orican. Then we rallied behind our fallen
trees, and made head against him, under Sir William--who was made Sir
William for that very deed; and well did we pay him for the disgrace of
the morning! Hundreds of Frenchmen saw the sun that day for the last
time; and even the leader, Dieskau himself, fell into our hands so cut
and torn with the lead, that he has gone back to his own country, unfit
for further acts in war."

"'Twas a noble repulse!" exclaimed Heyward, in the heat of his youthful
ardor; "the fame of it reached us early, in our southern army."

"Ay! but it did not end there. I was sent by Major Effingham, at Sir
William's own bidding, to outflank the French, and carry the tidings of
their disaster across the portage, to the fort on the Hudson. Just
hereaway, where you see the trees rise into a mountain swell, I met a
party coming down to our aid, and I led them where the enemy were taking
their meal, little dreaming that they had not finished the bloody work
of the day."

"And you surprised them?"

"If death can be a surprise to men who are thinking only of the cravings
of their appetites. We gave them but little breathing time, for they had
borne hard upon us in the fight of the morning, and there were few in
our party who had not lost friend or relative by their hands. When all
was over, the dead, and some say the dying, were cast into that little
pond. These eyes have seen its waters colored with blood, as natural
water never yet flowed from the bowels of the 'arth."

"It was a convenient, and, I trust, will prove a peaceful grave for a
soldier. You have, then, seen much service on this frontier?"

"I!" said the scout, erecting his tall person with an air of military
pride; "there are not many echoes among these hills that haven't rung
with the crack of my rifle, nor is there the space of a square mile
atwixt Horican and the river, that 'Killdeer' hasn't dropped a living
body on, be it an enemy or be it a brute beast. As for the grave, there,
being as quiet as you mention, it is another matter. There are them in
the camp who say and think, man, to lie still, should not be buried
while the breath is in the body; and certain it is that in the hurry of
that evening, the doctors had but little time to say who was living and
who was dead. Hist! see you nothing walking on the shore of the pond?"

"'Tis not probable that any are as houseless as ourselves, in this
dreary forest."

"Such as he may care but l