midnight
When the eye turned wood-ward , it fell heavily , and without interest , upon a dim and dusky point , known to enter upon savage scenes and unexplored countries ; whereas , whenever it reposed upon the lake , it was with an eagerness and energy that embraced the most vivid recollections of the past , and led the imagination buoyantly over every well-remembered scene that had previously been traversed , and which must be traversed again before the land of the European could be pressed once more . The forest , in a word , formed , as it were , the gloomy and impenetrable walls of the prison-house , and the bright lake that lay before it the only portal through which happiness and liberty could be again secured . The principal entrance into the fort , which presented four equal sides of a square , was from the forest ; but , immediately opposite to this , and behind the apartments of the commanding officer , there was another small gate that opened upon the lake shore ; but which , since the investment of the place , had been kept bolted and locked , with a precaution befitting the danger to which the garrison was exposed . Still , there were periods , even now , when its sullen hinges were to be heard moaning on the midnight breeze ; for it served as a medium of communication between the besieged and others who were no less critically circumstanced than themselves . The very day before the Indians commenced their simultaneous attack on the several posts of the English , the only armed vessel that had been constructed on these upper lakes , serving chiefly as a medium of communication between Detroit and Michilimackinac , had arrived with despatches and letters from the former fort . A well-concerted plan of the savages to seize her in her passage through the narrow waters of the river Sinclair had only been defeated by the vigilance of her commander ; but , ever since the breaking out of the war , she had been imprisoned within the limits of the Huron . Laborious indeed was the duty of the devoted crew .