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THE CANADIAN BROTHERS; OR,THE PROPHECY FULFILLED.
CHAPTER I.
A few days after the adventure detailed in our lastchapter, the American party, consisting of Major and MissMontgomerie, and the daughters of the Governor, withtheir attendants, embarked in the schooner, to the commandof which Gerald had been promoted. The destination ofthe whole was the American port of Buffalo, situate atthe further extremity of the lake, nearly opposite tothe fort of Erie; and thither our hero, perfectly recoveredfrom the effect of his accident, received instructionsto repair without loss of time, land his charge, andimmediately rejoin the flotilla at Amherstburg.
However pleasing the first, the latter part of the orderwas by no means so strictly in consonance with the viewsand feelings of the new commander, as might have beenexpected from a young and enterprising spirit; but hejustified his absence of zeal to himself, in the factthat there was no positive service to perform; no dutyin which he could have an opportunity of signalizinghimself, or rendering a benefit to his country.
If, however, the limited period allotted for the executionof his duty, was a source of much disappointment toGerald, such was not the effect produced by it on hisbrother, to whom it gave promise of a speedy, terminationof an attachment, which he had all along regarded withdisapprobation, and a concern amounting almost to dread.We have seen that Henry Grantham, on the occasion of hisbrother's disaster at the pic-nic, had been wound up intoan enthusiasm of gratitude, which had nearly weaned himfrom his original aversion; but this feeling had notoutlived the day on which the occurrence took place. Nay,on the very next morning, he had had a long privateconversation with Gerald, in regard to Miss Montgomerie,which, ending as it did, in a partial coolness, had tendedto make him dislike the person who had caused it stillmore. It was, therefore, not without secret delight thathe overheard the order for the instant return of theschooner, which, although conveyed by the Commodore inthe mildest manner, was yet so firm and decided as toadmit neither of doubt nor dispute. While the dangerousAmerican continued a resident at Detroit, there was everyreason to fear that the attachment of his infatuatedbrother, fed by opportunity, would lead him to thecommission of some irrevocable act of imprudence; whereas,on the contrary, when she had departed, there was everyprobability that continued absence, added to the stirringincidents of war, which might be expected shortly toensue, would prove effectual in restoring the tone ofGerald's mind. There was, consequently, much to pleasehim in the order for departure. Miss Montgomerie oncelanded within the American lines, and his brother returnedto his duty, the anxious soldier had no doubt that thefeelings of the latter would resume their wonted channel,and that, in his desire to render himself worthy of glory,to whom he had been originally devoted, he would forget,at least after a season, all that was connected withlove.
It was a beautiful autumnal morning, when the schoonerweighed anchor from Detroit. Several of the officers ofthe garrison had accompanied the ladies on board, andhaving made fast their sailing boat to the stem, loiteredon deck with the intention of descending the river a fewmiles, and then beating up against the current. The wholeparty were thus assembled, conversing together and watchingthe movements of the sailors, when a boat, in which wereseveral armed men encircling a huge raw-bo