第59章

Compel the hawke to sit that is unmann'd, Or make the hound, untaught, to draw the deere, Or bring the free against his will in band, Or move the sad a pleasant tale to heere, Your time is lost, and you no whit the neere!

So love ne learnes, of force the heart to knit:

She serves but those that feel sweet fancies' fit.

_Mirror for Magistrates._

It is not often that hope is rewarded by fruition so completely as the wishes of the young men of the garrison were met by the state of the weather on the succeeding day.The heats of summer were little felt at Oswego at the period of which we are writing; for the shade of the forest, added to the refreshing breezes from the lake, so far reduced the influence of the sun as to render the nights always cool and the days seldom oppressive.

It was now September, a month in which the strong gales of the coast often appear to force themselves across the country as far as the great lakes, where the inland sailor sometimes feels that genial influence which charac-terizes the winds of the ocean invigorating his frame, cheering his spirits, and arousing his moral force.Such a day was that on which the garrison of Oswego assembled to witness what its commander had jocularly called a "passage of arms." Lundie was a scholar in military matters at least, and it was one of his sources of honest pride to direct the reading and thoughts of the young men under his orders to the more intellectual parts of their profession.For one in his situation, his library was both good and extensive, and its books were freely lent to all who desired to use them.Among other whims that had found their way into the garrison through these means, was a relish for the sort of amusement in which it was now about to indulge; and around which some chronicles of the days of chivalry had induced them to throw a parade and romance not unsuited to the characters and habits of soldiers, or to the insulated and wild post occupied by this particular garrison.While so earnestly bent on pleasure, however, they on whom that duty devolved did not neglect the safety of the garrison.One standing on the ramparts of the fort, and gazing on the waste of glittering water that bounded the view all along the northern horizon, and on the slumbering and seemingly boundless forest which filled the other half of the panorama, would have fancied the spot the very abode of peacefulness and security; but Duncan of Lundie too well knew that the woods might, at any moment, give up their hundreds, bent on the destruc-tion of the fort and all it contained; and that even the treacherous lake offered a highway of easy approach by which his more civilized and scarcely less wily foes, the French, could come upon him at an unguarded moment.

Parties were sent out under old and vigilant officers, men who cared little for the sports of the day, to scour the for-est; and one entire company held the fort, under arms, with orders to maintain a vigilance as strict as if an enemy of superior force was known to be near.With these precautions, the remainder of the officers and men abandoned themselves, without apprehension, to the busi-ness of the morning.

The spot selected for the sports was a sort of esplanade, a little west of the fort, and on the immediate bank of the lake.It had been cleared of its trees and stumps, that it might answer the purpose of a parade-ground, as it pos-sessed the advantages of having its rear protected by the water, and one of its flanks by the works.Men drilling on it could be attacked, consequently, on two sides only;and as the cleared space beyond it, in the direction of the west and south, was large, any assailants would be com-pelled to quit the cover of the woods before they could make an approach sufficiently near to render them dan-gerous.

Although the regular arms of the regiment were mus-kets, some fifty rifles were produced on the present occa-sion.Every officer had one as a part of his private provi-sion for amusement; many belonged to the scouts and friendly Indians, of whom more or less were always hang-ing about the fort; and there was a public provision of them for the use of those who followed the game with the express object of obtaining supplies.Among those who carried the weapon were some five or six, who had reputa-tion for knowing how to use it particularly well -- so well, indeed, as to have given them a celebrity on the frontier;twice that number who were believed to be much better than common; and many who would have been thought ex-pert in almost any situation but the precise one in which they now happened to be placed.

The distance was a hundred yards, and the weapon was to be used without a rest; the target, a board, with the customary circular lines in white paint, having the bull's-eye in the centre.The first trials in skill commenced with challenges among the more ignoble of the competi-tors to display their steadiness and dexterity in idle com-petition.None but the common men engaged in this strife, which had little to interest the spectators, among whom no officer had yet appeared.

Most of the soldiers were Scotch, the regiment having been raised at Stirling and its vicinity not many years before, though, as in the case of Sergeant Dunham, many Americans had joined it since its arrival in the colonies.

As a matter of course, the provincials were generally the most expert marksmen; and after a desultory trial of half an hour it was necessarily conceded that a youth who had been born in the colony of New York, and who coming of Dutch extraction, was the most expert of all who had yet tried their skill.It was just as this opinion prevailed that the oldest captain, accompanied by most of the gen-tlemen and ladies of the fort, appeared on the parade.Atrain of some twenty females of humbler condition fol-lowed, among whom was seen the well-turned form, in-telligent, blooming, animated countenance, and neat, be-coming attire of Mabel Dunham.