“Mr. Delme, sir,” was the reply.  “He has been shot through the heart, and his men are bearing him from the rampart.”

“This must not be,” resumed the governor with energy.  “Private feelings must no longer be studied at the expense of the public good.  That pursuit is hopeless; and already too many of my officers have fallen.  Desire the retreat to be sounded, Mr. Lawson.  Captain Wentworth, let one or two covering guns be brought to bear upon the savages.  They are gradually increasing hi numbers; and if we delay, the party will be wholly cut off.”

In issuing these orders, Colonel de Haldimar evinced a composedness that astonished all who heard him.  But although his voice was calm, despair was upon his brow.  Still he continued to gaze fixedly on the retreating form of his enemy, until he finally disappeared behind the orchard of the Canadian of the Fleur de lis.

Obeying the summons from the fort, the troops without now commenced their retreat, bearing off the bodies of their fallen officers and several of their comrades who had fallen by the Indian fire.  There was a show of harassing them on their return; but they were too near the fort to apprehend much danger.  Two or three well-directed discharges of artillery effectually checked the onward progress of the savages; and, in the course of a minute, they had again wholly disappeared.

In gloomy silence, and with anger and disappointment in their hearts, the detachment now re-entered the fort.  Johnstone was only severely bruised; Sir Everard Valletort not dead.  Both were conveyed to the same room, where they were instantly attended by the surgeon, who pronounced the situation of the latter hopeless.

Major Blackwater, Captains Blessington and Erskine, Lieutenants Leslie and Boyce, and Ensigns Fortescue and Summers, were now the only regimental officers that remained of thirteen originally comprising the strength of the garrison.  The whole of these stood grouped around their colonel, who seemed transfixed to the spot he had first occupied on the rampart, with his arms folded, and his gaze bent in the direction in which he had lost sight of Wacousta and his child.

Hitherto the morning had been cold and cheerless, and objects in the far distance were but indistinctly seen through a humid atmosphere.  At about half an hour before mid-day the air became more rarified, and, the murky clouds gradually disappearing, left the blue autumnal sky without spot or blemish.  Presently, as the bells of the fort struck twelve, a yell as of a legion of devils rent the air; and, riveting their gaze in that direction, all beheld the bridge, hitherto deserted, suddenly covered with a multitude of savages, among whom were several individuals attired in the European garb, and evidently prisoners.  Each officer had a telescope raised to his eye, and each prepared himself, shudderingly, for some horrid consummation.  Presently the bridge was cleared