ss the country as far as the great
lakes, where the inland sailor sometimes feels that genial influence
which characterizes the winds of the ocean invigorating his frame,
cheering his spirits, and arousing his moral force. Such a day was that
on which the garrison of Oswego assembled to witness what its commander
had jocularly called a "passage of arms." Lundie was a scholar in
military matters at least, and it was one of his sources of honest pride
to direct the reading and thoughts of the young men under his orders
to the more intellectual parts of their profession. For one in his
situation, his library was both good and extensive, and its books were
freely lent to all who desired to use them. Among other whims that had
found their way into the garrison through these means, was a relish for
the sort of amusement in which it was now about to indulge; and around
which some chronicles of the days of chivalry had induced them to
throw a parade and romance not unsuited to the characters and habits of
soldiers, or to the insulated and wild post occupied by this particular
garrison. While so earnestly bent on pleasure, however, they on whom
that duty devolved did not neglect the safety of the garrison. One
standing on the ramparts of the fort, and gazing on the waste of
glittering water that bounded the view all along the northern horizon,
and on the slumbering and seemingly boundless forest which filled the
other half of the panorama, would have fancied the spot the very abode
of peacefulness and security; but Duncan of Lundie too well knew that
the woods might, at any moment, give up their hundreds, bent on
the destruction of the fort and all it contained; and that even the
treacherous lake offered a highway of easy approach by which his more
civilized and scarcely less wily foes, the French, could come upon him
at an unguarded moment. Parties were sent out under old and vigilant
officers, men who cared little for the sports of the day, to scour the
forest; and one entire company held the fort, under arms, with orders
to maintain a vigilance as strict as if an enemy of superior force was
known to be near. With these precautions, the remainder of the officers
and men abandoned themselves, without apprehension, to the business of
the morning.

The spot selected for the sports was a sort of esplanade, a little west
of the fort, and on the immediate bank of the lake. It had been
cleared of its trees and stumps, that it might a