folding extremities of the palisade that encircled the town. Before
them stretched a wide avenue, three or four hundred paces long, flanked
by a natural growth of trees,--one of those curious monuments of native
industry to which allusion has been already made. Here Ottigny halted
and formed his line of march. Arlac with eight matchlockmen was sent in
advance, and flanking parties thrown into the woods on either side.
Ottigny told his soldiers, that, if the Indians meant to attack them,
they were probably in ambush at the other end of the avenue. He was
right. As Arlac's party reached the spot, the whole pack gave tongue at
once. The war-whoop quavered through the startled air, and a tempest of
stone-headed arrows clattered against the breastplates of the French, or
tore, scorching like fire, through their unprotected limbs. They stood
firm, and sent back their shot so steadily that several of the
assailants were laid dead, and the rest, two or three hundred in number,
gave way as Ottigny came up with his men.

They moved on for a quarter of a mile through a country, as it seems,
comparatively open; when again the war-cry pealed in front, and three
hundred savages came bounding to the assault. Their whoops were echoed
from the rear. It was the party whom Arlac had just repulsed, who,
leaping and showering their arrows, were rushing on with a ferocity
restrained only by their lack of courage. There was no panic. The men
threw down their corn-bags, and took to their weapons. They blew their
matches, and, under two excellent officers, stood well to their work.
The Indians, on their part, showed a good discipline, after their
fashion, and were perfectly under the control of their chiefs. With
cries that imitated the yell of owls, the scream of cougars, and the
howl of wolves, they ran up in successive bands, let fly their arrows,
and instantly fell back, giving place to others. At the sight of the
levelled arquebuse, they dropped flat on the earth. Whenever, sword in
hand, the French charged upon them, they fled like foxes through the
woods; and whenever the march was resumed, the arrows were showering
again upon the flanks and rear of the retiring band. The soldiers coolly
picked them up and broke them as they fell. Thus, beset with swarming
savages, the handful of Frenchmen pushed their march till nightfall,
fighting as they went.

The Indians gradually drew off, and the forest was silent again. Two of
the French had bee