The Canadian Brothers (Volume II) or The Prophecy Fulfilled

the fire of the Americans, they lay several hours shivering with cold and ankle deep in mud and water; yet consoling themsel

ufficient for the latter purpose could be raised of the slain, had altered his mind, and alarmed, and mayhap conscience stricken at the profuse and unnecessary sacrifice of

at one killed immediately through the loop-hole by the shot that avenged the death of poor Middlemore. When at a late hour they found that the columns were again in movement, they could scarcely persuade themselves they were not changing their points of attack. A very few minutes however sufficed to show their error, for in the indistinct light of a new moon, the British troops were to be seen ascending the opposite face of the ravine

satisfaction natural to the occasion. Each congratulated each on the unexpected success, but commendation was more than usually loud in favor of their leader, to whose co

votedness of the two unfortunate officers who had perished in the trenches- a subject which, in turn, led to a recollection of the brave sold

of his life, I feel an interest. Moreover, as the only uninjured among our prisoners, he is the one most calculated to give us information in regard to the actual force of those whom we have this day had the good fortun

e person of Colonel Forrester, immediately quitted the room

which, in defiance of a person covered from head to foot with the slimy mud of the trenches, and a mouth black

entered. At length Colonel Forrester inqui

at rank you hold in

fire," replied Gerald coolly, and with undisguised bitterness of mann

to infer you are what your dress, and yo

made no

ame, so

na

he gallantry we witnessed this day

still was man. The indirect praise lingered a moment at his heart, th

ed with those who have this day written theirs in the page of

nt, musingly, as though endeavoring to b

him stedfastly in retur

tish squadron?" continued Colonel Forrest

whose names are unknown to me," replied

personal acquaintance with one to whose deeds we are not strangers. Gentlemen," addressing his officers, "this is the Lieutenant Grantham, whose vessel was captured last autumn at Buffalo, and of whose gallant defence, my cousin, Captain Edward Forrester, has spoken so highly. Lieutenant Grantham," he pursued, advancing, and offering his hand, "when I had the happiness to save your life

at the recollection of an interposition which had thwarted him in his fondest, dearest hope-that of losing, at the cannon's mouth, the life he loathed. What had been done in mercy and noble forbearance, was to him the dires

h I cannot but consider any little merit that may attach to me very much overrated by them. My appearance in this dress, perhaps requires some explanation. Presented by the shallowness of the river from co-operating with the army

rched knowingly over his left ear, covering, or rather shadowing, little more than one fourth of his head-"I reckon as how this here sort of thing comes within the spy act. Here's a commissioned officer of King George, taken not only in our

he subject, merely shrugged his shoulders, puffed his cigar, and

of his enemy. Now, Liftenant Grantham, I take it, comes in the British uniform, and what signifies a whistle if he wears gold lace or cotton tape, provided it be stuck upon a scarlet coat, and that in t

is name warn't known as it is, he'd have passed for a private soger, and would have been exchanged for one, without our b

ree; so much so, Mr. Grantham," he added, turning to Gerald, "that in violence to the inclination I should otherwise have felt to send you back to your lines, on parole of honor, I shall be compelled to detain you until the pleasure of my government be known as to the actual rank in which you are to be look

bitious of closing his existence in that way. He was not at all sorry, therefore, when he found the surly looking Major Killdeer wholly unsupported in his sweeping estimate of what he called the "spy act." The gentlemanly manner of Colonel Forrester, forming as it did so decided a contrast with the unpolished-even rude frankness of his second in command, was not without soothing influence upon his mind

be considered as the soldier or the officer. From this moment therefore, Mr. Grantham, you will consider yourself a prisoner at large within the fort-or, should you prefer journeying into the interior, to sharing the privati

r-men whom he had known when the sun of his young hopes shone unclouded, and whom he had survived but to be made sensible of the curse of exemption from a similar fate; still, with that instinctive delicacy of a mind whose natural refinement not even a heavy

rations of courtesy to interfere with your inclination. I can promise you will find this place most dismally dull, especially to one who has no positive duty to perform in

ind offer and accompany Captain Jackson. It is not a very cheering sight," he pursued, anxious to assign a satisfactory reason for his

stickler for national glory. There is not an officer here present," he continued, "who is not prepared to attest with myself, that your column in particular behaved like heroes.

. "Each division was, I believe, for I cannot state with certainty, little more than two hundred strong, making in all, perha

y, and most all my volunteers," somewh

repeated Gerald, unable to disgu

ng and addressing Captain Buckhorn in an undertone,

of all arms, save artillery, composed my force at the moment when your

ing into excitement, with vexation a

nabled to hold the place one hour; for who could have supposed that even a school boy, had such been placed at the head of an army, would have sent forward a storming party, without either fascines to fill a trench, or ladders to ascend from it when filled. Had these been provided, there can be no doubt of the issue, for, to

ou discovered this wretched bungling on the par

ified my expectation. But enough of this. After the fatigues of the day you must require both food and rest. Captain Jackson, I leave it to you to do the honors of hospitality towards Mr. Grantham, who will so shortly become your fellow traveller, and if, when he

nd to keep a sufficient number of men on the alert, and take such other precautions as were necessary to guard against surprise-a

to communicate instantly with the Colonel in the event of any alarm. Declining the pressing invitation of the officers to join in the repast they were about to make for the first time since the morning, and more particularly t

had been recommended, in the hunting frock and belt of a backwoodsman; and in this, his gentlemanly figure looked to such advantage as to excite general attention -so much so indeed, that Major Killdeer was more than once detected in eying his own heavy and uncouth person, as if to ascertain if the points of excellence were peculiar to the dress or to the man. Sick and dispirited as he was, Geral

d near the spot where they so nobly fell, was considerately allotted to Cranstoun and Middlemore. There was a composedness on the brow of the former that likened him, even in death, to the living man; while, about the good-humoured mouth of poor Middlemore, played the same sort of self satisfied smile that had always been observable there, when about to deliver himself of a sally. Gerald, who had imposed upon himself the painful duty of attending to their last committal to

his Aid-de-Camp was not altogether understood by his charge,) taking occasion at parting to assure the latter that, with all his eccentricity he was a kind hearted

prevent further excoriation of the already bared and reeking back-bridles, the original thickness of which had been doubled by the incrustation of mould and dirt that pertinaciously adhered to them-stirrups and bits, with their accompanying buckles (the absence of curb chains being supplied by pieces of rope) covered with the rust of half a century -all afforded evidence of the wretchedness of resource peculiar to a back settlement population. Over the hard saddles, however, had been strapped the blankets which, when the travellers were fortunate enough to meet with a hut at the close of their day's ride, or, as was more frequently the case, when compel

e him by the consolatory assurance that he was not the first man who had been taken prisoner-adding, that there was no use in snivelling, as "what was done couldn't be undone, and no great harm neither, as there was some as pretty gals in Kaintuck as could be picked out in a day's ride; and that to a good looking young fellow like himself, with nothing to do but to make love to them, THAT ought to be no mean consideration, enabling him, as it would, to while away the tedium of captivity." At other times he would launch forth into som

charge, for, in addition to a sincere desire to rally his companion, he began at length to find it exceedingly irksome to travel with one who neither spoke himself nor appeared to enjoy speech in another; and when he had amused himself with whistling, singing, hallooing, and cutting a thousand antics with his arms, until he was heartily tired of each of these several diversions, he would rein in his horse to suffer Gerald to come up, and, after a conciliating offer of his rum flask, accompanied by a slic

pid circulation, they essayed to urge their jaded beasts out of the jog-trot in which they had set out. Accustomed to this from the time when they first emerged from colthood into horsehood, the aged steeds, like many aged senators of their day, were determined enemies to any thing like innovation on the long established customs of their caste; and although, unlike the said senators, they were made to bear all the burdens of the state, still did they not suffer themselves to be driven out of the sluggi

ng one of the boundaries of the vast savannah they had traversed. Such was the unpromising appearance of this apology for a human dwelling that, under any other circumstances, even the "not very d--d particular" Jackson, as the Aid-de-Camp often termed himself, would have passed it by without stopping; but after a long day's ride, and suffering from the greatest evils to which a traveller can

elves, to be sure; and a wisp of hay and tether for our horses. -Hospitality in short; and that's what

sman, surlily, "I don't keep no tavern, and ha'nt got no acc

all night, and warm our toes at the fire, and spin long yarns, as they tell i

fiercely and determinedly, "I a'nt got n

ke me, is to be turned out of any man's house such a night as this. I hav'nt served two

nd unbuckling the girth, proceeded to deposit the saddle, with the va

ruffian was, sent him dancing some few yards in front of the threshold before he was aware of his intention, or could resist the peculiar knack with which it was accomplished. The A

-what was more imposing-a brace of large pistols stuck in his belt. "you'd better have no nonsense with me, I promise you, or-" and

y other human habitation; and it is probable that his forbearance then arose from the feet of their being two opposed to him, for he glanced rapidly from one to the other, nor was it until he seem

don't forget to say it was a true Tennessee man, bred and born, that gave you a lesson in what no American ever want

an, "and every man knows the ways of his own beast best. As for fodder,

out, his arms folded and his brow scowling, as if planning some revenge for the humiliation to which he had been subjected. In the indistinct dusk of the evening Grantham had not been able to remark more than the outline of the figure; but the voice struck him as one not unknown to him, although somewha