1763, Mat.] GENERAL ATTACK. 235 



lay down to sleep, and Gladwyn himself walked 

 the ramparts throughout the night. 



All was quiet till the approach of dawn. But 

 as the first dim redness tinged the east, and fields 

 and woods grew visible in the morning twilight, 

 suddenly the war-whoop rose on every side at once. 

 As wolves assail the wounded bison, howling their 

 gathering cries across the wintry prairie, so the 

 fierce Indians, pealing their terrific yells, came 

 bounding naked to the assault. The men hastened 

 to their posts. And truly it was time ; for not the 

 Ottawas alone, but the whole barbarian swarm — 

 Wyandots, Pottawattamies, and Ojibwas — were upon 

 them, and bullets rapped hard and fast against the 

 palisades. The soldiers looked from the loopholes, 

 thinking to see their assailants gathering for a rush 

 against the feeble .barrier. But, though their clam- 

 ors filled the air, and their guns blazed thick and 

 hot, yet very few were visible. Some were ensconced 

 behind barns and fences, some skulked among 

 bushes, and some lay flat in hollows of the ground ; 

 while those who could find no shelter were leaping 

 about with the agility of monkeys, to dodge the 

 shot of the fort. Each had filled his mouth with 

 bullets, for the convenience of loading, and each 

 was charging and firing without suspending these 

 agile gymnastics for a moment. There was one 

 low hill, at no great distance from the fort, behind 

 which countless black heads of Indians alternately 

 appeared and vanished; while, all along the ridge, 

 then- guns emitted incessant white puff's of smoke. 

 Every loophole was a target for their bullets ; but 



