by saying:

"If you lads who have accomplished so much which men might well have
feared to attempt, are not willing that one should have more praise than
another, let all those who have been in command at different times present
themselves to Colonel Gansevoort, and then, mayhap, we shall hear that for
which we are so eager."

I am free to admit that it was childish in any of us to hang back at such
a moment, but, thanks to Colonel Willett, the matter was arranged as he
suggested, Sergeant Corney, John Sammons, Jacob, and I going to the
commandant's quarters, escorted by the colonel and the messenger who had
been sent for us.

There was no real occasion for us to have been timid regarding the
interview with the commandant of Fort Schuyler, for a more pleasantly
spoken, neighborly-like man it was never my good fortune to come in
contact with.

One would have said that he was interested personally in each and every
one of us, from the questions he asked concerning our having organized a
company of Minute Boys, how we had been drilled, and such like homely
matters.

Then, having shown himself to be a friend, as it were, he began getting
that information which was necessary for the safety of the garrison. First
he was eager to learn regarding the battle of Oriskany, for those inside
the fort knew nothing whatsoever of that disastrous ambush, save such as
could be guessed by the reports of the firearms and the bearing of the
Indians after they beat a retreat.

Sergeant Corney flatly refused to tell the story, insisting that I was the
better able to do so, and, in the presence of Colonel Gansevoort and all
his principal officers, I related the events of that day when an able
soldier and a brave man was forced by the prating of cowards to lead his
soldiers where he knew, almost beyond a peradventure, he had no hope of
winning a victory.

Then Jacob and I in turn gave an account of what had been done, bringing
our story up to the time when Sergeant Corney took the lead in the attempt
to gain the fort, and the old man could not well refuse to describe what
he had seen that night regarding the disposition of the enemy's forces.

That Colonel Gansevoort and his officers were deeply interested in our
recital may be understood by the fact that day had fully come before we
were at an end of our stories, and yet never one of them had shown the
slightest impatience or a desire to cut us short.

"I know of no greater favor wh