alp and arms of Wenonga in his hand, and
looking more like an infuriated madman than the inoffensive man of peace
he had been so long esteemed, suddenly appeared amidst the vanguard,
commanded by the gallant Bruce, whom he instantly apprised of the
condition of the captives at Wenonga's town, and urged to attempt their
deliverance.

[Footnote 14: General George Rogers Clark.]

This was done, and with an effect which has been already seen. The
impetuosity of Bruce's men, doubly inflamed by the example of the father
and his eldest son, to whom the rescue of their late guests was an object
of scarce inferior magnitude even compared with the vengeance for which
they burned in common with all others, had in some measure defeated the
hopes of the General, who sought, by a proper disposition of his forces,
completely to invest the Indian village, so as to ensure the destruction
or capture of every inhabitant. As it was, however, very few escaped;
many were killed, and more, including all the women and children (who,
honest Dodge's misgivings to the contrary notwithstanding, were in no
instance designedly injured), taken prisoners. And this, too, at an
expense of but very few lives lost on the part of the victors; the
Indians attempting resistance only when the fall of more than half their
numbers, and the presence of foes on every side, convinced them that
flight was wholly impracticable.

The victory was, indeed, so complete, and--as it appeared that several
bands of warriors from more distant villages were in the town at the time
of the attack--the blow inflicted upon the tribe so much severer than was
anticipated even from a series of attacks upon several different towns,
as was at first designed, that the victors, satisfied that they had done
enough to convince the red-man of the irresistible superiority of the
Long-knife, satisfied, too, perhaps, that the cheapness of the victory
rendered it more valuable than a greater triumph achieved at a greater
loss, gave up at once their original design of carrying the war into
other villages, and resolved to retrace their march to the Settlements.

But the triumph was not completed until the village, with its fields of
standing corn, had been entirely destroyed--a work of cruel vengeance,
yet not so much of vengeance as of policy; since the destruction of their
crops, by driving the savages to seek a winter's subsistence for their
families in the forest, necessarily prevented th