s of savages, let squaws and warriors come and go at pleasure.
They did not that morning open until Pontiac entered. He found himself
and his chiefs walking betwixt files of armed soldiers. The gates were
shut behind him.

Pontiac was startled as if by a sting. He saw that some one had betrayed
his plan to the officers. Even fur traders were standing under arms.
To this day it is not known who secretly warned the fort of Pontiac's
conspiracy; but the most reliable tradition declares it to have been a
young squaw named Catherine, who could not endure to see friends whom
she loved put to death.

It flashed through Pontiac's mind that he and his followers were now
really prisoners. The captain of Detroit was afterwards blamed for not
holding the chief when he had him. The tribes could not rush through
the closed gates at Pontiac's signal, which was to be the lifting of a
wampum belt upside down, with all its figures reversed. But the cunning
savage put on a look of innocence and inquired:--

"My father," using the Indian term of respect, "why are so many of your
young men standing in the street with their guns?"

"They have been ordered out for exercise and discipline," answered the
officer.

A slight clash of arms and the rolling of drums were heard by the
surprised tribes waiting in suspense around the palisades. They did not
know whether they would ever see their leader appear again. But he came
out, after going through the form of a council, mortified by his failure
to seize the fort, and sulkily crossed the river to his lodge. All his
plans to bring warriors inside the palisades were treated with contempt
by the captain of Detroit. Pontiac wanted his braves to smoke the
calumet with his English father.

"You may come in yourself," said the officer, "but the crowd you have
with you must remain outside."

"I want all my young men," urged Pontiac, "to enjoy the fragrance of the
friendly calumet."

"I will have none of your rabble in the fort," said the officer.

Raging like a wild beast, Pontiac then led his people in assault.
He threw off every pretense of friendliness, and from all directions
the tribes closed around Detroit in a general attack. Though it had
wooden walls, it was well defended. The Indians, after their first
fierce onset, fighting in their own way, behind trees and sheltered by
buildings outside the fort, were able to besiege the place indefinitely
with comparatively small loss to themselves