542 THE MALEDICTED. 



the mysteries of the forest. He described the wild fruits, and the 

 vivid dyes which he beheld, and as the winged inhabitants flitted past 

 us, he named them with facility. In this way we continued our jour- 

 ney until the evening of the fourth day, when the boundings of two 

 fine dogs indicated our approach to the neighbourhood of New Hope 

 Settlement. An hour's ride brought us to the spot, and we were wel- 

 comed with a rude but honest heartiness, which amply repaid what I 

 confess had appeared to me a tiresome journey. 



The family of Detroisier consisted of but four, the father, mother, 

 my new acquaintance, and a daughter. The elder people were frank 

 and affable, and somewhat proud of the stranger their son had brought 

 them, the more so, as he could tell them of strange occurrences which 

 had taken place in the mother- country, and of which the slightest 

 intimation had not reached them in their sylvan seclusion. Emily 

 Detroisier was a handsome creature, just bursting into womanhood, and 

 strong and vigorous as the wild fawn of the adjoining woods. She 

 blushed deeply, and with a sweet awkwardness, when Albert told her 

 he had brought her another brother, who would tell her wondrous 

 stories of the world beyond the sea, of which she had only heard some 

 brief imperfect legends. She received and returned my salute with a 

 sister-like ardour, and clapping her hands in an apparent extacy of 

 delight, she exclaimed, " Oh, how happy we shall be \" 



I know not how it was, but the presence of that girl was a source of 

 inexpressible uneasiness to me ; and from the first week that I spent in 

 her company, I felt myself irresistibly drawn towards her. At times 

 my agony was intense, and I rushed from the presence of all, and 

 unwitnessed, in the bosom of the woods, I gave loose to the anguish of 

 my terror-haunted soul. " What !" I would ask myself, " can the 

 words of a weak woman over-leap time and space, and blight me even 

 in solitude ? Shall I never know compassion more ? never more taste 

 the sweet solace of a congenial heart, or repose my unhappy head on 

 the bosom of unsophisticated affection ?" I determined that I would 

 no longer stoop to such a degradation ; that I would fling unmerited 

 punishment to the winds, and in the garb of a sylvan hunter, and in 

 the happy arms of Emily Detroisier, would seek that measure of delight 

 which had hitherto eluded my grasp, I would enjoy the few years 

 which were yet allotted me, in defiance of forebodings for the future, 

 or regrets for the past. Alas ! how unstable are the resolves of the 

 unhappy ! when I saw the gay figure of Emily, I was whirled in an 

 instant to other days and scenes I beheld the pale but dear features 

 of the lost Marian, and my eyes were filled with the tears of a too 

 faithful recollection. 



Amid these strugglings of the mind, however, I was rapidly acquiring 

 a strength and hardihood of body, to which, up to that period, I had 

 been wholly a stranger. I entered upon my new pursuits with a manly 

 alacrity, and every trace of the pale and sorrow-stricken student was 

 lost in the athletic form of an adventurous woodsman. 



I became expert in the use of a rifle, and frequently followed the 

 chase with uncommon ardour for days. On these occasions I made a 

 circuit from New Hope, which materially impeded the chances of my 

 finding my way hack unassisted. At that period the native Indians 

 might be said to halve the soil with the new and industrious settler ; 

 and in the majority of instances, a spirit of the warmest friendship 





