d her to begin reloading, while he, with the other men
who had now mounted to the platform, kept up the fire. Meantime Captain
Broderick, with Lionel, had entered the fort. Mrs Broderick, who had
been waiting with feelings it would be difficult to describe, seeing her
husband and the young stranger appear at the gate, hurried forward to
meet them. A brief embrace was all Captain Broderick had time to give
his wife, before he, with Rupert and Crawford, climbed up on the
platform, he having scarcely recognised his daughters in their strange
attire. Lionel thought it was his duty to follow them. He was about to
do so, when his eyes met those of the lady approaching him.

"Yes!" he exclaimed, "you must be--I know you are--my mother."

Mrs Broderick threw her arms round his neck, and pressing him to her
heart, kissed him again and again, as she exclaimed, in a voice choking
with emotion, "You are my long-lost Walter: I need no one to tell me
that; I remember every lineament of your countenance."

For the moment, as she clasped her boy in her arms, she heard not the
rattling of the musketry, the shrieks and yells of the assailants, the
shouts of the defenders, the din of battle; every feeling, every sense
was absorbed in contemplating her recovered child. She would scarcely
release him from her embrace to receive the welcome which his sisters,
who now came up, showed their eagerness to give him.

He looked at them with no little astonishment at first, not
comprehending who they were, until they told him that Percy had
persuaded them to dress up in order to deceive the enemy.

"But I must not let the rest be fighting on the walls while I remain
down here in safety," he said at length. "I don't like to leave you,
mother; but while others are exposed to danger, it is a disgrace to me
to keep out of harm's way."

"But, my dear boy, I cannot let you go," exclaimed Mrs Broderick. "You
have only just been restored to me, and the assegais of the cruel Zulus
might reach you on the platform. Percy has sent your sisters down,
which shows that he considers there must be danger."

"The same kind Being who has hitherto preserved me will take care of me
still," answered Lionel; "and my father and my brothers are exposed to
the same peril."

Mrs Broderick had a severe struggle, but his arguments prevailed, and
she at length allowed him to join the defenders on the walls. The Zulus
in the meantime had only retreated beyond m