pparently not
suspecting any artifice on their part.

"The pale warrior, the friend of the Ottawa chief, is not here," said
the governor, as he glanced his eye along the semi-circle of Indians.
"How is this? Is his voice still sick, that he cannot come? or has the
great chief of the Ottawas forgotten to tell him?"

"The voice of the pale warrior is still sick, and he cannot speak,"
replied the Indian. "The Ottawa chief is very sorry; for the tongue of
his friend, the pale-face, is full of wisdom."

Scarcely had the last words escaped his lips when a wild, shrill cry
from without the fort rang on the ears of the assembled council, and
caused a momentary commotion among the officers. It arose from a single
voice, and that voice could not be mistaken by any who had heard it once
before. A second or two, during which the officers and chiefs kept their
eyes intently fixed on one another, passed anxiously away; and then
nearer to the gate, apparently on the very drawbridge itself, was pealed
forth the wild and deafening yell of a legion of fiendish voices. At
that sound, the Ottawa and the other chiefs sprang to their feet, and
their own fierce cry responded to that yet vibrating on the ears of all.
Already were their gleaming tomahawks brandished wildly over their
heads, and Pontiac had even bounded a pace forward to reach the governor
with the deadly weapon, when, at the sudden stamping of the foot of the
latter upon the floor, the scarlet cloth in the rear was thrown aside,
and twenty soldiers, their eyes glancing along the barrels of their
levelled muskets, met the startled gaze of the astonished Indians.

An instant was enough to satisfy the keen chief of the true state of the
case. The calm, composed mien of the officers, not one of whom had even
attempted to quit his seat amid the din by which his ears were so
alarmingly assailed,--the triumphant, yet dignified, and even severe
expression of the governor's countenance; and, above all, the unexpected
presence of the prepared soldiery,--all these at once assured him of the
discovery of his treachery, and the danger that awaited him. The
necessity for an immediate attempt to join his warriors without was now
obvious to the Ottawa; and scarcely had he conceived the idea before he
sought to execute it. In a single spring he gained the door of the
mess-room, and, followed eagerly and tumultuously by the other chiefs,
to whose departure no opposition was offered, in the ne