ven to the bone, while the poor negro shrieked in agony. Then, to
drown the cry, the other savages commencing a wild, rude chant, let
their war-clubs descend upon their victim with such force that he
fainted. Just at this moment the quick ears of the Indians caught the
almost inaudible sound of approaching horsemen, and as they paused to
satisfy themselves of the truth of their suspicions, Bacon and his
little band of faithful followers appeared full in sight. Leaving their
victim in a moment, the savages prepared to defend themselves from the
assault of their intruders, and with the quickness of thought,
concealing themselves behind the trees and undergrowth of the forest,
they sent a shower of arrows into the unwary ranks of their adversaries.

"By Jove, that had like to have been my death-stroke," cried Bacon, as
an arrow directed full against his breast, glanced from a gilt button of
his coat and fell harmless to the ground. But others of the party were
not so fortunate as their leader. Several of the men, pierced by the
poisoned arrows of the enemy, fell dead.

Notwithstanding the success of this first charge of the Indians, Bacon
and his party sustained the shock with coolness and intrepidity. Their
gallant leader, himself careless of life or safety, led the charge, and
on his powerful horse he was, like the royal hero to whom he had
compared himself, ever seen in the thickest of the carnage. Well did he
prove himself that day worthy of the confidence of his faithful
followers.

Nor loth were the Indians to return their charge. Although their party
only amounted to about fifty, and Bacon's men numbered several hundred,
yet was the idea of retreat abhorrent to their martial feelings.
Screening themselves with comparative safety behind the large forest
trees, or lying under the protection of the thick undergrowth, they kept
up a constant attack with their arrows, and succeeded in effecting
considerable loss to the whites, who, incommoded by their horses, or
unaccustomed to this system of bush fighting, failed to produce a
corresponding effect upon their savage foe.

There was something in the religion of these simple sons of the forest
which imparted intrepid boldness to their characters, unattainable by
ordinary discipline. The material conception which they entertained of
the spirit-world, where valour and heroism were the passports of
admission, created a disregard for life such as no civilized man could
well