om the younger
of the females, as the Indian runner glided by her, unexpectedly, and
led the way along the military road in her front. Though this sudden and
startling movement of the Indian produced no sound from the other, in
the surprise her veil also was allowed to open its folds, and betrayed
an indescribable look of pity, admiration, and horror, as her dark eye
followed the easy motions of the savage. The tresses of this lady were
shining and black, like the plumage of the raven. Her complexion was not
brown, but it rather appeared charged with the color of the rich blood,
that seemed ready to burst its bounds. And yet there was neither
coarseness nor want of shadowing in a countenance that was exquisitely
regular and dignified, and surpassingly beautiful. She smiled, as if in
pity at her own momentary forgetfulness, discovering by the act a row of
teeth that would have shamed the purest ivory; when, replacing the veil,
she bowed her face, and rode in silence, like one whose thoughts were
abstracted from the scene around her.

CHAPTER II.

"Sola, sola, wo, ha, ho, sola!"

SHAKESPEARE.

While one of the lovely beings we have so cursorily presented to the
reader was thus lost in thought, the other quickly recovered from the
alarm which induced the exclamation, and, laughing at her own weakness,
she inquired of the youth who rode by her side,--

"Are such spectres frequent in the woods, Heyward; or is this sight an
especial entertainment on our behalf? If the latter, gratitude must
close our mouths; but if the former, both Cora and I shall have need to
draw largely on that stock of hereditary courage which we boast, even
before we are made to encounter the redoubtable Montcalm."

"Yon Indian is a 'runner' of the army; and, after the fashion of his
people, he may be accounted a hero," returned the officer. "He has
volunteered to guide us to the lake, by a path but little known, sooner
than if we followed the tardy movements of the column: and, by
consequence, more agreeably."

"I like him not," said the lady, shuddering, partly in assumed, yet more
in real terror. "You know him, Duncan, or you would not trust yourself
so freely to his keeping?"

"Say, rather, Alice, that I would not trust you. I do know him, or he
would not have my confidence, and least of all at this moment. He is
said to be a Canadian, too; and yet he served with our friends the
Mohawks, who, as you know, are one of the six all