s may be supposed, most
affecting. Neither had ever expected, on parting in the morning,
to behold each other; and now, although more or less injured, to
find those who were preserved, as it were, by a miracle from a
cruel death, with a prospect of future happiness, the past was for
the moment forgotten, and gratitude to God for their preservation
the dominant feeling of their souls. The examination of the wounds
of the heroines was the next consideration. Most fortunate was it
that of all the wounds received by the ladies--seven by Mrs. Headley
and three by Mrs. Elmsley--not one was of a nature to disable or
impede the motion of their lower limbs. A ball that had lodged in
her arm, however, gave the former great pain; but, alas! there was
no Von Voltenberg to cut it out. In this extremity, Winnebeg said
he knew an Indian who was very expert at incision, and that he
would procure his attendance.

Meanwhile the party were enabled to partake of some refreshments
which had been ordered on the departure of Winnebeg for his charge;
and exhausted as all had been by intense anxiety and emotion, from
the moment of their setting out almost to the present, this was
truly acceptable, especially to the two officers.

In the course of the repast, allusion was made to the gallantry
and suffering of the unfortunate. Ronayne, when, on Captain Headley
asking, for the first time, what had been done with the body, Lieut.
Elmsley proceeded to relate all that he had heard and witnessed a
few hours previously.

This singular detail excited not only surprise but pain, especially
in Mrs. Headley, whose deep friendship for, and interest in, both
husband and wife had already been so strongly exhibited. It is not
often that, in the hour of our keenest suffering, we have much
sympathy to bestow upon others; but the noble woman had known the
ill-fated Maria too intimately--known her too well--not to feel
deep sorrow for the double affliction under which she labored. In
the confession, if such it can be called, which he had
committed to writing and subsequently transmitted by Wau-nan-gee,
as well as in her wild and unconnected language on the day of the
fatal occurrence itself, she had alluded to something terrible--an
attempt at outrage, but in those vague terms of violated modesty
which left the extent only to be surmised. No one of those who
knew the contents of her communication, had suspected or presumed
the worst, and had it not been for