o wore the blanket; a tall
warrior, on whom rested the startled eye of every officer and soldier
who was so situated as to behold him. His face was painted black as
death; and as he stood under the arch of the gateway, with his white
turbaned head towering far above those of his companions, this
formidable and mysterious enemy might have been likened to the spirit
of darkness presiding over his terrible legions.

In order to account for the extraordinary appearance of the Indians,
armed in every way for death, at a moment when neither gun nor tomahawk
was apparently within miles of their reach, it will be necessary to
revert to the first entrance of the chiefs into the fort. The fall of
Ponteac had been the effect of design; and the yell pealed forth by
him, on recovering his feet, as if in taunting reply to the laugh of
his comrades, was in reality a signal intended for the guidance of the
Indians without. These, now following up their game with increasing
spirit, at once changed the direction of their line, bringing the ball
nearer to the fort. In their eagerness to effect this object, they had
overlooked the gradual secession of the unarmed troops, spectators of
their sport from the ramparts, until scarcely more than twenty
stragglers were left. As they neared the gate, the squaws broke up
their several groups, and, forming a line on either hand of the road
leading to the drawbridge, appeared to separate solely with a view not
to impede the action of the players. For an instant a dense group
collected around the ball, which had been driven to within a hundred
yards of the gate, and fifty hurdles were crossed in their endeavours
to secure it, when the warrior, who formed the solitary exception to
the multitude, in his blanket covering, and who had been lingering in
the extreme rear of the party, came rapidly up to the spot where the
well-affected struggle was maintained. At his approach, the hurdles of
the other players were withdrawn, when, at a single blow from his
powerful arm, the ball was seen flying into the air in an oblique
direction, and was for a moment lost altogether to the view. When it
again met the eye, it was descending perpendicularly into the very
centre of the fort.

With the fleetness of thought now commenced a race that had ostensibly
for its object the recovery of the lost ball; and in which, he who had
driven it with such resistless force outstripped them all. Their course
lay between the two