“Brother, look at these saplings!  They are tall and straight.  When they are bent by many hands, they will come together.  Take away the hands, and they will become straight again.  Your arms must then keep them together.  We wish we had some pappooses here, that they might shoot arrows into your flesh.  That would help much to torment you.  You cannot have this honor, for we have no pappooses.  We are afraid to let our young men shoot arrows into your flesh.  They are strong, and might kill you.  We wish you to die between the saplings, as is your right, being so great a brave.

“Brother, we think much better of you since you killed The Weasel, and hurt our young men.  If all your warriors at Chicago had been as bold as you, Black-Bird would not have taken that fort.  You would have saved many scalps.  This encourages us.  It makes us think the Great Spirit means to help us, and that we shall kill all the pale-faces.  When we get further into your settlements, we do not expect to meet many such braves as you.  They tell us we shall then find men who will run, and screech like women.  It will not be a pleasure to torment such men.  We had rather torment a bold warrior, like you, who makes us admire him for his manliness.  We love our squaws, but not in the warpath.  They are best in the lodges; here we want nothing but men.  You are a man—­a brave—­we honor you.  We think, notwithstanding, we shall yet make you weak.  It will not be easy, yet we hope to do it.  We shall try.  We may not think quite so well of you, if we do it; but we shall always call you a brave.  A man is not a stone.  We can all feel, and when we have done all that is in our power, no one can do more.  It is so with Injins; we think it must be so with pale-faces.  We mean to try and see how it is.”

The corporal understood very little of this harangue, though he perfectly comprehended the preparations of the saplings, and Bough of the Oak’s allusions to them.  He was in a cold sweat at the thought, for resolute as he was, he foresaw sufferings that human fortitude could hardly endure.  In this state of the case, and in the frame of mind he was in, he had recourse to an expedient of which he had often heard, and which he thought might now be practised to some advantage.  It was to open upon the savages with abuse, and to exasperate them, by taunts and sarcasm, to such a degree as might induce some of the weaker members of the tribe to dispatch him on the spot.  As the corporal, with the perspective of the saplings before his eyes, manifested a good deal of ingenuity on this occasion, we shall record some of his efforts.