captured him.

This savage seemed to regard him with feelings of kindness.
He offered him some biscuits, but finding that the wound in
his cheek and the blow he had received on the jaw prevented
him from chewing, he soaked them in water till they could be
swallowed easily. Yet, despite his kindness, he took
extraordinary care that his prisoner should not escape. When
the camp was made, he forced the captive to lie on the
ground, stretched each arm at full length, and bound it to a
young tree, and fastened his legs in the same manner. Then a
number of long and slender poles were cut and laid across
his body from head to foot, on the ends of which lay several
of the Indians.

Under such circumstances escape could not even be thought
of, nor was a moment's comfort possible. The night seemed
infinitely extended, the only relief that came to the
prisoner, as he himself relates, being the reflection of
what a ludicrous subject the group, of which he was the
central figure, would have made for a painter.

The next day he was given a blanket and moccasins, and
allowed to march without being loaded with packs. A little
bear's meat was furnished him, whose juice he was able to
suck. At night the party reached Ticonderoga, where he was
placed in charge of a French guard, and his sufferings came
to an end. The savages manifested their chagrin at his
escape by insulting grimaces and threatening gestures, but
were not allowed to offer him any further indignity or
violence. After an examination by the Marquis de Montcalm,
who was in command at Ticonderoga, he was sent to Montreal,
under charge of a French officer, who treated him in a
humane manner.

Major Putnam was a frightful object on reaching Montreal,
the little clothing allowed him being miserably dirty and
ragged, his beard and hair dishevelled, his legs torn by
thorns and briers, his face gashed, blood-stained, and
swollen. Colonel Schuyler, a prisoner there, beheld his
plight with deep commiseration, supplied him with clothing
and money, and did his utmost to alleviate his condition.

When shortly afterwards an exchange of prisoners was being
made, in which Colonel Schuyler was to be included, he,
fearing that Putnam would be indefinitely held should his
importance as a partisan leader become known, used a skilful
artifice to obtain his release. Speaking to the governor
with great politeness and seeming indifference of purpose,
he remarked,--

"There is an old