the flames.
I know not how our people will live through the Winter that is yet to
come. Aieroski has turned his face from us."

But Timmendiquas spoke words of courage and hope.

"The Six Nations will regain their country," he said. "The great
League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee, which has been victorious for so many
generations, cannot be destroyed. All the tribes from here to the
Mississippi will help, and will press down upon the settlements. I will
return to stir them anew, and the British posts will give us arms and
ammunition."

The light of defiance shone once more in the eyes of Thayendanegea.

"You raise my spirits again," he said. "We flee now, but we shall come
back again. The Ho-de-no-saunee can never submit. We will ravage all
their settlements, and burn and destroy. We will make a wilderness where
they have been. The king and his men will yet give us more help."

Part of his words came true, and the name of the raiding Thayendanegea
was long a terror, but the Iroquois, who had refused the requested
neutrality, had lost their Country forever, save such portions as the
victor in the end chose to offer to them.

"And now, as you and your Wyandots depart within the half hour, I give
you a last farewell," said Thayendanegea.

The hands of the two great chiefs met in a clasp like that of the white
man, and then Timmendiquas abruptly left the Council House, shutting the
door behind him. Thayendanegea lingered a while at the window, and
the look of sadness returned to his face. Henry could read many of the
thoughts that were passing through the Mohawk's proud mind.

Thayendanegea was thinking of his great journey to London, of the
power and magnificence that he had seen, of the pride and glory of
the Iroquois, of the strong and numerous Tory faction led by Sir
John Johnson, the half brother of the children of Molly Brant,
Thayendanegea's own sister, of the Butlers and all the others who had
said that the rebels would be easy to conquer. He knew better now,
he had long known better, ever since that dreadful battle in the dark
defile of the Oriskany, when the Palatine Germans, with old Herkimer at
their head, beat the Tories, the English, and the Iroquois, and made the
taking of Burgoyne possible. The Indian chieftain was a statesman,
and it may be that from this moment he saw that the cause of both the
Iroquois and their white allies was doomed. Presently Thayendanegea left
the window, walking slowly toward th