heavy chains
rattled sullenly through the rusty pulleys, and to each the bridge
seemed an hour descending. Before it had reached its level, it was
covered with the weight of many armed men rushing confusedly to the
front; and the foremost of these leaped to the earth before it had sunk
into its customary bed. Sir Everard Valletort and Lieutenant Johnstone
were in the front, both armed with their rifles, which had been brought
them before Wacousta commenced his descent. Without order or
combination, Erskine, Blessington, and nearly half of their respective
companies, followed as they could; and dispersing as they advanced,
sought only which could outstep his fellows in the pursuit.

Meanwhile the fugitive, assisted in his fall by the gradual rending
asunder of the staff, had obeyed the impulsion first given to his
active form, until, suddenly checking himself by the rope, he dropped
with his feet downward into the centre of the ditch. For a moment he
disappeared, then came again uninjured to the surface; and in the face
of more than fifty men, who, lining the rampart with their muskets
levelled to take him at advantage the instant he should reappear,
seemed to laugh their efforts to scorn. Holding Clara before him as a
shield, through which the bullets of his enemies must pass before they
could attain him, he impelled his gigantic form with a backward
movement towards the opposite bank, which he rapidly ascended; and,
still fronting his enemies, commenced his flight in that manner with a
speed which (considering the additional weight of the drenched garments
of both) was inconceivable. The course taken by him was not through the
town, but circuitously across the common until he arrived on that
immediate line whence, as we have before stated, the bridge was
distinctly visible from the rampart; on which, nearly the whole of the
remaining troops, in defiance of the presence of their austere chief,
were now eagerly assembled, watching, with unspeakable interest, the
progress of the chase.

Desperate as were the exertions of Wacousta, who evidently continued
this mode of flight from a conviction that the instant his person was
left exposed the fire-arms of his pursuers would be brought to bear
upon him, the two officers in front, animated by the most extraordinary
exertions, were rapidly gaining upon him. Already was one within fifty
yards of him, when a loud yell was heard from the bridge. This was
fiercely answered by the