The woman, a slattern, who was known by the unpleasant name of Rya’s Pup, declared that Walter Butler had gone to Johnstown to join St. Leger before Stanwix, and that the Tories would give the rebels such a drubbing that we would all be crawling on our bellies yelling for quarter this day week.  As the wench was drunk, I made little of her babble; but the next day Murphy and Elerson, having been in touch with Gansevoort’s outposts, returned to me with a note from Colonel Willett: 

     “Fort Schuyler (Stanwix),
     “August 2d,

     “Dear sir,—­I transmit to you the contents of a letter from
     Colonel Gansevoort, dated July 28th: 

“’Yesterday, at three o’clock in the afternoon, our garrison was alarmed with the firing of four guns.  A party of men was instantly despatched to the place where the guns were fired, which was in the edge of the woods, about five hundred yards from the fort; but they were too late.  The villains were fled, after having shot three young girls who were out picking raspberries, two of whom were lying scalped and tomahawked; one dead and the other expiring, who died in about half an hour after she was brought home.  The third had a bullet through her face, and crawled away, lying hid until we arrived.  It was pitiful.  The child may live, but has lost her mind.

     “’This was accomplished by a scout of sixteen Tories of
     Colonel John Butler’s command and two savages, Mohawks, all
     under direction of Captain Walter Butler.’

“This, sir, is a revised copy of Colonel Gansevoort’s letter to Colonel Van Schaick.  Permit me to add, with the full approval of Colonel Gansevoort, that the scout under your command warns the militia at Whitestown of the instant approach of Colonel Barry St. Leger’s regular troops, reinforced by Sir John Johnson’s regiment of Royal Greens, Colonel Butler’s Rangers, McCraw’s outlaws, and seven hundred Mohawk, Seneca, and Cayuga warriors under Brant and Walter Butler.  I will add, sir, that we shall hold this fort to the end.  Respectfully,

     “MarinusWlLLETT,
     Lieutenant-Colonel.”

Standing knee-deep in the thick undergrowth, I read this letter aloud to my riflemen, amid a shocked silence; then folded it for transmission to General Schuyler when opportunity might offer, and signed Murphy to lead forward.

So Rya’s Pup was right.  Walter Butler had made his first mark on the red Oswego trail!

We marched in absolute silence, Murphy leading, every nerve on edge, straining eye and ear for a sign of the enemy’s scouts, now doubtless swarming forward and to cover the British advance.

But the wilderness is vast, and two armies might pass each other scarcely out of hail and never know.