ity of her
new situation.

At the time of which we are writing, Oswego was one of the extreme
frontier posts of the British possessions on this continent. It had
not been long occupied, and was garrisoned by a battalion of a regiment
which had been originally Scotch, but into which many Americans had been
received since its arrival in this country; all innovation that had led
the way to Mabel's father filling the humble but responsible situation
of the oldest sergeant. A few young officers also, who were natives of
the colonies, were to be found in the corps. The fort itself, like
most works of that character, was better adapted to resist an attack of
savages than to withstand a regular siege; but the great difficulty
of transporting heavy artillery and other necessaries rendered the
occurrence of the latter a probability so remote as scarcely to enter
into the estimate of the engineers who had planned the defences. There
were bastions of earth and logs, a dry ditch, a stockade, a parade of
considerable extent, and barracks of logs, that answered the double
purpose of dwellings and fortifications. A few light field-pieces stood
in the area of the fort, ready to be conveyed to any point where they
might be wanted, and one or two heavy iron guns looked out from the
summits of the advanced angles, as so many admonitions to the audacious
to respect their power.

When Mabel, quitting the convenient, but comparatively retired hut where
her father had been permitted to place her, issued into the pure air
of the morning, she found herself at the foot of a bastion, which lay
invitingly before her, with a promise of giving a _coup d'oeil_ of all
that had been concealed in the darkness of the preceding night. Tripping
up the grassy ascent, the light-hearted as well as light-footed girl
found herself at once on a point where the sight, at a few varying
glances, could take in all the external novelties of her new situation.

To the southward lay the forest, through which she had been journeying
so many weary days, and which had proved so full of dangers. It was
separated from the stockade by a belt of open land, that had been
principally cleared of its woods to form the martial constructions
around her. This glacis, for such in fact was its military uses, might
have covered a hundred acres; but with it every sign of civilization
ceased. All beyond was forest; that dense, interminable forest which
Mabel could now picture to hersel