ng a light.

Willoughby made an involuntary exclamation, when he perceived that the
door of his mother's room was open. He had hoped Maud would have had
the presence of mind to close and lock it; but here he found it,
yawning as if to invite the entrance of enemies. The light within, too,
was extinguished, though, by the aid of the lanterns, he saw large
traces of blood in the ante-room, and the passages he was obliged to
thread. All this hastened his steps. Presently he stood in the chamber
of death.

Short as had been the struggle, the thirst for scalps had led some of
the savages to this sanctuary. The instant the Indians had gained the
court, some of the most ferocious of their number had rushed into the
building, penetrating its recesses in a way to defile them with
slaughter. The first object that Willoughby saw was one of these
ruthless warriors, stretched on the floor, with a living Indian,
bleeding at half a dozen wounds, standing over him; the eye-balls of
the latter were glaring like the tiger's that is suddenly confronted to
a foe. An involuntary motion was made towards the rifle he carried, by
the major; but the next look told him that the living Indian was Nick.
Then it was, that he gazed more steadily about him, and took in all the
horrible truths of that fatal chamber.

Mrs. Willoughby was sealed in the chair where she had last been seen,
perfectly dead. No mark of violence was ever found on her body,
however, and there is no doubt that her constant spirit had followed
that of her husband to the other world, in submission to the blow which
had separated them. Beulah had been shot; not, as was afterwards
ascertained, by any intentional aim, but by one of those random
bullets, of which so many had been flying through the buildings. The
missile had passed through her heart, and she lay pressing the little
Evert to her bosom, with that air of steady and unerring affection
which had marked every act of her innocent and feeling life. The boy
himself, thanks to the tiger-like gallantry of Nick, had escaped
unhurt. The Tuscarora had seen a party of six take the direction of
this chamber, and he followed with an instinct of their intentions.
When the leader entered the room, and found three dead bodies, he
raised a yell that betokened his delight at the prospect of gaining so
many scalps; at the next instant, while his fingers were actually
entwined in the hair of Captain Willoughby, he fell by a blow from
Wy