Nevertheless, the Iroquois attack was beaten back.

It was a foregone conclusion that the result would be so, unless the force was in great numbers.

It is likely, also, that the Iroquois at first had thought only a single man was with the fugitives, not knowing that the five had joined them later.
Two of the Iroquois were slain at the very edge of the solid ground, but their bodies fell back in the slime, and the others, retreating fast for their lives, could not carry them off.

Paul, with a kind of fascinated horror, watched the dead painted bodies sink deeper.

Then one was entirely gone.