conducted by the governor in person; and this restriction extended even
to the officer of the guard.

Such being the cautious discipline established in the fort, the
appearance of a stranger within its walls at the still hour of midnight
could not fail to be regarded as an extraordinary event, and to excite
an apprehension which could scarcely have been surpassed had a numerous
and armed band of savages suddenly appeared among them. The first
intimation of this fact was given by the violent ringing of an alarm
bell; a rope communicating with which was suspended in the Governor's
apartments, for the purpose of arousing the slumbering soldiers in any
case of pressing emergency. Soon afterwards the Governor himself was
seen to issue from his rooms into the open area of the parade, clad in
his dressing-gown, and bearing a lamp in one hand and a naked sword in
the other. His countenance was pale; and his features, violently
agitated, betrayed a source of alarm which those who were familiar with
his usual haughtiness of manner were ill able to comprehend.

"Which way did he go?--why stand ye here?--follow--pursue him
quickly--let him not escape, on your lives!"

These sentences, hurriedly and impatiently uttered, were addressed to
the two sentinels who, stationed in front of his apartments, had, on
the first sound of alarm from the portentous bell, lowered their
muskets to the charge, and now stood immovable in that position.

"Who does your honour mane?" replied one of the men, startled, yet
bringing his arms to the recover, in salutation of his chief.

"Why, the man--the stranger--the fellow who has just passed you."

"Not a living soul has passed us since our watch commenced, your
honour," observed the second sentinel; "and we have now been here
upwards of an hour."

"Impossible, sirs: ye have been asleep on your posts, or ye must have
seen him. He passed this way, and could not have escaped your
observation had ye been attentive to your duty."

"Well, sure, and your honour knows bist," rejoined the first sentinel;
"but so hilp me St. Patrick, as I have sirved man and boy in your
honour's rigimint this twilve years, not even the fitch of a man has
passed me this blissed night. And here's my comrade, Jack Halford, who
will take his Bible oath to the same, with all due difirince to your
honour."

The pithy reply to this eloquent attempt at exculpation was a brief
"Silence, sirrah, walk about!"

The men brought