courageous lad, who was not more than
fourteen.

When they brought him in, the stolid little Englishman, who was entirely
unhurt, was much astonished at the praises he received from those he
considered deadly enemies.

The English did not renew their attack, but at once began preparations
for retreat to their ships. And there was good reason, for the actual
fighting had only lasted twenty-five minutes, and they had twenty-six
hundred men killed, wounded or prisoners, while the American loss was
just seventeen.

General Packenham, the English commander, General Gibbs, Colonel Keene
and Colonel Dale, among the leaders, all lost their lives in that fatal
assault.

And the worst of it all was that the battle was fought after a treaty of
peace had been made between England and the United States. But there was
no means of knowing that, as there would be in these days of steam and
electricity.

That night Eph had the guard in his battery, for vigilance was not
relaxed, as the enemy, though beaten, had not yet retired entirely, and
he was pacing up and down the parapet, and wishing he could go to sleep,
after all the long excitement and labor, when he heard a challenge of a
sentinel at the rear, and soon a written order was brought by an
orderly, directing him to report at headquarters on the following day at
ten o'clock.

This official notice made him uneasy, but he did not know anything wrong
which he had done, and he knew he had served his guns well. So, when the
time came for him to be relieved, he quietly lay down and slept the
sleep of a tired boy, until roused for the rough camp breakfast.

At the appointed time he went to the headquarters in a plantation-house
in the rear of the lines, and reported himself.

An aid-de-camp came out and said:

"General Jackson wants to see you."

Without a word, but with much inward perturbation, Eph followed the
officer into the room, where a large, rawboned man, with hair standing
straight up from his scalp, and clad in general's uniform and high
boots, was sitting at a table filled with papers.

Several officers were standing about the room, and Eph recognized
General Villere and one or two others he had seen before.

The general looked up sharply from his writing--he had a piercing
gray-blue eye--and said:

"My lad, you have been much commended for your conduct. You are an
American?"

"Yes, sir. I did not go to Lafitte's place of my own accord; but when I
saw that