ports
of the guns can be heard. Once the signal has been given, it is my purpose
to attack the enemy, and Colonel Gansevoort is to make a sortie at the
same time, when it is to be hoped our forces can be united."

Having said this, the general insisted that each of us repeat the
instructions so that he might know we understood them thoroughly, and
then, clasping us by hand in turn, he bade us "Godspeed."

I wish I might be able to say that my heart was stout when we left the
encampment and were swallowed up by the shadows of the thicket; but such
was not the case.

I realized only too well all the dangers which were before us, and the
odds against our being able to obey the general's orders. At the same time
I knew that in event of failure there would be no possibility of retreat;
but we would find ourselves in the hands of an enemy whose greatest
delight consists in the most fiendish murder.

As I figured it, out of a hundred chances we had no more than one of
getting into the fort, and there remained ninety and nine in favor of our
falling victims to Brant's crew.

We had but just set out when I observed that Sergeant Corney had left
behind him every superfluous article of clothing, and all accoutrements
save the knife in his belt, whereupon I asked the reason for thus laying
himself bare to the enemy.

"You lads have each a rifle, which are all the weapons we need, for it can
avail us nothing to make a fight. If we win it must be by strategy, not
force, and in case of success it will be a small matter to provide
ourselves with other arms."

"At the same time it gives me courage to know that I have something with
which to defend myself," Jacob said, with a laugh which had in it nothing
of mirth.

"Ay, lad, so I counted, otherwise I had advised that you follow my
example. It can do no harm to take whatsoever you will, for that which
hinders may readily be cast aside. Now let us come to an end of
tongue-waggin', for silence is our safest ally."

As the old man had said, either Jacob or I should have known more of
woodcraft than did he, but on this night I dare venture to assert that
there were not above a dozen in Joseph Brant's following who could have
made their way through the thicket with less noise and in a more direct
course than did he.

From General Herkimer's encampment in an air-line through the forest to
Fort Schuyler was not more than seven or eight miles, and, despite our
slow progress, for one