There is ever something solemn and awful in the thought of death, let it come in the mildest form possible—­for the individual feels he is hastening to that silent bourne, whence none have e’er returned to tell its mysteries—­yet such is as nothing in comparison with the death our prisoners were now silently awaiting, away from friends and all sympathy, in the full vigor of animal life, to be fairly worn out by the most excruciating pains, amid the hootings and revilings of a savage foe.  It was enough to have made the stoutest heart faint, trembling and sick; and thus our unfortunate friends felt, as they slowly gazed around and saw nothing but fierce, angry looks bent upon them.

Girty was the first to address the assemblage, in the Indian dialect, in an animated and angry speech of five minutes duration; occasionally turning his sinister visage upon the prisoners, with an expression of mortal hatred; gesticulating the while in that vehement manner which would have left no doubts on their minds as to the nature of his discourse, had they not previously known him to be their determined foe.  He narrated to the savages, clearly and briefly, the wrongs which had been done them, as well as himself, by the whites; how, as the ally and friend of the red-man, he had been cursed, defied and treated with much contumely, by those here present; how their friends had followed and slaughtered his braves; how the whites were every day becoming stronger and more aggressive; how that, unless speedily exterminated, they would presently drive the red-men from their hunting grounds, burn their wigwams, and murder their wives and children; referred them, as a proof, to the sacking and burning of the Chillicothe and Piqua villages, on the Little Miami and Mad rivers, the year preceding, by General Clark and his men;[15] and wound up by demanding the death of the prisoners at the stake, and a speedy and bloody retaliation upon the pioneers of Kentucky.

As Girty concluded his speech, which was listened to in breathless silence, there was a great sensation in the house, and an almost unanimous grunt of approval from the chiefs and braves there assembled.  It needed but this, to arouse their vindictive passions against the white invader to the extreme; and they bent upon the unfortunate prisoners, eyes which seemed inflamed with rage and revenge.  Girty perceived, at a glance, that he had succeeded to the full of his heart’s desire; and with a devilish smile of satisfaction on his features, he drew back among the warriors, to listen to the harangues of the others.

Black Hoof was the next to follow the renegade, in a similar but more eloquent strain; during which his countenance became greatly animated; and it was easy for the prisoners to perceive—­who could not understand a word he uttered—­that he spoke with great enthusiasm.  He also pressed upon his companions the vast importance of exterminating the whites, ere they, as he expressed it, became as