ement you have given, they must have been liberated by the
young Ottawa before he came to me; yet, what could have induced them to
have taken a course of flight so opposite to that which promised their
only chance of safety?"

"Heaven only knows," returned Captain Blessington. "I fear they have
again been recaptured by the savages; in which case their doom is
scarcely doubtful; unless, indeed, our prisoner of last night be given
up in exchange for them."

"Then will their liberty be purchased at a terrible price," remarked
the baronet. "Will you believe, Blessington, that that man, whose
enmity to our colonel seems almost devilish, was once an officer in
this very regiment?"

"You astonish me, Valletort.--Impossible! and yet it has always been
apparent to me they were once associates."

"I heard him relate his history only last night to Clara, whom he had
the audacity to sully with proposals to become his bride," pursued the
baronet. "His tale was a most extraordinary one. He narrated it,
however, only up to the period when the life of De Haldimar was
attempted by him at Quebec. But with his subsequent history we are all
acquainted, through the fame of his bloody atrocities in all the posts
that have fallen into the hands of Ponteac. That man, savage and even
fiendish as he now is, was once possessed of the noblest qualities. I
am sorry to say it; but Colonel de Haldimar has brought this present
affliction upon himself. At some future period I will tell you all."

"Alas!" said Captain Blessington, "poor Charles, then, has been made to
pay the penalty of his father's errors; and, certainly, the greatest of
these was his dooming the unfortunate Halloway to death in the manner
he did."

"What think you of the fact of Halloway being the nephew of this
extraordinary man, and both of high family?" demanded Sir Everard.

"Indeed! and was the latter, then, aware of the connection?"

"Not until last night," replied Sir Everard. "Some observations made by
the wretched wife of Halloway, in the course of which she named his
true name, (which was that of the warrior also,) first indicated the
fact to the latter. But, what became of that unfortunate creature?--was
she brought in?"

"I understand not," said Captain Blessington. "In the confusion and
hurry of securing our prisoner, and the apprehension of immediate
attack from his warriors, Ellen was entirely overlooked. Some of my men
say they left her lying, insensible, on