, rushed terrified to the river, unmoored their
boats and fled across. Hosts of women, whose husbands were absent in
the forest, came with their children, imploring to be taken to the
other side. The remainder of the day was occupied in this work, and at
the close of it, most of those living in the Dubois settlement had
been safely landed on the southern shore; and there they stood huddled
together in horror-stricken groups, on the highest points they could
reach, watching the terrible, yet majestic scene.

Mr. Somers had been occupied in this way all the afternoon and was
greatly exhausted. As the darkness of night shut down upon the scene,
he landed a party of women and children, who rushed up, precipitately,
to join those who had crossed before. He had handed the last passenger
over the edge of the boat, when a sudden faintness, produced by the
excessive heat and fatigue, overpowered him. He tottered backward and
fell, striking his head violently upon some object in the bottom of
the boat. It was a deathblow.

There he lay, with face upturned towards the lurid glare that lit up
the darkness. The boat nestled about in the little cove, rocked upon
the waves, presenting the pale countenance, now half in shadow, now
wholly concealed by the overhanging shrubs, and now in full relief,
but always with a sweet, radiant, immovable calm upon the features, in
strange contrast to the elemental roar and tumult around him.

In the mean time, the fires drew nearer and nearer the northern bank
of the river. A strong breeze sprang up and immense columns of smoke
mounted to the sky. Then came showers of ashes, cinders and burning
brands. At last, a tornado, terrible in fury, arose to mingle its
horrors with the fire. Thunderbolt on thunderbolt, crash on crash rent
the air. At intervals of momentary lull in the storm, the roar of the
flames was heard. Rapidly advancing, they shot fiery tongues into
every beast lair of the forest, into every serpent-haunted crevice of
the rock, sending forth their denizens bellowing and writhing with
anguish and death; onward still they rushed licking up with hissing
sound every rivulet and shallow pond, twisting and coiling round the
glorious pines, that had battled the winds and tempests hundreds of
years, but now to be snapped and demolished by this new enemy.

With breathless interest, the inhabitants of the settlement watched
the progress of the flames. The hamlet where they lived was situated