no wonder then, with such a reward for his assassination, danger and death menaced him every moment. The only place of safe and honourable refuge from certain destruction to his followers and himself was the Fort, and thither then, seeing that the post of safety was become that of duty, the General retreated. His soul wept as he crossed the drawbridge at the thought of those who had passed it the preceding evening, never more to return.
The day was already far advanced, when the General made his way directly to the apartment of Mrs. De Brooke, where, awfully impressed as she had been in his absence, the instant her eye caught her husband's, every tremulous anxiety seemed confirmed; she scarcely dared to make inquiries, but flying to embrace him, awaited in dread expectation his speaking. Brief was his tale of woe! horrid in its recital! yet it seemed but as a beginning to more portentous evils; it came but as one loud burst of thunder on her ear, the darkened elements presaging deeper and more aggravated peals. Thus lost in sorrowful anticipations, she was roused from them by the hasty injunctions of her husband to lose no time in making arrangements for herself and children quitting the Fort.
"Within these boundaries," said he, "no female
