lloway is fulfilled, and I
am--childless!--Blackwater," he pursued, endeavouring to stifle the
emotion produced by the last reflection, "pay every attention to the
security of the garrison, see that the drawbridge is again properly
chained up, and direct that the duties of the troops be prosecuted in
every way as heretofore."

Leaving his officers to wonder at and pity that apathy of mind that
could mingle the mere forms of duty with the most heart-rending
associations, Colonel de Haldimar now quitted the rampart; and, with a
head that was remarked for the first time to droop over his chest,
paced his way musingly to his apartments.

CHAPTER XIV.

Night had long since drawn her circling mantle over the western
hemisphere; and deeper, far deeper than the gloom of that night was the
despair which filled every bosom of the devoted garrison, whose
fortunes it has fallen to our lot to record. A silence, profound as
that of death, pervaded the ramparts and exterior defences of the
fortress, interrupted only, at long intervals, by the customary "All's
well!" of the several sentinels; which, after the awful events of the
day, seemed to many who now heard it as if uttered in mockery of their
hopelessness of sorrow. The lights within the barracks of the men had
been long since extinguished; and, consigned to a mere repose of limb,
in which the eye and heart shared not, the inferior soldiery pressed
their rude couches with spirits worn out by a succession of painful
excitements, and frames debilitated, by much abstinence and watching.
It was an hour at which sleep was wont to afford them the blessing of a
temporary forgetfulness of endurances that weighed the more heavily as
they were believed to be endless and without fruit; but sleep had now
apparently been banished from all; for the low and confused murmur that
met the ear from the several block-houses was continuous and general,
betraying at times, and in a louder key, words that bore reference to
the tragic occurrences of the day.

The only lights visible in the fort proceeded from the guard-house and
a room adjoining that of the ill-fated Charles de Haldimar. Within the
latter were collected, with the exception of the governor, and grouped
around a bed on which lay one of their companions in a nearly expiring
state, the officers of the garrison, reduced nearly one third in number
since we first offered them to the notice of our readers. The dying man
was Sir Evera