mpossible!--surely we are not betrayed by our own men."

"The sentinel has been relieved, and is now in irons," resumed the
communicator of this startling piece of intelligence. It was the
adjutant of the regiment.

"Away, gentlemen, to your posts immediately," said Captain Blessington,
who, aided by De Haldimar, hastened to deposit the stiffening body of
the unfortunate Murphy, which they still supported, upon the rampart.
Then addressing the adjutant, "Mr. Lawson, let a couple of files be
sent immediately to remove the body of their officer."

"That shot which I heard from the common, as I approached, was not
fired at random, then, I find," observed the adjutant, as they all now
hastily descended to join their men.--"Who has fallen?"

"Murphy, of the grenadiers," was the reply of one near him.

"Poor fellow! our work commences badly," resumed Mr. Lawson: "Murphy
killed, and Captain de Haldimar missing. We had few officers enough to
spare before, and their loss will be severely felt; I greatly fear,
too, these casualties may have a tendency to discourage the men."

"Nothing more easy than to supply their place, by promoting some of our
oldest sergeants," observed Ensign Delme, who, as well as the ill-fated
Murphy, had risen from the ranks. "If they behave themselves well, the
King will confirm their appointments."

"But my poor brother, what of him, Lawson? what have you learnt
connected with his disappearance?" asked Charles de Haldimar with deep
emotion.

"Nothing satisfactory, I am sorry to say," returned the adjutant; "in
fact, the whole affair is a mystery which no one can unravel; even at
this moment the sentinel, Frank Halloway, who is strongly suspected of
being privy to his disappearance, is undergoing a private examination
by your father the governor."

"Frank Halloway!" repeated the youth with a start of astonishment;
"surely Halloway could never prove a traitor,--and especially to my
brother, whose life he once saved at the peril of his own."

The officers had now gained the parade, when the "Fall in, gentlemen,
fall in," quickly pronounced by Major Blackwater, prevented all further
questioning on the part of the younger De Haldimar.

The scene, though circumscribed in limit, was picturesque in effect,
and might have been happily illustrated by the pencil of the painter.
The immediate area of the parade was filled with armed men, distributed
into three divisions, and forming, with their respecti