As they approached, the woman's chant rose to an uncommon
pitch of frenzy, and Paul felt the blood slowly chilling within
him.
"Get up there!" exclaimed Braxton Wyatt, and the Senecas gave
them both a push. Other warriors who were standing at the edge
of an open space seized them and threw them forward with much
violence. When they struggled into a sitting position, they saw
Queen Esther standing upon a broad flat rock and whirling in a
ghastly dance that had in it something Oriental. She still swung
the great war hatchet that seemed always to be in her hand. Her
long black hair flew wildly about her head, and her red dress
gleamed in the dusk. Surely no more terrible image ever appeared
in the American wilderness! In front of her, lying upon the
ground, were twenty bound Americans, and back of them were
Iroquois in dozens, with a sprinkling of their white allies.
What it all meant, what was about to come to pass, nether Paul
nor Shif'less Sol could guess, but Queen Esther sang:
We have found them, the Yengees
Who built their houses in the valley,
They came forth to meet us in battle,
Our rifles and tomahawks cut them down,
As the Yengees lay low the forest.
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