torch-light, a face which though slightly marked by the peculiarities which distinguish her race, had yet also the softness of expression which adorned the countenances of her sisters of a fairer hue. The full dark eye, had a melancholy tenderness in its glance, but the slightly dilated nostril, the thin, half-scornfully curved lip, bespoke the energy and decision of her race, and the high resolves and dauntless daring of an unfettered spirit. Scarcely two hours before, and that slight arm had stealthily forced back the thick boughs of hemlock which closed in the encampment of the British forces on the island of Orleans, and that young face had bent eagerly forward to catch the whispered intelligence, which ran from lip to lip, of the assembling troops, or the sternest words of command from their officers. With a heart beating high at the thought of the fearful mission which it was her lot to bring, she stood for a few moments in breathless uncertainty as to the course she was about to pursue, and then suddenly seizing her oar again, with a few bold strokes, the canoe swung lightly round the projecting ledge of rock, and gaining a more accessible part of the fortress, it touched the shore, and she sprang lightly upon the rocks. A sentinel also stood here, but as he started forward to confront the intruder, a recognition seemed to have taken place, as she murmured a few words in the Indian tongue; for with a quick nervous gesture he waved her forward, and the Indian girl, folding her mantle closely about her, noiselessly and unquestioned, but with a hasty step, threaded her way through the streets of the fortress town.

It was a night of rare festivity in the city. Though the war cloud still brooded over the provinces, and the prospect of battle darkened the future, there were too many gallant hearts from the land of vines and song, to sit down in listless inaction until the bugle's blast should call them forth to the battle field. These were brave young scions of nobility, from the most ancient and honorable families of France, who had shone as bright particular stars scarcely a year before, in the presence of royalty. These were lovely ladies who had floated through the mazy dance, amid the voluptuous splendors of the French court. What wonder that amid this assemblage of youth, beauty and nobility, in this new home, the festivities of their own bright land, were again re

vived, and the grim old castle of St. Louis, was nightly illuminated for the dance; that dream-like music floated through its stately halls, and that jewelled robes and fairy feet, and bright faces, stole here and there like gleams of sunshine through its deep corridors and ancient apartments. It was the birthnight of Adéle de Cheaux, the beautiful and only daughter of a proud and gallant officer in Montcalm's army, and the halls of her father's mansion were illuminated for the fete. Groups of the high-born officers of the French army, their uniforms emblazoned with the brilliant insignia of rank, were moving with a free step through the gorgeously illuminated hall, or bending with courtly grace to catch the silvery accents of song or wit from the lips of beauty. There were groups of merry masquers too, the representatives of all climes the dark-eyed Castilian, the proud Highland chieftain, the swarthy Arabian, were all here fitly personified, and among them all, and treading with a proud free step, and something of a lofty scorn on his thin lip, and in the flash of his deep black eye, might be seen the stately Indian, the ally of the French, his gaudy and picturesque garb in fit keeping with the scene.

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A soft mellow light from waxen tapers, and dazzling chandeliers, flung a rich enchantment over all; light feet kept time to the strains of music's melody, and a soft delicious perfume floated in with its voluptuous sweetness from the gardens beyond. Here had Walenah, the Indian girl, directed her steps, and from the deep recess of the closely twining vines, which had been trained up the spacious verandah, she looked eagerly down the vista, afforded by the broad spacious hall, which swept through the whole length of the mansion, and closely scanned each group, that emerged from the apartments on either side of the hall, and floated lightly down the dance, so eagerly that all else seemed forgotten. She was evidently seeking for one who had not yet appeared, but after a long and searching gaze, she folded her mantle around her, and, with an expression of disappointment and painful isolation, she was about to descend the balcony, as stealthily as she had entered it, when a louder and yet more thrilling burst of music than she had yet heard, floated out upon her ear, and she hastily turned again as if to catch a parting glance at the festive scene. At that moment a pair emerged from the farther apartment, at the upper end of the hall, and at

the instant Walenah's eye fell upon them, a half-suppressed exclamation burst from her lips, and she hastily stepped back into her hiding-place, so completely obscured by the tangled vines, that few, if any, would have observed it, yet commanding a full view of the broad hall, and all that passed within it. A young officer of loftier and more commanding aspect even, than any of the high-born groups there assembled, richly attired in a splendid uniform, and wearing a brilliant jewelled star upon his breast, led out a fair young girl, Adéle, Da Cheux, whose birth-night the gay assemblage now celebrated. It was Victor Armand, a Colonel in the French army, a friend of the youthful General Montcalm, a universal favorite with the army, no less than amid the brilliant circle of beauty. Many a fair cheek flushed crimson at his approach, and many a soft eyelid drooped timidly, as his courtly tones fell upon the ear. The eye of Walenah softened yet more beautifully, and a brilliant flash sprung to her dark brow, as she gazed intensely upon the noble face of the young officer, and a glad smile as of recognition played upon her lips, as she bent yet more eagerly forward, and heedless for the moment, of the chance of detection, pushed the dew-dropping leaves of the vines impatiently aside; but the flush faded, and the smile died upon her lip, as her eye fell upon his companion. Oh, very beautiful looked that fair young creature by his side, her jewelled and snowy arm resting lightly upon his own, her deep blue eyes upturned to his face, and the crimson lips just parted with the rich music of a gay laugh. Like waves of shining gold fell back the fair tresses from the fillet of pearls, that circled her pure brow, and the dainty foot, in its white slipper, fell as lightly on the rich carpet, as a snow flake might descend on crushed roses. Her light robes floated zephyr like around her, half revealing, half concealing the exquisite symmetry of her slight form; and as she glided down the hall, an expression of admiration unconsciously mingled with the cloud of jealousy and newly awaked suspicion. that darkened the countenance of Walenah. Little did Victor Armand dream, as he bent over the fair face of his young companion, and murmured words of impassioned tenderness, with that voice whose every tone had music in its modulations, that the dark eye of the young Indian girl, whom long ago he had found and wooed in the heart of the forests of her own native

isle, was eagerly watching every expression which flitted over his countenance, or that another ear, beside that of the young girl whose snowy eyelid drooped, and whose fair cheek grew crimson beneath his ardent gaze, caught imperfectly the rich tones of persuasive eloquence, that fell from his lips, as he led her out upon the balcony, and down the flight of steps into the partially illuminated garden. They passed Walenah, who shrank hastily into her hiding place, passed her so closely, that she caught more than half the sentence which fell from Armand's lips, and heard the low quick breathing of his companion. One after another of the gay group followed them, and when Walenah again looked out, the hall was deserted, save by two or three who yet lingered. There was a bitter smile on the quivering lip of the Indian girl, and with a quick, impatient movement, she dashed away the tear drop from her glistening eye, and with a gesture of bitter scorn, she unclasped a glittering bracelet from her arm, and crushed the jewelled circlet beneath her moccasined foot. It was the gift of the young French officer, Victor Armand, and as she looked upon its glittering fragments, a tide of memories swept across her heart. She remembered, a twelvemonth ago, ere the British foe had encamped on her own beautiful island of Orleans, when its waving forests were the home of the red man alone, how the pale faced stranger had come, solitary and fatigued with hunting, to the wigwam of the old chieftain, her father; how the best cheer it had afforded was spread before him, and in her own canoe, she had carried him back to the fortress of the pale-faced nation, with whom the Canadian Indians were at peace. Then, as day after day passed on, their stolen interviews in the forest shade, the protestations of unchanging fidelity which her woman's heart was ready to receive, and her trusting faith had never doubted. Perchance, with these thoughts, and with a remembrance of the errand which had brought her thither, and which, for the last half hour, had been forgotten; softer feeling had taken the place of jealousy and anger; for, with a firmly compressed lip, and an eye once more misty with tenderness, she stole noiselessly down the steps of the balcony, and stealthily turning his footsteps toward that part of the garden, where the gay party had assembled, she stood once more in silence in the shade of a willow. Victor Armand had for a few moments re

signed the hand of his fair partner to her father, and with folded arms was gazing, abstractedly at the various groups at a short distance from him, when he was startled by the pressure of a hand his upon "Lisand a face was bent calmly to his ear. arm, ten! listen!" said the voice. "The night-hawk seizes his prey in the darkness; the panther hides himself in the thicket. There is danger to the Frenchman and the Indian. Beware!" With a half-suppressed exclamation Armand sprang forward, but caught only the glimpse of a dark figure rapidly gliding through the shadows of a by-path. That voice was strangely familiar, and a vision of the beautiful face of the Indian girl swept across his brain. He essayed to follow, unobserved by those beside him, but there was nought to be seen. He called aloud, " Walenah !" but only the night-breeze sighing through the trees replied, and Armand left the vision and the warning unheeded.

The morrow came, and the night, and starlight lay once more over Quebec; but what a change was there from the gay festal of last night. The thunder of artillery had passed from rock to rock of the stern old fortress. The armies of England and France had made red with blood the plains of Abraham, and in a single day, the power of the French in the provinces received its death-blow. The brave young Montcalm was no more, and his no less brave and gallant foe and shared the same fate, while England's banner floated triumphantly from the towers of the castle of St. Louis, and the proud, the noble, and the gallant were laid low. Serenely as ever looked the calm stars upon the battlefield, revealing the mangled forms and distorted brows of the dying and the dead. Armand was among them, his brow cold and pale with the death-dews, his dark locks matted and dishevelled, and his lips compressed in the agony of the last struggle. Beside him knelt Walenah. Faithful to him in life and in death, through desertion and neglect, she had sought him out even here, and bending over him, wiped the cold moisture from his brow, and lifted his head from the ground to her shoulder. With a dying effort, Armand slowly unclosed his eyes, and even in that indistinct and varying light, he recognized the dark, tearful face above him, and whispered "Walenah." The eye lid closed slowly once more, a slight convulsion passed over the pale noble features of the young soldier, and the Indian girl was alone with her dead.

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