"
The poor half-strangled fellows, however, instead of
obeying the order of their captain, looked round in every
direction for the enemy by whom they had been so rudely
handled, and who had glided from them almost as
imperceptibly and swiftly as they had first approached.
It seemed as if they apprehended that any attempt to
remove the body would be visited by those fierce devils
with the same appalling and ferocious threatenings.
"Why stand ye there, ye dolts," continued their captain,
"looking around as if ye were bewitched? Bring the litter
in to the rear.--Mitchell, you old fool, are you grown
a coward in your age? Are you not ashamed to set such an
example to your comrades?"
The doubt thus implied of the courage of his men, who,
in fact, were merely stupified with the scene they had
gone through, had, as Captain Erskine expected, the
desired effect. They now bent themselves to the litter,
on which they had previously deposited their muskets,
and with a self-possession that contrasted singularly
with their recent air of wild astonishment, bore it to
the rear at the risk of being cut in two at every moment
by the fire from the fort.
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