The human forms about me were stiffening in death; nor did any skulking Indian figures appear in sight.
From away to the northward I could hear the echo of distant yelling; and as I lay there, every faculty alert, I became more and more convinced that the savages who had attacked us had withdrawn, and that I alone of all that fated company was preserved, through some strange dispensation of Providence, for what might prove a more terrible fate than any on that stricken field.

With this thought there was suddenly born within me a fresh desire for life, a mad thirsting after revenge on those red demons whose merciless work I had been compelled to see.

Yet if I hoped to preserve my life, I must have water and air; a single hour longer in my present situation could only result in death.

Fortunately, such relief, now that I felt free to exert myself and seek it, was not so difficult as it had seemed.

The heavy horse rested upon other bodies as well as my own, so that, little by little, I succeeded in dragging myself out from beneath his weight, until I was finally able to lift my head and glance cautiously about me.
I pause now as I sit writing, my face buried in my hands, at the memory of that dreadful field of death.