tant there burst from
amid the foliage a seemingly endless number of savages, all painted for
battle, who, coming down swiftly upon us as if to make an attack, uttered
wild war-whoops as they discharged their rifles in the air.

It was as hideous and terrifying a sight as I ever witnessed, and that our
little company stood its ground is much to the credit of every man among
us.

Thayendanega remained half-turned from General Herkimer, and within two
feet of the three men whose duty it was to shoot him with the rifles they
had concealed under their blankets in case an absolute attack was made,
and there watched the antics of his painted crew until perhaps five
minutes had passed, when the savages sank down upon the ground as if
exhausted, looking like so many images of demons.

What Thayendanega said when the uproar was thus stilled, I cannot rightly
set down, for my brain was in such a whirl, and fear so strong in my
heart, as to prevent me from taking due heed of all that was passing--I
realized only that death was literally staring us in the face.

As Sergeant Corney afterward told me, Brant advised General Herkimer to go
home, thanked him for having come to pay the visit, and said that at some
near day he might return the compliment.

"But the prisoner?" General Herkimer cried, when the sachem would have
stalked away with a great assumption of dignity.

"My young men will make no reply to my questions," Brant answered,
unblushingly, although he must have known beyond a peradventure that we
understood full well he was lying.

"Is Peter Sitz yet alive?" General Herkimer asked, sternly.

"There has been no prisoner put to death by my people since they left
Cherry Valley," Thayendanega replied, as if irritated by the general's
persistence, and, making another gesture with his hand, he sent back into
the cover of the forest all his motley crew.

Then he also walked away, as if fearing our commander would detain him
with yet further questions, and the powwow, to take part in which three
hundred men had marched so many miles, was come to an end without other
result than the knowledge that the Mohawk chief would harry us of the
valley to the best of his wicked powers.

Thayendanega had hardly gained the shelter of the thicket before black
clouds overspread the heavens, and it seemed as if in a twinkling the rain
came down in torrents; sharp flashes of lightning zigzagged across the
ominous-looking sky, and more th