1763, June.] ESCAPE OF ENSIGN PRICE. 19 



help of axes, they all got out ; and, favored by the 

 darkness, — for night had closed in, — escaped to 

 the neighboring pine-swamp, while the Indians, to 

 make assurance doubly sure, were still showering 

 fire-arrows against the front of the blazing build- 

 ing. As the fugitives groped their way, in pitchy 

 darkness, through the tangled intricacies of the 

 swamp, they saw the sky behind them lurid with 

 flames, and heard the reports of the Indians' guns, 

 as these painted demons were leaping and yelling 

 in front of the flaming blockhouse, firing into 

 the loopholes, and exulting in the thought that 

 then' enemies were sufi'ering the agonies of death 

 within. 



Presqu' Isle was but fifteen miles distant ; but, 

 from the direction in which his assailants had come. 

 Price rightly judged that it had been captured, and 

 therefore resolved to make his way, if possible, 

 to Venango, and reinforce Lieutenant Gordon, who 

 commanded there. A soldier named John Dortin- 

 ger, who had been sixteen months at Le Boeuf, 

 thought that he could guide the party, but lost the 

 way in the darkness ; so that, after struggling all 

 night through swamps and forests, they found them- 

 selves at daybreak only two miles from their point 

 of departure. Just before dawn, several of the 

 men became separated from the rest. Price and 

 those with him waited for some time, whistling, 

 coughing, and making such other signals as they 

 dared, to attract their attention, but without suc- 

 cess, and they were forced to proceed without them. 

 Their only provisions were three biscuits to a man. 



