all his collectedness and courage to sustain him through
the trial. At the very moment, however when he expected
to feel the crashing steel within his brain, he felt
himself again violently pulled by the thong that secured
his hands. In the next instant he was pressed close to
the chest of his vast enemy, who, with one arm encircling
his prisoner, and the other brandishing his fierce blade
in rapid evolutions round his head, kept the yelling band
at bay, with the evident unshaken determination to maintain
his sole and acknowledged right to the disposal of his
captive.

For several moments the event appeared doubtful; but,
notwithstanding his extreme agility in the use of a
weapon, in the management of which he evinced all the
dexterity of the most practised native, the odds were
fearfully against Wacousta; and while his flashing eye
and swelling chest betrayed his purpose rather to perish
himself than suffer the infringement of his claim, it
was evident that numbers must, in the end, prevail against
him. On an appeal to Ponteac, however, of which he now
suddenly bethought himself, the authority of the latter
was successfully exerted, and he was again left in the
full and undisturbed possession of his prisoner.

A low and earnest conversation now ensued among the
chiefs, in which, as before, Wacousta bore a principal
part. When this was terminated, several Indians approached
the unhappy officer, and unfastening the thong with which
his hands were firmly and even painfully girt, deprived