ck-square, the other opening in the
rear, close under the rampart, and communicating by a few rude steps
with the small gate that led upon the sands. In the lower part of this
building, appropriated by the commanding officer to that exclusive
purpose, the official duties of his situation were usually performed;
and on the ground-floor a large room, that extended from front to rear
of the block-house on one side of the passage, had formerly been used
as a hall of council with the Indian chiefs. The floor above this
comprised both his own private apartments and those set apart for the
general use of the family; but, above all, and preferable from their
cheerful view over the lake, were others, which had been reserved for
the exclusive accommodation of Miss de Haldimar. This upper floor
consisted of two sleeping apartments, with a sitting-room, the latter
extending the whole length of the block-house and opening immediately
upon the lake, from the only two windows with which that side of the
building was provided. The principal staircase led into one of the
bed-rooms, and both of the latter communicated immediately with the
sitting-room, which again, in its turn, opened, at the opposite
extremity, on the narrow staircase that led to the rear of the
block-house.

The furniture of this apartment, which might be taken as a fair sample
of the best the country could afford, was wild, yet simple, in the
extreme. Neat rush mats, of an oblong square, and fantastically put
together, so as to exhibit in the weaving of the several coloured reeds
both figures that were known to exist in the creation, and those which
could have no being save in the imagination of their framers, served as
excellent substitutes for carpets, while rush bottomed chairs, the
product of Indian ingenuity also, occupied those intervals around the
room that were unsupplied by the matting. Upon the walls were hung
numerous specimens both of the dress and of the equipments of the
savages, and mingled with these were many natural curiosities, the
gifts of Indian chiefs to the commandant at various periods before the
war.

Nothing could be more unlike the embellishments of a modern European
boudoir than those of this apartment, which had, in some degree, been
made the sanctum of its present occupants. Here was to be seen the
scaly carcass of some huge serpent, extending its now harmless length
from the ceiling to the floor--there an alligator, stuffed after the