Exact figures bring conviction.
Franklin was not wanting in exactness nor did he fail, albeit it
was unwittingly, to intensify burning resentment of which we have
echoes still. Burgoyne had to bear the odium of the outrages by
Indians. It is amusing to us, though it was hardly so to this
kindly man, to find these words put into his mouth by a colonial
poet:
I will let loose the dogs of Hell,
Ten thousand Indians who shall yell,
And foam, and tear, and grin, and roar
And drench their moccasins in gore:. . .
I swear, by St. George and St. Paul,
I will exterminate you all.
Such seed, falling on soil prepared by the hate of war, brought
forth its deadly fruit. The Americans believed that there was no
brutality from which British officers would shrink. Burgoyne had
told his Indian allies that they must not kill except in actual
fighting and that there must be no slaughter of non-combatants
and no scalping of any but the dead. The warning delivered him
into the hands of his enemies for it showed that he half expected
outrage. Members of the British House of Commons were no whit
behind the Americans in attacking him. Burke amused the House by
his satire on Burgoyne's words: "My gentle lions, my humane
bears, my tenderhearted hyenas, go forth! But I exhort you, as
you are Christians and members of civilized society, to take care
not to hurt any man, woman, or child.
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