“Go, lads, and rest!” he repeated to Robert and Tayoga, and now that their supreme task was achieved they felt the need of obeying him.  Both were sagging with weariness, and it was well for the Onondaga to look to his shoulder, which was still a little lame.  As they saluted and left the tent a young Indian lad sprang toward them and greeted them eagerly.  It was young Joseph Brant, the famous Thayendanega of later days, the brother of Molly Brant, Colonel William Johnson’s Mohawk wife.

“Hail, Tayoga!  Hail, Dagaeoga!” he exclaimed in the Mohawk tongue.  “I knew that you were inside with Waraiyageh!  You have brought great news, it is rumored already!  It is no secret, is it?”

“We do have news, mighty news, and it is no secret,” replied Robert.  “It’s news that will give you your opportunity of starting on the long path that leads to the making of a great chief.  Dieskau has marched suddenly and is near.  We’re going to meet him.”

The fierce young Mohawk uttered a shout of joy and rushed for his arms.  Robert and Tayoga, after a brief breakfast, lay down on their blankets and, despite all the turmoil and bustle of preparation, fell asleep.

While the two successful but exhausted messengers slumbered, Colonel Johnson called a council of war, at which the chief militia officers and old Hendrik, the Mohawk sachem, were present.  The white men favored the swift advance of a picked force to save Edward, one of the new forts erected to protect the frontier, from the hordes, and the dispatch of a second chosen force to guard Lyman, another fort, in the same manner.  The wise old Mohawk alone opposed the plan, and his action was significant.

Hendrik picked up three sticks from the ground and held them before the eyes of the white men.

“Put these together,” he said, “and you cannot break them.  Take them one by one and you break them with ease.”

But he could not convince the white leaders, and then, a man of great soul, he said that if his white comrades must go in the way they had chosen he would go with them.  Calling about him the Mohawk warriors, two hundred in number, he stood upon a gun carriage and addressed them with all the spirit and eloquence of his race.  Few of the Americans understood a word he said, but they knew from his voice that he was urging his men to deeds of valor.

Hendrik told the warriors that the French and their allies were at hand, and the forces of Waraiyageh were going out to meet them.  Waraiyageh had always been their friend, and it became them now to fight by his side with all the courage the Ganeagaono had shown through unnumbered generations.  A fierce shout came from the Mohawks, and, snatching their tomahawks from their belts, they waved them about their heads.