yal Savage_, pierced by a
dozen balls, ran ashore on the island. As she could not be got off, the
crew set her on fire and escaped to the woods. They might better have
leaped into the lake, for the woods were full of Indians whom Carleton
had sent ashore; and to be a prisoner to Indians in those days was a
terrible fate.

When he got back to his fleet, Arnold formed his line to meet the
British, who came steadily on until within musket shot. Then a furious
battle began, broadside meeting broadside, grape-shot and round-shot
hurtling through the air, the thick smoke of the conflict drifting into
the woodland, while from the forest came back flame and bullets as the
Indians fought for their British friends.

Arnold, on the deck of the _Congress_, led in the thickest of the fight,
handling his fleet as if he had been an admiral born, cheering the men
at the guns, aiming and firing a gun at intervals himself, and not
yielding a foot to the foe. Now and then a gun was fired at the Indians,
forcing them to skip nimbly behind the trees.

For six long hours the battle kept up at close quarters. This is what
Arnold says about it in few words: "At half-past twelve the engagement
became general and very warm. Some of the enemy's ships and all their
gondolas beat and rowed up within musket shot of us. They continued a
very hot fire with round and grape-shot until five o'clock, when they
thought proper to retire to about six or seven hundred yards distance,
and continued the fire till dark."

Hot as their fire was, they must have found that of the Americans
hotter, for they went back out of range of the Yankee guns, but kept
within range of their own.

Arnold's vessels were in a bad plight. Several of them were as full of
holes as a pepper bottle, and one sank soon after the fight ended. But
two of the British gunboats had been sunk and one blown up. The worst
for the Americans was that nearly all their powder was gone. They could
not fight an hour more.

Perilous as was the situation, Admiral Arnold was equal to it. The night
came on dark and stormy, with a hard gale from the north. This was just
what he wanted. Up came the anchors and away went the boats, one after
the other in a long line, each showing a light to the vessel that
followed, but hiding it from British eyes. In this way they slipped
unseen through the British line, Arnold in the _Congress_ taking the
post of danger in the rear.

When morning dawned the Briti