As the walls smoked and crackled the savages danced in wild glee before the gate, intending to shoot down the defenders as they came out.

But there was a window at the rear of the blockhouse, through which the garrison escaped to the neighbouring forest.

When night fell the party became separated.

Some of them reached Fort Venango two days later, only to find it in ruins.

Price and seven men laboriously toiled through the forest to Fort Pitt, where they arrived on June 26.