What good were easy victories over raiding Cherokees when this deadly host waited on the leash?
I had no doubt that the Cherokees were now broken.

Stafford county would be full of Nicholson's militia, and Lawrence's strong hand lay on the line of the Borders.

But what availed it?
While Virginia was flattering herself that she had repelled the savages, and the Rappahannock men were notching their muskets with the tale of the dead, a wave was gathering to sweep down the Pamunkey or the James, and break on the walls of James Town.

I did not think that Nicholson, forewarned and prepared, could stem the torrent; and if it caught him unawares the proud Tidewater would break like a rotten reed.
I had been sent to scout.

Was I to be false to the word I had given, and let any risk to myself or others deter me from taking back the news?
The Indian army tarried; why, I did not know--perhaps some mad whim of their soothsayers, perhaps the device of a wise general; but at any rate they tarried.