With Wolfe in Canada eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 455 pages of information about With Wolfe in Canada.

With Wolfe in Canada eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 455 pages of information about With Wolfe in Canada.

“I don’t see that anything possibly could turn up,” James insisted; “but, if at any future time you do think of any mad-brained attempt of escaping, you must take off your shoes, and you must put your foot down, each time, as gently as if the ground were covered with nails; for, if you were to tread upon a twig, and there were an Indian within half a mile of you, he would hear it crack.  But don’t you attempt any such folly.  No good could possibly come of it, and you would be sure to fall into the hands of the savages or Canadians; and you know how they treat prisoners.”

“I know,” the boy said; “and I have no wish to have my scalp hanging up in any of their wigwams.”

It was midnight, before the camp was perfectly still, and then James Walsham quietly loosened one of the pegs of the canvas, at the back of the tent, and, with a warm grasp of the midshipman’s hand, crawled out.  The lad listened attentively, but he could not hear the slightest sound.  The sentinel was striding up and down in front of the tent, humming the air of a French song as he walked.  Half an hour passed without the slightest stir, and the midshipman was sure that James was, by this time, safely beyond the enemy’s camp.

He was just about to compose himself to sleep, when he heard a trampling of feet.  The sentry challenged, the password was given, and the party passed on towards the general’s tent.  It was some thirty yards distant, and the sentry posted there challenged.

“I wonder what’s up?” the midshipman said to himself; and, lifting the canvas, he put his head out where James had crawled through.

The men had halted before the general’s tent, and the boy heard the general’s voice, from inside the tent, ask sharply, “What is it?”

“I regret to disturb you, Monsieur le General; but we have here one of the Canadian pilots, who has swam ashore from the enemy’s fleet higher up the river, and who has important news for you.”

The midshipman at once determined to hear what passed.  He had already taken off his shoes; and he now crawled out from the tent, and, moving with extreme caution, made his way round to the back of the general’s tent, just as the latter, having thrown on his coat and lighted a candle, unfastened the entrance.  The midshipman, determined to see as well as hear what was going on, lifted up the flap a few inches behind, and, as he lay on the ground, peered in.  A French officer had just entered, and he was followed by a Canadian, whom the midshipman recognized at once, as being the one who piloted the Sutherland up and down the river.

“Where do you come from?” Bougainville asked.

“I swam ashore two hours ago from the English ship Sutherland,” the Canadian said.

“How did you manage to escape?”

“I would have swam ashore long ago, but at night I have always been locked up, ever since I was captured, in a cabin below.  Tonight the door opened quietly, and someone came in and said: 

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With Wolfe in Canada from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.