nst a tree and fell in a heap, quivering all over.

The two others had leaped on Mount. Swearing, threatening, roaring with
rage, the desperate giant shook them off into our midst, and cut the
throat of one as he lay sprawling--a sickening spectacle, for the poor
wretch floundered and thrashed about among the leaves and sticks,
squirting thick blood all over us.

The remaining savage, a chief, by his lock and eagle-quill, had fastened
to Elerson's legs with the fury of a tree-cat, clawing and squalling,
while Murphy dealt him blow on blow with clubbed stock, and finally was
forced to shoot him so close that the rifle-flame set his greased
scalp-lock afire.

"Take to the timber, you Tryon County men! Remember Braddock!" shouted
Colonel Paris, plunging about on his wounded horse; while from every
tree and bush rang out the reports of the rifles; and the steady stream
of bullets poured into the Caughnawaga regiment, knocking the men down
the hill-side into the struggling mass below. Some dropped dead where
they had been shot; some rolled to the log-road; some fell into the
marsh, splashing and limping about like crippled wild fowl.

"Advance der Palatine regiment!" thundered Herkimer. "Clear avay dot
oxen-team!"

A drummer-boy of the Palatines beat the charge. I can see him yet, a
curly-haired youngster, knee-deep in the mud, his white, frightened face
fixed on his commander. They shot his drum to pieces; he beat steadily
on the flapping parchment.

Across the swamp the Palatines were doggedly climbing the slope in the
face of a terrible discharge. Herkimer led them. As they reached the
crest of the plateau, and struggled up and over, a rush of men in green
uniforms seemed to swallow the entire Palatine regiment. I saw them
bayonet Major Eisenlord and finish him with their rifle-stocks; they
stabbed Major Van Slyck, and hurled themselves at the mounted Oneida.
Hatchet flashing, the interpreter swung his horse straight into the
yelling onset and went down, smothered under a mass of enemies.

"Vorwaerts!" thundered Herkimer, standing straight up in his stirrups;
but they shot him out of his saddle and closed with the Palatines,
hilt to hilt.

Major Frey and Colonel Bellenger fell under their horses, Colonel Seeber
dropped dead into the ravine, Captain Graves was dragged from the ranks
and butchered by bayonets; but those stubborn Palatines calmly divided
into squads, and their steady fusillade stopped the rush of th