filled a chair near the head, attested for an American officer of rank.  At the foot of the bed, dressed in black, her long hair floating wildly over her shoulders, and with a hand embracing one of those of the sufferer, sat a female, apparently wholly absorbed in the contemplation of the scene before her.  The noise made by the officers on entering had not caused the slightest change in her position, nor was it until she heard the foot-fall of Captain Granville, as he advanced for the purpose of offering his services, that she turned to behold who were the intruders.  The sight of the British uniform appeared to startle her, for she immediately sprang to her feet, as if alarmed at their presence.  It was impossible they could mistake those features, and that face.  It was Miss Montgomerie.  He who lay at her feet, was her venerable uncle.  He was one of the field officers who had fallen a victim to Gerald’s fire, and the same ball which had destroyed his companions, had carried away his thigh, near the hip bone.  The surgeons had given him over, and he had requested to be permitted to die where he lay.  His wish had been attended to, but in the bustle of evacuation, it had been forgotten to acquaint the officers commanding the British guard that he was there.  The last agonies of death had not yet passed away, but there seemed little probability that he could survive another hour.

Perceiving the desperate situation of the respectable officer, Captain Granville staid not to question on a subject that spoke so plainly for itself.  Hastening back into the piazza with his subalterns, he reached the area just as the remaining troops, intended for the occupation of the Fort, were crossing the drawbridge, headed by Colonel St. Julian.  To this officer he communicated the situation of the sufferer, when an order was given for the instant attendance of the head of the medical staff.  After a careful examination, and dressing of the wound, the latter pronounced the case not altogether desperate.  A great deal of blood had been lost, and extreme weakness had been the consequence, but still the Surgeon was not without hope that his life might yet be preserved, although, of course, he would be a cripple for the remainder of his days.

It might have been assumed, that the hope yet held out of preservation of life on any terms, would have been hailed with some manifestation of grateful emotion, on the part of Miss Montgomerie; but it was remarked and commented on, by those who were present, that this unexpectedly favorable report, so far from being received with gratitude and delight, seemed to cast a deeper gloom over the spirit of this extraordinary girl.  The contrast was inexplicable.  She had tended him at the moment when he was supposed to be dying, with all the anxious solicitude of a fond child, and now that there was a prospect of his recovery, there was a sadness in her manner, that told too plainly the discomfort of her heart.”