Wyandotte

Chapter 20

"His hand was stay'd--he knew not why;

'Twas a presence breathed around--

A pleading from the deep-blue sky,

And up from the teeming ground.

It told of the care that lavish'd had been

In sunshine and in dew--

Of the many things that had wrought a screen

When peril round it grew."

Mrs. Seba Smith.

The desertions gave not only the captain, but his great support and

auxiliary, the serjeant, the gravest apprehensions. A disposition of

that nature is always contagious, men abandoning a failing cause much

as rats are known to quit a sinking ship. It is not a matter of

surprise, therefore, that the distrust which accompanied the unexpected

appearance of the Tuscarora, became associated with this falling off in

the loyalty of the garrison, in the minds of the two old soldiers.

"I d