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 w