The General now walked backward and forward slowly for some minutes without speaking.  Then he sat down on a sofa by the fire, telling Mr. Lear to sit down.  To this moment there had been no change in his manner since his interruption at table.  Mr. Lear now perceived emotion.  This rising in him, he broke out suddenly, “It’s all over—­St. Clair’s defeated—­routed;—­the officers nearly all killed, the men by wholesale; the route complete—­too shocking to think of—­and a surprise into the bargain!”

He uttered all this with great vehemence.  Then he paused, got up from the sofa and walked about the room several times, agitated but saying nothing.  Near the door he stopped short and stood still a few seconds, when his wrath became terrible.

“Yes,” he burst forth, “HERE on this very spot, I took leave of him; I wished him success and honor; you have your instructions, I said, from the Secretary of War, I had a strict eye to them, and will add but one word—­BEWARE OF A SURPRISE. I repeat it, BEWARE OF A SURPRISE—­you know how the Indians fight us.  He went off with that as my last solemn warning thrown into his ears.  And yet!! to suffer that army to be cut to pieces, hack’d, butchered, tomahawk’d, by a surprise—­the very thing I guarded him against!!  O God, O God, he’s worse than a murderer! how can he answer it to his country;—­the blood of the slain is upon him—­the curse of widows and orphans—­the curse of Heaven!”

This torrent came out in tones appalling.  His very frame shook.  It was awful, said Mr. Lear.  More than once he threw his hands up as he hurled imprecations upon St. Clair.  Mr. Lear remained speechless; awed into breathless silence.

The roused Chief sat down on the sofa once more.  He seemed conscious of his passion, and uncomfortable.  He was silent.  His warmth beginning to subside, he at length said in an altered voice:  “This must not go beyond this room.”  Another pause followed—­a longer one—­when he said in a tone quite low, “General St. Clair shall have justice; I looked hastily through the dispatches, saw the whole disaster but not all the particulars; I will receive him without displeasure; I will hear him without prejudice; he shall have full justice.”

He was now, said Mr. Lear, perfectly calm.  Half an hour had gone by.  The storm was over; and no sign of it was afterwards seen in his conduct or heard in his conversation.  The result is known.  The whole case was investigated by Congress.  St. Clair was exculpated and regained the confidence Washington had in him when appointing him to that command.  He had put himself into the thickest of the fight and escaped unhurt, though so ill as to be carried on a litter, and unable to mount his horse without help.