Neither bad weapons, but they were sure that
the want could be supplied soon. They curved around toward the
west, intending to approach the fort from the other side, but
they did not wholly lose sight of the fires, and they heard now
and then the triumphant war whoop. The victors were still
engaged in the pleasant task of burning the prisoners to death.
Little did the five, seeing and feeling only their part of it
there in the dark woods, dream that the deeds of this day and
night would soon shock the whole civilized world, and remain, for
generations, a crowning act of infamy. But they certainly felt
it deeply enough, and in each heart burned a fierce desire for
revenge upon the Iroquois.
It was almost midnight when they secured entrance into the fort,
which was filled with grief and wailing. That afternoon more
than one hundred and fifty women within those walls had been made
widows, and six hundred children had been made orphans. But few
men fit to bear arms were left for its defense, and it was
certain that the allied British and Indian army would easily take
it on the morrow. A demand for its surrender in the name of King
George III of England had already been made, and, sitting at a
little rough table in the cabin of Thomas Bennett, the room
lighted only by a single tallow wick, Colonel Butler and Colonel
Dennison were writing an agreement that the fort be surrendered
the next day, with what it should contain.
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