"Far be it from my intention to check the nice sense of honor which should be inherent in the breast of every soldier," returned his uncle impressively, "but you are too sensitive. Henry; Captain Molineux, who is, moreover, a very young man, may not have expressed himself in the most guarded manner, but he only repeated what I have been compelled to hear myself--and from persons not only older, but much higher in rank. Take my advice, therefore, and let the matter rest where it is; Gerald, you see, has given the most practical denial to any observations which have been uttered of a nature derogatory to his honor." "True," quickly returned the youth, with a flushing cheek, "Gerald is sufficiently avenged, but you forget the taunt he uttered against Canadians!" "And if he did utter such taunt, why acknowledge it as such?" calmly rejoined Colonel D'Egville; "are you ashamed of the name? I too am a Canadian, but so far from endeavoring to repudiate my American birth, I feel pride in having received my being in a land where everything attests the sublimity and magnificence of nature. Look around you, my nephew, and ask yourself what there is in the wild grandeur of these scenes to disown. But, ha!"--as he cast his eyes upon the water--"I fear Gerald will lose his prize after all; the enemy is giving him the Indian double." During the foregoing short conversation, an important change had been effected in the position of the adverse boats. The shot fired, apparently with the view of bringing the enemy to, had produced no favorable result; but no sooner had the gun-boat come abreast of the chase, than the latter, suddenly clewing up her sails, put her helm about, and plying every oar with an exertion proportioned to the emergency, made rapidly for the coast she had recently left. The intention of the crew was evidently to abandon the unarmed boat, and to seek safety in the woods. Urged by the rapidity of her own course, the gun-boat had shot considerably ahead, and when at length she also was put about, the breeze blew so immediately in her teeth that it was found impossible to regain the advantage which had been lost. Meanwhile, the American continued her flight, making directly for the land, with a rapidity that promised fair to baffle every exertion on the part of her pursuer. The moment was one of intense interest to the crowd of spectators who lined the bank. At each instant it was expected the fire of the gun-boat would open upon the fugitives; but although this was obviously the course to be adopted, it being apparent a single shot was sufficient to sink her--not a flash was visible--not a report was heard. Presently, however, while the disappointment of the spectators from the bank was rising into murmurs, a skiff filled with men was seen to pull from the gun-boat in the direction taken by the chase, which was speedily hidden from view by the point of land from which the latter had previously been observed to issue.