Very different from the array of Abercrombie's army was the march of
the Oneidas through the deep woods on the western side of Lake
Horicon. Far spread out and separate from each other, they pursued a
number of different trails in profound silence, and in single files of
not more than twenty or thirty each; and yet, with what seemed a sort
of instinct, each party directed its course unerringly to one
particular point. They knew the spot they were to strike, they knew
the time they were to be there; and at that spot, and at that time,
each little band appeared with its most famous warrior at its head.
Thus, in the small savanna where the poor negress, Sister Bab, had
found the advance guard of the whole nation, nearly six hundred
warriors of the children of the Stone assembled on the night of
Saturday.
Dressed like themselves, with tomahawk and knife in his belt, and
moccasins upon his feet, appeared Walter Prevost, distinguished from
the rest by his fair skin and flowing hair. The sports of the field,
the wild life he had led for several years, and even the hardships he
had lately suffered, had fitted him for all the fatigues of an Indian
march, and rendered a frame naturally strong, extraordinarily robust
and active. Ignorant of any danger to those he best loved, rejoicing
in deliverance from captivity and the peril of death, and full of
bright hopes for the future, his heart was light and gay, and
happiness added energy to vigor. The hardy warriors with whom he
marched saw with surprise and admiration the son of the paleface bear
difficulties and fatigues as well as themselves, and come in at the
close of the day as fresh and cheerful.
The fires were lighted, the rifles piled near to each separate band,
and the food which they brought with them cooked after their fashion
and distributed amongst them. But the meal was not over ere another
small band joined them; and Black Eagle himself passed round the
different fires, till he paused by that at which Walter was seated.
None of his own people had taken any notice of his appearance. Once or
twice one of the warriors, indeed, looked up as he went by; but no
sign of reverence or recognition was given, till Walter, after the
European fashion, rose and extended his hand.
"Thou art before me, my son," said the chief. "The wings of the Black
Eagle have had far to fly. I have visited thy father's lodge, and have
followed him to the new Castle at the midday end of Horicon."
"My father!" said Walter, in great surprise. "Was he not at his
house?"
"Nay. He is a war chief with the army," said Black Eagle.
"Then where is Edith?" inquired the young man. "Did you leave the
Blossom with her?"
"I left Otaitsa at thy father's house," answered the chief, "but thy
sister was not there."
"Where was she, then?" asked Walter, with some alarm.
"I know not," answered Black Eagle, and was silent.
"Perhaps he has taken her to Albany," rejoined the young man. "But you
saw my father; how did he fare?"
"Well," answered Black Eagle; "quite well; and he gives thee to
Otaitsa. The Blossom is thine."
"Then Edith is safe," said Walter, in a tone of relief, "and my
father's mind must have been relieved about me, for he could not be
well or seem well if either of his children were in danger."
"The redman feels as much as the white man," answered Black Eagle,
"but he leaves tears and lamentations, sighs, and sad looks to women
and to children. Where is the Night Hawk and the warriors who were
with him?"
"They are on before," replied the youth; "we have not seen them, but
their fires have been lighted here."
No further questions were asked by the chief, and walking slowly away,
he seated himself with those who had accompanied him, to partake of
the meal they were making ready. Few words were spoken amongst the
various groups assembled there, and some twenty minutes had elapsed
when one of the young men seated at the fire with the Black Eagle
started up and darted away toward the north like a frightened deer. No
one took any notice, and several soon after composed themselves to
sleep. The others sat round their fires, with their heads bent down
almost to their knees, and the murmur of a few sentences spoken here
and there was the only sound that broke the silence for nearly an
hour. At the end of that time two young warriors on the north side of
the savanna started up and listened, and shortly after, several of the
Oneidas who had rested in the neighborhood of the same spot the night
before, were seen coming through the long grass and crossing the tiny
brook which meandered through the midst.
Led by the young messenger who had lately departed to seek for them,
they glided up to the fire of the great chief and seated themselves
beside him. The conversation then grew earnest, and quick and eager
gestures and flashing eyes might be seen.
The great body of the Oneidas took not the slightest notice of what
was taking place around the council fire of the Black Eagle, but
Walter watched every look with an indefinable feeling of interest and
curiosity; and after much discussion, and many a long pause between,
the chief beckoned him up and made him sit in the circle.
"Thou art young to talk with warriors," said the Black Eagle, when he
was seated; "thy hand is strong against the panther and the deer, but
it has never taken the scalp of an enemy. But the daughter of the
white man Prevost is my daughter, and she is thy sister. Know, then,
my son, that she is in the power of the French. The Honontkoh whom we
have expelled--they are wolves--they have taken her--they have run her
down as a hungry pack runs down a fawn, and have delivered her and
themselves into the hands of the enemy. The muzzles of their rifles
have fire for our bosoms; their knives are thirsty for our scalps. Be
not a woman, who cannot hear with a calm eye or limbs that are still;
but sit and listen, and then prove thyself a warrior in the fight."
He then went on to repeat all that he had just heard from the chief
who had succored the poor negress on the preceding night, and all that
had been done since.
"The Night Hawk was right," he said, "to send word that we would
deliver thy sister, for she is a daughter of the Oneida. The story
also of the Dark Cloud is true, for the children of the Stone have
caused search to be made, and they have found the horses that were
lost and the body of the man they slew. They scalped him not, it is
true, for what is the scalp of a negro worth? but the print of the
tomahawk was between his eyes."
"Let me have a horse," cried Walter, "and I will bring her out of the
midst of them!"
"The swallow flies faster than the Eagle," said the chief, "but where
is his strength? Listen, boy, to the words that come forth from many
years. Thy sister must be delivered; but our brethren, the English,
must know of this ambush, lest they fall into it. So, too, shall she
be saved more surely. Draw, then, upon paper the history of the thing,
and send it to the great chief, thy friend, the Falling Cataract. I
will find a messenger who knows him. Then will we break in upon this
ambush at the same time with the English, and the scalps of the
Honontkoh shall hang upon the war post, for they are not the children
of the Stone; they spat upon their mother. One of the horses, too,
shalt thou have to save thy sister out of the fight, if a thing with
four feet can run easily in this forest."
"There is the great trail from the setting sun to the place of the
Sounding Waters," said the Night Hawk; "a horse can run there as well
as a deer. It passes close by the back of the hiding place of the
Frenchman."
"Let me hear," said Walter, mastering his emotion, and striving to
imitate the calm manner of the Indians, "let me hear where this hiding
place is, and what it is like. The white man, though he be but young,
knows the ways of the white man best, and he may see light where older
eyes fail."
In language obscured by figures, but otherwise clear and definite, the
Night Hawk described the masked redoubt of the French and its
position.
Ignorant of the ground around the fortress, Walter could form but an
insufficient judgment of the spot where it was situated; but the form
and nature of the work he comprehended well enough. He mused in
silence for a minute or two after the chief had spoken, giving the
Black Eagle good hope of his acquiring, in time, the Indian coolness,
and then he said: "It would be better for us, while the army attacks
the redoubt in front, to take it in reverse."
"What meanest thou, my son?" asked Black Eagle, for Walter, still busy
with his own thoughts, had spoken in English.
The young man explained his meaning more clearly in the Iroquois
tongue, showing that as the enemy's position was, probably from want
of time, only closed on three sides, it would be easy for an Indian
party, by making a circuit, to come upon the rear of the French,
unless some considerable body of natives were thrown out upon their
western flank. But the Night Hawk nodded his head slowly, with a look
of approbation, saying: "The Hurons are dogs, and creep close to the
bowl of their masters. They are all within the stones or the mounds of
earth, except those watching by the side of Horicon. The Night Hawk
has skimmed over the ground toward the setting sun, and there was no
print of a moccasin upon the trail."
"Thou hast the cunning of a warrior, when thou art calm," said Black
Eagle, addressing Walter, "and it shall be as thou hast said. We will
spring upon the back of the game; but let the Falling Cataract know
quickly. Hast thou the means? He will not understand the belt of
wampum, and knows not the tongue of the Oneida."
"I can find means," said Walter, taking from the pouch he carried a
pencil and an old pocketbook; "but where will thy messenger find him,
my father?"
"He is not far," answered the chief. "He sailed to-day from the midday
toward the cold wind, with the war party of the English. I watched
them from the black mountains, and they are a mighty people. They
floated on Horicon like a string of swans, and their number upon the
blue waters was like a flight of passage pigeons upon the sky when
they travel westward. They landed where the earth becomes a lizard, by
the rattlesnake dens. But how long they may tarry who shall say? Send
quickly, then!"
Walter had been writing on his knee while the chief spoke, and the
brief note, which we have already seen delivered, was speedily
finished. A messenger was then chosen for his swiftness of foot, and
dispatched at once to the point where the English army first landed.
When he returned all was still amongst the Oneidas, and the warriors,
with but few exceptions, were sleeping in the long grass. The news he
brought, however, soon roused the drowsiest. The English flotilla had
gone on, he said. He had found but a solitary canoe with a few
Mohawks, who told him that the battle would be on the following
morning. Every warrior was on his feet in a moment; their light
baggage and arms were snatched up in haste. One party was detached to
the east, to watch the movements of the army; another messenger was
chosen and sent to bear the letter, and ere half an hour had gone by
the dusky bands were once more moving silently through the dark paths
of the forest, only lighted from time to time by glimpses of the moon,
and directed by the well-known stars which had so often guided their
fathers through the boundless wilderness.