Valley had been so steady and swift.

It goes without saying that every man in the encampment was eager to know
why this painted messenger had come, and I confess to crowding my way
among the foremost of the curious in order to hear, if possible, all that
was said.

The Indian stood like a statue before the shelter of fir boughs, looking
neither to the right nor the left until General Herkimer appeared and
said to him, questioningly:

"You have come from Captain Brant?"

It is hardly necessary for me to set it down that, some time before this,
Thayendanega had been given a commission in the British service.

The messenger nodded gravely, and, after pausing until one might have
counted ten, said:

"Thayendanega asks why so many white soldiers are encamped near his
village?"

"I have come to see and talk with my brother, Captain Brant," General
Herkimer replied, with the same stiff manner as that assumed by the
messenger.

"And do all these men want to talk with the chief, too?"

"They have come to bear me company; they are my followers, as Captain
Brant has his."