As they rested, they watched the fire,
which was an immense one, fed by so much material. The blaze
could be seen for many miles, and the ashes drifted over all the
forest beyond the fields.
All the while the Iroquois were fleeing through the wilderness to
the British posts and the country beyond the lakes, whence their
allies had already preceded them. The coals of Little Beard's
Town smoldered for two or three days, and then the army turned
back, retracing its steps down the Genesee.
Henry and his comrades felt that their work in the East was
finished. Kentucky was calling to them. They had no doubt that
Braxton Wyatt, now that his band was destroyed, would return
there, and he would surely be plotting more danger. It was their
part to meet and defeat him. They wished, too, to see again the
valley, the river, and the village in which their people had made
their home, and they ,wished yet more to look upon the faces of
these people.
They left the army, went southward with Heemskerk and some others
of the riflemen, but at the Susquehanna parted with the gallant
Dutchman and his comrades.
"It is good to me to have known you, my brave friends," said
Heemskerk, "and I say good-by with sorrow to you, Mynheer Henry;
to you, Mynheer Paul; to you, Mynheer Sol; to you, Mynheer Tom;
and to you, Mynheer Jim.
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