The delay occasioned by the chase and
recovery of the ball had given the Indians time to approach the gates
in a body, while the unsuspicious soldiery looked on without so much as
dreaming to prevent them; and Captain Baynton had scarcely moved
forward in execution of his purpose, when the yelling fiends were seen
already possessing themselves of the drawbridge, and exhibiting every
appearance of fierce hostility. Wild, maddened at the sight, the almost
frantic Madeline, alive only to her father's danger, rushed back
towards the council-room, whence the startling yell from without had
already been echoed, and where the tramp of feet, and the clashing of
weapons, were distinguishable.

Cut off from his guard, by the rapid inundation of warriors, Captain
Baynton had at once seen the futility of all attempts to join the men,
and his first impression evidently had been to devote himself to the
preservation of the cousins. With this view he turned hastily to Miss
de Haldimar, and hurriedly naming the back staircase of the
block-house, urged her to direct her flight to that quarter. But the
excited girl had neither consideration nor fear for herself; she
thought only of her father: and, even while the fierceness of contest
was at its height within, she suddenly burst into the council-room. The
confusion and horror of the scene that met her eyes no language can
render: blood was flowing in every direction, and dying and dead
officers, already stripped of their scalps, were lying strewed about
the room. Still the survivors fought with all the obstinacy of despair,
and many of the Indians had shared the fate of their victims. Miss de
Haldimar attempted to reach her father, then vigorously combating with
one of the most desperate of the chiefs; but, before she could dart
through the intervening crowd, a savage seized her by the hair, and
brandished a tomahawk rapidly over her neck. At that moment Captain
Baynton sent his glittering blade deep into the heart of the Indian,
who, relinquishing his grasp, fell dead at the feet of his intended
victim. The devoted officer then threw his left arm round her waist,
and, parrying with his sword-arm the blows of those who sought to
intercept his flight, dragged his reluctant burden towards the door.
Hotly pressed by the remaining officers, nearly equal in number, the
Indians were now compelled to turn and defend themselves in front, when
Captain Baynton took that opportunity of getting once