of the Indians, to the
number of eighteen or twenty, who have been alluded to as having
plundered and offensively arrayed themselves in the dresses of the
officers' wives, and who were evidently the most turbulent of the
band, had been drawing gradually closer around the little party of
prisoners. All were more or less ludicrously painted, and exhibited
the most grotesque appearance.

When the remnant of the detachment first entered the fort, it was
remarked that one of them--a mere youth--had closely, almost
impertinently, examined the features of the officers, and had
followed, with most of his companions. When Captain Headley made
his request for an escort, this individual suddenly went up to
Winnebeg, tapped him on the shoulder, and said something, not in
Pottowatomie but in Shawnee, accompanied by much gesticulation,
which seemed to have great weight with the chief.

"Give him escort, dis," said the latter in reply, as he glanced
his eye quickly upon the group, and with seeming intelligence.

"What! those men!" returned Captain Headley, with a shadow of
remonstrance in his tone.

"Yes, all good Pottowatomie--all brave warrior--no give him dis,"
and he pointed to those who had accompanied them from the field,
"all too much tired with fight already--dis men stay here all day.
No fight."

Although by no means persuaded by the reasoning of Winnebeg, that
men who had been plundering and drinking what they could find,
during the whole of the morning, were the most proper persons to
guard prisoners from the violence of excited enemies, Capt. Headley
felt that it would be imprudent to urge any further opposition.
For a single moment, it occurred to him that the chief had offered
this escort with a hostile motive, but it was a thought which,
involuntarily forced upon his mind, was as instantly discarded as
unworthy of the chief, and, whatever might have been his latent
misgivings, he no longer opposed an objection.

The preparations were soon made; the litter, and materials for
digging found, and the little party, who had taken off their uniforms
to avoid particular remark, and to be more free in their movements,
sallied forth. On passing near the gate, and in a direction opposite
to that by which they had just entered, they beheld the body of
Doctor Von Voltenberg, within a few paces of the pathway by which
they now advanced, which was the route taken by the Indians with
the three-pounder. He was stripped to the