The Mohawks proved to be a small party who had fled from Burgoyne, and when they were informed of the errand on which the white men had visited that lonely spot, one and all expressed unbounded terror. In coming into the wilderness they had hoped to escape the presence of the demon whose presence they associated with Vermont and Stillwater.
When they were told by Butler of the scene which he himself had witnessed on that very spot—the one described in the commencement of our tale—and learned that the Mountain Demon had frequently made his appearance in those very woods, had in fact been tracked thither, the bravest warriors trembled, and began to look apprehensively around them, to flee.
Butler checked them from flight with consummate craft.
“Whither would my brothers fly?” he asked. “I
