The evening that the large train arrived at the fort, the officers gave a ball, and the emigrant women were invited, from the trains camped in the vicinity, to join in these inappropriately timed festivities.
The mother of the child, who had so narrowly escaped death, having lost her own wardrobe in her efforts to escape the pursuit of the Indians, borrowed a dress from a lady who resided at the fort, and attended the entertainment, dancing and joining in the gaieties, when the burial of their companion and our poor men had just been completed, and the heavy cloud of our calamity had so lately shrouded them in gloom. Such are the effects of isolation from social and civil influence, and contact with danger, and familiarity with terror and death.
People grow reckless, and often lose the gentle sympathies that alleviate suffering, from frequent intercourse with it in its worst forms.
CHAPTER IV.
BEGINNING OF MY CAPTIVITY.
The facts related in the preceding chapter concerning matters occurring in Mr. Kelly’s experience, and adventures after the attack upon our train, were related to me after my restoration to freedom and my husband, by him.
I now return to the narration of my own terrible experiences.
I was led a short distance from the wagon, with Mary, and told to remain quiet, and tried to submit; but oh, what a yearning sprang up in my heart to escape, as I hoped my husband had done! But many watchful eyes were upon me, and enemies on every side, and I realized that any effort then at escape would result in failure, and probably cause the death of all the prisoners.
Mrs. Larimer, with her boy, came to us, trembling with fear, saying, “The men have all escaped, and left us to the mercy of the savages.”