nce more into the heart
of the forest, the troops were withdrawn from their formidable
defences, and the gate of the fort again firmly secured.

CHAPTER VII.

While the reader is left to pause over the rapid succession of
incidents resulting from the mysterious entrance of the warrior of the
Fleur de lis into the English fort, be it our task to explain the
circumstances connected with the singular disappearance of Captain de
Haldimar, and the melancholy murder of his unfortunate servant.

It will be recollected that the ill-fated Halloway, in the course of
his defence before the court-martial, distinctly stated the voice of
the individual who had approached his post, calling on the name of
Captain de Haldimar, on the night of the alarm, to have been that of a
female, and that the language in which they subsequently conversed was
that of the Ottawa Indians. This was strictly the fact; and the only
error into which the unfortunate soldier had fallen, had reference
merely to the character and motives of the party. He had naturally
imagined, as he had stated, it was some young female of the village,
whom attachment for his officer had driven to the desperate
determination of seeking an interview; nor was this impression at all
weakened by the subsequent discourse of the parties in the Indian
tongue, with which it was well known most of the Canadians, both male
and female, were more or less conversant. The subject of that short,
low, and hurried conference was, indeed, one that well warranted the
singular intrusion; and, in the declaration of Halloway, we have
already seen the importance and anxiety attached by the young officer
to the communication. Without waiting to repeat the motives assigned
for his departure, and the prayers and expostulations to which he had
recourse to overcome the determination and sense of duty of the
unfortunate sentinel, let us pass at once to the moment when, after
having cleared the ditch, conjointly with his faithful follower, in the
manner already shown, Captain de Haldimar first stood side by side with
his midnight visitant.

The night, it has elsewhere been observed, was clear and starry, so
that objects upon the common, such as the rude stump that here and
there raised its dark low head above the surface, might be dimly seen
in the distance. To obviate the danger of discovery by the sentinels,
appeared to be the first study of the female; for, when Captain de
Haldimar, followed