Again he
sallied from the house, but his emotions of alarm and surprise may
be conceived--not springing from any personal consideration, but
from the certainty he now entertained of the probable fate of his
wife--when, on gaining the exterior, he perceived, not fifty yards
from him, a party of Indians, about twenty in number, some scattered
along the edge of the wood, and others peering cautiously around
the corners of the outbuildings. Although his heart sank within
him at the sight, and the image of his Maria was at the moment
uppermost in his thoughts--stood palpably before him as she looked
at the very moment when she stood first equipped for this most
unfortunate ride--his keen and collected eye could distinguish the
very color of the war paint, for they were in full costume, and
the peculiar decorations that told them to be of their old and
inveterate enemies the Winnebagoes.

There are epochs in life when the thoughts of years crowd upon the
mind in little more than moments. All the past then seems to flash
full upon the recollection, and in such rapid yet distinct succession,
that the only surprise is how the brain can sustain the torturing
and confounding weight. No one incident of the slightest interest
had ever occurred to his wife and himself that Ronayne did not
recall vividly, keenly, even while gazing on those men of blood;
and he suffered anguish of heart, physical as well as mental, which
none can understand who have not experienced that rending asunder
of the soul which follows the loss of that in which the soul alone
lives. Presently, as his quick eye glanced rapidly along the wood,
he saw, to his increasing dismay, Von Voltenberg brought forward
to its edge by two other Indians leading the horse by the bridle.
He was, evidently, a prisoner. Oh, how he strained his eyes with
painful, with agonizing earnestness, to behold her whom he expected
to behold next, and how rapidly rose the feeling of hope and
exultation when he found no second prisoner appear. He now felt
assured that his last chance of recovering the lost one lay in his
pursuing the course he had at first selected. The prospect of
eluding his enemies and gaining that road was poor, for there was
but one way open to him--almost in their very teeth--yet this he
was resolved to try. Death was before him if he hesitated; although,
had he beheld his wife a prisoner, he would rather have shared a
similar fate than abandoned her in her extremity