“Unless it should prove,” continued Erskine, “as I sincerely trust it may, that poor Valletort is not, after all, the murderer of his friend.  It must be so.  De Haldimar has been slain by the same Indian who killed Murphy.—­Do you recollect his scalp cry?  He was in the act of despoiling his victim of this trophy of success, when Sir Everard fired.  Examine the body well, Mitchell, and discover where the wound lies.”

The old soldier to whom this order was addressed now prepared, with the assistance of his comrades, to turn the body upon its back, when suddenly the air was rent with terrific yells, that seemed to be uttered in their very ears, and in the next instant more than a hundred dark and hideous savages sprang simultaneously to their feet within the bomb-proof, while every tree along the skirt of the forest gave back the towering form of a warrior.  Each of these, in addition to his rifle, was armed with all those destructive implements of warfare which render the Indians of America so formidable and so terrible an enemy.

“Stand to your arms, men,” shouted Captain Erskine, recovering from his first and unavoidable, though but momentary, surprise.  “First and fourth sections, on your right and left backwards wheel:—­Quick, men, within the square, for your lives.”  As he spoke, he and Lieutenant Johnstone sprang hastily back, and in time to obtain admittance within the troops, who had rapidly executed the manoeuvre commanded.  Not so with Mitchell and his companions.  On the first alarm they had quitted the body of the mutilated officer, and flown to secure their arms, but even while in the act of stooping to take them up, they had been grappled by a powerful and vindictive foe; and the first thing they beheld on regaining their upright position was a dusky Indian at the side, and a gleaming tomahawk flashing rapidly round the head of each.

“Fire not, on your lives,” exclaimed Captain Erskine hastily, as he saw several of the men in front levelling, in the excitement of the moment, their muskets at the threatening savages.  “Prepare for attack,” he pursued; and in the next instant each man dropped on his right knee, and a barrier of bristling bayonets seemed to rise from the very bowels of the earth.  Attracted by the novelty of the sight, the bold and daring warriors, although still retaining their firm grasp of the unhappy soldiers, were for a moment diverted from their bloody purpose, and temporarily suspended the quick and rotatory motion of their weapons.  Captain Erskine took advantage of this pause to seize the halbert of one of his sergeants, to the extreme point of which he hastily attached a white pocket handkerchief, that was loosely thrust into the breast of his uniform; this he waved on high three several times, and then relinquishing the halbert, dropped also on his knee within the square.