Page:Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since.djvu/280

 ted, were attentive to my wants. Of their food, which was principally game shot as they travelled, and roasted before fires kindled in the forest, they always presented me an ample share, even when they were themselves but scantily supplied. When I was weary, they would construct a kind of litter, and carry me for a time upon their shoulders. I exerted myself to endure hardship as courageously as possible, fearing they might suspect my disguise; but they appeared to consider my effeminacy as the result of that civilization which they constantly decried. "A British soldier," said they, "is never so good on a march, as an Indian squaw."

But as I began to arouse from the stupor, which the overwhelming rapidity of my affections had occasioned, a horrible idea took possession of my mind. I imagined they were protecting my life with such care, in order to sacrifice it in that savage manner, of which I had frequently heard descriptions. This terrour obtained predominance over grief. When I lay down to sleep in the forest, wrapped closely in my blanket, and surrounded by the dark-brow'd warriours, no slumber visited me; for before my diseased imagination swam continually images of the prisoner at the stake, the flame, the death-song, and all the features of savage vengeance, and exultation. Plans of escape occupied every night, and every day revealed their impracticability. During this season of excitement, I felt no fatigue. My strength was more than equal to the labour imposed: so much is the mind capable of mod-