y
assembled, passed without deigning to look at him, and so close, their
forms almost touched. Captain de Haldimar now quickened his pace. It
was evident there was no time to be lost; for Wacousta, on finding him
gone, would at once give the alarm, when a hundred warriors would be
ready on the instant to intercept his flight. Taking the precaution to
disguise his walk by turning in his toes after the Indian manner, he
reached, with a beating heart, the first of the numerous warriors who
were collected within the belt of forest, anxiously watching the
movements of the detachment in the plain below. To his infinite joy he
found that each was too much intent on what was passing in the
distance, to heed any thing going on near themselves; and when he at
length gained the extreme opening, and stood in a line with those who
were the farthest advanced, without having excited a single suspicion
in his course, he could scarcely believe the evidence of his senses.

Still the most difficult part of the enterprise remained to be
completed. Hitherto he had moved under the friendly cover of the
underwood, the advantage of which had been to conceal that part of his
regimental trousers which the blanket left exposed; and if he moved
forward into the clearing, the quick glance of an Indian would not be
slow in detecting the difference between these and his own ruder
leggings. There was no alternative now but to commence his flight from
the spot on which he stood; and for this he prepared himself. At one
rapid and comprehensive view he embraced the immediate localities
before him. On the other side of the ravine he could now distinctly see
the English troops, either planning, as he conceived, their own attack,
or waiting in the hope of drawing the Indians from their cover. It was
evident that to reach them the ravine must be crossed, unless the more
circuitous route by the bridge, which was hid from his view by an
intervening hillock, should be preferred; but as the former had been
cleared by Wacousta in his ascent, and was the nearest point by which
the detachment could be approached, to this did he now direct his
undivided attention.

While he yet paused with indecision, at one moment fancying the time
for starting was not yet arrived, and at the next that he had suffered
it to pass away, the powerful and threatening voice of Wacousta was
heard proclaiming the escape of his captive. Low but expressive
exclamations from the warriors m