he would die of exhaustion. In the
long-continued siege of Fort Loudon, necessitating much indoor life, to
which he was little used, the texture of his skin had become delicate
and tender, and now blistered and burned as if under the touch of actual
cautery. With the previous inaction and the unaccustomed exposure the
heat suggested the possibility of sunstroke to offer a prospect of
release.

But he came at last to the great gates of Fort Loudon with no more
immediate hurt than a biting grief deep in his heart, the stinging pain
of cuts and bruises about his head and face, and a splitting, throbbing,
blinding headache. Not so blinding that he did not see every detail of
the profane occupancy of the place on which so long he had expended all
his thought and every care, in the defense of which he had cheerfully
starved, and would with hearty good-will have died. All the precise
military decorum that characterized it had vanished in one short day.
Garbage, filth, bones, broken bits of food lay about the parade, that
was wont to be so carefully swept, with various litter from the plunder
of the officers' quarters, for owing to the limited opportunity of
transportation much baggage had been left. This was still in progress,
as might be judged from the figures of women and men seen through the
open doors and now again on the galleries, chaffering and bargaining
over some trifle in process of sale or exchange. Indian children raced
in and out of the white-washed interiors of the barracks which had been
glaringly clean; already the spring branch was choked by various debris
and, thus dammed, was overflowing its rocky precincts to convert the
undulating ground about it into a slimy marsh. Myriads of flies had
descended upon the place. Here and there horses were tethered and cows
roamed aimlessly. Idle savages lay sprawling about over the ground,
sleeping in the shade. In the block-houses and towers and along the
parade, where other braves shouldered the firelocks, the surrendered
spare arms, mimicking the drill of the soldiers with derisive cries of
"Plesent _Ahms_!" "Shouldie _Fa'lock_!" "Ground _Fa'lock_!" only such
injury as bootless folly might compass was to be deplored, but upon the
terrepleine in the northeast bastion several Cherokees were working at
one of the great cannons, among whom was no less a personage than
Oconostota himself, striving to master the secrets of its service. The
box of gunner's implements was open