had reared their humble cabins on the road they travelled; but not unfrequently, a close and confidential whisper between the inquisitive mountaineer and an acquaintance in the troop ended in the former's deliberately taking down his fusee, swinging his cutlass, and, mounted on his best horse, proceeding with the cavalcade, leaving the better part of the house-the women -standing at the door in motionless. and what is more extraordinary, mute, astonishment.

The troop, whatever it might be, pressed on at as quick a pace as its numbers and the nature of the ground would allow, and was just entering one of the western gorges of the mountain, when a horse-man galloped past the main body from rear to front. The stranger was a youth of not more than mere manhood, and of athletic and well-turned limb. Reining up gracefully, as he gained the front of the train, he doffed his hat to the leader, and slightly bent his head, rich in luxuriant curls, while his fine intelligent features were lighted up, and his dark expressive eye flashed out the fire of some powerful emotion.

"And who may you be, friend?" demanded the leader, with soldier-like bluntness.

"But you are a stranger to me."

"Not so to all who go with you; but we waste time; here are my credentials."

The leader took the paper proffered by the volunteer, and, glancing over it, extended his hand, and welcomed him with a cordial grasp.

“Enough," said the volunteer; if you can trust me, listen to my proposition," and he drew the officer a little in advance of the party.

In the short conference that followed, the impatient and fiery youth appeared to be urging a suit with vehemence, and the cool caution of the officer seemed at length to yield either to his arguments or impetuosity. Hastily writing a few lines with his pencil on the paper which he still held in his hand, he returned it to the youth, who received it with animation and eagerness: then, waving his farewell, as he turned his body partially round, dashed forward, and disappeared down the rugged precipice, soon leaving the troop far behind.

"I calculate," cooly observed a man of the front rank, "that yon chap doesn't own, out and out the creature he rides, or he'd scarcely hold his neck so cheap."

"You've missed a figure Hiram," replied his rightelbow man," by reason that his own neck's his own, any how; and I allow there's but the toss of a copper which goes first, her'n or his'n."

"If there's room to throw in a guess," remarked a third, "I should say that ar young fellow's arter a petticoat."

"And why so, friend Wagstaff?" asked the leader, who had heard the dialogue; “is not glory a mistress, with charms bright enough to attract a man of spirit?

"But don't disremember, captain," replied Wagstaff, "that we're men of flesh too. Glory's a purty article, captain, a dreadful purty article; but at this present, I'd a considerable sight rather have a soft bed or a

warm one, than go to glory over yon precipice, with a frosty rock for my resting-place."

The familiar jests of the men were not repressed by their leader, who knew they proceeded from no feeling of insubordination, but were proofs rather of buoyancy of spirits and contented minds; and, while he was assured of their fidelity and devotedness to the cause in which they were engaged, he rather encouraged whatever had a tendency to enliven their march.

"It's a rough road we travel, brother," said Hirain, after a pause!" and something long."

"Short enough, if it leads to a long home," answered Wagstaff.

For my part," observed Hiram, despondingly, "I've never had a brush with any thing better than Indians and Yorkers; you have been out among the riglars, Jotham."

"I know it," replied Jotham Wagstaff; "sartain, I've been where things did not go slow, I ask youwhere the bullets came desperate peart, that's the gospel on't,"

"You didn't dodge, though, Jotham?"

"We hadn't time, Hiram. But, arter the blow was over, one fellow said it was ridiculous; he'd curse and quit; another made up his mind to bow his neck and make tracks, and our captain wished a many a time that his commission were away, and he were to hum: he was a Bay man, that captain."

"Massachusetts is doing good things now, Jotham," said the leader.

"I know it," replied Wagstaff: "they peppered the red birds well at Lexington, it seems-when are we to have a spoon in the dish, captain? Where are we to join old Etham?"

"Presently; at Rutland possibly; positively at Castleton," answered the captain.

"And fegs, there's Rutland now, full ahead," rejoined Wagstaff, as, emerging from the defile, an extensive prospect appeared before them. Hill and valley, field and forest, town and stream, lay in beautiful variety, basking in the first beams of the sun, which, having climbed the eastern mountains, poured his rays full upon the landscape, dispersing at once in thin curls of transparent vapour the slight frost that had hung upon every bush and blade, The view was bounded on the west by distant mountains beyond the lakes, while the course of Champlain could be distinctly traced, as it stretched far to the north. On an eminence, a few miles in front, stood the town, towards which they now bent their way.

The youthful stranger had, in the mean time, spurred on over rock and rivulet, and, leaving Rutland on his left, entered by a more direct path the road leading to Castleton, so abruptly and rapidly, that he had wellnigh unhorsed another cavalier who was coming up the road at a round pace. Hands were on hilts in an instant; but a single glance was sufficient for mutual recognition.

"Captain Phelps!" exclaimed the youth.

"Mark Standish!" cried Captain Noah Phelps. "How is it I meet you here, and whither so fast, lad ?" May I not ask the same question of you captain?" said Standish.

66

And you, Captain Phelps?"

"To Castleton also, Do you go further to day ?" Perhaps――and you?"

66

May be, A truce to trifling-I suspect we're on the same errand, But, Mark, my boy, have you reflected ? It's a ticklish business, I know you're a lad of mettle, Mark, You're of a good stock, Standish, I prophesied well of you from a boy, when you mounted the colt without a saddle or bridle, whip or spur, as the hounds passed you in full cry, and brought in the brush stuck in your hat; and when a few years after they carried you in triumph through the village, with the wolf born before you. You're a true blue, or rather a true green, as they'll have it here on the Hampshire grants; but zounds, lad, you are too green for this affair; leave it in my hands."

.6

Not while I have hands of my own," said Standish.

"Say you so, my lad Mark? Why, then, have with you, a fig for our necks; hurrah for the congress, and set forward." And away they went at the top of their horses' speed.

A short halt at Castleton was necessary; they had ridden fast and far, and their horses and themselves must breath and bait; some preparation and arrangement also was requisite, for the safe execution of the design they had in view. It was during their slight repast, the youth related to his friend, the Connecticut captain, some of the incidents to which their meeting was owing, Mark Standish and Ellen Guildford were born and bred in or near the same village. Ellen was allowed by the men to be the prettiest, liveliest, girl in the vicinage; and Mark, it was not denied by the women, was the handsomest aud smartest young fellow. They were playmates in their childhood; and, in proper season, which, in the Green Mountains, where ear. ly marriages are encouraged, is sufficiently soon, ripened into lovers. The passion of the boy, taking its character from his natural temperament, was deep and intense; Ellen loved, as she did every thing else, with vivacity and cheerfulness; Mark could not brook a ri val near her, and, unfortunately for him, the charms of the village maiden drew many lovers around her; it was death to Mark to see her smile on another, and unhappily Ellen could not, in the innocence of her heart, help smiling and laughing too, upon occasion. Mark, at times, almost permitted himself to suspect that Ellen was something of a coquette, and Ellen, but for the purity of her thoughts, might have seen that Mark was jealous. They, however, loved each other truly and dearly, and it was a bitter moment to both when they were to part, although the separation was to be but temporary. But the aunt of Ellen Guildford had

come a long journey, expressly to take her home with her. She was a lone woman, having recently lost her husband; and the mother of Ellen could not refuse to a beloved sister the consolation of her neice's society for a short time. The aunt was aged, and had been left well to live, as it regarded the goods of this world; and even in the pure atmosphere of the Green Mountains a little worldly prudence may be supposed to exist. Ellen raised no difficulty to going, for on the Hampshire grants young ladies, however in love, in their most romantic moments never dreamed of resisting the will or wishes of their parents. She went therefore, and Mark, after accompanying her some distance towards her aunt's dwelling, which was seated on Lake Champlain, returned home to his employments, manfully resolving to bear her absence as he might. Several months had elapsed, and every day the young man found it less easy to repress his impatience. The few letters which Ellen found opportunity to transmit were full of fond and frank affection. But Mark did not fail to hear of the manner in which she was distinguished, at the rustic feats of her neighbourhood, and, above all, that a British officer from the other side of the lake was her declared admirer. Whatever it was, whether love or jealousy, or both, which prompted him, he came at once to the determination that he could no longer live without her. Arrangements with his father were immediately brought to a conclusion, which put him in possession of a farm of his own, and he made a last visit to the village, preparatory to setting out for the lake, to claim his bride, and remove her at onee from a situation which was by no means eligable, in the present unsettled state of the country.

In the village, although it was scarcely day when he entered it, all was bustle aud confusion. In the streets. at the church-door, on the tavern piazza, in the blacksmith's shop, groups of busy people had collected; even the loungers at the stores no longer hung their heels idly over the counter, but all and every one seemed engaged in earnest and interesting discourse; while animated female faces, looked from door and window, not with mere curiosity, but with anxiety and alarm, The meaning of all this was, that intelligence of the affair at Lexington had reached them. Blood had been spilt; the blood of their fellow men, of their fellow citizens. The charm was in a moment dissolved that had united the two hemispheres in brotherhood; the blow had been struck that was to shake, convulse, and sever, mighty empires. In common with their countrymen, the inhabitants of the little town of Osbrook felt, in all its force, the sensation such an event was calculated to inspire. Their ordinary avocations were suspended; their quarrel with a neighbouring province, upon the very eve of coming to mortal arbitrament, was cancelled and forgotten; new views of grandeur and sublimity opened upon them; lofty and heroic thoughts took possession of their minds; aud their only language was defiance to the common enemy, their ouly deliberation how best to serve their country. Some ardent and stirring spirits had already cast their eye towards the British posts on Lake Champlain, commanding as they did the approach from Canada. Wooster, Dean, and Parsons, with other bold and active patriots, had, even then, under the sanction of the Connecticut Assembly, obtained the necessary funds, and secured the services of the renowned Ethan Allen as leader of

their enterprise; aud troops for the suprise of Ticonderoga and Crown Point were actually marching by various ronts, and with the greatest celerity and secresy, for Castleton. The ardour of the young nan was aroused by the information, that one of those patriot bands had passed through the village not many hours before; but, when he heard that Ellen Guildford had been clandestinely taken from her protectress by a British officer, his impatience amounted to agony. Cursing his indecision and del ay, he mounted his welltried steed, and, waiting only to receive from his informant, who was known to the leaders of the enterprise, a few lines necessary as an introduction or a pass, sped with the swiftness of the wind after the advanc ing party, A chaos of thoughts whirled in his brain as he road, amidst which doubts of Ellen's faith for a moment intruded; but they were immediately driven forth with remorse for having cherished them. Yet he resolved to ascertain the truth, and this perhaps could be done only by entering the fortress. It was with this view he proposed to the leader of the troop, whom he overtook, as has been related, to bring information of the state of the garrison; and he was on his way to the lake for those purposes, when he encountered Captain Phelps.

"So then," said Captain Phelps, when Standish had concluded, "I find you're bent upon risking your neck for this girl, who, don't mistake me, may be worthy of it, But, after all, you have heard but a rumour.”

"It has been confirmed to me since I entered this place," replied Standish; "she has certainly disappeared, and in a mysterious manner.”

"Well, then," said the saptain, as he unlocked his ample saddle-bags, and took out various dresses, "let's e'en fix upon our disguises; here's a wardrobe fit for any

spy unchanged in Christendom. I had some thought of playing the Canadian among them, as you may see by this fawn-skin jacket, red worsted cap, and sagathy breeches; but I've changed my mind, so you may have the garments if you like the character.”

"Not I replied Standish; "I know nothing of it."

"Well," said the captain, "then we must come Yankee over them, and I've notions enough here to baffle a nation of such underwits."

Their arrangements were quickly made; and, having finished their refection, they continued their course, passing without difficulty the sentinels posted on the avenues towards the lake. Having arrived at the shores near Orwell, they left their horses in the care of a confidential person, and, entering a bateau, were set across the branch of Lake Champlain to the strip of land seprating it from Lake George; there again embarking in a skiff, which they fortunately found on the beach, they landed on the oppisite shore, a little above the romantic outlet of the latter lake.

They entered the works, clad in the coarse garments common to the poorer class of settlers; and their perfect acquaintance with the habits and idioms of that region enabled them easily to support the characters they had assumed, The idle and arrogant soldiers of the garrison had never permitted themselves to believe that the natives or settlers around them, whom they had been accustomed to consider as an inferior race, could ever contemplate resistance, much less attack; and our adventurers were suffered to pass unquestioned;

as two gawky Yankee traders in small notions, a little more knave than they appeared to be, and very willing if they could, to overreach even the sutler himself. While Captain Noah Phelps scanned every thing around with a military eye, it may be naturally suspected that the anxiety of the lover mainly directed the views of Mark Standish. But his search had been as yet fruitless, and he was about to yield to utter despair, when, on turning an angle of the works, a folded paper fell at his feet. He looked up, and saw a white hand for a moment wave through the loophole, high in the solid mass of masonry. Eagerly he snatched up the paper, happily unobserved, and retiring to a recess, with a throbbing heart read the following lines traced in pencil by the hand of his Ellen ;

"I know you dear Mark, but guess not your design. How I tremble for your safety! For me, fear not; I shall still preserve myself for you."

The enraptured, yet indignant, lover, still held the letter in his hand, unconscious of danger, when suddenly a step approached, and a person crossed the opening in which he stood; hastily he thrust the paper into his bosom, while the other paused, and threw a suspicious glance towards him, which he was in no condition to meet with an air of self-possession. It was a critical moment, when the captain came in to the rescue. He perceived the exigency, and met it promptly. The personage before him was no less than the barber of the garrison. Phelps immediately engaged him for a cast of his office, and, while the barber was reaping the full harvest of his very fertile chin, Standish had leisure to regain his composure. The captain took all with extreme coolness, not failing to drive a hard and protracted bargain with the barber for the service he had rendered, after which he led the way in a shambling, ca:eless gait out of the garrison.

66

She is here," cried Standish, and can I, ought I--?"

"Yes," replied Phelps, interrupting him, "you both can and ought to come along as fast as your legs will carry you, unless you would stay and be hanged,

Their was no rebutting an argument like this, and, without unnecessary delay, our adventurers retraced their way to Orwell.

Captain Phelps now proceeded straight to Castleton while Standish sought the late residence of his Ellen. He found the aged relative almost distracted with her loss, but unable to say how or by whose agency it was effected. She had, indeed, reason to suspect the young British officer, who, from the time he met Ellen at the village ball, had paid her uncommon attention. More than once the old lady had heard at night the sound of a flute from the lake under her window, and shrewdly suspected it to be a serenade to Ellen. But she was sure the dear girl had never given the man the least encouragement; and as to going off with him willingly the thing was not to be thought of. Standish communicated to the good dame as much of the actual position of affairs as he deemed proper, and was rewarded by hearing related a thousand proofs of her neice's virtues, and twice that number of her affection for her dear Mark.

Night had fallen, and troops assembled at Castleton

were enjoying a short repose after the day's fatigue, when a stranger, who had been stopped as he attempted to pass the guard, was, at his peremptory demand, conducted by a sentinal to head-quarters. Ethan Allen was seated at the head of a table, around which sat several other officers, when the stranger, a young man of a proud and martial deportment, his blue military cloak, thrown gracefully over his shoulder, entered the

room.

Swaggerer and martinet!" muttered Allen, as the stranger approached: then addressing the subject of his remark: "Well, sir, you see Ethan Allen. Quick! who? what?'

"I am not used to be interrogated in that style or tone," answered the stranger, drawing himself up haughtily.

"Ho!" roared Ethan Allen, distending the circle of his large eyes to a most ludicrous circumference ; "well sir, to amplify, according to the book, who are you, and what do you want?"

"My name, sir,is Arnold.”

66

"It may be so," said Allen; "will Captain Arnold of the Connecticut Volunteers signify his pleasure ?" By this commission you will be taught that I am now Colonel Arnold, sir; and by this," producing another paper, "that I am authorized and ordered by the committee of safety of Massachusets to raise a force of four hundred men, and attack Ticonderoga." The astonishment of Allen was fearful. "Massachusetts colonel!" he repeated. By the horn of Jericho! Ticonderoga-you raise men soul of Samuel! where are they? he?""

66

"You have, I thank you, raised them to my hands," replied Arnold with his customary confidence.

The ample chest of Allen heaved with an earthquake of passion. "To your hands?" he cried; "yours! by the crack of a fieldpiece, your impudence is amusing, And who then," he added, cocking fiercely his little three-corned hat, "who then am I?"

"Captain Allen," answered the stranger with a condescending air, "of whose services Colonel Arnold will be proud to avail himself.”

"Good-better and better-excellent !" said Allen in a smothered tone. "By the Lord, there's mettle in this martinet. Hand me your papers, young man, and be seated,"

Arnold took a chair, while Allen hastily glanced over the papers, and then with a smile of peculiar meaning, said, "You are appointed a colonel by a com. mittee, whose power I shall not question. Now, here's a council of war-are you not, gentlemen ?--whose power you must not question, sir. You appoint me, do you not, gentlemen a colonel also ?"

Certainly; 'tis your right!" they all cried. "Well, then, our grade it seems is the same; now as to rank, happening to have the power, I settle it in my own favour, which if any one dispute, I'll send his soul elsewhere in the priming of a rifle, and this same," putting forth his gigantic arm, "shall be the beetle of mortality; ay, ay," he added, "in spite of

twenty such muckle-whangers as that young man. Psha, lad alive! leave fingering the pommel of your sword, the thing is settled by authority; as a philosopher and soldier-not doubting that you are eachyou must submit. There's stuff in you fit for use, though not over malleable, and by Judas and the rest—no allusion, sir-you shall have place and employment! Come gentlemen, 'tis time to set forward. Is there any report from the party detached to the head of the lake.

This moment a messenger arrived. Skeensborough is taken, and Skeen himself secured," replied an officer at the door.

"Hurah!" shouted Allen, "the would-be royal governor of Ticonderoga is ours-no more delay. To horse, in the name of God, and away!"

But, sir" said Arnold.

"Buts won't do, sir-I've said it, old Ethan whom they call the outlaw, who laughs at the lightning, outscolds the thunder, and defies the devil and Governor Tryon,-old Allen, who studied divinity in his youth, and became a soldier by passion, who knows but little of the world of spirits, but trusts he will be treated in the other world as a gentleman of his merit ought to be. Come, hurah for the Green Mountains, and forward to old Ti." Hereupon the council broke up, Arnold yielding with a tolerable grace to an arrangement he could not better; and in a short time the whole body of troops was in brisk motion.

It was almost day when the American force arrived, silent and unseen, on the bank of the lake, opposite Ticonderoga. Their horses were secured in the neighbourhood, and, while some of the men were collecting the few boats scattered along the shore, the rest were dispersed in picturesque groups upon the bank. It was a scene of awful stillness. The lake reposed dark and unruffled by a single breeze; the moon was absent from the heavens, and the eye could with difficulty trace on the western horizon the dimly defined outline of the most prominent and elevated parts of the fortress now an object of such intense interest.

"Ay," said Ethan Allen in a suppressed voice "there she is, the Harlot of Babylon; there's old Ti., whom I long to have a grapple with, as a lover with his mistress. How soundly the Jezabel sleeps on the brink of perdition, little dreaming who are about to beat up her quarters! But it's the same to her, French, English, or Yankees. To do the old girl justice, however, she did hold that Abercrombie at arm's length, as Putnam, the wolf-hunter, has told me, who was in the frolic, when that hair-brained boy, Lord Howe, with many other brave fellows, left his body in the outworks. But then, again, Amherst had her for the asking, without penny or price. Well boys, we may have a tussle for't, but I conclude we're ready; so embark, in the name of the pillars of fire and smoke; act like men, inen of the Hampshire grants, and never bring a red blush on the Green Mountains."

An advanced guard of eighty-three men, as many as the boats could contain, now proceeded to embark.

"Halt their, friend," whispered Allen to Arnold, as the latter was attempting to pass him, "not before the commodore, colonel ;" and he enforced his sugges tion with no very gentle constriction of the arm, in fact with the grasp of a tourniquet or a vice—“no man of God's moulding before Ethan;" and he stepped on

board, followed by Arnold, Standish, and others of the most eager. Motionless as statues, and almost as breathless, they glided over the still lake, the dull sound of the muffled oar scarcely reaching to the stem or stern of the boat, and not a ripple following its silent dip or its feathery skim over the undisturbed surface of the water.

It was when the east first became dappled by the dawn, that the party landed on the hostile shore, near their slumbering foes. The boats where inmediately sent back, for the rear guard under Seths Warner, while the advance was drawn up in triple rank, and Ethan Allen, whose huge dimensions the occasion seemed to swell to gigantic size; harangued the brave band. "Fellow soldiers," said he, "you have long been the terror of arbitrary power, in the person of the petty despot, Tryon. Your fame has gone abroad, as appears from the honour this day confered upon you and me by the General Assembly of Connecticut. You are now in a few minutes to prove yourselves worthy of your reputation for valour, or abandon your pretensions for ever! I am ordered to take possession of the fortress before you, and propose to lead you at once through the gate. It is a desperate attempt, and none but the bravest of men will undertake it; on those who are not brave I do not urge it; you, who volunteer to follow me, poise your fire locks."

There was not one of the band who did not throw his piece to the poise. "To the right face!" said Allen, and, placing himself in front of the centre file, marched his column in double quick time directly to the southern entrance. On approaching the gate, Arnold endeavoured to place himself at the head of the column. "By Heaven, sir," cried he, "I will enter first; my rank entitles me to it."

"Never, sir," answered Allen, "if you attempt it, I'll send you to salvation or otherwise, before your watch ticks thrice!"

"For God's sake, Allen, Arnold-at such a time, in such a situation to dispute-shame, shame!" whispered several voices near them.

"Well, sir, this much I'll grant, we'll go in together; but stop there on my left, if you please," said Allen, and in this order they entered the gateway.

A sentinal posted at the wicket, completely surprised, presented his piece at Allen's breast. "A snap by Jupiter Protector! follow my boys!" cried Allen, as the pursued the retreating sentinel by the covered way into the body of the place. Uttering a cry of alarm the sentinel fled into a casemate. Standish had entered almost at the side of Allen, a second sentinel charged upon him, and wounded him slightly with hisqay onet; Allen turned to his rescue, his tremendous arm was raised for the fatal blow when suddenly he changed his purpose, and let his sword fall gently down the side of the sentinel's head, mearly scraping off one ear and the better part of his cheek in the descent. The poor fellow dropped his arms and begged for quarter. While the troops formed in two lines, each facing a line of barracks, and were awaking the garrison with there terrific hurras, Allen had questioned the prostrate sentinel; and, following his directions, immediately ran up a stone stairway, on the western side of the esplanade, to the chamber of the commandent. "Come forth," he cried, in a voice like the roaring of Niagara," you command these slaves! you De la Place; come out, lobster

back, from your shell, or every soul of you, fish or flesh shall be sacrificed!" The unfortunate commander appeared at his chamber-door, in extreme undress, and the picture of dismay and despair. "Do you deliver me the fortress?" cried Allen.

"In whose name do you demand it?" asked the petrified De la Place, not certain whether he was capitulating to men or devils. " thun

"In the name of the Continental Congress! dered Allen; "nay no parleying," he added, surrender or death." The ill-fated De la Place, with the sword literally suspended over his head, gave orders for his men to parade without arms, as he had surrendered the fort.

It was in the grey of the morning of the tenth of May, 1775, that this most important fortress, with all its formidable and extensive equipments and warlike stores, was yielded to the gallantry of a few boys of the Green Mountains.

The sun rose in unusual splendour, as if smiling on the achievement. On the same day Crown Point surrendered to the brave and indefatigable Seth Warner, who had been detached with a part of the reserve, and immediately after, Arnold surprised and captured a vessel of war at the lower extremity of Champlain, and thus the entire command of the lakes rested with the Americans.

To return to Ticonderoga; the victors were assembled at the banquet-board, making ample amends for all their privations, when Allen remarked the absence of the young volunteer who had been wounded at his side, and inquired, with much interest, as to his fate. But no one could say what had become of him. The last time he was seen was when the assaulting party was beating in the barrack doors, in which it was observed, he assisted with the fury of a lion. There was also a subaltern missing, whose absence could not be accounted for, any more than that of Standish. A short time, however, explained the mystery.

Mark Standish had indeed pursued his search with fury and even frenzy. Every room was entered, but Ellen was nowhere to be found. Yet the chamber from which the letter had, the day before, been dropped, seemed to have been recently abandoned. He repeated bis enquiries on every side, and was at length told by a soldier of the garrison that, on the first alarm, he had seen a female borne by an officer throngh one of the narrow passages, between the blocks of barracks. Standish instantly started off in the direction indicated, and, gaining the open country, struck into the only path which seemed to be practicable. Along this, he ran, he flew, at intervals pausing to call aloud the name of his beloved. The way became more rugged and difficult as it led among the hills, and he was about sinking to the earth in weakness and despair, when he thought he heard a response to his call in a faint, female voice-again he shouted, he paused in breathless suspense, but no answer was returned. Was it then but an echo that had mocked him? One effort more, and, summoning his powers of voice, as he leaned in his exhaustion against a tree, he called on Ellen ―a voice not distant, but indistinct, as if stifled in its utterance, pronounced his name. He was no longer weak. With the vigour of the deer he bounded forward, and in an instant beheld before him the form of a man near whom lay exhausted and fainting his beloved Ellen,