an, who was [71] endeavoring
to escape, was followed by her crying child.--To save it from savage
butchery, she turned round and murdered it herself.

Mrs. Clendennin, driven to despair by the cruel and unprovoked murder
of her husband and friends, and the spoliation and destruction of all
their property, boldly charged the Indians with perfidy and treachery;
and alleged that cowards only could act with such duplicity. The
bloody scalp of her husband was thrown in her face--the tomahawk was
raised over her head; but she did not cease to revile them. In going
over Keeny's knot on the next day, the prisoners being in the centre,
and the Indians in the front and rear, she gave her infant child to
one of the women to hold for a while.--She then stepped into the
thicket unperceived, and made her escape. The crying of the infant
soon lead to a discovery of her flight--one of the Indians observed
that he could "bring the cow to her calf," and taking the child by the
heels, beat out its brains against a tree.

Mrs. Clendennin returned that night to her home, a distance of ten
miles; and covering the body of her husband with rails and trash,
retired into an adjoining corn field, lest she might be pursued and
again taken prisoner. While in the corn field, her mind was much
agitated by contending emotions; and the prospect of effecting an
escape to the settlements, seemed to her dreary and hopeless. In a
moment of despondency, she thought she beheld a man, with the aspect
of a murderer, standing near her; and she became overwhelmed with
fear. It was but the creature of a sickly and terrified imagination;
and when her mind regained its proper tone, she resumed her flight and
reached the settlement in safety.[15]

These melancholy events occurring so immediately after the escape of
Hannah Dennis; and the unwillingness of the Indians that she should be
separated from them, has induced the supposition that the party
committing those dreadful outrages were in pursuit of her. If such
were the fact, dearly were others made to pay the penalty of her
deliverance.

This and other incidents, similar in their result, satisfied the
whites that although the war had been terminated on the part of the
French; yet it was likely to be continued with all its horrors, by
their savage allies. This was then, and has since been, attributed to
the smothered hostility of the French in [72] Canada and on the Ohio
river; and to the influence which they