e began to speak in a low tone:

"I am a brave man," he said; "all the young men think me a great
warrior, and ten of them are ready to go with me to the war. I will go
and show them the enemy. Last summer the Snakes killed my brother. I
cannot live unless I revenge his death. To-morrow we will set out and I
will take their scalps."

The White Shield, as he expressed this resolution, seemed to have lost
all the accustomed fire and spirit of his look, and hung his head as if
in a fit of despondency.

As I was sitting that evening at one of the fires, I saw him arrayed in
his splendid war dress, his cheeks painted with vermilion, leading his
favorite war horse to the front of his lodge. He mounted and rode round
the village, singing his war song in a loud hoarse voice amid the
shrill acclamations of the women. Then dismounting, he remained for some
minutes prostrate upon the ground, as if in an act of supplication.
On the following morning I looked in vain for the departure of the
warriors. All was quiet in the village until late in the forenoon, when
the White Shield, issuing from his lodge, came and seated himself in his
old place before us. Reynal asked him why he had not gone out to find
the enemy.

"I cannot go," answered the White Shield in a dejected voice. "I have
given my war arrows to the Meneaska."

"You have only given him two of your arrows," said Reynal. "If you ask
him, he will give them back again."

For some time the White Shield said nothing. At last he spoke in a
gloomy tone:

"One of my young men has had bad dreams. The spirits of the dead came
and threw stones at him in his sleep."

If such a dream had actually taken place it might have broken up this
or any other war party, but both Reynal and I were convinced at the time
that it was a mere fabrication to excuse his remaining at home.

The White Shield was a warrior of noted prowess. Very probably, he would
have received a mortal wound without a show of pain, and endured without
flinching the worst tortures that an enemy could inflict upon him. The
whole power of an Indian's nature would be summoned to encounter such
a trial; every influence of his education from childhood would have
prepared him for it; the cause of his suffering would have been visibly
and palpably before him, and his spirit would rise to set his enemy at
defiance, and gain the highest glory of a warrior by meeting death with
fortitude. But when he feels himself attacked