man threw him fiercely off, and continued on his way. Orme turned
back to us, his face grim with anger and despair.

"'Tis useless," he said. "We cannot stop them. The devil himself could
not stop them now."

The general had lain with his eyes closed and scarce breathing, so that I
thought that he had fainted. But he opened his eyes, and seemed to read
at a glance the meaning of Orme's set face.

"Gentlemen," he said, more gently than I had ever heard him speak, "I
pray you leave me here and provide for your own safety. I have but a
little time to live at best, and the Indians will be upon us in a moment.
Leave them to finish me. You could not do a kinder thing. I have no wish
that you should sacrifice your lives so uselessly by remaining here with
me. There has been enough of sacrifice this day."

Yes, he was a gallant man, and whatever of resentment had been in my
heart against him vanished in that instant. We three looked into each
other's eyes, and read the same determination there. We would save the
general, or die defending him. But the situation was indeed a
desperate one.

At that moment, a tumbrel drawn by two maddened horses dashed by. One
wheel caught against a tree, and before the horses could get it free or
break from the harness, I had sprung to their heads.

"Quick!" I cried, "I cannot hold them long."

They understood in a moment, and, not heeding the general's entreaties
and commands that he be left, lifted him gently into the cart. Washington
sprang in beside him, Orme to the front, and in an instant I was clinging
to the seat and we were tearing along the road. It was time, for as I
glanced back, I saw the Indians rushing from the wood, cutting down and
scalping the last of the fugitives. I saw that Orme was suffering from
his wound, which seemed a serious one, and so I took the lines, which he
relinquished without protest, and held the horses to the road as well as
I was able. The tumbrel thundered on, over rocks and stumps of trees,
over dead men,--ay, and living ones, I fear,--to the river-bank, where a
few of the Virginia troops, held together by Waggoner and Peyronie, had
drawn up. It did my heart good to see them standing there, so cool and
self-possessed, while that mob of regulars poured past them, frenzied
with fear. And the thought came to me that never hereafter would a blue
coat need give precedence to a red one.

We splashed down into the water and across the river without drawin