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Page 62
With Younker and Reynolds there was little that could be called
sleep--the minds of both being too actively employed with the events
which had transpired, and with thoughts of those so dear to them, who
had been left behind, for what fate God only knew. Besides, there was
little wherewithal to court the drowsy god, in the manner of their
repose--each limb being strained and corded in a position the most
painful--and if they slept at all, it was that feverish and fitful
slumber, which, though it serve in part the design of nature, brings
with it nothing refreshing to the individual himself. To both,
therefore, the night proved one of torture to body and mind; and bad as
was their condition after the encampment, it was destined to be worse
ere the gray dawn of morning, by the arrival of Girty and the only two
Indians who had escaped the deadly rifles of the Kentuckians.
"Up, warriors!" cried the renegade, with a blasphemous oath, as he came
upon the detachment. "Up, warriors! and sharpen your wits to invent the
most damnable tortures that the mind of man can conceive!" and at the
sound of his voice, which was loud and hoarse, each Indian sprung to his
feet, with an anxious and troubled face.
"And you, ye miserable white dogs!" continued Girty, turning to Younker
and Reynolds, on whom he bestowed numerous kicks, as if by way of
enforcing the truth his assertion; "were you suffering all the torments
of hell, you might consider yourselves in perfect bliss, compared to
what you shall yet undergo ere death snatches you from me!"
"What new troubles ha' ye got, Simon Girty?" asked Younker, composedly.
"But you needn't answer; I can see what's writ on your face; thar's bin
a rescue--you've lost your prisoners--for which the Lord be praised! I
can die content now, with all your tortures."
"Can you, by ----!" cried the renegade, in a paroxysm of rage; "we shall
see!"
As he concluded, he bestowed upon Younker a kick in the face, so violent
that a stream of blood followed it. The old man uttered a slight groan,
but made no other answer; and Girty turned away to communicate to the
others the intelligence of what had transpired since their parting; for
although they believed it to be of the utmost consequence, and tragical
in all its bearings, yet so far there had not been a question asked nor
an event related concerning it on either side--such being the force of
habit in all matters of grave importance, and the deference to his
superiors shown by the Indian on all similar occasions.
As soon as Girty had made known the sad disaster that had befallen his
party, there was one universal yell of rage, accompanied by violent
demonstrations of grief and anger--such as beating their bodies,
stamping fiercely on the ground, and brandishing their tomahawks over
their heads with terrific gestures. They then proceeded to dance around
Younker and Reynolds, uttering horrid yells, accompanied with kicks and
blows; after which, a consultation was held between Girty and Wild-cat,
wherein it was agreed to take them to Piqua, a Shawanoe settlement on
the Miami, and there have them put to the tortures. Accordingly, without
further delay, they unbound their prisoners, with the exception of their
hands, and forced them to set forward at a fast pace--treating them,
meanwhile, in the most brutal manner. Oshasqua, however, took good care
there should be no violence done to Rosetta; for he kept her closely by
his side; and occasionally, when he saw her little limbs growing weary,
raised and bore her forward, for a considerable distance, in his arms.
It was a strange, but by no means unpleasing sight, to behold that dark,
bloodstained warrior--whose very nature was cruel and ferocious, and who
probably had never before loved or sought to protect aught bearing the
human form--now exhibiting such tender regard for a weak, trembling
prisoner, placed in his hands for a speedy sacrifice. It was withal an
affecting sight, to Younker and Reynolds, who looked upon it with
moistened eyes, and felt it in the force of a revelation from Heaven,
that He, who sees the sparrow fall, was even now moving through the
wilderness, and teaching one lesson of mercy at least to the most
obdurate heart of the savage race.
To the renegade, however, this conduct of Oshasqua was far from being
agreeable; for so much did he delight in cruelty, and so bitterly did he
hate all his race--particularly now, after having been foiled by them
so lately--that he would a thousand times rather have heard the dying
groans of the child, and seen her in the last agonies of death, than in
the warrior's arms. At length he advanced to the side of the Indian, and
said in the Shawanoe dialect, with a sneer:
"Is Oshasqua a squaw, that he should turn nurse?"
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