Then returning to camp, they secured seven prisoners whom they had captured, and, leading them to the battle-field, make them look at the stark bodies of the loyalists, at the same time heaping all manner of savage insult upon the dead.

A couple of days later the bodies of the victims were buried upon the plain, by the order of Riel.  A little later the snow fell, and gave the poor fellows’ grave a white, cold, coverlet.

When tidings of the battle, and of the defeat of our men, reached the east, the wildest excitement prevailed.  At once the Minister of Militia began to take stock of his forces, and some regiments were ordered out.  The volunteers needed no urging, but promptly offered their services for the front.  Their loyalty was cheered to the echo, and thousands assembled at every railway station to see them depart and say “God speed.”

CHAPTER XII.

While General Middleton, Colonel Otter, and others of our military officers, were hastening to the scene of tumult, tidings of the most startling kind were received from Frog Lake.  Frog Lake is a small settlement, about forty miles north of Fort Pitt, and here a number of thrifty settlers had established themselves, tilling the soil.  Latterly, however, some enterprising persons came there to erect a saw and grist mill, for much lumber fringes the lake, and a considerable quantity of grain is produced upon the prairie round about.  There were only a few white settlers here, all the rest being half-breeds.  Not far away lived detachments of various tribes of Indians, who frequently came into the little settlement, and smoked their pipes among the inhabitants.  Here, as elsewhere, the most bitter feelings were entertained by the half-breeds and Indians against the Government, and chief of all against Governor Dewdney.  Every one with white skin, and all those who in any way were in the service of the Government, soon came to be regarded as enemies to the common cause.  Therefore, when night came down upon the settlement, Indians, smeared in hideous, raw, earthy-smelling paint, would creep about among dwellings, and peer, with eyes gleaming with hate, through the window-frames at the innocent and unsuspecting inmates.  At last one chief, with a diabolical face, said,

“Brothers, we must be avenged upon every white man and woman here.  We will shoot them like dogs.  No harm can come to us; for the great man has said so.” (Alluding to Riel.) “When they are all shot the Government will get a big fright, and give the Indians and half-breeds what they ask for.”  The answer to this harangue was the clanking of barbaric instruments of music, the brandishing of tomahawks, and the gleam of hunting-knives.  Secretly the Indians went among the half-breeds squatting about, and revealed their plans; but some of these people shrank with fear from the proposal.  Others, however, said,