After using the greatest care, the bee-hunter and the corporal got just such a station as they desired.  It was within a very few feet of the edge of the cover, but perfectly concealed, while small openings enabled them to see all that was passing in their front.  A fallen tree, a relic of somewhat rare occurrence in the openings of Michigan, even furnished them with a seat, while it rendered their position less exposed.  Hive placed himself at his master’s side, apparently trusting to other senses than that of sight for his information, since he could see nothing of what was going on in front.

As soon as the two men had taken their stations, and began to look about them, a feeling of awe mingled with their curiosity.  Truly, the scene was one so very remarkable and imposing that it might have filled more intellectual and better fortified minds with some such sensation.  The fire was by no means large, nor was it particularly bright; but sufficient to cast a dim light on the objects within reach of its rays.  It was in the precise centre of a bit of bottom land of about half an acre in extent, which was so formed and surrounded, as to have something of the appearance of the arena of a large amphitheatre.  There was one break in the encircling rise of ground, it is true, and that was at a spot directly opposite the station of le Bourdon and his companion, where the rill which flowed from the spring found a passage out toward the more open ground.  Branches shaded most of the mound, but the arena itself was totally free from all vegetation but that which covered the dense and beautiful sward with which it was carpeted.  Such is a brief description of the natural accessories of this remarkable scene.

But it was from the human actors, and their aspects, occupations, movements, dress, and appearance generally, that the awe which came over both the bee-hunter and the corporal had its origin.  Of these, near fifty were present, offering a startling force by their numbers alone.  Each man was a warrior, and each warrior was in his paint.  These were facts that the familiarity of the two white men with Indian customs rendered only too certain.  What was still more striking was the fact that all present appeared to be chiefs; a circumstance which went to show that an imposing body of red men was most likely somewhere in the openings, and that too at no great distance.  It was while observing and reflecting on all these things, a suspicion first crossed the mind of le Bourdon that this great council was about to be held, at that midnight hour, and so near his own abode, for the purpose of accommodating Peter, whose appearance in the dark crowd, from that instant, he began to expect.