Chapter 29

"O, Time and Death! with certain pace,
Though still unequal, hurrying on,
O'erturning, in your awful race,
The cot, the palace, and the throne!"

Sands.

Maud had little leisure for reflection. The yells and shrieks were
followed by the cries of combatants, and the crack of the rifle. Nick
hurried her along at a rate so rapid that she had not breath to
question or remonstrate, until she found herself at the door of a small
store-room, in which her mother was accustomed to keep articles of
domestic economy that required but little space. Into this room Nick
thrust her, and then she heard the key turn on her egress. For a single
moment, Wyandotté stood hesitating whether he should endeavour to get
Mrs. Willoughby and her other daughter into the same place of security;
then, judging of the futility of the attempt, by the approach of the
sounds within, among which he heard the full, manly voice of Robert
Willoughby, calling on the garrison to be firm, he raised an answering
yell to those of the Mohawks, the war-whoop of his tribe, and plunged
into the fray with the desperation of one who ran a muck, and with the
delight of a demon.

In order to understand the cause of this sudden change, it will be
necessary to return a little, in the order of time. While Willoughby
was with his mother and sisters, Mike had charge of the gate. The rest
of the garrison was either at the loops, or was stationed on the roofs.
As the darkness increased, Joel mustered sufficient courage to crawl
through the hole, and actually reached the gate. Without him, it was
found impossible to spring his mine, and he had been prevailed on to
risk this much, on condition it should not be asked of him to do such
violence to his feelings as to enter the court of a house in which he
had seen so many happy days.

The arrangement, by which this traitor intended to throw a family upon
the tender mercies of savages, was exceedingly simple. It will be
remembered that only one leaf of the inner gate was hung, the other
being put in its place, where it was sustained by a prop. This prop
consisted of a single piece of timber, of which one end rested on the
ground, and the other on the centre of the gate; the last being
effectually prevented from slipping by pins of wood, driven into the
massive wood-work of the gate, above its end. The lower end of the prop
rested against a fragment of rock that nature had placed at this
particular spot. As the work had been set up in a hurry, it was found
necessary to place wedges between the lower end of the prop and the
rock, in order to force the leaf properly into its groove, without
which it might have been canted to one side, and of course easily
overturned by the