employed in imagination in despatching them with his
own hands.

When the march, after a hasty consultation, was agreed upon and resumed,
he, although on foot, maintained a position at the head of the army,
guiding it along with a readiness and precision which argued
extraordinary familiarity with all the approaches to the village; and
when the assault was actually commenced, he was still among the foremost,
as the reader has seen, to enter the village and the square. To cut the
bonds of the Virginian, and utter a fervent expression of delight at his
rescue, was not enough to end the ferment in Nathan's mind. Leaving the
Virginian immediately to the protection of the younger Bruce, he rushed
after the flying Indians, among whom he remained fighting wherever the
conflict was hottest, until there remained no more enemies to encounter,
achieving such exploits as filled all who beheld him with admiration and
amazement.

Nor did the fervour of his fury end altogether even with the battle. He
was among the most zealous in destroying the Indian village, applying the
fire with his own hands to at least a dozen different wigwams, shouting
with the most savage exultation, as each burst into flames.

It was not indeed until the work of destruction was completed, the
retreat commenced, and the army once more buried in the woods, that the
demon which had thus taken possession of his spirit, seemed inclined to
relax its hold, and restore him once more to his wits. It was then,
however, that the remarks which all had now leisure to make on his
extraordinary transformation, the mingled jests and commendations of
which he found himself the theme, began to make an impression on his
mind, and gradually wake him as from a dream that had long mastered and
distracted his faculties. The fire of military enthusiasm flashed no more
from his eyes, his step lost its bold spring and confidence, he eyed
those who so liberally heaped praise on his lately acquired courage and
heroic actions, with uneasiness, embarrassment, and dismay; and cast his
troubled eyes around, as if in search of some friend capable of giving
counsel and comfort in such case made and provided. His looks fell upon
little Peter, who had kept ever at his side from the moment of his escape
from the village, and now trotted along with the deferential humility
which became him, while surrounded by so gallant and numerous an
assemblage; but even little Peter could not relieve him