s
wounds, which were not in themselves necessarily fatal, nor perhaps even
dangerous, had they been attended to, as of the heroic efforts, so
overpowering and destructive in his disabled condition, which he had made
to repair his father's fault; for such he evidently esteemed the
dismissing the travellers from the Station without sufficient guides and
protection.

CHAPTER XXXV.

Thus fell the young Kentuckian,--a youth endeared to all who knew him, by
his courage and good humour; and whose fall would, at a moment of less
confusion, have created a deep and melancholy sensation. But he fell amid
the roar and tempest of battle, when there was occasion for other
thoughts and other feelings than those of mere individual grief.

The Indians had been driven from their village, as described, aiming not
to fight, but fly; but being intercepted at all points by the assailants,
and met, here by furious volleys poured from the bushy sides of the hill,
there by charges of horsemen galloping through the meadows and
cornfields, they were again driven back into the town, where, in sheer
desperation, they turned upon their foes to sell their lives as dearly
as they might. They were met at the edge of the village by the party of
horse and footmen that had first dislodged them, with whom, being driven
pell-mell among them by the shock of the intercepting bands, they waged a
fierce and bloody, but brief conflict; and still urged onwards by the
assailants behind, fought their way back to the square, which, deserted
almost entirely at the period of young Bruce's fall, was now suddenly
seen, as he drew his last gasp, scattered over with groups of men flying
for their lives, or struggling together in mortal combat; while the
screams of terror-struck women and children gave a double horror to the
din.

The return of the battle to their own immediate vicinity produced its
effects upon the few who had remained by the dying youth. It fired, in
especial, the blood of Captain Ralph, who, snatching up a fallen axe,
rushed towards the nearest combatants, roaring, by way of consolation, or
sympathy, to the bereaved father, "Don't take it hard, Cunnel,--I'll have
a scalp for Tom's sake in no time!" As for Tiger Nathan, he had
disappeared long before, with most of the horsemen, who had galloped up
to the stake with the younger Bruce and his father, being evidently too
fiercely excited to remain idle any longer. The father and brother of the