208 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



the promise he wished. The Spaniards, who had 

 doubtless guessed our loss, rushed like mad wolves 

 up to the mound, twenty on one side, and upwards of 

 thirty on the other. 



" ' Steady ! ' cried I. ' Righteous, here with me ; 

 and you, Rachel, show yourself worthy to be Hiram 

 Strong's daughter, and Asa's wife ; load this rifle for 

 me while I fire my own.' 



" ' God ! God ! ' cried Rachel, < the hell-hounds 

 have murdered my Asa ! ' 



" She clasped her husband's body in her arms, and 

 there was no getting her away. I felt sad enough 

 myself, but there was scanty time for grieving ; for a 

 party of Spaniards, headed by one of the Acadians, 

 was close up to the mound on the side which I was 

 defending. I shot the Acadian ; but another, the 

 sixth, and last but one, took his place. ' Rachel ! ' 

 cried I, ' the rifle, for God's sake, the rifle ! a single 

 bullet may save all our lives.' 



" But no Rachel came, and the Acadian and Span- 

 iards, who, from the cessation of our fire, guessed 

 that we were either unloaded, or had expended our 

 ammunition, now sprang forward, and by climbing, 

 and scrambling, and getting on one another's shoulders, 

 managed to scale the side of the mound, almost per- 

 pendicular, as you see it is. And in a minute the 

 Acadian and half-a-dozen Spaniards, with axes, were 

 chopping away at the palisades, and severing the 

 wattles which bound them together. To give the 



