rt!! Quick! quick!! Do not refuse
me!!"

"Don't you see I have no gun, colonel!!" replied the renegade, bursting
into a loud laugh, and then turning to an Indian beside him, he uttered
some brutal jests upon the naked and miserable appearance of the prisoner.
While this awful scene was being acted, Girty rode up to the spot where
Dr. Knight stood, and told him that he had now had a foretaste of what was
in reserve for him at the Shawnee towns. He swore that he need not expect
to escape death, but should suffer it in all the extremity of torture.

Knight, whose mind was deeply agitated at the sight of the fearful scene
before him, took no notice of Girty, but preserved an impenetrable
silence. Girty, after contemplating the colonel's sufferings for a few
moments, turned again to Knight, and indulged in a bitter invective
against a certain Colonel Gibson, from whom, he said, he had received deep
injury; and dwelt upon the delight with which he would see him undergo
such tortures as those which Crawford was then suffering. He observed, in
a taunting tone, that most of the prisoners had said, that the white
people would not injure him, if the chance of war was to throw him into
their power; but that for his own part, he should be loath to try the
experiment. "I think, (added he with a laugh,) that they would roast me
alive, with more pleasure than those red fellows are now broiling the
colonel! What is your opinion, doctor? Do you think they would be glad to
see me?" Still Knight made no answer, and in a few minutes Girty rejoined
the Indians.

The terrible scene had now lasted more than two hours, and Crawford had
become much exhausted. He walked slowly around the stake, spoke in a low
tone, and earnestly besought God to look with compassion upon him, and
pardon his sins. His nerves had lost much of their sensibility, and he no
longer shrunk from the firebrands with which they incessantly touched him.
At length he sunk in a fainting fit upon his face, and lay motionless.
Instantly an Indian sprung upon his back, knelt lightly upon one knee,
made a circular incision with his knife upon the crown of his head, and
clapping the knife between his teeth, tore the scalp off with both hands.
Scarcely had this been done, when a withered hag approached with a board
full of burning embers, and poured them upon the crown of his head, now
laid bare to the bone. The colonel groaned deeply, arose, and again walked
slowly around the sta