their ammunition, to risk
a shot that was not certain of carrying a wound with it. For a moment
the fact itself flashed across his mind, and he attributed the fire of
small arms to the attack and defence of a party that had been sent out
for the purpose of securing the body, supposed to be his own; yet, if
so, again how was he to account for his not hearing the report of a
single musket? His ear was too well practised not to know the sharp
crack of the rifle from the heavy dull discharge of the musket, and as
yet the former only had been distinguishable, amid the intervals that
ensued between each sullen booming of the cannon. While this impression
continued on the mind of the anxious officer, he caught, with the
avidity of desperation, at the faint and improbable idea that his
companions might be able to penetrate to his place of concealment, and
procure his liberation; but when he found the firing, instead of
drawing nearer, was confined to the same spot, and even more fiercely
kept up by the Indians towards the close, he again gave way to his
despair, and resigning himself to his fate, no longer sought comfort in
vain speculation as to its cause. His ear now caught the report of the
last shell as it exploded, and then all was still and hushed, as if
what he had so recently heard was but a dream.

The first intimation given him of the return of the savages was the
death howl, set up by the women within the encampment. Captain de
Haldimar turned his eyes, instinct with terror, towards the scene, and
beheld the warriors slowly issuing from the opposite side of the forest
into the plain, and bearing in silence the dead and stiffened forms of
those who had been cut down by the destructive fire from the fort.
Their mien was sullen and revengeful, and more than one dark and
gleaming eye did he encounter turned upon him, with an expression that
seemed to say a separate torture should avenge the death of each of
their fallen comrades.

The early part of the morning wore away in preparation for the
interment of the slain. These were placed in rows under the council
shed, where they were attended by their female relatives, who composed
the features and confined the limbs, while the gloomy warriors dug,
within the limit of the encampment, rude graves, of a depth just
sufficient to receive the body. When these were completed, the dead
were deposited, with the usual superstitious ceremonies of these
people, in their several rece