honesty were never suspected, must be discovered; and it seemed not likely that this discovery could be obtained by persisting in the old method.

Three brave men were now lost to the regiment, and to assign the post to a fourth seemed nothing less than giving him up to destruction. The poor fellow whose turn it was to take the station, though a man in other respects of incomparable resolution, trembled from head to foot.

"I know that;

"I must do my duty," said he to the officer; but I should like to lose my life with more credit." "I will leave no man," said the colonel, "against his will." A man immediately stepped from the ranks, and desired to take the post. Every mouth commended his resolution.

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"I will not be taken alive,” said he, "and you shall hear of me at the least alarm. At all events, I will fire my piece if I hear the least noise. If a crow chatters, or a leaf falls, you shall hear my musket. You may be alarmed when nothing is the matter; but you must take the chance as the condition of the discovery."

The colonel applauded his courage, and told him he would do right to fire upon the least noise that he could not satisfactorily explain. His comrades shook hands with him, and left him with a melancholy foreboding. The company marched back, and waited the event in the guard house.

An hour had now elapsed, and every ear was upon the rack for the discharge of the musket, when, upon a sudden, the report was heard. The guard immediately marched, accompanied, as before, by the colonel and some of the most experienced officers of the regiment.

As they approached the post, they saw the man advancing towards them, dragging another man on the ground by the hair of his head. When they came up to him, it appeared to be an Indian whom he had shot. An explanation was immediately required.

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"I told you, colonel," said the man, "that I should fire if I That resolution I took has saved my

heard the least noise.

life. I had not been long at my post when I heard a rustling at some short distance; I looked, and saw a wild hog, such as are common in the woods, crawling along the ground, and seemingly looking for nuts under the trees, among the leaves.

"As these animals are so very common, I ceased to consider it seriously, but kept my eyes fixed upon it, and marked its progress among the trees: still there was no need to give the alarm. It struck me, however, as somewhat singular to see this animal making, by a circuitous passage, for a thick grove immediately behind my post. I therefore kept my eye more constantly fixed upon it, and, as it was now within a few yards of the coppice, I hesitated whether I should fire.

"My comrades, thought I, will laugh at me for alarming them by shooting a pig. I had almost resolved to let it alone, when, just as it approached the thicket, I thought I observed it give an unusual spring. I no longer hesitated: I took my aim, discharged my piece, and the animal was immediately stretched before me, with a groan which I thought to be that of a human creature.

"I went up to it, and judge my astonishment when I found that I had killed an Indian. He had enveloped himself with the skin of one of these wild hogs so artfully and completely, his hands and his feet were so entirely concealed in it, and his gait and appearance were so exactly correspondent to that of the animals, that, imperfectly as they were always seen through the trees and bushes, the disguise could not be detected at a distance, and scarcely discovered upon the nearest inspection. He was armed with a dagger and tomahawk.”

The cause of the disappearance of the other sentinels was now apparent. The Indians, sheltered in this disguise, secreted themselves in the coppice, watched the moment when they could throw it off, burst upon the sentinels without previous alarm, and, too quick to give them an opportunity to discharge their pieces, either stabbed or scalped them. They then bore their bodies away, and concealed them at some distance in the leaves.

XII. - THE HERMIT OF NIAGARA FALLS.

MRS. SIGOURNEY.

[Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney is an American lady, who has written a variety of works in prose and verse. She resided for many years in Hartford, Connecticut. This extract is from "Scenes in my Native Land."]

ABOUT fifteen years ago,* in the glow of early summer, a young stranger of pleasing countenance and person made his appearance at Niagara. It was at first supposed that he might be an artist, as a large portfolio, with books and musical instruments, was observed among his baggage. He was deeply impressed by the beauty and sublimity of the cataract and its surrounding scenery, and expressed his intention of remaining a week, that he might examine them thoroughly. But the fascination which that glorious work of the Creator has for all minds of sensibility grew strongly upon him, and he was heard to say that six weeks were not enough to become acquainted with even its most obvious features.

At the end of that period he was still unable to tear himself away, and he determined to "build there a tabernacle,” that he might indulge himself in his love of nature and his love of solitude. He reared for himself a commodious place of shelter in the immediate vicinity of the falls, and there took up his abode. His simple and favorite fare of bread and milk was readily procured; and any other food he required was always prepared by his own hands.

When winter came, a cheerful fire of wood blazed upon his hearth; and by his evening lamp he beguiled the hours by the reading of books in various languages, and by music. It was startling to hear, in such depth of solitude, the long-drawn, thrilling tones of the violin, or the softest melodies of the flute, or the tinking notes of the guitar borne from that lowly hut, and mingling with the rush and thunder of the cataract.

Yet, though the world of letters was familiar to him, and though he had travelled widely both in his native Europe and

* Written in 1845.

in the East, he sought not intercourse with mankind, to unfold or increase his stores of knowledge. Those who heard him converse, spoke with admiration of his colloquial powers, his command of language, and the eloquence that hung upon his lips. But this was a privilege rarely enjoyed by any one; for he studiously avoided society, though there seemed in his nature nothing like moroseness or misanthropy.

But the chief delight of his existence was communion with the mighty Niagara. Here, at every hour of the day or night, he might be seen, a devout worshipper. He gazed upon it in the gray dawn, while wrapped in its veil of mist; at high noon his spirit drank the full splendor of its meridian glory; he stood by its side when it was spanned by the lunar bow; and at the solemn hour of midnight, his spirit went up in prayer and praise, with the deep voice of its waters. Neither storms nor the piercing cold of winter prevented his visits to this great temple of his adoration.

When the frozen mists, settling upon the lofty trees, turned them into columns of crystal, - when every branch and shrub, glittering with transparent ice, waved in the sunbeam its coronet of diamonds,he gazed, unconscious of the keen atmosphere, charmed and chained by the magic of the dazzling scene. In time, a beaten track was worn by his feet from his cottage door to the cataract.

He was accustomed to bathe daily in the river below the falls. One bright but rather chill day, in the month of June, 1831, a man employed about the ferry saw him go into the water, and a long time after, observed his clothes to be still lying upon the bank.

Apprehension was excited, and inquiry made. The anxiety was but too well founded. The poor hermit had indeed taken his last bath. It was supposed that cramp might have been brought on by the unusual coldness of the air or the water. The body, caught amid the boiling eddies of the whirlpool, could not be recovered for many days.

When it was at length rescued from the floods, and borne

back to his desolate cottage, his faithful dog was found guarding the door. Heavily must the long period have worn away, while he watched for his only friend, and wondered why he delayed his coming. He looked at the approaching group suspiciously, and would have opposed their entrance, had not a low, stifled wail announced that he recognized the lifeless form to be that of his master.

They laid him upon his bed; the thick, dripping masses of his beautiful hair clinging to and veiling the features lately so handsome and expressive. On the pillow was his pet kitten; to her, also, the watch for the master had been long and wearisome. In his chair lay the guitar, whose music was probably the last his ear heard on earth. There were also his flute and violin, his portfolio and books, scattered and open, as if recently used. On the spread table was the untasted meal for noon, which he had prepared for his return from that bath which had proved so fatal. It was a touching sight - the dead hermit mourned by the dumb animals that had loved him, and ready to be laid by stranger hands in a foreign grave.

So died this singular and accomplished being, at the early age of twenty-eight. Learned in the languages, and in the arts and sciences, improved by extensive travel, gifted with personal beauty and a feeling heart, the motives for his solitary life are still enveloped in mystery. It was, however, known that he was a native of England, where his father was a clergyman, that he received thence ample remittances for his support, and that his name was Francis Abbott. These facts had been previously ascertained; but no written papers were found in his dwelling, to throw additional light upon the mystery in which his life was involved; why he should choose to withdraw from society, which he was so well fitted to benefit and adorn, must ever remain unexplained. '

We visited, in the summer of 1844, the deserted abode of the hermit. It was partially ruinous; but we traced out its different compartments, and the hearthstone where his winter