and the young officer had religiously preserved his
sister's secret.

These and fifty other recollections now crowded on the
mind of the sufferer, only to render the intensity of
his anguish more complete; among the bitterest of which
was the certainty that the mysterious events of the past
night had raised up an insuperable barrier to this union;
for how could Clara de Haldimar become the wife of him
whose hands were, however innocently, stained with the
life-blood of her brother! To dwell on this, and the loss
of that brother, was little short of madness, and yet De
Haldimar could think of nothing else; nor for a period
could the loud booming of the cannon from the ramparts,
every report of which shook his chamber to its very
foundations, call off his attention from a subject which,
while it pained, engrossed every faculty and absorbed
every thought. At length, towards the close, he called
faintly to the old and faithful soldier, who, at the foot
of the bed, stood watching every change of his master's
countenance, to know the cause of the cannonade. On being
informed the batteries in the rear were covering the
retreat of Captain Erskine, who, in his attempt to obtain
the body, had been surprised by the Indians, a new
direction was temporarily given to his thoughts, and he
now manifested the utmost impatience to know the result.

In a few minutes Morrison, who, in defiance of the
surgeon's strict order not on any account to quit the
room, had flown to obtain some intelligence which he