tomahawks, as if they would have disputed with the
former the privilege of dying his weapon first in his blood. When they
saw the warrior hold up his menacing blade to the eye of his victim,
while he passed his hand through the redundant hair, they at once
inferred the sacrifice was about to be completed, and rushing furiously
forward, they bounded, and leaped, and yelled, and brandished their own
weapons in the most appalling manner.

Already had the unhappy officer given himself self up for lost; fifty
bright tomahawks were playing about his head at the same instant, and
death--that death which is never without terror to the young, however
brave they may be in the hour of generous conflict--seemed to have
arrived at last. He raised his eyes to Heaven, committing his soul to
his God in the same silent prayer that he offered up for the
preservation of his friends and comrades; and then bending them upon
the earth, summoned all his collectedness and courage to sustain him
through the trial. At the very moment, however when he expected to feel
the crashing steel within his brain, he felt himself again violently
pulled by the thong that secured his hands. In the next instant he was
pressed close to the chest of his vast enemy, who, with one arm
encircling his prisoner, and the other brandishing his fierce blade in
rapid evolutions round his head, kept the yelling band at bay, with the
evident unshaken determination to maintain his sole and acknowledged
right to the disposal of his captive.

For several moments the event appeared doubtful; but, notwithstanding
his extreme agility in the use of a weapon, in the management of which
he evinced all the dexterity of the most practised native, the odds
were fearfully against Wacousta; and while his flashing eye and
swelling chest betrayed his purpose rather to perish himself than
suffer the infringement of his claim, it was evident that numbers must,
in the end, prevail against him. On an appeal to Ponteac, however, of
which he now suddenly bethought himself, the authority of the latter
was successfully exerted, and he was again left in the full and
undisturbed possession of his prisoner.

A low and earnest conversation now ensued among the chiefs, in which,
as before, Wacousta bore a principal part. When this was terminated,
several Indians approached the unhappy officer, and unfastening the
thong with which his hands were firmly and even painfully girt,
deprived him both of