Mr. Stevens, with great rapidity, leveled his pistol and shot him
in the heart, while I, in a close struggle with my captive, was
glad--for I was not yet strong--that Clark finished my assailant:
and so both lay there dead, two foes less of our good King.
Not far from where we stood was a pool of water, black and deep,
and we sank the bodies there; but I did not know till long
afterwards that Clark, with a barbarous and disgusting spirit,
carried away their scalps to sell them in New York, where they
would bring, as he confided to one of the Provincials, twelve
pounds each. Before we left, we shot a poor howling dog that
mourned for his masters, and sank him also in the dark pool.
We had but got back to our camp, when, looking out, we saw a
well-manned four-oared boat making for the shore. My men were in
dismay until I told them that, having begun the game of war, I
would carry it on to the ripe end. This boat and all therein should
be mine. Safely hidden, we watched the rowers draw in to shore,
with brisk strokes, singing a quaint farewell song of the
voyageurs, called La Pauvre Mere, of which the refrain is:
"And his mother says, 'My dear,
For your absence I shall grieve;
Come you home within the year.
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