ed his party, and declaring that nothing short of a supernatural
agency could have transported him unnoticed to the fatal spot, where,
in their advance, they had beheld him murdered. The singular appearance
of Ellen Halloway also, at that moment, on the very bridge on which she
had pronounced her curse on the family of De Haldimar, and in company
with the terrible and mysterious being who had borne her off in triumph
on that occasion to the forest, and under circumstances calculated to
excite the most superstitious impressions, was not without its weight
in determining their rude speculations; and all concurred in opinion,
that the death of the unfortunate young officer was a judgment on their
colonel for the little mercy he had extended to the noble-hearted
Halloway.

Then followed allusion to their captive, whose gigantic stature and
efforts at escape, tremendous even as the latter were, were duly
exaggerated by each, with the very laudable view of claiming a
proportionate share of credit for his own individual exertions; and
many and various were the opinions expressed as to the manner of death
he should be made to suffer. Among the most conspicuous of the orators
were those with whom our readers have already made slight acquaintance
in our account of the sortie by Captain Erskine's company for the
recovery of the supposed body of Frederick de Haldimar. One was for
impaling him alive, and setting him up to rot on the platform above the
gate. Another for blowing him from the muzzle of a twenty-four pounder,
into the centre of the first band of Indians that approached the fort,
that thus perceiving they had lost the strength and sinew of their
cunning war, they might be the more easily induced to propose terms of
peace. A third was of opinion he ought to be chained to the top of the
flag-staff, as a target, to be shot at with arrows only, contriving
never to touch a mortal part. A fourth would have had him tied naked
over the sharp spikes that constituted the chevaux-de-frize garnishing
the sides of the drawbridge. Each devised some new death--proposed some
new torture; but all were of opinion, that simply to be shot, or even
to be hanged, was too merciful a punishment for the wretch who had so
wantonly and inhumanly butchered the kind-hearted, gentle-mannered
officer, whom they had almost all known and loved from his very
boyhood; and they looked forward, with mingled anxiety and vengeance,
to the moment when, summone