Major Blackwater, Captains Blessington and Erskine,
Lieutenants Leslie and Boyce, and Ensigns Fortescue and
Summers, were now the only regimental officers that
remained of thirteen originally comprising the strength
of the garrison. The whole of these stood grouped around
their colonel, who seemed transfixed to the spot he had
first occupied on the rampart, with his arms folded, and
his gaze bent in the direction in which he had lost sight
of Wacousta and his child.
Hitherto the morning had been cold and cheerless, and
objects in the far distance were but indistinctly seen
through a humid atmosphere. At about half an hour before
mid-day the air became more rarified, and, the murky
clouds gradually disappearing, left the blue autumnal
sky without spot or blemish. Presently, as the bells of
the fort struck twelve, a yell as of a legion of devils
rent the air; and, riveting their gaze in that direction,
all beheld the bridge, hitherto deserted, suddenly covered
with a multitude of savages, among whom were several
individuals attired in the European garb, and evidently
prisoners. Each officer had a telescope raised to his
eye, and each prepared himself, shudderingly, for some
horrid consummation.
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