’Twas in vain I struggled madly as the sadly sounding pleading Of my bleeding, dying darlings fell upon my tortured ears; ’Twas in vain I wrestled, raging, fight against their numbers waging, Crowding round me there they bound me, while my manhood sank in tears. At the spot to which they bore me, no one o’er me watched or warded; There unguarded, bound and shivering, on the snow I lay alone; Watching by the firelight ruddy, as the butchers dark and bloody Slew the nearest friends and dearest to my memory ever known. And it seemed, as rose the roaring blaze, up soaring, redly streaming O’er the gleaming snow around me through the shadows of the night, That the figures flitting fastly were the fiends at revels ghastly, Madly urging on the surging, seething billows of the fight. Suddenly my gloom was lightened, hope was heightened, though the shrieking, Malice-wreaking, ruthless wretches death were scattering to and fro; For a knife lay there—I spied it, and a tomahawk beside it Glittering brightly, buried lightly, keen edge upward, in the snow. Naught knew I how came they thither, nor from whither; naught to me then If the heathen dark, my captors, dropped those weapons there or no; Quickly drawn o’er axe-edge lightly, cords were cut that held me tightly, Then, with engines of my vengeance in my hands, I sought the foe. Oh, what anger dark, consuming, fearful, glooming, looming horrid, Lit my forehead, draped my figure, leapt with fury from my glance; ’Midst the foemen rushing frantic, to their sight I seemed gigantic, Like the motion of the ocean, like a tempest my advance. Stoutest of them all, one savage left the ravage round and faced me; Fury braced me, for I knew him—he my pleading wife had slain. Huge he was, and brave and brawny, but I met the slayer tawny, And with rigorous blow, and vigorous, clove his tufted skull in twain— Madly dashing down the crashing bloody hatchet in his brain. As I brained him rose their calling, “Lo! appalling from yon meadow The Monedo of the white man comes with vengeance in his train!” As they fled, my blows Titanic falling fast increased their panic, Till their shattered forces scattered widely o’er the snowy plain. [Illustration: “HUGE HE WAS, AND BRAVE AND BRAWNY, BUT I MET THE SLAYER TAWNY.”] Stern De Rouville then their error, born of terror, soon dispersing, Loudly cursing them for folly, roused their pride with words of scorn; Peering cautiously they knew me, then by numbers overthrew me; Fettered surely, bound securely, there again I lay forlorn.