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Their victory had been too dearly bought; their losses too terrible; their triumph sterile, for they could not now advance the crippled fragments of their regiments and raise the siege in the face of St. Leger's regulars and Walter Butler's Rangers.
But one glance was sufficient to show me that John had spoken truly. From the lodges I could see troops of savages pouring forth with every token of excitement, like a swarm of hornets, and that something unusual was afoot might be told by the fact that no effort was made to keep beyond range of our guns, as the befeathered and painted horde went swiftly toward St. Leger's quarters.
The savages evidently had no fiendish sport on their programme for this evening, most likely because of having exhausted themselves the night previous, and at a reasonably early hour this portion of St. Leger's army was in a comparative state of quietude. "Now, if ever, is the time when you can go, lad; but remember that I advise against it, as would your father," Sergeant Corney said, gravely.
Convinced that the enemy would shortly invade the Mohawk Valley, Schuyler had sent Colonel Gansevoort to put Fort Stanwix, the key to this valley, in a state of defence, before it should be attacked. St. Leger's force was the counterpart of Burgoyne's, in that it consisted of regular troops, loyalists, and Indians.
"She's just about as well as can be reasonably expected, sir, considerin' the way that she's been worritin' about you and Mr Hubert 'specially 'bout you, sir, since the news of the King of Spain's embargo have been made known," answered the man Tom, who was in fact the gardener and general handy man at The Nest, as Mrs Saint Leger's cottage was named.
And now it must be understood that during all this time St. Leger's army was laying close siege to Fort Schuyler, and, strange as it may seem, we, closely confined in that lodge of skins, had a fairly good idea of what was happening.
Leger's policy had been taking real effect, that effect was thoroughly cancelled. The fall of Somerset left the new Government, controlled by Warwick, with a normally distracted Ireland on its hands as well as an abnormally distracted England. So long, however, as ferment did not mean active rebellion, the English rulers were not greatly troubled.
Leger's men must have begun to understand that the siege of Fort Schuyler was no longer the one-sided affair which it had been.
Leger's army would come to finish the bloody work as soon as the force from the fort had been driven back, and when it was in motion Sergeant Corney gripped me by the arm, as he said: "Our road is not in that direction, lad. Yonder men may take the repose which they do not deserve after havin' brought about all this disaster; but we must face danger once more, an' perhaps for the last time."
And the new made Earls, forgetting their ancient relations to their clans forgetting, as O'Brien had answered St. Leger's first overtures three years before, "that though he was captain of his nation he was still but one man," by suing out royal patents for their lands, certainly consented to carry out the King's plans.
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