The Chiefs gave a sign of assent. "I will go on the discovery," Monkey-face said. "Good," Black-deer answered, with a stern smile; "my brother is skilful, he sees many things, he will inform us." Monkey-face prepared to leap on a horse which a warrior led him up, but suddenly Black-deer rose, rushed toward him, and laying his hand roughly on his shoulder, compelled him to fall on his knees. The warriors, surprised at this sudden aggression, the motive of which they did not divine, exchanged glances of surprise, though they did not make the slightest movement to interpose between the two Chiefs. Monkey-face quickly raised his head. "Does the Spirit of evil trouble my brother's brain?" he said, as he tried to free himself from the iron grip that nailed him to the ground. Black-deer gave a sarcastic smile, and drew his scalping knife. "Monkey-face is a traitor," he said in a sullen voice "he has sold his brothers to the Palefaces; he is about to die." Black-deer was not only a renowned warrior, but his wisdom and honour were held in just repute by the tribe; hence no one protested against the accusation he had made, the more so, because, unfortunately for him, Monkey-face had been long known. Black-deer raised his knife, whose bluish blade flashed in the fire-light, but by a supreme effort Monkey-face succeeded in freeing himself, bounded like a wild beast, and disappeared in the bushes with a hoarse laugh. The knife had slipped, and only cut the flesh, without inflicting a serious wound on the clever Indian. There was a moment of stupor, but then all rose simultaneously to rush in pursuit of the fugitive. "Stay," Tranquil shouted in a loud voice, "it is now too late. Make haste to attack the Palefaces before that villain has warned them, for he is doubtless meditating fresh treachery." The Chiefs recognized the justice of this, advice, and the Indians prepared for the combat. CHAPTER X. THE BATTLE. In the meanwhile, as is stated a little while ago, Captain Watt had assembled all the members of the colony in front of the town. The number of combatants amounted to sixty-two, including the females. European ladies may think it singular that we count the females among the combatants: in truth, in the old world the days of Bradamante and Joan d'Arc have happily passed away for ever, and the fair sex, owing to the constant progress of civilization, is no longer reduced to the necessity of fighting side by side with men. In North America, at the period of which we write, and even at the present day, on the prairies and the clearings, it is not so; when the war-yell of the Indians suddenly echoes on the ears of the pioneers, the women are constrained to give up the labour of their sex, to take a rifle in their delicate hands, and fight boldly in defence of the community.