Lord H---- immediately turned towards Proctor, who was running at a sort of trot by the side of the general's horse, and inquired if he had been at the Castle of the Oneidas. The man shook his head, and trotted on.
"Then where did you last come from?" asked Lord H----.
But Proctor only lifted his hand, and pointed towards the north-west.
"How many miles?" demanded the nobleman, determined to get some speech out of him.
But he lifted up his hands three times with the ten fingers spread abroad, without ever opening his lips.
"Did you hear amongst those who sent you," asked Lord H----, "any tidings of young Mr. Prevost?"
The man shook his head; but then suddenly stopped in his trot, and said, as if upon recollection,--
"They thought he had been put to death."
He paused, as if what he had said had cost him a great effort; but then added, slowly, when he saw the painful expression of the young nobleman's countenance, "They only thought. They did not know. They left before."
"Did you see or hear of a man whom you know as Woodchuck--the man you saw with me at Albany?" asked Lord H----.