Of large and powerful stature, he felt, in moments
of strife, a degree of confidence in himself, that was commensurate with
the amount of physical force he wielded. To this hardy assurance was to be
added no trifling portion of the sort of enthusiasm that can be awakened
in the most sluggish bosoms, and which, like the anger of an even-tempered
man, is only the more formidable from the usually quiet habits of the
individual. Nor was this the first, by many, of Ensign Dudley's warlike
deeds. Besides the desperate affair already related in these pages, he had
been engaged in divers hostile expeditions against the aborigines, and on
all occasions had he shown a cool head and a resolute mind.
There was pressing necessity for both these essential qualities, in the
situation in which the Ensign now found himself. By properly extending his
little force, and yet keeping it at the same time perfectly within
supporting distance, by emulating the caution of his foes in consulting
the covers, and by reserving a portion of his fire throughout the broken
and yet well-ordered line, the savages were finally beaten back, from
stump to stump, from hillock to hillock, and fence to fence, until they
had fairly entered the margin of the forest.
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