lost company of Spaniards in armor, strayed
northward from Cortez's army.

"Well, then, this is what occurred:

"They were all at me to put on that armor which hangs in the
hall--the same suit which belonged to the first Maid-at-Arms,
and which she is painted in, and which I wore that last
memorable night--you remember.

"So, to please them, I dressed in it--helmet and all--and
came down. Sir George Covert's horse stood at the stockade
gate, and somebody--I think it was General Arnold--dared me
to ride it in my armor.

"Well, ... I did. Then a mad desire for a gallop seized
me--had not mounted a horse since that last ride with
you--and I set spurs to the poor beast, who was already
dancing under the unaccustomed burden, and away we tore.

"My conscience! what a ride that was! and the clang of my
armor set the poor horse frantic till I could scarce
govern him.

"Then the absurd happened. I wheeled the horse into the
pasture, meaning to let him tire himself, for he was really
running away with me; when, all at once, I saw a hundred
terror-stricken savages rush out of the sugar-house, stand
staring a second, then take to their legs with most doleful
cries and hoots and piteous howls.

"'Oonah! The Stonish Giants have returned! Oonah! Oonah! The
Giants of Stone!'

"My vizor was down and locked. I called out to them in
Delaware, but at the sound of my voice they ran the
faster--five score frantic barbarians! And, dear, if they
have stopped running yet I do not know it, for they never
came back.

"But the most absurd part of it all is that the Onondagas,
who are none too friendly with us, though they pretend to be,
have told the Cayugas that the Stonish Giants have returned
to earth from Biskoona, which is hell. And I doubt not that
the dreadful news will spread all through the Six Nations,
with, perhaps, some astonishing results to us. For scouts
have already come in, reporting trouble between General
Burgoyne and his Wyandots, who declare they have had enough
of the war and did not enlist to fight the Stonish
Giants--which excuse is doubtless meaningless to him.

"And other scouts from the northwest say that St. Leger can
scarce hold the Senecas to the siege of Stanwix because of
their great loss