"You think so, I presume," said Abercrombie, gazing at him.
"Entirely," replied Lord H----; "but I was in hopes of hearing some other intelligence of a private nature, concerning Mr. Prevost's son, whose alarming position amongst the Oneidas I mentioned to you, if you recollect."
"There is nothing more," said General Abercrombie, handing him the letter; "but there is the messenger. Probably he can give you some information."
Lord H---- immediately turned toward 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 toward the northwest.
"How many miles?" demanded the young nobleman, determined to get some speech out of him. The man lifted up his hands three times with the ten fingers spread abroad, without 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----; but the other shook his head, and nothing more could be extracted from him. The man was then sent forward to join the rear guard, but his taciturnity gave Lord H---- good assurance that Mr. Prevost, who had gone forward, would not be pained by the terrible rumor which he bore.
The long and fatiguing march to the nearest point of Lake Horicon I need not describe. Many of the scenes recorded in the life of the gallant Putnam passed near or on the very route pursued; and the feats of daring and the escapes of that fine soldier are almost as marvelous still in our eyes as in those of the savage Indians of his own time, who supposed him to bear a charmed life. Suffice it that, after encountering great difficulty and some fatigue, in dragging the cannon over a road which, in the neighborhood of the settled portion of the colony was good enough, but which became almost impassable near the lake, in consequence of the heavy rains, the whole army arrived in safety at the newly constructed and yet incomplete works of Fort George, lying a little east of the site of the ever memorable Fort William Henry. By the care and diligence of the commissary general, everything that could refresh the weary soldiers was found prepared. A fleet of one hundred and thirty-five large boats and nine hundred bateaux were seen lying along the shore of the lake of pure and holy waters; and hardly a head was laid down to slumber in the huts that night which did not fondly fancy that Ticonderoga must inevitably fall.