They were tired themselves of tramping, for encamping they were ready, Ere the steady twilight newer pallor threw upon the snow; So they built them huts of branches, in the snow they scooped out trenches, Heaped up firing, then, retiring, let us sleep our sleep of woe. By the wrist—and by no light hand—to the right hand of a painted, Murder-tainted, loathsome Pagan, with a jeer, I soon was tied; And the one to whom they bound me, ’mid the scoffs of those around me, Bowing to me, mocking, drew me down to slumber at his side. As for me, be sure I slept not: slumber crept not on my senses; Less intense is lovers’ musing than a captive’s bent on ways To escape from fearful thralling, and a death by fire appalling; So, unsleeping, I was keeping on the Northern Star my gaze. There I lay—no muscle stirring, mind unerring, thought unswerving, Body nerving, till a death-like, breathless slumber fell around; Then my right hand cautious stealing, o’er my bed-mate’s person feeling, Till each finger stooped to linger on the belt his waist that bound. ’Twas his knife—the handle clasping, firmly grasping, forth I drew it, Clinging to it firm, but softly, with a more than robber’s art; As I drove it to its utter length of blade, I heard the flutter Of a snow-bird—ah! ’twas no bird! ’twas the flutter of my heart. Then I cut the cord that bound me, peered around me, rose uprightly, Stepped as lightly as a lover on his blessed bridal day; Swiftly as my need inclined me, kept the bright North Star behind me, And, ere dawning of the morning, I was twenty miles away. _THE LEWISES._ The Lewis family seem to have occupied a position as prominent, and to have been as much identified with the local history of the Colony of Virginia, as the Schuyler family with New York and New Jersey. The John Lewis who is the hero of the ballad, though less known than Andrew, who overcame Cornstalk at Point Pleasant, and who was thought of before Washington for command of the Continental army, was nevertheless a remarkable man. He was of that Scotch-Irish race which settled the western part of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and spread into North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee, making a people distinct in dialect and character, and preserving a number of North of Ireland customs to this day. John was a famous Indian fighter in his youth. At the time of the defence described in the ballad he had grown quite old. His wife, who came of a fighting family, aided him to drive off the enemy, who would have endured almost any loss to have secured him as a prisoner. They hated him intensely, and with just cause. When red clover was introduced in that section, the savages believed that it was the white clover, dyed in the blood of the Indians killed by the Lewises. _THE FIGHT OF JOHN LEWIS._ I.