CHAPTER XIV.

If the few weeks preceding the fall of Detroit, had been

characterized by much bustle and excitement, those which

immediately succeeded, were no less remarkable for their

utter inactivity and repose. With the surrender of the

fortress vanished every vestige of hostility in that

remote territory, enabling the sinews of watchfulness to

undergo a relaxation, nor longer requiring the sacrifice

of private interests to the public good. Scarcely had

the American prisoners been despatched to their several

destinations, when General Brock, whose activity and

decision, were subject of universal remark, quitted his

new conquest and again hastened to resume the command on

the Niagara frontier, which he had only left to accomplish

what had been so happily achieved. The Indians, too,

finding their services no longer in immediate demand,

dispersed over the country, or gave themselves up to the

amusement of the chase, ready however to come forward

whenever they should be re-summoned to the conflict;

while the Canadians, who had cheerfully abandoned their

homes to assist in the operations of the war, returned

once more to the cultivation of that soil they had so

recently looked upon as wrested from them for ever.

Throughout the whole line of Detroit, on either shore,

the utmost quietude prevailed; and although many of the

inhabitants of the conquered town, looked with an eye of

national jealousy on the English flag that waved in

security above the Fort, they submitted uncomplainingly

to the change, indulging only in secret, yet without

bitterness, in the hope of a not far distant reaction of

fortune, when their own National Stars should once more

be in the ascendant.

The garrison left at Detroit consisted merely of two

companies-those of Captains Granville and Molineux, which

included among their officers, Middlemore, Villiers and

Henry Grantham. After the first excitement produced in

the minds of the townspeople, by their change of rulers,

had passed away, these young men desirous of society,

sought to renew their intimacy with such of the more

respectable families as they had been in the habit of

associating with prior to hostilities; but although in

most instances they were successful, their reception was

so different from what it had formerly been, (a change

originating not so much in design perhaps as resulting

from a certain irrepressible sense of humiliation, which

gave an air of gene to all their words and actions,) that

they were glad to withdraw themselves altogether within

the rude resources of their own walls. It happened however

about this period that Colonel D'Egville had received a

command to transfer the head of his department from

Amherstburg to Detroit, and, with a view to his own

residence on the spot, the large and commodious mansion

of the late Governor was selected for the abode of his

family. With the daughters of that officer, the D'Egvilles

had long been intimate, and as the former were to continue

under the same roof until their final departure from

Detroit, it was with a mutual satisfaction the friends

found themselves thus closely reunited--Added to this

party were Major Montgomery, (already fast recovering

from the effect of his wound,) and his niece, both of

whom only awaited the entire restoration of the former,

to embark immediately for the nearest American port.

At Colonel D'Egville's, it will therefore be supposed

the officers passed nearly all their leisure hours;

Molineux and Villiers flirting with the fair American

sisters, until they had nearly been held fast by the

chains with which they dallied, and Middlemore uttering

his execrable puns with a coolness of premeditation that

excited the laughter of the fair part of his auditors,

while his companions, on the contrary, expressed their

unmitigated abhorrence in a variety of ways. As for the

somewhat staid Captain Granville, he sought to carry his

homage to the feet of Miss Montgomerie, but the severe

and repellant manner in which she received all his

advances, and the look which almost petrified where it

fell, not only awed him effectually into distance, but

drew down upon him the sarcastic felicitations of his

watchful brother officers. There was one, however, on

whose attentions her disapprobation fell not, and Henry

Grantham, who played the part of an anxious observer,

remarked with pain that HE had been fascinated by her

beauty, in a manner which showed her conquest to be

complete.

The cousins of Gerald Grantham had been in error in

supposing him to be the officer in command of the vessel

on board which the lover of Julia had embarked. His

transfer from the gun boat had taken place, but in

consideration of the fatigue he had undergone during the

three successive days in which he had been employed at

the batteries, the Commodore had directed another officer

to take command of the vessel in question, and charge

himself with the custody of the prisoners on board.

Finding himself at liberty, until the return of the

flotilla from this duty, the first care of Gerald was to

establish himself in lodgings at Detroit, whence he daily

sallied forth to the apartments in the Governor's house,

occupied by the unfortunate Major Montgomerie, in whose

situation he felt an interest so much the more deep and

lively as he knew his confinement to have been in some

degree the work of his own hands. All that attention and

kindness could effect was experienced by the respectable

Major, who, in return found himself growing more and more

attached to his youthful and generous captor. These

constant visits to the uncle naturally brought our hero

more immediately into the society of the niece, but

although he had never been able to banish from his memory

the recollection of one look which she had bestowed upon

him on a former occasion, in almost every interview of

the sort now, she preserved the same cold reserve and

distance which was peculiar to her.

A week had elapsed in this manner, when it chanced that

as they both sat one evening, about dusk, near the couch

of the invalid, the latter, after complaining of extreme

weakness and unusual suffering, expressed his anxiety at

the possibility of his niece being left alone and

unprotected in a strange country.

It was with a beating pulse and a glowing cheek that

Gerald looked up to observe the effect of this observation

on his companion. He was surprised, nay, hurt, to remark

that an expression of almost contemptuous loathing sat

upon her pale but beautiful countenance. He closed his

eyes for a moment in bitterness of disappointment--and

when they again opened and fell upon that countenance,

he scarcely could believe the evidence of his senses.

Every feature had undergone a change. With her face half

turned away, as if to avoid the observation of her uncle,

she now exhibited a cheek flushed with the expression of

passionate excitement, while from her eye beamed that

same unfathomable expression which bad carried intoxication

once before to the inmost soul of the youth. Almost wild

with his feelings, it was with difficulty he restrained

the impulse that would have urged him to her feet; but

even while he hesitated, her countenance had again

undergone a change, and she sat cold and reserved and

colorless as before.

That look sealed, that night, the destiny of Gerald

Grantham. The coldness of the general demeanour of Matilda,

was forgotten in the ardor of character which had escaped

from beneath the evident and habitual disguise; and the

enthusiastic sailor could think of nothing but the witchery

of that look. To his surprise and joy, the following day,

and ever afterwards, he found that the manner of the

American, although reserved as usual with others, had

undergone a complete change towards himself. Whenever he

appeared alone a smile was his welcome, and if others

were present she always contrived to indemnify him for

a coldness he now knew to be assumed, by conveying

unobserved one of those seductive glances the power of

which she seemed so fully to understand.

Such was the state of things when the D'Egvilles arrived.

Exposed to the observations of more than one anxious

friend, it was not likely that a youth of Gerald's open

nature, could be long in concealing his prepossession;

and as Matilda, although usually guarded in her general

manner, was observed sometimes to fix her eyes upon him

with the expression of one immersed in deep and speculative

thought, the suspicion acquired a character of greater

certainty.

To Harry Grantham, who doated upon his brother, this

attachment was a source of infinite disquiet, for, from

the very commencement, Miss Montgomerie had unfavorably

impressed him; why he knew not, yet impelled by a feeling

he was unable to analyze, he deeply lamented that they

had ever become acquainted, infatuated as Gerald appeared

by her attractions. There was another, too, who saw with

regret the attachment of Gerald to his fair prisoner. It

was Gertrude D'Egville, but her uncomplaining voice spoke

not, even to her beloved sister, of the anguish she

endured--she loved her cousin, but he knew it not--and

although she felt that she was fast consuming with the

disappointment that preyed upon her peace, she had obtained

of her sister the promise that the secret should never

reach the ear of its object.

In this manner passed the months of August and September.

October had just commenced, and with it, that beautiful

but brief season which is well known in Canada as the

Indian summer. Anxious to set out on his return to that

home to which his mutilation must confine him for the

future, Major Montgomerie, now sufficiently recovered to

admit of his travelling by water, expressed a desire to

avail himself of the loveliness of the weather, and embark

forthwith on his return.

By the officers whom the hospitality of Colonel D'Egville

almost daily assembled beneath his roof, this announcement

was received with dismay, and especially by Molineux,

and Villiers who had so suffered themselves to be fascinated

by the amiable daughters of General Hull, as to have

found it necessary to hold a consultation (decided however

in the negative.) whether they should, or should not

tempt them to remain, by making an offer of their hands.

It was also observed that these young ladies, who at

first, had been ail anxiety to rejoin their parent,

evinced no particular satisfaction in the intimation of

speedy departure thus given to them. Miss Montgomerie on

the contrary, whose anxiety throughout, to quit Detroit,

had been no less remarkable than her former impatience

to reach it, manifested a pleasure that amounted almost

to exultation: and yet it was observed that by a strange

apparent contradiction, her preference for Gerald from

that moment became more and more divested of disguise.

There are few spots in the world, perhaps, that unite so

many inducements to the formation of those sociable little

reunions which come under the denomination of pic-nics,

as the small islands adorning most of the American rivers.

Owing to the difficulty of procuring summer carriages,

and in some decree to the rudeness of the soil, in the

Upper Province especially, boats are in much more general

use; and excursions on the water, are as common to that

class "whose only toil is pleasure." as cockney trips to

Richmond, or to any other of the thousand and one places

of resort, which have sprung into existence, within twenty

miles of the Metropolis of England. Not confined, however,

to picking daisies for their doxies, as these said cockneys

do, or carving their vulgar names on every magnificent

tree, that spreads its gorgeous arms to afford them the

temporary shelter of a home, the men severally devote

themselves, for a period of the day, to manlier exercises.

The woods, abounding with game, and the rivers with fish

of the most delicate flavor--the address of the hunter

and the fisher, is equally called into action; since upon

their exertions, primarily depend the party for the fish

and fowl portion of their rural dinner. Guns and rods

are, therefore, as indispensable part of the freightage,

as the dried venison and bear hams, huge turkies, pasties,

&c. which together with wines, spirits, and cider ad

libitum, form the mass of alimentary matter; not to forget

the some half dozen old novels, constituting the several

libraries of the females of the party, and collected

together for general amusement on these occasions. Bands,

it is true, they possess not, but they have the music of

their own, and boatmen's voices, and the rippling of the

current over the pebbly shallow, or the impetuous dashing

of some distant waterfall--while on every side the eye

is arrested by images of grandeur, which dispose the

heart to benevolence, towards man, and the soul to

adoration towards the Creator. Here is to be heard,

neither the impertinent coxcombry, of the European self

styled exclusive, nor the unmeaning twaddle of the daughter

of false fashion, spoiled by the example of the said

exclusive, and almost become a dowager in silliness,

before she has attained the first years of womanhood. No

lack-a-daisical voice, the sex of which it is difficult

to distinguish, is attempted to be raised in depreciation

of the party to which it had been esteemed too great an

happiness to be invited, the evening before; nor is the

bride of last week heard boastingly to deplore, the

enormous sums lost within the last week, at the private

gaming table of her dear friend, the Duchess of this, or

the Countess of that. One half of the party address not

the other in doled accents of fashionable friendship, in

one key, and abuse them piteously in another. No sarcastic

allusion seeks to stamp with ridicule, the amusement in

which the utterer is embarked, as if a sense of shame

attached to the idea of being amused, by that which

affords amusement to his associates; nor is the manner

of the actors, that, of people suffering an infliction

rather than participating in a pleasure. The sneer of

contempt--the laugh of derision--is no where to be heard;

neither is the pallid brow, and sunken cheek, the fruit

of late hours and forced excitement to be seen. Content

is in each heart, the flow of health upon each face. All

appear eager to be happy, pleased with each other, and

at ease with themselves. Not that theirs is the enjoyment

of the mere holiday mind, which grasps with undiscerning

avidity, at whatever offers to its gratification, but

that of those, on whom education, acting on innate good

breeding, has imposed a due sense of the courtesies of

life, and on whom fashion has not superseded the kindlier

emotions of nature. These at least WERE traits of

simplicity, peculiar to Upper Canada, at an early period

of its settlement. What they are now, we pretend not to

determine.

Several of these pic-nics had taken place among the party

at Detroit, confined, with one or two exceptions, to the

officers of the garrison, and the family of Colonel

D'Egville, with their American inmates; and it was proposed

by the former, that a final one should be given a few

days prior to the embarkation in Gerald Grantham's new

command, which lay waiting in the river for the purpose.

The Major remaining as hitherto at home, under the

guardianship of the benevolent Mrs. D'Egville, whose

habits of retirement disinclined her to out door amusement.

Hitherto their excursions had been principally directed

to some of the smaller islands, which abound in the river

nearer Amherstburgh, and where game being found in greater

abundance, the skill of the officers had more immediate

opportunity for display; but in this excursion, at the

casual suggestion of Miss Montgomerie, Hog Island was

selected, as the scene of their day's amusement. Thither,

therefore the boat which contained the party now proceeded,

the ladies costumed in a manner to thread the mazes of

the wood, and the gentlemen in equally appropriate gear,

as sportsmen, their guns and fishing rods, being by no

means omitted in the catalogue of orders entrusted to

their servants. In the stern of the boat, the trustworthy

coxswain on this occasion--sat old Sambo, whose skill in

the conduct of a helm, was acknowledged to be little

inferior to his dexterity in the use of a paddle, and

whose authoritative voice, as he issued his commands in

broken English to the boatmen, added in no small degree,

to the exhilaration of the party,

To reach Hog Island, it was necessary to pass by the

tannery and cottage already described, which, latter, it

will be remembered, had been the scene of a singular

adventure to our hero, and his servant on the night of

their reconnoitring the coast, in obedience to the order

of the Commodore. By the extraordinary and almost romantic

incidents of that night, the imagination of Gerald had

been deeply impressed, and on retiring to his rude couch

within the battery he had fully made up his mind to

explore further into the mysterious affair, with as little

delay as possible after the expected fall of the American

fortress. In the hurry, confusion, and excitement, of

that event however, his original intention was forgotten;

or, rather so far delayed, that it was not until the

third or fourth day of his establishment in the town,

that it occurred to him to institute inquiry. He had

accordingly repaired thither, but finding the house

carefully shut up, and totally uninhabited, had contented

himself with questioning the tanner and his family, in

regard to its late inmates, reserving to a future

opportunity the attempt to make himself personally

acquainted with all that it contained. From this man he

learnt, that, the house had once been the property of an

aged Canadian, at whose death (supposed to have been

occasioned by violence,) it had passed into the hands of

an American, who led a roving and adventurous life, being

frequently away for months together, and then returning

with a canoe, but never continuing for more than a night

or two. That latterly it had been wholly deserted by its

owner, in consequence of which it had been taken possession

of, and used as quarters by the officers of the American

guard, stationed at this part of the town, for the

protection of the boats, and as a check upon the incursions

of the Indians. In all this statement, there was every

appearance of truth, but in no part of it did Gerald find

wherewith to elucidate what he himself had witnessed. He

described the costume, and questioned of the mysterious

figure, but the only reply he obtained from the independent

tanner, when he admitted to him that he had been so near

a visitor on that occasion, and had seen what he described,

was an expressed regret that he had not been "wide awake

when any Brittainer ventured to set foot upon his grounds,

otherwise, tarnation seize him with all due respect, if

he wouldn't a stuck an ounce o' lead in the region of

his bread-basket, as quickly as he would tan a hide," a

patriotic sentiment in which it may be supposed our hero

in no way coincided. With the tanners assurance, however,

that no living thing was there at this moment, Gerald

was fain to content himself for the present, fully

resolving to return at another time with Sambo, and effect

a forcible entrance into a place, with which were connected

such striking recollections. He had, however, been too

much interested and occupied elsewhere, to find time to

devote to the purpose.

CHAPTER. XV.

As the boat, which contained the party, pulled by six of

the best oars-men among the soldiers of the Garrison,

and steered, as we have shown, by the dexterous Sambo,

now glided past the spot, the recollections of the

tradition connected with the bridge drew from several of

the party expressions of sympathy and feigned terror, as

their several humours dictated. Remarking that Miss

Montgomerie's attention appeared to be deeply excited by

what she heard, while she gazed earnestly upon the dwelling

in the back ground, Gerald Grantham thought to interest

her yet more, and amuse and startle the rest of the party,

by detailing his extraordinary, and hitherto unrevealed

adventure, on a recent occasion. To this strange tale,

as may naturally be supposed, some of his companions

listened with an air of almost incredulity, nor indeed

would they rest satisfied until Sambo, who kept his eyes

turned steadily away from the shore, and to whom appeal

was frequently made by his master, confirmed his statement

in every particular; and with such marks of revived horror

in his looks, as convinced them, Gerald was not playing

upon their facility of belief. The more incredulous his

brother officers, the more animated had become the sailor

in his description, and, on arriving at that part of his

narrative which detailed the reappearance and reflection

of the mysterious figure in the tipper room, upon the

court below, every one became insensibly fixed in mute

attention. From the moment of his commencing, Miss

Montgomerie had withdrawn her gaze from the land, and

fixing it upon her lover, manifested all the interest he

could desire. Her feelings were evidently touched by what

she heard, for she grew paler as Gerald proceeded, while

her breathing was suspended, as if fearful to lose a

single syllable he uttered. At each more exciting crisis

of the narrative, she betrayed a corresponding intensity

of attention, until at length, when the officer described

his mounting on the water butt, and obtaining a full view

of all within the room, she looked as still and rigid as

if she had been metamorphosed into a statue. This eagerness

of attention, shared as it was, although not to the same

extent perhaps, by the rest of Gerald's auditory, was

only remarkable in Miss Montgomerie, in as much as she

was one of too much mental preoccupation to feel or betray

interest in any thing, and it might have been the risk

encountered by her lover, and the share he had borne in

the mysterious occurrence, that now caused her to lapse

from her wonted inaccessibility to impressions of the

sort. As the climax of the narrative approached, her

interest became deeper, and her absorption more profound.

An involuntary shudder passed over her form, and a slight

contraction of the nerves of her face was perceptible,

when Gerald described to his attentive and shocked

auditory, the raising of the arm of the assassin; and

her emotion at length assumed such a character of

nervousness, that when he exultingly told of the rapid

discharge of his own pistol, as having been the only

means of averting the fate of the doomed, she could not

refrain from rising suddenly in the boat, and putting

her hand to her side, with the shrinking movement of one

who had been suddenly wounded.

While in the act of rising she had drawn the cloak with

which, like the other ladies, she was provided more

closely over her shoulders--Sambo seemed to have caught

some new idea from this action, for furtively touching

Henry Grantham, who sat immediately before him, and on

the right of Miss Montgomerie, he leaned forward and

whispered a few sentences in his ear.

Meanwhile Miss Montgomerie was not a little rallied on

the extreme susceptibility which had led her as it were

to identify herself with the scene. Gerald remarked that

on recovering her presence of mind, she at first looked

as if she fancied herself the subject of sarcasm, and

would have resented the liberty; but finding there was

nothing pointed in the manner of those who addressed her,

finished by joining, yet with some appearance of constraint,

in the laugh against herself.

"I confess," she said coloring, "that the strange incident

which Mr. Grantham has related, and which he has so well

described, has caused me to be guilty of a ridiculous

emotion. I am not usually startled into the expression

of strong feeling, but there was so much to excite and

surprise in his catastrophe that I could not avoid in

some measure identifying myself with the scene."

"Nay, Miss Montgomerie," remarked Julia D'Egville, "there

can be no reason why such emotion should either be

disavowed or termed ridiculous. For my part, I own that

cannot sufficiently express my horror of the wretch who

could thus deliberately attempt the life of another. How

lucky was it Gerald that you arrived at that critical

moment; but have you no idea--not the slightest--of the

person of the assassin or of his intended victim?"

"Not the slightest--the disguise of the person was too

effectual to be penetrated, and the face I had not once

an opportunity of beholding."

"Yet," observed Miss Montgomerie, "from your previous

description of the figure, it is by no means a matter of

certainty that it was not a woman you pursued, instead

of a man--or, was there any thing to betray the vacillation

of purpose which would naturally attend one of our sex

in an enterprize of the kind."

"What! a woman engage in so unnatural a deed," remarked

Henry Grantham--"surely Miss Montgomerie," for he always

spoke rather AT, than TO her "cannot seek to maintain a

supposition so opposed to all probability--neither will

she be so unjust towards herself as to admit the existence

of such monstrous guilt in the heart of another of her

sex."

"Impossible," said Gerald. "Whatever might have been my

impression when I first saw the figure in the merchantman

--that is to say, if I had then a doubt in regard to the

sex, it was entirely removed, when later I beheld the

unfaltering energy with which it entered upon its murderous

purpose. The hand of woman never could have been armed

with such fierce and unflinching determination as was

that hand."

"The emergency of the occasion, it would seem, did not

much interfere with your study of character," again

observed Miss Montgomerie, with a faint smile--"but you

say you fired--was it--with intent to kill the killer?"

"I scarcely know with what intent myself; but if I can

rightly understand my own impulse, it was more with a

view to divert him from his deadly object, than to slay

--and this impression acquires strength from the fact of

my having missed him--I am almost sorry now that I did."

"Perhaps," said Miss Montgomerie, "you might have slain

one worthier than him you sought to save. As one of your

oldest poets sings--'whatever it is right.--"

"What!" exclaimed the younger Grantham with emphasis "Can

Miss Montgomerie then form any idea of the persons who

figured in that scene?"

Most of the party looked at the questioner with surprise.

Gerald frowned, and, for the first time in his life,

entertained a feeling of anger against his brother. In

no way moved or piqued by the demand, Miss Montgomerie

calmly replied.

"I can see no just reason for such inference, Mr. Grantham;

I merely stated a case of possibility, without anything

which can refer to the merit of either of the parties."

Henry Grantham felt that he was rebuked--but although he

could not avoid something like an apologetical explanation

of his remark, he was not the more favorably disposed

towards her who had forced it from him. In this feeling

he was confirmed by the annoyance he felt at having been

visited by the anger of the brother to whom he was so

attached. Arrived at Hog Island, and equipped with their

guns and fishing rods, the gentlemen dispersed in quest

of game, some threading the mazes of the wood in pursuit

of the various birds that frequent the vicinity, the

others seeking these points of the island where the dense

foliage affords a shade to the numerous delicately

flavoured fish, which, luxuriating in the still deep

water, seek relief from the heat of summer. To these

latter sportsmen, the ladies of the party principally

attached themselves, quitting them only at intervals to

collect pebbles on the sands, or to saunter about the

wood, in search of the wild flowers or fruits that abounded

along its skirt, while the servants busied themselves in

erecting the marquee and making preparation for dinner.

Among those who went in pursuit of game were the Granthams,

who, like most Canadians, were not only excellent shots,

but much given to a sport in which they had had considerable

practice in early boyhood. For a short time they had

continued with their, companions, but as the wood became

thicker, and their object consequently more attainable

by dispersion, they took a course parallel with the point

at which the fishers had assembled, while their companions

continued to move in an opposite direction. There was an

unusual reserve in the manner of the brothers as they

now wound through the intricacies of the wood. Each

appeared to feel that the other had given him cause for

displeasure and each--unwilling to introduce the subject

most at his heart--availed himself with avidity rather

of the several opportunities which the starting of the

game afforded for conversation of a general nature. They

had gone on in this manner for some time, and having been

tolerably successful in their sport were meditating their

return to the party on the beach, when the ear of Gerald

was arrested by the drumming of a partridge at a short

distance. Glancing his quick eye in the direction whence

the sound came, he beheld a remarkably fine bird, which

while continuing to beat its wings violently against the

fallen tree on which it was perched, had its neck

outstretched and its gaze intently fixed on some object

below. Tempted by the size and beauty of the bird Gerald

fired and it fell to the earth. He advanced, stooped,

and was in the act of picking it up, when a sharp and

well known rattle was heard to issue from beneath the

log. The warning was sufficient to save him had he

consented even for an instant to forego his prize, but

accustomed to meet with these reptiles on almost every

excursion of the kind, and never having sustained any

injury from them, he persevered in disengaging the

partridge from some briers with which, in falling, it

had got entangled. Before he could again raise himself

an enormous rattlesnake had darted upon him, and stung

with rage perhaps at being deprived of its victim, had

severely bitten him above the left wrist. The instantaneous

pang that darted throughout the whole limb caused Gerald

to utter an exclamation, and dropping the bird, he sank

almost fainting on the log whence his enemy had attacked

him.

The cry of agony reached, Henry Grantham, as he was

carelessly awaiting his brother's return, and at once

forgetting their temporary estrangement, and full of

eager love and apprehension--he flew to ascertain the

nature of the injury. To his surprise and horror he

remarked that, although not a minute had elapsed since

the fangs of the reptile had penetrated into the flesh,

the arm was already considerably inflamed and exhibiting

then a dark and discolored hue. That a remedy was at

hand he knew, but what it was, and how to be applied he

was not aware, the Indians alone being in possession of

the secret. Deeming that Sambo might have some knowledge

of the kind, he now made the woods echo with the sound

of his name, in a manner that could not fail to startle

and alarm the whole of the scattered party. Soon afterwards

the rustling, of forms was heard in various directions,

as they forced themselves through the underwood, and the

first who came in sight was Miss Montgomerie, preceded

by the old negro. The lamentation of the latter was

intense and when on approaching his young master, he

discovered the true nature of his accident and confessed

his ignorance of all remedy, he burst into tears, and

throwing himself upon the earth tore his gray woollen

hair away, regardless of all entreaty on the part of

Gerald to moderate his grief. Miss Montgomerie now came

forward, and never did sounds of melody fall so harmoniously

on the ear, as did her voice on that of the younger

Grantham as she pledged herself to the cure, on their

instant return to the spot where the marquee had been

erected. With this promise she again disappeared, and

several others of the party having now joined them,

Gerald, duly supported, once more slowly retraced his

way to the same point.

"Damn him pattridge" muttered Sambo, who lingered a moment

or two in the rear to harness himself with the apparatus

of which his master had disencumbered his person. "Damn

him pattridge" and he kicked the lifeless bird indignantly

with his foot "you all e cause e dis; what e hell e do

here?"

This tirade however against the partridge did not by any

means prevent the utterer from eventually consigning it

to its proper destination in the game bag as the noblest

specimen of the day's sport, and thus burthened he issued

from the wood, nearly at the same moment with the wounded

Gerald and his friends.

The consternation of all parties on witnessing the disaster

of the sailor, whose arm had already been swollen to a

fearful size, while the wound itself began to assume an

appearance of mortification, was strongly contrasted with

the calm silence of Miss Montgomerie, who was busily

employed in stirring certain herbs which she was boiling

over the fire that had been kindled in the distance for

the preparation of the dinner. The sleeve of the sufferer's

shooting jacket had been ripped to the shoulder by his

brother and as he now sat on a pile of cloaks within the

marquee, the rapid discoloration of the white skin, could

be distinctly traced, marking as it did the progress of

the deadly poison towards the vital portion of the system.

In this trying emergency all eyes were turned with anxiety

on the slightest movement of her who had undertaken the

cure, and none more eagerly than those of Henry Grantham

and Gertrude D'Egville, the latter of whom, gentle even

as she was, could not but acknowledge pang of regret that

to another, and that other a favored rival--should be

the task of alleviating the anguish and preserving the

life of the only man she had ever loved.

At length Miss Montgomerie came forward; and never was

beneficent angel more hailed than did Henry Grantham hail

her, whom scarcely an hour since he had looked upon with

aversion, when with a countenance of unwonted paleness

but confident of success, she advanced towards the opening

of the marquee, to which interest in the sufferer had

drawn even the domestics. All made way for her approach.

Kneeling at the side of Gerald, and depositing the vessel

in which she had mixed her preparation, she took the

wounded arm in her own fair hands with the view, it was

supposed, of holding it while another applied the remedy.

Scarcely however had she secured it in a firm grasp when,

to the surprise and consternation of all around, she

applied her own lips to the wound and continued them

then; in despite of the efforts of Gerald to withdraw

his arm, nor was it until there was already a visible

reduction in the size, and change in the color of the

limb that she removed them. This done she arose and

retired to the skirt of the wood whence she again returned

in less than a minute. Even in the short time that had

elapsed, the arm of the sufferer had experienced an almost

miraculous change. The inflammation had greatly subsided,

while the discoloration had retired to the immediate

vicinity of the wound, which in its turn however had

assumed a more virulent appearance. From this it was

evident that the suction had been the means of recalling,

to the neighbourhood of the injury, such portions of the

poison as had expanded, concentrating all in one mass

immediately beneath its surface, and thereby affording

fuller exposure to the action of the final remedy. This

consisting of certain herbs of a dark colour, and spread

at her direction by the trembling hands of Gertrude, on

her white handkerchief--Miss Montgomerie now proceeded

to apply, covering a considerable portion around the

orifice of the two small wounds, inflicted by the fangs

of the serpent, with the dense mass of the vegetable

preparation. The relief produced by this was effectual,

and in less than an hour, so completely had the poison

been extracted, and the strength of the arm restored,

that Gerald was enabled not merely to resume his shooting

jacket, but to partake, although sparingly, of the meal

which followed.

It may be presumed that the bold action of Miss Montgomerie

passed not without the applause it so highly merited,

yet even while applauding, there were some of the party,

and particularly Henry Grantham, who regarded it with

feelings not wholly untinctured with the unpleasant. Her

countenance and figure, as she stood in the midst of the

forest, preparing the embrocation, so well harmonizing

with the scene and occupation; the avidity with which

she sucked the open wound of the sufferer, and the fearless

manner in which she imbibed that which was considered

death to others; all this, combined with a general

demeanour in which predominated a reserve deeply shaded

with mystery, threw over the actor and the action, an

air of the preternatural, occasioning more of surprise

and awe than prepossession. Such, especially, as we have

said, was the impression momentarily, produced on Henry

Grantham; but when he beheld his brother's eye and cheek

once more beaming with returning strength and health, he

saw in her but the generous preserver of that brother's

life to whom his own boundless debt of gratitude was due.

It was at this moment that, in the course of conversation

on the subject, Captain Molineux inquired of Miss

Montgomerie, what antidote she possessed against the

influence of the poison. Every eye was turned upon her

as she vaguely answered, a smile of peculiar meaning

playing over her lips, that "Captain Molineux must be

satisfied with knowing she bore a charmed life." Then

again it was that the young soldier's feelings underwent

another reaction, and as he caught the words and look

which accompanied them, he scarcely could persuade himself

she was not the almost vampire and sorceress that his

excited imagination had represented.

Not the least deeply interested in the events of the

morning, was the old negro. During their meal, at the

service of which he assisted, his eyes scarcely quitted

her whom be appeared to regard with a mingled feeling of

awe and adoration; nay, such was his abstraction that,

in attempting to place a dish of game on the rude table

at which the party sat, he lodged the whole of the contents

in the lap of Middlemore, a gaucherie that drew from the

latter an exclamation of horror, followed however the

instant afterwards by Sambo's apology.

"I beg a pardon Massa Middlemore," he exclaimed, "I let

him fall e gravey in e lap."

"Then will you by some means contrive to lap it up,"

returned the officer quaintly.

Sambo applied his napkin, and the dinner proceeded without

other occurrence. Owing to an apprehension that the night

air might tend to renew the inflammation of the wounded

arm, the boat was early in readiness for the return of

the party, whose day of pleasure had been in some manner

tamed into a day of mourning, so that long before sun

set, they had again reached their respective homes at

Detroit.

END OF VOLUME I.