He was once more the lithe and powerful Tayoga of
the Clan of the Bear, of the nation Onondaga of the great League of
the Hodenosaunee.
The besiegers meanwhile undertook no movement, but, as if in defiance,
they increased the fires in the red ring around the fort and they
showed themselves ostentatiously. Robert several times saw De
Courcelles with a thick bandage about his head, and he knew that the
Frenchman's mortification and rage at being tricked so by the Onondaga
must be intense.
Now the weather began to grow very cold again, and Robert saw the
number of tepees in the forest increase. The Indians, not content
with the fires, were providing themselves with good shelters, and to
every one it indicated a long siege. There was neither snow, nor hail,
but clear, bitter, intense cold, and again the timbers of the
blockhouse and outbuildings popped as they contracted under the lower
temperature.
The horses were pretty well sheltered from the cold, and Willet, with
his usual foresight, had suggested before the siege closed in that a
great deal of grass be cut for them, though should the French and
Indians hang on for a month or two, they would certainly become a
problem.
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