ad been myself a campaigner I should have been less awed by the
spectacle; but having nothing with which to compare it, I judged this a
host before which the scattered Border stockades and Nicholson's scanty
militia would go down like stubble before fire.

At the head of the plateau, just under the brow of the hill, and facing
the half-circle of level land, stood a big tent of skins. Before it was
a square pile of boulders about the height of a man's waist, heaped on
the top with brushwood so that it looked like a rude altar. Around this
the host had gathered, sitting mostly on the ground with knees drawn to
the chin, but some few standing like sentries under arms. I was taken
to the middle of the half-circle, and Shalah motioned me to dismount,
while a stripling led off the horses. My legs gave under me, for they
were still very feeble, and I sat hunkered up on the sward like the
others. I looked for Shalah and Onotawah, but they had disappeared, and
I was left alone among those lines of dark, unknown faces.

I waited with an awe on my spirits against which I struggled in vain.
The silence of so vast a multitude, the sputtering torches, lighting
the wild amphitheatre of the hills, the strange clearing with its
altar, the mystery of the immense dusky sky, and the memory of what I
had already endured--all weighed on me with the sense of impending
doom. I summoned all my fortitude to my aid. I told myself that Ringan
believed in me, and that I had the assurance that God would not see me
cast down. But such courage as I had was now a resolve rather than any
exhilaration of spirits. A brooding darkness lay on me like a cloud.

Presently the hush grew deeper, and from the tent a man came. I could
not see him clearly, but the flickering light told me that he was very
tall, and that, like the Indians, he was naked to the middle. He stood
behind the altar, and began some incantation.

It was in the Indian tongue which I could not understand. The voice was
harsh and discordant, but powerful enough to fill that whole circle of
hill. It seemed to rouse the passion of the hearers, for grave faces
around me began to work, and long-drawn sighs came from their lips.

Then at a word from the figure four men advanced, bearing something
between them, which they laid on the altar. To my amazement I saw that
it was a great yellow panther, so trussed up that it was impotent to
hurt. How such a beast had ever been caught alive I know not.