officers with the suspicious aspect of the
Indian party and their white captives. As to the tremendous speed the
commandant's boat had made to their rescue,--she blessed anew those
reckless young saints who had plied the oars with such fervent effort,
which, however, could hardly have effected such speed had it not been
too for the swift current running in their favor.

Suddenly the fort came into view--stanch, grim, massive, with the great
red-clay exterior slopes and the sharp points of the high palisades on
the rampart distinct in the blue twilight. It was very different from
the stockaded stations of the early settlers with which she had been
familiar. This fort had been erected by the British government, and was
a work of very considerable strength and admirably calculated for
defensive purposes, not only against the subtle designs of the Indians
but against possible artillery attacks of the French. There were heavy
bastions at the angles and within each a substantial block-house, the
upper story built with projections beyond the lower, that would not only
aid the advantage which the bastions gave of a flanking fire upon an
assailant, but enable a watch to be maintained at all times and from all
quarters upon the base of the wooden stockade on the rampart lest an
enemy passing the glacis should seek to fire the palisades. But this was
in itself well-nigh impracticable. Strong fraises, defending both scarp
and counterscarp, prevented approach. The whole was guarded by twelve
cannon, grimly pointed from embrasures, and very reassuring their black
muzzles looked to one who hoped to ply the arts of peace beneath the
protection of their threat of war. Even the great gates were defended,
being so thickly studded with iron spikes that not an inch of the wood
was left uncovered. They were broadly aflare now, and a trifle in
advance of the sentry at the entrance two officers were standing,
brilliant with their red coats and cocked hats. They were gazing with a
certain curiosity at the boats on the river, for Corporal O'Flynn,
having pressed forward and landed first, had left his men resting on
their oars and taken his way into the presence of his superior officers
to make his report. He had paused for half a dozen words with Hamish
MacLeod as the boat passed the canoe, and when Odalie and the boy, with
a couple of soldiers at either side maintaining the aspect of a guard,
came up the gentle ascent at a slower pace, Captain S