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Show 356 THE LILY A ~ D THE TOTElf. the commandant by the wrist nnd drawing !Jim along; " foll<'w mo now aud we shall surely escape. ~'hey have left the breach open Ly i.ho west, near to the lodging of Monsieur D'}~rlnch, and by that route shall we gain tho thicket.~. " " Ah P' cried J.nudonnicrc, long and grateful recollections of a. tried fidelity, to which he hnd not always done justice, extorting from him a groan; " Ah! tl1is bad nO\'Cr happened had J ean Ribault left me Alphonse !" And tho Wars gushed from his eyes, and lw paused and thrust the point of his sword into the earth with vexation and despair. "We hnve not a moment, Monsieur Ren6," cried the soldier with impatience ; " the tent is do,.,n; the Spaniards nrc foiled for a momeut only. ']'hey ,.,jll be sure to seek you in the breach." " There ! there ! indeed!" cried tho commandant bitterly, " there should they have found me at first ; but now !- Lend on ! lead on! my good fello1v. As thou wilt !" Soon our fugitives l1ad cleared the breach, and were now without the walls. 'l' he misty shroud which covered the face of nature, and em·eloped n.s with a sea the thickets to which they were making, fa,·ored their escape. The unhappy Laudonnicre found himself temporarily safe in tha forests ; but if ramota from present danger, they were not so far from tha fortress as to be insensible to the work of death and horror which was in progress there, tha 0\•idence of wlticb came to their ears in tho shrieks of women for mercy, and the groans 1md cries of tortured men. " Slay ! slay ! Smite and spare not!" wn.s the dre3dful comlll3nd of i\lclendez. " The groans of the heretic make music in tho ears of Ilc3vcn !" Laudonniare slJUt his ears, and with his companion plunged deeper into the forests. llero he found other fugitives like him- THE l' ATE OF LA CAROLINE. 357 self, and others subsequently joined him ; some were wounded even unto death, others slightly ; all were terror-st ricken, shuddering with horror, incapable from wo and agony. What had they beheld, what endured, and what was the prospect before them but of massacre ? A hasty council IVMI convened among the party, and the advice of Laudonuicrc-he could command no longer-was, , t!mt they should bury themselves among the reeds and withitl tho marshes which lay along tho river, out of sight, until tl1ey could make their small vessels, by which the mouth of the river was s!ill guarded, aware of their situation. But this council was agreeable to a part only, of that bewildered company. Another portion preferred to push for one of the Indian villages, at some little distance in the forests, where, hitherto, they had found a friendly reception. They persevered iu this purpo~e, leaving Laudonniere and a few others in the marshes. llithcr, then, these hapless fugitives sped, till they could go no farther; and until their commnndant himself, still unrecovered from tho chill and fever which had seized him at the first coming on of autumn, declared his inability to go deeper into tlJC thicket, though it promised him the safety which he sought. Tie was already up to his neck in water, and such was his weakness, that he was about to yirld to his fate. But for the faithful and unwearied support of one of his soldiers, J ean du Chemin, who held him above the water when he would have sunk, and who stuck by him all tho rest of that day, and tl1rough the long and dreary night which followed, he must have perished. Meanwhile, two of his soldiers swam off in tho direction of the vessels. Fortunat-ely for those swimmers, those in the vessele had been already apprized of the takiug of tho fort by J can do '[Tais, the master carpenter, who had made his escape the first, by dropping down the river in a shallop. Tho boats of the vessels |