Then, when some one asked why neither Jacob nor I had been assigned to sentinel duty, Sergeant Corney replied, gravely: "I promised that with two lads I would follow Thayendanega's gang until we found out what the villains were about, as all of you well know, an' within the hour we three will set off.

"We shall be doin' our duty by those we have left behind if we hug as close to the villains as is possible, while there's no chance I can serve my father by hangin' back at a coward's distance.

It seemed much as if the Indians had no care as to whether they were being followed, for, instead of sending back scouts along the trail, as Brant almost always did, the party remained in a body, and even when we were so close on them as to lie down within view of their camp-fires at night, we never saw one of the painted villains who appeared curious to know if any person was in the rear.

Well, we remained in the thicket until the red villains had quieted down for the night, and then Sergeant Corney led us toward the south, that we might make a long circle around the encampment, when would come the most dangerous portion of our task.

It was no easy matter to remain silent and motionless while the painted villains were running to and fro making a hideous outcry, and, as we knew full well, aching to strike us down.

Because I can understand only a few words here or there of Brant's native tongue, it would be impossible to set down exactly what the villains said; but I caught enough to understand that the prisoner in whom we were so deeply interested was not far distant,probably at the main encampment,and Thayendanega was protecting him at least from the torture.

"Because we stand a better chance of circlin' around to where we left Jacob, while the villains have somethin' to keep 'em busy.

Then, again, it seemed probable we had a better chance of making our way around this circle than when we first traversed it, because just at this time Thayendanega's villains had received such a drubbing at the hands of the patriots as would most likely prevent them from having any keen desire to come upon more white men.

an' that's what Jacob would be doin' if he showed himself when the villains had his father at the stake.

With this thought came the knowledge that I had beneath me one clad much like myself, and not the half-naked body of such villains as marched in Thayendanega's train.

I knew full well that we could not hope to hold the cave any considerable length of time, and that if, during the fight, we killed any of the villains, our end at the stake would come before morning, even though Thayendanega himself should do all he might to prevent it.

Peter Sitz has been in the clutches of these villains many a day, an' yet, 'cordin' to Jacob's story, he's as sound an' hearty as when he left Cherry Valley.

Cardinal Amat, who had given notice of his arrival, came the day after; and the armed commons escorted him to the palace at the very time when the villains were perpetrating their murders.

The Villains rose in mutiny to destroy me; I could have quelled the Cowards, but this Stripling Must needs step in, and save my life.

And what a melodramatic cinema of thrills and shivers, villains and heroes, heroines and adventuresses have they not unfolded.

It is to hire against him those whose testimonies ought not to be admitted, if they were voluntarily produced, and of which, surely, nothing will be farther necessary to annihilate the validity, than to observe that they are the depositions of men who are villains by their own confession, and of whom the nation sees, that they may save their lives by a bold accusation, whether true or false.

I shall expect, my lords, that villains of all denominations, who are now skulking in private retreats, who are eluding the officers of justice, or flying before the publick pursuit of the country, will secure themselves by this easy expedient; and that housebreakers, highwaymen, and pickpockets, will come up in crowds to the bar, charge the earl of ORFORD as their accomplice, and plead this bill as a security against all inquiry.

Nor can I discover, my lords, how the most abandoned villains will be hindered from procuring indemnity by perjury, or what shall exclude a conspirator against the life and government of his majesty from pardon, if he swears, that in a plot for setting the pretender on the throne, he was assisted by the counsels of the earl of ORFORD.

" There were in those days three classes of villains.

The first or lowest consisted of villains in gross, who were alienable at pleasure.

The second of villains regardent, who were adscripti glebae, or attached as freehold property to the soil.

The villains first mentioned, or those of the lowest class, had all these gradations to pass through, from the first into the second, and from the second into the third, before they could become free men.

On the last leaf of this Almanack is the following notice: This is to give notice to all people, that all those Prophecies, Predictions, Almanacks, and other pamphlets, that had my name either true, or shammed with the want of a Letter [i.e., spelling his name PARTRIGE instead of PARTRIDGE]: I say, they are all impudent forgeries, by a breed of villains, and wholly without my knowledge or consent.

And I doubt not but those beggarly villains that have scarce bread to eat without being rogues, two or three poor printers and a bookbinder, with honest BEN, will be at their old Trade again of Prophesying in my name.

He framed a wild tale of abduction by villains, of an injury, a sickness, a fever that forced a doctor to cut her hair short.