xtreme of
fury, in which he began to handle his hatchet as on the previous
occasion, making every demonstration of the best disposition in the world
to bury it in the prisoner's brain. He was again arrested by the young
savages, who muttered something in his ear as before; and again the
effect was to convert his anger into merriment, the change being effected
with a facility that might well have amazed the prisoner, had his despair
permitted him to feel any lighter emotion. "Good!" cried the old warrior,
as if in reply to what the others had said; "Long-knife go Piankeshaw
nation,--make great sight for Piankeshaw!" And so saying, he began to
dance about, with many grimaces of visage and contortions of body, that
seemed to have a meaning for his comrades, who fetched a whoop of
admiration, though entirely inexplicable to the soldier. Then seizing the
latter by the arm, and setting him on his feet, the warrior led or
dragged him a little way down the hill, to a place on the road-side,
where the victors were assembled, deliberating doubtless upon the fate of
their prisoners.

They seemed to have suffered a considerable loss in the battle, twelve
being the whole number now to be seen; and most of these, judging from
the fillets of rags and bundles of green leaves tied about their limbs,
had been wounded, two of them to all appearance very severely, if not
mortally, for they lay upon the earth a little apart from the rest, in
whose motions they seemed to take no interest.

As Roland approached, he looked in vain amid the throng for his
kinswoman. Neither she nor Telie Doe was to be seen. But casting his eye
wildly around, it fell upon a little grove of trees not many yards off,
in which he could perceive the figures of horses, as well as of a tall
barbarian, who stood on its edge, as if keeping guard, wrapped,
notwithstanding the sultriness of the weather, in a blanket, from chin to
foot, while his head was as warmly invested in the ample folds of a huge
scarlet handkerchief. He stood like a statue, his arms folded on his
breast, and lost under the heavy festoons of the blanket; while his eyes
were fastened upon the group of Indians on the road-side, from which they
wandered only to glare a moment upon the haggard and despairing visage of
the soldier. In that copse, Roland doubted not, the savages had concealed
a hopeless and helpless captive, the being for whom he had struggled and
suffered so long and so vainly, the maid