he recognised from its colour to be that of his
servant, formed but too conclusive evidence of the fact; and, bitterly
and deeply, as he gazed on this melancholy proof of the man's sacrifice
of life to his interest, did he repent that he had made him the
companion of his adventure, or that, having done so, he had not either
brought him away altogether, or sent him instantly back to the fort.
Commiseration for the fate of the unfortunate Donellan naturally
induced a spirit of personal hostility towards his destroyer; and it
was with feelings strongly excited in favour of him whom he now
discovered to be the brother of his guide, that he saw him spring
fiercely to the attack of his gigantic opponent. There was an activity
about the young chief amply commensurate with the greater physical
power of his adversary; while the manner in which he wielded his
tomahawk, proved him to be any thing but the novice in the use of the
formidable weapon the other had represented him. It was with a feeling
of disappointment, therefore, which the peculiarity of his own position
could not overcome, he saw Ponteac interpose himself between the
parties.

Presently, however, a subject of deeper and more absorbing interest
than even the fate of his unhappy follower engrossed every faculty of
his mind, and riveted both eye and ear in painful tension to the
aperture in his hiding-place. The chiefs had resumed their places, and
the silence of a few minutes had succeeded to the fierce affray of the
warriors, when Ponteac, in a calm and deliberate voice, proceeded to
state he had summoned all the heads of the nations together, to hear a
plan he had to offer for the reduction of the last remaining forts of
their enemies, Michilimackinac and Detroit. He pointed out the
tediousness of the warfare in which they were engaged; the desertion of
the hunting-grounds by their warriors; and their consequent deficiency
in all those articles of European traffic which they were formerly in
the habit of receiving in exchange for their furs. He dwelt on the
beneficial results that would accrue to them all in the event of the
reduction of those two important fortresses; since, in that case, they
would be enabled to make such terms with the English as would secure to
them considerable advantages; while, instead of being treated with the
indignity of a conquered people, they would be enabled to command
respect from the imposing attitude this final crowning of their