his own child doesn't feel, Jamie, all the same as one who fights on a general principle, as it might be."

Na-ye're right, sairjeant J'yce, and ye'll be doing the kind and prudent act to gang doon yersal', and investigate the trainsaction with yer ain een.'

This Joyce determined to do, directing Nick to accompany him as a guide. The Indian seemed glad to comply, and there was no delay in proceeding. It required but a minute to reach the narrow passage between the cliff and the lean-to. The bushes were carefully shoved asiend Joyce entered. He soon caught a glimpse of the hunting-shirt, ad then he was about to withdraw, believing that he was in error in anticipating orders. But a short look at his commander removed all scruples; for he observed that he was seated on a projection of the rocks, with his body bowed forward, apparently leaning on the logs of the building. This seemed to corroborate the thought about a fit, and the serjeant pressed eagerly forward to ascertain the truth.

Joyce touched his commander's arm, but no sign of consciousness came from the latter. He then raised his body upright, placing the back in a reclining attitude against the rocks, and started back himself when he caught a glimpse of the death-like hue of the face. At first, the notion of the fit was strong with the serjeant; but, in changing his own position, he caught a glimpse of a little pool of blood, which at once announced that violence had been used.

Although the serjeant was a man of great steadiness of nerves and unchangeable method, he fairly trembled as he ascertained the serious condition of his old and well-beloved commander. Notwithstanding, he was too much of a soldier to neglect anything that circumstances required. On examination he discovered a deep and fatal wound between two of the ribs, which had evidently been inflicted with a common knife. The blow had passed into the heart, and Captain Willoughby was, out of all question, dead! He had breathed his last within six feet of his own gallant son, who, ignorant of all that passed, was little dreaming of the proximity of one so dear to him, as well of his dire condition.

Joyce was a man of powerful frame, and, at that moment, he felt he was master of a giant's strength. First assuring himself of the fact that the wounded man had certainly ceased to breathe, he brought the arms over his own shoulders, raised the body on his back, and walked from the place, with less attention to caution than on entering, but with sufficient care to prevent exposure. Nick stood watching his movements with a wondering look, and as soon as there was room, he aided in supporting the

corpse.

In this manner the two went up the path, bearing their senseless burden. A gesture directed the party with Jamie to precede the two who had been below, and the serjeant did not pause even to breathe until he had fairly reached the summit of the cliff; then he halted in a place removed from the danger of immediate discovery. The body was laid reverently on the ground, and

Joyce renewed his examination with greater ease and accuracy, until perfectly satisfied that the captain must have ceased to breathe nearly an hour.

This was a sad and fearful blow to the whole party. No one, at such a moment, thought of inquiring into the manner in which their excellent master had received his death-blow; but every thought was bent either on the extent of the calamity or on the means of getting back to the Hut. Joyce was the soul of the party. His rugged face assumed a stern commanding expression; but every sign of weakness had disappeared. He gave his orders promptly; and the men even started when he spoke, so bent on obtaining obedience did he appear to be.

The rifles were converted into a bier, the body was placed upon it, and the four men then raised the burthen, and began to retrace their footsteps in melancholy silence. Nick led the way, pointing out the difficulties of the path with a sedulousness of attention and a gentleness of manner that none present had ever before witnessed in the Tuscarora. He even appeared to have become woman-to use one of his own peculiar expressions.

No one speaking, and all the men working with good will, the retreat, notwithstanding the burthen with which it was encumbered, was made with a rapidity greatly exceeding the advance. Nick led the way with an unerring eye, even selecting better ground than that which the white men had been able to find on their march. He had often traversed all the hills in the character of a hunter, and to him the avenues of the forest were as familiar as the streets of his native town become to the burgher. He made no offer to become one of the bearers; this would have been opposed to his habits; but in all else the Indian manifested gentleness and solicitude. His apprehension seemed to be, and so he expressed it, that the Mohawks might get the scalp of the dead man-a disgrace that he seemed as solicitous to avoid as Joyce himself; the serjeant, however, keeping in view the feelings of the survivors rather than any notions of military pride.

Notwithstanding the stern resolution that prevailed among the men, that return march was long and weary. The distance, of itself, exceeded two miles, and there were the inequalities and obstacles of a forest to oppose them. Perseverance and strength, however, overcame all difficulties; and at the end of two hours the party approached the point where it became necessary to enter the bed of the rivulet, or expose their sad procession by marching in open view of any one who might be straggling in the rear of the Hut. A species of desperate determination had influenced the men in their return march, rendering them reckless of discovery, or its consequences; a circumstance that had greatly favoured their object; the adventurous and bold frequently encountering fewer difficulties in the affairs of war than the cautious and timid. But an embarrassment now presented itself that was far more difficult to encounter than any which proceeded from personal risks. The loving family of the deceased was to be met; a wife and daughters apprised of the fearful loss

that, in the providence of God, had suddenly alighted on their house.

"Lower the body, men, and come to a halt," said Joyce, using the manner of authority, though his voice trembled ; we must consult together as to our next step."

There was a brief and decent pause, while the party placed the lifeless body on the grass, face uppermost, with the limbs laid in order, and everything about it disposed of in a scemliness that betokened profound respect for the senseless clay, even after the noble spirit had departed. Mike alone could not resist his strong native propensity to talk. The honest fellow raised a hand of his late master, and kissing it with strong affection, soliloquized as follows, in a tone that was more rebuked by feeling than any apprehension of consequences.

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Little need had ye of a praist and extreme unction," he said. "The likes of yerself always keeps a clane breast; and the knife that went into yer heart found nothing that ye need have been ashamed of! Sorrow come over me, but yer lass is as great a one to meself as if I had tidings of the sinking of ould Ireland into the salt say itself; a thing that niver can happen, and niver will happen; no, not even at the last day; as all agree the wor-r-ld is to be burned and not drowned. And who'll there be to tell this same to the Missus, and Miss Beuly, and phratty Miss Maud, and the babby, in the bargain? Divil bur-r-n me, if 'twill be Michael O'Hearn, who has too much sorrow of his own to be running about and d'aling it out to other people. Sarjeant, that will be yer own jewty, and I pities the man that has to perform it."

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No man will see me shrink from a duty, O'Hearn," said Joyce, stiffly, while with the utmost difficulty he kept the tears from breaking out of a fountain that had not opened in this way for twenty years. "It may bear hard on my feelings-I do not say it will not-but duty is duty, and it must be done. Corporal Allen, you see the state of things; the commanding officer is among the casualties, and nothing would be simpler than our course were it not for Madam Willoughby-God bless her, and have her in His holy keeping-and the young ladies. It is proper to deliberate a little about them. To you, then, as an elderly and experienced man, I first apply for an opinion."

Sorrow's an unwelcome guest, whether it comes expected, or without any previous knowledge. The hairts o' the widow and faitherless must be stricken, and it's little that a' our consolations and expairiments will prevail ag'n the feelin's o' natur. Pheeloosophy and religion tall us that the body's no mair than a clod o' the valley when the speerit has fled; but the hairt is unapt to listen to wisdom while the grief is fraish, and of the severity of an unlooked-for sairtainty. I see little good, therefore, in doing mair than just sending in a messenger to clear the way a little for the arrival of truth, in the form o' death itsal'."

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I have been thinking of this will you take the office, Jamie, as a man of years and discretion ?"

"Na-na-ye'll be doing far better by sending a younger man.

Age has weakened my memory, and I'll be overlooking some o' the saircumstances in a manner that will be unseemly for the occasion. Here is Blodget, a youth of ready wit and limber tongue."

"I wouldn't do it, mason, to be the owner of ten such properties as this!" exclaimed the young Rhode Islander, actually recoiling a step, as if he retreated before a dreaded foe.

"Well, sairjeant, ye've Michael here, who belangs to a kirk that has so little seempathy with protestantism as to lessen the pain o' the office. Death is a near ally to religion, and Michael, by taking a religious view o' the maither, might bring his hairt into such a condition of insensibility as wad give him little to do but to tell what has happened, leaving God, in his ain maircy, to temper the wind to the shorn lamb."

You hear, O'Hearn ?" said the serjeant, stiffly. "Everybody seems to expect that you will do this duty."

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'Jewty!-D'ye call it a jewty for a man in my situation to break the hearts of Missus and Miss Beuly, and phratty Miss Maud and the babby? for babbies has hearts as well as the stoutest man as is going. Divil bur-r-n me, then, if ye gets out of my mout' so much as a hint that the captain's dead and gone from us, for ever and ever, amen! Ye may send me in, for ye're corporals, and serjeants, and the likes of yees, and I'll obey as a souldier, seein' that he would have wished as much himself, had the breat' staid in his body, which it has not, on account of its l'aving his sowl on 'arth, and departing with his corporeal part for the mansions of happiness, the Blessed Mary have mercy on him, whether here or there-but the captain was not the man to wish a fait'ful follower to afflict his own wife; and so I'll have not'in' to do with such a message, at all at all."

"Nick go," said the Indian, calmly; "used to carry message— carry him for cap'in once more.

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"Well, Nick, you may do it, certainly, if so disposed," answered Joyce, who would have accepted the services of a Chinese rather than undertake the office in person. You will remember and speak to the ladies gently, and not break the news too suddenly." "Yes-squaw soft heart; Nick know-had moder-had wife, once had darter."

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Very well; this will be an advantage, men, as Nick is the only married man among us; and married men should best understand dealing with females."

Joyce then held a private communication with the Tuscarora, that lasted some five or six minutes, when the last leaped nimbly into the bed of the stream, and was soon concealed by the bushes of one of its reaches.

CHAPTER XXVI.

"Heart leaps to heart-the sacred flood
That warms us is the same;

That good old man-his honest blood

Alike we fondly claim."-SPRAgue.

ALTHOUGH Nick commenced his progress with so much seeming zeal and activity, his speed abated the moment he found himself beyond the sight of those he had left in the woods. Before he reached the foot of the cliff his trot had degenerated to a walk; and when he actually found he was at its base, he seated himself on a stone, apparently to reflect on the course he ought to pursue. The countenance of the Tuscarora expressed a variety of emotions while he thus remained stationary. At first it was fierce, savage, exulting; then it became gentler, soft, perhaps repentant. He drew his knife from its buckskin sheath, and eyed the blade with a gaze expressive of uneasiness. Perceiving that a clot of blood had collected at the junction with the handle, it was carefully removed by the use of water. His look next passed over his whole person, in order to ascertain if any more of these betrayers of his fearful secret remained, after which he seemed more at ease. "Wyandotté's back don't ache now," he growled to himself. "Ole sore heal up. Why cap'in touch him? Tink Injin no got feelin'? Good man sometime; bad man sometime. Sometime live; sometime die. Why tell Wyandotté he flog agin, just as go to enemy's camp? No; back feel well now-nebber smart any more."

When this soliloquy was ended, Nick arose, cast a look up at the sun, to ascertain how much of the day still remained, glanced towards the Hut, as if examining the nature of its defences, stretched himself like one who was weary, and peeped out from behind the bushes, in order to see how those who were afield still occupied themselves. All this done, with singular deliberation and steadiness, he arranged his light dress, and prepared to present himself before the wife and daughters of the man whom three hours before he had remorselessly murdered. Nick had often meditated this treacherous deed, during the thirty years which had elapsed between his first flogging and the present period; but circumstances had never placed its execution safely in his power. The subsequent punishments had increased the desire, for a few years; but time had so far worn off the craving for revenge, that it would never have been actively revived, perhaps, but for the unfortunate allusions of the victim himself to the subject. Captain Willoughby had been an English soldier, of the school of the last century. He was naturally a humane and a just man, but he believed in the military axiom that "the most flogging regiments were the best fighting regiments;" and perhaps he was not in error, as regards the lower English character. It was a fatal error, however, to make in relation to an American savage; one who had formerly exercised the functions,