another expedition for dispersing these military tenants of the usurping Colonel. And for this, among other objects, Warrington and his companions were now on their way to the spot.

It was not till an advanced hour in the afternoon of the day, which commenced by the adventures related in the last chapter, that our band arrived at the outskirts of the singularly guarded possession just described. Their force, swelled by the numbers who had joined them on the last part of their route, now amounted to about a dozen men. They halted in the woods, adjoining the clearing, for the purpose of consultation, with a view to fix on the best mode of attacking the place, which they were not without hope of carrying by surprise. They had scarcely commenced discussing these points, however, before their attention was arrested by two quickly successive reports of fire-arms, proceeding from a thicket, on the opposite side of the Creek.

"What will you bate I do n't know the bark of that dog, Captain?" exclaimed Jones, tipping one of his comical winks to his superior.

"Aha! who do you suspect, Jones?" asked Warrington, with a look of interest.

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Why, I should n't like to make bodily oath of it, besure," replied the other, "but unless my ear lies like the mischief, one of those popping noises over there was the voice of an old acquaintance.'

"To the point, man, if you possibly can!" rather impatiently spoke the leader; "what acquaintance do you mean?"

"The one that I was introduced to, up on the lake there, last night, asking your pardon, Captain," replied Pete, lowering his tone a little under the slightly rebuking manner of his commander.

"You are in the right, Mr. Jones," said the other, kindly, though a flash of anger passed over his face at the discovery that now burst on his mind; "I see it all, at last. Those were the reports of a pair of pistols, and in the hands, too, of that traitorous Sherwood, who has been hovering round us on our march, and now fires his pistols as a preconcerted signal, to give notice of our approach. It is well for the fellow that he was wise enough to put the Creek between us and himself, before taking this last step."

"That comes of suffering the scoundrel to go unhanged last night," grumbled Brown. "If I had been the Captain, I would have strung him up to the limb of a tree like a sheep-killing dog, and left him kicking in the air.”

"It is not always," said Warrington, "nor often, I think, that we find cause to repent of the mercies we have shown; but this fellow let him beware!" he added, knitting his brow, let him beware how he is taken again !"

All hope of taking the place by surprise being now relinquished by our band, it was soon settled, as the most probable way of accomplishing their object without bloodshed, which they would gladly avoid, that a feint should be made in the open field, with a view of drawing out the enemy from their works, while the part of their force, not thus to be engaged, should go round in the woods, and, approaching in the rear, endeavor to get possession of the house and enclosure. In pursuance of this plan, Warrington, taking Selden and two of the men with him, started off for the purpose of carrying the last part of the arrangement into execution, leaving the rest of the force under the command of Jones, whose genius, it was thought, was calculated to conduct the other part of the enterprise now entrusted to his charge, with orders to advance through the open grounds towards the house, and adopt such measures on the way as circumstances might suggest for bringing about the desired result.

After waiting a sufficient time to allow the other party to gain a post in the woods in the rear of the works, Pete, the new commandant, put his men in motion, and emerging from the bushes, they commenced, in a wide-spread platoon, their ostentatious march through the field, in order to attract the attention of the enemy, supposed to be concealed in their enclosures at the house. It so happened that, directly in the course of the advancing party, there lay a series of large log-heaps, which, either by accident or design, had been placed, in clearing the land, very nearly in a straight line, at intervals of about a dozen rods, beginning near the house and extending almost to the woods. When the party had arrived within a few rods of the first log-heap, their attention was arrested by the sound of a human voice, issuing from behind it, and, in an eager, suppressed tone, giving off some brief orders, resembling those of military command.

"A' ready? up then, an' gie til the louns!" exclaimed the voice of the unseen leader, in broad Scotch, as a platoon of armed men suddenly rose from behind the logs, and, raising their guns breast high, discharged them full in the faces of the Green Mountain Boys.

"Noo, right aboot face! and rin as if the deevil was after ye, as he is, and mair too," resumed the military Donald, for it was no other than he and his men, who had thus been lying, in conceal

ment behind the log-heap, patiently awaiting the approach of their unsuspecting assailants.

The balls, just clearing the heads of our band, whistled through the air, and struck with a crash among the dry limbs of the forest behind them. As soon as they had recovered from the surprise into which they had been thrown by the suddenness of this unexpected attack, they all sprang forward in the screening smoke of the enemy's fire, and gained the cover of the log-heap, just relinquished by the latter for the next one in the line of their defences. "Well, this is what I should call rather a curious how-d'ye-do, boys," coolly said Jones, when they had gained their shelter; "who would have guessed the scamps were packed away behind this old log-heap? But one thing beats my philosophy — if the bloody dogs really wanted to give us the lead, (and they shot dreadful careless if they did n't,) why in natur did n't they take aim ?"

They are all regular sarvice men," replied a settler from the vicinity," and breast-high is the rule of firing in the army." "Then we may thank the rule for our lives, and not the pesky fools who used it," replied the former. "It would not be a great deal more than right to send our rifle bullets through the whole tote of 'em. But I should some rather not kill the sarpents, if we can get along without; and I guess as how we can, seeing they were kind enough to sound their rattles before trying to bite, as that queer old codger did, in giving off word before they let drive at us. And if they will go on as they have begun, we'll just be making our manners when they fire, so that the balls may pass over us, and then follow 'em up as before but hark! the old chap is at it again! going the motions as regular as the nightmare; there! he has got to 'cock fire-lock!' Now, down with you, boys!"

Jones and his men had scarcely thrown themselves on to their knees behind their log-heap breast-work, before another volley of balls, discharged with the same military precision, whistled over them; and again the old dry hemlocks that skirted the woods appeared to be the only sufferers. Again retreating to their next post, these kilted defenders of the place were followed up as at first by their crafty assailants, who were now becoming highly delighted with the fun of so unique a warfare. And in this manner the fight, if fight it be called, continued through the whole field one party blazing away at random from every logheap they reached, and then scudding on for the next, quite satisfied with this way of doing their duty of defending these supposed

possessions of the king, since they were conducting their defence, as they believed, according to military rule: while the other party, occasionally discharging their pieces into the air, to keep up the appearance of a hostile pursuit, and sometimes raising their hats on their ramrods, just high enough above the logs, behind which they were ensconced, to become visible to their foes when they fired, that they might be thus encouraged to continue the sport, were no less content with this fashion of fighting, as it answered all the objects in view, without putting them to the necessity of killing others, and, what was quite as agreeable, without running any risk of being killed themselves.

But leaving these belligerents for the present, we will now follow those who departed to execute the other part of this novel enterprise.

Keeping within the border of the woods, Warrington and his attendants soon made the circuit round the clearing, and arrived at the bank of the Creek, in the rear of the buildings, before the attack was made on the other detachment. They had scarcely gained this position, however, before they were aroused by the rattling of McIntosh's salutatory volley on their companions, at the other extremity of the opening. And, though the rise of land which intervened between them and the scene of action, prevented them from ascertaining by sight the exact situation of affairs, yet readily concluding that the enemy, in full force, had taken the open field, as had been anticipated, they made for the house with all possible speed, to get possession of the works before the occupants could find time to return. On reaching the enclosure round the house, Warrington, leaving his men in the rear, went round to the front side, and, after a moment spent in reconnoitring, from behind a wood-pile, the parties in the field, crept up and made an attempt to open the gate. But to his disappointment, he soon discovered that it was securely barred on the inside; while the noise of some slight movement within apprised him that the place had not been left wholly unguarded. On making these discoveries, he immediately retreated to the rear, without being seen by the enemy. There, standing beside the wall of the enclosure and eagerly gazing through a small crevice between the timbers, he found Selden, who, now turning with an expressive look, silently beckoned him to approach. Obeying the sign, Warrington carefully stepped up to the spot and put his eye to the aperture, which the other, now yielding the place, pointed out with his finger; when all that part of the arena within, which was in front of the house, was opened to his view. And the object

that there met his eye struck him with scarce less surprise than what had been just manifested by his more romantic companion. Near the barricaded entrance into the yard, instead of a bearded warrior, stood a young and neatly dressed female, of striking beauty, holding a musket, and apparently enacting the part of a sentry to fire an alarm gun, or open the gate on the signal of her friends. She had evidently heard the movements of those without, and was now standing, like a startled fawn, her bosom heaving with suppressed alarm, her lips slightly drawn apart, and her head turned in the attitude of intense listening-all combining to give an air of charming and picturesque wildness to her whole appearance. A swarthy faced girl was timidly peeping from the nearly shut door of the house, to which, on hearing the noise, she had apparently just retreated. From the dress and appearance of the latter, Warrington was but at little loss in tracing between these two females the relation of mistress and maid. And now, with a rapid survey of the situation of the whole interior, as far as could be seen, he hastily quitted his stand at the crevice and turned to Selden.

"Isn't she a vision of a creature?" eagerly whispered the latter, his fine dark eyes sparkling with animation ; “what, in the name of feminine wonders, will you show us next, Warrington? But who and what can she be?"

"I am scarcely wiser than yourself, in that respect."

"If the other was a Juno, this, I suppose, must be some warrior sylph of the Green Mountains."

the

"Not of the Green Mountains, I suspect," rejoined Warrington; "but be she sylph or satan in heavenly guise, we must pay her a visit, and have possession of the works, within ten minutes enemy are on the retreat for the gate, and there is no time to lose advance, boys, and lend me your shoulders for a stepping stone to scale this wall."

The walls of the enclosure were about ten feet high, exclusive of the pickets which surmounted them, and which were formed of stakes three or four feet long, sharply pointed at the top, and set into large auger holes, bored in the upper layer of timber.

Taking his men to a part of the wall in rear of the house, which would screen them, in their attempt, from the view of the inmates in front, and thus afford them a better chance to get over unmolested, and without causing an alarm to be given too soon, the leader mounted the shoulders of one of his men, leaped on to the top of the timbers, and soon luckily, and without noise, succeeded in wrenching out pickets enough to give him a ready