the
sultry forest, and the thirst with both man and beast became anguish.
Another such day and another such night, and Bouquet could foresee his
fate would be worse than Braddock's. Passing from man to man, he gave
the army their instructions for the next day. They would form in three
platoons, with the center battalion advanced to the fore, as if to lead
attack. Suddenly the center was to feign defeat and turn as if in
panic flight. It was to be guessed that the Indians would pursue
headlong. Instantly the flank battalions were to sweep through the
woods in wide circle and close in on the rear of the savages. Then the
fleeing center was to turn. The savages would be surrounded. Daybreak
came with a cracking of shots from ambush. Officers and men carried
out instructions exactly as Bouquet had planned. At ten o'clock the
center column broke ranks, wavered, turned, . . . fled in wild panic!
With the whooping of a wolf pack in full cry, the savages burst from
ambush in pursuit. The sides deployed. A moment later the center had
turned to fight the pursuer, {290} and the Highlanders broke from the
woods, yelling their slogan, with broadswords cutting a terrible
hand-to-hand swath. Sixty Indians were slashed to death in as many
seconds. Though the British lost one hundred and fifteen, killed and
wounded, the Indians were in full flight, blind terror at their heels.
The way was now open to Port Pitt, but Bouquet did not dally inside the
palisades. On down the Ohio he pursued the panic-stricken savages,
pausing neither for deputies nor reenforcements. At Muskingum Creek
the Indians sent back the old men to sue, sue abjectedly, for peace at
any cost.

Bouquet met them with the stern front that never fails to win respect.
They need not palm off their lie that the fault lay with the foolish
young warriors. If the old chiefs would not control the young braves,
then the whole tribe, the whole Indian race, must pay the penalty. In
terror the deputies hung their heads. He would not even discuss the
terms of peace, Bouquet declared, till the Indians restored every
captive,--man, woman, and child, even the child of Indian parentage
born in captivity. The captives must be given suitable clothing,
horses, and presents. Twelve days only would he permit them to gather
the captives. If man, woman, or child were lacking on the twelfth day,
he would pursue them and punish them to the uttermost ends of earth.

The India