tated by many, and that thus the
detachment might be left to pursue its route comparatively unharmed.
And to a certain extent they succeeded, for many did follow them,
and Pee-to-tum among the rest, whose absence in the first onset of
the battle had dispirited the Indians, whom he had first excited,
and given the Americans an advantage of which they never lost sight
until the close. To have taken an active part in the defence, would
have been not only impossible but impolitic, but in the course they
had pursued they had no doubt saved such of the detachment as
remained, for had all been engaged--had all borne a prominent share
in the attack, the event, from the great disparity of numbers,
could not have long been doubtful. When Wau-nan-gee, whose anxiety
to know his fate had been great, first heard from his father of
the wounded condition of Ronayne, he had proffered himself and
friends as the escort of the detachment, intending to bear off the
body, without being seen by the other Indians, to his mother's
tent, where his wounds might be dressed and his life saved by the
care and attention of his own wife.

All these particulars Lieut. Elmsley subsequently ascertained from
Winnebeg, for anxious as he was to take a last leave of his dying
friend, and to express his joy at once again beholding, even under
these disheartening circumstances, her for whom both himself and
his wife had ever entertained the strongest friendship, the officer
was afraid to move from the spot where, unseen himself, he had
witnessed all, lest by suddenly exciting and agitating, he should
abruptly destroy the life which was evidently fast drawing to a
close. To have broken that solemn and silent communion of spirits,
would, he felt, have been sacrilege, and he abstained; and yet, as
if fascinated by the sight, he could not leave the spot--he could
not abandon his dearest and best friends without lingering
to know how far his services might yet be available to both or one.

Apparently, Mrs. Ronayne had not uttered a sound since that piercing
cry had escaped her which attested her first knowledge of the
hopeless condition of her wounded husband. The attempt to carry
him off the field, with the view not only of preventing him from
being scalped, as he certainly would have been by the party then
advancing, but of conveying him to the Indian camp of the women,
had been productive of the greatest suffering; so much so that when
he had gained the point