第41章

A land of love, and a land of light, Withouten sun, or moon, or night:

Where the river swa'd a living stream, And the light a pure celestial beam:

The land of vision, it would seem A still, an everlasting dream.

_Queen's Wake._

The rest that succeeds fatigue, and which attends a newly awakened sense of security, is generally sweet and deep.Such was the fact with Mabel, who did not rise from her humble pallet -- such a bed as a sergeant's daughter might claim in a remote frontier post -- until long after the garrison had obeyed the usual summons of the drums, and had assembled at the morning parade.

Sergeant Dunham, on whose shoulders fell the task of attending to these ordinary and daily duties, had got through all his morning avocations, and was beginning to think of his breakfast, before his child left her room, and came into the fresh air, equally bewildered, delighted, and grateful, at the novelty and security of her new situation.

At the time of which we are writing, Oswego was one of the extreme frontier posts of the British possessions on this continent.It had not been long occupied, and was garri-soned by a battalion of a regiment which had been origin-ally Scotch, but into which many Americans had been re-ceived since its arrival in this country; all innovation that had led the way to Mabel's father filling the humble but responsible situation of the oldest sergeant.A few young officers also, who were natives of the colonies, were to be found in the corps.The fort itself, like most works of that character, was better adapted to resist an attack of savages than to withstand a regular siege; but the great difficulty of transporting heavy artillery and other neces-saries rendered the occurrence of the latter a probability so remote as scarcely to enter into the estimate of the en-gineers who had planned the defences.There were bas-tions of earth and logs, a dry ditch, a stockade, a parade of considerable extent, and barracks of logs, that answered the double purpose of dwellings and fortifications.A few light fleld-pieces stood in the area of the fort, ready to be conveyed to any point where they might be wanted, and one or two heavy iron guns looked out from the summits of the advanced angles, as so many admonitions to the audacious to respect their power.

When Mabel, quitting the convenient, but compara-tively retired hut where her father had been permitted to place her, issued into the pure air of the morning, she found herself at the foot of a bastion, which lay invitingly before her, with a promise of giving a _coup d'oeil_ of all that had been concealed in the darkness of the preceding night.Tripping up the grassy ascent, the light-hearted as well as light-footed girl found herself at once on a point where the sight, at a few varying glances, could take in all the external novelties of her new situation.

To the southward lay the forest, through which she had been journeying so many weary days, and which had proved so full of dangers.It was separated from the stockade by a belt of open land, that had been principally cleared of its woods to form the martial constructions around her.

This glacis, for such in fact was its military uses, might have covered a hundred acres; but with it every sign of civilization ceased.All beyond was forest; that dense, interminable forest which Mabel could now picture to herself, through her recollections, with its hidden glassy lakes, its dark rolling stream, and its world of nature.

Turning from this view, our heroine felt her cheek fanned by a fresh and grateful breeze, such as she had not experienced since quitting the far distant coast.Here a new scene presented itself: although expected, it was not without a start, and a low exclamation indicative of pleas-ure, that the eager eyes of the girl drank in its beauties.To the north, and east, and west, in every direction, in short, over one entire half of the novel panorama, lay a field of rolling waters.The element was neither of that glassy green which distinguishes the American waters in general, nor yet of the deep blue of the ocean, the color being of a slightly amber hue, which scarcely affected its limpidity.

No land was to be seen, with the exception of the adjacent coast, which stretched to the right and left in an unbroken outline of forest with wide bays and low headlands or points; still, much of the shore was rocky, and into its caverns the sluggish waters occasionally rolled, producing a hollow sound, which resembled the concussions of a dis-tant gun.No sail whitened the surface, no whale or other fish gambolled on its bosom, no sign of use or service re-warded the longest and most minute gaze at its boundless expanse.It was a scene, on one side, of apparently end-less forests, while a waste of seemingly interminable water spread itself on the other.Nature appeared to have de-lighted in producing grand effects, by setting two of her principal agents in bold relief to each other, neglecting de-tails; the eye turning from the broad carpet of leaves to the still broader field of fluid, from the endless but gentle heavings of the lake to the holy calm and poetical solitude of the forest, with wonder and delight.