Part 17 (1/2)

”Jedburgh justice!” said Stuart aside to De 'eht argue little fro laugh, as he spoke aside to his brother officer, his cheerful, buoyant, coht less than the sound of Montgoht have done Doubtless he was apprised of early relief Surely he did not look like a man who expected to live on horse-flesh in the es outside, and within that terrible strain upon the courage,--the contes of non-combatants, the women and children, who had entered into no covenant and received no co chances of war

Yet this prospect seemed close upon hiain into its grooves The hungryabout their various ruous with their cadaverous aspect The sentinels were posted as usual, and Captain Stuart, repairing according to his wont to a post of observation in the block-house tower of the northwest bastion, turned his glass upon the country beyond, lowered it suddenly, looking keenly at the lens, as if he could not believe his eyes, and again lifted it There was nolike sos, was a stalwart Indian, arrayed for the upper part of his person in a fine scarlet coat, richly laced, evidently the spoil froh rank Perhaps no apparition so grotesque ever sent a chill to so stout a heart Stuart was no prophet, quotha But he could see the worst when it came and stared hiued the h Montgo theain taken the field, and this was as they hoped He was advancing; he must be near The trophy of the fine red coat meant probably that he had lost an officer of value;--perhaps e or the necessity of throwing it away Montgomery had advanced,--that was indubitable Nevertheless,--and perhaps it was the lowering influence of the scanty fare on which they had so long subsisted,--both officers dreaded the suspense less than the corow tense late one day in the red July sunset, when there eed from the copse of pa bushes, close to the river where Odalie had once been wont to repair to talk to Choo-qualee-qualoo, a tall for red calash drawn forward on the head, that walked at a solacis He thanked heaven that Mrs MacLeod was ill in her bed, although he had soh her husband expressions of polite and heartfelt regret and syht Mrs MacLeod ell enough to take a walk,” he observed to the sentry Daniel Eske naturally supposed that Mrs MacLeod had slipped out before he had gone on duty, having just been sent to the relief of the previous sentinel Stuart went down to the embrasure, assisted the supposed lady to her feet as she slipped through, and ceree down the steep interior slope in a very boyish fashi+on They found Dereat hall, and both officers read the brief official dispatch with countenances of dismay

”This says that you can explain the details,” said De eyes

”Oh, yes,” said Hae the co letters to Governor Bull--for Lyttleton has been appointed to Ja off his expresses to South Carolina He sent three, and said if he heard from none by return he would sendfact that had fallen like a thunderbolt,--Colonel Montgomery had with his command quitted the country and sailed for New York His orders were to strike a sudden blow for the relief of Carolina and return to head-quarters at Albany at the earliest possible arrison of Fort Loudon had reached hie, which he had ainst the Cherokees, but not for the relief of Fort Loudon, for neither he nor the coer The overtures to the Cherokees for peace having proved fruitless, Colonel Montgoht to make peace by force

In pursuance of this further effort he pushed forith great energy and spirit, but encountered throughout disasters so serious as to cripple his enterprise, cul finally in a result equivalent to a repulse The Indians, in the skulking ing upon the flanks of thein detail from behind trees and rocks, from the depths of ravines and the sued wilderness Never did they present any front that it was possible to charge and turn The advance-guard, approaching through a narrow valley, the town of Etchoee, which the Indians had abandoned, fell into an ath, and there he lost Captain Morrison of the Rangers, and ten or twelve an to give hen the light infantry and grenadiers were detached for its support They succeeded in locating the chief strength of the Cherokees sufficiently to drive the savages back, despite the disastrous results of their scattered fire Theup, encamped near Etchoee, on a level space which proved, however, to be commanded by eminences in the vicinity Thence the Indians poured destructive volleys into the British ranks, and only after repeated charges the soldiers succeeded in dislodging them Impetuously attacked on the flank, the Cherokees suffered severely at the hands of the Royal Scots before being able to get out of their reach The terrible aspect of the painted savages, and their nerve-thrilling whoops hich the woods resounded, failed also to affect the courage of the wild Highlanders, and all the troops fought with great ardor But Colonel Montgoh the wilderness, hampered as he was by seventy wounded e an enemy, by the loss of many horses, by the necessity--which was yet al a train of cattle and other provisions with hiion, and relinquished the atte the terrible losses which the Indians had sustained would prove sufficient punishment and dispose them to peace He was even compelled to sacrifice a considerable portion of his stores, throwing away bags of flour in large numbers in order to effect the release of the packhorses to transport his wounded His dead he sunk heavily weighted into the rivers, that the bodies raves and scalped by the Indians His return e, which was accoularity, was marked by the sa fire of the masked enemy, the futile response, and the constant loss of one, and all the hopes that had clustered about his advance had gone with him! To Fort Loudon remained only two reht be able to act on the belated information and send out an expedition of relief; yet this was to the last degree improbable, since the province, after its first expensive expedition against the Cherokees, had been compelled to appeal for its own protection to the British co practically disabled by the ravages of smallpox But even at the best could such an expedition reach theinia, and it was obvious wisdom to embrace both chances Stuart knew that De the appeal to the royal governor of that province, even while Ha, and he, himself, wrote supplemental letters to other persons of note, that the news of their desolation, failing to carry in one direction, ht be spread in another

”Now, Ha behind the candle as he held the wax in it for the seal, ”can you do as ain?”

”Where? When?” deht”

Hamish's eyes stretched very wide ”You won't wait for Governor Bull?

The officers at Fort Prince George said they would lay their lives that Governor Bull would respond”

”WeTo- or two”

Hamish rose precipitately ”Where is Sandy? Where is Odalie?”

Stuart pushed hi hi their lives was to get away as quickly as inia

”Without seeing Sandy and Odalie?” said Ha

”We have not the tiain, even for the of his risks, of all the escapes, by flood and fell, that he had made;--how often he had been shot at from ambush; how he had swum rivers; how he had repeatedly hidden fro himself down into the hollows of trees, and once how nearly he had co so strait that he could scarcely use his constricted muscles to climb up to the cavity that had let hin Milne had procured for hiood horse, and a rifle--he had had a brace of pistols--the horse was a free goer--as fresh now as if he had not been a mile to-day

”And where is he now?” asked Demere, a look of anxiety on his face

”At MacLeod Station, hitched there with a good saddle on his half full of corn”

”Co, ”you ht find the horse”

Hamish's eyes filled with tears,--to leave Odalie and Sandy without a word! He could not endure for the ht none the less well of him for them