trusted might remove the anxiety of his suffering master,
again made his appearance, stating the corpse was already
secured, and close under the guns of the fort, beneath
which the detachment, though hotly assailed from the
forest, were also fast retreating.

"And is it really my brother, Morrison? Are you quite
certain that it is Captain de Haldimar?" asked the young
officer, in the eager accents of one who, with the fullest
conviction on his mind, yet grasps at the faintest shadow
of a consoling doubt. "Tell me that it is not my brother,
and half of what I possess in the world shall be yours."

The old soldier brushed a tear from his eye. "God bless
you, Mr. de Haldimar, I would give half my grey hairs to
be able to do so; but it is, indeed, too truly the captain
who has been killed. I saw the very wings of his regimentals
as he lay on his face on the litter."

Charles de Haldimar groaned aloud. "Oh God! oh God! would
I had never lived to see this day." Then springing suddenly
up in his bed.--"Morrison, where are my clothes? I insist
on seeing my slaughtered brother myself."

"Good Heaven, sir, consider," said the old man approaching
the bed, and attempting to replace the covering which
had been spurned to its very foot,--"consider you are in
a burning fever, and the slightest cold may kill you
altogether. The doctor's orders are, you were on no
account to get up."