University of Virginia Library

8. CHAPTER VIII.

When Ellen arrived in the British camp, her delight
at finding the story of Dudley's captivity and wounds
untrue, scarcely left room for indignation at the fraud.
Her father's extreme illness immediately engrossed her
attention, until the day before the retreat of the army,
when it terminated in his death. On the occurrence of
this melancholy event, Ellen applied to Sir John Johnson
for permission to return to the Fort. But the artful
Waldon had anticipated this movement. Capt.
Welles had been prevailed upon in his last hours to
constitute Waldon the guardian of his child, an I had
enjoined upon him to see her removed to some more
loyal district. Sir John did not hesitate to say that he
hoped within a few weeks, to see the guardian's power
transformed into that marital authority which the late
Capt. Welles had been so anxious should be established.

Convinced that all effort in this quarter was useless,
she next resolved to appeal to the generosity of
Waldon. But she little knew the nature of the man
into whose hands she had fallen. He exulted in the
power which he possessed over the person and property
of his ward. Circumstances required their immediate
departure for Oswego, at which place he hoped for
leisure and means to effect a change in her views. The
arguments which she undervalued in a lover, would be
more potent from the lips of a husband, in which light
he begged Miss Welles to accustom herself to look upon
him in future.

Astounded and maddened by these threats, Ellen
continued sitting in the tent which had been allotted to
her use, long after Waldon's departure. When she
revived she perceived that she had another companion,
in whom she recognized the familiar and welcome
countenance of Rogers. Enjoining the strictest secresy,
the sergeant informed Ellen that he knew her danger,
and that his only business in the British camp was
to attempt her rescue. Rogers had joined the army
as a loyalist, and not being known as a deserter, no
suspicion had attached to him. He cared very little
for the temporary odium of a deserter at home while
he retained the confidence of Dudley, who he believed
would rightly conjecture his designs.