no more, and that
+the illusion of hope was past for ever, to have heard
+her name even mentioned by one who, ignorant of the
+fearful truth the events of that night had elucidated,
+was still ready to renew a strain every chord of which
+had lost its power of harmony, was repugnant beyond
+bearing to his heart. At one moment he resolved briefly
+to acquaint the old man with the dreadful fact, but
+unwillingness to give pain prevented him; and, moreover,
+he felt the grief the communication would draw from the
+faithful servitor of his family must be of so unchecked
+a nature as to render his own sufferings even more poignant
+than they were. Neither had he (independently of all
+other considerations) resolution enough to forego the
+existence of hope in another, even although it had passed
+entirely away from himself. It was for these reasons he
+had so harshly and (for him) unkindly checked, the attempt
+of the old man at a conversation which he, at every
+moment, felt would be made to turn on the ill-fated Clara.
+
+Miserable as he felt his position to be, it was not
+without satisfaction he again heard the voice of his
+sergeant summoning him to the inspection of another
+relief. This duty performed, and anxious to avoid the
+paining presence of his servant, he determined, instead
+of returning to his guard-room, to consume the hour that
+remained before day in pacing the ramparts. Leaving word
+with his subordinate, that, in the event of his being
+required, he might be found without difficulty, he ascended
+to that quarter of the works where the Indian had been
+first seen who had so mysteriously conveyed the sad token
+he still retained in his breast. It was on the same side
+with that particular point whence we have already stated
+a full view of the bridge with its surrounding scenery,
+together with the waters of the Detroit, where they were
+intersected by Hog Island, were distinctly commanded. At
+either of those points was stationed a sentinel, whose
+duty it was to extend his beat between the boxes used
+now rather as lines of demarcation than as places of
+temporary shelter, until each gained that of his next
+comrade, when they again returned to their own, crossing
+each other about half way: a system of precaution pursued
+by the whole of the sentinels in the circuit of the
+rampart.
+
+The ostensible motive of the officer in ascending the
+works, was to visit his several posts; but no sooner had
+he found himself between the points alluded to, which
+happened to be the first in his course, than he seemed
+to be riveted there by a species of fascination. Not that
+there was any external influence to produce this effect,
+for the utmost stillness reigned both within and around
+the fort; and, but for the howling of some Indian wolf-dog
+in the distance, or the low and monotonous beat of their
+drums in the death-dance, there was nought that gave
+evidence of the existence of the dreadful enemy by whom
+they were beset. But the whole being of the acutely
+suffering De Haldimar was absorbed in recollections
+connected with the spot on which he stood. At one
+extremity was the point whence he had witnessed the
+dreadful tragedy of Halloway's death; at the other, that
+on which had been deposited the but too unerring record
+of the partial realisation of the horrors threatened at
+the termination of that tragedy; and whenever he attempted
+to pass each of these boundaries, he felt as if his limbs
+repugned the effort.
+
+In the sentinels, his appearance among them excited but
+little surprise; for it was no uncommon thing for the
+officers of the guard to spend the greatest part of the
+night in visiting, in turn, the several more exposed
+points of the ramparts; and that it was now confined to
+one particular part, seemed not even to attract their
+notice. It was, therefore, almost wholly unremarked by
+his men, that the heart-stricken De Haldimar paced his
+quick and uncertain walk with an imagination filled with
+the most fearful forebodings, and with a heart throbbing
+with the most painful excitement. Hitherto, since the
+discovery of the contents of the packet, his mind had
+been so exclusively absorbed in stupifying grief for his
+sister, that his perception seemed utterly incapable of
+outstepping the limited sphere drawn around it; but now,
+other remembrances, connected with the localities, forced
+themselves upon his attention; and although, in all these,
+there was nothing that was not equally calculated to
+carry dismay and sorrow to his heart, still, in dividing
+his thoughts with the one supreme agony that bowed him
+down, they were rather welcomed than discarded. His mind
+was as a wheel, embracing grief within grief, multiplied
+to infinitude; and the wider and more diffusive the
+circle, the less powerful was the concentration of
+sickening heart and brain on that which was the more
+immediate axis of the whole.
+
+Reminded, for the first time, as he pursued his measured
+but aimless walk, by the fatal portrait which he more
+than once pressed with feverish energy to his lips, of
+the singular discovery he had made that night in the
+apartments of his father, he was naturally led, by a
+chain of consecutive thought, into a review of the whole
+of the extraordinary scene. The fact of the existence of
+a second likeness of his mother was one that did not now
+fail to reawaken all the unqualified surprise he had
+experienced at the first discovery. So far from having
+ever heard his father make the slightest allusion to this
+memorial of his departed mother, he perfectly recollected
+his repeatedly recommending to Clara the safe custody of
+a treasure, which, if lost, could never be replaced. What
+could be the motive for this mystery?--and why had he
+sought to impress him with the belief it was the identical
+portrait worn by his sister which had so unintentionally
+been exposed to his view? Why, too, had he evinced so
+much anxiety to remove from his mind all unfavourable
+impressions in regard to his mother? Why have been so
+energetic in his caution not to suffer a taint of impurity
+to attach to her memory? Why should he have supposed the
+possibility of such impression, unless there had been
+sufficient cause for it? In what, moreover, originated
+his triumphant expression of feature, when, on that
+occasion, he reminded him that HIS name was not Reginald?
+Who, then, was this Reginald? Then came the recollection
+of what had been repeated to him of the parting scene
+between Halloway and his wife. In addressing her ill-fated
+husband, she had named him Reginald. Could it be possible
+this was the same being alluded to by his father? But
+no; his youth forbade the supposition, being but two
+years older than his brother Frederick; yet might be not,
+in some way or other, be connected with the Reginald of
+the letter? Why, too, had his father shown such unrelenting
+severity in the case of this unfortunate victim?--a
+severity which had induced more than one remark from his
+officers, that it looked as if he entertained some personal
+feeling of enmity towards a man who had done so much for
+his family, and stood so high in the esteem of all who
+knew him.
+
+Then came another thought. At the moment of his execution,
+Halloway had deposited a packet in the hands of Captain
+Blessington;--could these letters--could that portrait
+be the same? Certain it was, by whatever means obtained,
+his father could not have had them long in his possession;
+for it was improbable letters of so old a date should
+have occupied his attention NOW, when many years had
+rolled over the memory of his mother. And then, again,
+what was the meaning of the language used by the implacable
+enemy of his father, that uncouth and ferocious warrior
+of the Fleur de lis, not only on the occasion of the
+execution of Halloway, but afterwards to his brother,
+during his short captivity; and, subsequently, when,
+disguised as a black, he penetrated, with the band of
+Ponteac, into the fort, and aimed his murderous weapon
+at his father's head. What had made him the enemy of his
+family? and where and how had originated his father's
+connection with so extraordinary and so savage a being?
+Could he, in any way, be implicated with his mother? But
+no; there was something revolting, monstrous, in the
+thought: besides, had not his father stood forward the
+champion of her innocence?--had he not declared, with an
+energy carrying conviction with every word, that she was
+untainted by guilt? And would he have done this, had he
+had reason to believe in the existence of a criminal love
+for him who evidently was his mortal foe? Impossible.
+
+Such were the questions and solutions that crowded on
+and distracted the mind of the unhappy De Haldimar, who,
+after all, could arrive at no satisfactory conclusion.
+It was evident there was a secret,--yet, whatever its
+nature, it was one likely to go down with his father to
+the grave; for, however humiliating the reflection to a
+haughty parent, compelled to vindicate the honour of a
+mother to her son, and in direct opposition to evidence
+that scarcely bore a shadow of misinterpretation, it was
+clear he had motives for consigning the circumstance to
+oblivion, which far outweighed any necessity he felt of
+adducing other proofs of her innocence than those which
+rested on his own simple yet impressive assertion.
+
+In the midst of these bewildering doubts, De Haldimar
+heard some one approaching in his rear, whose footsteps
+he distinguished from the heavy pace of the sentinels.
+He turned, stopped, and was presently joined by Captain
+Blessington.
+
+"Why, dearest Charles," almost querulously asked the kind
+officer, as he passed his arm through that of his
+subaltern,--"why will you persist in feeding this love
+of solitude? What possible result can it produce, but an
+utter prostration of every moral and physical energy?
+Come, come, summon a little fortitude; all may not yet
+be so hopeless as you apprehend. For my own part, I feel
+convinced the day will dawn upon some satisfactory solution
+of the mystery of that packet."
+
+"Blessington, my dear Blessington!"--and De Haldimar
+spoke with mournful energy,--"you have known me from my
+boyhood, and, I believe, have ever loved me; seek not,
+therefore, to draw me from the present temper of my mind;
+deprive me not of an indulgence which, melancholy as it
+is, now constitutes the sole satisfaction I take in
+existence."
+
+"By Heaven! Charles, I will not listen to such language.
+You absolutely put my patience to the rack."
+
+"Nay, then, I will urge no more," pursued the young
+officer. "To revert, therefore, to a different subject.
+Answer me one question with sincerity. What were the
+contents of the packet you received from poor Halloway
+previous to his execution? and in whose possession are
+they now?"
+
+Pleased to find the attention of his young friend diverted
+for the moment from his sister, Captain Blessington
+quickly rejoiced, he believed the packet contained letters
+which Halloway had stated to him were of a nature to
+throw some light on his family connections. He had,
+however, transferred it, with the seal unbroken, as
+desired by the unhappy man, to Colonel de Haldimar.
+
+An exclamation of surprise burst involuntarily from the
+lips of the youth. "Has my father ever made any allusion
+to that packet since?" he asked.
+
+"Never," returned Captain Blessington; "and, I confess,
+his failing to do so has often excited my astonishment.
+But why do you ask?"
+
+De Haldimar energetically pressed the arm of his captain,
+while a heavy sigh burst from his oppressed heart "This
+very night, Blessington, on entering my father's apartment
+to apprise him of what was going on here, I saw,--I can
+scarcely tell you what, but certainly enough to convince
+me, from what you have now stated, Halloway was, in some
+degree or other, connected with our family. Tell me,"
+he anxiously pursued, "was there a portrait enclosed with
+the letters?"
+
+"I cannot state with confidence, Charles," replied his
+friend; "but if I might judge from the peculiar form and
+weight of the packet, I should be inclined to say not.
+Have you seen the letters, then?"
+
+"I have seen certain letters which, I have reason to
+believe, are the same," returned De Haldimar. "They were
+addressed to 'Reginald;' and Halloway, I think you have
+told me, was so called by his unhappy wife."
+
+"There can be little doubt they are the same," said
+Captain Blessington; "but what were their contents, and
+by whom written, that you deem they prove a connection
+between the unhappy soldier and your family?"
+
+De Haldimar felt the blood rise into his cheek, at this
+natural but unexpected demand. "I am sure, Blessington,"
+he replied, after a pause, "you will not think me capable
+of unworthy mystery towards yourself but the contents of
+these letters are sacred, inasmuch as they relate only
+to circumstances connected with my father's family."
+
+"This is singular indeed," exclaimed Captain Blessington,
+in a tone that marked his utter and unqualified astonishment
+at what had now been disclosed to him; "but surely,
+Charles," he pursued, "if the packet handed me by Halloway
+were the same you allude to, he would have caused the
+transfer to have been made before the period chosen by
+him for that purpose."
+
+"But the name," pursued De Haldimar; "how are we to
+separate the identity of the packets, when we recur to
+that name of 'Reginald?'"
+
+"True," rejoined the musing Blessington; "there is a
+mystery in this that baffles all my powers of penetration.
+Were I in possession of the contents of the letters, I
+might find some clue to solve the enigma: but---"
+
+"You surely do not mean this as a reproach, Blessington?"
+fervently interrupted the youth. "More I dare not, cannot
+say, for the secret is not my own; and feelings, which
+it would be dishonour to outrage, alone bind me to silence.
+What little I have revealed to you even now, has been
+uttered in confidence. I hope you have so understood it."
+
+"Perfectly, Charles. What you have stated, goes no further;
+but we have been too long absent from our guard, and I
+confess I have no particular fancy for remaining in this
+chill night-air. Let us return."
+
+De Haldimar made no opposition, and they both prepared
+to quit the rampart. As they passed the sentinel stationed
+at that point where the Indian had been first seen, their
+attention was directed by him to a fire that now suddenly
+rose, apparently at a great distance, and rapidly increased
+in volume. The singularity of this occurrence riveted
+the officers for a moment in. silent observation; until
+Captain Blessington at length ventured a remark, that,
+judging from the direction, and the deceptive nature of
+the element at night, he should incline to think it was
+the hut of the Canadian burning.
+
+"Which is another additional proof, were any such wanting,
+that every thing is lost," mournfully urged the ever
+apprehensive De Haldimar. "Francois has been detected in
+rendering aid to our friends; and the Indians, in all
+probability, after having immolated their victim, are
+sacrificing his property to their rage."
+
+During this exchange of opinions, the officers had again
+moved to the opposite point of the limited walk of the
+younger. Scarcely had they reached it, and before Captain
+Blessington could find time to reply to the fears of his
+friend, when a loud and distant booming like that of a
+cannon was heard in the direction of the fire. The alarm
+was given hastily by the sentinels, and sounds of
+preparation and arming were audible in the course of a
+minute or two every where throughout the fort. Startled
+by the report, which they had half inclined to imagine
+produced by the discharge of one of their own guns, the
+half slumbering officers had quitted the chairs in which
+they had passed the night in the mess-room, and were soon
+at the side of their more watchful companions, then
+anxiously listening for a repetition of the sound.
+
+The day was just beginning to dawn, and as the atmosphere
+cleared gradually away, it was perceived the fire rose
+not from the hut of the Canadian, but at a point
+considerably beyond it. Unusual as it was to see a large
+fire of this description, its appearance became an object
+of minor consideration, since it might be attributed to
+some caprice or desire on the part of the Indians to
+excite apprehension in their enemies. But how was the
+report which had reached their ears to be accounted for?
+It evidently could only have been produced by the discharge
+of a cannon; and if so, where could the Indians have
+procured it? No such arm had recently been in their
+possession; and if it were, they were totally unacquainted
+with the manner of serving it.
+
+As the day became more developed, the mystery was resolved.
+Every telescope in the fort had been called into
+requisition; and as they were now levelled in the direction
+of the fire, sweeping the line of horizon around,
+exclamations of surprise escaped the lips of several.
+
+"The fire is at the near extremity of the wood on Hog
+Island," exclaimed Lieutenant Johnstone. "I can distinctly
+see the forms of a multitude of savages dancing round it
+with hideous gestures and menacing attitudes."
+
+"They are dancing their infernal war dance," said Captain
+Wentworth. "How I should like to be able to discharge a
+twenty-four pound battery, loaded with grape, into the
+very heart of the devilish throng."
+
+"Do you see any prisoners?--Are any of our friends among
+them?" eagerly and tremblingly enquired De Haldimar of
+the officer who had last spoken.
+
+Captain Wentworth made a sweep of his glass along the
+shores of the island; but apparently without success. He
+announced that he could discover nothing but a vast number
+of bark canoes lying dry and upturned on the beach.
+
+"It is an unusual hour for their war dance," observed
+Captain Blessington. "My experience furnishes me with no
+one instance in which it has not been danced previous to
+their retiring to rest."
+
+"Unless," said Lieutenant Boyce, "they should have been
+thus engaged all night; in which case the singularity
+may be explained."
+
+"Look, look," eagerly remarked Lieutenant Johnstone--"see
+how they are flying to their canoes, bounding and leaping
+like so many devils broke loose from their chains. The
+fire is nearly deserted already."
+
+"The schooner--the schooner!" shouted Captain Erskine.
+"By Heaven, our own gallant schooner! see how beautifully
+she drives past the island. It was her gun we heard,
+intended as a signal to prepare us for her appearance."
+
+A thrill of wild and indescribable emotion passed through
+every heart. Every eye was turned upon the point to which
+attention was now directed. The graceful vessel, with
+every stitch of canvass set, was shooting rapidly past
+the low bushes skirting the sands that still concealed
+her hull; and in a moment or two she loomed largely and
+proudly on the bosom of the Detroit, the surface of which
+was slightly curled with a north-western breeze.
+
+"Safe, by Jupiter!" exclaimed the delighted Erskine,
+dropping the glass upon the rampart, and rubbing his
+hands together with every manifestation of joy.
+
+"The Indians are in chase," said Lieutenant Boyce; "upwards
+of fifty canoes are following in the schooner's wake.
+But Danvers will soon give us an account of their
+Lilliputian fleet."
+
+"Let the troops be held in readiness for a sortie, Mr.
+Lawson," said the governor, who had joined his officers
+just as the schooner cleared the island; "we must cover
+their landing, or, with this host of savages in pursuit,
+they will never effect it alive."
+
+During the whole of this brief but exciting scene, the
+heart of Charles de Haldimar beat audibly. A thousand
+hopes and fears rushed confusedly on his mind, and he
+was as one bewildered by, and scarcely crediting what he
+saw. Could Clara,--could his cousin--could his
+brother--could his friend be on board? He scarcely dared
+to ask himself these questions; still it was with a
+fluttering heart, in which hope, however, predominated,
+that he hastened to execute an order of his captain, that
+bore immediate reference to his duty as subaltern of the
+guard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Meanwhile the schooner dashed rapidly along, her hull
+occasionally hid from the view of those assembled on the
+ramparts by some intervening orchard or cluster of houses,
+but her tall spars glittering in their covering of white
+canvass, and marking the direction of her course. At
+length she came to a point in the river that offered no
+other interruption to the eye than what arose from the
+presence of almost all the inhabitants of the village,
+who, urged by curiosity and surprise, were to be seen
+crowding the intervening bank. Here the schooner was
+suddenly put about, and the English colours, hitherto
+concealed by the folds of the canvass, were at length
+discovered proudly floating in the breeze.
+
+Immediately over the gateway of the fort there was an
+elevated platform, approached by the rampart, of which
+it formed a part, by some half dozen rude steps on either
+side; and on this platform was placed a long eighteen
+pounder, that commanded the whole extent of road leading
+from the drawbridge to the river. Hither the officers
+had all repaired, while the schooner was in the act of
+passing the town; and now that, suddenly brought up in
+the wind's eye, she rode leisurely in the offing, every
+movement on her decks was plainly discernible with the
+telescope.
+
+"Where the devil can Danvers have hid all his crew?"
+first spoke Captain Erskine; "I count but half a dozen
+hands altogether on deck, and these are barely sufficient
+to work her."
+
+"Lying concealed, and ready, no doubt, to give the canoes
+a warm reception," observed Lieutenant Johnstone; "but
+where can our friends be? Surely, if there, they would
+show themselves to us."
+
+There was truth in this remark; and each felt discouraged
+and disappointed that they did not appear.
+
+"There come the whooping hell fiends," said Major
+Blackwater. "By Heaven! the very water is darkened with
+the shadows of their canoes."
+
+Scarcely had he spoken, when the vessel was suddenly
+surrounded by a multitude of savages, whose fierce shouts
+rent the air, while their dripping paddles, gleaming like
+silver in the rays of the rising sun, were alternately
+waved aloft in triumph, and then plunged into the troubled
+element, which they spurned in fury from their blades.
+
+"What can Danvers be about? Why does he not either open
+his fire, or crowd sail and away from them?" exclaimed
+several voices.
+
+The detachment is in readiness, sir," said Mr. Lawson,
+ascending the platform, and addressing Major Blackwater.
+
+"The deck, the deck!" shouted Erskine.
+
+Already the eyes of several were bent in the direction
+alluded to by the last speaker, while those whose attention
+had been diverted by the approaching canoes glanced
+rapidly to the same point. To the surprise and consternation
+of all, the tall and well-remembered form of the warrior
+of the Fleur de lis was seen towering far above the
+bulwarks of the schooner; and with an expression in the
+attitude he had assumed, which no one could mistake for
+other than that of triumphant defiance. Presently he
+drew from the bosom of his hunting coat a dark parcel,
+and springing into the rigging of the main-mast, ascended
+with incredible activity to the point where the English
+ensign was faintly floating in the breeze. This he tore
+furiously away, and rending it into many pieces, cast
+the fragments into the silver element beneath him, on
+whose bosom they were seen to float among the canoes of
+the savages, many of whom possessed themselves, with
+eagerness, of the gaudy coloured trophies. The dark parcel
+was now unfolded by the active warrior, who, after having
+waved it several times round his head, commenced attaching
+it to the lines whence the English ensign had so recently
+been torn. It was a large black flag, the purport of
+which was too readily comprehended by the excited officers.
+
+"D--n the ruffian! can we not manage to make that, flag
+serve as his own winding sheet?" exclaimed Captain Erskine.
+"Come, Wentworth, give us a second edition of the sortie
+firing; I know no man who understands pointing a gun
+better than yourself, and this eighteen pounder might do
+some mischief."
+
+The idea was instantly caught at by the officer of
+artillery, who read his consent in the eye of Colonel de
+Haldimar. His companions made way on either side; and
+several gunners, who were already at their stations,
+having advanced to work the piece at the command of their
+captain, it was speedily brought to bear upon the schooner.
+
+"This will do, I think," said Wentworth, as, glancing
+his experienced eye carefully along the gun, he found it
+pointed immediately on the gigantic frame of the warrior.
+"If this chain-shot miss him, it will be through no fault
+of mine."
+
+Every eye was now riveted on the main-mast of the schooner,
+where the warrior was still engaged in attaching the
+portentous flag. The gunner, who held the match, obeyed
+the silent signal of his captain; and the massive iron
+was heard rushing past the officers, bound on its murderous
+mission. A moment or two of intense anxiety elapsed; and
+when at length the rolling volumes of smoke gradually
+floated away, to the dismay and disappointment of all,
+the fierce warrior was seen standing apparently unharmed
+on the same spot in the rigging. The shot had, however,
+been well aimed, for a large rent in the outstretched
+canvass, close at his side, and about mid-height of his
+person, marked the direction it had taken. Again he tore
+away, and triumphantly waved the black flag around his
+head, while from his capacious lungs there burst yells
+of defiance and scorn, that could be distinguished for
+his own even at that distance. This done, he again secured
+the death symbol to its place; and gliding to the deck
+by a single rope, appeared to give orders to the few men
+of the crew who were to be seen; for every stitch of
+canvass was again made to fill, and the vessel, bounding
+forward before the breeze then blowing upon her quarter,
+shot rapidly behind the town, and was finally seen to
+cast anchor in the navigable channel that divides Hog
+Island from the shores of Canada.
+
+At the discharge of the eighteen pounder, the river had
+been suddenly cleared, as if by magic, of every canoe;
+while, warned by the same danger, the groups of inhabitants,
+assembled on the bank, had rushed for shelter to their
+respective homes; so that, when the schooner disappeared,
+not a vestige of human life was to be seen along that
+vista so recently peopled with human forms. An order from
+Colonel de Haldimar to the adjutant, countermanding the
+sortie, was the first interruption to the silence that
+had continued to pervade the little band of officers;
+and two or three of these having hastened to the western
+front of the rampart, in order to obtain a more distinct
+view of the movements of the schooner, their example was
+speedily followed by the remainder, all of whom now
+quitted the platform, and repaired to the same point.
+
+Here, with the aid of their telescopes, they again
+distinctly commanded a view of the vessel, which lay
+motionless close under the sandy beach of the island,
+and exhibiting all the technicalities of skill in the
+disposition of sails and yards peculiar to the profession.
+In vain, however, was every eye strained to discover,
+among the multitude of savages that kept momentarily
+leaping to her deck, the forms of those in whom they were
+most interested. A group of some half dozen men, apparently
+common sailors, and those, in all probability, whose
+services had been compelled in the working of the vessel,
+were the only evidences that civilised man formed a
+portion of that grotesque assemblage. These, with their
+arms evidently bound behind their backs, and placed on
+one of the gangways, were only visible at intervals, as
+the band of savages that surrounded them, brandishing
+their tomahawks around their heads, occasionally left an
+opening in their circle. The formidable warrior of the
+Fleur de lis was no longer to be seen, although the flag
+which he had hoisted still fluttered in the breeze.
+
+"All is lost, then," ejaculated the governor, with a
+mournfulness of voice and manner that caused many of his
+officers to turn and regard him with surprise. "That
+black flag announces the triumph of my foe in the too
+certain destruction of my children. Now, indeed," he
+concluded in a lower tone, "for the first time, does the
+curse of Ellen Halloway sit heavily on my soul."
+
+A deep sigh burst from one immediately behind him. The
+governor turned suddenly round, and beheld his son. Never
+did human countenance wear a character of more poignant
+misery than that of the unhappy Charles at the moment.
+Attracted by the report of the cannon, he had flown to
+the rampart to ascertain the cause, and had reached his
+companions only to learn the strong hope so recently
+kindled in his breast was fled for ever. His cheek, over
+which hung his neglected hair, was now pale as marble,
+and his lips bloodless and parted; yet, notwithstanding
+this intensity of personal sorrow, a tear had started to
+his eye, apparently wrung from him by this unusual
+expression of dismay in his father.
+
+"Charles--my son--my only now remaining child," murmured
+the governor with emotion, as he remarked, and started
+at the death-like image of the youth; "look not thus, or
+you will utterly unman me."
+
+A sudden and involuntary impulse caused him to extend
+his arms. The young officer sprang forward into the
+proffered embrace, and sank his head upon the cheek of
+his father. It was the first time he had enjoyed that
+privilege since his childhood; and even overwhelmed as
+he was by his affliction, he felt it deeply.
+
+This short but touching scene was witnessed by their
+companions, without levity in any, and with emotion by
+several. None felt more gratified at this demonstration
+of parental affection for the sensitive boy, than
+Blessington and Erskine.
+
+"I cannot yet persuade myself," observed the former
+officer, as the colonel again assumed that dignity of
+demeanour which had been momentarily lost sight of in
+the ebullition of his feelings,--"I cannot yet persuade
+myself things are altogether so bad as they appear. It
+is true the schooner is in the possession of the enemy,
+but there is nothing to prove our friends are on board."
+
+"If you had reason to know HIM into whose hands she has
+fallen, as I do, you would think differently, Captain
+Blessington," returned the governor. "That mysterious
+being," he pursued, after a short pause, "would never
+have made this parade of his conquest, had it related
+merely to a few lives, which to him are of utter
+insignificance. The very substitution of yon black flag,
+in his insolent triumph, was the pledge of redemption of
+a threat breathed in my ear within this very fort: on
+what occasion I need not state, since the events connected
+with that unhappy night are still fresh in the recollections
+of us all. That he is my personal enemy, gentlemen, it
+would be vain to disguise from you; although who he is,
+or of what nature his enmity, it imports not now to enter
+upon Suffice it, I have little doubt my children are in
+his power; but whether the black flag indicates they are
+no more, or that the tragedy is only in preparation, I
+confess I am at a loss to understand."
+
+Deeply affected by the evident despondency that had
+dictated these unusual admissions on the part of their
+chief, the officers were forward to combat the inferences
+he had drawn: several coinciding in the opinion now
+expressed by Captain Wentworth, that the fact of the
+schooner having fallen into the hands of the savages by
+no means implied the capture of the fort whence she came;
+since it was not at all unlikely she had been chased
+during a calm by the numerous canoes into the Sinclair,
+where, owing to the extreme narrowness of the river, she
+had fallen an easy prey.
+
+"Moreover," observed Captain Blessington, "it is highly
+improbable the ferocious warrior could have succeeded in
+capturing any others than the unfortunate crew of the
+schooner; for had this been the case, he would not have
+lost the opportunity of crowning his triumph by exhibiting
+his victims to our view in some conspicuous part of the
+vessel."
+
+"This, I grant you," rejoined the governor, "to be one
+solitary circumstance in our favour; but may it not,
+after all, merely prove that our worst apprehensions are
+already realised?"
+
+"He is not one, methinks, since vengeance seems his aim,
+to exercise it in so summary, and therefore merciful, a
+manner. Depend upon it, colonel, had any of those in whom
+we are more immediately interested, fallen into his hands,
+he would not have failed to insult and agonize us by an
+exhibition of his prisoners."
+
+"You are right, Blessington," exclaimed Charles de
+Haldimar, in a voice that his choking feelings rendered
+almost sepulchral; "he is not one to exercise his vengeance
+in a summary, and merciful manner. The deed is yet
+unaccomplished, for even now the curse of Ellen Halloway
+rings again in my ear, and tells me the atoning blood
+must be spilt on the grave of her husband."
+
+The peculiar tone in which these words were uttered,
+caused every one present to turn and regard the speaker,
+for they recalled the prophetic language of the unhappy
+woman. There was now a wildness of expression in his
+handsome features, marking the mind utterly dead to hope,
+yet struggling to work itself up to passive endurance of
+the worst. Colonel de Haldimar sighed painfully, as he
+bent his eye half reproachfully on the dull and attenuated
+features of his son; and although he spoke not, his look
+betrayed the anguish that allusion had called up to his
+heart.
+
+"Forgive me, my father," exclaimed the youth, grasping a
+hand that was reluctantly extended. "I meant it not in
+unkindness; but indeed I have ever had the conviction
+strongly impressed on my spirit. I know I appear weak,
+childish, unsoldierlike; yet can it be wondered at, when
+I have been so often latterly deceived by false hopes, that
+now my heart has room for no other tenant than despair.
+I am very wretched," he pursued, with affecting despondency;
+"in the presence of my companions do I admit it, but they
+all know how I loved my sister. Can they then feel surprise,
+that having lost not only her, but my brother and my friend,
+I should be the miserable thing I am."
+
+Colonel de Haldimar turned away, much affected; and
+throwing his back against the sentry box near him, passed
+his hand over his eyes, and remained for a few moments
+motionless.
+
+"Charles, Charles, is this your promise to me?" whispered
+Captain Blessington, as he approached and took the hand
+of his unhappy friend. "Is this the self-command you
+pledged yourself to exercise? For Heaven's sake, agitate
+not your father thus, by the indulgence of a grief that
+can have no other tendency than to render him equally
+wretched. Be advised by me, and quit the rampart. Return
+to your guard, and endeavour to compose yourself."
+
+"Ha! what new movement is that on the part of the savages?"
+exclaimed Captain Erskine, who had kept his glass to his
+eye mechanically, and chiefly with a view of hiding the
+emotion produced in him by the almost infantine despair
+of the younger De Haldimar: "surely it is--yet, no, it
+cannot be--yes, see how they are dragging several prisoners
+from the wood to the beach. I can distinctly see a man
+in a blanket coat, and two others considerably taller,
+and apparently sailors. But look, behind them are two
+females in European dress. Almighty Heaven! there can be
+no doubt."
+
+A painful pause ensued. Every other glass and eye was
+levelled in the same direction; and, even as Erskine had
+described it, a party of Indians were seen, by those who
+had the telescopes, conducting five prisoners towards a
+canoe that lay in the channel communicating from the
+island with the main land on the Detroit shore. Into the
+bottom of these they were presently huddled, so that only
+their heads and shoulders were visible above the gunwale
+of the frail bark. Presently a tall warrior was seen
+bounding from the wood towards the beach. The crowd of
+gesticulating Indians made way, and the warrior was seen
+to stoop and apply his shoulder to the canoe, one half
+of which was high and dry upon the sands. The heavily
+laden vessel obeyed the impetus with a rapidity that
+proved the muscular power of him who gave it. Like some
+wild animal, instinct with life, it lashed the foaming
+waters from its bows, and left a deep and gurgling furrow
+where it passed. As it quitted the shore, the warrior
+sprang lightly in, taking his station at the stern; and
+while his tall and remarkable figure bent nimbly to the
+movement, he dashed his paddle from right to left
+alternately in the stream, with a quickness that rendered
+it almost invisible to the eye. Presently the canoe
+disappeared round an intervening headland, and the officers
+lost sight of it altogether.
+
+"The portrait, Charles; what have you done with the
+portrait?" exclaimed Captain Blessington, actuated by a
+sudden recollection, and with a trepidation in his voice
+and manner that spoke volumes of despair to the younger
+De Haldimar. "This is our only hope of solving the mystery.
+Quick, give me the portrait, if you have it."
+
+The young officer hurriedly tore the miniature from the
+breast of his uniform, and pitched it through the interval
+that separated him from his captain, who stood a few feet
+off; but with so uncertain and trembling an aim, it missed
+the hand extended to secure it, and fell upon the very
+stone the youth had formerly pointed out to Blessington,
+as marking the particular spot on which he stood during
+the execution of Halloway. The violence of the fall
+separated the back of the frame from the picture itself,
+when suddenly a piece of white and crumpled paper,
+apparently part of the back of a letter, yet cut to the
+size and shape of the miniature, was exhibited to the
+view of all.
+
+"Ha!" resumed the gratified Blessington, as he stooped
+to possess himself of the prize; "I knew the miniature
+would be found to contain some intelligence from our
+friends. It is only this moment it occurred to me to take
+it to pieces, but accident has anticipated my purpose.
+May the omen prove a good one! But what have we here?"
+
+With some difficulty, the anxious officer now succeeded
+in making out the characters, which, in default of pen
+or pencil, had been formed by the pricking of a fine pin
+on the paper. The broken sentences, on which the whole
+of the group now hung with greedy ear, ran nearly as
+follows:--"All is lost. Michilimackinac is taken. We are
+prisoners, and doomed to die within eight and forty hours.
+Alas! Clara and Madeline are of our number. Still there
+is a hope, if my father deem it prudent to incur the
+risk. A surprise, well managed, may do much; but it must
+be tomorrow night; forty-eight hours more, and it will
+be of no avail. He who will deliver this is our friend,
+and the enemy of my father's enemy. He will be in the
+same spot at the same hour to-morrow night, and will
+conduct the detachment to wherever we may chance to be.
+If you fail in your enterprise, receive our last prayers
+for a less disastrous fate. God bless you all!"
+
+The blood ran coldly through every vein during the perusal
+of these important sentences, but not one word of comment
+was offered by an individual of the group. No explanation
+was necessary. The captives in the canoe, the tall warrior
+in its stern, all sufficiently betrayed the horrible
+truth.
+
+Colonel de Haldimar at length turned an enquiring look
+at his two captains, and then addressing the adjutant,
+asked--
+
+"What companies are off duty to-day, Mr. Lawson?"
+
+"Mine," said Blessington, with an energy that denoted
+how deeply rejoiced he felt at the fact, and without
+giving the adjutant time to reply.
+
+"And mine," impetuously added Captain Erskine; "and, by
+G--! I will answer for them; they never embarked on a
+duty of the sort with greater zeal than they will on this
+occasion."
+
+"Gentlemen, I thank you," said Colonel de Haldimar, with
+deep emotion, as he stepped forward and grasped in turn
+the hands of the generous-hearted officers. "To Heaven,
+and to your exertions, do I commit my children."
+
+"Any artillery, colonel?" enquired the officer of that
+corps.
+
+"No, Wentworth, no artillery. Whatever remains to be
+done, must be achieved by the bayonet alone, and under
+favour of the darkness. Gentlemen, again I thank you for
+this generous interest in my children--this forwardness
+in an enterprise on which depend the lives of so many
+dear friends. I am not one given to express warm emotion,
+but I do, indeed, appreciate this conduct deeply." He
+then moved away, desiring Mr. Lawson, as he quitted the
+rampart, to cause the men for this service to be got in
+instant readiness.
+
+Following the example of their colonel, Captains Blessington
+and Erskine quitted the rampart also, hastening to satisfy
+themselves by personal inspection of the efficiency in
+all respects of their several companies; and in a few
+minutes, the only individual to be seen in that quarter
+of the works was the sentinel, who had been a silent and
+pained witness of all that had passed among his officers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Doubtless, many of our readers are prepared to expect
+that the doom of the unfortunate Frank Halloway was, as
+an officer of his regiment had already hinted, the fruit
+of some personal pique and concealed motive of vengeance;
+and that the denouement of our melancholy story will
+afford evidence of the governor's knowledge of the true
+character of him, who, under an assumed name, excited
+such general interest at his trial and death, not only
+among his military superiors, but those with whom his
+adverse destiny had more immediately associated him. It
+has already been urged to us, by one or two of our critical
+friends to whom we have submitted what has been thus far
+written in our tale, that, to explain satisfactorily and
+consistently the extreme severity of the governor, some
+secret and personally influencing motive must be assigned;
+but to these we have intimated, what we now repeat,--namely,
+that we hope to bear out our story, by natural explanation
+and simple deduction. Who Frank Halloway really was, or
+what the connection existing between him and the mysterious
+enemy of the family of De Haldimar, the sequel of our
+narrative will show; but whatever its nature, and however
+well founded the apprehension of the governor of the
+formidable being hitherto known as the warrior of the
+Fleur de lis, and however strong his conviction that the
+devoted Halloway and his enemy were in secret
+correspondence, certain it is, that, to the very hour of
+the death of the former, he knew him as no other than
+the simple private soldier.
+
+To have ascribed to Colonel de Haldimar motives that
+would have induced his eagerly seeking the condemnation
+of an innocent man, either to gratify a thirst of vengeance,
+or to secure immunity against personal danger, would have
+been to have painted him, not only as a villain, but a
+coward. Colonel de Haldimar was neither; but, on the
+contrary, what is understood in worldly parlance and the
+generally received acceptation of the terms, a man of
+strict integrity and honour, as well as of the most
+undisputed courage. Still, he was a severe and a haughty
+man,--one whose military education had been based on the
+principles of the old school--and to whom the command of
+a regiment afforded a field for the exercise of an orthodox
+despotism, that could not be passed over without the
+immolation of many a victim on its rugged surface. Without
+ever having possessed any thing like acute feeling, his
+heart, as nature had formed it, was moulded to receive
+the ordinary impressions of humanity; and had he been
+doomed to move in the sphere of private life, if he had
+not been distinguished by any remarkable sensibilities,
+he would not, in all probability, have been conspicuous
+for any extraordinary cruelties. Sent into the army,
+however, at an early age, and with a blood not remarkable
+for its mercurial aptitudes, he had calmly and deliberately
+imbibed all the starched theories and standard prejudices
+which a mind by no means naturally gifted was but too well
+predisposed to receive; and he was among the number of
+those (many of whom are indigenous to our soil even at the
+present day) who look down from a rank obtained, upon that
+which has been just quitted, with a contempt, and coldness,
+and consciousness of elevation, commensurate only with the
+respect paid to those still above them, and which it belongs
+only to the little-minded to indulge in.
+
+As a subaltern, M. de Haldimar had ever been considered
+a pattern of rigid propriety and decorum of conduct. Not
+the shadow of military crime had ever been laid to his
+charge. He was punctual at all parades and drills; kept
+the company to which he was attached in a perfect hot
+water of discipline; never missed his distance in marching
+past, or failed in a military manoeuvre; paid his mess-bill
+regularly to the hour, nay, minute, of the settling day;
+and was never, on any one occasion, known to enter the
+paymaster's office, except on the well-remembered 24th
+of each month; and, to crown all, he had never asked,
+consequently never obtained, a day's leave from his
+regiment, although he had served in it so long, that
+there was now but one man living who had entered it with
+him. With all these qualities, Ensign de Haldimar promised
+to make an excellent soldier; and, as such, was encouraged
+by the field-officers of the corps, who unhesitatingly
+pronounced him a lad of discernment and talent, who would
+one day rival them in all the glorious privileges of
+martinetism. It was even remarked, as an evidence of his
+worth, that, when promoted to a lieutenancy, he looked
+down upon the ensigns with that becoming condescension
+which befitted his new rank; and up to the captains with
+the deferential respect he felt to be due to that third
+step in the five-barred gate of regimental promotion, on
+which his aspiring but chained foot had not yet succeeded
+in reposing. What, therefore, he became when he had
+succeeded in clambering to the top, and looked down from
+the lordly height he had after many years of plodding
+service obtained, we must leave it to the imaginations
+of our readers to determine. We reserve it to a future
+page, to relate more interesting particulars.
+
+Sufficient has been shown, however, from this outline of
+his character, as well as from the conversations among
+his officers, elsewhere transcribed, to account for the
+governor's conduct in the case of Halloway. That the
+recommendation of his son, Captain de Haldimar, had not
+been attended to, arose not from any particular ill-will
+towards the unhappy man, but simply because he had always
+been in the habit of making his own selections from the
+ranks, and that the present recommendation had been warmly
+urged by one who he fancied pretended to a discrimination
+superior to his own, in pointing out merits that had
+escaped his observation. It might be, too, that there
+was a latent pride about the manner of Halloway that
+displeased and dissatisfied one who looked upon his
+subordinates as things that were amenable to the haughtiness
+of his glance,--not enough of deference in his demeanour,
+or of supplicating obsequiousness in his speech, to
+entitle him to the promotion prayed for. Whatever the
+motive, there was nothing of personality to influence
+him in the rejection of the appeal made in favour of one
+who had never injured him; but who, on the contrary, as
+the whole of the regiment could attest, had saved the
+life of his son.
+
+Rigid disciplinarian as he was, and holding himself
+responsible for the safety of the garrison it was but
+natural, when the discovery had been made of the
+unaccountable unfastening of the gate of the fort,
+suspicion of no ordinary kind should attach to the sentinel
+posted there; and that he should steadily refuse all
+credence to a story wearing so much appearance of
+improbability. Proud, and inflexible, and bigoted to
+first impressions, his mind was closed against those
+palliating circumstances, which, adduced by Halloway in
+his defence, had so mainly contributed to stamp the
+conviction of his moral innocence on the minds of his
+judges and the attentive auditory; and could he even have
+conquered his pride so far as to have admitted the belief
+of that innocence, still the military crime of which he
+had been guilty, in infringing a positive order of the
+garrison, was in itself sufficient to call forth all the
+unrelenting severity of his nature. Throughout the whole
+of the proceedings subsequently instituted, he had acted
+and spoken from a perfect conviction of the treason of
+the unfortunate soldier, and with the fullest impression
+of the falsehood of all that had been offered in his
+defence. The considerations that influenced the minds of
+his officers, found no entrance into his proud breast,
+which was closed against every thing but his own dignified
+sense of superior judgment. Could he, like them, have
+given credence to the tale of Halloway, or really have
+believed that Captain de Haldimar, educated under his
+own military eye, could have been so wanting in
+subordination, as not merely to have infringed a positive
+order of the garrison, but to have made a private soldier
+of that garrison accessary to his delinquency, it is more
+than probable his stern habits of military discipline
+would have caused him to overlook the offence of the
+soldier, in deeper indignation at the conduct of the
+infinitely more culpable officer; but not one word did
+he credit of a statement, which he assumed to have been
+got up by the prisoner with the mere view of shielding
+himself from punishment: and when to these suspicions of
+his fidelity was attached the fact of the introduction
+of his alarming visitor, it must be confessed his motives
+for indulging in this belief were not without foundation.
+
+The impatience manifested during the trial of Halloway
+was not a result of any desire of systematic persecution,
+but of a sense of wounded dignity. It was a thing unheard
+of, and unpardonable in his eyes, for a private soldier
+to assert, in his presence, his honour and his
+respectability in extenuation, even while admitting the
+justice of a specific charge; and when he remarked the
+Court listening with that profound attention, which the
+peculiar history of the prisoner had excited, he could
+not repress the manifestation of his anger. In justice
+to him, however, it must be acknowledged that, in causing
+the charge, to which the unfortunate man pleaded guilty,
+to be framed, he had only acted from the conviction that,
+on the two first, there was not sufficient evidence to
+condemn one whose crime was as clearly established, to
+his judgment, as if he had been an eye-witness of the
+treason. It is true, he availed himself of Halloway's
+voluntary confession, to effect his condemnation; but
+estimating him as a traitor, he felt little delicacy was
+necessary to be observed on that score.
+
+Much of the despotic military character of Colonel de
+Haldimar had been communicated to his private life; so
+much, indeed, that his sons,--both of whom, it has been
+seen, were of natures that belied their origin from so
+stern a stock,--were kept at nearly as great a distance
+from him as any other subordinates of his regiment. But
+although he seldom indulged in manifestations of parental
+regard towards those whom he looked upon rather as
+inferiors in military rank, than as beings connected with
+him by the ties of blood, Colonel de Haldimar was not
+without that instinctive love for his children, which
+every animal in the creation feels for its offspring.
+He, also, valued and took a pride in, because they
+reflected a certain degree of lustre upon himself, the
+talents and accomplishments of his eldest son, who,
+moreover, was a brave, enterprising officer, and, only
+wanted, in his father's estimation, that severity of
+carriage and hauteur of deportment, befitting HIS son,
+to render him perfect. As for Charles,--the gentle, bland,
+winning, universally conciliating Charles,--he looked
+upon him as a mere weak boy, who could never hope to
+arrive at any post of distinction, if only by reason of
+the extreme delicacy of his physical organisation; and
+to have shown any thing like respect for his character,
+or indulged in any expression of tenderness for one so
+far below his estimate of what a soldier, a child of his,
+ought to be, would have been a concession of which his
+proud nature was incapable. In his daughter Clara, however,
+the gentleness of sex claimed that warmer affection which
+was denied to him, who resembled her in almost every
+attribute of mind and person. Colonel de Haldimar doated
+on his daughter with a tenderness, for which few, who
+were familiar with his harsh and unbending nature, ever
+gave him credit. She was the image of one on whom all of
+love that he had ever known had been centered; and he
+had continued in Clara an affection, that seemed in itself
+to form a portion, distinct and apart, of his existence.
+
+We have already seen, as stated by Charles de Haldimar
+to the unfortunate wife of Halloway, with what little
+success he had pleaded in the interview he had requested
+of his father, for the preserver of his gallant brother's
+life; and we have also seen how equally inefficient was
+the lowly and supplicating anguish of that wretched being,
+when, on quitting the apartment of his son, Colonel de
+Haldimar had so unexpectedly found himself clasped in
+her despairing embrace. There was little to be expected
+from an intercession on the part of one claiming so little
+ascendancy over his father's heart, as the universally
+esteemed young officer; still less from one who, in her
+shriek of agony, had exposed the haughty chief to the
+observation both of men and officers, and under
+circumstances that caused his position to border on the
+ludicrous. But however these considerations might have
+failed in effect, there was another which, as a soldier,
+he could not wholly overlook. Although he had offered
+no comment on the extraordinary recommendation to mercy
+annexed to the sentence of the prisoner, it had had a
+certain weight with him; and he felt, all absolute even
+as he was, he could not, without exciting strong
+dissatisfaction among his troops, refuse attention to a
+document so powerfully worded, and bearing the signature
+and approval of so old and valued an officer as Captain
+Blessington. His determination, therefore, had been
+formed, even before his visit to his son, to act as
+circumstances might require; and, in the mean while, he
+commanded every preparation for the execution to be made.
+
+In causing a strong detachment to be marched to the
+conspicuous point chosen for his purpose, he had acted
+from a conviction of the necessity of showing the enemy
+the treason of the soldier had been detected; reserving
+to himself the determination of carrying the sentence
+into full effect, or pardoning the condemned, as the
+event might warrant. Not one moment, meanwhile, did he
+doubt the guilt of Halloway, whose description of the
+person of his enemy was, in itself, to him, confirmatory
+evidence of his treason. It is doubtful whether he would,
+in any way, have been influenced by the recommendation
+of the Court, had the first charges been substantiated;
+but as there was nothing but conjecture to bear out these,
+and as the prisoner had been convicted only on the ground
+of suffering Captain de Haldimar to quit the fort contrary
+to orders, he felt he might possibly go too far in carrying
+the capital punishment into effect, in decided opposition
+to the general feeling of the garrison,--both of officers
+and men.
+
+When the shot was subsequently fired from the hut of the
+Canadian, and the daring rifleman recognised as the same
+fearful individual who had gained access to his apartment
+the preceding night, conviction of the guilt of Halloway
+came even deeper home to the mind of the governor. It
+was through Francois alone that a communication was kept
+up secretly between the garrison and several of the
+Canadians without the fort; and the very fact of the
+mysterious warrior having been there so recently after
+his daring enterprise, bore evidence that whatever treason
+was in operation, had been carried on through the
+instrumentality of mine host of the Fleur de lis. In
+proof, moreover, there was the hat of Donellan, and the
+very rope Halloway had stated to be that by which the
+unfortunate officer had effected his exit. Colonel de
+Haldimar was not one given to indulge in the mysterious
+or to believe in the romantic. Every thing was plain
+matter of fact, as it now appeared before him; and he
+thought it evident, as though it had been written in
+words of fire, that if his son and his unfortunate servant
+had quitted the fort in the manner represented, it was
+no less certain they had been forced off by a party, at
+the head of whom was his vindictive enemy, and with the
+connivance of Halloway. We have seen, that after the
+discovery of the sex of the supposed drummer-boy when
+the prisoners were confronted together, Colonel de Haldimar
+had closely watched the expression of their countenances,
+but failed in discovering any thing that could be traced
+into evidence of a guilty recognition. Still he conceived
+his original impression to have been too forcibly borne
+out, even by the events of the last half hour, to allow
+this to have much weight with him; and his determination
+to carry the thing through all its fearful preliminary
+stages became more and more confirmed.
+
+In adopting this resolution in the first instance, he
+was not without a hope that Halloway, standing, as he
+must feel himself to be, on the verge of the grave, might
+be induced to make confession of his guilt, and communicate
+whatever particulars might prove essential not only to
+the safety of the garrison generally, but to himself
+individually, as far as his personal enemy was concerned.
+With this view, he had charged Captain Blessington, in
+the course of their march from the hut to the fatal
+bridge, to promise a full pardon, provided he should make
+such confession of his crime as would lead to a just
+appreciation of the evils likely to result from the
+treason that had in part been accomplished. Even in making
+this provision, however, which was met by the prisoner
+with solemn yet dignified reiteration of his innocence,
+Colonel de Haldimar had not made the refusal of pardon
+altogether conclusive in his own mind: still, in adopting
+this plan, there was a chance of obtaining a confession;
+and not until there was no longer a prospect of the
+unhappy man being led into that confession, did he feel
+it imperative on him to stay the progress of the tragedy.
+
+What the result would have been, had not Halloway, in
+the strong excitement of his feelings, sprung to his feet
+upon the coffin, uttering the exclamation of triumph
+recorded in the last pages of our first volume, is scarcely
+doubtful. However much the governor might have contemned
+and slighted a credulity in which he in no way participated
+himself, he had too much discrimination not to perceive,
+that to have persevered in the capital punishment would
+have been to have rendered himself personally obnoxious
+to the comrades of the condemned, whose dispirited air
+and sullen mien, he clearly saw, denounced the punishment
+as one of unnecessary rigour. The haughty commander was
+not one to be intimidated by manifestations of discontent;
+neither was he one to brook a spirit of insubordination,
+however forcibly supported; but he had too much experience
+and military judgment, not to determine that this was
+riot a moment, by foregoing an act of compulsory clemency,
+to instil divisions in the garrison, when the safety of
+all so much depended on the cheerfulness and unanimity
+with which they lent themselves to the arduous duties of
+defence.
+
+However originating in policy, the lenity he might have
+been induced to have shown, all idea of the kind was
+chased from his mind by the unfortunate action of the
+prisoner. At the moment when the distant heights resounded
+with the fierce yells of the savages, and leaping forms
+came bounding down the slope, the remarkable warrior of
+the Fleur de lis--the fearful enemy who had whispered
+the most demoniac vengeance in his ears the preceding
+night--was the only one that met and riveted the gaze of
+the governor. He paused not to observe or to think who
+the flying man could be of whom the mysterious warrior
+was in pursuit,--neither did it, indeed, occur to him
+that it was a pursuit at all. But one idea suggested
+itself to his mind, and that was an attempt at rescue of
+the condemned on the part of his accomplice; and when at
+length Halloway, who had at once, as if by instinct,
+recognised his captain in the fugitive, shouted forth
+his gratitude to Heaven that "he at length approached
+who alone had the power to save him," every shadow of
+mercy was banished from the mind of the governor, who,
+labouring under a natural misconception of the causes of
+his exulting shout, felt that justice imperatively demanded
+her victim, and no longer hesitated in awarding the doom
+that became the supposed traitor. It was under this
+impression that he sternly gave and repeated the fatal
+order to fire; and by this misjudged and severe, although
+not absolutely cruel act, not only destroyed one of the
+noblest beings that ever wore a soldier's uniform, but
+entailed upon himself and family that terrific curse of
+his maniac wife, which rang like a prophetic warning in
+the ears of all, and was often heard in the fitful
+starlings of his own ever-after troubled slumbers.
+
+What his feelings were, when subsequently he discovered,
+in the wretched fugitive, the son whom he already believed
+to have been numbered with the dead, and heard from his
+lips a confirmation of all that had been advanced by the
+unhappy Halloway, we shall leave it to our readers to
+imagine. Still, even amid his first regret, the rigid
+disciplinarian was strong within him; and no sooner had
+the detachment regained the fort, after performing the
+last offices of interment over their ill-fated comrade,
+than Captain de Haldimar received an intimation, through
+the adjutant, to consider himself under close arrest for
+disobedience of orders. Finally, however, he succeeded
+in procuring an interview with his father; in the course
+of which, disclosing the plot of the Indians, and the
+short period allotted for its being carried into execution,
+he painted in the most gloomy colours the alarming,
+dangers which threatened them all, and finished by urgently
+imploring his father to suffer him to make the attempt
+to reach their unsuspecting friends at Michilimackinac.
+Fully impressed with the difficulties attendant on a
+scheme that offered so few feasible chances of success,
+Colonel de Haldimar for a period denied his concurrence;
+but when at length the excited young man dwelt on the
+horrors that would inevitably await his sister and
+betrothed cousin, were they to fall into the hands of
+the savages, these considerations were found to be
+effective. An after-arrangement included Sir Everard
+Valletort, who had expressed a strong desire to share
+his danger in the enterprise; and the services of the
+Canadian, who had been brought back a prisoner to the
+fort, and on whom promises and threats were bestowed in
+an equally lavish manner, were rendered available. In
+fact, without the assistance of Francois, there was little
+chance of their effecting in safety the navigation of
+the waters through which they were to pass to arrive at
+the fort. He it was, who, when summoned to attend a
+conference among the officers, bearing on the means to
+be adopted, suggested the propriety of their disguising
+themselves as Canadian duck hunters; in which character
+they might expect to pass unmolested, even if encountered
+by any outlying parties of the savages. With the doubts
+that had previously been entertained of the fidelity of
+Francois, there was an air of forlorn hope given to the
+enterprise; still, as the man expressed sincere earnestness
+of desire to repay the clemency accorded him, by a faithful
+exercise of his services, and as the object sought was
+one that justified the risk, there was, notwithstanding,
+a latent hope cherished by all parties, that the event
+would prove successful. We have already seen to what
+extent their anticipations were realised.
+
+Whether it was that he secretly acknowledged the too
+excessive sternness of his justice in regard to Halloway
+(who still, in the true acceptation of facts, had been
+guilty of a crime that entailed the penalty he had paid),
+or that the apprehensions that arose to his heart in
+regard to her on whom he yearned with all a father's
+fondness governed his conduct, certain it is, that, from
+the hour of the disclosure made by his son, Colonel de
+Haldimar became an altered man. Without losing any thing
+of that dignity of manner, which had hitherto been
+confounded with the most repellent haughtiness of bearing,
+his demeanour towards his officers became more courteous;
+and although, as heretofore, he kept himself entirely
+aloof, except when occasions of duty brought them together,
+still, when they did meet, there was more of conciliation
+in his manner, and less of austerity in his speech. There
+was, moreover, a dejection in his eye, strongly in contrast
+with his former imperious glance; and more than one
+officer remarked, that, if his days were devoted to the
+customary practical arrangements for defence, his pallid
+countenance betokened that his nights were nights rather
+of vigil than of repose.
+
+However natural and deep the alarm entertained for the
+fate of the sister fort, there could be no apprehension
+on the mind of Colonel de Haldimar in regard to his own;
+since, furnished with the means of foiling his enemies
+with their own weapons of cunning and deceit, a few
+extraordinary precautions alone were necessary to secure
+all immunity from danger. Whatever might be the stern
+peculiarities of his character,--and these had originated
+chiefly in an education purely military,--Colonel de
+Haldimar was an officer well calculated to the important
+trust reposed in him; for, combining experience with
+judgment in all matters relating to the diplomacy of war,
+and being fully conversant with the character and habits
+of the enemy opposed to him, he possessed singular aptitude
+to seize whatever advantages might present themselves.
+
+The prudence and caution of his policy have already been
+made manifest in the two several council scenes with the
+chiefs recorded in our second volume. It may appear
+singular, that, with the opportunity thus afforded him
+of retaining the formidable Ponteac,--the strength and
+sinew of that long protracted and ferocious war,--in his
+power, he should have waved his advantage; but here
+Colonel de Haldimar gave evidence of the tact which so
+eminently distinguished his public conduct throughout.
+He well knew the noble, fearless character of the chief;
+and felt, if any hold was to be secured over him, it was
+by grappling with his generosity, and not by the exercise
+of intimidation. Even admitting that Ponteac continued
+his prisoner, and that the troops, pouring their destructive
+fire upon the mass of enemies so suddenly arrested on
+the drawbridge, had swept away the whole, still they were
+but as a mite among the numerous nations that were leagued
+against the English; and to these nations, it was evident,
+they must, sooner or later, succumb.
+
+Colonel de Haldimar knew enough of the proud but generous
+nature of the Ottawa, to deem that the policy he proposed
+to pursue in the last council scene would not prove
+altogether without effect on that warrior. It was well
+known to him, that much pains had been taken to instil
+into the minds of the Indians the belief that the English
+were resolved on their final extirpation; and as certain
+slights, offered to them at various periods, had given
+a colouring of truth to this assertion, the formidable
+league which had already accomplished the downfall of so
+many of the forts had been the consequence of these artful
+representations. Although well aware that the French had
+numerous emissaries distributed among the fierce tribes,
+it was not until after the disclosure made by the haughty
+Ponteac, at the close of the first council scene, that
+he became apprised of the alarming influence exercised
+over the mind of that warrior himself by his own terrible
+and vindictive enemy. The necessity of counteracting that
+influence was obvious; and he felt this was only to be
+done (if at all) by some marked and extraordinary evidence
+of the peaceful disposition of the English. Hence his
+determination to suffer the faithless chiefs and their
+followers to depart unharmed from the fort, even at the
+moment when the attitude assumed by the prepared garrison
+fully proved to the assailants their designs had been
+penetrated and their schemes rendered abortive.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+With the general position of the encampment of the
+investing Indians, the reader has been made acquainted
+through the narrative of Captain de Haldimar. It was, as
+has been shown, situate in a sort of oasis close within
+the verge of the forest, and (girt by an intervening
+underwood which Nature, in her caprice, had fashioned
+after the manner of a defensive barrier) embraced a space
+sufficient to contain the tents of the fighting men,
+together with their women and children. This, however,
+included only the warriors and inferior chiefs. The
+tents of the leaders were without the belt of underwood,
+and principally distributed at long intervals on that
+side of the forest which skirted the open country towards
+the river; forming, as it were, a chain of external
+defences, and sweeping in a semicircular direction round
+the more dense encampment of their followers. At its
+highest elevation the forest shot out suddenly into a
+point, naturally enough rendered an object of attraction
+from whatever part it was commanded.
+
+Darkness was already beginning to spread her mantle over
+the intervening space, and the night fires of the Indians
+were kindling into brightness, glimmering occasionally
+through the wood with that pale and lambent light peculiar
+to the fire-fly, of which they offered a not inapt
+representation, when suddenly a lofty tent, the brilliant
+whiteness of which was thrown into strong relief by the
+dark field on which it reposed, was seen to rise at a
+few paces from the abrupt point in the forest just
+described, and on the extreme summit of a ridge, beyond
+which lay only the western horizon in golden perspective.
+
+The opening of this tent looked eastward and towards the
+fort; and on its extreme summit floated a dark flag,
+which at intervals spread itself before the slight evening
+breeze, but oftener hung drooping and heavily over the
+glittering canvass. One solitary pine, whose trunk exceeded
+not the ordinary thickness of a man's waist, and standing
+out as a landmark on the ridge, rose at the distance of
+a few feet from the spot on which the tent had been
+erected; and to this was bound the tall and elegant figure
+of one dressed in the coarse garb of a sailor. The arms
+and legs of this individual were perfectly free; but a
+strong rope, rendered doubly secure after the manner of
+what is termed "whipping" among seamen, after having been
+tightly drawn several times around his waist, and then
+firmly knotted behind, was again passed round the tree,
+to which the back of the prisoner was closely lashed;
+thus enabling, or rather compelling, him to be a spectator
+of every object within the tent.
+
+Layers of bark, over which were spread the dressed skins
+of the bear and the buffalo, formed the floor and carpet
+of the latter; and on these, in various parts, and in
+characteristic attitudes, reposed the forms of three
+human beings;--one, the formidable warrior of the Fleur
+de lis. Attired in the garb in which we first introduced
+him to our readers, and with the same weapons reposing
+at his side, the haughty savage lay at his lazy length;
+his feet reaching beyond the opening of the tent, and
+his head reposing on a rude pillow formed of a closely
+compressed pack of skins of wild animals, over which was
+spread a sort of mantle or blanket. One hand was introduced
+between the pillow and his head, the other grasped the
+pipe tomahawk he was smoking; and while the mechanical
+play of his right foot indicated pre-occupation of thought,
+his quick and meaning eye glanced frequently and alternately
+upon the furthest of his companions, the prisoner without,
+and the distant fort.
+
+Within a few feet of the warrior lay, extended on a
+buffalo skin, the delicate figure of a female, whose
+hair, complexion, and hands, denoted her European
+extraction. Her dress was entirely Indian, however;
+consisting of a machecoti with leggings, mocassins, and
+shirt of printed cotton studded with silver brooches,--all
+of which were of a quality and texture to mark the wearer
+as the wife of a chief; and her fair hair, done up in a
+club behind, reposed on a neck of dazzling whiteness.
+Her eyes were large, blue, but wild and unmeaning; her
+countenance vacant; and her movements altogether mechanical.
+A wooden bowl filled with hominy,--a preparation of Indian
+corn,--was at her side; and from this she was now in
+the act of feeding herself with a spoon of the same
+material, but with a negligence and slovenliness that
+betrayed her almost utter unconsciousness of the action.
+
+At the further side of the tent there was another woman,
+even more delicate in appearance than the one last
+mentioned. She, too, was blue-eyed, and of surpassing
+fairness of skin. Her attitude denoted a mind too powerfully
+absorbed in grief to be heedful of appearances; for she
+sat with her knees drawn up to her chin, and rocking her
+body to and fro with an undulating motion that seemed to
+have its origin in no effort of volition of her own.
+Her long fair hair hung negligently over her shoulders;
+and a blanket drawn over the top of her head like a veil,
+and extending partly over the person, disclosed here and
+there portions of an apparel which was strictly European,
+although rent, and exhibiting in various places stains
+of blood. A bowl similar to that of her companion, and
+filled with the same food, was at her side; but this was
+untasted.
+
+"Why does the girl refuse to eat?" asked the warrior of
+her next him, as he fiercely rolled a volume of smoke
+from his lips. "Make her eat, for I would speak to her
+afterwards."
+
+"Why does the girl refuse to eat?" responded the woman
+in the same tone, dropping her spoon as she spoke, and
+turning to the object of remark with a vacant look. "It
+is good," she pursued, as she rudely shook the arm of
+the heedless sufferer. "Come, girl, eat."
+
+A shriek burst from the lips of the unhappy girl, as,
+apparently roused from her abstraction, she suffered the
+blanket to fall from her head, and staring wildly at her
+questioner, faintly demanded,--
+
+"Who, in the name of mercy, are you, who address me in
+this horrid place in my own tongue? Speak; who are you?
+Surely I should know that voice for that of Ellen, the
+wife of Frank Halloway!"
+
+A maniac laugh was uttered by the wretched woman. This
+continued offensively for a moment; and she observed, in
+an infuriated tone and with a searching eye,--"No, I am
+not the wife of Halloway. It is false. I am the wife of
+Wacousta. This is my husband!" and as she spoke she sprang
+nimbly to her feet, and was in the next instant lying
+prostrate on the form of the warrior; her arms thrown
+wildly around him, and her lips imprinting kisses on his
+cheek.
+
+But Wacousta was in no mood to suffer her endearments.
+He for the first time seemed alive to the presence of
+her who lay beyond, and, to whose whole appearance a
+character of animation had been imparted by the temporary
+excitement of her feelings. He gazed at her a moment,
+with the air of one endeavouring to recall the memory of
+days long gone by; and as he continued to do so, his eye
+dilated, his chest heaved, and his countenance alternately
+flushed and paled. At length he threw the form that
+reposed upon his own, violently, and even savagely, from
+him; sprang eagerly to his feet; and clearing the space
+that divided him from the object of his attention at a
+single step, bore her from the earth in his arms with as
+much ease as if she had been an infant, and then returning
+to his own rude couch, placed his horror-stricken victim
+at his side.
+
+"Nay, nay," he urged sarcastically, as she vainly struggled
+to free herself; "let the De Haldimar portion of your
+blood rise up in anger if it will; but that of Clara
+Beverley, at least--."
+
+"Gracious Providence! where am I, that I hear the name
+of my sainted mother thus familiarly pronounced?"
+interrupted the startled girl; "and who are you,"--turning
+her eyes wildly on the swarthy countenance of the warrior,
+--"who are you, I ask, who, with the mien and in the garb
+of a savage of these forests, appear thus acquainted with
+her name?"
+
+The warrior passed his hand across his brow for a moment,
+as if some painful and intolerable reflection had been
+called up by the question; but he speedily recovered his
+self-possession, and, with an expression of feature that
+almost petrified his auditor, vehemently observed,--
+
+"You ask who I am! One who knew your mother long before
+the accursed name of De Haldimar had even been whispered
+in her ear; and whom love for the one and hatred for the
+other has rendered the savage you now behold! But," he
+continued, while a fierce and hideous smile lighted up
+every feature, "I overlook my past sufferings in my
+present happiness. The image of Clara Beverley, even
+such as my soul loved her in its youth, is once more
+before me in her child; THAT child shall be my wife!"
+
+"Your wife! monster;--never!" shrieked the unhappy girl,
+again vainly attempting to disengage herself from the
+encircling arm of the savage. "But," she pursued, in a
+tone of supplication, while the tears coursed each other
+down her cheek, "if you ever loved my mother as you say
+you have, restore her children to their home; and, if
+saints may be permitted to look down from heaven in
+approval of the acts of men, she whom you have loved will
+bless you for the deed."
+
+A deep groan burst from the vast chest of Wacousta; but,
+for a moment, he answered not. At length he observed,
+pointing at the same time with his finger towards the
+cloudless vault above their heads,--"Do you behold yon
+blue sky, Clara de Haldimar?"
+
+"I do;--what mean you?" demanded the trembling girl, in
+whom a momentary hope had been excited by the subdued
+manner of the savage.
+
+"Nothing," he coolly rejoined; "only that were your mother
+to appear there at this moment, clad in all the attributes
+ascribed to angels, her prayer would not alter the destiny
+that awaits you. Nay, nay; look not thus sorrowfully,"
+he pursued, as, in despite of her efforts to prevent him,
+he imprinted a burning kiss upon her lips. "Even thus
+was I once wont to linger on the lips of your mother;
+but hers ever pouted to be pressed by mine; and not with
+tears, but with sunniest smiles, did she court them." He
+paused; bent his head over the face of the shuddering
+girl; and gazing fixedly for a few minutes on her
+countenance, while he pressed her struggling form more
+closely to his own, exultingly pursued, as if to himself,
+--"Even as her mother was, so is she. Ye powers of hell!
+who would have ever thought a time would come when both
+my vengeance and my love would be gratified to the utmost?
+How strange it never should have occurred to me he had
+a daughter!"
+
+"What mean you, fierce, unpitying man?" exclaimed the
+terrified Clara, to whom a full sense of the horror of
+her position had lent unusual energy of character. "Surely
+you will not detain a poor defenceless woman in your
+hands,--the child of her you say you have loved. But it
+is false!--you never knew her, or you would not now reject
+my prayer."
+
+"Never knew her!" fiercely repeated Wacousta. Again he
+paused. "Would I had never known her! and I should not
+now be the outcast wretch I am," he added, slowly and
+impressively. Then once more elevating his voice,--"Clara
+de Haldimar, I have loved your mother as man never loved
+woman; and I have hated your father" (grinding his teeth
+with fury as he spoke) "as man never hated man. That
+love, that hatred are unquenched--unquenchable. Before
+me I see at once the image of her who, even in death,
+has lived enshrined in my heart, and the child of him
+who is my bitterest foe. Clara de Haldimar, do you
+understand me now?"
+
+"Almighty Providence! is there no one to save me?--can
+nothing touch your stubborn heart?" exclaimed the affrighted
+girl; and she turned her swimming eyes on those of the
+warrior, in appeal; but his glance caused her own to sink
+in confusion. "Ellen Halloway," she pursued, after a
+moment's pause, and in the wild accents of despair, "if
+you are indeed the wife of this man, as you say you are,
+oh! plead for me with him; and in the name of that
+kindness, which I once extended to yourself, prevail on
+him to restore me to my father!"
+
+"Ellen Halloway!--who calls Ellen Halloway?" said the
+wretched woman, who had again resumed her slovenly meal
+on the rude couch, apparently without consciousness of
+the scene enacting at her side. "I am not Ellen Halloway:
+they said so; but it is not true. My husband was Reginald
+Morton: but he went for a soldier, and was killed; and
+I never saw him more."
+
+"Reginald Morton! What mean you, woman?--What know you
+of Reginald Morton?" demanded Wacousta, with frightful
+energy, as, leaning over the shrinking form of Clara, he
+violently grasped and shook the shoulder of the unhappy
+maniac.
+
+"Stop; do not hurt me, and I will tell you all, sir,"
+she almost screamed. "Oh, sir, Reginald Morton was my
+husband once; but he was kinder than you are. He did not
+look so fiercely at me; nor did he pinch me so."
+
+"What of him?--who was he?" furiously repeated Wacousta,
+as he again impatiently shook the arm of the wretched
+Ellen. "Where did you know him?--Whence came he?"
+
+"Nay, you must not be jealous of poor Reginald:" and, as
+she uttered these words in a softening and conciliating
+tone, her eye was turned upon those of the warrior with
+a mingled expression of fear and cunning. "But he was
+very good and very handsome, and generous; and we lived
+near each other, and we loved each other at first sight.
+But his family were very proud, and they quarrelled with
+him because he married me; and then we became very poor,
+and Reginald went for a soldier, and--; but I forget the
+rest, it is so long ago." She pressed her hand to her
+brow, and sank her head upon her chest.
+
+"Ellen, woman, again I ask you where he came from? this
+Reginald Morton that you have named. To what county did
+he belong?"
+
+"Oh, we were both Cornish," she answered, with a vivacity
+singularly in contrast with her recent low and monotonous
+tone; "but, as I said before, he was of a great family,
+and I only a poor clergyman's daughter."
+
+"Cornish!--Cornish, did you say?" fiercely repeated the
+dark Wacousta, while an expression of loathing and disgust
+seemed for a moment to convulse his features; "then is
+it as I had feared. One word more. Was the family seat
+called Morton Castle?"
+
+"It was," unhesitatingly returned the poor woman, yet
+with the air of one wondering to hear a name repeated,
+long forgotten even by herself. "It was a beautiful castle
+too, on a lovely ridge of hills; and it commanded such
+a nice view of the sea, close to the little port of -----;
+and the parsonage stood in such a sweet valley, close
+under the castle; and we were all so happy." She paused,
+again put her hand to her brow, and pressed it with force,
+as if endeavouring to pursue the chain of connection in
+her memory, but evidently without success.
+
+"And your father's name was Clayton?" said the warrior,
+enquiringly; "Henry Clayton, if I recollect aright?"
+
+"Ha! who names my father?" shrieked the wretched woman.
+"Yes, sir, it was Clayton--Henry Clayton--the kindest,
+the noblest of human beings. But the affliction of his
+child, and the persecutions of the Morton family, broke
+his heart. He is dead, sir, and Reginald is dead too;
+and I am a poor lone widow in the world, and have no one
+to love me." Here the tears coursed each other rapidly
+down her faded cheek, although her eyes were staring and
+motionless.
+
+"It is false!" vociferated the warrior, who, now he had
+gained all that was essential to the elucidation of his
+doubts, quitted the shoulder he had continued to press
+with violence in his nervous hand, and once more extended
+himself at his length; "in me you behold the uncle of
+your husband. Yes, Ellen Clayton, you have been the wife
+of two Reginald Mortons. Both," he pursued with unutterable
+bitterness, while he again started up and shook his
+tomahawk menacingly in the direction of the fort,--"both
+have been the victims of yon cold-blooded governor; but
+the hour of our reckoning is at hand. Ellen," he fiercely
+added, "do you recollect the curse you pronounced on the
+family of that haughty man, when he slaughtered your
+Reginald. By Heaven! it shall be fulfilled; but first
+shall the love I have so long borne the mother be
+transferred to the child."
+
+Again he sought to encircle the waist of her whom, in
+the strong excitement of his rage, he had momentarily
+quitted; but the unutterable disgust and horror produced
+in the mind of the unhappy Clara lent an almost supernatural
+activity to her despair. She dexterously eluded his grasp,
+gained her feet, and with tottering steps and outstretched
+arms darted through the opening of the tent, and piteously
+exclaiming, "Save me! oh, for God's sake, save me!" sank
+exhausted, and apparently lifeless, on the chest of the
+prisoner without.
+
+To such of our readers as, deceived by the romantic nature
+of the attachment stated to have been originally entertained
+by Sir Everard Valletort for the unseen sister of his
+friend, have been led to expect a tale abounding in
+manifestations of its progress when the parties had
+actually met, we at once announce disappointment. Neither
+the lover of amorous adventure, nor the admirer of witty
+dialogue, should dive into these pages. Room for the
+exercise of the invention might, it is true, be found;
+but ours is a tale of sad reality, and our heroes and
+heroines figure under circumstances that would render
+wit a satire upon the understanding, and love a reflection
+upon the heart. Within the bounds of probability have
+we, therefore, confined ourselves.
+
+What the feelings of the young Baronet must have been,
+from the first moment when he received from the hands of
+the unfortunate Captain Baynton (who, although an officer
+of his own corps, was personally a stranger to him,) that
+cherished sister of his friend, on whose ideal form his
+excited imagination had so often latterly loved to linger,
+up to the present hour, we should vainly attempt to paint.
+There are emotions of the heart, it would be mockery in
+the pen to trace. From the instant of his first contributing
+to preserve her life, on that dreadful day of blood, to
+that when the schooner fell into the hands of the savages,
+few words had passed between them, and these had reference
+merely to the position in which they found themselves,
+and whenever Sir Everard felt he could, without indelicacy
+or intrusion, render himself in the slightest way
+serviceable to her. The very circumstances under which
+they had met, conduced to the suppression, if not utter
+extinction, of all of passion attached to the sentiment
+with which he had been inspired. A new feeling had
+quickened in his breast; and it was with emotions more
+assimilated to friendship than to love that he now regarded
+the beautiful but sorrow-stricken sister of his bosom
+friend. Still there was a softness, a purity, a delicacy
+and tenderness in this new feeling, in which the influence
+of sex secretly though unacknowledgedly predominated;
+and even while sensible it would have been a profanation
+of every thing most sacred and delicate in nature to have
+admitted a thought of love within his breast at such a
+moment, he also felt he could have entertained a voluptuous
+joy in making any sacrifice, even to the surrender of
+life itself, provided the tranquillity of that gentle
+and suffering being could be by it ensured.
+
+Clara, in her turn, had been in no condition to admit so
+exclusive a power as that of love within her soul. She
+had, it is true, even amid the desolation of her shattered
+spirit, recognised in the young officer the original of
+a portrait so frequently drawn by her brother, and dwelt
+on by herself. She acknowledged, moreover, the fidelity
+of the painting: but however she might have felt and
+acted under different circumstances, absorbed as was her
+heart, and paralysed her imagination, by the harrowing
+scenes she had gone through, she, too, had room but for
+one sentiment in her fainting soul, and that was friendship
+for the friend of her brother; on whom, moreover, she
+bestowed that woman's gratitude, which could not fail to
+be awakened by a recollection of the risks he had
+encountered, conjointly with Frederick, to save her from
+destruction. During their passage across lake Huron, Sir
+Everard had usually taken his seat on the deck, at that
+respectful distance which he conceived the delicacy of
+the position of the unfortunate cousins demanded; but in
+such a manner that, while he seemed wholly abstracted
+from them, his eye had more than once been detected by
+Clara fixed on hers, with an affectionateness of interest
+she could not avoid repaying with a glance of recognition
+and approval. These, however, were the only indications
+of regard that had passed between them.
+
+If, however, a momentary and irrepressible flashing of
+that sentiment, which had, at an earlier period, formed
+a portion of their imaginings, did occasionally steal
+over their hearts while there was a prospect of reaching
+their friends in safety, all manifestation of its power
+was again finally suppressed when the schooner fell into
+the hands of the savages. Become the immediate prisoners
+of Wacousta, they had been surrendered to that ferocious
+chief to be dealt with as he might think proper; and, on
+disembarking from the canoe in which their transit to
+the main land had been descried that morning from the
+fort, had been separated from their equally unfortunate
+and suffering companions. Captain de Haldimar, Madeline,
+and the Canadian, were delivered over to the custody of
+several choice warriors of the tribe in which Wacousta
+was adopted; and, bound hand and foot, were, at that
+moment, in the war tent of the fierce savage, which, as
+Ponteac had once boasted to the governor, was every where
+hung around with human scalps, both of men, of women,
+and of children. The object of this mysterious man, in
+removing Clara to the spot we have described, was one
+well worthy of his ferocious nature. His vengeance had
+already devoted her to destruction; and it was within
+view of the fort, which contained the father whom he
+loathed, he had resolved his purpose should be accomplished.
+A refinement of cruelty, such as could scarcely have been
+supposed to enter the breast even of such a remorseless
+savage as himself, had caused him to convey to the same
+spot, him whom he rather suspected than knew to be the
+lover of the young girl. It was with the view of harrowing
+up the soul of one whom he had recognised as the officer
+who had disabled him on the night of the rencontre on
+the bridge, that he had bound Sir Everard to the tree,
+whence, as we have already stated, he was a compelled
+spectator of every thing that passed within the tent;
+and yet with that free action of limb which only tended
+to tantalize him the more amid his unavailable efforts
+to rid himself of his bonds,--a fact that proved not only
+the dire extent to which the revenge of Wacousta could
+be carried, but the actual and gratuitous cruelty of his
+nature.
+
+One must have been similarly circumstanced, to understand
+all the agony of the young man during this odious scene,
+and particularly at the fierce and repeated declaration
+of the savage that Clara should be his bride. More than
+once had he essayed to remove the ligatures which confined
+his waist; but his unsuccessful attempts only drew an
+occasional smile of derision from his enemy, as he glanced
+his eye rapidly towards him. Conscious at length of the
+inutility of efforts, which, without benefiting her for
+whom they were principally prompted, rendered him in some
+degree ridiculous even in his own eyes, the wretched
+Valletort desisted altogether, and with his head sunk
+upon his chest, and his eyes closed, sought at least to
+shut out a scene which blasted his sight, and harrowed
+up his very soul.
+
+But when Clara, uttering her wild cry for protection,
+and rushing forth from the tent, sank almost unconsciously
+in his embrace, a thrill of inexplicable joy ran through
+each awakened fibre of his frame. Bending eagerly forward,
+he had extended his arms to receive her; and when he felt
+her light and graceful form pressing upon his own as its
+last refuge--when he felt her heart beating against
+his--when he saw her head drooping on his shoulder, in
+the wild recklessness of despair,--even amid that scene
+of desolation and grief he could not help enfolding her
+in tumultuous ecstasy to his breast. Every horrible danger
+was for an instant forgotten in the soothing consciousness
+that he at length encircled the form of her, whom in many
+an hour of solitude he had thus pictured, although under
+far different circumstances, reposing confidingly on him.
+There was delight mingled with agony in his sensation of
+the wild throb of her bosom against his own; and even
+while his soul fainted within him, as he reflected on
+the fate that awaited her, he felt as if he could himself
+now die more happily.
+
+Momentary, however, was the duration of this scene.
+Furious with anger at the evident disgust of his victim,
+Wacousta no sooner saw her sink into the arms of her
+lover, than with that agility for which he was remarkable
+he was again on his feet, and stood in the next instant
+at her side. Uniting to the generous strength of his
+manhood all that was wrung from his mingled love and
+despair, the officer clasped his hands round the waist
+of the drooping Clara; and with clenched teeth, and feet
+firmly set, seemed resolved to defy every effort of the
+warrior to remove her. Not a word was uttered on either
+side; but in the fierce smile that curled the lip of the
+savage, there spoke a language even more terrible than
+the words that smile implied. Sir Everard could not
+suppress an involuntary shudder; and when at length
+Wacousta, after a short but violent struggle, succeeded
+in again securing and bearing off his prize, the
+wretchedness of soul of the former was indescribable.
+
+"You see 'tis vain to struggle against your destiny,
+Clara de Haldimar," sneered the warrior. "Ours is but a
+rude nuptial couch, it is true; but the wife of an Indian
+chief must not expect the luxuries of Europe in the heart
+of an American wilderness."
+
+"Almighty Heaven! where am I?" exclaimed the wretched
+girl, again unclosing her eyes to all the horror of her
+position; for again she lay at the side, and within the
+encircling arm, of her enemy. "Oh, Sir Everard Valletort,
+I thought I was with you, and that you had saved me from
+this monster. Where is my brother?--Where are Frederick
+and Madeline?--"Why have they deserted me?--Ah! my
+heart will break. I cannot endure this longer, and live."
+
+"Clara, Miss de Haldimar," groaned Sir Everard, in a
+voice of searching agony; "could I lay down my life for
+you, I would; but you see these bonds. Oh God! oh God!
+have pity on the innocent; and for once incline the heart
+of yon fierce monster to the whisperings of mercy." As
+he uttered the last sentence, he attempted to sink on
+his knees in supplication to Him he addressed, but the
+tension of the cord prevented him; yet were his hands
+clasped, and his eyes upraised to heaven, while his
+countenance beamed with an expression of fervent enthusiasm.
+
+"Peace, babbler! or, by Heaven! that prayer shall be your
+last," vociferated Wacousta. "But no," he pursued to
+himself, dropping at the same time the point of his
+upraised tomahawk; "these are but the natural writhings
+of the crushed worm; and the longer protracted they are,
+the more complete will be my vengeance." Then turning to
+the terrified girl,--"You ask, Clara de Haldimar, where
+you are? In the tent of your mother's lover, I reply,--at
+the side of him who once pressed her to his heart, even
+as I now press you, and with a fondness that was only
+equalled by her own. Come, dear Clara," and his voice
+assumed a tone of tenderness that was even more revolting
+than his natural ferocity, "let me woo you to the affection
+she once possessed. It was a heart of fire in which her
+image stood enshrined,--it is a heart of fire still, and
+well worthy of her child."
+
+"Never, never!" shrieked the agonised girl. "Kill me,
+murder me, if you will; but oh! if you have pity, pollute
+not my ear with the avowal of your detested love. But
+again I repeat, it is false that my mother ever knew you.
+She never could have loved so fierce, so vindictive a
+being as yourself."
+
+"Ha! do you doubt me still?" sternly demanded the savage.
+Then drawing the shuddering girl still closer to his vast
+chest,--"Come hither, Clara, while to convince you I
+unfold the sad history of my life, and tell you more of
+your parents than you have ever known. When," he pursued
+solemnly, "you have learnt the extent of my love for the
+one, and of my hatred for the other, and the wrongs I
+have endured from both, you will no longer wonder at the
+spirit of mingled love and vengeance that dictates my
+conduct towards yourself. Listen, girl," he continued
+fiercely, "and judge whether mine are injuries to be
+tamely pardoned, when a whole life has been devoted to
+the pursuit of the means of avenging them."
+
+Irresistibly led by a desire to know what possible
+connection could have existed between her parents and
+this singular and ferocious man, the wretched girl gave
+her passive assent. She even hoped that, in the course
+of his narrative, some softening recollections would pass
+over his mind, the effect of which might be to predispose
+him to mercy. Wacousta buried his face for a few moments
+in his large hand, as if endeavouring to collect and
+concentrate the remembrances of past years. His countenance,
+meanwhile, had undergone a change; for there was now a
+shade of melancholy mixed with the fierceness of expression
+usually observable there. This, however, was dispelled
+in the course of his narrative, and as various opposite
+passions were in turn powerfully and severally developed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+"It is now four and twenty years," commenced Wacousta,
+"since your father and myself first met as subalterns in
+the regiment he now commands, when, unnatural to say, an
+intimacy suddenly sprang up between us which, as it was
+then to our brother officers, has since been a source of
+utter astonishment to myself. Unnatural, I repeat, for
+fire and ice are not more opposite than were the elements
+of which our natures were composed. He, all coldness,
+prudence, obsequiousness, and forethought. I, all
+enthusiasm, carelessness, impetuosity, and independence.
+Whether this incongruous friendship--friendship! no, I
+will not so far sully the sacred name as thus to term
+the unnatural union that subsisted between us;--whether
+this intimacy, then, sprang from the adventitious
+circumstance of our being more frequently thrown together
+as officers of the same company,--for we were both attached
+to the grenadiers,--or that my wild spirit was soothed
+by the bland amenity of his manners, I know not. The
+latter, however, is not improbable; for proud, and haughty,
+and dignified, as the colonel NOW is, such was not THEN
+the character of the ensign; who seemed thrown out of
+one of Nature's supplest moulds, to fawn, and cringe,
+and worm his way to favour by the wily speciousness of
+his manners. Oh God!" pursued Wacousta, after a momentary
+pause, and striking his palm against his forehead, "that
+I ever should have been the dupe of such a cold-blooded
+hypocrite!
+
+"I have said our intimacy excited surprise among our
+brother officers. It did; for all understood and read
+the character of your father, who was as much disliked
+and distrusted for the speciousness of his false nature,
+as I was generally esteemed for the frankness and warmth
+of mine. No one openly censured the evident preference
+I gave him in my friendship; but we were often sarcastically
+termed the Pylades and Orestes of the regiment, until my
+heart was ready to leap into my throat with impatience
+at the bitterness in which the taunt was conceived; and
+frequently in my presence was allusion made to the blind
+folly of him, who should take a cold and slimy serpent
+to his bosom only to feel its fangs darted into it at
+the moment when most fostered by its genial heat. All,
+however, was in vain. On a nature like mine, innuendo
+was likely to produce an effect directly opposite to that
+intended; and the more I found them inclined to be severe
+on him I called my friend, the more marked became my
+preference. I even fancied that because I was rich,
+generous, and heir to a title, their observations were
+prompted by jealousy of the influence he possessed over
+me, and a desire to supplant him only for their interests'
+sake. Bitterly have I been punished for the illiberality
+of such an opinion. Those to whom I principally allude
+were the subalterns of the regiment, most of whom were
+nearly of our own age. One or two of the junior captains
+were also of this number; but, by the elders (as we termed
+the seniors of that rank) and field officers, Ensign de
+Haldimar was always regarded as a most prudent and
+promising young officer.
+
+"What conduced, in a great degree, to the establishment
+of our intimacy was the assistance I always received from
+my brother subaltern in whatever related to my military
+duties. As the lieutenant of the company, the more
+immediate responsibility attached to myself; but being
+naturally of a careless habit, or perhaps considering
+all duty irksome to my impatient nature that was not duty
+in the field, I was but too often guilty of neglecting
+it. On these occasions my absence was ever carefully
+supplied by your father, who, in all the minutiae of
+regimental economy, was surpassed by no other officer in
+the corps; so that credit was given to me, when, at the
+ordinary inspections, the grenadiers were acknowledged
+to be the company the most perfect in equipment and
+skilful in manoeuvre. Deeply, deeply," again mused
+Wacousta, "have these services been repaid.
+
+"As you have just learnt, Cornwall is the country of my
+birth. I was the eldest of the only two surviving children
+of a large family; and, as heir to the baronetcy of the
+proud Mortons, was looked up to by lord and vassal as
+the future perpetuator of the family name. My brother
+had been designed for the army; but as this was a profession
+to which I had attached my inclinations, the point was
+waved in my favour, and at the age of eighteen I first
+joined the ---- regiment, then quartered in the Highlands
+of Scotland. During my boyhood I had ever accustomed
+myself to athletic exercises, and loved to excite myself
+by encountering danger in its most terrific forms. Often
+had I passed whole days in climbing the steep and
+precipitous crags which overhang the sea in the
+neighbourhood of Morton Castle, ostensibly in the pursuit
+of the heron or the seagull, but self-acknowledgedly for
+the mere pleasure of grappling with the difficulties they
+opposed to me. Often, too, in the most terrific tempests,
+when sea and sky have met in one black and threatening
+mass, and when the startled fishermen have in vain
+attempted to dissuade me from my purpose, have I ventured,
+in sheer bravado, out of sight of land, and unaccompanied
+by a human soul. Then, when wind and tide have been
+against me on my return, have I, with my simple sculls
+alone, caused my faithful bark to leap through the foaming
+brine as though a press of canvass had impelled her on.
+Oh, that this spirit of adventure had never grown with
+my growth and strengthened with my strength!" sorrowfully
+added the warrior, again apostrophising himself: "then
+had I never been the wretch I am.
+
+"The wild daring by which my boyhood had been marked was
+again powerfully awakened by the bold and romantic scenery
+of the Scottish Highlands; and as the regiment was at
+that time quartered in a part of these mountainous
+districts, where, from the disturbed nature of the times,
+society was difficult of attainment, many of the officers
+were driven from necessity, as I was from choice, to
+indulge in the sports of the chase. On one occasion a
+party of four of us set out early in the morning in
+pursuit of deer, numbers of which we knew were to be met
+with in the mountainous tracts of Bute and Argyleshire.
+The course we happened to take lay through a succession
+of dark deep glens, and over frowning rocks; the
+difficulties of access to which only stirred up my dormant
+spirit of enterprise the more. We had continued in this
+course for many hours, overcoming one difficulty only to
+be encountered by another, and yet without meeting a
+single deer; when, at length, the faint blast of a horn
+was heard far above our heads in the distance, and
+presently a noble stag was seen to ascend a ledge of
+rocks immediately in front of us. To raise my gun to my
+shoulder and fire was the work of a moment, after which
+we all followed in pursuit. On reaching the spot where
+the deer had first been seen, we observed traces of blood,
+satisfying us he had been wounded; but the course taken
+in his flight was one that seemed to defy every human
+effort to follow in. It was a narrow pointed ledge,
+ascending boldly towards a huge cliff that projected
+frowningly from the extreme summit, and on either side
+lay a dark, deep, and apparently fathomless ravine; to
+look even on which was sufficient to appal the stoutest
+heart, and unnerve the steadiest brain. For me, however,
+long accustomed to dangers of the sort, it had no terror.
+This was a position in which I had often wished once more
+to find myself placed, and I felt buoyant and free as
+the deer itself I intended to pursue. In vain did my
+companions (and your father was one) implore me to abandon
+a project so wild and hazardous. I bounded forward, and
+they turned shuddering away, that their eyes might not
+witness the destruction that awaited me. Meanwhile,
+balancing my long gun in my upraised hands, I trod the
+dangerous path with a buoyancy and elasticity of limb,
+a lightness of heart, and a fearlessness of consequences,
+that surprised even myself. Perhaps it was to the latter
+circumstance I owed my safety, for a single doubt of my
+security might have impelled a movement that would not
+have failed to have precipitated me into the yawning gulf
+below. I had proceeded in this manner about five hundred
+yards, when I came to the termination of the ledge, from
+the equally narrow transverse extremity of which branched
+out three others; the whole contributing to form a figure
+resembling that of a trident. Pausing here for a moment,
+I applied the hunting horn, with which I was provided,
+to my lips. This signal, announcing my safety, was speedily
+returned by my friends below in a cheering and lively
+strain, that seemed to express at once surprise and
+satisfaction; and inspirited by the sound, I prepared to
+follow up my perilous chase. Along the ledge I had
+quitted I had remarked occasional traces where the stricken
+deer had passed; and the same blood-spots now directed
+me at a point where, but for these, I must have been
+utterly at fault. The centre of these new ridges, and
+the narrowest, was that taken by the animal, and on that
+I once more renewed my pursuit. As I continued to advance
+I found the ascent became more precipitous, and the
+difficulties opposed to my progress momentarily more
+multiplied. Still, nothing daunted, I continued my course
+towards the main body of rock that now rose within a
+hundred yards. How. this was to be gained I knew not;
+for it shelved out abruptly from the extreme summit,
+overhanging the abyss, and presenting an appearance which
+I cannot more properly render than by comparing it to
+the sounding-boards placed over the pulpits of our English
+churches. Still I was resolved to persevere to the close,
+and I but too unhappily succeeded." Again Wacousta paused.
+A tear started to his eye, but this he impatiently brushed
+away with his swarthy hand.
+
+"It was evident to me," he again resumed, "that there
+must be some opening through which the deer had effected
+his escape to the precipitous height above; and I felt
+a wild and fearful triumph in following him to his cover,
+over passes which it was my pleasure to think none of
+the hardy mountaineers themselves would have dared to
+venture upon with impunity. I paused not to consider of
+the difficulty of bearing away my prize, even if I
+succeeded in overtaking it. At every step my excitement
+and determination became stronger, and I felt every fibre
+of my frame to dilate, as when, in my more boyish days,
+I used to brave, in my gallant skiff, the mingled fury
+of the warring elements of sea and storm. Suddenly, while
+my mind was intent only on the dangers I used then to
+hold in such light estimation, I found my further progress
+intercepted by a fissure in the crag. It was not the
+width of this opening that disconcerted me, for it exceeded
+not ten feet; but I came upon it so unadvisedly, that,
+in attempting to check my forward motion, I had nearly
+lost my equipoise, and fallen into the abyss that now
+yawned before and on either side of me. To pause upon
+the danger, would, I felt, be to ensure it. Summoning
+all my dexterity into a single bound, I cleared the chasm;
+and with one buskined foot (for my hunting costume was
+strictly Highland) clung firmly to the ledge, while I
+secured my balance with the other. At this point the
+rock became gradually broader, so that I now trod the
+remainder of the rude path in perfect security, until I
+at length found myself close to the vast mass of which
+these ledges were merely ramifications or veins: but
+still I could discover no outlet by which the wounded
+deer could have escaped. While I lingered, thoughtfully,
+for a moment, half in disappointment, half in anger, and
+with my back leaning against the rock, I fancied I heard
+a rustling, as of the leaves and branches of underwood,
+on that part which projected like a canopy, far above
+the abyss. I bent my eye eagerly and fixedly on the spot
+whence the sound proceeded, and presently could distinguish
+the blue sky appearing through an aperture, to which was,
+the instant afterwards, applied what I conceived to be
+a human face. No sooner, however, was it seen than
+withdrawn; and then the rustling of leaves was heard
+again, and all was still as before.
+
+"Why did my evil genius so will it," resumed Wacousta,
+after another pause, during which he manifested deep
+emotion, "that I should have heard those sounds and seen
+that face? But for these I should have returned to my
+companions, and my life might have been the life--the
+plodding life--of the multitude; things that are born
+merely to crawl through existence and die, knowing not
+at the moment of death why or how they have lived at all.
+But who may resist the destiny that presides over him
+from the cradle to the grave? for, although the mass may
+be, and are, unworthy of the influencing agency of that
+Unseen Power, who will presume to deny there are those
+on whom it stamps its iron seal, even from the moment of
+their birth to that which sees all that is mortal of them
+consigned to the tomb? What was it but destiny that
+whispered to me what I had seen was the face of a woman?
+I had not traced a feature, nor could I distinctly state
+that it was a human countenance I had beheld; but mine
+was ever an imagination into which the wildest improbability
+was scarce admitted that it did not grow into conviction
+in the instant.
+
+"A new direction was now given to my feelings. I felt a
+presentiment that my adventure, if prosecuted, would
+terminate in some extraordinary and characteristic manner;
+and obeying, as I ever did, the first impulse of my heart,
+I prepared to grapple once more with the difficulties
+that yet remained to be surmounted. In order to do this,
+it was necessary that my feet and hands should be utterly
+without incumbrance; for it was only by dint of climbing
+that I could expect to reach that part of the projecting
+rock to which my attention had been directed. Securing
+my gun between some twisted roots that grew out of and
+adhered to the main body of the rock, I commenced the
+difficult ascent; and, after considerable effort, found
+myself at length immediately under the aperture. My
+progress along the lower superficies of this projection
+was like that of a crawling reptile. My back hung suspended
+over the chasm, into which one false movement of hand or
+foot, one yielding of the roots entwined in the rock,
+must inevitably have precipitated me; and, while my toes
+wormed themselves into the tortuous fibres of the latter,
+I passed hand over hand beyond my head, until I had
+arrived within a foot or two of the point I desired to
+reach. Here, however, a new difficulty occurred. A slight
+projection of the rock, close to the aperture, impeded
+my further progress in the manner hitherto pursued; and,
+to pass this, I was compelled to drop my whole weight,
+suspended by one vigorous arm, while, with the other, I
+separated the bushes that concealed the opening. A
+violent exertion of every muscle now impelled me upward,
+until at length I had so far succeeded as to introduce
+my head and shoulders through the aperture; after which
+my final success was no longer doubtful. If I have been
+thus minute in the detail of the dangerous nature of this
+passage," continued Wacousta, gloomily, "it is not without
+reason. I would have you to impress the whole of the
+localities upon your imagination, that you may the better
+comprehend, from a knowledge of the risks I incurred,
+how little I have merited the injuries under which I have
+writhed for years."
+
+Again one of those painful pauses with which his narrative
+was so often broken, occurred; and, with an energy that
+terrified her whom he addressed, Wacousta pursued--"Clara
+de Haldimar, it was here--in this garden--this paradise
+--this oasis of the rocks in which I now found myself,
+that I first saw and loved your mother. Ha! you start:
+you believe me now.--Loved her!" he continued, after
+another short pause--"oh, what a feeble word is love to
+express the concentration of mighty feelings that flowed
+like burning lava through my veins! Who shall pretend to
+give a name to the emotion that ran thrillingly--madly
+through my excited frame, when first I gazed on her, who,
+in every attribute of womanly beauty, realised all my
+fondest fancy ever painted?--Listen to me, Clara," he
+pursued, in a fiercer tone, and with a convulsive pressure
+of the form he still encircled:--"If, in my younger days,
+my mind was alive to enterprise, and loved to contemplate
+danger in its most appalling forms, this was far from
+being the master passion of my soul; nay, it was the
+strong necessity I felt of pouring into some devoted
+bosom the overflowing fulness of my heart, that made me
+court in solitude those positions of danger with which
+the image of woman was ever associated. How often, while
+tossed by the raging elements, now into the blue vault
+of heaven, now into the lowest gulfs of the sea, have I
+madly wished to press to my bounding bosom the being of
+my fancy's creation, who, all enamoured and given to her
+love, should, even amid the danger that environed her,
+be alive but to one consciousness,--that of being with
+him on whom her life's hope alone reposed! How often,
+too, while bending over some dark and threatening precipice,
+or standing on the utmost verge of some tall projecting
+cliff, my aching head (aching with the intenseness of
+its own conceptions) bared to the angry storm, and my
+eye fixed unshrinkingly on the boiling ocean far beneath
+my feet, has my whole soul--my every faculty, been bent
+on that ideal beauty which controlled every sense! Oh,
+imagination, how tyrannical is thy sway--how exclusive
+thy power--how insatiable thy thirst! Surrounded by
+living beauty, I was insensible to its influence; for,
+with all the perfection that reality can attain on earth,
+there was ever to be found some deficiency, either physical
+or moral, that defaced the symmetry and destroyed the
+loveliness of the whole; but, no sooner didst thou, with
+magic wand, conjure up one of thy embodiments, than my
+heart became a sea of flame, and was consumed in the
+vastness of its own fires.
+
+"It was in vain that my family sought to awaken me to a
+sense of the acknowledged loveliness of the daughters of
+more than one ancient house in the county, with one of
+whom an alliance was, in many respects, considered
+desirable. Their beauty, or rather their whole, was
+insufficient to stir up into madness the dormant passions
+of my nature; and although my breast was like a glowing
+furnace, in which fancy cast all the more exciting images
+of her coinage to secure the last impress of the heart's
+approval, my outward deportment to some of the fairest
+and loveliest of earth's realities was that of one on
+whom the influence of woman's beauty could have no power.
+From my earliest boyhood I had loved to give the rein to
+these feelings, until they at length rendered me their
+slave. Woman was the idol that lay enshrined within my
+inmost heart; but it was woman such as I had not yet met
+with, yet felt must somewhere exist in the creation. For
+her I could have resigned title, fortune, family, every
+thing that is dear to man, save the life, through which
+alone the reward of such sacrifice could have been tasted,
+and to this phantom I had already yielded up all the
+manlier energies of my nature; but, deeply as I felt the
+necessity of loving something less unreal, up to the
+moment of my joining the regiment, my heart had never
+once throbbed for created woman.
+
+"I have already said that, on gaining the summit of the
+rock, I found myself in a sort of oasis of the mountains.
+It was so. Belted on every hand by bold and precipitous
+crags, that seemed to defy the approach even of the
+wildest animals, and putting utterly at fault the
+penetration and curiosity of man, was spread a carpet of
+verdure, a luxuriance of vegetation, that might have put
+to shame the fertility of the soft breeze-nourished
+valleys of Italy and Southern France. Time, however, is
+not given me to dwell on the mingled beauty and wildness
+of a scene, so consonant with my ideas of the romantic
+and the picturesque. Let me rather recur to her (although
+my heart be lacerated once more in the recollection) who
+was the presiding deity of the whole,--the being after
+whom, had I had the fabled power of Prometheus, I should
+have formed and animated the sharer of that sweet wild
+solitude, nor once felt that fancy, to whom I was so
+largely a debtor, had in aught been cheated of what she
+had, for a series of years, so rigidly claimed.
+
+"At about twenty yards from the aperture, and on a bank,
+formed of turf, covered with moss, and interspersed with
+roses and honeysuckles, sat this divinity of the oasis.
+She, too, was clad in the Highland dress, which gave an
+air of wildness and elegance to her figure that was in
+classic harmony with the surrounding scenery. At the
+moment of my appearance she was in the act of dressing
+the wounded shoulder of a stag, that had recently been
+shot; and from the broad tartan riband I perceived attached
+to its neck, added to the fact of the tameness of the
+animal, I presumed that this stag, evidently a favourite
+of its mistress, was the same I had fired at and wounded.
+The rustling I made among the bushes had attracted her
+attention; she raised her eyes from the deer, and,
+beholding me, started to her feet, uttering a cry of
+terror and surprise. Fearing to speak, as if the sound
+of my own voice were sufficient to dispel the illusion
+that fascinated both eye and heart into delicious tension
+on her form, yet with my soul kindled into all that wild
+uncontrollable love which had been the accumulation of
+years of passionate imagining, I stood for some moments
+as motionless as the rock out of which I appeared to
+grow. It seemed as though I had not the power to think
+or act, so fully was every faculty of my being filled
+with the consciousness that I at length gazed upon her
+I was destined to love for ever.
+
+"It was this utter immobility on my own part, that ensured
+me a continuance of the exquisite happiness I then enjoyed.
+The first movement of the startled girl had been to fly
+towards her dwelling, which stood at a short distance,
+half imbedded in the same clustering roses and honey-suckles
+that adorned her bank of moss; but when she remarked my
+utter stillness, and apparent absence of purpose, she
+checked the impulse that would have directed her departure,
+and stopped, half in curiosity, half in fear, to examine
+me once more. At that moment all my energies appeared to
+be restored; I threw myself into an attitude expressive
+of deep contrition for the intrusion of which I had been
+unconsciously guilty, and dropping on one knee, and
+raising my clasped hands, inclined them towards her in
+token of mingled deprecation of her anger, and respectful
+homage to herself. At first she hesitated,--then gradually
+and timidly retrod her way to the seat she had so abruptly
+quitted in her alarm. Emboldened by this movement, I made
+a step or two in advance, but no sooner had I done so
+than she again took to flight. Once more, however, she
+turned to behold me, and again I had dropped on my knee,
+and was conjuring her, with the same signs, to remain
+and bless me with her presence. Again she returned to
+her seat, and again I advanced. Scarcely less timid,
+however, than the deer, which followed her every movement,
+she fled a third time,--a third time looked back, and
+was again induced, by my supplicating manner, to return.
+Frequently was this repeated, before I finally found
+myself at the feet, and pressing the hand--(oh God! what
+torture in the recollection!)--yes, pressing the hand of
+her for whose smile I would, even at that moment, have
+sacrificed my soul; and every time she fled, the classic
+disposition of her graceful limbs, and her whole natural
+attitude of alarm, could only be compared with those of
+one of the huntresses of Diana, intruded on in her woodland
+privacy by the unhallowed presence of some daring mortal.
+Such was your mother, Clara de Haldimar; yes, even such
+as I have described her was Clara Beverley."
+
+Again Wacousta paused, and his pause was longer than
+usual, as, with his large hand again covering his face,
+he seemed endeavouring to master the feelings which these
+recollections had called up. Clara scarcely breathed.
+Unmindful of her own desolate position, her soul was
+intent only on a history that related so immediately to
+her beloved mother, of whom all that she had hitherto
+known was, that she was a native of Scotland, and that
+her father had married her while quartered in that country.
+The deep emotion of the terrible being before her, so
+often manifested in the course of what he had already
+given of his recital, added to her knowledge of the facts
+just named, scarcely left a doubt of the truth of his
+statement on her mind. Her ear was now bent achingly
+towards him, in expectation of a continuance of his
+history, but he still remained in the same attitude of
+absorption. An irresistible impulse caused her to extend
+her hand, and remove his own from his eyes: they were
+filled with tears; and even while her mind rapidly embraced
+the hope that this manifestation of tenderness was but
+the dawning of mercy towards the children of her he had
+once loved, her kind nature could not avoid sympathizing
+with him, whose uncouthness of appearance and savageness
+of nature was, in some measure, lost sight of in the fact
+of the powerful love he yet apparently acknowledged.
+
+But no sooner did Wacousta feel the soft pressure of her
+hand, and meet her eyes turned on his with an expression
+of interest, than the most rapid transition was effected
+in his feelings. He drew the form of the weakly resisting
+girl closer to his heart; again imprinted a kiss upon
+her lips; and then, while every muscle in his iron frame
+seemed quivering with emotion, exclaimed,--"By Heaven!
+that touch, that glance, were Clara Beverley's all over!
+Oh, let me linger on the recollection, even such as they
+were, when her arms first opened to receive me in that
+sweet oasis of the Highlands. Yes, Clara," he proceeded
+more deliberately, as he scanned her form with an eye
+that made her shudder, "such as your mother was, so are
+you; the same delicacy of proportion; the same graceful
+curvature of limb, only less rounded, less womanly. But
+you must be younger by about two years than she then was.
+Your age cannot exceed seventeen; and time will supply
+what your mere girlhood renders you deficient in."
+
+There was a cool licence of speech--a startling freedom
+of manner--in the latter part of this address, that
+disappointed not less than it pained and offended the
+unhappy Clara. It seemed to her as if the illusion she
+had just created, were already dispelled by his language,
+even as her own momentary interest in the fierce man had
+also been destroyed from the same cause. She shuddered;
+and sighing bitterly, suffered her tears to force themselves
+through her closed lids upon her pallid cheek. This
+change in her appearance seemed to act as a check on the
+temporary excitement of Wacousta. Again obeying one of
+these rapid transitions of feeling, for which he was
+remarkable, he once more assumed an expression of
+seriousness, and thus continued his narrative.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+"It boots not now, Clara, to enter upon all that succeeded
+to my first introduction to your mother. It would take
+long to relate, not the gradations of our passion, for
+that was like the whirlwind of the desert, sudden and
+devastating from the first; but the burning vow, the
+plighted faith, the reposing confidence, the unchecked
+abandonment that flew from the lips, and filled the heart
+of each, sealed, as they were, with kisses, long, deep,
+enervating, even such as I had ever pictured that divine
+pledge of human affection should be. Yes, Clara de
+Haldimar, your mother was the child of nature THEN.
+Unspoiled by the forms, unvitiated by the sophistries of
+a world with which she had never mixed, her intelligent
+innocence made the most artless avowals to my enraptured
+ear,--avowals that the more profligate minded woman of
+society would have blushed to whisper even to herself.
+And for these I loved her to my own undoing.
+
+"Blind vanity, inconceivable folly!" continued Wacousta,
+again pressing his forehead with force; "how could I be
+so infatuated as not to perceive, that although her heart
+was filled with a new and delicious passion, it was less
+the individual than the man she loved. And how could it
+be otherwise, since I was the first, beside her father,
+she had ever seen or recollected to have seen? Still,
+Clara de Haldimar," he pursued, with haughty energy, "I
+was not always the rugged being I now appear. Of surpassing
+strength I had ever been, and fleet of foot, but not then
+had I attained to my present gigantic stature; neither
+was my form endowed with the same Herculean rudeness;
+nor did my complexion wear the swarthy hue of the savage;
+nor had my features been rendered repulsive, from the
+perpetual action of those fierce passions which have
+since assailed my soul. My physical faculties had not
+yet been developed to their present grossness of maturity,
+neither had my moral energies acquired that tone of
+ferocity which often renders me hideous, even in my own
+eyes. In a word, the milk of my nature (for, with all my
+impetuosity of character, I was generous-hearted and
+kind) had not yet been turned to gall by villainy and
+deceit. My form had then all that might attract--my
+manners all that might win--my enthusiasm of speech all
+that might persuade--and my heart all that might interest
+a girl fashioned after nature's manner, and tutored in
+nature's school. In the regiment, I was called the handsome
+grenadier; but there was another handsomer than I,--a
+sly, insidious, wheedling, false, remorseless villain.
+That villain, Clara de Haldimar, was your father.
+
+"But wherefore," continued Wacousta, chafing with the
+recollection, "wherefore do I, like a vain and puling
+schoolboy, enter into this abasing contrast of personal
+advantages? The proud eagle soars not more above the
+craven kite, than did my soul, in all that was manly and
+generous, above that of yon false governor; and who should
+have prized those qualities, if it were not the woman
+who, bred in solitude, and taught by fancy to love all
+that was generous and noble in the heart of man, should
+have considered mere beauty of feature as dust in the
+scale, when opposed to sentiments which can invest even
+deformity with loveliness? In all this I may appear vain;
+I am only just.
+
+"I have said that your mother had been brought up in
+solitude, and without having seen the face of another
+man than her father. Such was the case;--Colonel Beverley,
+of English name, but Scottish connections, was an old
+gentleman of considerable eccentricity of character. He
+had taken a part in the rebellion of 1715; but sick and
+disgusted with an issue by which his fortunes had been
+affected, and heart-broken by the loss of a beloved wife,
+whose death had been accelerated by circumstances connected
+with the disturbed nature of the times, he had resolved
+to bury himself and child in some wild, where the face
+of man, whom he loathed, might no more offend his sight.
+This oasis of the mountains was the spot selected for
+his purpose; for he had discovered it some years previously,
+on an occasion, when, closely pursued by some of the
+English troops, and separated from his followers, he had
+only effected his escape by venturing on the ledges of
+rock I have already described. After minute subsequent
+search, at the opposite extremity of the oblong belt of
+rocks that shut it in on every hand, he had discovered
+an opening, through which the transport of such
+necessaries as were essential to his object might be
+effected; and, causing one of his dwelling houses to be
+pulled down, he had the materials carried across the
+rocks on the shoulders of the men employed to re-erect
+them in his chosen solitude. A few months served to
+complete these arrangements, which included a garden
+abounding in every fruit and flower that could possibly
+live in so elevated a region; and; this, in time, under
+his own culture, and that of his daughter, became the
+Eden it first appeared to me.
+
+"Previous to their entering on this employment, the
+workmen had been severally sworn to secresy; and when
+all was declared ready for his reception, the colonel
+summoned them a second time to his presence; when, after
+making a handsome present to each, in addition to his
+hire, he found no difficulty in prevailing on them to
+renew their oath that they would preserve the most
+scrupulous silence in regard to the place of his retreat.
+He then took advantage of a dark and tempestuous night
+to execute his project; and, attended only by an old
+woman and her daughter, faithful dependants of the family,
+set out in quest of his new abode, leaving all his
+neighbours to discuss and marvel at the singularity of
+his disappearance. True to his text, however, not even
+a boy was admitted into his household: and here they had
+continued to live, unseeing and unseen by man, except
+when a solitary and distant mountaineer occasionally
+flitted among the rocks below in pursuit of his game.
+Fruits and vegetables composed their principal diet; but
+once a fortnight the old woman was dispatched through
+the opening already mentioned, which was at other times
+so secured by her master, that no hand but his own could
+remove the intricate fastenings. This expedition had
+for its object the purchase of bread and animal food at
+the nearest market; and every time she sallied forth an
+oath was administered to the crone, the purport of which
+was, not only that she would return, unless prevented by
+violence or death, but that she would not answer any
+questions put to her, as to who she was, whence she came,
+or for whom the fruits of her marketing were intended.
+
+"Meanwhile, wrapped up in his books, which were chiefly
+classic authors, or writers on abstruse sciences, the
+misanthropical colonel paid little or no attention to
+the cultivation of the intellect of his daughter, whom
+he had merely instructed in the elementary branches of
+education; in all which, however, she evinced an aptitude
+and perfectability that indicated quickness of genius
+and a capability of far higher attainments. Books he
+principally withheld from her, because they brought the
+image of man, whom he hated, and wished she should also
+hate, too often in flattering colours before her; and
+had any work treating of love been found to have crept
+accidentally into his own collection, it would instantly
+and indignantly have been committed to the flames.
+
+"Thus left to the action of her own heart--the guidance
+of her own feelings--it was but natural your mother should
+have suffered her imagination to repose on an ideal
+happiness, which, although in some degree destitute of
+shape and character, was still powerfully felt. Nature
+is too imperious a law-giver to be thwarted in her
+dictates; and however we may seek to stifle it, her
+inextinguishable voice will make itself heard, whether
+it be in the lonely desert or in the crowded capital.
+Possessed of a glowing heart and warm sensibilities,
+Clara Beverley felt the energies of her being had not
+been given to her to be wasted on herself. In her dreams
+by night, and her thoughts by day, she had pictured a
+being endowed with those attributes which were the fruit
+of her own fertility of conception. If she plucked a
+flower, (and all this she admitted at our first interview,"
+groaned Wacousta,) "she was sensible of the absence of
+one to whom that flower might be given. If she gazed at
+the star-studded canopy of heaven, or bent her head over
+the frowning precipices by which she was every where
+surrounded, she felt the absence of him with whom she
+could share the enthusiasm excited by the contemplation
+of the one, and to whom she could impart the mingled
+terror and admiration produced by the dizzying depths of
+the other. What dear acknowledgments (alas! too deceitful,)
+flowed from her guileless lips, even during that first
+interview. With a candour and unreservedness that spring
+alone from unsophisticated manners and an untainted heart,
+she admitted, that the instant she beheld me, she felt
+she had found the being her fancy had been so long tutored
+to linger on, and her heart to love. She was sure I was
+come to be her husband (for she had understood from her
+aged attendant that a man who loved a woman wished to be
+her husband); and she was glad her pet stag had been
+wounded, since it had been the means of procuring her
+such happiness. She was not cruel enough to take pleasure
+in the sufferings of the poor animal; for she would nurse
+it, and it would soon be well again; but she could not
+help rejoicing in its disaster, since that circumstance
+had been the cause of my finding her out, and loving her
+even as she loved me. And all this was said with her head
+reclining on my chest, and her beautiful countenance
+irradiated with a glow that had something divine in the
+simplicity of purpose it expressed.
+
+"On my demanding to know whether it was not her face I
+had seen at the opening in the cliff, she replied that
+it was. Her stag often played the truant, and passed
+whole hours away from her, rambling beyond the precincts
+of the solitude that contained its mistress; but no sooner
+was the small silver bugle, which she wore across her
+shoulder, applied to her lips, than 'Fidelity' (thus she
+had named him) was certain to obey the call, and to come
+bounding up the line of cliff to the main rock, into
+which it effected its entrance at a point that had escaped
+my notice. It was her bugle I had heard in the course of
+my pursuit of the animal; and, from the aperture through
+which I had effected my entrance, she had looked out to
+see who was the audacious hunter she had previously
+observed threading a passage, along which her stag itself
+never appeared without exciting terror in her bosom. The
+first glimpse she had caught of my form was at the moment
+when, after having sounded my own bugle, I cleared the
+chasm; and this was a leap she had so often trembled to
+see taken by 'Fidelity,' that she turned away and shuddered
+when she saw it fearlessly adventured on by a human being.
+A feeling of curiosity had afterwards induced her to
+return and see if the bold hunter had cleared the gulf,
+or perished in his mad attempt; but when she looked
+outward from the highest pinnacle of her rocky prison,
+she could discover no traces of him whatever. It then
+occurred to her, that, if successful in his leap, his
+progress must have been finally arrested by the impassable
+rock that terminated the ridge; in which case she might
+perchance obtain a nearer sight of his person. With this
+view she had removed the bushes enshrouding the aperture;
+and, bending low to the earth, thrust her head partially
+through it. Scarcely had she done so, however, when she
+beheld me immediately, though far beneath her, with my
+back reposing against the rock, and my eyes apparently
+fixed on hers.
+
+"Filled with a variety of opposite sentiments, among
+which unfeigned alarm was predominant, she had
+instantaneously removed her head; and, closing the aperture
+as noiselessly as possible, returned to the moss-covered
+seat on which I had first surprised her; where, while
+she applied dressings of herbs to the wound of her
+favourite, she suffered her mind to ruminate on the
+singularity of the appearance of a man so immediately in
+the vicinity of their retreat. The supposed impracticability
+of the ascent I had accomplished, satisfied, even while
+(as she admitted) it disappointed her. I must of necessity
+retrace my way over the dangerous ridge. Great, therefore,
+was her surprise, when, after having been attracted by
+the rustling noise of the bushes over the aperture, she
+presently saw the figure of the same hunter emerge from
+the abyss it overhung. Terror had winged her flight; but
+it was terror mingled with a delicious emotion entirely
+new to her. It was that emotion, momentarily increasing
+in power, that induced her to pause, look back, hesitate
+in her course, and finally be won, by my supplicating
+manner, to return and bless me with her presence.
+
+"Two long and delicious hours," pursued Wacousta, after
+another painful pause of some moments, "did we pass in
+this manner; exchanging thought, and speech, and heart,
+as if the term of our acquaintance had been coeval with
+the first dawn of our intellectual life; when suddenly
+a small silver toned bell was heard from the direction
+of the house, hid from the spot--on which we sat by the
+luxuriant foliage of an intervening laburnum. This sound
+seemed to dissipate the dreamy calm that had wrapped the
+soul of your mother into forgetfulness. She started
+suddenly up, and bade me, if I loved her, begone; as that
+bell announced her required attendance on her father,
+who, now awakened from the mid-day slumber in which he
+ever indulged, was about to take his accustomed walk
+around the grounds; which was little else, in fact, than
+a close inspection of the walls of his natural castle.
+I rose to obey her; our eyes met, and she threw herself
+into my extended arms. We whispered anew our vows of
+eternal love. She called me her husband, and I pronounced
+the endearing name of wife. A burning kiss sealed the
+compact; and, on her archly observing that the sleep of
+her father continued about two hours at noon, and that
+the old woman and her daughter were always occupied within
+doors, I promised to repeat my visit every second day
+until she finally quitted her retreat to be my own for
+life. Again the bell was rung; and this time with a
+violence that indicated impatience of delay. I tore
+myself from her arms, darted to the aperture, and kissing
+my hand in reply to the graceful waving of her scarf as
+she half turned in her own flight, sunk finally from her
+view; and at length, after making the same efforts, and
+mastering the same obstacles that had marked and opposed
+my advance, once more found myself at the point whence
+I had set out in pursuit of the wounded deer.
+
+"Many were the congratulations I received from my
+companions, whom I found waiting my return. They had
+endured the three hours of my absence with intolerable
+anxiety and alarm; until, almost despairing of beholding
+me again, they had resolved on going back without me.
+They said they had repeatedly sounded their horns; but
+meeting with no answer from mine, had been compelled to
+infer either that I had strayed to a point whence return
+to them was impracticable, or that I must have perished
+in the abyss. I readily gave in to the former idea;
+stating I had been led by the traces of the wounded deer
+to a considerable distance, and over passes which it had
+proved a work of time and difficulty to surmount, yet
+without securing my spoil. All this time there was a glow
+of animation on my cheek, and a buoyancy of spirit in my
+speech, that accorded ill, the first, with the fatigue
+one might have been supposed to experience in so perilous
+a chase; the second, with the disappointment attending
+its result. Your father, ever cool and quick of penetration,
+was the first to observe this; and when he significantly
+remarked, that, to judge from my satisfied countenance,
+my time had been devoted to the pursuit of more interesting
+game, I felt for a moment as if he was actually master
+of my secret, and was sensible my features underwent a
+change. I, however, parried the attack, by replying
+indifferently, that if he should have the hardihood to
+encounter the same dangers, he would, if successful,
+require no other prompter than the joy of self-preservation
+to lend the same glow of satisfaction to his own features.
+Nothing further was said on the subject; but conversing
+on indifferent topics, we again threaded the mazes of
+rock and underwood we had passed at an early hour, and
+finally gained the town in which we were quartered.
+
+"During dinner, as on our way home, although my voice
+occasionally mixed with the voices of my companions, my
+heart was far away, and full of the wild but innocent
+happiness in which it had luxuriated. At length, the more
+freely to indulge in the recollection, I stole at an
+early hour from the mess-room, and repaired to my own
+apartments. In the course of the morning, I had hastily
+sketched an outline of your mother's features in pencil,
+with a view to assist me in the design of a miniature I
+purposed painting from memory. This was an amusement of
+which I was extremely and in which I had attained
+considerable excellence; being enabled, from memory alone,
+to give a most correct representation of any object that
+particularly fixed my attention. She had declared utter
+ignorance of the art herself, her father having studiously
+avoided instructing her in it from some unexplained
+motive; yet as she expressed the most unbounded admiration
+of those who possessed it, it was my intention to surprise
+her with a highly finished likeness of herself at my next
+visit. With this view I now set to work; and made such
+progress, that before I retired to rest I had completed
+all but the finishing touches, to which I purposed devoting
+a leisure hour or two by daylight on the morrow.
+
+"While occupied the second day in its completion, it
+occurred to me I was in orders for duty on the following,
+which was that of my promised visit to the oasis; and I
+despatched my servant with my compliments to your father,
+and a request that he would be so obliging as to take my
+guard for me on the morrow, and I would perform his duty
+when next his name appeared on the roster. Some time
+afterwards I heard the door of the room in which I sat
+open, and some one enter. Presuming it to be my servant,
+returned from the execution of the message with which he
+had just been charged, I paid no attention to the
+circumstance; but finding, presently, he did not speak,
+I turned round with a view of demanding what answer he
+had brought. To my surprise, however, I beheld not my
+servant, but your father. He was standing looking over
+my shoulder at the work on which I was engaged; and
+notwithstanding in the instant he resumed the cold, quiet,
+smirking look that usually distinguished him, I thought
+I could trace the evidence of some deep emotion which my
+action had suddenly dispelled. He apologised for his
+intrusion, although we were on those terms that rendered
+apology unnecessary, but said he had just received my
+message, and preferred coming in person to assure me how
+happy he should feel to take my duty, or to render me
+any other service in his power. I thought he laid unusual
+emphasis on the last sentence; yet I thanked him warmly,
+stating that the only service I should now exact of him
+would be to take my guard, as I was compelled to be absent
+nearly the whole of the following morning. He observed,
+with a smile, he hoped I was not going to venture my neck
+on those dangerous precipices a second time, after the
+narrow escape I had had on the preceding day. As he spoke,
+I thought his eye met mine with a sly yet scrutinizing
+glance; and, not wishing to reply immediately to his
+question, I asked him what he thought of the work with
+which I was endeavouring to beguile an idle hour. He took
+it up, and I watched the expression of his handsome
+countenance with the anxiety of a lover who wishes that
+all should think his mistress beautiful as he does himself.
+It betrayed a very indefinite sort of admiration; and
+yet it struck me there was an eagerness in his dilating
+eye that contrasted strongly with the calm and unconcern
+of his other features. At length I asked him, laughingly,
+what he thought of my Cornish cousin. He replied, cautiously
+enough, that since it was the likeness of a cousin, and
+he dwelt emphatically on the word, he could not fail to
+admire it. Candour, however, compelled him to admit, that
+had I not declared the original to be one so closely
+connected with me, he should have said the talent of so
+perfect an artist might have been better employed.
+Whatever, however, his opinion of the lady might be,
+there could be no question that the painting was exquisite;
+yet, he confessed, he could not but be struck with the
+singularity of the fact of a Cornish girl appearing in
+the full costume of a female Highlander. This, I replied,
+was mere matter of fancy and association, arising from
+my having been so much latterly in the habit of seeing
+that dress principally worn. He smiled one of his then
+damnable soft smiles of assent, and here the conversation
+terminated, and he left me.
+
+"The next day saw me again at the side of your mother,
+who received me with the same artless demonstrations of
+affection. There was a mellowed softness in her countenance,
+and a tender languor in her eye, I had not remarked the
+preceding day. Then there was more of the vivacity and
+playfulness of the young girl; now, more of the deep
+fervour and the composed serenity of the thoughtful woman.
+This change was too consonant to my taste--too flattering
+to my self-love--not to be rejoiced in; and as I pressed
+her yielding form in silent rapture to my own, I more
+than ever felt she was indeed the being for whom my
+glowing heart had so long yearned. After the first full
+and unreserved interchange of our souls' best feelings,
+our conversation turned upon lighter topics; and I took
+an opportunity to produce the fruit of my application
+since we had parted. Never shall I forget the surprise
+and delight that animated her beautiful countenance when
+first she gazed upon the miniature. The likeness was
+perfect, even to the minutest shading of her costume;
+and so forcibly and even childishly did this strike her,
+that it was with difficulty I could persuade her she was
+not gazing on some peculiar description of mirror that
+reflected back her living image. She expressed a strong
+desire to retain it; and to this I readily assented:
+stipulating only to retain it until my next visit, in
+order that I might take an exact copy for myself. With
+a look of the fondest love, accompanied by a pressure on
+mine of lips that distilled dewy fragrance where they
+rested, she thanked me for a gift which she said would
+remind her, in absence, of the fidelity with which her
+features had been engraven on my heart. She admitted,
+moreover, with a sweet blush, that she herself had not
+been idle. Although her pencil could not call up my
+image in the same manner, her pen had better repaid her
+exertions; and, in return for the portrait, she would
+give me a letter she had written to beguile her loneliness
+on the preceding day. As she spoke she drew a sealed
+packet from the bosom of her dress, and placing it in my
+hand, desired me not to read it until I had returned to
+my home. But there was an expression of sweet confusion
+in her lovely countenance, and a trepidation in her
+manner, that, half disclosing the truth, rendered me
+utterly impatient of the delay imposed; and eagerly
+breaking the seal, I devoured rather than read its
+contents.
+
+"Accursed madness of recollection!" pursued Wacousta,
+again striking his brow violently with his hand,--"why
+is it that I ever feel thus unmanned while recurring to
+those letters? Oh! Clara de Haldimar, never did woman
+pen to man such declarations of tenderness and attachment
+as that too dear but faithless letter of your mother
+contained. Words of fire, emanating from the guilelessness
+of innocence, glowed in every line; and yet every sentence
+breathed an utter unconsciousness of the effect those
+words were likely to produce. Mad, wild, intoxicated, I
+read the letter but half through; and, as it fell from
+my trembling hand, my eye turned, beaming with the fires
+of a thousand emotions, upon that of the worshipped
+writer. That glance was more than her own could meet.
+A new consciousness seemed to be stirred up in her soul.
+Her eye dropped beneath its long and silken fringe--her
+cheek became crimson--her bosom heaved--and, all
+confidingness, she sank her head upon my chest, which
+heaved scarcely less wildly than her own.
+
+"Had I been a cold-blooded villain--a selfish and
+remorseless seducer," continued Wacousta with vehemence
+--"what was to have prevented my triumph at that moment?
+But I came not to blight the flower that had long been
+nurtured, though unseen, with the life-blood of my own
+being. Whatever I may be NOW, I was THEN the soul of
+disinterestedness and honour; and had she reposed on the
+bosom of her own father, that devoted and unresisting
+girl could not have been pressed there with holier
+tenderness. But even to this there was too soon a term.
+The hour of parting at length arrived, announced, as
+before, by the small bell of her father, and I again tore
+myself from her arms; not, however, without first
+securing the treasured letter, and obtaining a promise
+from your mother that I should receive another at each
+succeeding visit."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+"Nearly a month passed away in this manner; and at each
+interview our affection seemed to increase. The days of
+our meeting were ever days of pure and unalloyed happiness;
+while the alternate ones of absence were, on my part,
+occupied chiefly with reading the glowing letters given
+me at each parting by your mother. Of all these, however,
+there was not one so impassioned, so natural, so every
+way devoted, as the first. Not that she who wrote them
+felt less, but that the emotion excited in her bosom by
+the manifestation of mine on that occasion, had imparted
+a diffidence to her style of expression, plainly indicating
+the source whence it sprung.
+
+"One day, while preparing to set out on my customary
+excursion, a report suddenly reached me that the route
+had arrived for the regiment, who were to march from ----
+within three days. This intelligence I received with
+inconceivable delight; for it had been settled between
+your mother and myself, that this should be the moment
+chosen for her departure. It was not to be supposed (and
+I should have been both pained and disappointed had it
+been otherwise,) that she would consent to abandon her
+parent without some degree of regret; but, having foreseen
+this objection from the first, I had gradually prepared
+her for the sacrifice. This was the less difficult, as
+he appeared never to have treated her with affection,
+--seldom with the marked favour that might have been
+presumed to distinguish the manner of a father towards
+a lovely and only daughter. Living for himself and the
+indulgence of his misanthropy alone, he cared little for
+the immolation of his child's happiness on its unhallowed
+shrine; and this was an act of injustice I had particularly
+dwelt upon; upheld in truth, as it was, by the knowledge
+she herself possessed, that no consideration could induce
+him to bestow her hand on any one individual of a race
+he so cordially detested; and this was not without
+considerable weight in her decision.
+
+"With a glowing cheek, and a countenance radiant with
+happiness, did your mother receive my proposal to prepare
+for her departure on the following day. She was sufficiently
+aware, even through what I had stated myself, that there
+were certain ceremonies of the Church to be performed,
+in order to give sanctity to our union, and ensure her
+own personal respectability in the world; and these, I
+told her, would be solemnised by the chaplain of the
+regiment. She implicitly confided in me; and she was
+right; for I loved her too well to make her my mistress,
+while no barrier existed to her claim to a dearer title.
+And had she been the daughter of a peasant, instead of
+a high-born gentleman, finding her as I had found her,
+and loving her as I did love her, I should have acted
+precisely in the same way.
+
+"The only difficulty that now occurred was the manner of
+her flight. The opening before alluded to as being the
+point whence the old woman made her weekly sally to the
+market town, was of so intricate and labyrinthian a
+character that none but the colonel understood the secret
+of its fastenings; and the bare thought of my venturing
+with her on the route by which I had hitherto made my
+entry into the oasis, was one that curdled my blood with
+fear. I could absolutely feel my flesh to contract whenever
+I painted the terrible risk that would be incurred in
+adopting a plan I had once conceived,--namely, that of
+lashing your mother to my back, while I again effected
+my descent to the ledge beneath, in the manner I had
+hitherto done. I felt that, once on the ridge, I might,
+without much effort, attain the passage of the fissure
+already described; for the habit of accomplishing this
+leap had rendered it so perfectly familiar to me, that
+I now performed it with the utmost security and ease;
+but to imagine our united weight suspended over the abyss,
+as it necessarily must be in the first stage of our
+flight, when even the dislodgment of a single root or
+fragment of the rock was sufficient to ensure the horrible
+destruction of her whom I loved better than my own life,
+had something too appalling in it to suffer me to dwell
+on the idea for more than a moment. I had proposed, as
+the most feasible and rational plan, that the colonel
+should be compelled to give us egress through the secret
+passage, when we might command the services of the old
+woman to guide us through the passes that led to the
+town; but to this your mother most urgently objected,
+declaring that she would rather encounter any personal
+peril that might attend her escape, in a different manner,
+than appear to be a participator in an act of violence
+against her parent whose obstinacy of character she
+moreover knew too well to leave a hope of his being
+intimidated into the accomplishment of our object, even
+by a threat of death itself. This plan I was therefore
+compelled to abandon; and as neither of us were able to
+discover the passage by which the deer always effected
+its entrance, I was obliged to fix upon one, which it
+was agreed should be put in practice on the following
+day.
+
+"On my return, I occupied myself with preparations for
+the reception of her who was so speedily to become my
+wife. Unwilling that she should be seen by any of my
+companions, until the ceremony was finally performed, I
+engaged apartments in a small retired cottage, distant
+about half a mile from the furthest extremity of the
+town, where I purposed she should remain until the regiment
+finally quitted the station. This point secured, I
+hastened to the quarters of the chaplain, to engage his
+services for the following evening; but he was from home
+at the time, and I repaired to my own rooms, to prepare
+the means of escape for your mother. These occupied me
+until a very late hour; and when at length I retired to
+rest, it was only to indulge in the fondest imaginings
+that ever filled the heart of a devoted lover. Alas!
+(and the dark warrior again sighed heavily) the day-dream
+of my happiness was already fast drawing to a close.
+
+"At half an hour before noon, I was again in the oasis;
+your mother was at the wonted spot; and although she
+received me with her sunniest smiles, there were traces
+of tears upon her cheek. I kissed them eagerly away, and
+sought to dissipate the partial gloom that was again
+clouding her brow. She observed it pained me to see her
+thus, and she made a greater effort to rally. She implored
+me to forgive her weakness; but it was the first time
+she was to be separated from her parent; and conscious
+as she was that it was to be for ever, she could not
+repress the feeling that rose, despite of herself, to
+her heart. She had, however, prepared a letter, at my
+suggestion, to be left on her favourite moss seat, where
+it was likely she would first be sought by her father,
+to assure him of her safety, and of her prospects of
+future happiness; and the consciousness that he would
+labour under no harrowing uncertainty in regard to her
+fate, seemed, at length, to soothe and satisfy her heart.
+
+"I now led her to the aperture, where I had left the
+apparatus provided for my purpose: this consisted of a
+close netting, about four feet in depth, with a board
+for a footstool at the bottom, and furnished at intervals
+with hoops, so as to keep it full and open. The top of
+this netting was provided with two handles, to which were
+attached the ends of a cord many fathoms in length; the
+whole of such durability, as to have borne weights equal
+to those of three ordinary sized men, with which I had
+proved it prior to my setting out. My first care was to
+bandage the eyes of your mother, (who willingly and
+fearlessly submitted to all I proposed,) that she might
+not see, and become faint with seeing, the terrible chasm
+over which she was about to be suspended. I then placed
+her within the netting, which, fitting closely to her
+person, and reaching under her arms, completely secured
+her; and my next urgent request was, that she would not,
+on any account, remove the bandage, or make the slightest
+movement, when she found herself stationary below, until
+I had joined her. I then dropped her gently through the
+aperture, lowering fathom after fathom of the rope, the
+ends of which I had firmly secured round the trunk of a
+tree, as an additional safeguard, until she finally came
+on a level with that part of the cliff on which I had
+reposed when first she beheld me. As she still hung
+immediately over the abyss, it was necessary to give a
+gradual impetus to her weight, to enable her to gain the
+landing-place. I now, therefore, commenced swinging her
+to and fro, until she at length came so near the point
+desired, that I clearly saw the principal difficulty was
+surmounted. The necessary motion having been given to
+the balance, with one vigorous and final impulsion I
+dexterously contrived to deposit her several feet from
+the edge of the lower rock, when, slackening the rope on
+the instant, I had the inexpressible satisfaction to see
+that she remained firm and stationary. The waving of her
+scarf immediately afterwards (a signal previously agreed
+upon), announced she had sustained no injury in this
+rather rude collision with the rock, and I in turn
+commenced my descent.
+
+"Fearing to cast away the ends of the rope, lest their
+weight should by any chance effect the balance of the
+footing your mother had obtained, I now secured them
+around my loins, and accomplishing my descent in the
+customary manner, speedily found myself once more at the
+side of my heart's dearest treasure. Here the transport
+of my joy was too great to be controlled; I felt that
+NOW my prize was indeed secured to me for ever; and I
+burst forth into the most passionate exclamations of
+tenderness, and falling on my knees, raised my hands to
+Heaven in fervent gratitude for the success with which
+my enterprise had been crowned. Another would have been
+discouraged at the difficulties still remaining; but with
+these I was become too familiar, not to feel the utmost
+confidence in encountering them, even with the treasure
+that was equally perilled with myself. For a moment I
+removed the bandage from the eyes of your mother, that
+she might behold not only the far distant point whence
+she had descended, but the frowning precipice I had daily
+been in the habit of climbing to be blest with her
+presence. She did so,--and her cheek paled, for the first
+time, with a sense of the danger I had incurred; then
+turning her soft and beautiful eyes on mine, she smiled
+a smile that seemed to express how much her love would
+repay me. Again our lips met, and we were happy even in
+that lonely spot, beyond all language to describe. Once
+more, at length, I prepared to execute the remainder of
+my task; and I again applied the bandage to her eyes,
+saying that, although the principal danger was over,
+still there was another I could not bear she should look
+upon. Again she smiled, and with a touching sweetness of
+expression that fired my blood, observing at the same
+time she feared no danger while she was with me, but that
+if my object was to prevent her from looking at me, the
+most efficient way certainly was to apply a bandage to
+her eyes. Oh! woman, woman!" groaned Wacousta, in fierce
+anguish of spirit, "who shall expound the complex riddle
+of thy versatile nature?
+
+"Disengaging the rope from the handles of the netting,
+I now applied to these a broad leathern belt taken from
+the pouches of two of my men, and stooping with my back
+to the cherished burden with which I was about to charge
+myself, passed the centre of the belt across my chest,
+much in the manner in which, as you are aware, Indian
+women carry their infant children. As an additional
+precaution, I had secured the netting round my waist by
+a strong lacing of cord, and then raising myself to my
+full height, and satisfying myself of the perfect freedom
+of action of my limbs, seized a long balancing pole I
+had left suspended against the rock at my last visit,
+and commenced my descent of the sloping ridge. On
+approaching the horrible chasm, a feeling of faintness
+came over me, despite of the confidence with which I had
+previously armed myself. This, however, was but momentary.
+Sensible that every thing depended on rapidity of movement,
+I paused not in my course; but, quickening my pace as I
+gradually drew nearer, gave the necessary impetus to my
+motion, and cleared the gap with a facility far exceeding
+what had distinguished my first passage, and which was
+the fruit of constant practice alone. Here my balance
+was sustained by the pole; and at length I had the
+inexpressible satisfaction to find myself at the very
+extremity of the ridge, and immediately at the point
+where I had left my companions in my first memorable
+pursuit. Alas!" continued the warrior, again interrupting
+himself with one of those fierce exclamations of impatient
+anguish that so frequently occurred in his narrative,
+"what subject for rejoicing was there in this? Better
+far we had been dashed to pieces in the abyss, than I
+should have lived to curse the hour when first my spirit
+of adventure led me to traverse it." Again he resumed:--
+
+"In the deep transport of my joy, I once more threw myself
+on my knees in speechless thanksgiving to Providence for
+the complete success of my undertaking. Your mother, whom
+I had previously released from her confinement, did the
+same; and at that moment the union of our hearts seemed
+to be cemented by a divine influence, manifested in the
+fulness of the gratitude of each. I then raised her from
+the earth, imprinting a kiss upon her fair brow, that
+was hallowed by the purity of the feeling I had so recently
+indulged in; and throwing over her shoulders the mantle
+of a youth, which I had secreted near the spot, enjoined
+her to follow me closely in the path I was about to
+pursue. As she had hitherto encountered no fatigue, and
+was, moreover, well provided with strong buskins I had
+brought for the purpose, I thought it advisable to
+discontinue the use of the netting, which must attract
+notice, and cause us, perhaps, to be followed, in the
+event of our being met by any of the hunters that usually
+traversed these parts. To carry her in my arms, as I
+should have preferred, might have excited the same
+curiosity, and I was therefore compelled to decide upon
+her walking; reserving to myself, however, the sweet task
+of bearing her in my embrace over the more difficult
+parts of our course.
+
+"I have not hitherto found it necessary to state,"
+continued Wacousta, his brow lowering with fierce and
+gloomy thought, "that more than once, latterly, on my
+return from the oasis, which was usually at a stated
+hour, I had observed a hunter hovering near the end of
+the ledge, yet quickly retreating as I advanced. There
+was something in the figure of this man that recalled to
+my recollection the form of your father; but ever, on my
+return to quarters, I found him in uniform, and exhibiting
+any thing but the appearance of one who had recently been
+threading his weary way among rocks and fastnesses.
+Besides, the improbability of this fact was so great,
+that it occupied not my attention beyond the passing
+moment. On the present occasion, however, I saw the same
+hunter, and was more forcibly than ever struck by the
+resemblance to my friend. Prior to my quitting the point
+where I had liberated your mother from the netting, I
+had, in addition to the disguise of the cloak, found it
+necessary to make some alteration in the arrangement of
+her hair; the redundancy of which, as it floated gracefully
+over her polished neck, was in itself sufficient to betray
+her sex. With this view I had removed her plumed bonnet.
+It was the first time I had seen her without it; and so
+deeply impressed was I by the angel-like character of
+the extreme feminine beauty she, more than ever, then
+exhibited, that I knelt in silent adoration for some
+moments at her feet, my eyes and countenance alone
+expressing the fervent and almost holy emotion of my
+enraptured soul. Had she been a divinity, I could not
+have worshipped her with a purer feeling. While I yet
+knelt, I fancied I heard a sound behind me; and, turning
+quickly, beheld the head of a man peering above a point
+of rock at some little distance. He immediately, on
+witnessing my action, sank again beneath it, but not in
+sufficient time to prevent my almost assuring myself that
+it was the face of your father I had beheld. My first
+impulse was to bound forward, and satisfy myself who it
+really was who seemed thus ever on the watch to intercept
+my movements; but a second rapid reflection convinced
+me, that, having been discovered, it was most likely the
+intruder had already effected his retreat, and that any
+attempt at pursuit might not only alarm your mother, but
+compromise her safety. I determined, however, to tax your
+father with the fact on my return to quarters; and, from
+the manner in which he met the charge, to form my own
+conclusion.
+
+"Meanwhile we pursued our course; and after an hour's
+rather laborious exertion, at length emerged from the
+succession of glens and rocks that lay in our way; when,
+skirting the valley in which the town was situated, we
+finally reached the cottage where I had secured my lodging.
+Previous to entering it, I had told your mother, that
+for the few hours that would intervene before the marriage
+ceremony could be performed, I should, by way of lulling
+the curiosity of her hostess, introduce her as a near
+relative of my own. This I did accordingly; and, having
+seen that every thing was comfortably arranged for her
+convenience, and recommending her strongly to the care
+of the old woman, I set off once more in search of the
+chaplain of the regiment Before I could reach his residence,
+however, I was met by a sergeant of my company, who came
+running towards me, evidently with some intelligence of
+moment. He stated, that my presence was required without
+delay. The grenadiers, with the senior subaltern, were
+in orders for detachment for an important service; and
+considerable displeasure had been manifested by the
+colonel at my absence, especially as of late I had greatly
+neglected my military duties. He had been looking for
+me every where, he said, but without success, when Ensign
+de Haldimar had pointed out to him in what direction it
+was likely I might be found.
+
+"At a calmer moment, I should have been startled at the
+last observation; but my mind was too much engrossed with
+the principal subject of my regret, to pay any attention
+to the circumstance. It was said the detachment would be
+occupied in this duty a week or ten days, at least; and
+how was I to absent myself from her whom I so fondly
+loved for this period, without even being permitted first
+to see and account to her for my absence? There was
+torture in the very thought; and in the height of my
+impatience, I told the sergeant he might give my compliments
+to the colonel, and say I would see the service d--d
+rather than inconvenience myself by going out on this
+duty at so short a notice; that I had private business
+of the highest importance to myself to transact, and
+could not absent myself. As the man, however, prepared
+coolly to depart, it suddenly occurred to me, that I
+might prevail on your father to take my duty now, as on
+former occasions he had willingly done, and I countermanded
+my message to the colonel; desiring him, however, to find
+out Ensign de Haldimar, and say that I requested to see
+him immediately at my quarters, whither I was now proceeding
+to change my dress.
+
+"With a beating heart did I assume an uniform that
+appeared, at that moment, hideous in my eyes; yet I was
+not without a hope I might yet get off this ill-timed
+duty. Before I had completed my equipment, your father
+entered; and when I first glanced my eye full upon his,
+I thought his countenance exhibited evidences of confusion.
+This immediately reminded me of the unknown hunter, and
+I asked him if he was not the person I described. His
+answer was not a positive denial, but a mixture of raillery
+and surprise that lulled my doubts, enfeebled as they
+were by the restored calm of his features. I then told
+him that I had a particular favour to ask of him, which,
+in consideration of our friendship, I trusted he would
+not refuse; and that was, to take my duty in the expedition
+about to set forth. His manner implied concern; and he
+asked, with a look that had much deliberate expression
+in it, 'if I was aware that it was a duty in which blood
+was expected to be shed? He could not suppose that any
+consideration would induce me to resign my duty to another
+officer, when apprised of this fact.' All this was said
+with the air of one really interested in my honour; but
+in my increasing impatience, I told him I wanted none of
+his cant; I simply asked him a favour, which he would
+grant or decline as he thought proper. This was a harshness
+of language I had never indulged in; but my mind was sore
+under the existing causes of my annoyance, and I could
+not bear to have my motives reflected on at a moment when
+my heart was torn with all the agonies attendant on the
+position in which I found myself placed. His cheek paled
+and flushed more than once, before he replied, 'that in
+spite of my unkindness his friendship might induce him
+to do much for me, even as he had hitherto done, but that
+on the present occasion it rested not with him. In order
+to justify himself he would no longer disguise the fact
+from me, that the colonel had declared, in the presence
+of the whole regiment, I should take my duty regularly
+in future, and not be suffered to make a convenience of
+the service any longer. If, however, he could do any
+thing for me during my absence, I had but to command him.
+
+"While I was yet giving vent, in no very measured terms,
+to the indignation I felt at being made the subject of
+public censure by the colonel, the same sergeant came
+into the room, announcing that the company were only
+waiting for me to march, and that the colonel desired my
+instant presence. In the agitation of my feelings, I
+scarcely knew what I did, putting several portions of my
+regimental equipment on so completely awry, that your
+father noticed and rectified the errors I had committed;
+while again, in the presence of the sergeant, I expressed
+the deepest regret he could not relieve me from a duty
+that was hateful to the last degree.
+
+"Torn with agony at the thought of the uncertainty in
+which I was compelled to leave her, whom I so fondly
+adored, I had now no. other alternative than to make a
+partial confidant of your father. I told him that in the
+cottage which I pointed out he would find the original
+of the portrait he had seen me painting on a former
+occasion,--the Cornish cousin, whose beauty he professed
+to hold so cheaply. More he should know of her on my
+return; but at present I confided her to his honour, and
+begged he would prove his friendship for me by rendering
+her whatever attention she might require in her humble
+abode. With these hurried injunctions he promised to
+comply; and it has often occurred to me since, although
+I did not remark it at the time, that while his voice
+and manner were calm, there was a burning glow upon his
+handsome cheek, and a suppressed exultation in his eye,
+that I had never observed on either before. I then quitted
+the room; and hastening to my company with a gloom on--my
+brow that indicated the wretchedness of my inward spirit,
+was soon afterwards on the march from ----."
+
+Again the warrior seemed agitated with the most violent
+emotion; he buried his face in his hands; and the silence
+that ensued was longer than any he had previously indulged
+in. At length he made an effort to arouse himself; and
+again exhibiting his swarthy features, disclosed a brow,
+not clouded, as before, by grief, but animated with the
+fiercest and most appalling passions, while he thus
+impetuously resumed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+"If, hitherto, Clara de Haldimar, I have been minute in
+the detail of all that attended my connection with your
+mother, it has been with a view to prove to you how deeply
+I have been injured; but I have now arrived at a part of
+my history, when to linger on the past would goad me into
+madness, and render me unfit for the purpose to which I
+have devoted myself. Brief must be the probing of wounds,
+that nearly five lustres have been insufficient to heal;
+brief the tale that reveals the infamy of those who have
+given you birth, and the utter blighting of the fairest
+hopes of one whose only fault was that of loving, "not
+too wisely, but too well."
+
+"Will you credit the monstrous truth," he added, in a
+fierce but composed whisper, while he bent eagerly over
+the form of the trembling yet attentive girl, "when I
+tell you that, on my return from that fatal expedition,
+during my continuance on which her image had never once
+been absent from my mind, I found Clara Beverley the wife
+of De Haldimar? Yes," continued Wacousta, his wounded
+feeling and mortified pride chafing, by the bitter
+recollection, into increasing fury, while his countenance
+paled in its swarthiness, "the wife, the wedded wife of
+yon false and traitorous governor! Well may you look
+surprised, Clara de Haldimar: such damnable treachery as
+this may startle his own blood in the veins of another,
+nor find its justification even in the devotedness of
+woman's filial piety. To what satanic arts so calculating
+a villain could have had recourse to effect his object
+I know not; but it is not the less true, that she, from
+whom my previous history must have taught you to expect
+the purity of intention and conduct of an angel, became
+his wife,--and I a being accursed among men. Even as our
+common mother is said to have fallen in the garden of
+Eden, tempted by the wily beauty of the devil, so did
+your mother fall, seduced by that of the cold, false,
+traitorous De Haldimar. "Here the agitation of Wacousta
+became terrific. The labouring of his chest was like that
+of one convulsed with some racking agony and the swollen
+veins and arteries of his head seemed to threaten the
+extinction of life in some fearful paroxysm. At length
+he burst into a violent fit of tears, more appalling, in
+one of his iron nature, than the fury which had preceded
+it,--and it was many minutes before he could so far
+compose himself as to resume.
+
+"Think not, Clara de Haldimar, I speak without the proof.
+Her own words confessed, her own lips avowed it, and yet
+I neither slew her, nor her paramour, nor myself. On my
+return to the regiment I had flown to the cottage, on
+the wings of the most impatient and tender love that ever
+filled the bosom of man for woman. To my enquiries the
+landlady replied, that my cousin had been married two
+days previously, by the military chaplain, to a handsome
+young officer, who had visited her soon after my departure,
+and was constantly with her from that moment; and that
+immediately after the ceremony they had left, but she
+knew not whither. Wild, desperate, almost bereft of
+reason, and with a heart bounding against my bosom, as
+if each agonising throb were to be its last, I ran like
+a maniac back into the town, nor paused till I found
+myself in the presence of your father. My mind was a
+volcano, but still I attempted to be calm, even while I
+charged him, in the most outrageous terms, with his
+villainy. Deny it he could not; but, far from excusing
+it, he boldly avowed and justified the step he had taken,
+intimating, with a smile full of meaning, there was
+nothing in a connection with the family of De Haldimar
+to reflect disgrace on the cousin of Sir Reginald Morton;
+and that; the highest compliment he could pay his friend
+was to attach himself to one whom that friend had declared
+to be so near a relative of his own. There was a coldness
+of taunt in these remarks, that implied his sense of the
+deception I had practised on him, in regard to the true
+nature of the relationship; and for a moment, while my
+hand firmly grasped the hilt of my sword, I hesitated
+whether I should not cut him down at my feet: I had
+self-command, however, to abstain from the outrage, and
+I have often since regretted I had. My own blood could
+have been but spilt in atonement for my just revenge;
+and as for the obloquy attached to the memory of the
+assassin, it could not have been more bitter than that
+which has followed me through life. But what do I say?"
+fiercely continued the warrior, an exulting ferocity
+sparkling in his eye, and animating his countenance; "had
+he fallen, then my vengeance were but half complete. No;
+it is now he shall feel the deadly venom in his heart,
+that has so long banqueted on mine.
+
+"Determined to know from her own lips," he pursued, to
+the shuddering Clara, whose hopes, hitherto strongly
+excited, now, began again to fade beneath the new aspect
+given to the strange history of this terrible man;--
+"determined to satisfy myself from her own acknowledgment,
+whether all I had heard was not an imposition, I summoned
+calmness enough to desire that your mother might confirm
+in person the alienation of her affection, as nothing
+short of that could convince me of the truth. He left
+the room, and presently re-appeared, conducting her in
+from another: I thought she looked more beautiful than
+ever, but, alas! I had the inexpressible horror to
+discover, before a word was uttered, that all the fondness
+of her nature was indeed transferred to your father. How
+I endured the humiliation of that scene has often been
+a source of utter astonishment to myself; but I did endure
+it. To my wild demand, how she could so soon have forgotten
+her vows, and falsified her plighted engagements, she
+replied, timidly and confusedly, she had not yet known
+her own heart; but if she had pained me by her conduct,
+she was sorry for it, and hoped I would forgive her. She
+would always be happy to esteem me as a friend, but she
+loved her Charles far, far better than she had ever loved
+me. This damning admission, couched in the same language
+of simplicity that had first touched and won my affection,
+was like boiling lead upon my brain. In a transport of
+madness I sprang towards her, caught her in my arms, and
+swore she should accompany me back to the oasis--when I
+had taken her there, to be regained by my detested rival,
+if he could; but that he should not eat the fruit I had
+plucked at so much peril to myself. She struggled to
+disengage herself, calling on your father by the most
+endearing epithets to free her from my embrace. He
+attempted it, and I struck him senseless to the floor at
+a single blow with the flat of my sabre, which in my
+extreme fury I had unsheathed. Instead, however, of
+profiting by the opportunity thus afforded to execute my
+threat, a feeling of disgust and contempt came over me,
+for the woman, whose inconstancy had been the cause of
+my committing myself in this ungentlemanly manner; and
+bestowing deep but silent curses on her head, I rushed
+from the house in a state of frenzy. How often since have
+I regretted that I had not pursued my first impulse, and
+borne her to some wild, where, forgetting one by whose
+beauty of person her eye alone had been seduced, her
+heart might have returned to its allegiance to him who
+had first awakened the sympathies of her soul, and would
+have loved her with a love blending the fiercest fires
+of the eagle with the gentlest devotedness of the dove.
+But destiny had differently ordained.
+
+"Did my injuries end here?" pursued the dark warrior, as
+his eye kindled with rage. "No: for weeks I was insensible
+to any thing but the dreadful shock my soul had sustained.
+A heavy stupor weighed me down, and for a period it was
+supposed my reason was overthrown: no such mercy was
+reserved for me. The regiment had quitted the Highlands,
+and were now stationary in ----, whither I had accompanied
+it in arrest. The restoration of my faculties was the
+signal for new persecutions. Scarcely had the medical
+officers reported me fit to sustain the ordeal, when a
+court-martial was assembled to try me on a variety of
+charges. Who was my prosecutor? Listen, Clara," and he
+shook her violently by the arm. "He who had robbed me of
+all that gave value to life, and incentive to honour,--he
+who, under the guise of friendship, had stolen into the
+Eden of my love, and left it barren of affection. In a
+word, yon detested governor, to whose inhuman cruelty
+even the son of my brother has, by some strange fatality
+of coincidence, so recently fallen a second sacrifice.
+Curses, curses on him," he pursued, with frightful
+vehemence, half rising as he spoke, and holding forth
+his right arm in a menacing attitude; "but the hour of
+retribution is at hand, and revenge, the exclusive passion
+of the gods, shall at length be mine. In no other country
+in the world--under no other circumstances than the
+present--could I have so secured it.
+
+"What were the charges preferred against me?" he continued,
+with a violence that almost petrified the unhappy girl.
+"Hear them, and judge whether I have not cause for the
+inextinguishable hate that rankles at my heart. Every
+trifling disobedience of orders--every partial neglect
+of duty that could be raked up--was tortured into a
+specific charge; and, as I have already admitted I had
+latterly transgressed not a little in this respect, these
+were numerous enough. Yet they were but preparatory to
+others of greater magnitude. Next succeeded one that
+referred to the message I had given, and countermanded,
+to the sergeant of my company, when in the impatience of
+my disappointment I had desired him to tell the colonel
+I would see the service d--d rather than inconvenience
+myself at that moment for it. This was unsupported by
+other evidence, however, and therefore failed in the
+proof. But the web was too closely woven around to admit
+of my escaping.--Will you, can you believe any thing half
+so atrocious, as that your father should have called on
+this same man not only to prove the violent and
+insubordinate language I had used in reference to the
+commanding officer in my own rooms, but also to substantiate
+a charge of cowardice, grounded on the unwillingness I
+had expressed to accompany the expedition, and the
+extraordinary trepidation I had evinced, while preparing
+for the duty, manifested, as it was stated to be, by the
+various errors he had rectified in my equipment with his
+own hand? Yes, even this pitiful charge was one of the
+many preferred; but the severest was that which he had
+the unblushing effrontery to make the subject of public
+investigation, rather than of private redress--the blow
+I had struck him in his own apartments. And who was his
+witness in this monstrous charge?--your mother, Clara.
+Yea, I stood as a criminal in her presence; and yet she
+came forward to tender an evidence that was to consign
+me to a disgraceful sentence. My vile prosecutor had,
+moreover, the encouragement, the sanction of his colonel
+throughout, and by him he was upheld in every contemptible
+charge his ingenuity could devise. Do you not anticipate
+the result?--I was found guilty, and dismissed the service.
+
+"How acted my brother officers, when, previously to the
+trial, I alluded to the damnable treachery of your father?
+Did they condemn his conduct, or sympathise with me in
+my misfortune?--No; they shrugged their shoulders, and
+coldly observed, I ought to have known better than to
+trust one against whom they had so often cautioned me;
+but that as I had selected him for my friend, I should
+have bestowed a whole, and not a half confidence upon
+him. He had had the hypocrisy to pretend to them he had
+violated no trust, since he had honourably espoused a
+lady whom I had introduced to him as a cousin, and in
+whom I appeared to have no other interest than that of
+relationship. Not, they said, that they believed he
+actually did entertain that impression; but still the
+excuse was too plausible, and had been too well studied
+by my cunning rival, to be openly refuted. As for the
+mere fact of his supplanting me, they thought it an
+excellent thing,--a ruse d'amour for which they never
+would have given him credit; and although they admitted
+it was provoking enough to be ousted out of one's mistress
+in that cool sort of way, still I should not so far have
+forgotten myself as to have struck him while he was
+unarmed, when it was so easy to have otherwise fastened
+an insult on him. Such," bitterly pursued Wacousta, "was
+the consolation I received from men, who, a few short
+weeks before, had been sedulous to gain and cultivate my
+friendship,--but even this was only vouchsafed antecedent
+to my trial. When the sentence was promulgated, announcing
+my dismissal from the service, every back was turned upon
+me, as though I had been found guilty of some dishonourable
+action or some disgraceful crime; and, on the evening of
+the same day, when I threw from me for ever an uniform
+that I now loathed from my inmost soul, there was not
+one among those who had often banqueted at my expense,
+who had the humanity to come to me and say, 'Sir Reginald
+Morton, farewell.'
+
+"What agonies of mind I endured,--what burning tears I
+nightly shed upon a pillow I was destined to press in
+freezing loneliness,--what hours of solitude I passed,
+far from the haunts of my fellow-men, and forming plans
+of vengeance,--it would take much longer time to relate
+than I have actually bestowed on my unhappy history. To
+comprehend their extent and force, you must understand
+the heart of fire in which the deep sense of injury had
+taken root; but the night wears away, and briefly told
+must be the remainder of my tale. The rebellion of
+forty-five saw me in arms in the Scottish ranks; and, in
+one instance, opposed to the regiment from which I had
+been so ignominiously expelled. Never did revenge glow
+like a living fire in the heart of man as it did in mine;
+for the effect of my long brooding in solitude had been
+to inspire me with a detestation, not merely for those
+who had been most rancorous in their enmity, but for
+every thing that wore the uniform, from the commanding
+officer down to the meanest private. Every blow that I
+dealt, every life that I sacrificed, was an insult washed
+away from my attainted honour; but him whom I most sought
+in the melee I never could reach. At length the corps to
+which I had attached myself was repulsed; and I saw, with
+rage in my heart, that my enemy still lived to triumph
+in the fruit of his villainy.
+
+"Although I was grown considerably in stature at this
+period, and was otherwise greatly altered in appearance,
+I had been recognised in the action by numbers of the
+regiment; and, indeed, more than once I had, in the
+intoxication of my rage, accompanied the blow that slew
+or maimed one of my former associates with a declaration
+of the name of him who inflicted it. The consequence was,
+I was denounced as a rebel and an outlaw, and a price
+was put upon my head. Accustomed, however, as I had ever
+been, to rocks and fastnesses, I had no difficulty in
+eluding the vigilance of those who were sent in pursuit
+of me; and thus compelled to live wholly apart from my
+species, I at length learned to hate them, and to know
+that man is the only enemy of man upon earth.
+
+"A change now came ever the spirit of my vengeance; for
+about this period your mother died. I had never ceased
+to love, even while I despised her; and notwithstanding,
+had she, after her flagrant inconstancy, thrown herself
+into my arms, I should have rejected her with scorn,
+still I was sensible no other woman could ever supply
+her place in my affection. She was, in truth, the only
+being I had ever looked upon with fondness; and deeply
+even as I had been injured by her, I wept her memory with
+many a scalding tear. This, however, only increased my
+hatred for him who had rioted in her beauty, and supplanted
+me in her devotedness. I had the means of learning,
+occasionally, all that passed in the regiment; and the
+same account that brought me the news of your mother's
+death also gave me the intelligence that three children
+had been the fruit of her union with De Haldimar. How,"
+pursued Wacousta, with bitter energy, "shall I express
+the deep loathing I felt for those children? It seemed
+to me as if their existence had stamped a seal of infamy
+on my own brow; and I hated them, even in their childhood,
+as the offspring of an abhorred, and, as it appeared to
+me, an unnatural union. I heard, moreover (and this gave
+me pleasure), that their father doated on them; and from
+that moment I resolved to turn his cup of joy into
+bitterness, even as he had turned mine. I no longer sought
+his life; for the jealousy that had half impelled that
+thirst existed no longer: but, deeming his cold nature
+at least accessible through his parental affection, I
+was resolved that in his children he should suffer a
+portion of the agonies he had inflicted on me. I waited,
+however, until they should be grown up to an age when
+the heart of the parent would be more likely to mourn
+their loss; and then I was determined my vengeance should
+be complete.
+
+"Circumstances singularly favoured my design. Many years
+afterwards, the regiment formed one of the expedition
+against Quebec under General Wolfe. They were commanded
+by your father, who, in the course of promotion, had
+obtained the lieutenant-colonelcy; and I observed by the
+army list, that a subaltern of the same name, whom I
+presumed to be his eldest son, was in the corps. Here
+was a field for my vengeance beyond any I could have
+hoped for. I contrived to pass over into Cornwall, the
+ban of outlawry being still unrepealed; and having procured
+from my brother a sum sufficient for my necessities, and
+bade him an eternal farewell, embarked in a fishing-boat
+for the coast of France, whence I subsequently took a
+passage to this country. At Montreal I found the French
+general, who gladly received my allegiance as a subject
+of France, and gave me a commission in one of the provincial
+corps that usually served in concert with our Indian
+allies. With the general I soon became a favourite; and,
+as a mark of his confidence at the attack on Quebec, he
+entrusted me with the command of a detached irregular
+force, consisting partly of Canadians and partly of
+Indians, intended to harass the flanks of the British
+army. This gave me an opportunity of being at whatever
+point of the field I might think most favourable to my
+design; and I was too familiar with the detested uniform
+of the regiment not to be able to distinguish it from
+afar. In a word, Clara, for I am weary of my own tale,
+in that engagement I had an opportunity of recognising
+your brother. He struck me by his martial appearance as
+he encouraged his grenadiers to the attack of the French
+columns; and, as I turned my eye upon him in admiration,
+I was stung to the soul by his resemblance to his father.
+Vengeance thrilled throughout every fibre of my frame at
+that moment. The opportunity I had long sought was at
+length arrived; and already, in anticipation, I enjoyed
+the conquest his fall would occasion to my enemy. I rushed
+within a few feet of my victim; but the bullet aimed at
+his heart was received in the breast of a faithful soldier,
+who had flown to intercept it. How I cursed the meddler
+for his officiousness!"
+
+"Oh, that soldier was your nephew," eagerly interrupted
+Clara, pointing towards her companion, who had fallen
+into a profound slumber, "the husband of this unfortunate
+woman. Frank Halloway (for by that name was he alone
+known in the regiment) loved my brother as though he had
+been of the same blood. He it was who flew to receive
+the ball that was destined for another. But I nursed him
+on his couch of suffering, and with my own hands prepared
+his food and dressed his wound. Oh, if pity can touch
+your heart (and I will not believe that a heart that once
+felt as you say yours has felt can be inaccessible to
+pity), let the recollection of your nephew's devotedness
+to my mother's child disarm you of vengeance, and induce
+you to restore us!"
+
+"Never!" thundered Wacousta,--"never! The very circumstance
+you have now named is an additional incentive to my
+vengeance. My nephew saved the life of your brother at
+the hazard of his own; and how has he been rewarded for
+the generous deed? By an ignominious death, inflicted,
+perhaps, for some offence not more dishonouring than
+those which have thrown me an outcast upon these wilds;
+and that at the command and in the presence of the father
+of him whose life he was fool enough to preserve. Yet,
+what but ingratitude of the grossest nature could a Morton
+expect at the hands of the false family of De Haldimar!
+They were destined to be our bane, and well have they
+fulfilled the end for which they were created."
+
+"Almighty Providence!" aspirated the sinking Clara, as
+she turned her streaming eyes to heaven; "can it be that
+the human heart can undergo such change? Can this be the
+being who once loved my mother with a purity and tenderness
+of affection that angels themselves might hallow with
+approval; or is all that I have heard but a bewildering
+dream?"
+
+"No, Clara," calmly and even solemnly returned the warrior;
+"it is no dream, but a reality--a sad, dreadful,
+heart-rending reality; yet, if I am that altered being,
+to whom is the change to be ascribed? Who turned the
+generous current of my blood into a river of overflowing
+gall? Who, when my cup was mantling with the only bliss
+I coveted upon earth, traitorously emptied it, and
+substituted a heart-corroding poison in its stead? Who
+blighted my fair name, and cast me forth an alien in the
+land of my forefathers? Who, in a word, cut me off from
+every joy that existence can impart to man? Who did all
+this? Your father! But these are idle words. What I have
+been, you know; what I now am, and through what agency
+I have been rendered what I now am, you know also. Not
+more fixed is fate than my purpose. Your brother dies
+even on the spot on which my nephew died; and you, Clara,
+shall be my bride; and the first thing your children
+shall be taught to lisp shall be curses on the vile name
+of De Haldimar!"
+
+"Once more, in the name of my sainted mother, I implore
+you to have mercy," shrieked the unhappy Clara. "Oh!"
+she continued, with vehement supplication, "let the days
+of your early love be brought back to' your memory, that
+your heart may be softened; and cut yourself not wholly
+off from your God, by the commission of such dreadful
+outrages. Again I conjure you, restore us to my father."
+
+"Never!" savagely repeated Wacousta. "I have passed years
+of torture in the hope of such an hour as this; and now
+that fruition is within my grasp, may I perish if I forego
+it! Ha, sir!" turning from the almost fainting Clara to
+Sir Everard, who had listened with deep attention to the
+history of this extraordinary man;--"for this," and he
+thrust aside the breast of his hunting coat, exhibiting
+the scar of a long but superficial wound,--"for this do
+you owe me a severe reckoning. I would recommend you,
+however,"--and he spoke in mockery,--"when next you drive
+a weapon into the chest of an unresisting enemy, to be
+more certain of your aim. Had that been as true as the
+blow from the butt of your rifle, I should not have lived
+to triumph in this hour. I little deemed," he pursued,
+still addressing the nearly heart-broken officer in the
+same insolent strain, "that my intrigue with that dark-eyed
+daughter of the old Canadian would have been the means
+of throwing your companion so speedily into my power,
+after his first narrow escape. Your disguise was well
+managed, I confess; and but that there is an instinct
+about me, enabling me to discover a De Haldimar, as a
+hound does the deer, by scent, you might have succeeded
+in passing for what you. appeared. But" (and his tone
+suddenly changed its irony for fierceness) "to the point,
+sir. That you are the lover of this girl I clearly
+perceive, and death were preferable to a life embittered
+by the recollection that she whom we love reposes in the
+arms of another. No such kindness is meant you, however.
+To-morrow you shall return to the fort; and, when there,
+you may tell your colonel, that, in exchange for a certain
+miniature and letters, which, in the hurry of departure,
+I dropped in his apartment, some ten days since, Sir
+Reginald Morton, the outlaw, has taken his daughter Clara
+to wife, but without the solemnisation of those tedious
+forms that bound himself in accursed union with her
+mother. Oh! what would I not give," he continued, bitterly,
+"to witness the pang inflicted on his false heart, when
+first the damning truth arrests his ear. Never did I know
+the triumph of my power until now; for what revenge can
+be half so sweet as that which attains a loathed enemy
+through the dishonour of his child? But, hark! what mean
+those sounds?"
+
+A loud yelling was now heard at some distance in rear of
+the tent. Presently the bounding of many feet on the turf
+was distinguishable; and then, at intervals, the peculiar
+cry that announces the escape of a prisoner. Wacousta
+started to his feet, and fiercely grasping his tomahawk,
+advanced to the front of the tent, where he seemed to
+listen for a moment attentively, as if endeavouring to
+catch the direction of the pursuit.
+
+"Ha! by Heaven!" he exclaimed, "there must be treachery
+in this, or yon slippery captain would not so soon be at
+his flight again, bound as I had bound him." Then uttering
+a deafening yell, and rushing past Sir Everard, near whom
+he paused an instant, as if undecided whether he should
+not first dispose of him, as a precautionary measure, he
+flew with the speed of an antelope in the direction in
+which he was guided by the gradually receding sounds.
+
+"The knife, Miss de Haldimar," exclaimed Sir Everard,
+after a few moments of breathless and intense anxiety.
+"See, there is one in the belt that Ellen Halloway has
+girt around her loins. Quick, for Heaven's sake, quick;
+our only chance of safety is in this."
+
+With an activity arising from her despair, the unhappy
+Clara sprang from the rude couch on which she had been
+left by Wacousta, and, stooping over the form of the
+maniac, extended her hand to remove the weapon from her
+side; but Ellen, who had been awakened from her long
+slumber by the yells just uttered, seemed resolute to
+prevent it. A struggle for its possession now ensued
+between these frail and delicate beings; in which Clara,
+however, had the advantage, not only from the recumbent
+position of her opponent, but from the greater security
+of her grasp. At length, with a violent effort, she
+contrived to disengage it from the sheath, around which
+Ellen had closely clasped both her hands; but, with the
+quickness of thought, the latter were again clenched
+round the naked blade, and without any other evident
+motive than what originated in the obstinacy of her
+madness, the unfortunate woman fiercely attempted to
+wrest it away. In the act of doing so, her hands were
+dreadfully cut; and Clara, shocked at the sight of the
+blood she had been the means of shedding, lost all the
+energy she had summoned, and sunk senseless at the feet
+of the maniac, who now began to utter the most piteous
+cries.
+
+"Oh, God! we are lost," exclaimed Sir Everard; "the voice
+of that wretched woman has alarmed our enemy, and even
+now I hear him approaching. Quick, Clara, give me the
+knife. But no, it is now too late; he is here."
+
+At that instant, the dark form of a warrior rushed
+noiselessly to the spot on which he stood. The officer
+turned his eyes in desperation on his enemy, but a single
+glance was sufficient to assure him it was not Wacousta.
+The Indian paused not in his course, but passing close
+round the tree to which the baronet was attached, made
+a circular movement, that brought him in a line with the
+direction that had been taken by his enemy; and again
+they were left alone.
+
+A new fear now oppressed the heart of the unfortunate
+Valletort, even to agony: Clara still lay senseless,
+speechless, before him; and his impression was, that, in
+the struggle, Ellen Halloway had murdered her. The latter
+yet continued her cries; and, as she held up her hands,
+he could see by the fire-light they were covered with
+blood. An instinctive impulse caused him to bound forward
+to the assistance of the motionless Clara; when, to his
+infinite surprise and joy, he discovered the cord, which
+had bound him to the tree, to be severed. The Indian who
+had just passed had evidently been his deliverer; and a
+sudden flash of recollection recalled the figure of the
+young warrior that had escaped from the schooner and was
+supposed to have leaped into the canoe of Oucanasta at
+the moment when Madeline de Haldimar was removed into
+that of the Canadian.
+
+In a transport of conflicting feelings, Sir Everard now
+raised the insensible Clara from the ground; and, having
+satisfied himself she had sustained no serious injury,
+prepared for a flight which he felt to be desperate, if
+not altogether hopeless. There was not a moment to be
+lost, for the cries of the wretched Ellen increased in
+violence, as she seemed sensible she was about to be left
+utterly alone; and ever and anon, although afar off, yet
+evidently drawing nearer, was to be heard the fierce
+denouncing yell of Wacousta. The spot on which the officer
+stood, was not far from that whence his unfortunate friend
+had commenced his flight on the first memorable occasion;
+and as the moon shone brightly in the cloudless heavens,
+there could be no mistake in the course he was to pursue.
+Dashing down the steep, therefore, with all the speed
+his beloved burden would enable him to attain, he made
+immediately for the bridge, over which his only chance
+of safety lay.
+
+It unfortunately happened, however, that, induced either
+by the malice of her insanity, or really terrified at
+the loneliness of her position, the wretched Ellen Halloway
+had likewise quitted the tent, and now followed close in
+the rear of the fugitives, still uttering the same piercing
+cries of anguish. The voice of Wacousta was also again
+heard in the distance; and Sir Everard had the inexpressible
+horror to find that, guided by the shrieks of the maniac
+woman, he was now shaping his course, not to the tent
+where he had left his prisoners, but in an oblique
+direction towards the bridge; where he evidently hoped
+to intercept them. Aware of the extreme disadvantages
+under which be laboured in a competition of speed with
+his active enemy, the unhappy officer would have here
+terminated the struggle, had he not been partially
+sustained by the hope that the detachment prayed for by
+De Haldimar, through the friendly young chief, to whom
+he owed his own liberation, might be about this time on
+its way to attempt their rescue. This thought supported
+his faltering resolution, although nearly exhausted with
+his efforts--compelled, as he was, to sustain the motionless
+form of the slowly reviving Clara; and he again braced
+himself to the unequal flight The moon still shone
+beautifully bright, and he could now distinctly see the
+bridge over which he was to pass; but notwithstanding he
+strained his eyes as he advanced, no vestige of a British
+uniform was to be seen in the open space that lay beyond.
+Once he turned to regard his pursuers. Ellen was a few
+yards only in his rear; and considerably beyond her rose,
+in tall relief against the heavens, the gigantic form of
+the warrior. The pursuit of the latter was now conducted
+with a silence that terrified even more than the yells
+he had previously uttered; and he gained so rapidly on
+his victims, that the tread of his large feet was now
+distinctly audible. Again the officer, with despair in
+his heart, made the most incredible exertions to reach
+the bridge, without seeming to reflect that, even when
+there, no security was offered him against his enemy.
+Once, as he drew nearer, he fancied he saw the dark heads
+of human beings peering from under that part of the arch
+which had afforded cover to De Haldimar and himself oh
+the memorable occasion of their departure with the
+Canadian; and, convinced that the warriors of Wacousta
+had been sent there to lie in ambuscade and intercept
+his retreat, his hopes were utterly paralysed; and although
+he stopped not, his flight was rather mechanical than
+the fruit of any systematic plan of escape.
+
+He had now gained the extremity of the bridge, with Ellen
+Halloway and Wacousta close in his rear, when suddenly
+the heads of many men were once more distinguishable,
+even in the shadow of the arch that overhung the sands
+of the river. Three individuals detached themselves from
+the group and leaping upon the further extremity of the
+bridge, moved rapidly to meet him. Meanwhile the baronet
+had stopped suddenly, as if in doubt whether to advance
+or to recede. His suspense was but momentary. Although
+the persons of these men were disguised as Indian warriors,
+the broad moonlight that beamed full on their countenances,
+disclosed the well-remembered features of Blessington,
+Erskine, and Charles de Haldimar. The latter sprang before
+his companions, and, uttering a cry of joy, sank in
+speechless agony on the neck of his still unconscious
+sister.
+
+"For God's sake, free me, De Haldimar!" exclaimed the
+excited baronet, disengaging his charge from the embrace
+of his friend. This is no moment for congratulation.
+Erskine, Blessington, see you not who is behind me? Be
+upon your guard; defend your lives!" And as he spoke, he
+rushed forward with" feint and tottering steps to place
+his companions between the unhappy girl and the danger
+that threatened her.
+
+The swords of the officers were drawn; but instead of
+advancing upon the formidable being, who stood as if
+paralysed at this unexpected rencontre, the two seniors
+contented themselves with assuming a defensive
+attitude,--retiring slowly and gradually towards the
+other extremity of the bridge.
+
+Overcome by his emotion, Charles de Haldimar had not
+noticed this action of his companions, and stood apparently
+riveted to the spot. The voice of Blessington calling on
+him by name to retire, seemed to arouse the dormant
+consciousness of the unhappy maniac. She uttered a
+piercing shriek, and, springing forward, sank on her
+knees at his feet, exclaiming, as she forcibly detained
+him by his dress,--
+
+"Almighty Heaven! where am I? surely that was Captain
+Blessington's kind voice I heard; and you--you are Charles
+de Haldimar. Oh! save my husband; plead for him with
+your father!----but no," she continued wildly,--"he is
+dead--he is murdered! Behold these hands all covered with
+his blood! Oh!----"
+
+"Ha! another De Haldimar!" exclaimed Wacousta, recovering
+his slumbering energies, "this spot seems indeed fated
+for our meeting. More than thrice have I been balked of
+my just revenge, but now will I secure it. Thus, Ellen,
+do I avenge your husband's and my nephew's death. My own
+wrongs demand another sacrifice. But, ha! where is she?
+where is Clara? where is my bride?"
+
+Bounding over the ill-fated De Haldimar, who lay, even
+in death, firmly clasped in the embrace of the wretched
+Ellen, the fierce man dashed furiously forward to renew
+his pursuit of the fugitives. But suddenly the extremity
+of the bridge was filled with a column of armed men, that
+kept issuing from the arch beneath. Sensible of his
+danger, he sought to make good his retreat; but when he
+turned for the purpose, the same formidable array met
+his view at the opposite extremity; and both parties now
+rapidly advanced in double quick time, evidently with a
+view of closing upon and taking him prisoner. In this
+dilemma, his only hope was in the assistance that might
+be rendered him by his warriors. A yell, so terrific as
+to be distinctly heard in the fort itself, burst from
+his vast chest, and rolled in prolonged echoes through
+the forest. It was faintly answered from the encampment,
+and met by deep but noiseless curses from the exasperated
+soldiery, whom the sight of their murdered officer was
+momentarily working into frenzy.
+
+"Kill him not, for your lives!--I command you, men, kill
+him not!" muttered Captain Blessington with suppressed
+passion, as his troops were preparing to immolate him on
+their clustering bayonets. "Such a death were, indeed,
+mercy to such a villain."
+
+"Ha! ha!" laughed Wacousta in bitter scorn; "who is there
+of all your accursed regiment who will dare to take him
+alive?" Then brandishing his tomahawk around him, to
+prevent their finally closing, he dealt his blows with
+such astonishing velocity, that no unguarded point was
+left about his person; and more than one soldier was
+brought to the earth in the course of the unequal struggle."
+
+"By G--d!" said Captain Erskine, "are the two best
+companies of the regiment to be kept at bay by a single
+desperado? Shame on ye, fellows! If his hands are too
+many for you, lay him by the heels."
+
+This ruse was practised with success. In attempting to
+defend himself from the attack of those who sought to
+throw him down, the warrior necessarily left his upper
+person exposed; when advantage was taken to close with
+him and deprive him of the play of his arms. It was not,
+however, without considerable difficulty, that they
+succeeded in disarming and binding his hands; after which
+a strong cord being fastened round his waist, he was
+tightly lashed to a gun, which, contrary to the original
+intention of the governor, had been sent out with the
+expedition. The retreat of the detachment then commenced
+rapidly; but it was not without being hotly pursued by
+the band of warriors the yell of Wacousta had summoned
+in pursuit, that they finally gained the fort: under what
+feelings of sorrow for the fate of an officer so beloved,
+we leave it to our readers to imagine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+The morning of the next day dawned on few who had pressed
+their customary couches--on none, whose feverish pulse
+and bloodshot eye failed to attest the utter sleeplessness
+in which the night had been passed. Numerous groups of
+men were to be seep assembling after the reveille, in
+various parts of the barrack square--those who had borne
+a part in the recent expedition commingling with those
+who had not, and recounting to the latter, with mournful
+look and voice, the circumstances connected with the
+bereavement of their universally lamented officer. As
+none, however, had seen the blow struck that deprived
+him of life, although each had heard the frantic
+exclamations of a voice that had been recognised for
+Ellen Halloway's, much of the marvellous was necessarily
+mixed up with truth in their narrative,--some positively
+affirming Mr. de Haldimar had not once quitted his party,
+and declaring that nothing short of a supernatural agency
+could have transported him unnoticed to the fatal spot,
+where, in their advance, they had beheld him murdered.
+The singular appearance of Ellen Halloway also, at that
+moment, on the very bridge on which she had pronounced
+her curse on the family of De Haldimar, and in company
+with the terrible and mysterious being who had borne her
+off in triumph on that occasion to the forest, and under
+circumstances calculated to excite the most superstitious
+impressions, was not without its weight in determining
+their rude speculations; and all concurred in opinion,
+that the death of the unfortunate young officer was a
+judgment on their colonel for the little mercy he had
+extended to the noble-hearted Halloway.
+
+Then followed allusion to their captive, whose gigantic
+stature and efforts at escape, tremendous even as the
+latter were, were duly exaggerated by each, with the very
+laudable view of claiming a proportionate share of credit
+for his own individual exertions; and many and various
+were the opinions expressed as to the manner of death he
+should be made to suffer. Among the most conspicuous of
+the orators were those with whom our readers have already
+made slight acquaintance in our account of the sortie by
+Captain Erskine's company for the recovery of the supposed
+body of Frederick de Haldimar. One was for impaling him
+alive, and setting him up to rot on the platform above
+the gate. Another for blowing him from the muzzle of a
+twenty-four pounder, into the centre of the first band
+of Indians that approached the fort, that thus perceiving
+they had lost the strength and sinew of their cunning
+war, they might be the more easily induced to propose
+terms of peace. A third was of opinion he ought to be
+chained to the top of the flag-staff, as a target, to be
+shot at with arrows only, contriving never to touch a
+mortal part. A fourth would have had him tied naked over
+the sharp spikes that constituted the chevaux-de-frize
+garnishing the sides of the drawbridge. Each devised some
+new death--proposed some new torture; but all were of
+opinion, that simply to be shot, or even to be hanged,
+was too merciful a punishment for the wretch who had so
+wantonly and inhumanly butchered the kind-hearted,
+gentle-mannered officer, whom they had almost all known
+and loved from his very boyhood; and they looked forward,
+with mingled anxiety and vengeance, to the moment when,
+summoned as it was expected he shortly would be, before
+the assembled garrison, he would be made to expiate the
+atrocity with his blood.
+
+While the men thus gave indulgence to their indignation
+and their grief, their officers were even mere painfully
+affected. The body of the ill-fated Charles had been
+borne to his apartment, where, divested of its disguise,
+it had again been inducted in such apparel as was deemed
+suited to the purpose. Extended on the very bed on which
+he lay at the moment when she, whose maniac raving, and
+forcible detention, had been the immediate cause of his
+destruction, had preferred her wild but fruitless
+supplication for mercy, he exhibited, even in death, the
+same delicate beauty that had characterised him on that
+occasion; yet, with a mildness and serenity of expression
+on his still, pale features, strongly in contrast with
+the agitation and glow of excitement that then distinguished
+him. Never was human loveliness in death so marked as in
+Charles de Haldimar; and but for the deep wound that,
+dividing his clustering locks, had entered from the very
+crown of the head to the opening of his marble brow, one
+ignorant of his fate might have believed he but profoundly
+slept. Several women of the regiment were occupied in
+those offices about the corpse, which women alone are
+capable of performing at such moments, and as they did
+so, suffered their tears to flow silently yet abundantly
+over him, who was no longer sensible either of human
+grief or of human joy. Close at the head of the bed stood
+an old man, with his face buried in his hands; the latter
+reposing against the wainscoting of the room. He, too,
+wept, but his weeping was more audible, more painful,
+and accompanied by suffocating sobs. It was the humble,
+yet almost paternally attached servant of the defunct--
+the veteran Morrison.
+
+Around the bed were grouped nearly all the officers,
+standing in attitudes indicative of anxiety and interest,
+and gazing mournfully on the placid features of their
+ill-fated friend. All, on entering, moved noiselessly
+over the rude floor, as though fearful of disturbing the
+repose of one who merely slumbered; and the same precaution
+was extended to the brief but heartfelt expressions of
+sorrow that passed, from one to the other, as they gazed
+on all that remained of the gentle De Haldimar. At length
+the preparations of the women having been completed, they
+retired from the room, leaving one of their number only,
+rather out of respect than necessity, to remain by the
+corpse. When they were departed, this woman, the wife of
+one of Blessington's sergeants, and the same who had been
+present at the scene between Ellen Halloway and the
+deceased, cut off a large lock of his beautiful hair,
+and separating it into small tresses, handed one to each
+of the officers. This considerate action, although
+unsolicited on the part of the latter, deeply touched
+them, as indicating a sense of the high estimation in
+which the youth bad been held. It was a tribute to the
+memory of him they mourned, of the purest kind; and each,
+as he received his portion, acknowledged with a mournful
+but approving look, or nod, or word, the motive that bad
+prompted the offering. Nor was it a source of less
+satisfaction, melancholy even as that satisfaction was,
+to perceive that, after having set aside another lock,
+probably for the sister of the deceased, she selected
+and consigned to the bosom of her dress a third, evidently
+intended for herself. The whole scene was in striking
+contrast with the almost utter absence of all preparation
+or concern that had preceded the interment of Murphy, on
+a former occasion. In one, the rude soldier was mourned,
+--in the other, the gentle friend was lamented; nor the
+latter alone by the companions to whom intimacy had
+endeared him, but by those humbler dependants, who knew
+him only through those amiable attributes of character,
+which were ever equally extended to all. Gradually the
+officers now moved away in the same noiseless manner in
+which they had approached, either in pursuance of their
+several duties, or to make their toilet of the morning.
+Two only of their number remained near the couch of death.
+
+"Poor unfortunate De Haldimar!" observed one of these,
+in a low tone, as if speaking to himself; "too fatally,
+indeed, have your forebodings been realised; and what I
+considered as the mere despondency of a mind crashed into
+feebleness by an accumulation of suffering, was, after
+all, but the first presentiment of a death no human power
+might avert. By Heaven! I would give up half my own being
+to be able to reanimate that form once more,--but the
+wish is vain."
+
+"Who shall announce the intelligence to his sister?"
+sighed his companion. "Never will that already nearly
+heart-broken girl be able to survive the shock of her
+brother's death. Blessington, you alone are fitted to
+such a task; and, painful as it is, you must undertake
+it. Is the colonel apprised of the dreadful truth, do
+you know?"
+
+"He is. It was told him at the moment of our arrival last
+night; but from the little outward emotion displayed by
+him, I should be tempted to infer he had almost anticipated
+some such catastrophe."
+
+"Poor, poor Charles!" bitterly exclaimed Sir Everard
+Valletort--for it was he. "What would I not give to recal
+the rude manner in which I spurned you from me last night.
+But, alas! what could I do, laden with such a trust, and
+pursued, without the power of defence, by such an enemy?
+Little, indeed, did I imagine what was so speedily to be
+your doom! Blessington," he pursued, with increased
+emotion, "it grieves me to wretchedness to think that
+he, whom I loved as though he had been my twin brother,
+should have perished with his last thoughts, perhaps,
+lingering on the seeming unkindness with which I had
+greeted him after so anxious an absence."
+
+"Nay, if there be blame, it must attach to me," sorrowfully
+observed Captain Blessington. "Had Erskine and myself
+not retired before the savage, as we did, our unfortunate
+friend would in all probability have been alive at this
+very hour. But in our anxiety to draw the former into
+the ambuscade we had prepared for him, we utterly overlooked
+that Charles was not retreating with us."
+
+"How happened it," demanded Sir Everard, his attention
+naturally directed to the subject by the preceding remarks,
+"that you lay thus in ambuscade, when the object of the
+expedition, as solicited by Frederick de Haldimar, was
+an attempt to reach us in the encampment of the Indians?"
+
+"It certainly was under that impression we left the fort;
+but, on coming to the spot where the friendly Indian lay
+waiting to conduct us, he proposed the plan we subsequently
+adopted as the most likely, not only to secure the escape
+of the prisoners, whom he pledged himself to liberate,
+but to defend ourselves with advantage against Wacousta
+and the immediate guard set over them, should they follow
+in pursuit. Erskine approving, as well as myself, of
+the plan, we halted at the bridge, and disposed of our
+men under each extremity; so that, if attacked by the
+Indians in front, we might be enabled to throw them into
+confusion by taking them in rear, as they flung themselves
+upon the bridge. The event seemed to answer our
+expectations. The alarm raised in the encampment satisfied
+us the young Indian had contrived to fulfil his promise;
+and we momentarily looked for the appearance of those
+whose flight we naturally supposed would be directed
+towards the bridge. To our great surprise, however, we
+remarked that the sounds of pursuit, instead of approaching
+us, seemed to take an opposite direction, apparently
+towards the point whence we had seen the prisoners
+disembarked in the morning. At length, when almost tempted
+to regret we had not pushed boldly on, in conformity with
+our first intention, we heard the shrill cries of a woman;
+and, not long afterwards, the sounds of human feet rushing
+down the slope. What our sensations were, you may imagine;
+for we all believed it to be either Clara or Madeline de
+Haldimar fleeing alone, and pursued by our ferocious
+enemies. To show ourselves would, we were sensible, be
+to ensure the death of the pursued, before we could
+possibly come up; and, although it was with difficulty
+we repressed the desire to rush forward to the rescue,
+our better judgment prevailed. Finally we saw you approach,
+followed closely by what appeared to be a mere boy of an
+Indian, and, at a considerable distance, by the tall
+warrior of the Fleur de lis. We imagined there was time
+enough for you to gain the bridge; and finding your more
+formidable pursuer was only accompanied by the youth
+already alluded to, conceived at that moment the design
+of making him our prisoner. Still there were half a dozen
+muskets ready to be levelled on him should he approach
+too near to his fugitives, or manifest any other design
+than that of simply recapturing them. How well our plan
+succeeded you are aware; but, alas!" and he glanced
+sorrowfully at the corpse, "why was our success to be
+embittered by so great a sacrifice?"
+
+"Ah, would to Heaven that he at least had been spared,"
+sighed Sir Everard, as he took the wan white hand of his
+friend in his own; "and yet I know not: he looks so calm,
+so happy in death, it is almost selfish to repine he has
+escaped the horrors that still await us in this dreadful
+warfare. But what of Frederick and Madeline de Haldimar?
+From the statement you have given, they must have been
+liberated by the young Ottawa before he came to me; yet,
+what could have induced them to have taken a course of
+flight so opposite to that which promised their only
+chance of safety?"
+
+"Heaven only knows," returned Captain Blessington. "I
+fear they have again been recaptured by the savages; in
+which case their doom is scarcely doubtful; unless,
+indeed, our prisoner of last night be given up in exchange
+for them."
+
+"Then will their liberty be purchased at a terrible
+price," remarked the baronet. "Will you believe,
+Blessington, that that man, whose enmity to our colonel
+seems almost devilish, was once an officer in this very
+regiment?"
+
+"You astonish me, Valletort.--Impossible! and yet it
+has always been apparent to me they were once associates."
+
+"I heard him relate his history only last night to Clara,
+whom he had the audacity to sully with proposals to become
+his bride," pursued the baronet. "His tale was a most
+extraordinary one. He narrated it, however, only up to
+the period when the life of De Haldimar was attempted by
+him at Quebec. But with his subsequent history we are
+all acquainted, through the fame of his bloody atrocities
+in all the posts that have fallen into the hands of
+Ponteac. That man, savage and even fiendish as he now
+is, was once possessed of the noblest qualities. I am
+sorry to say it; but Colonel de Haldimar has brought this
+present affliction upon himself. At some future period
+I will tell you all."
+
+"Alas!" said Captain Blessington, "poor Charles, then,
+has been made to pay the penalty of his father's errors;
+and, certainly, the greatest of these was his dooming
+the unfortunate Halloway to death in the manner he did."
+
+"What think you of the fact of Halloway
+being the nephew of this extraordinary man,
+and both of high family?" demanded Sir
+Everard.
+
+"Indeed!" and was the latter, then, aware of the
+connection?"
+
+"Not until last night," replied Sir Everard. "Some
+observations made by the wretched wife of Halloway, in
+the course of which she named his true name, (which was
+that of the warrior also,) first indicated the fact to
+the latter. But, what became of that unfortunate
+creature?--was she brought in?"
+
+"I understand not," said Captain Blessington. "In the
+confusion and hurry of securing our prisoner, and the
+apprehension of immediate attack from his warriors, Ellen
+was entirely overlooked. Some of my men say they left
+her lying, insensible, on the spot whence they had raised
+the body of our unfortunate friend, which they had some
+difficulty in releasing from her convulsive embrace. But,
+hark! there is the first drum for parade, and I have not
+yet exchanged my Indian garb."
+
+Captain Blessington now quitted the room, and Sir Everard,
+relieved from the restraining presence of his companions,
+gave free vent to his emotion, throwing himself upon the
+body of his friend, and giving utterance to the feelings
+of anguish that oppressed his heart.
+
+He had continued some minutes in this position, when he
+fancied he felt the warm tears of a human being bedewing
+a hand that reposed on the neck of his unfortunate friend.
+He looked up, and, to his infinite surprise, beheld Clara
+de Haldimar standing before him at the opposite side of
+the bed. Her likeness to her brother, at that moment,
+was so striking, that, for a second or two, the
+irrepressible thought passed through the mind of the
+officer, it was not a living being he gazed upon, but
+the immaterial spirit of his friend. The whole attitude
+and appearance of the wretched girl, independently of
+the fact of her noiseless entrance, tended to favour the
+delusion. Her features, of an ashy paleness, seemed fixed,
+even as those of the corpse beneath him; and, but for
+the tears that coursed silently down her cheek, there
+was scarcely an outward evidence of emotion. Her dress
+was a simple white robe, fastened round her waist with
+a pale blue riband; and over her shoulders hung her
+redundant hair, resembling in colour, and disposed much
+in the manner of that of her brother, which had been
+drawn negligently down to conceal the wound on his brow.
+For some moments the baronet gazed at her in speechless
+agony. Her tranquil exterior was torture to him; for he,
+feared it betokened some alienation of reason. He would
+have preferred to witness the most hysteric convulsion
+of grief, rather than that traitorous calm; and yet he
+had not the power to seek to remove it.
+
+"You are surprised to see me here, mingling my grief with
+yours, Sir Everard," she at length observed, with the
+same calm mien, and in tones of touching sweetness. "I
+came, with my father's permission, to take a last farewell
+of him whose death has broken my heart. I expected to be
+alone; but--Nay, do not go," she added, perceiving that
+the officer was about to depart. "Had you not been here,
+I should have sent for you; for we have both a sacred
+duty to perform. May I not ask your hand?"
+
+More and more dismayed at her collected manner, the young
+officer gazed at her with the deepest sorrow depicted in
+every line of his own countenance. He extended his hand,
+and Clara, to his surprise, grasped and pressed it firmly.
+
+"It was the wish of this poor boy that his Clara should
+be the wife of his friend, Sir Everard. Did he ever
+express such to you?"
+
+"It was the fondest desire of his heart," returned the
+baronet, unable to restrain the emotion of joy that
+mingled, despite of himself, with his worst apprehensions.
+
+"I need not ask how you received his proposal," continued
+Clara, with the same calmness of manner. "Last night,"
+she pursued solemnly, "I was the bride of the murderer
+of my brother, of the lover of my mother,--tomorrow night
+I may be the bride of death; but to-night I am the bride
+of my brother's friend. Yes, here am I come to pledge
+myself to the fulfilment of his wish. If you deem a
+heart-broken girl not unworthy of you, I am your wife,
+Sir Everard; and, recollect, it is a solemn pledge, that
+which a sister gives over the lifeless body of a brother,
+beloved as this has been."
+
+"Oh, Clara--dearest Clara," passionately exclaimed the
+excited young man, "if a life devoted to your happiness
+can repay you for this, count upon it as you would upon
+your eternal salvation. In you will I love both my friend
+and the sister he has bequeathed to me. Clara, my
+betrothed wife, summon all the energies of your nature
+to sustain this cruel shock; and exert yourself for him
+who will be to you both a brother and a husband."
+
+As he spoke he drew the unresisting girl towards him,
+and, locking her in his embrace, pressed, for the first
+time, the lips, which it had maddened him the preceding
+night to see polluted by the forcible kisses of Wacousta.
+But Clara shared not, but merely suffered his momentary
+happiness. Her cheek wore not the crimson of excitement,
+neither were her tears discontinued. She seemed as one
+who mechanically submitted to what she had no power of
+resistance to oppose; and even in the embrace of her
+affianced husband, she exhibited the same deathlike calm
+that had startled him at her first appearance. Religion
+could not hallow a purer feeling than that which had
+impelled the action of the young officer. The very
+consciousness of the sacred pledge having been exchanged
+over the corpse of his friend, imparted a holiness of
+fervour to his mind; and even while he pressed her, whom
+he secretly swore to love with all the affection of a
+fond brother and a husband united, he felt that if the
+spirit of him, who slept unconscious of the scene, were
+suffered to linger near, it would be to hallow it with
+approval.
+
+"And now," said Clara at length, yet without attempting
+to disengage herself,--"now that we are united, I would
+be alone with my brother. My husband, leave me."
+
+Deeply touched at the name of husband, Sir Everard could
+not refrain from imprinting another kiss on the lips that
+uttered it. He then gently disengaged himself from his
+lovely but suffering charge, whom he deposited with her
+head resting on the bed; and making a significant motion
+of his hand to the woman, who, as well as old Morrison,
+had been spectators of the whole scene, stole gently from
+the apartment, under what mingled emotions of joy and
+grief it would be difficult to describe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+It was the eighth hour of morning, and both officers and
+men, quitting their ill-relished meal, were to be seen
+issuing to the parade, where the monotonous roll of the
+assemblee now summoned them. Presently the garrison was
+formed in the order we have described in our first volume;
+that is to say, presenting three equal sides of a square.
+The vacant space fronted the guard-house, near one
+extremity of which was to be seen a flight of steps
+communicating with the rampart, where the flag-staff was
+erected. Several men were employed at this staff, passing
+strong ropes through iron pulleys that were suspended
+from the extreme top, while in the basement of the staff
+itself, to a height of about twenty feet, were stuck at
+intervals strong wooden pegs, serving as steps to the
+artillerymen for greater facility in clearing, when foul,
+the lines to which the colours were attached. The latter
+had been removed; and, from the substitution of a cord
+considerably stronger than that which usually appeared
+there, it seemed as if some far heavier weight was about
+to be appended to it. Gradually the men, having completed
+their unusual preparations, quitted the rampart, and the
+flagstaff, which was of tapering pine, was left totally
+unguarded.
+
+The "Attention!" of Major Blackwater to the troops, who
+had been hitherto standing in attitudes of expectancy
+that rendered the injunction almost superfluous, announced
+the approach of the governor. Soon afterwards that officer
+entered the area, wearing his characteristic dignity of
+manner, yet exhibiting every evidence of one who had
+suffered deeply. Preparation for a drum-head court-martial,
+as in the first case of Halloway, had already been made
+within the square, and the only actor wanting in the
+drama was he who was to be tried.
+
+Once Colonel de Haldimar made an effort to command his
+appearance, but the huskiness of his voice choked his
+utterance, and he was compelled to pause. After the lapse
+of a few moments, he again ordered, but in a voice that
+was remarked to falter,--
+
+"Mr. Lawson, let the prisoner be brought forth."
+
+The feeling of suspense that ensued between the delivery
+and execution of this command was painful throughout the
+ranks. All were penetrated with curiosity to behold a
+man who had several times appeared to them under the most
+appalling circumstances, and against whom the strongest
+feeling of indignation had been excited for his barbarous
+murder of Charles de Haldimar. It was with mingled awe
+and anger they now awaited his approach. At length the
+captive was seen advancing from the cell in which he had
+been confined, his gigantic form towering far above those
+of the guard of grenadiers by whom he was surrounded;
+and with a haughtiness in his air, and insolence in his
+manner, that told he came to confront his enemy with a
+spirit unsubdued by the fate that too probably awaited
+him.
+
+Many an eye was turned upon the governor at that moment.
+He was evidently struggling for composure to meet the
+scene he felt it to be impossible to avoid; and he turned
+pale and paler as his enemy drew near.
+
+At length the prisoner stood nearly in the same spot
+where his unfortunate nephew had lingered on a former
+occasion. He was unchained; but his hands were firmly
+secured behind his back. He threw himself into an attitude
+of carelessness, resting on one foot, and tapping the
+earth with the other; riveting his eye, at the same time,
+with an expression of the most daring insolence, on the
+governor, while his swarthy cheek was moreover lighted
+up with a smile of the deepest scorn.
+
+"You are Reginald Morton the outlaw, I believe," at length
+observed the governor in an uncertain tone, that, however,
+acquired greater firmness as he proceeded,--"one whose
+life has already been forfeited through his treasonable
+practices in Europe, and who has, moreover, incurred the
+penalty of an ignominious death, by acting in this country
+as a spy of the enemies of England. What say you, Reginald
+Morton, that you should not be convicted in the death
+that awaits the traitor?"
+
+"Ha! ha! by Heaven, such cold, pompous insolence amuses
+me," vociferated Wacousta. "It reminds me of Ensign de
+Haldimar of nearly five and twenty years back, who was
+then as cunning a dissembler as he is now." Suddenly
+changing his ribald tone to one of scorn and rage:--"You
+BELIEVE me, you say, to be Reginald Morton the outlaw.
+Well do you know it. I am that Sir Reginald Morton, who
+became an outlaw, not through his own crimes, but through
+your villainy. Ay, frown as you may, I heed it not. You
+may award me death, but shall not chain my tongue. To
+your whole regiment do I proclaim you for a false,
+remorseless villain." Then turning his flashing eye along
+the ranks:--"I was once an officer in this corps, and
+long before any of you wore the accursed uniform. That
+man, that fiend, affected to be my friend; and under the
+guise of friendship, stole into the heart I loved better
+than my own life. Yes," fervently pursued the excited
+prisoner, stamping violently with his foot upon the earth,
+"he robbed me of my affianced wife; and for that I resented
+an outrage that should have banished him to some lone
+region, where he might never again pollute human nature
+with his presence--he caused me to be tried by a
+court-martial, and dismissed the service. Then, indeed,
+I became the outlaw he has described, but not until then.
+Now, Colonel de Haldimar, that I have proclaimed your
+infamy, poor and inefficient as the triumph be, do your
+worst--I ask no mercy. Yesterday I thought that years of
+toilsome pursuit of the means of vengeance were about to
+be crowned with success; but fate has turned the tables
+on me and I yield."
+
+To all but the baronet and Captain Blessington this
+declaration was productive of the utmost surprise. Every
+eye was turned upon the colonel. He grew impatient under
+the scrutiny, and demanded if the court, who meanwhile
+had been deliberating, satisfied of the guilt of the
+prisoner, had come to a decision in regard to his
+punishment. An affirmative answer was given, and Colonel
+de Haldimar proceeded.
+
+"Reginald Morton, with the private misfortunes of your
+former life we have nothing to do. It is the decision of
+this court, who are merely met out of form, that you
+suffer immediate death by hanging, as a just recompense
+for your double treason to your country. There," and he
+pointed to the flag-staff, "will you be exhibited to the
+misguided people whom your wicked artifices have stirred
+up into hostility against us. When they behold your fate,
+they will take warning from your example; and, finding
+we have heads and arms not to suffer offence with impunity,
+be more readily brought to obedience."
+
+"I understand your allusion," coolly rejoined Wacousta,
+glancing earnestly at, and apparently measuring with his
+eye, the dimensions of the conspicuous scaffold on which
+he was to suffer. "You had ever a calculating head, De
+Haldimar, where any secret villainy, any thing to promote
+your own selfish ends, was to be gained by it; but your
+calculation seems now, methinks, at fault"
+
+Colonel de Haldimar looked at him enquiringly.
+
+"You have STILL a son left," pursued the prisoner with
+the same recklessness of manner, and in a tone denoting
+allusion to him who was no more, that caused an universal
+shudder throughout the ranks. "He is in the hands of the
+Ottawa Indians, and I am the friend of their great chief,
+inferior only in power among the tribe to himself. Think
+you that he will see me hanged up like a dog, and fail
+to avenge my disgraceful death?"
+
+"Ha! presumptuous renegade, is this the deep game you
+have in view? Hope you then to stipulate for the
+preservation of a life every way forfeited to the offended
+justice of your country? Dare you to cherish the belief,
+that, after the horrible threats so often denounced by
+you, you will again be let loose upon a career of crime
+and blood?"
+
+"None of your cant, de Haldimar, as I once observed to
+you before," coolly retorted Wacousta, with bitter sarcasm.
+"Consult your own heart, and ask if its catalogue of
+crime be not far greater than my own: yet I ask not my
+life. I would but have the manner of my fate altered,
+and fain would die the death of the soldier I WAS before
+you rendered me the wretch I AM. Methinks the boon is
+not so great, if the restoration of your son be the
+price."
+
+"Do you mean, then," eagerly returned the governor, "that
+if the mere mode of your death be changed, my son shall
+be restored?"
+
+"I do," was the calm reply.
+
+"What pledge have we of the fact? What faith can we repose
+in the word of a fiend, whose brutal vengeance has already
+sacrificed the gentlest life that ever animated human
+clay?" Here the emotion of the governor almost choked,
+his utterance, and considerable agitation and murmuring
+were manifested in the ranks.
+
+"Gentle, said you?" replied the prisoner, musingly; "then
+did he resemble his mother, whom I loved, even as his
+brother resembles you whom I have had so much reason to
+hate. Had I known the boy to be what you describe, I
+might have felt some touch of pity even while I delayed
+not to strike his death blow; but the false moonlight
+deceived me, and the detested name of De Haldimar,
+pronounced by the lips of my nephew's wife--that wife
+whom your cold-blooded severity had widowed and driven
+mad--was in itself sufficient to ensure his doom."
+
+"Inhuman ruffian!" exclaimed the governor, with increasing
+indignation; "to the point. What pledge have you to offer
+that my son will be restored?"
+
+"Nay, the pledge is easily given, and without much risk.
+You have only to defer my death until your messenger
+return from his interview with Ponteac. If Captain de
+Haldimar accompany him back, shoot me as I have requested;
+if he come not, then it is but to hang me after all."
+
+"Ha! I understand you; this is but a pretext to gain
+time, a device to enable your subtle brain to plan some
+mode of escape."
+
+"As you will, Colonel de Haldimar," calmly retorted
+Wacousta; and again he sank into silence, with the air
+of one utterly indifferent to results.
+
+"Do you mean," resumed the colonel, "that a request from
+yourself to the Ottawa chief will obtain the liberation
+of my son?"
+
+"Unless the Indian be false as yourself, I do."
+
+"And of the lady who is with him?" continued the colonel,
+colouring with anger.
+
+"Of both."
+
+"How is the message to be conveyed?"
+
+"Ha, sir!" returned the prisoner, drawing himself up to
+his full height, "now are you arrived at a point that is
+pertinent. My wampum belt will be the passport, and the
+safeguard of him you send; then for the communication.
+There are certain figures, as you are aware, that, traced
+on bark, answer the same purpose among the Indians with
+the European language of letters. Let my hands be cast
+loose," he pursued, but in a tone in which agitation and
+excitement might be detected, "and if bark be brought
+me, and a burnt stick or coal, I will give you not only
+a sample of Indian ingenuity, but a specimen of my own
+progress in Indian acquirements."
+
+"What, free your hands, and thus afford you a chance of
+escape?" observed the governor, doubtingly.
+
+Wacousta bent his stedfast gaze on him for a few moments,
+as if he questioned he had heard aright. Then bursting
+into a wild and scornful laugh,--"By Heaven!" he exclaimed,
+"this is, indeed, a high compliment you pay me at the
+expense of these fine fellows. What, Colonel de Haldimar
+afraid to liberate an unarmed prisoner, hemmed in by a
+forest of bayonets? This is good; gentlemen," and he bent
+himself in sarcastic reverence to the astonished troops,
+"I beg to offer you my very best congratulations on the
+high estimation in which you are held by your colonel."
+
+"Peace, sirrah!" exclaimed the governor, enraged beyond
+measure at the insolence of him who thus held him up to
+contempt before his men, "or, by Heaven, I will have your
+tongue cut out!--Mr. Lawson, let what this fellow requires
+be procured immediately." Then addressing Lieutenant
+Boyce, who commanded the immediate guard over the prisoner,
+--"Let his hands be liberated, sir, and enjoin your men
+to be watchful of the movements of this supple traitor.
+His activity I know of old to be great, and he seems to
+have doubled it since he assumed that garb."
+
+The command was executed, and the prisoner stood, once
+more, free and unfettered in every muscular limb. A deep
+and unbroken silence ensued; and the return of the adjutant
+was momentarily expected. Suddenly a loud scream was
+heard, and the slight figure of a female, clad in white,
+came rushing from the piazza in which the apartment of
+the deceased De Haldimar was situated. It was Clara.
+The guard of Wacousta formed the fourth front of the
+square; but they were drawn up somewhat in the distance,
+so as to leave an open space of several feet at the
+angles. Through one of these the excited girl now passed
+into the area, with a wildness in her air and appearance
+that riveted every eye in painful interest upon her. She
+paused not until she had gained the side of the captive,
+at whose feet she now sank in an attitude expressive of
+the most profound despair.
+
+"Tiger!--monster!" she raved, "restore my brother!--give
+me back the gentle life you have taken, or destroy my
+own! See, I am a weak defenceless girl: can you not
+strike?--you who have no pity for the innocent. But
+come," she pursued, mournfully, regaining her feet and
+grasping his iron hand,--"come and see the sweet calm
+face of him you have slain:--come with me, and behold
+the image of Clara Beverley; and, if you ever loved her
+as you say you did, let your soul be touched with remorse
+for your crime."
+
+The excitement and confusion produced by this unexpected
+interruption was great. Murmurs of compassion for the
+unhappy Clara, and of indignation against the prisoner,
+were no longer sought to be repressed by the men; while
+the officers, quitting their places in the ranks, grouped
+themselves indiscriminately in the foreground. One, more
+impatient than his companions, sprang forward, and forcibly
+drew away the delicate, hand that still grasped that of
+the captive. It was Sir Everard Valletort.
+
+"Clara, my beloved wife!" he exclaimed, to the astonishment
+of all who heard him, "pollute not your lips by further
+communion with such a wretch; his heart is as inaccessible
+to pity as the rugged rocks on which his spring-life was
+passed. For Heaven's sake,--for my sake,--linger not
+within his reach. There is death in his very presence."
+
+"Your wife, sir!" haughtily observed the governor, with
+irrepressible astonishment and indignation in his voice;
+"what mean you?--Gentlemen, resume your places in the
+ranks.--Clara--Miss de Haldimar, I command you to retire
+instantly to your apartment.--We will discourse of this
+later, Sir Everard Valletort. I trust you have not dared
+to offer an indignity to my child."
+
+While he was yet turned to that officer, who had taken
+his post, as commanded, in the inner angle of the square,
+and with a countenance that denoted the conflicting
+emotions of his soul, he was suddenly startled by the
+confused shout and rushing forward of the whole body,
+both of officers and men. Before he had time to turn, a
+loud and well-remembered yell burst upon his ear. The
+next moment, to his infinite surprise and horror, he
+beheld the bold warrior rapidly ascending the very staff
+that had been destined for his scaffold, and with Clara
+in his arms.
+
+Great was the confusion that ensued. To rush forward and
+surround the flag-staff, was the immediate action of the
+troops. Many of the men raised their muskets, and in the
+excitement of the moment, would have fired, had they not
+been restrained by their officers, who pointed out the
+certain destruction it would entail on the unfortunate
+Clara. With the rapidity of thought, Wacousta had snatched
+up his victim, while the attention of the troops was
+directed to the singular conversation passing between
+the governor and Sir Everard Valletort, and darting
+through one of the open angles already alluded to, had
+gained the rampart before they had recovered from the
+stupor produced by his daring action. Stepping lightly
+upon the pegs, he had rapidly ascended to the utmost
+height of these, before any one thought of following him;
+and then grasping in his teeth the cord which was to have
+served for his execution, and holding Clara firmly against
+his chest, while he embraced the smooth staff with knees
+and feet closely compressed around it, accomplished the
+difficult ascent with an ease that astonished all who
+beheld him. Gradually, as he approached the top, the
+tapering pine waved to and fro; and at each moment it
+was expected, that, yielding to their united weight, it
+would snap asunder, and precipitate both Clara and himself,
+either upon the rampart, or into the ditch beyond.
+
+More than one officer now attempted to follow the fugitive
+in his adventurous course; but even Lieutenant Johnstone,
+the most active and experienced in climbing of the party,
+was unable to rise more than a few yards above the pegs
+that afforded a footing, add the enterprise was abandoned
+as an impossibility. At length Wacousta was seen to gain
+the extreme summit. For a moment he turned his gaze
+anxiously beyond the town, in the direction of the bridge;
+and, after pealing forth one of his terrific yells,
+exclaimed, exultingly, as he turned his eye upon his
+enemy:--
+
+"Well, colonel, what think you of this sample of Indian
+ingenuity? Did I not tell you," he continued, in mockery,
+"that, if my hands were but free, I would give you a
+specimen of my progress in Indian acquirements?"
+
+"If you would avoid a death even more terrible than that
+of hanging," shouted the governor, in a voice of mingled
+rage and terror, "restore my daughter."
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!--excellent!" vociferated the savage. "You
+threaten largely, my good governor; but your threats are
+harmless as those of a weak besieging army before an
+impregnable fortress. It is for the strongest, however,
+to propose his terms.--If I restore this girl to life,
+will you pledge yourself to mine?"
+
+"Never!" thundered Colonel de Haldimar, with unusual
+energy.--"Men, procure axes; cut the flag-staff down,
+since this is the only means left of securing yon insolent
+traitor! Quick to your work: and mark, who first seizes
+him shall have promotion on the spot."
+
+Axes were instantly procured, and two of the men now lent
+themselves vigorously to the task. Wacousta seemed to
+watch these preparations with evident anxiety; and to
+all it appeared as if his courage had been paralysed by
+this unexpected action. No sooner, however, had the axemen
+reached the heart of the staff, than, holding Clara forth
+over the edge of the rampart, he shouted,--
+
+"One stroke more, and she perishes!"
+
+Instantaneously the work was discontinued. A silence of
+a few moments ensued. Every eye was turned upward,--every
+heart beat with terror to see the delicate girl, held by
+a single arm, and apparently about to be precipitated
+from that dizzying height. Again Wacousta shouted,--
+
+"Life for life, De Haldimar! If I yield her shall I live?"
+
+"No terms shall be dictated to me by a rebel, in the
+heart of my own fort," returned the governor. "Restore
+my child, and we will then consider what mercy may be
+extended to you."
+
+"Well do I know what mercy dwells in such a heart as
+yours," gloomily remarked the prisoner; "but I come."
+
+"Surround the staff, men," ordered the governor, in a
+low tone. "The instant he descends, secure him: lash him
+in every limb, nor suffer even his insolent tongue to be
+longer at liberty."
+
+"Boyce, for God's sake open the gate, and place men in
+readiness to lower the drawbridge," implored Sir Everard
+of the officer of the guard, and in a tone of deep emotion
+that was not meant to be overheard by the governor. "I
+fear the boldness of this vengeful man may lead him to
+some desperate means of escape."
+
+While the officer whom he addressed issued a command,
+the responsibility of which he fancied he might, under
+the peculiar circumstances of the moment, take upon
+himself, Wacousta began his descent, not as before, by
+adhering to the staff, but by the rope which he held in
+his left hand, while he still supported the apparently
+senseless Clara against his right chest with the other.
+
+"Now, Colonel de Haldimar, I hope your heart is at rest,"
+he shouted, as he rapidly glided by the cord; "enjoy your
+triumph as best may suit your pleasure."
+
+Every eye followed his movement with interest; every
+heart beat lighter at the certainty of Clara being again
+restored, and without other injury than the terror she
+must have experienced in such a scene. Each congratulated
+himself on the favourable termination of the terrible
+adventure, yet were all ready to spring upon and secure
+the desperate author of the wrong. Wacousta had now
+reached the centre of the flag-staff. Pausing for a
+moment, he grappled it with his strong and nervous feet,
+on which he apparently rested, to give a momentary relief
+to the muscles of his left arm. He then abruptly abandoned
+his hold, swinging himself out a few yards from the staff,
+and returning again, dashed his feet against it with a
+force that caused the weakened mass to vibrate to its
+very foundation. Impelled by his weight, and the violence
+of his action, the creaking pine gave way; its lofty top
+gradually bending over the exterior rampart until it
+finally snapped asunder, and fell with a loud crash across
+the ditch.
+
+"Open the gate, down with the drawbridge!" exclaimed the
+excited governor.
+
+"Down with the drawbridge," repeated Sir Everard to the
+men already stationed there ready to let loose at the
+first order. The heavy chains rattled sullenly through
+the rusty pulleys, and to each the bridge seemed an hour
+descending. Before it had reached its level, it was
+covered with the weight of many armed men rushing confusedly
+to the front; and the foremost of these leaped to the
+earth before it had sunk into its customary bed. Sir
+Everard Valletort and Lieutenant Johnstone were in the
+front, both armed with their rifles, which had been
+brought them before Wacousta commenced his descent.
+Without order or combination, Erskine, Blessington, and
+nearly half of their respective companies, followed as
+they could; and dispersing as they advanced, sought only
+which could outstep his fellows in the pursuit.
+
+Meanwhile the fugitive, assisted in his fall by the
+gradual rending asunder of the staff, had obeyed the
+impulsion first given to his active form, until, suddenly
+checking himself by the rope, he dropped with his feet
+downward into the centre of the ditch. For a moment he
+disappeared, then came again uninjured to the surface;
+and in the face of more than fifty men, who, lining the
+rampart with their muskets levelled to take him at
+advantage the instant he should reappear, seemed to laugh
+their efforts to scorn. Holding Clara before him as a
+shield, through which the bullets of his enemies must
+pass before they could attain him, he impelled his gigantic
+form with a backward movement towards the opposite bank,
+which he rapidly ascended; and, still fronting his enemies,
+commenced his flight in that manner with a speed which
+(considering the additional weight of the drenched garments
+of both) was inconceivable. The course taken by him was
+not through the town, but circuitously across the common
+until he arrived on that immediate line whence, as we
+have before stated, the bridge was distinctly visible
+from the rampart; on which, nearly the whole of the
+remaining troops, in defiance of the presence of their
+austere chief, were now eagerly assembled, watching, with
+unspeakable interest, the progress of the chase.
+
+Desperate as were the exertions of Wacousta, who evidently
+continued this mode of flight from a conviction that the
+instant his person was left exposed the fire-arms of his
+pursuers would be brought to bear upon him, the two
+officers in front, animated by the most extraordinary
+exertions, were rapidly gaining upon him. Already was
+one within fifty yards of him, when a loud yell was heard
+from the bridge. This was fiercely answered by the fleeing
+man, and in a manner that implied his glad sense of.
+coming rescue. In the wild exultation of the moment, he
+raised Clara high above his head, to show her in triumph
+to the governor, whose person his keen eye could easily
+distinguish among those crowded upon the rampart. In the
+gratified vengeance of. that hour, he seemed utterly to
+overlook the actions of those who were so near him. During
+this brief scene, Sir Everard had dropped upon one knee,
+and supporting his elbow on the other, aimed his rifle
+at the heart of the ravisher of his wife. An exulting
+shout burst from the pursuing troops. Wacousta bounded
+a few feet in air, and placing his hand to his side,
+uttered another yell, more appalling than any that had
+hitherto escaped him. His flight was now uncertain and
+wavering. He staggered as one who had received a mortal
+wound; and discontinuing his unequal mode of retreat,
+turned his back upon his pursuers, and threw all his
+remaining energies into a final effort at escape.
+
+Inspirited by the success of his shot, and expecting
+momentarily to see him fall weakened with the loss of
+blood, the excited Valletort redoubled his exertions. To
+his infinite joy, he found that the efforts of the fugitive
+became feebler at each moment Johnstone was about twenty
+paces behind him, and the pursuing party at about the
+same distance from Johnstone. The baronet had now reached
+his enemy, and already was the butt of his rifle raised
+with both hands with murderous intent, when suddenly
+Wacousta, every feature distorted with rage and pain,
+turned like a wounded lion at bay, and eluding the blow,
+deposited the unconscious form of his victim upon the
+sward. Springing upon his infinitely weaker pursuer, he
+grappled him furiously by the throat, exclaiming through
+his clenched teeth:--
+
+"Nay then, since you will provoke your fate--be it so.
+Die like a dog, and be d--d, for having balked me--of my
+just revenge!"
+
+As he spoke, he hurled the gasping officer to the earth
+with a violence that betrayed the dreadful excitement of
+his soul, and again hastened to assure himself of his
+prize.
+
+Meanwhile, Lieutenant Johnstone had come up, and, seeing
+his companion struggling as he presumed, with advantage,
+with his severely wounded enemy, made it his first care
+to secure the unhappy girl; for whose recovery the pursuit
+had been principally instituted. Quitting his rifle, he
+now essayed to raise her in his arms. She was without
+life or consciousness, and the impression on his mind
+was that she was dead.
+
+While in the act of raising her, the terrible Wacousta
+stood at his side, his vast chest heaving forth a laugh
+of mingled rage and contempt. Before the officer could
+extricate, with a view of defending himself, his arms
+were pinioned as though in a vice; and ere he could
+recover from his surprise, he felt himself lifted up and
+thrown to a considerable distance. When he opened his
+eyes a moment afterwards, he was lying amid the moving
+feet of his own men.
+
+From the instant of the closing of the unfortunate
+Valletort with his enemy, the Indians, hastening to the
+assistance of their chief, had come up, and a desultory
+fire had already commenced, diverting, in a great degree,
+the attention of the troops from the pursued. Emboldened
+by this new aspect of things Wacousta now deliberately
+grasped the rifle that had been abandoned by Johnstone;
+and raising it to his shoulder, fired among the group
+collected on the ramparts. For a moment he watched the
+result of his shot, and then, pealing forth another fierce
+yell, he hurled the now useless weapon into the very
+heart of his pursuers; and again raising Clara in his
+arms, once more commenced his retreat, which, under cover
+of the fire of his party, was easily effected.
+
+"Who has fallen?" demanded the governor of his adjutant,
+perceiving that some one had been hit at his side, yet
+without taking his eyes off his terrible enemy.
+
+"Mr. Delme, sir," was the reply. "He has been shot through
+the heart, and his men are bearing him from the rampart."
+
+"This must not be," resumed the governor with energy.
+"Private feelings must no longer be studied at the expense
+of the public good. That pursuit is hopeless; and already
+too many of my officers have fallen. Desire the retreat
+to be sounded, Mr. Lawson. Captain Wentworth, let one or
+two covering guns be brought to bear upon the savages.
+They are gradually increasing hi numbers; and if we delay,
+the party will be wholly cut off."
+
+In issuing these orders, Colonel de Haldimar evinced a
+composedness that astonished all who heard him. But
+although his voice was calm, despair was upon his brow.
+Still he continued to gaze fixedly on the retreating form
+of his enemy, until he finally disappeared behind the
+orchard of the Canadian of the Fleur de lis.
+
+Obeying the summons from the fort, the troops without
+now commenced their retreat, bearing off the bodies of
+their fallen officers and several of their comrades who
+had fallen by the Indian fire. There was a show of
+harassing them on their return; but they were too near
+the fort to apprehend much danger. Two or three
+well-directed discharges of artillery effectually checked
+the onward progress of the savages; and, in the course
+of a minute, they had again wholly disappeared.
+
+In gloomy silence, and with anger and disappointment in
+their hearts, the detachment now re-entered the fort.
+Johnstone was only severely bruised; Sir Everard Valletort
+not dead. Both were conveyed to the same room, where they
+were instantly attended by the surgeon, who pronounced
+the situation of the latter hopeless.
+
+Major Blackwater, Captains Blessington and Erskine,
+Lieutenants Leslie and Boyce, and Ensigns Fortescue and
+Summers, were now the only regimental officers that
+remained of thirteen originally comprising the strength
+of the garrison. The whole of these stood grouped around
+their colonel, who seemed transfixed to the spot he had
+first occupied on the rampart, with his arms folded, and
+his gaze bent in the direction in which he had lost sight
+of Wacousta and his child.
+
+Hitherto the morning had been cold and cheerless, and
+objects in the far distance were but indistinctly seen
+through a humid atmosphere. At about half an hour before
+mid-day the air became more rarified, and, the murky
+clouds gradually disappearing, left the blue autumnal
+sky without spot or blemish. Presently, as the bells of
+the fort struck twelve, a yell as of a legion of devils
+rent the air; and, riveting their gaze in that direction,
+all beheld the bridge, hitherto deserted, suddenly covered
+with a multitude of savages, among whom were several
+individuals attired in the European garb, and evidently
+prisoners. Each officer had a telescope raised to his
+eye, and each prepared himself, shudderingly, for some
+horrid consummation. Presently the bridge was cleared of
+all but a double line of what appeared to be women, armed
+with war-clubs and tomahawks. Along the line were now
+seen to pass, in slow succession, the prisoners that had
+previously been observed. At each step they took (and it
+was evident they had been compelled to run the gauntlet),
+a blow was inflicted by some one or other of the line,
+until the wretched victims were successively despatched.
+A loud yell from the warriors, who, although hidden from
+view by the intervening orchards, were evidently merely
+spectators in the bloody drama, announced each death.
+These yells were repeated, at intervals, to about the
+number of thirty, when, suddenly, the bridge was again
+deserted as before.
+
+After the lapse of a minute, the tall figure of a warrior
+was seen to advance, holding a female in his arms. No
+one could mistake, even at that distance, the gigantic
+proportions of Wacousta,--as he stood in the extreme
+centre of the bridge, in imposing relief against the
+flood that glittered like a sea of glass beyond. From
+his chest there now burst a single yell; but, although
+audible, it was fainter than any remembered ever to have
+been heard from him by the garrison. He then advanced to
+the extreme edge of the bridge; and, raising the form of
+the female far above his head with his left hand, seemed
+to wave her in vengeful triumph. A second warrior was
+seen upon the bridge, and stealing cautiously to the same
+point. The right hand of the first warrior was now raised
+and brandished in air; in the next instant it descended
+upon the breast of the female, who fell from his arms
+into the ravine beneath. Yells of triumph from the Indians,
+and shouts of execration from the soldiers, mingled
+faintly together. At that moment the arm of the second
+warrior was raised, and a blade was seen to glitter in
+the sunshine. His arm descended, and Wacousta was observed
+to stagger forward and fall. heavily into the abyss into
+which his victim had the instant before been precipitated.
+Another loud yell, but of disappointment and anger, was
+heard drowning that of exultation pealed by the triumphant
+warrior, who, darting to the open extremity of the bridge,
+directed his flight along the margin of the river, where
+a light canoe was ready to receive him. Into this he
+sprang, and, seizing the paddle, sent the waters foaming
+from its sides; and, pursuing his way across the river,
+had nearly gained the shores of Canada before a bark was
+to be seen following in pursuit.
+
+How felt--how acted Colonel de Haldimar throughout this
+brief but terrible scene? He uttered not a word. With
+his arms still folded across his breast, he gazed upon
+the murder of his child; but he heaved not a groan, he
+shed not a tear. A momentary triumph seemed to, irradiate
+his pallid features, when he saw the blow struck that
+annihilated his enemy; but it was again instantly shaded
+by an expression of the most profound despair.
+
+"It is done, gentlemen," he at length remarked. "The
+tragedy is closed, the curse of Ellen Halloway is fulfilled,
+and I am--childless!--Blackwater," he pursued, endeavouring
+to stifle the emotion produced by the last reflection,
+"pay every attention to the security of the garrison,
+see that the drawbridge is again properly chained up,
+and direct that the duties of the troops be prosecuted
+in every way as heretofore."
+
+Leaving his officers to wonder at and pity that apathy
+of mind that could mingle the mere forms of duty with
+the most heart-rending associations, Colonel de Haldimar
+now quitted the rampart; and, with a head that was remarked
+for the first time to droop over his chest, paced his
+way musingly to his apartments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Night had long since drawn her circling mantle over the
+western hemisphere; and deeper, far deeper than the gloom
+of that night was the despair which filled every bosom
+of the devoted garrison, whose fortunes it has fallen to
+our lot to record. A silence, profound as that of death,
+pervaded the ramparts and exterior defences of the
+fortress, interrupted only, at long intervals, by the
+customary "All's well!" of the several sentinels; which,
+after the awful events of the day, seemed to many who
+now heard it as if uttered in mockery of their hopelessness
+of sorrow. The lights within the barracks of the men
+had been long since extinguished; and, consigned to a
+mere repose of limb, in which the eye and heart shared
+not, the inferior soldiery pressed their rude couches
+with spirits worn out by a succession of painful
+excitements, and frames debilitated, by much abstinence
+and watching. It was an hour at which sleep was wont to
+afford them the blessing of a temporary forgetfulness of
+endurances that weighed the more heavily as they were
+believed to be endless and without fruit; but sleep had
+now apparently been banished from all; for the low and
+confused murmur that met the ear from the several
+block-houses was continuous and general, betraying at
+times, and in a louder key, words that bore reference to
+the tragic occurrences of the day.
+
+The only lights visible in the fort proceeded from the
+guard-house and a room adjoining that of the ill-fated
+Charles de Haldimar. Within the latter were collected,
+with the exception of the governor, and grouped around
+a bed on which lay one of their companions in a nearly
+expiring state, the officers of the garrison, reduced
+nearly one third in number since we first offered them
+to the notice of our readers. The dying man was Sir
+Everard Valletort, who, supported by pillows, was
+concluding a narrative that had chained the earnest
+attention of his auditory, even amid the deep and heartfelt
+sympathy perceptible in each for the forlorn and hopeless
+condition of the narrator. At the side of the unhappy
+baronet, and enveloped in a dressing gown, as if recently
+out of bed, sat, reclining in a rude elbow chair, one
+whose pallid countenance denoted, that, although far less
+seriously injured, he, too, had suffered severely:--it
+was Lieutenant Johnstone.
+
+The narrative was at length closed; and the officer,
+exhausted by the effort he had made in his anxiety to
+communicate every particular to his attentive and surprised
+companions, had sunk back upon his pillow, when, suddenly,
+the loud and unusual "Who comes there?" of the sentinel
+stationed on the rampart above the gateway, arrested
+every ear. A moment of pause succeeded, when again was
+heard the "Stand, friend!" evidently given in reply to
+the familiar answer to the original challenge. Then were
+audible rapid movements in the guard-house, as of men
+aroused from temporary slumber, and hastening to the
+point whence the voice proceeded.
+
+Silently yet hurriedly the officers now quitted the
+bedside of the dying man, leaving only the surgeon and
+the invalid Johnstone behind them; and, flying to the
+rampart, stood in the next minute confounded with the
+guard, who were already grouped round the challenging
+sentinel, bending their gaze eagerly in the direction of
+the road.
+
+"What now, man?--whom have you challenged?" asked Major
+Blackwater.
+
+"It is I--De Haldimar," hoarsely exclaimed one of four
+dark figures that, hitherto, unnoticed by the officers,
+stood immediately beyond the ditch, with a burden deposited
+at their feet. "Quick, Blackwater, let us in for God's
+sake! Each succeeding minute may bring a scouting party
+on our track. Lower the drawbridge!"
+
+"Impossible!" exclaimed the major: "after all that has
+passed, it is more than my commission is worth to lower
+the bridge without permission. Mr. Lawson, quick to the
+governor, and report that Captain de Haldimar is here:
+with whom shall he say?" again addressing the impatient
+and almost indignant officer.
+
+"With Miss de Haldimar, Francois the Canadian, and one
+to whom we all owe our lives," hurriedly returned the
+officer; "and you may add," he continued gloomily, "the
+corpse of my sister. But while we stand in parley here,
+we are lost: Lawson, fly to my father, and tell him we
+wait for entrance."
+
+With nearly the speed enjoined the adjutant departed.
+Scarcely a minute elapsed when he again stood upon the
+rampart, and advancing closely to the major, whispered
+a few words in his ear.
+
+"Good God! can it be possible? When? How came this? but
+we will enquire later. Open the gate; down with the
+bridge, Leslie," addressing the officer of the guard.
+
+The command was instantly obeyed. The officers flew to
+receive the fugitives; and as the latter crossed the
+drawbridge, the light of a lantern, that had been brought
+from the guard-room, flashed full upon the harassed
+countenances of Captain and Miss de Haldimar, Francois
+the Canadian, and the devoted Oucanasta.
+
+Silent and melancholy was the greeting that took place
+between the parties: the voice spoke not; the hand alone
+was eloquent; but it was in the eloquence of sorrow only
+that it indulged. Pleasure, even in this almost despaired
+of re-union, could not be expressed; and even the eye
+shrank from mutual encounter, as if its very glance at
+such a moment were sacrilege. Recalled to a sense of her
+situation by the preparation of the men to raise the
+bridge, the Indian woman was the first to break the
+silence.
+
+"The Saganaw is safe within his fort, and the girl of
+the pale faces will lay her head upon his bosom," she
+remarked solemnly. "Oucanasta will go to her solitary
+wigwam among the red skins."
+
+The heart of Madeline de Haldimar was oppressed by the
+weight of many griefs; yet she could not see the generous
+preserver of her life, and the rescuer of the body of
+her ill-fated cousin, depart without emotion. Drawing a
+ring, of some value and great beauty, from her finger,
+which she had more than once observed the Indian to
+admire, she placed it on her hand; and then, throwing
+herself on the bosom of the faithful creature, embraced
+her with deep manifestations of affection, but without
+uttering a word.
+
+Oucanasta was sensibly gratified: she raised her large
+eyes to heaven as if in thankfulness; and by the light
+of the lantern, which fell upon her dark but expressive
+countenance, tears were to be seen starting unbidden from
+their source.
+
+Released from the embrace of her, whose life she had
+twice preserved at imminent peril to her own, the Indian
+again prepared to depart; but there was another, who,
+like Madeline, although stricken by many sorrows, could
+not forego the testimony of his heart's gratitude.
+Captain de Haldimar, who, during this short scene, had
+despatched a messenger to his room for the purpose, now
+advanced to the poor girl, bearing a short but elegantly
+mounted dagger, which he begged her to deliver as a token
+of his friendship to the young chief her brother. He then
+dropped on one knee at her feet, and raising her hand,
+pressed it fervently against his heart; an action which,
+even to the untutored mind of the Indian, bore evidence
+only of the feeling that prompted it, A heavy sigh escaped
+her labouring chest; and as the officer now rose and
+quitted her hand, she turned slowly and with dignity from
+him, and crossing the drawbridge, was in a few minutes
+lost in the surrounding gloom.
+
+Our readers have, doubtless, anticipated the communication
+made to Major Blackwater by the Adjutant Lawson. Bowed
+down to the dust by the accomplishment of the curse of
+Ellen Halloway, the inflexibility of Colonel de Haldimar's
+pride was not proof against the utter annihilation wrought
+to his hopes as a father by the unrelenting hatred of
+the enemy his early falsehood and treachery had raised
+up to him. When the adjutant entered his apartment, the
+stony coldness of his cheek attested he had been dead
+some hours.
+
+We pass over the few days of bitter trial that succeeded
+to the restoration of Captain de Haldimar and his bride
+to their friends; days, during which were consigned to
+the same grave the bodies of the governor, his lamented
+children, and the scarcely less regretted Sir Everard
+Valletort. The funeral service was attempted by Captain
+Blessington; but the strong affection of that excellent
+officer, for three of the defunct parties at least, was
+not armed against the trial. He had undertaken a task
+far beyond his strength; and scarcely had commenced, ere
+he was compelled to relinquish the performance of the
+ritual to the adjutant. A large grave had been dug close
+under the rampart, and near the fatal flag-staff, to
+receive the bodies of their deceased friends; and, as
+they were lowered successively into their last earthly
+resting place, tears fell unrestrainedly over the bronzed
+cheeks of the oldest soldiers, while many a female sob
+blended with and gave touching solemnity to the scene.
+
+On the morning of the third day from this quadruple
+interment, notice was given by one of the sentinels that
+an Indian was approaching the fort, making signs as if
+in demand for a parley. The officers, headed by Major
+Blackwater, now become the commandant of the place,
+immediately ascended the rampart, when the stranger was
+at once recognised by Captain de Haldimar for the young
+Ottawa, the preserver of his life, and the avenger of
+the deaths of those they mourned, in whose girdle was
+thrust, in seeming pride, the richly mounted dagger that
+officer had caused to be conveyed to him through his no
+less generous sister. A long conference ensued, in the
+language of the Ottawas, between the parties just named,
+the purport of which was of high moment to the garrison,
+now nearly reduced to the last extremity. The young chief
+had come to apprise them, that, won by the noble conduct
+of the English, on a late occasion, when his warriors
+were wholly in their power, Ponteac had expressed a
+generous determination to conclude a peace with the
+garrison, and henceforth to consider them as his friends.
+This he had publicly declared in a large council of the
+chiefs, held the preceding night; and the motive of the
+Ottawa's coming was, to assure the English, that, on this
+occasion, their great leader was perfectly sincere in a
+resolution, at which he had the more readily arrived,
+now that his terrible coadjutor and vindictive adviser
+was no more. He prepared them for the coming of Ponteac
+and the principal chiefs of the league to demand a council
+on the morrow; and, with this final communication, again
+withdrew.
+
+The Ottawa was right Within a week from that period the
+English were to be seen once more issuing from their
+fort; and, although many months elapsed before the wounds
+of their suffering hearts were healed, still were they
+grateful to Providence for their final preservation from
+a doom that had fallen, without exception, on every
+fortress on the line of frontier in which they lay.
+
+Time rolled on; and, in the course of years, Oucanasta
+might be seen associating with and bearing curious
+presents, the fruits of Indian ingenuity, to the daughters
+of De Haldimar, now become the colonel of the ----
+regiment; while her brother, the chief, instructed his
+sons in the athletic and active exercises peculiar to
+his race. As for poor Ellen Halloway, search had been
+made for her, but she never was heard of afterwards.
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Wacousta (Volume III), by John Richardson
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