secured to themselves an easy conquest. They were the warriors who had
so recently been engaged in the manly yet innocent exercise of the ball;
but, instead of the harmless hurdle, each now carried a short gun in
one hand and a gleaming tomahawk in the other.

After the first general yelling heard in the council-room, not a sound
was uttered. Their burst of rage and triumph had evidently been checked
by the unexpected manner of their reception; and they now stood on the
spot on which the further advance of each had been arrested, so silent
and motionless, that, but for the rolling of their dark eyes, as they
keenly measured the insurmountable barriers that were opposed to their
progress, they might almost have been taken for a wild group of
statuary. Conspicuous at the head of these was he who wore the blanket;
a tall warrior on whom rested the startled eye of every officer and
soldier who was so situated as to behold him. His face was painted black
as death; and as he stood under the arch of the gateway, with his white
turbaned head towering far above those of his companions, this
formidable and mysterious enemy might have been likened to the spirit of
darkness presiding over his terrible legions.

In order to account for the extraordinary appearance of the Indians,
armed in every way for death, at a moment when neither gun nor tomahawk
was apparently within miles of their reach, it was necessary to revert
to the first entrance of the chiefs into the fort. The fall of Pontiac
had been the effect of design; and the yell pealed forth by him, on
recovering his feet, as if in taunting reply to the laugh of his
comrades, was in reality a signal intended for the guidance of the
Indians without. These now following up their game with increasing
spirit, at once changed the direction of their line, bringing the ball
nearer to the fort. In their eagerness to effect this object, they had
overlooked the gradual secession of the unarmed troops, spectators of
their sport from the ramparts, until scarcely more than twenty
stragglers were left. As they neared the gate, the squaws broke up their
several groups, and, forming a line on either hand of the road leading
to the drawbridge, appeared to separate solely with a view not to impede
the players. For an instant a dense group collected around the ball,
which had been drawn to within a hundred yards of the gate, and fifty
hurdles were crossed in their endeavour to secure it, when th