deplorable than those narrated in the preceding chapter.
The Cherry Valley episode can only be regarded as a sad
instance of what the use of Indian allies sometimes
involved. A peaceful farming district was devastated;
peasants were plundered and slain. It is true that some
of them were in arms against British rule, but as a whole
they were quietly engaged in farming operations, striving
to build up homes for themselves on the outskirts of
civilization. In this work of devastation and death Brant
was only second in command; the leader was a white man
and a British officer. But neither Brant nor Butler, who
commanded the expedition, was able to restrain the cruelty
and ferocity of the Indian warriors until much havoc had
been wrought.

A haze was now brooding over the Susquehanna, and the
autumn leaves were being tinged with red. The struggle
of the year 1778 seemed over and Brant decided to spend
the winter at Niagara. Accordingly he set out with a band
of warriors from his entrenched position at Unadilla and
went forward by easy stages along the old and well-beaten
Indian trail leading towards Lake Ontario. He had proceeded
well on his way when, to his surprise, a party of former
allies crossed his path in the forest. Led by Captain
Walter N. Butler, a son of Colonel John Butler, the
victorious leader at Wyoming, a body of the Tory Rangers
who had been with Brant at Oriskany were going eastward.
In 1777 their youthful officer had suffered harsh
imprisonment among the enemy, and, burning for vengeance,
he was making a late-season tramp into the rebels' country.