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diff --git a/old/940-8.txt b/old/940-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b3f89c3..0000000 --- a/old/940-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,15788 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Last of the Mohicans - -Author: James Fenimore Cooper - -Release Date: February 5, 2006 [EBook #940] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS *** - - - - -Produced by John Horner and David Widger - - - - - -THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS - -A Narrative of 1757 - -by James Fenimore Cooper - - - - -INTRODUCTION - -It is believed that the scene of this tale, and most of the information -necessary to understand its allusions, are rendered sufficiently obvious -to the reader in the text itself, or in the accompanying notes. Still -there is so much obscurity in the Indian traditions, and so much -confusion in the Indian names, as to render some explanation useful. - -Few men exhibit greater diversity, or, if we may so express it, greater -antithesis of character, than the native warrior of North America. -In war, he is daring, boastful, cunning, ruthless, self-denying, -and self-devoted; in peace, just, generous, hospitable, revengeful, -superstitious, modest, and commonly chaste. These are qualities, it -is true, which do not distinguish all alike; but they are so far the -predominating traits of these remarkable people as to be characteristic. - -It is generally believed that the Aborigines of the American continent -have an Asiatic origin. There are many physical as well as moral facts -which corroborate this opinion, and some few that would seem to weigh -against it. - -The color of the Indian, the writer believes, is peculiar to himself, -and while his cheek-bones have a very striking indication of a Tartar -origin, his eyes have not. Climate may have had great influence on -the former, but it is difficult to see how it can have produced the -substantial difference which exists in the latter. The imagery of the -Indian, both in his poetry and in his oratory, is oriental; chastened, -and perhaps improved, by the limited range of his practical knowledge. -He draws his metaphors from the clouds, the seasons, the birds, the -beasts, and the vegetable world. In this, perhaps, he does no more than -any other energetic and imaginative race would do, being compelled to -set bounds to fancy by experience; but the North American Indian clothes -his ideas in a dress which is different from that of the African, and -is oriental in itself. His language has the richness and sententious -fullness of the Chinese. He will express a phrase in a word, and he will -qualify the meaning of an entire sentence by a syllable; he will even -convey different significations by the simplest inflections of the -voice. - -Philologists have said that there are but two or three languages, -properly speaking, among all the numerous tribes which formerly occupied -the country that now composes the United States. They ascribe the known -difficulty one people have to understand another to corruptions and -dialects. The writer remembers to have been present at an interview -between two chiefs of the Great Prairies west of the Mississippi, and -when an interpreter was in attendance who spoke both their languages. -The warriors appeared to be on the most friendly terms, and seemingly -conversed much together; yet, according to the account of the -interpreter, each was absolutely ignorant of what the other said. -They were of hostile tribes, brought together by the influence of the -American government; and it is worthy of remark, that a common policy -led them both to adopt the same subject. They mutually exhorted each -other to be of use in the event of the chances of war throwing either of -the parties into the hands of his enemies. Whatever may be the truth, -as respects the root and the genius of the Indian tongues, it is quite -certain they are now so distinct in their words as to possess most of -the disadvantages of strange languages; hence much of the embarrassment -that has arisen in learning their histories, and most of the uncertainty -which exists in their traditions. - -Like nations of higher pretensions, the American Indian gives a very -different account of his own tribe or race from that which is given by -other people. He is much addicted to overestimating his own perfections, -and to undervaluing those of his rival or his enemy; a trait which may -possibly be thought corroborative of the Mosaic account of the creation. - -The whites have assisted greatly in rendering the traditions of the -Aborigines more obscure by their own manner of corrupting names. Thus, -the term used in the title of this book has undergone the changes of -Mahicanni, Mohicans, and Mohegans; the latter being the word commonly -used by the whites. When it is remembered that the Dutch (who first -settled New York), the English, and the French, all gave appellations -to the tribes that dwelt within the country which is the scene of this -story, and that the Indians not only gave different names to their -enemies, but frequently to themselves, the cause of the confusion will -be understood. - -In these pages, Lenni-Lenape, Lenope, Delawares, Wapanachki, and -Mohicans, all mean the same people, or tribes of the same stock. The -Mengwe, the Maquas, the Mingoes, and the Iroquois, though not all -strictly the same, are identified frequently by the speakers, being -politically confederated and opposed to those just named. Mingo was a -term of peculiar reproach, as were Mengwe and Maqua in a less degree. - -The Mohicans were the possessors of the country first occupied by the -Europeans in this portion of the continent. They were, consequently, -the first dispossessed; and the seemingly inevitable fate of all these -people, who disappear before the advances, or it might be termed the -inroads, of civilization, as the verdure of their native forests falls -before the nipping frosts, is represented as having already befallen -them. There is sufficient historical truth in the picture to justify the -use that has been made of it. - -In point of fact, the country which is the scene of the following tale -has undergone as little change, since the historical events alluded to -had place, as almost any other district of equal extent within the whole -limits of the United States. There are fashionable and well-attended -watering-places at and near the spring where Hawkeye halted to drink, -and roads traverse the forests where he and his friends were compelled -to journey without even a path. Glen's has a large village; and while -William Henry, and even a fortress of later date, are only to be traced -as ruins, there is another village on the shores of the Horican. But, -beyond this, the enterprise and energy of a people who have done so much -in other places have done little here. The whole of that wilderness, -in which the latter incidents of the legend occurred, is nearly a -wilderness still, though the red man has entirely deserted this part of -the state. Of all the tribes named in these pages, there exist only a -few half-civilized beings of the Oneidas, on the reservations of their -people in New York. The rest have disappeared, either from the regions -in which their fathers dwelt, or altogether from the earth. - -There is one point on which we would wish to say a word before closing -this preface. Hawkeye calls the Lac du Saint Sacrement, the "Horican." -As we believe this to be an appropriation of the name that has its -origin with ourselves, the time has arrived, perhaps, when the fact -should be frankly admitted. While writing this book, fully a quarter of -a century since, it occurred to us that the French name of this lake -was too complicated, the American too commonplace, and the Indian too -unpronounceable, for either to be used familiarly in a work of fiction. -Looking over an ancient map, it was ascertained that a tribe of Indians, -called "Les Horicans" by the French, existed in the neighborhood of this -beautiful sheet of water. As every word uttered by Natty Bumppo was -not to be received as rigid truth, we took the liberty of putting the -"Horican" into his mouth, as the substitute for "Lake George." The name -has appeared to find favor, and all things considered, it may possibly -be quite as well to let it stand, instead of going back to the House of -Hanover for the appellation of our finest sheet of water. We relieve our -conscience by the confession, at all events leaving it to exercise its -authority as it may see fit. - - - - -CHAPTER 1 - - "Mine ear is open, and my heart prepared: - The worst is wordly loss thou canst unfold:-- - Say, is my kingdom lost?"--Shakespeare - -It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America, that -the toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered before -the adverse hosts could meet. A wide and apparently an impervious -boundary of forests severed the possessions of the hostile provinces -of France and England. The hardy colonist, and the trained European who -fought at his side, frequently expended months in struggling against -the rapids of the streams, or in effecting the rugged passes of the -mountains, in quest of an opportunity to exhibit their courage in a more -martial conflict. But, emulating the patience and self-denial of the -practiced native warriors, they learned to overcome every difficulty; -and it would seem that, in time, there was no recess of the woods so -dark, nor any secret place so lovely, that it might claim exemption -from the inroads of those who had pledged their blood to satiate their -vengeance, or to uphold the cold and selfish policy of the distant -monarchs of Europe. - -Perhaps no district throughout the wide extent of the intermediate -frontiers can furnish a livelier picture of the cruelty and fierceness -of the savage warfare of those periods than the country which lies -between the head waters of the Hudson and the adjacent lakes. - -The facilities which nature had there offered to the march of the -combatants were too obvious to be neglected. The lengthened sheet of -the Champlain stretched from the frontiers of Canada, deep within the -borders of the neighboring province of New York, forming a natural -passage across half the distance that the French were compelled to -master in order to strike their enemies. Near its southern termination, -it received the contributions of another lake, whose waters were so -limpid as to have been exclusively selected by the Jesuit missionaries -to perform the typical purification of baptism, and to obtain for it -the title of lake "du Saint Sacrement." The less zealous English thought -they conferred a sufficient honor on its unsullied fountains, when they -bestowed the name of their reigning prince, the second of the house of -Hanover. The two united to rob the untutored possessors of its wooded -scenery of their native right to perpetuate its original appellation of -"Horican."* - - * As each nation of the Indians had its language or its - dialect, they usually gave different names to the same - places, though nearly all of their appellations were - descriptive of the object. Thus a literal translation of the - name of this beautiful sheet of water, used by the tribe - that dwelt on its banks, would be "The Tail of the Lake." - Lake George, as it is vulgarly, and now, indeed, legally, - called, forms a sort of tail to Lake Champlain, when viewed - on the map. Hence, the name. - -Winding its way among countless islands, and imbedded in mountains, the -"holy lake" extended a dozen leagues still further to the south. With -the high plain that there interposed itself to the further passage of -the water, commenced a portage of as many miles, which conducted the -adventurer to the banks of the Hudson, at a point where, with the usual -obstructions of the rapids, or rifts, as they were then termed in the -language of the country, the river became navigable to the tide. - -While, in the pursuit of their daring plans of annoyance, the restless -enterprise of the French even attempted the distant and difficult -gorges of the Alleghany, it may easily be imagined that their proverbial -acuteness would not overlook the natural advantages of the district we -have just described. It became, emphatically, the bloody arena, in which -most of the battles for the mastery of the colonies were contested. -Forts were erected at the different points that commanded the facilities -of the route, and were taken and retaken, razed and rebuilt, as victory -alighted on the hostile banners. While the husbandman shrank back from -the dangerous passes, within the safer boundaries of the more ancient -settlements, armies larger than those that had often disposed of the -scepters of the mother countries, were seen to bury themselves in these -forests, whence they rarely returned but in skeleton bands, that were -haggard with care or dejected by defeat. Though the arts of peace were -unknown to this fatal region, its forests were alive with men; its -shades and glens rang with the sounds of martial music, and the echoes -of its mountains threw back the laugh, or repeated the wanton cry, -of many a gallant and reckless youth, as he hurried by them, in the -noontide of his spirits, to slumber in a long night of forgetfulness. - -It was in this scene of strife and bloodshed that the incidents we -shall attempt to relate occurred, during the third year of the war -which England and France last waged for the possession of a country that -neither was destined to retain. - -The imbecility of her military leaders abroad, and the fatal want of -energy in her councils at home, had lowered the character of Great -Britain from the proud elevation on which it had been placed by the -talents and enterprise of her former warriors and statesmen. No longer -dreaded by her enemies, her servants were fast losing the confidence -of self-respect. In this mortifying abasement, the colonists, though -innocent of her imbecility, and too humble to be the agents of her -blunders, were but the natural participators. They had recently seen a -chosen army from that country, which, reverencing as a mother, they -had blindly believed invincible--an army led by a chief who had been -selected from a crowd of trained warriors, for his rare military -endowments, disgracefully routed by a handful of French and Indians, and -only saved from annihilation by the coolness and spirit of a Virginian -boy, whose riper fame has since diffused itself, with the steady -influence of moral truth, to the uttermost confines of Christendom.* A -wide frontier had been laid naked by this unexpected disaster, and more -substantial evils were preceded by a thousand fanciful and imaginary -dangers. The alarmed colonists believed that the yells of the savages -mingled with every fitful gust of wind that issued from the interminable -forests of the west. The terrific character of their merciless enemies -increased immeasurably the natural horrors of warfare. Numberless recent -massacres were still vivid in their recollections; nor was there any -ear in the provinces so deaf as not to have drunk in with avidity the -narrative of some fearful tale of midnight murder, in which the natives -of the forests were the principal and barbarous actors. As the credulous -and excited traveler related the hazardous chances of the wilderness, -the blood of the timid curdled with terror, and mothers cast anxious -glances even at those children which slumbered within the security of -the largest towns. In short, the magnifying influence of fear began to -set at naught the calculations of reason, and to render those who should -have remembered their manhood, the slaves of the basest passions. Even -the most confident and the stoutest hearts began to think the issue -of the contest was becoming doubtful; and that abject class was hourly -increasing in numbers, who thought they foresaw all the possessions of -the English crown in America subdued by their Christian foes, or laid -waste by the inroads of their relentless allies. - - * Washington, who, after uselessly admonishing the European - general of the danger into which he was heedlessly running, - saved the remnants of the British army, on this occasion, by - his decision and courage. The reputation earned by - Washington in this battle was the principal cause of his - being selected to command the American armies at a later - day. It is a circumstance worthy of observation, that while - all America rang with his well-merited reputation, his name - does not occur in any European account of the battle; at - least the author has searched for it without success. In - this manner does the mother country absorb even the fame, - under that system of rule. - -When, therefore, intelligence was received at the fort which covered the -southern termination of the portage between the Hudson and the lakes, -that Montcalm had been seen moving up the Champlain, with an army -"numerous as the leaves on the trees," its truth was admitted with more -of the craven reluctance of fear than with the stern joy that a warrior -should feel, in finding an enemy within reach of his blow. The news had -been brought, toward the decline of a day in midsummer, by an Indian -runner, who also bore an urgent request from Munro, the commander of -a work on the shore of the "holy lake," for a speedy and powerful -reinforcement. It has already been mentioned that the distance between -these two posts was less than five leagues. The rude path, which -originally formed their line of communication, had been widened for the -passage of wagons; so that the distance which had been traveled by the -son of the forest in two hours, might easily be effected by a detachment -of troops, with their necessary baggage, between the rising and setting -of a summer sun. The loyal servants of the British crown had given to -one of these forest-fastnesses the name of William Henry, and to the -other that of Fort Edward, calling each after a favorite prince of the -reigning family. The veteran Scotchman just named held the first, with -a regiment of regulars and a few provincials; a force really by far -too small to make head against the formidable power that Montcalm was -leading to the foot of his earthen mounds. At the latter, however, -lay General Webb, who commanded the armies of the king in the northern -provinces, with a body of more than five thousand men. By uniting the -several detachments of his command, this officer might have arrayed -nearly double that number of combatants against the enterprising -Frenchman, who had ventured so far from his reinforcements, with an army -but little superior in numbers. - -But under the influence of their degraded fortunes, both officers and -men appeared better disposed to await the approach of their formidable -antagonists, within their works, than to resist the progress of their -march, by emulating the successful example of the French at Fort du -Quesne, and striking a blow on their advance. - -After the first surprise of the intelligence had a little abated, a -rumor was spread through the entrenched camp, which stretched along the -margin of the Hudson, forming a chain of outworks to the body of the -fort itself, that a chosen detachment of fifteen hundred men was to -depart, with the dawn, for William Henry, the post at the northern -extremity of the portage. That which at first was only rumor, -soon became certainty, as orders passed from the quarters of the -commander-in-chief to the several corps he had selected for this -service, to prepare for their speedy departure. All doubts as to the -intention of Webb now vanished, and an hour or two of hurried footsteps -and anxious faces succeeded. The novice in the military art flew from -point to point, retarding his own preparations by the excess of his -violent and somewhat distempered zeal; while the more practiced veteran -made his arrangements with a deliberation that scorned every appearance -of haste; though his sober lineaments and anxious eye sufficiently -betrayed that he had no very strong professional relish for the, as yet, -untried and dreaded warfare of the wilderness. At length the sun set in -a flood of glory, behind the distant western hills, and as darkness drew -its veil around the secluded spot the sounds of preparation diminished; -the last light finally disappeared from the log cabin of some officer; -the trees cast their deeper shadows over the mounds and the rippling -stream, and a silence soon pervaded the camp, as deep as that which -reigned in the vast forest by which it was environed. - -According to the orders of the preceding night, the heavy sleep of the -army was broken by the rolling of the warning drums, whose rattling -echoes were heard issuing, on the damp morning air, out of every vista -of the woods, just as day began to draw the shaggy outlines of some tall -pines of the vicinity, on the opening brightness of a soft and cloudless -eastern sky. In an instant the whole camp was in motion; the meanest -soldier arousing from his lair to witness the departure of his comrades, -and to share in the excitement and incidents of the hour. The simple -array of the chosen band was soon completed. While the regular and -trained hirelings of the king marched with haughtiness to the right of -the line, the less pretending colonists took their humbler position -on its left, with a docility that long practice had rendered easy. -The scouts departed; strong guards preceded and followed the lumbering -vehicles that bore the baggage; and before the gray light of the morning -was mellowed by the rays of the sun, the main body of the combatants -wheeled into column, and left the encampment with a show of high -military bearing, that served to drown the slumbering apprehensions of -many a novice, who was now about to make his first essay in arms. While -in view of their admiring comrades, the same proud front and ordered -array was observed, until the notes of their fifes growing fainter in -distance, the forest at length appeared to swallow up the living mass -which had slowly entered its bosom. - -The deepest sounds of the retiring and invisible column had ceased to -be borne on the breeze to the listeners, and the latest straggler had -already disappeared in pursuit; but there still remained the signs -of another departure, before a log cabin of unusual size and -accommodations, in front of which those sentinels paced their rounds, -who were known to guard the person of the English general. At this spot -were gathered some half dozen horses, caparisoned in a manner which -showed that two, at least, were destined to bear the persons of females, -of a rank that it was not usual to meet so far in the wilds of the -country. A third wore trappings and arms of an officer of the staff; -while the rest, from the plainness of the housings, and the traveling -mails with which they were encumbered, were evidently fitted for the -reception of as many menials, who were, seemingly, already waiting -the pleasure of those they served. At a respectful distance from this -unusual show, were gathered divers groups of curious idlers; some -admiring the blood and bone of the high-mettled military charger, -and others gazing at the preparations, with the dull wonder of vulgar -curiosity. There was one man, however, who, by his countenance and -actions, formed a marked exception to those who composed the latter -class of spectators, being neither idle, nor seemingly very ignorant. - -The person of this individual was to the last degree ungainly, without -being in any particular manner deformed. He had all the bones and joints -of other men, without any of their proportions. Erect, his stature -surpassed that of his fellows; though seated, he appeared reduced within -the ordinary limits of the race. The same contrariety in his members -seemed to exist throughout the whole man. His head was large; his -shoulders narrow; his arms long and dangling; while his hands were -small, if not delicate. His legs and thighs were thin, nearly to -emaciation, but of extraordinary length; and his knees would have -been considered tremendous, had they not been outdone by the broader -foundations on which this false superstructure of blended human orders -was so profanely reared. The ill-assorted and injudicious attire of the -individual only served to render his awkwardness more conspicuous. A -sky-blue coat, with short and broad skirts and low cape, exposed a long, -thin neck, and longer and thinner legs, to the worst animadversions -of the evil-disposed. His nether garment was a yellow nankeen, closely -fitted to the shape, and tied at his bunches of knees by large knots of -white ribbon, a good deal sullied by use. Clouded cotton stockings, and -shoes, on one of the latter of which was a plated spur, completed the -costume of the lower extremity of this figure, no curve or angle of -which was concealed, but, on the other hand, studiously exhibited, -through the vanity or simplicity of its owner. - -From beneath the flap of an enormous pocket of a soiled vest of embossed -silk, heavily ornamented with tarnished silver lace, projected an -instrument, which, from being seen in such martial company, might have -been easily mistaken for some mischievous and unknown implement of war. -Small as it was, this uncommon engine had excited the curiosity of most -of the Europeans in the camp, though several of the provincials -were seen to handle it, not only without fear, but with the utmost -familiarity. A large, civil cocked hat, like those worn by clergymen -within the last thirty years, surmounted the whole, furnishing dignity -to a good-natured and somewhat vacant countenance, that apparently -needed such artificial aid, to support the gravity of some high and -extraordinary trust. - -While the common herd stood aloof, in deference to the quarters of Webb, -the figure we have described stalked into the center of the domestics, -freely expressing his censures or commendations on the merits of the -horses, as by chance they displeased or satisfied his judgment. - -"This beast, I rather conclude, friend, is not of home raising, but is -from foreign lands, or perhaps from the little island itself over the -blue water?" he said, in a voice as remarkable for the softness and -sweetness of its tones, as was his person for its rare proportions; "I -may speak of these things, and be no braggart; for I have been down at -both havens; that which is situate at the mouth of Thames, and is named -after the capital of Old England, and that which is called 'Haven', with -the addition of the word 'New'; and have seen the scows and brigantines -collecting their droves, like the gathering to the ark, being outward -bound to the Island of Jamaica, for the purpose of barter and traffic -in four-footed animals; but never before have I beheld a beast which -verified the true scripture war-horse like this: 'He paweth in the -valley, and rejoiceth in his strength; he goeth on to meet the armed -men. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle -afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting' It would seem -that the stock of the horse of Israel had descended to our own time; -would it not, friend?" - -Receiving no reply to this extraordinary appeal, which in truth, as it -was delivered with the vigor of full and sonorous tones, merited some -sort of notice, he who had thus sung forth the language of the holy -book turned to the silent figure to whom he had unwittingly addressed -himself, and found a new and more powerful subject of admiration in the -object that encountered his gaze. His eyes fell on the still, upright, -and rigid form of the "Indian runner," who had borne to the camp the -unwelcome tidings of the preceding evening. Although in a state of -perfect repose, and apparently disregarding, with characteristic -stoicism, the excitement and bustle around him, there was a sullen -fierceness mingled with the quiet of the savage, that was likely to -arrest the attention of much more experienced eyes than those which now -scanned him, in unconcealed amazement. The native bore both the tomahawk -and knife of his tribe; and yet his appearance was not altogether that -of a warrior. On the contrary, there was an air of neglect about his -person, like that which might have proceeded from great and recent -exertion, which he had not yet found leisure to repair. The colors -of the war-paint had blended in dark confusion about his fierce -countenance, and rendered his swarthy lineaments still more savage -and repulsive than if art had attempted an effect which had been thus -produced by chance. His eye, alone, which glistened like a fiery star -amid lowering clouds, was to be seen in its state of native wildness. -For a single instant his searching and yet wary glance met the wondering -look of the other, and then changing its direction, partly in cunning, -and partly in disdain, it remained fixed, as if penetrating the distant -air. - -It is impossible to say what unlooked-for remark this short and silent -communication, between two such singular men, might have elicited from -the white man, had not his active curiosity been again drawn to other -objects. A general movement among the domestics, and a low sound of -gentle voices, announced the approach of those whose presence alone -was wanted to enable the cavalcade to move. The simple admirer of the -war-horse instantly fell back to a low, gaunt, switch-tailed mare, that -was unconsciously gleaning the faded herbage of the camp nigh by; where, -leaning with one elbow on the blanket that concealed an apology for a -saddle, he became a spectator of the departure, while a foal was quietly -making its morning repast, on the opposite side of the same animal. - -A young man, in the dress of an officer, conducted to their steeds two -females, who, as it was apparent by their dresses, were prepared to -encounter the fatigues of a journey in the woods. One, and she was -the more juvenile in her appearance, though both were young, permitted -glimpses of her dazzling complexion, fair golden hair, and bright blue -eyes, to be caught, as she artlessly suffered the morning air to blow -aside the green veil which descended low from her beaver. - -The flush which still lingered above the pines in the western sky was -not more bright nor delicate than the bloom on her cheek; nor was the -opening day more cheering than the animated smile which she bestowed on -the youth, as he assisted her into the saddle. The other, who appeared -to share equally in the attention of the young officer, concealed her -charms from the gaze of the soldiery with a care that seemed better -fitted to the experience of four or five additional years. It could be -seen, however, that her person, though molded with the same exquisite -proportions, of which none of the graces were lost by the traveling -dress she wore, was rather fuller and more mature than that of her -companion. - -No sooner were these females seated, than their attendant sprang lightly -into the saddle of the war-horse, when the whole three bowed to Webb, -who in courtesy, awaited their parting on the threshold of his cabin and -turning their horses' heads, they proceeded at a slow amble, followed -by their train, toward the northern entrance of the encampment. As they -traversed that short distance, not a voice was heard among them; but -a slight exclamation proceeded from the younger of the females, as the -Indian runner glided by her, unexpectedly, and led the way along the -military road in her front. Though this sudden and startling movement -of the Indian produced no sound from the other, in the surprise her veil -also was allowed to open its folds, and betrayed an indescribable look -of pity, admiration, and horror, as her dark eye followed the easy -motions of the savage. The tresses of this lady were shining and black, -like the plumage of the raven. Her complexion was not brown, but it -rather appeared charged with the color of the rich blood, that seemed -ready to burst its bounds. And yet there was neither coarseness nor -want of shadowing in a countenance that was exquisitely regular, and -dignified and surpassingly beautiful. She smiled, as if in pity at her -own momentary forgetfulness, discovering by the act a row of teeth that -would have shamed the purest ivory; when, replacing the veil, she bowed -her face, and rode in silence, like one whose thoughts were abstracted -from the scene around her. - - - - -CHAPTER 2 - - "Sola, sola, wo ha, ho, sola!" - --Shakespeare - -While one of the lovely beings we have so cursorily presented to the -reader was thus lost in thought, the other quickly recovered from the -alarm which induced the exclamation, and, laughing at her own weakness, -she inquired of the youth who rode by her side: - -"Are such specters frequent in the woods, Heyward, or is this sight an -especial entertainment ordered on our behalf? If the latter, gratitude -must close our mouths; but if the former, both Cora and I shall have -need to draw largely on that stock of hereditary courage which we boast, -even before we are made to encounter the redoubtable Montcalm." - -"Yon Indian is a 'runner' of the army; and, after the fashion of his -people, he may be accounted a hero," returned the officer. "He has -volunteered to guide us to the lake, by a path but little known, -sooner than if we followed the tardy movements of the column; and, by -consequence, more agreeably." - -"I like him not," said the lady, shuddering, partly in assumed, yet more -in real terror. "You know him, Duncan, or you would not trust yourself -so freely to his keeping?" - -"Say, rather, Alice, that I would not trust you. I do know him, or he -would not have my confidence, and least of all at this moment. He -is said to be a Canadian too; and yet he served with our friends the -Mohawks, who, as you know, are one of the six allied nations. He was -brought among us, as I have heard, by some strange accident in which -your father was interested, and in which the savage was rigidly dealt -by; but I forget the idle tale, it is enough, that he is now our -friend." - -"If he has been my father's enemy, I like him still less!" exclaimed the -now really anxious girl. "Will you not speak to him, Major Heyward, that -I may hear his tones? Foolish though it may be, you have often heard me -avow my faith in the tones of the human voice!" - -"It would be in vain; and answered, most probably, by an ejaculation. -Though he may understand it, he affects, like most of his people, to be -ignorant of the English; and least of all will he condescend to speak -it, now that the war demands the utmost exercise of his dignity. But -he stops; the private path by which we are to journey is, doubtless, at -hand." - -The conjecture of Major Heyward was true. When they reached the spot -where the Indian stood, pointing into the thicket that fringed the -military road; a narrow and blind path, which might, with some little -inconvenience, receive one person at a time, became visible. - -"Here, then, lies our way," said the young man, in a low voice. -"Manifest no distrust, or you may invite the danger you appear to -apprehend." - -"Cora, what think you?" asked the reluctant fair one. "If we journey -with the troops, though we may find their presence irksome, shall we not -feel better assurance of our safety?" - -"Being little accustomed to the practices of the savages, Alice, you -mistake the place of real danger," said Heyward. "If enemies have -reached the portage at all, a thing by no means probable, as our scouts -are abroad, they will surely be found skirting the column, where scalps -abound the most. The route of the detachment is known, while ours, -having been determined within the hour, must still be secret." - -"Should we distrust the man because his manners are not our manners, and -that his skin is dark?" coldly asked Cora. - -Alice hesitated no longer; but giving her Narrangansett* a smart cut -of the whip, she was the first to dash aside the slight branches of the -bushes, and to follow the runner along the dark and tangled pathway. -The young man regarded the last speaker in open admiration, and even -permitted her fairer, though certainly not more beautiful companion, to -proceed unattended, while he sedulously opened the way himself for -the passage of her who has been called Cora. It would seem that the -domestics had been previously instructed; for, instead of penetrating -the thicket, they followed the route of the column; a measure which -Heyward stated had been dictated by the sagacity of their guide, in -order to diminish the marks of their trail, if, haply, the Canadian -savages should be lurking so far in advance of their army. For many -minutes the intricacy of the route admitted of no further dialogue; -after which they emerged from the broad border of underbrush which -grew along the line of the highway, and entered under the high but dark -arches of the forest. Here their progress was less interrupted; and the -instant the guide perceived that the females could command their steeds, -he moved on, at a pace between a trot and a walk, and at a rate which -kept the sure-footed and peculiar animals they rode at a fast yet easy -amble. The youth had turned to speak to the dark-eyed Cora, when the -distant sound of horses hoofs, clattering over the roots of the broken -way in his rear, caused him to check his charger; and, as his companions -drew their reins at the same instant, the whole party came to a halt, in -order to obtain an explanation of the unlooked-for interruption. - - * In the state of Rhode Island there is a bay called - Narragansett, so named after a powerful tribe of Indians, - which formerly dwelt on its banks. Accident, or one of those - unaccountable freaks which nature sometimes plays in the - animal world, gave rise to a breed of horses which were once - well known in America, and distinguished by their habit of - pacing. Horses of this race were, and are still, in much - request as saddle horses, on account of their hardiness and - the ease of their movements. As they were also sure of foot, - the Narragansetts were greatly sought for by females who - were obliged to travel over the roots and holes in the "new - countries." - -In a few moments a colt was seen gliding, like a fallow deer, among the -straight trunks of the pines; and, in another instant, the person of the -ungainly man, described in the preceding chapter, came into view, with -as much rapidity as he could excite his meager beast to endure without -coming to an open rupture. Until now this personage had escaped the -observation of the travelers. If he possessed the power to arrest any -wandering eye when exhibiting the glories of his altitude on foot, his -equestrian graces were still more likely to attract attention. - -Notwithstanding a constant application of his one armed heel to the -flanks of the mare, the most confirmed gait that he could establish -was a Canterbury gallop with the hind legs, in which those more forward -assisted for doubtful moments, though generally content to maintain a -loping trot. Perhaps the rapidity of the changes from one of these paces -to the other created an optical illusion, which might thus magnify the -powers of the beast; for it is certain that Heyward, who possessed -a true eye for the merits of a horse, was unable, with his utmost -ingenuity, to decide by what sort of movement his pursuer worked his -sinuous way on his footsteps with such persevering hardihood. - -The industry and movements of the rider were not less remarkable than -those of the ridden. At each change in the evolutions of the latter, -the former raised his tall person in the stirrups; producing, in this -manner, by the undue elongation of his legs, such sudden growths and -diminishings of the stature, as baffled every conjecture that might -be made as to his dimensions. If to this be added the fact that, in -consequence of the ex parte application of the spur, one side of the -mare appeared to journey faster than the other; and that the aggrieved -flank was resolutely indicated by unremitted flourishes of a bushy tail, -we finish the picture of both horse and man. - -The frown which had gathered around the handsome, open, and manly brow -of Heyward, gradually relaxed, and his lips curled into a slight smile, -as he regarded the stranger. Alice made no very powerful effort to -control her merriment; and even the dark, thoughtful eye of Cora lighted -with a humor that it would seem, the habit, rather than the nature, of -its mistress repressed. - -"Seek you any here?" demanded Heyward, when the other had arrived -sufficiently nigh to abate his speed; "I trust you are no messenger of -evil tidings?" - -"Even so," replied the stranger, making diligent use of his triangular -castor, to produce a circulation in the close air of the woods, and -leaving his hearers in doubt to which of the young man's questions he -responded; when, however, he had cooled his face, and recovered his -breath, he continued, "I hear you are riding to William Henry; as I -am journeying thitherward myself, I concluded good company would seem -consistent to the wishes of both parties." - -"You appear to possess the privilege of a casting vote," returned -Heyward; "we are three, while you have consulted no one but yourself." - -"Even so. The first point to be obtained is to know one's own mind. Once -sure of that, and where women are concerned it is not easy, the next is, -to act up to the decision. I have endeavored to do both, and here I am." - -"If you journey to the lake, you have mistaken your route," said -Heyward, haughtily; "the highway thither is at least half a mile behind -you." - -"Even so," returned the stranger, nothing daunted by this cold -reception; "I have tarried at 'Edward' a week, and I should be dumb not -to have inquired the road I was to journey; and if dumb there would be -an end to my calling." After simpering in a small way, like one whose -modesty prohibited a more open expression of his admiration of -a witticism that was perfectly unintelligible to his hearers, he -continued, "It is not prudent for any one of my profession to be too -familiar with those he has to instruct; for which reason I follow not -the line of the army; besides which, I conclude that a gentleman of -your character has the best judgment in matters of wayfaring; I have, -therefore, decided to join company, in order that the ride may be made -agreeable, and partake of social communion." - -"A most arbitrary, if not a hasty decision!" exclaimed Heyward, -undecided whether to give vent to his growing anger, or to laugh in the -other's face. "But you speak of instruction, and of a profession; are -you an adjunct to the provincial corps, as a master of the noble science -of defense and offense; or, perhaps, you are one who draws lines and -angles, under the pretense of expounding the mathematics?" - -The stranger regarded his interrogator a moment in wonder; and then, -losing every mark of self-satisfaction in an expression of solemn -humility, he answered: - -"Of offense, I hope there is none, to either party: of defense, I make -none--by God's good mercy, having committed no palpable sin since last -entreating his pardoning grace. I understand not your allusions about -lines and angles; and I leave expounding to those who have been called -and set apart for that holy office. I lay claim to no higher gift than a -small insight into the glorious art of petitioning and thanksgiving, as -practiced in psalmody." - -"The man is, most manifestly, a disciple of Apollo," cried the amused -Alice, "and I take him under my own especial protection. Nay, throw -aside that frown, Heyward, and in pity to my longing ears, suffer him to -journey in our train. Besides," she added, in a low and hurried voice, -casting a glance at the distant Cora, who slowly followed the footsteps -of their silent, but sullen guide, "it may be a friend added to our -strength, in time of need." - -"Think you, Alice, that I would trust those I love by this secret path, -did I imagine such need could happen?" - -"Nay, nay, I think not of it now; but this strange man amuses me; and if -he 'hath music in his soul', let us not churlishly reject his company." -She pointed persuasively along the path with her riding whip, while -their eyes met in a look which the young man lingered a moment to -prolong; then, yielding to her gentle influence, he clapped his spurs -into his charger, and in a few bounds was again at the side of Cora. - -"I am glad to encounter thee, friend," continued the maiden, waving her -hand to the stranger to proceed, as she urged her Narragansett to renew -its amble. "Partial relatives have almost persuaded me that I am not -entirely worthless in a duet myself; and we may enliven our wayfaring -by indulging in our favorite pursuit. It might be of signal advantage to -one, ignorant as I, to hear the opinions and experience of a master in -the art." - -"It is refreshing both to the spirits and to the body to indulge -in psalmody, in befitting seasons," returned the master of song, -unhesitatingly complying with her intimation to follow; "and nothing -would relieve the mind more than such a consoling communion. But four -parts are altogether necessary to the perfection of melody. You have all -the manifestations of a soft and rich treble; I can, by especial aid, -carry a full tenor to the highest letter; but we lack counter and bass! -Yon officer of the king, who hesitated to admit me to his company, might -fill the latter, if one may judge from the intonations of his voice in -common dialogue." - -"Judge not too rashly from hasty and deceptive appearances," said the -lady, smiling; "though Major Heyward can assume such deep notes on -occasion, believe me, his natural tones are better fitted for a mellow -tenor than the bass you heard." - -"Is he, then, much practiced in the art of psalmody?" demanded her -simple companion. - -Alice felt disposed to laugh, though she succeeded in suppressing her -merriment, ere she answered: - -"I apprehend that he is rather addicted to profane song. The chances -of a soldier's life are but little fitted for the encouragement of more -sober inclinations." - -"Man's voice is given to him, like his other talents, to be used, and -not to be abused. None can say they have ever known me to neglect my -gifts! I am thankful that, though my boyhood may be said to have been -set apart, like the youth of the royal David, for the purposes of music, -no syllable of rude verse has ever profaned my lips." - -"You have, then, limited your efforts to sacred song?" - -"Even so. As the psalms of David exceed all other language, so does the -psalmody that has been fitted to them by the divines and sages of the -land, surpass all vain poetry. Happily, I may say that I utter nothing -but the thoughts and the wishes of the King of Israel himself; for -though the times may call for some slight changes, yet does this version -which we use in the colonies of New England so much exceed all other -versions, that, by its richness, its exactness, and its spiritual -simplicity, it approacheth, as near as may be, to the great work of the -inspired writer. I never abide in any place, sleeping or waking, without -an example of this gifted work. 'Tis the six-and-twentieth edition, -promulgated at Boston, Anno Domini 1744; and is entitled, 'The Psalms, -Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Old and New Testaments; faithfully -translated into English Metre, for the Use, Edification, and Comfort of -the Saints, in Public and Private, especially in New England'." - -During this eulogium on the rare production of his native poets, the -stranger had drawn the book from his pocket, and fitting a pair of -iron-rimmed spectacles to his nose, opened the volume with a care and -veneration suited to its sacred purposes. Then, without circumlocution -or apology, first pronounced the word "Standish," and placing the -unknown engine, already described, to his mouth, from which he drew a -high, shrill sound, that was followed by an octave below, from his own -voice, he commenced singing the following words, in full, sweet, and -melodious tones, that set the music, the poetry, and even the uneasy -motion of his ill-trained beast at defiance; "How good it is, O see, And -how it pleaseth well, Together e'en in unity, For brethren so to dwell. -It's like the choice ointment, From the head to the beard did go; Down -Aaron's head, that downward went His garment's skirts unto." - -The delivery of these skillful rhymes was accompanied, on the part -of the stranger, by a regular rise and fall of his right hand, which -terminated at the descent, by suffering the fingers to dwell a moment on -the leaves of the little volume; and on the ascent, by such a flourish -of the member as none but the initiated may ever hope to imitate. -It would seem long practice had rendered this manual accompaniment -necessary; for it did not cease until the preposition which the poet had -selected for the close of his verse had been duly delivered like a word -of two syllables. - -Such an innovation on the silence and retirement of the forest could not -fail to enlist the ears of those who journeyed at so short a distance in -advance. The Indian muttered a few words in broken English to Heyward, -who, in his turn, spoke to the stranger; at once interrupting, and, for -the time, closing his musical efforts. - -"Though we are not in danger, common prudence would teach us to journey -through this wilderness in as quiet a manner as possible. You will then, -pardon me, Alice, should I diminish your enjoyments, by requesting this -gentleman to postpone his chant until a safer opportunity." - -"You will diminish them, indeed," returned the arch girl; "for never did -I hear a more unworthy conjunction of execution and language than that -to which I have been listening; and I was far gone in a learned inquiry -into the causes of such an unfitness between sound and sense, when you -broke the charm of my musings by that bass of yours, Duncan!" - -"I know not what you call my bass," said Heyward, piqued at her remark, -"but I know that your safety, and that of Cora, is far dearer to me than -could be any orchestra of Handel's music." He paused and turned his head -quickly toward a thicket, and then bent his eyes suspiciously on their -guide, who continued his steady pace, in undisturbed gravity. The young -man smiled to himself, for he believed he had mistaken some shining -berry of the woods for the glistening eyeballs of a prowling savage, and -he rode forward, continuing the conversation which had been interrupted -by the passing thought. - -Major Heyward was mistaken only in suffering his youthful and generous -pride to suppress his active watchfulness. The cavalcade had not long -passed, before the branches of the bushes that formed the thicket were -cautiously moved asunder, and a human visage, as fiercely wild as savage -art and unbridled passions could make it, peered out on the retiring -footsteps of the travelers. A gleam of exultation shot across the -darkly-painted lineaments of the inhabitant of the forest, as he traced -the route of his intended victims, who rode unconsciously onward, the -light and graceful forms of the females waving among the trees, in the -curvatures of their path, followed at each bend by the manly figure of -Heyward, until, finally, the shapeless person of the singing master -was concealed behind the numberless trunks of trees, that rose, in dark -lines, in the intermediate space. - - - - -CHAPTER 3 - - "Before these fields were shorn and till'd, - Full to the brim our rivers flow'd; - The melody of waters fill'd - The fresh and boundless wood; - And torrents dash'd, and rivulets play'd, - And fountains spouted in the shade."--Bryant - -Leaving the unsuspecting Heyward and his confiding companions to -penetrate still deeper into a forest that contained such treacherous -inmates, we must use an author's privilege, and shift the scene a few -miles to the westward of the place where we have last seen them. - -On that day, two men were lingering on the banks of a small but rapid -stream, within an hour's journey of the encampment of Webb, like those -who awaited the appearance of an absent person, or the approach of some -expected event. The vast canopy of woods spread itself to the margin of -the river, overhanging the water, and shadowing its dark current with a -deeper hue. The rays of the sun were beginning to grow less fierce, and -the intense heat of the day was lessened, as the cooler vapors of the -springs and fountains rose above their leafy beds, and rested in -the atmosphere. Still that breathing silence, which marks the drowsy -sultriness of an American landscape in July, pervaded the secluded spot, -interrupted only by the low voices of the men, the occasional and lazy -tap of a woodpecker, the discordant cry of some gaudy jay, or a swelling -on the ear, from the dull roar of a distant waterfall. These feeble and -broken sounds were, however, too familiar to the foresters to draw their -attention from the more interesting matter of their dialogue. While -one of these loiterers showed the red skin and wild accouterments of a -native of the woods, the other exhibited, through the mask of his -rude and nearly savage equipments, the brighter, though sun-burned and -long-faced complexion of one who might claim descent from a European -parentage. The former was seated on the end of a mossy log, in a posture -that permitted him to heighten the effect of his earnest language, by -the calm but expressive gestures of an Indian engaged in debate. His -body, which was nearly naked, presented a terrific emblem of death, -drawn in intermingled colors of white and black. His closely-shaved -head, on which no other hair than the well-known and chivalrous -scalping tuft* was preserved, was without ornament of any kind, with -the exception of a solitary eagle's plume, that crossed his crown, -and depended over the left shoulder. A tomahawk and scalping knife, of -English manufacture, were in his girdle; while a short military rifle, -of that sort with which the policy of the whites armed their savage -allies, lay carelessly across his bare and sinewy knee. The expanded -chest, full formed limbs, and grave countenance of this warrior, would -denote that he had reached the vigor of his days, though no symptoms of -decay appeared to have yet weakened his manhood. - - * The North American warrior caused the hair to be plucked - from his whole body; a small tuft was left on the crown of - his head, in order that his enemy might avail himself of it, - in wrenching off the scalp in the event of his fall. The - scalp was the only admissible trophy of victory. Thus, it - was deemed more important to obtain the scalp than to kill - the man. Some tribes lay great stress on the honor of - striking a dead body. These practices have nearly - disappeared among the Indians of the Atlantic states. - -The frame of the white man, judging by such parts as were not concealed -by his clothes, was like that of one who had known hardships and -exertion from his earliest youth. His person, though muscular, was -rather attenuated than full; but every nerve and muscle appeared strung -and indurated by unremitted exposure and toil. He wore a hunting shirt -of forest-green, fringed with faded yellow*, and a summer cap of skins -which had been shorn of their fur. He also bore a knife in a girdle of -wampum, like that which confined the scanty garments of the Indian, but -no tomahawk. His moccasins were ornamented after the gay fashion of the -natives, while the only part of his under dress which appeared below the -hunting-frock was a pair of buckskin leggings, that laced at the sides, -and which were gartered above the knees, with the sinews of a deer. A -pouch and horn completed his personal accouterments, though a rifle of -great length**, which the theory of the more ingenious whites had -taught them was the most dangerous of all firearms, leaned against a -neighboring sapling. The eye of the hunter, or scout, whichever he might -be, was small, quick, keen, and restless, roving while he spoke, on -every side of him, as if in quest of game, or distrusting the sudden -approach of some lurking enemy. Notwithstanding the symptoms of habitual -suspicion, his countenance was not only without guile, but at the moment -at which he is introduced, it was charged with an expression of sturdy -honesty. - - * The hunting-shirt is a picturesque smock-frock, being - shorter, and ornamented with fringes and tassels. The colors - are intended to imitate the hues of the wood, with a view to - concealment. Many corps of American riflemen have been thus - attired, and the dress is one of the most striking of modern - times. The hunting-shirt is frequently white. - - ** The rifle of the army is short; that of the hunter is - always long. - -"Even your traditions make the case in my favor, Chingachgook," he said, -speaking in the tongue which was known to all the natives who formerly -inhabited the country between the Hudson and the Potomac, and of -which we shall give a free translation for the benefit of the reader; -endeavoring, at the same time, to preserve some of the peculiarities, -both of the individual and of the language. "Your fathers came from the -setting sun, crossed the big river*, fought the people of the country, -and took the land; and mine came from the red sky of the morning, over -the salt lake, and did their work much after the fashion that had been -set them by yours; then let God judge the matter between us, and friends -spare their words!" - - * The Mississippi. The scout alludes to a tradition which is - very popular among the tribes of the Atlantic states. - Evidence of their Asiatic origin is deduced from the - circumstances, though great uncertainty hangs over the whole - history of the Indians. - -"My fathers fought with the naked red man!" returned the Indian, -sternly, in the same language. "Is there no difference, Hawkeye, between -the stone-headed arrow of the warrior, and the leaden bullet with which -you kill?" - -"There is reason in an Indian, though nature has made him with a red -skin!" said the white man, shaking his head like one on whom such an -appeal to his justice was not thrown away. For a moment he appeared to -be conscious of having the worst of the argument, then, rallying again, -he answered the objection of his antagonist in the best manner his -limited information would allow: - -"I am no scholar, and I care not who knows it; but, judging from what -I have seen, at deer chases and squirrel hunts, of the sparks below, -I should think a rifle in the hands of their grandfathers was not so -dangerous as a hickory bow and a good flint-head might be, if drawn with -Indian judgment, and sent by an Indian eye." - -"You have the story told by your fathers," returned the other, coldly -waving his hand. "What say your old men? Do they tell the young warriors -that the pale faces met the red men, painted for war and armed with the -stone hatchet and wooden gun?" - -"I am not a prejudiced man, nor one who vaunts himself on his natural -privileges, though the worst enemy I have on earth, and he is an -Iroquois, daren't deny that I am genuine white," the scout replied, -surveying, with secret satisfaction, the faded color of his bony and -sinewy hand, "and I am willing to own that my people have many ways, of -which, as an honest man, I can't approve. It is one of their customs to -write in books what they have done and seen, instead of telling them -in their villages, where the lie can be given to the face of a cowardly -boaster, and the brave soldier can call on his comrades to witness for -the truth of his words. In consequence of this bad fashion, a man, who -is too conscientious to misspend his days among the women, in learning -the names of black marks, may never hear of the deeds of his fathers, -nor feel a pride in striving to outdo them. For myself, I conclude the -Bumppos could shoot, for I have a natural turn with a rifle, which -must have been handed down from generation to generation, as, our holy -commandments tell us, all good and evil gifts are bestowed; though I -should be loath to answer for other people in such a matter. But every -story has its two sides; so I ask you, Chingachgook, what passed, -according to the traditions of the red men, when our fathers first met?" - -A silence of a minute succeeded, during which the Indian sat mute; then, -full of the dignity of his office, he commenced his brief tale, with a -solemnity that served to heighten its appearance of truth. - -"Listen, Hawkeye, and your ear shall drink no lie. 'Tis what my fathers -have said, and what the Mohicans have done." He hesitated a single -instant, and bending a cautious glance toward his companion, he -continued, in a manner that was divided between interrogation and -assertion. "Does not this stream at our feet run toward the summer, -until its waters grow salt, and the current flows upward?" - -"It can't be denied that your traditions tell you true in both these -matters," said the white man; "for I have been there, and have seen -them, though why water, which is so sweet in the shade, should become -bitter in the sun, is an alteration for which I have never been able to -account." - -"And the current!" demanded the Indian, who expected his reply with that -sort of interest that a man feels in the confirmation of testimony, at -which he marvels even while he respects it; "the fathers of Chingachgook -have not lied!" - -"The holy Bible is not more true, and that is the truest thing in -nature. They call this up-stream current the tide, which is a thing soon -explained, and clear enough. Six hours the waters run in, and six hours -they run out, and the reason is this: when there is higher water in the -sea than in the river, they run in until the river gets to be highest, -and then it runs out again." - -"The waters in the woods, and on the great lakes, run downward -until they lie like my hand," said the Indian, stretching the limb -horizontally before him, "and then they run no more." - -"No honest man will deny it," said the scout, a little nettled at the -implied distrust of his explanation of the mystery of the tides; "and I -grant that it is true on the small scale, and where the land is level. -But everything depends on what scale you look at things. Now, on the -small scale, the 'arth is level; but on the large scale it is round. In -this manner, pools and ponds, and even the great fresh-water lakes, may -be stagnant, as you and I both know they are, having seen them; but when -you come to spread water over a great tract, like the sea, where the -earth is round, how in reason can the water be quiet? You might as well -expect the river to lie still on the brink of those black rocks a mile -above us, though your own ears tell you that it is tumbling over them at -this very moment." - -If unsatisfied by the philosophy of his companion, the Indian was far -too dignified to betray his unbelief. He listened like one who was -convinced, and resumed his narrative in his former solemn manner. - -"We came from the place where the sun is hid at night, over great plains -where the buffaloes live, until we reached the big river. There we -fought the Alligewi, till the ground was red with their blood. From the -banks of the big river to the shores of the salt lake, there was none to -meet us. The Maquas followed at a distance. We said the country should -be ours from the place where the water runs up no longer on this stream, -to a river twenty sun's journey toward the summer. We drove the Maquas -into the woods with the bears. They only tasted salt at the licks; they -drew no fish from the great lake; we threw them the bones." - -"All this I have heard and believe," said the white man, observing that -the Indian paused; "but it was long before the English came into the -country." - -"A pine grew then where this chestnut now stands. The first pale faces -who came among us spoke no English. They came in a large canoe, when -my fathers had buried the tomahawk with the red men around them. Then, -Hawkeye," he continued, betraying his deep emotion, only by permitting -his voice to fall to those low, guttural tones, which render his -language, as spoken at times, so very musical; "then, Hawkeye, we were -one people, and we were happy. The salt lake gave us its fish, the wood -its deer, and the air its birds. We took wives who bore us children; we -worshipped the Great Spirit; and we kept the Maquas beyond the sound of -our songs of triumph." - -"Know you anything of your own family at that time?" demanded the white. -"But you are just a man, for an Indian; and as I suppose you hold their -gifts, your fathers must have been brave warriors, and wise men at the -council-fire." - -"My tribe is the grandfather of nations, but I am an unmixed man. The -blood of chiefs is in my veins, where it must stay forever. The Dutch -landed, and gave my people the fire-water; they drank until the heavens -and the earth seemed to meet, and they foolishly thought they had found -the Great Spirit. Then they parted with their land. Foot by foot, -they were driven back from the shores, until I, that am a chief and a -Sagamore, have never seen the sun shine but through the trees, and have -never visited the graves of my fathers." - -"Graves bring solemn feelings over the mind," returned the scout, a good -deal touched at the calm suffering of his companion; "and they often aid -a man in his good intentions; though, for myself, I expect to leave my -own bones unburied, to bleach in the woods, or to be torn asunder by the -wolves. But where are to be found those of your race who came to their -kin in the Delaware country, so many summers since?" - -"Where are the blossoms of those summers!--fallen, one by one; so all -of my family departed, each in his turn, to the land of spirits. I am on -the hilltop and must go down into the valley; and when Uncas follows in -my footsteps there will no longer be any of the blood of the Sagamores, -for my boy is the last of the Mohicans." - -"Uncas is here," said another voice, in the same soft, guttural tones, -near his elbow; "who speaks to Uncas?" - -The white man loosened his knife in his leathern sheath, and made -an involuntary movement of the hand toward his rifle, at this sudden -interruption; but the Indian sat composed, and without turning his head -at the unexpected sounds. - -At the next instant, a youthful warrior passed between them, with a -noiseless step, and seated himself on the bank of the rapid stream. No -exclamation of surprise escaped the father, nor was any question asked, -or reply given, for several minutes; each appearing to await the moment -when he might speak, without betraying womanish curiosity or childish -impatience. The white man seemed to take counsel from their customs, -and, relinquishing his grasp of the rifle, he also remained silent and -reserved. At length Chingachgook turned his eyes slowly toward his son, -and demanded: - -"Do the Maquas dare to leave the print of their moccasins in these -woods?" - -"I have been on their trail," replied the young Indian, "and know that -they number as many as the fingers of my two hands; but they lie hid -like cowards." - -"The thieves are outlying for scalps and plunder," said the white man, -whom we shall call Hawkeye, after the manner of his companions. "That -busy Frenchman, Montcalm, will send his spies into our very camp, but he -will know what road we travel!" - -"'Tis enough," returned the father, glancing his eye toward the setting -sun; "they shall be driven like deer from their bushes. Hawkeye, let us -eat to-night, and show the Maquas that we are men to-morrow." - -"I am as ready to do the one as the other; but to fight the Iroquois -'tis necessary to find the skulkers; and to eat, 'tis necessary to get -the game--talk of the devil and he will come; there is a pair of the -biggest antlers I have seen this season, moving the bushes below the -hill! Now, Uncas," he continued, in a half whisper, and laughing with a -kind of inward sound, like one who had learned to be watchful, "I will -bet my charger three times full of powder, against a foot of wampum, -that I take him atwixt the eyes, and nearer to the right than to the -left." - -"It cannot be!" said the young Indian, springing to his feet with -youthful eagerness; "all but the tips of his horns are hid!" - -"He's a boy!" said the white man, shaking his head while he spoke, and -addressing the father. "Does he think when a hunter sees a part of the -creature', he can't tell where the rest of him should be!" - -Adjusting his rifle, he was about to make an exhibition of that skill -on which he so much valued himself, when the warrior struck up the piece -with his hand, saying: - -"Hawkeye! will you fight the Maquas?" - -"These Indians know the nature of the woods, as it might be by -instinct!" returned the scout, dropping his rifle, and turning away like -a man who was convinced of his error. "I must leave the buck to your -arrow, Uncas, or we may kill a deer for them thieves, the Iroquois, to -eat." - -The instant the father seconded this intimation by an expressive gesture -of the hand, Uncas threw himself on the ground, and approached the -animal with wary movements. When within a few yards of the cover, he -fitted an arrow to his bow with the utmost care, while the antlers -moved, as if their owner snuffed an enemy in the tainted air. In another -moment the twang of the cord was heard, a white streak was seen glancing -into the bushes, and the wounded buck plunged from the cover, to the -very feet of his hidden enemy. Avoiding the horns of the infuriated -animal, Uncas darted to his side, and passed his knife across the -throat, when bounding to the edge of the river it fell, dyeing the -waters with its blood. - -"'Twas done with Indian skill," said the scout laughing inwardly, but -with vast satisfaction; "and 'twas a pretty sight to behold! Though an -arrow is a near shot, and needs a knife to finish the work." - -"Hugh!" ejaculated his companion, turning quickly, like a hound who -scented game. - -"By the Lord, there is a drove of them!" exclaimed the scout, whose eyes -began to glisten with the ardor of his usual occupation; "if they come -within range of a bullet I will drop one, though the whole Six Nations -should be lurking within sound! What do you hear, Chingachgook? for to -my ears the woods are dumb." - -"There is but one deer, and he is dead," said the Indian, bending his -body till his ear nearly touched the earth. "I hear the sounds of feet!" - -"Perhaps the wolves have driven the buck to shelter, and are following -on his trail." - -"No. The horses of white men are coming!" returned the other, raising -himself with dignity, and resuming his seat on the log with his former -composure. "Hawkeye, they are your brothers; speak to them." - -"That I will, and in English that the king needn't be ashamed to -answer," returned the hunter, speaking in the language of which he -boasted; "but I see nothing, nor do I hear the sounds of man or beast; -'tis strange that an Indian should understand white sounds better than a -man who, his very enemies will own, has no cross in his blood, although -he may have lived with the red skins long enough to be suspected! Ha! -there goes something like the cracking of a dry stick, too--now I hear -the bushes move--yes, yes, there is a trampling that I mistook for -the falls--and--but here they come themselves; God keep them from the -Iroquois!" - - - - -CHAPTER 4 - - "Well go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove - Till I torment thee for this injury."--Midsummer Night's Dream. - -The words were still in the mouth of the scout, when the leader of the -party, whose approaching footsteps had caught the vigilant ear of the -Indian, came openly into view. A beaten path, such as those made by the -periodical passage of the deer, wound through a little glen at no great -distance, and struck the river at the point where the white man and his -red companions had posted themselves. Along this track the travelers, -who had produced a surprise so unusual in the depths of the forest, -advanced slowly toward the hunter, who was in front of his associates, -in readiness to receive them. - -"Who comes?" demanded the scout, throwing his rifle carelessly across -his left arm, and keeping the forefinger of his right hand on the -trigger, though he avoided all appearance of menace in the act. "Who -comes hither, among the beasts and dangers of the wilderness?" - -"Believers in religion, and friends to the law and to the king," -returned he who rode foremost. "Men who have journeyed since the rising -sun, in the shades of this forest, without nourishment, and are sadly -tired of their wayfaring." - -"You are, then, lost," interrupted the hunter, "and have found how -helpless 'tis not to know whether to take the right hand or the left?" - -"Even so; sucking babes are not more dependent on those who guide them -than we who are of larger growth, and who may now be said to possess the -stature without the knowledge of men. Know you the distance to a post of -the crown called William Henry?" - -"Hoot!" shouted the scout, who did not spare his open laughter, though -instantly checking the dangerous sounds he indulged his merriment at -less risk of being overheard by any lurking enemies. "You are as much -off the scent as a hound would be, with Horican atwixt him and the deer! -William Henry, man! if you are friends to the king and have business -with the army, your way would be to follow the river down to Edward, and -lay the matter before Webb, who tarries there, instead of pushing into -the defiles, and driving this saucy Frenchman back across Champlain, -into his den again." - -Before the stranger could make any reply to this unexpected proposition, -another horseman dashed the bushes aside, and leaped his charger into -the pathway, in front of his companion. - -"What, then, may be our distance from Fort Edward?" demanded a new -speaker; "the place you advise us to seek we left this morning, and our -destination is the head of the lake." - -"Then you must have lost your eyesight afore losing your way, for the -road across the portage is cut to a good two rods, and is as grand a -path, I calculate, as any that runs into London, or even before the -palace of the king himself." - -"We will not dispute concerning the excellence of the passage," returned -Heyward, smiling; for, as the reader has anticipated, it was he. "It is -enough, for the present, that we trusted to an Indian guide to take -us by a nearer, though blinder path, and that we are deceived in his -knowledge. In plain words, we know not where we are." - -"An Indian lost in the woods!" said the scout, shaking his head -doubtingly; "When the sun is scorching the tree tops, and the water -courses are full; when the moss on every beech he sees will tell him in -what quarter the north star will shine at night. The woods are full -of deer-paths which run to the streams and licks, places well known to -everybody; nor have the geese done their flight to the Canada waters -altogether! 'Tis strange that an Indian should be lost atwixt Horican -and the bend in the river! Is he a Mohawk?" - -"Not by birth, though adopted in that tribe; I think his birthplace was -farther north, and he is one of those you call a Huron." - -"Hugh!" exclaimed the two companions of the scout, who had continued -until this part of the dialogue, seated immovable, and apparently -indifferent to what passed, but who now sprang to their feet with an -activity and interest that had evidently got the better of their reserve -by surprise. - -"A Huron!" repeated the sturdy scout, once more shaking his head in -open distrust; "they are a thievish race, nor do I care by whom they are -adopted; you can never make anything of them but skulks and vagabonds. -Since you trusted yourself to the care of one of that nation, I only -wonder that you have not fallen in with more." - -"Of that there is little danger, since William Henry is so many miles -in our front. You forget that I have told you our guide is now a Mohawk, -and that he serves with our forces as a friend." - -"And I tell you that he who is born a Mingo will die a Mingo," returned -the other positively. "A Mohawk! No, give me a Delaware or a Mohican -for honesty; and when they will fight, which they won't all do, having -suffered their cunning enemies, the Maquas, to make them women--but -when they will fight at all, look to a Delaware, or a Mohican, for a -warrior!" - -"Enough of this," said Heyward, impatiently; "I wish not to inquire into -the character of a man that I know, and to whom you must be a stranger. -You have not yet answered my question; what is our distance from the -main army at Edward?" - -"It seems that may depend on who is your guide. One would think such -a horse as that might get over a good deal of ground atwixt sun-up and -sun-down." - -"I wish no contention of idle words with you, friend," said Heyward, -curbing his dissatisfied manner, and speaking in a more gentle voice; -"if you will tell me the distance to Fort Edward, and conduct me -thither, your labor shall not go without its reward." - -"And in so doing, how know I that I don't guide an enemy and a spy of -Montcalm, to the works of the army? It is not every man who can speak -the English tongue that is an honest subject." - -"If you serve with the troops, of whom I judge you to be a scout, you -should know of such a regiment of the king as the Sixtieth." - -"The Sixtieth! you can tell me little of the Royal Americans that -I don't know, though I do wear a hunting-shirt instead of a scarlet -jacket." - -"Well, then, among other things, you may know the name of its major?" - -"Its major!" interrupted the hunter, elevating his body like one who was -proud of his trust. "If there is a man in the country who knows Major -Effingham, he stands before you." - -"It is a corps which has many majors; the gentleman you name is the -senior, but I speak of the junior of them all; he who commands the -companies in garrison at William Henry." - -"Yes, yes, I have heard that a young gentleman of vast riches, from one -of the provinces far south, has got the place. He is over young, too, -to hold such rank, and to be put above men whose heads are beginning to -bleach; and yet they say he is a soldier in his knowledge, and a gallant -gentleman!" - -"Whatever he may be, or however he may be qualified for his rank, he now -speaks to you and, of course, can be no enemy to dread." - -The scout regarded Heyward in surprise, and then lifting his cap, he -answered, in a tone less confident than before--though still expressing -doubt. - -"I have heard a party was to leave the encampment this morning for the -lake shore?" - -"You have heard the truth; but I preferred a nearer route, trusting to -the knowledge of the Indian I mentioned." - -"And he deceived you, and then deserted?" - -"Neither, as I believe; certainly not the latter, for he is to be found -in the rear." - -"I should like to look at the creature; if it is a true Iroquois I -can tell him by his knavish look, and by his paint," said the scout; -stepping past the charger of Heyward, and entering the path behind the -mare of the singing master, whose foal had taken advantage of the halt -to exact the maternal contribution. After shoving aside the bushes, -and proceeding a few paces, he encountered the females, who awaited -the result of the conference with anxiety, and not entirely without -apprehension. Behind these, the runner leaned against a tree, where he -stood the close examination of the scout with an air unmoved, though -with a look so dark and savage, that it might in itself excite fear. -Satisfied with his scrutiny, the hunter soon left him. As he repassed -the females, he paused a moment to gaze upon their beauty, answering to -the smile and nod of Alice with a look of open pleasure. Thence he went -to the side of the motherly animal, and spending a minute in a fruitless -inquiry into the character of her rider, he shook his head and returned -to Heyward. - -"A Mingo is a Mingo, and God having made him so, neither the Mohawks nor -any other tribe can alter him," he said, when he had regained his former -position. "If we were alone, and you would leave that noble horse at the -mercy of the wolves to-night, I could show you the way to Edward myself, -within an hour, for it lies only about an hour's journey hence; but with -such ladies in your company 'tis impossible!" - -"And why? They are fatigued, but they are quite equal to a ride of a few -more miles." - -"'Tis a natural impossibility!" repeated the scout; "I wouldn't walk -a mile in these woods after night gets into them, in company with that -runner, for the best rifle in the colonies. They are full of outlying -Iroquois, and your mongrel Mohawk knows where to find them too well to -be my companion." - -"Think you so?" said Heyward, leaning forward in the saddle, and -dropping his voice nearly to a whisper; "I confess I have not been -without my own suspicions, though I have endeavored to conceal them, -and affected a confidence I have not always felt, on account of my -companions. It was because I suspected him that I would follow no -longer; making him, as you see, follow me." - -"I knew he was one of the cheats as soon as I laid eyes on him!" -returned the scout, placing a finger on his nose, in sign of caution. - -"The thief is leaning against the foot of the sugar sapling, that you -can see over them bushes; his right leg is in a line with the bark of -the tree, and," tapping his rifle, "I can take him from where I stand, -between the angle and the knee, with a single shot, putting an end -to his tramping through the woods, for at least a month to come. If I -should go back to him, the cunning varmint would suspect something, and -be dodging through the trees like a frightened deer." - -"It will not do. He may be innocent, and I dislike the act. Though, if I -felt confident of his treachery--" - -"'Tis a safe thing to calculate on the knavery of an Iroquois," said the -scout, throwing his rifle forward, by a sort of instinctive movement. - -"Hold!" interrupted Heyward, "it will not do--we must think of some -other scheme--and yet, I have much reason to believe the rascal has -deceived me." - -The hunter, who had already abandoned his intention of maiming the -runner, mused a moment, and then made a gesture, which instantly brought -his two red companions to his side. They spoke together earnestly in the -Delaware language, though in an undertone; and by the gestures of -the white man, which were frequently directed towards the top of the -sapling, it was evident he pointed out the situation of their hidden -enemy. His companions were not long in comprehending his wishes, and -laying aside their firearms, they parted, taking opposite sides of -the path, and burying themselves in the thicket, with such cautious -movements, that their steps were inaudible. - -"Now, go you back," said the hunter, speaking again to Heyward, "and -hold the imp in talk; these Mohicans here will take him without breaking -his paint." - -"Nay," said Heyward, proudly, "I will seize him myself." - -"Hist! what could you do, mounted, against an Indian in the bushes!" - -"I will dismount." - -"And, think you, when he saw one of your feet out of the stirrup, he -would wait for the other to be free? Whoever comes into the woods to -deal with the natives, must use Indian fashions, if he would wish to -prosper in his undertakings. Go, then; talk openly to the miscreant, and -seem to believe him the truest friend you have on 'arth." - -Heyward prepared to comply, though with strong disgust at the nature of -the office he was compelled to execute. Each moment, however, pressed -upon him a conviction of the critical situation in which he had suffered -his invaluable trust to be involved through his own confidence. The sun -had already disappeared, and the woods, suddenly deprived of his light*, -were assuming a dusky hue, which keenly reminded him that the hour the -savage usually chose for his most barbarous and remorseless acts -of vengeance or hostility, was speedily drawing near. Stimulated by -apprehension, he left the scout, who immediately entered into a loud -conversation with the stranger that had so unceremoniously enlisted -himself in the party of travelers that morning. In passing his gentler -companions Heyward uttered a few words of encouragement, and was -pleased to find that, though fatigued with the exercise of the day, they -appeared to entertain no suspicion that their present embarrassment was -other than the result of accident. Giving them reason to believe he -was merely employed in a consultation concerning the future route, -he spurred his charger, and drew the reins again when the animal had -carried him within a few yards of the place where the sullen runner -still stood, leaning against the tree. - - * The scene of this tale was in the 42d degree of latitude, - where the twilight is never of long continuation. - -"You may see, Magua," he said, endeavoring to assume an air of freedom -and confidence, "that the night is closing around us, and yet we are no -nearer to William Henry than when we left the encampment of Webb with -the rising sun. - -"You have missed the way, nor have I been more fortunate. But, happily, -we have fallen in with a hunter, he whom you hear talking to the singer, -that is acquainted with the deerpaths and by-ways of the woods, and -who promises to lead us to a place where we may rest securely till the -morning." - -The Indian riveted his glowing eyes on Heyward as he asked, in his -imperfect English, "Is he alone?" - -"Alone!" hesitatingly answered Heyward, to whom deception was too new to -be assumed without embarrassment. "Oh! not alone, surely, Magua, for you -know that we are with him." - -"Then Le Renard Subtil will go," returned the runner, coolly raising -his little wallet from the place where it had lain at his feet; "and the -pale faces will see none but their own color." - -"Go! Whom call you Le Renard?" - -"'Tis the name his Canada fathers have given to Magua," returned the -runner, with an air that manifested his pride at the distinction. "Night -is the same as day to Le Subtil, when Munro waits for him." - -"And what account will Le Renard give the chief of William Henry -concerning his daughters? Will he dare to tell the hot-blooded Scotsman -that his children are left without a guide, though Magua promised to be -one?" - -"Though the gray head has a loud voice, and a long arm, Le Renard will -not hear him, nor feel him, in the woods." - -"But what will the Mohawks say? They will make him petticoats, and bid -him stay in the wigwam with the women, for he is no longer to be trusted -with the business of a man." - -"Le Subtil knows the path to the great lakes, and he can find the bones -of his fathers," was the answer of the unmoved runner. - -"Enough, Magua," said Heyward; "are we not friends? Why should there be -bitter words between us? Munro has promised you a gift for your services -when performed, and I shall be your debtor for another. Rest your weary -limbs, then, and open your wallet to eat. We have a few moments to -spare; let us not waste them in talk like wrangling women. When the -ladies are refreshed we will proceed." - -"The pale faces make themselves dogs to their women," muttered the -Indian, in his native language, "and when they want to eat, their -warriors must lay aside the tomahawk to feed their laziness." - -"What say you, Renard?" - -"Le Subtil says it is good." - -The Indian then fastened his eyes keenly on the open countenance of -Heyward, but meeting his glance, he turned them quickly away, and -seating himself deliberately on the ground, he drew forth the remnant of -some former repast, and began to eat, though not without first bending -his looks slowly and cautiously around him. - -"This is well," continued Heyward; "and Le Renard will have strength and -sight to find the path in the morning"; he paused, for sounds like the -snapping of a dried stick, and the rustling of leaves, rose from the -adjacent bushes, but recollecting himself instantly, he continued, "we -must be moving before the sun is seen, or Montcalm may lie in our path, -and shut us out from the fortress." - -The hand of Magua dropped from his mouth to his side, and though -his eyes were fastened on the ground, his head was turned aside, his -nostrils expanded, and his ears seemed even to stand more erect than -usual, giving to him the appearance of a statue that was made to -represent intense attention. - -Heyward, who watched his movements with a vigilant eye, carelessly -extricated one of his feet from the stirrup, while he passed a hand -toward the bear-skin covering of his holsters. - -Every effort to detect the point most regarded by the runner was -completely frustrated by the tremulous glances of his organs, which -seemed not to rest a single instant on any particular object, and which, -at the same time, could be hardly said to move. While he hesitated how -to proceed, Le Subtil cautiously raised himself to his feet, though with -a motion so slow and guarded, that not the slightest noise was produced -by the change. Heyward felt it had now become incumbent on him to act. -Throwing his leg over the saddle, he dismounted, with a determination to -advance and seize his treacherous companion, trusting the result to his -own manhood. In order, however, to prevent unnecessary alarm, he still -preserved an air of calmness and friendship. - -"Le Renard Subtil does not eat," he said, using the appellation he had -found most flattering to the vanity of the Indian. "His corn is not -well parched, and it seems dry. Let me examine; perhaps something may be -found among my own provisions that will help his appetite." - -Magua held out the wallet to the proffer of the other. He even suffered -their hands to meet, without betraying the least emotion, or varying his -riveted attitude of attention. But when he felt the fingers of Heyward -moving gently along his own naked arm, he struck up the limb of the -young man, and, uttering a piercing cry, he darted beneath it, and -plunged, at a single bound, into the opposite thicket. At the next -instant the form of Chingachgook appeared from the bushes, looking like -a specter in its paint, and glided across the path in swift pursuit. -Next followed the shout of Uncas, when the woods were lighted by a -sudden flash, that was accompanied by the sharp report of the hunter's -rifle. - - - - -CHAPTER 5 - - ..."In such a night - Did This be fearfully o'ertrip the dew; - And saw the lion's shadow ere himself."--Merchant of Venice - -The suddenness of the flight of his guide, and the wild cries of the -pursuers, caused Heyward to remain fixed, for a few moments, in inactive -surprise. Then recollecting the importance of securing the fugitive, he -dashed aside the surrounding bushes, and pressed eagerly forward to lend -his aid in the chase. Before he had, however, proceeded a hundred yards, -he met the three foresters already returning from their unsuccessful -pursuit. - -"Why so soon disheartened!" he exclaimed; "the scoundrel must be -concealed behind some of these trees, and may yet be secured. We are not -safe while he goes at large." - -"Would you set a cloud to chase the wind?" returned the disappointed -scout; "I heard the imp brushing over the dry leaves, like a black -snake, and blinking a glimpse of him, just over ag'in yon big pine, I -pulled as it might be on the scent; but 'twouldn't do! and yet for a -reasoning aim, if anybody but myself had touched the trigger, I should -call it a quick sight; and I may be accounted to have experience in -these matters, and one who ought to know. Look at this sumach; its -leaves are red, though everybody knows the fruit is in the yellow -blossom in the month of July!" - -"'Tis the blood of Le Subtil! he is hurt, and may yet fall!" - -"No, no," returned the scout, in decided disapprobation of this opinion, -"I rubbed the bark off a limb, perhaps, but the creature leaped the -longer for it. A rifle bullet acts on a running animal, when it barks -him, much the same as one of your spurs on a horse; that is, it quickens -motion, and puts life into the flesh, instead of taking it away. But -when it cuts the ragged hole, after a bound or two, there is, commonly, -a stagnation of further leaping, be it Indian or be it deer!" - -"We are four able bodies, to one wounded man!" - -"Is life grievous to you?" interrupted the scout. "Yonder red devil -would draw you within swing of the tomahawks of his comrades, before you -were heated in the chase. It was an unthoughtful act in a man who has so -often slept with the war-whoop ringing in the air, to let off his piece -within sound of an ambushment! But then it was a natural temptation! -'twas very natural! Come, friends, let us move our station, and in such -fashion, too, as will throw the cunning of a Mingo on a wrong scent, or -our scalps will be drying in the wind in front of Montcalm's marquee, -ag'in this hour to-morrow." - -This appalling declaration, which the scout uttered with the cool -assurance of a man who fully comprehended, while he did not fear to face -the danger, served to remind Heyward of the importance of the charge -with which he himself had been intrusted. Glancing his eyes around, with -a vain effort to pierce the gloom that was thickening beneath the -leafy arches of the forest, he felt as if, cut off from human aid, -his unresisting companions would soon lie at the entire mercy of those -barbarous enemies, who, like beasts of prey, only waited till the -gathering darkness might render their blows more fatally certain. His -awakened imagination, deluded by the deceptive light, converted each -waving bush, or the fragment of some fallen tree, into human forms, and -twenty times he fancied he could distinguish the horrid visages of -his lurking foes, peering from their hiding places, in never ceasing -watchfulness of the movements of his party. Looking upward, he found -that the thin fleecy clouds, which evening had painted on the blue -sky, were already losing their faintest tints of rose-color, while the -imbedded stream, which glided past the spot where he stood, was to be -traced only by the dark boundary of its wooded banks. - -"What is to be done!" he said, feeling the utter helplessness of doubt -in such a pressing strait; "desert me not, for God's sake! remain to -defend those I escort, and freely name your own reward!" - -His companions, who conversed apart in the language of their tribe, -heeded not this sudden and earnest appeal. Though their dialogue was -maintained in low and cautious sounds, but little above a whisper, -Heyward, who now approached, could easily distinguish the earnest tones -of the younger warrior from the more deliberate speeches of his seniors. -It was evident that they debated on the propriety of some measure, that -nearly concerned the welfare of the travelers. Yielding to his powerful -interest in the subject, and impatient of a delay that seemed fraught -with so much additional danger, Heyward drew still nigher to the dusky -group, with an intention of making his offers of compensation more -definite, when the white man, motioning with his hand, as if he conceded -the disputed point, turned away, saying in a sort of soliloquy, and in -the English tongue: - -"Uncas is right! it would not be the act of men to leave such harmless -things to their fate, even though it breaks up the harboring place -forever. If you would save these tender blossoms from the fangs of -the worst of serpents, gentleman, you have neither time to lose nor -resolution to throw away!" - -"How can such a wish be doubted! Have I not already offered--" - -"Offer your prayers to Him who can give us wisdom to circumvent the -cunning of the devils who fill these woods," calmly interrupted the -scout, "but spare your offers of money, which neither you may live to -realize, nor I to profit by. These Mohicans and I will do what man's -thoughts can invent, to keep such flowers, which, though so sweet, were -never made for the wilderness, from harm, and that without hope of -any other recompense but such as God always gives to upright dealings. -First, you must promise two things, both in your own name and for your -friends, or without serving you we shall only injure ourselves!" - -"Name them." - -"The one is, to be still as these sleeping woods, let what will happen -and the other is, to keep the place where we shall take you, forever a -secret from all mortal men." - -"I will do my utmost to see both these conditions fulfilled." - -"Then follow, for we are losing moments that are as precious as the -heart's blood to a stricken deer!" - -Heyward could distinguish the impatient gesture of the scout, through -the increasing shadows of the evening, and he moved in his footsteps, -swiftly, toward the place where he had left the remainder of the -party. When they rejoined the expecting and anxious females, he briefly -acquainted them with the conditions of their new guide, and with the -necessity that existed for their hushing every apprehension in instant -and serious exertions. Although his alarming communication was not -received without much secret terror by the listeners, his earnest and -impressive manner, aided perhaps by the nature of the danger, succeeded -in bracing their nerves to undergo some unlooked-for and unusual trial. -Silently, and without a moment's delay, they permitted him to assist -them from their saddles, and when they descended quickly to the water's -edge, where the scout had collected the rest of the party, more by the -agency of expressive gestures than by any use of words. - -"What to do with these dumb creatures!" muttered the white man, on whom -the sole control of their future movements appeared to devolve; "it -would be time lost to cut their throats, and cast them into the river; -and to leave them here would be to tell the Mingoes that they have not -far to seek to find their owners!" - -"Then give them their bridles, and let them range the woods," Heyward -ventured to suggest. - -"No; it would be better to mislead the imps, and make them believe they -must equal a horse's speed to run down their chase. Ay, ay, that will -blind their fireballs of eyes! Chingach--Hist! what stirs the bush?" - -"The colt." - -"That colt, at least, must die," muttered the scout, grasping at the -mane of the nimble beast, which easily eluded his hand; "Uncas, your -arrows!" - -"Hold!" exclaimed the proprietor of the condemned animal, aloud, without -regard to the whispering tones used by the others; "spare the foal -of Miriam! it is the comely offspring of a faithful dam, and would -willingly injure naught." - -"When men struggle for the single life God has given them," said the -scout, sternly, "even their own kind seem no more than the beasts of the -wood. If you speak again, I shall leave you to the mercy of the Maquas! -Draw to your arrow's head, Uncas; we have no time for second blows." - -The low, muttering sounds of his threatening voice were still audible, -when the wounded foal, first rearing on its hinder legs, plunged forward -to its knees. It was met by Chingachgook, whose knife passed across its -throat quicker than thought, and then precipitating the motions of the -struggling victim, he dashed into the river, down whose stream it glided -away, gasping audibly for breath with its ebbing life. This deed of -apparent cruelty, but of real necessity, fell upon the spirits of the -travelers like a terrific warning of the peril in which they stood, -heightened as it was by the calm though steady resolution of the actors -in the scene. The sisters shuddered and clung closer to each other, -while Heyward instinctively laid his hand on one of the pistols he had -just drawn from their holsters, as he placed himself between his charge -and those dense shadows that seemed to draw an impenetrable veil before -the bosom of the forest. - -The Indians, however, hesitated not a moment, but taking the bridles, -they led the frightened and reluctant horses into the bed of the river. - -At a short distance from the shore they turned, and were soon concealed -by the projection of the bank, under the brow of which they moved, in -a direction opposite to the course of the waters. In the meantime, the -scout drew a canoe of bark from its place of concealment beneath some -low bushes, whose branches were waving with the eddies of the current, -into which he silently motioned for the females to enter. They complied -without hesitation, though many a fearful and anxious glance was thrown -behind them, toward the thickening gloom, which now lay like a dark -barrier along the margin of the stream. - -So soon as Cora and Alice were seated, the scout, without regarding the -element, directed Heyward to support one side of the frail vessel, -and posting himself at the other, they bore it up against the stream, -followed by the dejected owner of the dead foal. In this manner they -proceeded, for many rods, in a silence that was only interrupted by the -rippling of the water, as its eddies played around them, or the low dash -made by their own cautious footsteps. Heyward yielded the guidance of -the canoe implicitly to the scout, who approached or receded from the -shore, to avoid the fragments of rocks, or deeper parts of the river, -with a readiness that showed his knowledge of the route they held. -Occasionally he would stop; and in the midst of a breathing stillness, -that the dull but increasing roar of the waterfall only served to render -more impressive, he would listen with painful intenseness, to catch any -sounds that might arise from the slumbering forest. When assured that -all was still, and unable to detect, even by the aid of his practiced -senses, any sign of his approaching foes, he would deliberately resume -his slow and guarded progress. At length they reached a point in the -river where the roving eye of Heyward became riveted on a cluster of -black objects, collected at a spot where the high bank threw a deeper -shadow than usual on the dark waters. Hesitating to advance, he pointed -out the place to the attention of his companion. - -"Ay," returned the composed scout, "the Indians have hid the beasts with -the judgment of natives! Water leaves no trail, and an owl's eyes would -be blinded by the darkness of such a hole." - -The whole party was soon reunited, and another consultation was held -between the scout and his new comrades, during which, they, whose fates -depended on the faith and ingenuity of these unknown foresters, had a -little leisure to observe their situation more minutely. - -The river was confined between high and cragged rocks, one of which -impended above the spot where the canoe rested. As these, again, were -surmounted by tall trees, which appeared to totter on the brows of the -precipice, it gave the stream the appearance of running through a deep -and narrow dell. All beneath the fantastic limbs and ragged tree tops, -which were, here and there, dimly painted against the starry zenith, -lay alike in shadowed obscurity. Behind them, the curvature of the banks -soon bounded the view by the same dark and wooded outline; but in front, -and apparently at no great distance, the water seemed piled against -the heavens, whence it tumbled into caverns, out of which issued those -sullen sounds that had loaded the evening atmosphere. It seemed, in -truth, to be a spot devoted to seclusion, and the sisters imbibed a -soothing impression of security, as they gazed upon its romantic though -not unappalling beauties. A general movement among their conductors, -however, soon recalled them from a contemplation of the wild charms that -night had assisted to lend the place to a painful sense of their real -peril. - -The horses had been secured to some scattering shrubs that grew in the -fissures of the rocks, where, standing in the water, they were left to -pass the night. The scout directed Heyward and his disconsolate fellow -travelers to seat themselves in the forward end of the canoe, and took -possession of the other himself, as erect and steady as if he floated -in a vessel of much firmer materials. The Indians warily retraced their -steps toward the place they had left, when the scout, placing his pole -against a rock, by a powerful shove, sent his frail bark directly into -the turbulent stream. For many minutes the struggle between the light -bubble in which they floated and the swift current was severe and -doubtful. Forbidden to stir even a hand, and almost afraid to breath, -lest they should expose the frail fabric to the fury of the stream, -the passengers watched the glancing waters in feverish suspense. -Twenty times they thought the whirling eddies were sweeping them to -destruction, when the master-hand of their pilot would bring the bows of -the canoe to stem the rapid. A long, a vigorous, and, as it appeared -to the females, a desperate effort, closed the struggle. Just as Alice -veiled her eyes in horror, under the impression that they were about -to be swept within the vortex at the foot of the cataract, the canoe -floated, stationary, at the side of a flat rock, that lay on a level -with the water. - -"Where are we, and what is next to be done!" demanded Heyward, -perceiving that the exertions of the scout had ceased. - -"You are at the foot of Glenn's," returned the other, speaking aloud, -without fear of consequences within the roar of the cataract; "and the -next thing is to make a steady landing, lest the canoe upset, and you -should go down again the hard road we have traveled faster than you came -up; 'tis a hard rift to stem, when the river is a little swelled; and -five is an unnatural number to keep dry, in a hurry-skurry, with a -little birchen bark and gum. There, go you all on the rock, and I will -bring up the Mohicans with the venison. A man had better sleep without -his scalp, than famish in the midst of plenty." - -His passengers gladly complied with these directions. As the last foot -touched the rock, the canoe whirled from its station, when the tall form -of the scout was seen, for an instant, gliding above the waters, before -it disappeared in the impenetrable darkness that rested on the bed of -the river. Left by their guide, the travelers remained a few minutes in -helpless ignorance, afraid even to move along the broken rocks, lest a -false step should precipitate them down some one of the many deep and -roaring caverns, into which the water seemed to tumble, on every side -of them. Their suspense, however, was soon relieved; for, aided by the -skill of the natives, the canoe shot back into the eddy, and floated -again at the side of the low rock, before they thought the scout had -even time to rejoin his companions. - -"We are now fortified, garrisoned, and provisioned," cried Heyward -cheerfully, "and may set Montcalm and his allies at defiance. How, now, -my vigilant sentinel, can see anything of those you call the Iroquois, -on the main land!" - -"I call them Iroquois, because to me every native, who speaks a foreign -tongue, is accounted an enemy, though he may pretend to serve the king! -If Webb wants faith and honesty in an Indian, let him bring out the -tribes of the Delawares, and send these greedy and lying Mohawks and -Oneidas, with their six nations of varlets, where in nature they belong, -among the French!" - -"We should then exchange a warlike for a useless friend! I have heard -that the Delawares have laid aside the hatchet, and are content to be -called women!" - -"Aye, shame on the Hollanders and Iroquois, who circumvented them by -their deviltries, into such a treaty! But I have known them for twenty -years, and I call him liar that says cowardly blood runs in the veins -of a Delaware. You have driven their tribes from the seashore, and would -now believe what their enemies say, that you may sleep at night upon an -easy pillow. No, no; to me, every Indian who speaks a foreign tongue -is an Iroquois, whether the castle* of his tribe be in Canada, or be in -York." - - * The principal villages of the Indians are still called - "castles" by the whites of New York. "Oneida castle" is no - more than a scattered hamlet; but the name is in general - use. - -Heyward, perceiving that the stubborn adherence of the scout to the -cause of his friends the Delawares, or Mohicans, for they were branches -of the same numerous people, was likely to prolong a useless discussion, -changed the subject. - -"Treaty or no treaty, I know full well that your two companions are -brave and cautious warriors! have they heard or seen anything of our -enemies!" - -"An Indian is a mortal to be felt afore he is seen," returned the scout, -ascending the rock, and throwing the deer carelessly down. "I trust to -other signs than such as come in at the eye, when I am outlying on the -trail of the Mingoes." - -"Do your ears tell you that they have traced our retreat?" - -"I should be sorry to think they had, though this is a spot that stout -courage might hold for a smart scrimmage. I will not deny, however, -but the horses cowered when I passed them, as though they scented the -wolves; and a wolf is a beast that is apt to hover about an Indian -ambushment, craving the offals of the deer the savages kill." - -"You forget the buck at your feet! or, may we not owe their visit to the -dead colt? Ha! what noise is that?" - -"Poor Miriam!" murmured the stranger; "thy foal was foreordained to -become a prey to ravenous beasts!" Then, suddenly lifting up his voice, -amid the eternal din of the waters, he sang aloud: "First born of Egypt, -smite did he, Of mankind, and of beast also: O, Egypt! wonders sent -'midst thee, On Pharaoh and his servants too!" - -"The death of the colt sits heavy on the heart of its owner," said the -scout; "but it's a good sign to see a man account upon his dumb friends. -He has the religion of the matter, in believing what is to happen will -happen; and with such a consolation, it won't be long afore he submits -to the rationality of killing a four-footed beast to save the lives of -human men. It may be as you say," he continued, reverting to the purport -of Heyward's last remark; "and the greater the reason why we should cut -our steaks, and let the carcass drive down the stream, or we shall have -the pack howling along the cliffs, begrudging every mouthful we swallow. -Besides, though the Delaware tongue is the same as a book to the -Iroquois, the cunning varlets are quick enough at understanding the -reason of a wolf's howl." - -The scout, while making his remarks, was busied in collecting certain -necessary implements; as he concluded, he moved silently by the group -of travelers, accompanied by the Mohicans, who seemed to comprehend his -intentions with instinctive readiness, when the whole three -disappeared in succession, seeming to vanish against the dark face of -a perpendicular rock that rose to the height of a few yards, within as -many feet of the water's edge. - - - - -CHAPTER 6 - - "Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide; - He wales a portion with judicious care; - And 'Let us worship God', he says, with solemn air."--Burns - -Heyward and his female companions witnessed this mysterious movement -with secret uneasiness; for, though the conduct of the white man had -hitherto been above reproach, his rude equipments, blunt address, -and strong antipathies, together with the character of his silent -associates, were all causes for exciting distrust in minds that had been -so recently alarmed by Indian treachery. - -The stranger alone disregarded the passing incidents. He seated -himself on a projection of the rocks, whence he gave no other signs -of consciousness than by the struggles of his spirit, as manifested in -frequent and heavy sighs. Smothered voices were next heard, as though -men called to each other in the bowels of the earth, when a sudden light -flashed upon those without, and laid bare the much-prized secret of the -place. - -At the further extremity of a narrow, deep cavern in the rock, whose -length appeared much extended by the perspective and the nature of the -light by which it was seen, was seated the scout, holding a blazing -knot of pine. The strong glare of the fire fell full upon his sturdy, -weather-beaten countenance and forest attire, lending an air of romantic -wildness to the aspect of an individual, who, seen by the sober light of -day, would have exhibited the peculiarities of a man remarkable for the -strangeness of his dress, the iron-like inflexibility of his frame, -and the singular compound of quick, vigilant sagacity, and of exquisite -simplicity, that by turns usurped the possession of his muscular -features. At a little distance in advance stood Uncas, his whole person -thrown powerfully into view. The travelers anxiously regarded the -upright, flexible figure of the young Mohican, graceful and unrestrained -in the attitudes and movements of nature. Though his person was more -than usually screened by a green and fringed hunting-shirt, like that of -the white man, there was no concealment to his dark, glancing, fearless -eye, alike terrible and calm; the bold outline of his high, haughty -features, pure in their native red; or to the dignified elevation of his -receding forehead, together with all the finest proportions of a noble -head, bared to the generous scalping tuft. It was the first opportunity -possessed by Duncan and his companions to view the marked lineaments of -either of their Indian attendants, and each individual of the party felt -relieved from a burden of doubt, as the proud and determined, though -wild expression of the features of the young warrior forced itself on -their notice. They felt it might be a being partially benighted in the -vale of ignorance, but it could not be one who would willingly devote -his rich natural gifts to the purposes of wanton treachery. The -ingenuous Alice gazed at his free air and proud carriage, as she would -have looked upon some precious relic of the Grecian chisel, to which -life had been imparted by the intervention of a miracle; while Heyward, -though accustomed to see the perfection of form which abounds among -the uncorrupted natives, openly expressed his admiration at such an -unblemished specimen of the noblest proportions of man. - -"I could sleep in peace," whispered Alice, in reply, "with such a -fearless and generous-looking youth for my sentinel. Surely, Duncan, -those cruel murders, those terrific scenes of torture, of which we read -and hear so much, are never acted in the presence of such as he!" - -"This certainly is a rare and brilliant instance of those natural -qualities in which these peculiar people are said to excel," he -answered. "I agree with you, Alice, in thinking that such a front and -eye were formed rather to intimidate than to deceive; but let us not -practice a deception upon ourselves, by expecting any other exhibition -of what we esteem virtue than according to the fashion of the savage. -As bright examples of great qualities are but too uncommon among -Christians, so are they singular and solitary with the Indians; though, -for the honor of our common nature, neither are incapable of producing -them. Let us then hope that this Mohican may not disappoint our wishes, -but prove what his looks assert him to be, a brave and constant friend." - -"Now Major Heyward speaks as Major Heyward should," said Cora; "who that -looks at this creature of nature, remembers the shade of his skin?" - -A short and apparently an embarrassed silence succeeded this remark, -which was interrupted by the scout calling to them, aloud, to enter. - -"This fire begins to show too bright a flame," he continued, as they -complied, "and might light the Mingoes to our undoing. Uncas, drop the -blanket, and show the knaves its dark side. This is not such a supper -as a major of the Royal Americans has a right to expect, but I've -known stout detachments of the corps glad to eat their venison raw, and -without a relish, too*. Here, you see, we have plenty of salt, and can -make a quick broil. There's fresh sassafras boughs for the ladies to sit -on, which may not be as proud as their my-hog-guinea chairs, but which -sends up a sweeter flavor, than the skin of any hog can do, be it of -Guinea, or be it of any other land. Come, friend, don't be mournful for -the colt; 'twas an innocent thing, and had not seen much hardship. Its -death will save the creature many a sore back and weary foot!" - - * In vulgar parlance the condiments of a repast are called - by the American "a relish," substituting the thing for its - effect. These provincial terms are frequently put in the - mouths of the speakers, according to their several - conditions in life. Most of them are of local use, and - others quite peculiar to the particular class of men to - which the character belongs. In the present instance, the - scout uses the word with immediate reference to the "salt," - with which his own party was so fortunate as to be provided. - -Uncas did as the other had directed, and when the voice of Hawkeye -ceased, the roar of the cataract sounded like the rumbling of distant -thunder. - -"Are we quite safe in this cavern?" demanded Heyward. "Is there no -danger of surprise? A single armed man, at its entrance, would hold us -at his mercy." - -A spectral-looking figure stalked from out of the darkness behind the -scout, and seizing a blazing brand, held it toward the further extremity -of their place of retreat. Alice uttered a faint shriek, and even Cora -rose to her feet, as this appalling object moved into the light; but -a single word from Heyward calmed them, with the assurance it was only -their attendant, Chingachgook, who, lifting another blanket, discovered -that the cavern had two outlets. Then, holding the brand, he crossed -a deep, narrow chasm in the rocks which ran at right angles with the -passage they were in, but which, unlike that, was open to the heavens, -and entered another cave, answering to the description of the first, in -every essential particular. - -"Such old foxes as Chingachgook and myself are not often caught in a -barrow with one hole," said Hawkeye, laughing; "you can easily see the -cunning of the place--the rock is black limestone, which everybody knows -is soft; it makes no uncomfortable pillow, where brush and pine wood is -scarce; well, the fall was once a few yards below us, and I dare to say -was, in its time, as regular and as handsome a sheet of water as any -along the Hudson. But old age is a great injury to good looks, as these -sweet young ladies have yet to l'arn! The place is sadly changed! These -rocks are full of cracks, and in some places they are softer than at -othersome, and the water has worked out deep hollows for itself, until -it has fallen back, ay, some hundred feet, breaking here and wearing -there, until the falls have neither shape nor consistency." - -"In what part of them are we?" asked Heyward. - -"Why, we are nigh the spot that Providence first placed them at, but -where, it seems, they were too rebellious to stay. The rock proved -softer on each side of us, and so they left the center of the river bare -and dry, first working out these two little holes for us to hide in." - -"We are then on an island!" - -"Ay! there are the falls on two sides of us, and the river above and -below. If you had daylight, it would be worth the trouble to step up -on the height of this rock, and look at the perversity of the water. It -falls by no rule at all; sometimes it leaps, sometimes it tumbles; -there it skips; here it shoots; in one place 'tis white as snow, and in -another 'tis green as grass; hereabouts, it pitches into deep hollows, -that rumble and crush the 'arth; and thereaways, it ripples and sings -like a brook, fashioning whirlpools and gullies in the old stone, as if -'twas no harder than trodden clay. The whole design of the river seems -disconcerted. First it runs smoothly, as if meaning to go down the -descent as things were ordered; then it angles about and faces the -shores; nor are there places wanting where it looks backward, as if -unwilling to leave the wilderness, to mingle with the salt. Ay, lady, -the fine cobweb-looking cloth you wear at your throat is coarse, -and like a fishnet, to little spots I can show you, where the river -fabricates all sorts of images, as if having broke loose from order, it -would try its hand at everything. And yet what does it amount to! After -the water has been suffered so to have its will, for a time, like a -headstrong man, it is gathered together by the hand that made it, and a -few rods below you may see it all, flowing on steadily toward the sea, -as was foreordained from the first foundation of the 'arth!" - -While his auditors received a cheering assurance of the security of -their place of concealment from this untutored description of Glenn's,* -they were much inclined to judge differently from Hawkeye, of its wild -beauties. But they were not in a situation to suffer their thoughts to -dwell on the charms of natural objects; and, as the scout had not found -it necessary to cease his culinary labors while he spoke, unless to -point out, with a broken fork, the direction of some particularly -obnoxious point in the rebellious stream, they now suffered their -attention to be drawn to the necessary though more vulgar consideration -of their supper. - - * Glenn's Falls are on the Hudson, some forty or fifty miles - above the head of tide, or that place where the river - becomes navigable for sloops. The description of this - picturesque and remarkable little cataract, as given by the - scout, is sufficiently correct, though the application of - the water to uses of civilized life has materially injured - its beauties. The rocky island and the two caverns are known - to every traveler, since the former sustains the pier of a - bridge, which is now thrown across the river, immediately - above the fall. In explanation of the taste of Hawkeye, it - should be remembered that men always prize that most which - is least enjoyed. Thus, in a new country, the woods and - other objects, which in an old country would be maintained - at great cost, are got rid of, simply with a view of - "improving" as it is called. - -The repast, which was greatly aided by the addition of a few delicacies -that Heyward had the precaution to bring with him when they left their -horses, was exceedingly refreshing to the weary party. Uncas acted as -attendant to the females, performing all the little offices within his -power, with a mixture of dignity and anxious grace, that served to amuse -Heyward, who well knew that it was an utter innovation on the -Indian customs, which forbid their warriors to descend to any menial -employment, especially in favor of their women. As the rights of -hospitality were, however, considered sacred among them, this little -departure from the dignity of manhood excited no audible comment. Had -there been one there sufficiently disengaged to become a close observer, -he might have fancied that the services of the young chief were not -entirely impartial. That while he tendered to Alice the gourd of sweet -water, and the venison in a trencher, neatly carved from the knot of the -pepperidge, with sufficient courtesy, in performing the same offices -to her sister, his dark eye lingered on her rich, speaking countenance. -Once or twice he was compelled to speak, to command her attention -of those he served. In such cases he made use of English, broken and -imperfect, but sufficiently intelligible, and which he rendered so mild -and musical, by his deep, guttural voice, that it never failed to cause -both ladies to look up in admiration and astonishment. In the course -of these civilities, a few sentences were exchanged, that served to -establish the appearance of an amicable intercourse between the parties. - -In the meanwhile, the gravity of Chingcachgook remained immovable. He -had seated himself more within the circle of light, where the frequent, -uneasy glances of his guests were better enabled to separate the natural -expression of his face from the artificial terrors of the war paint. -They found a strong resemblance between father and son, with the -difference that might be expected from age and hardships. The fierceness -of his countenance now seemed to slumber, and in its place was to be -seen the quiet, vacant composure which distinguishes an Indian warrior, -when his faculties are not required for any of the greater purposes -of his existence. It was, however, easy to be seen, by the occasional -gleams that shot across his swarthy visage, that it was only necessary -to arouse his passions, in order to give full effect to the terrific -device which he had adopted to intimidate his enemies. On the other -hand, the quick, roving eye of the scout seldom rested. He ate and -drank with an appetite that no sense of danger could disturb, but his -vigilance seemed never to desert him. Twenty times the gourd or the -venison was suspended before his lips, while his head was turned aside, -as though he listened to some distant and distrusted sounds--a movement -that never failed to recall his guests from regarding the novelties -of their situation, to a recollection of the alarming reasons that had -driven them to seek it. As these frequent pauses were never followed by -any remark, the momentary uneasiness they created quickly passed away, -and for a time was forgotten. - -"Come, friend," said Hawkeye, drawing out a keg from beneath a cover of -leaves, toward the close of the repast, and addressing the stranger -who sat at his elbow, doing great justice to his culinary skill, "try -a little spruce; 'twill wash away all thoughts of the colt, and quicken -the life in your bosom. I drink to our better friendship, hoping that -a little horse-flesh may leave no heart-burnings atween us. How do you -name yourself?" - -"Gamut--David Gamut," returned the singing master, preparing to wash -down his sorrows in a powerful draught of the woodsman's high-flavored -and well-laced compound. - -"A very good name, and, I dare say, handed down from honest forefathers. -I'm an admirator of names, though the Christian fashions fall far below -savage customs in this particular. The biggest coward I ever knew as -called Lyon; and his wife, Patience, would scold you out of hearing -in less time than a hunted deer would run a rod. With an Indian 'tis a -matter of conscience; what he calls himself, he generally is--not that -Chingachgook, which signifies Big Sarpent, is really a snake, big or -little; but that he understands the windings and turnings of human -natur', and is silent, and strikes his enemies when they least expect -him. What may be your calling?" - -"I am an unworthy instructor in the art of psalmody." - -"Anan!" - -"I teach singing to the youths of the Connecticut levy." - -"You might be better employed. The young hounds go laughing and singing -too much already through the woods, when they ought not to breathe -louder than a fox in his cover. Can you use the smoothbore, or handle -the rifle?" - -"Praised be God, I have never had occasion to meddle with murderous -implements!" - -"Perhaps you understand the compass, and lay down the watercourses and -mountains of the wilderness on paper, in order that they who follow may -find places by their given names?" - -"I practice no such employment." - -"You have a pair of legs that might make a long path seem short! you -journey sometimes, I fancy, with tidings for the general." - -"Never; I follow no other than my own high vocation, which is -instruction in sacred music!" - -"'Tis a strange calling!" muttered Hawkeye, with an inward laugh, "to -go through life, like a catbird, mocking all the ups and downs that may -happen to come out of other men's throats. Well, friend, I suppose it -is your gift, and mustn't be denied any more than if 'twas shooting, or -some other better inclination. Let us hear what you can do in that way; -'twill be a friendly manner of saying good-night, for 'tis time that -these ladies should be getting strength for a hard and a long push, in -the pride of the morning, afore the Maquas are stirring." - -"With joyful pleasure do I consent", said David, adjusting his -iron-rimmed spectacles, and producing his beloved little volume, -which he immediately tendered to Alice. "What can be more fitting -and consolatory, than to offer up evening praise, after a day of such -exceeding jeopardy!" - -Alice smiled; but, regarding Heyward, she blushed and hesitated. - -"Indulge yourself," he whispered; "ought not the suggestion of the -worthy namesake of the Psalmist to have its weight at such a moment?" - -Encouraged by his opinion, Alice did what her pious inclinations, and -her keen relish for gentle sounds, had before so strongly urged. The -book was open at a hymn not ill adapted to their situation, and in which -the poet, no longer goaded by his desire to excel the inspired King -of Israel, had discovered some chastened and respectable powers. Cora -betrayed a disposition to support her sister, and the sacred song -proceeded, after the indispensable preliminaries of the pitchpipe, and -the tune had been duly attended to by the methodical David. - -The air was solemn and slow. At times it rose to the fullest compass of -the rich voices of the females, who hung over their little book in holy -excitement, and again it sank so low, that the rushing of the waters ran -through their melody, like a hollow accompaniment. The natural taste and -true ear of David governed and modified the sounds to suit the confined -cavern, every crevice and cranny of which was filled with the thrilling -notes of their flexible voices. The Indians riveted their eyes on the -rocks, and listened with an attention that seemed to turn them into -stone. But the scout, who had placed his chin in his hand, with an -expression of cold indifference, gradually suffered his rigid features -to relax, until, as verse succeeded verse, he felt his iron nature -subdued, while his recollection was carried back to boyhood, when his -ears had been accustomed to listen to similar sounds of praise, in the -settlements of the colony. His roving eyes began to moisten, and before -the hymn was ended scalding tears rolled out of fountains that had long -seemed dry, and followed each other down those cheeks, that had oftener -felt the storms of heaven than any testimonials of weakness. The singers -were dwelling on one of those low, dying chords, which the ear devours -with such greedy rapture, as if conscious that it is about to lose them, -when a cry, that seemed neither human nor earthly, rose in the outward -air, penetrating not only the recesses of the cavern, but to the inmost -hearts of all who heard it. It was followed by a stillness apparently -as deep as if the waters had been checked in their furious progress, at -such a horrid and unusual interruption. - -"What is it?" murmured Alice, after a few moments of terrible suspense. - -"What is it?" repeated Hewyard aloud. - -Neither Hawkeye nor the Indians made any reply. They listened, as if -expecting the sound would be repeated, with a manner that expressed -their own astonishment. At length they spoke together, earnestly, in the -Delaware language, when Uncas, passing by the inner and most concealed -aperture, cautiously left the cavern. When he had gone, the scout first -spoke in English. - -"What it is, or what it is not, none here can tell, though two of us -have ranged the woods for more than thirty years. I did believe there -was no cry that Indian or beast could make, that my ears had not heard; -but this has proved that I was only a vain and conceited mortal." - -"Was it not, then, the shout the warriors make when they wish to -intimidate their enemies?" asked Cora who stood drawing her veil about -her person, with a calmness to which her agitated sister was a stranger. - -"No, no; this was bad, and shocking, and had a sort of unhuman sound; -but when you once hear the war-whoop, you will never mistake it for -anything else. Well, Uncas!" speaking in Delaware to the young chief as -he re-entered, "what see you? do our lights shine through the blankets?" - -The answer was short, and apparently decided, being given in the same -tongue. - -"There is nothing to be seen without," continued Hawkeye, shaking his -head in discontent; "and our hiding-place is still in darkness. Pass -into the other cave, you that need it, and seek for sleep; we must -be afoot long before the sun, and make the most of our time to get to -Edward, while the Mingoes are taking their morning nap." - -Cora set the example of compliance, with a steadiness that taught the -more timid Alice the necessity of obedience. Before leaving the place, -however, she whispered a request to Duncan, that he would follow. Uncas -raised the blanket for their passage, and as the sisters turned to thank -him for this act of attention, they saw the scout seated again before -the dying embers, with his face resting on his hands, in a manner which -showed how deeply he brooded on the unaccountable interruption which had -broken up their evening devotions. - -Heyward took with him a blazing knot, which threw a dim light through -the narrow vista of their new apartment. Placing it in a favorable -position, he joined the females, who now found themselves alone with -him for the first time since they had left the friendly ramparts of Fort -Edward. - -"Leave us not, Duncan," said Alice: "we cannot sleep in such a place as -this, with that horrid cry still ringing in our ears." - -"First let us examine into the security of your fortress," he answered, -"and then we will speak of rest." - -He approached the further end of the cavern, to an outlet, which, like -the others, was concealed by blankets; and removing the thick screen, -breathed the fresh and reviving air from the cataract. One arm of the -river flowed through a deep, narrow ravine, which its current had -worn in the soft rock, directly beneath his feet, forming an effectual -defense, as he believed, against any danger from that quarter; the -water, a few rods above them, plunging, glancing, and sweeping along in -its most violent and broken manner. - -"Nature has made an impenetrable barrier on this side," he continued, -pointing down the perpendicular declivity into the dark current before -he dropped the blanket; "and as you know that good men and true are on -guard in front I see no reason why the advice of our honest host should -be disregarded. I am certain Cora will join me in saying that sleep is -necessary to you both." - -"Cora may submit to the justice of your opinion though she cannot put it -in practice," returned the elder sister, who had placed herself by the -side of Alice, on a couch of sassafras; "there would be other causes to -chase away sleep, though we had been spared the shock of this mysterious -noise. Ask yourself, Heyward, can daughters forget the anxiety a father -must endure, whose children lodge he knows not where or how, in such a -wilderness, and in the midst of so many perils?" - -"He is a soldier, and knows how to estimate the chances of the woods." - -"He is a father, and cannot deny his nature." - -"How kind has he ever been to all my follies, how tender and indulgent -to all my wishes!" sobbed Alice. "We have been selfish, sister, in -urging our visit at such hazard." - -"I may have been rash in pressing his consent in a moment of much -embarrassment, but I would have proved to him, that however others might -neglect him in his strait his children at least were faithful." - -"When he heard of your arrival at Edward," said Heyward, kindly, "there -was a powerful struggle in his bosom between fear and love; though -the latter, heightened, if possible, by so long a separation, quickly -prevailed. 'It is the spirit of my noble-minded Cora that leads them, -Duncan', he said, 'and I will not balk it. Would to God, that he who -holds the honor of our royal master in his guardianship, would show but -half her firmness!'" - -"And did he not speak of me, Heyward?" demanded Alice, with jealous -affection; "surely, he forgot not altogether his little Elsie?" - -"That were impossible," returned the young man; "he called you by a -thousand endearing epithets, that I may not presume to use, but to the -justice of which, I can warmly testify. Once, indeed, he said--" - -Duncan ceased speaking; for while his eyes were riveted on those of -Alice, who had turned toward him with the eagerness of filial affection, -to catch his words, the same strong, horrid cry, as before, filled the -air, and rendered him mute. A long, breathless silence succeeded, during -which each looked at the others in fearful expectation of hearing the -sound repeated. At length, the blanket was slowly raised, and the scout -stood in the aperture with a countenance whose firmness evidently -began to give way before a mystery that seemed to threaten some danger, -against which all his cunning and experience might prove of no avail. - - - - -CHAPTER 7 - - "They do not sleep, - On yonder cliffs, a grizzly band, - I see them sit."--Gray - -"'Twould be neglecting a warning that is given for our good to lie hid -any longer," said Hawkeye "when such sounds are raised in the forest. -These gentle ones may keep close, but the Mohicans and I will watch upon -the rock, where I suppose a major of the Sixtieth would wish to keep us -company." - -"Is, then, our danger so pressing?" asked Cora. - -"He who makes strange sounds, and gives them out for man's information, -alone knows our danger. I should think myself wicked, unto rebellion -against His will, was I to burrow with such warnings in the air! Even -the weak soul who passes his days in singing is stirred by the cry, -and, as he says, is 'ready to go forth to the battle' If 'twere only a -battle, it would be a thing understood by us all, and easily managed; -but I have heard that when such shrieks are atween heaven and 'arth, it -betokens another sort of warfare!" - -"If all our reasons for fear, my friend, are confined to such as proceed -from supernatural causes, we have but little occasion to be alarmed," -continued the undisturbed Cora, "are you certain that our enemies have -not invented some new and ingenious method to strike us with terror, -that their conquest may become more easy?" - -"Lady," returned the scout, solemnly, "I have listened to all the sounds -of the woods for thirty years, as a man will listen whose life and death -depend on the quickness of his ears. There is no whine of the panther, -no whistle of the catbird, nor any invention of the devilish Mingoes, -that can cheat me! I have heard the forest moan like mortal men in their -affliction; often, and again, have I listened to the wind playing -its music in the branches of the girdled trees; and I have heard the -lightning cracking in the air like the snapping of blazing brush as it -spitted forth sparks and forked flames; but never have I thought that I -heard more than the pleasure of him who sported with the things of his -hand. But neither the Mohicans, nor I, who am a white man without a -cross, can explain the cry just heard. We, therefore, believe it a sign -given for our good." - -"It is extraordinary!" said Heyward, taking his pistols from the place -where he had laid them on entering; "be it a sign of peace or a signal -of war, it must be looked to. Lead the way, my friend; I follow." - -On issuing from their place of confinement, the whole party instantly -experienced a grateful renovation of spirits, by exchanging the pent -air of the hiding-place for the cool and invigorating atmosphere which -played around the whirlpools and pitches of the cataract. A heavy -evening breeze swept along the surface of the river, and seemed to drive -the roar of the falls into the recesses of their own cavern, whence it -issued heavily and constant, like thunder rumbling beyond the distant -hills. The moon had risen, and its light was already glancing here and -there on the waters above them; but the extremity of the rock where they -stood still lay in shadow. With the exception of the sounds produced -by the rushing waters, and an occasional breathing of the air, as it -murmured past them in fitful currents, the scene was as still as night -and solitude could make it. In vain were the eyes of each individual -bent along the opposite shores, in quest of some signs of life, that -might explain the nature of the interruption they had heard. Their -anxious and eager looks were baffled by the deceptive light, or rested -only on naked rocks, and straight and immovable trees. - -"Here is nothing to be seen but the gloom and quiet of a lovely -evening," whispered Duncan; "how much should we prize such a scene, and -all this breathing solitude, at any other moment, Cora! Fancy yourselves -in security, and what now, perhaps, increases your terror, may be made -conducive to enjoyment--" - -"Listen!" interrupted Alice. - -The caution was unnecessary. Once more the same sound arose, as if from -the bed of the river, and having broken out of the narrow bounds of the -cliffs, was heard undulating through the forest, in distant and dying -cadences. - -"Can any here give a name to such a cry?" demanded Hawkeye, when the -last echo was lost in the woods; "if so, let him speak; for myself, I -judge it not to belong to 'arth!" - -"Here, then, is one who can undeceive you," said Duncan; "I know the -sound full well, for often have I heard it on the field of battle, and -in situations which are frequent in a soldier's life. 'Tis the horrid -shriek that a horse will give in his agony; oftener drawn from him in -pain, though sometimes in terror. My charger is either a prey to the -beasts of the forest, or he sees his danger, without the power to avoid -it. The sound might deceive me in the cavern, but in the open air I know -it too well to be wrong." - -The scout and his companions listened to this simple explanation with -the interest of men who imbibe new ideas, at the same time that they get -rid of old ones, which had proved disagreeable inmates. The two latter -uttered their usual expressive exclamation, "hugh!" as the truth first -glanced upon their minds, while the former, after a short, musing pause, -took upon himself to reply. - -"I cannot deny your words," he said, "for I am little skilled in horses, -though born where they abound. The wolves must be hovering above their -heads on the bank, and the timorsome creatures are calling on man -for help, in the best manner they are able. Uncas"--he spoke in -Delaware--"Uncas, drop down in the canoe, and whirl a brand among the -pack; or fear may do what the wolves can't get at to perform, and leave -us without horses in the morning, when we shall have so much need to -journey swiftly!" - -The young native had already descended to the water to comply, when a -long howl was raised on the edge of the river, and was borne swiftly -off into the depths of the forest, as though the beasts, of their -own accord, were abandoning their prey in sudden terror. Uncas, with -instinctive quickness, receded, and the three foresters held another of -their low, earnest conferences. - -"We have been like hunters who have lost the points of the heavens, and -from whom the sun has been hid for days," said Hawkeye, turning away -from his companions; "now we begin again to know the signs of our -course, and the paths are cleared from briers! Seat yourselves in the -shade which the moon throws from yonder beech--'tis thicker than that -of the pines--and let us wait for that which the Lord may choose to -send next. Let all your conversation be in whispers; though it would be -better, and, perhaps, in the end, wiser, if each one held discourse with -his own thoughts, for a time." - -The manner of the scout was seriously impressive, though no longer -distinguished by any signs of unmanly apprehension. It was evident that -his momentary weakness had vanished with the explanation of a mystery -which his own experience had not served to fathom; and though he now -felt all the realities of their actual condition, that he was prepared -to meet them with the energy of his hardy nature. This feeling seemed -also common to the natives, who placed themselves in positions which -commanded a full view of both shores, while their own persons were -effectually concealed from observation. In such circumstances, common -prudence dictated that Heyward and his companions should imitate a -caution that proceeded from so intelligent a source. The young man drew -a pile of the sassafras from the cave, and placing it in the chasm which -separated the two caverns, it was occupied by the sisters, who were -thus protected by the rocks from any missiles, while their anxiety -was relieved by the assurance that no danger could approach without -a warning. Heyward himself was posted at hand, so near that he might -communicate with his companions without raising his voice to a dangerous -elevation; while David, in imitation of the woodsmen, bestowed his -person in such a manner among the fissures of the rocks, that his -ungainly limbs were no longer offensive to the eye. - -In this manner hours passed without further interruption. The moon -reached the zenith, and shed its mild light perpendicularly on the -lovely sight of the sisters slumbering peacefully in each other's arms. -Duncan cast the wide shawl of Cora before a spectacle he so much loved -to contemplate, and then suffered his own head to seek a pillow on the -rock. David began to utter sounds that would have shocked his delicate -organs in more wakeful moments; in short, all but Hawkeye and the -Mohicans lost every idea of consciousness, in uncontrollable drowsiness. -But the watchfulness of these vigilant protectors neither tired nor -slumbered. Immovable as that rock, of which each appeared to form a -part, they lay, with their eyes roving, without intermission, along the -dark margin of trees, that bounded the adjacent shores of the narrow -stream. Not a sound escaped them; the most subtle examination could -not have told they breathed. It was evident that this excess of caution -proceeded from an experience that no subtlety on the part of their -enemies could deceive. It was, however, continued without any apparent -consequences, until the moon had set, and a pale streak above the -treetops, at the bend of the river a little below, announced the -approach of day. - -Then, for the first time, Hawkeye was seen to stir. He crawled along the -rock and shook Duncan from his heavy slumbers. - -"Now is the time to journey," he whispered; "awake the gentle ones, and -be ready to get into the canoe when I bring it to the landing-place." - -"Have you had a quiet night?" said Heyward; "for myself, I believe sleep -has got the better of my vigilance." - -"All is yet still as midnight. Be silent, but be quick." - -By this time Duncan was thoroughly awake, and he immediately lifted the -shawl from the sleeping females. The motion caused Cora to raise her -hand as if to repulse him, while Alice murmured, in her soft, gentle -voice, "No, no, dear father, we were not deserted; Duncan was with us!" - -"Yes, sweet innocence," whispered the youth; "Duncan is here, and while -life continues or danger remains, he will never quit thee. Cora! Alice! -awake! The hour has come to move!" - -A loud shriek from the younger of the sisters, and the form of the other -standing upright before him, in bewildered horror, was the unexpected -answer he received. - -While the words were still on the lips of Heyward, there had arisen such -a tumult of yells and cries as served to drive the swift currents of his -own blood back from its bounding course into the fountains of his heart. -It seemed, for near a minute, as if the demons of hell had possessed -themselves of the air about them, and were venting their savage humors -in barbarous sounds. The cries came from no particular direction, though -it was evident they filled the woods, and, as the appalled listeners -easily imagined, the caverns of the falls, the rocks, the bed of the -river, and the upper air. David raised his tall person in the midst of -the infernal din, with a hand on either ear, exclaiming: - -"Whence comes this discord! Has hell broke loose, that man should utter -sounds like these!" - -The bright flashes and the quick reports of a dozen rifles, from the -opposite banks of the stream, followed this incautious exposure of his -person, and left the unfortunate singing master senseless on that rock -where he had been so long slumbering. The Mohicans boldly sent back the -intimidating yell of their enemies, who raised a shout of savage triumph -at the fall of Gamut. The flash of rifles was then quick and close -between them, but either party was too well skilled to leave even a limb -exposed to the hostile aim. Duncan listened with intense anxiety for the -strokes of the paddle, believing that flight was now their only refuge. -The river glanced by with its ordinary velocity, but the canoe was -nowhere to be seen on its dark waters. He had just fancied they were -cruelly deserted by their scout, as a stream of flame issued from the -rock beneath them, and a fierce yell, blended with a shriek of agony, -announced that the messenger of death sent from the fatal weapon of -Hawkeye, had found a victim. At this slight repulse the assailants -instantly withdrew, and gradually the place became as still as before -the sudden tumult. - -Duncan seized the favorable moment to spring to the body of Gamut, -which he bore within the shelter of the narrow chasm that protected the -sisters. In another minute the whole party was collected in this spot of -comparative safety. - -"The poor fellow has saved his scalp," said Hawkeye, coolly passing his -hand over the head of David; "but he is a proof that a man may be born -with too long a tongue! 'Twas downright madness to show six feet of -flesh and blood, on a naked rock, to the raging savages. I only wonder -he has escaped with life." - -"Is he not dead?" demanded Cora, in a voice whose husky tones showed how -powerfully natural horror struggled with her assumed firmness. "Can we -do aught to assist the wretched man?" - -"No, no! the life is in his heart yet, and after he has slept awhile he -will come to himself, and be a wiser man for it, till the hour of his -real time shall come," returned Hawkeye, casting another oblique glance -at the insensible body, while he filled his charger with admirable -nicety. "Carry him in, Uncas, and lay him on the sassafras. The longer -his nap lasts the better it will be for him, as I doubt whether he can -find a proper cover for such a shape on these rocks; and singing won't -do any good with the Iroquois." - -"You believe, then, the attack will be renewed?" asked Heyward. - -"Do I expect a hungry wolf will satisfy his craving with a mouthful! -They have lost a man, and 'tis their fashion, when they meet a loss, -and fail in the surprise, to fall back; but we shall have them on again, -with new expedients to circumvent us, and master our scalps. Our main -hope," he continued, raising his rugged countenance, across which a -shade of anxiety just then passed like a darkening cloud, "will be to -keep the rock until Munro can send a party to our help! God send it may -be soon and under a leader that knows the Indian customs!" - -"You hear our probable fortunes, Cora," said Duncan, "and you know we -have everything to hope from the anxiety and experience of your father. -Come, then, with Alice, into this cavern, where you, at least, will be -safe from the murderous rifles of our enemies, and where you may bestow -a care suited to your gentle natures on our unfortunate comrade." - -The sisters followed him into the outer cave, where David was beginning, -by his sighs, to give symptoms of returning consciousness, and then -commending the wounded man to their attention, he immediately prepared -to leave them. - -"Duncan!" said the tremulous voice of Cora, when he had reached the -mouth of the cavern. He turned and beheld the speaker, whose color had -changed to a deadly paleness, and whose lips quivered, gazing after him, -with an expression of interest which immediately recalled him to her -side. "Remember, Duncan, how necessary your safety is to our own--how -you bear a father's sacred trust--how much depends on your discretion -and care--in short," she added, while the telltale blood stole over her -features, crimsoning her very temples, "how very deservedly dear you are -to all of the name of Munro." - -"If anything could add to my own base love of life," said Heyward, -suffering his unconscious eyes to wander to the youthful form of -the silent Alice, "it would be so kind an assurance. As major of the -Sixtieth, our honest host will tell you I must take my share of the -fray; but our task will be easy; it is merely to keep these blood-hounds -at bay for a few hours." - -Without waiting for a reply, he tore himself from the presence of the -sisters, and joined the scout and his companions, who still lay within -the protection of the little chasm between the two caves. - -"I tell you, Uncas," said the former, as Heyward joined them, "you are -wasteful of your powder, and the kick of the rifle disconcerts your aim! -Little powder, light lead, and a long arm, seldom fail of bringing the -death screech from a Mingo! At least, such has been my experience with -the creatur's. Come, friends: let us to our covers, for no man can tell -when or where a Maqua* will strike his blow." - - * Mingo was the Delaware term of the Five Nations. Maquas - was the name given them by the Dutch. The French, from their - first intercourse with them, called them Iroquois. - -The Indians silently repaired to their appointed stations, which were -fissures in the rocks, whence they could command the approaches to the -foot of the falls. In the center of the little island, a few short and -stunted pines had found root, forming a thicket, into which Hawkeye -darted with the swiftness of a deer, followed by the active Duncan. Here -they secured themselves, as well as circumstances would permit, among -the shrubs and fragments of stone that were scattered about the place. -Above them was a bare, rounded rock, on each side of which the water -played its gambols, and plunged into the abysses beneath, in the manner -already described. As the day had now dawned, the opposite shores no -longer presented a confused outline, but they were able to look into the -woods, and distinguish objects beneath a canopy of gloomy pines. - -A long and anxious watch succeeded, but without any further evidences -of a renewed attack; and Duncan began to hope that their fire had -proved more fatal than was supposed, and that their enemies had been -effectually repulsed. When he ventured to utter this impression to his -companions, it was met by Hawkeye with an incredulous shake of the head. - -"You know not the nature of a Maqua, if you think he is so easily -beaten back without a scalp!" he answered. "If there was one of the imps -yelling this morning, there were forty! and they know our number and -quality too well to give up the chase so soon. Hist! look into the water -above, just where it breaks over the rocks. I am no mortal, if the risky -devils haven't swam down upon the very pitch, and, as bad luck would -have it, they have hit the head of the island. Hist! man, keep close! or -the hair will be off your crown in the turning of a knife!" - -Heyward lifted his head from the cover, and beheld what he justly -considered a prodigy of rashness and skill. The river had worn away the -edge of the soft rock in such a manner as to render its first pitch -less abrupt and perpendicular than is usual at waterfalls. With no other -guide than the ripple of the stream where it met the head of the island, -a party of their insatiable foes had ventured into the current, and -swam down upon this point, knowing the ready access it would give, if -successful, to their intended victims. - -As Hawkeye ceased speaking, four human heads could be seen peering above -a few logs of drift-wood that had lodged on these naked rocks, and which -had probably suggested the idea of the practicability of the hazardous -undertaking. At the next moment, a fifth form was seen floating over the -green edge of the fall, a little from the line of the island. The savage -struggled powerfully to gain the point of safety, and, favored by the -glancing water, he was already stretching forth an arm to meet the grasp -of his companions, when he shot away again with the shirling current, -appeared to rise into the air, with uplifted arms and starting eyeballs, -and fell, with a sudden plunge, into that deep and yawning abyss over -which he hovered. A single, wild, despairing shriek rose from the -cavern, and all was hushed again as the grave. - -The first generous impulse of Duncan was to rush to the rescue of the -hapless wretch; but he felt himself bound to the spot by the iron grasp -of the immovable scout. - -"Would ye bring certain death upon us, by telling the Mingoes where we -lie?" demanded Hawkeye, sternly; "'Tis a charge of powder saved, and -ammunition is as precious now as breath to a worried deer! Freshen the -priming of your pistols--the midst of the falls is apt to dampen the -brimstone--and stand firm for a close struggle, while I fire on their -rush." - -He placed a finger in his mouth, and drew a long, shrill whistle, which -was answered from the rocks that were guarded by the Mohicans. Duncan -caught glimpses of heads above the scattered drift-wood, as this signal -rose on the air, but they disappeared again as suddenly as they had -glanced upon his sight. A low, rustling sound next drew his attention -behind him, and turning his head, he beheld Uncas within a few feet, -creeping to his side. Hawkeye spoke to him in Delaware, when the young -chief took his position with singular caution and undisturbed coolness. -To Heyward this was a moment of feverish and impatient suspense; though -the scout saw fit to select it as a fit occasion to read a lecture -to his more youthful associates on the art of using firearms with -discretion. - -"Of all we'pons," he commenced, "the long barreled, true-grooved, -soft-metaled rifle is the most dangerous in skillful hands, though it -wants a strong arm, a quick eye, and great judgment in charging, to put -forth all its beauties. The gunsmiths can have but little insight into -their trade when they make their fowling-pieces and short horsemen's--" - -He was interrupted by the low but expressive "hugh" of Uncas. - -"I see them, boy, I see them!" continued Hawkeye; "they are gathering -for the rush, or they would keep their dingy backs below the logs. Well, -let them," he added, examining his flint; "the leading man certainly -comes on to his death, though it should be Montcalm himself!" - -At that moment the woods were filled with another burst of cries, and at -the signal four savages sprang from the cover of the driftwood. Heyward -felt a burning desire to rush forward to meet them, so intense was the -delirious anxiety of the moment; but he was restrained by the deliberate -examples of the scout and Uncas. - -When their foes, who had leaped over the black rocks that divided them, -with long bounds, uttering the wildest yells, were within a few rods, -the rifle of Hawkeye slowly rose among the shrubs, and poured out its -fatal contents. The foremost Indian bounded like a stricken deer, and -fell headlong among the clefts of the island. - -"Now, Uncas!" cried the scout, drawing his long knife, while his quick -eyes began to flash with ardor, "take the last of the screeching imps; -of the other two we are sartain!" - -He was obeyed; and but two enemies remained to be overcome. Heyward had -given one of his pistols to Hawkeye, and together they rushed down a -little declivity toward their foes; they discharged their weapons at the -same instant, and equally without success. - -"I know'd it! and I said it!" muttered the scout, whirling the despised -little implement over the falls with bitter disdain. "Come on, ye bloody -minded hell-hounds! ye meet a man without a cross!" - -The words were barely uttered, when he encountered a savage of gigantic -stature, of the fiercest mien. At the same moment, Duncan found himself -engaged with the other, in a similar contest of hand to hand. With ready -skill, Hawkeye and his antagonist each grasped that uplifted arm of -the other which held the dangerous knife. For near a minute they stood -looking one another in the eye, and gradually exerting the power of -their muscles for the mastery. - -At length, the toughened sinews of the white man prevailed over the less -practiced limbs of the native. The arm of the latter slowly gave way -before the increasing force of the scout, who, suddenly wresting his -armed hand from the grasp of the foe, drove the sharp weapon through his -naked bosom to the heart. In the meantime, Heyward had been pressed in -a more deadly struggle. His slight sword was snapped in the first -encounter. As he was destitute of any other means of defense, his -safety now depended entirely on bodily strength and resolution. Though -deficient in neither of these qualities, he had met an enemy every way -his equal. Happily, he soon succeeded in disarming his adversary, whose -knife fell on the rock at their feet; and from this moment it became a -fierce struggle who should cast the other over the dizzy height into a -neighboring cavern of the falls. Every successive struggle brought them -nearer to the verge, where Duncan perceived the final and conquering -effort must be made. Each of the combatants threw all his energies into -that effort, and the result was, that both tottered on the brink of the -precipice. Heyward felt the grasp of the other at his throat, and -saw the grim smile the savage gave, under the revengeful hope that he -hurried his enemy to a fate similar to his own, as he felt his body -slowly yielding to a resistless power, and the young man experienced the -passing agony of such a moment in all its horrors. At that instant of -extreme danger, a dark hand and glancing knife appeared before him; the -Indian released his hold, as the blood flowed freely from around the -severed tendons of the wrist; and while Duncan was drawn backward by the -saving hand of Uncas, his charmed eyes still were riveted on the -fierce and disappointed countenance of his foe, who fell sullenly and -disappointed down the irrecoverable precipice. - -"To cover! to cover!" cried Hawkeye, who just then had despatched the -enemy; "to cover, for your lives! the work is but half ended!" - -The young Mohican gave a shout of triumph, and followed by Duncan, he -glided up the acclivity they had descended to the combat, and sought the -friendly shelter of the rocks and shrubs. - - - - -CHAPTER 8 - - "They linger yet, - Avengers of their native land."--Gray - -The warning call of the scout was not uttered without occasion. During -the occurrence of the deadly encounter just related, the roar of the -falls was unbroken by any human sound whatever. It would seem that -interest in the result had kept the natives on the opposite shores in -breathless suspense, while the quick evolutions and swift changes in -the positions of the combatants effectually prevented a fire that might -prove dangerous alike to friend and enemy. But the moment the struggle -was decided, a yell arose as fierce and savage as wild and revengeful -passions could throw into the air. It was followed by the swift flashes -of the rifles, which sent their leaden messengers across the rock in -volleys, as though the assailants would pour out their impotent fury on -the insensible scene of the fatal contest. - -A steady, though deliberate return was made from the rifle of -Chingachgook, who had maintained his post throughout the fray with -unmoved resolution. When the triumphant shout of Uncas was borne to his -ears, the gratified father raised his voice in a single responsive cry, -after which his busy piece alone proved that he still guarded his pass -with unwearied diligence. In this manner many minutes flew by with the -swiftness of thought; the rifles of the assailants speaking, at times, -in rattling volleys, and at others in occasional, scattering shots. -Though the rock, the trees, and the shrubs, were cut and torn in a -hundred places around the besieged, their cover was so close, and so -rigidly maintained, that, as yet, David had been the only sufferer in -their little band. - -"Let them burn their powder," said the deliberate scout, while bullet -after bullet whizzed by the place where he securely lay; "there will be -a fine gathering of lead when it is over, and I fancy the imps will tire -of the sport afore these old stones cry out for mercy! Uncas, boy, you -waste the kernels by overcharging; and a kicking rifle never carries a -true bullet. I told you to take that loping miscreant under the line -of white point; now, if your bullet went a hair's breadth it went two -inches above it. The life lies low in a Mingo, and humanity teaches us -to make a quick end to the sarpents." - -A quiet smile lighted the haughty features of the young Mohican, -betraying his knowledge of the English language as well as of the -other's meaning; but he suffered it to pass away without vindication of -reply. - -"I cannot permit you to accuse Uncas of want of judgment or of skill," -said Duncan; "he saved my life in the coolest and readiest manner, and -he has made a friend who never will require to be reminded of the debt -he owes." - -Uncas partly raised his body, and offered his hand to the grasp of -Heyward. During this act of friendship, the two young men exchanged -looks of intelligence which caused Duncan to forget the character and -condition of his wild associate. In the meanwhile, Hawkeye, who looked -on this burst of youthful feeling with a cool but kind regard made the -following reply: - -"Life is an obligation which friends often owe each other in the -wilderness. I dare say I may have served Uncas some such turn myself -before now; and I very well remember that he has stood between me -and death five different times; three times from the Mingoes, once in -crossing Horican, and--" - -"That bullet was better aimed than common!" exclaimed Duncan, -involuntarily shrinking from a shot which struck the rock at his side -with a smart rebound. - -Hawkeye laid his hand on the shapeless metal, and shook his head, as he -examined it, saying, "Falling lead is never flattened, had it come from -the clouds this might have happened." - -But the rifle of Uncas was deliberately raised toward the heavens, -directing the eyes of his companions to a point, where the mystery was -immediately explained. A ragged oak grew on the right bank of the river, -nearly opposite to their position, which, seeking the freedom of the -open space, had inclined so far forward that its upper branches overhung -that arm of the stream which flowed nearest to its own shore. Among the -topmost leaves, which scantily concealed the gnarled and stunted limbs, -a savage was nestled, partly concealed by the trunk of the tree, and -partly exposed, as though looking down upon them to ascertain the effect -produced by his treacherous aim. - -"These devils will scale heaven to circumvent us to our ruin," said -Hawkeye; "keep him in play, boy, until I can bring 'killdeer' to bear, -when we will try his metal on each side of the tree at once." - -Uncas delayed his fire until the scout uttered the word. - -The rifles flashed, the leaves and bark of the oak flew into the air, -and were scattered by the wind, but the Indian answered their assault by -a taunting laugh, sending down upon them another bullet in return, that -struck the cap of Hawkeye from his head. Once more the savage yells -burst out of the woods, and the leaden hail whistled above the heads of -the besieged, as if to confine them to a place where they might become -easy victims to the enterprise of the warrior who had mounted the tree. - -"This must be looked to," said the scout, glancing about him with -an anxious eye. "Uncas, call up your father; we have need of all our -we'pons to bring the cunning varmint from his roost." - -The signal was instantly given; and, before Hawkeye had reloaded his -rifle, they were joined by Chingachgook. When his son pointed out to the -experienced warrior the situation of their dangerous enemy, the -usual exclamatory "hugh" burst from his lips; after which, no further -expression of surprise or alarm was suffered to escape him. Hawkeye and -the Mohicans conversed earnestly together in Delaware for a few moments, -when each quietly took his post, in order to execute the plan they had -speedily devised. - -The warrior in the oak had maintained a quick, though ineffectual fire, -from the moment of his discovery. But his aim was interrupted by the -vigilance of his enemies, whose rifles instantaneously bore on any -part of his person that was left exposed. Still his bullets fell in the -center of the crouching party. The clothes of Heyward, which rendered -him peculiarly conspicuous, were repeatedly cut, and once blood was -drawn from a slight wound in his arm. - -At length, emboldened by the long and patient watchfulness of his -enemies, the Huron attempted a better and more fatal aim. The quick eyes -of the Mohicans caught the dark line of his lower limbs incautiously -exposed through the thin foliage, a few inches from the trunk of the -tree. Their rifles made a common report, when, sinking on his wounded -limb, part of the body of the savage came into view. Swift as thought, -Hawkeye seized the advantage, and discharged his fatal weapon into the -top of the oak. The leaves were unusually agitated; the dangerous rifle -fell from its commanding elevation, and after a few moments of vain -struggling, the form of the savage was seen swinging in the wind, -while he still grasped a ragged and naked branch of the tree with hands -clenched in desperation. - -"Give him, in pity, give him the contents of another rifle," cried -Duncan, turning away his eyes in horror from the spectacle of a fellow -creature in such awful jeopardy. - -"Not a karnel!" exclaimed the obdurate Hawkeye; "his death is certain, -and we have no powder to spare, for Indian fights sometimes last for -days; 'tis their scalps or ours! and God, who made us, has put into our -natures the craving to keep the skin on the head." - -Against this stern and unyielding morality, supported as it was by such -visible policy, there was no appeal. From that moment the yells in the -forest once more ceased, the fire was suffered to decline, and all -eyes, those of friends as well as enemies, became fixed on the hopeless -condition of the wretch who was dangling between heaven and earth. -The body yielded to the currents of air, and though no murmur or groan -escaped the victim, there were instants when he grimly faced his foes, -and the anguish of cold despair might be traced, through the intervening -distance, in possession of his swarthy lineaments. Three several times -the scout raised his piece in mercy, and as often, prudence getting the -better of his intention, it was again silently lowered. At length one -hand of the Huron lost its hold, and dropped exhausted to his side. A -desperate and fruitless struggle to recover the branch succeeded, and -then the savage was seen for a fleeting instant, grasping wildly at -the empty air. The lightning is not quicker than was the flame from the -rifle of Hawkeye; the limbs of the victim trembled and contracted, the -head fell to the bosom, and the body parted the foaming waters like -lead, when the element closed above it, in its ceaseless velocity, and -every vestige of the unhappy Huron was lost forever. - -No shout of triumph succeeded this important advantage, but even the -Mohicans gazed at each other in silent horror. A single yell burst -from the woods, and all was again still. Hawkeye, who alone appeared to -reason on the occasion, shook his head at his own momentary weakness, -even uttering his self-disapprobation aloud. - -"'Twas the last charge in my horn and the last bullet in my pouch, and -'twas the act of a boy!" he said; "what mattered it whether he struck -the rock living or dead! feeling would soon be over. Uncas, lad, go down -to the canoe, and bring up the big horn; it is all the powder we have -left, and we shall need it to the last grain, or I am ignorant of the -Mingo nature." - -The young Mohican complied, leaving the scout turning over the -useless contents of his pouch, and shaking the empty horn with renewed -discontent. From this unsatisfactory examination, however, he was soon -called by a loud and piercing exclamation from Uncas, that sounded, -even to the unpracticed ears of Duncan, as the signal of some new and -unexpected calamity. Every thought filled with apprehension for the -previous treasure he had concealed in the cavern, the young man started -to his feet, totally regardless of the hazard he incurred by such an -exposure. As if actuated by a common impulse, his movement was imitated -by his companions, and, together they rushed down the pass to the -friendly chasm, with a rapidity that rendered the scattering fire of -their enemies perfectly harmless. The unwonted cry had brought the -sisters, together with the wounded David, from their place of refuge; -and the whole party, at a single glance, was made acquainted with the -nature of the disaster that had disturbed even the practiced stoicism of -their youthful Indian protector. - -At a short distance from the rock, their little bark was to be seen -floating across the eddy, toward the swift current of the river, in a -manner which proved that its course was directed by some hidden agent. -The instant this unwelcome sight caught the eye of the scout, his rifle -was leveled as by instinct, but the barrel gave no answer to the bright -sparks of the flint. - -"'Tis too late, 'tis too late!" Hawkeye exclaimed, dropping the useless -piece in bitter disappointment; "the miscreant has struck the rapid; and -had we powder, it could hardly send the lead swifter than he now goes!" - -The adventurous Huron raised his head above the shelter of the canoe, -and, while it glided swiftly down the stream, he waved his hand, and -gave forth the shout, which was the known signal of success. His cry was -answered by a yell and a laugh from the woods, as tauntingly exulting -as if fifty demons were uttering their blasphemies at the fall of some -Christian soul. - -"Well may you laugh, ye children of the devil!" said the scout, seating -himself on a projection of the rock, and suffering his gun to fall -neglected at his feet, "for the three quickest and truest rifles in -these woods are no better than so many stalks of mullein, or the last -year's horns of a buck!" - -"What is to be done?" demanded Duncan, losing the first feeling of -disappointment in a more manly desire for exertion; "what will become of -us?" - -Hawkeye made no other reply than by passing his finger around the crown -of his head, in a manner so significant, that none who witnessed the -action could mistake its meaning. - -"Surely, surely, our case is not so desperate!" exclaimed the youth; -"the Hurons are not here; we may make good the caverns, we may oppose -their landing." - -"With what?" coolly demanded the scout. "The arrows of Uncas, or such -tears as women shed! No, no; you are young, and rich, and have friends, -and at such an age I know it is hard to die! But," glancing his eyes at -the Mohicans, "let us remember we are men without a cross, and let us -teach these natives of the forest that white blood can run as freely as -red, when the appointed hour is come." - -Duncan turned quickly in the direction indicated by the other's eyes, -and read a confirmation of his worst apprehensions in the conduct of the -Indians. Chingachgook, placing himself in a dignified posture on another -fragment of the rock, had already laid aside his knife and tomahawk, and -was in the act of taking the eagle's plume from his head, and smoothing -the solitary tuft of hair in readiness to perform its last and revolting -office. His countenance was composed, though thoughtful, while his dark, -gleaming eyes were gradually losing the fierceness of the combat in -an expression better suited to the change he expected momentarily to -undergo. - -"Our case is not, cannot be so hopeless!" said Duncan; "even at this -very moment succor may be at hand. I see no enemies! They have sickened -of a struggle in which they risk so much with so little prospect of -gain!" - -"It may be a minute, or it may be an hour, afore the wily sarpents steal -upon us, and it is quite in natur' for them to be lying within hearing -at this very moment," said Hawkeye; "but come they will, and in such -a fashion as will leave us nothing to hope! Chingachgook"--he spoke in -Delaware--"my brother, we have fought our last battle together, and the -Maquas will triumph in the death of the sage man of the Mohicans, and of -the pale face, whose eyes can make night as day, and level the clouds to -the mists of the springs!" - -"Let the Mingo women go weep over the slain!" returned the Indian, -with characteristic pride and unmoved firmness; "the Great Snake of the -Mohicans has coiled himself in their wigwams, and has poisoned their -triumph with the wailings of children, whose fathers have not returned! -Eleven warriors lie hid from the graves of their tribes since the snows -have melted, and none will tell where to find them when the tongue of -Chingachgook shall be silent! Let them draw the sharpest knife, and -whirl the swiftest tomahawk, for their bitterest enemy is in their -hands. Uncas, topmost branch of a noble trunk, call on the cowards to -hasten, or their hearts will soften, and they will change to women!" - -"They look among the fishes for their dead!" returned the low, soft -voice of the youthful chieftain; "the Hurons float with the slimy eels! -They drop from the oaks like fruit that is ready to be eaten! and the -Delawares laugh!" - -"Ay, ay," muttered the scout, who had listened to this peculiar burst -of the natives with deep attention; "they have warmed their Indian -feelings, and they'll soon provoke the Maquas to give them a speedy end. -As for me, who am of the whole blood of the whites, it is befitting that -I should die as becomes my color, with no words of scoffing in my mouth, -and without bitterness at the heart!" - -"Why die at all!" said Cora, advancing from the place where natural -horror had, until this moment, held her riveted to the rock; "the path -is open on every side; fly, then, to the woods, and call on God for -succor. Go, brave men, we owe you too much already; let us no longer -involve you in our hapless fortunes!" - -"You but little know the craft of the Iroquois, lady, if you judge they -have left the path open to the woods!" returned Hawkeye, who, however, -immediately added in his simplicity, "the down stream current, it is -certain, might soon sweep us beyond the reach of their rifles or the -sound of their voices." - -"Then try the river. Why linger to add to the number of the victims of -our merciless enemies?" - -"Why," repeated the scout, looking about him proudly; "because it is -better for a man to die at peace with himself than to live haunted by an -evil conscience! What answer could we give Munro, when he asked us where -and how we left his children?" - -"Go to him, and say that you left them with a message to hasten to -their aid," returned Cora, advancing nigher to the scout in her generous -ardor; "that the Hurons bear them into the northern wilds, but that -by vigilance and speed they may yet be rescued; and if, after all, it -should please heaven that his assistance come too late, bear to him," -she continued, her voice gradually lowering, until it seemed nearly -choked, "the love, the blessings, the final prayers of his daughters, -and bid him not mourn their early fate, but to look forward with humble -confidence to the Christian's goal to meet his children." The hard, -weather-beaten features of the scout began to work, and when she had -ended, he dropped his chin to his hand, like a man musing profoundly on -the nature of the proposal. - -"There is reason in her words!" at length broke from his compressed -and trembling lips; "ay, and they bear the spirit of Christianity; what -might be right and proper in a red-skin, may be sinful in a man who -has not even a cross in blood to plead for his ignorance. Chingachgook! -Uncas! hear you the talk of the dark-eyed woman?" - -He now spoke in Delaware to his companions, and his address, though calm -and deliberate, seemed very decided. The elder Mohican heard with deep -gravity, and appeared to ponder on his words, as though he felt the -importance of their import. After a moment of hesitation, he waved his -hand in assent, and uttered the English word "Good!" with the peculiar -emphasis of his people. Then, replacing his knife and tomahawk in his -girdle, the warrior moved silently to the edge of the rock which was -most concealed from the banks of the river. Here he paused a moment, -pointed significantly to the woods below, and saying a few words in his -own language, as if indicating his intended route, he dropped into the -water, and sank from before the eyes of the witnesses of his movements. - -The scout delayed his departure to speak to the generous girl, whose -breathing became lighter as she saw the success of her remonstrance. - -"Wisdom is sometimes given to the young, as well as to the old," he -said; "and what you have spoken is wise, not to call it by a better -word. If you are led into the woods, that is such of you as may be -spared for awhile, break the twigs on the bushes as you pass, and make -the marks of your trail as broad as you can, when, if mortal eyes can -see them, depend on having a friend who will follow to the ends of the -'arth afore he desarts you." - -He gave Cora an affectionate shake of the hand, lifted his rifle, -and after regarding it a moment with melancholy solicitude, laid it -carefully aside, and descended to the place where Chingachgook had just -disappeared. For an instant he hung suspended by the rock, and looking -about him, with a countenance of peculiar care, he added bitterly, "Had -the powder held out, this disgrace could never have befallen!" then, -loosening his hold, the water closed above his head, and he also became -lost to view. - -All eyes now were turned on Uncas, who stood leaning against the ragged -rock, in immovable composure. After waiting a short time, Cora pointed -down the river, and said: - -"Your friends have not been seen, and are now, most probably, in safety. -Is it not time for you to follow?" - -"Uncas will stay," the young Mohican calmly answered in English. - -"To increase the horror of our capture, and to diminish the chances of -our release! Go, generous young man," Cora continued, lowering her -eyes under the gaze of the Mohican, and perhaps, with an intuitive -consciousness of her power; "go to my father, as I have said, and be the -most confidential of my messengers. Tell him to trust you with the means -to buy the freedom of his daughters. Go! 'tis my wish, 'tis my prayer, -that you will go!" - -The settled, calm look of the young chief changed to an expression of -gloom, but he no longer hesitated. With a noiseless step he crossed the -rock, and dropped into the troubled stream. Hardly a breath was drawn by -those he left behind, until they caught a glimpse of his head emerging -for air, far down the current, when he again sank, and was seen no more. - -These sudden and apparently successful experiments had all taken place -in a few minutes of that time which had now become so precious. After -a last look at Uncas, Cora turned and with a quivering lip, addressed -herself to Heyward: - -"I have heard of your boasted skill in the water, too, Duncan," she -said; "follow, then, the wise example set you by these simple and -faithful beings." - -"Is such the faith that Cora Munro would exact from her protector?" said -the young man, smiling mournfully, but with bitterness. - -"This is not a time for idle subtleties and false opinions," she -answered; "but a moment when every duty should be equally considered. To -us you can be of no further service here, but your precious life may be -saved for other and nearer friends." - -He made no reply, though his eye fell wistfully on the beautiful form of -Alice, who was clinging to his arm with the dependency of an infant. - -"Consider," continued Cora, after a pause, during which she seemed -to struggle with a pang even more acute than any that her fears had -excited, "that the worst to us can be but death; a tribute that all must -pay at the good time of God's appointment." - -"There are evils worse than death," said Duncan, speaking hoarsely, and -as if fretful at her importunity, "but which the presence of one who -would die in your behalf may avert." - -Cora ceased her entreaties; and veiling her face in her shawl, drew the -nearly insensible Alice after her into the deepest recess of the inner -cavern. - - - - -CHAPTER 9 - - "Be gay securely; - Dispel, my fair, with smiles, the tim'rous clouds, - That hang on thy clear brow."--Death of Agrippina - -The sudden and almost magical change, from the stirring incidents of the -combat to the stillness that now reigned around him, acted on the heated -imagination of Heyward like some exciting dream. While all the images -and events he had witnessed remained deeply impressed on his memory, he -felt a difficulty in persuading him of their truth. Still ignorant of -the fate of those who had trusted to the aid of the swift current, he -at first listened intently to any signal or sounds of alarm, which might -announce the good or evil fortune of their hazardous undertaking. His -attention was, however, bestowed in vain; for with the disappearance of -Uncas, every sign of the adventurers had been lost, leaving him in total -uncertainty of their fate. - -In a moment of such painful doubt, Duncan did not hesitate to look -around him, without consulting that protection from the rocks which just -before had been so necessary to his safety. Every effort, however, to -detect the least evidence of the approach of their hidden enemies was as -fruitless as the inquiry after his late companions. The wooded banks of -the river seemed again deserted by everything possessing animal life. -The uproar which had so lately echoed through the vaults of the forest -was gone, leaving the rush of the waters to swell and sink on the -currents of the air, in the unmingled sweetness of nature. A fish-hawk, -which, secure on the topmost branches of a dead pine, had been a distant -spectator of the fray, now swooped from his high and ragged perch, and -soared, in wide sweeps, above his prey; while a jay, whose noisy voice -had been stilled by the hoarser cries of the savages, ventured again -to open his discordant throat, as though once more in undisturbed -possession of his wild domains. Duncan caught from these natural -accompaniments of the solitary scene a glimmering of hope; and he began -to rally his faculties to renewed exertions, with something like a -reviving confidence of success. - -"The Hurons are not to be seen," he said, addressing David, who had -by no means recovered from the effects of the stunning blow he had -received; "let us conceal ourselves in the cavern, and trust the rest to -Providence." - -"I remember to have united with two comely maidens, in lifting up -our voices in praise and thanksgiving," returned the bewildered -singing-master; "since which time I have been visited by a heavy -judgment for my sins. I have been mocked with the likeness of sleep, -while sounds of discord have rent my ears, such as might manifest the -fullness of time, and that nature had forgotten her harmony." - -"Poor fellow! thine own period was, in truth, near its accomplishment! -But arouse, and come with me; I will lead you where all other sounds but -those of your own psalmody shall be excluded." - -"There is melody in the fall of the cataract, and the rushing of many -waters is sweet to the senses!" said David, pressing his hand confusedly -on his brow. "Is not the air yet filled with shrieks and cries, as -though the departed spirits of the damned--" - -"Not now, not now," interrupted the impatient Heyward, "they have -ceased, and they who raised them, I trust in God, they are gone, too! -everything but the water is still and at peace; in, then, where you may -create those sounds you love so well to hear." - -David smiled sadly, though not without a momentary gleam of pleasure, at -this allusion to his beloved vocation. He no longer hesitated to be led -to a spot which promised such unalloyed gratification to his wearied -senses; and leaning on the arm of his companion, he entered the narrow -mouth of the cave. Duncan seized a pile of the sassafras, which he -drew before the passage, studiously concealing every appearance of an -aperture. Within this fragile barrier he arranged the blankets abandoned -by the foresters, darkening the inner extremity of the cavern, while its -outer received a chastened light from the narrow ravine, through which -one arm of the river rushed to form the junction with its sister branch -a few rods below. - -"I like not the principle of the natives, which teaches them to submit -without a struggle, in emergencies that appear desperate," he said, -while busied in this employment; "our own maxim, which says, 'while -life remains there is hope', is more consoling, and better suited to -a soldier's temperament. To you, Cora, I will urge no words of idle -encouragement; your own fortitude and undisturbed reason will teach -you all that may become your sex; but cannot we dry the tears of that -trembling weeper on your bosom?" - -"I am calmer, Duncan," said Alice, raising herself from the arms of her -sister, and forcing an appearance of composure through her tears; "much -calmer, now. Surely, in this hidden spot we are safe, we are secret, -free from injury; we will hope everything from those generous men who -have risked so much already in our behalf." - -"Now does our gentle Alice speak like a daughter of Munro!" said -Heyward, pausing to press her hand as he passed toward the outer -entrance of the cavern. "With two such examples of courage before him, a -man would be ashamed to prove other than a hero." He then seated himself -in the center of the cavern, grasping his remaining pistol with a hand -convulsively clenched, while his contracted and frowning eye announced -the sullen desperation of his purpose. "The Hurons, if they come, may -not gain our position so easily as they think," he slowly muttered; and -propping his head back against the rock, he seemed to await the result -in patience, though his gaze was unceasingly bent on the open avenue to -their place of retreat. - -With the last sound of his voice, a deep, a long, and almost breathless -silence succeeded. The fresh air of the morning had penetrated the -recess, and its influence was gradually felt on the spirits of its -inmates. As minute after minute passed by, leaving them in undisturbed -security, the insinuating feeling of hope was gradually gaining -possession of every bosom, though each one felt reluctant to give -utterance to expectations that the next moment might so fearfully -destroy. - -David alone formed an exception to these varying emotions. A gleam of -light from the opening crossed his wan countenance, and fell upon -the pages of the little volume, whose leaves he was again occupied in -turning, as if searching for some song more fitted to their condition -than any that had yet met their eye. He was, most probably, acting all -this time under a confused recollection of the promised consolation of -Duncan. At length, it would seem, his patient industry found its reward; -for, without explanation or apology, he pronounced aloud the words "Isle -of Wight," drew a long, sweet sound from his pitch-pipe, and then ran -through the preliminary modulations of the air whose name he had just -mentioned, with the sweeter tones of his own musical voice. - -"May not this prove dangerous?" asked Cora, glancing her dark eye at -Major Heyward. - -"Poor fellow! his voice is too feeble to be heard above the din of the -falls," was the answer; "beside, the cavern will prove his friend. Let -him indulge his passions since it may be done without hazard." - -"Isle of Wight!" repeated David, looking about him with that dignity -with which he had long been wont to silence the whispering echoes of his -school; "'tis a brave tune, and set to solemn words! let it be sung with -meet respect!" - -After allowing a moment of stillness to enforce his discipline, the -voice of the singer was heard, in low, murmuring syllables, gradually -stealing on the ear, until it filled the narrow vault with sounds -rendered trebly thrilling by the feeble and tremulous utterance produced -by his debility. The melody, which no weakness could destroy, gradually -wrought its sweet influence on the senses of those who heard it. It even -prevailed over the miserable travesty of the song of David which the -singer had selected from a volume of similar effusions, and caused the -sense to be forgotten in the insinuating harmony of the sounds. Alice -unconsciously dried her tears, and bent her melting eyes on the pallid -features of Gamut, with an expression of chastened delight that she -neither affected or wished to conceal. Cora bestowed an approving smile -on the pious efforts of the namesake of the Jewish prince, and Heyward -soon turned his steady, stern look from the outlet of the cavern, to -fasten it, with a milder character, on the face of David, or to meet the -wandering beams which at moments strayed from the humid eyes of Alice. -The open sympathy of the listeners stirred the spirit of the votary of -music, whose voice regained its richness and volume, without losing that -touching softness which proved its secret charm. Exerting his renovated -powers to their utmost, he was yet filling the arches of the cave -with long and full tones, when a yell burst into the air without, that -instantly stilled his pious strains, choking his voice suddenly, as -though his heart had literally bounded into the passage of his throat. - -"We are lost!" exclaimed Alice, throwing herself into the arms of Cora. - -"Not yet, not yet," returned the agitated but undaunted Heyward: "the -sound came from the center of the island, and it has been produced by -the sight of their dead companions. We are not yet discovered, and there -is still hope." - -Faint and almost despairing as was the prospect of escape, the words of -Duncan were not thrown away, for it awakened the powers of the sisters -in such a manner that they awaited the results in silence. A second yell -soon followed the first, when a rush of voices was heard pouring down -the island, from its upper to its lower extremity, until they reached -the naked rock above the caverns, where, after a shout of savage -triumph, the air continued full of horrible cries and screams, such -as man alone can utter, and he only when in a state of the fiercest -barbarity. - -The sounds quickly spread around them in every direction. Some called to -their fellows from the water's edge, and were answered from the heights -above. Cries were heard in the startling vicinity of the chasm between -the two caves, which mingled with hoarser yells that arose out of the -abyss of the deep ravine. In short, so rapidly had the savage sounds -diffused themselves over the barren rock, that it was not difficult -for the anxious listeners to imagine they could be heard beneath, as in -truth they were above on every side of them. - -In the midst of this tumult, a triumphant yell was raised within a few -yards of the hidden entrance to the cave. Heyward abandoned every hope, -with the belief it was the signal that they were discovered. Again the -impression passed away, as he heard the voices collect near the spot -where the white man had so reluctantly abandoned his rifle. Amid the -jargon of Indian dialects that he now plainly heard, it was easy to -distinguish not only words, but sentences, in the patois of the Canadas. -A burst of voices had shouted simultaneously, "La Longue Carabine!" -causing the opposite woods to re-echo with a name which, Heyward well -remembered, had been given by his enemies to a celebrated hunter and -scout of the English camp, and who, he now learned for the first time, -had been his late companion. - -"La Longue Carabine! La Longue Carabine!" passed from mouth to mouth, -until the whole band appeared to be collected around a trophy which -would seem to announce the death of its formidable owner. After a -vociferous consultation, which was, at times, deafened by bursts of -savage joy, they again separated, filling the air with the name of a -foe, whose body, Heywood could collect from their expressions, they -hoped to find concealed in some crevice of the island. - -"Now," he whispered to the trembling sisters, "now is the moment of -uncertainty! if our place of retreat escape this scrutiny, we are -still safe! In every event, we are assured, by what has fallen from our -enemies, that our friends have escaped, and in two short hours we may -look for succor from Webb." - -There were now a few minutes of fearful stillness, during which Heyward -well knew that the savages conducted their search with greater vigilance -and method. More than once he could distinguish their footsteps, as -they brushed the sassafras, causing the faded leaves to rustle, and the -branches to snap. At length, the pile yielded a little, a corner of a -blanket fell, and a faint ray of light gleamed into the inner part of -the cave. Cora folded Alice to her bosom in agony, and Duncan sprang -to his feet. A shout was at that moment heard, as if issuing from the -center of the rock, announcing that the neighboring cavern had at -length been entered. In a minute, the number and loudness of the voices -indicated that the whole party was collected in and around that secret -place. - -As the inner passages to the two caves were so close to each other, -Duncan, believing that escape was no longer possible, passed David and -the sisters, to place himself between the latter and the first onset of -the terrible meeting. Grown desperate by his situation, he drew nigh -the slight barrier which separated him only by a few feet from his -relentless pursuers, and placing his face to the casual opening, he even -looked out with a sort of desperate indifference, on their movements. - -Within reach of his arm was the brawny shoulder of a gigantic Indian, -whose deep and authoritative voice appeared to give directions to the -proceedings of his fellows. Beyond him again, Duncan could look into the -vault opposite, which was filled with savages, upturning and rifling the -humble furniture of the scout. The wound of David had dyed the leaves -of sassafras with a color that the native well knew as anticipating the -season. Over this sign of their success, they sent up a howl, like an -opening from so many hounds who had recovered a lost trail. After this -yell of victory, they tore up the fragrant bed of the cavern, and bore -the branches into the chasm, scattering the boughs, as if they suspected -them of concealing the person of the man they had so long hated and -feared. One fierce and wild-looking warrior approached the chief, -bearing a load of the brush, and pointing exultingly to the deep red -stains with which it was sprinkled, uttered his joy in Indian yells, -whose meaning Heyward was only enabled to comprehend by the frequent -repetition of the name "La Longue Carabine!" When his triumph had -ceased, he cast the brush on the slight heap Duncan had made before -the entrance of the second cavern, and closed the view. His example was -followed by others, who, as they drew the branches from the cave of the -scout, threw them into one pile, adding, unconsciously, to the security -of those they sought. The very slightness of the defense was its chief -merit, for no one thought of disturbing a mass of brush, which all -of them believed, in that moment of hurry and confusion, had been -accidentally raised by the hands of their own party. - -As the blankets yielded before the outward pressure, and the branches -settled in the fissure of the rock by their own weight, forming a -compact body, Duncan once more breathed freely. With a light step and -lighter heart, he returned to the center of the cave, and took the -place he had left, where he could command a view of the opening next the -river. While he was in the act of making this movement, the Indians, as -if changing their purpose by a common impulse, broke away from the chasm -in a body, and were heard rushing up the island again, toward the point -whence they had originally descended. Here another wailing cry betrayed -that they were again collected around the bodies of their dead comrades. - -Duncan now ventured to look at his companions; for, during the most -critical moments of their danger, he had been apprehensive that the -anxiety of his countenance might communicate some additional alarm to -those who were so little able to sustain it. - -"They are gone, Cora!" he whispered; "Alice, they are returned whence -they came, and we are saved! To Heaven, that has alone delivered us from -the grasp of so merciless an enemy, be all the praise!" - -"Then to Heaven will I return my thanks!" exclaimed the younger sister, -rising from the encircling arm of Cora, and casting herself with -enthusiastic gratitude on the naked rock; "to that Heaven who has spared -the tears of a gray-headed father; has saved the lives of those I so -much love." - -Both Heyward and the more temperate Cora witnessed the act of -involuntary emotion with powerful sympathy, the former secretly -believing that piety had never worn a form so lovely as it had now -assumed in the youthful person of Alice. Her eyes were radiant with the -glow of grateful feelings; the flush of her beauty was again seated on -her cheeks, and her whole soul seemed ready and anxious to pour out its -thanksgivings through the medium of her eloquent features. But when her -lips moved, the words they should have uttered appeared frozen by some -new and sudden chill. Her bloom gave place to the paleness of death; -her soft and melting eyes grew hard, and seemed contracting with horror; -while those hands, which she had raised, clasped in each other, toward -heaven, dropped in horizontal lines before her, the fingers pointed -forward in convulsed motion. Heyward turned the instant she gave a -direction to his suspicions, and peering just above the ledge which -formed the threshold of the open outlet of the cavern, he beheld the -malignant, fierce and savage features of Le Renard Subtil. - -In that moment of surprise, the self-possession of Heyward did not -desert him. He observed by the vacant expression of the Indian's -countenance, that his eye, accustomed to the open air had not yet -been able to penetrate the dusky light which pervaded the depth of the -cavern. He had even thought of retreating beyond a curvature in the -natural wall, which might still conceal him and his companions, when by -the sudden gleam of intelligence that shot across the features of the -savage, he saw it was too late, and that they were betrayed. - -The look of exultation and brutal triumph which announced this terrible -truth was irresistibly irritating. Forgetful of everything but the -impulses of his hot blood, Duncan leveled his pistol and fired. The -report of the weapon made the cavern bellow like an eruption from a -volcano; and when the smoke it vomited had been driven away before the -current of air which issued from the ravine the place so lately occupied -by the features of his treacherous guide was vacant. Rushing to the -outlet, Heyward caught a glimpse of his dark figure stealing around a -low and narrow ledge, which soon hid him entirely from sight. - -Among the savages a frightful stillness succeeded the explosion, which -had just been heard bursting from the bowels of the rock. But when -Le Renard raised his voice in a long and intelligible whoop, it was -answered by a spontaneous yell from the mouth of every Indian within -hearing of the sound. - -The clamorous noises again rushed down the island; and before Duncan -had time to recover from the shock, his feeble barrier of brush was -scattered to the winds, the cavern was entered at both its extremities, -and he and his companions were dragged from their shelter and borne into -the day, where they stood surrounded by the whole band of the triumphant -Hurons. - - - - -CHAPTER 10 - - "I fear we shall outsleep the coming morn - As much as we this night have overwatched!" - --Midsummer Night's Dream - -The instant the shock of this sudden misfortune had abated, Duncan began -to make his observations on the appearance and proceedings of their -captors. Contrary to the usages of the natives in the wantonness of -their success they had respected, not only the persons of the trembling -sisters, but his own. The rich ornaments of his military attire had -indeed been repeatedly handled by different individuals of the tribes -with eyes expressing a savage longing to possess the baubles; but -before the customary violence could be resorted to, a mandate in the -authoritative voice of the large warrior, already mentioned, stayed the -uplifted hand, and convinced Heyward that they were to be reserved for -some object of particular moment. - -While, however, these manifestations of weakness were exhibited by the -young and vain of the party, the more experienced warriors continued -their search throughout both caverns, with an activity that denoted they -were far from being satisfied with those fruits of their conquest which -had already been brought to light. Unable to discover any new victim, -these diligent workers of vengeance soon approached their male -prisoners, pronouncing the name "La Longue Carabine," with a fierceness -that could not be easily mistaken. Duncan affected not to comprehend -the meaning of their repeated and violent interrogatories, while his -companion was spared the effort of a similar deception by his ignorance -of French. Wearied at length by their importunities, and apprehensive -of irritating his captors by too stubborn a silence, the former -looked about him in quest of Magua, who might interpret his answers -to questions which were at each moment becoming more earnest and -threatening. - -The conduct of this savage had formed a solitary exception to that of -all his fellows. While the others were busily occupied in seeking -to gratify their childish passion for finery, by plundering even -the miserable effects of the scout, or had been searching with such -bloodthirsty vengeance in their looks for their absent owner, Le Renard -had stood at a little distance from the prisoners, with a demeanor so -quiet and satisfied, as to betray that he had already effected the grand -purpose of his treachery. When the eyes of Heyward first met those of -his recent guide, he turned them away in horror at the sinister though -calm look he encountered. Conquering his disgust, however, he was able, -with an averted face, to address his successful enemy. - -"Le Renard Subtil is too much of a warrior," said the reluctant Heyward, -"to refuse telling an unarmed man what his conquerors say." - -"They ask for the hunter who knows the paths through the woods," -returned Magua, in his broken English, laying his hand, at the same -time, with a ferocious smile, on the bundle of leaves with which a wound -on his own shoulder was bandaged. "'La Longue Carabine'! His rifle -is good, and his eye never shut; but, like the short gun of the white -chief, it is nothing against the life of Le Subtil." - -"Le Renard is too brave to remember the hurts received in war, or the -hands that gave them." - -"Was it war, when the tired Indian rested at the sugartree to taste his -corn! who filled the bushes with creeping enemies! who drew the knife, -whose tongue was peace, while his heart was colored with blood! Did -Magua say that the hatchet was out of the ground, and that his hand had -dug it up?" - -As Duncan dared not retort upon his accuser by reminding him of his own -premeditated treachery, and disdained to deprecate his resentment by any -words of apology, he remained silent. Magua seemed also content to -rest the controversy as well as all further communication there, for he -resumed the leaning attitude against the rock from which, in momentary -energy, he had arisen. But the cry of "La Longue Carabine" was renewed -the instant the impatient savages perceived that the short dialogue was -ended. - -"You hear," said Magua, with stubborn indifference: "the red Hurons call -for the life of 'The Long Rifle', or they will have the blood of him -that keep him hid!" - -"He is gone--escaped; he is far beyond their reach." - -Renard smiled with cold contempt, as he answered: - -"When the white man dies, he thinks he is at peace; but the red men know -how to torture even the ghosts of their enemies. Where is his body? Let -the Hurons see his scalp." - -"He is not dead, but escaped." - -Magua shook his head incredulously. - -"Is he a bird, to spread his wings; or is he a fish, to swim without -air! The white chief read in his books, and he believes the Hurons are -fools!" - -"Though no fish, 'The Long Rifle' can swim. He floated down the stream -when the powder was all burned, and when the eyes of the Hurons were -behind a cloud." - -"And why did the white chief stay?" demanded the still incredulous -Indian. "Is he a stone that goes to the bottom, or does the scalp burn -his head?" - -"That I am not stone, your dead comrade, who fell into the falls, might -answer, were the life still in him," said the provoked young man, using, -in his anger, that boastful language which was most likely to excite the -admiration of an Indian. "The white man thinks none but cowards desert -their women." - -Magua muttered a few words, inaudibly, between his teeth, before he -continued, aloud: - -"Can the Delawares swim, too, as well as crawl in the bushes? Where is -'Le Gros Serpent'?" - -Duncan, who perceived by the use of these Canadian appellations, that -his late companions were much better known to his enemies than to -himself, answered, reluctantly: "He also is gone down with the water." - -"'Le Cerf Agile' is not here?" - -"I know not whom you call 'The Nimble Deer'," said Duncan gladly -profiting by any excuse to create delay. - -"Uncas," returned Magua, pronouncing the Delaware name with even greater -difficulty than he spoke his English words. "'Bounding Elk' is what the -white man says, when he calls to the young Mohican." - -"Here is some confusion in names between us, Le Renard," said Duncan, -hoping to provoke a discussion. "Daim is the French for deer, and cerf -for stag; elan is the true term, when one would speak of an elk." - -"Yes," muttered the Indian, in his native tongue; "the pale faces are -prattling women! they have two words for each thing, while a red-skin -will make the sound of his voice speak to him." Then, changing his -language, he continued, adhering to the imperfect nomenclature of his -provincial instructors. "The deer is swift, but weak; the elk is swift, -but strong; and the son of 'Le Serpent' is 'Le Cerf Agile.' Has he -leaped the river to the woods?" - -"If you mean the younger Delaware, he, too, has gone down with the -water." - -As there was nothing improbable to an Indian in the manner of the -escape, Magua admitted the truth of what he had heard, with a readiness -that afforded additional evidence how little he would prize such -worthless captives. With his companions, however, the feeling was -manifestly different. - -The Hurons had awaited the result of this short dialogue with -characteristic patience, and with a silence that increased until there -was a general stillness in the band. When Heyward ceased to speak, they -turned their eyes, as one man, on Magua, demanding, in this expressive -manner, an explanation of what had been said. Their interpreter pointed -to the river, and made them acquainted with the result, as much by -the action as by the few words he uttered. When the fact was generally -understood, the savages raised a frightful yell, which declared the -extent of their disappointment. Some ran furiously to the water's -edge, beating the air with frantic gestures, while others spat upon the -element, to resent the supposed treason it had committed against -their acknowledged rights as conquerors. A few, and they not the least -powerful and terrific of the band, threw lowering looks, in which the -fiercest passion was only tempered by habitual self-command, at those -captives who still remained in their power, while one or two even gave -vent to their malignant feelings by the most menacing gestures, against -which neither the sex nor the beauty of the sisters was any protection. -The young soldier made a desperate but fruitless effort to spring to the -side of Alice, when he saw the dark hand of a savage twisted in the rich -tresses which were flowing in volumes over her shoulders, while a knife -was passed around the head from which they fell, as if to denote the -horrid manner in which it was about to be robbed of its beautiful -ornament. But his hands were bound; and at the first movement he made, -he felt the grasp of the powerful Indian who directed the band, pressing -his shoulder like a vise. Immediately conscious how unavailing any -struggle against such an overwhelming force must prove, he submitted -to his fate, encouraging his gentle companions by a few low and tender -assurances, that the natives seldom failed to threaten more than they -performed. - -But while Duncan resorted to these words of consolation to quiet the -apprehensions of the sisters, he was not so weak as to deceive himself. -He well knew that the authority of an Indian chief was so little -conventional, that it was oftener maintained by physical superiority -than by any moral supremacy he might possess. The danger was, therefore, -magnified exactly in proportion to the number of the savage spirits -by which they were surrounded. The most positive mandate from him who -seemed the acknowledged leader, was liable to be violated at each moment -by any rash hand that might choose to sacrifice a victim to the manes of -some dead friend or relative. While, therefore, he sustained an outward -appearance of calmness and fortitude, his heart leaped into his throat, -whenever any of their fierce captors drew nearer than common to the -helpless sisters, or fastened one of their sullen, wandering looks on -those fragile forms which were so little able to resist the slightest -assault. - -His apprehensions were, however, greatly relieved, when he saw that -the leader had summoned his warriors to himself in counsel. Their -deliberations were short, and it would seem, by the silence of most of -the party, the decision unanimous. By the frequency with which the few -speakers pointed in the direction of the encampment of Webb, it was -apparent they dreaded the approach of danger from that quarter. This -consideration probably hastened their determination, and quickened the -subsequent movements. - -During his short conference, Heyward, finding a respite from his gravest -fears, had leisure to admire the cautious manner in which the Hurons had -made their approaches, even after hostilities had ceased. - -It has already been stated that the upper half of the island was a naked -rock, and destitute of any other defenses than a few scattered logs of -driftwood. They had selected this point to make their descent, having -borne the canoe through the wood around the cataract for that purpose. -Placing their arms in the little vessel a dozen men clinging to its -sides had trusted themselves to the direction of the canoe, which was -controlled by two of the most skillful warriors, in attitudes that -enabled them to command a view of the dangerous passage. Favored by this -arrangement, they touched the head of the island at that point which had -proved so fatal to their first adventurers, but with the advantages of -superior numbers, and the possession of firearms. That such had been the -manner of their descent was rendered quite apparent to Duncan; for they -now bore the light bark from the upper end of the rock, and placed it -in the water, near the mouth of the outer cavern. As soon as this change -was made, the leader made signs to the prisoners to descend and enter. - -As resistance was impossible, and remonstrance useless, Heyward set the -example of submission, by leading the way into the canoe, where he -was soon seated with the sisters and the still wondering David. -Notwithstanding the Hurons were necessarily ignorant of the little -channels among the eddies and rapids of the stream, they knew the common -signs of such a navigation too well to commit any material blunder. -When the pilot chosen for the task of guiding the canoe had taken his -station, the whole band plunged again into the river, the vessel glided -down the current, and in a few moments the captives found themselves on -the south bank of the stream, nearly opposite to the point where they -had struck it the preceding evening. - -Here was held another short but earnest consultation, during which the -horses, to whose panic their owners ascribed their heaviest misfortune, -were led from the cover of the woods, and brought to the sheltered spot. -The band now divided. The great chief, so often mentioned, mounting the -charger of Heyward, led the way directly across the river, followed by -most of his people, and disappeared in the woods, leaving the prisoners -in charge of six savages, at whose head was Le Renard Subtil. Duncan -witnessed all their movements with renewed uneasiness. - -He had been fond of believing, from the uncommon forbearance of the -savages, that he was reserved as a prisoner to be delivered to Montcalm. -As the thoughts of those who are in misery seldom slumber, and the -invention is never more lively than when it is stimulated by hope, -however feeble and remote, he had even imagined that the parental -feelings of Munro were to be made instrumental in seducing him from his -duty to the king. For though the French commander bore a high character -for courage and enterprise, he was also thought to be expert in those -political practises which do not always respect the nicer obligations -of morality, and which so generally disgraced the European diplomacy of -that period. - -All those busy and ingenious speculations were now annihilated by the -conduct of his captors. That portion of the band who had followed the -huge warrior took the route toward the foot of the Horican, and no other -expectation was left for himself and companions, than that they were to -be retained as hopeless captives by their savage conquerors. Anxious to -know the worst, and willing, in such an emergency, to try the potency of -gold he overcame his reluctance to speak to Magua. Addressing himself -to his former guide, who had now assumed the authority and manner of one -who was to direct the future movements of the party, he said, in tones -as friendly and confiding as he could assume: - -"I would speak to Magua, what is fit only for so great a chief to hear." - -The Indian turned his eyes on the young soldier scornfully, as he -answered: - -"Speak; trees have no ears." - -"But the red Hurons are not deaf; and counsel that is fit for the great -men of a nation would make the young warriors drunk. If Magua will not -listen, the officer of the king knows how to be silent." - -The savage spoke carelessly to his comrades, who were busied, after -their awkward manner, in preparing the horses for the reception of the -sisters, and moved a little to one side, whither by a cautious gesture -he induced Heyward to follow. - -"Now, speak," he said; "if the words are such as Magua should hear." - -"Le Renard Subtil has proved himself worthy of the honorable name given -to him by his Canada fathers," commenced Heyward; "I see his wisdom, -and all that he has done for us, and shall remember it when the hour to -reward him arrives. Yes! Renard has proved that he is not only a great -chief in council, but one who knows how to deceive his enemies!" - -"What has Renard done?" coldly demanded the Indian. - -"What! has he not seen that the woods were filled with outlying parties -of the enemies, and that the serpent could not steal through them -without being seen? Then, did he not lose his path to blind the eyes of -the Hurons? Did he not pretend to go back to his tribe, who had treated -him ill, and driven him from their wigwams like a dog? And when he saw -what he wished to do, did we not aid him, by making a false face, that -the Hurons might think the white man believed that his friend was his -enemy? Is not all this true? And when Le Subtil had shut the eyes and -stopped the ears of his nation by his wisdom, did they not forget that -they had once done him wrong, and forced him to flee to the Mohawks? -And did they not leave him on the south side of the river, with their -prisoners, while they have gone foolishly on the north? Does not Renard -mean to turn like a fox on his footsteps, and to carry to the rich and -gray-headed Scotchman his daughters? Yes, Magua, I see it all, and I -have already been thinking how so much wisdom and honesty should be -repaid. First, the chief of William Henry will give as a great chief -should for such a service. The medal* of Magua will no longer be of tin, -but of beaten gold; his horn will run over with powder; dollars will be -as plenty in his pouch as pebbles on the shore of Horican; and the deer -will lick his hand, for they will know it to be vain to fly from -the rifle he will carry! As for myself, I know not how to exceed the -gratitude of the Scotchman, but I--yes, I will--" - - * It has long been a practice with the whites to conciliate - the important men of the Indians by presenting medals, which - are worn in the place of their own rude ornaments. Those - given by the English generally bear the impression of the - reigning king, and those given by the Americans that of the - president. - -"What will the young chief, who comes from toward the sun, give?" -demanded the Huron, observing that Heyward hesitated in his desire to -end the enumeration of benefits with that which might form the climax of -an Indian's wishes. - -"He will make the fire-water from the islands in the salt lake flow -before the wigwam of Magua, until the heart of the Indian shall be -lighter than the feathers of the humming-bird, and his breath sweeter -than the wild honeysuckle." - -Le Renard had listened gravely as Heyward slowly proceeded in this -subtle speech. When the young man mentioned the artifice he supposed -the Indian to have practised on his own nation, the countenance of -the listener was veiled in an expression of cautious gravity. At the -allusion to the injury which Duncan affected to believe had driven -the Huron from his native tribe, a gleam of such ungovernable ferocity -flashed from the other's eyes, as induced the adventurous speaker to -believe he had struck the proper chord. And by the time he reached -the part where he so artfully blended the thirst of vengeance with the -desire of gain, he had, at least, obtained a command of the deepest -attention of the savage. The question put by Le Renard had been calm, -and with all the dignity of an Indian; but it was quite apparent, by the -thoughtful expression of the listener's countenance, that the answer was -most cunningly devised. The Huron mused a few moments, and then laying -his hand on the rude bandages of his wounded shoulder, he said, with -some energy: - -"Do friends make such marks?" - -"Would 'La Longue Carbine' cut one so slight on an enemy?" - -"Do the Delawares crawl upon those they love like snakes, twisting -themselves to strike?" - -"Would 'Le Gros Serpent' have been heard by the ears of one he wished to -be deaf?" - -"Does the white chief burn his powder in the faces of his brothers?" - -"Does he ever miss his aim, when seriously bent to kill?" returned -Duncan, smiling with well acted sincerity. - -Another long and deliberate pause succeeded these sententious questions -and ready replies. Duncan saw that the Indian hesitated. In order to -complete his victory, he was in the act of recommencing the enumeration -of the rewards, when Magua made an expressive gesture and said: - -"Enough; Le Renard is a wise chief, and what he does will be seen. -Go, and keep the mouth shut. When Magua speaks, it will be the time to -answer." - -Heyward, perceiving that the eyes of his companion were warily fastened -on the rest of the band, fell back immediately, in order to avoid -the appearance of any suspicious confederacy with their leader. -Magua approached the horses, and affected to be well pleased with the -diligence and ingenuity of his comrades. He then signed to Heyward to -assist the sisters into the saddles, for he seldom deigned to use the -English tongue, unless urged by some motive of more than usual moment. - -There was no longer any plausible pretext for delay; and Duncan was -obliged, however reluctantly, to comply. As he performed this office, he -whispered his reviving hopes in the ears of the trembling females, who, -through dread of encountering the savage countenances of their captors, -seldom raised their eyes from the ground. The mare of David had been -taken with the followers of the large chief; in consequence, its owner, -as well as Duncan, was compelled to journey on foot. The latter did not, -however, so much regret this circumstance, as it might enable him to -retard the speed of the party; for he still turned his longing looks in -the direction of Fort Edward, in the vain expectation of catching some -sound from that quarter of the forest, which might denote the approach -of succor. When all were prepared, Magua made the signal to proceed, -advancing in front to lead the party in person. Next followed David, who -was gradually coming to a true sense of his condition, as the effects of -the wound became less and less apparent. The sisters rode in his rear, -with Heyward at their side, while the Indians flanked the party, and -brought up the close of the march, with a caution that seemed never to -tire. - -In this manner they proceeded in uninterrupted silence, except when -Heyward addressed some solitary word of comfort to the females, or David -gave vent to the moanings of his spirit, in piteous exclamations, which -he intended should express the humility of resignation. Their direction -lay toward the south, and in a course nearly opposite to the road to -William Henry. Notwithstanding this apparent adherence in Magua to the -original determination of his conquerors, Heyward could not believe -his tempting bait was so soon forgotten; and he knew the windings of an -Indian's path too well to suppose that its apparent course led directly -to its object, when artifice was at all necessary. Mile after mile was, -however, passed through the boundless woods, in this painful manner, -without any prospect of a termination to their journey. Heyward watched -the sun, as he darted his meridian rays through the branches of the -trees, and pined for the moment when the policy of Magua should change -their route to one more favorable to his hopes. Sometimes he fancied the -wary savage, despairing of passing the army of Montcalm in safety, -was holding his way toward a well-known border settlement, where a -distinguished officer of the crown, and a favored friend of the Six -Nations, held his large possessions, as well as his usual residence. To -be delivered into the hands of Sir William Johnson was far preferable -to being led into the wilds of Canada; but in order to effect even the -former, it would be necessary to traverse the forest for many weary -leagues, each step of which was carrying him further from the scene of -the war, and, consequently, from the post, not only of honor, but of -duty. - -Cora alone remembered the parting injunctions of the scout, and whenever -an opportunity offered, she stretched forth her arm to bend aside the -twigs that met her hands. But the vigilance of the Indians rendered this -act of precaution both difficult and dangerous. She was often defeated -in her purpose, by encountering their watchful eyes, when it became -necessary to feign an alarm she did not feel, and occupy the limb by -some gesture of feminine apprehension. Once, and once only, was she -completely successful; when she broke down the bough of a large sumach, -and by a sudden thought, let her glove fall at the same instant. This -sign, intended for those that might follow, was observed by one of her -conductors, who restored the glove, broke the remaining branches of the -bush in such a manner that it appeared to proceed from the struggling of -some beast in its branches, and then laid his hand on his tomahawk, -with a look so significant, that it put an effectual end to these stolen -memorials of their passage. - -As there were horses, to leave the prints of their footsteps, in both -bands of the Indians, this interruption cut off any probable hopes of -assistance being conveyed through the means of their trail. - -Heyward would have ventured a remonstrance had there been anything -encouraging in the gloomy reserve of Magua. But the savage, during all -this time, seldom turned to look at his followers, and never spoke. With -the sun for his only guide, or aided by such blind marks as are only -known to the sagacity of a native, he held his way along the barrens -of pine, through occasional little fertile vales, across brooks and -rivulets, and over undulating hills, with the accuracy of instinct, -and nearly with the directness of a bird. He never seemed to hesitate. -Whether the path was hardly distinguishable, whether it disappeared, or -whether it lay beaten and plain before him, made no sensible difference -in his speed or certainty. It seemed as if fatigue could not affect him. -Whenever the eyes of the wearied travelers rose from the decayed leaves -over which they trod, his dark form was to be seen glancing among the -stems of the trees in front, his head immovably fastened in a forward -position, with the light plume on his crest fluttering in a current of -air, made solely by the swiftness of his own motion. - -But all this diligence and speed were not without an object. After -crossing a low vale, through which a gushing brook meandered, he -suddenly ascended a hill, so steep and difficult of ascent, that the -sisters were compelled to alight in order to follow. When the summit was -gained, they found themselves on a level spot, but thinly covered with -trees, under one of which Magua had thrown his dark form, as if willing -and ready to seek that rest which was so much needed by the whole party. - - - - -CHAPTER 11 - - "Cursed be my tribe If I forgive him." - --Shylock - -The Indian had selected for this desirable purpose one of those steep, -pyramidal hills, which bear a strong resemblance to artificial mounds, -and which so frequently occur in the valleys of America. The one in -question was high and precipitous; its top flattened, as usual; but with -one of its sides more than ordinarily irregular. It possessed no other -apparent advantage for a resting place, than in its elevation and form, -which might render defense easy, and surprise nearly impossible. As -Heyward, however, no longer expected that rescue which time and distance -now rendered so improbable, he regarded these little peculiarities with -an eye devoid of interest, devoting himself entirely to the comfort and -condolence of his feebler companions. The Narragansetts were suffered -to browse on the branches of the trees and shrubs that were thinly -scattered over the summit of the hill, while the remains of their -provisions were spread under the shade of a beech, that stretched its -horizontal limbs like a canopy above them. - -Notwithstanding the swiftness of their flight, one of the Indians had -found an opportunity to strike a straggling fawn with an arrow, and -had borne the more preferable fragments of the victim, patiently on his -shoulders, to the stopping place. Without any aid from the science of -cookery, he was immediately employed, in common with his fellows, in -gorging himself with this digestible sustenance. Magua alone sat apart, -without participating in the revolting meal, and apparently buried in -the deepest thought. - -This abstinence, so remarkable in an Indian, when he possessed the means -of satisfying hunger, at length attracted the notice of Heyward. The -young man willingly believed that the Huron deliberated on the most -eligible manner of eluding the vigilance of his associates. With a view -to assist his plans by any suggestion of his own, and to strengthen the -temptation, he left the beech, and straggled, as if without an object, -to the spot where Le Renard was seated. - -"Has not Magua kept the sun in his face long enough to escape all danger -from the Canadians?" he asked, as though no longer doubtful of the -good intelligence established between them; "and will not the chief -of William Henry be better pleased to see his daughters before another -night may have hardened his heart to their loss, to make him less -liberal in his reward?" - -"Do the pale faces love their children less in the morning than at -night?" asked the Indian, coldly. - -"By no means," returned Heyward, anxious to recall his error, if he had -made one; "the white man may, and does often, forget the burial place of -his fathers; he sometimes ceases to remember those he should love, and -has promised to cherish; but the affection of a parent for his child is -never permitted to die." - -"And is the heart of the white-headed chief soft, and will he think of -the babes that his squaws have given him? He is hard on his warriors and -his eyes are made of stone?" - -"He is severe to the idle and wicked, but to the sober and deserving -he is a leader, both just and humane. I have known many fond and tender -parents, but never have I seen a man whose heart was softer toward his -child. You have seen the gray-head in front of his warriors, Magua; but -I have seen his eyes swimming in water, when he spoke of those children -who are now in your power!" - -Heyward paused, for he knew not how to construe the remarkable -expression that gleamed across the swarthy features of the attentive -Indian. At first it seemed as if the remembrance of the promised reward -grew vivid in his mind, while he listened to the sources of parental -feeling which were to assure its possession; but, as Duncan proceeded, -the expression of joy became so fiercely malignant that it was -impossible not to apprehend it proceeded from some passion more sinister -than avarice. - -"Go," said the Huron, suppressing the alarming exhibition in an -instant, in a death-like calmness of countenance; "go to the dark-haired -daughter, and say, 'Magua waits to speak' The father will remember what -the child promises." - -Duncan, who interpreted this speech to express a wish for some -additional pledge that the promised gifts should not be withheld, slowly -and reluctantly repaired to the place where the sisters were now resting -from their fatigue, to communicate its purport to Cora. - -"You understand the nature of an Indian's wishes," he concluded, as he -led her toward the place where she was expected, "and must be prodigal -of your offers of powder and blankets. Ardent spirits are, however, the -most prized by such as he; nor would it be amiss to add some boon -from your own hand, with that grace you so well know how to practise. -Remember, Cora, that on your presence of mind and ingenuity, even your -life, as well as that of Alice, may in some measure depend." - -"Heyward, and yours!" - -"Mine is of little moment; it is already sold to my king, and is a prize -to be seized by any enemy who may possess the power. I have no father -to expect me, and but few friends to lament a fate which I have courted -with the insatiable longings of youth after distinction. But hush! we -approach the Indian. Magua, the lady with whom you wish to speak, is -here." - -The Indian rose slowly from his seat, and stood for near a minute silent -and motionless. He then signed with his hand for Heyward to retire, -saying, coldly: - -"When the Huron talks to the women, his tribe shut their ears." - -Duncan, still lingering, as if refusing to comply, Cora said, with a -calm smile: - -"You hear, Heyward, and delicacy at least should urge you to retire. Go -to Alice, and comfort her with our reviving prospects." - -She waited until he had departed, and then turning to the native, with -the dignity of her sex in her voice and manner, she added: "What would -Le Renard say to the daughter of Munro?" - -"Listen," said the Indian, laying his hand firmly upon her arm, as if -willing to draw her utmost attention to his words; a movement that Cora -as firmly but quietly repulsed, by extricating the limb from his grasp: -"Magua was born a chief and a warrior among the red Hurons of the lakes; -he saw the suns of twenty summers make the snows of twenty winters run -off in the streams before he saw a pale face; and he was happy! Then -his Canada fathers came into the woods, and taught him to drink the -fire-water, and he became a rascal. The Hurons drove him from the graves -of his fathers, as they would chase the hunted buffalo. He ran down the -shores of the lakes, and followed their outlet to the 'city of cannon' -There he hunted and fished, till the people chased him again through the -woods into the arms of his enemies. The chief, who was born a Huron, was -at last a warrior among the Mohawks!" - -"Something like this I had heard before," said Cora, observing that he -paused to suppress those passions which began to burn with too bright a -flame, as he recalled the recollection of his supposed injuries. - -"Was it the fault of Le Renard that his head was not made of rock? Who -gave him the fire-water? who made him a villain? 'Twas the pale faces, -the people of your own color." - -"And am I answerable that thoughtless and unprincipled men exist, whose -shades of countenance may resemble mine?" Cora calmly demanded of the -excited savage. - -"No; Magua is a man, and not a fool; such as you never open their lips -to the burning stream: the Great Spirit has given you wisdom!" - -"What, then, have I do to, or say, in the matter of your misfortunes, -not to say of your errors?" - -"Listen," repeated the Indian, resuming his earnest attitude; "when -his English and French fathers dug up the hatchet, Le Renard struck the -war-post of the Mohawks, and went out against his own nation. The pale -faces have driven the red-skins from their hunting grounds, and now when -they fight, a white man leads the way. The old chief at Horican, your -father, was the great captain of our war-party. He said to the Mohawks -do this, and do that, and he was minded. He made a law, that if an -Indian swallowed the fire-water, and came into the cloth wigwams of his -warriors, it should not be forgotten. Magua foolishly opened his -mouth, and the hot liquor led him into the cabin of Munro. What did the -gray-head? let his daughter say." - -"He forgot not his words, and did justice, by punishing the offender," -said the undaunted daughter. - -"Justice!" repeated the Indian, casting an oblique glance of the most -ferocious expression at her unyielding countenance; "is it justice to -make evil and then punish for it? Magua was not himself; it was the -fire-water that spoke and acted for him! but Munro did believe it. The -Huron chief was tied up before all the pale-faced warriors, and whipped -like a dog." - -Cora remained silent, for she knew not how to palliate this imprudent -severity on the part of her father in a manner to suit the comprehension -of an Indian. - -"See!" continued Magua, tearing aside the slight calico that very -imperfectly concealed his painted breast; "here are scars given by -knives and bullets--of these a warrior may boast before his nation; but -the gray-head has left marks on the back of the Huron chief that he must -hide like a squaw, under this painted cloth of the whites." - -"I had thought," resumed Cora, "that an Indian warrior was patient, and -that his spirit felt not and knew not the pain his body suffered." - -"When the Chippewas tied Magua to the stake, and cut this gash," said -the other, laying his finger on a deep scar, "the Huron laughed in their -faces, and told them, Women struck so light! His spirit was then in the -clouds! But when he felt the blows of Munro, his spirit lay under the -birch. The spirit of a Huron is never drunk; it remembers forever!" - -"But it may be appeased. If my father has done you this injustice, show -him how an Indian can forgive an injury, and take back his daughters. -You have heard from Major Heyward--" - -Magua shook his head, forbidding the repetition of offers he so much -despised. - -"What would you have?" continued Cora, after a most painful pause, -while the conviction forced itself on her mind that the too sanguine and -generous Duncan had been cruelly deceived by the cunning of the savage. - -"What a Huron loves--good for good; bad for bad!" - -"You would, then, revenge the injury inflicted by Munro on his helpless -daughters. Would it not be more like a man to go before his face, and -take the satisfaction of a warrior?" - -"The arms of the pale faces are long, and their knives sharp!" returned -the savage, with a malignant laugh: "why should Le Renard go among the -muskets of his warriors, when he holds the spirit of the gray-head in -his hand?" - -"Name your intention, Magua," said Cora, struggling with herself to -speak with steady calmness. "Is it to lead us prisoners to the woods, or -do you contemplate even some greater evil? Is there no reward, no means -of palliating the injury, and of softening your heart? At least, release -my gentle sister, and pour out all your malice on me. Purchase wealth -by her safety and satisfy your revenge with a single victim. The loss -of both his daughters might bring the aged man to his grave, and where -would then be the satisfaction of Le Renard?" - -"Listen," said the Indian again. "The light eyes can go back to the -Horican, and tell the old chief what has been done, if the dark-haired -woman will swear by the Great Spirit of her fathers to tell no lie." - -"What must I promise?" demanded Cora, still maintaining a secret -ascendancy over the fierce native by the collected and feminine dignity -of her presence. - -"When Magua left his people his wife was given to another chief; he has -now made friends with the Hurons, and will go back to the graves of his -tribe, on the shores of the great lake. Let the daughter of the English -chief follow, and live in his wigwam forever." - -However revolting a proposal of such a character might prove to -Cora, she retained, notwithstanding her powerful disgust, sufficient -self-command to reply, without betraying the weakness. - -"And what pleasure would Magua find in sharing his cabin with a wife he -did not love; one who would be of a nation and color different from his -own? It would be better to take the gold of Munro, and buy the heart of -some Huron maid with his gifts." - -The Indian made no reply for near a minute, but bent his fierce looks -on the countenance of Cora, in such wavering glances, that her eyes -sank with shame, under an impression that for the first time they had -encountered an expression that no chaste female might endure. While she -was shrinking within herself, in dread of having her ears wounded by -some proposal still more shocking than the last, the voice of Magua -answered, in its tones of deepest malignancy: - -"When the blows scorched the back of the Huron, he would know where to -find a woman to feel the smart. The daughter of Munro would draw his -water, hoe his corn, and cook his venison. The body of the gray-head -would sleep among his cannon, but his heart would lie within reach of -the knife of Le Subtil." - -"Monster! well dost thou deserve thy treacherous name," cried Cora, in -an ungovernable burst of filial indignation. "None but a fiend could -meditate such a vengeance. But thou overratest thy power! You shall find -it is, in truth, the heart of Munro you hold, and that it will defy your -utmost malice!" - -The Indian answered this bold defiance by a ghastly smile, that showed -an unaltered purpose, while he motioned her away, as if to close the -conference forever. Cora, already regretting her precipitation, was -obliged to comply, for Magua instantly left the spot, and approached his -gluttonous comrades. Heyward flew to the side of the agitated female, -and demanded the result of a dialogue that he had watched at a distance -with so much interest. But, unwilling to alarm the fears of Alice, she -evaded a direct reply, betraying only by her anxious looks fastened on -the slightest movements of her captors. To the reiterated and earnest -questions of her sister concerning their probable destination, she -made no other answer than by pointing toward the dark group, with an -agitation she could not control, and murmuring as she folded Alice to -her bosom. - -"There, there; read our fortunes in their faces; we shall see; we shall -see!" - -The action, and the choked utterance of Cora, spoke more impressively -than any words, and quickly drew the attention of her companions on that -spot where her own was riveted with an intenseness that nothing but the -importance of the stake could create. - -When Magua reached the cluster of lolling savages, who, gorged with -their disgusting meal, lay stretched on the earth in brutal indulgence, -he commenced speaking with the dignity of an Indian chief. The first -syllables he uttered had the effect to cause his listeners to raise -themselves in attitudes of respectful attention. As the Huron used -his native language, the prisoners, notwithstanding the caution of the -natives had kept them within the swing of their tomahawks, could only -conjecture the substance of his harangue from the nature of those -significant gestures with which an Indian always illustrates his -eloquence. - -At first, the language, as well as the action of Magua, appeared calm -and deliberative. When he had succeeded in sufficiently awakening -the attention of his comrades, Heyward fancied, by his pointing so -frequently toward the direction of the great lakes, that he spoke of the -land of their fathers, and of their distant tribe. Frequent indications -of applause escaped the listeners, who, as they uttered the expressive -"Hugh!" looked at each other in commendation of the speaker. Le Renard -was too skillful to neglect his advantage. He now spoke of the long and -painful route by which they had left those spacious grounds and happy -villages, to come and battle against the enemies of their Canadian -fathers. He enumerated the warriors of the party; their several merits; -their frequent services to the nation; their wounds, and the number of -the scalps they had taken. Whenever he alluded to any present (and the -subtle Indian neglected none), the dark countenance of the flattered -individual gleamed with exultation, nor did he even hesitate to assert -the truth of the words, by gestures of applause and confirmation. Then -the voice of the speaker fell, and lost the loud, animated tones of -triumph with which he had enumerated their deeds of success and victory. -He described the cataract of Glenn's; the impregnable position of its -rocky island, with its caverns and its numerous rapids and whirlpools; -he named the name of "La Longue Carabine," and paused until the forest -beneath them had sent up the last echo of a loud and long yell, with -which the hated appellation was received. He pointed toward the youthful -military captive, and described the death of a favorite warrior, who -had been precipitated into the deep ravine by his hand. He not only -mentioned the fate of him who, hanging between heaven and earth, had -presented such a spectacle of horror to the whole band, but he acted -anew the terrors of his situation, his resolution and his death, on the -branches of a sapling; and, finally, he rapidly recounted the manner -in which each of their friends had fallen, never failing to touch upon -their courage, and their most acknowledged virtues. When this recital of -events was ended, his voice once more changed, and became plaintive and -even musical, in its low guttural sounds. He now spoke of the wives and -children of the slain; their destitution; their misery, both physical -and moral; their distance; and, at last, of their unavenged wrongs. Then -suddenly lifting his voice to a pitch of terrific energy, he concluded -by demanding: - -"Are the Hurons dogs to bear this? Who shall say to the wife of Menowgua -that the fishes have his scalp, and that his nation have not taken -revenge! Who will dare meet the mother of Wassawattimie, that scornful -woman, with his hands clean! What shall be said to the old men when -they ask us for scalps, and we have not a hair from a white head to give -them! The women will point their fingers at us. There is a dark spot on -the names of the Hurons, and it must be hid in blood!" His voice was no -longer audible in the burst of rage which now broke into the air, as -if the wood, instead of containing so small a band, was filled with the -nation. During the foregoing address the progress of the speaker was too -plainly read by those most interested in his success through the medium -of the countenances of the men he addressed. They had answered his -melancholy and mourning by sympathy and sorrow; his assertions, by -gestures of confirmation; and his boasting, with the exultation of -savages. When he spoke of courage, their looks were firm and responsive; -when he alluded to their injuries, their eyes kindled with fury; when -he mentioned the taunts of the women, they dropped their heads in shame; -but when he pointed out their means of vengeance, he struck a chord -which never failed to thrill in the breast of an Indian. With the first -intimation that it was within their reach, the whole band sprang upon -their feet as one man; giving utterance to their rage in the most -frantic cries, they rushed upon their prisoners in a body with drawn -knives and uplifted tomahawks. Heyward threw himself between the sisters -and the foremost, whom he grappled with a desperate strength that for a -moment checked his violence. This unexpected resistance gave Magua time -to interpose, and with rapid enunciation and animated gesture, he drew -the attention of the band again to himself. In that language he knew so -well how to assume, he diverted his comrades from their instant purpose, -and invited them to prolong the misery of their victims. His proposal -was received with acclamations, and executed with the swiftness of -thought. - -Two powerful warriors cast themselves on Heyward, while another was -occupied in securing the less active singing-master. Neither of the -captives, however, submitted without a desperate, though fruitless, -struggle. Even David hurled his assailant to the earth; nor was Heyward -secured until the victory over his companion enabled the Indians to -direct their united force to that object. He was then bound and fastened -to the body of the sapling, on whose branches Magua had acted the -pantomime of the falling Huron. When the young soldier regained his -recollection, he had the painful certainty before his eyes that a -common fate was intended for the whole party. On his right was Cora in -a durance similar to his own, pale and agitated, but with an eye whose -steady look still read the proceedings of their enemies. On his left, -the withes which bound her to a pine, performed that office for Alice -which her trembling limbs refused, and alone kept her fragile form from -sinking. Her hands were clasped before her in prayer, but instead of -looking upward toward that power which alone could rescue them, her -unconscious looks wandered to the countenance of Duncan with infantile -dependency. David had contended, and the novelty of the circumstance -held him silent, in deliberation on the propriety of the unusual -occurrence. - -The vengeance of the Hurons had now taken a new direction, and they -prepared to execute it with that barbarous ingenuity with which they -were familiarized by the practise of centuries. Some sought knots, to -raise the blazing pile; one was riving the splinters of pine, in order -to pierce the flesh of their captives with the burning fragments; and -others bent the tops of two saplings to the earth, in order to suspend -Heyward by the arms between the recoiling branches. But the vengeance of -Magua sought a deeper and more malignant enjoyment. - -While the less refined monsters of the band prepared, before the eyes of -those who were to suffer, these well-known and vulgar means of torture, -he approached Cora, and pointed out, with the most malign expression of -countenance, the speedy fate that awaited her: - -"Ha!" he added, "what says the daughter of Munro? Her head is too good -to find a pillow in the wigwam of Le Renard; will she like it better -when it rolls about this hill a plaything for the wolves? Her bosom -cannot nurse the children of a Huron; she will see it spit upon by -Indians!" - -"What means the monster!" demanded the astonished Heyward. - -"Nothing!" was the firm reply. "He is a savage, a barbarous and ignorant -savage, and knows not what he does. Let us find leisure, with our dying -breath, to ask for him penitence and pardon." - -"Pardon!" echoed the fierce Huron, mistaking in his anger, the meaning -of her words; "the memory of an Indian is no longer than the arm of the -pale faces; his mercy shorter than their justice! Say; shall I send the -yellow hair to her father, and will you follow Magua to the great lakes, -to carry his water, and feed him with corn?" - -Cora beckoned him away, with an emotion of disgust she could not -control. - -"Leave me," she said, with a solemnity that for a moment checked the -barbarity of the Indian; "you mingle bitterness in my prayers; you stand -between me and my God!" - -The slight impression produced on the savage was, however, soon -forgotten, and he continued pointing, with taunting irony, toward Alice. - -"Look! the child weeps! She is too young to die! Send her to Munro, to -comb his gray hairs, and keep life in the heart of the old man." - -Cora could not resist the desire to look upon her youthful sister, in -whose eyes she met an imploring glance, that betrayed the longings of -nature. - -"What says he, dearest Cora?" asked the trembling voice of Alice. "Did -he speak of sending me to our father?" - -For many moments the elder sister looked upon the younger, with a -countenance that wavered with powerful and contending emotions. -At length she spoke, though her tones had lost their rich and calm -fullness, in an expression of tenderness that seemed maternal. - -"Alice," she said, "the Huron offers us both life, nay, more than both; -he offers to restore Duncan, our invaluable Duncan, as well as you, to -our friends--to our father--to our heart-stricken, childless father, if -I will bow down this rebellious, stubborn pride of mine, and consent--" - -Her voice became choked, and clasping her hands, she looked upward, as -if seeking, in her agony, intelligence from a wisdom that was infinite. - -"Say on," cried Alice; "to what, dearest Cora? Oh! that the proffer were -made to me! to save you, to cheer our aged father, to restore Duncan, -how cheerfully could I die!" - -"Die!" repeated Cora, with a calmer and firmer voice, "that were easy! -Perhaps the alternative may not be less so. He would have me," she -continued, her accents sinking under a deep consciousness of the -degradation of the proposal, "follow him to the wilderness; go to the -habitations of the Hurons; to remain there; in short, to become his -wife! Speak, then, Alice; child of my affections! sister of my love! And -you, too, Major Heyward, aid my weak reason with your counsel. Is life -to be purchased by such a sacrifice? Will you, Alice, receive it at my -hands at such a price? And you, Duncan, guide me; control me between -you; for I am wholly yours!" - -"Would I!" echoed the indignant and astonished youth. "Cora! Cora! you -jest with our misery! Name not the horrid alternative again; the thought -itself is worse than a thousand deaths." - -"That such would be your answer, I well knew!" exclaimed Cora, her -cheeks flushing, and her dark eyes once more sparkling with the -lingering emotions of a woman. "What says my Alice? for her will I -submit without another murmur." - -Although both Heyward and Cora listened with painful suspense and the -deepest attention, no sounds were heard in reply. It appeared as if the -delicate and sensitive form of Alice would shrink into itself, as she -listened to this proposal. Her arms had fallen lengthwise before her, -the fingers moving in slight convulsions; her head dropped upon her -bosom, and her whole person seemed suspended against the tree, looking -like some beautiful emblem of the wounded delicacy of her sex, devoid of -animation and yet keenly conscious. In a few moments, however, her head -began to move slowly, in a sign of deep, unconquerable disapprobation. - -"No, no, no; better that we die as we have lived, together!" - -"Then die!" shouted Magua, hurling his tomahawk with violence at the -unresisting speaker, and gnashing his teeth with a rage that could no -longer be bridled at this sudden exhibition of firmness in the one he -believed the weakest of the party. The axe cleaved the air in front of -Heyward, and cutting some of the flowing ringlets of Alice, quivered -in the tree above her head. The sight maddened Duncan to desperation. -Collecting all his energies in one effort he snapped the twigs which -bound him and rushed upon another savage, who was preparing, with loud -yells and a more deliberate aim, to repeat the blow. They encountered, -grappled, and fell to the earth together. The naked body of his -antagonist afforded Heyward no means of holding his adversary, who -glided from his grasp, and rose again with one knee on his chest, -pressing him down with the weight of a giant. Duncan already saw the -knife gleaming in the air, when a whistling sound swept past him, and -was rather accompanied than followed by the sharp crack of a rifle. He -felt his breast relieved from the load it had endured; he saw the savage -expression of his adversary's countenance change to a look of vacant -wildness, when the Indian fell dead on the faded leaves by his side. - - - - -CHAPTER 12 - - "Clo.--I am gone, sire, - And anon, sire, I'll be with you again." - --Twelfth Night - -The Hurons stood aghast at this sudden visitation of death on one of -their band. But as they regarded the fatal accuracy of an aim which had -dared to immolate an enemy at so much hazard to a friend, the name -of "La Longue Carabine" burst simultaneously from every lip, and was -succeeded by a wild and a sort of plaintive howl. The cry was answered -by a loud shout from a little thicket, where the incautious party had -piled their arms; and at the next moment, Hawkeye, too eager to load -the rifle he had regained, was seen advancing upon them, brandishing the -clubbed weapon, and cutting the air with wide and powerful sweeps. Bold -and rapid as was the progress of the scout, it was exceeded by that of -a light and vigorous form which, bounding past him, leaped, with -incredible activity and daring, into the very center of the Hurons, -where it stood, whirling a tomahawk, and flourishing a glittering knife, -with fearful menaces, in front of Cora. Quicker than the thoughts could -follow those unexpected and audacious movements, an image, armed in the -emblematic panoply of death, glided before their eyes, and assumed a -threatening attitude at the other's side. The savage tormentors recoiled -before these warlike intruders, and uttered, as they appeared in such -quick succession, the often repeated and peculiar exclamations of -surprise, followed by the well-known and dreaded appellations of: - -"Le Cerf Agile! Le Gros Serpent!" - -But the wary and vigilant leader of the Hurons was not so easily -disconcerted. Casting his keen eyes around the little plain, he -comprehended the nature of the assault at a glance, and encouraging his -followers by his voice as well as by his example, he unsheathed his -long and dangerous knife, and rushed with a loud whoop upon the expected -Chingachgook. It was the signal for a general combat. Neither party had -firearms, and the contest was to be decided in the deadliest manner, -hand to hand, with weapons of offense, and none of defense. - -Uncas answered the whoop, and leaping on an enemy, with a single, -well-directed blow of his tomahawk, cleft him to the brain. Heyward -tore the weapon of Magua from the sapling, and rushed eagerly toward -the fray. As the combatants were now equal in number, each singled an -opponent from the adverse band. The rush and blows passed with the fury -of a whirlwind, and the swiftness of lightning. Hawkeye soon got another -enemy within reach of his arm, and with one sweep of his formidable -weapon he beat down the slight and inartificial defenses of his -antagonist, crushing him to the earth with the blow. Heyward ventured -to hurl the tomahawk he had seized, too ardent to await the moment -of closing. It struck the Indian he had selected on the forehead, -and checked for an instant his onward rush. Encouraged by this slight -advantage, the impetuous young man continued his onset, and sprang upon -his enemy with naked hands. A single instant was enough to assure him -of the rashness of the measure, for he immediately found himself fully -engaged, with all his activity and courage, in endeavoring to ward the -desperate thrusts made with the knife of the Huron. Unable longer to -foil an enemy so alert and vigilant, he threw his arms about him, and -succeeded in pinning the limbs of the other to his side, with an iron -grasp, but one that was far too exhausting to himself to continue long. -In this extremity he heard a voice near him, shouting: - -"Extarminate the varlets! no quarter to an accursed Mingo!" - -At the next moment, the breech of Hawkeye's rifle fell on the naked head -of his adversary, whose muscles appeared to wither under the shock, as -he sank from the arms of Duncan, flexible and motionless. - -When Uncas had brained his first antagonist, he turned, like a hungry -lion, to seek another. The fifth and only Huron disengaged at the first -onset had paused a moment, and then seeing that all around him were -employed in the deadly strife, he had sought, with hellish vengeance, -to complete the baffled work of revenge. Raising a shout of triumph, he -sprang toward the defenseless Cora, sending his keen axe as the dreadful -precursor of his approach. The tomahawk grazed her shoulder, and cutting -the withes which bound her to the tree, left the maiden at liberty to -fly. She eluded the grasp of the savage, and reckless of her own -safety, threw herself on the bosom of Alice, striving with convulsed -and ill-directed fingers, to tear asunder the twigs which confined the -person of her sister. Any other than a monster would have relented at -such an act of generous devotion to the best and purest affection; but -the breast of the Huron was a stranger to sympathy. Seizing Cora by the -rich tresses which fell in confusion about her form, he tore her from -her frantic hold, and bowed her down with brutal violence to her knees. -The savage drew the flowing curls through his hand, and raising them -on high with an outstretched arm, he passed the knife around the -exquisitely molded head of his victim, with a taunting and exulting -laugh. But he purchased this moment of fierce gratification with the -loss of the fatal opportunity. It was just then the sight caught the eye -of Uncas. Bounding from his footsteps he appeared for an instant darting -through the air and descending in a ball he fell on the chest of his -enemy, driving him many yards from the spot, headlong and prostrate. The -violence of the exertion cast the young Mohican at his side. They arose -together, fought, and bled, each in his turn. But the conflict was soon -decided; the tomahawk of Heyward and the rifle of Hawkeye descended -on the skull of the Huron, at the same moment that the knife of Uncas -reached his heart. - -The battle was now entirely terminated with the exception of the -protracted struggle between "Le Renard Subtil" and "Le Gros Serpent." -Well did these barbarous warriors prove that they deserved those -significant names which had been bestowed for deeds in former wars. -When they engaged, some little time was lost in eluding the quick and -vigorous thrusts which had been aimed at their lives. Suddenly darting -on each other, they closed, and came to the earth, twisted together like -twining serpents, in pliant and subtle folds. At the moment when the -victors found themselves unoccupied, the spot where these experienced -and desperate combatants lay could only be distinguished by a cloud of -dust and leaves, which moved from the center of the little plain toward -its boundary, as if raised by the passage of a whirlwind. Urged by the -different motives of filial affection, friendship and gratitude, Heyward -and his companions rushed with one accord to the place, encircling the -little canopy of dust which hung above the warriors. In vain did Uncas -dart around the cloud, with a wish to strike his knife into the heart -of his father's foe; the threatening rifle of Hawkeye was raised and -suspended in vain, while Duncan endeavored to seize the limbs of the -Huron with hands that appeared to have lost their power. Covered as they -were with dust and blood, the swift evolutions of the combatants seemed -to incorporate their bodies into one. The death-like looking figure of -the Mohican, and the dark form of the Huron, gleamed before their eyes -in such quick and confused succession, that the friends of the former -knew not where to plant the succoring blow. It is true there were short -and fleeting moments, when the fiery eyes of Magua were seen glittering, -like the fabled organs of the basilisk through the dusty wreath by which -he was enveloped, and he read by those short and deadly glances the fate -of the combat in the presence of his enemies; ere, however, any hostile -hand could descend on his devoted head, its place was filled by the -scowling visage of Chingachgook. In this manner the scene of the combat -was removed from the center of the little plain to its verge. The -Mohican now found an opportunity to make a powerful thrust with his -knife; Magua suddenly relinquished his grasp, and fell backward without -motion, and seemingly without life. His adversary leaped on his feet, -making the arches of the forest ring with the sounds of triumph. - -"Well done for the Delawares! victory to the Mohicans!" cried Hawkeye, -once more elevating the butt of the long and fatal rifle; "a finishing -blow from a man without a cross will never tell against his honor, nor -rob him of his right to the scalp." - -But at the very moment when the dangerous weapon was in the act of -descending, the subtle Huron rolled swiftly from beneath the danger, -over the edge of the precipice, and falling on his feet, was seen -leaping, with a single bound, into the center of a thicket of low -bushes, which clung along its sides. The Delawares, who had believed -their enemy dead, uttered their exclamation of surprise, and were -following with speed and clamor, like hounds in open view of the deer, -when a shrill and peculiar cry from the scout instantly changed their -purpose, and recalled them to the summit of the hill. - -"'Twas like himself!" cried the inveterate forester, whose prejudices -contributed so largely to veil his natural sense of justice in all -matters which concerned the Mingoes; "a lying and deceitful varlet as -he is. An honest Delaware now, being fairly vanquished, would have lain -still, and been knocked on the head, but these knavish Maquas cling to -life like so many cats-o'-the-mountain. Let him go--let him go; 'tis but -one man, and he without rifle or bow, many a long mile from his French -commerades; and like a rattler that lost his fangs, he can do no further -mischief, until such time as he, and we too, may leave the prints of our -moccasins over a long reach of sandy plain. See, Uncas," he added, in -Delaware, "your father is flaying the scalps already. It may be well to -go round and feel the vagabonds that are left, or we may have another of -them loping through the woods, and screeching like a jay that has been -winged." - -So saying the honest but implacable scout made the circuit of the dead, -into whose senseless bosoms he thrust his long knife, with as much -coolness as though they had been so many brute carcasses. He had, -however, been anticipated by the elder Mohican, who had already torn the -emblems of victory from the unresisting heads of the slain. - -But Uncas, denying his habits, we had almost said his nature, flew with -instinctive delicacy, accompanied by Heyward, to the assistance of the -females, and quickly releasing Alice, placed her in the arms of Cora. We -shall not attempt to describe the gratitude to the Almighty Disposer -of Events which glowed in the bosoms of the sisters, who were thus -unexpectedly restored to life and to each other. Their thanksgivings -were deep and silent; the offerings of their gentle spirits burning -brightest and purest on the secret altars of their hearts; and their -renovated and more earthly feelings exhibiting themselves in long and -fervent though speechless caresses. As Alice rose from her knees, where -she had sunk by the side of Cora, she threw herself on the bosom of the -latter, and sobbed aloud the name of their aged father, while her soft, -dove-like eyes, sparkled with the rays of hope. - -"We are saved! we are saved!" she murmured; "to return to the arms of -our dear, dear father, and his heart will not be broken with grief. And -you, too, Cora, my sister, my more than sister, my mother; you, too, -are spared. And Duncan," she added, looking round upon the youth with a -smile of ineffable innocence, "even our own brave and noble Duncan has -escaped without a hurt." - -To these ardent and nearly innocent words Cora made no other answer than -by straining the youthful speaker to her heart, as she bent over her -in melting tenderness. The manhood of Heyward felt no shame in dropping -tears over this spectacle of affectionate rapture; and Uncas stood, -fresh and blood-stained from the combat, a calm, and, apparently, an -unmoved looker-on, it is true, but with eyes that had already lost their -fierceness, and were beaming with a sympathy that elevated him far -above the intelligence, and advanced him probably centuries before, the -practises of his nation. - -During this display of emotions so natural in their situation, Hawkeye, -whose vigilant distrust had satisfied itself that the Hurons, who -disfigured the heavenly scene, no longer possessed the power to -interrupt its harmony, approached David, and liberated him from the -bonds he had, until that moment, endured with the most exemplary -patience. - -"There," exclaimed the scout, casting the last withe behind him, "you -are once more master of your own limbs, though you seem not to use them -with much greater judgment than that in which they were first fashioned. -If advice from one who is not older than yourself, but who, having -lived most of his time in the wilderness, may be said to have experience -beyond his years, will give no offense, you are welcome to my thoughts; -and these are, to part with the little tooting instrument in your jacket -to the first fool you meet with, and buy some we'pon with the money, if -it be only the barrel of a horseman's pistol. By industry and care, you -might thus come to some prefarment; for by this time, I should think, -your eyes would plainly tell you that a carrion crow is a better bird -than a mocking-thresher. The one will, at least, remove foul sights -from before the face of man, while the other is only good to brew -disturbances in the woods, by cheating the ears of all that hear them." - -"Arms and the clarion for the battle, but the song of thanksgiving -to the victory!" answered the liberated David. "Friend," he added, -thrusting forth his lean, delicate hand toward Hawkeye, in kindness, -while his eyes twinkled and grew moist, "I thank thee that the hairs -of my head still grow where they were first rooted by Providence; for, -though those of other men may be more glossy and curling, I have ever -found mine own well suited to the brain they shelter. That I did not -join myself to the battle, was less owing to disinclination, than to the -bonds of the heathen. Valiant and skillful hast thou proved thyself in -the conflict, and I hereby thank thee, before proceeding to discharge -other and more important duties, because thou hast proved thyself well -worthy of a Christian's praise." - -"The thing is but a trifle, and what you may often see if you tarry long -among us," returned the scout, a good deal softened toward the man of -song, by this unequivocal expression of gratitude. "I have got back my -old companion, 'killdeer'," he added, striking his hand on the breech of -his rifle; "and that in itself is a victory. These Iroquois are cunning, -but they outwitted themselves when they placed their firearms out of -reach; and had Uncas or his father been gifted with only their common -Indian patience, we should have come in upon the knaves with three -bullets instead of one, and that would have made a finish of the whole -pack; yon loping varlet, as well as his commerades. But 'twas all -fore-ordered, and for the best." - -"Thou sayest well," returned David, "and hast caught the true spirit -of Christianity. He that is to be saved will be saved, and he that is -predestined to be damned will be damned. This is the doctrine of truth, -and most consoling and refreshing it is to the true believer." - -The scout, who by this time was seated, examining into the state of his -rifle with a species of parental assiduity, now looked up at the other -in a displeasure that he did not affect to conceal, roughly interrupting -further speech. - -"Doctrine or no doctrine," said the sturdy woodsman, "'tis the belief of -knaves, and the curse of an honest man. I can credit that yonder Huron -was to fall by my hand, for with my own eyes I have seen it; but nothing -short of being a witness will cause me to think he has met with any -reward, or that Chingachgook there will be condemned at the final day." - -"You have no warranty for such an audacious doctrine, nor any covenant -to support it," cried David who was deeply tinctured with the subtle -distinctions which, in his time, and more especially in his province, -had been drawn around the beautiful simplicity of revelation, by -endeavoring to penetrate the awful mystery of the divine nature, -supplying faith by self-sufficiency, and by consequence, involving those -who reasoned from such human dogmas in absurdities and doubt; "your -temple is reared on the sands, and the first tempest will wash away its -foundation. I demand your authorities for such an uncharitable assertion -(like other advocates of a system, David was not always accurate in his -use of terms). Name chapter and verse; in which of the holy books do you -find language to support you?" - -"Book!" repeated Hawkeye, with singular and ill-concealed disdain; "do -you take me for a whimpering boy at the apronstring of one of your old -gals; and this good rifle on my knee for the feather of a goose's -wing, my ox's horn for a bottle of ink, and my leathern pouch for a -cross-barred handkercher to carry my dinner? Book! what have such as I, -who am a warrior of the wilderness, though a man without a cross, to -do with books? I never read but in one, and the words that are written -there are too simple and too plain to need much schooling; though I may -boast that of forty long and hard-working years." - -"What call you the volume?" said David, misconceiving the other's -meaning. - -"'Tis open before your eyes," returned the scout; "and he who owns it -is not a niggard of its use. I have heard it said that there are men who -read in books to convince themselves there is a God. I know not but man -may so deform his works in the settlement, as to leave that which is so -clear in the wilderness a matter of doubt among traders and priests. If -any such there be, and he will follow me from sun to sun, through the -windings of the forest, he shall see enough to teach him that he is a -fool, and that the greatest of his folly lies in striving to rise to the -level of One he can never equal, be it in goodness, or be it in power." - -The instant David discovered that he battled with a disputant who -imbibed his faith from the lights of nature, eschewing all subtleties -of doctrine, he willingly abandoned a controversy from which he believed -neither profit nor credit was to be derived. While the scout was -speaking, he had also seated himself, and producing the ready little -volume and the iron-rimmed spectacles, he prepared to discharge a -duty, which nothing but the unexpected assault he had received in his -orthodoxy could have so long suspended. He was, in truth, a minstrel of -the western continent--of a much later day, certainly, than those gifted -bards, who formerly sang the profane renown of baron and prince, but -after the spirit of his own age and country; and he was now prepared -to exercise the cunning of his craft, in celebration of, or rather in -thanksgiving for, the recent victory. He waited patiently for Hawkeye to -cease, then lifting his eyes, together with his voice, he said, aloud: - -"I invite you, friends, to join in praise for this signal deliverance -from the hands of barbarians and infidels, to the comfortable and solemn -tones of the tune called 'Northampton'." - -He next named the page and verse where the rhymes selected were to be -found, and applied the pitch-pipe to his lips, with the decent gravity -that he had been wont to use in the temple. This time he was, however, -without any accompaniment, for the sisters were just then pouring out -those tender effusions of affection which have been already alluded -to. Nothing deterred by the smallness of his audience, which, in -truth, consisted only of the discontented scout, he raised his voice, -commencing and ending the sacred song without accident or interruption -of any kind. - -Hawkeye listened while he coolly adjusted his flint and reloaded his -rifle; but the sounds, wanting the extraneous assistance of scene and -sympathy, failed to awaken his slumbering emotions. Never minstrel, -or by whatever more suitable name David should be known, drew upon his -talents in the presence of more insensible auditors; though considering -the singleness and sincerity of his motive, it is probable that no bard -of profane song ever uttered notes that ascended so near to that throne -where all homage and praise is due. The scout shook his head, and -muttering some unintelligible words, among which "throat" and "Iroquois" -were alone audible, he walked away, to collect and to examine into the -state of the captured arsenal of the Hurons. In this office he was now -joined by Chingachgook, who found his own, as well as the rifle of his -son, among the arms. Even Heyward and David were furnished with weapons; -nor was ammunition wanting to render them all effectual. - -When the foresters had made their selection, and distributed their -prizes, the scout announced that the hour had arrived when it was -necessary to move. By this time the song of Gamut had ceased, and the -sisters had learned to still the exhibition of their emotions. Aided by -Duncan and the younger Mohican, the two latter descended the precipitous -sides of that hill which they had so lately ascended under so very -different auspices, and whose summit had so nearly proved the scene of -their massacre. At the foot they found the Narragansetts browsing the -herbage of the bushes, and having mounted, they followed the movements -of a guide, who, in the most deadly straits, had so often proved himself -their friend. The journey was, however, short. Hawkeye, leaving the -blind path that the Hurons had followed, turned short to his right, -and entering the thicket, he crossed a babbling brook, and halted in a -narrow dell, under the shade of a few water elms. Their distance from -the base of the fatal hill was but a few rods, and the steeds had been -serviceable only in crossing the shallow stream. - -The scout and the Indians appeared to be familiar with the sequestered -place where they now were; for, leaning their rifle against the trees, -they commenced throwing aside the dried leaves, and opening the blue -clay, out of which a clear and sparkling spring of bright, glancing -water, quickly bubbled. The white man then looked about him, as though -seeking for some object, which was not to be found as readily as he -expected. - -"Them careless imps, the Mohawks, with their Tuscarora and Onondaga -brethren, have been here slaking their thirst," he muttered, "and the -vagabonds have thrown away the gourd! This is the way with benefits, -when they are bestowed on such disremembering hounds! Here has the Lord -laid his hand, in the midst of the howling wilderness, for their good, -and raised a fountain of water from the bowels of the 'arth, that might -laugh at the richest shop of apothecary's ware in all the colonies; and -see! the knaves have trodden in the clay, and deformed the cleanliness -of the place, as though they were brute beasts, instead of human men." - -Uncas silently extended toward him the desired gourd, which the spleen -of Hawkeye had hitherto prevented him from observing on a branch of -an elm. Filling it with water, he retired a short distance, to a place -where the ground was more firm and dry; here he coolly seated himself, -and after taking a long, and, apparently, a grateful draught, he -commenced a very strict examination of the fragments of food left by the -Hurons, which had hung in a wallet on his arm. - -"Thank you, lad!" he continued, returning the empty gourd to Uncas; -"now we will see how these rampaging Hurons lived, when outlying in -ambushments. Look at this! The varlets know the better pieces of the -deer; and one would think they might carve and roast a saddle, equal to -the best cook in the land! But everything is raw, for the Iroquois are -thorough savages. Uncas, take my steel and kindle a fire; a mouthful of -a tender broil will give natur' a helping hand, after so long a trail." - -Heyward, perceiving that their guides now set about their repast in -sober earnest, assisted the ladies to alight, and placed himself at -their side, not unwilling to enjoy a few moments of grateful rest, after -the bloody scene he had just gone through. While the culinary process -was in hand, curiosity induced him to inquire into the circumstances -which had led to their timely and unexpected rescue: - -"How is it that we see you so soon, my generous friend," he asked, "and -without aid from the garrison of Edward?" - -"Had we gone to the bend in the river, we might have been in time -to rake the leaves over your bodies, but too late to have saved your -scalps," coolly answered the scout. "No, no; instead of throwing away -strength and opportunity by crossing to the fort, we lay by, under the -bank of the Hudson, waiting to watch the movements of the Hurons." - -"You were, then, witnesses of all that passed?" - -"Not of all; for Indian sight is too keen to be easily cheated, and we -kept close. A difficult matter it was, too, to keep this Mohican boy -snug in the ambushment. Ah! Uncas, Uncas, your behavior was more like -that of a curious woman than of a warrior on his scent." - -Uncas permitted his eyes to turn for an instant on the sturdy -countenance of the speaker, but he neither spoke nor gave any indication -of repentance. On the contrary, Heyward thought the manner of the young -Mohican was disdainful, if not a little fierce, and that he suppressed -passions that were ready to explode, as much in compliment to the -listeners, as from the deference he usually paid to his white associate. - -"You saw our capture?" Heyward next demanded. - -"We heard it," was the significant answer. "An Indian yell is plain -language to men who have passed their days in the woods. But when you -landed, we were driven to crawl like sarpents, beneath the leaves; and -then we lost sight of you entirely, until we placed eyes on you again -trussed to the trees, and ready bound for an Indian massacre." - -"Our rescue was the deed of Providence. It was nearly a miracle that you -did not mistake the path, for the Hurons divided, and each band had its -horses." - -"Ay! there we were thrown off the scent, and might, indeed, have lost -the trail, had it not been for Uncas; we took the path, however, that -led into the wilderness; for we judged, and judged rightly, that the -savages would hold that course with their prisoners. But when we had -followed it for many miles, without finding a single twig broken, as I -had advised, my mind misgave me; especially as all the footsteps had the -prints of moccasins." - -"Our captors had the precaution to see us shod like themselves," said -Duncan, raising a foot, and exhibiting the buckskin he wore. - -"Aye, 'twas judgmatical and like themselves; though we were too expart -to be thrown from a trail by so common an invention." - -"To what, then, are we indebted for our safety?" - -"To what, as a white man who has no taint of Indian blood, I should be -ashamed to own; to the judgment of the young Mohican, in matters which -I should know better than he, but which I can now hardly believe to be -true, though my own eyes tell me it is so." - -"'Tis extraordinary! will you not name the reason?" - -"Uncas was bold enough to say, that the beasts ridden by the gentle -ones," continued Hawkeye, glancing his eyes, not without curious -interest, on the fillies of the ladies, "planted the legs of one side on -the ground at the same time, which is contrary to the movements of all -trotting four-footed animals of my knowledge, except the bear. And yet -here are horses that always journey in this manner, as my own eyes have -seen, and as their trail has shown for twenty long miles." - -"'Tis the merit of the animal! They come from the shores of -Narrangansett Bay, in the small province of Providence Plantations, -and are celebrated for their hardihood, and the ease of this peculiar -movement; though other horses are not unfrequently trained to the same." - -"It may be--it may be," said Hawkeye, who had listened with singular -attention to this explanation; "though I am a man who has the full blood -of the whites, my judgment in deer and beaver is greater than in beasts -of burden. Major Effingham has many noble chargers, but I have never -seen one travel after such a sidling gait." - -"True; for he would value the animals for very different properties. -Still is this a breed highly esteemed and, as you witness, much honored -with the burdens it is often destined to bear." - -The Mohicans had suspended their operations about the glimmering fire -to listen; and, when Duncan had done, they looked at each other -significantly, the father uttering the never-failing exclamation of -surprise. The scout ruminated, like a man digesting his newly-acquired -knowledge, and once more stole a glance at the horses. - -"I dare to say there are even stranger sights to be seen in the -settlements!" he said, at length. "Natur' is sadly abused by man, when -he once gets the mastery. But, go sidling or go straight, Uncas had seen -the movement, and their trail led us on to the broken bush. The outer -branch, near the prints of one of the horses, was bent upward, as a lady -breaks a flower from its stem, but all the rest were ragged and broken -down, as if the strong hand of a man had been tearing them! So I -concluded that the cunning varments had seen the twig bent, and had torn -the rest, to make us believe a buck had been feeling the boughs with his -antlers." - -"I do believe your sagacity did not deceive you; for some such thing -occurred!" - -"That was easy to see," added the scout, in no degree conscious of -having exhibited any extraordinary sagacity; "and a very different -matter it was from a waddling horse! It then struck me the Mingoes -would push for this spring, for the knaves well know the vartue of its -waters!" - -"Is it, then, so famous?" demanded Heyward, examining, with a more -curious eye, the secluded dell, with its bubbling fountain, surrounded, -as it was, by earth of a deep, dingy brown. - -"Few red-skins, who travel south and east of the great lakes but have -heard of its qualities. Will you taste for yourself?" - -Heyward took the gourd, and after swallowing a little of the water, -threw it aside with grimaces of discontent. The scout laughed in his -silent but heartfelt manner, and shook his head with vast satisfaction. - -"Ah! you want the flavor that one gets by habit; the time was when I -liked it as little as yourself; but I have come to my taste, and I now -crave it, as a deer does the licks*. Your high-spiced wines are not -better liked than a red-skin relishes this water; especially when his -natur' is ailing. But Uncas has made his fire, and it is time we think -of eating, for our journey is long, and all before us." - - * Many of the animals of the American forests resort to - those spots where salt springs are found. These are called - "licks" or "salt licks," in the language of the country, - from the circumstance that the quadruped is often obliged to - lick the earth, in order to obtain the saline particles. - These licks are great places of resort with the hunters, who - waylay their game near the paths that lead to them. - -Interrupting the dialogue by this abrupt transition, the scout had -instant recourse to the fragments of food which had escaped the voracity -of the Hurons. A very summary process completed the simple cookery, when -he and the Mohicans commenced their humble meal, with the silence and -characteristic diligence of men who ate in order to enable themselves to -endure great and unremitting toil. - -When this necessary, and, happily, grateful duty had been performed, -each of the foresters stooped and took a long and parting draught at -that solitary and silent spring*, around which and its sister fountains, -within fifty years, the wealth, beauty and talents of a hemisphere were -to assemble in throngs, in pursuit of health and pleasure. Then Hawkeye -announced his determination to proceed. The sisters resumed their -saddles; Duncan and David grapsed their rifles, and followed on -footsteps; the scout leading the advance, and the Mohicans bringing up -the rear. The whole party moved swiftly through the narrow path, toward -the north, leaving the healing waters to mingle unheeded with the -adjacent brooks and the bodies of the dead to fester on the neighboring -mount, without the rites of sepulture; a fate but too common to the -warriors of the woods to excite either commiseration or comment. - - * The scene of the foregoing incidents is on the spot where - the village of Ballston now stands; one of the two principal - watering places of America. - - - - -CHAPTER 13 - - "I'll seek a readier path." - --Parnell - -The route taken by Hawkeye lay across those sandy plains, relived by -occasional valleys and swells of land, which had been traversed by their -party on the morning of the same day, with the baffled Magua for their -guide. The sun had now fallen low toward the distant mountains; and -as their journey lay through the interminable forest, the heat was no -longer oppressive. Their progress, in consequence, was proportionate; -and long before the twilight gathered about them, they had made good -many toilsome miles on their return. - -The hunter, like the savage whose place he filled, seemed to select -among the blind signs of their wild route, with a species of instinct, -seldom abating his speed, and never pausing to deliberate. A rapid and -oblique glance at the moss on the trees, with an occasional upward gaze -toward the setting sun, or a steady but passing look at the direction of -the numerous water courses, through which he waded, were sufficient -to determine his path, and remove his greatest difficulties. In the -meantime, the forest began to change its hues, losing that lively green -which had embellished its arches, in the graver light which is the usual -precursor of the close of day. - -While the eyes of the sisters were endeavoring to catch glimpses through -the trees, of the flood of golden glory which formed a glittering halo -around the sun, tinging here and there with ruby streaks, or bordering -with narrow edgings of shining yellow, a mass of clouds that lay piled -at no great distance above the western hills, Hawkeye turned suddenly -and pointing upward toward the gorgeous heavens, he spoke: - -"Yonder is the signal given to man to seek his food and natural rest," -he said; "better and wiser would it be, if he could understand the signs -of nature, and take a lesson from the fowls of the air and the beasts of -the field! Our night, however, will soon be over, for with the moon -we must be up and moving again. I remember to have fou't the Maquas, -hereaways, in the first war in which I ever drew blood from man; and we -threw up a work of blocks, to keep the ravenous varmints from handling -our scalps. If my marks do not fail me, we shall find the place a few -rods further to our left." - -Without waiting for an assent, or, indeed, for any reply, the sturdy -hunter moved boldly into a dense thicket of young chestnuts, shoving -aside the branches of the exuberant shoots which nearly covered the -ground, like a man who expected, at each step, to discover some object -he had formerly known. The recollection of the scout did not deceive -him. After penetrating through the brush, matted as it was with briars, -for a few hundred feet, he entered an open space, that surrounded a low, -green hillock, which was crowned by the decayed blockhouse in question. -This rude and neglected building was one of those deserted works, which, -having been thrown up on an emergency, had been abandoned with the -disappearance of danger, and was now quietly crumbling in the solitude -of the forest, neglected and nearly forgotten, like the circumstances -which had caused it to be reared. Such memorials of the passage and -struggles of man are yet frequent throughout the broad barrier of -wilderness which once separated the hostile provinces, and form a -species of ruins that are intimately associated with the recollections -of colonial history, and which are in appropriate keeping with the -gloomy character of the surrounding scenery. The roof of bark had long -since fallen, and mingled with the soil, but the huge logs of pine, -which had been hastily thrown together, still preserved their relative -positions, though one angle of the work had given way under the -pressure, and threatened a speedy downfall to the remainder of the -rustic edifice. While Heyward and his companions hesitated to approach -a building so decayed, Hawkeye and the Indians entered within the low -walls, not only without fear, but with obvious interest. While the -former surveyed the ruins, both internally and externally, with the -curiosity of one whose recollections were reviving at each moment, -Chingachgook related to his son, in the language of the Delawares, and -with the pride of a conqueror, the brief history of the skirmish which -had been fought, in his youth, in that secluded spot. A strain of -melancholy, however, blended with his triumph, rendering his voice, as -usual, soft and musical. - -In the meantime, the sisters gladly dismounted, and prepared to enjoy -their halt in the coolness of the evening, and in a security which they -believed nothing but the beasts of the forest could invade. - -"Would not our resting-place have been more retired, my worthy friend," -demanded the more vigilant Duncan, perceiving that the scout had already -finished his short survey, "had we chosen a spot less known, and one -more rarely visited than this?" - -"Few live who know the blockhouse was ever raised," was the slow and -musing answer; "'tis not often that books are made, and narratives -written of such a scrimmage as was here fou't atween the Mohicans and -the Mohawks, in a war of their own waging. I was then a younker, and -went out with the Delawares, because I know'd they were a scandalized -and wronged race. Forty days and forty nights did the imps crave our -blood around this pile of logs, which I designed and partly reared, -being, as you'll remember, no Indian myself, but a man without a cross. -The Delawares lent themselves to the work, and we made it good, ten to -twenty, until our numbers were nearly equal, and then we sallied out -upon the hounds, and not a man of them ever got back to tell the fate -of his party. Yes, yes; I was then young, and new to the sight of blood; -and not relishing the thought that creatures who had spirits like myself -should lay on the naked ground, to be torn asunder by beasts, or to -bleach in the rains, I buried the dead with my own hands, under that -very little hillock where you have placed yourselves; and no bad seat -does it make neither, though it be raised by the bones of mortal men." - -Heyward and the sisters arose, on the instant, from the grassy -sepulcher; nor could the two latter, notwithstanding the terrific scenes -they had so recently passed through, entirely suppress an emotion of -natural horror, when they found themselves in such familiar contact with -the grave of the dead Mohawks. The gray light, the gloomy little area -of dark grass, surrounded by its border of brush, beyond which the pines -rose, in breathing silence, apparently into the very clouds, and the -deathlike stillness of the vast forest, were all in unison to deepen -such a sensation. "They are gone, and they are harmless," continued -Hawkeye, waving his hand, with a melancholy smile at their manifest -alarm; "they'll never shout the war-whoop nor strike a blow with the -tomahawk again! And of all those who aided in placing them where they -lie, Chingachgook and I only are living! The brothers and family of the -Mohican formed our war party; and you see before you all that are now -left of his race." - -The eyes of the listeners involuntarily sought the forms of the Indians, -with a compassionate interest in their desolate fortune. Their dark -persons were still to be seen within the shadows of the blockhouse, -the son listening to the relation of his father with that sort of -intenseness which would be created by a narrative that redounded so much -to the honor of those whose names he had long revered for their courage -and savage virtues. - -"I had thought the Delawares a pacific people," said Duncan, "and that -they never waged war in person; trusting the defense of their hands to -those very Mohawks that you slew!" - -"'Tis true in part," returned the scout, "and yet, at the bottom, 'tis -a wicked lie. Such a treaty was made in ages gone by, through the -deviltries of the Dutchers, who wished to disarm the natives that had -the best right to the country, where they had settled themselves. The -Mohicans, though a part of the same nation, having to deal with the -English, never entered into the silly bargain, but kept to their -manhood; as in truth did the Delawares, when their eyes were open to -their folly. You see before you a chief of the great Mohican Sagamores! -Once his family could chase their deer over tracts of country wider than -that which belongs to the Albany Patteroon, without crossing brook or -hill that was not their own; but what is left of their descendant? He -may find his six feet of earth when God chooses, and keep it in peace, -perhaps, if he has a friend who will take the pains to sink his head so -low that the plowshares cannot reach it!" - -"Enough!" said Heyward, apprehensive that the subject might lead to -a discussion that would interrupt the harmony so necessary to the -preservation of his fair companions; "we have journeyed far, and few -among us are blessed with forms like that of yours, which seems to know -neither fatigue nor weakness." - -"The sinews and bones of a man carry me through it all," said the -hunter, surveying his muscular limbs with a simplicity that betrayed -the honest pleasure the compliment afforded him; "there are larger and -heavier men to be found in the settlements, but you might travel many -days in a city before you could meet one able to walk fifty miles -without stopping to take breath, or who has kept the hounds within -hearing during a chase of hours. However, as flesh and blood are not -always the same, it is quite reasonable to suppose that the gentle ones -are willing to rest, after all they have seen and done this day. Uncas, -clear out the spring, while your father and I make a cover for their -tender heads of these chestnut shoots, and a bed of grass and leaves." - -The dialogue ceased, while the hunter and his companions busied -themselves in preparations for the comfort and protection of those they -guided. A spring, which many long years before had induced the natives -to select the place for their temporary fortification, was soon cleared -of leaves, and a fountain of crystal gushed from the bed, diffusing -its waters over the verdant hillock. A corner of the building was then -roofed in such a manner as to exclude the heavy dew of the climate, -and piles of sweet shrubs and dried leaves were laid beneath it for the -sisters to repose on. - -While the diligent woodsmen were employed in this manner, Cora and -Alice partook of that refreshment which duty required much more than -inclination prompted them to accept. They then retired within the -walls, and first offering up their thanksgivings for past mercies, and -petitioning for a continuance of the Divine favor throughout the coming -night, they laid their tender forms on the fragrant couch, and in spite -of recollections and forebodings, soon sank into those slumbers which -nature so imperiously demanded, and which were sweetened by hopes -for the morrow. Duncan had prepared himself to pass the night in -watchfulness near them, just without the ruin, but the scout, perceiving -his intention, pointed toward Chingachgook, as he coolly disposed his -own person on the grass, and said: - -"The eyes of a white man are too heavy and too blind for such a watch as -this! The Mohican will be our sentinel, therefore let us sleep." - -"I proved myself a sluggard on my post during the past night," said -Heyward, "and have less need of repose than you, who did more credit -to the character of a soldier. Let all the party seek their rest, then, -while I hold the guard." - -"If we lay among the white tents of the Sixtieth, and in front of an -enemy like the French, I could not ask for a better watchman," returned -the scout; "but in the darkness and among the signs of the wilderness -your judgment would be like the folly of a child, and your vigilance -thrown away. Do then, like Uncas and myself, sleep, and sleep in -safety." - -Heyward perceived, in truth, that the younger Indian had thrown his form -on the side of the hillock while they were talking, like one who sought -to make the most of the time allotted to rest, and that his example had -been followed by David, whose voice literally "clove to his jaws," with -the fever of his wound, heightened, as it was, by their toilsome march. -Unwilling to prolong a useless discussion, the young man affected to -comply, by posting his back against the logs of the blockhouse, in a -half recumbent posture, though resolutely determined, in his own mind, -not to close an eye until he had delivered his precious charge into the -arms of Munro himself. Hawkeye, believing he had prevailed, soon fell -asleep, and a silence as deep as the solitude in which they had found -it, pervaded the retired spot. - -For many minutes Duncan succeeded in keeping his senses on the alert, -and alive to every moaning sound that arose from the forest. His vision -became more acute as the shades of evening settled on the place; and -even after the stars were glimmering above his head, he was able to -distinguish the recumbent forms of his companions, as they lay stretched -on the grass, and to note the person of Chingachgook, who sat upright -and motionless as one of the trees which formed the dark barrier on -every side. He still heard the gentle breathings of the sisters, who lay -within a few feet of him, and not a leaf was ruffled by the passing -air of which his ear did not detect the whispering sound. At length, -however, the mournful notes of a whip-poor-will became blended with the -moanings of an owl; his heavy eyes occasionally sought the bright rays -of the stars, and he then fancied he saw them through the fallen lids. -At instants of momentary wakefulness he mistook a bush for his associate -sentinel; his head next sank upon his shoulder, which, in its turn, -sought the support of the ground; and, finally, his whole person became -relaxed and pliant, and the young man sank into a deep sleep, dreaming -that he was a knight of ancient chivalry, holding his midnight vigils -before the tent of a recaptured princess, whose favor he did not despair -of gaining, by such a proof of devotion and watchfulness. - -How long the tired Duncan lay in this insensible state he never -knew himself, but his slumbering visions had been long lost in total -forgetfulness, when he was awakened by a light tap on the shoulder. -Aroused by this signal, slight as it was, he sprang upon his feet with -a confused recollection of the self-imposed duty he had assumed with the -commencement of the night. - -"Who comes?" he demanded, feeling for his sword, at the place where it -was usually suspended. "Speak! friend or enemy?" - -"Friend," replied the low voice of Chingachgook; who, pointing upward -at the luminary which was shedding its mild light through the opening -in the trees, directly in their bivouac, immediately added, in his rude -English: "Moon comes and white man's fort far--far off; time to move, -when sleep shuts both eyes of the Frenchman!" - -"You say true! Call up your friends, and bridle the horses while I -prepare my own companions for the march!" - -"We are awake, Duncan," said the soft, silvery tones of Alice within the -building, "and ready to travel very fast after so refreshing a sleep; -but you have watched through the tedious night in our behalf, after -having endured so much fatigue the livelong day!" - -"Say, rather, I would have watched, but my treacherous eyes betrayed me; -twice have I proved myself unfit for the trust I bear." - -"Nay, Duncan, deny it not," interrupted the smiling Alice, issuing -from the shadows of the building into the light of the moon, in all the -loveliness of her freshened beauty; "I know you to be a heedless one, -when self is the object of your care, and but too vigilant in favor of -others. Can we not tarry here a little longer while you find the rest -you need? Cheerfully, most cheerfully, will Cora and I keep the vigils, -while you and all these brave men endeavor to snatch a little sleep!" - -"If shame could cure me of my drowsiness, I should never close an eye -again," said the uneasy youth, gazing at the ingenuous countenance -of Alice, where, however, in its sweet solicitude, he read nothing to -confirm his half-awakened suspicion. "It is but too true, that after -leading you into danger by my heedlessness, I have not even the merit of -guarding your pillows as should become a soldier." - -"No one but Duncan himself should accuse Duncan of such a weakness. Go, -then, and sleep; believe me, neither of us, weak girls as we are, will -betray our watch." - -The young man was relieved from the awkwardness of making any further -protestations of his own demerits, by an exclamation from Chingachgook, -and the attitude of riveted attention assumed by his son. - -"The Mohicans hear an enemy!" whispered Hawkeye, who, by this time, in -common with the whole party, was awake and stirring. "They scent danger -in the wind!" - -"God forbid!" exclaimed Heyward. "Surely we have had enough of -bloodshed!" - -While he spoke, however, the young soldier seized his rifle, and -advancing toward the front, prepared to atone for his venial remissness, -by freely exposing his life in defense of those he attended. - -"'Tis some creature of the forest prowling around us in quest of food," -he said, in a whisper, as soon as the low, and apparently distant -sounds, which had startled the Mohicans, reached his own ears. - -"Hist!" returned the attentive scout; "'tis man; even I can now tell -his tread, poor as my senses are when compared to an Indian's! That -Scampering Huron has fallen in with one of Montcalm's outlying parties, -and they have struck upon our trail. I shouldn't like, myself, to spill -more human blood in this spot," he added, looking around with anxiety in -his features, at the dim objects by which he was surrounded; "but what -must be, must! Lead the horses into the blockhouse, Uncas; and, friends, -do you follow to the same shelter. Poor and old as it is, it offers a -cover, and has rung with the crack of a rifle afore to-night!" - -He was instantly obeyed, the Mohicans leading the Narrangansetts -within the ruin, whither the whole party repaired with the most guarded -silence. - -The sound of approaching footsteps were now too distinctly audible to -leave any doubts as to the nature of the interruption. They were soon -mingled with voices calling to each other in an Indian dialect, which -the hunter, in a whisper, affirmed to Heyward was the language of the -Hurons. When the party reached the point where the horses had entered -the thicket which surrounded the blockhouse, they were evidently at -fault, having lost those marks which, until that moment, had directed -their pursuit. - -It would seem by the voices that twenty men were soon collected at that -one spot, mingling their different opinions and advice in noisy clamor. - -"The knaves know our weakness," whispered Hawkeye, who stood by the side -of Heyward, in deep shade, looking through an opening in the logs, "or -they wouldn't indulge their idleness in such a squaw's march. Listen to -the reptiles! each man among them seems to have two tongues, and but a -single leg." - -Duncan, brave as he was in the combat, could not, in such a moment of -painful suspense, make any reply to the cool and characteristic remark -of the scout. He only grasped his rifle more firmly, and fastened his -eyes upon the narrow opening, through which he gazed upon the moonlight -view with increasing anxiety. The deeper tones of one who spoke as -having authority were next heard, amid a silence that denoted the -respect with which his orders, or rather advice, was received. After -which, by the rustling of leaves, and crackling of dried twigs, it -was apparent the savages were separating in pursuit of the lost trail. -Fortunately for the pursued, the light of the moon, while it shed a -flood of mild luster upon the little area around the ruin, was not -sufficiently strong to penetrate the deep arches of the forest, where -the objects still lay in deceptive shadow. The search proved fruitless; -for so short and sudden had been the passage from the faint path the -travelers had journeyed into the thicket, that every trace of their -footsteps was lost in the obscurity of the woods. - -It was not long, however, before the restless savages were heard beating -the brush, and gradually approaching the inner edge of that dense border -of young chestnuts which encircled the little area. - -"They are coming," muttered Heyward, endeavoring to thrust his rifle -through the chink in the logs; "let us fire on their approach." - -"Keep everything in the shade," returned the scout; "the snapping of -a flint, or even the smell of a single karnel of the brimstone, would -bring the hungry varlets upon us in a body. Should it please God that we -must give battle for the scalps, trust to the experience of men who -know the ways of the savages, and who are not often backward when the -war-whoop is howled." - -Duncan cast his eyes behind him, and saw that the trembling sisters were -cowering in the far corner of the building, while the Mohicans stood in -the shadow, like two upright posts, ready, and apparently willing, to -strike when the blow should be needed. Curbing his impatience, he again -looked out upon the area, and awaited the result in silence. At that -instant the thicket opened, and a tall and armed Huron advanced a few -paces into the open space. As he gazed upon the silent blockhouse, the -moon fell upon his swarthy countenance, and betrayed its surprise and -curiosity. He made the exclamation which usually accompanies the former -emotion in an Indian, and, calling in a low voice, soon drew a companion -to his side. - -These children of the woods stood together for several moments pointing -at the crumbling edifice, and conversing in the unintelligible language -of their tribe. They then approached, though with slow and cautious -steps, pausing every instant to look at the building, like startled deer -whose curiosity struggled powerfully with their awakened apprehensions -for the mastery. The foot of one of them suddenly rested on the mound, -and he stopped to examine its nature. At this moment, Heyward observed -that the scout loosened his knife in its sheath, and lowered the muzzle -of his rifle. Imitating these movements, the young man prepared himself -for the struggle which now seemed inevitable. - -The savages were so near, that the least motion in one of the horses, or -even a breath louder than common, would have betrayed the fugitives. But -in discovering the character of the mound, the attention of the Hurons -appeared directed to a different object. They spoke together, and -the sounds of their voices were low and solemn, as if influenced by a -reverence that was deeply blended with awe. Then they drew warily back, -keeping their eyes riveted on the ruin, as if they expected to see -the apparitions of the dead issue from its silent walls, until, having -reached the boundary of the area, they moved slowly into the thicket and -disappeared. - -Hawkeye dropped the breech of his rifle to the earth, and drawing a -long, free breath, exclaimed, in an audible whisper: - -"Ay! they respect the dead, and it has this time saved their own lives, -and, it may be, the lives of better men too." - -Heyward lent his attention for a single moment to his companion, but -without replying, he again turned toward those who just then interested -him more. He heard the two Hurons leave the bushes, and it was soon -plain that all the pursuers were gathered about them, in deep attention -to their report. After a few minutes of earnest and solemn dialogue, -altogether different from the noisy clamor with which they had first -collected about the spot, the sounds grew fainter and more distant, and -finally were lost in the depths of the forest. - -Hawkeye waited until a signal from the listening Chingachgook assured -him that every sound from the retiring party was completely swallowed by -the distance, when he motioned to Heyward to lead forth the horses, and -to assist the sisters into their saddles. The instant this was done -they issued through the broken gateway, and stealing out by a direction -opposite to the one by which they entered, they quitted the spot, the -sisters casting furtive glances at the silent, grave and crumbling ruin, -as they left the soft light of the moon, to bury themselves in the gloom -of the woods. - - - - -CHAPTER 14 - - "Guard.--Qui est la? - Puc. --Paisans, pauvres gens de France." - --King Henry VI - -During the rapid movement from the blockhouse, and until the party was -deeply buried in the forest, each individual was too much interested in -the escape to hazard a word even in whispers. The scout resumed his -post in advance, though his steps, after he had thrown a safe distance -between himself and his enemies, were more deliberate than in their -previous march, in consequence of his utter ignorance of the localities -of the surrounding woods. More than once he halted to consult with his -confederates, the Mohicans, pointing upward at the moon, and examining -the barks of the trees with care. In these brief pauses, Heyward and the -sisters listened, with senses rendered doubly acute by the danger, to -detect any symptoms which might announce the proximity of their foes. -At such moments, it seemed as if a vast range of country lay buried in -eternal sleep; not the least sound arising from the forest, unless it -was the distant and scarcely audible rippling of a water-course. Birds, -beasts, and man, appeared to slumber alike, if, indeed, any of the -latter were to be found in that wide tract of wilderness. But the sounds -of the rivulet, feeble and murmuring as they were, relieved the guides -at once from no trifling embarrassment, and toward it they immediately -held their way. - -When the banks of the little stream were gained, Hawkeye made another -halt; and taking the moccasins from his feet, he invited Heyward and -Gamut to follow his example. He then entered the water, and for near an -hour they traveled in the bed of the brook, leaving no trail. The -moon had already sunk into an immense pile of black clouds, which lay -impending above the western horizon, when they issued from the low and -devious water-course to rise again to the light and level of the sandy -but wooded plain. Here the scout seemed to be once more at home, for he -held on this way with the certainty and diligence of a man who moved in -the security of his own knowledge. The path soon became more uneven, and -the travelers could plainly perceive that the mountains drew nigher to -them on each hand, and that they were, in truth, about entering one of -their gorges. Suddenly, Hawkeye made a pause, and, waiting until he -was joined by the whole party, he spoke, though in tones so low and -cautious, that they added to the solemnity of his words, in the quiet -and darkness of the place. - -"It is easy to know the pathways, and to find the licks and -water-courses of the wilderness," he said; "but who that saw this spot -could venture to say, that a mighty army was at rest among yonder silent -trees and barren mountains?" - -"We are, then, at no great distance from William Henry?" said Heyward, -advancing nigher to the scout. - -"It is yet a long and weary path, and when and where to strike it is -now our greatest difficulty. See," he said, pointing through the trees -toward a spot where a little basin of water reflected the stars from its -placid bosom, "here is the 'bloody pond'; and I am on ground that I have -not only often traveled, but over which I have fou't the enemy, from the -rising to the setting sun." - -"Ha! that sheet of dull and dreary water, then, is the sepulcher of the -brave men who fell in the contest. I have heard it named, but never have -I stood on its banks before." - -"Three battles did we make with the Dutch-Frenchman* in a day," -continued Hawkeye, pursuing the train of his own thoughts, rather than -replying to the remark of Duncan. "He met us hard by, in our outward -march to ambush his advance, and scattered us, like driven deer, through -the defile, to the shores of Horican. Then we rallied behind our fallen -trees, and made head against him, under Sir William--who was made Sir -William for that very deed; and well did we pay him for the disgrace -of the morning! Hundreds of Frenchmen saw the sun that day for the last -time; and even their leader, Dieskau himself, fell into our hands, so -cut and torn with the lead, that he has gone back to his own country, -unfit for further acts in war." - - * Baron Dieskau, a German, in the service of France. A few - years previously to the period of the tale, this officer was - defeated by Sir William Johnson, of Johnstown, New York, on - the shores of Lake George. - -"'Twas a noble repulse!" exclaimed Heyward, in the heat of his youthful -ardor; "the fame of it reached us early, in our southern army." - -"Ay! but it did not end there. I was sent by Major Effingham, at Sir -William's own bidding, to outflank the French, and carry the tidings -of their disaster across the portage, to the fort on the Hudson. Just -hereaway, where you see the trees rise into a mountain swell, I met a -party coming down to our aid, and I led them where the enemy were taking -their meal, little dreaming that they had not finished the bloody work -of the day." - -"And you surprised them?" - -"If death can be a surprise to men who are thinking only of the cravings -of their appetites. We gave them but little breathing time, for they had -borne hard upon us in the fight of the morning, and there were few in -our party who had not lost friend or relative by their hands." - -"When all was over, the dead, and some say the dying, were cast into -that little pond. These eyes have seen its waters colored with blood, as -natural water never yet flowed from the bowels of the 'arth." - -"It was a convenient, and, I trust, will prove a peaceful grave for a -soldier. You have then seen much service on this frontier?" - -"Ay!" said the scout, erecting his tall person with an air of military -pride; "there are not many echoes among these hills that haven't rung -with the crack of my rifle, nor is there the space of a square mile -atwixt Horican and the river, that 'killdeer' hasn't dropped a living -body on, be it an enemy or be it a brute beast. As for the grave there -being as quiet as you mention, it is another matter. There are them -in the camp who say and think, man, to lie still, should not be buried -while the breath is in the body; and certain it is that in the hurry of -that evening, the doctors had but little time to say who was living and -who was dead. Hist! see you nothing walking on the shore of the pond?" - -"'Tis not probable that any are as houseless as ourselves in this dreary -forest." - -"Such as he may care but little for house or shelter, and night dew can -never wet a body that passes its days in the water," returned the scout, -grasping the shoulder of Heyward with such convulsive strength as to -make the young soldier painfully sensible how much superstitious terror -had got the mastery of a man usually so dauntless. - -"By heaven, there is a human form, and it approaches! Stand to your -arms, my friends; for we know not whom we encounter." - -"Qui vive?" demanded a stern, quick voice, which sounded like a -challenge from another world, issuing out of that solitary and solemn -place. - -"What says it?" whispered the scout; "it speaks neither Indian nor -English." - -"Qui vive?" repeated the same voice, which was quickly followed by the -rattling of arms, and a menacing attitude. - -"France!" cried Heyward, advancing from the shadow of the trees to the -shore of the pond, within a few yards of the sentinel. - -"D'ou venez-vous--ou allez-vous, d'aussi bonne heure?" demanded the -grenadier, in the language and with the accent of a man from old France. - -"Je viens de la decouverte, et je vais me coucher." - -"Etes-vous officier du roi?" - -"Sans doute, mon camarade; me prends-tu pour un provincial! Je suis -capitaine de chasseurs (Heyward well knew that the other was of a -regiment in the line); j'ai ici, avec moi, les filles du commandant -de la fortification. Aha! tu en as entendu parler! je les ai fait -prisonnieres pres de l'autre fort, et je les conduis au general." - -"Ma foi! mesdames; j'en suis fâche pour vous," exclaimed the young -soldier, touching his cap with grace; "mais--fortune de guerre! vous -trouverez notre general un brave homme, et bien poli avec les dames." - -"C'est le caractere des gens de guerre," said Cora, with admirable -self-possession. "Adieu, mon ami; je vous souhaiterais un devoir plus -agreable a remplir." - -The soldier made a low and humble acknowledgment for her civility; and -Heyward adding a "Bonne nuit, mon camarade," they moved deliberately -forward, leaving the sentinel pacing the banks of the silent pond, -little suspecting an enemy of so much effrontery, and humming to himself -those words which were recalled to his mind by the sight of women, and, -perhaps, by recollections of his own distant and beautiful France: "Vive -le vin, vive l'amour," etc., etc. - -"'Tis well you understood the knave!" whispered the scout, when they had -gained a little distance from the place, and letting his rifle fall into -the hollow of his arm again; "I soon saw that he was one of them uneasy -Frenchers; and well for him it was that his speech was friendly and his -wishes kind, or a place might have been found for his bones among those -of his countrymen." - -He was interrupted by a long and heavy groan which arose from the little -basin, as though, in truth, the spirits of the departed lingered about -their watery sepulcher. - -"Surely it was of flesh," continued the scout; "no spirit could handle -its arms so steadily." - -"It was of flesh; but whether the poor fellow still belongs to this -world may well be doubted," said Heyward, glancing his eyes around him, -and missing Chingachgook from their little band. Another groan more -faint than the former was succeeded by a heavy and sullen plunge into -the water, and all was still again as if the borders of the dreary pool -had never been awakened from the silence of creation. While they yet -hesitated in uncertainty, the form of the Indian was seen gliding out of -the thicket. As the chief rejoined them, with one hand he attached the -reeking scalp of the unfortunate young Frenchman to his girdle, and with -the other he replaced the knife and tomahawk that had drunk his blood. -He then took his wonted station, with the air of a man who believed he -had done a deed of merit. - -The scout dropped one end of his rifle to the earth, and leaning his -hands on the other, he stood musing in profound silence. Then, shaking -his head in a mournful manner, he muttered: - -"'Twould have been a cruel and an unhuman act for a white-skin; but 'tis -the gift and natur' of an Indian, and I suppose it should not be denied. -I could wish, though, it had befallen an accursed Mingo, rather than -that gay young boy from the old countries." - -"Enough!" said Heyward, apprehensive the unconscious sisters might -comprehend the nature of the detention, and conquering his disgust by a -train of reflections very much like that of the hunter; "'tis done; and -though better it were left undone, cannot be amended. You see, we are, -too obviously within the sentinels of the enemy; what course do you -propose to follow?" - -"Yes," said Hawkeye, rousing himself again; "'tis as you say, too late -to harbor further thoughts about it. Ay, the French have gathered around -the fort in good earnest and we have a delicate needle to thread in -passing them." - -"And but little time to do it in," added Heyward, glancing his eyes -upwards, toward the bank of vapor that concealed the setting moon. - -"And little time to do it in!" repeated the scout. "The thing may be -done in two fashions, by the help of Providence, without which it may -not be done at all." - -"Name them quickly for time presses." - -"One would be to dismount the gentle ones, and let their beasts range -the plain, by sending the Mohicans in front, we might then cut a lane -through their sentries, and enter the fort over the dead bodies." - -"It will not do--it will not do!" interrupted the generous Heyward; -"a soldier might force his way in this manner, but never with such a -convoy." - -"'Twould be, indeed, a bloody path for such tender feet to wade in," -returned the equally reluctant scout; "but I thought it befitting my -manhood to name it. We must, then, turn in our trail and get without the -line of their lookouts, when we will bend short to the west, and enter -the mountains; where I can hide you, so that all the devil's hounds in -Montcalm's pay would be thrown off the scent for months to come." - -"Let it be done, and that instantly." - -Further words were unnecessary; for Hawkeye, merely uttering the mandate -to "follow," moved along the route by which they had just entered their -present critical and even dangerous situation. Their progress, like -their late dialogue, was guarded, and without noise; for none knew at -what moment a passing patrol, or a crouching picket of the enemy, might -rise upon their path. As they held their silent way along the margin -of the pond, again Heyward and the scout stole furtive glances at its -appalling dreariness. They looked in vain for the form they had so -recently seen stalking along in silent shores, while a low and regular -wash of the little waves, by announcing that the waters were not yet -subsided, furnished a frightful memorial of the deed of blood they had -just witnessed. Like all that passing and gloomy scene, the low basin, -however, quickly melted in the darkness, and became blended with the -mass of black objects in the rear of the travelers. - -Hawkeye soon deviated from the line of their retreat, and striking off -towards the mountains which form the western boundary of the narrow -plain, he led his followers, with swift steps, deep within the shadows -that were cast from their high and broken summits. The route was now -painful; lying over ground ragged with rocks, and intersected with -ravines, and their progress proportionately slow. Bleak and black -hills lay on every side of them, compensating in some degree for the -additional toil of the march by the sense of security they imparted. At -length the party began slowly to rise a steep and rugged ascent, by a -path that curiously wound among rocks and trees, avoiding the one and -supported by the other, in a manner that showed it had been devised by -men long practised in the arts of the wilderness. As they gradually rose -from the level of the valleys, the thick darkness which usually precedes -the approach of day began to disperse, and objects were seen in the -plain and palpable colors with which they had been gifted by nature. -When they issued from the stunted woods which clung to the barren sides -of the mountain, upon a flat and mossy rock that formed its summit, they -met the morning, as it came blushing above the green pines of a hill -that lay on the opposite side of the valley of the Horican. - -The scout now told the sisters to dismount; and taking the bridles from -the mouths, and the saddles off the backs of the jaded beasts, he turned -them loose, to glean a scanty subsistence among the shrubs and meager -herbage of that elevated region. - -"Go," he said, "and seek your food where natur' gives it to you; and -beware that you become not food to ravenous wolves yourselves, among -these hills." - -"Have we no further need of them?" demanded Heyward. - -"See, and judge with your own eyes," said the scout, advancing toward -the eastern brow of the mountain, whither he beckoned for the whole -party to follow; "if it was as easy to look into the heart of man as -it is to spy out the nakedness of Montcalm's camp from this spot, -hypocrites would grow scarce, and the cunning of a Mingo might prove a -losing game, compared to the honesty of a Delaware." - -When the travelers reached the verge of the precipices they saw, at -a glance, the truth of the scout's declaration, and the admirable -foresight with which he had led them to their commanding station. - -The mountain on which they stood, elevated perhaps a thousand feet in -the air, was a high cone that rose a little in advance of that range -which stretches for miles along the western shores of the lake, until -meeting its sisters miles beyond the water, it ran off toward the -Canadas, in confused and broken masses of rock, thinly sprinkled with -evergreens. Immediately at the feet of the party, the southern shore -of the Horican swept in a broad semicircle from mountain to mountain, -marking a wide strand, that soon rose into an uneven and somewhat -elevated plain. To the north stretched the limpid, and, as it appeared -from that dizzy height, the narrow sheet of the "holy lake," indented -with numberless bays, embellished by fantastic headlands, and dotted -with countless islands. At the distance of a few leagues, the bed of the -water became lost among mountains, or was wrapped in the masses of vapor -that came slowly rolling along their bosom, before a light morning air. -But a narrow opening between the crests of the hills pointed out the -passage by which they found their way still further north, to spread -their pure and ample sheets again, before pouring out their tribute -into the distant Champlain. To the south stretched the defile, or rather -broken plain, so often mentioned. For several miles in this direction, -the mountains appeared reluctant to yield their dominion, but within -reach of the eye they diverged, and finally melted into the level and -sandy lands, across which we have accompanied our adventurers in their -double journey. Along both ranges of hills, which bounded the opposite -sides of the lake and valley, clouds of light vapor were rising in -spiral wreaths from the uninhabited woods, looking like the smoke of -hidden cottages; or rolled lazily down the declivities, to mingle with -the fogs of the lower land. A single, solitary, snow-white cloud floated -above the valley, and marked the spot beneath which lay the silent pool -of the "bloody pond." - -Directly on the shore of the lake, and nearer to its western than to its -eastern margin, lay the extensive earthen ramparts and low buildings -of William Henry. Two of the sweeping bastions appeared to rest on -the water which washed their bases, while a deep ditch and extensive -morasses guarded its other sides and angles. The land had been cleared -of wood for a reasonable distance around the work, but every other part -of the scene lay in the green livery of nature, except where the limpid -water mellowed the view, or the bold rocks thrust their black and naked -heads above the undulating outline of the mountain ranges. In its front -might be seen the scattered sentinels, who held a weary watch against -their numerous foes; and within the walls themselves, the travelers -looked down upon men still drowsy with a night of vigilance. Toward the -southeast, but in immediate contact with the fort, was an entrenched -camp, posted on a rocky eminence, that would have been far more eligible -for the work itself, in which Hawkeye pointed out the presence of -those auxiliary regiments that had so recently left the Hudson in their -company. From the woods, a little further to the south, rose numerous -dark and lurid smokes, that were easily to be distinguished from the -purer exhalations of the springs, and which the scout also showed to -Heyward, as evidences that the enemy lay in force in that direction. - -But the spectacle which most concerned the young soldier was on the -western bank of the lake, though quite near to its southern termination. -On a strip of land, which appeared from his stand too narrow to contain -such an army, but which, in truth, extended many hundreds of yards from -the shores of the Horican to the base of the mountain, were to be seen -the white tents and military engines of an encampment of ten thousand -men. Batteries were already thrown up in their front, and even while the -spectators above them were looking down, with such different emotions, -on a scene which lay like a map beneath their feet, the roar of -artillery rose from the valley, and passed off in thundering echoes -along the eastern hills. - -"Morning is just touching them below," said the deliberate and musing -scout, "and the watchers have a mind to wake up the sleepers by the -sound of cannon. We are a few hours too late! Montcalm has already -filled the woods with his accursed Iroquois." - -"The place is, indeed, invested," returned Duncan; "but is there no -expedient by which we may enter? capture in the works would be far -preferable to falling again into the hands of roving Indians." - -"See!" exclaimed the scout, unconsciously directing the attention of -Cora to the quarters of her own father, "how that shot has made the -stones fly from the side of the commandant's house! Ay! these Frenchers -will pull it to pieces faster than it was put together, solid and thick -though it be!" - -"Heyward, I sicken at the sight of danger that I cannot share," said -the undaunted but anxious daughter. "Let us go to Montcalm, and demand -admission: he dare not deny a child the boon." - -"You would scarce find the tent of the Frenchman with the hair on your -head"; said the blunt scout. "If I had but one of the thousand boats -which lie empty along that shore, it might be done! Ha! here will soon -be an end of the firing, for yonder comes a fog that will turn day to -night, and make an Indian arrow more dangerous than a molded cannon. -Now, if you are equal to the work, and will follow, I will make a push; -for I long to get down into that camp, if it be only to scatter some -Mingo dogs that I see lurking in the skirts of yonder thicket of birch." - -"We are equal," said Cora, firmly; "on such an errand we will follow to -any danger." - -The scout turned to her with a smile of honest and cordial approbation, -as he answered: - -"I would I had a thousand men, of brawny limbs and quick eyes, that -feared death as little as you! I'd send them jabbering Frenchers back -into their den again, afore the week was ended, howling like so many -fettered hounds or hungry wolves. But, sir," he added, turning from her -to the rest of the party, "the fog comes rolling down so fast, we shall -have but just the time to meet it on the plain, and use it as a cover. -Remember, if any accident should befall me, to keep the air blowing on -your left cheeks--or, rather, follow the Mohicans; they'd scent their -way, be it in day or be it at night." - -He then waved his hand for them to follow, and threw himself down the -steep declivity, with free, but careful footsteps. Heyward assisted -the sisters to descend, and in a few minutes they were all far down a -mountain whose sides they had climbed with so much toil and pain. - -The direction taken by Hawkeye soon brought the travelers to the level -of the plain, nearly opposite to a sally-port in the western curtain of -the fort, which lay itself at the distance of about half a mile from -the point where he halted to allow Duncan to come up with his charge. -In their eagerness, and favored by the nature of the ground, they had -anticipated the fog, which was rolling heavily down the lake, and it -became necessary to pause, until the mists had wrapped the camp of the -enemy in their fleecy mantle. The Mohicans profited by the delay, to -steal out of the woods, and to make a survey of surrounding objects. -They were followed at a little distance by the scout, with a view to -profit early by their report, and to obtain some faint knowledge for -himself of the more immediate localities. - -In a very few moments he returned, his face reddened with vexation, -while he muttered his disappointment in words of no very gentle import. - -"Here has the cunning Frenchman been posting a picket directly in our -path," he said; "red-skins and whites; and we shall be as likely to fall -into their midst as to pass them in the fog!" - -"Cannot we make a circuit to avoid the danger," asked Heyward, "and come -into our path again when it is passed?" - -"Who that once bends from the line of his march in a fog can tell when -or how to find it again! The mists of Horican are not like the curls -from a peace-pipe, or the smoke which settles above a mosquito fire." - -He was yet speaking, when a crashing sound was heard, and a cannon-ball -entered the thicket, striking the body of a sapling, and rebounding to -the earth, its force being much expended by previous resistance. -The Indians followed instantly like busy attendants on the terrible -messenger, and Uncas commenced speaking earnestly and with much action, -in the Delaware tongue. - -"It may be so, lad," muttered the scout, when he had ended; "for -desperate fevers are not to be treated like a toothache. Come, then, the -fog is shutting in." - -"Stop!" cried Heyward; "first explain your expectations." - -"'Tis soon done, and a small hope it is; but it is better than nothing. -This shot that you see," added the scout, kicking the harmless iron with -his foot, "has plowed the 'arth in its road from the fort, and we shall -hunt for the furrow it has made, when all other signs may fail. No more -words, but follow, or the fog may leave us in the middle of our path, a -mark for both armies to shoot at." - -Heyward perceiving that, in fact, a crisis had arrived, when acts were -more required than words, placed himself between the sisters, and drew -them swiftly forward, keeping the dim figure of their leader in his eye. -It was soon apparent that Hawkeye had not magnified the power of the -fog, for before they had proceeded twenty yards, it was difficult for -the different individuals of the party to distinguish each other in the -vapor. - -They had made their little circuit to the left, and were already -inclining again toward the right, having, as Heyward thought, got over -nearly half the distance to the friendly works, when his ears were -saluted with the fierce summons, apparently within twenty feet of them, -of: - -"Qui va la?" - -"Push on!" whispered the scout, once more bending to the left. - -"Push on!" repeated Heyward; when the summons was renewed by a dozen -voices, each of which seemed charged with menace. - -"C'est moi," cried Duncan, dragging rather than leading those he -supported swiftly onward. - -"Bete!--qui?--moi!" - -"Ami de la France." - -"Tu m'as plus l'air d'un ennemi de la France; arrete ou pardieu je te -ferai ami du diable. Non! feu, camarades, feu!" - -The order was instantly obeyed, and the fog was stirred by the explosion -of fifty muskets. Happily, the aim was bad, and the bullets cut the -air in a direction a little different from that taken by the fugitives; -though still so nigh them, that to the unpractised ears of David and the -two females, it appeared as if they whistled within a few inches of the -organs. The outcry was renewed, and the order, not only to fire again, -but to pursue, was too plainly audible. When Heyward briefly explained -the meaning of the words they heard, Hawkeye halted and spoke with quick -decision and great firmness. - -"Let us deliver our fire," he said; "they will believe it a sortie, and -give way, or they will wait for reinforcements." - -The scheme was well conceived, but failed in its effects. The instant -the French heard the pieces, it seemed as if the plain was alive with -men, muskets rattling along its whole extent, from the shores of the -lake to the furthest boundary of the woods. - -"We shall draw their entire army upon us, and bring on a general -assault," said Duncan: "lead on, my friend, for your own life and ours." - -The scout seemed willing to comply; but, in the hurry of the moment, and -in the change of position, he had lost the direction. In vain he turned -either cheek toward the light air; they felt equally cool. In this -dilemma, Uncas lighted on the furrow of the cannon ball, where it had -cut the ground in three adjacent ant-hills. - -"Give me the range!" said Hawkeye, bending to catch a glimpse of the -direction, and then instantly moving onward. - -Cries, oaths, voices calling to each other, and the reports of muskets, -were now quick and incessant, and, apparently, on every side of them. -Suddenly a strong glare of light flashed across the scene, the fog -rolled upward in thick wreaths, and several cannons belched across the -plain, and the roar was thrown heavily back from the bellowing echoes of -the mountain. - -"'Tis from the fort!" exclaimed Hawkeye, turning short on his tracks; -"and we, like stricken fools, were rushing to the woods, under the very -knives of the Maquas." - -The instant their mistake was rectified, the whole party retraced the -error with the utmost diligence. Duncan willingly relinquished the -support of Cora to the arm of Uncas and Cora as readily accepted the -welcome assistance. Men, hot and angry in pursuit, were evidently on -their footsteps, and each instant threatened their capture, if not their -destruction. - -"Point de quartier aux coquins!" cried an eager pursuer, who seemed to -direct the operations of the enemy. - -"Stand firm, and be ready, my gallant Sixtieths!" suddenly exclaimed -a voice above them; "wait to see the enemy, fire low and sweep the -glacis." - -"Father! father!" exclaimed a piercing cry from out the mist: "it is I! -Alice! thy own Elsie! Spare, oh! save your daughters!" - -"Hold!" shouted the former speaker, in the awful tones of parental -agony, the sound reaching even to the woods, and rolling back in solemn -echo. "'Tis she! God has restored me to my children! Throw open the -sally-port; to the field, Sixtieths, to the field; pull not a trigger, -lest ye kill my lambs! Drive off these dogs of France with your steel." - -Duncan heard the grating of the rusty hinges, and darting to the spot, -directed by the sound, he met a long line of dark red warriors, passing -swiftly toward the glacis. He knew them for his own battalion of the -Royal Americans, and flying to their head, soon swept every trace of his -pursuers from before the works. - -For an instant, Cora and Alice had stood trembling and bewildered by -this unexpected desertion; but before either had leisure for speech, or -even thought, an officer of gigantic frame, whose locks were bleached -with years and service, but whose air of military grandeur had been -rather softened than destroyed by time, rushed out of the body of mist, -and folded them to his bosom, while large scalding tears rolled down his -pale and wrinkled cheeks, and he exclaimed, in the peculiar accent of -Scotland: - -"For this I thank thee, Lord! Let danger come as it will, thy servant is -now prepared!" - - - - -CHAPTER 15 - - "Then go we in, to know his embassy; - Which I could, with ready guess, declare, - Before the Frenchmen speak a word of it." - --King Henry V - -A few succeeding days were passed amid the privations, the uproar, -and the dangers of the siege, which was vigorously pressed by a -power, against whose approaches Munro possessed no competent means of -resistance. It appeared as if Webb, with his army, which lay slumbering -on the banks of the Hudson, had utterly forgotten the strait to which -his countrymen were reduced. Montcalm had filled the woods of the -portage with his savages, every yell and whoop from whom rang through -the British encampment, chilling the hearts of men who were already but -too much disposed to magnify the danger. - -Not so, however, with the besieged. Animated by the words, and -stimulated by the examples of their leaders, they had found their -courage, and maintained their ancient reputation, with a zeal that did -justice to the stern character of their commander. As if satisfied with -the toil of marching through the wilderness to encounter his enemy, the -French general, though of approved skill, had neglected to seize the -adjacent mountains; whence the besieged might have been exterminated -with impunity, and which, in the more modern warfare of the country, -would not have been neglected for a single hour. This sort of contempt -for eminences, or rather dread of the labor of ascending them, might -have been termed the besetting weakness of the warfare of the period. It -originated in the simplicity of the Indian contests, in which, from the -nature of the combats, and the density of the forests, fortresses were -rare, and artillery next to useless. The carelessness engendered by -these usages descended even to the war of the Revolution and lost the -States the important fortress of Ticonderoga opening a way for the army -of Burgoyne into what was then the bosom of the country. We look back at -this ignorance, or infatuation, whichever it may be called, with wonder, -knowing that the neglect of an eminence, whose difficulties, like those -of Mount Defiance, have been so greatly exaggerated, would, at the -present time, prove fatal to the reputation of the engineer who had -planned the works at their base, or to that of the general whose lot it -was to defend them. - -The tourist, the valetudinarian, or the amateur of the beauties of -nature, who, in the train of his four-in-hand, now rolls through the -scenes we have attempted to describe, in quest of information, health, -or pleasure, or floats steadily toward his object on those artificial -waters which have sprung up under the administration of a statesman* who -has dared to stake his political character on the hazardous issue, is -not to suppose that his ancestors traversed those hills, or struggled -with the same currents with equal facility. The transportation of a -single heavy gun was often considered equal to a victory gained; if -happily, the difficulties of the passage had not so far separated it -from its necessary concomitant, the ammunition, as to render it no more -than a useless tube of unwieldy iron. - - * Evidently the late De Witt Clinton, who died governor of - New York in 1828. - -The evils of this state of things pressed heavily on the fortunes of the -resolute Scotsman who now defended William Henry. Though his adversary -neglected the hills, he had planted his batteries with judgment on the -plain, and caused them to be served with vigor and skill. Against -this assault, the besieged could only oppose the imperfect and hasty -preparations of a fortress in the wilderness. - -It was in the afternoon of the fifth day of the siege, and the fourth of -his own service in it, that Major Heyward profited by a parley that -had just been beaten, by repairing to the ramparts of one of the water -bastions, to breathe the cool air from the lake, and to take a survey -of the progress of the siege. He was alone, if the solitary sentinel who -paced the mound be excepted; for the artillerists had hastened also to -profit by the temporary suspension of their arduous duties. The evening -was delightfully calm, and the light air from the limpid water fresh and -soothing. It seemed as if, with the termination of the roar of artillery -and the plunging of shot, nature had also seized the moment to assume -her mildest and most captivating form. The sun poured down his parting -glory on the scene, without the oppression of those fierce rays that -belong to the climate and the season. The mountains looked green, -and fresh, and lovely, tempered with the milder light, or softened in -shadow, as thin vapors floated between them and the sun. The numerous -islands rested on the bosom of the Horican, some low and sunken, as if -embedded in the waters, and others appearing to hover about the element, -in little hillocks of green velvet; among which the fishermen of the -beleaguering army peacefully rowed their skiffs, or floated at rest on -the glassy mirror in quiet pursuit of their employment. - -The scene was at once animated and still. All that pertained to nature -was sweet, or simply grand; while those parts which depended on the -temper and movements of man were lively and playful. - -Two little spotless flags were abroad, the one on a salient angle of the -fort, and the other on the advanced battery of the besiegers; emblems of -the truth which existed, not only to the acts, but it would seem, also, -to the enmity of the combatants. - -Behind these again swung, heavily opening and closing in silken folds, -the rival standards of England and France. - -A hundred gay and thoughtless young Frenchmen were drawing a net to the -pebbly beach, within dangerous proximity to the sullen but silent cannon -of the fort, while the eastern mountain was sending back the loud shouts -and gay merriment that attended their sport. Some were rushing eagerly -to enjoy the aquatic games of the lake, and others were already toiling -their way up the neighboring hills, with the restless curiosity of their -nation. To all these sports and pursuits, those of the enemy who watched -the besieged, and the besieged themselves, were, however, merely the -idle though sympathizing spectators. Here and there a picket had, -indeed, raised a song, or mingled in a dance, which had drawn the -dusky savages around them, from their lairs in the forest. In short, -everything wore rather the appearance of a day of pleasure, than of -an hour stolen from the dangers and toil of a bloody and vindictive -warfare. - -Duncan had stood in a musing attitude, contemplating this scene a few -minutes, when his eyes were directed to the glacis in front of the -sally-port already mentioned, by the sounds of approaching footsteps. He -walked to an angle of the bastion, and beheld the scout advancing, -under the custody of a French officer, to the body of the fort. The -countenance of Hawkeye was haggard and careworn, and his air dejected, -as though he felt the deepest degradation at having fallen into the -power of his enemies. He was without his favorite weapon, and his arms -were even bound behind him with thongs, made of the skin of a deer. The -arrival of flags to cover the messengers of summons, had occurred so -often of late, that when Heyward first threw his careless glance on this -group, he expected to see another of the officers of the enemy, charged -with a similar office but the instant he recognized the tall person and -still sturdy though downcast features of his friend, the woodsman, he -started with surprise, and turned to descend from the bastion into the -bosom of the work. - -The sounds of other voices, however, caught his attention, and for a -moment caused him to forget his purpose. At the inner angle of the mound -he met the sisters, walking along the parapet, in search, like himself, -of air and relief from confinement. They had not met from that painful -moment when he deserted them on the plain, only to assure their safety. -He had parted from them worn with care, and jaded with fatigue; he now -saw them refreshed and blooming, though timid and anxious. Under such an -inducement it will cause no surprise that the young man lost sight for -a time, of other objects in order to address them. He was, however, -anticipated by the voice of the ingenuous and youthful Alice. - -"Ah! thou tyrant! thou recreant knight! he who abandons his damsels -in the very lists," she cried; "here have we been days, nay, ages, -expecting you at our feet, imploring mercy and forgetfulness of your -craven backsliding, or I should rather say, backrunning--for verily you -fled in the manner that no stricken deer, as our worthy friend the scout -would say, could equal!" - -"You know that Alice means our thanks and our blessings," added the -graver and more thoughtful Cora. "In truth, we have a little wonder why -you should so rigidly absent yourself from a place where the gratitude -of the daughters might receive the support of a parent's thanks." - -"Your father himself could tell you, that, though absent from your -presence, I have not been altogether forgetful of your safety," returned -the young man; "the mastery of yonder village of huts," pointing to the -neighboring entrenched camp, "has been keenly disputed; and he who holds -it is sure to be possessed of this fort, and that which it contains. My -days and nights have all been passed there since we separated, because -I thought that duty called me thither. But," he added, with an air of -chagrin, which he endeavored, though unsuccessfully, to conceal, "had -I been aware that what I then believed a soldier's conduct could be so -construed, shame would have been added to the list of reasons." - -"Heyward! Duncan!" exclaimed Alice, bending forward to read his -half-averted countenance, until a lock of her golden hair rested on her -flushed cheek, and nearly concealed the tear that had started to her -eye; "did I think this idle tongue of mine had pained you, I would -silence it forever. Cora can say, if Cora would, how justly we have -prized your services, and how deep--I had almost said, how fervent--is -our gratitude." - -"And will Cora attest the truth of this?" cried Duncan, suffering the -cloud to be chased from his countenance by a smile of open pleasure. -"What says our graver sister? Will she find an excuse for the neglect of -the knight in the duty of a soldier?" - -Cora made no immediate answer, but turned her face toward the water, as -if looking on the sheet of the Horican. When she did bend her dark eyes -on the young man, they were yet filled with an expression of anguish -that at once drove every thought but that of kind solicitude from his -mind. - -"You are not well, dearest Miss Munro!" he exclaimed; "we have trifled -while you are in suffering!" - -"'Tis nothing," she answered, refusing his support with feminine -reserve. "That I cannot see the sunny side of the picture of life, like -this artless but ardent enthusiast," she added, laying her hand lightly, -but affectionately, on the arm of her sister, "is the penalty of -experience, and, perhaps, the misfortune of my nature. See," she -continued, as if determined to shake off infirmity, in a sense of duty; -"look around you, Major Heyward, and tell me what a prospect is this for -the daughter of a soldier whose greatest happiness is his honor and his -military renown." - -"Neither ought nor shall be tarnished by circumstances over which he has -had no control," Duncan warmly replied. "But your words recall me to my -own duty. I go now to your gallant father, to hear his determination -in matters of the last moment to the defense. God bless you in every -fortune, noble--Cora--I may and must call you." She frankly gave him her -hand, though her lip quivered, and her cheeks gradually became of ashly -paleness. "In every fortune, I know you will be an ornament and honor -to your sex. Alice, adieu"--his voice changed from admiration to -tenderness--"adieu, Alice; we shall soon meet again; as conquerors, I -trust, and amid rejoicings!" - -Without waiting for an answer from either, the young man threw himself -down the grassy steps of the bastion, and moving rapidly across the -parade, he was quickly in the presence of their father. Munro was pacing -his narrow apartment with a disturbed air and gigantic strides as Duncan -entered. - -"You have anticipated my wishes, Major Heyward," he said; "I was about -to request this favor." - -"I am sorry to see, sir, that the messenger I so warmly recommended has -returned in custody of the French! I hope there is no reason to distrust -his fidelity?" - -"The fidelity of 'The Long Rifle' is well known to me," returned Munro, -"and is above suspicion; though his usual good fortune seems, at last, -to have failed. Montcalm has got him, and with the accursed politeness -of his nation, he has sent him in with a doleful tale, of 'knowing how -I valued the fellow, he could not think of retaining him.' A Jesuitical -way that, Major Duncan Heyward, of telling a man of his misfortunes!" - -"But the general and his succor?" - -"Did ye look to the south as ye entered, and could ye not see them?" -said the old soldier, laughing bitterly. - -"Hoot! hoot! you're an impatient boy, sir, and cannot give the gentlemen -leisure for their march!" - -"They are coming, then? The scout has said as much?" - -"When? and by what path? for the dunce has omitted to tell me this. -There is a letter, it would seem, too; and that is the only agreeable -part of the matter. For the customary attentions of your Marquis of -Montcalm--I warrant me, Duncan, that he of Lothian would buy a dozen -such marquisates--but if the news of the letter were bad, the gentility -of this French monsieur would certainly compel him to let us know it." - -"He keeps the letter, then, while he releases the messenger?" - -"Ay, that does he, and all for the sake of what you call your -'bonhommie' I would venture, if the truth was known, the fellow's -grandfather taught the noble science of dancing." - -"But what says the scout? he has eyes and ears, and a tongue. What -verbal report does he make?" - -"Oh! sir, he is not wanting in natural organs, and he is free to tell -all that he has seen and heard. The whole amount is this; there is a -fort of his majesty's on the banks of the Hudson, called Edward, in -honor of his gracious highness of York, you'll know; and it is well -filled with armed men, as such a work should be." - -"But was there no movement, no signs of any intention to advance to our -relief?" - -"There were the morning and evening parades; and when one of the -provincial loons--you'll know, Duncan, you're half a Scotsman -yourself--when one of them dropped his powder over his porretch, if it -touched the coals, it just burned!" Then, suddenly changing his bitter, -ironical manner, to one more grave and thoughtful, he continued: "and -yet there might, and must be, something in that letter which it would be -well to know!" - -"Our decision should be speedy," said Duncan, gladly availing himself -of this change of humor, to press the more important objects of their -interview; "I cannot conceal from you, sir, that the camp will not be -much longer tenable; and I am sorry to add, that things appear no better -in the fort; more than half the guns are bursted." - -"And how should it be otherwise? Some were fished from the bottom of -the lake; some have been rusting in woods since the discovery of -the country; and some were never guns at all--mere privateersmen's -playthings! Do you think, sir, you can have Woolwich Warren in the midst -of a wilderness, three thousand miles from Great Britain?" - -"The walls are crumbling about our ears, and provisions begin to fail -us," continued Heyward, without regarding the new burst of indignation; -"even the men show signs of discontent and alarm." - -"Major Heyward," said Munro, turning to his youthful associate with -the dignity of his years and superior rank; "I should have served his -majesty for half a century, and earned these gray hairs in vain, were -I ignorant of all you say, and of the pressing nature of our -circumstances; still, there is everything due to the honor of the king's -arms, and something to ourselves. While there is hope of succor, this -fortress will I defend, though it be to be done with pebbles gathered -on the lake shore. It is a sight of the letter, therefore, that we want, -that we may know the intentions of the man the earl of Loudon has left -among us as his substitute." - -"And can I be of service in the matter?" - -"Sir, you can; the marquis of Montcalm has, in addition to his other -civilities, invited me to a personal interview between the works and his -own camp; in order, as he says, to impart some additional information. -Now, I think it would not be wise to show any undue solicitude to meet -him, and I would employ you, an officer of rank, as my substitute; for -it would but ill comport with the honor of Scotland to let it be said -one of her gentlemen was outdone in civility by a native of any other -country on earth." - -Without assuming the supererogatory task of entering into a discussion -of the comparative merits of national courtesy, Duncan cheerfully -assented to supply the place of the veteran in the approaching -interview. A long and confidential communication now succeeded, during -which the young man received some additional insight into his duty, -from the experience and native acuteness of his commander, and then the -former took his leave. - -As Duncan could only act as the representative of the commandant of the -fort, the ceremonies which should have accompanied a meeting between the -heads of the adverse forces were, of course, dispensed with. The truce -still existed, and with a roll and beat of the drum, and covered by a -little white flag, Duncan left the sally-port, within ten minutes after -his instructions were ended. He was received by the French officer in -advance with the usual formalities, and immediately accompanied to a -distant marquee of the renowned soldier who led the forces of France. - -The general of the enemy received the youthful messenger, surrounded by -his principal officers, and by a swarthy band of the native chiefs, -who had followed him to the field, with the warriors of their several -tribes. Heyward paused short, when, in glancing his eyes rapidly over -the dark group of the latter, he beheld the malignant countenance of -Magua, regarding him with the calm but sullen attention which marked the -expression of that subtle savage. A slight exclamation of surprise even -burst from the lips of the young man, but instantly, recollecting -his errand, and the presence in which he stood, he suppressed every -appearance of emotion, and turned to the hostile leader, who had already -advanced a step to receive him. - -The marquis of Montcalm was, at the period of which we write, in the -flower of his age, and, it may be added, in the zenith of his fortunes. -But even in that enviable situation, he was affable, and distinguished -as much for his attention to the forms of courtesy, as for that -chivalrous courage which, only two short years afterward, induced him -to throw away his life on the plains of Abraham. Duncan, in turning his -eyes from the malign expression of Magua, suffered them to rest with -pleasure on the smiling and polished features, and the noble military -air, of the French general. - -"Monsieur," said the latter, "j'ai beaucoup de plaisir a--bah!--ou est -cet interprete?" - -"Je crois, monsieur, qu'il ne sear pas necessaire," Heyward modestly -replied; "je parle un peu francais." - -"Ah! j'en suis bien aise," said Montcalm, taking Duncan familiarly by -the arm, and leading him deep into the marquee, a little out of earshot; -"je deteste ces fripons-la; on ne sait jamais sur quel pie on est avec -eux. Eh, bien! monsieur," he continued still speaking in French; "though -I should have been proud of receiving your commandant, I am very happy -that he has seen proper to employ an officer so distinguished, and who, -I am sure, is so amiable, as yourself." - -Duncan bowed low, pleased with the compliment, in spite of a most heroic -determination to suffer no artifice to allure him into forgetfulness of -the interest of his prince; and Montcalm, after a pause of a moment, as -if to collect his thoughts, proceeded: - -"Your commandant is a brave man, and well qualified to repel my -assault. Mais, monsieur, is it not time to begin to take more counsel -of humanity, and less of your courage? The one as strongly characterizes -the hero as the other." - -"We consider the qualities as inseparable," returned Duncan, smiling; -"but while we find in the vigor of your excellency every motive to -stimulate the one, we can, as yet, see no particular call for the -exercise of the other." - -Montcalm, in his turn, slightly bowed, but it was with the air of a -man too practised to remember the language of flattery. After musing a -moment, he added: - -"It is possible my glasses have deceived me, and that your works resist -our cannon better than I had supposed. You know our force?" - -"Our accounts vary," said Duncan, carelessly; "the highest, however, has -not exceeded twenty thousand men." - -The Frenchman bit his lip, and fastened his eyes keenly on the other as -if to read his thoughts; then, with a readiness peculiar to himself, he -continued, as if assenting to the truth of an enumeration which quite -doubled his army: - -"It is a poor compliment to the vigilance of us soldiers, monsieur, -that, do what we will, we never can conceal our numbers. If it were -to be done at all, one would believe it might succeed in these woods. -Though you think it too soon to listen to the calls of humanity," he -added, smiling archly, "I may be permitted to believe that gallantry -is not forgotten by one so young as yourself. The daughters of the -commandant, I learn, have passed into the fort since it was invested?" - -"It is true, monsieur; but, so far from weakening our efforts, they -set us an example of courage in their own fortitude. Were nothing -but resolution necessary to repel so accomplished a soldier as M. de -Montcalm, I would gladly trust the defense of William Henry to the elder -of those ladies." - -"We have a wise ordinance in our Salique laws, which says, 'The crown -of France shall never degrade the lance to the distaff'," said Montcalm, -dryly, and with a little hauteur; but instantly adding, with his former -frank and easy air: "as all the nobler qualities are hereditary, I can -easily credit you; though, as I said before, courage has its limits, and -humanity must not be forgotten. I trust, monsieur, you come authorized -to treat for the surrender of the place?" - -"Has your excellency found our defense so feeble as to believe the -measure necessary?" - -"I should be sorry to have the defense protracted in such a manner as to -irritate my red friends there," continued Montcalm, glancing his eyes -at the group of grave and attentive Indians, without attending to the -other's questions; "I find it difficult, even now, to limit them to the -usages of war." - -Heyward was silent; for a painful recollection of the dangers he had so -recently escaped came over his mind, and recalled the images of those -defenseless beings who had shared in all his sufferings. - -"Ces messieurs-la," said Montcalm, following up the advantage which he -conceived he had gained, "are most formidable when baffled; and it is -unnecessary to tell you with what difficulty they are restrained in -their anger. Eh bien, monsieur! shall we speak of the terms?" - -"I fear your excellency has been deceived as to the strength of William -Henry, and the resources of its garrison!" - -"I have not sat down before Quebec, but an earthen work, that is -defended by twenty-three hundred gallant men," was the laconic reply. - -"Our mounds are earthen, certainly--nor are they seated on the rocks of -Cape Diamond; but they stand on that shore which proved so destructive -to Dieskau and his army. There is also a powerful force within a few -hours' march of us, which we account upon as a part of our means." - -"Some six or eight thousand men," returned Montcalm, with much apparent -indifference, "whom their leader wisely judges to be safer in their -works than in the field." - -It was now Heyward's turn to bite his lip with vexation as the other so -coolly alluded to a force which the young man knew to be overrated. Both -mused a little while in silence, when Montcalm renewed the conversation, -in a way that showed he believed the visit of his guest was solely to -propose terms of capitulation. On the other hand, Heyward began to -throw sundry inducements in the way of the French general, to betray the -discoveries he had made through the intercepted letter. The artifice -of neither, however, succeeded; and after a protracted and fruitless -interview, Duncan took his leave, favorably impressed with an opinion of -the courtesy and talents of the enemy's captain, but as ignorant of what -he came to learn as when he arrived. Montcalm followed him as far as the -entrance of the marquee, renewing his invitations to the commandant of -the fort to give him an immediate meeting in the open ground between the -two armies. - -There they separated, and Duncan returned to the advanced post of the -French, accompanied as before; whence he instantly proceeded to the -fort, and to the quarters of his own commander. - - - - -CHAPTER 16 - - "EDG.--Before you fight the battle ope this letter." - --Lear - -Major Heyward found Munro attended only by his daughters. Alice sat upon -his knee, parting the gray hairs on the forehead of the old man with -her delicate fingers; and whenever he affected to frown on her trifling, -appeasing his assumed anger by pressing her ruby lips fondly on his -wrinkled brow. Cora was seated nigh them, a calm and amused looker-on; -regarding the wayward movements of her more youthful sister with that -species of maternal fondness which characterized her love for Alice. Not -only the dangers through which they had passed, but those which still -impended above them, appeared to be momentarily forgotten, in the -soothing indulgence of such a family meeting. It seemed as if they had -profited by the short truce, to devote an instant to the purest and best -affection; the daughters forgetting their fears, and the veteran his -cares, in the security of the moment. Of this scene, Duncan, who, in -his eagerness to report his arrival, had entered unannounced, stood -many moments an unobserved and a delighted spectator. But the quick and -dancing eyes of Alice soon caught a glimpse of his figure reflected -from a glass, and she sprang blushing from her father's knee, exclaiming -aloud: - -"Major Heyward!" - -"What of the lad?" demanded her father; "I have sent him to crack a -little with the Frenchman. Ha, sir, you are young, and you're nimble! -Away with you, ye baggage; as if there were not troubles enough for a -soldier, without having his camp filled with such prattling hussies as -yourself!" - -Alice laughingly followed her sister, who instantly led the way from an -apartment where she perceived their presence was no longer desirable. -Munro, instead of demanding the result of the young man's mission, paced -the room for a few moments, with his hands behind his back, and his -head inclined toward the floor, like a man lost in thought. At length he -raised his eyes, glistening with a father's fondness, and exclaimed: - -"They are a pair of excellent girls, Heyward, and such as any one may -boast of." - -"You are not now to learn my opinion of your daughters, Colonel Munro." - -"True, lad, true," interrupted the impatient old man; "you were about -opening your mind more fully on that matter the day you got in, but I -did not think it becoming in an old soldier to be talking of nuptial -blessings and wedding jokes when the enemies of his king were likely -to be unbidden guests at the feast. But I was wrong, Duncan, boy, I was -wrong there; and I am now ready to hear what you have to say." - -"Notwithstanding the pleasure your assurance gives me, dear sir, I have -just now, a message from Montcalm--" - -"Let the Frenchman and all his host go to the devil, sir!" exclaimed the -hasty veteran. "He is not yet master of William Henry, nor shall he -ever be, provided Webb proves himself the man he should. No, sir, thank -Heaven we are not yet in such a strait that it can be said Munro is too -much pressed to discharge the little domestic duties of his own family. -Your mother was the only child of my bosom friend, Duncan; and I'll just -give you a hearing, though all the knights of St. Louis were in a body -at the sally-port, with the French saint at their head, crying to speak -a word under favor. A pretty degree of knighthood, sir, is that which -can be bought with sugar hogsheads! and then your twopenny marquisates. -The thistle is the order for dignity and antiquity; the veritable -'nemo me impune lacessit' of chivalry. Ye had ancestors in that degree, -Duncan, and they were an ornament to the nobles of Scotland." - -Heyward, who perceived that his superior took a malicious pleasure in -exhibiting his contempt for the message of the French general, was -fain to humor a spleen that he knew would be short-lived; he therefore, -replied with as much indifference as he could assume on such a subject: - -"My request, as you know, sir, went so far as to presume to the honor of -being your son." - -"Ay, boy, you found words to make yourself very plainly comprehended. -But, let me ask ye, sir, have you been as intelligible to the girl?" - -"On my honor, no," exclaimed Duncan, warmly; "there would have been an -abuse of a confided trust, had I taken advantage of my situation for -such a purpose." - -"Your notions are those of a gentleman, Major Heyward, and well enough -in their place. But Cora Munro is a maiden too discreet, and of a mind -too elevated and improved, to need the guardianship even of a father." - -"Cora!" - -"Ay--Cora! we are talking of your pretensions to Miss Munro, are we not, -sir?" - -"I--I--I was not conscious of having mentioned her name," said Duncan, -stammering. - -"And to marry whom, then, did you wish my consent, Major Heyward?" -demanded the old soldier, erecting himself in the dignity of offended -feeling. - -"You have another, and not less lovely child." - -"Alice!" exclaimed the father, in an astonishment equal to that with -which Duncan had just repeated the name of her sister. - -"Such was the direction of my wishes, sir." - -The young man awaited in silence the result of the extraordinary -effect produced by a communication, which, as it now appeared, was so -unexpected. For several minutes Munro paced the chamber with long -and rapid strides, his rigid features working convulsively, and every -faculty seemingly absorbed in the musings of his own mind. At length, he -paused directly in front of Heyward, and riveting his eyes upon those of -the other, he said, with a lip that quivered violently: - -"Duncan Heyward, I have loved you for the sake of him whose blood is -in your veins; I have loved you for your own good qualities; and I have -loved you, because I thought you would contribute to the happiness of my -child. But all this love would turn to hatred, were I assured that what -I so much apprehend is true." - -"God forbid that any act or thought of mine should lead to such a -change!" exclaimed the young man, whose eye never quailed under the -penetrating look it encountered. Without adverting to the impossibility -of the other's comprehending those feelings which were hid in his -own bosom, Munro suffered himself to be appeased by the unaltered -countenance he met, and with a voice sensibly softened, he continued: - -"You would be my son, Duncan, and you're ignorant of the history of the -man you wish to call your father. Sit ye down, young man, and I will -open to you the wounds of a seared heart, in as few words as may be -suitable." - -By this time, the message of Montcalm was as much forgotten by him who -bore it as by the man for whose ears it was intended. Each drew a chair, -and while the veteran communed a few moments with his own thoughts, -apparently in sadness, the youth suppressed his impatience in a look and -attitude of respectful attention. At length, the former spoke: - -"You'll know, already, Major Heyward, that my family was both ancient -and honorable," commenced the Scotsman; "though it might not altogether -be endowed with that amount of wealth that should correspond with its -degree. I was, maybe, such an one as yourself when I plighted my faith -to Alice Graham, the only child of a neighboring laird of some estate. -But the connection was disagreeable to her father, on more accounts than -my poverty. I did, therefore, what an honest man should--restored the -maiden her troth, and departed the country in the service of my king. -I had seen many regions, and had shed much blood in different lands, -before duty called me to the islands of the West Indies. There it was -my lot to form a connection with one who in time became my wife, and the -mother of Cora. She was the daughter of a gentleman of those isles, by -a lady whose misfortune it was, if you will," said the old man, proudly, -"to be descended, remotely, from that unfortunate class who are so -basely enslaved to administer to the wants of a luxurious people. Ay, -sir, that is a curse, entailed on Scotland by her unnatural union with a -foreign and trading people. But could I find a man among them who would -dare to reflect on my child, he should feel the weight of a father's -anger! Ha! Major Heyward, you are yourself born at the south, where -these unfortunate beings are considered of a race inferior to your own." - -"'Tis most unfortunately true, sir," said Duncan, unable any longer to -prevent his eyes from sinking to the floor in embarrassment. - -"And you cast it on my child as a reproach! You scorn to mingle the -blood of the Heywards with one so degraded--lovely and virtuous though -she be?" fiercely demanded the jealous parent. - -"Heaven protect me from a prejudice so unworthy of my reason!" returned -Duncan, at the same time conscious of such a feeling, and that as deeply -rooted as if it had been ingrafted in his nature. "The sweetness, the -beauty, the witchery of your younger daughter, Colonel Munro, might -explain my motives without imputing to me this injustice." - -"Ye are right, sir," returned the old man, again changing his tones to -those of gentleness, or rather softness; "the girl is the image of what -her mother was at her years, and before she had become acquainted -with grief. When death deprived me of my wife I returned to Scotland, -enriched by the marriage; and, would you think it, Duncan! the suffering -angel had remained in the heartless state of celibacy twenty long years, -and that for the sake of a man who could forget her! She did more, -sir; she overlooked my want of faith, and, all difficulties being now -removed, she took me for her husband." - -"And became the mother of Alice?" exclaimed Duncan, with an eagerness -that might have proved dangerous at a moment when the thoughts of Munro -were less occupied that at present. - -"She did, indeed," said the old man, "and dearly did she pay for the -blessing she bestowed. But she is a saint in heaven, sir; and it ill -becomes one whose foot rests on the grave to mourn a lot so blessed. I -had her but a single year, though; a short term of happiness for one who -had seen her youth fade in hopeless pining." - -There was something so commanding in the distress of the old man, that -Heyward did not dare to venture a syllable of consolation. Munro sat -utterly unconscious of the other's presence, his features exposed and -working with the anguish of his regrets, while heavy tears fell from -his eyes, and rolled unheeded from his cheeks to the floor. At length -he moved, and as if suddenly recovering his recollection; when he arose, -and taking a single turn across the room, he approached his companion -with an air of military grandeur, and demanded: - -"Have you not, Major Heyward, some communication that I should hear from -the marquis de Montcalm?" - -Duncan started in his turn, and immediately commenced in an embarrassed -voice, the half-forgotten message. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the -evasive though polite manner with which the French general had -eluded every attempt of Heyward to worm from him the purport of the -communication he had proposed making, or on the decided, though still -polished message, by which he now gave his enemy to understand, that, -unless he chose to receive it in person, he should not receive it at -all. As Munro listened to the detail of Duncan, the excited feelings of -the father gradually gave way before the obligations of his station, -and when the other was done, he saw before him nothing but the veteran, -swelling with the wounded feelings of a soldier. - -"You have said enough, Major Heyward," exclaimed the angry old man; -"enough to make a volume of commentary on French civility. Here has -this gentleman invited me to a conference, and when I send him a capable -substitute, for ye're all that, Duncan, though your years are but few, -he answers me with a riddle." - -"He may have thought less favorably of the substitute, my dear sir; and -you will remember that the invitation, which he now repeats, was to the -commandant of the works, and not to his second." - -"Well, sir, is not a substitute clothed with all the power and dignity -of him who grants the commission? He wishes to confer with Munro! Faith, -sir, I have much inclination to indulge the man, if it should only be to -let him behold the firm countenance we maintain in spite of his numbers -and his summons. There might be not bad policy in such a stroke, young -man." - -Duncan, who believed it of the last importance that they should speedily -come to the contents of the letter borne by the scout, gladly encouraged -this idea. - -"Without doubt, he could gather no confidence by witnessing our -indifference," he said. - -"You never said truer word. I could wish, sir, that he would visit the -works in open day, and in the form of a storming party; that is the -least failing method of proving the countenance of an enemy, and would -be far preferable to the battering system he has chosen. The beauty and -manliness of warfare has been much deformed, Major Heyward, by the arts -of your Monsieur Vauban. Our ancestors were far above such scientific -cowardice!" - -"It may be very true, sir; but we are now obliged to repel art by art. -What is your pleasure in the matter of the interview?" - -"I will meet the Frenchman, and that without fear or delay; promptly, -sir, as becomes a servant of my royal master. Go, Major Heyward, and -give them a flourish of the music; and send out a messenger to let them -know who is coming. We will follow with a small guard, for such respect -is due to one who holds the honor of his king in keeping; and hark'ee, -Duncan," he added, in a half whisper, though they were alone, "it may be -prudent to have some aid at hand, in case there should be treachery at -the bottom of it all." - -The young man availed himself of this order to quit the apartment; and, -as the day was fast coming to a close, he hastened without delay, to -make the necessary arrangements. A very few minutes only were necessary -to parade a few files, and to dispatch an orderly with a flag to -announce the approach of the commandant of the fort. When Duncan had -done both these, he led the guard to the sally-port, near which he -found his superior ready, waiting his appearance. As soon as the usual -ceremonials of a military departure were observed, the veteran and his -more youthful companion left the fortress, attended by the escort. - -They had proceeded only a hundred yards from the works, when the little -array which attended the French general to the conference was seen -issuing from the hollow way which formed the bed of a brook that ran -between the batteries of the besiegers and the fort. From the moment -that Munro left his own works to appear in front of his enemy's, his -air had been grand, and his step and countenance highly military. The -instant he caught a glimpse of the white plume that waved in the hat -of Montcalm, his eye lighted, and age no longer appeared to possess any -influence over his vast and still muscular person. - -"Speak to the boys to be watchful, sir," he said, in an undertone, to -Duncan; "and to look well to their flints and steel, for one is never -safe with a servant of these Louis's; at the same time, we shall show -them the front of men in deep security. Ye'll understand me, Major -Heyward!" - -He was interrupted by the clamor of a drum from the approaching -Frenchmen, which was immediately answered, when each party pushed an -orderly in advance, bearing a white flag, and the wary Scotsman halted -with his guard close at his back. As soon as this slight salutation -had passed, Montcalm moved toward them with a quick but graceful step, -baring his head to the veteran, and dropping his spotless plume nearly -to the earth in courtesy. If the air of Munro was more commanding and -manly, it wanted both the ease and insinuating polish of that of the -Frenchman. Neither spoke for a few moments, each regarding the other -with curious and interested eyes. Then, as became his superior rank and -the nature of the interview, Montcalm broke the silence. After uttering -the usual words of greeting, he turned to Duncan, and continued, with a -smile of recognition, speaking always in French: - -"I am rejoiced, monsieur, that you have given us the pleasure of your -company on this occasion. There will be no necessity to employ an -ordinary interpreter; for, in your hands, I feel the same security as if -I spoke your language myself." - -Duncan acknowledged the compliment, when Montcalm, turning to his guard, -which in imitation of that of their enemies, pressed close upon him, -continued: - -"En arriere, mes enfants--il fait chaud---retirez-vous un peu." - -Before Major Heyward would imitate this proof of confidence, he glanced -his eyes around the plain, and beheld with uneasiness the numerous dusky -groups of savages, who looked out from the margin of the surrounding -woods, curious spectators of the interview. - -"Monsieur de Montcalm will readily acknowledge the difference in our -situation," he said, with some embarrassment, pointing at the same -time toward those dangerous foes, who were to be seen in almost every -direction. "Were we to dismiss our guard, we should stand here at the -mercy of our enemies." - -"Monsieur, you have the plighted faith of 'un gentilhomme Francais', -for your safety," returned Montcalm, laying his hand impressively on his -heart; "it should suffice." - -"It shall. Fall back," Duncan added to the officer who led the escort; -"fall back, sir, beyond hearing, and wait for orders." - -Munro witnessed this movement with manifest uneasiness; nor did he fail -to demand an instant explanation. - -"Is it not our interest, sir, to betray distrust?" retorted Duncan. -"Monsieur de Montcalm pledges his word for our safety, and I have -ordered the men to withdraw a little, in order to prove how much we -depend on his assurance." - -"It may be all right, sir, but I have no overweening reliance on the -faith of these marquesses, or marquis, as they call themselves. Their -patents of nobility are too common to be certain that they bear the seal -of true honor." - -"You forget, dear sir, that we confer with an officer, distinguished -alike in Europe and America for his deeds. From a soldier of his -reputation we can have nothing to apprehend." - -The old man made a gesture of resignation, though his rigid features -still betrayed his obstinate adherence to a distrust, which he derived -from a sort of hereditary contempt of his enemy, rather than from any -present signs which might warrant so uncharitable a feeling. Montcalm -waited patiently until this little dialogue in demi-voice was ended, -when he drew nigher, and opened the subject of their conference. - -"I have solicited this interview from your superior, monsieur," he said, -"because I believe he will allow himself to be persuaded that he has -already done everything which is necessary for the honor of his prince, -and will now listen to the admonitions of humanity. I will forever bear -testimony that his resistance has been gallant, and was continued as -long as there was hope." - -When this opening was translated to Munro, he answered with dignity, but -with sufficient courtesy: - -"However I may prize such testimony from Monsieur Montcalm, it will be -more valuable when it shall be better merited." - -The French general smiled, as Duncan gave him the purport of this reply, -and observed: - -"What is now so freely accorded to approved courage, may be refused to -useless obstinacy. Monsieur would wish to see my camp, and witness for -himself our numbers, and the impossibility of his resisting them with -success?" - -"I know that the king of France is well served," returned the unmoved -Scotsman, as soon as Duncan ended his translation; "but my own royal -master has as many and as faithful troops." - -"Though not at hand, fortunately for us," said Montcalm, without -waiting, in his ardor, for the interpreter. "There is a destiny in war, -to which a brave man knows how to submit with the same courage that he -faces his foes." - -"Had I been conscious that Monsieur Montcalm was master of the English, -I should have spared myself the trouble of so awkward a translation," -said the vexed Duncan, dryly; remembering instantly his recent by-play -with Munro. - -"Your pardon, monsieur," rejoined the Frenchman, suffering a slight -color to appear on his dark cheek. "There is a vast difference between -understanding and speaking a foreign tongue; you will, therefore, please -to assist me still." Then, after a short pause, he added: "These hills -afford us every opportunity of reconnoitering your works, messieurs, and -I am possibly as well acquainted with their weak condition as you can be -yourselves." - -"Ask the French general if his glasses can reach to the Hudson," said -Munro, proudly; "and if he knows when and where to expect the army of -Webb." - -"Let General Webb be his own interpreter," returned the politic -Montcalm, suddenly extending an open letter toward Munro as he spoke; -"you will there learn, monsieur, that his movements are not likely to -prove embarrassing to my army." - -The veteran seized the offered paper, without waiting for Duncan to -translate the speech, and with an eagerness that betrayed how important -he deemed its contents. As his eye passed hastily over the words, his -countenance changed from its look of military pride to one of deep -chagrin; his lip began to quiver; and suffering the paper to fall from -his hand, his head dropped upon his chest, like that of a man whose -hopes were withered at a single blow. Duncan caught the letter from the -ground, and without apology for the liberty he took, he read at a glance -its cruel purport. Their common superior, so far from encouraging them -to resist, advised a speedy surrender, urging in the plainest language, -as a reason, the utter impossibility of his sending a single man to -their rescue. - -"Here is no deception!" exclaimed Duncan, examining the billet both -inside and out; "this is the signature of Webb, and must be the captured -letter." - -"The man has betrayed me!" Munro at length bitterly exclaimed; "he has -brought dishonor to the door of one where disgrace was never before -known to dwell, and shame has he heaped heavily on my gray hairs." - -"Say not so," cried Duncan; "we are yet masters of the fort, and of our -honor. Let us, then, sell our lives at such a rate as shall make our -enemies believe the purchase too dear." - -"Boy, I thank thee," exclaimed the old man, rousing himself from his -stupor; "you have, for once, reminded Munro of his duty. We will go -back, and dig our graves behind those ramparts." - -"Messieurs," said Montcalm, advancing toward them a step, in generous -interest, "you little know Louis de St. Veran if you believe him capable -of profiting by this letter to humble brave men, or to build up a -dishonest reputation for himself. Listen to my terms before you leave -me." - -"What says the Frenchman?" demanded the veteran, sternly; "does he make -a merit of having captured a scout, with a note from headquarters? Sir, -he had better raise this siege, to go and sit down before Edward if he -wishes to frighten his enemy with words." - -Duncan explained the other's meaning. - -"Monsieur de Montcalm, we will hear you," the veteran added, more -calmly, as Duncan ended. - -"To retain the fort is now impossible," said his liberal enemy; "it is -necessary to the interests of my master that it should be destroyed; but -as for yourselves and your brave comrades, there is no privilege dear to -a soldier that shall be denied." - -"Our colors?" demanded Heyward. - -"Carry them to England, and show them to your king." - -"Our arms?" - -"Keep them; none can use them better." - -"Our march; the surrender of the place?" - -"Shall all be done in a way most honorable to yourselves." - -Duncan now turned to explain these proposals to his commander, who heard -him with amazement, and a sensibility that was deeply touched by so -unusual and unexpected generosity. - -"Go you, Duncan," he said; "go with this marquess, as, indeed, marquess -he should be; go to his marquee and arrange it all. I have lived to -see two things in my old age that never did I expect to behold. An -Englishman afraid to support a friend, and a Frenchman too honest to -profit by his advantage." - -So saying, the veteran again dropped his head to his chest, and returned -slowly toward the fort, exhibiting, by the dejection of his air, to the -anxious garrison, a harbinger of evil tidings. - -From the shock of this unexpected blow the haughty feelings of Munro -never recovered; but from that moment there commenced a change in his -determined character, which accompanied him to a speedy grave. Duncan -remained to settle the terms of the capitulation. He was seen -to re-enter the works during the first watches of the night, and -immediately after a private conference with the commandant, to -leave them again. It was then openly announced that hostilities must -cease--Munro having signed a treaty by which the place was to be yielded -to the enemy, with the morning; the garrison to retain their arms, -the colors and their baggage, and, consequently, according to military -opinion, their honor. - - - - -CHAPTER 17 - - "Weave we the woof. - The thread is spun. - The web is wove. - The work is done."--Gray - -The hostile armies, which lay in the wilds of the Horican, passed the -night of the ninth of August, 1757, much in the manner they would, had -they encountered on the fairest field of Europe. While the conquered -were still, sullen, and dejected, the victors triumphed. But there -are limits alike to grief and joy; and long before the watches of the -morning came the stillness of those boundless woods was only broken by a -gay call from some exulting young Frenchman of the advanced pickets, or -a menacing challenge from the fort, which sternly forbade the approach -of any hostile footsteps before the stipulated moment. Even these -occasional threatening sounds ceased to be heard in that dull hour which -precedes the day, at which period a listener might have sought in vain -any evidence of the presence of those armed powers that then slumbered -on the shores of the "holy lake." - -It was during these moments of deep silence that the canvas which -concealed the entrance to a spacious marquee in the French encampment -was shoved aside, and a man issued from beneath the drapery into the -open air. He was enveloped in a cloak that might have been intended as -a protection from the chilling damps of the woods, but which served -equally well as a mantle to conceal his person. He was permitted to pass -the grenadier, who watched over the slumbers of the French commander, -without interruption, the man making the usual salute which betokens -military deference, as the other passed swiftly through the little -city of tents, in the direction of William Henry. Whenever this unknown -individual encountered one of the numberless sentinels who crossed his -path, his answer was prompt, and, as it appeared, satisfactory; for he -was uniformly allowed to proceed without further interrogation. - -With the exception of such repeated but brief interruptions, he -had moved silently from the center of the camp to its most advanced -outposts, when he drew nigh the soldier who held his watch nearest to -the works of the enemy. As he approached he was received with the usual -challenge: - -"Qui vive?" - -"France," was the reply. - -"Le mot d'ordre?" - -"La victorie," said the other, drawing so nigh as to be heard in a loud -whisper. - -"C'est bien," returned the sentinel, throwing his musket from the charge -to his shoulder; "vous promenez bien matin, monsieur!" - -"Il est necessaire d'etre vigilant, mon enfant," the other observed, -dropping a fold of his cloak, and looking the soldier close in the -face as he passed him, still continuing his way toward the British -fortification. The man started; his arms rattled heavily as he threw -them forward in the lowest and most respectful salute; and when he had -again recovered his piece, he turned to walk his post, muttering between -his teeth: - -"Il faut etre vigilant, en verite! je crois que nous avons la, un -caporal qui ne dort jamais!" - -The officer proceeded, without affecting to hear the words which escaped -the sentinel in his surprise; nor did he again pause until he had -reached the low strand, and in a somewhat dangerous vicinity to the -western water bastion of the fort. The light of an obscure moon was just -sufficient to render objects, though dim, perceptible in their outlines. -He, therefore, took the precaution to place himself against the trunk of -a tree, where he leaned for many minutes, and seemed to contemplate the -dark and silent mounds of the English works in profound attention. His -gaze at the ramparts was not that of a curious or idle spectator; -but his looks wandered from point to point, denoting his knowledge of -military usages, and betraying that his search was not unaccompanied -by distrust. At length he appeared satisfied; and having cast his eyes -impatiently upward toward the summit of the eastern mountain, as if -anticipating the approach of the morning, he was in the act of turning -on his footsteps, when a light sound on the nearest angle of the bastion -caught his ear, and induced him to remain. - -Just then a figure was seen to approach the edge of the rampart, where -it stood, apparently contemplating in its turn the distant tents of the -French encampment. Its head was then turned toward the east, as though -equally anxious for the appearance of light, when the form leaned -against the mound, and seemed to gaze upon the glassy expanse of the -waters, which, like a submarine firmament, glittered with its thousand -mimic stars. The melancholy air, the hour, together with the vast frame -of the man who thus leaned, musing, against the English ramparts, -left no doubt as to his person in the mind of the observant spectator. -Delicacy, no less than prudence, now urged him to retire; and he had -moved cautiously round the body of the tree for that purpose, when -another sound drew his attention, and once more arrested his footsteps. -It was a low and almost inaudible movement of the water, and was -succeeded by a grating of pebbles one against the other. In a moment -he saw a dark form rise, as it were, out of the lake, and steal without -further noise to the land, within a few feet of the place where he -himself stood. A rifle next slowly rose between his eyes and the watery -mirror; but before it could be discharged his own hand was on the lock. - -"Hugh!" exclaimed the savage, whose treacherous aim was so singularly -and so unexpectedly interrupted. - -Without making any reply, the French officer laid his hand on the -shoulder of the Indian, and led him in profound silence to a distance -from the spot, where their subsequent dialogue might have proved -dangerous, and where it seemed that one of them, at least, sought a -victim. Then throwing open his cloak, so as to expose his uniform and -the cross of St. Louis which was suspended at his breast, Montcalm -sternly demanded: - -"What means this? Does not my son know that the hatchet is buried -between the English and his Canadian Father?" - -"What can the Hurons do?" returned the savage, speaking also, though -imperfectly, in the French language. - -"Not a warrior has a scalp, and the pale faces make friends!" - -"Ha, Le Renard Subtil! Methinks this is an excess of zeal for a friend -who was so late an enemy! How many suns have set since Le Renard struck -the war-post of the English?" - -"Where is that sun?" demanded the sullen savage. "Behind the hill; and -it is dark and cold. But when he comes again, it will be bright and -warm. Le Subtil is the sun of his tribe. There have been clouds, and -many mountains between him and his nation; but now he shines and it is a -clear sky!" - -"That Le Renard has power with his people, I well know," said Montcalm; -"for yesterday he hunted for their scalps, and to-day they hear him at -the council-fire." - -"Magua is a great chief." - -"Let him prove it, by teaching his nation how to conduct themselves -toward our new friends." - -"Why did the chief of the Canadas bring his young men into the woods, -and fire his cannon at the earthen house?" demanded the subtle Indian. - -"To subdue it. My master owns the land, and your father was ordered to -drive off these English squatters. They have consented to go, and now he -calls them enemies no longer." - -"'Tis well. Magua took the hatchet to color it with blood. It is now -bright; when it is red, it shall be buried." - -"But Magua is pledged not to sully the lilies of France. The enemies of -the great king across the salt lake are his enemies; his friends, the -friends of the Hurons." - -"Friends!" repeated the Indian in scorn. "Let his father give Magua a -hand." - -Montcalm, who felt that his influence over the warlike tribes he had -gathered was to be maintained by concession rather than by power, -complied reluctantly with the other's request. The savage placed the -fingers of the French commander on a deep scar in his bosom, and then -exultingly demanded: - -"Does my father know that?" - -"What warrior does not? 'Tis where a leaden bullet has cut." - -"And this?" continued the Indian, who had turned his naked back to the -other, his body being without its usual calico mantle. - -"This!--my son has been sadly injured here; who has done this?" - -"Magua slept hard in the English wigwams, and the sticks have left their -mark," returned the savage, with a hollow laugh, which did not conceal -the fierce temper that nearly choked him. Then, recollecting himself, -with sudden and native dignity, he added: "Go; teach your young men it -is peace. Le Renard Subtil knows how to speak to a Huron warrior." - -Without deigning to bestow further words, or to wait for any answer, -the savage cast his rifle into the hollow of his arm, and moved silently -through the encampment toward the woods where his own tribe was known to -lie. Every few yards as he proceeded he was challenged by the sentinels; -but he stalked sullenly onward, utterly disregarding the summons of the -soldiers, who only spared his life because they knew the air and tread -no less than the obstinate daring of an Indian. - -Montcalm lingered long and melancholy on the strand where he had -been left by his companion, brooding deeply on the temper which his -ungovernable ally had just discovered. Already had his fair fame been -tarnished by one horrid scene, and in circumstances fearfully resembling -those under which he now found himself. As he mused he became keenly -sensible of the deep responsibility they assume who disregard the means -to attain the end, and of all the danger of setting in motion an engine -which it exceeds human power to control. Then shaking off a train of -reflections that he accounted a weakness in such a moment of triumph, -he retraced his steps toward his tent, giving the order as he passed to -make the signal that should arouse the army from its slumbers. - -The first tap of the French drums was echoed from the bosom of the fort, -and presently the valley was filled with the strains of martial music, -rising long, thrilling and lively above the rattling accompaniment. The -horns of the victors sounded merry and cheerful flourishes, until the -last laggard of the camp was at his post; but the instant the British -fifes had blown their shrill signal, they became mute. In the meantime -the day had dawned, and when the line of the French army was ready to -receive its general, the rays of a brilliant sun were glancing along the -glittering array. Then that success, which was already so well known, -was officially announced; the favored band who were selected to guard -the gates of the fort were detailed, and defiled before their chief; the -signal of their approach was given, and all the usual preparations for -a change of masters were ordered and executed directly under the guns of -the contested works. - -A very different scene presented itself within the lines of the -Anglo-American army. As soon as the warning signal was given, it -exhibited all the signs of a hurried and forced departure. The sullen -soldiers shouldered their empty tubes and fell into their places, -like men whose blood had been heated by the past contest, and who only -desired the opportunity to revenge an indignity which was still wounding -to their pride, concealed as it was under the observances of military -etiquette. - -Women and children ran from place to place, some bearing the scanty -remnants of their baggage, and others searching in the ranks for those -countenances they looked up to for protection. - -Munro appeared among his silent troops firm but dejected. It was evident -that the unexpected blow had struck deep into his heart, though he -struggled to sustain his misfortune with the port of a man. - -Duncan was touched at the quiet and impressive exhibition of his grief. -He had discharged his own duty, and he now pressed to the side of the -old man, to know in what particular he might serve him. - -"My daughters," was the brief but expressive reply. - -"Good heavens! are not arrangements already made for their convenience?" - -"To-day I am only a soldier, Major Heyward," said the veteran. "All that -you see here, claim alike to be my children." - -Duncan had heard enough. Without losing one of those moments which had -now become so precious, he flew toward the quarters of Munro, in quest -of the sisters. He found them on the threshold of the low edifice, -already prepared to depart, and surrounded by a clamorous and weeping -assemblage of their own sex, that had gathered about the place, with a -sort of instinctive consciousness that it was the point most likely to -be protected. Though the cheeks of Cora were pale and her countenance -anxious, she had lost none of her firmness; but the eyes of Alice were -inflamed, and betrayed how long and bitterly she had wept. They both, -however, received the young man with undisguised pleasure; the former, -for a novelty, being the first to speak. - -"The fort is lost," she said, with a melancholy smile; "though our good -name, I trust, remains." - -"'Tis brighter than ever. But, dearest Miss Munro, it is time to think -less of others, and to make some provision for yourself. Military -usage--pride--that pride on which you so much value yourself, demands -that your father and I should for a little while continue with the -troops. Then where to seek a proper protector for you against the -confusion and chances of such a scene?" - -"None is necessary," returned Cora; "who will dare to injure or insult -the daughter of such a father, at a time like this?" - -"I would not leave you alone," continued the youth, looking about him -in a hurried manner, "for the command of the best regiment in the pay of -the king. Remember, our Alice is not gifted with all your firmness, and -God only knows the terror she might endure." - -"You may be right," Cora replied, smiling again, but far more sadly than -before. "Listen! chance has already sent us a friend when he is most -needed." - -Duncan did listen, and on the instant comprehended her meaning. The low -and serious sounds of the sacred music, so well known to the eastern -provinces, caught his ear, and instantly drew him to an apartment in -an adjacent building, which had already been deserted by its customary -tenants. There he found David, pouring out his pious feelings through -the only medium in which he ever indulged. Duncan waited, until, by the -cessation of the movement of the hand, he believed the strain was ended, -when, by touching his shoulder, he drew the attention of the other to -himself, and in a few words explained his wishes. - -"Even so," replied the single-minded disciple of the King of Israel, -when the young man had ended; "I have found much that is comely and -melodious in the maidens, and it is fitting that we who have consorted -in so much peril, should abide together in peace. I will attend them, -when I have completed my morning praise, to which nothing is now wanting -but the doxology. Wilt thou bear a part, friend? The meter is common, -and the tune 'Southwell'." - -Then, extending the little volume, and giving the pitch of the air anew -with considerate attention, David recommenced and finished his strains, -with a fixedness of manner that it was not easy to interrupt. Heyward -was fain to wait until the verse was ended; when, seeing David relieving -himself from the spectacles, and replacing the book, he continued. - -"It will be your duty to see that none dare to approach the ladies with -any rude intention, or to offer insult or taunt at the misfortune of -their brave father. In this task you will be seconded by the domestics -of their household." - -"Even so." - -"It is possible that the Indians and stragglers of the enemy may -intrude, in which case you will remind them of the terms of the -capitulation, and threaten to report their conduct to Montcalm. A word -will suffice." - -"If not, I have that here which shall," returned David, exhibiting -his book, with an air in which meekness and confidence were singularly -blended. Here are words which, uttered, or rather thundered, with proper -emphasis, and in measured time, shall quiet the most unruly temper: - -"'Why rage the heathen furiously'?" - -"Enough," said Heyward, interrupting the burst of his musical -invocation; "we understand each other; it is time that we should now -assume our respective duties." - -Gamut cheerfully assented, and together they sought the females. Cora -received her new and somewhat extraordinary protector courteously, at -least; and even the pallid features of Alice lighted again with some of -their native archness as she thanked Heyward for his care. Duncan -took occasion to assure them he had done the best that circumstances -permitted, and, as he believed, quite enough for the security of -their feelings; of danger there was none. He then spoke gladly of his -intention to rejoin them the moment he had led the advance a few miles -toward the Hudson, and immediately took his leave. - -By this time the signal for departure had been given, and the head of -the English column was in motion. The sisters started at the sound, and -glancing their eyes around, they saw the white uniforms of the French -grenadiers, who had already taken possession of the gates of the fort. -At that moment an enormous cloud seemed to pass suddenly above their -heads, and, looking upward, they discovered that they stood beneath the -wide folds of the standard of France. - -"Let us go," said Cora; "this is no longer a fit place for the children -of an English officer." - -Alice clung to the arm of her sister, and together they left the parade, -accompanied by the moving throng that surrounded them. - -As they passed the gates, the French officers, who had learned their -rank, bowed often and low, forbearing, however, to intrude those -attentions which they saw, with peculiar tact, might not be agreeable. -As every vehicle and each beast of burden was occupied by the sick and -wounded, Cora had decided to endure the fatigues of a foot march, rather -than interfere with their comforts. Indeed, many a maimed and feeble -soldier was compelled to drag his exhausted limbs in the rear of the -columns, for the want of the necessary means of conveyance in that -wilderness. The whole, however, was in motion; the weak and wounded, -groaning and in suffering; their comrades silent and sullen; and the -women and children in terror, they knew not of what. - -As the confused and timid throng left the protecting mounds of the fort, -and issued on the open plain, the whole scene was at once presented to -their eyes. At a little distance on the right, and somewhat in the -rear, the French army stood to their arms, Montcalm having collected his -parties, so soon as his guards had possession of the works. They were -attentive but silent observers of the proceedings of the vanquished, -failing in none of the stipulated military honors, and offering no taunt -or insult, in their success, to their less fortunate foes. Living masses -of the English, to the amount, in the whole, of near three thousand, -were moving slowly across the plain, toward the common center, and -gradually approached each other, as they converged to the point of their -march, a vista cut through the lofty trees, where the road to the Hudson -entered the forest. Along the sweeping borders of the woods hung a dark -cloud of savages, eyeing the passage of their enemies, and hovering at -a distance, like vultures who were only kept from swooping on their prey -by the presence and restraint of a superior army. A few had straggled -among the conquered columns, where they stalked in sullen discontent; -attentive, though, as yet, passive observers of the moving multitude. - -The advance, with Heyward at its head, had already reached the defile, -and was slowly disappearing, when the attention of Cora was drawn to -a collection of stragglers by the sounds of contention. A truant -provincial was paying the forfeit of his disobedience, by being -plundered of those very effects which had caused him to desert his place -in the ranks. The man was of powerful frame, and too avaricious to -part with his goods without a struggle. Individuals from either party -interfered; the one side to prevent and the other to aid in the robbery. -Voices grew loud and angry, and a hundred savages appeared, as it were, -by magic, where a dozen only had been seen a minute before. It was -then that Cora saw the form of Magua gliding among his countrymen, and -speaking with his fatal and artful eloquence. The mass of women and -children stopped, and hovered together like alarmed and fluttering -birds. But the cupidity of the Indian was soon gratified, and the -different bodies again moved slowly onward. - -The savages now fell back, and seemed content to let their enemies -advance without further molestation. But, as the female crowd approached -them, the gaudy colors of a shawl attracted the eyes of a wild and -untutored Huron. He advanced to seize it without the least hesitation. -The woman, more in terror than through love of the ornament, wrapped her -child in the coveted article, and folded both more closely to her bosom. -Cora was in the act of speaking, with an intent to advise the woman to -abandon the trifle, when the savage relinquished his hold of the shawl, -and tore the screaming infant from her arms. Abandoning everything -to the greedy grasp of those around her, the mother darted, with -distraction in her mien, to reclaim her child. The Indian smiled grimly, -and extended one hand, in sign of a willingness to exchange, while, with -the other, he flourished the babe over his head, holding it by the feet -as if to enhance the value of the ransom. - -"Here--here--there--all--any--everything!" exclaimed the breathless -woman, tearing the lighter articles of dress from her person with -ill-directed and trembling fingers; "take all, but give me my babe!" - -The savage spurned the worthless rags, and perceiving that the shawl -had already become a prize to another, his bantering but sullen smile -changing to a gleam of ferocity, he dashed the head of the infant -against a rock, and cast its quivering remains to her very feet. For an -instant the mother stood, like a statue of despair, looking wildly down -at the unseemly object, which had so lately nestled in her bosom and -smiled in her face; and then she raised her eyes and countenance toward -heaven, as if calling on God to curse the perpetrator of the foul -deed. She was spared the sin of such a prayer for, maddened at his -disappointment, and excited at the sight of blood, the Huron mercifully -drove his tomahawk into her own brain. The mother sank under the blow, -and fell, grasping at her child, in death, with the same engrossing love -that had caused her to cherish it when living. - -At that dangerous moment, Magua placed his hands to his mouth, and -raised the fatal and appalling whoop. The scattered Indians started at -the well-known cry, as coursers bound at the signal to quit the goal; -and directly there arose such a yell along the plain, and through the -arches of the wood, as seldom burst from human lips before. They who -heard it listened with a curdling horror at the heart, little inferior -to that dread which may be expected to attend the blasts of the final -summons. - -More than two thousand raving savages broke from the forest at the -signal, and threw themselves across the fatal plain with instinctive -alacrity. We shall not dwell on the revolting horrors that succeeded. -Death was everywhere, and in his most terrific and disgusting aspects. -Resistance only served to inflame the murderers, who inflicted their -furious blows long after their victims were beyond the power of their -resentment. The flow of blood might be likened to the outbreaking of -a torrent; and as the natives became heated and maddened by the sight, -many among them even kneeled to the earth, and drank freely, exultingly, -hellishly, of the crimson tide. - -The trained bodies of the troops threw themselves quickly into solid -masses, endeavoring to awe their assailants by the imposing appearance -of a military front. The experiment in some measure succeeded, though -far too many suffered their unloaded muskets to be torn from their -hands, in the vain hope of appeasing the savages. - -In such a scene none had leisure to note the fleeting moments. It might -have been ten minutes (it seemed an age) that the sisters had stood -riveted to one spot, horror-stricken and nearly helpless. When the first -blow was struck, their screaming companions had pressed upon them in -a body, rendering flight impossible; and now that fear or death had -scattered most, if not all, from around them, they saw no avenue open, -but such as conducted to the tomahawks of their foes. On every side -arose shrieks, groans, exhortations and curses. At this moment, Alice -caught a glimpse of the vast form of her father, moving rapidly across -the plain, in the direction of the French army. He was, in truth, -proceeding to Montcalm, fearless of every danger, to claim the tardy -escort for which he had before conditioned. Fifty glittering axes -and barbed spears were offered unheeded at his life, but the savages -respected his rank and calmness, even in their fury. The dangerous -weapons were brushed aside by the still nervous arm of the veteran, or -fell of themselves, after menacing an act that it would seem no one had -courage to perform. Fortunately, the vindictive Magua was searching for -his victim in the very band the veteran had just quitted. - -"Father--father--we are here!" shrieked Alice, as he passed, at no great -distance, without appearing to heed them. "Come to us, father, or we -die!" - -The cry was repeated, and in terms and tones that might have melted -a heart of stone, but it was unanswered. Once, indeed, the old man -appeared to catch the sound, for he paused and listened; but Alice had -dropped senseless on the earth, and Cora had sunk at her side, hovering -in untiring tenderness over her lifeless form. Munro shook his head in -disappointment, and proceeded, bent on the high duty of his station. - -"Lady," said Gamut, who, helpless and useless as he was, had not yet -dreamed of deserting his trust, "it is the jubilee of the devils, and -this is not a meet place for Christians to tarry in. Let us up and fly." - -"Go," said Cora, still gazing at her unconscious sister; "save thyself. -To me thou canst not be of further use." - -David comprehended the unyielding character of her resolution, by the -simple but expressive gesture that accompanied her words. He gazed for a -moment at the dusky forms that were acting their hellish rites on every -side of him, and his tall person grew more erect while his chest heaved, -and every feature swelled, and seemed to speak with the power of the -feelings by which he was governed. - -"If the Jewish boy might tame the great spirit of Saul by the sound of -his harp, and the words of sacred song, it may not be amiss," he said, -"to try the potency of music here." - -Then raising his voice to its highest tone, he poured out a strain so -powerful as to be heard even amid the din of that bloody field. More -than one savage rushed toward them, thinking to rifle the unprotected -sisters of their attire, and bear away their scalps; but when they found -this strange and unmoved figure riveted to his post, they paused to -listen. Astonishment soon changed to admiration, and they passed on to -other and less courageous victims, openly expressing their satisfaction -at the firmness with which the white warrior sang his death song. -Encouraged and deluded by his success, David exerted all his powers to -extend what he believed so holy an influence. The unwonted sounds caught -the ears of a distant savage, who flew raging from group to group, like -one who, scorning to touch the vulgar herd, hunted for some victim more -worthy of his renown. It was Magua, who uttered a yell of pleasure when -he beheld his ancient prisoners again at his mercy. - -"Come," he said, laying his soiled hands on the dress of Cora, "the -wigwam of the Huron is still open. Is it not better than this place?" - -"Away!" cried Cora, veiling her eyes from his revolting aspect. - -The Indian laughed tauntingly, as he held up his reeking hand, and -answered: "It is red, but it comes from white veins!" - -"Monster! there is blood, oceans of blood, upon thy soul; thy spirit has -moved this scene." - -"Magua is a great chief!" returned the exulting savage, "will the -dark-hair go to his tribe?" - -"Never! strike if thou wilt, and complete thy revenge." He hesitated a -moment, and then catching the light and senseless form of Alice in his -arms, the subtle Indian moved swiftly across the plain toward the woods. - -"Hold!" shrieked Cora, following wildly on his footsteps; "release the -child! wretch! what is't you do?" - -But Magua was deaf to her voice; or, rather, he knew his power, and was -determined to maintain it. - -"Stay--lady--stay," called Gamut, after the unconscious Cora. "The -holy charm is beginning to be felt, and soon shalt thou see this horrid -tumult stilled." - -Perceiving that, in his turn, he was unheeded, the faithful David -followed the distracted sister, raising his voice again in sacred song, -and sweeping the air to the measure, with his long arm, in diligent -accompaniment. In this manner they traversed the plain, through the -flying, the wounded and the dead. The fierce Huron was, at any time, -sufficient for himself and the victim that he bore; though Cora would -have fallen more than once under the blows of her savage enemies, -but for the extraordinary being who stalked in her rear, and who now -appeared to the astonished natives gifted with the protecting spirit of -madness. - -Magua, who knew how to avoid the more pressing dangers, and also to -elude pursuit, entered the woods through a low ravine, where he quickly -found the Narragansetts, which the travelers had abandoned so shortly -before, awaiting his appearance, in custody of a savage as fierce and -malign in his expression as himself. Laying Alice on one of the horses, -he made a sign to Cora to mount the other. - -Notwithstanding the horror excited by the presence of her captor, there -was a present relief in escaping from the bloody scene enacting on the -plain, to which Cora could not be altogether insensible. She took her -seat, and held forth her arms for her sister, with an air of entreaty -and love that even the Huron could not deny. Placing Alice, then, on the -same animal with Cora, he seized the bridle, and commenced his route -by plunging deeper into the forest. David, perceiving that he was left -alone, utterly disregarded as a subject too worthless even to destroy, -threw his long limb across the saddle of the beast they had deserted, -and made such progress in the pursuit as the difficulties of the path -permitted. - -They soon began to ascend; but as the motion had a tendency to revive -the dormant faculties of her sister, the attention of Cora was too much -divided between the tenderest solicitude in her behalf, and in listening -to the cries which were still too audible on the plain, to note the -direction in which they journeyed. When, however, they gained the -flattened surface of the mountain-top, and approached the eastern -precipice, she recognized the spot to which she had once before been led -under the more friendly auspices of the scout. Here Magua suffered them -to dismount; and notwithstanding their own captivity, the curiosity -which seems inseparable from horror, induced them to gaze at the -sickening sight below. - -The cruel work was still unchecked. On every side the captured were -flying before their relentless persecutors, while the armed columns -of the Christian king stood fast in an apathy which has never been -explained, and which has left an immovable blot on the otherwise fair -escutcheon of their leader. Nor was the sword of death stayed until -cupidity got the mastery of revenge. Then, indeed, the shrieks of the -wounded, and the yells of their murderers grew less frequent, until, -finally, the cries of horror were lost to their ear, or were drowned in -the loud, long and piercing whoops of the triumphant savages. - - - - -CHAPTER 18 - - "Why, anything; - An honorable murderer, if you will; - For naught I did in hate, but all in honor." - --Othello - -The bloody and inhuman scene rather incidentally mentioned than -described in the preceding chapter, is conspicuous in the pages of -colonial history by the merited title of "The Massacre of William -Henry." It so far deepened the stain which a previous and very similar -event had left upon the reputation of the French commander that it was -not entirely erased by his early and glorious death. It is now becoming -obscured by time; and thousands, who know that Montcalm died like a hero -on the plains of Abraham, have yet to learn how much he was deficient in -that moral courage without which no man can be truly great. Pages might -yet be written to prove, from this illustrious example, the defects of -human excellence; to show how easy it is for generous sentiments, high -courtesy, and chivalrous courage to lose their influence beneath the -chilling blight of selfishness, and to exhibit to the world a man who -was great in all the minor attributes of character, but who was found -wanting when it became necessary to prove how much principle is superior -to policy. But the task would exceed our prerogatives; and, as history, -like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of -imaginary brightness, it is probable that Louis de Saint Veran will be -viewed by posterity only as the gallant defender of his country, while -his cruel apathy on the shores of the Oswego and of the Horican will be -forgotten. Deeply regretting this weakness on the part of a sister muse, -we shall at once retire from her sacred precincts, within the proper -limits of our own humble vocation. - -The third day from the capture of the fort was drawing to a close, but -the business of the narrative must still detain the reader on the shores -of the "holy lake." When last seen, the environs of the works were -filled with violence and uproar. They were now possessed by stillness -and death. The blood-stained conquerors had departed; and their camp, -which had so lately rung with the merry rejoicings of a victorious army, -lay a silent and deserted city of huts. The fortress was a smoldering -ruin; charred rafters, fragments of exploded artillery, and rent -mason-work covering its earthen mounds in confused disorder. - -A frightful change had also occurred in the season. The sun had hid -its warmth behind an impenetrable mass of vapor, and hundreds of human -forms, which had blackened beneath the fierce heats of August, were -stiffening in their deformity before the blasts of a premature November. -The curling and spotless mists, which had been seen sailing above the -hills toward the north, were now returning in an interminable dusky -sheet, that was urged along by the fury of a tempest. The crowded mirror -of the Horican was gone; and, in its place, the green and angry waters -lashed the shores, as if indignantly casting back its impurities to -the polluted strand. Still the clear fountain retained a portion of its -charmed influence, but it reflected only the somber gloom that fell -from the impending heavens. That humid and congenial atmosphere which -commonly adorned the view, veiling its harshness, and softening its -asperities, had disappeared, the northern air poured across the waste of -water so harsh and unmingled, that nothing was left to be conjectured by -the eye, or fashioned by the fancy. - -The fiercer element had cropped the verdure of the plain, which looked -as though it were scathed by the consuming lightning. But, here and -there, a dark green tuft rose in the midst of the desolation; the -earliest fruits of a soil that had been fattened with human blood. -The whole landscape, which, seen by a favoring light, and in a genial -temperature, had been found so lovely, appeared now like some pictured -allegory of life, in which objects were arrayed in their harshest but -truest colors, and without the relief of any shadowing. - -The solitary and arid blades of grass arose from the passing gusts -fearfully perceptible; the bold and rocky mountains were too distinct in -their barrenness, and the eye even sought relief, in vain, by attempting -to pierce the illimitable void of heaven, which was shut to its gaze by -the dusky sheet of ragged and driving vapor. - -The wind blew unequally; sometimes sweeping heavily along the ground, -seeming to whisper its moanings in the cold ears of the dead, then -rising in a shrill and mournful whistling, it entered the forest with -a rush that filled the air with the leaves and branches it scattered in -its path. Amid the unnatural shower, a few hungry ravens struggled with -the gale; but no sooner was the green ocean of woods which stretched -beneath them, passed, than they gladly stopped, at random, to their -hideous banquet. - -In short, it was a scene of wildness and desolation; and it appeared as -if all who had profanely entered it had been stricken, at a blow, by -the relentless arm of death. But the prohibition had ceased; and for the -first time since the perpetrators of those foul deeds which had assisted -to disfigure the scene were gone, living human beings had now presumed -to approach the place. - -About an hour before the setting of the sun, on the day already -mentioned, the forms of five men might have been seen issuing from the -narrow vista of trees, where the path to the Hudson entered the forest, -and advancing in the direction of the ruined works. At first their -progress was slow and guarded, as though they entered with reluctance -amid the horrors of the post, or dreaded the renewal of its frightful -incidents. A light figure preceded the rest of the party, with -the caution and activity of a native; ascending every hillock to -reconnoiter, and indicating by gestures, to his companions, the route he -deemed it most prudent to pursue. Nor were those in the rear wanting in -every caution and foresight known to forest warfare. One among them, he -also was an Indian, moved a little on one flank, and watched the margin -of the woods, with eyes long accustomed to read the smallest sign -of danger. The remaining three were white, though clad in vestments -adapted, both in quality and color, to their present hazardous -pursuit--that of hanging on the skirts of a retiring army in the -wilderness. - -The effects produced by the appalling sights that constantly arose in -their path to the lake shore, were as different as the characters of the -respective individuals who composed the party. The youth in front -threw serious but furtive glances at the mangled victims, as he stepped -lightly across the plain, afraid to exhibit his feelings, and yet too -inexperienced to quell entirely their sudden and powerful influence. His -red associate, however, was superior to such a weakness. He passed the -groups of dead with a steadiness of purpose, and an eye so calm, that -nothing but long and inveterate practise could enable him to maintain. -The sensations produced in the minds of even the white men were -different, though uniformly sorrowful. One, whose gray locks and -furrowed lineaments, blending with a martial air and tread, betrayed, in -spite of the disguise of a woodsman's dress, a man long experienced in -scenes of war, was not ashamed to groan aloud, whenever a spectacle of -more than usual horror came under his view. The young man at his elbow -shuddered, but seemed to suppress his feelings in tenderness to his -companion. Of them all, the straggler who brought up the rear appeared -alone to betray his real thoughts, without fear of observation or dread -of consequences. He gazed at the most appalling sight with eyes and -muscles that knew not how to waver, but with execrations so bitter and -deep as to denote how much he denounced the crime of his enemies. - -The reader will perceive at once, in these respective characters, the -Mohicans, and their white friend, the scout; together with Munro and -Heyward. It was, in truth, the father in quest of his children, attended -by the youth who felt so deep a stake in their happiness, and those -brave and trusty foresters, who had already proved their skill and -fidelity through the trying scenes related. - -When Uncas, who moved in front, had reached the center of the plain, he -raised a cry that drew his companions in a body to the spot. The young -warrior had halted over a group of females who lay in a cluster, a -confused mass of dead. Notwithstanding the revolting horror of -the exhibition, Munro and Heyward flew toward the festering heap, -endeavoring, with a love that no unseemliness could extinguish, to -discover whether any vestiges of those they sought were to be seen among -the tattered and many-colored garments. The father and the lover -found instant relief in the search; though each was condemned again -to experience the misery of an uncertainty that was hardly less -insupportable than the most revolting truth. They were standing, silent -and thoughtful, around the melancholy pile, when the scout approached. -Eyeing the sad spectacle with an angry countenance, the sturdy woodsman, -for the first time since his entering the plain, spoke intelligibly and -aloud: - -"I have been on many a shocking field, and have followed a trail of -blood for weary miles," he said, "but never have I found the hand of the -devil so plain as it is here to be seen! Revenge is an Indian feeling, -and all who know me know that there is no cross in my veins; but this -much will I say--here, in the face of heaven, and with the power of the -Lord so manifest in this howling wilderness--that should these Frenchers -ever trust themselves again within the range of a ragged bullet, there -is one rifle which shall play its part so long as flint will fire or -powder burn! I leave the tomahawk and knife to such as have a natural -gift to use them. What say you, Chingachgook," he added, in Delaware; -"shall the Hurons boast of this to their women when the deep snows -come?" - -A gleam of resentment flashed across the dark lineaments of the Mohican -chief; he loosened his knife in his sheath; and then turning calmly from -the sight, his countenance settled into a repose as deep as if he knew -the instigation of passion. - -"Montcalm! Montcalm!" continued the deeply resentful and less -self-restrained scout; "they say a time must come when all the deeds -done in the flesh will be seen at a single look; and that by eyes -cleared from mortal infirmities. Woe betide the wretch who is born to -behold this plain, with the judgment hanging about his soul! Ha--as I -am a man of white blood, yonder lies a red-skin, without the hair of -his head where nature rooted it! Look to him, Delaware; it may be one of -your missing people; and he should have burial like a stout warrior. -I see it in your eye, Sagamore; a Huron pays for this, afore the fall -winds have blown away the scent of the blood!" - -Chingachgook approached the mutilated form, and, turning it over, he -found the distinguishing marks of one of those six allied tribes, or -nations, as they were called, who, while they fought in the English -ranks, were so deadly hostile to his own people. Spurning the loathsome -object with his foot, he turned from it with the same indifference he -would have quitted a brute carcass. The scout comprehended the action, -and very deliberately pursued his own way, continuing, however, his -denunciations against the French commander in the same resentful strain. - -"Nothing but vast wisdom and unlimited power should dare to sweep off -men in multitudes," he added; "for it is only the one that can know the -necessity of the judgment; and what is there, short of the other, that -can replace the creatures of the Lord? I hold it a sin to kill the -second buck afore the first is eaten, unless a march in front, or -an ambushment, be contemplated. It is a different matter with a few -warriors in open and rugged fight, for 'tis their gift to die with the -rifle or the tomahawk in hand; according as their natures may happen to -be, white or red. Uncas, come this way, lad, and let the ravens settle -upon the Mingo. I know, from often seeing it, that they have a craving -for the flesh of an Oneida; and it is as well to let the bird follow the -gift of its natural appetite." - -"Hugh!" exclaimed the young Mohican, rising on the extremities of his -feet, and gazing intently in his front, frightening the ravens to some -other prey by the sound and the action. - -"What is it, boy?" whispered the scout, lowering his tall form into a -crouching attitude, like a panther about to take his leap; "God send it -be a tardy Frencher, skulking for plunder. I do believe 'killdeer' would -take an uncommon range today!" - -Uncas, without making any reply, bounded away from the spot, and in the -next instant he was seen tearing from a bush, and waving in triumph, a -fragment of the green riding-veil of Cora. The movement, the exhibition, -and the cry which again burst from the lips of the young Mohican, -instantly drew the whole party about him. - -"My child!" said Munro, speaking quickly and wildly; "give me my child!" - -"Uncas will try," was the short and touching answer. - -The simple but meaning assurance was lost on the father, who seized -the piece of gauze, and crushed it in his hand, while his eyes roamed -fearfully among the bushes, as if he equally dreaded and hoped for the -secrets they might reveal. - -"Here are no dead," said Heyward; "the storm seems not to have passed -this way." - -"That's manifest; and clearer than the heavens above our heads," -returned the undisturbed scout; "but either she, or they that have -robbed her, have passed the bush; for I remember the rag she wore to -hide a face that all did love to look upon. Uncas, you are right; the -dark-hair has been here, and she has fled like a frightened fawn, to the -wood; none who could fly would remain to be murdered. Let us search -for the marks she left; for, to Indian eyes, I sometimes think a -humming-bird leaves his trail in the air." - -The young Mohican darted away at the suggestion, and the scout had -hardly done speaking, before the former raised a cry of success from the -margin of the forest. On reaching the spot, the anxious party perceived -another portion of the veil fluttering on the lower branch of a beech. - -"Softly, softly," said the scout, extending his long rifle in front of -the eager Heyward; "we now know our work, but the beauty of the trail -must not be deformed. A step too soon may give us hours of trouble. We -have them, though; that much is beyond denial." - -"Bless ye, bless ye, worthy man!" exclaimed Munro; "whither then, have -they fled, and where are my babes?" - -"The path they have taken depends on many chances. If they have gone -alone, they are quite as likely to move in a circle as straight, and -they may be within a dozen miles of us; but if the Hurons, or any of the -French Indians, have laid hands on them, 'tis probably they are now -near the borders of the Canadas. But what matters that?" continued the -deliberate scout, observing the powerful anxiety and disappointment -the listeners exhibited; "here are the Mohicans and I on one end of -the trail, and, rely on it, we find the other, though they should be a -hundred leagues asunder! Gently, gently, Uncas, you are as impatient -as a man in the settlements; you forget that light feet leave but faint -marks!" - -"Hugh!" exclaimed Chingachgook, who had been occupied in examining an -opening that had been evidently made through the low underbrush which -skirted the forest; and who now stood erect, as he pointed downward, in -the attitude and with the air of a man who beheld a disgusting serpent. - -"Here is the palpable impression of the footstep of a man," cried -Heyward, bending over the indicated spot; "he has trod in the margin of -this pool, and the mark cannot be mistaken. They are captives." - -"Better so than left to starve in the wilderness," returned the scout; -"and they will leave a wider trail. I would wager fifty beaver skins -against as many flints, that the Mohicans and I enter their wigwams -within the month! Stoop to it, Uncas, and try what you can make of the -moccasin; for moccasin it plainly is, and no shoe." - -The young Mohican bent over the track, and removing the scattered leaves -from around the place, he examined it with much of that sort of scrutiny -that a money dealer, in these days of pecuniary doubts, would bestow on -a suspected due-bill. At length he arose from his knees, satisfied with -the result of the examination. - -"Well, boy," demanded the attentive scout; "what does it say? Can you -make anything of the tell-tale?" - -"Le Renard Subtil!" - -"Ha! that rampaging devil again! there will never be an end of his -loping till 'killdeer' has said a friendly word to him." - -Heyward reluctantly admitted the truth of this intelligence, and now -expressed rather his hopes than his doubts by saying: - -"One moccasin is so much like another, it is probable there is some -mistake." - -"One moccasin like another! you may as well say that one foot is like -another; though we all know that some are long, and others short; some -broad and others narrow; some with high, and some with low insteps; some -intoed, and some out. One moccasin is no more like another than one book -is like another: though they who can read in one are seldom able to tell -the marks of the other. Which is all ordered for the best, giving to -every man his natural advantages. Let me get down to it, Uncas; neither -book nor moccasin is the worse for having two opinions, instead of one." -The scout stooped to the task, and instantly added: - -"You are right, boy; here is the patch we saw so often in the other -chase. And the fellow will drink when he can get an opportunity; your -drinking Indian always learns to walk with a wider toe than the natural -savage, it being the gift of a drunkard to straddle, whether of white or -red skin. 'Tis just the length and breadth, too! look at it, Sagamore; -you measured the prints more than once, when we hunted the varmints from -Glenn's to the health springs." - -Chingachgook complied; and after finishing his short examination, he -arose, and with a quiet demeanor, he merely pronounced the word: - -"Magua!" - -"Ay, 'tis a settled thing; here, then, have passed the dark-hair and -Magua." - -"And not Alice?" demanded Heyward. - -"Of her we have not yet seen the signs," returned the scout, looking -closely around at the trees, the bushes and the ground. "What have -we there? Uncas, bring hither the thing you see dangling from yonder -thorn-bush." - -When the Indian had complied, the scout received the prize, and holding -it on high, he laughed in his silent but heartfelt manner. - -"'Tis the tooting we'pon of the singer! now we shall have a trail a -priest might travel," he said. "Uncas, look for the marks of a shoe that -is long enough to uphold six feet two of tottering human flesh. I begin -to have some hopes of the fellow, since he has given up squalling to -follow some better trade." - -"At least he has been faithful to his trust," said Heyward. "And Cora -and Alice are not without a friend." - -"Yes," said Hawkeye, dropping his rifle, and leaning on it with an air -of visible contempt, "he will do their singing. Can he slay a buck for -their dinner; journey by the moss on the beeches, or cut the throat of -a Huron? If not, the first catbird* he meets is the cleverer of the two. -Well, boy, any signs of such a foundation?" - - * The powers of the American mocking-bird are generally - known. But the true mocking-bird is not found so far north - as the state of New York, where it has, however, two - substitutes of inferior excellence, the catbird, so often - named by the scout, and the bird vulgarly called ground- - thresher. Either of these last two birds is superior to the - nightingale or the lark, though, in general, the American - birds are less musical than those of Europe. - -"Here is something like the footstep of one who has worn a shoe; can it -be that of our friend?" - -"Touch the leaves lightly or you'll disconsart the formation. That! that -is the print of a foot, but 'tis the dark-hair's; and small it is, too, -for one of such a noble height and grand appearance. The singer would -cover it with his heel." - -"Where! let me look on the footsteps of my child," said Munro, shoving -the bushes aside, and bending fondly over the nearly obliterated -impression. Though the tread which had left the mark had been light and -rapid, it was still plainly visible. The aged soldier examined it with -eyes that grew dim as he gazed; nor did he rise from this stooping -posture until Heyward saw that he had watered the trace of his -daughter's passage with a scalding tear. Willing to divert a distress -which threatened each moment to break through the restraint of -appearances, by giving the veteran something to do, the young man said -to the scout: - -"As we now possess these infallible signs, let us commence our march. A -moment, at such a time, will appear an age to the captives." - -"It is not the swiftest leaping deer that gives the longest chase," -returned Hawkeye, without moving his eyes from the different marks that -had come under his view; "we know that the rampaging Huron has passed, -and the dark-hair, and the singer, but where is she of the yellow locks -and blue eyes? Though little, and far from being as bold as her sister, -she is fair to the view, and pleasant in discourse. Has she no friend, -that none care for her?" - -"God forbid she should ever want hundreds! Are we not now in her -pursuit? For one, I will never cease the search till she be found." - -"In that case we may have to journey by different paths; for here she -has not passed, light and little as her footsteps would be." - -Heyward drew back, all his ardor to proceed seeming to vanish on the -instant. Without attending to this sudden change in the other's humor, -the scout after musing a moment continued: - -"There is no woman in this wilderness could leave such a print as that, -but the dark-hair or her sister. We know that the first has been here, -but where are the signs of the other? Let us push deeper on the trail, -and if nothing offers, we must go back to the plain and strike another -scent. Move on, Uncas, and keep your eyes on the dried leaves. I will -watch the bushes, while your father shall run with a low nose to the -ground. Move on, friends; the sun is getting behind the hills." - -"Is there nothing that I can do?" demanded the anxious Heyward. - -"You?" repeated the scout, who, with his red friends, was already -advancing in the order he had prescribed; "yes, you can keep in our rear -and be careful not to cross the trail." - -Before they had proceeded many rods, the Indians stopped, and appeared -to gaze at some signs on the earth with more than their usual keenness. -Both father and son spoke quick and loud, now looking at the object -of their mutual admiration, and now regarding each other with the most -unequivocal pleasure. - -"They have found the little foot!" exclaimed the scout, moving forward, -without attending further to his own portion of the duty. "What have -we here? An ambushment has been planted in the spot! No, by the truest -rifle on the frontiers, here have been them one-sided horses again! Now -the whole secret is out, and all is plain as the north star at midnight. -Yes, here they have mounted. There the beasts have been bound to a -sapling, in waiting; and yonder runs the broad path away to the north, -in full sweep for the Canadas." - -"But still there are no signs of Alice, of the younger Miss Munro," said -Duncan. - -"Unless the shining bauble Uncas has just lifted from the ground should -prove one. Pass it this way, lad, that we may look at it." - -Heyward instantly knew it for a trinket that Alice was fond of wearing, -and which he recollected, with the tenacious memory of a lover, to have -seen, on the fatal morning of the massacre, dangling from the fair neck -of his mistress. He seized the highly prized jewel; and as he proclaimed -the fact, it vanished from the eyes of the wondering scout, who in vain -looked for it on the ground, long after it was warmly pressed against -the beating heart of Duncan. - -"Pshaw!" said the disappointed Hawkeye, ceasing to rake the leaves with -the breech of his rifle; "'tis a certain sign of age, when the sight -begins to weaken. Such a glittering gewgaw, and not to be seen! Well, -well, I can squint along a clouded barrel yet, and that is enough to -settle all disputes between me and the Mingoes. I should like to find -the thing, too, if it were only to carry it to the right owner, and that -would be bringing the two ends of what I call a long trail together, -for by this time the broad St. Lawrence, or perhaps, the Great Lakes -themselves, are between us." - -"So much the more reason why we should not delay our march," returned -Heyward; "let us proceed." - -"Young blood and hot blood, they say, are much the same thing. We are -not about to start on a squirrel hunt, or to drive a deer into the -Horican, but to outlie for days and nights, and to stretch across -a wilderness where the feet of men seldom go, and where no bookish -knowledge would carry you through harmless. An Indian never starts on -such an expedition without smoking over his council-fire; and, though -a man of white blood, I honor their customs in this particular, seeing -that they are deliberate and wise. We will, therefore, go back, and -light our fire to-night in the ruins of the old fort, and in the morning -we shall be fresh, and ready to undertake our work like men, and not -like babbling women or eager boys." - -Heyward saw, by the manner of the scout, that altercation would be -useless. Munro had again sunk into that sort of apathy which had beset -him since his late overwhelming misfortunes, and from which he was -apparently to be roused only by some new and powerful excitement. Making -a merit of necessity, the young man took the veteran by the arm, and -followed in the footsteps of the Indians and the scout, who had already -begun to retrace the path which conducted them to the plain. - - - - -CHAPTER 19 - - "Salar.--Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take - his flesh; what's that good for? - Shy.--To bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else, it - will feed my revenge." - --Merchant of Venice - -The shades of evening had come to increase the dreariness of the place, -when the party entered the ruins of William Henry. The scout and his -companions immediately made their preparations to pass the night there; -but with an earnestness and sobriety of demeanor that betrayed how -much the unusual horrors they had just witnessed worked on even their -practised feelings. A few fragments of rafters were reared against a -blackened wall; and when Uncas had covered them slightly with brush, -the temporary accommodations were deemed sufficient. The young Indian -pointed toward his rude hut when his labor was ended; and Heyward, who -understood the meaning of the silent gestures, gently urged Munro to -enter. Leaving the bereaved old man alone with his sorrows, Duncan -immediately returned into the open air, too much excited himself to seek -the repose he had recommended to his veteran friend. - -While Hawkeye and the Indians lighted their fire and took their -evening's repast, a frugal meal of dried bear's meat, the young man paid -a visit to that curtain of the dilapidated fort which looked out on the -sheet of the Horican. The wind had fallen, and the waves were already -rolling on the sandy beach beneath him, in a more regular and tempered -succession. The clouds, as if tired of their furious chase, were -breaking asunder; the heavier volumes, gathering in black masses about -the horizon, while the lighter scud still hurried above the water, or -eddied among the tops of the mountains, like broken flights of birds, -hovering around their roosts. Here and there, a red and fiery star -struggled through the drifting vapor, furnishing a lurid gleam of -brightness to the dull aspect of the heavens. Within the bosom of the -encircling hills, an impenetrable darkness had already settled; and -the plain lay like a vast and deserted charnel-house, without omen or -whisper to disturb the slumbers of its numerous and hapless tenants. - -Of this scene, so chillingly in accordance with the past, Duncan stood -for many minutes a rapt observer. His eyes wandered from the bosom of -the mound, where the foresters were seated around their glimmering fire, -to the fainter light which still lingered in the skies, and then rested -long and anxiously on the embodied gloom, which lay like a dreary -void on that side of him where the dead reposed. He soon fancied that -inexplicable sounds arose from the place, though so indistinct and -stolen, as to render not only their nature but even their existence -uncertain. Ashamed of his apprehensions, the young man turned toward the -water, and strove to divert his attention to the mimic stars that dimly -glimmered on its moving surface. Still, his too-conscious ears performed -their ungrateful duty, as if to warn him of some lurking danger. At -length, a swift trampling seemed, quite audibly, to rush athwart the -darkness. Unable any longer to quiet his uneasiness, Duncan spoke in a -low voice to the scout, requesting him to ascend the mound to the place -where he stood. Hawkeye threw his rifle across an arm and complied, but -with an air so unmoved and calm, as to prove how much he counted on the -security of their position. - -"Listen!" said Duncan, when the other placed himself deliberately at his -elbow; "there are suppressed noises on the plain which may show Montcalm -has not yet entirely deserted his conquest." - -"Then ears are better than eyes," said the undisturbed scout, who, -having just deposited a portion of a bear between his grinders, spoke -thick and slow, like one whose mouth was doubly occupied. "I myself saw -him caged in Ty, with all his host; for your Frenchers, when they -have done a clever thing, like to get back, and have a dance, or a -merry-making, with the women over their success." - -"I know not. An Indian seldom sleeps in war, and plunder may keep a -Huron here after his tribe has departed. It would be well to extinguish -the fire, and have a watch--listen! you hear the noise I mean!" - -"An Indian more rarely lurks about the graves. Though ready to slay, and -not over regardful of the means, he is commonly content with the scalp, -unless when blood is hot, and temper up; but after spirit is once fairly -gone, he forgets his enmity, and is willing to let the dead find their -natural rest. Speaking of spirits, major, are you of opinion that the -heaven of a red-skin and of us whites will be of one and the same?" - -"No doubt--no doubt. I thought I heard it again! or was it the rustling -of the leaves in the top of the beech?" - -"For my own part," continued Hawkeye, turning his face for a moment -in the direction indicated by Heyward, but with a vacant and careless -manner, "I believe that paradise is ordained for happiness; and that -men will be indulged in it according to their dispositions and gifts. -I, therefore, judge that a red-skin is not far from the truth when -he believes he is to find them glorious hunting grounds of which his -traditions tell; nor, for that matter, do I think it would be any -disparagement to a man without a cross to pass his time--" - -"You hear it again?" interrupted Duncan. - -"Ay, ay; when food is scarce, and when food is plenty, a wolf grows -bold," said the unmoved scout. "There would be picking, too, among the -skins of the devils, if there was light and time for the sport. But, -concerning the life that is to come, major; I have heard preachers say, -in the settlements, that heaven was a place of rest. Now, men's minds -differ as to their ideas of enjoyment. For myself, and I say it with -reverence to the ordering of Providence, it would be no great indulgence -to be kept shut up in those mansions of which they preach, having a -natural longing for motion and the chase." - -Duncan, who was now made to understand the nature of the noise he had -heard, answered, with more attention to the subject which the humor of -the scout had chosen for discussion, by saying: - -"It is difficult to account for the feelings that may attend the last -great change." - -"It would be a change, indeed, for a man who has passed his days in -the open air," returned the single-minded scout; "and who has so often -broken his fast on the head waters of the Hudson, to sleep within sound -of the roaring Mohawk. But it is a comfort to know we serve a merciful -Master, though we do it each after his fashion, and with great tracts of -wilderness atween us--what goes there?" - -"Is it not the rushing of the wolves you have mentioned?" - -Hawkeye slowly shook his head, and beckoned for Duncan to follow him -to a spot to which the glare from the fire did not extend. When he -had taken this precaution, the scout placed himself in an attitude of -intense attention and listened long and keenly for a repetition of the -low sound that had so unexpectedly startled him. His vigilance, however, -seemed exercised in vain; for after a fruitless pause, he whispered to -Duncan: - -"We must give a call to Uncas. The boy has Indian senses, and he may -hear what is hid from us; for, being a white-skin, I will not deny my -nature." - -The young Mohican, who was conversing in a low voice with his father, -started as he heard the moaning of an owl, and, springing on his feet, -he looked toward the black mounds, as if seeking the place whence the -sounds proceeded. The scout repeated the call, and in a few moments, -Duncan saw the figure of Uncas stealing cautiously along the rampart, to -the spot where they stood. - -Hawkeye explained his wishes in a very few words, which were spoken in -the Delaware tongue. So soon as Uncas was in possession of the reason -why he was summoned, he threw himself flat on the turf; where, to the -eyes of Duncan, he appeared to lie quiet and motionless. Surprised at -the immovable attitude of the young warrior, and curious to observe -the manner in which he employed his faculties to obtain the desired -information, Heyward advanced a few steps, and bent over the dark object -on which he had kept his eye riveted. Then it was he discovered that the -form of Uncas vanished, and that he beheld only the dark outline of an -inequality in the embankment. - -"What has become of the Mohican?" he demanded of the scout, stepping -back in amazement; "it was here that I saw him fall, and could have -sworn that here he yet remained." - -"Hist! speak lower; for we know not what ears are open, and the Mingoes -are a quick-witted breed. As for Uncas, he is out on the plain, and the -Maquas, if any such are about us, will find their equal." - -"You think that Montcalm has not called off all his Indians? Let us give -the alarm to our companions, that we may stand to our arms. Here are -five of us, who are not unused to meet an enemy." - -"Not a word to either, as you value your life. Look at the Sagamore, how -like a grand Indian chief he sits by the fire. If there are any skulkers -out in the darkness, they will never discover, by his countenance, that -we suspect danger at hand." - -"But they may discover him, and it will prove his death. His person can -be too plainly seen by the light of that fire, and he will become the -first and most certain victim." - -"It is undeniable that now you speak the truth," returned the scout, -betraying more anxiety than was usual; "yet what can be done? A single -suspicious look might bring on an attack before we are ready to receive -it. He knows, by the call I gave to Uncas, that we have struck a scent; -I will tell him that we are on the trail of the Mingoes; his Indian -nature will teach him how to act." - -The scout applied his fingers to his mouth, and raised a low hissing -sound, that caused Duncan at first to start aside, believing that he -heard a serpent. The head of Chingachgook was resting on a hand, as he -sat musing by himself but the moment he had heard the warning of the -animal whose name he bore, he arose to an upright position, and his dark -eyes glanced swiftly and keenly on every side of him. With his sudden -and, perhaps, involuntary movement, every appearance of surprise or -alarm ended. His rifle lay untouched, and apparently unnoticed, within -reach of his hand. The tomahawk that he had loosened in his belt for the -sake of ease, was even suffered to fall from its usual situation to the -ground, and his form seemed to sink, like that of a man whose nerves -and sinews were suffered to relax for the purpose of rest. Cunningly -resuming his former position, though with a change of hands, as if the -movement had been made merely to relieve the limb, the native awaited -the result with a calmness and fortitude that none but an Indian warrior -would have known how to exercise. - -But Heyward saw that while to a less instructed eye the Mohican chief -appeared to slumber, his nostrils were expanded, his head was turned a -little to one side, as if to assist the organs of hearing, and that his -quick and rapid glances ran incessantly over every object within the -power of his vision. - -"See the noble fellow!" whispered Hawkeye, pressing the arm of Heyward; -"he knows that a look or a motion might disconsart our schemes, and put -us at the mercy of them imps--" - -He was interrupted by the flash and report of a rifle. The air was -filled with sparks of fire, around that spot where the eyes of Heyward -were still fastened, with admiration and wonder. A second look told him -that Chingachgook had disappeared in the confusion. In the meantime, the -scout had thrown forward his rifle, like one prepared for service, and -awaited impatiently the moment when an enemy might rise to view. -But with the solitary and fruitless attempt made on the life of -Chingachgook, the attack appeared to have terminated. Once or twice the -listeners thought they could distinguish the distant rustling of bushes, -as bodies of some unknown description rushed through them; nor was it -long before Hawkeye pointed out the "scampering of the wolves," as they -fled precipitately before the passage of some intruder on their proper -domains. After an impatient and breathless pause, a plunge was heard -in the water, and it was immediately followed by the report of another -rifle. - -"There goes Uncas!" said the scout; "the boy bears a smart piece! I know -its crack, as well as a father knows the language of his child, for I -carried the gun myself until a better offered." - -"What can this mean?" demanded Duncan, "we are watched, and, as it would -seem, marked for destruction." - -"Yonder scattered brand can witness that no good was intended, and this -Indian will testify that no harm has been done," returned the scout, -dropping his rifle across his arm again, and following Chingachgook, who -just then reappeared within the circle of light, into the bosom of the -work. "How is it, Sagamore? Are the Mingoes upon us in earnest, or is it -only one of those reptiles who hang upon the skirts of a war-party, -to scalp the dead, go in, and make their boast among the squaws of the -valiant deeds done on the pale faces?" - -Chingachgook very quietly resumed his seat; nor did he make any reply, -until after he had examined the firebrand which had been struck by -the bullet that had nearly proved fatal to himself. After which he was -content to reply, holding a single finger up to view, with the English -monosyllable: - -"One." - -"I thought as much," returned Hawkeye, seating himself; "and as he had -got the cover of the lake afore Uncas pulled upon him, it is more than -probable the knave will sing his lies about some great ambushment, -in which he was outlying on the trail of two Mohicans and a white -hunter--for the officers can be considered as little better than idlers -in such a scrimmage. Well, let him--let him. There are always some -honest men in every nation, though heaven knows, too, that they are -scarce among the Maquas, to look down an upstart when he brags ag'in the -face of reason. The varlet sent his lead within whistle of your ears, -Sagamore." - -Chingachgook turned a calm and incurious eye toward the place where the -ball had struck, and then resumed his former attitude, with a composure -that could not be disturbed by so trifling an incident. Just then Uncas -glided into the circle, and seated himself at the fire, with the same -appearance of indifference as was maintained by his father. - -Of these several moments Heyward was a deeply interested and wondering -observer. It appeared to him as though the foresters had some secret -means of intelligence, which had escaped the vigilance of his own -faculties. In place of that eager and garrulous narration with which -a white youth would have endeavored to communicate, and perhaps -exaggerate, that which had passed out in the darkness of the plain, -the young warrior was seemingly content to let his deeds speak for -themselves. It was, in fact, neither the moment nor the occasion for an -Indian to boast of his exploits; and it is probably that, had Heyward -neglected to inquire, not another syllable would, just then, have been -uttered on the subject. - -"What has become of our enemy, Uncas?" demanded Duncan; "we heard your -rifle, and hoped you had not fired in vain." - -The young chief removed a fold of his hunting skirt, and quietly -exposed the fatal tuft of hair, which he bore as the symbol of victory. -Chingachgook laid his hand on the scalp, and considered it for a moment -with deep attention. Then dropping it, with disgust depicted in his -strong features, he ejaculated: - -"Oneida!" - -"Oneida!" repeated the scout, who was fast losing his interest in the -scene, in an apathy nearly assimilated to that of his red associates, -but who now advanced in uncommon earnestness to regard the bloody badge. -"By the Lord, if the Oneidas are outlying upon the trail, we shall by -flanked by devils on every side of us! Now, to white eyes there is no -difference between this bit of skin and that of any other Indian, and -yet the Sagamore declares it came from the poll of a Mingo; nay, he even -names the tribe of the poor devil, with as much ease as if the scalp was -the leaf of a book, and each hair a letter. What right have Christian -whites to boast of their learning, when a savage can read a language -that would prove too much for the wisest of them all! What say you, lad, -of what people was the knave?" - -Uncas raised his eyes to the face of the scout, and answered, in his -soft voice: - -"Oneida." - -"Oneida, again! when one Indian makes a declaration it is commonly true; -but when he is supported by his people, set it down as gospel!" - -"The poor fellow has mistaken us for French," said Heyward; "or he would -not have attempted the life of a friend." - -"He mistake a Mohican in his paint for a Huron! You would be as likely -to mistake the white-coated grenadiers of Montcalm for the scarlet -jackets of the Royal Americans," returned the scout. "No, no, the -sarpent knew his errand; nor was there any great mistake in the matter, -for there is but little love atween a Delaware and a Mingo, let their -tribes go out to fight for whom they may, in a white quarrel. For -that matter, though the Oneidas do serve his sacred majesty, who is -my sovereign lord and master, I should not have deliberated long about -letting off 'killdeer' at the imp myself, had luck thrown him in my -way." - -"That would have been an abuse of our treaties, and unworthy of your -character." - -"When a man consort much with a people," continued Hawkeye, "if they -were honest and he no knave, love will grow up atwixt them. It is true -that white cunning has managed to throw the tribes into great confusion, -as respects friends and enemies; so that the Hurons and the Oneidas, who -speak the same tongue, or what may be called the same, take each other's -scalps, and the Delawares are divided among themselves; a few hanging -about their great council-fire on their own river, and fighting on the -same side with the Mingoes while the greater part are in the Canadas, -out of natural enmity to the Maquas--thus throwing everything into -disorder, and destroying all the harmony of warfare. Yet a red natur' is -not likely to alter with every shift of policy; so that the love atwixt -a Mohican and a Mingo is much like the regard between a white man and a -sarpent." - -"I regret to hear it; for I had believed those natives who dwelt within -our boundaries had found us too just and liberal, not to identify -themselves fully with our quarrels." - -"Why, I believe it is natur' to give a preference to one's own quarrels -before those of strangers. Now, for myself, I do love justice; and, -therefore, I will not say I hate a Mingo, for that may be unsuitable to -my color and my religion, though I will just repeat, it may have been -owing to the night that 'killdeer' had no hand in the death of this -skulking Oneida." - -Then, as if satisfied with the force of his own reasons, whatever might -be their effect on the opinions of the other disputant, the honest but -implacable woodsman turned from the fire, content to let the controversy -slumber. Heyward withdrew to the rampart, too uneasy and too little -accustomed to the warfare of the woods to remain at ease under the -possibility of such insidious attacks. Not so, however, with the scout -and the Mohicans. Those acute and long-practised senses, whose powers so -often exceed the limits of all ordinary credulity, after having detected -the danger, had enabled them to ascertain its magnitude and duration. -Not one of the three appeared in the least to doubt their perfect -security, as was indicated by the preparations that were soon made to -sit in council over their future proceedings. - -The confusion of nations, and even of tribes, to which Hawkeye alluded, -existed at that period in the fullest force. The great tie of language, -and, of course, of a common origin, was severed in many places; and it -was one of its consequences, that the Delaware and the Mingo (as the -people of the Six Nations were called) were found fighting in the same -ranks, while the latter sought the scalp of the Huron, though believed -to be the root of his own stock. The Delawares were even divided among -themselves. Though love for the soil which had belonged to his ancestors -kept the Sagamore of the Mohicans with a small band of followers who -were serving at Edward, under the banners of the English king, by far -the largest portion of his nation were known to be in the field as -allies of Montcalm. The reader probably knows, if enough has not already -been gleaned form this narrative, that the Delaware, or Lenape, claimed -to be the progenitors of that numerous people, who once were masters -of most of the eastern and northern states of America, of whom the -community of the Mohicans was an ancient and highly honored member. - -It was, of course, with a perfect understanding of the minute and -intricate interests which had armed friend against friend, and brought -natural enemies to combat by each other's side, that the scout and his -companions now disposed themselves to deliberate on the measures that -were to govern their future movements, amid so many jarring and savage -races of men. Duncan knew enough of Indian customs to understand -the reason that the fire was replenished, and why the warriors, not -excepting Hawkeye, took their seats within the curl of its smoke with -so much gravity and decorum. Placing himself at an angle of the works, -where he might be a spectator of the scene without, he awaited the -result with as much patience as he could summon. - -After a short and impressive pause, Chingachgook lighted a pipe whose -bowl was curiously carved in one of the soft stones of the country, -and whose stem was a tube of wood, and commenced smoking. When he had -inhaled enough of the fragrance of the soothing weed, he passed the -instrument into the hands of the scout. In this manner the pipe had made -its rounds three several times, amid the most profound silence, before -either of the party opened his lips. Then the Sagamore, as the oldest -and highest in rank, in a few calm and dignified words, proposed the -subject for deliberation. He was answered by the scout; and Chingachgook -rejoined, when the other objected to his opinions. But the youthful -Uncas continued a silent and respectful listener, until Hawkeye, in -complaisance, demanded his opinion. Heyward gathered from the manners of -the different speakers, that the father and son espoused one side of a -disputed question, while the white man maintained the other. The contest -gradually grew warmer, until it was quite evident the feelings of the -speakers began to be somewhat enlisted in the debate. - -Notwithstanding the increasing warmth of the amicable contest, the -most decorous Christian assembly, not even excepting those in which its -reverend ministers are collected, might have learned a wholesome lesson -of moderation from the forbearance and courtesy of the disputants. The -words of Uncas were received with the same deep attention as those which -fell from the maturer wisdom of his father; and so far from manifesting -any impatience, neither spoke in reply, until a few moments of silent -meditation were, seemingly, bestowed in deliberating on what had already -been said. - -The language of the Mohicans was accompanied by gestures so direct and -natural that Heyward had but little difficulty in following the thread -of their argument. On the other hand, the scout was obscure; because -from the lingering pride of color, he rather affected the cold and -artificial manner which characterizes all classes of Anglo-Americans -when unexcited. By the frequency with which the Indians described the -marks of a forest trial, it was evident they urged a pursuit by land, -while the repeated sweep of Hawkeye's arm toward the Horican denoted -that he was for a passage across its waters. - -The latter was to every appearance fast losing ground, and the point was -about to be decided against him, when he arose to his feet, and shaking -off his apathy, he suddenly assumed the manner of an Indian, and adopted -all the arts of native eloquence. Elevating an arm, he pointed out the -track of the sun, repeating the gesture for every day that was necessary -to accomplish their objects. Then he delineated a long and painful path, -amid rocks and water-courses. The age and weakness of the slumbering and -unconscious Munro were indicated by signs too palpable to be mistaken. -Duncan perceived that even his own powers were spoken lightly of, as -the scout extended his palm, and mentioned him by the appellation of -the "Open Hand"--a name his liberality had purchased of all the friendly -tribes. Then came a representation of the light and graceful movements -of a canoe, set in forcible contrast to the tottering steps of one -enfeebled and tired. He concluded by pointing to the scalp of the -Oneida, and apparently urging the necessity of their departing speedily, -and in a manner that should leave no trail. - -The Mohicans listened gravely, and with countenances that reflected the -sentiments of the speaker. Conviction gradually wrought its influence, -and toward the close of Hawkeye's speech, his sentences were accompanied -by the customary exclamation of commendation. In short, Uncas and his -father became converts to his way of thinking, abandoning their own -previously expressed opinions with a liberality and candor that, had -they been the representatives of some great and civilized people, would -have infallibly worked their political ruin, by destroying forever their -reputation for consistency. - -The instant the matter in discussion was decided, the debate, and -everything connected with it, except the result appeared to be -forgotten. Hawkeye, without looking round to read his triumph in -applauding eyes, very composedly stretched his tall frame before the -dying embers, and closed his own organs in sleep. - -Left now in a measure to themselves, the Mohicans, whose time had been -so much devoted to the interests of others, seized the moment to devote -some attention to themselves. Casting off at once the grave and austere -demeanor of an Indian chief, Chingachgook commenced speaking to his -son in the soft and playful tones of affection. Uncas gladly met the -familiar air of his father; and before the hard breathing of the scout -announced that he slept, a complete change was effected in the manner of -his two associates. - -It is impossible to describe the music of their language, while thus -engaged in laughter and endearments, in such a way as to render it -intelligible to those whose ears have never listened to its melody. -The compass of their voices, particularly that of the youth, was -wonderful--extending from the deepest bass to tones that were even -feminine in softness. The eyes of the father followed the plastic and -ingenious movements of the son with open delight, and he never failed to -smile in reply to the other's contagious but low laughter. While under -the influence of these gentle and natural feelings, no trace of ferocity -was to be seen in the softened features of the Sagamore. His figured -panoply of death looked more like a disguise assumed in mockery than a -fierce annunciation of a desire to carry destruction in his footsteps. - -After an hour had passed in the indulgence of their better feelings, -Chingachgook abruptly announced his desire to sleep, by wrapping his -head in his blanket and stretching his form on the naked earth. The -merriment of Uncas instantly ceased; and carefully raking the coals in -such a manner that they should impart their warmth to his father's feet, -the youth sought his own pillow among the ruins of the place. - -Imbibing renewed confidence from the security of these experienced -foresters, Heyward soon imitated their example; and long before the -night had turned, they who lay in the bosom of the ruined work, seemed -to slumber as heavily as the unconscious multitude whose bones were -already beginning to bleach on the surrounding plain. - - - - -CHAPTER 20 - - "Land of Albania! let me bend mine eyes - On thee; thou rugged nurse of savage men!" - --Childe Harold - -The heavens were still studded with stars, when Hawkeye came to arouse -the sleepers. Casting aside their cloaks Munro and Heyward were on their -feet while the woodsman was still making his low calls, at the entrance -of the rude shelter where they had passed the night. When they issued -from beneath its concealment, they found the scout awaiting their -appearance nigh by, and the only salutation between them was the -significant gesture for silence, made by their sagacious leader. - -"Think over your prayers," he whispered, as they approached him; "for He -to whom you make them, knows all tongues; that of the heart, as well -as those of the mouth. But speak not a syllable; it is rare for a white -voice to pitch itself properly in the woods, as we have seen by the -example of that miserable devil, the singer. Come," he continued, -turning toward a curtain of the works; "let us get into the ditch on -this side, and be regardful to step on the stones and fragments of wood -as you go." - -His companions complied, though to two of them the reasons of this -extraordinary precaution were yet a mystery. When they were in the low -cavity that surrounded the earthen fort on three sides, they found that -passage nearly choked by the ruins. With care and patience, however, -they succeeded in clambering after the scout, until they reached the -sandy shore of the Horican. - -"That's a trail that nothing but a nose can follow," said the satisfied -scout, looking back along their difficult way; "grass is a treacherous -carpet for a flying party to tread on, but wood and stone take no print -from a moccasin. Had you worn your armed boots, there might, indeed, -have been something to fear; but with the deer-skin suitably prepared, -a man may trust himself, generally, on rocks with safety. Shove in the -canoe nigher to the land, Uncas; this sand will take a stamp as easily -as the butter of the Jarmans on the Mohawk. Softly, lad, softly; it must -not touch the beach, or the knaves will know by what road we have left -the place." - -The young man observed the precaution; and the scout, laying a board -from the ruins to the canoe, made a sign for the two officers to enter. -When this was done, everything was studiously restored to its former -disorder; and then Hawkeye succeeded in reaching his little birchen -vessel, without leaving behind him any of those marks which he appeared -so much to dread. Heyward was silent until the Indians had cautiously -paddled the canoe some distance from the fort, and within the broad and -dark shadows that fell from the eastern mountain on the glassy surface -of the lake; then he demanded: - -"What need have we for this stolen and hurried departure?" - -"If the blood of an Oneida could stain such a sheet of pure water as -this we float on," returned the scout, "your two eyes would answer your -own question. Have you forgotten the skulking reptile Uncas slew?" - -"By no means. But he was said to be alone, and dead men give no cause -for fear." - -"Ay, he was alone in his deviltry! but an Indian whose tribe counts so -many warriors, need seldom fear his blood will run without the death -shriek coming speedily from some of his enemies." - -"But our presence--the authority of Colonel Munro--would prove -sufficient protection against the anger of our allies, especially in a -case where the wretch so well merited his fate. I trust in Heaven you -have not deviated a single foot from the direct line of our course with -so slight a reason!" - -"Do you think the bullet of that varlet's rifle would have turned aside, -though his sacred majesty the king had stood in its path?" returned -the stubborn scout. "Why did not the grand Frencher, he who is -captain-general of the Canadas, bury the tomahawks of the Hurons, if a -word from a white can work so strongly on the natur' of an Indian?" - -The reply of Heyward was interrupted by a groan from Munro; but after -he had paused a moment, in deference to the sorrow of his aged friend he -resumed the subject. - -"The marquis of Montcalm can only settle that error with his God," said -the young man solemnly. - -"Ay, ay, now there is reason in your words, for they are bottomed on -religion and honesty. There is a vast difference between throwing a -regiment of white coats atwixt the tribes and the prisoners, and coaxing -an angry savage to forget he carries a knife and rifle, with words that -must begin with calling him your son. No, no," continued the scout, -looking back at the dim shore of William Henry, which was now fast -receding, and laughing in his own silent but heartfelt manner; "I have -put a trail of water atween us; and unless the imps can make friends -with the fishes, and hear who has paddled across their basin this fine -morning, we shall throw the length of the Horican behind us before they -have made up their minds which path to take." - -"With foes in front, and foes in our rear, our journey is like to be one -of danger." - -"Danger!" repeated Hawkeye, calmly; "no, not absolutely of danger; for, -with vigilant ears and quick eyes, we can manage to keep a few hours -ahead of the knaves; or, if we must try the rifle, there are three of us -who understand its gifts as well as any you can name on the borders. No, -not of danger; but that we shall have what you may call a brisk push of -it, is probable; and it may happen, a brush, a scrimmage, or some such -divarsion, but always where covers are good, and ammunition abundant." - -It is possible that Heyward's estimate of danger differed in some degree -from that of the scout, for, instead of replying, he now sat in silence, -while the canoe glided over several miles of water. Just as the day -dawned, they entered the narrows of the lake*, and stole swiftly and -cautiously among their numberless little islands. It was by this road -that Montcalm had retired with his army, and the adventurers knew not -but he had left some of his Indians in ambush, to protect the rear of -his forces, and collect the stragglers. They, therefore, approached the -passage with the customary silence of their guarded habits. - - * The beauties of Lake George are well known to every - American tourist. In the height of the mountains which - surround it, and in artificial accessories, it is inferior - to the finest of the Swiss and Italian lakes, while in - outline and purity of water it is fully their equal; and in - the number and disposition of its isles and islets much - superior to them all together. There are said to be some - hundreds of islands in a sheet of water less than thirty - miles long. The narrows, which connect what may be called, - in truth, two lakes, are crowded with islands to such a - degree as to leave passages between them frequently of only - a few feet in width. The lake itself varies in breadth from - one to three miles. - -Chingachgook laid aside his paddle; while Uncas and the scout urged the -light vessel through crooked and intricate channels, where every foot -that they advanced exposed them to the danger of some sudden rising -on their progress. The eyes of the Sagamore moved warily from islet to -islet, and copse to copse, as the canoe proceeded; and, when a clearer -sheet of water permitted, his keen vision was bent along the bald rocks -and impending forests that frowned upon the narrow strait. - -Heyward, who was a doubly interested spectator, as well from the -beauties of the place as from the apprehension natural to his situation, -was just believing that he had permitted the latter to be excited -without sufficient reason, when the paddle ceased moving, in obedience -to a signal from Chingachgook. - -"Hugh!" exclaimed Uncas, nearly at the moment that the light tap his -father had made on the side of the canoe notified them of the vicinity -of danger. - -"What now?" asked the scout; "the lake is as smooth as if the winds had -never blown, and I can see along its sheet for miles; there is not so -much as the black head of a loon dotting the water." - -The Indian gravely raised his paddle, and pointed in the direction -in which his own steady look was riveted. Duncan's eyes followed the -motion. A few rods in their front lay another of the wooded islets, -but it appeared as calm and peaceful as if its solitude had never been -disturbed by the foot of man. - -"I see nothing," he said, "but land and water; and a lovely scene it -is." - -"Hist!" interrupted the scout. "Ay, Sagamore, there is always a reason -for what you do. 'Tis but a shade, and yet it is not natural. You see -the mist, major, that is rising above the island; you can't call it a -fog, for it is more like a streak of thin cloud--" - -"It is vapor from the water." - -"That a child could tell. But what is the edging of blacker smoke -that hangs along its lower side, and which you may trace down into the -thicket of hazel? 'Tis from a fire; but one that, in my judgment, has -been suffered to burn low." - -"Let us, then, push for the place, and relieve our doubts," said the -impatient Duncan; "the party must be small that can lie on such a bit of -land." - -"If you judge of Indian cunning by the rules you find in books, or -by white sagacity, they will lead you astray, if not to your death," -returned Hawkeye, examining the signs of the place with that acuteness -which distinguished him. "If I may be permitted to speak in this matter, -it will be to say, that we have but two things to choose between: the -one is, to return, and give up all thoughts of following the Hurons--" - -"Never!" exclaimed Heyward, in a voice far too loud for their -circumstances. - -"Well, well," continued Hawkeye, making a hasty sign to repress his -impatience; "I am much of your mind myself; though I thought it becoming -my experience to tell the whole. We must, then, make a push, and if the -Indians or Frenchers are in the narrows, run the gauntlet through these -toppling mountains. Is there reason in my words, Sagamore?" - -The Indian made no other answer than by dropping his paddle into the -water, and urging forward the canoe. As he held the office of directing -its course, his resolution was sufficiently indicated by the movement. -The whole party now plied their paddles vigorously, and in a very few -moments they had reached a point whence they might command an entire -view of the northern shore of the island, the side that had hitherto -been concealed. - -"There they are, by all the truth of signs," whispered the scout, "two -canoes and a smoke. The knaves haven't yet got their eyes out of the -mist, or we should hear the accursed whoop. Together, friends! we are -leaving them, and are already nearly out of whistle of a bullet." - -The well-known crack of a rifle, whose ball came skipping along the -placid surface of the strait, and a shrill yell from the island, -interrupted his speech, and announced that their passage was discovered. -In another instant several savages were seen rushing into canoes, which -were soon dancing over the water in pursuit. These fearful precursors of -a coming struggle produced no change in the countenances and movements -of his three guides, so far as Duncan could discover, except that the -strokes of their paddles were longer and more in unison, and caused -the little bark to spring forward like a creature possessing life and -volition. - -"Hold them there, Sagamore," said Hawkeye, looking coolly backward over -this left shoulder, while he still plied his paddle; "keep them just -there. Them Hurons have never a piece in their nation that will execute -at this distance; but 'killdeer' has a barrel on which a man may -calculate." - -The scout having ascertained that the Mohicans were sufficient of -themselves to maintain the requisite distance, deliberately laid aside -his paddle, and raised the fatal rifle. Three several times he brought -the piece to his shoulder, and when his companions were expecting its -report, he as often lowered it to request the Indians would permit -their enemies to approach a little nigher. At length his accurate and -fastidious eye seemed satisfied, and, throwing out his left arm on the -barrel, he was slowly elevating the muzzle, when an exclamation from -Uncas, who sat in the bow, once more caused him to suspend the shot. - -"What, now, lad?" demanded Hawkeye; "you save a Huron from the -death-shriek by that word; have you reason for what you do?" - -Uncas pointed toward a rocky shore a little in their front, whence -another war canoe was darting directly across their course. It was too -obvious now that their situation was imminently perilous to need the aid -of language to confirm it. The scout laid aside his rifle, and resumed -the paddle, while Chingachgook inclined the bows of the canoe a little -toward the western shore, in order to increase the distance between them -and this new enemy. In the meantime they were reminded of the presence -of those who pressed upon their rear, by wild and exulting shouts. The -stirring scene awakened even Munro from his apathy. - -"Let us make for the rocks on the main," he said, with the mien of a -tired soldier, "and give battle to the savages. God forbid that I, or -those attached to me and mine, should ever trust again to the faith of -any servant of the Louis's!" - -"He who wishes to prosper in Indian warfare," returned the scout, "must -not be too proud to learn from the wit of a native. Lay her more along -the land, Sagamore; we are doubling on the varlets, and perhaps they may -try to strike our trail on the long calculation." - -Hawkeye was not mistaken; for when the Hurons found their course was -likely to throw them behind their chase they rendered it less direct, -until, by gradually bearing more and more obliquely, the two canoes -were, ere long, gliding on parallel lines, within two hundred yards of -each other. It now became entirely a trial of speed. So rapid was the -progress of the light vessels, that the lake curled in their front, in -miniature waves, and their motion became undulating by its own velocity. -It was, perhaps, owing to this circumstance, in addition to the -necessity of keeping every hand employed at the paddles, that the Hurons -had not immediate recourse to their firearms. The exertions of the -fugitives were too severe to continue long, and the pursuers had the -advantage of numbers. Duncan observed with uneasiness, that the scout -began to look anxiously about him, as if searching for some further -means of assisting their flight. - -"Edge her a little more from the sun, Sagamore," said the stubborn -woodsman; "I see the knaves are sparing a man to the rifle. A single -broken bone might lose us our scalps. Edge more from the sun and we will -put the island between us." - -The expedient was not without its use. A long, low island lay at a -little distance before them, and, as they closed with it, the chasing -canoe was compelled to take a side opposite to that on which the pursued -passed. The scout and his companions did not neglect this advantage, but -the instant they were hid from observation by the bushes, they redoubled -efforts that before had seemed prodigious. The two canoes came round -the last low point, like two coursers at the top of their speed, the -fugitives taking the lead. This change had brought them nigher to each -other, however, while it altered their relative positions. - -"You showed knowledge in the shaping of a birchen bark, Uncas, when -you chose this from among the Huron canoes," said the scout, smiling, -apparently more in satisfaction at their superiority in the race than -from that prospect of final escape which now began to open a little upon -them. "The imps have put all their strength again at the paddles, and we -are to struggle for our scalps with bits of flattened wood, instead of -clouded barrels and true eyes. A long stroke, and together, friends." - -"They are preparing for a shot," said Heyward; "and as we are in a line -with them, it can scarcely fail." - -"Get you, then, into the bottom of the canoe," returned the scout; "you -and the colonel; it will be so much taken from the size of the mark." - -Heyward smiled, as he answered: - -"It would be but an ill example for the highest in rank to dodge, while -the warriors were under fire." - -"Lord! Lord! That is now a white man's courage!" exclaimed the scout; -"and like to many of his notions, not to be maintained by reason. Do you -think the Sagamore, or Uncas, or even I, who am a man without a cross, -would deliberate about finding a cover in the scrimmage, when an open -body would do no good? For what have the Frenchers reared up their -Quebec, if fighting is always to be done in the clearings?" - -"All that you say is very true, my friend," replied Heyward; "still, our -customs must prevent us from doing as you wish." - -A volley from the Hurons interrupted the discourse, and as the bullets -whistled about them, Duncan saw the head of Uncas turned, looking back -at himself and Munro. Notwithstanding the nearness of the enemy, and -his own great personal danger, the countenance of the young warrior -expressed no other emotion, as the former was compelled to think, than -amazement at finding men willing to encounter so useless an exposure. -Chingachgook was probably better acquainted with the notions of white -men, for he did not even cast a glance aside from the riveted look his -eye maintained on the object by which he governed their course. A ball -soon struck the light and polished paddle from the hands of the chief, -and drove it through the air, far in the advance. A shout arose from -the Hurons, who seized the opportunity to fire another volley. Uncas -described an arc in the water with his own blade, and as the canoe -passed swiftly on, Chingachgook recovered his paddle, and flourishing -it on high, he gave the war-whoop of the Mohicans, and then lent his -strength and skill again to the important task. - -The clamorous sounds of "Le Gros Serpent!" "La Longue Carabine!" "Le -Cerf Agile!" burst at once from the canoes behind, and seemed to give -new zeal to the pursuers. The scout seized "killdeer" in his left hand, -and elevating it about his head, he shook it in triumph at his enemies. -The savages answered the insult with a yell, and immediately another -volley succeeded. The bullets pattered along the lake, and one even -pierced the bark of their little vessel. No perceptible emotion could -be discovered in the Mohicans during this critical moment, their rigid -features expressing neither hope nor alarm; but the scout again turned -his head, and, laughing in his own silent manner, he said to Heyward: - -"The knaves love to hear the sounds of their pieces; but the eye is -not to be found among the Mingoes that can calculate a true range in a -dancing canoe! You see the dumb devils have taken off a man to charge, -and by the smallest measurement that can be allowed, we move three feet -to their two!" - -Duncan, who was not altogether as easy under this nice estimate of -distances as his companions, was glad to find, however, that owing to -their superior dexterity, and the diversion among their enemies, they -were very sensibly obtaining the advantage. The Hurons soon fired again, -and a bullet struck the blade of Hawkeye's paddle without injury. - -"That will do," said the scout, examining the slight indentation with a -curious eye; "it would not have cut the skin of an infant, much less of -men, who, like us, have been blown upon by the heavens in their anger. -Now, major, if you will try to use this piece of flattened wood, I'll -let 'killdeer' take a part in the conversation." - -Heyward seized the paddle, and applied himself to the work with an -eagerness that supplied the place of skill, while Hawkeye was engaged -in inspecting the priming of his rifle. The latter then took a swift aim -and fired. The Huron in the bows of the leading canoe had risen with a -similar object, and he now fell backward, suffering his gun to escape -from his hands into the water. In an instant, however, he recovered his -feet, though his gestures were wild and bewildered. At the same moment -his companions suspended their efforts, and the chasing canoes clustered -together, and became stationary. Chingachgook and Uncas profited by the -interval to regain their wind, though Duncan continued to work with -the most persevering industry. The father and son now cast calm but -inquiring glances at each other, to learn if either had sustained any -injury by the fire; for both well knew that no cry or exclamation -would, in such a moment of necessity have been permitted to betray the -accident. A few large drops of blood were trickling down the shoulder -of the Sagamore, who, when he perceived that the eyes of Uncas dwelt -too long on the sight, raised some water in the hollow of his hand, and -washing off the stain, was content to manifest, in this simple manner, -the slightness of the injury. - -"Softly, softly, major," said the scout, who by this time had reloaded -his rifle; "we are a little too far already for a rifle to put forth its -beauties, and you see yonder imps are holding a council. Let them -come up within striking distance--my eye may well be trusted in such -a matter--and I will trail the varlets the length of the Horican, -guaranteeing that not a shot of theirs shall, at the worst, more than -break the skin, while 'killdeer' shall touch the life twice in three -times." - -"We forget our errand," returned the diligent Duncan. "For God's sake -let us profit by this advantage, and increase our distance from the -enemy." - -"Give me my children," said Munro, hoarsely; "trifle no longer with a -father's agony, but restore me my babes." - -Long and habitual deference to the mandates of his superiors had taught -the scout the virtue of obedience. Throwing a last and lingering glance -at the distant canoes, he laid aside his rifle, and, relieving the -wearied Duncan, resumed the paddle, which he wielded with sinews that -never tired. His efforts were seconded by those of the Mohicans and a -very few minutes served to place such a sheet of water between them and -their enemies, that Heyward once more breathed freely. - -The lake now began to expand, and their route lay along a wide reach, -that was lined, as before, by high and ragged mountains. But the islands -were few, and easily avoided. The strokes of the paddles grew more -measured and regular, while they who plied them continued their labor, -after the close and deadly chase from which they had just relieved -themselves, with as much coolness as though their speed had been tried -in sport, rather than under such pressing, nay, almost desperate, -circumstances. - -Instead of following the western shore, whither their errand led them, -the wary Mohican inclined his course more toward those hills behind -which Montcalm was known to have led his army into the formidable -fortress of Ticonderoga. As the Hurons, to every appearance, had -abandoned the pursuit, there was no apparent reason for this excess of -caution. It was, however, maintained for hours, until they had reached -a bay, nigh the northern termination of the lake. Here the canoe was -driven upon the beach, and the whole party landed. Hawkeye and Heyward -ascended an adjacent bluff, where the former, after considering the -expanse of water beneath him, pointed out to the latter a small black -object, hovering under a headland, at the distance of several miles. - -"Do you see it?" demanded the scout. "Now, what would you account that -spot, were you left alone to white experience to find your way through -this wilderness?" - -"But for its distance and its magnitude, I should suppose it a bird. Can -it be a living object?" - -"'Tis a canoe of good birchen bark, and paddled by fierce and crafty -Mingoes. Though Providence has lent to those who inhabit the woods -eyes that would be needless to men in the settlements, where there are -inventions to assist the sight, yet no human organs can see all the -dangers which at this moment circumvent us. These varlets pretend to be -bent chiefly on their sun-down meal, but the moment it is dark they will -be on our trail, as true as hounds on the scent. We must throw them -off, or our pursuit of Le Renard Subtil may be given up. These lakes are -useful at times, especially when the game take the water," continued the -scout, gazing about him with a countenance of concern; "but they give no -cover, except it be to the fishes. God knows what the country would -be, if the settlements should ever spread far from the two rivers. Both -hunting and war would lose their beauty." - -"Let us not delay a moment, without some good and obvious cause." - -"I little like that smoke, which you may see worming up along the rock -above the canoe," interrupted the abstracted scout. "My life on it, -other eyes than ours see it, and know its meaning. Well, words will not -mend the matter, and it is time that we were doing." - -Hawkeye moved away from the lookout, and descended, musing profoundly, -to the shore. He communicated the result of his observations to his -companions, in Delaware, and a short and earnest consultation succeeded. -When it terminated, the three instantly set about executing their new -resolutions. - -The canoe was lifted from the water, and borne on the shoulders of the -party, they proceeded into the wood, making as broad and obvious a trail -as possible. They soon reached the water-course, which they crossed, -and, continuing onward, until they came to an extensive and naked rock. -At this point, where their footsteps might be expected to be no longer -visible, they retraced their route to the brook, walking backward, with -the utmost care. They now followed the bed of the little stream to the -lake, into which they immediately launched their canoe again. A low -point concealed them from the headland, and the margin of the lake was -fringed for some distance with dense and overhanging bushes. Under the -cover of these natural advantages, they toiled their way, with patient -industry, until the scout pronounced that he believed it would be safe -once more to land. - -The halt continued until evening rendered objects indistinct and -uncertain to the eye. Then they resumed their route, and, favored by -the darkness, pushed silently and vigorously toward the western shore. -Although the rugged outline of mountain, to which they were steering, -presented no distinctive marks to the eyes of Duncan, the Mohican -entered the little haven he had selected with the confidence and -accuracy of an experienced pilot. - -The boat was again lifted and borne into the woods, where it was -carefully concealed under a pile of brush. The adventurers assumed their -arms and packs, and the scout announced to Munro and Heyward that he and -the Indians were at last in readiness to proceed. - - - - -CHAPTER 21 - - "If you find a man there, he shall die a flea's death." - --Merry Wives of Windsor. - -The party had landed on the border of a region that is, even to this -day, less known to the inhabitants of the States than the deserts -of Arabia, or the steppes of Tartary. It was the sterile and rugged -district which separates the tributaries of Champlain from those of the -Hudson, the Mohawk, and the St. Lawrence. Since the period of our tale -the active spirit of the country has surrounded it with a belt of rich -and thriving settlements, though none but the hunter or the savage is -ever known even now to penetrate its wild recesses. - -As Hawkeye and the Mohicans had, however, often traversed the mountains -and valleys of this vast wilderness, they did not hesitate to plunge -into its depth, with the freedom of men accustomed to its privations -and difficulties. For many hours the travelers toiled on their laborious -way, guided by a star, or following the direction of some water-course, -until the scout called a halt, and holding a short consultation with -the Indians, they lighted their fire, and made the usual preparations to -pass the remainder of the night where they then were. - -Imitating the example, and emulating the confidence of their more -experienced associates, Munro and Duncan slept without fear, if not -without uneasiness. The dews were suffered to exhale, and the sun had -dispersed the mists, and was shedding a strong and clear light in the -forest, when the travelers resumed their journey. - -After proceeding a few miles, the progress of Hawkeye, who led the -advance, became more deliberate and watchful. He often stopped to -examine the trees; nor did he cross a rivulet without attentively -considering the quantity, the velocity, and the color of its waters. -Distrusting his own judgment, his appeals to the opinion of Chingachgook -were frequent and earnest. During one of these conferences Heyward -observed that Uncas stood a patient and silent, though, as he imagined, -an interested listener. He was strongly tempted to address the young -chief, and demand his opinion of their progress; but the calm and -dignified demeanor of the native induced him to believe, that, like -himself, the other was wholly dependent on the sagacity and intelligence -of the seniors of the party. At last the scout spoke in English, and at -once explained the embarrassment of their situation. - -"When I found that the home path of the Hurons run north," he said, "it -did not need the judgment of many long years to tell that they would -follow the valleys, and keep atween the waters of the Hudson and the -Horican, until they might strike the springs of the Canada streams, -which would lead them into the heart of the country of the Frenchers. -Yet here are we, within a short range of the Scaroons, and not a sign of -a trail have we crossed! Human natur' is weak, and it is possible we may -not have taken the proper scent." - -"Heaven protect us from such an error!" exclaimed Duncan. "Let us -retrace our steps, and examine as we go, with keener eyes. Has Uncas no -counsel to offer in such a strait?" - -The young Mohican cast a glance at his father, but, maintaining his -quiet and reserved mien, he continued silent. Chingachgook had caught -the look, and motioning with his hand, he bade him speak. The moment -this permission was accorded, the countenance of Uncas changed from its -grave composure to a gleam of intelligence and joy. Bounding forward -like a deer, he sprang up the side of a little acclivity, a few rods in -advance, and stood, exultingly, over a spot of fresh earth, that looked -as though it had been recently upturned by the passage of some heavy -animal. The eyes of the whole party followed the unexpected movement, -and read their success in the air of triumph that the youth assumed. - -"'Tis the trail!" exclaimed the scout, advancing to the spot; "the lad -is quick of sight and keen of wit for his years." - -"'Tis extraordinary that he should have withheld his knowledge so long," -muttered Duncan, at his elbow. - -"It would have been more wonderful had he spoken without a bidding. -No, no; your young white, who gathers his learning from books and can -measure what he knows by the page, may conceit that his knowledge, like -his legs, outruns that of his fathers', but, where experience is the -master, the scholar is made to know the value of years, and respects -them accordingly." - -"See!" said Uncas, pointing north and south, at the evident marks of the -broad trail on either side of him, "the dark-hair has gone toward the -forest." - -"Hound never ran on a more beautiful scent," responded the scout, -dashing forward, at once, on the indicated route; "we are favored, -greatly favored, and can follow with high noses. Ay, here are both your -waddling beasts: this Huron travels like a white general. The fellow is -stricken with a judgment, and is mad! Look sharp for wheels, Sagamore," -he continued, looking back, and laughing in his newly awakened -satisfaction; "we shall soon have the fool journeying in a coach, and -that with three of the best pair of eyes on the borders in his rear." - -The spirits of the scout, and the astonishing success of the chase, in -which a circuitous distance of more than forty miles had been passed, -did not fail to impart a portion of hope to the whole party. Their -advance was rapid; and made with as much confidence as a traveler would -proceed along a wide highway. If a rock, or a rivulet, or a bit of earth -harder than common, severed the links of the clew they followed, the -true eye of the scout recovered them at a distance, and seldom rendered -the delay of a single moment necessary. Their progress was much -facilitated by the certainty that Magua had found it necessary to -journey through the valleys; a circumstance which rendered the general -direction of the route sure. Nor had the Huron entirely neglected the -arts uniformly practised by the natives when retiring in front of an -enemy. False trails and sudden turnings were frequent, wherever a brook -or the formation of the ground rendered them feasible; but his pursuers -were rarely deceived, and never failed to detect their error, before -they had lost either time or distance on the deceptive track. - -By the middle of the afternoon they had passed the Scaroons, and were -following the route of the declining sun. After descending an eminence -to a low bottom, through which a swift stream glided, they suddenly came -to a place where the party of Le Renard had made a halt. Extinguished -brands were lying around a spring, the offals of a deer were scattered -about the place, and the trees bore evident marks of having been -browsed by the horses. At a little distance, Heyward discovered, and -contemplated with tender emotion, the small bower under which he was -fain to believe that Cora and Alice had reposed. But while the earth -was trodden, and the footsteps of both men and beasts were so plainly -visible around the place, the trail appeared to have suddenly ended. - -It was easy to follow the tracks of the Narragansetts, but they seemed -only to have wandered without guides, or any other object than the -pursuit of food. At length Uncas, who, with his father, had endeavored -to trace the route of the horses, came upon a sign of their presence -that was quite recent. Before following the clew, he communicated his -success to his companions; and while the latter were consulting on the -circumstance, the youth reappeared, leading the two fillies, with -their saddles broken, and the housings soiled, as though they had been -permitted to run at will for several days. - -"What should this prove?" said Duncan, turning pale, and glancing his -eyes around him, as if he feared the brush and leaves were about to give -up some horrid secret. - -"That our march is come to a quick end, and that we are in an enemy's -country," returned the scout. "Had the knave been pressed, and the -gentle ones wanted horses to keep up with the party, he might have taken -their scalps; but without an enemy at his heels, and with such rugged -beasts as these, he would not hurt a hair of their heads. I know your -thoughts, and shame be it to our color that you have reason for them; -but he who thinks that even a Mingo would ill-treat a woman, unless it -be to tomahawk her, knows nothing of Indian natur', or the laws of the -woods. No, no; I have heard that the French Indians had come into these -hills to hunt the moose, and we are getting within scent of their camp. -Why should they not? The morning and evening guns of Ty may be heard -any day among these mountains; for the Frenchers are running a new line -atween the provinces of the king and the Canadas. It is true that the -horses are here, but the Hurons are gone; let us, then, hunt for the -path by which they parted." - -Hawkeye and the Mohicans now applied themselves to their task in good -earnest. A circle of a few hundred feet in circumference was drawn, -and each of the party took a segment for his portion. The examination, -however, resulted in no discovery. The impressions of footsteps were -numerous, but they all appeared like those of men who had wandered -about the spot, without any design to quit it. Again the scout and his -companions made the circuit of the halting place, each slowly following -the other, until they assembled in the center once more, no wiser than -when they started. - -"Such cunning is not without its deviltry," exclaimed Hawkeye, when he -met the disappointed looks of his assistants. - -"We must get down to it, Sagamore, beginning at the spring, and going -over the ground by inches. The Huron shall never brag in his tribe that -he has a foot which leaves no print." - -Setting the example himself, the scout engaged in the scrutiny with -renewed zeal. Not a leaf was left unturned. The sticks were removed, -and the stones lifted; for Indian cunning was known frequently to adopt -these objects as covers, laboring with the utmost patience and industry, -to conceal each footstep as they proceeded. Still no discovery was made. -At length Uncas, whose activity had enabled him to achieve his portion -of the task the soonest, raked the earth across the turbid little rill -which ran from the spring, and diverted its course into another channel. -So soon as its narrow bed below the dam was dry, he stooped over it with -keen and curious eyes. A cry of exultation immediately announced the -success of the young warrior. The whole party crowded to the spot where -Uncas pointed out the impression of a moccasin in the moist alluvion. - -"This lad will be an honor to his people," said Hawkeye, regarding the -trail with as much admiration as a naturalist would expend on the tusk -of a mammoth or the rib of a mastodon; "ay, and a thorn in the sides of -the Hurons. Yet that is not the footstep of an Indian! the weight is too -much on the heel, and the toes are squared, as though one of the French -dancers had been in, pigeon-winging his tribe! Run back, Uncas, and -bring me the size of the singer's foot. You will find a beautiful print -of it just opposite yon rock, agin the hillside." - -While the youth was engaged in this commission, the scout and -Chingachgook were attentively considering the impressions. The -measurements agreed, and the former unhesitatingly pronounced that the -footstep was that of David, who had once more been made to exchange his -shoes for moccasins. - -"I can now read the whole of it, as plainly as if I had seen the arts of -Le Subtil," he added; "the singer being a man whose gifts lay chiefly in -his throat and feet, was made to go first, and the others have trod in -his steps, imitating their formation." - -"But," cried Duncan, "I see no signs of--" - -"The gentle ones," interrupted the scout; "the varlet has found a way to -carry them, until he supposed he had thrown any followers off the scent. -My life on it, we see their pretty little feet again, before many rods -go by." - -The whole party now proceeded, following the course of the rill, keeping -anxious eyes on the regular impressions. The water soon flowed into its -bed again, but watching the ground on either side, the foresters pursued -their way content with knowing that the trail lay beneath. More than -half a mile was passed, before the rill rippled close around the base of -an extensive and dry rock. Here they paused to make sure that the Hurons -had not quitted the water. - -It was fortunate they did so. For the quick and active Uncas soon found -the impression of a foot on a bunch of moss, where it would seem an -Indian had inadvertently trodden. Pursuing the direction given by this -discovery, he entered the neighboring thicket, and struck the trail, as -fresh and obvious as it had been before they reached the spring. Another -shout announced the good fortune of the youth to his companions, and at -once terminated the search. - -"Ay, it has been planned with Indian judgment," said the scout, when -the party was assembled around the place, "and would have blinded white -eyes." - -"Shall we proceed?" demanded Heyward. - -"Softly, softly, we know our path; but it is good to examine the -formation of things. This is my schooling, major; and if one neglects -the book, there is little chance of learning from the open land of -Providence. All is plain but one thing, which is the manner that the -knave contrived to get the gentle ones along the blind trail. Even a -Huron would be too proud to let their tender feet touch the water." - -"Will this assist in explaining the difficulty?" said Heyward, pointing -toward the fragments of a sort of handbarrow, that had been rudely -constructed of boughs, and bound together with withes, and which now -seemed carelessly cast aside as useless. - -"'Tis explained!" cried the delighted Hawkeye. "If them varlets have -passed a minute, they have spent hours in striving to fabricate a lying -end to their trail! Well, I've known them to waste a day in the same -manner to as little purpose. Here we have three pair of moccasins, and -two of little feet. It is amazing that any mortal beings can journey on -limbs so small! Pass me the thong of buckskin, Uncas, and let me take -the length of this foot. By the Lord, it is no longer than a child's and -yet the maidens are tall and comely. That Providence is partial in its -gifts, for its own wise reasons, the best and most contented of us must -allow." - -"The tender limbs of my daughters are unequal to these hardships," said -Munro, looking at the light footsteps of his children, with a parent's -love; "we shall find their fainting forms in this desert." - -"Of that there is little cause of fear," returned the scout, slowly -shaking his head; "this is a firm and straight, though a light step, and -not over long. See, the heel has hardly touched the ground; and there -the dark-hair has made a little jump, from root to root. No, no; my -knowledge for it, neither of them was nigh fainting, hereaway. Now, the -singer was beginning to be footsore and leg-weary, as is plain by -his trail. There, you see, he slipped; here he has traveled wide and -tottered; and there again it looks as though he journeyed on snowshoes. -Ay, ay, a man who uses his throat altogether, can hardly give his legs a -proper training." - -From such undeniable testimony did the practised woodsman arrive at the -truth, with nearly as much certainty and precision as if he had been a -witness of all those events which his ingenuity so easily elucidated. -Cheered by these assurances, and satisfied by a reasoning that was so -obvious, while it was so simple, the party resumed its course, after -making a short halt, to take a hurried repast. - -When the meal was ended, the scout cast a glance upward at the setting -sun, and pushed forward with a rapidity which compelled Heyward and the -still vigorous Munro to exert all their muscles to equal. Their route -now lay along the bottom which has already been mentioned. As the Hurons -had made no further efforts to conceal their footsteps, the progress of -the pursuers was no longer delayed by uncertainty. Before an hour had -elapsed, however, the speed of Hawkeye sensibly abated, and his head, -instead of maintaining its former direct and forward look, began to turn -suspiciously from side to side, as if he were conscious of approaching -danger. He soon stopped again, and waited for the whole party to come -up. - -"I scent the Hurons," he said, speaking to the Mohicans; "yonder is open -sky, through the treetops, and we are getting too nigh their encampment. -Sagamore, you will take the hillside, to the right; Uncas will bend -along the brook to the left, while I will try the trail. If anything -should happen, the call will be three croaks of a crow. I saw one of the -birds fanning himself in the air, just beyond the dead oak--another sign -that we are approaching an encampment." - -The Indians departed their several ways without reply, while Hawkeye -cautiously proceeded with the two gentlemen. Heyward soon pressed to the -side of their guide, eager to catch an early glimpse of those enemies -he had pursued with so much toil and anxiety. His companion told him -to steal to the edge of the wood, which, as usual, was fringed with -a thicket, and wait his coming, for he wished to examine certain -suspicious signs a little on one side. Duncan obeyed, and soon found -himself in a situation to command a view which he found as extraordinary -as it was novel. - -The trees of many acres had been felled, and the glow of a mild summer's -evening had fallen on the clearing, in beautiful contrast to the gray -light of the forest. A short distance from the place where Duncan stood, -the stream had seemingly expanded into a little lake, covering most of -the low land, from mountain to mountain. The water fell out of this wide -basin, in a cataract so regular and gentle, that it appeared rather to -be the work of human hands than fashioned by nature. A hundred earthen -dwellings stood on the margin of the lake, and even in its waters, as -though the latter had overflowed its usual banks. Their rounded roofs, -admirably molded for defense against the weather, denoted more of -industry and foresight than the natives were wont to bestow on their -regular habitations, much less on those they occupied for the temporary -purposes of hunting and war. In short, the whole village or town, -whichever it might be termed, possessed more of method and neatness of -execution, than the white men had been accustomed to believe belonged, -ordinarily, to the Indian habits. It appeared, however, to be deserted. -At least, so thought Duncan for many minutes; but, at length, he fancied -he discovered several human forms advancing toward him on all fours, -and apparently dragging in the train some heavy, and as he was quick to -apprehend, some formidable engine. Just then a few dark-looking heads -gleamed out of the dwellings, and the place seemed suddenly alive with -beings, which, however, glided from cover to cover so swiftly, as to -allow no opportunity of examining their humors or pursuits. Alarmed at -these suspicious and inexplicable movements, he was about to attempt the -signal of the crows, when the rustling of leaves at hand drew his eyes -in another direction. - -The young man started, and recoiled a few paces instinctively, when he -found himself within a hundred yards of a stranger Indian. Recovering -his recollection on the instant, instead of sounding an alarm, which -might prove fatal to himself, he remained stationary, an attentive -observer of the other's motions. - -An instant of calm observation served to assure Duncan that he was -undiscovered. The native, like himself, seemed occupied in considering -the low dwellings of the village, and the stolen movements of its -inhabitants. It was impossible to discover the expression of his -features through the grotesque mask of paint under which they were -concealed, though Duncan fancied it was rather melancholy than savage. -His head was shaved, as usual, with the exception of the crown, from -whose tuft three or four faded feathers from a hawk's wing were loosely -dangling. A ragged calico mantle half encircled his body, while his -nether garment was composed of an ordinary shirt, the sleeves of which -were made to perform the office that is usually executed by a much more -commodious arrangement. His legs were, however, covered with a pair of -good deer-skin moccasins. Altogether, the appearance of the individual -was forlorn and miserable. - -Duncan was still curiously observing the person of his neighbor when the -scout stole silently and cautiously to his side. - -"You see we have reached their settlement or encampment," whispered -the young man; "and here is one of the savages himself, in a very -embarrassing position for our further movements." - -Hawkeye started, and dropped his rifle, when, directed by the finger -of his companion, the stranger came under his view. Then lowering the -dangerous muzzle he stretched forward his long neck, as if to assist a -scrutiny that was already intensely keen. - -"The imp is not a Huron," he said, "nor of any of the Canada tribes; and -yet you see, by his clothes, the knave has been plundering a white. Ay, -Montcalm has raked the woods for his inroad, and a whooping, murdering -set of varlets has he gathered together. Can you see where he has put -his rifle or his bow?" - -"He appears to have no arms; nor does he seem to be viciously inclined. -Unless he communicate the alarm to his fellows, who, as you see, are -dodging about the water, we have but little to fear from him." - -The scout turned to Heyward, and regarded him a moment with unconcealed -amazement. Then opening wide his mouth, he indulged in unrestrained -and heartfelt laughter, though in that silent and peculiar manner which -danger had so long taught him to practise. - -Repeating the words, "Fellows who are dodging about the water!" he -added, "so much for schooling and passing a boyhood in the settlements! -The knave has long legs, though, and shall not be trusted. Do you keep -him under your rifle while I creep in behind, through the bush, and take -him alive. Fire on no account." - -Heyward had already permitted his companion to bury part of his person -in the thicket, when, stretching forth his arm, he arrested him, in -order to ask: - -"If I see you in danger, may I not risk a shot?" - -Hawkeye regarded him a moment, like one who knew not how to take the -question; then, nodding his head, he answered, still laughing, though -inaudibly: - -"Fire a whole platoon, major." - -In the next moment he was concealed by the leaves. Duncan waited several -minutes in feverish impatience, before he caught another glimpse of -the scout. Then he reappeared, creeping along the earth, from which his -dress was hardly distinguishable, directly in the rear of his intended -captive. Having reached within a few yards of the latter, he arose to -his feet, silently and slowly. At that instant, several loud blows were -struck on the water, and Duncan turned his eyes just in time to perceive -that a hundred dark forms were plunging, in a body, into the troubled -little sheet. Grasping his rifle his looks were again bent on the Indian -near him. Instead of taking the alarm, the unconscious savage stretched -forward his neck, as if he also watched the movements about the gloomy -lake, with a sort of silly curiosity. In the meantime, the uplifted -hand of Hawkeye was above him. But, without any apparent reason, it was -withdrawn, and its owner indulged in another long, though still silent, -fit of merriment. When the peculiar and hearty laughter of Hawkeye -was ended, instead of grasping his victim by the throat, he tapped him -lightly on the shoulder, and exclaimed aloud: - -"How now, friend! have you a mind to teach the beavers to sing?" - -"Even so," was the ready answer. "It would seem that the Being that gave -them power to improve His gifts so well, would not deny them voices to -proclaim His praise." - - - - -CHAPTER 22 - - "Bot.--Abibl we all met? - Qui.--Pat--pat; and here's a marvelous convenient place - for our rehearsal." - --Midsummer Night's Dream - -The reader may better imagine, than we describe the surprise of Heyward. -His lurking Indians were suddenly converted into four-footed beasts; his -lake into a beaver pond; his cataract into a dam, constructed by those -industrious and ingenious quadrupeds; and a suspected enemy into his -tried friend, David Gamut, the master of psalmody. The presence of the -latter created so many unexpected hopes relative to the sisters that, -without a moment's hesitation, the young man broke out of his ambush, -and sprang forward to join the two principal actors in the scene. - -The merriment of Hawkeye was not easily appeased. Without ceremony, and -with a rough hand, he twirled the supple Gamut around on his heel, and -more than once affirmed that the Hurons had done themselves great credit -in the fashion of his costume. Then, seizing the hand of the other, he -squeezed it with a grip that brought tears into the eyes of the placid -David, and wished him joy of his new condition. - -"You were about opening your throat-practisings among the beavers, were -ye?" he said. "The cunning devils know half the trade already, for they -beat the time with their tails, as you heard just now; and in good time -it was, too, or 'killdeer' might have sounded the first note among -them. I have known greater fools, who could read and write, than an -experienced old beaver; but as for squalling, the animals are born dumb! -What think you of such a song as this?" - -David shut his sensitive ears, and even Heyward apprised as he was of -the nature of the cry, looked upward in quest of the bird, as the cawing -of a crow rang in the air about them. - -"See!" continued the laughing scout, as he pointed toward the remainder -of the party, who, in obedience to the signal, were already approaching; -"this is music which has its natural virtues; it brings two good rifles -to my elbow, to say nothing of the knives and tomahawks. But we see that -you are safe; now tell us what has become of the maidens." - -"They are captives to the heathen," said David; "and, though greatly -troubled in spirit, enjoying comfort and safety in the body." - -"Both!" demanded the breathless Heyward. - -"Even so. Though our wayfaring has been sore and our sustenance scanty, -we have had little other cause for complaint, except the violence done -our feelings, by being thus led in captivity into a far land." - -"Bless ye for these very words!" exclaimed the trembling Munro; "I shall -then receive my babes, spotless and angel-like, as I lost them!" - -"I know not that their delivery is at hand," returned the doubting -David; "the leader of these savages is possessed of an evil spirit that -no power short of Omnipotence can tame. I have tried him sleeping and -waking, but neither sounds nor language seem to touch his soul." - -"Where is the knave?" bluntly interrupted the scout. - -"He hunts the moose to-day, with his young men; and tomorrow, as I hear, -they pass further into the forests, and nigher to the borders of Canada. -The elder maiden is conveyed to a neighboring people, whose lodges -are situate beyond yonder black pinnacle of rock; while the younger -is detained among the women of the Hurons, whose dwellings are but two -short miles hence, on a table-land, where the fire had done the office -of the axe, and prepared the place for their reception." - -"Alice, my gentle Alice!" murmured Heyward; "she has lost the -consolation of her sister's presence!" - -"Even so. But so far as praise and thanksgiving in psalmody can temper -the spirit in affliction, she has not suffered." - -"Has she then a heart for music?" - -"Of the graver and more solemn character; though it must be acknowledged -that, in spite of all my endeavors, the maiden weeps oftener than she -smiles. At such moments I forbear to press the holy songs; but there are -many sweet and comfortable periods of satisfactory communication, -when the ears of the savages are astounded with the upliftings of our -voices." - -"And why are you permitted to go at large, unwatched?" - -David composed his features into what he intended should express an air -of modest humility, before he meekly replied: - -"Little be the praise to such a worm as I. But, though the power of -psalmody was suspended in the terrible business of that field of blood -through which we have passed, it has recovered its influence even over -the souls of the heathen, and I am suffered to go and come at will." - -The scout laughed, and, tapping his own forehead significantly, he -perhaps explained the singular indulgence more satisfactorily when he -said: - -"The Indians never harm a non-composser. But why, when the path lay open -before your eyes, did you not strike back on your own trail (it is not -so blind as that which a squirrel would make), and bring in the tidings -to Edward?" - -The scout, remembering only his own sturdy and iron nature, had probably -exacted a task that David, under no circumstances, could have performed. -But, without entirely losing the meekness of his air, the latter was -content to answer: - -"Though my soul would rejoice to visit the habitations of Christendom -once more, my feet would rather follow the tender spirits intrusted to -my keeping, even into the idolatrous province of the Jesuits, than take -one step backward, while they pined in captivity and sorrow." - -Though the figurative language of David was not very intelligible, the -sincere and steady expression of his eye, and the glow of his honest -countenance, were not easily mistaken. Uncas pressed closer to his side, -and regarded the speaker with a look of commendation, while his -father expressed his satisfaction by the ordinary pithy exclamation of -approbation. The scout shook his head as he rejoined: - -"The Lord never intended that the man should place all his endeavors in -his throat, to the neglect of other and better gifts! But he has fallen -into the hands of some silly woman, when he should have been gathering -his education under a blue sky, among the beauties of the forest. Here, -friend; I did intend to kindle a fire with this tooting-whistle of -thine; but, as you value the thing, take it, and blow your best on it." - -Gamut received his pitch-pipe with as strong an expression of pleasure -as he believed compatible with the grave functions he exercised. After -essaying its virtues repeatedly, in contrast with his own voice, and, -satisfying himself that none of its melody was lost, he made a very -serious demonstration toward achieving a few stanzas of one of the -longest effusions in the little volume so often mentioned. - -Heyward, however, hastily interrupted his pious purpose by continuing -questions concerning the past and present condition of his fellow -captives, and in a manner more methodical than had been permitted by his -feelings in the opening of their interview. David, though he regarded -his treasure with longing eyes, was constrained to answer, especially -as the venerable father took a part in the interrogatories, with an -interest too imposing to be denied. Nor did the scout fail to throw in -a pertinent inquiry, whenever a fitting occasion presented. In this -manner, though with frequent interruptions which were filled with -certain threatening sounds from the recovered instrument, the pursuers -were put in possession of such leading circumstances as were likely to -prove useful in accomplishing their great and engrossing object--the -recovery of the sisters. The narrative of David was simple, and the -facts but few. - -Magua had waited on the mountain until a safe moment to retire presented -itself, when he had descended, and taken the route along the western -side of the Horican in direction of the Canadas. As the subtle Huron was -familiar with the paths, and well knew there was no immediate danger of -pursuit, their progress had been moderate, and far from fatiguing. -It appeared from the unembellished statement of David, that his own -presence had been rather endured than desired; though even Magua had not -been entirely exempt from that veneration with which the Indians regard -those whom the Great Spirit had visited in their intellects. At night, -the utmost care had been taken of the captives, both to prevent injury -from the damps of the woods and to guard against an escape. At -the spring, the horses were turned loose, as has been seen; and, -notwithstanding the remoteness and length of their trail, the artifices -already named were resorted to, in order to cut off every clue to their -place of retreat. On their arrival at the encampment of his people, -Magua, in obedience to a policy seldom departed from, separated his -prisoners. Cora had been sent to a tribe that temporarily occupied an -adjacent valley, though David was far too ignorant of the customs and -history of the natives, to be able to declare anything satisfactory -concerning their name or character. He only knew that they had not -engaged in the late expedition against William Henry; that, like the -Hurons themselves they were allies of Montcalm; and that they maintained -an amicable, though a watchful intercourse with the warlike and -savage people whom chance had, for a time, brought in such close and -disagreeable contact with themselves. - -The Mohicans and the scout listened to his interrupted and imperfect -narrative, with an interest that obviously increased as he proceeded; -and it was while attempting to explain the pursuits of the community in -which Cora was detained, that the latter abruptly demanded: - -"Did you see the fashion of their knives? were they of English or French -formation?" - -"My thoughts were bent on no such vanities, but rather mingled in -consolation with those of the maidens." - -"The time may come when you will not consider the knife of a savage such -a despicable vanity," returned the scout, with a strong expression of -contempt for the other's dullness. "Had they held their corn feast--or -can you say anything of the totems of the tribe?" - -"Of corn, we had many and plentiful feasts; for the grain, being in -the milk is both sweet to the mouth and comfortable to the stomach. Of -totem, I know not the meaning; but if it appertaineth in any wise to the -art of Indian music, it need not be inquired after at their hands. They -never join their voices in praise, and it would seem that they are among -the profanest of the idolatrous." - -"Therein you belie the natur' of an Indian. Even the Mingo adores but -the true and loving God. 'Tis wicked fabrication of the whites, and I -say it to the shame of my color that would make the warrior bow down -before images of his own creation. It is true, they endeavor to make -truces to the wicked one--as who would not with an enemy he cannot -conquer! but they look up for favor and assistance to the Great and Good -Spirit only." - -"It may be so," said David; "but I have seen strange and fantastic -images drawn in their paint, of which their admiration and care savored -of spiritual pride; especially one, and that, too, a foul and loathsome -object." - -"Was it a sarpent?" quickly demanded the scout. - -"Much the same. It was in the likeness of an abject and creeping -tortoise." - -"Hugh!" exclaimed both the attentive Mohicans in a breath; while the -scout shook his head with the air of one who had made an important but -by no means a pleasing discovery. Then the father spoke, in the language -of the Delawares, and with a calmness and dignity that instantly -arrested the attention even of those to whom his words were -unintelligible. His gestures were impressive, and at times energetic. -Once he lifted his arm on high; and, as it descended, the action threw -aside the folds of his light mantle, a finger resting on his breast, as -if he would enforce his meaning by the attitude. Duncan's eyes followed -the movement, and he perceived that the animal just mentioned was -beautifully, though faintly, worked in blue tint, on the swarthy breast -of the chief. All that he had ever heard of the violent separation of -the vast tribes of the Delawares rushed across his mind, and he awaited -the proper moment to speak, with a suspense that was rendered nearly -intolerable by his interest in the stake. His wish, however, was -anticipated by the scout who turned from his red friend, saying: - -"We have found that which may be good or evil to us, as heaven disposes. -The Sagamore is of the high blood of the Delawares, and is the great -chief of their Tortoises! That some of this stock are among the people -of whom the singer tells us, is plain by his words; and, had he but -spent half the breath in prudent questions that he has blown away in -making a trumpet of his throat, we might have known how many warriors -they numbered. It is, altogether, a dangerous path we move in; for a -friend whose face is turned from you often bears a bloodier mind than -the enemy who seeks your scalp." - -"Explain," said Duncan. - -"'Tis a long and melancholy tradition, and one I little like to think -of; for it is not to be denied that the evil has been mainly done by men -with white skins. But it has ended in turning the tomahawk of brother -against brother, and brought the Mingo and the Delaware to travel in the -same path." - -"You, then, suspect it is a portion of that people among whom Cora -resides?" - -The scout nodded his head in assent, though he seemed anxious to waive -the further discussion of a subject that appeared painful. The impatient -Duncan now made several hasty and desperate propositions to attempt -the release of the sisters. Munro seemed to shake off his apathy, and -listened to the wild schemes of the young man with a deference that his -gray hairs and reverend years should have denied. But the scout, after -suffering the ardor of the lover to expend itself a little, found means -to convince him of the folly of precipitation, in a manner that would -require their coolest judgment and utmost fortitude. - -"It would be well," he added, "to let this man go in again, as usual, -and for him to tarry in the lodges, giving notice to the gentle ones of -our approach, until we call him out, by signal, to consult. You know the -cry of a crow, friend, from the whistle of the whip-poor-will?" - -"'Tis a pleasing bird," returned David, "and has a soft and melancholy -note! though the time is rather quick and ill-measured." - -"He speaks of the wish-ton-wish," said the scout; "well, since you like -his whistle, it shall be your signal. Remember, then, when you hear the -whip-poor-will's call three times repeated, you are to come into the -bushes where the bird might be supposed--" - -"Stop," interrupted Heyward; "I will accompany him." - -"You!" exclaimed the astonished Hawkeye; "are you tired of seeing the -sun rise and set?" - -"David is a living proof that the Hurons can be merciful." - -"Ay, but David can use his throat, as no man in his senses would pervart -the gift." - -"I too can play the madman, the fool, the hero; in short, any or -everything to rescue her I love. Name your objections no longer: I am -resolved." - -Hawkeye regarded the young man a moment in speechless amazement. -But Duncan, who, in deference to the other's skill and services, had -hitherto submitted somewhat implicitly to his dictation, now assumed the -superior, with a manner that was not easily resisted. He waved his hand, -in sign of his dislike to all remonstrance, and then, in more tempered -language, he continued: - -"You have the means of disguise; change me; paint me, too, if you will; -in short, alter me to anything--a fool." - -"It is not for one like me to say that he who is already formed by so -powerful a hand as Providence, stands in need of a change," muttered the -discontented scout. "When you send your parties abroad in war, you find -it prudent, at least, to arrange the marks and places of encampment, in -order that they who fight on your side may know when and where to expect -a friend." - -"Listen," interrupted Duncan; "you have heard from this faithful -follower of the captives, that the Indians are of two tribes, if not -of different nations. With one, whom you think to be a branch of the -Delawares, is she you call the 'dark-hair'; the other, and younger, -of the ladies, is undeniably with our declared enemies, the Hurons. It -becomes my youth and rank to attempt the latter adventure. While you, -therefore, are negotiating with your friends for the release of one of -the sisters, I will effect that of the other, or die." - -The awakened spirit of the young soldier gleamed in his eyes, and his -form became imposing under its influence. Hawkeye, though too much -accustomed to Indian artifices not to foresee the danger of the -experiment, knew not well how to combat this sudden resolution. - -Perhaps there was something in the proposal that suited his own hardy -nature, and that secret love of desperate adventure, which had increased -with his experience, until hazard and danger had become, in some -measure, necessary to the enjoyment of his existence. Instead of -continuing to oppose the scheme of Duncan, his humor suddenly altered, -and he lent himself to its execution. - -"Come," he said, with a good-humored smile; "the buck that will take -to the water must be headed, and not followed. Chingachgook has as many -different paints as the engineer officer's wife, who takes down natur' -on scraps of paper, making the mountains look like cocks of rusty hay, -and placing the blue sky in reach of your hand. The Sagamore can use -them, too. Seat yourself on the log; and my life on it, he can soon make -a natural fool of you, and that well to your liking." - -Duncan complied; and the Mohican, who had been an attentive listener to -the discourse, readily undertook the office. Long practised in all the -subtle arts of his race, he drew, with great dexterity and quickness, -the fantastic shadow that the natives were accustomed to consider as the -evidence of a friendly and jocular disposition. Every line that could -possibly be interpreted into a secret inclination for war, was carefully -avoided; while, on the other hand, he studied those conceits that might -be construed into amity. - -In short, he entirely sacrificed every appearance of the warrior to the -masquerade of a buffoon. Such exhibitions were not uncommon among the -Indians, and as Duncan was already sufficiently disguised in his dress, -there certainly did exist some reason for believing that, with his -knowledge of French, he might pass for a juggler from Ticonderoga, -straggling among the allied and friendly tribes. - -When he was thought to be sufficiently painted, the scout gave him much -friendly advice; concerted signals, and appointed the place where they -should meet, in the event of mutual success. The parting between Munro -and his young friend was more melancholy; still, the former submitted -to the separation with an indifference that his warm and honest nature -would never have permitted in a more healthful state of mind. The scout -led Heyward aside, and acquainted him with his intention to leave the -veteran in some safe encampment, in charge of Chingachgook, while he and -Uncas pursued their inquires among the people they had reason to believe -were Delawares. Then, renewing his cautions and advice, he concluded by -saying, with a solemnity and warmth of feeling, with which Duncan was -deeply touched: - -"And, now, God bless you! You have shown a spirit that I like; for it is -the gift of youth, more especially one of warm blood and a stout heart. -But believe the warning of a man who has reason to know all he says to -be true. You will have occasion for your best manhood, and for a sharper -wit than what is to be gathered in books, afore you outdo the cunning or -get the better of the courage of a Mingo. God bless you! if the Hurons -master your scalp, rely on the promise of one who has two stout warriors -to back him. They shall pay for their victory, with a life for every -hair it holds. I say, young gentleman, may Providence bless your -undertaking, which is altogether for good; and, remember, that to outwit -the knaves it is lawful to practise things that may not be naturally the -gift of a white-skin." - -Duncan shook his worthy and reluctant associate warmly by the hand, once -more recommended his aged friend to his care, and returning his good -wishes, he motioned to David to proceed. Hawkeye gazed after the -high-spirited and adventurous young man for several moments, in open -admiration; then, shaking his head doubtingly, he turned, and led his -own division of the party into the concealment of the forest. - -The route taken by Duncan and David lay directly across the clearing of -the beavers, and along the margin of their pond. - -When the former found himself alone with one so simple, and so little -qualified to render any assistance in desperate emergencies, he first -began to be sensible of the difficulties of the task he had undertaken. -The fading light increased the gloominess of the bleak and savage -wilderness that stretched so far on every side of him, and there was -even a fearful character in the stillness of those little huts, that -he knew were so abundantly peopled. It struck him, as he gazed at the -admirable structures and the wonderful precautions of their sagacious -inmates, that even the brutes of these vast wilds were possessed of -an instinct nearly commensurate with his own reason; and he could not -reflect, without anxiety, on the unequal contest that he had so rashly -courted. Then came the glowing image of Alice; her distress; her actual -danger; and all the peril of his situation was forgotten. Cheering -David, he moved on with the light and vigorous step of youth and -enterprise. - -After making nearly a semicircle around the pond, they diverged from the -water-course, and began to ascend to the level of a slight elevation in -that bottom land, over which they journeyed. Within half an hour they -gained the margin of another opening that bore all the signs of having -been also made by the beavers, and which those sagacious animals had -probably been induced, by some accident, to abandon, for the more -eligible position they now occupied. A very natural sensation caused -Duncan to hesitate a moment, unwilling to leave the cover of their -bushy path, as a man pauses to collect his energies before he essays any -hazardous experiment, in which he is secretly conscious they will all be -needed. He profited by the halt, to gather such information as might be -obtained from his short and hasty glances. - -On the opposite side of the clearing, and near the point where the brook -tumbled over some rocks, from a still higher level, some fifty or sixty -lodges, rudely fabricated of logs brush, and earth intermingled, were -to be discovered. They were arranged without any order, and seemed to be -constructed with very little attention to neatness or beauty. Indeed, -so very inferior were they in the two latter particulars to the village -Duncan had just seen, that he began to expect a second surprise, no -less astonishing that the former. This expectation was in no degree -diminished, when, by the doubtful twilight, he beheld twenty or thirty -forms rising alternately from the cover of the tall, coarse grass, in -front of the lodges, and then sinking again from the sight, as it were -to burrow in the earth. By the sudden and hasty glimpses that he caught -of these figures, they seemed more like dark, glancing specters, or some -other unearthly beings, than creatures fashioned with the ordinary and -vulgar materials of flesh and blood. A gaunt, naked form was seen, for a -single instant, tossing its arms wildly in the air, and then the spot it -had filled was vacant; the figure appearing suddenly in some other -and distant place, or being succeeded by another, possessing the same -mysterious character. David, observing that his companion lingered, -pursued the direction of his gaze, and in some measure recalled the -recollection of Heyward, by speaking. - -"There is much fruitful soil uncultivated here," he said; "and, I may -add, without the sinful leaven of self-commendation, that, since my -short sojourn in these heathenish abodes, much good seed has been -scattered by the wayside." - -"The tribes are fonder of the chase than of the arts of men of labor," -returned the unconscious Duncan, still gazing at the objects of his -wonder. - -"It is rather joy than labor to the spirit, to lift up the voice in -praise; but sadly do these boys abuse their gifts. Rarely have I found -any of their age, on whom nature has so freely bestowed the elements -of psalmody; and surely, surely, there are none who neglect them more. -Three nights have I now tarried here, and three several times have I -assembled the urchins to join in sacred song; and as often have they -responded to my efforts with whoopings and howlings that have chilled my -soul!" - -"Of whom speak you?" - -"Of those children of the devil, who waste the precious moments in -yonder idle antics. Ah! the wholesome restraint of discipline is but -little known among this self-abandoned people. In a country of birches, -a rod is never seen, and it ought not to appear a marvel in my eyes, -that the choicest blessings of Providence are wasted in such cries as -these." - -David closed his ears against the juvenile pack, whose yell just then -rang shrilly through the forest; and Duncan, suffering his lip to curl, -as in mockery of his own superstition, said firmly: - -"We will proceed." - -Without removing the safeguards form his ears, the master of song -complied, and together they pursued their way toward what David was -sometimes wont to call the "tents of the Philistines." - - - - -CHAPTER 23 - - "But though the beast of game - The privilege of chase may claim; - Though space and law the stag we lend - Ere hound we slip, or bow we bend; - Whoever recked, where, how, or when - The prowling fox was trapped or slain?" - --Lady of the Lake. - -It is unusual to find an encampment of the natives, like those of the -more instructed whites, guarded by the presence of armed men. Well -informed of the approach of every danger, while it is yet at a distance, -the Indian generally rests secure under his knowledge of the signs of -the forest, and the long and difficult paths that separate him from -those he has most reason to dread. But the enemy who, by any lucky -concurrence of accidents, has found means to elude the vigilance of the -scouts, will seldom meet with sentinels nearer home to sound the alarm. -In addition to this general usage, the tribes friendly to the French -knew too well the weight of the blow that had just been struck, to -apprehend any immediate danger from the hostile nations that were -tributary to the crown of Britain. - -When Duncan and David, therefore, found themselves in the center of the -children, who played the antics already mentioned, it was without the -least previous intimation of their approach. But so soon as they were -observed the whole of the juvenile pack raised, by common consent, a -shrill and warning whoop; and then sank, as it were, by magic, from -before the sight of their visitors. The naked, tawny bodies of the -crouching urchins blended so nicely at that hour, with the withered -herbage, that at first it seemed as if the earth had, in truth, -swallowed up their forms; though when surprise permitted Duncan to bend -his look more curiously about the spot, he found it everywhere met by -dark, quick, and rolling eyeballs. - -Gathering no encouragement from this startling presage of the nature of -the scrutiny he was likely to undergo from the more mature judgments -of the men, there was an instant when the young soldier would have -retreated. It was, however, too late to appear to hesitate. The cry -of the children had drawn a dozen warriors to the door of the nearest -lodge, where they stood clustered in a dark and savage group, gravely -awaiting the nearer approach of those who had unexpectedly come among -them. - -David, in some measure familiarized to the scene, led the way with a -steadiness that no slight obstacle was likely to disconcert, into this -very building. It was the principal edifice of the village, though -roughly constructed of the bark and branches of trees; being the lodge -in which the tribe held its councils and public meetings during their -temporary residence on the borders of the English province. Duncan found -it difficult to assume the necessary appearance of unconcern, as he -brushed the dark and powerful frames of the savages who thronged its -threshold; but, conscious that his existence depended on his presence of -mind, he trusted to the discretion of his companion, whose footsteps he -closely followed, endeavoring, as he proceeded, to rally his thoughts -for the occasion. His blood curdled when he found himself in absolute -contact with such fierce and implacable enemies; but he so far mastered -his feelings as to pursue his way into the center of the lodge, with an -exterior that did not betray the weakness. Imitating the example of the -deliberate Gamut, he drew a bundle of fragrant brush from beneath a pile -that filled the corner of the hut, and seated himself in silence. - -So soon as their visitor had passed, the observant warriors fell back -from the entrance, and arranging themselves about him, they seemed -patiently to await the moment when it might comport with the dignity of -the stranger to speak. By far the greater number stood leaning, in lazy, -lounging attitudes, against the upright posts that supported the crazy -building, while three or four of the oldest and most distinguished of -the chiefs placed themselves on the earth a little more in advance. - -A flaring torch was burning in the place, and set its red glare from -face to face and figure to figure, as it waved in the currents of air. -Duncan profited by its light to read the probable character of his -reception, in the countenances of his hosts. But his ingenuity availed -him little, against the cold artifices of the people he had encountered. -The chiefs in front scarce cast a glance at his person, keeping their -eyes on the ground, with an air that might have been intended for -respect, but which it was quite easy to construe into distrust. The men -in the shadow were less reserved. Duncan soon detected their searching, -but stolen, looks which, in truth, scanned his person and attire inch by -inch; leaving no emotion of the countenance, no gesture, no line of the -paint, nor even the fashion of a garment, unheeded, and without comment. - -At length one whose hair was beginning to be sprinkled with gray, but -whose sinewy limbs and firm tread announced that he was still equal to -the duties of manhood, advanced out of the gloom of a corner, whither he -had probably posted himself to make his observations unseen, and -spoke. He used the language of the Wyandots, or Hurons; his words were, -consequently, unintelligible to Heyward, though they seemed, by the -gestures that accompanied them, to be uttered more in courtesy than -anger. The latter shook his head, and made a gesture indicative of his -inability to reply. - -"Do none of my brothers speak the French or the English?" he said, in -the former language, looking about him from countenance to countenance, -in hopes of finding a nod of assent. - -Though more than one had turned, as if to catch the meaning of his -words, they remained unanswered. - -"I should be grieved to think," continued Duncan, speaking slowly, and -using the simplest French of which he was the master, "to believe that -none of this wise and brave nation understand the language that the -'Grand Monarque' uses when he talks to his children. His heart would be -heavy did he believe his red warriors paid him so little respect!" - -A long and grave pause succeeded, during which no movement of a limb, -nor any expression of an eye, betrayed the expression produced by his -remark. Duncan, who knew that silence was a virtue among his hosts, -gladly had recourse to the custom, in order to arrange his ideas. At -length the same warrior who had before addressed him replied, by dryly -demanding, in the language of the Canadas: - -"When our Great Father speaks to his people, is it with the tongue of a -Huron?" - -"He knows no difference in his children, whether the color of the skin -be red, or black, or white," returned Duncan, evasively; "though chiefly -is he satisfied with the brave Hurons." - -"In what manner will he speak," demanded the wary chief, "when the -runners count to him the scalps which five nights ago grew on the heads -of the Yengeese?" - -"They were his enemies," said Duncan, shuddering involuntarily; "and -doubtless, he will say, it is good; my Hurons are very gallant." - -"Our Canada father does not think it. Instead of looking forward to -reward his Indians, his eyes are turned backward. He sees the dead -Yengeese, but no Huron. What can this mean?" - -"A great chief, like him, has more thoughts than tongues. He looks to -see that no enemies are on his trail." - -"The canoe of a dead warrior will not float on the Horican," returned -the savage, gloomily. "His ears are open to the Delawares, who are not -our friends, and they fill them with lies." - -"It cannot be. See; he has bid me, who am a man that knows the art of -healing, to go to his children, the red Hurons of the great lakes, and -ask if any are sick!" - -Another silence succeeded this annunciation of the character Duncan -had assumed. Every eye was simultaneously bent on his person, as if -to inquire into the truth or falsehood of the declaration, with an -intelligence and keenness that caused the subject of their scrutiny to -tremble for the result. He was, however, relieved again by the former -speaker. - -"Do the cunning men of the Canadas paint their skins?" the Huron coldly -continued; "we have heard them boast that their faces were pale." - -"When an Indian chief comes among his white fathers," returned Duncan, -with great steadiness, "he lays aside his buffalo robe, to carry the -shirt that is offered him. My brothers have given me paint and I wear -it." - -A low murmur of applause announced that the compliment of the tribe was -favorably received. The elderly chief made a gesture of commendation, -which was answered by most of his companions, who each threw forth -a hand and uttered a brief exclamation of pleasure. Duncan began to -breathe more freely, believing that the weight of his examination was -past; and, as he had already prepared a simple and probable tale to -support his pretended occupation, his hopes of ultimate success grew -brighter. - -After a silence of a few moments, as if adjusting his thoughts, in -order to make a suitable answer to the declaration their guests had -just given, another warrior arose, and placed himself in an attitude to -speak. While his lips were yet in the act of parting, a low but fearful -sound arose from the forest, and was immediately succeeded by a high, -shrill yell, that was drawn out, until it equaled the longest and most -plaintive howl of the wolf. The sudden and terrible interruption caused -Duncan to start from his seat, unconscious of everything but the effect -produced by so frightful a cry. At the same moment, the warriors glided -in a body from the lodge, and the outer air was filled with loud shouts, -that nearly drowned those awful sounds, which were still ringing beneath -the arches of the woods. Unable to command himself any longer, the youth -broke from the place, and presently stood in the center of a disorderly -throng, that included nearly everything having life, within the limits -of the encampment. Men, women, and children; the aged, the inform, the -active, and the strong, were alike abroad, some exclaiming aloud, others -clapping their hands with a joy that seemed frantic, and all expressing -their savage pleasure in some unexpected event. Though astounded, at -first, by the uproar, Heyward was soon enabled to find its solution by -the scene that followed. - -There yet lingered sufficient light in the heavens to exhibit those -bright openings among the tree-tops, where different paths left the -clearing to enter the depths of the wilderness. Beneath one of them, a -line of warriors issued from the woods, and advanced slowly toward the -dwellings. One in front bore a short pole, on which, as it afterwards -appeared, were suspended several human scalps. The startling sounds that -Duncan had heard were what the whites have not inappropriately called -the "death-hallo"; and each repetition of the cry was intended to -announce to the tribe the fate of an enemy. Thus far the knowledge of -Heyward assisted him in the explanation; and as he now knew that the -interruption was caused by the unlooked-for return of a successful -war-party, every disagreeable sensation was quieted in inward -congratulation, for the opportune relief and insignificance it conferred -on himself. - -When at the distance of a few hundred feet from the lodges the newly -arrived warriors halted. Their plaintive and terrific cry, which was -intended to represent equally the wailings of the dead and the triumph -to the victors, had entirely ceased. One of their number now called -aloud, in words that were far from appalling, though not more -intelligible to those for whose ears they were intended, than their -expressive yells. It would be difficult to convey a suitable idea of the -savage ecstasy with which the news thus imparted was received. The whole -encampment, in a moment, became a scene of the most violent bustle and -commotion. The warriors drew their knives, and flourishing them, they -arranged themselves in two lines, forming a lane that extended from -the war-party to the lodges. The squaws seized clubs, axes, or whatever -weapon of offense first offered itself to their hands, and rushed -eagerly to act their part in the cruel game that was at hand. Even -the children would not be excluded; but boys, little able to wield the -instruments, tore the tomahawks from the belts of their fathers, and -stole into the ranks, apt imitators of the savage traits exhibited by -their parents. - -Large piles of brush lay scattered about the clearing, and a wary and -aged squaw was occupied in firing as many as might serve to light the -coming exhibition. As the flame arose, its power exceeded that of -the parting day, and assisted to render objects at the same time more -distinct and more hideous. The whole scene formed a striking picture, -whose frame was composed of the dark and tall border of pines. The -warriors just arrived were the most distant figures. A little in advance -stood two men, who were apparently selected from the rest, as the -principal actors in what was to follow. The light was not strong enough -to render their features distinct, though it was quite evident that -they were governed by very different emotions. While one stood erect and -firm, prepared to meet his fate like a hero, the other bowed his head, -as if palsied by terror or stricken with shame. The high-spirited Duncan -felt a powerful impulse of admiration and pity toward the former, though -no opportunity could offer to exhibit his generous emotions. He watched -his slightest movement, however, with eager eyes; and, as he traced -the fine outline of his admirably proportioned and active frame, he -endeavored to persuade himself, that, if the powers of man, seconded -by such noble resolution, could bear one harmless through so severe a -trial, the youthful captive before him might hope for success in the -hazardous race he was about to run. Insensibly the young man drew nigher -to the swarthy lines of the Hurons, and scarcely breathed, so intense -became his interest in the spectacle. Just then the signal yell was -given, and the momentary quiet which had preceded it was broken by a -burst of cries, that far exceeded any before heard. The more abject of -the two victims continued motionless; but the other bounded from the -place at the cry, with the activity and swiftness of a deer. Instead of -rushing through the hostile lines, as had been expected, he just entered -the dangerous defile, and before time was given for a single blow, -turned short, and leaping the heads of a row of children, he gained at -once the exterior and safer side of the formidable array. The artifice -was answered by a hundred voices raised in imprecations; and the whole -of the excited multitude broke from their order, and spread themselves -about the place in wild confusion. - -A dozen blazing piles now shed their lurid brightness on the place, -which resembled some unhallowed and supernatural arena, in which -malicious demons had assembled to act their bloody and lawless rites. -The forms in the background looked like unearthly beings, gliding before -the eye, and cleaving the air with frantic and unmeaning gestures; while -the savage passions of such as passed the flames were rendered fearfully -distinct by the gleams that shot athwart their inflamed visages. - -It will easily be understood that, amid such a concourse of vindictive -enemies, no breathing time was allowed the fugitive. There was a single -moment when it seemed as if he would have reached the forest, but the -whole body of his captors threw themselves before him, and drove him -back into the center of his relentless persecutors. Turning like a -headed deer, he shot, with the swiftness of an arrow, through a pillar -of forked flame, and passing the whole multitude harmless, he appeared -on the opposite side of the clearing. Here, too, he was met and turned -by a few of the older and more subtle of the Hurons. Once more he tried -the throng, as if seeking safety in its blindness, and then several -moments succeeded, during which Duncan believed the active and -courageous young stranger was lost. - -Nothing could be distinguished but a dark mass of human forms tossed -and involved in inexplicable confusion. Arms, gleaming knives, and -formidable clubs, appeared above them, but the blows were evidently -given at random. The awful effect was heightened by the piercing shrieks -of the women and the fierce yells of the warriors. Now and then Duncan -caught a glimpse of a light form cleaving the air in some desperate -bound, and he rather hoped than believed that the captive yet retained -the command of his astonishing powers of activity. Suddenly the -multitude rolled backward, and approached the spot where he himself -stood. The heavy body in the rear pressed upon the women and children -in front, and bore them to the earth. The stranger reappeared in the -confusion. Human power could not, however, much longer endure so -severe a trial. Of this the captive seemed conscious. Profiting by -the momentary opening, he darted from among the warriors, and made a -desperate, and what seemed to Duncan a final effort to gain the wood. -As if aware that no danger was to be apprehended from the young soldier, -the fugitive nearly brushed his person in his flight. A tall and -powerful Huron, who had husbanded his forces, pressed close upon his -heels, and with an uplifted arm menaced a fatal blow. Duncan thrust -forth a foot, and the shock precipitated the eager savage headlong, many -feet in advance of his intended victim. Thought itself is not quicker -than was the motion with which the latter profited by the advantage; he -turned, gleamed like a meteor again before the eyes of Duncan, and, at -the next moment, when the latter recovered his recollection, and gazed -around in quest of the captive, he saw him quietly leaning against a -small painted post, which stood before the door of the principal lodge. - -Apprehensive that the part he had taken in the escape might prove fatal -to himself, Duncan left the place without delay. He followed the crowd, -which drew nigh the lodges, gloomy and sullen, like any other multitude -that had been disappointed in an execution. Curiosity, or perhaps a -better feeling, induced him to approach the stranger. He found him, -standing with one arm cast about the protecting post, and breathing -thick and hard, after his exertions, but disdaining to permit a single -sign of suffering to escape. His person was now protected by immemorial -and sacred usage, until the tribe in council had deliberated and -determined on his fate. It was not difficult, however, to foretell the -result, if any presage could be drawn from the feelings of those who -crowded the place. - -There was no term of abuse known to the Huron vocabulary that the -disappointed women did not lavishly expend on the successful stranger. -They flouted at his efforts, and told him, with bitter scoffs, that his -feet were better than his hands; and that he merited wings, while he -knew not the use of an arrow or a knife. To all this the captive made -no reply; but was content to preserve an attitude in which dignity was -singularly blended with disdain. Exasperated as much by his composure -as by his good-fortune, their words became unintelligible, and were -succeeded by shrill, piercing yells. Just then the crafty squaw, who had -taken the necessary precaution to fire the piles, made her way through -the throng, and cleared a place for herself in front of the captive. The -squalid and withered person of this hag might well have obtained for her -the character of possessing more than human cunning. Throwing back her -light vestment, she stretched forth her long, skinny arm, in derision, -and using the language of the Lenape, as more intelligible to the -subject of her gibes, she commenced aloud: - -"Look you, Delaware," she said, snapping her fingers in his face; "your -nation is a race of women, and the hoe is better fitted to your hands -than the gun. Your squaws are the mothers of deer; but if a bear, or -a wildcat, or a serpent were born among you, ye would flee. The Huron -girls shall make you petticoats, and we will find you a husband." - -A burst of savage laughter succeeded this attack, during which the soft -and musical merriment of the younger females strangely chimed with -the cracked voice of their older and more malignant companion. But the -stranger was superior to all their efforts. His head was immovable; nor -did he betray the slightest consciousness that any were present, except -when his haughty eye rolled toward the dusky forms of the warriors, who -stalked in the background silent and sullen observers of the scene. - -Infuriated at the self-command of the captive, the woman placed her arms -akimbo; and, throwing herself into a posture of defiance, she broke -out anew, in a torrent of words that no art of ours could commit -successfully to paper. Her breath was, however, expended in vain; for, -although distinguished in her nation as a proficient in the art of -abuse, she was permitted to work herself into such a fury as actually to -foam at the mouth, without causing a muscle to vibrate in the motionless -figure of the stranger. The effect of his indifference began to extend -itself to the other spectators; and a youngster, who was just quitting -the condition of a boy to enter the state of manhood, attempted to -assist the termagant, by flourishing his tomahawk before their victim, -and adding his empty boasts to the taunts of the women. Then, indeed, -the captive turned his face toward the light, and looked down on the -stripling with an expression that was superior to contempt. At the next -moment he resumed his quiet and reclining attitude against the post. But -the change of posture had permitted Duncan to exchange glances with the -firm and piercing eyes of Uncas. - -Breathless with amazement, and heavily oppressed with the critical -situation of his friend, Heyward recoiled before the look, trembling -lest its meaning might, in some unknown manner, hasten the prisoner's -fate. There was not, however, any instant cause for such an -apprehension. Just then a warrior forced his way into the exasperated -crowd. Motioning the women and children aside with a stern gesture, he -took Uncas by the arm, and led him toward the door of the council-lodge. -Thither all the chiefs, and most of the distinguished warriors, -followed; among whom the anxious Heyward found means to enter without -attracting any dangerous attention to himself. - -A few minutes were consumed in disposing of those present in a manner -suitable to their rank and influence in the tribe. An order very similar -to that adopted in the preceding interview was observed; the aged and -superior chiefs occupying the area of the spacious apartment, within -the powerful light of a glaring torch, while their juniors and inferiors -were arranged in the background, presenting a dark outline of swarthy -and marked visages. In the very center of the lodge, immediately under -an opening that admitted the twinkling light of one or two stars, stood -Uncas, calm, elevated, and collected. His high and haughty carriage was -not lost on his captors, who often bent their looks on his person, with -eyes which, while they lost none of their inflexibility of purpose, -plainly betrayed their admiration of the stranger's daring. - -The case was different with the individual whom Duncan had observed to -stand forth with his friend, previously to the desperate trial of speed; -and who, instead of joining in the chase, had remained, throughout -its turbulent uproar, like a cringing statue, expressive of shame and -disgrace. Though not a hand had been extended to greet him, nor yet an -eye had condescended to watch his movements, he had also entered the -lodge, as though impelled by a fate to whose decrees he submitted, -seemingly, without a struggle. Heyward profited by the first opportunity -to gaze in his face, secretly apprehensive he might find the features -of another acquaintance; but they proved to be those of a stranger, and, -what was still more inexplicable, of one who bore all the distinctive -marks of a Huron warrior. Instead of mingling with his tribe, however, -he sat apart, a solitary being in a multitude, his form shrinking into a -crouching and abject attitude, as if anxious to fill as little space as -possible. When each individual had taken his proper station, and silence -reigned in the place, the gray-haired chief already introduced to the -reader, spoke aloud, in the language of the Lenni Lenape. - -"Delaware," he said, "though one of a nation of women, you have proved -yourself a man. I would give you food; but he who eats with a Huron -should become his friend. Rest in peace till the morning sun, when our -last words shall be spoken." - -"Seven nights, and as many summer days, have I fasted on the trail of -the Hurons," Uncas coldly replied; "the children of the Lenape know how -to travel the path of the just without lingering to eat." - -"Two of my young men are in pursuit of your companion," resumed the -other, without appearing to regard the boast of his captive; "when they -get back, then will our wise man say to you 'live' or 'die'." - -"Has a Huron no ears?" scornfully exclaimed Uncas; "twice, since he has -been your prisoner, has the Delaware heard a gun that he knows. Your -young men will never come back!" - -A short and sullen pause succeeded this bold assertion. Duncan, who -understood the Mohican to allude to the fatal rifle of the scout, bent -forward in earnest observation of the effect it might produce on the -conquerors; but the chief was content with simply retorting: - -"If the Lenape are so skillful, why is one of their bravest warriors -here?" - -"He followed in the steps of a flying coward, and fell into a snare. The -cunning beaver may be caught." - -As Uncas thus replied, he pointed with his finger toward the solitary -Huron, but without deigning to bestow any other notice on so unworthy -an object. The words of the answer and the air of the speaker produced -a strong sensation among his auditors. Every eye rolled sullenly toward -the individual indicated by the simple gesture, and a low, threatening -murmur passed through the crowd. The ominous sounds reached the outer -door, and the women and children pressing into the throng, no gap had -been left, between shoulder and shoulder, that was not now filled with -the dark lineaments of some eager and curious human countenance. - -In the meantime, the more aged chiefs, in the center, communed with each -other in short and broken sentences. Not a word was uttered that did not -convey the meaning of the speaker, in the simplest and most energetic -form. Again, a long and deeply solemn pause took place. It was known, -by all present, to be the brave precursor of a weighty and important -judgment. They who composed the outer circle of faces were on tiptoe to -gaze; and even the culprit for an instant forgot his shame in a deeper -emotion, and exposed his abject features, in order to cast an anxious -and troubled glance at the dark assemblage of chiefs. The silence was -finally broken by the aged warrior so often named. He arose from the -earth, and moving past the immovable form of Uncas, placed himself in -a dignified attitude before the offender. At that moment, the withered -squaw already mentioned moved into the circle, in a slow, sidling sort -of a dance, holding the torch, and muttering the indistinct words of -what might have been a species of incantation. Though her presence was -altogether an intrusion, it was unheeded. - -Approaching Uncas, she held the blazing brand in such a manner as to -cast its red glare on his person, and to expose the slightest emotion of -his countenance. The Mohican maintained his firm and haughty attitude; -and his eyes, so far from deigning to meet her inquisitive look, dwelt -steadily on the distance, as though it penetrated the obstacles -which impeded the view and looked into futurity. Satisfied with her -examination, she left him, with a slight expression of pleasure, and -proceeded to practise the same trying experiment on her delinquent -countryman. - -The young Huron was in his war paint, and very little of a finely molded -form was concealed by his attire. The light rendered every limb and -joint discernible, and Duncan turned away in horror when he saw they -were writhing in irrepressible agony. The woman was commencing a low -and plaintive howl at the sad and shameful spectacle, when the chief put -forth his hand and gently pushed her aside. - -"Reed-that-bends," he said, addressing the young culprit by name, and in -his proper language, "though the Great Spirit has made you pleasant to -the eyes, it would have been better that you had not been born. Your -tongue is loud in the village, but in battle it is still. None of my -young men strike the tomahawk deeper into the war-post--none of them so -lightly on the Yengeese. The enemy know the shape of your back, but they -have never seen the color of your eyes. Three times have they called on -you to come, and as often did you forget to answer. Your name will never -be mentioned again in your tribe--it is already forgotten." - -As the chief slowly uttered these words, pausing impressively between -each sentence, the culprit raised his face, in deference to the other's -rank and years. Shame, horror, and pride struggled in its lineaments. -His eye, which was contracted with inward anguish, gleamed on the -persons of those whose breath was his fame; and the latter emotion for -an instant predominated. He arose to his feet, and baring his bosom, -looked steadily on the keen, glittering knife, that was already upheld -by his inexorable judge. As the weapon passed slowly into his heart he -even smiled, as if in joy at having found death less dreadful than he -had anticipated, and fell heavily on his face, at the feet of the rigid -and unyielding form of Uncas. - -The squaw gave a loud and plaintive yell, dashed the torch to the -earth, and buried everything in darkness. The whole shuddering group -of spectators glided from the lodge like troubled sprites; and Duncan -thought that he and the yet throbbing body of the victim of an Indian -judgment had now become its only tenants. - - - - -CHAPTER 24 - - "Thus spoke the sage: the kings without delay - Dissolve the council, and their chief obey." - --Pope's Iliad - -A single moment served to convince the youth that he was mistaken. A -hand was laid, with a powerful pressure, on his arm, and the low voice -of Uncas muttered in his ear: - -"The Hurons are dogs. The sight of a coward's blood can never make a -warrior tremble. The 'Gray Head' and the Sagamore are safe, and the -rifle of Hawkeye is not asleep. Go--Uncas and the 'Open Hand' are now -strangers. It is enough." - -Heyward would gladly have heard more, but a gentle push from his friend -urged him toward the door, and admonished him of the danger that might -attend the discovery of their intercourse. Slowly and reluctantly -yielding to the necessity, he quitted the place, and mingled with the -throng that hovered nigh. The dying fires in the clearing cast a dim and -uncertain light on the dusky figures that were silently stalking to -and fro; and occasionally a brighter gleam than common glanced into the -lodge, and exhibited the figure of Uncas still maintaining its upright -attitude near the dead body of the Huron. - -A knot of warriors soon entered the place again, and reissuing, -they bore the senseless remains into the adjacent woods. After this -termination of the scene, Duncan wandered among the lodges, unquestioned -and unnoticed, endeavoring to find some trace of her in whose behalf he -incurred the risk he ran. In the present temper of the tribe it would -have been easy to have fled and rejoined his companions, had such a -wish crossed his mind. But, in addition to the never-ceasing anxiety on -account of Alice, a fresher though feebler interest in the fate of Uncas -assisted to chain him to the spot. He continued, therefore, to stray -from hut to hut, looking into each only to encounter additional -disappointment, until he had made the entire circuit of the village. -Abandoning a species of inquiry that proved so fruitless, he retraced -his steps to the council-lodge, resolved to seek and question David, in -order to put an end to his doubts. - -On reaching the building, which had proved alike the seat of judgment -and the place of execution, the young man found that the excitement -had already subsided. The warriors had reassembled, and were now calmly -smoking, while they conversed gravely on the chief incidents of their -recent expedition to the head of the Horican. Though the return of -Duncan was likely to remind them of his character, and the suspicious -circumstances of his visit, it produced no visible sensation. So far, -the terrible scene that had just occurred proved favorable to his views, -and he required no other prompter than his own feelings to convince him -of the expediency of profiting by so unexpected an advantage. - -Without seeming to hesitate, he walked into the lodge, and took his seat -with a gravity that accorded admirably with the deportment of his hosts. -A hasty but searching glance sufficed to tell him that, though Uncas -still remained where he had left him, David had not reappeared. No other -restraint was imposed on the former than the watchful looks of a young -Huron, who had placed himself at hand; though an armed warrior leaned -against the post that formed one side of the narrow doorway. In every -other respect, the captive seemed at liberty; still he was excluded from -all participation in the discourse, and possessed much more of the air -of some finely molded statue than a man having life and volition. - -Heyward had too recently witnessed a frightful instance of the prompt -punishments of the people into whose hands he had fallen to hazard an -exposure by any officious boldness. He would greatly have preferred -silence and meditation to speech, when a discovery of his real -condition might prove so instantly fatal. Unfortunately for this prudent -resolution, his entertainers appeared otherwise disposed. He had not -long occupied the seat wisely taken a little in the shade, when another -of the elder warriors, who spoke the French language, addressed him: - -"My Canada father does not forget his children," said the chief; "I -thank him. An evil spirit lives in the wife of one of my young men. Can -the cunning stranger frighten him away?" - -Heyward possessed some knowledge of the mummery practised among the -Indians, in the cases of such supposed visitations. He saw, at a glance, -that the circumstance might possibly be improved to further his own -ends. It would, therefore, have been difficult, just then to have -uttered a proposal that would have given him more satisfaction. Aware -of the necessity of preserving the dignity of his imaginary character, -however, he repressed his feelings, and answered with suitable mystery: - -"Spirits differ; some yield to the power of wisdom, while others are too -strong." - -"My brother is a great medicine," said the cunning savage; "he will -try?" - -A gesture of assent was the answer. The Huron was content with the -assurance, and, resuming his pipe, he awaited the proper moment to -move. The impatient Heyward, inwardly execrating the cold customs of -the savages, which required such sacrifices to appearance, was fain to -assume an air of indifference, equal to that maintained by the chief, -who was, in truth, a near relative of the afflicted woman. The minutes -lingered, and the delay had seemed an hour to the adventurer in -empiricism, when the Huron laid aside his pipe and drew his robe across -his breast, as if about to lead the way to the lodge of the invalid. -Just then, a warrior of powerful frame, darkened the door, and stalking -silently among the attentive group, he seated himself on one end of the -low pile of brush which sustained Duncan. The latter cast an impatient -look at his neighbor, and felt his flesh creep with uncontrollable -horror when he found himself in actual contact with Magua. - -The sudden return of this artful and dreaded chief caused a delay in the -departure of the Huron. Several pipes, that had been extinguished, were -lighted again; while the newcomer, without speaking a word, drew his -tomahawk from his girdle, and filling the bowl on its head began to -inhale the vapors of the weed through the hollow handle, with as much -indifference as if he had not been absent two weary days on a long and -toilsome hunt. Ten minutes, which appeared so many ages to Duncan, might -have passed in this manner; and the warriors were fairly enveloped in a -cloud of white smoke before any of them spoke. - -"Welcome!" one at length uttered; "has my friend found the moose?" - -"The young men stagger under their burdens," returned Magua. "Let -'Reed-that-bends' go on the hunting path; he will meet them." - -A deep and awful silence succeeded the utterance of the forbidden name. -Each pipe dropped from the lips of its owner as though all had inhaled -an impurity at the same instant. The smoke wreathed above their heads in -little eddies, and curling in a spiral form it ascended swiftly through -the opening in the roof of the lodge, leaving the place beneath clear of -its fumes, and each dark visage distinctly visible. The looks of most of -the warriors were riveted on the earth; though a few of the younger and -less gifted of the party suffered their wild and glaring eyeballs to -roll in the direction of a white-headed savage, who sat between two of -the most venerated chiefs of the tribe. There was nothing in the air -or attire of this Indian that would seem to entitle him to such a -distinction. The former was rather depressed, than remarkable for the -bearing of the natives; and the latter was such as was commonly worn -by the ordinary men of the nation. Like most around him for more than -a minute his look, too, was on the ground; but, trusting his eyes at -length to steal a glance aside, he perceived that he was becoming an -object of general attention. Then he arose and lifted his voice in the -general silence. - -"It was a lie," he said; "I had no son. He who was called by that name -is forgotten; his blood was pale, and it came not from the veins of a -Huron; the wicked Chippewas cheated my squaw. The Great Spirit has said, -that the family of Wiss-entush should end; he is happy who knows that -the evil of his race dies with himself. I have done." - -The speaker, who was the father of the recreant young Indian, looked -round and about him, as if seeking commendation of his stoicism in the -eyes of the auditors. But the stern customs of his people had made too -severe an exaction of the feeble old man. The expression of his eye -contradicted his figurative and boastful language, while every muscle in -his wrinkled visage was working with anguish. Standing a single minute -to enjoy his bitter triumph, he turned away, as if sickening at the gaze -of men, and, veiling his face in his blanket, he walked from the lodge -with the noiseless step of an Indian seeking, in the privacy of his own -abode, the sympathy of one like himself, aged, forlorn and childless. - -The Indians, who believe in the hereditary transmission of virtues and -defects in character, suffered him to depart in silence. Then, with an -elevation of breeding that many in a more cultivated state of society -might profitably emulate, one of the chiefs drew the attention of the -young men from the weakness they had just witnessed, by saying, in a -cheerful voice, addressing himself in courtesy to Magua, as the newest -comer: - -"The Delawares have been like bears after the honey pots, prowling -around my village. But who has ever found a Huron asleep?" - -The darkness of the impending cloud which precedes a burst of thunder -was not blacker than the brow of Magua as he exclaimed: - -"The Delawares of the Lakes!" - -"Not so. They who wear the petticoats of squaws, on their own river. One -of them has been passing the tribe." - -"Did my young men take his scalp?" - -"His legs were good, though his arm is better for the hoe than the -tomahawk," returned the other, pointing to the immovable form of Uncas. - -Instead of manifesting any womanish curiosity to feast his eyes with the -sight of a captive from a people he was known to have so much reason to -hate, Magua continued to smoke, with the meditative air that he usually -maintained, when there was no immediate call on his cunning or his -eloquence. Although secretly amazed at the facts communicated by the -speech of the aged father, he permitted himself to ask no questions, -reserving his inquiries for a more suitable moment. It was only after a -sufficient interval that he shook the ashes from his pipe, replaced the -tomahawk, tightened his girdle, and arose, casting for the first time a -glance in the direction of the prisoner, who stood a little behind him. -The wary, though seemingly abstracted Uncas, caught a glimpse of the -movement, and turning suddenly to the light, their looks met. Near a -minute these two bold and untamed spirits stood regarding one another -steadily in the eye, neither quailing in the least before the fierce -gaze he encountered. The form of Uncas dilated, and his nostrils opened -like those of a tiger at bay; but so rigid and unyielding was his -posture, that he might easily have been converted by the imagination -into an exquisite and faultless representation of the warlike deity of -his tribe. The lineaments of the quivering features of Magua proved more -ductile; his countenance gradually lost its character of defiance in an -expression of ferocious joy, and heaving a breath from the very bottom -of his chest, he pronounced aloud the formidable name of: - -"Le Cerf Agile!" - -Each warrior sprang upon his feet at the utterance of the well-known -appellation, and there was a short period during which the stoical -constancy of the natives was completely conquered by surprise. The hated -and yet respected name was repeated as by one voice, carrying the -sound even beyond the limits of the lodge. The women and children, who -lingered around the entrance, took up the words in an echo, which was -succeeded by another shrill and plaintive howl. The latter was not yet -ended, when the sensation among the men had entirely abated. Each one in -presence seated himself, as though ashamed of his precipitation; but it -was many minutes before their meaning eyes ceased to roll toward their -captive, in curious examination of a warrior who had so often proved -his prowess on the best and proudest of their nation. Uncas enjoyed his -victory, but was content with merely exhibiting his triumph by a quiet -smile--an emblem of scorn which belongs to all time and every nation. - -Magua caught the expression, and raising his arm, he shook it at the -captive, the light silver ornaments attached to his bracelet rattling -with the trembling agitation of the limb, as, in a tone of vengeance, he -exclaimed, in English: - -"Mohican, you die!" - -"The healing waters will never bring the dead Hurons to life," returned -Uncas, in the music of the Delawares; "the tumbling river washes their -bones; their men are squaws: their women owls. Go! call together the -Huron dogs, that they may look upon a warrior, My nostrils are offended; -they scent the blood of a coward." - -The latter allusion struck deep, and the injury rankled. Many of the -Hurons understood the strange tongue in which the captive spoke, among -which number was Magua. This cunning savage beheld, and instantly -profited by his advantage. Dropping the light robe of skin from his -shoulder, he stretched forth his arm, and commenced a burst of his -dangerous and artful eloquence. However much his influence among his -people had been impaired by his occasional and besetting weakness, as -well as by his desertion of the tribe, his courage and his fame as an -orator were undeniable. He never spoke without auditors, and rarely -without making converts to his opinions. On the present occasion, his -native powers were stimulated by the thirst of revenge. - -He again recounted the events of the attack on the island at Glenn's, -the death of his associates and the escape of their most formidable -enemies. Then he described the nature and position of the mount whither -he had led such captives as had fallen into their hands. Of his own -bloody intentions toward the maidens, and of his baffled malice he made -no mention, but passed rapidly on to the surprise of the party by "La -Longue Carabine," and its fatal termination. Here he paused, and looked -about him, in affected veneration for the departed, but, in truth, -to note the effect of his opening narrative. As usual, every eye was -riveted on his face. Each dusky figure seemed a breathing statue, so -motionless was the posture, so intense the attention of the individual. - -Then Magua dropped his voice which had hitherto been clear, strong and -elevated, and touched upon the merits of the dead. No quality that was -likely to command the sympathy of an Indian escaped his notice. One -had never been known to follow the chase in vain; another had been -indefatigable on the trail of their enemies. This was brave, that -generous. In short, he so managed his allusions, that in a nation which -was composed of so few families, he contrived to strike every chord that -might find, in its turn, some breast in which to vibrate. - -"Are the bones of my young men," he concluded, "in the burial-place of -the Hurons? You know they are not. Their spirits are gone toward the -setting sun, and are already crossing the great waters, to the happy -hunting-grounds. But they departed without food, without guns or knives, -without moccasins, naked and poor as they were born. Shall this be? -Are their souls to enter the land of the just like hungry Iroquois or -unmanly Delawares, or shall they meet their friends with arms in their -hands and robes on their backs? What will our fathers think the tribes -of the Wyandots have become? They will look on their children with a -dark eye, and say, 'Go! a Chippewa has come hither with the name of a -Huron.' Brothers, we must not forget the dead; a red-skin never ceases -to remember. We will load the back of this Mohican until he staggers -under our bounty, and dispatch him after my young men. They call to us -for aid, though our ears are not open; they say, 'Forget us not.' When -they see the spirit of this Mohican toiling after them with his burden, -they will know we are of that mind. Then will they go on happy; and our -children will say, 'So did our fathers to their friends, so must we do -to them.' What is a Yengee? we have slain many, but the earth is still -pale. A stain on the name of Huron can only be hid by blood that comes -from the veins of an Indian. Let this Delaware die." - -The effect of such an harangue, delivered in the nervous language and -with the emphatic manner of a Huron orator, could scarcely be mistaken. -Magua had so artfully blended the natural sympathies with the religious -superstition of his auditors, that their minds, already prepared by -custom to sacrifice a victim to the manes of their countrymen, lost -every vestige of humanity in a wish for revenge. One warrior in -particular, a man of wild and ferocious mien, had been conspicuous for -the attention he had given to the words of the speaker. His countenance -had changed with each passing emotion, until it settled into a look -of deadly malice. As Magua ended he arose and, uttering the yell of a -demon, his polished little axe was seen glancing in the torchlight as -he whirled it above his head. The motion and the cry were too sudden -for words to interrupt his bloody intention. It appeared as if a bright -gleam shot from his hand, which was crossed at the same moment by a -dark and powerful line. The former was the tomahawk in its passage; the -latter the arm that Magua darted forward to divert its aim. The quick -and ready motion of the chief was not entirely too late. The keen weapon -cut the war plume from the scalping tuft of Uncas, and passed through -the frail wall of the lodge as though it were hurled from some -formidable engine. - -Duncan had seen the threatening action, and sprang upon his feet, with -a heart which, while it leaped into his throat, swelled with the most -generous resolution in behalf of his friend. A glance told him that the -blow had failed, and terror changed to admiration. Uncas stood still, -looking his enemy in the eye with features that seemed superior to -emotion. Marble could not be colder, calmer, or steadier than the -countenance he put upon this sudden and vindictive attack. Then, as if -pitying a want of skill which had proved so fortunate to himself, he -smiled, and muttered a few words of contempt in his own tongue. - -"No!" said Magua, after satisfying himself of the safety of the captive; -"the sun must shine on his shame; the squaws must see his flesh tremble, -or our revenge will be like the play of boys. Go! take him where there -is silence; let us see if a Delaware can sleep at night, and in the -morning die." - -The young men whose duty it was to guard the prisoner instantly passed -their ligaments of bark across his arms, and led him from the lodge, -amid a profound and ominous silence. It was only as the figure of Uncas -stood in the opening of the door that his firm step hesitated. There he -turned, and, in the sweeping and haughty glance that he threw around -the circle of his enemies, Duncan caught a look which he was glad to -construe into an expression that he was not entirely deserted by hope. - -Magua was content with his success, or too much occupied with his secret -purposes to push his inquiries any further. Shaking his mantle, and -folding it on his bosom, he also quitted the place, without pursuing a -subject which might have proved so fatal to the individual at his elbow. -Notwithstanding his rising resentment, his natural firmness, and his -anxiety on behalf of Uncas, Heyward felt sensibly relieved by the -absence of so dangerous and so subtle a foe. The excitement produced -by the speech gradually subsided. The warriors resumed their seats and -clouds of smoke once more filled the lodge. For near half an hour, not -a syllable was uttered, or scarcely a look cast aside; a grave and -meditative silence being the ordinary succession to every scene of -violence and commotion among these beings, who were alike so impetuous -and yet so self-restrained. - -When the chief, who had solicited the aid of Duncan, finished his pipe, -he made a final and successful movement toward departing. A motion of a -finger was the intimation he gave the supposed physician to follow; and -passing through the clouds of smoke, Duncad was glad, on more accounts -than one, to be able at last to breathe the pure air of a cool and -refreshing summer evening. - -Instead of pursuing his way among those lodges where Heyward had already -made his unsuccessful search, his companion turned aside, and proceeded -directly toward the base of an adjacent mountain, which overhung the -temporary village. A thicket of brush skirted its foot, and it became -necessary to proceed through a crooked and narrow path. The boys had -resumed their sports in the clearing, and were enacting a mimic chase -to the post among themselves. In order to render their games as like the -reality as possible, one of the boldest of their number had conveyed a -few brands into some piles of tree-tops that had hitherto escaped the -burning. The blaze of one of these fires lighted the way of the chief -and Duncan, and gave a character of additional wildness to the rude -scenery. At a little distance from a bald rock, and directly in its -front, they entered a grassy opening, which they prepared to cross. Just -then fresh fuel was added to the fire, and a powerful light penetrated -even to that distant spot. It fell upon the white surface of the -mountain, and was reflected downward upon a dark and mysterious-looking -being that arose, unexpectedly, in their path. The Indian paused, as if -doubtful whether to proceed, and permitted his companion to approach his -side. A large black ball, which at first seemed stationary, now began -to move in a manner that to the latter was inexplicable. Again the fire -brightened and its glare fell more distinctly on the object. Then even -Duncan knew it, by its restless and sidling attitudes, which kept the -upper part of its form in constant motion, while the animal itself -appeared seated, to be a bear. Though it growled loudly and fiercely, -and there were instants when its glistening eyeballs might be seen, -it gave no other indications of hostility. The Huron, at least, seemed -assured that the intentions of this singular intruder were peaceable, -for after giving it an attentive examination, he quietly pursued his -course. - -Duncan, who knew that the animal was often domesticated among the -Indians, followed the example of his companion, believing that some -favorite of the tribe had found its way into the thicket, in search -of food. They passed it unmolested. Though obliged to come nearly -in contact with the monster, the Huron, who had at first so warily -determined the character of his strange visitor, was now content with -proceeding without wasting a moment in further examination; but Heyward -was unable to prevent his eyes from looking backward, in salutary -watchfulness against attacks in the rear. His uneasiness was in no -degree diminished when he perceived the beast rolling along their path, -and following their footsteps. He would have spoken, but the Indian at -that moment shoved aside a door of bark, and entered a cavern in the -bosom of the mountain. - -Profiting by so easy a method of retreat, Duncan stepped after him, -and was gladly closing the slight cover to the opening, when he felt it -drawn from his hand by the beast, whose shaggy form immediately darkened -the passage. They were now in a straight and long gallery, in a chasm of -the rocks, where retreat without encountering the animal was impossible. -Making the best of the circumstances, the young man pressed forward, -keeping as close as possible to his conductor. The bear growled -frequently at his heels, and once or twice its enormous paws were laid -on his person, as if disposed to prevent his further passage into the -den. - -How long the nerves of Heyward would have sustained him in this -extraordinary situation, it might be difficult to decide, for, happily, -he soon found relief. A glimmer of light had constantly been in their -front, and they now arrived at the place whence it proceeded. - -A large cavity in the rock had been rudely fitted to answer the purposes -of many apartments. The subdivisions were simple but ingenious, being -composed of stone, sticks, and bark, intermingled. Openings above -admitted the light by day, and at night fires and torches supplied the -place of the sun. Hither the Hurons had brought most of their valuables, -especially those which more particularly pertained to the nation; and -hither, as it now appeared, the sick woman, who was believed to be -the victim of supernatural power, had been transported also, under an -impression that her tormentor would find more difficulty in making his -assaults through walls of stone than through the leafy coverings of the -lodges. The apartment into which Duncan and his guide first entered, had -been exclusively devoted to her accommodation. The latter approached her -bedside, which was surrounded by females, in the center of whom Heyward -was surprised to find his missing friend David. - -A single look was sufficient to apprise the pretended leech that the -invalid was far beyond his powers of healing. She lay in a sort of -paralysis, indifferent to the objects which crowded before her sight, -and happily unconscious of suffering. Heyward was far from regretting -that his mummeries were to be performed on one who was much too ill -to take an interest in their failure or success. The slight qualm -of conscience which had been excited by the intended deception was -instantly appeased, and he began to collect his thoughts, in order to -enact his part with suitable spirit, when he found he was about to be -anticipated in his skill by an attempt to prove the power of music. - -Gamut, who had stood prepared to pour forth his spirit in song when the -visitors entered, after delaying a moment, drew a strain from his pipe, -and commenced a hymn that might have worked a miracle, had faith in its -efficacy been of much avail. He was allowed to proceed to the close, the -Indians respecting his imaginary infirmity, and Duncan too glad of the -delay to hazard the slightest interruption. As the dying cadence of -his strains was falling on the ears of the latter, he started aside -at hearing them repeated behind him, in a voice half human and half -sepulchral. Looking around, he beheld the shaggy monster seated on end -in a shadow of the cavern, where, while his restless body swung in -the uneasy manner of the animal, it repeated, in a sort of low growl, -sounds, if not words, which bore some slight resemblance to the melody -of the singer. - -The effect of so strange an echo on David may better be imagined than -described. His eyes opened as if he doubted their truth; and his voice -became instantly mute in excess of wonder. A deep-laid scheme, of -communicating some important intelligence to Heyward, was driven from -his recollection by an emotion which very nearly resembled fear, but -which he was fain to believe was admiration. Under its influence, he -exclaimed aloud: "She expects you, and is at hand"; and precipitately -left the cavern. - - - - -CHAPTER 25 - - "Snug.--Have you the lion's part written? Pray you, if it - be, give it to me, for I am slow of study. - - Quince.--You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but - roaring." - --Midsummer Night's Dream. - -There was a strange blending of the ridiculous with that which was -solemn in this scene. The beast still continued its rolling, and -apparently untiring movements, though its ludicrous attempt to imitate -the melody of David ceased the instant the latter abandoned the field. -The words of Gamut were, as has been seen, in his native tongue; and -to Duncan they seem pregnant with some hidden meaning, though nothing -present assisted him in discovering the object of their allusion. A -speedy end was, however, put to every conjecture on the subject, by the -manner of the chief, who advanced to the bedside of the invalid, and -beckoned away the whole group of female attendants that had clustered -there to witness the skill of the stranger. He was implicitly, though -reluctantly, obeyed; and when the low echo which rang along the hollow, -natural gallery, from the distant closing door, had ceased, pointing -toward his insensible daughter, he said: - -"Now let my brother show his power." - -Thus unequivocally called on to exercise the functions of his assumed -character, Heyward was apprehensive that the smallest delay might prove -dangerous. Endeavoring, then, to collect his ideas, he prepared to -perform that species of incantation, and those uncouth rites, under -which the Indian conjurers are accustomed to conceal their ignorance and -impotency. It is more than probable that, in the disordered state of his -thoughts, he would soon have fallen into some suspicious, if not fatal, -error had not his incipient attempts been interrupted by a fierce growl -from the quadruped. Three several times did he renew his efforts to -proceed, and as often was he met by the same unaccountable opposition, -each interruption seeming more savage and threatening than the -preceding. - -"The cunning ones are jealous," said the Huron; "I go. Brother, the -woman is the wife of one of my bravest young men; deal justly by her. -Peace!" he added, beckoning to the discontented beast to be quiet; "I -go." - -The chief was as good as his word, and Duncan now found himself alone -in that wild and desolate abode with the helpless invalid and the fierce -and dangerous brute. The latter listened to the movements of the Indian -with that air of sagacity that a bear is known to possess, until another -echo announced that he had also left the cavern, when it turned and -came waddling up to Duncan before whom it seated itself in its natural -attitude, erect like a man. The youth looked anxiously about him for -some weapon, with which he might make a resistance against the attack he -now seriously expected. - -It seemed, however, as if the humor of the animal had suddenly changed. -Instead of continuing its discontented growls, or manifesting any -further signs of anger, the whole of its shaggy body shook violently, as -if agitated by some strange internal convulsion. The huge and unwieldy -talons pawed stupidly about the grinning muzzle, and while Heyward kept -his eyes riveted on its movements with jealous watchfulness, the grim -head fell on one side and in its place appeared the honest sturdy -countenance of the scout, who was indulging from the bottom of his soul -in his own peculiar expression of merriment. - -"Hist!" said the wary woodsman, interrupting Heyward's exclamation of -surprise; "the varlets are about the place, and any sounds that are not -natural to witchcraft would bring them back upon us in a body." - -"Tell me the meaning of this masquerade; and why you have attempted so -desperate an adventure?" - -"Ah, reason and calculation are often outdone by accident," returned the -scout. "But, as a story should always commence at the beginning, I will -tell you the whole in order. After we parted I placed the commandant -and the Sagamore in an old beaver lodge, where they are safer from -the Hurons than they would be in the garrison of Edward; for your -high north-west Indians, not having as yet got the traders among them, -continued to venerate the beaver. After which Uncas and I pushed for the -other encampment as was agreed. Have you seen the lad?" - -"To my great grief! He is captive, and condemned to die at the rising of -the sun." - -"I had misgivings that such would be his fate," resumed the scout, in -a less confident and joyous tone. But soon regaining his naturally firm -voice, he continued: "His bad fortune is the true reason of my being -here, for it would never do to abandon such a boy to the Hurons. A rare -time the knaves would have of it, could they tie 'The Bounding Elk' and -'The Long Carabine', as they call me, to the same stake! Though why they -have given me such a name I never knew, there being as little likeness -between the gifts of 'killdeer' and the performance of one of your real -Canada carabynes, as there is between the natur' of a pipe-stone and a -flint." - -"Keep to your tale," said the impatient Heyward; "we know not at what -moment the Hurons may return." - -"No fear of them. A conjurer must have his time, like a straggling -priest in the settlements. We are as safe from interruption as a -missionary would be at the beginning of a two hours' discourse. Well, -Uncas and I fell in with a return party of the varlets; the lad was much -too forward for a scout; nay, for that matter, being of hot blood, he -was not so much to blame; and, after all, one of the Hurons proved a -coward, and in fleeing led him into an ambushment." - -"And dearly has he paid for the weakness." - -The scout significantly passed his hand across his own throat, and -nodded, as if he said, "I comprehend your meaning." After which he -continued, in a more audible though scarcely more intelligible language: - -"After the loss of the boy I turned upon the Hurons, as you may judge. -There have been scrimmages atween one or two of their outlyers and -myself; but that is neither here nor there. So, after I had shot the -imps, I got in pretty nigh to the lodges without further commotion. Then -what should luck do in my favor but lead me to the very spot where one -of the most famous conjurers of the tribe was dressing himself, as I -well knew, for some great battle with Satan--though why should I call -that luck, which it now seems was an especial ordering of Providence. So -a judgmatical rap over the head stiffened the lying impostor for a time, -and leaving him a bit of walnut for his supper, to prevent an uproar, -and stringing him up atween two saplings, I made free with his finery, -and took the part of the bear on myself, in order that the operations -might proceed." - -"And admirably did you enact the character; the animal itself might have -been shamed by the representation." - -"Lord, major," returned the flattered woodsman, "I should be but a poor -scholar for one who has studied so long in the wilderness, did I not -know how to set forth the movements or natur' of such a beast. Had -it been now a catamount, or even a full-size panther, I would have -embellished a performance for you worth regarding. But it is no such -marvelous feat to exhibit the feats of so dull a beast; though, for that -matter, too, a bear may be overacted. Yes, yes; it is not every imitator -that knows natur' may be outdone easier than she is equaled. But all our -work is yet before us. Where is the gentle one?" - -"Heaven knows. I have examined every lodge in the village, without -discovering the slightest trace of her presence in the tribe." - -"You heard what the singer said, as he left us: 'She is at hand, and -expects you'?" - -"I have been compelled to believe he alluded to this unhappy woman." - -"The simpleton was frightened, and blundered through his message; but -he had a deeper meaning. Here are walls enough to separate the whole -settlement. A bear ought to climb; therefore will I take a look above -them. There may be honey-pots hid in these rocks, and I am a beast, you -know, that has a hankering for the sweets." - -The scout looked behind him, laughing at his own conceit, while he -clambered up the partition, imitating, as he went, the clumsy motions of -the beast he represented; but the instant the summit was gained he made -a gesture for silence, and slid down with the utmost precipitation. - -"She is here," he whispered, "and by that door you will find her. I -would have spoken a word of comfort to the afflicted soul; but the sight -of such a monster might upset her reason. Though for that matter, major, -you are none of the most inviting yourself in your paint." - -Duncan, who had already swung eagerly forward, drew instantly back on -hearing these discouraging words. - -"Am I, then, so very revolting?" he demanded, with an air of chagrin. - -"You might not startle a wolf, or turn the Royal Americans from a -discharge; but I have seen the time when you had a better favored look; -your streaked countenances are not ill-judged of by the squaws, but -young women of white blood give the preference to their own color. See," -he added, pointing to a place where the water trickled from a rock, -forming a little crystal spring, before it found an issue through the -adjacent crevices; "you may easily get rid of the Sagamore's daub, and -when you come back I will try my hand at a new embellishment. It's -as common for a conjurer to alter his paint as for a buck in the -settlements to change his finery." - -The deliberate woodsman had little occasion to hunt for arguments to -enforce his advice. He was yet speaking when Duncan availed himself -of the water. In a moment every frightful or offensive mark was -obliterated, and the youth appeared again in the lineaments with which -he had been gifted by nature. Thus prepared for an interview with -his mistress, he took a hasty leave of his companion, and disappeared -through the indicated passage. The scout witnessed his departure with -complacency, nodding his head after him, and muttering his good wishes; -after which he very coolly set about an examination of the state of the -larder, among the Hurons, the cavern, among other purposes, being used -as a receptacle for the fruits of their hunts. - -Duncan had no other guide than a distant glimmering light, which served, -however, the office of a polar star to the lover. By its aid he was -enabled to enter the haven of his hopes, which was merely another -apartment of the cavern, that had been solely appropriated to the -safekeeping of so important a prisoner as a daughter of the commandant -of William Henry. It was profusely strewed with the plunder of that -unlucky fortress. In the midst of this confusion he found her he sought, -pale, anxious and terrified, but lovely. David had prepared her for such -a visit. - -"Duncan!" she exclaimed, in a voice that seemed to tremble at the sounds -created by itself. - -"Alice!" he answered, leaping carelessly among trunks, boxes, arms, and -furniture, until he stood at her side. - -"I knew that you would never desert me," she said, looking up with -a momentary glow on her otherwise dejected countenance. "But you are -alone! Grateful as it is to be thus remembered, I could wish to think -you are not entirely alone." - -Duncan, observing that she trembled in a manner which betrayed her -inability to stand, gently induced her to be seated, while he recounted -those leading incidents which it has been our task to accord. Alice -listened with breathless interest; and though the young man touched -lightly on the sorrows of the stricken father; taking care, however, not -to wound the self-love of his auditor, the tears ran as freely down the -cheeks of the daughter as though she had never wept before. The soothing -tenderness of Duncan, however, soon quieted the first burst of her -emotions, and she then heard him to the close with undivided attention, -if not with composure. - -"And now, Alice," he added, "you will see how much is still expected -of you. By the assistance of our experienced and invaluable friend, the -scout, we may find our way from this savage people, but you will have to -exert your utmost fortitude. Remember that you fly to the arms of your -venerable parent, and how much his happiness, as well as your own, -depends on those exertions." - -"Can I do otherwise for a father who has done so much for me?" - -"And for me, too," continued the youth, gently pressing the hand he held -in both his own. - -The look of innocence and surprise which he received in return convinced -Duncan of the necessity of being more explicit. - -"This is neither the place nor the occasion to detain you with selfish -wishes," he added; "but what heart loaded like mine would not wish to -cast its burden? They say misery is the closest of all ties; our common -suffering in your behalf left but little to be explained between your -father and myself." - -"And, dearest Cora, Duncan; surely Cora was not forgotten?" - -"Not forgotten! no; regretted, as woman was seldom mourned before. Your -venerable father knew no difference between his children; but I--Alice, -you will not be offended when I say, that to me her worth was in a -degree obscured--" - -"Then you knew not the merit of my sister," said Alice, withdrawing her -hand; "of you she ever speaks as of one who is her dearest friend." - -"I would gladly believe her such," returned Duncan, hastily; "I could -wish her to be even more; but with you, Alice, I have the permission of -your father to aspire to a still nearer and dearer tie." - -Alice trembled violently, and there was an instant during which she bent -her face aside, yielding to the emotions common to her sex; but they -quickly passed away, leaving her mistress of her deportment, if not of -her affections. - -"Heyward," she said, looking him full in the face with a touching -expression of innocence and dependency, "give me the sacred presence and -the holy sanction of that parent before you urge me further." - -"Though more I should not, less I could not say," the youth was about to -answer, when he was interrupted by a light tap on his shoulder. Starting -to his feet, he turned, and, confronting the intruder, his looks fell on -the dark form and malignant visage of Magua. The deep guttural laugh of -the savage sounded, at such a moment, to Duncan, like the hellish taunt -of a demon. Had he pursued the sudden and fierce impulse of the instant, -he would have cast himself on the Huron, and committed their fortunes -to the issue of a deadly struggle. But, without arms of any description, -ignorant of what succor his subtle enemy could command, and charged with -the safety of one who was just then dearer than ever to his heart, he no -sooner entertained than he abandoned the desperate intention. - -"What is your purpose?" said Alice, meekly folding her arms on her -bosom, and struggling to conceal an agony of apprehension in behalf of -Heyward, in the usual cold and distant manner with which she received -the visits of her captor. - -The exulting Indian had resumed his austere countenance, though he drew -warily back before the menacing glance of the young man's fiery eye. He -regarded both his captives for a moment with a steady look, and then, -stepping aside, he dropped a log of wood across a door different from -that by which Duncan had entered. The latter now comprehended the manner -of his surprise, and, believing himself irretrievably lost, he drew -Alice to his bosom, and stood prepared to meet a fate which he hardly -regretted, since it was to be suffered in such company. But Magua -meditated no immediate violence. His first measures were very evidently -taken to secure his new captive; nor did he even bestow a second glance -at the motionless forms in the center of the cavern, until he had -completely cut off every hope of retreat through the private outlet he -had himself used. He was watched in all his movements by Heyward, who, -however, remained firm, still folding the fragile form of Alice to his -heart, at once too proud and too hopeless to ask favor of an enemy -so often foiled. When Magua had effected his object he approached his -prisoners, and said in English: - -"The pale faces trap the cunning beavers; but the red-skins know how to -take the Yengeese." - -"Huron, do your worst!" exclaimed the excited Heyward, forgetful that a -double stake was involved in his life; "you and your vengeance are alike -despised." - -"Will the white man speak these words at the stake?" asked Magua; -manifesting, at the same time, how little faith he had in the other's -resolution by the sneer that accompanied his words. - -"Here; singly to your face, or in the presence of your nation." - -"Le Renard Subtil is a great chief!" returned the Indian; "he will go -and bring his young men, to see how bravely a pale face can laugh at -tortures." - -He turned away while speaking, and was about to leave the place through -the avenue by which Duncan had approached, when a growl caught his ear, -and caused him to hesitate. The figure of the bear appeared in the door, -where it sat, rolling from side to side in its customary restlessness. -Magua, like the father of the sick woman, eyed it keenly for a moment, -as if to ascertain its character. He was far above the more vulgar -superstitions of his tribe, and so soon as he recognized the well-known -attire of the conjurer, he prepared to pass it in cool contempt. But -a louder and more threatening growl caused him again to pause. Then he -seemed as if suddenly resolved to trifle no longer, and moved resolutely -forward. - -The mimic animal, which had advanced a little, retired slowly in his -front, until it arrived again at the pass, when, rearing on his hinder -legs, it beat the air with its paws, in the manner practised by its -brutal prototype. - -"Fool!" exclaimed the chief, in Huron, "go play with the children and -squaws; leave men to their wisdom." - -He once more endeavored to pass the supposed empiric, scorning even the -parade of threatening to use the knife, or tomahawk, that was pendent -from his belt. Suddenly the beast extended its arms, or rather legs, and -inclosed him in a grasp that might have vied with the far-famed power of -the "bear's hug" itself. Heyward had watched the whole procedure, on the -part of Hawkeye, with breathless interest. At first he relinquished his -hold of Alice; then he caught up a thong of buckskin, which had been -used around some bundle, and when he beheld his enemy with his two arms -pinned to his side by the iron muscles of the scout, he rushed upon him, -and effectually secured them there. Arms, legs, and feet were encircled -in twenty folds of the thong, in less time than we have taken to record -the circumstance. When the formidable Huron was completely pinioned, the -scout released his hold, and Duncan laid his enemy on his back, utterly -helpless. - -Throughout the whole of this sudden and extraordinary operation, Magua, -though he had struggled violently, until assured he was in the hands of -one whose nerves were far better strung than his own, had not uttered -the slightest exclamation. But when Hawkeye, by way of making a summary -explanation of his conduct, removed the shaggy jaws of the beast, and -exposed his own rugged and earnest countenance to the gaze of the Huron, -the philosophy of the latter was so far mastered as to permit him to -utter the never failing: - -"Hugh!" - -"Ay, you've found your tongue," said his undisturbed conqueror; "now, -in order that you shall not use it to our ruin, I must make free to stop -your mouth." - -As there was no time to be lost, the scout immediately set about -effecting so necessary a precaution; and when he had gagged the Indian, -his enemy might safely have been considered as "hors de combat." - -"By what place did the imp enter?" asked the industrious scout, when his -work was ended. "Not a soul has passed my way since you left me." - -Duncan pointed out the door by which Magua had come, and which now -presented too many obstacles to a quick retreat. - -"Bring on the gentle one, then," continued his friend; "we must make a -push for the woods by the other outlet." - -"'Tis impossible!" said Duncan; "fear has overcome her, and she is -helpless. Alice! my sweet, my own Alice, arouse yourself; now is the -moment to fly. 'Tis in vain! she hears, but is unable to follow. Go, -noble and worthy friend; save yourself, and leave me to my fate." - -"Every trail has its end, and every calamity brings its lesson!" -returned the scout. "There, wrap her in them Indian cloths. Conceal all -of her little form. Nay, that foot has no fellow in the wilderness; it -will betray her. All, every part. Now take her in your arms, and follow. -Leave the rest to me." - -Duncan, as may be gathered from the words of his companion, was eagerly -obeying; and, as the other finished speaking, he took the light person -of Alice in his arms, and followed in the footsteps of the scout. They -found the sick woman as they had left her, still alone, and passed -swiftly on, by the natural gallery, to the place of entrance. As they -approached the little door of bark, a murmur of voices without announced -that the friends and relatives of the invalid were gathered about the -place, patiently awaiting a summons to re-enter. - -"If I open my lips to speak," Hawkeye whispered, "my English, which is -the genuine tongue of a white-skin, will tell the varlets that an enemy -is among them. You must give 'em your jargon, major; and say that we -have shut the evil spirit in the cave, and are taking the woman to the -woods in order to find strengthening roots. Practise all your cunning, -for it is a lawful undertaking." - -The door opened a little, as if one without was listening to the -proceedings within, and compelled the scout to cease his directions. A -fierce growl repelled the eavesdropper, and then the scout boldly threw -open the covering of bark, and left the place, enacting the character of -a bear as he proceeded. Duncan kept close at his heels, and soon found -himself in the center of a cluster of twenty anxious relatives and -friends. - -The crowd fell back a little, and permitted the father, and one who -appeared to be the husband of the woman, to approach. - -"Has my brother driven away the evil spirit?" demanded the former. "What -has he in his arms?" - -"Thy child," returned Duncan, gravely; "the disease has gone out of her; -it is shut up in the rocks. I take the woman to a distance, where I will -strengthen her against any further attacks. She will be in the wigwam of -the young man when the sun comes again." - -When the father had translated the meaning of the stranger's words into -the Huron language, a suppressed murmur announced the satisfaction with -which this intelligence was received. The chief himself waved his hand -for Duncan to proceed, saying aloud, in a firm voice, and with a lofty -manner: - -"Go; I am a man, and I will enter the rock and fight the wicked one." - -Heyward had gladly obeyed, and was already past the little group, when -these startling words arrested him. - -"Is my brother mad?" he exclaimed; "is he cruel? He will meet the -disease, and it will enter him; or he will drive out the disease, and -it will chase his daughter into the woods. No; let my children wait -without, and if the spirit appears beat him down with clubs. He is -cunning, and will bury himself in the mountain, when he sees how many -are ready to fight him." - -This singular warning had the desired effect. Instead of entering -the cavern, the father and husband drew their tomahawks, and posted -themselves in readiness to deal their vengeance on the imaginary -tormentor of their sick relative, while the women and children broke -branches from the bushes, or seized fragments of the rock, with a -similar intention. At this favorable moment the counterfeit conjurers -disappeared. - -Hawkeye, at the same time that he had presumed so far on the nature -of the Indian superstitions, was not ignorant that they were rather -tolerated than relied on by the wisest of the chiefs. He well knew the -value of time in the present emergency. Whatever might be the extent of -the self-delusion of his enemies, and however it had tended to assist -his schemes, the slightest cause of suspicion, acting on the subtle -nature of an Indian, would be likely to prove fatal. Taking the path, -therefore, that was most likely to avoid observation, he rather skirted -than entered the village. The warriors were still to be seen in the -distance, by the fading light of the fires, stalking from lodge to -lodge. But the children had abandoned their sports for their beds of -skins, and the quiet of night was already beginning to prevail over the -turbulence and excitement of so busy and important an evening. - -Alice revived under the renovating influence of the open air, and, -as her physical rather than her mental powers had been the subject of -weakness, she stood in no need of any explanation of that which had -occurred. - -"Now let me make an effort to walk," she said, when they had entered the -forest, blushing, though unseen, that she had not been sooner able to -quit the arms of Duncan; "I am indeed restored." - -"Nay, Alice, you are yet too weak." - -The maiden struggled gently to release herself, and Heyward was -compelled to part with his precious burden. The representative of the -bear had certainly been an entire stranger to the delicious emotions of -the lover while his arms encircled his mistress; and he was, perhaps, -a stranger also to the nature of that feeling of ingenuous shame that -oppressed the trembling Alice. But when he found himself at a suitable -distance from the lodges he made a halt, and spoke on a subject of which -he was thoroughly the master. - -"This path will lead you to the brook," he said; "follow its northern -bank until you come to a fall; mount the hill on your right, and you -will see the fires of the other people. There you must go and demand -protection; if they are true Delawares you will be safe. A distant -flight with that gentle one, just now, is impossible. The Hurons would -follow up our trail, and master our scalps before we had got a dozen -miles. Go, and Providence be with you." - -"And you!" demanded Heyward, in surprise; "surely we part not here?" - -"The Hurons hold the pride of the Delawares; the last of the high blood -of the Mohicans is in their power," returned the scout; "I go to see -what can be done in his favor. Had they mastered your scalp, major, a -knave should have fallen for every hair it held, as I promised; but if -the young Sagamore is to be led to the stake, the Indians shall see also -how a man without a cross can die." - -Not in the least offended with the decided preference that the sturdy -woodsman gave to one who might, in some degree, be called the child of -his adoption, Duncan still continued to urge such reasons against so -desperate an effort as presented themselves. He was aided by Alice, who -mingled her entreaties with those of Heyward that he would abandon a -resolution that promised so much danger, with so little hope of success. -Their eloquence and ingenuity were expended in vain. The scout heard -them attentively, but impatiently, and finally closed the discussion, -by answering, in a tone that instantly silenced Alice, while it told -Heyward how fruitless any further remonstrances would be. - -"I have heard," he said, "that there is a feeling in youth which binds -man to woman closer than the father is tied to the son. It may be so. -I have seldom been where women of my color dwell; but such may be the -gifts of nature in the settlements. You have risked life, and all that -is dear to you, to bring off this gentle one, and I suppose that some -such disposition is at the bottom of it all. As for me, I taught the lad -the real character of a rifle; and well has he paid me for it. I have -fou't at his side in many a bloody scrimmage; and so long as I could -hear the crack of his piece in one ear, and that of the Sagamore in the -other, I knew no enemy was on my back. Winters and summer, nights and -days, have we roved the wilderness in company, eating of the same dish, -one sleeping while the other watched; and afore it shall be said that -Uncas was taken to the torment, and I at hand--There is but a single -Ruler of us all, whatever may the color of the skin; and Him I call -to witness, that before the Mohican boy shall perish for the want of -a friend, good faith shall depart the 'arth, and 'killdeer' become as -harmless as the tooting we'pon of the singer!" - -Duncan released his hold on the arm of the scout, who turned, and -steadily retraced his steps toward the lodges. After pausing a moment to -gaze at his retiring form, the successful and yet sorrowful Heyward -and Alice took their way together toward the distant village of the -Delawares. - - - - -CHAPTER 26 - - "Bot.--Let me play the lion too." - --Midsummer Night's Dream - -Notwithstanding the high resolution of Hawkeye he fully comprehended all -the difficulties and danger he was about to incur. In his return to -the camp, his acute and practised intellects were intently engaged in -devising means to counteract a watchfulness and suspicion on the part -of his enemies, that he knew were, in no degree, inferior to his own. -Nothing but the color of his skin had saved the lives of Magua and the -conjurer, who would have been the first victims sacrificed to his own -security, had not the scout believed such an act, however congenial it -might be to the nature of an Indian, utterly unworthy of one who boasted -a descent from men that knew no cross of blood. Accordingly, he trusted -to the withes and ligaments with which he had bound his captives, -and pursued his way directly toward the center of the lodges. As he -approached the buildings, his steps become more deliberate, and his -vigilant eye suffered no sign, whether friendly or hostile, to escape -him. A neglected hut was a little in advance of the others, and appeared -as if it had been deserted when half completed--most probably on account -of failing in some of the more important requisites; such as wood -or water. A faint light glimmered through its cracks, however, and -announced that, notwithstanding its imperfect structure, it was not -without a tenant. Thither, then, the scout proceeded, like a prudent -general, who was about to feel the advanced positions of his enemy, -before he hazarded the main attack. - -Throwing himself into a suitable posture for the beast he represented, -Hawkeye crawled to a little opening, where he might command a view of -the interior. It proved to be the abiding place of David Gamut. Hither -the faithful singing-master had now brought himself, together with -all his sorrows, his apprehensions, and his meek dependence on the -protection of Providence. At the precise moment when his ungainly person -came under the observation of the scout, in the manner just mentioned, -the woodsman himself, though in his assumed character, was the subject -of the solitary being's profounded reflections. - -However implicit the faith of David was in the performance of ancient -miracles, he eschewed the belief of any direct supernatural agency in -the management of modern morality. In other words, while he had implicit -faith in the ability of Balaam's ass to speak, he was somewhat skeptical -on the subject of a bear's singing; and yet he had been assured of -the latter, on the testimony of his own exquisite organs. There was -something in his air and manner that betrayed to the scout the utter -confusion of the state of his mind. He was seated on a pile of brush, -a few twigs from which occasionally fed his low fire, with his head -leaning on his arm, in a posture of melancholy musing. The costume -of the votary of music had undergone no other alteration from that so -lately described, except that he had covered his bald head with the -triangular beaver, which had not proved sufficiently alluring to excite -the cupidity of any of his captors. - -The ingenious Hawkeye, who recalled the hasty manner in which the other -had abandoned his post at the bedside of the sick woman, was not without -his suspicions concerning the subject of so much solemn deliberation. -First making the circuit of the hut, and ascertaining that it stood -quite alone, and that the character of its inmate was likely to protect -it from visitors, he ventured through its low door, into the very -presence of Gamut. The position of the latter brought the fire between -them; and when Hawkeye had seated himself on end, near a minute elapsed, -during which the two remained regarding each other without speaking. -The suddenness and the nature of the surprise had nearly proved too much -for--we will not say the philosophy--but for the pitch and resolution -of David. He fumbled for his pitch-pipe, and arose with a confused -intention of attempting a musical exorcism. - -"Dark and mysterious monster!" he exclaimed, while with trembling hands -he disposed of his auxiliary eyes, and sought his never-failing resource -in trouble, the gifted version of the psalms; "I know not your nature -nor intents; but if aught you meditate against the person and rights -of one of the humblest servants of the temple, listen to the inspired -language of the youth of Israel, and repent." - -The bear shook his shaggy sides, and then a well-known voice replied: - -"Put up the tooting we'pon, and teach your throat modesty. Five words -of plain and comprehendible English are worth just now an hour of -squalling." - -"What art thou?" demanded David, utterly disqualified to pursue his -original intention, and nearly gasping for breath. - -"A man like yourself; and one whose blood is as little tainted by the -cross of a bear, or an Indian, as your own. Have you so soon forgotten -from whom you received the foolish instrument you hold in your hand?" - -"Can these things be?" returned David, breathing more freely, as the -truth began to dawn upon him. "I have found many marvels during my -sojourn with the heathen, but surely nothing to excel this." - -"Come, come," returned Hawkeye, uncasing his honest countenance, the -better to assure the wavering confidence of his companion; "you may see -a skin, which, if it be not as white as one of the gentle ones, has no -tinge of red to it that the winds of the heaven and the sun have not -bestowed. Now let us to business." - -"First tell me of the maiden, and of the youth who so bravely sought -her," interrupted David. - -"Ay, they are happily freed from the tomahawks of these varlets. But can -you put me on the scent of Uncas?" - -"The young man is in bondage, and much I fear his death is decreed. I -greatly mourn that one so well disposed should die in his ignorance, and -I have sought a goodly hymn--" - -"Can you lead me to him?" - -"The task will not be difficult," returned David, hesitating; "though -I greatly fear your presence would rather increase than mitigate his -unhappy fortunes." - -"No more words, but lead on," returned Hawkeye, concealing his face -again, and setting the example in his own person, by instantly quitting -the lodge. - -As they proceeded, the scout ascertained that his companion found access -to Uncas, under privilege of his imaginary infirmity, aided by the favor -he had acquired with one of the guards, who, in consequence of speaking -a little English, had been selected by David as the subject of a -religious conversion. How far the Huron comprehended the intentions of -his new friend may well be doubted; but as exclusive attention is -as flattering to a savage as to a more civilized individual, it had -produced the effect we have mentioned. It is unnecessary to repeat the -shrewd manner with which the scout extracted these particulars from the -simple David; neither shall we dwell in this place on the nature of the -instruction he delivered, when completely master of all the necessary -facts; as the whole will be sufficiently explained to the reader in the -course of the narrative. - -The lodge in which Uncas was confined was in the very center of the -village, and in a situation, perhaps, more difficult than any other to -approach, or leave, without observation. But it was not the policy of -Hawkeye to affect the least concealment. Presuming on his disguise, and -his ability to sustain the character he had assumed, he took the most -plain and direct route to the place. The hour, however, afforded him -some little of that protection which he appeared so much to despise. The -boys were already buried in sleep, and all the women, and most of the -warriors, had retired to their lodges for the night. Four or five of -the latter only lingered about the door of the prison of Uncas, wary but -close observers of the manner of their captive. - -At the sight of Gamut, accompanied by one in the well-known masquerade -of their most distinguished conjurer, they readily made way for them -both. Still they betrayed no intention to depart. On the other hand, -they were evidently disposed to remain bound to the place by an -additional interest in the mysterious mummeries that they of course -expected from such a visit. - -From the total inability of the scout to address the Hurons in their own -language, he was compelled to trust the conversation entirely to David. -Notwithstanding the simplicity of the latter, he did ample justice to -the instructions he had received, more than fulfilling the strongest -hopes of his teacher. - -"The Delawares are women!" he exclaimed, addressing himself to the -savage who had a slight understanding of the language in which he spoke; -"the Yengeese, my foolish countrymen, have told them to take up the -tomahawk, and strike their fathers in the Canadas, and they have -forgotten their sex. Does my brother wish to hear 'Le Cerf Agile' ask -for his petticoats, and see him weep before the Hurons, at the stake?" - -The exclamation "Hugh!" delivered in a strong tone of assent, announced -the gratification the savage would receive in witnessing such an -exhibition of weakness in an enemy so long hated and so much feared. - -"Then let him step aside, and the cunning man will blow upon the dog. -Tell it to my brothers." - -The Huron explained the meaning of David to his fellows, who, in their -turn, listened to the project with that sort of satisfaction that -their untamed spirits might be expected to find in such a refinement in -cruelty. They drew back a little from the entrance and motioned to the -supposed conjurer to enter. But the bear, instead of obeying, maintained -the seat it had taken, and growled: - -"The cunning man is afraid that his breath will blow upon his brothers, -and take away their courage too," continued David, improving the hint he -received; "they must stand further off." - -The Hurons, who would have deemed such a misfortune the heaviest -calamity that could befall them, fell back in a body, taking a position -where they were out of earshot, though at the same time they could -command a view of the entrance to the lodge. Then, as if satisfied of -their safety, the scout left his position, and slowly entered the place. -It was silent and gloomy, being tenanted solely by the captive, and -lighted by the dying embers of a fire, which had been used for the -purposed of cookery. - -Uncas occupied a distant corner, in a reclining attitude, being rigidly -bound, both hands and feet, by strong and painful withes. When the -frightful object first presented itself to the young Mohican, he did not -deign to bestow a single glance on the animal. The scout, who had left -David at the door, to ascertain they were not observed, thought it -prudent to preserve his disguise until assured of their privacy. Instead -of speaking, therefore, he exerted himself to enact one of the antics of -the animal he represented. The young Mohican, who at first believed his -enemies had sent in a real beast to torment him, and try his nerves, -detected in those performances that to Heyward had appeared so accurate, -certain blemishes, that at once betrayed the counterfeit. Had Hawkeye -been aware of the low estimation in which the skillful Uncas held his -representations, he would probably have prolonged the entertainment -a little in pique. But the scornful expression of the young man's eye -admitted of so many constructions, that the worthy scout was spared the -mortification of such a discovery. As soon, therefore, as David gave the -preconcerted signal, a low hissing sound was heard in the lodge in place -of the fierce growlings of the bear. - -Uncas had cast his body back against the wall of the hut and closed -his eyes, as if willing to exclude so contemptible and disagreeable -an object from his sight. But the moment the noise of the serpent was -heard, he arose, and cast his looks on each side of him, bending his -head low, and turning it inquiringly in every direction, until his keen -eye rested on the shaggy monster, where it remained riveted, as though -fixed by the power of a charm. Again the same sounds were repeated, -evidently proceeding from the mouth of the beast. Once more the eyes of -the youth roamed over the interior of the lodge, and returning to the -former resting place, he uttered, in a deep, suppressed voice: - -"Hawkeye!" - -"Cut his bands," said Hawkeye to David, who just then approached them. - -The singer did as he was ordered, and Uncas found his limbs released. At -the same moment the dried skin of the animal rattled, and presently -the scout arose to his feet, in proper person. The Mohican appeared to -comprehend the nature of the attempt his friend had made, intuitively, -neither tongue nor feature betraying another symptom of surprise. When -Hawkeye had cast his shaggy vestment, which was done by simply loosing -certain thongs of skin, he drew a long, glittering knife, and put it in -the hands of Uncas. - -"The red Hurons are without," he said; "let us be ready." At the same -time he laid his finger significantly on another similar weapon, both -being the fruits of his prowess among their enemies during the evening. - -"We will go," said Uncas. - -"Whither?" - -"To the Tortoises; they are the children of my grandfathers." - -"Ay, lad," said the scout in English--a language he was apt to use -when a little abstracted in mind; "the same blood runs in your veins, -I believe; but time and distance has a little changed its color. What -shall we do with the Mingoes at the door? They count six, and this -singer is as good as nothing." - -"The Hurons are boasters," said Uncas, scornfully; "their 'totem' is -a moose, and they run like snails. The Delawares are children of the -tortoise, and they outstrip the deer." - -"Ay, lad, there is truth in what you say; and I doubt not, on a rush, -you would pass the whole nation; and, in a straight race of two miles, -would be in, and get your breath again, afore a knave of them all was -within hearing of the other village. But the gift of a white man lies -more in his arms than in his legs. As for myself, I can brain a Huron as -well as a better man; but when it comes to a race the knaves would prove -too much for me." - -Uncas, who had already approached the door, in readiness to lead the -way, now recoiled, and placed himself, once more, in the bottom of the -lodge. But Hawkeye, who was too much occupied with his own thoughts -to note the movement, continued speaking more to himself than to his -companion. - -"After all," he said, "it is unreasonable to keep one man in bondage to -the gifts of another. So, Uncas, you had better take the lead, while I -will put on the skin again, and trust to cunning for want of speed." - -The young Mohican made no reply, but quietly folded his arms, and leaned -his body against one of the upright posts that supported the wall of the -hut. - -"Well," said the scout looking up at him, "why do you tarry? There will -be time enough for me, as the knaves will give chase to you at first." - -"Uncas will stay," was the calm reply. - -"For what?" - -"To fight with his father's brother, and die with the friend of the -Delawares." - -"Ay, lad," returned Hawkeye, squeezing the hand of Uncas between his own -iron fingers; "'twould have been more like a Mingo than a Mohican had -you left me. But I thought I would make the offer, seeing that youth -commonly loves life. Well, what can't be done by main courage, in war, -must be done by circumvention. Put on the skin; I doubt not you can play -the bear nearly as well as myself." - -Whatever might have been the private opinion of Uncas of their -respective abilities in this particular, his grave countenance -manifested no opinion of his superiority. He silently and expeditiously -encased himself in the covering of the beast, and then awaited such -other movements as his more aged companion saw fit to dictate. - -"Now, friend," said Hawkeye, addressing David, "an exchange of garments -will be a great convenience to you, inasmuch as you are but little -accustomed to the make-shifts of the wilderness. Here, take my hunting -shirt and cap, and give me your blanket and hat. You must trust me with -the book and spectacles, as well as the tooter, too; if we ever meet -again, in better times, you shall have all back again, with many thanks -into the bargain." - -David parted with the several articles named with a readiness that would -have done great credit to his liberality, had he not certainly profited, -in many particulars, by the exchange. Hawkeye was not long in assuming -his borrowed garments; and when his restless eyes were hid behind the -glasses, and his head was surmounted by the triangular beaver, as their -statures were not dissimilar, he might readily have passed for the -singer, by starlight. As soon as these dispositions were made, the scout -turned to David, and gave him his parting instructions. - -"Are you much given to cowardice?" he bluntly asked, by way of obtaining -a suitable understanding of the whole case before he ventured a -prescription. - -"My pursuits are peaceful, and my temper, I humbly trust, is greatly -given to mercy and love," returned David, a little nettled at so direct -an attack on his manhood; "but there are none who can say that I have -ever forgotten my faith in the Lord, even in the greatest straits." - -"Your chiefest danger will be at the moment when the savages find out -that they have been deceived. If you are not then knocked on the head, -your being a non-composser will protect you; and you'll then have a good -reason to expect to die in your bed. If you stay, it must be to sit down -here in the shadow, and take the part of Uncas, until such times as the -cunning of the Indians discover the cheat, when, as I have already said, -your times of trial will come. So choose for yourself--to make a rush or -tarry here." - -"Even so," said David, firmly; "I will abide in the place of the -Delaware. Bravely and generously has he battled in my behalf, and this, -and more, will I dare in his service." - -"You have spoken as a man, and like one who, under wiser schooling, -would have been brought to better things. Hold your head down, and -draw in your legs; their formation might tell the truth too early. Keep -silent as long as may be; and it would be wise, when you do speak, to -break out suddenly in one of your shoutings, which will serve to remind -the Indians that you are not altogether as responsible as men should be. -If however, they take your scalp, as I trust and believe they will not, -depend on it, Uncas and I will not forget the deed, but revenge it as -becomes true warriors and trusty friends." - -"Hold!" said David, perceiving that with this assurance they were about -to leave him; "I am an unworthy and humble follower of one who taught -not the damnable principle of revenge. Should I fall, therefore, seek -no victims to my manes, but rather forgive my destroyers; and if you -remember them at all, let it be in prayers for the enlightening of their -minds, and for their eternal welfare." - -The scout hesitated, and appeared to muse. - -"There is a principle in that," he said, "different from the law of the -woods; and yet it is fair and noble to reflect upon." Then heaving -a heavy sigh, probably among the last he ever drew in pining for a -condition he had so long abandoned, he added: "it is what I would wish -to practise myself, as one without a cross of blood, though it is not -always easy to deal with an Indian as you would with a fellow Christian. -God bless you, friend; I do believe your scent is not greatly wrong, -when the matter is duly considered, and keeping eternity before the -eyes, though much depends on the natural gifts, and the force of -temptation." - -So saying, the scout returned and shook David cordially by the hand; -after which act of friendship he immediately left the lodge, attended by -the new representative of the beast. - -The instant Hawkeye found himself under the observation of the Hurons, -he drew up his tall form in the rigid manner of David, threw out his -arm in the act of keeping time, and commenced what he intended for an -imitation of his psalmody. Happily for the success of this delicate -adventure, he had to deal with ears but little practised in the concord -of sweet sounds, or the miserable effort would infallibly have been -detected. It was necessary to pass within a dangerous proximity of the -dark group of the savages, and the voice of the scout grew louder as -they drew nigher. When at the nearest point the Huron who spoke the -English thrust out an arm, and stopped the supposed singing-master. - -"The Delaware dog!" he said, leaning forward, and peering through -the dim light to catch the expression of the other's features; "is he -afraid? Will the Hurons hear his groans?" - -A growl, so exceedingly fierce and natural, proceeded from the beast, -that the young Indian released his hold and started aside, as if to -assure himself that it was not a veritable bear, and no counterfeit, -that was rolling before him. Hawkeye, who feared his voice would betray -him to his subtle enemies, gladly profited by the interruption, to break -out anew in such a burst of musical expression as would, probably, in -a more refined state of society have been termed "a grand crash." Among -his actual auditors, however, it merely gave him an additional claim to -that respect which they never withhold from such as are believed to be -the subjects of mental alienation. The little knot of Indians drew back -in a body, and suffered, as they thought, the conjurer and his inspired -assistant to proceed. - -It required no common exercise of fortitude in Uncas and the scout to -continue the dignified and deliberate pace they had assumed in passing -the lodge; especially as they immediately perceived that curiosity had -so far mastered fear, as to induce the watchers to approach the hut, in -order to witness the effect of the incantations. The least injudicious -or impatient movement on the part of David might betray them, and time -was absolutely necessary to insure the safety of the scout. The loud -noise the latter conceived it politic to continue, drew many curious -gazers to the doors of the different huts as thy passed; and once or -twice a dark-looking warrior stepped across their path, led to the act -by superstition and watchfulness. They were not, however, interrupted, -the darkness of the hour, and the boldness of the attempt, proving their -principal friends. - -The adventurers had got clear of the village, and were now swiftly -approaching the shelter of the woods, when a loud and long cry arose -from the lodge where Uncas had been confined. The Mohican started on -his feet, and shook his shaggy covering, as though the animal he -counterfeited was about to make some desperate effort. - -"Hold!" said the scout, grasping his friend by the shoulder, "let them -yell again! 'Twas nothing but wonderment." - -He had no occasion to delay, for at the next instant a burst of cries -filled the outer air, and ran along the whole extent of the village. -Uncas cast his skin, and stepped forth in his own beautiful proportions. -Hawkeye tapped him lightly on the shoulder, and glided ahead. - -"Now let the devils strike our scent!" said the scout, tearing two -rifles, with all their attendant accouterments, from beneath a bush, and -flourishing "killdeer" as he handed Uncas his weapon; "two, at least, -will find it to their deaths." - -Then, throwing their pieces to a low trail, like sportsmen in readiness -for their game, they dashed forward, and were soon buried in the somber -darkness of the forest. - - - - -CHAPTER 27 - - "Ant. I shall remember: When C'sar says - Do this, it is performed." - --Julius Caesar - -The impatience of the savages who lingered about the prison of Uncas, as -has been seen, had overcome their dread of the conjurer's breath. They -stole cautiously, and with beating hearts, to a crevice, through which -the faint light of the fire was glimmering. For several minutes they -mistook the form of David for that of the prisoner; but the very -accident which Hawkeye had foreseen occurred. Tired of keeping the -extremities of his long person so near together, the singer gradually -suffered the lower limbs to extend themselves, until one of his -misshapen feet actually came in contact with and shoved aside the embers -of the fire. At first the Hurons believed the Delaware had been thus -deformed by witchcraft. But when David, unconscious of being observed, -turned his head, and exposed his simple, mild countenance, in place of -the haughty lineaments of their prisoner, it would have exceeded the -credulity of even a native to have doubted any longer. They rushed -together into the lodge, and, laying their hands, with but little -ceremony, on their captive, immediately detected the imposition. Then -arose the cry first heard by the fugitives. It was succeeded by the most -frantic and angry demonstrations of vengeance. David, however, firm in -his determination to cover the retreat of his friends, was compelled to -believe that his own final hour had come. Deprived of his book and his -pipe, he was fain to trust to a memory that rarely failed him on such -subjects; and breaking forth in a loud and impassioned strain, he -endeavored to smooth his passage into the other world by singing the -opening verse of a funeral anthem. The Indians were seasonably reminded -of his infirmity, and, rushing into the open air, they aroused the -village in the manner described. - -A native warrior fights as he sleeps, without the protection of anything -defensive. The sounds of the alarm were, therefore, hardly uttered -before two hundred men were afoot, and ready for the battle or the -chase, as either might be required. The escape was soon known; and the -whole tribe crowded, in a body, around the council-lodge, impatiently -awaiting the instruction of their chiefs. In such a sudden demand on -their wisdom, the presence of the cunning Magua could scarcely fail of -being needed. His name was mentioned, and all looked round in wonder -that he did not appear. Messengers were then despatched to his lodge -requiring his presence. - -In the meantime, some of the swiftest and most discreet of the young -men were ordered to make the circuit of the clearing, under cover of -the woods, in order to ascertain that their suspected neighbors, the -Delawares, designed no mischief. Women and children ran to and fro; -and, in short, the whole encampment exhibited another scene of wild -and savage confusion. Gradually, however, these symptoms of disorder -diminished; and in a few minutes the oldest and most distinguished -chiefs were assembled in the lodge, in grave consultation. - -The clamor of many voices soon announced that a party approached, who -might be expected to communicate some intelligence that would explain -the mystery of the novel surprise. The crowd without gave way, and -several warriors entered the place, bringing with them the hapless -conjurer, who had been left so long by the scout in duress. - -Notwithstanding this man was held in very unequal estimation among the -Hurons, some believing implicitly in his power, and others deeming him -an impostor, he was now listened to by all with the deepest attention. -When his brief story was ended, the father of the sick woman stepped -forth, and, in a few pithy expression, related, in his turn, what he -knew. These two narratives gave a proper direction to the subsequent -inquiries, which were now made with the characteristic cunning of -savages. - -Instead of rushing in a confused and disorderly throng to the cavern, -ten of the wisest and firmest among the chiefs were selected to -prosecute the investigation. As no time was to be lost, the instant the -choice was made the individuals appointed rose in a body and left the -place without speaking. On reaching the entrance, the younger men in -advance made way for their seniors; and the whole proceeded along -the low, dark gallery, with the firmness of warriors ready to devote -themselves to the public good, though, at the same time, secretly -doubting the nature of the power with which they were about to contend. - -The outer apartment of the cavern was silent and gloomy. The woman lay -in her usual place and posture, though there were those present who -affirmed they had seen her borne to the woods by the supposed "medicine -of the white men." Such a direct and palpable contradiction of the tale -related by the father caused all eyes to be turned on him. Chafed by -the silent imputation, and inwardly troubled by so unaccountable a -circumstance, the chief advanced to the side of the bed, and, stooping, -cast an incredulous look at the features, as if distrusting their -reality. His daughter was dead. - -The unerring feeling of nature for a moment prevailed and the old -warrior hid his eyes in sorrow. Then, recovering his self-possession, he -faced his companions, and, pointing toward the corpse, he said, in the -language of his people: - -"The wife of my young man has left us! The Great Spirit is angry with -his children." - -The mournful intelligence was received in solemn silence. After a short -pause, one of the elder Indians was about to speak, when a dark-looking -object was seen rolling out of an adjoining apartment, into the very -center of the room where they stood. Ignorant of the nature of the -beings they had to deal with, the whole party drew back a little, and, -rising on end, exhibited the distorted but still fierce and sullen -features of Magua. The discovery was succeeded by a general exclamation -of amazement. - -As soon, however, as the true situation of the chief was understood, -several knives appeared, and his limbs and tongue were quickly released. -The Huron arose, and shook himself like a lion quitting his lair. Not a -word escaped him, though his hand played convulsively with the handle of -his knife, while his lowering eyes scanned the whole party, as if they -sought an object suited to the first burst of his vengeance. - -It was happy for Uncas and the scout, and even David, that they were -all beyond the reach of his arm at such a moment; for, assuredly, -no refinement in cruelty would then have deferred their deaths, in -opposition to the promptings of the fierce temper that nearly choked -him. Meeting everywhere faces that he knew as friends, the savage grated -his teeth together like rasps of iron, and swallowed his passion for -want of a victim on whom to vent it. This exhibition of anger was noted -by all present; and from an apprehension of exasperating a temper that -was already chafed nearly to madness, several minutes were suffered to -pass before another word was uttered. When, however, suitable time had -elapsed, the oldest of the party spoke. - -"My friend has found an enemy," he said. "Is he nigh that the Hurons -might take revenge?" - -"Let the Delaware die!" exclaimed Magua, in a voice of thunder. - -Another longer and expressive silence was observed, and was broken, as -before, with due precaution, by the same individual. - -"The Mohican is swift of foot, and leaps far," he said; "but my young -men are on his trail." - -"Is he gone?" demanded Magua, in tones so deep and guttural, that they -seemed to proceed from his inmost chest. - -"An evil spirit has been among us, and the Delaware has blinded our -eyes." - -"An evil spirit!" repeated the other, mockingly; "'tis the spirit that -has taken the lives of so many Hurons; the spirit that slew my young men -at 'the tumbling river'; that took their scalps at the 'healing spring'; -and who has, now, bound the arms of Le Renard Subtil!" - -"Of whom does my friend speak?" - -"Of the dog who carries the heart and cunning of a Huron under a pale -skin--La Longue Carabine." - -The pronunciation of so terrible a name produced the usual effect among -his auditors. But when time was given for reflection, and the warriors -remembered that their formidable and daring enemy had even been in the -bosom of their encampment, working injury, fearful rage took the place -of wonder, and all those fierce passions with which the bosom of Magua -had just been struggling were suddenly transferred to his companions. -Some among them gnashed their teeth in anger, others vented their -feelings in yells, and some, again, beat the air as frantically as if -the object of their resentment were suffering under their blows. But -this sudden outbreaking of temper as quickly subsided in the still and -sullen restraint they most affected in their moments of inaction. - -Magua, who had in his turn found leisure for reflection, now changed his -manner, and assumed the air of one who knew how to think and act with a -dignity worthy of so grave a subject. - -"Let us go to my people," he said; "they wait for us." - -His companions consented in silence, and the whole of the savage party -left the cavern and returned to the council-lodge. When they were -seated, all eyes turned on Magua, who understood, from such an -indication, that, by common consent, they had devolved the duty of -relating what had passed on him. He arose, and told his tale without -duplicity or reservation. The whole deception practised by both Duncan -and Hawkeye was, of course, laid naked, and no room was found, even for -the most superstitious of the tribe, any longer to affix a doubt on the -character of the occurrences. It was but too apparent that they had been -insultingly, shamefully, disgracefully deceived. When he had ended, and -resumed his seat, the collected tribe--for his auditors, in substance, -included all the fighting men of the party--sat regarding each other -like men astonished equally at the audacity and the success of -their enemies. The next consideration, however, was the means and -opportunities for revenge. - -Additional pursuers were sent on the trail of the fugitives; and -then the chiefs applied themselves, in earnest, to the business of -consultation. Many different expedients were proposed by the elder -warriors, in succession, to all of which Magua was a silent and -respectful listener. That subtle savage had recovered his artifice and -self-command, and now proceeded toward his object with his customary -caution and skill. It was only when each one disposed to speak had -uttered his sentiments, that he prepared to advance his own opinions. -They were given with additional weight from the circumstance that some -of the runners had already returned, and reported that their enemies had -been traced so far as to leave no doubt of their having sought safety in -the neighboring camp of their suspected allies, the Delawares. With the -advantage of possessing this important intelligence, the chief warily -laid his plans before his fellows, and, as might have been anticipated -from his eloquence and cunning, they were adopted without a dissenting -voice. They were, briefly, as follows, both in opinions and in motives. - -It has been already stated that, in obedience to a policy rarely -departed from, the sisters were separated so soon as they reached the -Huron village. Magua had early discovered that in retaining the person -of Alice, he possessed the most effectual check on Cora. When they -parted, therefore, he kept the former within reach of his hand, -consigning the one he most valued to the keeping of their allies. The -arrangement was understood to be merely temporary, and was made as much -with a view to flatter his neighbors as in obedience to the invariable -rule of Indian policy. - -While goaded incessantly by these revengeful impulses that in a savage -seldom slumber, the chief was still attentive to his more permanent -personal interests. The follies and disloyalty committed in his youth -were to be expiated by a long and painful penance, ere he could be -restored to the full enjoyment of the confidence of his ancient people; -and without confidence there could be no authority in an Indian tribe. -In this delicate and arduous situation, the crafty native had neglected -no means of increasing his influence; and one of the happiest of his -expedients had been the success with which he had cultivated the favor -of their powerful and dangerous neighbors. The result of his experiment -had answered all the expectations of his policy; for the Hurons were in -no degree exempt from that governing principle of nature, which induces -man to value his gifts precisely in the degree that they are appreciated -by others. - -But, while he was making this ostensible sacrifice to general -considerations, Magua never lost sight of his individual motives. The -latter had been frustrated by the unlooked-for events which had placed -all his prisoners beyond his control; and he now found himself reduced -to the necessity of suing for favors to those whom it had so lately been -his policy to oblige. - -Several of the chiefs had proposed deep and treacherous schemes to -surprise the Delawares and, by gaining possession of their camp, to -recover their prisoners by the same blow; for all agreed that their -honor, their interests, and the peace and happiness of their dead -countrymen, imperiously required them speedily to immolate some victims -to their revenge. But plans so dangerous to attempt, and of such -doubtful issue, Magua found little difficulty in defeating. He exposed -their risk and fallacy with his usual skill; and it was only after he -had removed every impediment, in the shape of opposing advice, that he -ventured to propose his own projects. - -He commenced by flattering the self-love of his auditors; a -never-failing method of commanding attention. When he had enumerated the -many different occasions on which the Hurons had exhibited their courage -and prowess, in the punishment of insults, he digressed in a high -encomium on the virtue of wisdom. He painted the quality as forming the -great point of difference between the beaver and other brutes; between -the brutes and men; and, finally, between the Hurons, in particular, -and the rest of the human race. After he had sufficiently extolled the -property of discretion, he undertook to exhibit in what manner its use -was applicable to the present situation of their tribe. On the one hand, -he said, was their great pale father, the governor of the Canadas, who -had looked upon his children with a hard eye since their tomahawks had -been so red; on the other, a people as numerous as themselves, who spoke -a different language, possessed different interests, and loved them not, -and who would be glad of any pretense to bring them in disgrace with the -great white chief. Then he spoke of their necessities; of the gifts they -had a right to expect for their past services; of their distance from -their proper hunting-grounds and native villages; and of the necessity -of consulting prudence more, and inclination less, in so critical -circumstances. When he perceived that, while the old men applauded his -moderation, many of the fiercest and most distinguished of the warriors -listened to these politic plans with lowering looks, he cunningly led -them back to the subject which they most loved. He spoke openly of the -fruits of their wisdom, which he boldly pronounced would be a complete -and final triumph over their enemies. He even darkly hinted that their -success might be extended, with proper caution, in such a manner as to -include the destruction of all whom they had reason to hate. In short, -he so blended the warlike with the artful, the obvious with the obscure, -as to flatter the propensities of both parties, and to leave to each -subject of hope, while neither could say it clearly comprehended his -intentions. - -The orator, or the politician, who can produce such a state of things, -is commonly popular with his contemporaries, however he may be treated -by posterity. All perceived that more was meant than was uttered, and -each one believed that the hidden meaning was precisely such as his -own faculties enabled him to understand, or his own wishes led him to -anticipate. - -In this happy state of things, it is not surprising that the management -of Magua prevailed. The tribe consented to act with deliberation, and -with one voice they committed the direction of the whole affair to the -government of the chief who had suggested such wise and intelligible -expedients. - -Magua had now attained one great object of all his cunning and -enterprise. The ground he had lost in the favor of his people was -completely regained, and he found himself even placed at the head -of affairs. He was, in truth, their ruler; and, so long as he could -maintain his popularity, no monarch could be more despotic, especially -while the tribe continued in a hostile country. Throwing off, therefore, -the appearance of consultation, he assumed the grave air of authority -necessary to support the dignity of his office. - -Runners were despatched for intelligence in different directions; spies -were ordered to approach and feel the encampment of the Delawares; the -warriors were dismissed to their lodges, with an intimation that their -services would soon be needed; and the women and children were ordered -to retire, with a warning that it was their province to be silent. When -these several arrangements were made, Magua passed through the village, -stopping here and there to pay a visit where he thought his presence -might be flattering to the individual. He confirmed his friends in their -confidence, fixed the wavering, and gratified all. Then he sought his -own lodge. The wife the Huron chief had abandoned, when he was chased -from among his people, was dead. Children he had none; and he now -occupied a hut, without companion of any sort. It was, in fact, the -dilapidated and solitary structure in which David had been discovered, -and whom he had tolerated in his presence, on those few occasions when -they met, with the contemptuous indifference of a haughty superiority. - -Hither, then, Magua retired, when his labors of policy were ended. While -others slept, however, he neither knew or sought repose. Had there been -one sufficiently curious to have watched the movements of the newly -elected chief, he would have seen him seated in a corner of his -lodge, musing on the subject of his future plans, from the hour of his -retirement to the time he had appointed for the warriors to assemble -again. Occasionally the air breathed through the crevices of the hut, -and the low flame that fluttered about the embers of the fire threw -their wavering light on the person of the sullen recluse. At such -moments it would not have been difficult to have fancied the dusky -savage the Prince of Darkness brooding on his own fancied wrongs, and -plotting evil. - -Long before the day dawned, however, warrior after warrior entered the -solitary hut of Magua, until they had collected to the number of twenty. -Each bore his rifle, and all the other accouterments of war, though -the paint was uniformly peaceful. The entrance of these fierce-looking -beings was unnoticed: some seating themselves in the shadows of the -place, and others standing like motionless statues, until the whole of -the designated band was collected. - -Then Magua arose and gave the signal to proceed, marching himself in -advance. They followed their leader singly, and in that well-known order -which has obtained the distinguishing appellation of "Indian file." -Unlike other men engaged in the spirit-stirring business of war, they -stole from their camp unostentatiously and unobserved resembling a band -of gliding specters, more than warriors seeking the bubble reputation by -deeds of desperate daring. - -Instead of taking the path which led directly toward the camp of the -Delawares, Magua led his party for some distance down the windings of -the stream, and along the little artificial lake of the beavers. The -day began to dawn as they entered the clearing which had been formed by -those sagacious and industrious animals. Though Magua, who had resumed -his ancient garb, bore the outline of a fox on the dressed skin which -formed his robe, there was one chief of his party who carried the beaver -as his peculiar symbol, or "totem." There would have been a species of -profanity in the omission, had this man passed so powerful a community -of his fancied kindred, without bestowing some evidence of his regard. -Accordingly, he paused, and spoke in words as kind and friendly as if -he were addressing more intelligent beings. He called the animals his -cousins, and reminded them that his protecting influence was the reason -they remained unharmed, while many avaricious traders were prompting the -Indians to take their lives. He promised a continuance of his favors, -and admonished them to be grateful. After which, he spoke of the -expedition in which he was himself engaged, and intimated, though with -sufficient delicacy and circumlocution, the expediency of bestowing -on their relative a portion of that wisdom for which they were so -renowned.* - - * These harangues of the beasts were frequent among the - Indians. They often address their victims in this way, - reproaching them for cowardice or commending their - resolution, as they may happen to exhibit fortitude or the - reverse, in suffering. - -During the utterance of this extraordinary address, the companions of -the speaker were as grave and as attentive to his language as though -they were all equally impressed with its propriety. Once or twice black -objects were seen rising to the surface of the water, and the Huron -expressed pleasure, conceiving that his words were not bestowed in vain. -Just as he ended his address, the head of a large beaver was thrust -from the door of a lodge, whose earthen walls had been much injured, -and which the party had believed, from its situation, to be uninhabited. -Such an extraordinary sign of confidence was received by the orator as -a highly favorable omen; and though the animal retreated a little -precipitately, he was lavish of his thanks and commendations. - -When Magua thought sufficient time had been lost in gratifying the -family affection of the warrior, he again made the signal to proceed. As -the Indians moved away in a body, and with a step that would have been -inaudible to the ears of any common man, the same venerable-looking -beaver once more ventured his head from its cover. Had any of the Hurons -turned to look behind them, they would have seen the animal watching -their movements with an interest and sagacity that might easily have -been mistaken for reason. Indeed, so very distinct and intelligible were -the devices of the quadruped, that even the most experienced observer -would have been at a loss to account for its actions, until the moment -when the party entered the forest, when the whole would have been -explained, by seeing the entire animal issue from the lodge, uncasing, -by the act, the grave features of Chingachgook from his mask of fur. - - - - -CHAPTER 28 - - "Brief, I pray for you; for you see, 'tis a busy time with me." - --Much Ado About Nothing. - -The tribe, or rather half tribe, of Delawares, which has been so -often mentioned, and whose present place of encampment was so nigh the -temporary village of the Hurons, could assemble about an equal number of -warriors with the latter people. Like their neighbors, they had followed -Montcalm into the territories of the English crown, and were making -heavy and serious inroads on the hunting-grounds of the Mohawks; though -they had seen fit, with the mysterious reserve so common among the -natives, to withhold their assistance at the moment when it was most -required. The French had accounted for this unexpected defection on -the part of their ally in various ways. It was the prevalent opinion, -however, that they had been influenced by veneration for the ancient -treaty, that had once made them dependent on the Six Nations for -military protection, and now rendered them reluctant to encounter their -former masters. As for the tribe itself, it had been content to announce -to Montcalm, through his emissaries, with Indian brevity, that their -hatchets were dull, and time was necessary to sharpen them. The politic -captain of the Canadas had deemed it wiser to submit to entertain a -passive friend, than by any acts of ill-judged severity to convert him -into an open enemy. - -On that morning when Magua led his silent party from the settlement of -the beavers into the forests, in the manner described, the sun rose upon -the Delaware encampment as if it had suddenly burst upon a busy people, -actively employed in all the customary avocations of high noon. The -women ran from lodge to lodge, some engaged in preparing their morning's -meal, a few earnestly bent on seeking the comforts necessary to their -habits, but more pausing to exchange hasty and whispered sentences with -their friends. The warriors were lounging in groups, musing more than -they conversed and when a few words were uttered, speaking like men who -deeply weighed their opinions. The instruments of the chase were to be -seen in abundance among the lodges; but none departed. Here and there -a warrior was examining his arms, with an attention that is rarely -bestowed on the implements, when no other enemy than the beasts of the -forest is expected to be encountered. And occasionally, the eyes of a -whole group were turned simultaneously toward a large and silent lodge -in the center of the village, as if it contained the subject of their -common thoughts. - -During the existence of this scene, a man suddenly appeared at the -furthest extremity of a platform of rock which formed the level of the -village. He was without arms, and his paint tended rather to soften than -increase the natural sternness of his austere countenance. When in -full view of the Delawares he stopped, and made a gesture of amity, -by throwing his arm upward toward heaven, and then letting it fall -impressively on his breast. The inhabitants of the village answered -his salute by a low murmur of welcome, and encouraged him to advance by -similar indications of friendship. Fortified by these assurances, the -dark figure left the brow of the natural rocky terrace, where it had -stood a moment, drawn in a strong outline against the blushing morning -sky, and moved with dignity into the very center of the huts. As he -approached, nothing was audible but the rattling of the light silver -ornaments that loaded his arms and neck, and the tinkling of the little -bells that fringed his deerskin moccasins. He made, as he advanced, many -courteous signs of greeting to the men he passed, neglecting to notice -the women, however, like one who deemed their favor, in the present -enterprise, of no importance. When he had reached the group in which it -was evident, by the haughtiness of their common mien, that the principal -chiefs were collected, the stranger paused, and then the Delawares saw -that the active and erect form that stood before them was that of the -well-known Huron chief, Le Renard Subtil. - -His reception was grave, silent, and wary. The warriors in front stepped -aside, opening the way to their most approved orator by the action; one -who spoke all those languages that were cultivated among the northern -aborigines. - -"The wise Huron is welcome," said the Delaware, in the language of the -Maquas; "he is come to eat his 'succotash'*, with his brothers of the -lakes." - - * A dish composed of cracked corn and beans. It is much used - also by the whites. By corn is meant maise. - -"He is come," repeated Magua, bending his head with the dignity of an -eastern prince. - -The chief extended his arm and taking the other by the wrist, they once -more exchanged friendly salutations. Then the Delaware invited his guest -to enter his own lodge, and share his morning meal. The invitation was -accepted; and the two warriors, attended by three or four of the old -men, walked calmly away, leaving the rest of the tribe devoured by a -desire to understand the reasons of so unusual a visit, and yet not -betraying the least impatience by sign or word. - -During the short and frugal repast that followed, the conversation was -extremely circumspect, and related entirely to the events of the hunt, -in which Magua had so lately been engaged. It would have been impossible -for the most finished breeding to wear more of the appearance of -considering the visit as a thing of course, than did his hosts, -notwithstanding every individual present was perfectly aware that -it must be connected with some secret object and that probably of -importance to themselves. When the appetites of the whole were appeased, -the squaws removed the trenchers and gourds, and the two parties began -to prepare themselves for a subtle trial of their wits. - -"Is the face of my great Canada father turned again toward his Huron -children?" demanded the orator of the Delawares. - -"When was it ever otherwise?" returned Magua. "He calls my people 'most -beloved'." - -The Delaware gravely bowed his acquiescence to what he knew to be false, -and continued: - -"The tomahawks of your young men have been very red." - -"It is so; but they are now bright and dull; for the Yengeese are dead, -and the Delawares are our neighbors." - -The other acknowledged the pacific compliment by a gesture of the hand, -and remained silent. Then Magua, as if recalled to such a recollection, -by the allusion to the massacre, demanded: - -"Does my prisoner give trouble to my brothers?" - -"She is welcome." - -"The path between the Hurons and the Delawares is short and it is open; -let her be sent to my squaws, if she gives trouble to my brother." - -"She is welcome," returned the chief of the latter nation, still more -emphatically. - -The baffled Magua continued silent several minutes, apparently -indifferent, however, to the repulse he had received in this his opening -effort to regain possession of Cora. - -"Do my young men leave the Delawares room on the mountains for their -hunts?" he at length continued. - -"The Lenape are rulers of their own hills," returned the other a little -haughtily. - -"It is well. Justice is the master of a red-skin. Why should they -brighten their tomahawks and sharpen their knives against each other? -Are not the pale faces thicker than the swallows in the season of -flowers?" - -"Good!" exclaimed two or three of his auditors at the same time. - -Magua waited a little, to permit his words to soften the feelings of the -Delawares, before he added: - -"Have there not been strange moccasins in the woods? Have not my -brothers scented the feet of white men?" - -"Let my Canada father come," returned the other, evasively; "his -children are ready to see him." - -"When the great chief comes, it is to smoke with the Indians in their -wigwams. The Hurons say, too, he is welcome. But the Yengeese have long -arms, and legs that never tire! My young men dreamed they had seen the -trail of the Yengeese nigh the village of the Delawares!" - -"They will not find the Lenape asleep." - -"It is well. The warrior whose eye is open can see his enemy," said -Magua, once more shifting his ground, when he found himself unable to -penetrate the caution of his companion. "I have brought gifts to my -brother. His nation would not go on the warpath, because they did not -think it well, but their friends have remembered where they lived." - -When he had thus announced his liberal intention, the crafty chief -arose, and gravely spread his presents before the dazzled eyes of his -hosts. They consisted principally of trinkets of little value, plundered -from the slaughtered females of William Henry. In the division of -the baubles the cunning Huron discovered no less art than in their -selection. While he bestowed those of greater value on the two most -distinguished warriors, one of whom was his host, he seasoned his -offerings to their inferiors with such well-timed and apposite -compliments, as left them no ground of complaint. In short, the whole -ceremony contained such a happy blending of the profitable with the -flattering, that it was not difficult for the donor immediately to read -the effect of a generosity so aptly mingled with praise, in the eyes of -those he addressed. - -This well-judged and politic stroke on the part of Magua was not without -instantaneous results. The Delawares lost their gravity in a much more -cordial expression; and the host, in particular, after contemplating -his own liberal share of the spoil for some moments with peculiar -gratification, repeated with strong emphasis, the words: - -"My brother is a wise chief. He is welcome." - -"The Hurons love their friends the Delawares," returned Magua. "Why -should they not? they are colored by the same sun, and their just men -will hunt in the same grounds after death. The red-skins should be -friends, and look with open eyes on the white men. Has not my brother -scented spies in the woods?" - -The Delaware, whose name in English signified "Hard Heart," an -appellation that the French had translated into "le Coeur-dur," forgot -that obduracy of purpose, which had probably obtained him so significant -a title. His countenance grew very sensibly less stern and he now -deigned to answer more directly. - -"There have been strange moccasins about my camp. They have been tracked -into my lodges." - -"Did my brother beat out the dogs?" asked Magua, without adverting in -any manner to the former equivocation of the chief. - -"It would not do. The stranger is always welcome to the children of the -Lenape." - -"The stranger, but not the spy." - -"Would the Yengeese send their women as spies? Did not the Huron chief -say he took women in the battle?" - -"He told no lie. The Yengeese have sent out their scouts. They have been -in my wigwams, but they found there no one to say welcome. Then they -fled to the Delawares--for, say they, the Delawares are our friends; -their minds are turned from their Canada father!" - -This insinuation was a home thrust, and one that in a more advanced -state of society would have entitled Magua to the reputation of a -skillful diplomatist. The recent defection of the tribe had, as they -well knew themselves, subjected the Delawares to much reproach among -their French allies; and they were now made to feel that their future -actions were to be regarded with jealousy and distrust. There was no -deep insight into causes and effects necessary to foresee that such -a situation of things was likely to prove highly prejudicial to their -future movements. Their distant villages, their hunting-grounds and -hundreds of their women and children, together with a material part -of their physical force, were actually within the limits of the French -territory. Accordingly, this alarming annunciation was received, as -Magua intended, with manifest disapprobation, if not with alarm. - -"Let my father look in my face," said Le Coeur-dur; "he will see no -change. It is true, my young men did not go out on the war-path; they -had dreams for not doing so. But they love and venerate the great white -chief." - -"Will he think so when he hears that his greatest enemy is fed in the -camp of his children? When he is told a bloody Yengee smokes at your -fire? That the pale face who has slain so many of his friends goes in -and out among the Delawares? Go! my great Canada father is not a fool!" - -"Where is the Yengee that the Delawares fear?" returned the other; "who -has slain my young men? Who is the mortal enemy of my Great Father?" - -"La Longue Carabine!" - -The Delaware warriors started at the well-known name, betraying by their -amazement, that they now learned, for the first time, one so famous -among the Indian allies of France was within their power. - -"What does my brother mean?" demanded Le Coeur-dur, in a tone that, by -its wonder, far exceeded the usual apathy of his race. - -"A Huron never lies!" returned Magua, coldly, leaning his head against -the side of the lodge, and drawing his slight robe across his tawny -breast. "Let the Delawares count their prisoners; they will find one -whose skin is neither red nor pale." - -A long and musing pause succeeded. The chief consulted apart with his -companions, and messengers despatched to collect certain others of the -most distinguished men of the tribe. - -As warrior after warrior dropped in, they were each made acquainted, in -turn, with the important intelligence that Magua had just communicated. -The air of surprise, and the usual low, deep, guttural exclamation, were -common to them all. The news spread from mouth to mouth, until the whole -encampment became powerfully agitated. The women suspended their -labors, to catch such syllables as unguardedly fell from the lips of -the consulting warriors. The boys deserted their sports, and walking -fearlessly among their fathers, looked up in curious admiration, as -they heard the brief exclamations of wonder they so freely expressed the -temerity of their hated foe. In short, every occupation was abandoned -for the time, and all other pursuits seemed discarded in order that the -tribe might freely indulge, after their own peculiar manner, in an open -expression of feeling. - -When the excitement had a little abated, the old men disposed themselves -seriously to consider that which it became the honor and safety of -their tribe to perform, under circumstances of so much delicacy and -embarrassment. During all these movements, and in the midst of the -general commotion, Magua had not only maintained his seat, but the very -attitude he had originally taken, against the side of the lodge, where -he continued as immovable, and, apparently, as unconcerned, as if he -had no interest in the result. Not a single indication of the future -intentions of his hosts, however, escaped his vigilant eyes. With his -consummate knowledge of the nature of the people with whom he had to -deal, he anticipated every measure on which they decided; and it might -almost be said, that, in many instances, he knew their intentions, even -before they became known to themselves. - -The council of the Delawares was short. When it was ended, a general -bustle announced that it was to be immediately succeeded by a solemn and -formal assemblage of the nation. As such meetings were rare, and only -called on occasions of the last importance, the subtle Huron, who still -sat apart, a wily and dark observer of the proceedings, now knew that -all his projects must be brought to their final issue. He, therefore, -left the lodge and walked silently forth to the place, in front of the -encampment, whither the warriors were already beginning to collect. - -It might have been half an hour before each individual, including even -the women and children, was in his place. The delay had been created -by the grave preparations that were deemed necessary to so solemn and -unusual a conference. But when the sun was seen climbing above the tops -of that mountain, against whose bosom the Delawares had constructed -their encampment, most were seated; and as his bright rays darted from -behind the outline of trees that fringed the eminence, they fell upon -as grave, as attentive, and as deeply interested a multitude, as was -probably ever before lighted by his morning beams. Its number somewhat -exceeded a thousand souls. - -In a collection of so serious savages, there is never to be found any -impatient aspirant after premature distinction, standing ready to move -his auditors to some hasty, and, perhaps, injudicious discussion, in -order that his own reputation may be the gainer. An act of so much -precipitancy and presumption would seal the downfall of precocious -intellect forever. It rested solely with the oldest and most experienced -of the men to lay the subject of the conference before the people. Until -such a one chose to make some movement, no deeds in arms, no natural -gifts, nor any renown as an orator, would have justified the slightest -interruption. On the present occasion, the aged warrior whose privilege -it was to speak, was silent, seemingly oppressed with the magnitude -of his subject. The delay had already continued long beyond the usual -deliberative pause that always preceded a conference; but no sign of -impatience or surprise escaped even the youngest boy. Occasionally an -eye was raised from the earth, where the looks of most were riveted, -and strayed toward a particular lodge, that was, however, in no manner -distinguished from those around it, except in the peculiar care that had -been taken to protect it against the assaults of the weather. - -At length one of those low murmurs, that are so apt to disturb a -multitude, was heard, and the whole nation arose to their feet by -a common impulse. At that instant the door of the lodge in question -opened, and three men, issuing from it, slowly approached the place of -consultation. They were all aged, even beyond that period to which the -oldest present had reached; but one in the center, who leaned on his -companions for support, had numbered an amount of years to which the -human race is seldom permitted to attain. His frame, which had once been -tall and erect, like the cedar, was now bending under the pressure of -more than a century. The elastic, light step of an Indian was gone, and -in its place he was compelled to toil his tardy way over the ground, -inch by inch. His dark, wrinkled countenance was in singular and wild -contrast with the long white locks which floated on his shoulders, in -such thickness, as to announce that generations had probably passed away -since they had last been shorn. - -The dress of this patriarch--for such, considering his vast age, in -conjunction with his affinity and influence with his people, he might -very properly be termed--was rich and imposing, though strictly after -the simple fashions of the tribe. His robe was of the finest -skins, which had been deprived of their fur, in order to admit of a -hieroglyphical representation of various deeds in arms, done in former -ages. His bosom was loaded with medals, some in massive silver, and one -or two even in gold, the gifts of various Christian potentates during -the long period of his life. He also wore armlets, and cinctures above -the ankles, of the latter precious metal. His head, on the whole of -which the hair had been permitted to grow, the pursuits of war having so -long been abandoned, was encircled by a sort of plated diadem, which, in -its turn, bore lesser and more glittering ornaments, that sparkled amid -the glossy hues of three drooping ostrich feathers, dyed a deep black, -in touching contrast to the color of his snow-white locks. His tomahawk -was nearly hid in silver, and the handle of his knife shone like a horn -of solid gold. - -So soon as the first hum of emotion and pleasure, which the sudden -appearance of this venerated individual created, had a little subsided, -the name of "Tamenund" was whispered from mouth to mouth. Magua had -often heard the fame of this wise and just Delaware; a reputation that -even proceeded so far as to bestow on him the rare gift of holding -secret communion with the Great Spirit, and which has since transmitted -his name, with some slight alteration, to the white usurpers of his -ancient territory, as the imaginary tutelar saint* of a vast empire. The -Huron chief, therefore, stepped eagerly out a little from the throng, -to a spot whence he might catch a nearer glimpse of the features of the -man, whose decision was likely to produce so deep an influence on his -own fortunes. - - * The Americans sometimes called their tutelar saint - Tamenay, a corruption of the name of the renowned chief here - introduced. There are many traditions which speak of the - character and power of Tamenund. - -The eyes of the old man were closed, as though the organs were wearied -with having so long witnessed the selfish workings of the human -passions. The color of his skin differed from that of most around him, -being richer and darker, the latter having been produced by certain -delicate and mazy lines of complicated and yet beautiful figures, which -had been traced over most of his person by the operation of tattooing. -Notwithstanding the position of the Huron, he passed the observant and -silent Magua without notice, and leaning on his two venerable supporters -proceeded to the high place of the multitude, where he seated himself in -the center of his nation, with the dignity of a monarch and the air of a -father. - -Nothing could surpass the reverence and affection with which this -unexpected visit from one who belongs rather to another world than to -this, was received by his people. After a suitable and decent pause, the -principal chiefs arose, and, approaching the patriarch, they placed -his hands reverently on their heads, seeming to entreat a blessing. The -younger men were content with touching his robe, or even drawing nigh -his person, in order to breathe in the atmosphere of one so aged, so -just, and so valiant. None but the most distinguished among the youthful -warriors even presumed so far as to perform the latter ceremony, the -great mass of the multitude deeming it a sufficient happiness to look -upon a form so deeply venerated, and so well beloved. When these acts -of affection and respect were performed, the chiefs drew back again to -their several places, and silence reigned in the whole encampment. - -After a short delay, a few of the young men, to whom instructions had -been whispered by one of the aged attendants of Tamenund, arose, left -the crowd, and entered the lodge which has already been noted as the -object of so much attention throughout that morning. In a few minutes -they reappeared, escorting the individuals who had caused all these -solemn preparations toward the seat of judgment. The crowd opened in a -lane; and when the party had re-entered, it closed in again, forming a -large and dense belt of human bodies, arranged in an open circle. - - - - -CHAPTER 29 - - "The assembly seated, rising o'er the rest, - Achilles thus the king of men addressed." - --Pope's Illiad - -Cora stood foremost among the prisoners, entwining her arms in those of -Alice, in the tenderness of sisterly love. Notwithstanding the fearful -and menacing array of savages on every side of her, no apprehension on -her own account could prevent the nobler-minded maiden from keeping her -eyes fastened on the pale and anxious features of the trembling Alice. -Close at their side stood Heyward, with an interest in both, that, at -such a moment of intense uncertainty, scarcely knew a preponderance in -favor of her whom he most loved. Hawkeye had placed himself a little in -the rear, with a deference to the superior rank of his companions, that -no similarity in the state of their present fortunes could induce him to -forget. Uncas was not there. - -When perfect silence was again restored, and after the usual long, -impressive pause, one of the two aged chiefs who sat at the side of the -patriarch arose, and demanded aloud, in very intelligible English: - -"Which of my prisoners is La Longue Carabine?" - -Neither Duncan nor the scout answered. The former, however, glanced his -eyes around the dark and silent assembly, and recoiled a pace, when they -fell on the malignant visage of Magua. He saw, at once, that this wily -savage had some secret agency in their present arraignment before the -nation, and determined to throw every possible impediment in the way of -the execution of his sinister plans. He had witnessed one instance -of the summary punishments of the Indians, and now dreaded that his -companion was to be selected for a second. In this dilemma, with -little or no time for reflection, he suddenly determined to cloak his -invaluable friend, at any or every hazard to himself. Before he had -time, however, to speak, the question was repeated in a louder voice, -and with a clearer utterance. - -"Give us arms," the young man haughtily replied, "and place us in yonder -woods. Our deeds shall speak for us!" - -"This is the warrior whose name has filled our ears!" returned the -chief, regarding Heyward with that sort of curious interest which seems -inseparable from man, when first beholding one of his fellows to whom -merit or accident, virtue or crime, has given notoriety. "What has -brought the white man into the camp of the Delawares?" - -"My necessities. I come for food, shelter, and friends." - -"It cannot be. The woods are full of game. The head of a warrior needs -no other shelter than a sky without clouds; and the Delawares are the -enemies, and not the friends of the Yengeese. Go, the mouth has spoken, -while the heart said nothing." - -Duncan, a little at a loss in what manner to proceed, remained silent; -but the scout, who had listened attentively to all that passed, now -advanced steadily to the front. - -"That I did not answer to the call for La Longue Carabine, was not owing -either to shame or fear," he said, "for neither one nor the other is the -gift of an honest man. But I do not admit the right of the Mingoes to -bestow a name on one whose friends have been mindful of his gifts, in -this particular; especially as their title is a lie, 'killdeer' being a -grooved barrel and no carabyne. I am the man, however, that got the name -of Nathaniel from my kin; the compliment of Hawkeye from the Delawares, -who live on their own river; and whom the Iroquois have presumed to -style the 'Long Rifle', without any warranty from him who is most -concerned in the matter." - -The eyes of all present, which had hitherto been gravely scanning the -person of Duncan, were now turned, on the instant, toward the upright -iron frame of this new pretender to the distinguished appellation. It -was in no degree remarkable that there should be found two who were -willing to claim so great an honor, for impostors, though rare, were not -unknown among the natives; but it was altogether material to the just -and severe intentions of the Delawares, that there should be no mistake -in the matter. Some of their old men consulted together in private, and -then, as it would seem, they determined to interrogate their visitor on -the subject. - -"My brother has said that a snake crept into my camp," said the chief to -Magua; "which is he?" - -The Huron pointed to the scout. - -"Will a wise Delaware believe the barking of a wolf?" exclaimed Duncan, -still more confirmed in the evil intentions of his ancient enemy: "a dog -never lies, but when was a wolf known to speak the truth?" - -The eyes of Magua flashed fire; but suddenly recollecting the necessity -of maintaining his presence of mind, he turned away in silent disdain, -well assured that the sagacity of the Indians would not fail to extract -the real merits of the point in controversy. He was not deceived; for, -after another short consultation, the wary Delaware turned to him -again, and expressed the determination of the chiefs, though in the most -considerate language. - -"My brother has been called a liar," he said, "and his friends are -angry. They will show that he has spoken the truth. Give my prisoners -guns, and let them prove which is the man." - -Magua affected to consider the expedient, which he well knew proceeded -from distrust of himself, as a compliment, and made a gesture of -acquiescence, well content that his veracity should be supported by so -skillful a marksman as the scout. The weapons were instantly placed in -the hands of the friendly opponents, and they were bid to fire, over -the heads of the seated multitude, at an earthen vessel, which lay, by -accident, on a stump, some fifty yards from the place where they stood. - -Heyward smiled to himself at the idea of a competition with the scout, -though he determined to persevere in the deception, until apprised of -the real designs of Magua. - -Raising his rifle with the utmost care, and renewing his aim three -several times, he fired. The bullet cut the wood within a few inches of -the vessel; and a general exclamation of satisfaction announced that the -shot was considered a proof of great skill in the use of a weapon. -Even Hawkeye nodded his head, as if he would say, it was better than he -expected. But, instead of manifesting an intention to contend with -the successful marksman, he stood leaning on his rifle for more than -a minute, like a man who was completely buried in thought. From this -reverie, he was, however, awakened by one of the young Indians who -had furnished the arms, and who now touched his shoulder, saying in -exceedingly broken English: - -"Can the pale face beat it?" - -"Yes, Huron!" exclaimed the scout, raising the short rifle in his right -hand, and shaking it at Magua, with as much apparent ease as if it were -a reed; "yes, Huron, I could strike you now, and no power on earth could -prevent the deed! The soaring hawk is not more certain of the dove than -I am this moment of you, did I choose to send a bullet to your heart! -Why should I not? Why!--because the gifts of my color forbid it, and I -might draw down evil on tender and innocent heads. If you know such a -being as God, thank Him, therefore, in your inward soul; for you have -reason!" - -The flushed countenance, angry eye and swelling figure of the scout, -produced a sensation of secret awe in all that heard him. The Delawares -held their breath in expectation; but Magua himself, even while he -distrusted the forbearance of his enemy, remained immovable and calm, -where he stood wedged in by the crowd, as one who grew to the spot. - -"Beat it," repeated the young Delaware at the elbow of the scout. - -"Beat what, fool!--what?" exclaimed Hawkeye, still flourishing the -weapon angrily above his head, though his eye no longer sought the -person of Magua. - -"If the white man is the warrior he pretends," said the aged chief, "let -him strike nigher to the mark." - -The scout laughed aloud--a noise that produced the startling effect of -an unnatural sound on Heyward; then dropping the piece, heavily, into -his extended left hand, it was discharged, apparently by the shock, -driving the fragments of the vessel into the air, and scattering them on -every side. Almost at the same instant, the rattling sound of the rifle -was heard, as he suffered it to fall, contemptuously, to the earth. - -The first impression of so strange a scene was engrossing admiration. -Then a low, but increasing murmur, ran through the multitude, and -finally swelled into sounds that denoted a lively opposition in -the sentiments of the spectators. While some openly testified their -satisfaction at so unexampled dexterity, by far the larger portion -of the tribe were inclined to believe the success of the shot was the -result of accident. Heyward was not slow to confirm an opinion that was -so favorable to his own pretensions. - -"It was chance!" he exclaimed; "none can shoot without an aim!" - -"Chance!" echoed the excited woodsman, who was now stubbornly bent on -maintaining his identity at every hazard, and on whom the secret hints -of Heyward to acquiesce in the deception were entirely lost. "Does -yonder lying Huron, too, think it chance? Give him another gun, and -place us face to face, without cover or dodge, and let Providence, and -our own eyes, decide the matter atween us! I do not make the offer, to -you, major; for our blood is of a color, and we serve the same master." - -"That the Huron is a liar, is very evident," returned Heyward, coolly; -"you have yourself heard him assert you to be La Longue Carabine." - -It were impossible to say what violent assertion the stubborn Hawkeye -would have next made, in his headlong wish to vindicate his identity, -had not the aged Delaware once more interposed. - -"The hawk which comes from the clouds can return when he will," he said; -"give them the guns." - -This time the scout seized the rifle with avidity; nor had Magua, though -he watched the movements of the marksman with jealous eyes, any further -cause for apprehension. - -"Now let it be proved, in the face of this tribe of Delawares, which -is the better man," cried the scout, tapping the butt of his piece with -that finger which had pulled so many fatal triggers. - -"You see that gourd hanging against yonder tree, major; if you are a -marksman fit for the borders, let me see you break its shell!" - -Duncan noted the object, and prepared himself to renew the trial. The -gourd was one of the usual little vessels used by the Indians, and -it was suspended from a dead branch of a small pine, by a thong -of deerskin, at the full distance of a hundred yards. So strangely -compounded is the feeling of self-love, that the young soldier, while -he knew the utter worthlessness of the suffrages of his savage umpires, -forgot the sudden motives of the contest in a wish to excel. It had been -seen, already, that his skill was far from being contemptible, and he -now resolved to put forth its nicest qualities. Had his life depended -on the issue, the aim of Duncan could not have been more deliberate or -guarded. He fired; and three or four young Indians, who sprang forward -at the report, announced with a shout, that the ball was in the tree, -a very little on one side of the proper object. The warriors uttered a -common ejaculation of pleasure, and then turned their eyes, inquiringly, -on the movements of his rival. - -"It may do for the Royal Americans!" said Hawkeye, laughing once more in -his own silent, heartfelt manner; "but had my gun often turned so much -from the true line, many a marten, whose skin is now in a lady's muff, -would still be in the woods; ay, and many a bloody Mingo, who has -departed to his final account, would be acting his deviltries at this -very day, atween the provinces. I hope the squaw who owns the gourd has -more of them in her wigwam, for this will never hold water again!" - -The scout had shook his priming, and cocked his piece, while speaking; -and, as he ended, he threw back a foot, and slowly raised the muzzle -from the earth: the motion was steady, uniform, and in one direction. -When on a perfect level, it remained for a single moment, without tremor -or variation, as though both man and rifle were carved in stone. During -that stationary instant, it poured forth its contents, in a bright, -glancing sheet of flame. Again the young Indians bounded forward; but -their hurried search and disappointed looks announced that no traces of -the bullet were to be seen. - -"Go!" said the old chief to the scout, in a tone of strong disgust; -"thou art a wolf in the skin of a dog. I will talk to the 'Long Rifle' -of the Yengeese." - -"Ah! had I that piece which furnished the name you use, I would obligate -myself to cut the thong, and drop the gourd without breaking it!" -returned Hawkeye, perfectly undisturbed by the other's manner. "Fools, -if you would find the bullet of a sharpshooter in these woods, you must -look in the object, and not around it!" - -The Indian youths instantly comprehended his meaning--for this time he -spoke in the Delaware tongue--and tearing the gourd from the tree, they -held it on high with an exulting shout, displaying a hole in its bottom, -which had been cut by the bullet, after passing through the usual -orifice in the center of its upper side. At this unexpected exhibition, -a loud and vehement expression of pleasure burst from the mouth of every -warrior present. It decided the question, and effectually established -Hawkeye in the possession of his dangerous reputation. Those curious -and admiring eyes which had been turned again on Heyward, were finally -directed to the weather-beaten form of the scout, who immediately became -the principal object of attention to the simple and unsophisticated -beings by whom he was surrounded. When the sudden and noisy commotion -had a little subsided, the aged chief resumed his examination. - -"Why did you wish to stop my ears?" he said, addressing Duncan; "are -the Delawares fools that they could not know the young panther from the -cat?" - -"They will yet find the Huron a singing-bird," said Duncan, endeavoring -to adopt the figurative language of the natives. - -"It is good. We will know who can shut the ears of men. Brother," added -the chief turning his eyes on Magua, "the Delawares listen." - -Thus singled, and directly called on to declare his object, the Huron -arose; and advancing with great deliberation and dignity into the very -center of the circle, where he stood confronted by the prisoners, -he placed himself in an attitude to speak. Before opening his mouth, -however, he bent his eyes slowly along the whole living boundary of -earnest faces, as if to temper his expressions to the capacities of his -audience. On Hawkeye he cast a glance of respectful enmity; on Duncan, -a look of inextinguishable hatred; the shrinking figure of Alice -he scarcely deigned to notice; but when his glance met the firm, -commanding, and yet lovely form of Cora, his eye lingered a moment, with -an expression that it might have been difficult to define. Then, filled -with his own dark intentions, he spoke in the language of the Canadas, a -tongue that he well knew was comprehended by most of his auditors. - -"The Spirit that made men colored them differently," commenced the -subtle Huron. "Some are blacker than the sluggish bear. These He said -should be slaves; and He ordered them to work forever, like the beaver. -You may hear them groan, when the south wind blows, louder than the -lowing buffaloes, along the shores of the great salt lake, where the big -canoes come and go with them in droves. Some He made with faces paler -than the ermine of the forests; and these He ordered to be traders; -dogs to their women, and wolves to their slaves. He gave this people the -nature of the pigeon; wings that never tire; young, more plentiful than -the leaves on the trees, and appetites to devour the earth. He gave them -tongues like the false call of the wildcat; hearts like rabbits; the -cunning of the hog (but none of the fox), and arms longer than the legs -of the moose. With his tongue he stops the ears of the Indians; his -heart teaches him to pay warriors to fight his battles; his cunning -tells him how to get together the goods of the earth; and his arms -inclose the land from the shores of the salt-water to the islands of the -great lake. His gluttony makes him sick. God gave him enough, and yet he -wants all. Such are the pale faces. - -"Some the Great Spirit made with skins brighter and redder than yonder -sun," continued Magua, pointing impressively upward to the lurid -luminary, which was struggling through the misty atmosphere of the -horizon; "and these did He fashion to His own mind. He gave them this -island as He had made it, covered with trees, and filled with game. The -wind made their clearings; the sun and rain ripened their fruits; and -the snows came to tell them to be thankful. What need had they of roads -to journey by! They saw through the hills! When the beavers worked, they -lay in the shade, and looked on. The winds cooled them in summer; in -winter, skins kept them warm. If they fought among themselves, it was -to prove that they were men. They were brave; they were just; they were -happy." - -Here the speaker paused, and again looked around him to discover if his -legend had touched the sympathies of his listeners. He met everywhere, -with eyes riveted on his own, heads erect and nostrils expanded, as -if each individual present felt himself able and willing, singly, to -redress the wrongs of his race. - -"If the Great Spirit gave different tongues to his red children," he -continued, in a low, still melancholy voice, "it was that all animals -might understand them. Some He placed among the snows, with their -cousin, the bear. Some he placed near the setting sun, on the road to -the happy hunting grounds. Some on the lands around the great fresh -waters; but to His greatest, and most beloved, He gave the sands of the -salt lake. Do my brothers know the name of this favored people?" - -"It was the Lenape!" exclaimed twenty eager voices in a breath. - -"It was the Lenni Lenape," returned Magua, affecting to bend his head in -reverence to their former greatness. "It was the tribes of the Lenape! -The sun rose from water that was salt, and set in water that was sweet, -and never hid himself from their eyes. But why should I, a Huron of the -woods, tell a wise people their own traditions? Why remind them of -their injuries; their ancient greatness; their deeds; their glory; their -happiness; their losses; their defeats; their misery? Is there not one -among them who has seen it all, and who knows it to be true? I have -done. My tongue is still for my heart is of lead. I listen." - -As the voice of the speaker suddenly ceased, every face and all eyes -turned, by a common movement, toward the venerable Tamenund. From the -moment that he took his seat, until the present instant, the lips of the -patriarch had not severed, and scarcely a sign of life had escaped him. -He sat bent in feebleness, and apparently unconscious of the presence -he was in, during the whole of that opening scene, in which the skill of -the scout had been so clearly established. At the nicely graduated sound -of Magua's voice, however, he betrayed some evidence of consciousness, -and once or twice he even raised his head, as if to listen. But when -the crafty Huron spoke of his nation by name, the eyelids of the old man -raised themselves, and he looked out upon the multitude with that sort -of dull, unmeaning expression which might be supposed to belong to the -countenance of a specter. Then he made an effort to rise, and being -upheld by his supporters, he gained his feet, in a posture commanding by -its dignity, while he tottered with weakness. - -"Who calls upon the children of the Lenape?" he said, in a deep, -guttural voice, that was rendered awfully audible by the breathless -silence of the multitude; "who speaks of things gone? Does not the egg -become a worm--the worm a fly, and perish? Why tell the Delawares of -good that is past? Better thank the Manitou for that which remains." - -"It is a Wyandot," said Magua, stepping nigher to the rude platform on -which the other stood; "a friend of Tamenund." - -"A friend!" repeated the sage, on whose brow a dark frown settled, -imparting a portion of that severity which had rendered his eye so -terrible in middle age. "Are the Mingoes rulers of the earth? What -brings a Huron in here?" - -"Justice. His prisoners are with his brothers, and he comes for his -own." - -Tamenund turned his head toward one of his supporters, and listened to -the short explanation the man gave. - -Then, facing the applicant, he regarded him a moment with deep -attention; after which he said, in a low and reluctant voice: - -"Justice is the law of the great Manitou. My children, give the stranger -food. Then, Huron, take thine own and depart." - -On the delivery of this solemn judgment, the patriarch seated himself, -and closed his eyes again, as if better pleased with the images of -his own ripened experience than with the visible objects of the world. -Against such a decree there was no Delaware sufficiently hardy to -murmur, much less oppose himself. The words were barely uttered when -four or five of the younger warriors, stepping behind Heyward and the -scout, passed thongs so dexterously and rapidly around their arms, as -to hold them both in instant bondage. The former was too much engrossed -with his precious and nearly insensible burden, to be aware of their -intentions before they were executed; and the latter, who considered -even the hostile tribes of the Delawares a superior race of beings, -submitted without resistance. Perhaps, however, the manner of the scout -would not have been so passive, had he fully comprehended the language -in which the preceding dialogue had been conducted. - -Magua cast a look of triumph around the whole assembly before he -proceeded to the execution of his purpose. Perceiving that the men were -unable to offer any resistance, he turned his looks on her he valued -most. Cora met his gaze with an eye so calm and firm, that his -resolution wavered. Then, recollecting his former artifice, he raised -Alice from the arms of the warrior against whom she leaned, and -beckoning Heyward to follow, he motioned for the encircling crowd to -open. But Cora, instead of obeying the impulse he had expected, rushed -to the feet of the patriarch, and, raising her voice, exclaimed aloud: - -"Just and venerable Delaware, on thy wisdom and power we lean for mercy! -Be deaf to yonder artful and remorseless monster, who poisons thy ears -with falsehoods to feed his thirst for blood. Thou that hast lived long, -and that hast seen the evil of the world, should know how to temper its -calamities to the miserable." - -The eyes of the old man opened heavily, and he once more looked upward -at the multitude. As the piercing tones of the suppliant swelled on -his ears, they moved slowly in the direction of her person, and finally -settled there in a steady gaze. Cora had cast herself to her knees; -and, with hands clenched in each other and pressed upon her bosom, she -remained like a beauteous and breathing model of her sex, looking up in -his faded but majestic countenance, with a species of holy reverence. -Gradually the expression of Tamenund's features changed, and losing -their vacancy in admiration, they lighted with a portion of that -intelligence which a century before had been wont to communicate his -youthful fire to the extensive bands of the Delawares. Rising without -assistance, and seemingly without an effort, he demanded, in a voice -that startled its auditors by its firmness: - -"What art thou?" - -"A woman. One of a hated race, if thou wilt--a Yengee. But one who has -never harmed thee, and who cannot harm thy people, if she would; who -asks for succor." - -"Tell me, my children," continued the patriarch, hoarsely, motioning to -those around him, though his eyes still dwelt upon the kneeling form of -Cora, "where have the Delawares camped?" - -"In the mountains of the Iroquois, beyond the clear springs of the -Horican." - -"Many parching summers are come and gone," continued the sage, "since -I drank of the water of my own rivers. The children of Minquon* are the -justest white men, but they were thirsty and they took it to themselves. -Do they follow us so far?" - - * William Penn was termed Minquon by the Delawares, and, as - he never used violence or injustice in his dealings with - them, his reputation for probity passed into a proverb. The - American is justly proud of the origin of his nation, which - is perhaps unequaled in the history of the world; but the - Pennsylvanian and Jerseyman have more reason to value - themselves in their ancestors than the natives of any other - state, since no wrong was done the original owners of the - soil. - -"We follow none, we covet nothing," answered Cora. "Captives against our -wills, have we been brought amongst you; and we ask but permission -to depart to our own in peace. Art thou not Tamenund--the father, the -judge, I had almost said, the prophet--of this people?" - -"I am Tamenund of many days." - -"'Tis now some seven years that one of thy people was at the mercy of -a white chief on the borders of this province. He claimed to be of the -blood of the good and just Tamenund. 'Go', said the white man, 'for -thy parent's sake thou art free.' Dost thou remember the name of that -English warrior?" - -"I remember, that when a laughing boy," returned the patriarch, with the -peculiar recollection of vast age, "I stood upon the sands of the sea -shore, and saw a big canoe, with wings whiter than the swan's, and wider -than many eagles, come from the rising sun." - -"Nay, nay; I speak not of a time so very distant, but of favor shown to -thy kindred by one of mine, within the memory of thy youngest warrior." - -"Was it when the Yengeese and the Dutchmanne fought for the -hunting-grounds of the Delawares? Then Tamenund was a chief, and first -laid aside the bow for the lightning of the pale faces--" - -"Not yet then," interrupted Cora, "by many ages; I speak of a thing of -yesterday. Surely, surely, you forget it not." - -"It was but yesterday," rejoined the aged man, with touching pathos, -"that the children of the Lenape were masters of the world. The fishes -of the salt lake, the birds, the beasts, and the Mengee of the woods, -owned them for Sagamores." - -Cora bowed her head in disappointment, and, for a bitter moment -struggled with her chagrin. Then, elevating her rich features and -beaming eyes, she continued, in tones scarcely less penetrating than the -unearthly voice of the patriarch himself: - -"Tell me, is Tamenund a father?" - -The old man looked down upon her from his elevated stand, with a -benignant smile on his wasted countenance, and then casting his eyes -slowly over the whole assemblage, he answered: - -"Of a nation." - -"For myself I ask nothing. Like thee and thine, venerable chief," she -continued, pressing her hands convulsively on her heart, and suffering -her head to droop until her burning cheeks were nearly concealed in the -maze of dark, glossy tresses that fell in disorder upon her shoulders, -"the curse of my ancestors has fallen heavily on their child. But yonder -is one who has never known the weight of Heaven's displeasure until now. -She is the daughter of an old and failing man, whose days are near their -close. She has many, very many, to love her, and delight in her; and she -is too good, much too precious, to become the victim of that villain." - -"I know that the pale faces are a proud and hungry race. I know that -they claim not only to have the earth, but that the meanest of their -color is better than the Sachems of the red man. The dogs and crows of -their tribes," continued the earnest old chieftain, without heeding the -wounded spirit of his listener, whose head was nearly crushed to the -earth in shame, as he proceeded, "would bark and caw before they would -take a woman to their wigwams whose blood was not of the color of snow. -But let them not boast before the face of the Manitou too loud. They -entered the land at the rising, and may yet go off at the setting sun. -I have often seen the locusts strip the leaves from the trees, but the -season of blossoms has always come again." - -"It is so," said Cora, drawing a long breath, as if reviving from a -trance, raising her face, and shaking back her shining veil, with -a kindling eye, that contradicted the death-like paleness of her -countenance; "but why--it is not permitted us to inquire. There is yet -one of thine own people who has not been brought before thee; before -thou lettest the Huron depart in triumph, hear him speak." - -Observing Tamenund to look about him doubtingly, one of his companions -said: - -"It is a snake--a red-skin in the pay of the Yengeese. We keep him for -the torture." - -"Let him come," returned the sage. - -Then Tamenund once more sank into his seat, and a silence so deep -prevailed while the young man prepared to obey his simple mandate, that -the leaves, which fluttered in the draught of the light morning air, -were distinctly heard rustling in the surrounding forest. - - - - -CHAPTER 30 - - "If you deny me, fie upon your law! - There is no force in the decrees of Venice: - I stand for judgment: answer, shall I have it?" - --Merchant of Venice - -The silence continued unbroken by human sounds for many anxious minutes. -Then the waving multitude opened and shut again, and Uncas stood in the -living circle. All those eyes, which had been curiously studying the -lineaments of the sage, as the source of their own intelligence, turned -on the instant, and were now bent in secret admiration on the erect, -agile, and faultless person of the captive. But neither the presence in -which he found himself, nor the exclusive attention that he attracted, -in any manner disturbed the self-possession of the young Mohican. He -cast a deliberate and observing look on every side of him, meeting -the settled expression of hostility that lowered in the visages of -the chiefs with the same calmness as the curious gaze of the attentive -children. But when, last in this haughty scrutiny, the person of -Tamenund came under his glance, his eye became fixed, as though all -other objects were already forgotten. Then, advancing with a slow and -noiseless step up the area, he placed himself immediately before the -footstool of the sage. Here he stood unnoted, though keenly observant -himself, until one of the chiefs apprised the latter of his presence. - -"With what tongue does the prisoner speak to the Manitou?" demanded the -patriarch, without unclosing his eyes. - -"Like his fathers," Uncas replied; "with the tongue of a Delaware." - -At this sudden and unexpected annunciation, a low, fierce yell ran -through the multitude, that might not inaptly be compared to the growl -of the lion, as his choler is first awakened--a fearful omen of the -weight of his future anger. The effect was equally strong on the sage, -though differently exhibited. He passed a hand before his eyes, as if -to exclude the least evidence of so shameful a spectacle, while he -repeated, in his low, guttural tones, the words he had just heard. - -"A Delaware! I have lived to see the tribes of the Lenape driven from -their council-fires, and scattered, like broken herds of deer, among the -hills of the Iroquois! I have seen the hatchets of a strong people sweep -woods from the valleys, that the winds of heaven have spared! The beasts -that run on the mountains, and the birds that fly above the trees, have -I seen living in the wigwams of men; but never before have I found a -Delaware so base as to creep, like a poisonous serpent, into the camps -of his nation." - -"The singing-birds have opened their bills," returned Uncas, in the -softest notes of his own musical voice; "and Tamenund has heard their -song." - -The sage started, and bent his head aside, as if to catch the fleeting -sounds of some passing melody. - -"Does Tamenund dream!" he exclaimed. "What voice is at his ear! Have -the winters gone backward! Will summer come again to the children of the -Lenape!" - -A solemn and respectful silence succeeded this incoherent burst from -the lips of the Delaware prophet. His people readily constructed his -unintelligible language into one of those mysterious conferences he was -believed to hold so frequently with a superior intelligence and they -awaited the issue of the revelation in awe. After a patient pause, -however, one of the aged men, perceiving that the sage had lost the -recollection of the subject before them, ventured to remind him again of -the presence of the prisoner. - -"The false Delaware trembles lest he should hear the words of Tamenund," -he said. "'Tis a hound that howls, when the Yengeese show him a trail." - -"And ye," returned Uncas, looking sternly around him, "are dogs that -whine, when the Frenchman casts ye the offals of his deer!" - -Twenty knives gleamed in the air, and as many warriors sprang to their -feet, at this biting, and perhaps merited retort; but a motion from one -of the chiefs suppressed the outbreaking of their tempers, and restored -the appearance of quiet. The task might probably have been more -difficult, had not a movement made by Tamenund indicated that he was -again about to speak. - -"Delaware!" resumed the sage, "little art thou worthy of thy name. My -people have not seen a bright sun in many winters; and the warrior who -deserts his tribe when hid in clouds is doubly a traitor. The law of the -Manitou is just. It is so; while the rivers run and the mountains stand, -while the blossoms come and go on the trees, it must be so. He is thine, -my children; deal justly by him." - -Not a limb was moved, nor was a breath drawn louder and longer than -common, until the closing syllable of this final decree had passed the -lips of Tamenund. Then a cry of vengeance burst at once, as it might be, -from the united lips of the nation; a frightful augury of their ruthless -intentions. In the midst of these prolonged and savage yells, a chief -proclaimed, in a high voice, that the captive was condemned to endure -the dreadful trial of torture by fire. The circle broke its order, and -screams of delight mingled with the bustle and tumult of preparation. -Heyward struggled madly with his captors; the anxious eye of Hawkeye -began to look around him, with an expression of peculiar earnestness; -and Cora again threw herself at the feet of the patriarch, once more a -suppliant for mercy. - -Throughout the whole of these trying moments, Uncas had alone preserved -his serenity. He looked on the preparations with a steady eye, and when -the tormentors came to seize him, he met them with a firm and upright -attitude. One among them, if possible more fierce and savage than his -fellows, seized the hunting-shirt of the young warrior, and at a single -effort tore it from his body. Then, with a yell of frantic pleasure, -he leaped toward his unresisting victim and prepared to lead him to -the stake. But, at that moment, when he appeared most a stranger to the -feelings of humanity, the purpose of the savage was arrested as suddenly -as if a supernatural agency had interposed in the behalf of Uncas. The -eyeballs of the Delaware seemed to start from their sockets; his mouth -opened and his whole form became frozen in an attitude of amazement. -Raising his hand with a slow and regulated motion, he pointed with a -finger to the bosom of the captive. His companions crowded about him in -wonder and every eye was like his own, fastened intently on the figure -of a small tortoise, beautifully tattooed on the breast of the prisoner, -in a bright blue tint. - -For a single instant Uncas enjoyed his triumph, smiling calmly on the -scene. Then motioning the crowd away with a high and haughty sweep of -his arm, he advanced in front of the nation with the air of a king, and -spoke in a voice louder than the murmur of admiration that ran through -the multitude. - -"Men of the Lenni Lenape!" he said, "my race upholds the earth! Your -feeble tribe stands on my shell! What fire that a Delaware can light -would burn the child of my fathers," he added, pointing proudly to the -simple blazonry on his skin; "the blood that came from such a stock -would smother your flames! My race is the grandfather of nations!" - -"Who art thou?" demanded Tamenund, rising at the startling tones -he heard, more than at any meaning conveyed by the language of the -prisoner. - -"Uncas, the son of Chingachgook," answered the captive modestly, turning -from the nation, and bending his head in reverence to the other's -character and years; "a son of the great Unamis."* - - * Turtle. - -"The hour of Tamenund is nigh!" exclaimed the sage; "the day is come, -at last, to the night! I thank the Manitou, that one is here to fill my -place at the council-fire. Uncas, the child of Uncas, is found! Let the -eyes of a dying eagle gaze on the rising sun." - -The youth stepped lightly, but proudly on the platform, where he became -visible to the whole agitated and wondering multitude. Tamenund held him -long at the length of his arm and read every turn in the fine lineaments -of his countenance, with the untiring gaze of one who recalled days of -happiness. - -"Is Tamenund a boy?" at length the bewildered prophet exclaimed. "Have -I dreamed of so many snows--that my people were scattered like floating -sands--of Yengeese, more plenty than the leaves on the trees! The arrow -of Tamenund would not frighten the fawn; his arm is withered like the -branch of a dead oak; the snail would be swifter in the race; yet is -Uncas before him as they went to battle against the pale faces! Uncas, -the panther of his tribe, the eldest son of the Lenape, the wisest -Sagamore of the Mohicans! Tell me, ye Delawares, has Tamenund been a -sleeper for a hundred winters?" - -The calm and deep silence which succeeded these words sufficiently -announced the awful reverence with which his people received the -communication of the patriarch. None dared to answer, though all -listened in breathless expectation of what might follow. Uncas, however, -looking in his face with the fondness and veneration of a favored child, -presumed on his own high and acknowledged rank, to reply. - -"Four warriors of his race have lived and died," he said, "since the -friend of Tamenund led his people in battle. The blood of the turtle has -been in many chiefs, but all have gone back into the earth from whence -they came, except Chingachgook and his son." - -"It is true--it is true," returned the sage, a flash of recollection -destroying all his pleasing fancies, and restoring him at once to a -consciousness of the true history of his nation. "Our wise men have -often said that two warriors of the unchanged race were in the hills of -the Yengeese; why have their seats at the council-fires of the Delawares -been so long empty?" - -At these words the young man raised his head, which he had still kept -bowed a little, in reverence; and lifting his voice so as to be heard -by the multitude, as if to explain at once and forever the policy of his -family, he said aloud: - -"Once we slept where we could hear the salt lake speak in its anger. -Then we were rulers and Sagamores over the land. But when a pale face -was seen on every brook, we followed the deer back to the river of our -nation. The Delawares were gone. Few warriors of them all stayed to -drink of the stream they loved. Then said my fathers, 'Here will we -hunt. The waters of the river go into the salt lake. If we go toward -the setting sun, we shall find streams that run into the great lakes of -sweet water; there would a Mohican die, like fishes of the sea, in the -clear springs. When the Manitou is ready and shall say "Come," we will -follow the river to the sea, and take our own again.' Such, Delawares, -is the belief of the children of the Turtle. Our eyes are on the rising -and not toward the setting sun. We know whence he comes, but we know not -whither he goes. It is enough." - -The men of the Lenape listened to his words with all the respect that -superstition could lend, finding a secret charm even in the figurative -language with which the young Sagamore imparted his ideas. Uncas himself -watched the effect of his brief explanation with intelligent eyes, and -gradually dropped the air of authority he had assumed, as he perceived -that his auditors were content. Then, permitting his looks to wander -over the silent throng that crowded around the elevated seat of -Tamenund, he first perceived Hawkeye in his bonds. Stepping eagerly -from his stand, he made way for himself to the side of his friend; and -cutting his thongs with a quick and angry stroke of his own knife, he -motioned to the crowd to divide. The Indians silently obeyed, and once -more they stood ranged in their circle, as before his appearance among -them. Uncas took the scout by the hand, and led him to the feet of the -patriarch. - -"Father," he said, "look at this pale face; a just man, and the friend -of the Delawares." - -"Is he a son of Minquon?" - -"Not so; a warrior known to the Yengeese, and feared by the Maquas." - -"What name has he gained by his deeds?" - -"We call him Hawkeye," Uncas replied, using the Delaware phrase; "for -his sight never fails. The Mingoes know him better by the death he gives -their warriors; with them he is 'The Long Rifle'." - -"La Longue Carabine!" exclaimed Tamenund, opening his eyes, and -regarding the scout sternly. "My son has not done well to call him -friend." - -"I call him so who proves himself such," returned the young chief, with -great calmness, but with a steady mien. "If Uncas is welcome among the -Delawares, then is Hawkeye with his friends." - -"The pale face has slain my young men; his name is great for the blows -he has struck the Lenape." - -"If a Mingo has whispered that much in the ear of the Delaware, he has -only shown that he is a singing-bird," said the scout, who now believed -that it was time to vindicate himself from such offensive charges, -and who spoke as the man he addressed, modifying his Indian figures, -however, with his own peculiar notions. "That I have slain the Maquas -I am not the man to deny, even at their own council-fires; but that, -knowingly, my hand has never harmed a Delaware, is opposed to the reason -of my gifts, which is friendly to them, and all that belongs to their -nation." - -A low exclamation of applause passed among the warriors who exchanged -looks with each other like men that first began to perceive their error. - -"Where is the Huron?" demanded Tamenund. "Has he stopped my ears?" - -Magua, whose feelings during that scene in which Uncas had triumphed may -be much better imagined than described, answered to the call by stepping -boldly in front of the patriarch. - -"The just Tamenund," he said, "will not keep what a Huron has lent." - -"Tell me, son of my brother," returned the sage, avoiding the dark -countenance of Le Subtil, and turning gladly to the more ingenuous -features of Uncas, "has the stranger a conqueror's right over you?" - -"He has none. The panther may get into snares set by the women; but he -is strong, and knows how to leap through them." - -"La Longue Carabine?" - -"Laughs at the Mingoes. Go, Huron, ask your squaws the color of a bear." - -"The stranger and white maiden that come into my camp together?" - -"Should journey on an open path." - -"And the woman that Huron left with my warriors?" - -Uncas made no reply. - -"And the woman that the Mingo has brought into my camp?" repeated -Tamenund, gravely. - -"She is mine," cried Magua, shaking his hand in triumph at Uncas. -"Mohican, you know that she is mine." - -"My son is silent," said Tamenund, endeavoring to read the expression of -the face that the youth turned from him in sorrow. - -"It is so," was the low answer. - -A short and impressive pause succeeded, during which it was very -apparent with what reluctance the multitude admitted the justice of the -Mingo's claim. At length the sage, on whom alone the decision depended, -said, in a firm voice: - -"Huron, depart." - -"As he came, just Tamenund," demanded the wily Magua, "or with hands -filled with the faith of the Delawares? The wigwam of Le Renard Subtil -is empty. Make him strong with his own." - -The aged man mused with himself for a time; and then, bending his head -toward one of his venerable companions, he asked: - -"Are my ears open?" - -"It is true." - -"Is this Mingo a chief?" - -"The first in his nation." - -"Girl, what wouldst thou? A great warrior takes thee to wife. Go! thy -race will not end." - -"Better, a thousand times, it should," exclaimed the horror-struck Cora, -"than meet with such a degradation!" - -"Huron, her mind is in the tents of her fathers. An unwilling maiden -makes an unhappy wigwam." - -"She speaks with the tongue of her people," returned Magua, regarding -his victim with a look of bitter irony. - -"She is of a race of traders, and will bargain for a bright look. Let -Tamenund speak the words." - -"Take you the wampum, and our love." - -"Nothing hence but what Magua brought hither." - -"Then depart with thine own. The Great Manitou forbids that a Delaware -should be unjust." - -Magua advanced, and seized his captive strongly by the arm; the -Delawares fell back, in silence; and Cora, as if conscious that -remonstrance would be useless, prepared to submit to her fate without -resistance. - -"Hold, hold!" cried Duncan, springing forward; "Huron, have mercy! her -ransom shall make thee richer than any of thy people were ever yet known -to be." - -"Magua is a red-skin; he wants not the beads of the pale faces." - -"Gold, silver, powder, lead--all that a warrior needs shall be in thy -wigwam; all that becomes the greatest chief." - -"Le Subtil is very strong," cried Magua, violently shaking the hand -which grasped the unresisting arm of Cora; "he has his revenge!" - -"Mighty ruler of Providence!" exclaimed Heyward, clasping his hands -together in agony, "can this be suffered! To you, just Tamenund, I -appeal for mercy." - -"The words of the Delaware are said," returned the sage, closing his -eyes, and dropping back into his seat, alike wearied with his mental and -his bodily exertion. "Men speak not twice." - -"That a chief should not misspend his time in unsaying what has once -been spoken is wise and reasonable," said Hawkeye, motioning to Duncan -to be silent; "but it is also prudent in every warrior to consider well -before he strikes his tomahawk into the head of his prisoner. Huron, I -love you not; nor can I say that any Mingo has ever received much favor -at my hands. It is fair to conclude that, if this war does not soon end, -many more of your warriors will meet me in the woods. Put it to your -judgment, then, whether you would prefer taking such a prisoner as that -into your encampment, or one like myself, who am a man that it would -greatly rejoice your nation to see with naked hands." - -"Will 'The Long Rifle' give his life for the woman?" demanded Magua, -hesitatingly; for he had already made a motion toward quitting the place -with his victim. - -"No, no; I have not said so much as that," returned Hawkeye, drawing -back with suitable discretion, when he noted the eagerness with which -Magua listened to his proposal. "It would be an unequal exchange, to -give a warrior, in the prime of his age and usefulness, for the best -woman on the frontiers. I might consent to go into winter quarters, now ---at least six weeks afore the leaves will turn--on condition you will -release the maiden." - -Magua shook his head, and made an impatient sign for the crowd to open. - -"Well, then," added the scout, with the musing air of a man who had not -half made up his mind; "I will throw 'killdeer' into the bargain. Take -the word of an experienced hunter, the piece has not its equal atween -the provinces." - -Magua still disdained to reply, continuing his efforts to disperse the -crowd. - -"Perhaps," added the scout, losing his dissembled coolness exactly in -proportion as the other manifested an indifference to the exchange, -"if I should condition to teach your young men the real virtue of the -we'pon, it would smoothe the little differences in our judgments." - -Le Renard fiercely ordered the Delawares, who still lingered in an -impenetrable belt around him, in hopes he would listen to the amicable -proposal, to open his path, threatening, by the glance of his eye, -another appeal to the infallible justice of their "prophet." - -"What is ordered must sooner or later arrive," continued Hawkeye, -turning with a sad and humbled look to Uncas. "The varlet knows his -advantage and will keep it! God bless you, boy; you have found friends -among your natural kin, and I hope they will prove as true as some you -have met who had no Indian cross. As for me, sooner or later, I -must die; it is, therefore, fortunate there are but few to make my -death-howl. After all, it is likely the imps would have managed to -master my scalp, so a day or two will make no great difference in -the everlasting reckoning of time. God bless you," added the rugged -woodsman, bending his head aside, and then instantly changing its -direction again, with a wistful look toward the youth; "I loved both you -and your father, Uncas, though our skins are not altogether of a color, -and our gifts are somewhat different. Tell the Sagamore I never lost -sight of him in my greatest trouble; and, as for you, think of me -sometimes when on a lucky trail, and depend on it, boy, whether there -be one heaven or two, there is a path in the other world by which honest -men may come together again. You'll find the rifle in the place we hid -it; take it, and keep it for my sake; and, harkee, lad, as your natural -gifts don't deny you the use of vengeance, use it a little freely on the -Mingoes; it may unburden griefs at my loss, and ease your mind. Huron, I -accept your offer; release the woman. I am your prisoner!" - -A suppressed, but still distinct murmur of approbation ran through the -crowd at this generous proposition; even the fiercest among the -Delaware warriors manifesting pleasure at the manliness of the intended -sacrifice. Magua paused, and for an anxious moment, it might be said, -he doubted; then, casting his eyes on Cora, with an expression in which -ferocity and admiration were strangely mingled, his purpose became fixed -forever. - -He intimated his contempt of the offer with a backward motion of his -head, and said, in a steady and settled voice: - -"Le Renard Subtil is a great chief; he has but one mind. Come," he -added, laying his hand too familiarly on the shoulder of his captive to -urge her onward; "a Huron is no tattler; we will go." - -The maiden drew back in lofty womanly reserve, and her dark eye kindled, -while the rich blood shot, like the passing brightness of the sun, into -her very temples, at the indignity. - -"I am your prisoner, and, at a fitting time shall be ready to follow, -even to my death. But violence is unnecessary," she coldly said; and -immediately turning to Hawkeye, added: "Generous hunter! from my soul I -thank you. Your offer is vain, neither could it be accepted; but still -you may serve me, even more than in your own noble intention. Look at -that drooping humbled child! Abandon her not until you leave her in the -habitations of civilized men. I will not say," wringing the hard hand of -the scout, "that her father will reward you--for such as you are above -the rewards of men--but he will thank you and bless you. And, believe -me, the blessing of a just and aged man has virtue in the sight of -Heaven. Would to God I could hear one word from his lips at this awful -moment!" Her voice became choked, and, for an instant, she was silent; -then, advancing a step nigher to Duncan, who was supporting her -unconscious sister, she continued, in more subdued tones, but in which -feeling and the habits of her sex maintained a fearful struggle: "I need -not tell you to cherish the treasure you will possess. You love her, -Heyward; that would conceal a thousand faults, though she had them. She -is kind, gentle, sweet, good, as mortal may be. There is not a blemish -in mind or person at which the proudest of you all would sicken. She -is fair--oh! how surpassingly fair!" laying her own beautiful, but less -brilliant, hand in melancholy affection on the alabaster forehead of -Alice, and parting the golden hair which clustered about her brows; "and -yet her soul is pure and spotless as her skin! I could say much--more, -perhaps, than cooler reason would approve; but I will spare you and -myself--" Her voice became inaudible, and her face was bent over the -form of her sister. After a long and burning kiss, she arose, and with -features of the hue of death, but without even a tear in her feverish -eye, she turned away, and added, to the savage, with all her former -elevation of manner: "Now, sir, if it be your pleasure, I will follow." - -"Ay, go," cried Duncan, placing Alice in the arms of an Indian girl; -"go, Magua, go. These Delawares have their laws, which forbid them to -detain you; but I--I have no such obligation. Go, malignant monster--why -do you delay?" - -It would be difficult to describe the expression with which Magua -listened to this threat to follow. There was at first a fierce and -manifest display of joy, and then it was instantly subdued in a look of -cunning coldness. - -"The words are open," he was content with answering, "'The Open Hand' -can come." - -"Hold," cried Hawkeye, seizing Duncan by the arm, and detaining him by -violence; "you know not the craft of the imp. He would lead you to an -ambushment, and your death--" - -"Huron," interrupted Uncas, who submissive to the stern customs of his -people, had been an attentive and grave listener to all that passed; -"Huron, the justice of the Delawares comes from the Manitou. Look at the -sun. He is now in the upper branches of the hemlock. Your path is short -and open. When he is seen above the trees, there will be men on your -trail." - -"I hear a crow!" exclaimed Magua, with a taunting laugh. "Go!" he added, -shaking his hand at the crowd, which had slowly opened to admit his -passage. "Where are the petticoats of the Delawares! Let them send their -arrows and their guns to the Wyandots; they shall have venison to eat, -and corn to hoe. Dogs, rabbits, thieves--I spit on you!" - -His parting gibes were listened to in a dead, boding silence, and, with -these biting words in his mouth, the triumphant Magua passed unmolested -into the forest, followed by his passive captive, and protected by the -inviolable laws of Indian hospitality. - - - - -CHAPTER 31 - - "Flue.--Kill the poys and the luggage! 'Tis expressly - against the law of arms; 'tis as arrant a piece of knavery, - mark you now, as can be offered in the 'orld." - --King Henry V. - -So long as their enemy and his victim continued in sight, the multitude -remained motionless as beings charmed to the place by some power that -was friendly to the Huron; but, the instant he disappeared, it became -tossed and agitated by fierce and powerful passion. Uncas maintained his -elevated stand, keeping his eyes on the form of Cora, until the colors -of her dress were blended with the foliage of the forest; when he -descended, and, moving silently through the throng, he disappeared in -that lodge from which he had so recently issued. A few of the graver and -more attentive warriors, who caught the gleams of anger that shot from -the eyes of the young chief in passing, followed him to the place he -had selected for his meditations. After which, Tamenund and Alice were -removed, and the women and children were ordered to disperse. During -the momentous hour that succeeded, the encampment resembled a hive of -troubled bees, who only awaited the appearance and example of their -leader to take some distant and momentous flight. - -A young warrior at length issued from the lodge of Uncas; and, moving -deliberately, with a sort of grave march, toward a dwarf pine that grew -in the crevices of the rocky terrace, he tore the bark from its body, -and then turned whence he came without speaking. He was soon followed -by another, who stripped the sapling of its branches, leaving it a naked -and blazed* trunk. A third colored the post with stripes of a dark red -paint; all which indications of a hostile design in the leaders of the -nation were received by the men without in a gloomy and ominous silence. -Finally, the Mohican himself reappeared, divested of all his attire, -except his girdle and leggings, and with one-half of his fine features -hid under a cloud of threatening black. - - * A tree which has been partially or entirely stripped of - its bark is said, in the language of the country, to be - "blazed." The term is strictly English, for a horse is said - to be blazed when it has a white mark. - -Uncas moved with a slow and dignified tread toward the post, which he -immediately commenced encircling with a measured step, not unlike an -ancient dance, raising his voice, at the same time, in the wild and -irregular chant of his war song. The notes were in the extremes of -human sounds; being sometimes melancholy and exquisitely plaintive, -even rivaling the melody of birds--and then, by sudden and startling -transitions, causing the auditors to tremble by their depth and energy. -The words were few and often repeated, proceeding gradually from a sort -of invocation, or hymn, to the Deity, to an intimation of the warrior's -object, and terminating as they commenced with an acknowledgment of his -own dependence on the Great Spirit. If it were possible to translate the -comprehensive and melodious language in which he spoke, the ode might -read something like the following: "Manitou! Manitou! Manitou! Thou art -great, thou art good, thou art wise: Manitou! Manitou! Thou art just. In -the heavens, in the clouds, oh, I see many spots--many dark, many red: -In the heavens, oh, I see many clouds." - -"In the woods, in the air, oh, I hear the whoop, the long yell, and the -cry: In the woods, oh, I hear the loud whoop!" - -"Manitou! Manitou! Manitou! I am weak--thou art strong; I am slow; -Manitou! Manitou! Give me aid." - -At the end of what might be called each verse he made a pause, by -raising a note louder and longer than common, that was peculiarly -suited to the sentiment just expressed. The first close was solemn, -and intended to convey the idea of veneration; the second descriptive, -bordering on the alarming; and the third was the well-known and terrific -war-whoop, which burst from the lips of the young warrior, like a -combination of all the frightful sounds of battle. The last was like the -first, humble and imploring. Three times did he repeat this song, and as -often did he encircle the post in his dance. - -At the close of the first turn, a grave and highly esteemed chief of the -Lenape followed his example, singing words of his own, however, to music -of a similar character. Warrior after warrior enlisted in the dance, -until all of any renown and authority were numbered in its mazes. The -spectacle now became wildly terrific; the fierce-looking and menacing -visages of the chiefs receiving additional power from the appalling -strains in which they mingled their guttural tones. Just then Uncas -struck his tomahawk deep into the post, and raised his voice in a shout, -which might be termed his own battle cry. The act announced that he had -assumed the chief authority in the intended expedition. - -It was a signal that awakened all the slumbering passions of the nation. -A hundred youths, who had hitherto been restrained by the diffidence -of their years, rushed in a frantic body on the fancied emblem of their -enemy, and severed it asunder, splinter by splinter, until nothing -remained of the trunk but its roots in the earth. During this moment of -tumult, the most ruthless deeds of war were performed on the fragments -of the tree, with as much apparent ferocity as if they were the living -victims of their cruelty. Some were scalped; some received the keen and -trembling axe; and others suffered by thrusts from the fatal knife. In -short, the manifestations of zeal and fierce delight were so great and -unequivocal, that the expedition was declared to be a war of the nation. - -The instant Uncas had struck the blow, he moved out of the circle, and -cast his eyes up to the sun, which was just gaining the point, when -the truce with Magua was to end. The fact was soon announced by a -significant gesture, accompanied by a corresponding cry; and the whole -of the excited multitude abandoned their mimic warfare, with shrill -yells of pleasure, to prepare for the more hazardous experiment of the -reality. - -The whole face of the encampment was instantly changed. The warriors, -who were already armed and painted, became as still as if they were -incapable of any uncommon burst of emotion. On the other hand, the women -broke out of the lodges, with the songs of joy and those of lamentation -so strangely mixed that it might have been difficult to have said which -passion preponderated. None, however, was idle. Some bore their choicest -articles, others their young, and some their aged and infirm, into -the forest, which spread itself like a verdant carpet of bright green -against the side of the mountain. Thither Tamenund also retired, with -calm composure, after a short and touching interview with Uncas; from -whom the sage separated with the reluctance that a parent would quit a -long lost and just recovered child. In the meantime, Duncan saw Alice -to a place of safety, and then sought the scout, with a countenance that -denoted how eagerly he also panted for the approaching contest. - -But Hawkeye was too much accustomed to the war song and the enlistments -of the natives, to betray any interest in the passing scene. He merely -cast an occasional look at the number and quality of the warriors, who, -from time to time, signified their readiness to accompany Uncas to -the field. In this particular he was soon satisfied; for, as has been -already seen, the power of the young chief quickly embraced every -fighting man in the nation. After this material point was so -satisfactorily decided, he despatched an Indian boy in quest of -"killdeer" and the rifle of Uncas, to the place where they had deposited -their weapons on approaching the camp of the Delawares; a measure of -double policy, inasmuch as it protected the arms from their own fate, -if detained as prisoners, and gave them the advantage of appearing among -the strangers rather as sufferers than as men provided with means of -defense and subsistence. In selecting another to perform the office of -reclaiming his highly prized rifle, the scout had lost sight of none of -his habitual caution. He knew that Magua had not come unattended, and he -also knew that Huron spies watched the movements of their new enemies, -along the whole boundary of the woods. It would, therefore, have been -fatal to himself to have attempted the experiment; a warrior would have -fared no better; but the danger of a boy would not be likely to commence -until after his object was discovered. When Heyward joined him, the -scout was coolly awaiting the result of this experiment. - -The boy, who had been well instructed, and was sufficiently crafty, -proceeded, with a bosom that was swelling with the pride of such a -confidence, and all the hopes of young ambition, carelessly across -the clearing to the wood, which he entered at a point at some little -distance from the place where the guns were secreted. The instant, -however, he was concealed by the foliage of the bushes, his dusky form -was to be seen gliding, like that of a serpent, toward the desired -treasure. He was successful; and in another moment he appeared flying -across the narrow opening that skirted the base of the terrace on which -the village stood, with the velocity of an arrow, and bearing a prize -in each hand. He had actually gained the crags, and was leaping up their -sides with incredible activity, when a shot from the woods showed how -accurate had been the judgment of the scout. The boy answered it with a -feeble but contemptuous shout; and immediately a second bullet was -sent after him from another part of the cover. At the next instant he -appeared on the level above, elevating his guns in triumph, while he -moved with the air of a conqueror toward the renowned hunter who had -honored him by so glorious a commission. - -Notwithstanding the lively interest Hawkeye had taken in the fate of his -messenger, he received "killdeer" with a satisfaction that, momentarily, -drove all other recollections from his mind. After examining the piece -with an intelligent eye, and opening and shutting the pan some ten or -fifteen times, and trying sundry other equally important experiments on -the lock, he turned to the boy and demanded with great manifestations of -kindness, if he was hurt. The urchin looked proudly up in his face, but -made no reply. - -"Ah! I see, lad, the knaves have barked your arm!" added the scout, -taking up the limb of the patient sufferer, across which a deep flesh -wound had been made by one of the bullets; "but a little bruised alder -will act like a charm. In the meantime I will wrap it in a badge of -wampum! You have commenced the business of a warrior early, my brave -boy, and are likely to bear a plenty of honorable scars to your grave. -I know many young men that have taken scalps who cannot show such a mark -as this. Go!" having bound up the arm; "you will be a chief!" - -The lad departed, prouder of his flowing blood than the vainest courtier -could be of his blushing ribbon; and stalked among the fellows of his -age, an object of general admiration and envy. - -But, in a moment of so many serious and important duties, this single -act of juvenile fortitude did not attract the general notice and -commendation it would have received under milder auspices. It had, -however, served to apprise the Delawares of the position and the -intentions of their enemies. Accordingly a party of adventurers, better -suited to the task than the weak though spirited boy, was ordered to -dislodge the skulkers. The duty was soon performed; for most of the -Hurons retired of themselves when they found they had been discovered. -The Delawares followed to a sufficient distance from their own -encampment, and then halted for orders, apprehensive of being led into -an ambush. As both parties secreted themselves, the woods were again as -still and quiet as a mild summer morning and deep solitude could render -them. - -The calm but still impatient Uncas now collected his chiefs, and divided -his power. He presented Hawkeye as a warrior, often tried, and always -found deserving of confidence. When he found his friend met with a -favorable reception, he bestowed on him the command of twenty men, -like himself, active, skillful and resolute. He gave the Delawares to -understand the rank of Heyward among the troops of the Yengeese, and -then tendered to him a trust of equal authority. But Duncan declined the -charge, professing his readiness to serve as a volunteer by the side of -the scout. After this disposition, the young Mohican appointed various -native chiefs to fill the different situations of responsibility, and, -the time pressing, he gave forth the word to march. He was cheerfully, -but silently obeyed by more than two hundred men. - -Their entrance into the forest was perfectly unmolested; nor did they -encounter any living objects that could either give the alarm, or -furnish the intelligence they needed, until they came upon the lairs of -their own scouts. Here a halt was ordered, and the chiefs were assembled -to hold a "whispering council." - -At this meeting divers plans of operation were suggested, though none -of a character to meet the wishes of their ardent leader. Had Uncas -followed the promptings of his own inclinations, he would have led his -followers to the charge without a moment's delay, and put the conflict -to the hazard of an instant issue; but such a course would have been in -opposition to all the received practises and opinions of his countrymen. -He was, therefore, fain to adopt a caution that in the present temper of -his mind he execrated, and to listen to advice at which his fiery -spirit chafed, under the vivid recollection of Cora's danger and Magua's -insolence. - -After an unsatisfactory conference of many minutes, a solitary -individual was seen advancing from the side of the enemy, with such -apparent haste, as to induce the belief he might be a messenger charged -with pacific overtures. When within a hundred yards, however, of the -cover behind which the Delaware council had assembled, the stranger -hesitated, appeared uncertain what course to take, and finally halted. -All eyes were turned now on Uncas, as if seeking directions how to -proceed. - -"Hawkeye," said the young chief, in a low voice, "he must never speak to -the Hurons again." - -"His time has come," said the laconic scout, thrusting the long barrel -of his rifle through the leaves, and taking his deliberate and fatal -aim. But, instead of pulling the trigger, he lowered the muzzle again, -and indulged himself in a fit of his peculiar mirth. "I took the imp for -a Mingo, as I'm a miserable sinner!" he said; "but when my eye ranged -along his ribs for a place to get the bullet in--would you think it, -Uncas--I saw the musicianer's blower; and so, after all, it is the man -they call Gamut, whose death can profit no one, and whose life, if this -tongue can do anything but sing, may be made serviceable to our own -ends. If sounds have not lost their virtue, I'll soon have a discourse -with the honest fellow, and that in a voice he'll find more agreeable -than the speech of 'killdeer'." - -So saying, Hawkeye laid aside his rifle; and, crawling through the -bushes until within hearing of David, he attempted to repeat the musical -effort, which had conducted himself, with so much safety and eclat, -through the Huron encampment. The exquisite organs of Gamut could not -readily be deceived (and, to say the truth, it would have been -difficult for any other than Hawkeye to produce a similar noise), and, -consequently, having once before heard the sounds, he now knew whence -they proceeded. The poor fellow appeared relieved from a state of great -embarrassment; for, pursuing the direction of the voice--a task that to -him was not much less arduous that it would have been to have gone up in -the face of a battery--he soon discovered the hidden songster. - -"I wonder what the Hurons will think of that!" said the scout, laughing, -as he took his companion by the arm, and urged him toward the rear. -"If the knaves lie within earshot, they will say there are two -non-compossers instead of one! But here we are safe," he added, pointing -to Uncas and his associates. "Now give us the history of the Mingo -inventions in natural English, and without any ups and downs of voice." - -David gazed about him, at the fierce and wild-looking chiefs, in mute -wonder; but assured by the presence of faces that he knew, he soon -rallied his faculties so far as to make an intelligent reply. - -"The heathen are abroad in goodly numbers," said David; "and, I fear, -with evil intent. There has been much howling and ungodly revelry, -together with such sounds as it is profanity to utter, in their -habitations within the past hour, so much so, in truth, that I have fled -to the Delawares in search of peace." - -"Your ears might not have profited much by the exchange, had you been -quicker of foot," returned the scout a little dryly. "But let that be as -it may; where are the Hurons?" - -"They lie hid in the forest, between this spot and their village in such -force, that prudence would teach you instantly to return." - -Uncas cast a glance along the range of trees which concealed his own -band and mentioned the name of: - -"Magua?" - -"Is among them. He brought in the maiden that had sojourned with the -Delawares; and, leaving her in the cave, has put himself, like a raging -wolf, at the head of his savages. I know not what has troubled his -spirit so greatly!" - -"He has left her, you say, in the cave!" interrupted Heyward; "'tis well -that we know its situation! May not something be done for her instant -relief?" - -Uncas looked earnestly at the scout, before he asked: - -"What says Hawkeye?" - -"Give me twenty rifles, and I will turn to the right, along the stream; -and, passing by the huts of the beaver, will join the Sagamore and the -colonel. You shall then hear the whoop from that quarter; with this wind -one may easily send it a mile. Then, Uncas, do you drive in the front; -when they come within range of our pieces, we will give them a blow -that, I pledge the good name of an old frontiersman, shall make their -line bend like an ashen bow. After which, we will carry the village, and -take the woman from the cave; when the affair may be finished with the -tribe, according to a white man's battle, by a blow and a victory; -or, in the Indian fashion, with dodge and cover. There may be no great -learning, major, in this plan, but with courage and patience it can all -be done." - -"I like it very much," cried Duncan, who saw that the release of Cora -was the primary object in the mind of the scout; "I like it much. Let it -be instantly attempted." - -After a short conference, the plan was matured, and rendered more -intelligible to the several parties; the different signals were -appointed, and the chiefs separated, each to his allotted station. - - - - -CHAPTER 32 - - "But plagues shall spread, and funeral fires increase, - Till the great king, without a ransom paid, - To her own Chrysa send the black-eyed maid." - --Pope. - -During the time Uncas was making this disposition of his forces, the -woods were as still, and, with the exception of those who had met in -council, apparently as much untenanted as when they came fresh from -the hands of their Almighty Creator. The eye could range, in every -direction, through the long and shadowed vistas of the trees; but -nowhere was any object to be seen that did not properly belong to the -peaceful and slumbering scenery. - -Here and there a bird was heard fluttering among the branches of the -beeches, and occasionally a squirrel dropped a nut, drawing the startled -looks of the party for a moment to the place; but the instant the casual -interruption ceased, the passing air was heard murmuring above their -heads, along that verdant and undulating surface of forest, which spread -itself unbroken, unless by stream or lake, over such a vast region of -country. Across the tract of wilderness which lay between the Delawares -and the village of their enemies, it seemed as if the foot of man had -never trodden, so breathing and deep was the silence in which it lay. -But Hawkeye, whose duty led him foremost in the adventure, knew the -character of those with whom he was about to contend too well to trust -the treacherous quiet. - -When he saw his little band collected, the scout threw "killdeer" into -the hollow of his arm, and making a silent signal that he would be -followed, he led them many rods toward the rear, into the bed of a -little brook which they had crossed in advancing. Here he halted, and -after waiting for the whole of his grave and attentive warriors to close -about him, he spoke in Delaware, demanding: - -"Do any of my young men know whither this run will lead us?" - -A Delaware stretched forth a hand, with the two fingers separated, -and indicating the manner in which they were joined at the root, he -answered: - -"Before the sun could go his own length, the little water will be in -the big." Then he added, pointing in the direction of the place he -mentioned, "the two make enough for the beavers." - -"I thought as much," returned the scout, glancing his eye upward at the -opening in the tree-tops, "from the course it takes, and the bearings of -the mountains. Men, we will keep within the cover of its banks till we -scent the Hurons." - -His companions gave the usual brief exclamation of assent, but, -perceiving that their leader was about to lead the way in person, one -or two made signs that all was not as it should be. Hawkeye, who -comprehended their meaning glances, turned and perceived that his party -had been followed thus far by the singing-master. - -"Do you know, friend," asked the scout, gravely, and perhaps with a -little of the pride of conscious deserving in his manner, "that this is -a band of rangers chosen for the most desperate service, and put under -the command of one who, though another might say it with a better face, -will not be apt to leave them idle. It may not be five, it cannot be -thirty minutes, before we tread on the body of a Huron, living or dead." - -"Though not admonished of your intentions in words," returned David, -whose face was a little flushed, and whose ordinarily quiet and -unmeaning eyes glimmered with an expression of unusual fire, "your men -have reminded me of the children of Jacob going out to battle against -the Shechemites, for wickedly aspiring to wedlock with a woman of a race -that was favored of the Lord. Now, I have journeyed far, and sojourned -much in good and evil with the maiden ye seek; and, though not a man -of war, with my loins girded and my sword sharpened, yet would I gladly -strike a blow in her behalf." - -The scout hesitated, as if weighing the chances of such a strange -enlistment in his mind before he answered: - -"You know not the use of any we'pon. You carry no rifle; and believe me, -what the Mingoes take they will freely give again." - -"Though not a vaunting and bloodily disposed Goliath," returned David, -drawing a sling from beneath his parti-colored and uncouth attire, "I -have not forgotten the example of the Jewish boy. With this ancient -instrument of war have I practised much in my youth, and peradventure -the skill has not entirely departed from me." - -"Ay!" said Hawkeye, considering the deer-skin thong and apron, with a -cold and discouraging eye; "the thing might do its work among arrows, or -even knives; but these Mengwe have been furnished by the Frenchers with -a good grooved barrel a man. However, it seems to be your gift to go -unharmed amid fire; and as you have hitherto been favored--major, you -have left your rifle at a cock; a single shot before the time would be -just twenty scalps lost to no purpose--singer, you can follow; we may -find use for you in the shoutings." - -"I thank you, friend," returned David, supplying himself, like his royal -namesake, from among the pebbles of the brook; "though not given to -the desire to kill, had you sent me away my spirit would have been -troubled." - -"Remember," added the scout, tapping his own head significantly on that -spot where Gamut was yet sore, "we come to fight, and not to musickate. -Until the general whoop is given, nothing speaks but the rifle." - -David nodded, as much to signify his acquiescence with the terms; and -then Hawkeye, casting another observant glance over his followers made -the signal to proceed. - -Their route lay, for the distance of a mile, along the bed of the -water-course. Though protected from any great danger of observation by -the precipitous banks, and the thick shrubbery which skirted the stream, -no precaution known to an Indian attack was neglected. A warrior rather -crawled than walked on each flank so as to catch occasional glimpses -into the forest; and every few minutes the band came to a halt, and -listened for hostile sounds, with an acuteness of organs that would be -scarcely conceivable to a man in a less natural state. Their march was, -however, unmolested, and they reached the point where the lesser stream -was lost in the greater, without the smallest evidence that their -progress had been noted. Here the scout again halted, to consult the -signs of the forest. - -"We are likely to have a good day for a fight," he said, in English, -addressing Heyward, and glancing his eyes upward at the clouds, which -began to move in broad sheets across the firmament; "a bright sun and a -glittering barrel are no friends to true sight. Everything is favorable; -they have the wind, which will bring down their noises and their smoke, -too, no little matter in itself; whereas, with us it will be first -a shot, and then a clear view. But here is an end to our cover; the -beavers have had the range of this stream for hundreds of years, and -what atween their food and their dams, there is, as you see, many a -girdled stub, but few living trees." - -Hawkeye had, in truth, in these few words, given no bad description of -the prospect that now lay in their front. The brook was irregular in its -width, sometimes shooting through narrow fissures in the rocks, and at -others spreading over acres of bottom land, forming little areas that -might be termed ponds. Everywhere along its bands were the moldering -relics of dead trees, in all the stages of decay, from those that -groaned on their tottering trunks to such as had recently been robbed of -those rugged coats that so mysteriously contain their principle of life. -A few long, low, and moss-covered piles were scattered among them, like -the memorials of a former and long-departed generation. - -All these minute particulars were noted by the scout, with a gravity and -interest that they probably had never before attracted. He knew that -the Huron encampment lay a short half mile up the brook; and, with -the characteristic anxiety of one who dreaded a hidden danger, he was -greatly troubled at not finding the smallest trace of the presence of -his enemy. Once or twice he felt induced to give the order for a rush, -and to attempt the village by surprise; but his experience quickly -admonished him of the danger of so useless an experiment. Then he -listened intently, and with painful uncertainty, for the sounds of -hostility in the quarter where Uncas was left; but nothing was audible -except the sighing of the wind, that began to sweep over the bosom of -the forest in gusts which threatened a tempest. At length, yielding -rather to his unusual impatience than taking counsel from his knowledge, -he determined to bring matters to an issue, by unmasking his force, and -proceeding cautiously, but steadily, up the stream. - -The scout had stood, while making his observations, sheltered by a -brake, and his companions still lay in the bed of the ravine, through -which the smaller stream debouched; but on hearing his low, though -intelligible, signal the whole party stole up the bank, like so many -dark specters, and silently arranged themselves around him. Pointing in -the direction he wished to proceed, Hawkeye advanced, the band breaking -off in single files, and following so accurately in his footsteps, as to -leave it, if we except Heyward and David, the trail of but a single man. - -The party was, however, scarcely uncovered before a volley from a dozen -rifles was heard in their rear; and a Delaware leaping high in to the -air, like a wounded deer, fell at his whole length, dead. - -"Ah, I feared some deviltry like this!" exclaimed the scout, in English, -adding, with the quickness of thought, in his adopted tongue: "To cover, -men, and charge!" - -The band dispersed at the word, and before Heyward had well recovered -from his surprise, he found himself standing alone with David. Luckily -the Hurons had already fallen back, and he was safe from their fire. But -this state of things was evidently to be of short continuance; for the -scout set the example of pressing on their retreat, by discharging his -rifle, and darting from tree to tree as his enemy slowly yielded ground. - -It would seem that the assault had been made by a very small party of -the Hurons, which, however, continued to increase in numbers, as it -retired on its friends, until the return fire was very nearly, if not -quite, equal to that maintained by the advancing Delawares. Heyward -threw himself among the combatants, and imitating the necessary caution -of his companions, he made quick discharges with his own rifle. The -contest now grew warm and stationary. Few were injured, as both parties -kept their bodies as much protected as possible by the trees; never, -indeed, exposing any part of their persons except in the act of taking -aim. But the chances were gradually growing unfavorable to Hawkeye and -his band. The quick-sighted scout perceived his danger without knowing -how to remedy it. He saw it was more dangerous to retreat than to -maintain his ground: while he found his enemy throwing out men on his -flank; which rendered the task of keeping themselves covered so very -difficult to the Delawares, as nearly to silence their fire. At this -embarrassing moment, when they began to think the whole of the hostile -tribe was gradually encircling them, they heard the yell of combatants -and the rattling of arms echoing under the arches of the wood at the -place where Uncas was posted, a bottom which, in a manner, lay beneath -the ground on which Hawkeye and his party were contending. - -The effects of this attack were instantaneous, and to the scout and his -friends greatly relieving. It would seem that, while his own surprise -had been anticipated, and had consequently failed, the enemy, in their -turn, having been deceived in its object and in his numbers, had left -too small a force to resist the impetuous onset of the young Mohican. -This fact was doubly apparent, by the rapid manner in which the battle -in the forest rolled upward toward the village, and by an instant -falling off in the number of their assailants, who rushed to assist in -maintaining the front, and, as it now proved to be, the principal point -of defense. - -Animating his followers by his voice, and his own example, Hawkeye then -gave the word to bear down upon their foes. The charge, in that rude -species of warfare, consisted merely in pushing from cover to cover, -nigher to the enemy; and in this maneuver he was instantly and -successfully obeyed. The Hurons were compelled to withdraw, and the -scene of the contest rapidly changed from the more open ground, on which -it had commenced, to a spot where the assailed found a thicket to -rest upon. Here the struggle was protracted, arduous and seemingly of -doubtful issue; the Delawares, though none of them fell, beginning to -bleed freely, in consequence of the disadvantage at which they were -held. - -In this crisis, Hawkeye found means to get behind the same tree as that -which served for a cover to Heyward; most of his own combatants being -within call, a little on his right, where they maintained rapid, though -fruitless, discharges on their sheltered enemies. - -"You are a young man, major," said the scout, dropping the butt of -"killdeer" to the earth, and leaning on the barrel, a little fatigued -with his previous industry; "and it may be your gift to lead armies, -at some future day, ag'in these imps, the Mingoes. You may here see the -philosophy of an Indian fight. It consists mainly in ready hand, a quick -eye and a good cover. Now, if you had a company of the Royal Americans -here, in what manner would you set them to work in this business?" - -"The bayonet would make a road." - -"Ay, there is white reason in what you say; but a man must ask himself, -in this wilderness, how many lives he can spare. No--horse*," continued -the scout, shaking his head, like one who mused; "horse, I am ashamed to -say must sooner or later decide these scrimmages. The brutes are better -than men, and to horse must we come at last. Put a shodden hoof on the -moccasin of a red-skin, and, if his rifle be once emptied, he will never -stop to load it again." - - * The American forest admits of the passage of horses, there - being little underbrush, and few tangled brakes. The plan of - Hawkeye is the one which has always proved the most - successful in the battles between the whites and the - Indians. Wayne, in his celebrated campaign on the Miami, - received the fire of his enemies in line; and then causing - his dragoons to wheel round his flanks, the Indians were - driven from their covers before they had time to load. One - of the most conspicuous of the chiefs who fought in the - battle of Miami assured the writer, that the red men could - not fight the warriors with "long knives and leather - stockings"; meaning the dragoons with their sabers and - boots. - -"This is a subject that might better be discussed at another time," -returned Heyward; "shall we charge?" - -"I see no contradiction to the gifts of any man in passing his breathing -spells in useful reflections," the scout replied. "As to rush, I little -relish such a measure; for a scalp or two must be thrown away in the -attempt. And yet," he added, bending his head aside, to catch the sounds -of the distant combat, "if we are to be of use to Uncas, these knaves in -our front must be got rid of." - -Then, turning with a prompt and decided air, he called aloud to his -Indians, in their own language. His words were answered by a shout; -and, at a given signal, each warrior made a swift movement around his -particular tree. The sight of so many dark bodies, glancing before their -eyes at the same instant, drew a hasty and consequently an ineffectual -fire from the Hurons. Without stopping to breathe, the Delawares leaped -in long bounds toward the wood, like so many panthers springing upon -their prey. Hawkeye was in front, brandishing his terrible rifle and -animating his followers by his example. A few of the older and more -cunning Hurons, who had not been deceived by the artifice which had been -practiced to draw their fire, now made a close and deadly discharge of -their pieces and justified the apprehensions of the scout by felling -three of his foremost warriors. But the shock was insufficient to repel -the impetus of the charge. The Delawares broke into the cover with the -ferocity of their natures and swept away every trace of resistance by -the fury of the onset. - -The combat endured only for an instant, hand to hand, and then the -assailed yielded ground rapidly, until they reached the opposite -margin of the thicket, where they clung to the cover, with the sort of -obstinacy that is so often witnessed in hunted brutes. At this critical -moment, when the success of the struggle was again becoming doubtful, -the crack of a rifle was heard behind the Hurons, and a bullet came -whizzing from among some beaver lodges, which were situated in the -clearing, in their rear, and was followed by the fierce and appalling -yell of the war-whoop. - -"There speaks the Sagamore!" shouted Hawkeye, answering the cry with his -own stentorian voice; "we have them now in face and back!" - -The effect on the Hurons was instantaneous. Discouraged by an assault -from a quarter that left them no opportunity for cover, the warriors -uttered a common yell of disappointment, and breaking off in a -body, they spread themselves across the opening, heedless of every -consideration but flight. Many fell, in making the experiment, under the -bullets and the blows of the pursuing Delawares. - -We shall not pause to detail the meeting between the scout and -Chingachgook, or the more touching interview that Duncan held with -Munro. A few brief and hurried words served to explain the state of -things to both parties; and then Hawkeye, pointing out the Sagamore to -his band, resigned the chief authority into the hands of the Mohican -chief. Chingachgook assumed the station to which his birth and -experience gave him so distinguished a claim, with the grave dignity -that always gives force to the mandates of a native warrior. Following -the footsteps of the scout, he led the party back through the thicket, -his men scalping the fallen Hurons and secreting the bodies of their own -dead as they proceeded, until they gained a point where the former was -content to make a halt. - -The warriors, who had breathed themselves freely in the preceding -struggle, were now posted on a bit of level ground, sprinkled with -trees in sufficient numbers to conceal them. The land fell away rather -precipitately in front, and beneath their eyes stretched, for several -miles, a narrow, dark, and wooded vale. It was through this dense and -dark forest that Uncas was still contending with the main body of the -Hurons. - -The Mohican and his friends advanced to the brow of the hill, and -listened, with practised ears, to the sounds of the combat. A few -birds hovered over the leafy bosom of the valley, frightened from their -secluded nests; and here and there a light vapory cloud, which seemed -already blending with the atmosphere, arose above the trees, and -indicated some spot where the struggle had been fierce and stationary. - -"The fight is coming up the ascent," said Duncan, pointing in the -direction of a new explosion of firearms; "we are too much in the center -of their line to be effective." - -"They will incline into the hollow, where the cover is thicker," said -the scout, "and that will leave us well on their flank. Go, Sagamore; -you will hardly be in time to give the whoop, and lead on the young men. -I will fight this scrimmage with warriors of my own color. You know me, -Mohican; not a Huron of them all shall cross the swell, into your rear, -without the notice of 'killdeer'." - -The Indian chief paused another moment to consider the signs of the -contest, which was now rolling rapidly up the ascent, a certain evidence -that the Delawares triumphed; nor did he actually quit the place until -admonished of the proximity of his friends, as well as enemies, by the -bullets of the former, which began to patter among the dried leaves on -the ground, like the bits of falling hail which precede the bursting of -the tempest. Hawkeye and his three companions withdrew a few paces to -a shelter, and awaited the issue with calmness that nothing but great -practise could impart in such a scene. - -It was not long before the reports of the rifles began to lose the -echoes of the woods, and to sound like weapons discharged in the open -air. Then a warrior appeared, here and there, driven to the skirts of -the forest, and rallying as he entered the clearing, as at the place -where the final stand was to be made. These were soon joined by others, -until a long line of swarthy figures was to be seen clinging to -the cover with the obstinacy of desperation. Heyward began to -grow impatient, and turned his eyes anxiously in the direction of -Chingachgook. The chief was seated on a rock, with nothing visible but -his calm visage, considering the spectacle with an eye as deliberate as -if he were posted there merely to view the struggle. - -"The time has come for the Delaware to strike!" said Duncan. - -"Not so, not so," returned the scout; "when he scents his friends, he -will let them know that he is here. See, see; the knaves are getting in -that clump of pines, like bees settling after their flight. By the -Lord, a squaw might put a bullet into the center of such a knot of dark -skins!" - -At that instant the whoop was given, and a dozen Hurons fell by a -discharge from Chingachgook and his band. The shout that followed was -answered by a single war-cry from the forest, and a yell passed through -the air that sounded as if a thousand throats were united in a common -effort. The Hurons staggered, deserting the center of their line, and -Uncas issued from the forest through the opening they left, at the head -of a hundred warriors. - -Waving his hands right and left, the young chief pointed out the enemy -to his followers, who separated in pursuit. The war now divided, both -wings of the broken Hurons seeking protection in the woods again, hotly -pressed by the victorious warriors of the Lenape. A minute might have -passed, but the sounds were already receding in different directions, -and gradually losing their distinctness beneath the echoing arches of -the woods. One little knot of Hurons, however, had disdained to seek a -cover, and were retiring, like lions at bay, slowly and sullenly up the -acclivity which Chingachgook and his band had just deserted, to mingle -more closely in the fray. Magua was conspicuous in this party, both by -his fierce and savage mien, and by the air of haughty authority he yet -maintained. - -In his eagerness to expedite the pursuit, Uncas had left himself nearly -alone; but the moment his eye caught the figure of Le Subtil, every -other consideration was forgotten. Raising his cry of battle, which -recalled some six or seven warriors, and reckless of the disparity of -their numbers, he rushed upon his enemy. Le Renard, who watched the -movement, paused to receive him with secret joy. But at the moment when -he thought the rashness of his impetuous young assailant had left him -at his mercy, another shout was given, and La Longue Carabine was seen -rushing to the rescue, attended by all his white associates. The Huron -instantly turned, and commenced a rapid retreat up the ascent. - -There was no time for greetings or congratulations; for Uncas, though -unconscious of the presence of his friends, continued the pursuit with -the velocity of the wind. In vain Hawkeye called to him to respect the -covers; the young Mohican braved the dangerous fire of his enemies, and -soon compelled them to a flight as swift as his own headlong speed. It -was fortunate that the race was of short continuance, and that the white -men were much favored by their position, or the Delaware would soon have -outstripped all his companions, and fallen a victim to his own temerity. -But, ere such a calamity could happen, the pursuers and pursued entered -the Wyandot village, within striking distance of each other. - -Excited by the presence of their dwellings, and tired of the chase, the -Hurons now made a stand, and fought around their council-lodge with -the fury of despair. The onset and the issue were like the passage and -destruction of a whirlwind. The tomahawk of Uncas, the blows of Hawkeye, -and even the still nervous arm of Munro were all busy for that passing -moment, and the ground was quickly strewed with their enemies. Still -Magua, though daring and much exposed, escaped from every effort against -his life, with that sort of fabled protection that was made to overlook -the fortunes of favored heroes in the legends of ancient poetry. Raising -a yell that spoke volumes of anger and disappointment, the subtle chief, -when he saw his comrades fallen, darted away from the place, attended -by his two only surviving friends, leaving the Delawares engaged in -stripping the dead of the bloody trophies of their victory. - -But Uncas, who had vainly sought him in the melee, bounded forward in -pursuit; Hawkeye, Heyward and David still pressing on his footsteps. The -utmost that the scout could effect, was to keep the muzzle of his rifle -a little in advance of his friend, to whom, however, it answered every -purpose of a charmed shield. Once Magua appeared disposed to make -another and a final effort to revenge his losses; but, abandoning his -intention as soon as demonstrated, he leaped into a thicket of bushes, -through which he was followed by his enemies, and suddenly entered the -mouth of the cave already known to the reader. Hawkeye, who had only -forborne to fire in tenderness to Uncas, raised a shout of success, and -proclaimed aloud that now they were certain of their game. The pursuers -dashed into the long and narrow entrance, in time to catch a glimpse of -the retreating forms of the Hurons. Their passage through the natural -galleries and subterraneous apartments of the cavern was preceded by the -shrieks and cries of hundreds of women and children. The place, seen by -its dim and uncertain light, appeared like the shades of the infernal -regions, across which unhappy ghosts and savage demons were flitting in -multitudes. - -Still Uncas kept his eye on Magua, as if life to him possessed but -a single object. Heyward and the scout still pressed on his rear, -actuated, though possibly in a less degree, by a common feeling. But -their way was becoming intricate, in those dark and gloomy passages, and -the glimpses of the retiring warriors less distinct and frequent; and -for a moment the trace was believed to be lost, when a white robe was -seen fluttering in the further extremity of a passage that seemed to -lead up the mountain. - -"'Tis Cora!" exclaimed Heyward, in a voice in which horror and delight -were wildly mingled. - -"Cora! Cora!" echoed Uncas, bounding forward like a deer. - -"'Tis the maiden!" shouted the scout. "Courage, lady; we come! we come!" - -The chase was renewed with a diligence rendered tenfold encouraging -by this glimpse of the captive. But the way was rugged, broken, and in -spots nearly impassable. Uncas abandoned his rifle, and leaped forward -with headlong precipitation. Heyward rashly imitated his example, though -both were, a moment afterward, admonished of his madness by hearing the -bellowing of a piece, that the Hurons found time to discharge down the -passage in the rocks, the bullet from which even gave the young Mohican -a slight wound. - -"We must close!" said the scout, passing his friends by a desperate -leap; "the knaves will pick us all off at this distance; and see, they -hold the maiden so as to shield themselves!" - -Though his words were unheeded, or rather unheard, his example was -followed by his companions, who, by incredible exertions, got near -enough to the fugitives to perceive that Cora was borne along between -the two warriors while Magua prescribed the direction and manner of -their flight. At this moment the forms of all four were strongly drawn -against an opening in the sky, and they disappeared. Nearly frantic with -disappointment, Uncas and Heyward increased efforts that already seemed -superhuman, and they issued from the cavern on the side of the mountain, -in time to note the route of the pursued. The course lay up the ascent, -and still continued hazardous and laborious. - -Encumbered by his rifle, and, perhaps, not sustained by so deep an -interest in the captive as his companions, the scout suffered the latter -to precede him a little, Uncas, in his turn, taking the lead of Heyward. -In this manner, rocks, precipices and difficulties were surmounted in -an incredibly short space, that at another time, and under other -circumstances, would have been deemed almost insuperable. But the -impetuous young men were rewarded by finding that, encumbered with Cora, -the Hurons were losing ground in the race. - -"Stay, dog of the Wyandots!" exclaimed Uncas, shaking his bright -tomahawk at Magua; "a Delaware girl calls stay!" - -"I will go no further!" cried Cora, stopping unexpectedly on a ledge -of rock, that overhung a deep precipice, at no great distance from the -summit of the mountain. "Kill me if thou wilt, detestable Huron; I will -go no further." - -The supporters of the maiden raised their ready tomahawks with the -impious joy that fiends are thought to take in mischief, but Magua -stayed the uplifted arms. The Huron chief, after casting the weapons -he had wrested from his companions over the rock, drew his knife, -and turned to his captive, with a look in which conflicting passions -fiercely contended. - -"Woman," he said, "chose; the wigwam or the knife of Le Subtil!" - -Cora regarded him not, but dropping on her knees, she raised her eyes -and stretched her arms toward heaven, saying in a meek and yet confiding -voice: - -"I am thine; do with me as thou seest best!" - -"Woman," repeated Magua, hoarsely, and endeavoring in vain to catch a -glance from her serene and beaming eye, "choose!" - -But Cora neither heard nor heeded his demand. The form of the Huron -trembled in every fibre, and he raised his arm on high, but dropped -it again with a bewildered air, like one who doubted. Once more he -struggled with himself and lifted the keen weapon again; but just then -a piercing cry was heard above them, and Uncas appeared, leaping -frantically, from a fearful height, upon the ledge. Magua recoiled a -step; and one of his assistants, profiting by the chance, sheathed his -own knife in the bosom of Cora. - -The Huron sprang like a tiger on his offending and already retreating -country man, but the falling form of Uncas separated the unnatural -combatants. Diverted from his object by this interruption, and maddened -by the murder he had just witnessed, Magua buried his weapon in the back -of the prostrate Delaware, uttering an unearthly shout as he committed -the dastardly deed. But Uncas arose from the blow, as the wounded -panther turns upon his foe, and struck the murderer of Cora to his feet, -by an effort in which the last of his failing strength was expended. -Then, with a stern and steady look, he turned to Le Subtil, and -indicated by the expression of his eye all that he would do had not -the power deserted him. The latter seized the nerveless arm of the -unresisting Delaware, and passed his knife into his bosom three several -times, before his victim, still keeping his gaze riveted on his enemy, -with a look of inextinguishable scorn, fell dead at his feet. - -"Mercy! mercy! Huron," cried Heyward, from above, in tones nearly choked -by horror; "give mercy, and thou shalt receive from it!" - -Whirling the bloody knife up at the imploring youth, the victorious -Magua uttered a cry so fierce, so wild, and yet so joyous, that it -conveyed the sounds of savage triumph to the ears of those who fought in -the valley, a thousand feet below. He was answered by a burst from the -lips of the scout, whose tall person was just then seen moving swiftly -toward him, along those dangerous crags, with steps as bold and reckless -as if he possessed the power to move in air. But when the hunter reached -the scene of the ruthless massacre, the ledge was tenanted only by the -dead. - -His keen eye took a single look at the victims, and then shot its -glances over the difficulties of the ascent in his front. A form stood -at the brow of the mountain, on the very edge of the giddy height, -with uplifted arms, in an awful attitude of menace. Without stopping to -consider his person, the rifle of Hawkeye was raised; but a rock, which -fell on the head of one of the fugitives below, exposed the indignant -and glowing countenance of the honest Gamut. Then Magua issued from a -crevice, and, stepping with calm indifference over the body of the last -of his associates, he leaped a wide fissure, and ascended the rocks at -a point where the arm of David could not reach him. A single bound would -carry him to the brow of the precipice, and assure his safety. Before -taking the leap, however, the Huron paused, and shaking his hand at the -scout, he shouted: - -"The pale faces are dogs! the Delawares women! Magua leaves them on the -rocks, for the crows!" - -Laughing hoarsely, he made a desperate leap, and fell short of his mark, -though his hands grasped a shrub on the verge of the height. The form -of Hawkeye had crouched like a beast about to take its spring, and -his frame trembled so violently with eagerness that the muzzle of the -half-raised rifle played like a leaf fluttering in the wind. Without -exhausting himself with fruitless efforts, the cunning Magua suffered -his body to drop to the length of his arms, and found a fragment for his -feet to rest on. Then, summoning all his powers, he renewed the attempt, -and so far succeeded as to draw his knees on the edge of the mountain. -It was now, when the body of his enemy was most collected together, -that the agitated weapon of the scout was drawn to his shoulder. The -surrounding rocks themselves were not steadier than the piece became, -for the single instant that it poured out its contents. The arms of the -Huron relaxed, and his body fell back a little, while his knees still -kept their position. Turning a relentless look on his enemy, he shook -a hand in grim defiance. But his hold loosened, and his dark person was -seen cutting the air with its head downward, for a fleeting instant, -until it glided past the fringe of shrubbery which clung to the -mountain, in its rapid flight to destruction. - - - - -CHAPTER 33 - - "They fought, like brave men, long and well, - They piled that ground with Moslem slain, - They conquered--but Bozzaris fell, - Bleeding at every vein. - His few surviving comrades saw - His smile when rang their loud hurrah, - And the red field was won; - Then saw in death his eyelids close - Calmly, as to a night's repose, - Like flowers at set of sun." - --Halleck. - -The sun found the Lenape, on the succeeding day, a nation of mourners. -The sounds of the battle were over, and they had fed fat their ancient -grudge, and had avenged their recent quarrel with the Mengwe, by the -destruction of a whole community. The black and murky atmosphere that -floated around the spot where the Hurons had encamped, sufficiently -announced of itself, the fate of that wandering tribe; while hundreds of -ravens, that struggled above the summits of the mountains, or swept, in -noisy flocks, across the wide ranges of the woods, furnished a frightful -direction to the scene of the combat. In short, any eye at all practised -in the signs of a frontier warfare might easily have traced all those -unerring evidences of the ruthless results which attend an Indian -vengeance. - -Still, the sun rose on the Lenape a nation of mourners. No shouts -of success, no songs of triumph, were heard, in rejoicings for their -victory. The latest straggler had returned from his fell employment, -only to strip himself of the terrific emblems of his bloody calling, -and to join in the lamentations of his countrymen, as a stricken people. -Pride and exultation were supplanted by humility, and the fiercest -of human passions was already succeeded by the most profound and -unequivocal demonstrations of grief. - -The lodges were deserted; but a broad belt of earnest faces encircled a -spot in their vicinity, whither everything possessing life had repaired, -and where all were now collected, in deep and awful silence. Though -beings of every rank and age, of both sexes, and of all pursuits, had -united to form this breathing wall of bodies, they were influenced by a -single emotion. Each eye was riveted on the center of that ring, which -contained the objects of so much and of so common an interest. - -Six Delaware girls, with their long, dark, flowing tresses falling -loosely across their bosoms, stood apart, and only gave proof of their -existence as they occasionally strewed sweet-scented herbs and forest -flowers on a litter of fragrant plants that, under a pall of Indian -robes, supported all that now remained of the ardent, high-souled, -and generous Cora. Her form was concealed in many wrappers of the same -simple manufacture, and her face was shut forever from the gaze of -men. At her feet was seated the desolate Munro. His aged head was -bowed nearly to the earth, in compelled submission to the stroke of -Providence; but a hidden anguish struggled about his furrowed brow, -that was only partially concealed by the careless locks of gray that -had fallen, neglected, on his temples. Gamut stood at his side, his -meek head bared to the rays of the sun, while his eyes, wandering and -concerned, seemed to be equally divided between that little volume, -which contained so many quaint but holy maxims, and the being in whose -behalf his soul yearned to administer consolation. Heyward was also -nigh, supporting himself against a tree, and endeavoring to keep down -those sudden risings of sorrow that it required his utmost manhood to -subdue. - -But sad and melancholy as this group may easily be imagined, it was far -less touching than another, that occupied the opposite space of the same -area. Seated, as in life, with his form and limbs arranged in grave and -decent composure, Uncas appeared, arrayed in the most gorgeous ornaments -that the wealth of the tribe could furnish. Rich plumes nodded above -his head; wampum, gorgets, bracelets, and medals, adorned his person -in profusion; though his dull eye and vacant lineaments too strongly -contradicted the idle tale of pride they would convey. - -Directly in front of the corpse Chingachgook was placed, without arms, -paint or adornment of any sort, except the bright blue blazonry of his -race, that was indelibly impressed on his naked bosom. During the long -period that the tribe had thus been collected, the Mohican warrior had -kept a steady, anxious look on the cold and senseless countenance of his -son. So riveted and intense had been that gaze, and so changeless his -attitude, that a stranger might not have told the living from the dead, -but for the occasional gleamings of a troubled spirit, that shot athwart -the dark visage of one, and the deathlike calm that had forever settled -on the lineaments of the other. The scout was hard by, leaning in a -pensive posture on his own fatal and avenging weapon; while Tamenund, -supported by the elders of his nation, occupied a high place at hand, -whence he might look down on the mute and sorrowful assemblage of his -people. - -Just within the inner edge of the circle stood a soldier, in the -military attire of a strange nation; and without it was his warhorse, in -the center of a collection of mounted domestics, seemingly in readiness -to undertake some distant journey. The vestments of the stranger -announced him to be one who held a responsible situation near the person -of the captain of the Canadas; and who, as it would now seem, finding -his errand of peace frustrated by the fierce impetuosity of his allies, -was content to become a silent and sad spectator of the fruits of a -contest that he had arrived too late to anticipate. - -The day was drawing to the close of its first quarter, and yet had the -multitude maintained its breathing stillness since its dawn. - -No sound louder than a stifled sob had been heard among them, nor had -even a limb been moved throughout that long and painful period, except -to perform the simple and touching offerings that were made, from time -to time, in commemoration of the dead. The patience and forbearance of -Indian fortitude could alone support such an appearance of abstraction, -as seemed now to have turned each dark and motionless figure into stone. - -At length, the sage of the Delawares stretched forth an arm, and leaning -on the shoulders of his attendants, he arose with an air as feeble as -if another age had already intervened between the man who had met his -nation the preceding day, and him who now tottered on his elevated -stand. - -"Men of the Lenape!" he said, in low, hollow tones, that sounded like a -voice charged with some prophetic mission: "the face of the Manitou -is behind a cloud! His eye is turned from you; His ears are shut; His -tongue gives no answer. You see him not; yet His judgments are before -you. Let your hearts be open and your spirits tell no lie. Men of the -Lenape! the face of the Manitou is behind a cloud." - -As this simple and yet terrible annunciation stole on the ears of the -multitude, a stillness as deep and awful succeeded as if the venerated -spirit they worshiped had uttered the words without the aid of human -organs; and even the inanimate Uncas appeared a being of life, compared -with the humbled and submissive throng by whom he was surrounded. As the -immediate effect, however, gradually passed away, a low murmur of voices -commenced a sort of chant in honor of the dead. The sounds were those of -females, and were thrillingly soft and wailing. The words were connected -by no regular continuation, but as one ceased another took up the -eulogy, or lamentation, whichever it might be called, and gave vent to -her emotions in such language as was suggested by her feelings and the -occasion. At intervals the speaker was interrupted by general and loud -bursts of sorrow, during which the girls around the bier of Cora plucked -the plants and flowers blindly from her body, as if bewildered with -grief. But, in the milder moments of their plaint, these emblems of -purity and sweetness were cast back to their places, with every sign -of tenderness and regret. Though rendered less connected by many and -general interruptions and outbreakings, a translation of their language -would have contained a regular descant, which, in substance, might have -proved to possess a train of consecutive ideas. - -A girl, selected for the task by her rank and qualifications, -commenced by modest allusions to the qualities of the deceased warrior, -embellishing her expressions with those oriental images that the -Indians have probably brought with them from the extremes of the other -continent, and which form of themselves a link to connect the ancient -histories of the two worlds. She called him the "panther of his tribe"; -and described him as one whose moccasin left no trail on the dews; whose -bound was like the leap of a young fawn; whose eye was brighter than -a star in the dark night; and whose voice, in battle, was loud as the -thunder of the Manitou. She reminded him of the mother who bore him, and -dwelt forcibly on the happiness she must feel in possessing such a son. -She bade him tell her, when they met in the world of spirits, that the -Delaware girls had shed tears above the grave of her child, and had -called her blessed. - -Then, they who succeeded, changing their tones to a milder and still -more tender strain, alluded, with the delicacy and sensitiveness of -women, to the stranger maiden, who had left the upper earth at a time -so near his own departure, as to render the will of the Great Spirit too -manifest to be disregarded. They admonished him to be kind to her, and -to have consideration for her ignorance of those arts which were so -necessary to the comfort of a warrior like himself. They dwelled upon -her matchless beauty, and on her noble resolution, without the taint of -envy, and as angels may be thought to delight in a superior excellence; -adding, that these endowments should prove more than equivalent for any -little imperfection in her education. - -After which, others again, in due succession, spoke to the maiden -herself, in the low, soft language of tenderness and love. They exhorted -her to be of cheerful mind, and to fear nothing for her future welfare. -A hunter would be her companion, who knew how to provide for her -smallest wants; and a warrior was at her side who was able to protect -he against every danger. They promised that her path should be pleasant, -and her burden light. They cautioned her against unavailing regrets for -the friends of her youth, and the scenes where her father had dwelt; -assuring her that the "blessed hunting grounds of the Lenape," contained -vales as pleasant, streams as pure; and flowers as sweet, as the "heaven -of the pale faces." They advised her to be attentive to the wants of her -companion, and never to forget the distinction which the Manitou had so -wisely established between them. Then, in a wild burst of their chant -they sang with united voices the temper of the Mohican's mind. They -pronounced him noble, manly and generous; all that became a warrior, and -all that a maid might love. Clothing their ideas in the most remote -and subtle images, they betrayed, that, in the short period of their -intercourse, they had discovered, with the intuitive perception of their -sex, the truant disposition of his inclinations. The Delaware girls had -found no favor in his eyes! He was of a race that had once been lords on -the shores of the salt lake, and his wishes had led him back to a -people who dwelt about the graves of his fathers. Why should not such -a predilection be encouraged! That she was of a blood purer and richer -than the rest of her nation, any eye might have seen; that she was -equal to the dangers and daring of a life in the woods, her conduct -had proved; and now, they added, the "wise one of the earth" had -transplanted her to a place where she would find congenial spirits, and -might be forever happy. - -Then, with another transition in voice and subject, allusions were -made to the virgin who wept in the adjacent lodge. They compared her to -flakes of snow; as pure, as white, as brilliant, and as liable to melt -in the fierce heats of summer, or congeal in the frosts of winter. They -doubted not that she was lovely in the eyes of the young chief, whose -skin and whose sorrow seemed so like her own; but though far from -expressing such a preference, it was evident they deemed her less -excellent than the maid they mourned. Still they denied her no need -her rare charms might properly claim. Her ringlets were compared to the -exuberant tendrils of the vine, her eye to the blue vault of heavens, -and the most spotless cloud, with its glowing flush of the sun, was -admitted to be less attractive than her bloom. - -During these and similar songs nothing was audible but the murmurs of -the music; relieved, as it was, or rather rendered terrible, by those -occasional bursts of grief which might be called its choruses. The -Delawares themselves listened like charmed men; and it was very -apparent, by the variations of their speaking countenances, how deep and -true was their sympathy. Even David was not reluctant to lend his ears -to the tones of voices so sweet; and long ere the chant was ended, his -gaze announced that his soul was enthralled. - -The scout, to whom alone, of all the white men, the words were -intelligible, suffered himself to be a little aroused from his -meditative posture, and bent his face aside, to catch their meaning, as -the girls proceeded. But when they spoke of the future prospects of -Cora and Uncas, he shook his head, like one who knew the error of their -simple creed, and resuming his reclining attitude, he maintained it -until the ceremony, if that might be called a ceremony, in which feeling -was so deeply imbued, was finished. Happily for the self-command of both -Heyward and Munro, they knew not the meaning of the wild sounds they -heard. - -Chingachgook was a solitary exception to the interest manifested by the -native part of the audience. His look never changed throughout the whole -of the scene, nor did a muscle move in his rigid countenance, even at -the wildest or the most pathetic parts of the lamentation. The cold and -senseless remains of his son was all to him, and every other sense but -that of sight seemed frozen, in order that his eyes might take their -final gaze at those lineaments he had so long loved, and which were now -about to be closed forever from his view. - -In this stage of the obsequies, a warrior much renowned for deed in -arms, and more especially for services in the recent combat, a man of -stern and grave demeanor, advanced slowly from the crowd, and placed -himself nigh the person of the dead. - -"Why hast thou left us, pride of the Wapanachki?" he said, addressing -himself to the dull ears of Uncas, as if the empty clay retained the -faculties of the animated man; "thy time has been like that of the sun -when in the trees; thy glory brighter than his light at noonday. Thou -art gone, youthful warrior, but a hundred Wyandots are clearing the -briers from thy path to the world of the spirits. Who that saw thee in -battle would believe that thou couldst die? Who before thee has ever -shown Uttawa the way into the fight? Thy feet were like the wings of -eagles; thine arm heavier than falling branches from the pine; and -thy voice like the Manitou when He speaks in the clouds. The tongue of -Uttawa is weak," he added, looking about him with a melancholy gaze, -"and his heart exceeding heavy. Pride of the Wapanachki, why hast thou -left us?" - -He was succeeded by others, in due order, until most of the high and -gifted men of the nation had sung or spoken their tribute of praise over -the manes of the deceased chief. When each had ended, another deep and -breathing silence reigned in all the place. - -Then a low, deep sound was heard, like the suppressed accompaniment of -distant music, rising just high enough on the air to be audible, and -yet so indistinctly, as to leave its character, and the place whence it -proceeded, alike matters of conjecture. It was, however, succeeded by -another and another strain, each in a higher key, until they grew on the -ear, first in long drawn and often repeated interjections, and finally -in words. The lips of Chingachgook had so far parted, as to announce -that it was the monody of the father. Though not an eye was turned -toward him nor the smallest sign of impatience exhibited, it was -apparent, by the manner in which the multitude elevated their heads to -listen, that they drank in the sounds with an intenseness of attention, -that none but Tamenund himself had ever before commanded. But -they listened in vain. The strains rose just so loud as to become -intelligible, and then grew fainter and more trembling, until they -finally sank on the ear, as if borne away by a passing breath of wind. -The lips of the Sagamore closed, and he remained silent in his seat, -looking with his riveted eye and motionless form, like some creature -that had been turned from the Almighty hand with the form but without -the spirit of a man. The Delawares who knew by these symptoms that -the mind of their friend was not prepared for so mighty an effort of -fortitude, relaxed in their attention; and, with an innate delicacy, -seemed to bestow all their thoughts on the obsequies of the stranger -maiden. - -A signal was given, by one of the elder chiefs, to the women who crowded -that part of the circle near which the body of Cora lay. Obedient to -the sign, the girls raised the bier to the elevation of their heads, -and advanced with slow and regulated steps, chanting, as they proceeded, -another wailing song in praise of the deceased. Gamut, who had been a -close observer of rites he deemed so heathenish, now bent his head over -the shoulder of the unconscious father, whispering: - -"They move with the remains of thy child; shall we not follow, and see -them interred with Christian burial?" - -Munro started, as if the last trumpet had sounded in his ear, and -bestowing one anxious and hurried glance around him, he arose and -followed in the simple train, with the mien of a soldier, but bearing -the full burden of a parent's suffering. His friends pressed around him -with a sorrow that was too strong to be termed sympathy--even the young -Frenchman joining in the procession, with the air of a man who was -sensibly touched at the early and melancholy fate of one so lovely. But -when the last and humblest female of the tribe had joined in the wild -and yet ordered array, the men of the Lenape contracted their circle, -and formed again around the person of Uncas, as silent, as grave, and as -motionless as before. - -The place which had been chosen for the grave of Cora was a little -knoll, where a cluster of young and healthful pines had taken root, -forming of themselves a melancholy and appropriate shade over the spot. -On reaching it the girls deposited their burden, and continued for many -minutes waiting, with characteristic patience, and native timidity, for -some evidence that they whose feelings were most concerned were content -with the arrangement. At length the scout, who alone understood their -habits, said, in their own language: - -"My daughters have done well; the white men thank them." - -Satisfied with this testimony in their favor, the girls proceeded -to deposit the body in a shell, ingeniously, and not inelegantly, -fabricated of the bark of the birch; after which they lowered it into -its dark and final abode. The ceremony of covering the remains, and -concealing the marks of the fresh earth, by leaves and other natural and -customary objects, was conducted with the same simple and silent forms. -But when the labors of the kind beings who had performed these sad and -friendly offices were so far completed, they hesitated, in a way to show -that they knew not how much further they might proceed. It was in this -stage of the rites that the scout again addressed them: - -"My young women have done enough," he said: "the spirit of the pale -face has no need of food or raiment, their gifts being according to the -heaven of their color. I see," he added, glancing an eye at David, who -was preparing his book in a manner that indicated an intention to -lead the way in sacred song, "that one who better knows the Christian -fashions is about to speak." - -The females stood modestly aside, and, from having been the principal -actors in the scene, they now became the meek and attentive observers of -that which followed. During the time David occupied in pouring out the -pious feelings of his spirit in this manner, not a sign of surprise, nor -a look of impatience, escaped them. They listened like those who knew -the meaning of the strange words, and appeared as if they felt the -mingled emotions of sorrow, hope, and resignation, they were intended to -convey. - -Excited by the scene he had just witnessed, and perhaps influenced by -his own secret emotions, the master of song exceeded his usual efforts. -His full rich voice was not found to suffer by a comparison with the -soft tones of the girls; and his more modulated strains possessed, at -least for the ears of those to whom they were peculiarly addressed, -the additional power of intelligence. He ended the anthem, as he had -commenced it, in the midst of a grave and solemn stillness. - -When, however, the closing cadence had fallen on the ears of his -auditors, the secret, timorous glances of the eyes, and the general -and yet subdued movement of the assemblage, betrayed that something was -expected from the father of the deceased. Munro seemed sensible that the -time was come for him to exert what is, perhaps, the greatest effort -of which human nature is capable. He bared his gray locks, and looked -around the timid and quiet throng by which he was encircled, with a firm -and collected countenance. Then, motioning with his hand for the scout -to listen, he said: - -"Say to these kind and gentle females, that a heart-broken and failing -man returns them his thanks. Tell them, that the Being we all worship, -under different names, will be mindful of their charity; and that the -time shall not be distant when we may assemble around His throne without -distinction of sex, or rank, or color." - -The scout listened to the tremulous voice in which the veteran delivered -these words, and shook his head slowly when they were ended, as one who -doubted their efficacy. - -"To tell them this," he said, "would be to tell them that the snows come -not in the winter, or that the sun shines fiercest when the trees are -stripped of their leaves." - -Then turning to the women, he made such a communication of the other's -gratitude as he deemed most suited to the capacities of his listeners. -The head of Munro had already sunk upon his chest, and he was again -fast relapsing into melancholy, when the young Frenchman before named -ventured to touch him lightly on the elbow. As soon as he had gained the -attention of the mourning old man, he pointed toward a group of young -Indians, who approached with a light but closely covered litter, and -then pointed upward toward the sun. - -"I understand you, sir," returned Munro, with a voice of forced -firmness; "I understand you. It is the will of Heaven, and I submit. -Cora, my child! if the prayers of a heart-broken father could avail thee -now, how blessed shouldst thou be! Come, gentlemen," he added, looking -about him with an air of lofty composure, though the anguish that -quivered in his faded countenance was far too powerful to be concealed, -"our duty here is ended; let us depart." - -Heyward gladly obeyed a summons that took them from a spot where, each -instant, he felt his self-control was about to desert him. While his -companions were mounting, however, he found time to press the hand of -the scout, and to repeat the terms of an engagement they had made to -meet again within the posts of the British army. Then, gladly throwing -himself into the saddle, he spurred his charger to the side of the -litter, whence low and stifled sobs alone announced the presence of -Alice. In this manner, the head of Munro again drooping on his bosom, -with Heyward and David following in sorrowing silence, and attended -by the aide of Montcalm with his guard, all the white men, with the -exception of Hawkeye, passed from before the eyes of the Delawares, and -were buried in the vast forests of that region. - -But the tie which, through their common calamity, had united the -feelings of these simple dwellers in the woods with the strangers who -had thus transiently visited them, was not so easily broken. Years -passed away before the traditionary tale of the white maiden, and of -the young warrior of the Mohicans ceased to beguile the long nights and -tedious marches, or to animate their youthful and brave with a desire -for vengeance. Neither were the secondary actors in these momentous -incidents forgotten. Through the medium of the scout, who served for -years afterward as a link between them and civilized life, they learned, -in answer to their inquiries, that the "Gray Head" was speedily gathered -to his fathers--borne down, as was erroneously believed, by his military -misfortunes; and that the "Open Hand" had conveyed his surviving -daughter far into the settlements of the pale faces, where her tears -had at last ceased to flow, and had been succeeded by the bright smiles -which were better suited to her joyous nature. - -But these were events of a time later than that which concerns our tale. -Deserted by all of his color, Hawkeye returned to the spot where his -sympathies led him, with a force that no ideal bond of union could -destroy. He was just in time to catch a parting look of the features of -Uncas, whom the Delawares were already inclosing in his last vestment -of skins. They paused to permit the longing and lingering gaze of the -sturdy woodsman, and when it was ended, the body was enveloped, never to -be unclosed again. Then came a procession like the other, and the whole -nation was collected about the temporary grave of the chief--temporary, -because it was proper that, at some future day, his bones should rest -among those of his own people. - -The movement, like the feeling, had been simultaneous and general. The -same grave expression of grief, the same rigid silence, and the same -deference to the principal mourner, were observed around the place of -interment as have been already described. The body was deposited in an -attitude of repose, facing the rising sun, with the implements of war -and of the chase at hand, in readiness for the final journey. An opening -was left in the shell, by which it was protected from the soil, for the -spirit to communicate with its earthly tenement, when necessary; and the -whole was concealed from the instinct, and protected from the ravages -of the beasts of prey, with an ingenuity peculiar to the natives. The -manual rites then ceased and all present reverted to the more spiritual -part of the ceremonies. - -Chingachgook became once more the object of the common attention. He had -not yet spoken, and something consolatory and instructive was expected -from so renowned a chief on an occasion of such interest. Conscious of -the wishes of the people, the stern and self-restrained warrior raised -his face, which had latterly been buried in his robe, and looked about -him with a steady eye. His firmly compressed and expressive lips then -severed, and for the first time during the long ceremonies his voice was -distinctly audible. "Why do my brothers mourn?" he said, regarding the -dark race of dejected warriors by whom he was environed; "why do my -daughters weep? that a young man has gone to the happy hunting-grounds; -that a chief has filled his time with honor? He was good; he was -dutiful; he was brave. Who can deny it? The Manitou had need of such a -warrior, and He has called him away. As for me, the son and the father -of Uncas, I am a blazed pine, in a clearing of the pale faces. My -race has gone from the shores of the salt lake and the hills of the -Delawares. But who can say that the serpent of his tribe has forgotten -his wisdom? I am alone--" - -"No, no," cried Hawkeye, who had been gazing with a yearning look at the -rigid features of his friend, with something like his own self-command, -but whose philosophy could endure no longer; "no, Sagamore, not alone. -The gifts of our colors may be different, but God has so placed us as to -journey in the same path. I have no kin, and I may also say, like you, -no people. He was your son, and a red-skin by nature; and it may be that -your blood was nearer--but, if ever I forget the lad who has so often -fou't at my side in war, and slept at my side in peace, may He who made -us all, whatever may be our color or our gifts, forget me! The boy has -left us for a time; but, Sagamore, you are not alone." - -Chingachgook grasped the hand that, in the warmth of feeling, the scout -had stretched across the fresh earth, and in an attitude of friendship -these two sturdy and intrepid woodsmen bowed their heads together, while -scalding tears fell to their feet, watering the grave of Uncas like -drops of falling rain. - -In the midst of the awful stillness with which such a burst of feeling, -coming as it did, from the two most renowned warriors of that region, -was received, Tamenund lifted his voice to disperse the multitude. - -"It is enough," he said. "Go, children of the Lenape, the anger of -the Manitou is not done. Why should Tamenund stay? The pale faces are -masters of the earth, and the time of the red men has not yet come -again. My day has been too long. In the morning I saw the sons of Unamis -happy and strong; and yet, before the night has come, have I lived to -see the last warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans." - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS *** - -***** This file should be named 940-8.txt or 940-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/9/4/940/ - -Produced by John Horner and David Widger - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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- <head>
- <title>
- The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper
- </title>
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-
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-Project Gutenberg's The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: The Last of the Mohicans
-
-Author: James Fenimore Cooper
-
-Release Date: February 5, 2006 [EBook #940]
-[Most recently updated: January 12, 2020]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
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-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by John Horner and David Widger
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
- <p>
- <br /> <br />
- </p>
- <h1>
- THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS
- </h1>
- <h2>
- A Narrative of 1757
- </h2>
- <p>
- <br /> <br />
- </p>
- <h2>
- by James Fenimore Cooper
- </h2>
- <p>
- <br /> <br />
- </p>
-
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0005.jpg" alt="0005" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0005.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- <br /> <br />
- </p>
- <blockquote>
- <p class="toc">
- <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /> <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION </a><br /> <br /> <br />
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER 1 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#linkchap2"> CHAPTER 2 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER 3 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER 4 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER 5 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER 6 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER 7 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER 8 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER 9 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER 10 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER 11 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER 12 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER 13 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER 14 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER 15 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER 16 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER 17 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER 18 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER 19 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER 20 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER 21 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER 22 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER 23 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER 24 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER 25 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER 26 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER 27 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER 28 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER 29 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER 30 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0030"> CHAPTER 31 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0031"> CHAPTER 32 </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0032"> CHAPTER 33 </a>
- </p>
- </blockquote>
- <p>
- <br /> <br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
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- <h2>
- INTRODUCTION
- </h2>
- <p>
- It is believed that the scene of this tale, and most of the information
- necessary to understand its allusions, are rendered sufficiently obvious
- to the reader in the text itself, or in the accompanying notes. Still
- there is so much obscurity in the Indian traditions, and so much confusion
- in the Indian names, as to render some explanation useful.
- </p>
- <p>
- Few men exhibit greater diversity, or, if we may so express it, greater
- antithesis of character, than the native warrior of North America. In war,
- he is daring, boastful, cunning, ruthless, self-denying, and self-devoted;
- in peace, just, generous, hospitable, revengeful, superstitious, modest,
- and commonly chaste. These are qualities, it is true, which do not
- distinguish all alike; but they are so far the predominating traits of
- these remarkable people as to be characteristic.
- </p>
- <p>
- It is generally believed that the Aborigines of the American continent
- have an Asiatic origin. There are many physical as well as moral facts
- which corroborate this opinion, and some few that would seem to weigh
- against it.
- </p>
- <p>
- The color of the Indian, the writer believes, is peculiar to himself, and
- while his cheek-bones have a very striking indication of a Tartar origin,
- his eyes have not. Climate may have had great influence on the former, but
- it is difficult to see how it can have produced the substantial difference
- which exists in the latter. The imagery of the Indian, both in his poetry
- and in his oratory, is oriental; chastened, and perhaps improved, by the
- limited range of his practical knowledge. He draws his metaphors from the
- clouds, the seasons, the birds, the beasts, and the vegetable world. In
- this, perhaps, he does no more than any other energetic and imaginative
- race would do, being compelled to set bounds to fancy by experience; but
- the North American Indian clothes his ideas in a dress which is different
- from that of the African, and is oriental in itself. His language has the
- richness and sententious fullness of the Chinese. He will express a phrase
- in a word, and he will qualify the meaning of an entire sentence by a
- syllable; he will even convey different significations by the simplest
- inflections of the voice.
- </p>
- <p>
- Philologists have said that there are but two or three languages, properly
- speaking, among all the numerous tribes which formerly occupied the
- country that now composes the United States. They ascribe the known
- difficulty one people have to understand another to corruptions and
- dialects. The writer remembers to have been present at an interview
- between two chiefs of the Great Prairies west of the Mississippi, and when
- an interpreter was in attendance who spoke both their languages. The
- warriors appeared to be on the most friendly terms, and seemingly
- conversed much together; yet, according to the account of the interpreter,
- each was absolutely ignorant of what the other said. They were of hostile
- tribes, brought together by the influence of the American government; and
- it is worthy of remark, that a common policy led them both to adopt the
- same subject. They mutually exhorted each other to be of use in the event
- of the chances of war throwing either of the parties into the hands of his
- enemies. Whatever may be the truth, as respects the root and the genius of
- the Indian tongues, it is quite certain they are now so distinct in their
- words as to possess most of the disadvantages of strange languages; hence
- much of the embarrassment that has arisen in learning their histories, and
- most of the uncertainty which exists in their traditions.
- </p>
- <p>
- Like nations of higher pretensions, the American Indian gives a very
- different account of his own tribe or race from that which is given by
- other people. He is much addicted to overestimating his own perfections,
- and to undervaluing those of his rival or his enemy; a trait which may
- possibly be thought corroborative of the Mosaic account of the creation.
- </p>
- <p>
- The whites have assisted greatly in rendering the traditions of the
- Aborigines more obscure by their own manner of corrupting names. Thus, the
- term used in the title of this book has undergone the changes of
- Mahicanni, Mohicans, and Mohegans; the latter being the word commonly used
- by the whites. When it is remembered that the Dutch (who first settled New
- York), the English, and the French, all gave appellations to the tribes
- that dwelt within the country which is the scene of this story, and that
- the Indians not only gave different names to their enemies, but frequently
- to themselves, the cause of the confusion will be understood.
- </p>
- <p>
- In these pages, Lenni-Lenape, Lenope, Delawares, Wapanachki, and Mohicans,
- all mean the same people, or tribes of the same stock. The Mengwe, the
- Maquas, the Mingoes, and the Iroquois, though not all strictly the same,
- are identified frequently by the speakers, being politically confederated
- and opposed to those just named. Mingo was a term of peculiar reproach, as
- were Mengwe and Maqua in a less degree.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Mohicans were the possessors of the country first occupied by the
- Europeans in this portion of the continent. They were, consequently, the
- first dispossessed; and the seemingly inevitable fate of all these people,
- who disappear before the advances, or it might be termed the inroads, of
- civilization, as the verdure of their native forests falls before the
- nipping frosts, is represented as having already befallen them. There is
- sufficient historical truth in the picture to justify the use that has
- been made of it.
- </p>
- <p>
- In point of fact, the country which is the scene of the following tale has
- undergone as little change, since the historical events alluded to had
- place, as almost any other district of equal extent within the whole
- limits of the United States. There are fashionable and well-attended
- watering-places at and near the spring where Hawkeye halted to drink, and
- roads traverse the forests where he and his friends were compelled to
- journey without even a path. Glen's has a large village; and while William
- Henry, and even a fortress of later date, are only to be traced as ruins,
- there is another village on the shores of the Horican. But, beyond this,
- the enterprise and energy of a people who have done so much in other
- places have done little here. The whole of that wilderness, in which the
- latter incidents of the legend occurred, is nearly a wilderness still,
- though the red man has entirely deserted this part of the state. Of all
- the tribes named in these pages, there exist only a few half-civilized
- beings of the Oneidas, on the reservations of their people in New York.
- The rest have disappeared, either from the regions in which their fathers
- dwelt, or altogether from the earth.
- </p>
- <p>
- There is one point on which we would wish to say a word before closing
- this preface. Hawkeye calls the Lac du Saint Sacrement, the “Horican.” As
- we believe this to be an appropriation of the name that has its origin
- with ourselves, the time has arrived, perhaps, when the fact should be
- frankly admitted. While writing this book, fully a quarter of a century
- since, it occurred to us that the French name of this lake was too
- complicated, the American too commonplace, and the Indian too
- unpronounceable, for either to be used familiarly in a work of fiction.
- Looking over an ancient map, it was ascertained that a tribe of Indians,
- called “Les Horicans” by the French, existed in the neighborhood of this
- beautiful sheet of water. As every word uttered by Natty Bumppo was not to
- be received as rigid truth, we took the liberty of putting the “Horican”
- into his mouth, as the substitute for “Lake George.” The name has appeared
- to find favor, and all things considered, it may possibly be quite as well
- to let it stand, instead of going back to the House of Hanover for the
- appellation of our finest sheet of water. We relieve our conscience by the
- confession, at all events leaving it to exercise its authority as it may
- see fit.
- </p>
- <p>
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- <h2>
- CHAPTER 1
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Mine ear is open, and my heart prepared:
- The worst is wordly loss thou canst unfold:—
- Say, is my kingdom lost?”—Shakespeare
-</pre>
- <p>
- It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America, that the
- toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered before the
- adverse hosts could meet. A wide and apparently an impervious boundary of
- forests severed the possessions of the hostile provinces of France and
- England. The hardy colonist, and the trained European who fought at his
- side, frequently expended months in struggling against the rapids of the
- streams, or in effecting the rugged passes of the mountains, in quest of
- an opportunity to exhibit their courage in a more martial conflict. But,
- emulating the patience and self-denial of the practiced native warriors,
- they learned to overcome every difficulty; and it would seem that, in
- time, there was no recess of the woods so dark, nor any secret place so
- lovely, that it might claim exemption from the inroads of those who had
- pledged their blood to satiate their vengeance, or to uphold the cold and
- selfish policy of the distant monarchs of Europe.
- </p>
- <p>
- Perhaps no district throughout the wide extent of the intermediate
- frontiers can furnish a livelier picture of the cruelty and fierceness of
- the savage warfare of those periods than the country which lies between
- the head waters of the Hudson and the adjacent lakes.
- </p>
- <p>
- The facilities which nature had there offered to the march of the
- combatants were too obvious to be neglected. The lengthened sheet of the
- Champlain stretched from the frontiers of Canada, deep within the borders
- of the neighboring province of New York, forming a natural passage across
- half the distance that the French were compelled to master in order to
- strike their enemies. Near its southern termination, it received the
- contributions of another lake, whose waters were so limpid as to have been
- exclusively selected by the Jesuit missionaries to perform the typical
- purification of baptism, and to obtain for it the title of lake “du Saint
- Sacrement.” The less zealous English thought they conferred a sufficient
- honor on its unsullied fountains, when they bestowed the name of their
- reigning prince, the second of the house of Hanover. The two united to rob
- the untutored possessors of its wooded scenery of their native right to
- perpetuate its original appellation of “Horican.” *
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * As each nation of the Indians had its language or its
- dialect, they usually gave different names to the same
- places, though nearly all of their appellations were
- descriptive of the object. Thus a literal translation of the
- name of this beautiful sheet of water, used by the tribe
- that dwelt on its banks, would be “The Tail of the Lake.”
- Lake George, as it is vulgarly, and now, indeed, legally,
- called, forms a sort of tail to Lake Champlain, when viewed
- on the map. Hence, the name.
-</pre>
- <p>
- Winding its way among countless islands, and imbedded in mountains, the
- “holy lake” extended a dozen leagues still further to the south. With the
- high plain that there interposed itself to the further passage of the
- water, commenced a portage of as many miles, which conducted the
- adventurer to the banks of the Hudson, at a point where, with the usual
- obstructions of the rapids, or rifts, as they were then termed in the
- language of the country, the river became navigable to the tide.
- </p>
- <p>
- While, in the pursuit of their daring plans of annoyance, the restless
- enterprise of the French even attempted the distant and difficult gorges
- of the Alleghany, it may easily be imagined that their proverbial
- acuteness would not overlook the natural advantages of the district we
- have just described. It became, emphatically, the bloody arena, in which
- most of the battles for the mastery of the colonies were contested. Forts
- were erected at the different points that commanded the facilities of the
- route, and were taken and retaken, razed and rebuilt, as victory alighted
- on the hostile banners. While the husbandman shrank back from the
- dangerous passes, within the safer boundaries of the more ancient
- settlements, armies larger than those that had often disposed of the
- scepters of the mother countries, were seen to bury themselves in these
- forests, whence they rarely returned but in skeleton bands, that were
- haggard with care or dejected by defeat. Though the arts of peace were
- unknown to this fatal region, its forests were alive with men; its shades
- and glens rang with the sounds of martial music, and the echoes of its
- mountains threw back the laugh, or repeated the wanton cry, of many a
- gallant and reckless youth, as he hurried by them, in the noontide of his
- spirits, to slumber in a long night of forgetfulness.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was in this scene of strife and bloodshed that the incidents we shall
- attempt to relate occurred, during the third year of the war which England
- and France last waged for the possession of a country that neither was
- destined to retain.
- </p>
- <p>
- The imbecility of her military leaders abroad, and the fatal want of
- energy in her councils at home, had lowered the character of Great Britain
- from the proud elevation on which it had been placed by the talents and
- enterprise of her former warriors and statesmen. No longer dreaded by her
- enemies, her servants were fast losing the confidence of self-respect. In
- this mortifying abasement, the colonists, though innocent of her
- imbecility, and too humble to be the agents of her blunders, were but the
- natural participators. They had recently seen a chosen army from that
- country, which, reverencing as a mother, they had blindly believed
- invincible—an army led by a chief who had been selected from a crowd
- of trained warriors, for his rare military endowments, disgracefully
- routed by a handful of French and Indians, and only saved from
- annihilation by the coolness and spirit of a Virginian boy, whose riper
- fame has since diffused itself, with the steady influence of moral truth,
- to the uttermost confines of Christendom.* A wide frontier had been laid
- naked by this unexpected disaster, and more substantial evils were
- preceded by a thousand fanciful and imaginary dangers. The alarmed
- colonists believed that the yells of the savages mingled with every fitful
- gust of wind that issued from the interminable forests of the west. The
- terrific character of their merciless enemies increased immeasurably the
- natural horrors of warfare. Numberless recent massacres were still vivid
- in their recollections; nor was there any ear in the provinces so deaf as
- not to have drunk in with avidity the narrative of some fearful tale of
- midnight murder, in which the natives of the forests were the principal
- and barbarous actors. As the credulous and excited traveler related the
- hazardous chances of the wilderness, the blood of the timid curdled with
- terror, and mothers cast anxious glances even at those children which
- slumbered within the security of the largest towns. In short, the
- magnifying influence of fear began to set at naught the calculations of
- reason, and to render those who should have remembered their manhood, the
- slaves of the basest passions. Even the most confident and the stoutest
- hearts began to think the issue of the contest was becoming doubtful; and
- that abject class was hourly increasing in numbers, who thought they
- foresaw all the possessions of the English crown in America subdued by
- their Christian foes, or laid waste by the inroads of their relentless
- allies.
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * Washington, who, after uselessly admonishing the European
- general of the danger into which he was heedlessly running,
- saved the remnants of the British army, on this occasion, by
- his decision and courage. The reputation earned by
- Washington in this battle was the principal cause of his
- being selected to command the American armies at a later
- day. It is a circumstance worthy of observation, that while
- all America rang with his well-merited reputation, his name
- does not occur in any European account of the battle; at
- least the author has searched for it without success. In
- this manner does the mother country absorb even the fame,
- under that system of rule.
-</pre>
- <p>
- When, therefore, intelligence was received at the fort which covered the
- southern termination of the portage between the Hudson and the lakes, that
- Montcalm had been seen moving up the Champlain, with an army “numerous as
- the leaves on the trees,” its truth was admitted with more of the craven
- reluctance of fear than with the stern joy that a warrior should feel, in
- finding an enemy within reach of his blow. The news had been brought,
- toward the decline of a day in midsummer, by an Indian runner, who also
- bore an urgent request from Munro, the commander of a work on the shore of
- the “holy lake,” for a speedy and powerful reinforcement. It has already
- been mentioned that the distance between these two posts was less than
- five leagues. The rude path, which originally formed their line of
- communication, had been widened for the passage of wagons; so that the
- distance which had been traveled by the son of the forest in two hours,
- might easily be effected by a detachment of troops, with their necessary
- baggage, between the rising and setting of a summer sun. The loyal
- servants of the British crown had given to one of these forest-fastnesses
- the name of William Henry, and to the other that of Fort Edward, calling
- each after a favorite prince of the reigning family. The veteran Scotchman
- just named held the first, with a regiment of regulars and a few
- provincials; a force really by far too small to make head against the
- formidable power that Montcalm was leading to the foot of his earthen
- mounds. At the latter, however, lay General Webb, who commanded the armies
- of the king in the northern provinces, with a body of more than five
- thousand men. By uniting the several detachments of his command, this
- officer might have arrayed nearly double that number of combatants against
- the enterprising Frenchman, who had ventured so far from his
- reinforcements, with an army but little superior in numbers.
- </p>
- <p>
- But under the influence of their degraded fortunes, both officers and men
- appeared better disposed to await the approach of their formidable
- antagonists, within their works, than to resist the progress of their
- march, by emulating the successful example of the French at Fort du
- Quesne, and striking a blow on their advance.
- </p>
- <p>
- After the first surprise of the intelligence had a little abated, a rumor
- was spread through the entrenched camp, which stretched along the margin
- of the Hudson, forming a chain of outworks to the body of the fort itself,
- that a chosen detachment of fifteen hundred men was to depart, with the
- dawn, for William Henry, the post at the northern extremity of the
- portage. That which at first was only rumor, soon became certainty, as
- orders passed from the quarters of the commander-in-chief to the several
- corps he had selected for this service, to prepare for their speedy
- departure. All doubts as to the intention of Webb now vanished, and an
- hour or two of hurried footsteps and anxious faces succeeded. The novice
- in the military art flew from point to point, retarding his own
- preparations by the excess of his violent and somewhat distempered zeal;
- while the more practiced veteran made his arrangements with a deliberation
- that scorned every appearance of haste; though his sober lineaments and
- anxious eye sufficiently betrayed that he had no very strong professional
- relish for the, as yet, untried and dreaded warfare of the wilderness. At
- length the sun set in a flood of glory, behind the distant western hills,
- and as darkness drew its veil around the secluded spot the sounds of
- preparation diminished; the last light finally disappeared from the log
- cabin of some officer; the trees cast their deeper shadows over the mounds
- and the rippling stream, and a silence soon pervaded the camp, as deep as
- that which reigned in the vast forest by which it was environed.
- </p>
- <p>
- According to the orders of the preceding night, the heavy sleep of the
- army was broken by the rolling of the warning drums, whose rattling echoes
- were heard issuing, on the damp morning air, out of every vista of the
- woods, just as day began to draw the shaggy outlines of some tall pines of
- the vicinity, on the opening brightness of a soft and cloudless eastern
- sky. In an instant the whole camp was in motion; the meanest soldier
- arousing from his lair to witness the departure of his comrades, and to
- share in the excitement and incidents of the hour. The simple array of the
- chosen band was soon completed. While the regular and trained hirelings of
- the king marched with haughtiness to the right of the line, the less
- pretending colonists took their humbler position on its left, with a
- docility that long practice had rendered easy. The scouts departed; strong
- guards preceded and followed the lumbering vehicles that bore the baggage;
- and before the gray light of the morning was mellowed by the rays of the
- sun, the main body of the combatants wheeled into column, and left the
- encampment with a show of high military bearing, that served to drown the
- slumbering apprehensions of many a novice, who was now about to make his
- first essay in arms. While in view of their admiring comrades, the same
- proud front and ordered array was observed, until the notes of their fifes
- growing fainter in distance, the forest at length appeared to swallow up
- the living mass which had slowly entered its bosom.
- </p>
- <p>
- The deepest sounds of the retiring and invisible column had ceased to be
- borne on the breeze to the listeners, and the latest straggler had already
- disappeared in pursuit; but there still remained the signs of another
- departure, before a log cabin of unusual size and accommodations, in front
- of which those sentinels paced their rounds, who were known to guard the
- person of the English general. At this spot were gathered some half dozen
- horses, caparisoned in a manner which showed that two, at least, were
- destined to bear the persons of females, of a rank that it was not usual
- to meet so far in the wilds of the country. A third wore trappings and
- arms of an officer of the staff; while the rest, from the plainness of the
- housings, and the traveling mails with which they were encumbered, were
- evidently fitted for the reception of as many menials, who were,
- seemingly, already waiting the pleasure of those they served. At a
- respectful distance from this unusual show, were gathered divers groups of
- curious idlers; some admiring the blood and bone of the high-mettled
- military charger, and others gazing at the preparations, with the dull
- wonder of vulgar curiosity. There was one man, however, who, by his
- countenance and actions, formed a marked exception to those who composed
- the latter class of spectators, being neither idle, nor seemingly very
- ignorant.
- </p>
- <p>
- The person of this individual was to the last degree ungainly, without
- being in any particular manner deformed. He had all the bones and joints
- of other men, without any of their proportions. Erect, his stature
- surpassed that of his fellows; though seated, he appeared reduced within
- the ordinary limits of the race. The same contrariety in his members
- seemed to exist throughout the whole man. His head was large; his
- shoulders narrow; his arms long and dangling; while his hands were small,
- if not delicate. His legs and thighs were thin, nearly to emaciation, but
- of extraordinary length; and his knees would have been considered
- tremendous, had they not been outdone by the broader foundations on which
- this false superstructure of blended human orders was so profanely reared.
- The ill-assorted and injudicious attire of the individual only served to
- render his awkwardness more conspicuous. A sky-blue coat, with short and
- broad skirts and low cape, exposed a long, thin neck, and longer and
- thinner legs, to the worst animadversions of the evil-disposed. His nether
- garment was a yellow nankeen, closely fitted to the shape, and tied at his
- bunches of knees by large knots of white ribbon, a good deal sullied by
- use. Clouded cotton stockings, and shoes, on one of the latter of which
- was a plated spur, completed the costume of the lower extremity of this
- figure, no curve or angle of which was concealed, but, on the other hand,
- studiously exhibited, through the vanity or simplicity of its owner.
- </p>
- <p>
- From beneath the flap of an enormous pocket of a soiled vest of embossed
- silk, heavily ornamented with tarnished silver lace, projected an
- instrument, which, from being seen in such martial company, might have
- been easily mistaken for some mischievous and unknown implement of war.
- Small as it was, this uncommon engine had excited the curiosity of most of
- the Europeans in the camp, though several of the provincials were seen to
- handle it, not only without fear, but with the utmost familiarity. A
- large, civil cocked hat, like those worn by clergymen within the last
- thirty years, surmounted the whole, furnishing dignity to a good-natured
- and somewhat vacant countenance, that apparently needed such artificial
- aid, to support the gravity of some high and extraordinary trust.
- </p>
- <p>
- While the common herd stood aloof, in deference to the quarters of Webb,
- the figure we have described stalked into the center of the domestics,
- freely expressing his censures or commendations on the merits of the
- horses, as by chance they displeased or satisfied his judgment.
- </p>
- <p>
- “This beast, I rather conclude, friend, is not of home raising, but is
- from foreign lands, or perhaps from the little island itself over the blue
- water?” he said, in a voice as remarkable for the softness and sweetness
- of its tones, as was his person for its rare proportions; “I may speak of
- these things, and be no braggart; for I have been down at both havens;
- that which is situate at the mouth of Thames, and is named after the
- capital of Old England, and that which is called 'Haven', with the
- addition of the word 'New'; and have seen the scows and brigantines
- collecting their droves, like the gathering to the ark, being outward
- bound to the Island of Jamaica, for the purpose of barter and traffic in
- four-footed animals; but never before have I beheld a beast which verified
- the true scripture war-horse like this: 'He paweth in the valley, and
- rejoiceth in his strength; he goeth on to meet the armed men. He saith
- among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the
- thunder of the captains, and the shouting' It would seem that the stock of
- the horse of Israel had descended to our own time; would it not, friend?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Receiving no reply to this extraordinary appeal, which in truth, as it was
- delivered with the vigor of full and sonorous tones, merited some sort of
- notice, he who had thus sung forth the language of the holy book turned to
- the silent figure to whom he had unwittingly addressed himself, and found
- a new and more powerful subject of admiration in the object that
- encountered his gaze. His eyes fell on the still, upright, and rigid form
- of the “Indian runner,” who had borne to the camp the unwelcome tidings of
- the preceding evening. Although in a state of perfect repose, and
- apparently disregarding, with characteristic stoicism, the excitement and
- bustle around him, there was a sullen fierceness mingled with the quiet of
- the savage, that was likely to arrest the attention of much more
- experienced eyes than those which now scanned him, in unconcealed
- amazement. The native bore both the tomahawk and knife of his tribe; and
- yet his appearance was not altogether that of a warrior. On the contrary,
- there was an air of neglect about his person, like that which might have
- proceeded from great and recent exertion, which he had not yet found
- leisure to repair. The colors of the war-paint had blended in dark
- confusion about his fierce countenance, and rendered his swarthy
- lineaments still more savage and repulsive than if art had attempted an
- effect which had been thus produced by chance. His eye, alone, which
- glistened like a fiery star amid lowering clouds, was to be seen in its
- state of native wildness. For a single instant his searching and yet wary
- glance met the wondering look of the other, and then changing its
- direction, partly in cunning, and partly in disdain, it remained fixed, as
- if penetrating the distant air.
- </p>
- <p>
- It is impossible to say what unlooked-for remark this short and silent
- communication, between two such singular men, might have elicited from the
- white man, had not his active curiosity been again drawn to other objects.
- A general movement among the domestics, and a low sound of gentle voices,
- announced the approach of those whose presence alone was wanted to enable
- the cavalcade to move. The simple admirer of the war-horse instantly fell
- back to a low, gaunt, switch-tailed mare, that was unconsciously gleaning
- the faded herbage of the camp nigh by; where, leaning with one elbow on
- the blanket that concealed an apology for a saddle, he became a spectator
- of the departure, while a foal was quietly making its morning repast, on
- the opposite side of the same animal.
- </p>
- <p>
- A young man, in the dress of an officer, conducted to their steeds two
- females, who, as it was apparent by their dresses, were prepared to
- encounter the fatigues of a journey in the woods. One, and she was the
- more juvenile in her appearance, though both were young, permitted
- glimpses of her dazzling complexion, fair golden hair, and bright blue
- eyes, to be caught, as she artlessly suffered the morning air to blow
- aside the green veil which descended low from her beaver.
- </p>
- <p>
- The flush which still lingered above the pines in the western sky was not
- more bright nor delicate than the bloom on her cheek; nor was the opening
- day more cheering than the animated smile which she bestowed on the youth,
- as he assisted her into the saddle. The other, who appeared to share
- equally in the attention of the young officer, concealed her charms from
- the gaze of the soldiery with a care that seemed better fitted to the
- experience of four or five additional years. It could be seen, however,
- that her person, though molded with the same exquisite proportions, of
- which none of the graces were lost by the traveling dress she wore, was
- rather fuller and more mature than that of her companion.
- </p>
- <p>
- No sooner were these females seated, than their attendant sprang lightly
- into the saddle of the war-horse, when the whole three bowed to Webb, who
- in courtesy, awaited their parting on the threshold of his cabin and
- turning their horses' heads, they proceeded at a slow amble, followed by
- their train, toward the northern entrance of the encampment. As they
- traversed that short distance, not a voice was heard among them; but a
- slight exclamation proceeded from the younger of the females, as the
- Indian runner glided by her, unexpectedly, and led the way along the
- military road in her front. Though this sudden and startling movement of
- the Indian produced no sound from the other, in the surprise her veil also
- was allowed to open its folds, and betrayed an indescribable look of pity,
- admiration, and horror, as her dark eye followed the easy motions of the
- savage. The tresses of this lady were shining and black, like the plumage
- of the raven. Her complexion was not brown, but it rather appeared charged
- with the color of the rich blood, that seemed ready to burst its bounds.
- And yet there was neither coarseness nor want of shadowing in a
- countenance that was exquisitely regular, and dignified and surpassingly
- beautiful. She smiled, as if in pity at her own momentary forgetfulness,
- discovering by the act a row of teeth that would have shamed the purest
- ivory; when, replacing the veil, she bowed her face, and rode in silence,
- like one whose thoughts were abstracted from the scene around her.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /> <br /> <a name="linkchap2" id="linkchap2"></a> <br /> <br />
- </p>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 2
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Sola, sola, wo ha, ho, sola!”
- —Shakespeare
-</pre>
- <p>
- While one of the lovely beings we have so cursorily presented to the
- reader was thus lost in thought, the other quickly recovered from the
- alarm which induced the exclamation, and, laughing at her own weakness,
- she inquired of the youth who rode by her side:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are such specters frequent in the woods, Heyward, or is this sight an
- especial entertainment ordered on our behalf? If the latter, gratitude
- must close our mouths; but if the former, both Cora and I shall have need
- to draw largely on that stock of hereditary courage which we boast, even
- before we are made to encounter the redoubtable Montcalm.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yon Indian is a 'runner' of the army; and, after the fashion of his
- people, he may be accounted a hero,” returned the officer. “He has
- volunteered to guide us to the lake, by a path but little known, sooner
- than if we followed the tardy movements of the column; and, by
- consequence, more agreeably.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I like him not,” said the lady, shuddering, partly in assumed, yet more
- in real terror. “You know him, Duncan, or you would not trust yourself so
- freely to his keeping?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Say, rather, Alice, that I would not trust you. I do know him, or he
- would not have my confidence, and least of all at this moment. He is said
- to be a Canadian too; and yet he served with our friends the Mohawks, who,
- as you know, are one of the six allied nations. He was brought among us,
- as I have heard, by some strange accident in which your father was
- interested, and in which the savage was rigidly dealt by; but I forget the
- idle tale, it is enough, that he is now our friend.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If he has been my father's enemy, I like him still less!” exclaimed the
- now really anxious girl. “Will you not speak to him, Major Heyward, that I
- may hear his tones? Foolish though it may be, you have often heard me avow
- my faith in the tones of the human voice!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It would be in vain; and answered, most probably, by an ejaculation.
- Though he may understand it, he affects, like most of his people, to be
- ignorant of the English; and least of all will he condescend to speak it,
- now that the war demands the utmost exercise of his dignity. But he stops;
- the private path by which we are to journey is, doubtless, at hand.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The conjecture of Major Heyward was true. When they reached the spot where
- the Indian stood, pointing into the thicket that fringed the military
- road; a narrow and blind path, which might, with some little
- inconvenience, receive one person at a time, became visible.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Here, then, lies our way,” said the young man, in a low voice. “Manifest
- no distrust, or you may invite the danger you appear to apprehend.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Cora, what think you?” asked the reluctant fair one. “If we journey with
- the troops, though we may find their presence irksome, shall we not feel
- better assurance of our safety?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Being little accustomed to the practices of the savages, Alice, you
- mistake the place of real danger,” said Heyward. “If enemies have reached
- the portage at all, a thing by no means probable, as our scouts are
- abroad, they will surely be found skirting the column, where scalps abound
- the most. The route of the detachment is known, while ours, having been
- determined within the hour, must still be secret.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Should we distrust the man because his manners are not our manners, and
- that his skin is dark?” coldly asked Cora.
- </p>
- <p>
- Alice hesitated no longer; but giving her Narrangansett* a smart cut of
- the whip, she was the first to dash aside the slight branches of the
- bushes, and to follow the runner along the dark and tangled pathway. The
- young man regarded the last speaker in open admiration, and even permitted
- her fairer, though certainly not more beautiful companion, to proceed
- unattended, while he sedulously opened the way himself for the passage of
- her who has been called Cora. It would seem that the domestics had been
- previously instructed; for, instead of penetrating the thicket, they
- followed the route of the column; a measure which Heyward stated had been
- dictated by the sagacity of their guide, in order to diminish the marks of
- their trail, if, haply, the Canadian savages should be lurking so far in
- advance of their army. For many minutes the intricacy of the route
- admitted of no further dialogue; after which they emerged from the broad
- border of underbrush which grew along the line of the highway, and entered
- under the high but dark arches of the forest. Here their progress was less
- interrupted; and the instant the guide perceived that the females could
- command their steeds, he moved on, at a pace between a trot and a walk,
- and at a rate which kept the sure-footed and peculiar animals they rode at
- a fast yet easy amble. The youth had turned to speak to the dark-eyed
- Cora, when the distant sound of horses hoofs, clattering over the roots of
- the broken way in his rear, caused him to check his charger; and, as his
- companions drew their reins at the same instant, the whole party came to a
- halt, in order to obtain an explanation of the unlooked-for interruption.
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * In the state of Rhode Island there is a bay called
- Narragansett, so named after a powerful tribe of Indians,
- which formerly dwelt on its banks. Accident, or one of those
- unaccountable freaks which nature sometimes plays in the
- animal world, gave rise to a breed of horses which were once
- well known in America, and distinguished by their habit of
- pacing. Horses of this race were, and are still, in much
- request as saddle horses, on account of their hardiness and
- the ease of their movements. As they were also sure of foot,
- the Narragansetts were greatly sought for by females who
- were obliged to travel over the roots and holes in the “new
- countries.”
- </pre>
- <p>
- In a few moments a colt was seen gliding, like a fallow deer, among the
- straight trunks of the pines; and, in another instant, the person of the
- ungainly man, described in the preceding chapter, came into view, with as
- much rapidity as he could excite his meager beast to endure without coming
- to an open rupture. Until now this personage had escaped the observation
- of the travelers. If he possessed the power to arrest any wandering eye
- when exhibiting the glories of his altitude on foot, his equestrian graces
- were still more likely to attract attention.
- </p>
- <p>
- Notwithstanding a constant application of his one armed heel to the flanks
- of the mare, the most confirmed gait that he could establish was a
- Canterbury gallop with the hind legs, in which those more forward assisted
- for doubtful moments, though generally content to maintain a loping trot.
- Perhaps the rapidity of the changes from one of these paces to the other
- created an optical illusion, which might thus magnify the powers of the
- beast; for it is certain that Heyward, who possessed a true eye for the
- merits of a horse, was unable, with his utmost ingenuity, to decide by
- what sort of movement his pursuer worked his sinuous way on his footsteps
- with such persevering hardihood.
- </p>
- <p>
- The industry and movements of the rider were not less remarkable than
- those of the ridden. At each change in the evolutions of the latter, the
- former raised his tall person in the stirrups; producing, in this manner,
- by the undue elongation of his legs, such sudden growths and diminishings
- of the stature, as baffled every conjecture that might be made as to his
- dimensions. If to this be added the fact that, in consequence of the ex
- parte application of the spur, one side of the mare appeared to journey
- faster than the other; and that the aggrieved flank was resolutely
- indicated by unremitted flourishes of a bushy tail, we finish the picture
- of both horse and man.
- </p>
- <p>
- The frown which had gathered around the handsome, open, and manly brow of
- Heyward, gradually relaxed, and his lips curled into a slight smile, as he
- regarded the stranger. Alice made no very powerful effort to control her
- merriment; and even the dark, thoughtful eye of Cora lighted with a humor
- that it would seem, the habit, rather than the nature, of its mistress
- repressed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Seek you any here?” demanded Heyward, when the other had arrived
- sufficiently nigh to abate his speed; “I trust you are no messenger of
- evil tidings?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Even so,” replied the stranger, making diligent use of his triangular
- castor, to produce a circulation in the close air of the woods, and
- leaving his hearers in doubt to which of the young man's questions he
- responded; when, however, he had cooled his face, and recovered his
- breath, he continued, “I hear you are riding to William Henry; as I am
- journeying thitherward myself, I concluded good company would seem
- consistent to the wishes of both parties.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You appear to possess the privilege of a casting vote,” returned Heyward;
- “we are three, while you have consulted no one but yourself.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Even so. The first point to be obtained is to know one's own mind. Once
- sure of that, and where women are concerned it is not easy, the next is,
- to act up to the decision. I have endeavored to do both, and here I am.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If you journey to the lake, you have mistaken your route,” said Heyward,
- haughtily; “the highway thither is at least half a mile behind you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Even so,” returned the stranger, nothing daunted by this cold reception;
- “I have tarried at 'Edward' a week, and I should be dumb not to have
- inquired the road I was to journey; and if dumb there would be an end to
- my calling.” After simpering in a small way, like one whose modesty
- prohibited a more open expression of his admiration of a witticism that
- was perfectly unintelligible to his hearers, he continued, “It is not
- prudent for any one of my profession to be too familiar with those he has
- to instruct; for which reason I follow not the line of the army; besides
- which, I conclude that a gentleman of your character has the best judgment
- in matters of wayfaring; I have, therefore, decided to join company, in
- order that the ride may be made agreeable, and partake of social
- communion.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “A most arbitrary, if not a hasty decision!” exclaimed Heyward, undecided
- whether to give vent to his growing anger, or to laugh in the other's
- face. “But you speak of instruction, and of a profession; are you an
- adjunct to the provincial corps, as a master of the noble science of
- defense and offense; or, perhaps, you are one who draws lines and angles,
- under the pretense of expounding the mathematics?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The stranger regarded his interrogator a moment in wonder; and then,
- losing every mark of self-satisfaction in an expression of solemn
- humility, he answered:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of offense, I hope there is none, to either party: of defense, I make
- none—by God's good mercy, having committed no palpable sin since
- last entreating his pardoning grace. I understand not your allusions about
- lines and angles; and I leave expounding to those who have been called and
- set apart for that holy office. I lay claim to no higher gift than a small
- insight into the glorious art of petitioning and thanksgiving, as
- practiced in psalmody.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The man is, most manifestly, a disciple of Apollo,” cried the amused
- Alice, “and I take him under my own especial protection. Nay, throw aside
- that frown, Heyward, and in pity to my longing ears, suffer him to journey
- in our train. Besides,” she added, in a low and hurried voice, casting a
- glance at the distant Cora, who slowly followed the footsteps of their
- silent, but sullen guide, “it may be a friend added to our strength, in
- time of need.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Think you, Alice, that I would trust those I love by this secret path,
- did I imagine such need could happen?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nay, nay, I think not of it now; but this strange man amuses me; and if
- he 'hath music in his soul', let us not churlishly reject his company.”
- She pointed persuasively along the path with her riding whip, while their
- eyes met in a look which the young man lingered a moment to prolong; then,
- yielding to her gentle influence, he clapped his spurs into his charger,
- and in a few bounds was again at the side of Cora.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am glad to encounter thee, friend,” continued the maiden, waving her
- hand to the stranger to proceed, as she urged her Narragansett to renew
- its amble. “Partial relatives have almost persuaded me that I am not
- entirely worthless in a duet myself; and we may enliven our wayfaring by
- indulging in our favorite pursuit. It might be of signal advantage to one,
- ignorant as I, to hear the opinions and experience of a master in the
- art.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is refreshing both to the spirits and to the body to indulge in
- psalmody, in befitting seasons,” returned the master of song,
- unhesitatingly complying with her intimation to follow; “and nothing would
- relieve the mind more than such a consoling communion. But four parts are
- altogether necessary to the perfection of melody. You have all the
- manifestations of a soft and rich treble; I can, by especial aid, carry a
- full tenor to the highest letter; but we lack counter and bass! Yon
- officer of the king, who hesitated to admit me to his company, might fill
- the latter, if one may judge from the intonations of his voice in common
- dialogue.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Judge not too rashly from hasty and deceptive appearances,” said the
- lady, smiling; “though Major Heyward can assume such deep notes on
- occasion, believe me, his natural tones are better fitted for a mellow
- tenor than the bass you heard.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is he, then, much practiced in the art of psalmody?” demanded her simple
- companion.
- </p>
- <p>
- Alice felt disposed to laugh, though she succeeded in suppressing her
- merriment, ere she answered:
- </p>
- <p>
- “I apprehend that he is rather addicted to profane song. The chances of a
- soldier's life are but little fitted for the encouragement of more sober
- inclinations.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Man's voice is given to him, like his other talents, to be used, and not
- to be abused. None can say they have ever known me to neglect my gifts! I
- am thankful that, though my boyhood may be said to have been set apart,
- like the youth of the royal David, for the purposes of music, no syllable
- of rude verse has ever profaned my lips.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have, then, limited your efforts to sacred song?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Even so. As the psalms of David exceed all other language, so does the
- psalmody that has been fitted to them by the divines and sages of the
- land, surpass all vain poetry. Happily, I may say that I utter nothing but
- the thoughts and the wishes of the King of Israel himself; for though the
- times may call for some slight changes, yet does this version which we use
- in the colonies of New England so much exceed all other versions, that, by
- its richness, its exactness, and its spiritual simplicity, it approacheth,
- as near as may be, to the great work of the inspired writer. I never abide
- in any place, sleeping or waking, without an example of this gifted work.
- 'Tis the six-and-twentieth edition, promulgated at Boston, Anno Domini
- 1744; and is entitled, 'The Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Old
- and New Testaments; faithfully translated into English Metre, for the Use,
- Edification, and Comfort of the Saints, in Public and Private, especially
- in New England'.”
- </p>
- <p>
- During this eulogium on the rare production of his native poets, the
- stranger had drawn the book from his pocket, and fitting a pair of
- iron-rimmed spectacles to his nose, opened the volume with a care and
- veneration suited to its sacred purposes. Then, without circumlocution or
- apology, first pronounced the word “Standish,” and placing the unknown
- engine, already described, to his mouth, from which he drew a high, shrill
- sound, that was followed by an octave below, from his own voice, he
- commenced singing the following words, in full, sweet, and melodious
- tones, that set the music, the poetry, and even the uneasy motion of his
- ill-trained beast at defiance; “How good it is, O see, And how it pleaseth
- well, Together e'en in unity, For brethren so to dwell. It's like the
- choice ointment, From the head to the beard did go; Down Aaron's head,
- that downward went His garment's skirts unto.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The delivery of these skillful rhymes was accompanied, on the part of the
- stranger, by a regular rise and fall of his right hand, which terminated
- at the descent, by suffering the fingers to dwell a moment on the leaves
- of the little volume; and on the ascent, by such a flourish of the member
- as none but the initiated may ever hope to imitate. It would seem long
- practice had rendered this manual accompaniment necessary; for it did not
- cease until the preposition which the poet had selected for the close of
- his verse had been duly delivered like a word of two syllables.
- </p>
- <p>
- Such an innovation on the silence and retirement of the forest could not
- fail to enlist the ears of those who journeyed at so short a distance in
- advance. The Indian muttered a few words in broken English to Heyward,
- who, in his turn, spoke to the stranger; at once interrupting, and, for
- the time, closing his musical efforts.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Though we are not in danger, common prudence would teach us to journey
- through this wilderness in as quiet a manner as possible. You will then,
- pardon me, Alice, should I diminish your enjoyments, by requesting this
- gentleman to postpone his chant until a safer opportunity.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You will diminish them, indeed,” returned the arch girl; “for never did I
- hear a more unworthy conjunction of execution and language than that to
- which I have been listening; and I was far gone in a learned inquiry into
- the causes of such an unfitness between sound and sense, when you broke
- the charm of my musings by that bass of yours, Duncan!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know not what you call my bass,” said Heyward, piqued at her remark,
- “but I know that your safety, and that of Cora, is far dearer to me than
- could be any orchestra of Handel's music.” He paused and turned his head
- quickly toward a thicket, and then bent his eyes suspiciously on their
- guide, who continued his steady pace, in undisturbed gravity. The young
- man smiled to himself, for he believed he had mistaken some shining berry
- of the woods for the glistening eyeballs of a prowling savage, and he rode
- forward, continuing the conversation which had been interrupted by the
- passing thought.
- </p>
- <p>
- Major Heyward was mistaken only in suffering his youthful and generous
- pride to suppress his active watchfulness. The cavalcade had not long
- passed, before the branches of the bushes that formed the thicket were
- cautiously moved asunder, and a human visage, as fiercely wild as savage
- art and unbridled passions could make it, peered out on the retiring
- footsteps of the travelers. A gleam of exultation shot across the
- darkly-painted lineaments of the inhabitant of the forest, as he traced
- the route of his intended victims, who rode unconsciously onward, the
- light and graceful forms of the females waving among the trees, in the
- curvatures of their path, followed at each bend by the manly figure of
- Heyward, until, finally, the shapeless person of the singing master was
- concealed behind the numberless trunks of trees, that rose, in dark lines,
- in the intermediate space.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 3
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Before these fields were shorn and till'd,
- Full to the brim our rivers flow'd;
- The melody of waters fill'd
- The fresh and boundless wood;
- And torrents dash'd, and rivulets play'd,
- And fountains spouted in the shade.”—Bryant
-</pre>
- <p>
- Leaving the unsuspecting Heyward and his confiding companions to penetrate
- still deeper into a forest that contained such treacherous inmates, we
- must use an author's privilege, and shift the scene a few miles to the
- westward of the place where we have last seen them.
- </p>
- <p>
- On that day, two men were lingering on the banks of a small but rapid
- stream, within an hour's journey of the encampment of Webb, like those who
- awaited the appearance of an absent person, or the approach of some
- expected event. The vast canopy of woods spread itself to the margin of
- the river, overhanging the water, and shadowing its dark current with a
- deeper hue. The rays of the sun were beginning to grow less fierce, and
- the intense heat of the day was lessened, as the cooler vapors of the
- springs and fountains rose above their leafy beds, and rested in the
- atmosphere. Still that breathing silence, which marks the drowsy
- sultriness of an American landscape in July, pervaded the secluded spot,
- interrupted only by the low voices of the men, the occasional and lazy tap
- of a woodpecker, the discordant cry of some gaudy jay, or a swelling on
- the ear, from the dull roar of a distant waterfall. These feeble and
- broken sounds were, however, too familiar to the foresters to draw their
- attention from the more interesting matter of their dialogue. While one of
- these loiterers showed the red skin and wild accouterments of a native of
- the woods, the other exhibited, through the mask of his rude and nearly
- savage equipments, the brighter, though sun-burned and long-faced
- complexion of one who might claim descent from a European parentage. The
- former was seated on the end of a mossy log, in a posture that permitted
- him to heighten the effect of his earnest language, by the calm but
- expressive gestures of an Indian engaged in debate. His body, which was
- nearly naked, presented a terrific emblem of death, drawn in intermingled
- colors of white and black. His closely-shaved head, on which no other hair
- than the well-known and chivalrous scalping tuft* was preserved, was
- without ornament of any kind, with the exception of a solitary eagle's
- plume, that crossed his crown, and depended over the left shoulder. A
- tomahawk and scalping knife, of English manufacture, were in his girdle;
- while a short military rifle, of that sort with which the policy of the
- whites armed their savage allies, lay carelessly across his bare and
- sinewy knee. The expanded chest, full formed limbs, and grave countenance
- of this warrior, would denote that he had reached the vigor of his days,
- though no symptoms of decay appeared to have yet weakened his manhood.
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * The North American warrior caused the hair to be plucked
- from his whole body; a small tuft was left on the crown of
- his head, in order that his enemy might avail himself of it,
- in wrenching off the scalp in the event of his fall. The
- scalp was the only admissible trophy of victory. Thus, it
- was deemed more important to obtain the scalp than to kill
- the man. Some tribes lay great stress on the honor of
- striking a dead body. These practices have nearly
- disappeared among the Indians of the Atlantic states.
-</pre>
- <p>
- The frame of the white man, judging by such parts as were not concealed by
- his clothes, was like that of one who had known hardships and exertion
- from his earliest youth. His person, though muscular, was rather
- attenuated than full; but every nerve and muscle appeared strung and
- indurated by unremitted exposure and toil. He wore a hunting shirt of
- forest-green, fringed with faded yellow*, and a summer cap of skins which
- had been shorn of their fur. He also bore a knife in a girdle of wampum,
- like that which confined the scanty garments of the Indian, but no
- tomahawk. His moccasins were ornamented after the gay fashion of the
- natives, while the only part of his under dress which appeared below the
- hunting-frock was a pair of buckskin leggings, that laced at the sides,
- and which were gartered above the knees, with the sinews of a deer. A
- pouch and horn completed his personal accouterments, though a rifle of
- great length**, which the theory of the more ingenious whites had taught
- them was the most dangerous of all firearms, leaned against a neighboring
- sapling. The eye of the hunter, or scout, whichever he might be, was
- small, quick, keen, and restless, roving while he spoke, on every side of
- him, as if in quest of game, or distrusting the sudden approach of some
- lurking enemy. Notwithstanding the symptoms of habitual suspicion, his
- countenance was not only without guile, but at the moment at which he is
- introduced, it was charged with an expression of sturdy honesty.
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * The hunting-shirt is a picturesque smock-frock, being
- shorter, and ornamented with fringes and tassels. The colors
- are intended to imitate the hues of the wood, with a view to
- concealment. Many corps of American riflemen have been thus
- attired, and the dress is one of the most striking of modern
- times. The hunting-shirt is frequently white.
-
- ** The rifle of the army is short; that of the hunter is
- always long.
-</pre>
- <p>
- “Even your traditions make the case in my favor, Chingachgook,” he said,
- speaking in the tongue which was known to all the natives who formerly
- inhabited the country between the Hudson and the Potomac, and of which we
- shall give a free translation for the benefit of the reader; endeavoring,
- at the same time, to preserve some of the peculiarities, both of the
- individual and of the language. “Your fathers came from the setting sun,
- crossed the big river*, fought the people of the country, and took the
- land; and mine came from the red sky of the morning, over the salt lake,
- and did their work much after the fashion that had been set them by yours;
- then let God judge the matter between us, and friends spare their words!”
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * The Mississippi. The scout alludes to a tradition which is
- very popular among the tribes of the Atlantic states.
- Evidence of their Asiatic origin is deduced from the
- circumstances, though great uncertainty hangs over the whole
- history of the Indians.
-</pre>
- <p>
- “My fathers fought with the naked red man!” returned the Indian, sternly,
- in the same language. “Is there no difference, Hawkeye, between the
- stone-headed arrow of the warrior, and the leaden bullet with which you
- kill?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There is reason in an Indian, though nature has made him with a red
- skin!” said the white man, shaking his head like one on whom such an
- appeal to his justice was not thrown away. For a moment he appeared to be
- conscious of having the worst of the argument, then, rallying again, he
- answered the objection of his antagonist in the best manner his limited
- information would allow:
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am no scholar, and I care not who knows it; but, judging from what I
- have seen, at deer chases and squirrel hunts, of the sparks below, I
- should think a rifle in the hands of their grandfathers was not so
- dangerous as a hickory bow and a good flint-head might be, if drawn with
- Indian judgment, and sent by an Indian eye.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have the story told by your fathers,” returned the other, coldly
- waving his hand. “What say your old men? Do they tell the young warriors
- that the pale faces met the red men, painted for war and armed with the
- stone hatchet and wooden gun?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am not a prejudiced man, nor one who vaunts himself on his natural
- privileges, though the worst enemy I have on earth, and he is an Iroquois,
- daren't deny that I am genuine white,” the scout replied, surveying, with
- secret satisfaction, the faded color of his bony and sinewy hand, “and I
- am willing to own that my people have many ways, of which, as an honest
- man, I can't approve. It is one of their customs to write in books what
- they have done and seen, instead of telling them in their villages, where
- the lie can be given to the face of a cowardly boaster, and the brave
- soldier can call on his comrades to witness for the truth of his words. In
- consequence of this bad fashion, a man, who is too conscientious to
- misspend his days among the women, in learning the names of black marks,
- may never hear of the deeds of his fathers, nor feel a pride in striving
- to outdo them. For myself, I conclude the Bumppos could shoot, for I have
- a natural turn with a rifle, which must have been handed down from
- generation to generation, as, our holy commandments tell us, all good and
- evil gifts are bestowed; though I should be loath to answer for other
- people in such a matter. But every story has its two sides; so I ask you,
- Chingachgook, what passed, according to the traditions of the red men,
- when our fathers first met?”
- </p>
- <p>
- A silence of a minute succeeded, during which the Indian sat mute; then,
- full of the dignity of his office, he commenced his brief tale, with a
- solemnity that served to heighten its appearance of truth.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Listen, Hawkeye, and your ear shall drink no lie. 'Tis what my fathers
- have said, and what the Mohicans have done.” He hesitated a single
- instant, and bending a cautious glance toward his companion, he continued,
- in a manner that was divided between interrogation and assertion. “Does
- not this stream at our feet run toward the summer, until its waters grow
- salt, and the current flows upward?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It can't be denied that your traditions tell you true in both these
- matters,” said the white man; “for I have been there, and have seen them,
- though why water, which is so sweet in the shade, should become bitter in
- the sun, is an alteration for which I have never been able to account.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And the current!” demanded the Indian, who expected his reply with that
- sort of interest that a man feels in the confirmation of testimony, at
- which he marvels even while he respects it; “the fathers of Chingachgook
- have not lied!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The holy Bible is not more true, and that is the truest thing in nature.
- They call this up-stream current the tide, which is a thing soon
- explained, and clear enough. Six hours the waters run in, and six hours
- they run out, and the reason is this: when there is higher water in the
- sea than in the river, they run in until the river gets to be highest, and
- then it runs out again.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The waters in the woods, and on the great lakes, run downward until they
- lie like my hand,” said the Indian, stretching the limb horizontally
- before him, “and then they run no more.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No honest man will deny it,” said the scout, a little nettled at the
- implied distrust of his explanation of the mystery of the tides; “and I
- grant that it is true on the small scale, and where the land is level. But
- everything depends on what scale you look at things. Now, on the small
- scale, the 'arth is level; but on the large scale it is round. In this
- manner, pools and ponds, and even the great fresh-water lakes, may be
- stagnant, as you and I both know they are, having seen them; but when you
- come to spread water over a great tract, like the sea, where the earth is
- round, how in reason can the water be quiet? You might as well expect the
- river to lie still on the brink of those black rocks a mile above us,
- though your own ears tell you that it is tumbling over them at this very
- moment.”
- </p>
- <p>
- If unsatisfied by the philosophy of his companion, the Indian was far too
- dignified to betray his unbelief. He listened like one who was convinced,
- and resumed his narrative in his former solemn manner.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We came from the place where the sun is hid at night, over great plains
- where the buffaloes live, until we reached the big river. There we fought
- the Alligewi, till the ground was red with their blood. From the banks of
- the big river to the shores of the salt lake, there was none to meet us.
- The Maquas followed at a distance. We said the country should be ours from
- the place where the water runs up no longer on this stream, to a river
- twenty sun's journey toward the summer. We drove the Maquas into the woods
- with the bears. They only tasted salt at the licks; they drew no fish from
- the great lake; we threw them the bones.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All this I have heard and believe,” said the white man, observing that
- the Indian paused; “but it was long before the English came into the
- country.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “A pine grew then where this chestnut now stands. The first pale faces who
- came among us spoke no English. They came in a large canoe, when my
- fathers had buried the tomahawk with the red men around them. Then,
- Hawkeye,” he continued, betraying his deep emotion, only by permitting his
- voice to fall to those low, guttural tones, which render his language, as
- spoken at times, so very musical; “then, Hawkeye, we were one people, and
- we were happy. The salt lake gave us its fish, the wood its deer, and the
- air its birds. We took wives who bore us children; we worshipped the Great
- Spirit; and we kept the Maquas beyond the sound of our songs of triumph.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Know you anything of your own family at that time?” demanded the white.
- “But you are just a man, for an Indian; and as I suppose you hold their
- gifts, your fathers must have been brave warriors, and wise men at the
- council-fire.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My tribe is the grandfather of nations, but I am an unmixed man. The
- blood of chiefs is in my veins, where it must stay forever. The Dutch
- landed, and gave my people the fire-water; they drank until the heavens
- and the earth seemed to meet, and they foolishly thought they had found
- the Great Spirit. Then they parted with their land. Foot by foot, they
- were driven back from the shores, until I, that am a chief and a Sagamore,
- have never seen the sun shine but through the trees, and have never
- visited the graves of my fathers.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Graves bring solemn feelings over the mind,” returned the scout, a good
- deal touched at the calm suffering of his companion; “and they often aid a
- man in his good intentions; though, for myself, I expect to leave my own
- bones unburied, to bleach in the woods, or to be torn asunder by the
- wolves. But where are to be found those of your race who came to their kin
- in the Delaware country, so many summers since?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where are the blossoms of those summers!—fallen, one by one; so all
- of my family departed, each in his turn, to the land of spirits. I am on
- the hilltop and must go down into the valley; and when Uncas follows in my
- footsteps there will no longer be any of the blood of the Sagamores, for
- my boy is the last of the Mohicans.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Uncas is here,” said another voice, in the same soft, guttural tones,
- near his elbow; “who speaks to Uncas?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The white man loosened his knife in his leathern sheath, and made an
- involuntary movement of the hand toward his rifle, at this sudden
- interruption; but the Indian sat composed, and without turning his head at
- the unexpected sounds.
- </p>
- <p>
- At the next instant, a youthful warrior passed between them, with a
- noiseless step, and seated himself on the bank of the rapid stream. No
- exclamation of surprise escaped the father, nor was any question asked, or
- reply given, for several minutes; each appearing to await the moment when
- he might speak, without betraying womanish curiosity or childish
- impatience. The white man seemed to take counsel from their customs, and,
- relinquishing his grasp of the rifle, he also remained silent and
- reserved. At length Chingachgook turned his eyes slowly toward his son,
- and demanded:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do the Maquas dare to leave the print of their moccasins in these woods?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have been on their trail,” replied the young Indian, “and know that
- they number as many as the fingers of my two hands; but they lie hid like
- cowards.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The thieves are outlying for scalps and plunder,” said the white man,
- whom we shall call Hawkeye, after the manner of his companions. “That busy
- Frenchman, Montcalm, will send his spies into our very camp, but he will
- know what road we travel!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis enough,” returned the father, glancing his eye toward the setting
- sun; “they shall be driven like deer from their bushes. Hawkeye, let us
- eat to-night, and show the Maquas that we are men to-morrow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am as ready to do the one as the other; but to fight the Iroquois 'tis
- necessary to find the skulkers; and to eat, 'tis necessary to get the game—talk
- of the devil and he will come; there is a pair of the biggest antlers I
- have seen this season, moving the bushes below the hill! Now, Uncas,” he
- continued, in a half whisper, and laughing with a kind of inward sound,
- like one who had learned to be watchful, “I will bet my charger three
- times full of powder, against a foot of wampum, that I take him atwixt the
- eyes, and nearer to the right than to the left.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It cannot be!” said the young Indian, springing to his feet with youthful
- eagerness; “all but the tips of his horns are hid!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He's a boy!” said the white man, shaking his head while he spoke, and
- addressing the father. “Does he think when a hunter sees a part of the
- creature', he can't tell where the rest of him should be!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Adjusting his rifle, he was about to make an exhibition of that skill on
- which he so much valued himself, when the warrior struck up the piece with
- his hand, saying:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hawkeye! will you fight the Maquas?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “These Indians know the nature of the woods, as it might be by instinct!”
- returned the scout, dropping his rifle, and turning away like a man who
- was convinced of his error. “I must leave the buck to your arrow, Uncas,
- or we may kill a deer for them thieves, the Iroquois, to eat.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The instant the father seconded this intimation by an expressive gesture
- of the hand, Uncas threw himself on the ground, and approached the animal
- with wary movements. When within a few yards of the cover, he fitted an
- arrow to his bow with the utmost care, while the antlers moved, as if
- their owner snuffed an enemy in the tainted air. In another moment the
- twang of the cord was heard, a white streak was seen glancing into the
- bushes, and the wounded buck plunged from the cover, to the very feet of
- his hidden enemy. Avoiding the horns of the infuriated animal, Uncas
- darted to his side, and passed his knife across the throat, when bounding
- to the edge of the river it fell, dyeing the waters with its blood.
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0043.jpg" alt="0043" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0043.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- “'Twas done with Indian skill,” said the scout laughing inwardly, but with
- vast satisfaction; “and 'twas a pretty sight to behold! Though an arrow is
- a near shot, and needs a knife to finish the work.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hugh!” ejaculated his companion, turning quickly, like a hound who
- scented game.
- </p>
- <p>
- “By the Lord, there is a drove of them!” exclaimed the scout, whose eyes
- began to glisten with the ardor of his usual occupation; “if they come
- within range of a bullet I will drop one, though the whole Six Nations
- should be lurking within sound! What do you hear, Chingachgook? for to my
- ears the woods are dumb.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There is but one deer, and he is dead,” said the Indian, bending his body
- till his ear nearly touched the earth. “I hear the sounds of feet!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Perhaps the wolves have driven the buck to shelter, and are following on
- his trail.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No. The horses of white men are coming!” returned the other, raising
- himself with dignity, and resuming his seat on the log with his former
- composure. “Hawkeye, they are your brothers; speak to them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That I will, and in English that the king needn't be ashamed to answer,”
- returned the hunter, speaking in the language of which he boasted; “but I
- see nothing, nor do I hear the sounds of man or beast; 'tis strange that
- an Indian should understand white sounds better than a man who, his very
- enemies will own, has no cross in his blood, although he may have lived
- with the red skins long enough to be suspected! Ha! there goes something
- like the cracking of a dry stick, too—now I hear the bushes move—yes,
- yes, there is a trampling that I mistook for the falls—and—but
- here they come themselves; God keep them from the Iroquois!”
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 4
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Well go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove
- Till I torment thee for this injury.”—Midsummer Night's Dream.
-</pre>
- <p>
- The words were still in the mouth of the scout, when the leader of the
- party, whose approaching footsteps had caught the vigilant ear of the
- Indian, came openly into view. A beaten path, such as those made by the
- periodical passage of the deer, wound through a little glen at no great
- distance, and struck the river at the point where the white man and his
- red companions had posted themselves. Along this track the travelers, who
- had produced a surprise so unusual in the depths of the forest, advanced
- slowly toward the hunter, who was in front of his associates, in readiness
- to receive them.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who comes?” demanded the scout, throwing his rifle carelessly across his
- left arm, and keeping the forefinger of his right hand on the trigger,
- though he avoided all appearance of menace in the act. “Who comes hither,
- among the beasts and dangers of the wilderness?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Believers in religion, and friends to the law and to the king,” returned
- he who rode foremost. “Men who have journeyed since the rising sun, in the
- shades of this forest, without nourishment, and are sadly tired of their
- wayfaring.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are, then, lost,” interrupted the hunter, “and have found how
- helpless 'tis not to know whether to take the right hand or the left?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Even so; sucking babes are not more dependent on those who guide them
- than we who are of larger growth, and who may now be said to possess the
- stature without the knowledge of men. Know you the distance to a post of
- the crown called William Henry?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hoot!” shouted the scout, who did not spare his open laughter, though
- instantly checking the dangerous sounds he indulged his merriment at less
- risk of being overheard by any lurking enemies. “You are as much off the
- scent as a hound would be, with Horican atwixt him and the deer! William
- Henry, man! if you are friends to the king and have business with the
- army, your way would be to follow the river down to Edward, and lay the
- matter before Webb, who tarries there, instead of pushing into the
- defiles, and driving this saucy Frenchman back across Champlain, into his
- den again.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Before the stranger could make any reply to this unexpected proposition,
- another horseman dashed the bushes aside, and leaped his charger into the
- pathway, in front of his companion.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What, then, may be our distance from Fort Edward?” demanded a new
- speaker; “the place you advise us to seek we left this morning, and our
- destination is the head of the lake.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you must have lost your eyesight afore losing your way, for the road
- across the portage is cut to a good two rods, and is as grand a path, I
- calculate, as any that runs into London, or even before the palace of the
- king himself.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We will not dispute concerning the excellence of the passage,” returned
- Heyward, smiling; for, as the reader has anticipated, it was he. “It is
- enough, for the present, that we trusted to an Indian guide to take us by
- a nearer, though blinder path, and that we are deceived in his knowledge.
- In plain words, we know not where we are.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “An Indian lost in the woods!” said the scout, shaking his head
- doubtingly; “When the sun is scorching the tree tops, and the water
- courses are full; when the moss on every beech he sees will tell him in
- what quarter the north star will shine at night. The woods are full of
- deer-paths which run to the streams and licks, places well known to
- everybody; nor have the geese done their flight to the Canada waters
- altogether! 'Tis strange that an Indian should be lost atwixt Horican and
- the bend in the river! Is he a Mohawk?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not by birth, though adopted in that tribe; I think his birthplace was
- farther north, and he is one of those you call a Huron.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hugh!” exclaimed the two companions of the scout, who had continued until
- this part of the dialogue, seated immovable, and apparently indifferent to
- what passed, but who now sprang to their feet with an activity and
- interest that had evidently got the better of their reserve by surprise.
- </p>
- <p>
- “A Huron!” repeated the sturdy scout, once more shaking his head in open
- distrust; “they are a thievish race, nor do I care by whom they are
- adopted; you can never make anything of them but skulks and vagabonds.
- Since you trusted yourself to the care of one of that nation, I only
- wonder that you have not fallen in with more.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of that there is little danger, since William Henry is so many miles in
- our front. You forget that I have told you our guide is now a Mohawk, and
- that he serves with our forces as a friend.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And I tell you that he who is born a Mingo will die a Mingo,” returned
- the other positively. “A Mohawk! No, give me a Delaware or a Mohican for
- honesty; and when they will fight, which they won't all do, having
- suffered their cunning enemies, the Maquas, to make them women—but
- when they will fight at all, look to a Delaware, or a Mohican, for a
- warrior!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Enough of this,” said Heyward, impatiently; “I wish not to inquire into
- the character of a man that I know, and to whom you must be a stranger.
- You have not yet answered my question; what is our distance from the main
- army at Edward?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It seems that may depend on who is your guide. One would think such a
- horse as that might get over a good deal of ground atwixt sun-up and
- sun-down.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wish no contention of idle words with you, friend,” said Heyward,
- curbing his dissatisfied manner, and speaking in a more gentle voice; “if
- you will tell me the distance to Fort Edward, and conduct me thither, your
- labor shall not go without its reward.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And in so doing, how know I that I don't guide an enemy and a spy of
- Montcalm, to the works of the army? It is not every man who can speak the
- English tongue that is an honest subject.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If you serve with the troops, of whom I judge you to be a scout, you
- should know of such a regiment of the king as the Sixtieth.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Sixtieth! you can tell me little of the Royal Americans that I don't
- know, though I do wear a hunting-shirt instead of a scarlet jacket.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, then, among other things, you may know the name of its major?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Its major!” interrupted the hunter, elevating his body like one who was
- proud of his trust. “If there is a man in the country who knows Major
- Effingham, he stands before you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is a corps which has many majors; the gentleman you name is the
- senior, but I speak of the junior of them all; he who commands the
- companies in garrison at William Henry.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, yes, I have heard that a young gentleman of vast riches, from one of
- the provinces far south, has got the place. He is over young, too, to hold
- such rank, and to be put above men whose heads are beginning to bleach;
- and yet they say he is a soldier in his knowledge, and a gallant
- gentleman!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Whatever he may be, or however he may be qualified for his rank, he now
- speaks to you and, of course, can be no enemy to dread.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout regarded Heyward in surprise, and then lifting his cap, he
- answered, in a tone less confident than before—though still
- expressing doubt.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have heard a party was to leave the encampment this morning for the
- lake shore?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have heard the truth; but I preferred a nearer route, trusting to the
- knowledge of the Indian I mentioned.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And he deceived you, and then deserted?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Neither, as I believe; certainly not the latter, for he is to be found in
- the rear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I should like to look at the creature; if it is a true Iroquois I can
- tell him by his knavish look, and by his paint,” said the scout; stepping
- past the charger of Heyward, and entering the path behind the mare of the
- singing master, whose foal had taken advantage of the halt to exact the
- maternal contribution. After shoving aside the bushes, and proceeding a
- few paces, he encountered the females, who awaited the result of the
- conference with anxiety, and not entirely without apprehension. Behind
- these, the runner leaned against a tree, where he stood the close
- examination of the scout with an air unmoved, though with a look so dark
- and savage, that it might in itself excite fear. Satisfied with his
- scrutiny, the hunter soon left him. As he repassed the females, he paused
- a moment to gaze upon their beauty, answering to the smile and nod of
- Alice with a look of open pleasure. Thence he went to the side of the
- motherly animal, and spending a minute in a fruitless inquiry into the
- character of her rider, he shook his head and returned to Heyward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “A Mingo is a Mingo, and God having made him so, neither the Mohawks nor
- any other tribe can alter him,” he said, when he had regained his former
- position. “If we were alone, and you would leave that noble horse at the
- mercy of the wolves to-night, I could show you the way to Edward myself,
- within an hour, for it lies only about an hour's journey hence; but with
- such ladies in your company 'tis impossible!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And why? They are fatigued, but they are quite equal to a ride of a few
- more miles.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis a natural impossibility!” repeated the scout; “I wouldn't walk a
- mile in these woods after night gets into them, in company with that
- runner, for the best rifle in the colonies. They are full of outlying
- Iroquois, and your mongrel Mohawk knows where to find them too well to be
- my companion.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Think you so?” said Heyward, leaning forward in the saddle, and dropping
- his voice nearly to a whisper; “I confess I have not been without my own
- suspicions, though I have endeavored to conceal them, and affected a
- confidence I have not always felt, on account of my companions. It was
- because I suspected him that I would follow no longer; making him, as you
- see, follow me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I knew he was one of the cheats as soon as I laid eyes on him!” returned
- the scout, placing a finger on his nose, in sign of caution.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The thief is leaning against the foot of the sugar sapling, that you can
- see over them bushes; his right leg is in a line with the bark of the
- tree, and,” tapping his rifle, “I can take him from where I stand, between
- the angle and the knee, with a single shot, putting an end to his tramping
- through the woods, for at least a month to come. If I should go back to
- him, the cunning varmint would suspect something, and be dodging through
- the trees like a frightened deer.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It will not do. He may be innocent, and I dislike the act. Though, if I
- felt confident of his treachery—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis a safe thing to calculate on the knavery of an Iroquois,” said the
- scout, throwing his rifle forward, by a sort of instinctive movement.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hold!” interrupted Heyward, “it will not do—we must think of some
- other scheme—and yet, I have much reason to believe the rascal has
- deceived me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The hunter, who had already abandoned his intention of maiming the runner,
- mused a moment, and then made a gesture, which instantly brought his two
- red companions to his side. They spoke together earnestly in the Delaware
- language, though in an undertone; and by the gestures of the white man,
- which were frequently directed towards the top of the sapling, it was
- evident he pointed out the situation of their hidden enemy. His companions
- were not long in comprehending his wishes, and laying aside their
- firearms, they parted, taking opposite sides of the path, and burying
- themselves in the thicket, with such cautious movements, that their steps
- were inaudible.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, go you back,” said the hunter, speaking again to Heyward, “and hold
- the imp in talk; these Mohicans here will take him without breaking his
- paint.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nay,” said Heyward, proudly, “I will seize him myself.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hist! what could you do, mounted, against an Indian in the bushes!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I will dismount.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And, think you, when he saw one of your feet out of the stirrup, he would
- wait for the other to be free? Whoever comes into the woods to deal with
- the natives, must use Indian fashions, if he would wish to prosper in his
- undertakings. Go, then; talk openly to the miscreant, and seem to believe
- him the truest friend you have on 'arth.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward prepared to comply, though with strong disgust at the nature of
- the office he was compelled to execute. Each moment, however, pressed upon
- him a conviction of the critical situation in which he had suffered his
- invaluable trust to be involved through his own confidence. The sun had
- already disappeared, and the woods, suddenly deprived of his light*, were
- assuming a dusky hue, which keenly reminded him that the hour the savage
- usually chose for his most barbarous and remorseless acts of vengeance or
- hostility, was speedily drawing near. Stimulated by apprehension, he left
- the scout, who immediately entered into a loud conversation with the
- stranger that had so unceremoniously enlisted himself in the party of
- travelers that morning. In passing his gentler companions Heyward uttered
- a few words of encouragement, and was pleased to find that, though
- fatigued with the exercise of the day, they appeared to entertain no
- suspicion that their present embarrassment was other than the result of
- accident. Giving them reason to believe he was merely employed in a
- consultation concerning the future route, he spurred his charger, and drew
- the reins again when the animal had carried him within a few yards of the
- place where the sullen runner still stood, leaning against the tree.
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * The scene of this tale was in the 42d degree of latitude,
- where the twilight is never of long continuation.
-</pre>
- <p>
- “You may see, Magua,” he said, endeavoring to assume an air of freedom and
- confidence, “that the night is closing around us, and yet we are no nearer
- to William Henry than when we left the encampment of Webb with the rising
- sun.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have missed the way, nor have I been more fortunate. But, happily, we
- have fallen in with a hunter, he whom you hear talking to the singer, that
- is acquainted with the deerpaths and by-ways of the woods, and who
- promises to lead us to a place where we may rest securely till the
- morning.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Indian riveted his glowing eyes on Heyward as he asked, in his
- imperfect English, “Is he alone?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Alone!” hesitatingly answered Heyward, to whom deception was too new to
- be assumed without embarrassment. “Oh! not alone, surely, Magua, for you
- know that we are with him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then Le Renard Subtil will go,” returned the runner, coolly raising his
- little wallet from the place where it had lain at his feet; “and the pale
- faces will see none but their own color.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Go! Whom call you Le Renard?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis the name his Canada fathers have given to Magua,” returned the
- runner, with an air that manifested his pride at the distinction. “Night
- is the same as day to Le Subtil, when Munro waits for him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And what account will Le Renard give the chief of William Henry
- concerning his daughters? Will he dare to tell the hot-blooded Scotsman
- that his children are left without a guide, though Magua promised to be
- one?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Though the gray head has a loud voice, and a long arm, Le Renard will not
- hear him, nor feel him, in the woods.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But what will the Mohawks say? They will make him petticoats, and bid him
- stay in the wigwam with the women, for he is no longer to be trusted with
- the business of a man.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Le Subtil knows the path to the great lakes, and he can find the bones of
- his fathers,” was the answer of the unmoved runner.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Enough, Magua,” said Heyward; “are we not friends? Why should there be
- bitter words between us? Munro has promised you a gift for your services
- when performed, and I shall be your debtor for another. Rest your weary
- limbs, then, and open your wallet to eat. We have a few moments to spare;
- let us not waste them in talk like wrangling women. When the ladies are
- refreshed we will proceed.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The pale faces make themselves dogs to their women,” muttered the Indian,
- in his native language, “and when they want to eat, their warriors must
- lay aside the tomahawk to feed their laziness.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What say you, Renard?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Le Subtil says it is good.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Indian then fastened his eyes keenly on the open countenance of
- Heyward, but meeting his glance, he turned them quickly away, and seating
- himself deliberately on the ground, he drew forth the remnant of some
- former repast, and began to eat, though not without first bending his
- looks slowly and cautiously around him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “This is well,” continued Heyward; “and Le Renard will have strength and
- sight to find the path in the morning”; he paused, for sounds like the
- snapping of a dried stick, and the rustling of leaves, rose from the
- adjacent bushes, but recollecting himself instantly, he continued, “we
- must be moving before the sun is seen, or Montcalm may lie in our path,
- and shut us out from the fortress.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The hand of Magua dropped from his mouth to his side, and though his eyes
- were fastened on the ground, his head was turned aside, his nostrils
- expanded, and his ears seemed even to stand more erect than usual, giving
- to him the appearance of a statue that was made to represent intense
- attention.
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward, who watched his movements with a vigilant eye, carelessly
- extricated one of his feet from the stirrup, while he passed a hand toward
- the bear-skin covering of his holsters.
- </p>
- <p>
- Every effort to detect the point most regarded by the runner was
- completely frustrated by the tremulous glances of his organs, which seemed
- not to rest a single instant on any particular object, and which, at the
- same time, could be hardly said to move. While he hesitated how to
- proceed, Le Subtil cautiously raised himself to his feet, though with a
- motion so slow and guarded, that not the slightest noise was produced by
- the change. Heyward felt it had now become incumbent on him to act.
- Throwing his leg over the saddle, he dismounted, with a determination to
- advance and seize his treacherous companion, trusting the result to his
- own manhood. In order, however, to prevent unnecessary alarm, he still
- preserved an air of calmness and friendship.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Le Renard Subtil does not eat,” he said, using the appellation he had
- found most flattering to the vanity of the Indian. “His corn is not well
- parched, and it seems dry. Let me examine; perhaps something may be found
- among my own provisions that will help his appetite.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua held out the wallet to the proffer of the other. He even suffered
- their hands to meet, without betraying the least emotion, or varying his
- riveted attitude of attention. But when he felt the fingers of Heyward
- moving gently along his own naked arm, he struck up the limb of the young
- man, and, uttering a piercing cry, he darted beneath it, and plunged, at a
- single bound, into the opposite thicket. At the next instant the form of
- Chingachgook appeared from the bushes, looking like a specter in its
- paint, and glided across the path in swift pursuit. Next followed the
- shout of Uncas, when the woods were lighted by a sudden flash, that was
- accompanied by the sharp report of the hunter's rifle.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 5
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- ...”In such a night
- Did This be fearfully o'ertrip the dew;
- And saw the lion's shadow ere himself.”—Merchant of Venice
-</pre>
- <p>
- The suddenness of the flight of his guide, and the wild cries of the
- pursuers, caused Heyward to remain fixed, for a few moments, in inactive
- surprise. Then recollecting the importance of securing the fugitive, he
- dashed aside the surrounding bushes, and pressed eagerly forward to lend
- his aid in the chase. Before he had, however, proceeded a hundred yards,
- he met the three foresters already returning from their unsuccessful
- pursuit.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why so soon disheartened!” he exclaimed; “the scoundrel must be concealed
- behind some of these trees, and may yet be secured. We are not safe while
- he goes at large.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Would you set a cloud to chase the wind?” returned the disappointed
- scout; “I heard the imp brushing over the dry leaves, like a black snake,
- and blinking a glimpse of him, just over ag'in yon big pine, I pulled as
- it might be on the scent; but 'twouldn't do! and yet for a reasoning aim,
- if anybody but myself had touched the trigger, I should call it a quick
- sight; and I may be accounted to have experience in these matters, and one
- who ought to know. Look at this sumach; its leaves are red, though
- everybody knows the fruit is in the yellow blossom in the month of July!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis the blood of Le Subtil! he is hurt, and may yet fall!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, no,” returned the scout, in decided disapprobation of this opinion,
- “I rubbed the bark off a limb, perhaps, but the creature leaped the longer
- for it. A rifle bullet acts on a running animal, when it barks him, much
- the same as one of your spurs on a horse; that is, it quickens motion, and
- puts life into the flesh, instead of taking it away. But when it cuts the
- ragged hole, after a bound or two, there is, commonly, a stagnation of
- further leaping, be it Indian or be it deer!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are four able bodies, to one wounded man!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is life grievous to you?” interrupted the scout. “Yonder red devil would
- draw you within swing of the tomahawks of his comrades, before you were
- heated in the chase. It was an unthoughtful act in a man who has so often
- slept with the war-whoop ringing in the air, to let off his piece within
- sound of an ambushment! But then it was a natural temptation! 'twas very
- natural! Come, friends, let us move our station, and in such fashion, too,
- as will throw the cunning of a Mingo on a wrong scent, or our scalps will
- be drying in the wind in front of Montcalm's marquee, ag'in this hour
- to-morrow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- This appalling declaration, which the scout uttered with the cool
- assurance of a man who fully comprehended, while he did not fear to face
- the danger, served to remind Heyward of the importance of the charge with
- which he himself had been intrusted. Glancing his eyes around, with a vain
- effort to pierce the gloom that was thickening beneath the leafy arches of
- the forest, he felt as if, cut off from human aid, his unresisting
- companions would soon lie at the entire mercy of those barbarous enemies,
- who, like beasts of prey, only waited till the gathering darkness might
- render their blows more fatally certain. His awakened imagination, deluded
- by the deceptive light, converted each waving bush, or the fragment of
- some fallen tree, into human forms, and twenty times he fancied he could
- distinguish the horrid visages of his lurking foes, peering from their
- hiding places, in never ceasing watchfulness of the movements of his
- party. Looking upward, he found that the thin fleecy clouds, which evening
- had painted on the blue sky, were already losing their faintest tints of
- rose-color, while the imbedded stream, which glided past the spot where he
- stood, was to be traced only by the dark boundary of its wooded banks.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is to be done!” he said, feeling the utter helplessness of doubt in
- such a pressing strait; “desert me not, for God's sake! remain to defend
- those I escort, and freely name your own reward!”
- </p>
- <p>
- His companions, who conversed apart in the language of their tribe, heeded
- not this sudden and earnest appeal. Though their dialogue was maintained
- in low and cautious sounds, but little above a whisper, Heyward, who now
- approached, could easily distinguish the earnest tones of the younger
- warrior from the more deliberate speeches of his seniors. It was evident
- that they debated on the propriety of some measure, that nearly concerned
- the welfare of the travelers. Yielding to his powerful interest in the
- subject, and impatient of a delay that seemed fraught with so much
- additional danger, Heyward drew still nigher to the dusky group, with an
- intention of making his offers of compensation more definite, when the
- white man, motioning with his hand, as if he conceded the disputed point,
- turned away, saying in a sort of soliloquy, and in the English tongue:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Uncas is right! it would not be the act of men to leave such harmless
- things to their fate, even though it breaks up the harboring place
- forever. If you would save these tender blossoms from the fangs of the
- worst of serpents, gentleman, you have neither time to lose nor resolution
- to throw away!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How can such a wish be doubted! Have I not already offered—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Offer your prayers to Him who can give us wisdom to circumvent the
- cunning of the devils who fill these woods,” calmly interrupted the scout,
- “but spare your offers of money, which neither you may live to realize,
- nor I to profit by. These Mohicans and I will do what man's thoughts can
- invent, to keep such flowers, which, though so sweet, were never made for
- the wilderness, from harm, and that without hope of any other recompense
- but such as God always gives to upright dealings. First, you must promise
- two things, both in your own name and for your friends, or without serving
- you we shall only injure ourselves!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Name them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The one is, to be still as these sleeping woods, let what will happen and
- the other is, to keep the place where we shall take you, forever a secret
- from all mortal men.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I will do my utmost to see both these conditions fulfilled.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then follow, for we are losing moments that are as precious as the
- heart's blood to a stricken deer!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward could distinguish the impatient gesture of the scout, through the
- increasing shadows of the evening, and he moved in his footsteps, swiftly,
- toward the place where he had left the remainder of the party. When they
- rejoined the expecting and anxious females, he briefly acquainted them
- with the conditions of their new guide, and with the necessity that
- existed for their hushing every apprehension in instant and serious
- exertions. Although his alarming communication was not received without
- much secret terror by the listeners, his earnest and impressive manner,
- aided perhaps by the nature of the danger, succeeded in bracing their
- nerves to undergo some unlooked-for and unusual trial. Silently, and
- without a moment's delay, they permitted him to assist them from their
- saddles, and when they descended quickly to the water's edge, where the
- scout had collected the rest of the party, more by the agency of
- expressive gestures than by any use of words.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What to do with these dumb creatures!” muttered the white man, on whom
- the sole control of their future movements appeared to devolve; “it would
- be time lost to cut their throats, and cast them into the river; and to
- leave them here would be to tell the Mingoes that they have not far to
- seek to find their owners!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then give them their bridles, and let them range the woods,” Heyward
- ventured to suggest.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No; it would be better to mislead the imps, and make them believe they
- must equal a horse's speed to run down their chase. Ay, ay, that will
- blind their fireballs of eyes! Chingach—Hist! what stirs the bush?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The colt.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That colt, at least, must die,” muttered the scout, grasping at the mane
- of the nimble beast, which easily eluded his hand; “Uncas, your arrows!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hold!” exclaimed the proprietor of the condemned animal, aloud, without
- regard to the whispering tones used by the others; “spare the foal of
- Miriam! it is the comely offspring of a faithful dam, and would willingly
- injure naught.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “When men struggle for the single life God has given them,” said the
- scout, sternly, “even their own kind seem no more than the beasts of the
- wood. If you speak again, I shall leave you to the mercy of the Maquas!
- Draw to your arrow's head, Uncas; we have no time for second blows.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The low, muttering sounds of his threatening voice were still audible,
- when the wounded foal, first rearing on its hinder legs, plunged forward
- to its knees. It was met by Chingachgook, whose knife passed across its
- throat quicker than thought, and then precipitating the motions of the
- struggling victim, he dashed into the river, down whose stream it glided
- away, gasping audibly for breath with its ebbing life. This deed of
- apparent cruelty, but of real necessity, fell upon the spirits of the
- travelers like a terrific warning of the peril in which they stood,
- heightened as it was by the calm though steady resolution of the actors in
- the scene. The sisters shuddered and clung closer to each other, while
- Heyward instinctively laid his hand on one of the pistols he had just
- drawn from their holsters, as he placed himself between his charge and
- those dense shadows that seemed to draw an impenetrable veil before the
- bosom of the forest.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Indians, however, hesitated not a moment, but taking the bridles, they
- led the frightened and reluctant horses into the bed of the river.
- </p>
- <p>
- At a short distance from the shore they turned, and were soon concealed by
- the projection of the bank, under the brow of which they moved, in a
- direction opposite to the course of the waters. In the meantime, the scout
- drew a canoe of bark from its place of concealment beneath some low
- bushes, whose branches were waving with the eddies of the current, into
- which he silently motioned for the females to enter. They complied without
- hesitation, though many a fearful and anxious glance was thrown behind
- them, toward the thickening gloom, which now lay like a dark barrier along
- the margin of the stream.
- </p>
- <p>
- So soon as Cora and Alice were seated, the scout, without regarding the
- element, directed Heyward to support one side of the frail vessel, and
- posting himself at the other, they bore it up against the stream, followed
- by the dejected owner of the dead foal. In this manner they proceeded, for
- many rods, in a silence that was only interrupted by the rippling of the
- water, as its eddies played around them, or the low dash made by their own
- cautious footsteps. Heyward yielded the guidance of the canoe implicitly
- to the scout, who approached or receded from the shore, to avoid the
- fragments of rocks, or deeper parts of the river, with a readiness that
- showed his knowledge of the route they held. Occasionally he would stop;
- and in the midst of a breathing stillness, that the dull but increasing
- roar of the waterfall only served to render more impressive, he would
- listen with painful intenseness, to catch any sounds that might arise from
- the slumbering forest. When assured that all was still, and unable to
- detect, even by the aid of his practiced senses, any sign of his
- approaching foes, he would deliberately resume his slow and guarded
- progress. At length they reached a point in the river where the roving eye
- of Heyward became riveted on a cluster of black objects, collected at a
- spot where the high bank threw a deeper shadow than usual on the dark
- waters. Hesitating to advance, he pointed out the place to the attention
- of his companion.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay,” returned the composed scout, “the Indians have hid the beasts with
- the judgment of natives! Water leaves no trail, and an owl's eyes would be
- blinded by the darkness of such a hole.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The whole party was soon reunited, and another consultation was held
- between the scout and his new comrades, during which, they, whose fates
- depended on the faith and ingenuity of these unknown foresters, had a
- little leisure to observe their situation more minutely.
- </p>
- <p>
- The river was confined between high and cragged rocks, one of which
- impended above the spot where the canoe rested. As these, again, were
- surmounted by tall trees, which appeared to totter on the brows of the
- precipice, it gave the stream the appearance of running through a deep and
- narrow dell. All beneath the fantastic limbs and ragged tree tops, which
- were, here and there, dimly painted against the starry zenith, lay alike
- in shadowed obscurity. Behind them, the curvature of the banks soon
- bounded the view by the same dark and wooded outline; but in front, and
- apparently at no great distance, the water seemed piled against the
- heavens, whence it tumbled into caverns, out of which issued those sullen
- sounds that had loaded the evening atmosphere. It seemed, in truth, to be
- a spot devoted to seclusion, and the sisters imbibed a soothing impression
- of security, as they gazed upon its romantic though not unappalling
- beauties. A general movement among their conductors, however, soon
- recalled them from a contemplation of the wild charms that night had
- assisted to lend the place to a painful sense of their real peril.
- </p>
- <p>
- The horses had been secured to some scattering shrubs that grew in the
- fissures of the rocks, where, standing in the water, they were left to
- pass the night. The scout directed Heyward and his disconsolate fellow
- travelers to seat themselves in the forward end of the canoe, and took
- possession of the other himself, as erect and steady as if he floated in a
- vessel of much firmer materials. The Indians warily retraced their steps
- toward the place they had left, when the scout, placing his pole against a
- rock, by a powerful shove, sent his frail bark directly into the turbulent
- stream. For many minutes the struggle between the light bubble in which
- they floated and the swift current was severe and doubtful. Forbidden to
- stir even a hand, and almost afraid to breath, lest they should expose the
- frail fabric to the fury of the stream, the passengers watched the
- glancing waters in feverish suspense. Twenty times they thought the
- whirling eddies were sweeping them to destruction, when the master-hand of
- their pilot would bring the bows of the canoe to stem the rapid. A long, a
- vigorous, and, as it appeared to the females, a desperate effort, closed
- the struggle. Just as Alice veiled her eyes in horror, under the
- impression that they were about to be swept within the vortex at the foot
- of the cataract, the canoe floated, stationary, at the side of a flat
- rock, that lay on a level with the water.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where are we, and what is next to be done!” demanded Heyward, perceiving
- that the exertions of the scout had ceased.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are at the foot of Glenn's,” returned the other, speaking aloud,
- without fear of consequences within the roar of the cataract; “and the
- next thing is to make a steady landing, lest the canoe upset, and you
- should go down again the hard road we have traveled faster than you came
- up; 'tis a hard rift to stem, when the river is a little swelled; and five
- is an unnatural number to keep dry, in a hurry-skurry, with a little
- birchen bark and gum. There, go you all on the rock, and I will bring up
- the Mohicans with the venison. A man had better sleep without his scalp,
- than famish in the midst of plenty.”
- </p>
- <p>
- His passengers gladly complied with these directions. As the last foot
- touched the rock, the canoe whirled from its station, when the tall form
- of the scout was seen, for an instant, gliding above the waters, before it
- disappeared in the impenetrable darkness that rested on the bed of the
- river. Left by their guide, the travelers remained a few minutes in
- helpless ignorance, afraid even to move along the broken rocks, lest a
- false step should precipitate them down some one of the many deep and
- roaring caverns, into which the water seemed to tumble, on every side of
- them. Their suspense, however, was soon relieved; for, aided by the skill
- of the natives, the canoe shot back into the eddy, and floated again at
- the side of the low rock, before they thought the scout had even time to
- rejoin his companions.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are now fortified, garrisoned, and provisioned,” cried Heyward
- cheerfully, “and may set Montcalm and his allies at defiance. How, now, my
- vigilant sentinel, can see anything of those you call the Iroquois, on the
- main land!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I call them Iroquois, because to me every native, who speaks a foreign
- tongue, is accounted an enemy, though he may pretend to serve the king! If
- Webb wants faith and honesty in an Indian, let him bring out the tribes of
- the Delawares, and send these greedy and lying Mohawks and Oneidas, with
- their six nations of varlets, where in nature they belong, among the
- French!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We should then exchange a warlike for a useless friend! I have heard that
- the Delawares have laid aside the hatchet, and are content to be called
- women!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Aye, shame on the Hollanders and Iroquois, who circumvented them by their
- deviltries, into such a treaty! But I have known them for twenty years,
- and I call him liar that says cowardly blood runs in the veins of a
- Delaware. You have driven their tribes from the seashore, and would now
- believe what their enemies say, that you may sleep at night upon an easy
- pillow. No, no; to me, every Indian who speaks a foreign tongue is an
- Iroquois, whether the castle* of his tribe be in Canada, or be in York.”
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * The principal villages of the Indians are still called
- “castles” by the whites of New York. “Oneida castle” is no
- more than a scattered hamlet; but the name is in general
- use.
-</pre>
- <p>
- Heyward, perceiving that the stubborn adherence of the scout to the cause
- of his friends the Delawares, or Mohicans, for they were branches of the
- same numerous people, was likely to prolong a useless discussion, changed
- the subject.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Treaty or no treaty, I know full well that your two companions are brave
- and cautious warriors! have they heard or seen anything of our enemies!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “An Indian is a mortal to be felt afore he is seen,” returned the scout,
- ascending the rock, and throwing the deer carelessly down. “I trust to
- other signs than such as come in at the eye, when I am outlying on the
- trail of the Mingoes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do your ears tell you that they have traced our retreat?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I should be sorry to think they had, though this is a spot that stout
- courage might hold for a smart scrimmage. I will not deny, however, but
- the horses cowered when I passed them, as though they scented the wolves;
- and a wolf is a beast that is apt to hover about an Indian ambushment,
- craving the offals of the deer the savages kill.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You forget the buck at your feet! or, may we not owe their visit to the
- dead colt? Ha! what noise is that?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Poor Miriam!” murmured the stranger; “thy foal was foreordained to become
- a prey to ravenous beasts!” Then, suddenly lifting up his voice, amid the
- eternal din of the waters, he sang aloud: “First born of Egypt, smite did
- he, Of mankind, and of beast also: O, Egypt! wonders sent 'midst thee, On
- Pharaoh and his servants too!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The death of the colt sits heavy on the heart of its owner,” said the
- scout; “but it's a good sign to see a man account upon his dumb friends.
- He has the religion of the matter, in believing what is to happen will
- happen; and with such a consolation, it won't be long afore he submits to
- the rationality of killing a four-footed beast to save the lives of human
- men. It may be as you say,” he continued, reverting to the purport of
- Heyward's last remark; “and the greater the reason why we should cut our
- steaks, and let the carcass drive down the stream, or we shall have the
- pack howling along the cliffs, begrudging every mouthful we swallow.
- Besides, though the Delaware tongue is the same as a book to the Iroquois,
- the cunning varlets are quick enough at understanding the reason of a
- wolf's howl.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout, while making his remarks, was busied in collecting certain
- necessary implements; as he concluded, he moved silently by the group of
- travelers, accompanied by the Mohicans, who seemed to comprehend his
- intentions with instinctive readiness, when the whole three disappeared in
- succession, seeming to vanish against the dark face of a perpendicular
- rock that rose to the height of a few yards, within as many feet of the
- water's edge.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 6
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide;
- He wales a portion with judicious care;
- And 'Let us worship God', he says, with solemn air.”—Burns
-</pre>
- <p>
- Heyward and his female companions witnessed this mysterious movement with
- secret uneasiness; for, though the conduct of the white man had hitherto
- been above reproach, his rude equipments, blunt address, and strong
- antipathies, together with the character of his silent associates, were
- all causes for exciting distrust in minds that had been so recently
- alarmed by Indian treachery.
- </p>
- <p>
- The stranger alone disregarded the passing incidents. He seated himself on
- a projection of the rocks, whence he gave no other signs of consciousness
- than by the struggles of his spirit, as manifested in frequent and heavy
- sighs. Smothered voices were next heard, as though men called to each
- other in the bowels of the earth, when a sudden light flashed upon those
- without, and laid bare the much-prized secret of the place.
- </p>
- <p>
- At the further extremity of a narrow, deep cavern in the rock, whose
- length appeared much extended by the perspective and the nature of the
- light by which it was seen, was seated the scout, holding a blazing knot
- of pine. The strong glare of the fire fell full upon his sturdy,
- weather-beaten countenance and forest attire, lending an air of romantic
- wildness to the aspect of an individual, who, seen by the sober light of
- day, would have exhibited the peculiarities of a man remarkable for the
- strangeness of his dress, the iron-like inflexibility of his frame, and
- the singular compound of quick, vigilant sagacity, and of exquisite
- simplicity, that by turns usurped the possession of his muscular features.
- At a little distance in advance stood Uncas, his whole person thrown
- powerfully into view. The travelers anxiously regarded the upright,
- flexible figure of the young Mohican, graceful and unrestrained in the
- attitudes and movements of nature. Though his person was more than usually
- screened by a green and fringed hunting-shirt, like that of the white man,
- there was no concealment to his dark, glancing, fearless eye, alike
- terrible and calm; the bold outline of his high, haughty features, pure in
- their native red; or to the dignified elevation of his receding forehead,
- together with all the finest proportions of a noble head, bared to the
- generous scalping tuft. It was the first opportunity possessed by Duncan
- and his companions to view the marked lineaments of either of their Indian
- attendants, and each individual of the party felt relieved from a burden
- of doubt, as the proud and determined, though wild expression of the
- features of the young warrior forced itself on their notice. They felt it
- might be a being partially benighted in the vale of ignorance, but it
- could not be one who would willingly devote his rich natural gifts to the
- purposes of wanton treachery. The ingenuous Alice gazed at his free air
- and proud carriage, as she would have looked upon some precious relic of
- the Grecian chisel, to which life had been imparted by the intervention of
- a miracle; while Heyward, though accustomed to see the perfection of form
- which abounds among the uncorrupted natives, openly expressed his
- admiration at such an unblemished specimen of the noblest proportions of
- man.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I could sleep in peace,” whispered Alice, in reply, “with such a fearless
- and generous-looking youth for my sentinel. Surely, Duncan, those cruel
- murders, those terrific scenes of torture, of which we read and hear so
- much, are never acted in the presence of such as he!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “This certainly is a rare and brilliant instance of those natural
- qualities in which these peculiar people are said to excel,” he answered.
- “I agree with you, Alice, in thinking that such a front and eye were
- formed rather to intimidate than to deceive; but let us not practice a
- deception upon ourselves, by expecting any other exhibition of what we
- esteem virtue than according to the fashion of the savage. As bright
- examples of great qualities are but too uncommon among Christians, so are
- they singular and solitary with the Indians; though, for the honor of our
- common nature, neither are incapable of producing them. Let us then hope
- that this Mohican may not disappoint our wishes, but prove what his looks
- assert him to be, a brave and constant friend.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now Major Heyward speaks as Major Heyward should,” said Cora; “who that
- looks at this creature of nature, remembers the shade of his skin?”
- </p>
- <p>
- A short and apparently an embarrassed silence succeeded this remark, which
- was interrupted by the scout calling to them, aloud, to enter.
- </p>
- <p>
- “This fire begins to show too bright a flame,” he continued, as they
- complied, “and might light the Mingoes to our undoing. Uncas, drop the
- blanket, and show the knaves its dark side. This is not such a supper as a
- major of the Royal Americans has a right to expect, but I've known stout
- detachments of the corps glad to eat their venison raw, and without a
- relish, too*. Here, you see, we have plenty of salt, and can make a quick
- broil. There's fresh sassafras boughs for the ladies to sit on, which may
- not be as proud as their my-hog-guinea chairs, but which sends up a
- sweeter flavor, than the skin of any hog can do, be it of Guinea, or be it
- of any other land. Come, friend, don't be mournful for the colt; 'twas an
- innocent thing, and had not seen much hardship. Its death will save the
- creature many a sore back and weary foot!”
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * In vulgar parlance the condiments of a repast are called
- by the American “a relish,” substituting the thing for its
- effect. These provincial terms are frequently put in the
- mouths of the speakers, according to their several
- conditions in life. Most of them are of local use, and
- others quite peculiar to the particular class of men to
- which the character belongs. In the present instance, the
- scout uses the word with immediate reference to the “salt,”
- with which his own party was so fortunate as to be provided.
-</pre>
- <p>
- Uncas did as the other had directed, and when the voice of Hawkeye ceased,
- the roar of the cataract sounded like the rumbling of distant thunder.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are we quite safe in this cavern?” demanded Heyward. “Is there no danger
- of surprise? A single armed man, at its entrance, would hold us at his
- mercy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A spectral-looking figure stalked from out of the darkness behind the
- scout, and seizing a blazing brand, held it toward the further extremity
- of their place of retreat. Alice uttered a faint shriek, and even Cora
- rose to her feet, as this appalling object moved into the light; but a
- single word from Heyward calmed them, with the assurance it was only their
- attendant, Chingachgook, who, lifting another blanket, discovered that the
- cavern had two outlets. Then, holding the brand, he crossed a deep, narrow
- chasm in the rocks which ran at right angles with the passage they were
- in, but which, unlike that, was open to the heavens, and entered another
- cave, answering to the description of the first, in every essential
- particular.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Such old foxes as Chingachgook and myself are not often caught in a
- barrow with one hole,” said Hawkeye, laughing; “you can easily see the
- cunning of the place—the rock is black limestone, which everybody
- knows is soft; it makes no uncomfortable pillow, where brush and pine wood
- is scarce; well, the fall was once a few yards below us, and I dare to say
- was, in its time, as regular and as handsome a sheet of water as any along
- the Hudson. But old age is a great injury to good looks, as these sweet
- young ladies have yet to l'arn! The place is sadly changed! These rocks
- are full of cracks, and in some places they are softer than at othersome,
- and the water has worked out deep hollows for itself, until it has fallen
- back, ay, some hundred feet, breaking here and wearing there, until the
- falls have neither shape nor consistency.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “In what part of them are we?” asked Heyward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why, we are nigh the spot that Providence first placed them at, but
- where, it seems, they were too rebellious to stay. The rock proved softer
- on each side of us, and so they left the center of the river bare and dry,
- first working out these two little holes for us to hide in.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are then on an island!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay! there are the falls on two sides of us, and the river above and
- below. If you had daylight, it would be worth the trouble to step up on
- the height of this rock, and look at the perversity of the water. It falls
- by no rule at all; sometimes it leaps, sometimes it tumbles; there it
- skips; here it shoots; in one place 'tis white as snow, and in another
- 'tis green as grass; hereabouts, it pitches into deep hollows, that rumble
- and crush the 'arth; and thereaways, it ripples and sings like a brook,
- fashioning whirlpools and gullies in the old stone, as if 'twas no harder
- than trodden clay. The whole design of the river seems disconcerted. First
- it runs smoothly, as if meaning to go down the descent as things were
- ordered; then it angles about and faces the shores; nor are there places
- wanting where it looks backward, as if unwilling to leave the wilderness,
- to mingle with the salt. Ay, lady, the fine cobweb-looking cloth you wear
- at your throat is coarse, and like a fishnet, to little spots I can show
- you, where the river fabricates all sorts of images, as if having broke
- loose from order, it would try its hand at everything. And yet what does
- it amount to! After the water has been suffered so to have its will, for a
- time, like a headstrong man, it is gathered together by the hand that made
- it, and a few rods below you may see it all, flowing on steadily toward
- the sea, as was foreordained from the first foundation of the 'arth!”
- </p>
- <p>
- While his auditors received a cheering assurance of the security of their
- place of concealment from this untutored description of Glenn's,* they
- were much inclined to judge differently from Hawkeye, of its wild
- beauties. But they were not in a situation to suffer their thoughts to
- dwell on the charms of natural objects; and, as the scout had not found it
- necessary to cease his culinary labors while he spoke, unless to point
- out, with a broken fork, the direction of some particularly obnoxious
- point in the rebellious stream, they now suffered their attention to be
- drawn to the necessary though more vulgar consideration of their supper.
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * Glenn's Falls are on the Hudson, some forty or fifty miles
- above the head of tide, or that place where the river
- becomes navigable for sloops. The description of this
- picturesque and remarkable little cataract, as given by the
- scout, is sufficiently correct, though the application of
- the water to uses of civilized life has materially injured
- its beauties. The rocky island and the two caverns are known
- to every traveler, since the former sustains the pier of a
- bridge, which is now thrown across the river, immediately
- above the fall. In explanation of the taste of Hawkeye, it
- should be remembered that men always prize that most which
- is least enjoyed. Thus, in a new country, the woods and
- other objects, which in an old country would be maintained
- at great cost, are got rid of, simply with a view of
- “improving” as it is called.
-</pre>
- <p>
- The repast, which was greatly aided by the addition of a few delicacies
- that Heyward had the precaution to bring with him when they left their
- horses, was exceedingly refreshing to the weary party. Uncas acted as
- attendant to the females, performing all the little offices within his
- power, with a mixture of dignity and anxious grace, that served to amuse
- Heyward, who well knew that it was an utter innovation on the Indian
- customs, which forbid their warriors to descend to any menial employment,
- especially in favor of their women. As the rights of hospitality were,
- however, considered sacred among them, this little departure from the
- dignity of manhood excited no audible comment. Had there been one there
- sufficiently disengaged to become a close observer, he might have fancied
- that the services of the young chief were not entirely impartial. That
- while he tendered to Alice the gourd of sweet water, and the venison in a
- trencher, neatly carved from the knot of the pepperidge, with sufficient
- courtesy, in performing the same offices to her sister, his dark eye
- lingered on her rich, speaking countenance. Once or twice he was compelled
- to speak, to command her attention of those he served. In such cases he
- made use of English, broken and imperfect, but sufficiently intelligible,
- and which he rendered so mild and musical, by his deep, guttural voice,
- that it never failed to cause both ladies to look up in admiration and
- astonishment. In the course of these civilities, a few sentences were
- exchanged, that served to establish the appearance of an amicable
- intercourse between the parties.
- </p>
- <p>
- In the meanwhile, the gravity of Chingcachgook remained immovable. He had
- seated himself more within the circle of light, where the frequent, uneasy
- glances of his guests were better enabled to separate the natural
- expression of his face from the artificial terrors of the war paint. They
- found a strong resemblance between father and son, with the difference
- that might be expected from age and hardships. The fierceness of his
- countenance now seemed to slumber, and in its place was to be seen the
- quiet, vacant composure which distinguishes an Indian warrior, when his
- faculties are not required for any of the greater purposes of his
- existence. It was, however, easy to be seen, by the occasional gleams that
- shot across his swarthy visage, that it was only necessary to arouse his
- passions, in order to give full effect to the terrific device which he had
- adopted to intimidate his enemies. On the other hand, the quick, roving
- eye of the scout seldom rested. He ate and drank with an appetite that no
- sense of danger could disturb, but his vigilance seemed never to desert
- him. Twenty times the gourd or the venison was suspended before his lips,
- while his head was turned aside, as though he listened to some distant and
- distrusted sounds—a movement that never failed to recall his guests
- from regarding the novelties of their situation, to a recollection of the
- alarming reasons that had driven them to seek it. As these frequent pauses
- were never followed by any remark, the momentary uneasiness they created
- quickly passed away, and for a time was forgotten.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come, friend,” said Hawkeye, drawing out a keg from beneath a cover of
- leaves, toward the close of the repast, and addressing the stranger who
- sat at his elbow, doing great justice to his culinary skill, “try a little
- spruce; 'twill wash away all thoughts of the colt, and quicken the life in
- your bosom. I drink to our better friendship, hoping that a little
- horse-flesh may leave no heart-burnings atween us. How do you name
- yourself?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gamut—David Gamut,” returned the singing master, preparing to wash
- down his sorrows in a powerful draught of the woodsman's high-flavored and
- well-laced compound.
- </p>
- <p>
- “A very good name, and, I dare say, handed down from honest forefathers.
- I'm an admirator of names, though the Christian fashions fall far below
- savage customs in this particular. The biggest coward I ever knew as
- called Lyon; and his wife, Patience, would scold you out of hearing in
- less time than a hunted deer would run a rod. With an Indian 'tis a matter
- of conscience; what he calls himself, he generally is—not that
- Chingachgook, which signifies Big Sarpent, is really a snake, big or
- little; but that he understands the windings and turnings of human natur',
- and is silent, and strikes his enemies when they least expect him. What
- may be your calling?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am an unworthy instructor in the art of psalmody.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Anan!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I teach singing to the youths of the Connecticut levy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You might be better employed. The young hounds go laughing and singing
- too much already through the woods, when they ought not to breathe louder
- than a fox in his cover. Can you use the smoothbore, or handle the rifle?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Praised be God, I have never had occasion to meddle with murderous
- implements!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Perhaps you understand the compass, and lay down the watercourses and
- mountains of the wilderness on paper, in order that they who follow may
- find places by their given names?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I practice no such employment.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have a pair of legs that might make a long path seem short! you
- journey sometimes, I fancy, with tidings for the general.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Never; I follow no other than my own high vocation, which is instruction
- in sacred music!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis a strange calling!” muttered Hawkeye, with an inward laugh, “to go
- through life, like a catbird, mocking all the ups and downs that may
- happen to come out of other men's throats. Well, friend, I suppose it is
- your gift, and mustn't be denied any more than if 'twas shooting, or some
- other better inclination. Let us hear what you can do in that way; 'twill
- be a friendly manner of saying good-night, for 'tis time that these ladies
- should be getting strength for a hard and a long push, in the pride of the
- morning, afore the Maquas are stirring.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “With joyful pleasure do I consent”, said David, adjusting his iron-rimmed
- spectacles, and producing his beloved little volume, which he immediately
- tendered to Alice. “What can be more fitting and consolatory, than to
- offer up evening praise, after a day of such exceeding jeopardy!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Alice smiled; but, regarding Heyward, she blushed and hesitated.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Indulge yourself,” he whispered; “ought not the suggestion of the worthy
- namesake of the Psalmist to have its weight at such a moment?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Encouraged by his opinion, Alice did what her pious inclinations, and her
- keen relish for gentle sounds, had before so strongly urged. The book was
- open at a hymn not ill adapted to their situation, and in which the poet,
- no longer goaded by his desire to excel the inspired King of Israel, had
- discovered some chastened and respectable powers. Cora betrayed a
- disposition to support her sister, and the sacred song proceeded, after
- the indispensable preliminaries of the pitchpipe, and the tune had been
- duly attended to by the methodical David.
- </p>
- <p>
- The air was solemn and slow. At times it rose to the fullest compass of
- the rich voices of the females, who hung over their little book in holy
- excitement, and again it sank so low, that the rushing of the waters ran
- through their melody, like a hollow accompaniment. The natural taste and
- true ear of David governed and modified the sounds to suit the confined
- cavern, every crevice and cranny of which was filled with the thrilling
- notes of their flexible voices. The Indians riveted their eyes on the
- rocks, and listened with an attention that seemed to turn them into stone.
- But the scout, who had placed his chin in his hand, with an expression of
- cold indifference, gradually suffered his rigid features to relax, until,
- as verse succeeded verse, he felt his iron nature subdued, while his
- recollection was carried back to boyhood, when his ears had been
- accustomed to listen to similar sounds of praise, in the settlements of
- the colony. His roving eyes began to moisten, and before the hymn was
- ended scalding tears rolled out of fountains that had long seemed dry, and
- followed each other down those cheeks, that had oftener felt the storms of
- heaven than any testimonials of weakness. The singers were dwelling on one
- of those low, dying chords, which the ear devours with such greedy
- rapture, as if conscious that it is about to lose them, when a cry, that
- seemed neither human nor earthly, rose in the outward air, penetrating not
- only the recesses of the cavern, but to the inmost hearts of all who heard
- it. It was followed by a stillness apparently as deep as if the waters had
- been checked in their furious progress, at such a horrid and unusual
- interruption.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is it?” murmured Alice, after a few moments of terrible suspense.
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/5095.jpg" alt="5095" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/5095.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- “What is it?” repeated Hewyard aloud.
- </p>
- <p>
- Neither Hawkeye nor the Indians made any reply. They listened, as if
- expecting the sound would be repeated, with a manner that expressed their
- own astonishment. At length they spoke together, earnestly, in the
- Delaware language, when Uncas, passing by the inner and most concealed
- aperture, cautiously left the cavern. When he had gone, the scout first
- spoke in English.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What it is, or what it is not, none here can tell, though two of us have
- ranged the woods for more than thirty years. I did believe there was no
- cry that Indian or beast could make, that my ears had not heard; but this
- has proved that I was only a vain and conceited mortal.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Was it not, then, the shout the warriors make when they wish to
- intimidate their enemies?” asked Cora who stood drawing her veil about her
- person, with a calmness to which her agitated sister was a stranger.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, no; this was bad, and shocking, and had a sort of unhuman sound; but
- when you once hear the war-whoop, you will never mistake it for anything
- else. Well, Uncas!” speaking in Delaware to the young chief as he
- re-entered, “what see you? do our lights shine through the blankets?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The answer was short, and apparently decided, being given in the same
- tongue.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There is nothing to be seen without,” continued Hawkeye, shaking his head
- in discontent; “and our hiding-place is still in darkness. Pass into the
- other cave, you that need it, and seek for sleep; we must be afoot long
- before the sun, and make the most of our time to get to Edward, while the
- Mingoes are taking their morning nap.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Cora set the example of compliance, with a steadiness that taught the more
- timid Alice the necessity of obedience. Before leaving the place, however,
- she whispered a request to Duncan, that he would follow. Uncas raised the
- blanket for their passage, and as the sisters turned to thank him for this
- act of attention, they saw the scout seated again before the dying embers,
- with his face resting on his hands, in a manner which showed how deeply he
- brooded on the unaccountable interruption which had broken up their
- evening devotions.
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward took with him a blazing knot, which threw a dim light through the
- narrow vista of their new apartment. Placing it in a favorable position,
- he joined the females, who now found themselves alone with him for the
- first time since they had left the friendly ramparts of Fort Edward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Leave us not, Duncan,” said Alice: “we cannot sleep in such a place as
- this, with that horrid cry still ringing in our ears.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “First let us examine into the security of your fortress,” he answered,
- “and then we will speak of rest.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He approached the further end of the cavern, to an outlet, which, like the
- others, was concealed by blankets; and removing the thick screen, breathed
- the fresh and reviving air from the cataract. One arm of the river flowed
- through a deep, narrow ravine, which its current had worn in the soft
- rock, directly beneath his feet, forming an effectual defense, as he
- believed, against any danger from that quarter; the water, a few rods
- above them, plunging, glancing, and sweeping along in its most violent and
- broken manner.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nature has made an impenetrable barrier on this side,” he continued,
- pointing down the perpendicular declivity into the dark current before he
- dropped the blanket; “and as you know that good men and true are on guard
- in front I see no reason why the advice of our honest host should be
- disregarded. I am certain Cora will join me in saying that sleep is
- necessary to you both.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Cora may submit to the justice of your opinion though she cannot put it
- in practice,” returned the elder sister, who had placed herself by the
- side of Alice, on a couch of sassafras; “there would be other causes to
- chase away sleep, though we had been spared the shock of this mysterious
- noise. Ask yourself, Heyward, can daughters forget the anxiety a father
- must endure, whose children lodge he knows not where or how, in such a
- wilderness, and in the midst of so many perils?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He is a soldier, and knows how to estimate the chances of the woods.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He is a father, and cannot deny his nature.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How kind has he ever been to all my follies, how tender and indulgent to
- all my wishes!” sobbed Alice. “We have been selfish, sister, in urging our
- visit at such hazard.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I may have been rash in pressing his consent in a moment of much
- embarrassment, but I would have proved to him, that however others might
- neglect him in his strait his children at least were faithful.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “When he heard of your arrival at Edward,” said Heyward, kindly, “there
- was a powerful struggle in his bosom between fear and love; though the
- latter, heightened, if possible, by so long a separation, quickly
- prevailed. 'It is the spirit of my noble-minded Cora that leads them,
- Duncan', he said, 'and I will not balk it. Would to God, that he who holds
- the honor of our royal master in his guardianship, would show but half her
- firmness!'”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And did he not speak of me, Heyward?” demanded Alice, with jealous
- affection; “surely, he forgot not altogether his little Elsie?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That were impossible,” returned the young man; “he called you by a
- thousand endearing epithets, that I may not presume to use, but to the
- justice of which, I can warmly testify. Once, indeed, he said—”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan ceased speaking; for while his eyes were riveted on those of Alice,
- who had turned toward him with the eagerness of filial affection, to catch
- his words, the same strong, horrid cry, as before, filled the air, and
- rendered him mute. A long, breathless silence succeeded, during which each
- looked at the others in fearful expectation of hearing the sound repeated.
- At length, the blanket was slowly raised, and the scout stood in the
- aperture with a countenance whose firmness evidently began to give way
- before a mystery that seemed to threaten some danger, against which all
- his cunning and experience might prove of no avail.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 7
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “They do not sleep,
- On yonder cliffs, a grizzly band,
- I see them sit.”—Gray
-</pre>
- <p>
- “'Twould be neglecting a warning that is given for our good to lie hid any
- longer,” said Hawkeye “when such sounds are raised in the forest. These
- gentle ones may keep close, but the Mohicans and I will watch upon the
- rock, where I suppose a major of the Sixtieth would wish to keep us
- company.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is, then, our danger so pressing?” asked Cora.
- </p>
- <p>
- “He who makes strange sounds, and gives them out for man's information,
- alone knows our danger. I should think myself wicked, unto rebellion
- against His will, was I to burrow with such warnings in the air! Even the
- weak soul who passes his days in singing is stirred by the cry, and, as he
- says, is 'ready to go forth to the battle' If 'twere only a battle, it
- would be a thing understood by us all, and easily managed; but I have
- heard that when such shrieks are atween heaven and 'arth, it betokens
- another sort of warfare!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If all our reasons for fear, my friend, are confined to such as proceed
- from supernatural causes, we have but little occasion to be alarmed,”
- continued the undisturbed Cora, “are you certain that our enemies have not
- invented some new and ingenious method to strike us with terror, that
- their conquest may become more easy?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lady,” returned the scout, solemnly, “I have listened to all the sounds
- of the woods for thirty years, as a man will listen whose life and death
- depend on the quickness of his ears. There is no whine of the panther, no
- whistle of the catbird, nor any invention of the devilish Mingoes, that
- can cheat me! I have heard the forest moan like mortal men in their
- affliction; often, and again, have I listened to the wind playing its
- music in the branches of the girdled trees; and I have heard the lightning
- cracking in the air like the snapping of blazing brush as it spitted forth
- sparks and forked flames; but never have I thought that I heard more than
- the pleasure of him who sported with the things of his hand. But neither
- the Mohicans, nor I, who am a white man without a cross, can explain the
- cry just heard. We, therefore, believe it a sign given for our good.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is extraordinary!” said Heyward, taking his pistols from the place
- where he had laid them on entering; “be it a sign of peace or a signal of
- war, it must be looked to. Lead the way, my friend; I follow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- On issuing from their place of confinement, the whole party instantly
- experienced a grateful renovation of spirits, by exchanging the pent air
- of the hiding-place for the cool and invigorating atmosphere which played
- around the whirlpools and pitches of the cataract. A heavy evening breeze
- swept along the surface of the river, and seemed to drive the roar of the
- falls into the recesses of their own cavern, whence it issued heavily and
- constant, like thunder rumbling beyond the distant hills. The moon had
- risen, and its light was already glancing here and there on the waters
- above them; but the extremity of the rock where they stood still lay in
- shadow. With the exception of the sounds produced by the rushing waters,
- and an occasional breathing of the air, as it murmured past them in fitful
- currents, the scene was as still as night and solitude could make it. In
- vain were the eyes of each individual bent along the opposite shores, in
- quest of some signs of life, that might explain the nature of the
- interruption they had heard. Their anxious and eager looks were baffled by
- the deceptive light, or rested only on naked rocks, and straight and
- immovable trees.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Here is nothing to be seen but the gloom and quiet of a lovely evening,”
- whispered Duncan; “how much should we prize such a scene, and all this
- breathing solitude, at any other moment, Cora! Fancy yourselves in
- security, and what now, perhaps, increases your terror, may be made
- conducive to enjoyment—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Listen!” interrupted Alice.
- </p>
- <p>
- The caution was unnecessary. Once more the same sound arose, as if from
- the bed of the river, and having broken out of the narrow bounds of the
- cliffs, was heard undulating through the forest, in distant and dying
- cadences.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can any here give a name to such a cry?” demanded Hawkeye, when the last
- echo was lost in the woods; “if so, let him speak; for myself, I judge it
- not to belong to 'arth!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Here, then, is one who can undeceive you,” said Duncan; “I know the sound
- full well, for often have I heard it on the field of battle, and in
- situations which are frequent in a soldier's life. 'Tis the horrid shriek
- that a horse will give in his agony; oftener drawn from him in pain,
- though sometimes in terror. My charger is either a prey to the beasts of
- the forest, or he sees his danger, without the power to avoid it. The
- sound might deceive me in the cavern, but in the open air I know it too
- well to be wrong.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout and his companions listened to this simple explanation with the
- interest of men who imbibe new ideas, at the same time that they get rid
- of old ones, which had proved disagreeable inmates. The two latter uttered
- their usual expressive exclamation, “hugh!” as the truth first glanced
- upon their minds, while the former, after a short, musing pause, took upon
- himself to reply.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I cannot deny your words,” he said, “for I am little skilled in horses,
- though born where they abound. The wolves must be hovering above their
- heads on the bank, and the timorsome creatures are calling on man for
- help, in the best manner they are able. Uncas”—he spoke in Delaware—“Uncas,
- drop down in the canoe, and whirl a brand among the pack; or fear may do
- what the wolves can't get at to perform, and leave us without horses in
- the morning, when we shall have so much need to journey swiftly!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The young native had already descended to the water to comply, when a long
- howl was raised on the edge of the river, and was borne swiftly off into
- the depths of the forest, as though the beasts, of their own accord, were
- abandoning their prey in sudden terror. Uncas, with instinctive quickness,
- receded, and the three foresters held another of their low, earnest
- conferences.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We have been like hunters who have lost the points of the heavens, and
- from whom the sun has been hid for days,” said Hawkeye, turning away from
- his companions; “now we begin again to know the signs of our course, and
- the paths are cleared from briers! Seat yourselves in the shade which the
- moon throws from yonder beech—'tis thicker than that of the pines—and
- let us wait for that which the Lord may choose to send next. Let all your
- conversation be in whispers; though it would be better, and, perhaps, in
- the end, wiser, if each one held discourse with his own thoughts, for a
- time.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The manner of the scout was seriously impressive, though no longer
- distinguished by any signs of unmanly apprehension. It was evident that
- his momentary weakness had vanished with the explanation of a mystery
- which his own experience had not served to fathom; and though he now felt
- all the realities of their actual condition, that he was prepared to meet
- them with the energy of his hardy nature. This feeling seemed also common
- to the natives, who placed themselves in positions which commanded a full
- view of both shores, while their own persons were effectually concealed
- from observation. In such circumstances, common prudence dictated that
- Heyward and his companions should imitate a caution that proceeded from so
- intelligent a source. The young man drew a pile of the sassafras from the
- cave, and placing it in the chasm which separated the two caverns, it was
- occupied by the sisters, who were thus protected by the rocks from any
- missiles, while their anxiety was relieved by the assurance that no danger
- could approach without a warning. Heyward himself was posted at hand, so
- near that he might communicate with his companions without raising his
- voice to a dangerous elevation; while David, in imitation of the woodsmen,
- bestowed his person in such a manner among the fissures of the rocks, that
- his ungainly limbs were no longer offensive to the eye.
- </p>
- <p>
- In this manner hours passed without further interruption. The moon reached
- the zenith, and shed its mild light perpendicularly on the lovely sight of
- the sisters slumbering peacefully in each other's arms. Duncan cast the
- wide shawl of Cora before a spectacle he so much loved to contemplate, and
- then suffered his own head to seek a pillow on the rock. David began to
- utter sounds that would have shocked his delicate organs in more wakeful
- moments; in short, all but Hawkeye and the Mohicans lost every idea of
- consciousness, in uncontrollable drowsiness. But the watchfulness of these
- vigilant protectors neither tired nor slumbered. Immovable as that rock,
- of which each appeared to form a part, they lay, with their eyes roving,
- without intermission, along the dark margin of trees, that bounded the
- adjacent shores of the narrow stream. Not a sound escaped them; the most
- subtle examination could not have told they breathed. It was evident that
- this excess of caution proceeded from an experience that no subtlety on
- the part of their enemies could deceive. It was, however, continued
- without any apparent consequences, until the moon had set, and a pale
- streak above the treetops, at the bend of the river a little below,
- announced the approach of day.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then, for the first time, Hawkeye was seen to stir. He crawled along the
- rock and shook Duncan from his heavy slumbers.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now is the time to journey,” he whispered; “awake the gentle ones, and be
- ready to get into the canoe when I bring it to the landing-place.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Have you had a quiet night?” said Heyward; “for myself, I believe sleep
- has got the better of my vigilance.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All is yet still as midnight. Be silent, but be quick.”
- </p>
- <p>
- By this time Duncan was thoroughly awake, and he immediately lifted the
- shawl from the sleeping females. The motion caused Cora to raise her hand
- as if to repulse him, while Alice murmured, in her soft, gentle voice,
- “No, no, dear father, we were not deserted; Duncan was with us!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, sweet innocence,” whispered the youth; “Duncan is here, and while
- life continues or danger remains, he will never quit thee. Cora! Alice!
- awake! The hour has come to move!”
- </p>
- <p>
- A loud shriek from the younger of the sisters, and the form of the other
- standing upright before him, in bewildered horror, was the unexpected
- answer he received.
- </p>
- <p>
- While the words were still on the lips of Heyward, there had arisen such a
- tumult of yells and cries as served to drive the swift currents of his own
- blood back from its bounding course into the fountains of his heart. It
- seemed, for near a minute, as if the demons of hell had possessed
- themselves of the air about them, and were venting their savage humors in
- barbarous sounds. The cries came from no particular direction, though it
- was evident they filled the woods, and, as the appalled listeners easily
- imagined, the caverns of the falls, the rocks, the bed of the river, and
- the upper air. David raised his tall person in the midst of the infernal
- din, with a hand on either ear, exclaiming:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Whence comes this discord! Has hell broke loose, that man should utter
- sounds like these!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The bright flashes and the quick reports of a dozen rifles, from the
- opposite banks of the stream, followed this incautious exposure of his
- person, and left the unfortunate singing master senseless on that rock
- where he had been so long slumbering. The Mohicans boldly sent back the
- intimidating yell of their enemies, who raised a shout of savage triumph
- at the fall of Gamut. The flash of rifles was then quick and close between
- them, but either party was too well skilled to leave even a limb exposed
- to the hostile aim. Duncan listened with intense anxiety for the strokes
- of the paddle, believing that flight was now their only refuge. The river
- glanced by with its ordinary velocity, but the canoe was nowhere to be
- seen on its dark waters. He had just fancied they were cruelly deserted by
- their scout, as a stream of flame issued from the rock beneath them, and a
- fierce yell, blended with a shriek of agony, announced that the messenger
- of death sent from the fatal weapon of Hawkeye, had found a victim. At
- this slight repulse the assailants instantly withdrew, and gradually the
- place became as still as before the sudden tumult.
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan seized the favorable moment to spring to the body of Gamut, which
- he bore within the shelter of the narrow chasm that protected the sisters.
- In another minute the whole party was collected in this spot of
- comparative safety.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The poor fellow has saved his scalp,” said Hawkeye, coolly passing his
- hand over the head of David; “but he is a proof that a man may be born
- with too long a tongue! 'Twas downright madness to show six feet of flesh
- and blood, on a naked rock, to the raging savages. I only wonder he has
- escaped with life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is he not dead?” demanded Cora, in a voice whose husky tones showed how
- powerfully natural horror struggled with her assumed firmness. “Can we do
- aught to assist the wretched man?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, no! the life is in his heart yet, and after he has slept awhile he
- will come to himself, and be a wiser man for it, till the hour of his real
- time shall come,” returned Hawkeye, casting another oblique glance at the
- insensible body, while he filled his charger with admirable nicety. “Carry
- him in, Uncas, and lay him on the sassafras. The longer his nap lasts the
- better it will be for him, as I doubt whether he can find a proper cover
- for such a shape on these rocks; and singing won't do any good with the
- Iroquois.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You believe, then, the attack will be renewed?” asked Heyward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do I expect a hungry wolf will satisfy his craving with a mouthful! They
- have lost a man, and 'tis their fashion, when they meet a loss, and fail
- in the surprise, to fall back; but we shall have them on again, with new
- expedients to circumvent us, and master our scalps. Our main hope,” he
- continued, raising his rugged countenance, across which a shade of anxiety
- just then passed like a darkening cloud, “will be to keep the rock until
- Munro can send a party to our help! God send it may be soon and under a
- leader that knows the Indian customs!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You hear our probable fortunes, Cora,” said Duncan, “and you know we have
- everything to hope from the anxiety and experience of your father. Come,
- then, with Alice, into this cavern, where you, at least, will be safe from
- the murderous rifles of our enemies, and where you may bestow a care
- suited to your gentle natures on our unfortunate comrade.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The sisters followed him into the outer cave, where David was beginning,
- by his sighs, to give symptoms of returning consciousness, and then
- commending the wounded man to their attention, he immediately prepared to
- leave them.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Duncan!” said the tremulous voice of Cora, when he had reached the mouth
- of the cavern. He turned and beheld the speaker, whose color had changed
- to a deadly paleness, and whose lips quivered, gazing after him, with an
- expression of interest which immediately recalled him to her side.
- “Remember, Duncan, how necessary your safety is to our own—how you
- bear a father's sacred trust—how much depends on your discretion and
- care—in short,” she added, while the telltale blood stole over her
- features, crimsoning her very temples, “how very deservedly dear you are
- to all of the name of Munro.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If anything could add to my own base love of life,” said Heyward,
- suffering his unconscious eyes to wander to the youthful form of the
- silent Alice, “it would be so kind an assurance. As major of the Sixtieth,
- our honest host will tell you I must take my share of the fray; but our
- task will be easy; it is merely to keep these blood-hounds at bay for a
- few hours.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Without waiting for a reply, he tore himself from the presence of the
- sisters, and joined the scout and his companions, who still lay within the
- protection of the little chasm between the two caves.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I tell you, Uncas,” said the former, as Heyward joined them, “you are
- wasteful of your powder, and the kick of the rifle disconcerts your aim!
- Little powder, light lead, and a long arm, seldom fail of bringing the
- death screech from a Mingo! At least, such has been my experience with the
- creatur's. Come, friends: let us to our covers, for no man can tell when
- or where a Maqua* will strike his blow.”
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * Mingo was the Delaware term of the Five Nations. Maquas
- was the name given them by the Dutch. The French, from their
- first intercourse with them, called them Iroquois.
-</pre>
- <p>
- The Indians silently repaired to their appointed stations, which were
- fissures in the rocks, whence they could command the approaches to the
- foot of the falls. In the center of the little island, a few short and
- stunted pines had found root, forming a thicket, into which Hawkeye darted
- with the swiftness of a deer, followed by the active Duncan. Here they
- secured themselves, as well as circumstances would permit, among the
- shrubs and fragments of stone that were scattered about the place. Above
- them was a bare, rounded rock, on each side of which the water played its
- gambols, and plunged into the abysses beneath, in the manner already
- described. As the day had now dawned, the opposite shores no longer
- presented a confused outline, but they were able to look into the woods,
- and distinguish objects beneath a canopy of gloomy pines.
- </p>
- <p>
- A long and anxious watch succeeded, but without any further evidences of a
- renewed attack; and Duncan began to hope that their fire had proved more
- fatal than was supposed, and that their enemies had been effectually
- repulsed. When he ventured to utter this impression to his companions, it
- was met by Hawkeye with an incredulous shake of the head.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You know not the nature of a Maqua, if you think he is so easily beaten
- back without a scalp!” he answered. “If there was one of the imps yelling
- this morning, there were forty! and they know our number and quality too
- well to give up the chase so soon. Hist! look into the water above, just
- where it breaks over the rocks. I am no mortal, if the risky devils
- haven't swam down upon the very pitch, and, as bad luck would have it,
- they have hit the head of the island. Hist! man, keep close! or the hair
- will be off your crown in the turning of a knife!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward lifted his head from the cover, and beheld what he justly
- considered a prodigy of rashness and skill. The river had worn away the
- edge of the soft rock in such a manner as to render its first pitch less
- abrupt and perpendicular than is usual at waterfalls. With no other guide
- than the ripple of the stream where it met the head of the island, a party
- of their insatiable foes had ventured into the current, and swam down upon
- this point, knowing the ready access it would give, if successful, to
- their intended victims.
- </p>
- <p>
- As Hawkeye ceased speaking, four human heads could be seen peering above a
- few logs of drift-wood that had lodged on these naked rocks, and which had
- probably suggested the idea of the practicability of the hazardous
- undertaking. At the next moment, a fifth form was seen floating over the
- green edge of the fall, a little from the line of the island. The savage
- struggled powerfully to gain the point of safety, and, favored by the
- glancing water, he was already stretching forth an arm to meet the grasp
- of his companions, when he shot away again with the shirling current,
- appeared to rise into the air, with uplifted arms and starting eyeballs,
- and fell, with a sudden plunge, into that deep and yawning abyss over
- which he hovered. A single, wild, despairing shriek rose from the cavern,
- and all was hushed again as the grave.
- </p>
- <p>
- The first generous impulse of Duncan was to rush to the rescue of the
- hapless wretch; but he felt himself bound to the spot by the iron grasp of
- the immovable scout.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Would ye bring certain death upon us, by telling the Mingoes where we
- lie?” demanded Hawkeye, sternly; “'Tis a charge of powder saved, and
- ammunition is as precious now as breath to a worried deer! Freshen the
- priming of your pistols—the midst of the falls is apt to dampen the
- brimstone—and stand firm for a close struggle, while I fire on their
- rush.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He placed a finger in his mouth, and drew a long, shrill whistle, which
- was answered from the rocks that were guarded by the Mohicans. Duncan
- caught glimpses of heads above the scattered drift-wood, as this signal
- rose on the air, but they disappeared again as suddenly as they had
- glanced upon his sight. A low, rustling sound next drew his attention
- behind him, and turning his head, he beheld Uncas within a few feet,
- creeping to his side. Hawkeye spoke to him in Delaware, when the young
- chief took his position with singular caution and undisturbed coolness. To
- Heyward this was a moment of feverish and impatient suspense; though the
- scout saw fit to select it as a fit occasion to read a lecture to his more
- youthful associates on the art of using firearms with discretion.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of all we'pons,” he commenced, “the long barreled, true-grooved,
- soft-metaled rifle is the most dangerous in skillful hands, though it
- wants a strong arm, a quick eye, and great judgment in charging, to put
- forth all its beauties. The gunsmiths can have but little insight into
- their trade when they make their fowling-pieces and short horsemen's—”
- </p>
- <p>
- He was interrupted by the low but expressive “hugh” of Uncas.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I see them, boy, I see them!” continued Hawkeye; “they are gathering for
- the rush, or they would keep their dingy backs below the logs. Well, let
- them,” he added, examining his flint; “the leading man certainly comes on
- to his death, though it should be Montcalm himself!”
- </p>
- <p>
- At that moment the woods were filled with another burst of cries, and at
- the signal four savages sprang from the cover of the driftwood. Heyward
- felt a burning desire to rush forward to meet them, so intense was the
- delirious anxiety of the moment; but he was restrained by the deliberate
- examples of the scout and Uncas.
- </p>
- <p>
- When their foes, who had leaped over the black rocks that divided them,
- with long bounds, uttering the wildest yells, were within a few rods, the
- rifle of Hawkeye slowly rose among the shrubs, and poured out its fatal
- contents. The foremost Indian bounded like a stricken deer, and fell
- headlong among the clefts of the island.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, Uncas!” cried the scout, drawing his long knife, while his quick
- eyes began to flash with ardor, “take the last of the screeching imps; of
- the other two we are sartain!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He was obeyed; and but two enemies remained to be overcome. Heyward had
- given one of his pistols to Hawkeye, and together they rushed down a
- little declivity toward their foes; they discharged their weapons at the
- same instant, and equally without success.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know'd it! and I said it!” muttered the scout, whirling the despised
- little implement over the falls with bitter disdain. “Come on, ye bloody
- minded hell-hounds! ye meet a man without a cross!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The words were barely uttered, when he encountered a savage of gigantic
- stature, of the fiercest mien. At the same moment, Duncan found himself
- engaged with the other, in a similar contest of hand to hand. With ready
- skill, Hawkeye and his antagonist each grasped that uplifted arm of the
- other which held the dangerous knife. For near a minute they stood looking
- one another in the eye, and gradually exerting the power of their muscles
- for the mastery.
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0089.jpg" alt="0089" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0089.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- At length, the toughened sinews of the white man prevailed over the less
- practiced limbs of the native. The arm of the latter slowly gave way
- before the increasing force of the scout, who, suddenly wresting his armed
- hand from the grasp of the foe, drove the sharp weapon through his naked
- bosom to the heart. In the meantime, Heyward had been pressed in a more
- deadly struggle. His slight sword was snapped in the first encounter. As
- he was destitute of any other means of defense, his safety now depended
- entirely on bodily strength and resolution. Though deficient in neither of
- these qualities, he had met an enemy every way his equal. Happily, he soon
- succeeded in disarming his adversary, whose knife fell on the rock at
- their feet; and from this moment it became a fierce struggle who should
- cast the other over the dizzy height into a neighboring cavern of the
- falls. Every successive struggle brought them nearer to the verge, where
- Duncan perceived the final and conquering effort must be made. Each of the
- combatants threw all his energies into that effort, and the result was,
- that both tottered on the brink of the precipice. Heyward felt the grasp
- of the other at his throat, and saw the grim smile the savage gave, under
- the revengeful hope that he hurried his enemy to a fate similar to his
- own, as he felt his body slowly yielding to a resistless power, and the
- young man experienced the passing agony of such a moment in all its
- horrors. At that instant of extreme danger, a dark hand and glancing knife
- appeared before him; the Indian released his hold, as the blood flowed
- freely from around the severed tendons of the wrist; and while Duncan was
- drawn backward by the saving hand of Uncas, his charmed eyes still were
- riveted on the fierce and disappointed countenance of his foe, who fell
- sullenly and disappointed down the irrecoverable precipice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “To cover! to cover!” cried Hawkeye, who just then had despatched the
- enemy; “to cover, for your lives! the work is but half ended!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The young Mohican gave a shout of triumph, and followed by Duncan, he
- glided up the acclivity they had descended to the combat, and sought the
- friendly shelter of the rocks and shrubs.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 8
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “They linger yet,
- Avengers of their native land.”—Gray
-</pre>
- <p>
- The warning call of the scout was not uttered without occasion. During the
- occurrence of the deadly encounter just related, the roar of the falls was
- unbroken by any human sound whatever. It would seem that interest in the
- result had kept the natives on the opposite shores in breathless suspense,
- while the quick evolutions and swift changes in the positions of the
- combatants effectually prevented a fire that might prove dangerous alike
- to friend and enemy. But the moment the struggle was decided, a yell arose
- as fierce and savage as wild and revengeful passions could throw into the
- air. It was followed by the swift flashes of the rifles, which sent their
- leaden messengers across the rock in volleys, as though the assailants
- would pour out their impotent fury on the insensible scene of the fatal
- contest.
- </p>
- <p>
- A steady, though deliberate return was made from the rifle of
- Chingachgook, who had maintained his post throughout the fray with unmoved
- resolution. When the triumphant shout of Uncas was borne to his ears, the
- gratified father raised his voice in a single responsive cry, after which
- his busy piece alone proved that he still guarded his pass with unwearied
- diligence. In this manner many minutes flew by with the swiftness of
- thought; the rifles of the assailants speaking, at times, in rattling
- volleys, and at others in occasional, scattering shots. Though the rock,
- the trees, and the shrubs, were cut and torn in a hundred places around
- the besieged, their cover was so close, and so rigidly maintained, that,
- as yet, David had been the only sufferer in their little band.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let them burn their powder,” said the deliberate scout, while bullet
- after bullet whizzed by the place where he securely lay; “there will be a
- fine gathering of lead when it is over, and I fancy the imps will tire of
- the sport afore these old stones cry out for mercy! Uncas, boy, you waste
- the kernels by overcharging; and a kicking rifle never carries a true
- bullet. I told you to take that loping miscreant under the line of white
- point; now, if your bullet went a hair's breadth it went two inches above
- it. The life lies low in a Mingo, and humanity teaches us to make a quick
- end to the sarpents.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A quiet smile lighted the haughty features of the young Mohican, betraying
- his knowledge of the English language as well as of the other's meaning;
- but he suffered it to pass away without vindication of reply.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I cannot permit you to accuse Uncas of want of judgment or of skill,”
- said Duncan; “he saved my life in the coolest and readiest manner, and he
- has made a friend who never will require to be reminded of the debt he
- owes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncas partly raised his body, and offered his hand to the grasp of
- Heyward. During this act of friendship, the two young men exchanged looks
- of intelligence which caused Duncan to forget the character and condition
- of his wild associate. In the meanwhile, Hawkeye, who looked on this burst
- of youthful feeling with a cool but kind regard made the following reply:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Life is an obligation which friends often owe each other in the
- wilderness. I dare say I may have served Uncas some such turn myself
- before now; and I very well remember that he has stood between me and
- death five different times; three times from the Mingoes, once in crossing
- Horican, and—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That bullet was better aimed than common!” exclaimed Duncan,
- involuntarily shrinking from a shot which struck the rock at his side with
- a smart rebound.
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye laid his hand on the shapeless metal, and shook his head, as he
- examined it, saying, “Falling lead is never flattened, had it come from
- the clouds this might have happened.”
- </p>
- <p>
- But the rifle of Uncas was deliberately raised toward the heavens,
- directing the eyes of his companions to a point, where the mystery was
- immediately explained. A ragged oak grew on the right bank of the river,
- nearly opposite to their position, which, seeking the freedom of the open
- space, had inclined so far forward that its upper branches overhung that
- arm of the stream which flowed nearest to its own shore. Among the topmost
- leaves, which scantily concealed the gnarled and stunted limbs, a savage
- was nestled, partly concealed by the trunk of the tree, and partly
- exposed, as though looking down upon them to ascertain the effect produced
- by his treacherous aim.
- </p>
- <p>
- “These devils will scale heaven to circumvent us to our ruin,” said
- Hawkeye; “keep him in play, boy, until I can bring 'killdeer' to bear,
- when we will try his metal on each side of the tree at once.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncas delayed his fire until the scout uttered the word.
- </p>
- <p>
- The rifles flashed, the leaves and bark of the oak flew into the air, and
- were scattered by the wind, but the Indian answered their assault by a
- taunting laugh, sending down upon them another bullet in return, that
- struck the cap of Hawkeye from his head. Once more the savage yells burst
- out of the woods, and the leaden hail whistled above the heads of the
- besieged, as if to confine them to a place where they might become easy
- victims to the enterprise of the warrior who had mounted the tree.
- </p>
- <p>
- “This must be looked to,” said the scout, glancing about him with an
- anxious eye. “Uncas, call up your father; we have need of all our we'pons
- to bring the cunning varmint from his roost.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The signal was instantly given; and, before Hawkeye had reloaded his
- rifle, they were joined by Chingachgook. When his son pointed out to the
- experienced warrior the situation of their dangerous enemy, the usual
- exclamatory “hugh” burst from his lips; after which, no further expression
- of surprise or alarm was suffered to escape him. Hawkeye and the Mohicans
- conversed earnestly together in Delaware for a few moments, when each
- quietly took his post, in order to execute the plan they had speedily
- devised.
- </p>
- <p>
- The warrior in the oak had maintained a quick, though ineffectual fire,
- from the moment of his discovery. But his aim was interrupted by the
- vigilance of his enemies, whose rifles instantaneously bore on any part of
- his person that was left exposed. Still his bullets fell in the center of
- the crouching party. The clothes of Heyward, which rendered him peculiarly
- conspicuous, were repeatedly cut, and once blood was drawn from a slight
- wound in his arm.
- </p>
- <p>
- At length, emboldened by the long and patient watchfulness of his enemies,
- the Huron attempted a better and more fatal aim. The quick eyes of the
- Mohicans caught the dark line of his lower limbs incautiously exposed
- through the thin foliage, a few inches from the trunk of the tree. Their
- rifles made a common report, when, sinking on his wounded limb, part of
- the body of the savage came into view. Swift as thought, Hawkeye seized
- the advantage, and discharged his fatal weapon into the top of the oak.
- The leaves were unusually agitated; the dangerous rifle fell from its
- commanding elevation, and after a few moments of vain struggling, the form
- of the savage was seen swinging in the wind, while he still grasped a
- ragged and naked branch of the tree with hands clenched in desperation.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Give him, in pity, give him the contents of another rifle,” cried Duncan,
- turning away his eyes in horror from the spectacle of a fellow creature in
- such awful jeopardy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not a karnel!” exclaimed the obdurate Hawkeye; “his death is certain, and
- we have no powder to spare, for Indian fights sometimes last for days;
- 'tis their scalps or ours! and God, who made us, has put into our natures
- the craving to keep the skin on the head.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Against this stern and unyielding morality, supported as it was by such
- visible policy, there was no appeal. From that moment the yells in the
- forest once more ceased, the fire was suffered to decline, and all eyes,
- those of friends as well as enemies, became fixed on the hopeless
- condition of the wretch who was dangling between heaven and earth. The
- body yielded to the currents of air, and though no murmur or groan escaped
- the victim, there were instants when he grimly faced his foes, and the
- anguish of cold despair might be traced, through the intervening distance,
- in possession of his swarthy lineaments. Three several times the scout
- raised his piece in mercy, and as often, prudence getting the better of
- his intention, it was again silently lowered. At length one hand of the
- Huron lost its hold, and dropped exhausted to his side. A desperate and
- fruitless struggle to recover the branch succeeded, and then the savage
- was seen for a fleeting instant, grasping wildly at the empty air. The
- lightning is not quicker than was the flame from the rifle of Hawkeye; the
- limbs of the victim trembled and contracted, the head fell to the bosom,
- and the body parted the foaming waters like lead, when the element closed
- above it, in its ceaseless velocity, and every vestige of the unhappy
- Huron was lost forever.
- </p>
- <p>
- No shout of triumph succeeded this important advantage, but even the
- Mohicans gazed at each other in silent horror. A single yell burst from
- the woods, and all was again still. Hawkeye, who alone appeared to reason
- on the occasion, shook his head at his own momentary weakness, even
- uttering his self-disapprobation aloud.
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Twas the last charge in my horn and the last bullet in my pouch, and
- 'twas the act of a boy!” he said; “what mattered it whether he struck the
- rock living or dead! feeling would soon be over. Uncas, lad, go down to
- the canoe, and bring up the big horn; it is all the powder we have left,
- and we shall need it to the last grain, or I am ignorant of the Mingo
- nature.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The young Mohican complied, leaving the scout turning over the useless
- contents of his pouch, and shaking the empty horn with renewed discontent.
- From this unsatisfactory examination, however, he was soon called by a
- loud and piercing exclamation from Uncas, that sounded, even to the
- unpracticed ears of Duncan, as the signal of some new and unexpected
- calamity. Every thought filled with apprehension for the previous treasure
- he had concealed in the cavern, the young man started to his feet, totally
- regardless of the hazard he incurred by such an exposure. As if actuated
- by a common impulse, his movement was imitated by his companions, and,
- together they rushed down the pass to the friendly chasm, with a rapidity
- that rendered the scattering fire of their enemies perfectly harmless. The
- unwonted cry had brought the sisters, together with the wounded David,
- from their place of refuge; and the whole party, at a single glance, was
- made acquainted with the nature of the disaster that had disturbed even
- the practiced stoicism of their youthful Indian protector.
- </p>
- <p>
- At a short distance from the rock, their little bark was to be seen
- floating across the eddy, toward the swift current of the river, in a
- manner which proved that its course was directed by some hidden agent. The
- instant this unwelcome sight caught the eye of the scout, his rifle was
- leveled as by instinct, but the barrel gave no answer to the bright sparks
- of the flint.
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis too late, 'tis too late!” Hawkeye exclaimed, dropping the useless
- piece in bitter disappointment; “the miscreant has struck the rapid; and
- had we powder, it could hardly send the lead swifter than he now goes!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The adventurous Huron raised his head above the shelter of the canoe, and,
- while it glided swiftly down the stream, he waved his hand, and gave forth
- the shout, which was the known signal of success. His cry was answered by
- a yell and a laugh from the woods, as tauntingly exulting as if fifty
- demons were uttering their blasphemies at the fall of some Christian soul.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well may you laugh, ye children of the devil!” said the scout, seating
- himself on a projection of the rock, and suffering his gun to fall
- neglected at his feet, “for the three quickest and truest rifles in these
- woods are no better than so many stalks of mullein, or the last year's
- horns of a buck!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is to be done?” demanded Duncan, losing the first feeling of
- disappointment in a more manly desire for exertion; “what will become of
- us?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye made no other reply than by passing his finger around the crown of
- his head, in a manner so significant, that none who witnessed the action
- could mistake its meaning.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Surely, surely, our case is not so desperate!” exclaimed the youth; “the
- Hurons are not here; we may make good the caverns, we may oppose their
- landing.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “With what?” coolly demanded the scout. “The arrows of Uncas, or such
- tears as women shed! No, no; you are young, and rich, and have friends,
- and at such an age I know it is hard to die! But,” glancing his eyes at
- the Mohicans, “let us remember we are men without a cross, and let us
- teach these natives of the forest that white blood can run as freely as
- red, when the appointed hour is come.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan turned quickly in the direction indicated by the other's eyes, and
- read a confirmation of his worst apprehensions in the conduct of the
- Indians. Chingachgook, placing himself in a dignified posture on another
- fragment of the rock, had already laid aside his knife and tomahawk, and
- was in the act of taking the eagle's plume from his head, and smoothing
- the solitary tuft of hair in readiness to perform its last and revolting
- office. His countenance was composed, though thoughtful, while his dark,
- gleaming eyes were gradually losing the fierceness of the combat in an
- expression better suited to the change he expected momentarily to undergo.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Our case is not, cannot be so hopeless!” said Duncan; “even at this very
- moment succor may be at hand. I see no enemies! They have sickened of a
- struggle in which they risk so much with so little prospect of gain!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It may be a minute, or it may be an hour, afore the wily sarpents steal
- upon us, and it is quite in natur' for them to be lying within hearing at
- this very moment,” said Hawkeye; “but come they will, and in such a
- fashion as will leave us nothing to hope! Chingachgook”—he spoke in
- Delaware—“my brother, we have fought our last battle together, and
- the Maquas will triumph in the death of the sage man of the Mohicans, and
- of the pale face, whose eyes can make night as day, and level the clouds
- to the mists of the springs!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let the Mingo women go weep over the slain!” returned the Indian, with
- characteristic pride and unmoved firmness; “the Great Snake of the
- Mohicans has coiled himself in their wigwams, and has poisoned their
- triumph with the wailings of children, whose fathers have not returned!
- Eleven warriors lie hid from the graves of their tribes since the snows
- have melted, and none will tell where to find them when the tongue of
- Chingachgook shall be silent! Let them draw the sharpest knife, and whirl
- the swiftest tomahawk, for their bitterest enemy is in their hands. Uncas,
- topmost branch of a noble trunk, call on the cowards to hasten, or their
- hearts will soften, and they will change to women!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They look among the fishes for their dead!” returned the low, soft voice
- of the youthful chieftain; “the Hurons float with the slimy eels! They
- drop from the oaks like fruit that is ready to be eaten! and the Delawares
- laugh!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, ay,” muttered the scout, who had listened to this peculiar burst of
- the natives with deep attention; “they have warmed their Indian feelings,
- and they'll soon provoke the Maquas to give them a speedy end. As for me,
- who am of the whole blood of the whites, it is befitting that I should die
- as becomes my color, with no words of scoffing in my mouth, and without
- bitterness at the heart!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why die at all!” said Cora, advancing from the place where natural horror
- had, until this moment, held her riveted to the rock; “the path is open on
- every side; fly, then, to the woods, and call on God for succor. Go, brave
- men, we owe you too much already; let us no longer involve you in our
- hapless fortunes!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You but little know the craft of the Iroquois, lady, if you judge they
- have left the path open to the woods!” returned Hawkeye, who, however,
- immediately added in his simplicity, “the down stream current, it is
- certain, might soon sweep us beyond the reach of their rifles or the sound
- of their voices.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then try the river. Why linger to add to the number of the victims of our
- merciless enemies?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why,” repeated the scout, looking about him proudly; “because it is
- better for a man to die at peace with himself than to live haunted by an
- evil conscience! What answer could we give Munro, when he asked us where
- and how we left his children?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Go to him, and say that you left them with a message to hasten to their
- aid,” returned Cora, advancing nigher to the scout in her generous ardor;
- “that the Hurons bear them into the northern wilds, but that by vigilance
- and speed they may yet be rescued; and if, after all, it should please
- heaven that his assistance come too late, bear to him,” she continued, her
- voice gradually lowering, until it seemed nearly choked, “the love, the
- blessings, the final prayers of his daughters, and bid him not mourn their
- early fate, but to look forward with humble confidence to the Christian's
- goal to meet his children.” The hard, weather-beaten features of the scout
- began to work, and when she had ended, he dropped his chin to his hand,
- like a man musing profoundly on the nature of the proposal.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There is reason in her words!” at length broke from his compressed and
- trembling lips; “ay, and they bear the spirit of Christianity; what might
- be right and proper in a red-skin, may be sinful in a man who has not even
- a cross in blood to plead for his ignorance. Chingachgook! Uncas! hear you
- the talk of the dark-eyed woman?”
- </p>
- <p>
- He now spoke in Delaware to his companions, and his address, though calm
- and deliberate, seemed very decided. The elder Mohican heard with deep
- gravity, and appeared to ponder on his words, as though he felt the
- importance of their import. After a moment of hesitation, he waved his
- hand in assent, and uttered the English word “Good!” with the peculiar
- emphasis of his people. Then, replacing his knife and tomahawk in his
- girdle, the warrior moved silently to the edge of the rock which was most
- concealed from the banks of the river. Here he paused a moment, pointed
- significantly to the woods below, and saying a few words in his own
- language, as if indicating his intended route, he dropped into the water,
- and sank from before the eyes of the witnesses of his movements.
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout delayed his departure to speak to the generous girl, whose
- breathing became lighter as she saw the success of her remonstrance.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Wisdom is sometimes given to the young, as well as to the old,” he said;
- “and what you have spoken is wise, not to call it by a better word. If you
- are led into the woods, that is such of you as may be spared for awhile,
- break the twigs on the bushes as you pass, and make the marks of your
- trail as broad as you can, when, if mortal eyes can see them, depend on
- having a friend who will follow to the ends of the 'arth afore he desarts
- you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He gave Cora an affectionate shake of the hand, lifted his rifle, and
- after regarding it a moment with melancholy solicitude, laid it carefully
- aside, and descended to the place where Chingachgook had just disappeared.
- For an instant he hung suspended by the rock, and looking about him, with
- a countenance of peculiar care, he added bitterly, “Had the powder held
- out, this disgrace could never have befallen!” then, loosening his hold,
- the water closed above his head, and he also became lost to view.
- </p>
- <p>
- All eyes now were turned on Uncas, who stood leaning against the ragged
- rock, in immovable composure. After waiting a short time, Cora pointed
- down the river, and said:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Your friends have not been seen, and are now, most probably, in safety.
- Is it not time for you to follow?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Uncas will stay,” the young Mohican calmly answered in English.
- </p>
- <p>
- “To increase the horror of our capture, and to diminish the chances of our
- release! Go, generous young man,” Cora continued, lowering her eyes under
- the gaze of the Mohican, and perhaps, with an intuitive consciousness of
- her power; “go to my father, as I have said, and be the most confidential
- of my messengers. Tell him to trust you with the means to buy the freedom
- of his daughters. Go! 'tis my wish, 'tis my prayer, that you will go!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The settled, calm look of the young chief changed to an expression of
- gloom, but he no longer hesitated. With a noiseless step he crossed the
- rock, and dropped into the troubled stream. Hardly a breath was drawn by
- those he left behind, until they caught a glimpse of his head emerging for
- air, far down the current, when he again sank, and was seen no more.
- </p>
- <p>
- These sudden and apparently successful experiments had all taken place in
- a few minutes of that time which had now become so precious. After a last
- look at Uncas, Cora turned and with a quivering lip, addressed herself to
- Heyward:
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have heard of your boasted skill in the water, too, Duncan,” she said;
- “follow, then, the wise example set you by these simple and faithful
- beings.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is such the faith that Cora Munro would exact from her protector?” said
- the young man, smiling mournfully, but with bitterness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “This is not a time for idle subtleties and false opinions,” she answered;
- “but a moment when every duty should be equally considered. To us you can
- be of no further service here, but your precious life may be saved for
- other and nearer friends.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He made no reply, though his eye fell wistfully on the beautiful form of
- Alice, who was clinging to his arm with the dependency of an infant.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Consider,” continued Cora, after a pause, during which she seemed to
- struggle with a pang even more acute than any that her fears had excited,
- “that the worst to us can be but death; a tribute that all must pay at the
- good time of God's appointment.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There are evils worse than death,” said Duncan, speaking hoarsely, and as
- if fretful at her importunity, “but which the presence of one who would
- die in your behalf may avert.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Cora ceased her entreaties; and veiling her face in her shawl, drew the
- nearly insensible Alice after her into the deepest recess of the inner
- cavern.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 9
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Be gay securely;
- Dispel, my fair, with smiles, the tim'rous clouds,
- That hang on thy clear brow.”—Death of Agrippina
-</pre>
- <p>
- The sudden and almost magical change, from the stirring incidents of the
- combat to the stillness that now reigned around him, acted on the heated
- imagination of Heyward like some exciting dream. While all the images and
- events he had witnessed remained deeply impressed on his memory, he felt a
- difficulty in persuading him of their truth. Still ignorant of the fate of
- those who had trusted to the aid of the swift current, he at first
- listened intently to any signal or sounds of alarm, which might announce
- the good or evil fortune of their hazardous undertaking. His attention
- was, however, bestowed in vain; for with the disappearance of Uncas, every
- sign of the adventurers had been lost, leaving him in total uncertainty of
- their fate.
- </p>
- <p>
- In a moment of such painful doubt, Duncan did not hesitate to look around
- him, without consulting that protection from the rocks which just before
- had been so necessary to his safety. Every effort, however, to detect the
- least evidence of the approach of their hidden enemies was as fruitless as
- the inquiry after his late companions. The wooded banks of the river
- seemed again deserted by everything possessing animal life. The uproar
- which had so lately echoed through the vaults of the forest was gone,
- leaving the rush of the waters to swell and sink on the currents of the
- air, in the unmingled sweetness of nature. A fish-hawk, which, secure on
- the topmost branches of a dead pine, had been a distant spectator of the
- fray, now swooped from his high and ragged perch, and soared, in wide
- sweeps, above his prey; while a jay, whose noisy voice had been stilled by
- the hoarser cries of the savages, ventured again to open his discordant
- throat, as though once more in undisturbed possession of his wild domains.
- Duncan caught from these natural accompaniments of the solitary scene a
- glimmering of hope; and he began to rally his faculties to renewed
- exertions, with something like a reviving confidence of success.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Hurons are not to be seen,” he said, addressing David, who had by no
- means recovered from the effects of the stunning blow he had received;
- “let us conceal ourselves in the cavern, and trust the rest to
- Providence.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I remember to have united with two comely maidens, in lifting up our
- voices in praise and thanksgiving,” returned the bewildered
- singing-master; “since which time I have been visited by a heavy judgment
- for my sins. I have been mocked with the likeness of sleep, while sounds
- of discord have rent my ears, such as might manifest the fullness of time,
- and that nature had forgotten her harmony.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Poor fellow! thine own period was, in truth, near its accomplishment! But
- arouse, and come with me; I will lead you where all other sounds but those
- of your own psalmody shall be excluded.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There is melody in the fall of the cataract, and the rushing of many
- waters is sweet to the senses!” said David, pressing his hand confusedly
- on his brow. “Is not the air yet filled with shrieks and cries, as though
- the departed spirits of the damned—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not now, not now,” interrupted the impatient Heyward, “they have ceased,
- and they who raised them, I trust in God, they are gone, too! everything
- but the water is still and at peace; in, then, where you may create those
- sounds you love so well to hear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- David smiled sadly, though not without a momentary gleam of pleasure, at
- this allusion to his beloved vocation. He no longer hesitated to be led to
- a spot which promised such unalloyed gratification to his wearied senses;
- and leaning on the arm of his companion, he entered the narrow mouth of
- the cave. Duncan seized a pile of the sassafras, which he drew before the
- passage, studiously concealing every appearance of an aperture. Within
- this fragile barrier he arranged the blankets abandoned by the foresters,
- darkening the inner extremity of the cavern, while its outer received a
- chastened light from the narrow ravine, through which one arm of the river
- rushed to form the junction with its sister branch a few rods below.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I like not the principle of the natives, which teaches them to submit
- without a struggle, in emergencies that appear desperate,” he said, while
- busied in this employment; “our own maxim, which says, 'while life remains
- there is hope', is more consoling, and better suited to a soldier's
- temperament. To you, Cora, I will urge no words of idle encouragement;
- your own fortitude and undisturbed reason will teach you all that may
- become your sex; but cannot we dry the tears of that trembling weeper on
- your bosom?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am calmer, Duncan,” said Alice, raising herself from the arms of her
- sister, and forcing an appearance of composure through her tears; “much
- calmer, now. Surely, in this hidden spot we are safe, we are secret, free
- from injury; we will hope everything from those generous men who have
- risked so much already in our behalf.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now does our gentle Alice speak like a daughter of Munro!” said Heyward,
- pausing to press her hand as he passed toward the outer entrance of the
- cavern. “With two such examples of courage before him, a man would be
- ashamed to prove other than a hero.” He then seated himself in the center
- of the cavern, grasping his remaining pistol with a hand convulsively
- clenched, while his contracted and frowning eye announced the sullen
- desperation of his purpose. “The Hurons, if they come, may not gain our
- position so easily as they think,” he slowly muttered; and propping his
- head back against the rock, he seemed to await the result in patience,
- though his gaze was unceasingly bent on the open avenue to their place of
- retreat.
- </p>
- <p>
- With the last sound of his voice, a deep, a long, and almost breathless
- silence succeeded. The fresh air of the morning had penetrated the recess,
- and its influence was gradually felt on the spirits of its inmates. As
- minute after minute passed by, leaving them in undisturbed security, the
- insinuating feeling of hope was gradually gaining possession of every
- bosom, though each one felt reluctant to give utterance to expectations
- that the next moment might so fearfully destroy.
- </p>
- <p>
- David alone formed an exception to these varying emotions. A gleam of
- light from the opening crossed his wan countenance, and fell upon the
- pages of the little volume, whose leaves he was again occupied in turning,
- as if searching for some song more fitted to their condition than any that
- had yet met their eye. He was, most probably, acting all this time under a
- confused recollection of the promised consolation of Duncan. At length, it
- would seem, his patient industry found its reward; for, without
- explanation or apology, he pronounced aloud the words “Isle of Wight,”
- drew a long, sweet sound from his pitch-pipe, and then ran through the
- preliminary modulations of the air whose name he had just mentioned, with
- the sweeter tones of his own musical voice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “May not this prove dangerous?” asked Cora, glancing her dark eye at Major
- Heyward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Poor fellow! his voice is too feeble to be heard above the din of the
- falls,” was the answer; “beside, the cavern will prove his friend. Let him
- indulge his passions since it may be done without hazard.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Isle of Wight!” repeated David, looking about him with that dignity with
- which he had long been wont to silence the whispering echoes of his
- school; “'tis a brave tune, and set to solemn words! let it be sung with
- meet respect!”
- </p>
- <p>
- After allowing a moment of stillness to enforce his discipline, the voice
- of the singer was heard, in low, murmuring syllables, gradually stealing
- on the ear, until it filled the narrow vault with sounds rendered trebly
- thrilling by the feeble and tremulous utterance produced by his debility.
- The melody, which no weakness could destroy, gradually wrought its sweet
- influence on the senses of those who heard it. It even prevailed over the
- miserable travesty of the song of David which the singer had selected from
- a volume of similar effusions, and caused the sense to be forgotten in the
- insinuating harmony of the sounds. Alice unconsciously dried her tears,
- and bent her melting eyes on the pallid features of Gamut, with an
- expression of chastened delight that she neither affected or wished to
- conceal. Cora bestowed an approving smile on the pious efforts of the
- namesake of the Jewish prince, and Heyward soon turned his steady, stern
- look from the outlet of the cavern, to fasten it, with a milder character,
- on the face of David, or to meet the wandering beams which at moments
- strayed from the humid eyes of Alice. The open sympathy of the listeners
- stirred the spirit of the votary of music, whose voice regained its
- richness and volume, without losing that touching softness which proved
- its secret charm. Exerting his renovated powers to their utmost, he was
- yet filling the arches of the cave with long and full tones, when a yell
- burst into the air without, that instantly stilled his pious strains,
- choking his voice suddenly, as though his heart had literally bounded into
- the passage of his throat.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are lost!” exclaimed Alice, throwing herself into the arms of Cora.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not yet, not yet,” returned the agitated but undaunted Heyward: “the
- sound came from the center of the island, and it has been produced by the
- sight of their dead companions. We are not yet discovered, and there is
- still hope.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Faint and almost despairing as was the prospect of escape, the words of
- Duncan were not thrown away, for it awakened the powers of the sisters in
- such a manner that they awaited the results in silence. A second yell soon
- followed the first, when a rush of voices was heard pouring down the
- island, from its upper to its lower extremity, until they reached the
- naked rock above the caverns, where, after a shout of savage triumph, the
- air continued full of horrible cries and screams, such as man alone can
- utter, and he only when in a state of the fiercest barbarity.
- </p>
- <p>
- The sounds quickly spread around them in every direction. Some called to
- their fellows from the water's edge, and were answered from the heights
- above. Cries were heard in the startling vicinity of the chasm between the
- two caves, which mingled with hoarser yells that arose out of the abyss of
- the deep ravine. In short, so rapidly had the savage sounds diffused
- themselves over the barren rock, that it was not difficult for the anxious
- listeners to imagine they could be heard beneath, as in truth they were
- above on every side of them.
- </p>
- <p>
- In the midst of this tumult, a triumphant yell was raised within a few
- yards of the hidden entrance to the cave. Heyward abandoned every hope,
- with the belief it was the signal that they were discovered. Again the
- impression passed away, as he heard the voices collect near the spot where
- the white man had so reluctantly abandoned his rifle. Amid the jargon of
- Indian dialects that he now plainly heard, it was easy to distinguish not
- only words, but sentences, in the patois of the Canadas. A burst of voices
- had shouted simultaneously, “La Longue Carabine!” causing the opposite
- woods to re-echo with a name which, Heyward well remembered, had been
- given by his enemies to a celebrated hunter and scout of the English camp,
- and who, he now learned for the first time, had been his late companion.
- </p>
- <p>
- “La Longue Carabine! La Longue Carabine!” passed from mouth to mouth,
- until the whole band appeared to be collected around a trophy which would
- seem to announce the death of its formidable owner. After a vociferous
- consultation, which was, at times, deafened by bursts of savage joy, they
- again separated, filling the air with the name of a foe, whose body,
- Heywood could collect from their expressions, they hoped to find concealed
- in some crevice of the island.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now,” he whispered to the trembling sisters, “now is the moment of
- uncertainty! if our place of retreat escape this scrutiny, we are still
- safe! In every event, we are assured, by what has fallen from our enemies,
- that our friends have escaped, and in two short hours we may look for
- succor from Webb.”
- </p>
- <p>
- There were now a few minutes of fearful stillness, during which Heyward
- well knew that the savages conducted their search with greater vigilance
- and method. More than once he could distinguish their footsteps, as they
- brushed the sassafras, causing the faded leaves to rustle, and the
- branches to snap. At length, the pile yielded a little, a corner of a
- blanket fell, and a faint ray of light gleamed into the inner part of the
- cave. Cora folded Alice to her bosom in agony, and Duncan sprang to his
- feet. A shout was at that moment heard, as if issuing from the center of
- the rock, announcing that the neighboring cavern had at length been
- entered. In a minute, the number and loudness of the voices indicated that
- the whole party was collected in and around that secret place.
- </p>
- <p>
- As the inner passages to the two caves were so close to each other,
- Duncan, believing that escape was no longer possible, passed David and the
- sisters, to place himself between the latter and the first onset of the
- terrible meeting. Grown desperate by his situation, he drew nigh the
- slight barrier which separated him only by a few feet from his relentless
- pursuers, and placing his face to the casual opening, he even looked out
- with a sort of desperate indifference, on their movements.
- </p>
- <p>
- Within reach of his arm was the brawny shoulder of a gigantic Indian,
- whose deep and authoritative voice appeared to give directions to the
- proceedings of his fellows. Beyond him again, Duncan could look into the
- vault opposite, which was filled with savages, upturning and rifling the
- humble furniture of the scout. The wound of David had dyed the leaves of
- sassafras with a color that the native well knew as anticipating the
- season. Over this sign of their success, they sent up a howl, like an
- opening from so many hounds who had recovered a lost trail. After this
- yell of victory, they tore up the fragrant bed of the cavern, and bore the
- branches into the chasm, scattering the boughs, as if they suspected them
- of concealing the person of the man they had so long hated and feared. One
- fierce and wild-looking warrior approached the chief, bearing a load of
- the brush, and pointing exultingly to the deep red stains with which it
- was sprinkled, uttered his joy in Indian yells, whose meaning Heyward was
- only enabled to comprehend by the frequent repetition of the name “La
- Longue Carabine!” When his triumph had ceased, he cast the brush on the
- slight heap Duncan had made before the entrance of the second cavern, and
- closed the view. His example was followed by others, who, as they drew the
- branches from the cave of the scout, threw them into one pile, adding,
- unconsciously, to the security of those they sought. The very slightness
- of the defense was its chief merit, for no one thought of disturbing a
- mass of brush, which all of them believed, in that moment of hurry and
- confusion, had been accidentally raised by the hands of their own party.
- </p>
- <p>
- As the blankets yielded before the outward pressure, and the branches
- settled in the fissure of the rock by their own weight, forming a compact
- body, Duncan once more breathed freely. With a light step and lighter
- heart, he returned to the center of the cave, and took the place he had
- left, where he could command a view of the opening next the river. While
- he was in the act of making this movement, the Indians, as if changing
- their purpose by a common impulse, broke away from the chasm in a body,
- and were heard rushing up the island again, toward the point whence they
- had originally descended. Here another wailing cry betrayed that they were
- again collected around the bodies of their dead comrades.
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan now ventured to look at his companions; for, during the most
- critical moments of their danger, he had been apprehensive that the
- anxiety of his countenance might communicate some additional alarm to
- those who were so little able to sustain it.
- </p>
- <p>
- “They are gone, Cora!” he whispered; “Alice, they are returned whence they
- came, and we are saved! To Heaven, that has alone delivered us from the
- grasp of so merciless an enemy, be all the praise!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then to Heaven will I return my thanks!” exclaimed the younger sister,
- rising from the encircling arm of Cora, and casting herself with
- enthusiastic gratitude on the naked rock; “to that Heaven who has spared
- the tears of a gray-headed father; has saved the lives of those I so much
- love.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Both Heyward and the more temperate Cora witnessed the act of involuntary
- emotion with powerful sympathy, the former secretly believing that piety
- had never worn a form so lovely as it had now assumed in the youthful
- person of Alice. Her eyes were radiant with the glow of grateful feelings;
- the flush of her beauty was again seated on her cheeks, and her whole soul
- seemed ready and anxious to pour out its thanksgivings through the medium
- of her eloquent features. But when her lips moved, the words they should
- have uttered appeared frozen by some new and sudden chill. Her bloom gave
- place to the paleness of death; her soft and melting eyes grew hard, and
- seemed contracting with horror; while those hands, which she had raised,
- clasped in each other, toward heaven, dropped in horizontal lines before
- her, the fingers pointed forward in convulsed motion. Heyward turned the
- instant she gave a direction to his suspicions, and peering just above the
- ledge which formed the threshold of the open outlet of the cavern, he
- beheld the malignant, fierce and savage features of Le Renard Subtil.
- </p>
- <p>
- In that moment of surprise, the self-possession of Heyward did not desert
- him. He observed by the vacant expression of the Indian's countenance,
- that his eye, accustomed to the open air had not yet been able to
- penetrate the dusky light which pervaded the depth of the cavern. He had
- even thought of retreating beyond a curvature in the natural wall, which
- might still conceal him and his companions, when by the sudden gleam of
- intelligence that shot across the features of the savage, he saw it was
- too late, and that they were betrayed.
- </p>
- <p>
- The look of exultation and brutal triumph which announced this terrible
- truth was irresistibly irritating. Forgetful of everything but the
- impulses of his hot blood, Duncan leveled his pistol and fired. The report
- of the weapon made the cavern bellow like an eruption from a volcano; and
- when the smoke it vomited had been driven away before the current of air
- which issued from the ravine the place so lately occupied by the features
- of his treacherous guide was vacant. Rushing to the outlet, Heyward caught
- a glimpse of his dark figure stealing around a low and narrow ledge, which
- soon hid him entirely from sight.
- </p>
- <p>
- Among the savages a frightful stillness succeeded the explosion, which had
- just been heard bursting from the bowels of the rock. But when Le Renard
- raised his voice in a long and intelligible whoop, it was answered by a
- spontaneous yell from the mouth of every Indian within hearing of the
- sound.
- </p>
- <p>
- The clamorous noises again rushed down the island; and before Duncan had
- time to recover from the shock, his feeble barrier of brush was scattered
- to the winds, the cavern was entered at both its extremities, and he and
- his companions were dragged from their shelter and borne into the day,
- where they stood surrounded by the whole band of the triumphant Hurons.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 10
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “I fear we shall outsleep the coming morn
- As much as we this night have overwatched!”
- —Midsummer Night's Dream
-</pre>
- <p>
- The instant the shock of this sudden misfortune had abated, Duncan began
- to make his observations on the appearance and proceedings of their
- captors. Contrary to the usages of the natives in the wantonness of their
- success they had respected, not only the persons of the trembling sisters,
- but his own. The rich ornaments of his military attire had indeed been
- repeatedly handled by different individuals of the tribes with eyes
- expressing a savage longing to possess the baubles; but before the
- customary violence could be resorted to, a mandate in the authoritative
- voice of the large warrior, already mentioned, stayed the uplifted hand,
- and convinced Heyward that they were to be reserved for some object of
- particular moment.
- </p>
- <p>
- While, however, these manifestations of weakness were exhibited by the
- young and vain of the party, the more experienced warriors continued their
- search throughout both caverns, with an activity that denoted they were
- far from being satisfied with those fruits of their conquest which had
- already been brought to light. Unable to discover any new victim, these
- diligent workers of vengeance soon approached their male prisoners,
- pronouncing the name “La Longue Carabine,” with a fierceness that could
- not be easily mistaken. Duncan affected not to comprehend the meaning of
- their repeated and violent interrogatories, while his companion was spared
- the effort of a similar deception by his ignorance of French. Wearied at
- length by their importunities, and apprehensive of irritating his captors
- by too stubborn a silence, the former looked about him in quest of Magua,
- who might interpret his answers to questions which were at each moment
- becoming more earnest and threatening.
- </p>
- <p>
- The conduct of this savage had formed a solitary exception to that of all
- his fellows. While the others were busily occupied in seeking to gratify
- their childish passion for finery, by plundering even the miserable
- effects of the scout, or had been searching with such bloodthirsty
- vengeance in their looks for their absent owner, Le Renard had stood at a
- little distance from the prisoners, with a demeanor so quiet and
- satisfied, as to betray that he had already effected the grand purpose of
- his treachery. When the eyes of Heyward first met those of his recent
- guide, he turned them away in horror at the sinister though calm look he
- encountered. Conquering his disgust, however, he was able, with an averted
- face, to address his successful enemy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Le Renard Subtil is too much of a warrior,” said the reluctant Heyward,
- “to refuse telling an unarmed man what his conquerors say.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They ask for the hunter who knows the paths through the woods,” returned
- Magua, in his broken English, laying his hand, at the same time, with a
- ferocious smile, on the bundle of leaves with which a wound on his own
- shoulder was bandaged. “'La Longue Carabine'! His rifle is good, and his
- eye never shut; but, like the short gun of the white chief, it is nothing
- against the life of Le Subtil.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Le Renard is too brave to remember the hurts received in war, or the
- hands that gave them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Was it war, when the tired Indian rested at the sugartree to taste his
- corn! who filled the bushes with creeping enemies! who drew the knife,
- whose tongue was peace, while his heart was colored with blood! Did Magua
- say that the hatchet was out of the ground, and that his hand had dug it
- up?”
- </p>
- <p>
- As Duncan dared not retort upon his accuser by reminding him of his own
- premeditated treachery, and disdained to deprecate his resentment by any
- words of apology, he remained silent. Magua seemed also content to rest
- the controversy as well as all further communication there, for he resumed
- the leaning attitude against the rock from which, in momentary energy, he
- had arisen. But the cry of “La Longue Carabine” was renewed the instant
- the impatient savages perceived that the short dialogue was ended.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You hear,” said Magua, with stubborn indifference: “the red Hurons call
- for the life of 'The Long Rifle', or they will have the blood of him that
- keep him hid!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He is gone—escaped; he is far beyond their reach.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Renard smiled with cold contempt, as he answered:
- </p>
- <p>
- “When the white man dies, he thinks he is at peace; but the red men know
- how to torture even the ghosts of their enemies. Where is his body? Let
- the Hurons see his scalp.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He is not dead, but escaped.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua shook his head incredulously.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is he a bird, to spread his wings; or is he a fish, to swim without air!
- The white chief read in his books, and he believes the Hurons are fools!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Though no fish, 'The Long Rifle' can swim. He floated down the stream
- when the powder was all burned, and when the eyes of the Hurons were
- behind a cloud.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And why did the white chief stay?” demanded the still incredulous Indian.
- “Is he a stone that goes to the bottom, or does the scalp burn his head?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That I am not stone, your dead comrade, who fell into the falls, might
- answer, were the life still in him,” said the provoked young man, using,
- in his anger, that boastful language which was most likely to excite the
- admiration of an Indian. “The white man thinks none but cowards desert
- their women.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua muttered a few words, inaudibly, between his teeth, before he
- continued, aloud:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can the Delawares swim, too, as well as crawl in the bushes? Where is 'Le
- Gros Serpent'?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan, who perceived by the use of these Canadian appellations, that his
- late companions were much better known to his enemies than to himself,
- answered, reluctantly: “He also is gone down with the water.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Le Cerf Agile' is not here?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know not whom you call 'The Nimble Deer',” said Duncan gladly profiting
- by any excuse to create delay.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Uncas,” returned Magua, pronouncing the Delaware name with even greater
- difficulty than he spoke his English words. “'Bounding Elk' is what the
- white man says, when he calls to the young Mohican.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Here is some confusion in names between us, Le Renard,” said Duncan,
- hoping to provoke a discussion. “Daim is the French for deer, and cerf for
- stag; elan is the true term, when one would speak of an elk.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes,” muttered the Indian, in his native tongue; “the pale faces are
- prattling women! they have two words for each thing, while a red-skin will
- make the sound of his voice speak to him.” Then, changing his language, he
- continued, adhering to the imperfect nomenclature of his provincial
- instructors. “The deer is swift, but weak; the elk is swift, but strong;
- and the son of 'Le Serpent' is 'Le Cerf Agile.' Has he leaped the river to
- the woods?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If you mean the younger Delaware, he, too, has gone down with the water.”
- </p>
- <p>
- As there was nothing improbable to an Indian in the manner of the escape,
- Magua admitted the truth of what he had heard, with a readiness that
- afforded additional evidence how little he would prize such worthless
- captives. With his companions, however, the feeling was manifestly
- different.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Hurons had awaited the result of this short dialogue with
- characteristic patience, and with a silence that increased until there was
- a general stillness in the band. When Heyward ceased to speak, they turned
- their eyes, as one man, on Magua, demanding, in this expressive manner, an
- explanation of what had been said. Their interpreter pointed to the river,
- and made them acquainted with the result, as much by the action as by the
- few words he uttered. When the fact was generally understood, the savages
- raised a frightful yell, which declared the extent of their
- disappointment. Some ran furiously to the water's edge, beating the air
- with frantic gestures, while others spat upon the element, to resent the
- supposed treason it had committed against their acknowledged rights as
- conquerors. A few, and they not the least powerful and terrific of the
- band, threw lowering looks, in which the fiercest passion was only
- tempered by habitual self-command, at those captives who still remained in
- their power, while one or two even gave vent to their malignant feelings
- by the most menacing gestures, against which neither the sex nor the
- beauty of the sisters was any protection. The young soldier made a
- desperate but fruitless effort to spring to the side of Alice, when he saw
- the dark hand of a savage twisted in the rich tresses which were flowing
- in volumes over her shoulders, while a knife was passed around the head
- from which they fell, as if to denote the horrid manner in which it was
- about to be robbed of its beautiful ornament. But his hands were bound;
- and at the first movement he made, he felt the grasp of the powerful
- Indian who directed the band, pressing his shoulder like a vise.
- Immediately conscious how unavailing any struggle against such an
- overwhelming force must prove, he submitted to his fate, encouraging his
- gentle companions by a few low and tender assurances, that the natives
- seldom failed to threaten more than they performed.
- </p>
- <p>
- But while Duncan resorted to these words of consolation to quiet the
- apprehensions of the sisters, he was not so weak as to deceive himself. He
- well knew that the authority of an Indian chief was so little
- conventional, that it was oftener maintained by physical superiority than
- by any moral supremacy he might possess. The danger was, therefore,
- magnified exactly in proportion to the number of the savage spirits by
- which they were surrounded. The most positive mandate from him who seemed
- the acknowledged leader, was liable to be violated at each moment by any
- rash hand that might choose to sacrifice a victim to the manes of some
- dead friend or relative. While, therefore, he sustained an outward
- appearance of calmness and fortitude, his heart leaped into his throat,
- whenever any of their fierce captors drew nearer than common to the
- helpless sisters, or fastened one of their sullen, wandering looks on
- those fragile forms which were so little able to resist the slightest
- assault.
- </p>
- <p>
- His apprehensions were, however, greatly relieved, when he saw that the
- leader had summoned his warriors to himself in counsel. Their
- deliberations were short, and it would seem, by the silence of most of the
- party, the decision unanimous. By the frequency with which the few
- speakers pointed in the direction of the encampment of Webb, it was
- apparent they dreaded the approach of danger from that quarter. This
- consideration probably hastened their determination, and quickened the
- subsequent movements.
- </p>
- <p>
- During his short conference, Heyward, finding a respite from his gravest
- fears, had leisure to admire the cautious manner in which the Hurons had
- made their approaches, even after hostilities had ceased.
- </p>
- <p>
- It has already been stated that the upper half of the island was a naked
- rock, and destitute of any other defenses than a few scattered logs of
- driftwood. They had selected this point to make their descent, having
- borne the canoe through the wood around the cataract for that purpose.
- Placing their arms in the little vessel a dozen men clinging to its sides
- had trusted themselves to the direction of the canoe, which was controlled
- by two of the most skillful warriors, in attitudes that enabled them to
- command a view of the dangerous passage. Favored by this arrangement, they
- touched the head of the island at that point which had proved so fatal to
- their first adventurers, but with the advantages of superior numbers, and
- the possession of firearms. That such had been the manner of their descent
- was rendered quite apparent to Duncan; for they now bore the light bark
- from the upper end of the rock, and placed it in the water, near the mouth
- of the outer cavern. As soon as this change was made, the leader made
- signs to the prisoners to descend and enter.
- </p>
- <p>
- As resistance was impossible, and remonstrance useless, Heyward set the
- example of submission, by leading the way into the canoe, where he was
- soon seated with the sisters and the still wondering David.
- Notwithstanding the Hurons were necessarily ignorant of the little
- channels among the eddies and rapids of the stream, they knew the common
- signs of such a navigation too well to commit any material blunder. When
- the pilot chosen for the task of guiding the canoe had taken his station,
- the whole band plunged again into the river, the vessel glided down the
- current, and in a few moments the captives found themselves on the south
- bank of the stream, nearly opposite to the point where they had struck it
- the preceding evening.
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0123.jpg" alt="0123" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0123.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- Here was held another short but earnest consultation, during which the
- horses, to whose panic their owners ascribed their heaviest misfortune,
- were led from the cover of the woods, and brought to the sheltered spot.
- The band now divided. The great chief, so often mentioned, mounting the
- charger of Heyward, led the way directly across the river, followed by
- most of his people, and disappeared in the woods, leaving the prisoners in
- charge of six savages, at whose head was Le Renard Subtil. Duncan
- witnessed all their movements with renewed uneasiness.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had been fond of believing, from the uncommon forbearance of the
- savages, that he was reserved as a prisoner to be delivered to Montcalm.
- As the thoughts of those who are in misery seldom slumber, and the
- invention is never more lively than when it is stimulated by hope, however
- feeble and remote, he had even imagined that the parental feelings of
- Munro were to be made instrumental in seducing him from his duty to the
- king. For though the French commander bore a high character for courage
- and enterprise, he was also thought to be expert in those political
- practises which do not always respect the nicer obligations of morality,
- and which so generally disgraced the European diplomacy of that period.
- </p>
- <p>
- All those busy and ingenious speculations were now annihilated by the
- conduct of his captors. That portion of the band who had followed the huge
- warrior took the route toward the foot of the Horican, and no other
- expectation was left for himself and companions, than that they were to be
- retained as hopeless captives by their savage conquerors. Anxious to know
- the worst, and willing, in such an emergency, to try the potency of gold
- he overcame his reluctance to speak to Magua. Addressing himself to his
- former guide, who had now assumed the authority and manner of one who was
- to direct the future movements of the party, he said, in tones as friendly
- and confiding as he could assume:
- </p>
- <p>
- “I would speak to Magua, what is fit only for so great a chief to hear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Indian turned his eyes on the young soldier scornfully, as he
- answered:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Speak; trees have no ears.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But the red Hurons are not deaf; and counsel that is fit for the great
- men of a nation would make the young warriors drunk. If Magua will not
- listen, the officer of the king knows how to be silent.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The savage spoke carelessly to his comrades, who were busied, after their
- awkward manner, in preparing the horses for the reception of the sisters,
- and moved a little to one side, whither by a cautious gesture he induced
- Heyward to follow.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, speak,” he said; “if the words are such as Magua should hear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Le Renard Subtil has proved himself worthy of the honorable name given to
- him by his Canada fathers,” commenced Heyward; “I see his wisdom, and all
- that he has done for us, and shall remember it when the hour to reward him
- arrives. Yes! Renard has proved that he is not only a great chief in
- council, but one who knows how to deceive his enemies!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What has Renard done?” coldly demanded the Indian.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What! has he not seen that the woods were filled with outlying parties of
- the enemies, and that the serpent could not steal through them without
- being seen? Then, did he not lose his path to blind the eyes of the
- Hurons? Did he not pretend to go back to his tribe, who had treated him
- ill, and driven him from their wigwams like a dog? And when he saw what he
- wished to do, did we not aid him, by making a false face, that the Hurons
- might think the white man believed that his friend was his enemy? Is not
- all this true? And when Le Subtil had shut the eyes and stopped the ears
- of his nation by his wisdom, did they not forget that they had once done
- him wrong, and forced him to flee to the Mohawks? And did they not leave
- him on the south side of the river, with their prisoners, while they have
- gone foolishly on the north? Does not Renard mean to turn like a fox on
- his footsteps, and to carry to the rich and gray-headed Scotchman his
- daughters? Yes, Magua, I see it all, and I have already been thinking how
- so much wisdom and honesty should be repaid. First, the chief of William
- Henry will give as a great chief should for such a service. The medal* of
- Magua will no longer be of tin, but of beaten gold; his horn will run over
- with powder; dollars will be as plenty in his pouch as pebbles on the
- shore of Horican; and the deer will lick his hand, for they will know it
- to be vain to fly from the rifle he will carry! As for myself, I know not
- how to exceed the gratitude of the Scotchman, but I—yes, I will—”
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * It has long been a practice with the whites to conciliate
- the important men of the Indians by presenting medals, which
- are worn in the place of their own rude ornaments. Those
- given by the English generally bear the impression of the
- reigning king, and those given by the Americans that of the
- president.
-</pre>
- <p>
- “What will the young chief, who comes from toward the sun, give?” demanded
- the Huron, observing that Heyward hesitated in his desire to end the
- enumeration of benefits with that which might form the climax of an
- Indian's wishes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “He will make the fire-water from the islands in the salt lake flow before
- the wigwam of Magua, until the heart of the Indian shall be lighter than
- the feathers of the humming-bird, and his breath sweeter than the wild
- honeysuckle.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Le Renard had listened gravely as Heyward slowly proceeded in this subtle
- speech. When the young man mentioned the artifice he supposed the Indian
- to have practised on his own nation, the countenance of the listener was
- veiled in an expression of cautious gravity. At the allusion to the injury
- which Duncan affected to believe had driven the Huron from his native
- tribe, a gleam of such ungovernable ferocity flashed from the other's
- eyes, as induced the adventurous speaker to believe he had struck the
- proper chord. And by the time he reached the part where he so artfully
- blended the thirst of vengeance with the desire of gain, he had, at least,
- obtained a command of the deepest attention of the savage. The question
- put by Le Renard had been calm, and with all the dignity of an Indian; but
- it was quite apparent, by the thoughtful expression of the listener's
- countenance, that the answer was most cunningly devised. The Huron mused a
- few moments, and then laying his hand on the rude bandages of his wounded
- shoulder, he said, with some energy:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do friends make such marks?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Would 'La Longue Carbine' cut one so slight on an enemy?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do the Delawares crawl upon those they love like snakes, twisting
- themselves to strike?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Would 'Le Gros Serpent' have been heard by the ears of one he wished to
- be deaf?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Does the white chief burn his powder in the faces of his brothers?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Does he ever miss his aim, when seriously bent to kill?” returned Duncan,
- smiling with well acted sincerity.
- </p>
- <p>
- Another long and deliberate pause succeeded these sententious questions
- and ready replies. Duncan saw that the Indian hesitated. In order to
- complete his victory, he was in the act of recommencing the enumeration of
- the rewards, when Magua made an expressive gesture and said:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Enough; Le Renard is a wise chief, and what he does will be seen. Go, and
- keep the mouth shut. When Magua speaks, it will be the time to answer.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward, perceiving that the eyes of his companion were warily fastened on
- the rest of the band, fell back immediately, in order to avoid the
- appearance of any suspicious confederacy with their leader. Magua
- approached the horses, and affected to be well pleased with the diligence
- and ingenuity of his comrades. He then signed to Heyward to assist the
- sisters into the saddles, for he seldom deigned to use the English tongue,
- unless urged by some motive of more than usual moment.
- </p>
- <p>
- There was no longer any plausible pretext for delay; and Duncan was
- obliged, however reluctantly, to comply. As he performed this office, he
- whispered his reviving hopes in the ears of the trembling females, who,
- through dread of encountering the savage countenances of their captors,
- seldom raised their eyes from the ground. The mare of David had been taken
- with the followers of the large chief; in consequence, its owner, as well
- as Duncan, was compelled to journey on foot. The latter did not, however,
- so much regret this circumstance, as it might enable him to retard the
- speed of the party; for he still turned his longing looks in the direction
- of Fort Edward, in the vain expectation of catching some sound from that
- quarter of the forest, which might denote the approach of succor. When all
- were prepared, Magua made the signal to proceed, advancing in front to
- lead the party in person. Next followed David, who was gradually coming to
- a true sense of his condition, as the effects of the wound became less and
- less apparent. The sisters rode in his rear, with Heyward at their side,
- while the Indians flanked the party, and brought up the close of the
- march, with a caution that seemed never to tire.
- </p>
- <p>
- In this manner they proceeded in uninterrupted silence, except when
- Heyward addressed some solitary word of comfort to the females, or David
- gave vent to the moanings of his spirit, in piteous exclamations, which he
- intended should express the humility of resignation. Their direction lay
- toward the south, and in a course nearly opposite to the road to William
- Henry. Notwithstanding this apparent adherence in Magua to the original
- determination of his conquerors, Heyward could not believe his tempting
- bait was so soon forgotten; and he knew the windings of an Indian's path
- too well to suppose that its apparent course led directly to its object,
- when artifice was at all necessary. Mile after mile was, however, passed
- through the boundless woods, in this painful manner, without any prospect
- of a termination to their journey. Heyward watched the sun, as he darted
- his meridian rays through the branches of the trees, and pined for the
- moment when the policy of Magua should change their route to one more
- favorable to his hopes. Sometimes he fancied the wary savage, despairing
- of passing the army of Montcalm in safety, was holding his way toward a
- well-known border settlement, where a distinguished officer of the crown,
- and a favored friend of the Six Nations, held his large possessions, as
- well as his usual residence. To be delivered into the hands of Sir William
- Johnson was far preferable to being led into the wilds of Canada; but in
- order to effect even the former, it would be necessary to traverse the
- forest for many weary leagues, each step of which was carrying him further
- from the scene of the war, and, consequently, from the post, not only of
- honor, but of duty.
- </p>
- <p>
- Cora alone remembered the parting injunctions of the scout, and whenever
- an opportunity offered, she stretched forth her arm to bend aside the
- twigs that met her hands. But the vigilance of the Indians rendered this
- act of precaution both difficult and dangerous. She was often defeated in
- her purpose, by encountering their watchful eyes, when it became necessary
- to feign an alarm she did not feel, and occupy the limb by some gesture of
- feminine apprehension. Once, and once only, was she completely successful;
- when she broke down the bough of a large sumach, and by a sudden thought,
- let her glove fall at the same instant. This sign, intended for those that
- might follow, was observed by one of her conductors, who restored the
- glove, broke the remaining branches of the bush in such a manner that it
- appeared to proceed from the struggling of some beast in its branches, and
- then laid his hand on his tomahawk, with a look so significant, that it
- put an effectual end to these stolen memorials of their passage.
- </p>
- <p>
- As there were horses, to leave the prints of their footsteps, in both
- bands of the Indians, this interruption cut off any probable hopes of
- assistance being conveyed through the means of their trail.
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward would have ventured a remonstrance had there been anything
- encouraging in the gloomy reserve of Magua. But the savage, during all
- this time, seldom turned to look at his followers, and never spoke. With
- the sun for his only guide, or aided by such blind marks as are only known
- to the sagacity of a native, he held his way along the barrens of pine,
- through occasional little fertile vales, across brooks and rivulets, and
- over undulating hills, with the accuracy of instinct, and nearly with the
- directness of a bird. He never seemed to hesitate. Whether the path was
- hardly distinguishable, whether it disappeared, or whether it lay beaten
- and plain before him, made no sensible difference in his speed or
- certainty. It seemed as if fatigue could not affect him. Whenever the eyes
- of the wearied travelers rose from the decayed leaves over which they
- trod, his dark form was to be seen glancing among the stems of the trees
- in front, his head immovably fastened in a forward position, with the
- light plume on his crest fluttering in a current of air, made solely by
- the swiftness of his own motion.
- </p>
- <p>
- But all this diligence and speed were not without an object. After
- crossing a low vale, through which a gushing brook meandered, he suddenly
- ascended a hill, so steep and difficult of ascent, that the sisters were
- compelled to alight in order to follow. When the summit was gained, they
- found themselves on a level spot, but thinly covered with trees, under one
- of which Magua had thrown his dark form, as if willing and ready to seek
- that rest which was so much needed by the whole party.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 11
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Cursed be my tribe If I forgive him.”
- —Shylock
-</pre>
- <p>
- The Indian had selected for this desirable purpose one of those steep,
- pyramidal hills, which bear a strong resemblance to artificial mounds, and
- which so frequently occur in the valleys of America. The one in question
- was high and precipitous; its top flattened, as usual; but with one of its
- sides more than ordinarily irregular. It possessed no other apparent
- advantage for a resting place, than in its elevation and form, which might
- render defense easy, and surprise nearly impossible. As Heyward, however,
- no longer expected that rescue which time and distance now rendered so
- improbable, he regarded these little peculiarities with an eye devoid of
- interest, devoting himself entirely to the comfort and condolence of his
- feebler companions. The Narragansetts were suffered to browse on the
- branches of the trees and shrubs that were thinly scattered over the
- summit of the hill, while the remains of their provisions were spread
- under the shade of a beech, that stretched its horizontal limbs like a
- canopy above them.
- </p>
- <p>
- Notwithstanding the swiftness of their flight, one of the Indians had
- found an opportunity to strike a straggling fawn with an arrow, and had
- borne the more preferable fragments of the victim, patiently on his
- shoulders, to the stopping place. Without any aid from the science of
- cookery, he was immediately employed, in common with his fellows, in
- gorging himself with this digestible sustenance. Magua alone sat apart,
- without participating in the revolting meal, and apparently buried in the
- deepest thought.
- </p>
- <p>
- This abstinence, so remarkable in an Indian, when he possessed the means
- of satisfying hunger, at length attracted the notice of Heyward. The young
- man willingly believed that the Huron deliberated on the most eligible
- manner of eluding the vigilance of his associates. With a view to assist
- his plans by any suggestion of his own, and to strengthen the temptation,
- he left the beech, and straggled, as if without an object, to the spot
- where Le Renard was seated.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Has not Magua kept the sun in his face long enough to escape all danger
- from the Canadians?” he asked, as though no longer doubtful of the good
- intelligence established between them; “and will not the chief of William
- Henry be better pleased to see his daughters before another night may have
- hardened his heart to their loss, to make him less liberal in his reward?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do the pale faces love their children less in the morning than at night?”
- asked the Indian, coldly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “By no means,” returned Heyward, anxious to recall his error, if he had
- made one; “the white man may, and does often, forget the burial place of
- his fathers; he sometimes ceases to remember those he should love, and has
- promised to cherish; but the affection of a parent for his child is never
- permitted to die.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And is the heart of the white-headed chief soft, and will he think of the
- babes that his squaws have given him? He is hard on his warriors and his
- eyes are made of stone?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He is severe to the idle and wicked, but to the sober and deserving he is
- a leader, both just and humane. I have known many fond and tender parents,
- but never have I seen a man whose heart was softer toward his child. You
- have seen the gray-head in front of his warriors, Magua; but I have seen
- his eyes swimming in water, when he spoke of those children who are now in
- your power!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward paused, for he knew not how to construe the remarkable expression
- that gleamed across the swarthy features of the attentive Indian. At first
- it seemed as if the remembrance of the promised reward grew vivid in his
- mind, while he listened to the sources of parental feeling which were to
- assure its possession; but, as Duncan proceeded, the expression of joy
- became so fiercely malignant that it was impossible not to apprehend it
- proceeded from some passion more sinister than avarice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Go,” said the Huron, suppressing the alarming exhibition in an instant,
- in a death-like calmness of countenance; “go to the dark-haired daughter,
- and say, 'Magua waits to speak' The father will remember what the child
- promises.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan, who interpreted this speech to express a wish for some additional
- pledge that the promised gifts should not be withheld, slowly and
- reluctantly repaired to the place where the sisters were now resting from
- their fatigue, to communicate its purport to Cora.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You understand the nature of an Indian's wishes,” he concluded, as he led
- her toward the place where she was expected, “and must be prodigal of your
- offers of powder and blankets. Ardent spirits are, however, the most
- prized by such as he; nor would it be amiss to add some boon from your own
- hand, with that grace you so well know how to practise. Remember, Cora,
- that on your presence of mind and ingenuity, even your life, as well as
- that of Alice, may in some measure depend.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Heyward, and yours!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mine is of little moment; it is already sold to my king, and is a prize
- to be seized by any enemy who may possess the power. I have no father to
- expect me, and but few friends to lament a fate which I have courted with
- the insatiable longings of youth after distinction. But hush! we approach
- the Indian. Magua, the lady with whom you wish to speak, is here.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Indian rose slowly from his seat, and stood for near a minute silent
- and motionless. He then signed with his hand for Heyward to retire,
- saying, coldly:
- </p>
- <p>
- “When the Huron talks to the women, his tribe shut their ears.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan, still lingering, as if refusing to comply, Cora said, with a calm
- smile:
- </p>
- <p>
- “You hear, Heyward, and delicacy at least should urge you to retire. Go to
- Alice, and comfort her with our reviving prospects.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She waited until he had departed, and then turning to the native, with the
- dignity of her sex in her voice and manner, she added: “What would Le
- Renard say to the daughter of Munro?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Listen,” said the Indian, laying his hand firmly upon her arm, as if
- willing to draw her utmost attention to his words; a movement that Cora as
- firmly but quietly repulsed, by extricating the limb from his grasp:
- “Magua was born a chief and a warrior among the red Hurons of the lakes;
- he saw the suns of twenty summers make the snows of twenty winters run off
- in the streams before he saw a pale face; and he was happy! Then his
- Canada fathers came into the woods, and taught him to drink the
- fire-water, and he became a rascal. The Hurons drove him from the graves
- of his fathers, as they would chase the hunted buffalo. He ran down the
- shores of the lakes, and followed their outlet to the 'city of cannon'
- There he hunted and fished, till the people chased him again through the
- woods into the arms of his enemies. The chief, who was born a Huron, was
- at last a warrior among the Mohawks!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Something like this I had heard before,” said Cora, observing that he
- paused to suppress those passions which began to burn with too bright a
- flame, as he recalled the recollection of his supposed injuries.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Was it the fault of Le Renard that his head was not made of rock? Who
- gave him the fire-water? who made him a villain? 'Twas the pale faces, the
- people of your own color.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And am I answerable that thoughtless and unprincipled men exist, whose
- shades of countenance may resemble mine?” Cora calmly demanded of the
- excited savage.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No; Magua is a man, and not a fool; such as you never open their lips to
- the burning stream: the Great Spirit has given you wisdom!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What, then, have I do to, or say, in the matter of your misfortunes, not
- to say of your errors?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Listen,” repeated the Indian, resuming his earnest attitude; “when his
- English and French fathers dug up the hatchet, Le Renard struck the
- war-post of the Mohawks, and went out against his own nation. The pale
- faces have driven the red-skins from their hunting grounds, and now when
- they fight, a white man leads the way. The old chief at Horican, your
- father, was the great captain of our war-party. He said to the Mohawks do
- this, and do that, and he was minded. He made a law, that if an Indian
- swallowed the fire-water, and came into the cloth wigwams of his warriors,
- it should not be forgotten. Magua foolishly opened his mouth, and the hot
- liquor led him into the cabin of Munro. What did the gray-head? let his
- daughter say.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He forgot not his words, and did justice, by punishing the offender,”
- said the undaunted daughter.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Justice!” repeated the Indian, casting an oblique glance of the most
- ferocious expression at her unyielding countenance; “is it justice to make
- evil and then punish for it? Magua was not himself; it was the fire-water
- that spoke and acted for him! but Munro did believe it. The Huron chief
- was tied up before all the pale-faced warriors, and whipped like a dog.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Cora remained silent, for she knew not how to palliate this imprudent
- severity on the part of her father in a manner to suit the comprehension
- of an Indian.
- </p>
- <p>
- “See!” continued Magua, tearing aside the slight calico that very
- imperfectly concealed his painted breast; “here are scars given by knives
- and bullets—of these a warrior may boast before his nation; but the
- gray-head has left marks on the back of the Huron chief that he must hide
- like a squaw, under this painted cloth of the whites.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I had thought,” resumed Cora, “that an Indian warrior was patient, and
- that his spirit felt not and knew not the pain his body suffered.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “When the Chippewas tied Magua to the stake, and cut this gash,” said the
- other, laying his finger on a deep scar, “the Huron laughed in their
- faces, and told them, Women struck so light! His spirit was then in the
- clouds! But when he felt the blows of Munro, his spirit lay under the
- birch. The spirit of a Huron is never drunk; it remembers forever!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But it may be appeased. If my father has done you this injustice, show
- him how an Indian can forgive an injury, and take back his daughters. You
- have heard from Major Heyward—”
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua shook his head, forbidding the repetition of offers he so much
- despised.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What would you have?” continued Cora, after a most painful pause, while
- the conviction forced itself on her mind that the too sanguine and
- generous Duncan had been cruelly deceived by the cunning of the savage.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What a Huron loves—good for good; bad for bad!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You would, then, revenge the injury inflicted by Munro on his helpless
- daughters. Would it not be more like a man to go before his face, and take
- the satisfaction of a warrior?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The arms of the pale faces are long, and their knives sharp!” returned
- the savage, with a malignant laugh: “why should Le Renard go among the
- muskets of his warriors, when he holds the spirit of the gray-head in his
- hand?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Name your intention, Magua,” said Cora, struggling with herself to speak
- with steady calmness. “Is it to lead us prisoners to the woods, or do you
- contemplate even some greater evil? Is there no reward, no means of
- palliating the injury, and of softening your heart? At least, release my
- gentle sister, and pour out all your malice on me. Purchase wealth by her
- safety and satisfy your revenge with a single victim. The loss of both his
- daughters might bring the aged man to his grave, and where would then be
- the satisfaction of Le Renard?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Listen,” said the Indian again. “The light eyes can go back to the
- Horican, and tell the old chief what has been done, if the dark-haired
- woman will swear by the Great Spirit of her fathers to tell no lie.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What must I promise?” demanded Cora, still maintaining a secret
- ascendancy over the fierce native by the collected and feminine dignity of
- her presence.
- </p>
- <p>
- “When Magua left his people his wife was given to another chief; he has
- now made friends with the Hurons, and will go back to the graves of his
- tribe, on the shores of the great lake. Let the daughter of the English
- chief follow, and live in his wigwam forever.”
- </p>
- <p>
- However revolting a proposal of such a character might prove to Cora, she
- retained, notwithstanding her powerful disgust, sufficient self-command to
- reply, without betraying the weakness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And what pleasure would Magua find in sharing his cabin with a wife he
- did not love; one who would be of a nation and color different from his
- own? It would be better to take the gold of Munro, and buy the heart of
- some Huron maid with his gifts.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Indian made no reply for near a minute, but bent his fierce looks on
- the countenance of Cora, in such wavering glances, that her eyes sank with
- shame, under an impression that for the first time they had encountered an
- expression that no chaste female might endure. While she was shrinking
- within herself, in dread of having her ears wounded by some proposal still
- more shocking than the last, the voice of Magua answered, in its tones of
- deepest malignancy:
- </p>
- <p>
- “When the blows scorched the back of the Huron, he would know where to
- find a woman to feel the smart. The daughter of Munro would draw his
- water, hoe his corn, and cook his venison. The body of the gray-head would
- sleep among his cannon, but his heart would lie within reach of the knife
- of Le Subtil.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Monster! well dost thou deserve thy treacherous name,” cried Cora, in an
- ungovernable burst of filial indignation. “None but a fiend could meditate
- such a vengeance. But thou overratest thy power! You shall find it is, in
- truth, the heart of Munro you hold, and that it will defy your utmost
- malice!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Indian answered this bold defiance by a ghastly smile, that showed an
- unaltered purpose, while he motioned her away, as if to close the
- conference forever. Cora, already regretting her precipitation, was
- obliged to comply, for Magua instantly left the spot, and approached his
- gluttonous comrades. Heyward flew to the side of the agitated female, and
- demanded the result of a dialogue that he had watched at a distance with
- so much interest. But, unwilling to alarm the fears of Alice, she evaded a
- direct reply, betraying only by her anxious looks fastened on the
- slightest movements of her captors. To the reiterated and earnest
- questions of her sister concerning their probable destination, she made no
- other answer than by pointing toward the dark group, with an agitation she
- could not control, and murmuring as she folded Alice to her bosom.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There, there; read our fortunes in their faces; we shall see; we shall
- see!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The action, and the choked utterance of Cora, spoke more impressively than
- any words, and quickly drew the attention of her companions on that spot
- where her own was riveted with an intenseness that nothing but the
- importance of the stake could create.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Magua reached the cluster of lolling savages, who, gorged with their
- disgusting meal, lay stretched on the earth in brutal indulgence, he
- commenced speaking with the dignity of an Indian chief. The first
- syllables he uttered had the effect to cause his listeners to raise
- themselves in attitudes of respectful attention. As the Huron used his
- native language, the prisoners, notwithstanding the caution of the natives
- had kept them within the swing of their tomahawks, could only conjecture
- the substance of his harangue from the nature of those significant
- gestures with which an Indian always illustrates his eloquence.
- </p>
- <p>
- At first, the language, as well as the action of Magua, appeared calm and
- deliberative. When he had succeeded in sufficiently awakening the
- attention of his comrades, Heyward fancied, by his pointing so frequently
- toward the direction of the great lakes, that he spoke of the land of
- their fathers, and of their distant tribe. Frequent indications of
- applause escaped the listeners, who, as they uttered the expressive
- “Hugh!” looked at each other in commendation of the speaker. Le Renard was
- too skillful to neglect his advantage. He now spoke of the long and
- painful route by which they had left those spacious grounds and happy
- villages, to come and battle against the enemies of their Canadian
- fathers. He enumerated the warriors of the party; their several merits;
- their frequent services to the nation; their wounds, and the number of the
- scalps they had taken. Whenever he alluded to any present (and the subtle
- Indian neglected none), the dark countenance of the flattered individual
- gleamed with exultation, nor did he even hesitate to assert the truth of
- the words, by gestures of applause and confirmation. Then the voice of the
- speaker fell, and lost the loud, animated tones of triumph with which he
- had enumerated their deeds of success and victory. He described the
- cataract of Glenn's; the impregnable position of its rocky island, with
- its caverns and its numerous rapids and whirlpools; he named the name of
- “La Longue Carabine,” and paused until the forest beneath them had sent up
- the last echo of a loud and long yell, with which the hated appellation
- was received. He pointed toward the youthful military captive, and
- described the death of a favorite warrior, who had been precipitated into
- the deep ravine by his hand. He not only mentioned the fate of him who,
- hanging between heaven and earth, had presented such a spectacle of horror
- to the whole band, but he acted anew the terrors of his situation, his
- resolution and his death, on the branches of a sapling; and, finally, he
- rapidly recounted the manner in which each of their friends had fallen,
- never failing to touch upon their courage, and their most acknowledged
- virtues. When this recital of events was ended, his voice once more
- changed, and became plaintive and even musical, in its low guttural
- sounds. He now spoke of the wives and children of the slain; their
- destitution; their misery, both physical and moral; their distance; and,
- at last, of their unavenged wrongs. Then suddenly lifting his voice to a
- pitch of terrific energy, he concluded by demanding:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are the Hurons dogs to bear this? Who shall say to the wife of Menowgua
- that the fishes have his scalp, and that his nation have not taken
- revenge! Who will dare meet the mother of Wassawattimie, that scornful
- woman, with his hands clean! What shall be said to the old men when they
- ask us for scalps, and we have not a hair from a white head to give them!
- The women will point their fingers at us. There is a dark spot on the
- names of the Hurons, and it must be hid in blood!” His voice was no longer
- audible in the burst of rage which now broke into the air, as if the wood,
- instead of containing so small a band, was filled with the nation. During
- the foregoing address the progress of the speaker was too plainly read by
- those most interested in his success through the medium of the
- countenances of the men he addressed. They had answered his melancholy and
- mourning by sympathy and sorrow; his assertions, by gestures of
- confirmation; and his boasting, with the exultation of savages. When he
- spoke of courage, their looks were firm and responsive; when he alluded to
- their injuries, their eyes kindled with fury; when he mentioned the taunts
- of the women, they dropped their heads in shame; but when he pointed out
- their means of vengeance, he struck a chord which never failed to thrill
- in the breast of an Indian. With the first intimation that it was within
- their reach, the whole band sprang upon their feet as one man; giving
- utterance to their rage in the most frantic cries, they rushed upon their
- prisoners in a body with drawn knives and uplifted tomahawks. Heyward
- threw himself between the sisters and the foremost, whom he grappled with
- a desperate strength that for a moment checked his violence. This
- unexpected resistance gave Magua time to interpose, and with rapid
- enunciation and animated gesture, he drew the attention of the band again
- to himself. In that language he knew so well how to assume, he diverted
- his comrades from their instant purpose, and invited them to prolong the
- misery of their victims. His proposal was received with acclamations, and
- executed with the swiftness of thought.
- </p>
- <p>
- Two powerful warriors cast themselves on Heyward, while another was
- occupied in securing the less active singing-master. Neither of the
- captives, however, submitted without a desperate, though fruitless,
- struggle. Even David hurled his assailant to the earth; nor was Heyward
- secured until the victory over his companion enabled the Indians to direct
- their united force to that object. He was then bound and fastened to the
- body of the sapling, on whose branches Magua had acted the pantomime of
- the falling Huron. When the young soldier regained his recollection, he
- had the painful certainty before his eyes that a common fate was intended
- for the whole party. On his right was Cora in a durance similar to his
- own, pale and agitated, but with an eye whose steady look still read the
- proceedings of their enemies. On his left, the withes which bound her to a
- pine, performed that office for Alice which her trembling limbs refused,
- and alone kept her fragile form from sinking. Her hands were clasped
- before her in prayer, but instead of looking upward toward that power
- which alone could rescue them, her unconscious looks wandered to the
- countenance of Duncan with infantile dependency. David had contended, and
- the novelty of the circumstance held him silent, in deliberation on the
- propriety of the unusual occurrence.
- </p>
- <p>
- The vengeance of the Hurons had now taken a new direction, and they
- prepared to execute it with that barbarous ingenuity with which they were
- familiarized by the practise of centuries. Some sought knots, to raise the
- blazing pile; one was riving the splinters of pine, in order to pierce the
- flesh of their captives with the burning fragments; and others bent the
- tops of two saplings to the earth, in order to suspend Heyward by the arms
- between the recoiling branches. But the vengeance of Magua sought a deeper
- and more malignant enjoyment.
- </p>
- <p>
- While the less refined monsters of the band prepared, before the eyes of
- those who were to suffer, these well-known and vulgar means of torture, he
- approached Cora, and pointed out, with the most malign expression of
- countenance, the speedy fate that awaited her:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ha!” he added, “what says the daughter of Munro? Her head is too good to
- find a pillow in the wigwam of Le Renard; will she like it better when it
- rolls about this hill a plaything for the wolves? Her bosom cannot nurse
- the children of a Huron; she will see it spit upon by Indians!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What means the monster!” demanded the astonished Heyward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nothing!” was the firm reply. “He is a savage, a barbarous and ignorant
- savage, and knows not what he does. Let us find leisure, with our dying
- breath, to ask for him penitence and pardon.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Pardon!” echoed the fierce Huron, mistaking in his anger, the meaning of
- her words; “the memory of an Indian is no longer than the arm of the pale
- faces; his mercy shorter than their justice! Say; shall I send the yellow
- hair to her father, and will you follow Magua to the great lakes, to carry
- his water, and feed him with corn?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Cora beckoned him away, with an emotion of disgust she could not control.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Leave me,” she said, with a solemnity that for a moment checked the
- barbarity of the Indian; “you mingle bitterness in my prayers; you stand
- between me and my God!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The slight impression produced on the savage was, however, soon forgotten,
- and he continued pointing, with taunting irony, toward Alice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Look! the child weeps! She is too young to die! Send her to Munro, to
- comb his gray hairs, and keep life in the heart of the old man.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Cora could not resist the desire to look upon her youthful sister, in
- whose eyes she met an imploring glance, that betrayed the longings of
- nature.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What says he, dearest Cora?” asked the trembling voice of Alice. “Did he
- speak of sending me to our father?”
- </p>
- <p>
- For many moments the elder sister looked upon the younger, with a
- countenance that wavered with powerful and contending emotions. At length
- she spoke, though her tones had lost their rich and calm fullness, in an
- expression of tenderness that seemed maternal.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Alice,” she said, “the Huron offers us both life, nay, more than both; he
- offers to restore Duncan, our invaluable Duncan, as well as you, to our
- friends—to our father—to our heart-stricken, childless father,
- if I will bow down this rebellious, stubborn pride of mine, and consent—”
- </p>
- <p>
- Her voice became choked, and clasping her hands, she looked upward, as if
- seeking, in her agony, intelligence from a wisdom that was infinite.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Say on,” cried Alice; “to what, dearest Cora? Oh! that the proffer were
- made to me! to save you, to cheer our aged father, to restore Duncan, how
- cheerfully could I die!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Die!” repeated Cora, with a calmer and firmer voice, “that were easy!
- Perhaps the alternative may not be less so. He would have me,” she
- continued, her accents sinking under a deep consciousness of the
- degradation of the proposal, “follow him to the wilderness; go to the
- habitations of the Hurons; to remain there; in short, to become his wife!
- Speak, then, Alice; child of my affections! sister of my love! And you,
- too, Major Heyward, aid my weak reason with your counsel. Is life to be
- purchased by such a sacrifice? Will you, Alice, receive it at my hands at
- such a price? And you, Duncan, guide me; control me between you; for I am
- wholly yours!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Would I!” echoed the indignant and astonished youth. “Cora! Cora! you
- jest with our misery! Name not the horrid alternative again; the thought
- itself is worse than a thousand deaths.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That such would be your answer, I well knew!” exclaimed Cora, her cheeks
- flushing, and her dark eyes once more sparkling with the lingering
- emotions of a woman. “What says my Alice? for her will I submit without
- another murmur.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Although both Heyward and Cora listened with painful suspense and the
- deepest attention, no sounds were heard in reply. It appeared as if the
- delicate and sensitive form of Alice would shrink into itself, as she
- listened to this proposal. Her arms had fallen lengthwise before her, the
- fingers moving in slight convulsions; her head dropped upon her bosom, and
- her whole person seemed suspended against the tree, looking like some
- beautiful emblem of the wounded delicacy of her sex, devoid of animation
- and yet keenly conscious. In a few moments, however, her head began to
- move slowly, in a sign of deep, unconquerable disapprobation.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, no, no; better that we die as we have lived, together!”
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/5177.jpg" alt="5177" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/5177.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- “Then die!” shouted Magua, hurling his tomahawk with violence at the
- unresisting speaker, and gnashing his teeth with a rage that could no
- longer be bridled at this sudden exhibition of firmness in the one he
- believed the weakest of the party. The axe cleaved the air in front of
- Heyward, and cutting some of the flowing ringlets of Alice, quivered in
- the tree above her head. The sight maddened Duncan to desperation.
- Collecting all his energies in one effort he snapped the twigs which bound
- him and rushed upon another savage, who was preparing, with loud yells and
- a more deliberate aim, to repeat the blow. They encountered, grappled, and
- fell to the earth together. The naked body of his antagonist afforded
- Heyward no means of holding his adversary, who glided from his grasp, and
- rose again with one knee on his chest, pressing him down with the weight
- of a giant. Duncan already saw the knife gleaming in the air, when a
- whistling sound swept past him, and was rather accompanied than followed
- by the sharp crack of a rifle. He felt his breast relieved from the load
- it had endured; he saw the savage expression of his adversary's
- countenance change to a look of vacant wildness, when the Indian fell dead
- on the faded leaves by his side.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 12
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Clo.—I am gone, sire,
- And anon, sire, I'll be with you again.”
- —Twelfth Night
-</pre>
- <p>
- The Hurons stood aghast at this sudden visitation of death on one of their
- band. But as they regarded the fatal accuracy of an aim which had dared to
- immolate an enemy at so much hazard to a friend, the name of “La Longue
- Carabine” burst simultaneously from every lip, and was succeeded by a wild
- and a sort of plaintive howl. The cry was answered by a loud shout from a
- little thicket, where the incautious party had piled their arms; and at
- the next moment, Hawkeye, too eager to load the rifle he had regained, was
- seen advancing upon them, brandishing the clubbed weapon, and cutting the
- air with wide and powerful sweeps. Bold and rapid as was the progress of
- the scout, it was exceeded by that of a light and vigorous form which,
- bounding past him, leaped, with incredible activity and daring, into the
- very center of the Hurons, where it stood, whirling a tomahawk, and
- flourishing a glittering knife, with fearful menaces, in front of Cora.
- Quicker than the thoughts could follow those unexpected and audacious
- movements, an image, armed in the emblematic panoply of death, glided
- before their eyes, and assumed a threatening attitude at the other's side.
- The savage tormentors recoiled before these warlike intruders, and
- uttered, as they appeared in such quick succession, the often repeated and
- peculiar exclamations of surprise, followed by the well-known and dreaded
- appellations of:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Le Cerf Agile! Le Gros Serpent!”
- </p>
- <p>
- But the wary and vigilant leader of the Hurons was not so easily
- disconcerted. Casting his keen eyes around the little plain, he
- comprehended the nature of the assault at a glance, and encouraging his
- followers by his voice as well as by his example, he unsheathed his long
- and dangerous knife, and rushed with a loud whoop upon the expected
- Chingachgook. It was the signal for a general combat. Neither party had
- firearms, and the contest was to be decided in the deadliest manner, hand
- to hand, with weapons of offense, and none of defense.
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncas answered the whoop, and leaping on an enemy, with a single,
- well-directed blow of his tomahawk, cleft him to the brain. Heyward tore
- the weapon of Magua from the sapling, and rushed eagerly toward the fray.
- As the combatants were now equal in number, each singled an opponent from
- the adverse band. The rush and blows passed with the fury of a whirlwind,
- and the swiftness of lightning. Hawkeye soon got another enemy within
- reach of his arm, and with one sweep of his formidable weapon he beat down
- the slight and inartificial defenses of his antagonist, crushing him to
- the earth with the blow. Heyward ventured to hurl the tomahawk he had
- seized, too ardent to await the moment of closing. It struck the Indian he
- had selected on the forehead, and checked for an instant his onward rush.
- Encouraged by this slight advantage, the impetuous young man continued his
- onset, and sprang upon his enemy with naked hands. A single instant was
- enough to assure him of the rashness of the measure, for he immediately
- found himself fully engaged, with all his activity and courage, in
- endeavoring to ward the desperate thrusts made with the knife of the
- Huron. Unable longer to foil an enemy so alert and vigilant, he threw his
- arms about him, and succeeded in pinning the limbs of the other to his
- side, with an iron grasp, but one that was far too exhausting to himself
- to continue long. In this extremity he heard a voice near him, shouting:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Extarminate the varlets! no quarter to an accursed Mingo!”
- </p>
- <p>
- At the next moment, the breech of Hawkeye's rifle fell on the naked head
- of his adversary, whose muscles appeared to wither under the shock, as he
- sank from the arms of Duncan, flexible and motionless.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Uncas had brained his first antagonist, he turned, like a hungry
- lion, to seek another. The fifth and only Huron disengaged at the first
- onset had paused a moment, and then seeing that all around him were
- employed in the deadly strife, he had sought, with hellish vengeance, to
- complete the baffled work of revenge. Raising a shout of triumph, he
- sprang toward the defenseless Cora, sending his keen axe as the dreadful
- precursor of his approach. The tomahawk grazed her shoulder, and cutting
- the withes which bound her to the tree, left the maiden at liberty to fly.
- She eluded the grasp of the savage, and reckless of her own safety, threw
- herself on the bosom of Alice, striving with convulsed and ill-directed
- fingers, to tear asunder the twigs which confined the person of her
- sister. Any other than a monster would have relented at such an act of
- generous devotion to the best and purest affection; but the breast of the
- Huron was a stranger to sympathy. Seizing Cora by the rich tresses which
- fell in confusion about her form, he tore her from her frantic hold, and
- bowed her down with brutal violence to her knees. The savage drew the
- flowing curls through his hand, and raising them on high with an
- outstretched arm, he passed the knife around the exquisitely molded head
- of his victim, with a taunting and exulting laugh. But he purchased this
- moment of fierce gratification with the loss of the fatal opportunity. It
- was just then the sight caught the eye of Uncas. Bounding from his
- footsteps he appeared for an instant darting through the air and
- descending in a ball he fell on the chest of his enemy, driving him many
- yards from the spot, headlong and prostrate. The violence of the exertion
- cast the young Mohican at his side. They arose together, fought, and bled,
- each in his turn. But the conflict was soon decided; the tomahawk of
- Heyward and the rifle of Hawkeye descended on the skull of the Huron, at
- the same moment that the knife of Uncas reached his heart.
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0149.jpg" alt="0149" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0149.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- The battle was now entirely terminated with the exception of the
- protracted struggle between “Le Renard Subtil” and “Le Gros Serpent.” Well
- did these barbarous warriors prove that they deserved those significant
- names which had been bestowed for deeds in former wars. When they engaged,
- some little time was lost in eluding the quick and vigorous thrusts which
- had been aimed at their lives. Suddenly darting on each other, they
- closed, and came to the earth, twisted together like twining serpents, in
- pliant and subtle folds. At the moment when the victors found themselves
- unoccupied, the spot where these experienced and desperate combatants lay
- could only be distinguished by a cloud of dust and leaves, which moved
- from the center of the little plain toward its boundary, as if raised by
- the passage of a whirlwind. Urged by the different motives of filial
- affection, friendship and gratitude, Heyward and his companions rushed
- with one accord to the place, encircling the little canopy of dust which
- hung above the warriors. In vain did Uncas dart around the cloud, with a
- wish to strike his knife into the heart of his father's foe; the
- threatening rifle of Hawkeye was raised and suspended in vain, while
- Duncan endeavored to seize the limbs of the Huron with hands that appeared
- to have lost their power. Covered as they were with dust and blood, the
- swift evolutions of the combatants seemed to incorporate their bodies into
- one. The death-like looking figure of the Mohican, and the dark form of
- the Huron, gleamed before their eyes in such quick and confused
- succession, that the friends of the former knew not where to plant the
- succoring blow. It is true there were short and fleeting moments, when the
- fiery eyes of Magua were seen glittering, like the fabled organs of the
- basilisk through the dusty wreath by which he was enveloped, and he read
- by those short and deadly glances the fate of the combat in the presence
- of his enemies; ere, however, any hostile hand could descend on his
- devoted head, its place was filled by the scowling visage of Chingachgook.
- In this manner the scene of the combat was removed from the center of the
- little plain to its verge. The Mohican now found an opportunity to make a
- powerful thrust with his knife; Magua suddenly relinquished his grasp, and
- fell backward without motion, and seemingly without life. His adversary
- leaped on his feet, making the arches of the forest ring with the sounds
- of triumph.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well done for the Delawares! victory to the Mohicans!” cried Hawkeye,
- once more elevating the butt of the long and fatal rifle; “a finishing
- blow from a man without a cross will never tell against his honor, nor rob
- him of his right to the scalp.”
- </p>
- <p>
- But at the very moment when the dangerous weapon was in the act of
- descending, the subtle Huron rolled swiftly from beneath the danger, over
- the edge of the precipice, and falling on his feet, was seen leaping, with
- a single bound, into the center of a thicket of low bushes, which clung
- along its sides. The Delawares, who had believed their enemy dead, uttered
- their exclamation of surprise, and were following with speed and clamor,
- like hounds in open view of the deer, when a shrill and peculiar cry from
- the scout instantly changed their purpose, and recalled them to the summit
- of the hill.
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Twas like himself!” cried the inveterate forester, whose prejudices
- contributed so largely to veil his natural sense of justice in all matters
- which concerned the Mingoes; “a lying and deceitful varlet as he is. An
- honest Delaware now, being fairly vanquished, would have lain still, and
- been knocked on the head, but these knavish Maquas cling to life like so
- many cats-o'-the-mountain. Let him go—let him go; 'tis but one man,
- and he without rifle or bow, many a long mile from his French commerades;
- and like a rattler that lost his fangs, he can do no further mischief,
- until such time as he, and we too, may leave the prints of our moccasins
- over a long reach of sandy plain. See, Uncas,” he added, in Delaware,
- “your father is flaying the scalps already. It may be well to go round and
- feel the vagabonds that are left, or we may have another of them loping
- through the woods, and screeching like a jay that has been winged.”
- </p>
- <p>
- So saying the honest but implacable scout made the circuit of the dead,
- into whose senseless bosoms he thrust his long knife, with as much
- coolness as though they had been so many brute carcasses. He had, however,
- been anticipated by the elder Mohican, who had already torn the emblems of
- victory from the unresisting heads of the slain.
- </p>
- <p>
- But Uncas, denying his habits, we had almost said his nature, flew with
- instinctive delicacy, accompanied by Heyward, to the assistance of the
- females, and quickly releasing Alice, placed her in the arms of Cora. We
- shall not attempt to describe the gratitude to the Almighty Disposer of
- Events which glowed in the bosoms of the sisters, who were thus
- unexpectedly restored to life and to each other. Their thanksgivings were
- deep and silent; the offerings of their gentle spirits burning brightest
- and purest on the secret altars of their hearts; and their renovated and
- more earthly feelings exhibiting themselves in long and fervent though
- speechless caresses. As Alice rose from her knees, where she had sunk by
- the side of Cora, she threw herself on the bosom of the latter, and sobbed
- aloud the name of their aged father, while her soft, dove-like eyes,
- sparkled with the rays of hope.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are saved! we are saved!” she murmured; “to return to the arms of our
- dear, dear father, and his heart will not be broken with grief. And you,
- too, Cora, my sister, my more than sister, my mother; you, too, are
- spared. And Duncan,” she added, looking round upon the youth with a smile
- of ineffable innocence, “even our own brave and noble Duncan has escaped
- without a hurt.”
- </p>
- <p>
- To these ardent and nearly innocent words Cora made no other answer than
- by straining the youthful speaker to her heart, as she bent over her in
- melting tenderness. The manhood of Heyward felt no shame in dropping tears
- over this spectacle of affectionate rapture; and Uncas stood, fresh and
- blood-stained from the combat, a calm, and, apparently, an unmoved
- looker-on, it is true, but with eyes that had already lost their
- fierceness, and were beaming with a sympathy that elevated him far above
- the intelligence, and advanced him probably centuries before, the
- practises of his nation.
- </p>
- <p>
- During this display of emotions so natural in their situation, Hawkeye,
- whose vigilant distrust had satisfied itself that the Hurons, who
- disfigured the heavenly scene, no longer possessed the power to interrupt
- its harmony, approached David, and liberated him from the bonds he had,
- until that moment, endured with the most exemplary patience.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There,” exclaimed the scout, casting the last withe behind him, “you are
- once more master of your own limbs, though you seem not to use them with
- much greater judgment than that in which they were first fashioned. If
- advice from one who is not older than yourself, but who, having lived most
- of his time in the wilderness, may be said to have experience beyond his
- years, will give no offense, you are welcome to my thoughts; and these
- are, to part with the little tooting instrument in your jacket to the
- first fool you meet with, and buy some we'pon with the money, if it be
- only the barrel of a horseman's pistol. By industry and care, you might
- thus come to some prefarment; for by this time, I should think, your eyes
- would plainly tell you that a carrion crow is a better bird than a
- mocking-thresher. The one will, at least, remove foul sights from before
- the face of man, while the other is only good to brew disturbances in the
- woods, by cheating the ears of all that hear them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Arms and the clarion for the battle, but the song of thanksgiving to the
- victory!” answered the liberated David. “Friend,” he added, thrusting
- forth his lean, delicate hand toward Hawkeye, in kindness, while his eyes
- twinkled and grew moist, “I thank thee that the hairs of my head still
- grow where they were first rooted by Providence; for, though those of
- other men may be more glossy and curling, I have ever found mine own well
- suited to the brain they shelter. That I did not join myself to the
- battle, was less owing to disinclination, than to the bonds of the
- heathen. Valiant and skillful hast thou proved thyself in the conflict,
- and I hereby thank thee, before proceeding to discharge other and more
- important duties, because thou hast proved thyself well worthy of a
- Christian's praise.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The thing is but a trifle, and what you may often see if you tarry long
- among us,” returned the scout, a good deal softened toward the man of
- song, by this unequivocal expression of gratitude. “I have got back my old
- companion, 'killdeer',” he added, striking his hand on the breech of his
- rifle; “and that in itself is a victory. These Iroquois are cunning, but
- they outwitted themselves when they placed their firearms out of reach;
- and had Uncas or his father been gifted with only their common Indian
- patience, we should have come in upon the knaves with three bullets
- instead of one, and that would have made a finish of the whole pack; yon
- loping varlet, as well as his commerades. But 'twas all fore-ordered, and
- for the best.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thou sayest well,” returned David, “and hast caught the true spirit of
- Christianity. He that is to be saved will be saved, and he that is
- predestined to be damned will be damned. This is the doctrine of truth,
- and most consoling and refreshing it is to the true believer.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout, who by this time was seated, examining into the state of his
- rifle with a species of parental assiduity, now looked up at the other in
- a displeasure that he did not affect to conceal, roughly interrupting
- further speech.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doctrine or no doctrine,” said the sturdy woodsman, “'tis the belief of
- knaves, and the curse of an honest man. I can credit that yonder Huron was
- to fall by my hand, for with my own eyes I have seen it; but nothing short
- of being a witness will cause me to think he has met with any reward, or
- that Chingachgook there will be condemned at the final day.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have no warranty for such an audacious doctrine, nor any covenant to
- support it,” cried David who was deeply tinctured with the subtle
- distinctions which, in his time, and more especially in his province, had
- been drawn around the beautiful simplicity of revelation, by endeavoring
- to penetrate the awful mystery of the divine nature, supplying faith by
- self-sufficiency, and by consequence, involving those who reasoned from
- such human dogmas in absurdities and doubt; “your temple is reared on the
- sands, and the first tempest will wash away its foundation. I demand your
- authorities for such an uncharitable assertion (like other advocates of a
- system, David was not always accurate in his use of terms). Name chapter
- and verse; in which of the holy books do you find language to support
- you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Book!” repeated Hawkeye, with singular and ill-concealed disdain; “do you
- take me for a whimpering boy at the apronstring of one of your old gals;
- and this good rifle on my knee for the feather of a goose's wing, my ox's
- horn for a bottle of ink, and my leathern pouch for a cross-barred
- handkercher to carry my dinner? Book! what have such as I, who am a
- warrior of the wilderness, though a man without a cross, to do with books?
- I never read but in one, and the words that are written there are too
- simple and too plain to need much schooling; though I may boast that of
- forty long and hard-working years.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What call you the volume?” said David, misconceiving the other's meaning.
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis open before your eyes,” returned the scout; “and he who owns it is
- not a niggard of its use. I have heard it said that there are men who read
- in books to convince themselves there is a God. I know not but man may so
- deform his works in the settlement, as to leave that which is so clear in
- the wilderness a matter of doubt among traders and priests. If any such
- there be, and he will follow me from sun to sun, through the windings of
- the forest, he shall see enough to teach him that he is a fool, and that
- the greatest of his folly lies in striving to rise to the level of One he
- can never equal, be it in goodness, or be it in power.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The instant David discovered that he battled with a disputant who imbibed
- his faith from the lights of nature, eschewing all subtleties of doctrine,
- he willingly abandoned a controversy from which he believed neither profit
- nor credit was to be derived. While the scout was speaking, he had also
- seated himself, and producing the ready little volume and the iron-rimmed
- spectacles, he prepared to discharge a duty, which nothing but the
- unexpected assault he had received in his orthodoxy could have so long
- suspended. He was, in truth, a minstrel of the western continent—of
- a much later day, certainly, than those gifted bards, who formerly sang
- the profane renown of baron and prince, but after the spirit of his own
- age and country; and he was now prepared to exercise the cunning of his
- craft, in celebration of, or rather in thanksgiving for, the recent
- victory. He waited patiently for Hawkeye to cease, then lifting his eyes,
- together with his voice, he said, aloud:
- </p>
- <p>
- “I invite you, friends, to join in praise for this signal deliverance from
- the hands of barbarians and infidels, to the comfortable and solemn tones
- of the tune called 'Northampton'.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He next named the page and verse where the rhymes selected were to be
- found, and applied the pitch-pipe to his lips, with the decent gravity
- that he had been wont to use in the temple. This time he was, however,
- without any accompaniment, for the sisters were just then pouring out
- those tender effusions of affection which have been already alluded to.
- Nothing deterred by the smallness of his audience, which, in truth,
- consisted only of the discontented scout, he raised his voice, commencing
- and ending the sacred song without accident or interruption of any kind.
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0161.jpg" alt="0161" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0161.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- Hawkeye listened while he coolly adjusted his flint and reloaded his
- rifle; but the sounds, wanting the extraneous assistance of scene and
- sympathy, failed to awaken his slumbering emotions. Never minstrel, or by
- whatever more suitable name David should be known, drew upon his talents
- in the presence of more insensible auditors; though considering the
- singleness and sincerity of his motive, it is probable that no bard of
- profane song ever uttered notes that ascended so near to that throne where
- all homage and praise is due. The scout shook his head, and muttering some
- unintelligible words, among which “throat” and “Iroquois” were alone
- audible, he walked away, to collect and to examine into the state of the
- captured arsenal of the Hurons. In this office he was now joined by
- Chingachgook, who found his own, as well as the rifle of his son, among
- the arms. Even Heyward and David were furnished with weapons; nor was
- ammunition wanting to render them all effectual.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the foresters had made their selection, and distributed their prizes,
- the scout announced that the hour had arrived when it was necessary to
- move. By this time the song of Gamut had ceased, and the sisters had
- learned to still the exhibition of their emotions. Aided by Duncan and the
- younger Mohican, the two latter descended the precipitous sides of that
- hill which they had so lately ascended under so very different auspices,
- and whose summit had so nearly proved the scene of their massacre. At the
- foot they found the Narragansetts browsing the herbage of the bushes, and
- having mounted, they followed the movements of a guide, who, in the most
- deadly straits, had so often proved himself their friend. The journey was,
- however, short. Hawkeye, leaving the blind path that the Hurons had
- followed, turned short to his right, and entering the thicket, he crossed
- a babbling brook, and halted in a narrow dell, under the shade of a few
- water elms. Their distance from the base of the fatal hill was but a few
- rods, and the steeds had been serviceable only in crossing the shallow
- stream.
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout and the Indians appeared to be familiar with the sequestered
- place where they now were; for, leaning their rifle against the trees,
- they commenced throwing aside the dried leaves, and opening the blue clay,
- out of which a clear and sparkling spring of bright, glancing water,
- quickly bubbled. The white man then looked about him, as though seeking
- for some object, which was not to be found as readily as he expected.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Them careless imps, the Mohawks, with their Tuscarora and Onondaga
- brethren, have been here slaking their thirst,” he muttered, “and the
- vagabonds have thrown away the gourd! This is the way with benefits, when
- they are bestowed on such disremembering hounds! Here has the Lord laid
- his hand, in the midst of the howling wilderness, for their good, and
- raised a fountain of water from the bowels of the 'arth, that might laugh
- at the richest shop of apothecary's ware in all the colonies; and see! the
- knaves have trodden in the clay, and deformed the cleanliness of the
- place, as though they were brute beasts, instead of human men.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncas silently extended toward him the desired gourd, which the spleen of
- Hawkeye had hitherto prevented him from observing on a branch of an elm.
- Filling it with water, he retired a short distance, to a place where the
- ground was more firm and dry; here he coolly seated himself, and after
- taking a long, and, apparently, a grateful draught, he commenced a very
- strict examination of the fragments of food left by the Hurons, which had
- hung in a wallet on his arm.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thank you, lad!” he continued, returning the empty gourd to Uncas; “now
- we will see how these rampaging Hurons lived, when outlying in
- ambushments. Look at this! The varlets know the better pieces of the deer;
- and one would think they might carve and roast a saddle, equal to the best
- cook in the land! But everything is raw, for the Iroquois are thorough
- savages. Uncas, take my steel and kindle a fire; a mouthful of a tender
- broil will give natur' a helping hand, after so long a trail.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward, perceiving that their guides now set about their repast in sober
- earnest, assisted the ladies to alight, and placed himself at their side,
- not unwilling to enjoy a few moments of grateful rest, after the bloody
- scene he had just gone through. While the culinary process was in hand,
- curiosity induced him to inquire into the circumstances which had led to
- their timely and unexpected rescue:
- </p>
- <p>
- “How is it that we see you so soon, my generous friend,” he asked, “and
- without aid from the garrison of Edward?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Had we gone to the bend in the river, we might have been in time to rake
- the leaves over your bodies, but too late to have saved your scalps,”
- coolly answered the scout. “No, no; instead of throwing away strength and
- opportunity by crossing to the fort, we lay by, under the bank of the
- Hudson, waiting to watch the movements of the Hurons.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You were, then, witnesses of all that passed?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not of all; for Indian sight is too keen to be easily cheated, and we
- kept close. A difficult matter it was, too, to keep this Mohican boy snug
- in the ambushment. Ah! Uncas, Uncas, your behavior was more like that of a
- curious woman than of a warrior on his scent.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncas permitted his eyes to turn for an instant on the sturdy countenance
- of the speaker, but he neither spoke nor gave any indication of
- repentance. On the contrary, Heyward thought the manner of the young
- Mohican was disdainful, if not a little fierce, and that he suppressed
- passions that were ready to explode, as much in compliment to the
- listeners, as from the deference he usually paid to his white associate.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You saw our capture?” Heyward next demanded.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We heard it,” was the significant answer. “An Indian yell is plain
- language to men who have passed their days in the woods. But when you
- landed, we were driven to crawl like sarpents, beneath the leaves; and
- then we lost sight of you entirely, until we placed eyes on you again
- trussed to the trees, and ready bound for an Indian massacre.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Our rescue was the deed of Providence. It was nearly a miracle that you
- did not mistake the path, for the Hurons divided, and each band had its
- horses.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay! there we were thrown off the scent, and might, indeed, have lost the
- trail, had it not been for Uncas; we took the path, however, that led into
- the wilderness; for we judged, and judged rightly, that the savages would
- hold that course with their prisoners. But when we had followed it for
- many miles, without finding a single twig broken, as I had advised, my
- mind misgave me; especially as all the footsteps had the prints of
- moccasins.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Our captors had the precaution to see us shod like themselves,” said
- Duncan, raising a foot, and exhibiting the buckskin he wore.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Aye, 'twas judgmatical and like themselves; though we were too expart to
- be thrown from a trail by so common an invention.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “To what, then, are we indebted for our safety?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “To what, as a white man who has no taint of Indian blood, I should be
- ashamed to own; to the judgment of the young Mohican, in matters which I
- should know better than he, but which I can now hardly believe to be true,
- though my own eyes tell me it is so.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis extraordinary! will you not name the reason?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Uncas was bold enough to say, that the beasts ridden by the gentle ones,”
- continued Hawkeye, glancing his eyes, not without curious interest, on the
- fillies of the ladies, “planted the legs of one side on the ground at the
- same time, which is contrary to the movements of all trotting four-footed
- animals of my knowledge, except the bear. And yet here are horses that
- always journey in this manner, as my own eyes have seen, and as their
- trail has shown for twenty long miles.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis the merit of the animal! They come from the shores of Narrangansett
- Bay, in the small province of Providence Plantations, and are celebrated
- for their hardihood, and the ease of this peculiar movement; though other
- horses are not unfrequently trained to the same.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It may be—it may be,” said Hawkeye, who had listened with singular
- attention to this explanation; “though I am a man who has the full blood
- of the whites, my judgment in deer and beaver is greater than in beasts of
- burden. Major Effingham has many noble chargers, but I have never seen one
- travel after such a sidling gait.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “True; for he would value the animals for very different properties. Still
- is this a breed highly esteemed and, as you witness, much honored with the
- burdens it is often destined to bear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Mohicans had suspended their operations about the glimmering fire to
- listen; and, when Duncan had done, they looked at each other
- significantly, the father uttering the never-failing exclamation of
- surprise. The scout ruminated, like a man digesting his newly-acquired
- knowledge, and once more stole a glance at the horses.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I dare to say there are even stranger sights to be seen in the
- settlements!” he said, at length. “Natur' is sadly abused by man, when he
- once gets the mastery. But, go sidling or go straight, Uncas had seen the
- movement, and their trail led us on to the broken bush. The outer branch,
- near the prints of one of the horses, was bent upward, as a lady breaks a
- flower from its stem, but all the rest were ragged and broken down, as if
- the strong hand of a man had been tearing them! So I concluded that the
- cunning varments had seen the twig bent, and had torn the rest, to make us
- believe a buck had been feeling the boughs with his antlers.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I do believe your sagacity did not deceive you; for some such thing
- occurred!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That was easy to see,” added the scout, in no degree conscious of having
- exhibited any extraordinary sagacity; “and a very different matter it was
- from a waddling horse! It then struck me the Mingoes would push for this
- spring, for the knaves well know the vartue of its waters!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is it, then, so famous?” demanded Heyward, examining, with a more curious
- eye, the secluded dell, with its bubbling fountain, surrounded, as it was,
- by earth of a deep, dingy brown.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Few red-skins, who travel south and east of the great lakes but have
- heard of its qualities. Will you taste for yourself?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward took the gourd, and after swallowing a little of the water, threw
- it aside with grimaces of discontent. The scout laughed in his silent but
- heartfelt manner, and shook his head with vast satisfaction.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah! you want the flavor that one gets by habit; the time was when I liked
- it as little as yourself; but I have come to my taste, and I now crave it,
- as a deer does the licks*. Your high-spiced wines are not better liked
- than a red-skin relishes this water; especially when his natur' is ailing.
- But Uncas has made his fire, and it is time we think of eating, for our
- journey is long, and all before us.”
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * Many of the animals of the American forests resort to
- those spots where salt springs are found. These are called
- “licks” or “salt licks,” in the language of the country,
- from the circumstance that the quadruped is often obliged to
- lick the earth, in order to obtain the saline particles.
- These licks are great places of resort with the hunters, who
- waylay their game near the paths that lead to them.
-</pre>
- <p>
- Interrupting the dialogue by this abrupt transition, the scout had instant
- recourse to the fragments of food which had escaped the voracity of the
- Hurons. A very summary process completed the simple cookery, when he and
- the Mohicans commenced their humble meal, with the silence and
- characteristic diligence of men who ate in order to enable themselves to
- endure great and unremitting toil.
- </p>
- <p>
- When this necessary, and, happily, grateful duty had been performed, each
- of the foresters stooped and took a long and parting draught at that
- solitary and silent spring*, around which and its sister fountains, within
- fifty years, the wealth, beauty and talents of a hemisphere were to
- assemble in throngs, in pursuit of health and pleasure. Then Hawkeye
- announced his determination to proceed. The sisters resumed their saddles;
- Duncan and David grapsed their rifles, and followed on footsteps; the
- scout leading the advance, and the Mohicans bringing up the rear. The
- whole party moved swiftly through the narrow path, toward the north,
- leaving the healing waters to mingle unheeded with the adjacent brooks and
- the bodies of the dead to fester on the neighboring mount, without the
- rites of sepulture; a fate but too common to the warriors of the woods to
- excite either commiseration or comment.
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * The scene of the foregoing incidents is on the spot where
- the village of Ballston now stands; one of the two principal
- watering places of America.
-</pre>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 13
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “I'll seek a readier path.”
- —Parnell
-</pre>
- <p>
- The route taken by Hawkeye lay across those sandy plains, relived by
- occasional valleys and swells of land, which had been traversed by their
- party on the morning of the same day, with the baffled Magua for their
- guide. The sun had now fallen low toward the distant mountains; and as
- their journey lay through the interminable forest, the heat was no longer
- oppressive. Their progress, in consequence, was proportionate; and long
- before the twilight gathered about them, they had made good many toilsome
- miles on their return.
- </p>
- <p>
- The hunter, like the savage whose place he filled, seemed to select among
- the blind signs of their wild route, with a species of instinct, seldom
- abating his speed, and never pausing to deliberate. A rapid and oblique
- glance at the moss on the trees, with an occasional upward gaze toward the
- setting sun, or a steady but passing look at the direction of the numerous
- water courses, through which he waded, were sufficient to determine his
- path, and remove his greatest difficulties. In the meantime, the forest
- began to change its hues, losing that lively green which had embellished
- its arches, in the graver light which is the usual precursor of the close
- of day.
- </p>
- <p>
- While the eyes of the sisters were endeavoring to catch glimpses through
- the trees, of the flood of golden glory which formed a glittering halo
- around the sun, tinging here and there with ruby streaks, or bordering
- with narrow edgings of shining yellow, a mass of clouds that lay piled at
- no great distance above the western hills, Hawkeye turned suddenly and
- pointing upward toward the gorgeous heavens, he spoke:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yonder is the signal given to man to seek his food and natural rest,” he
- said; “better and wiser would it be, if he could understand the signs of
- nature, and take a lesson from the fowls of the air and the beasts of the
- field! Our night, however, will soon be over, for with the moon we must be
- up and moving again. I remember to have fou't the Maquas, hereaways, in
- the first war in which I ever drew blood from man; and we threw up a work
- of blocks, to keep the ravenous varmints from handling our scalps. If my
- marks do not fail me, we shall find the place a few rods further to our
- left.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Without waiting for an assent, or, indeed, for any reply, the sturdy
- hunter moved boldly into a dense thicket of young chestnuts, shoving aside
- the branches of the exuberant shoots which nearly covered the ground, like
- a man who expected, at each step, to discover some object he had formerly
- known. The recollection of the scout did not deceive him. After
- penetrating through the brush, matted as it was with briars, for a few
- hundred feet, he entered an open space, that surrounded a low, green
- hillock, which was crowned by the decayed blockhouse in question. This
- rude and neglected building was one of those deserted works, which, having
- been thrown up on an emergency, had been abandoned with the disappearance
- of danger, and was now quietly crumbling in the solitude of the forest,
- neglected and nearly forgotten, like the circumstances which had caused it
- to be reared. Such memorials of the passage and struggles of man are yet
- frequent throughout the broad barrier of wilderness which once separated
- the hostile provinces, and form a species of ruins that are intimately
- associated with the recollections of colonial history, and which are in
- appropriate keeping with the gloomy character of the surrounding scenery.
- The roof of bark had long since fallen, and mingled with the soil, but the
- huge logs of pine, which had been hastily thrown together, still preserved
- their relative positions, though one angle of the work had given way under
- the pressure, and threatened a speedy downfall to the remainder of the
- rustic edifice. While Heyward and his companions hesitated to approach a
- building so decayed, Hawkeye and the Indians entered within the low walls,
- not only without fear, but with obvious interest. While the former
- surveyed the ruins, both internally and externally, with the curiosity of
- one whose recollections were reviving at each moment, Chingachgook related
- to his son, in the language of the Delawares, and with the pride of a
- conqueror, the brief history of the skirmish which had been fought, in his
- youth, in that secluded spot. A strain of melancholy, however, blended
- with his triumph, rendering his voice, as usual, soft and musical.
- </p>
- <p>
- In the meantime, the sisters gladly dismounted, and prepared to enjoy
- their halt in the coolness of the evening, and in a security which they
- believed nothing but the beasts of the forest could invade.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Would not our resting-place have been more retired, my worthy friend,”
- demanded the more vigilant Duncan, perceiving that the scout had already
- finished his short survey, “had we chosen a spot less known, and one more
- rarely visited than this?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Few live who know the blockhouse was ever raised,” was the slow and
- musing answer; “'tis not often that books are made, and narratives written
- of such a scrimmage as was here fou't atween the Mohicans and the Mohawks,
- in a war of their own waging. I was then a younker, and went out with the
- Delawares, because I know'd they were a scandalized and wronged race.
- Forty days and forty nights did the imps crave our blood around this pile
- of logs, which I designed and partly reared, being, as you'll remember, no
- Indian myself, but a man without a cross. The Delawares lent themselves to
- the work, and we made it good, ten to twenty, until our numbers were
- nearly equal, and then we sallied out upon the hounds, and not a man of
- them ever got back to tell the fate of his party. Yes, yes; I was then
- young, and new to the sight of blood; and not relishing the thought that
- creatures who had spirits like myself should lay on the naked ground, to
- be torn asunder by beasts, or to bleach in the rains, I buried the dead
- with my own hands, under that very little hillock where you have placed
- yourselves; and no bad seat does it make neither, though it be raised by
- the bones of mortal men.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward and the sisters arose, on the instant, from the grassy sepulcher;
- nor could the two latter, notwithstanding the terrific scenes they had so
- recently passed through, entirely suppress an emotion of natural horror,
- when they found themselves in such familiar contact with the grave of the
- dead Mohawks. The gray light, the gloomy little area of dark grass,
- surrounded by its border of brush, beyond which the pines rose, in
- breathing silence, apparently into the very clouds, and the deathlike
- stillness of the vast forest, were all in unison to deepen such a
- sensation. “They are gone, and they are harmless,” continued Hawkeye,
- waving his hand, with a melancholy smile at their manifest alarm; “they'll
- never shout the war-whoop nor strike a blow with the tomahawk again! And
- of all those who aided in placing them where they lie, Chingachgook and I
- only are living! The brothers and family of the Mohican formed our war
- party; and you see before you all that are now left of his race.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The eyes of the listeners involuntarily sought the forms of the Indians,
- with a compassionate interest in their desolate fortune. Their dark
- persons were still to be seen within the shadows of the blockhouse, the
- son listening to the relation of his father with that sort of intenseness
- which would be created by a narrative that redounded so much to the honor
- of those whose names he had long revered for their courage and savage
- virtues.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I had thought the Delawares a pacific people,” said Duncan, “and that
- they never waged war in person; trusting the defense of their hands to
- those very Mohawks that you slew!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis true in part,” returned the scout, “and yet, at the bottom, 'tis a
- wicked lie. Such a treaty was made in ages gone by, through the deviltries
- of the Dutchers, who wished to disarm the natives that had the best right
- to the country, where they had settled themselves. The Mohicans, though a
- part of the same nation, having to deal with the English, never entered
- into the silly bargain, but kept to their manhood; as in truth did the
- Delawares, when their eyes were open to their folly. You see before you a
- chief of the great Mohican Sagamores! Once his family could chase their
- deer over tracts of country wider than that which belongs to the Albany
- Patteroon, without crossing brook or hill that was not their own; but what
- is left of their descendant? He may find his six feet of earth when God
- chooses, and keep it in peace, perhaps, if he has a friend who will take
- the pains to sink his head so low that the plowshares cannot reach it!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Enough!” said Heyward, apprehensive that the subject might lead to a
- discussion that would interrupt the harmony so necessary to the
- preservation of his fair companions; “we have journeyed far, and few among
- us are blessed with forms like that of yours, which seems to know neither
- fatigue nor weakness.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The sinews and bones of a man carry me through it all,” said the hunter,
- surveying his muscular limbs with a simplicity that betrayed the honest
- pleasure the compliment afforded him; “there are larger and heavier men to
- be found in the settlements, but you might travel many days in a city
- before you could meet one able to walk fifty miles without stopping to
- take breath, or who has kept the hounds within hearing during a chase of
- hours. However, as flesh and blood are not always the same, it is quite
- reasonable to suppose that the gentle ones are willing to rest, after all
- they have seen and done this day. Uncas, clear out the spring, while your
- father and I make a cover for their tender heads of these chestnut shoots,
- and a bed of grass and leaves.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The dialogue ceased, while the hunter and his companions busied themselves
- in preparations for the comfort and protection of those they guided. A
- spring, which many long years before had induced the natives to select the
- place for their temporary fortification, was soon cleared of leaves, and a
- fountain of crystal gushed from the bed, diffusing its waters over the
- verdant hillock. A corner of the building was then roofed in such a manner
- as to exclude the heavy dew of the climate, and piles of sweet shrubs and
- dried leaves were laid beneath it for the sisters to repose on.
- </p>
- <p>
- While the diligent woodsmen were employed in this manner, Cora and Alice
- partook of that refreshment which duty required much more than inclination
- prompted them to accept. They then retired within the walls, and first
- offering up their thanksgivings for past mercies, and petitioning for a
- continuance of the Divine favor throughout the coming night, they laid
- their tender forms on the fragrant couch, and in spite of recollections
- and forebodings, soon sank into those slumbers which nature so imperiously
- demanded, and which were sweetened by hopes for the morrow. Duncan had
- prepared himself to pass the night in watchfulness near them, just without
- the ruin, but the scout, perceiving his intention, pointed toward
- Chingachgook, as he coolly disposed his own person on the grass, and said:
- </p>
- <p>
- “The eyes of a white man are too heavy and too blind for such a watch as
- this! The Mohican will be our sentinel, therefore let us sleep.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I proved myself a sluggard on my post during the past night,” said
- Heyward, “and have less need of repose than you, who did more credit to
- the character of a soldier. Let all the party seek their rest, then, while
- I hold the guard.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If we lay among the white tents of the Sixtieth, and in front of an enemy
- like the French, I could not ask for a better watchman,” returned the
- scout; “but in the darkness and among the signs of the wilderness your
- judgment would be like the folly of a child, and your vigilance thrown
- away. Do then, like Uncas and myself, sleep, and sleep in safety.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward perceived, in truth, that the younger Indian had thrown his form
- on the side of the hillock while they were talking, like one who sought to
- make the most of the time allotted to rest, and that his example had been
- followed by David, whose voice literally “clove to his jaws,” with the
- fever of his wound, heightened, as it was, by their toilsome march.
- Unwilling to prolong a useless discussion, the young man affected to
- comply, by posting his back against the logs of the blockhouse, in a half
- recumbent posture, though resolutely determined, in his own mind, not to
- close an eye until he had delivered his precious charge into the arms of
- Munro himself. Hawkeye, believing he had prevailed, soon fell asleep, and
- a silence as deep as the solitude in which they had found it, pervaded the
- retired spot.
- </p>
- <p>
- For many minutes Duncan succeeded in keeping his senses on the alert, and
- alive to every moaning sound that arose from the forest. His vision became
- more acute as the shades of evening settled on the place; and even after
- the stars were glimmering above his head, he was able to distinguish the
- recumbent forms of his companions, as they lay stretched on the grass, and
- to note the person of Chingachgook, who sat upright and motionless as one
- of the trees which formed the dark barrier on every side. He still heard
- the gentle breathings of the sisters, who lay within a few feet of him,
- and not a leaf was ruffled by the passing air of which his ear did not
- detect the whispering sound. At length, however, the mournful notes of a
- whip-poor-will became blended with the moanings of an owl; his heavy eyes
- occasionally sought the bright rays of the stars, and he then fancied he
- saw them through the fallen lids. At instants of momentary wakefulness he
- mistook a bush for his associate sentinel; his head next sank upon his
- shoulder, which, in its turn, sought the support of the ground; and,
- finally, his whole person became relaxed and pliant, and the young man
- sank into a deep sleep, dreaming that he was a knight of ancient chivalry,
- holding his midnight vigils before the tent of a recaptured princess,
- whose favor he did not despair of gaining, by such a proof of devotion and
- watchfulness.
- </p>
- <p>
- How long the tired Duncan lay in this insensible state he never knew
- himself, but his slumbering visions had been long lost in total
- forgetfulness, when he was awakened by a light tap on the shoulder.
- Aroused by this signal, slight as it was, he sprang upon his feet with a
- confused recollection of the self-imposed duty he had assumed with the
- commencement of the night.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who comes?” he demanded, feeling for his sword, at the place where it was
- usually suspended. “Speak! friend or enemy?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Friend,” replied the low voice of Chingachgook; who, pointing upward at
- the luminary which was shedding its mild light through the opening in the
- trees, directly in their bivouac, immediately added, in his rude English:
- “Moon comes and white man's fort far—far off; time to move, when
- sleep shuts both eyes of the Frenchman!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You say true! Call up your friends, and bridle the horses while I prepare
- my own companions for the march!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are awake, Duncan,” said the soft, silvery tones of Alice within the
- building, “and ready to travel very fast after so refreshing a sleep; but
- you have watched through the tedious night in our behalf, after having
- endured so much fatigue the livelong day!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Say, rather, I would have watched, but my treacherous eyes betrayed me;
- twice have I proved myself unfit for the trust I bear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nay, Duncan, deny it not,” interrupted the smiling Alice, issuing from
- the shadows of the building into the light of the moon, in all the
- loveliness of her freshened beauty; “I know you to be a heedless one, when
- self is the object of your care, and but too vigilant in favor of others.
- Can we not tarry here a little longer while you find the rest you need?
- Cheerfully, most cheerfully, will Cora and I keep the vigils, while you
- and all these brave men endeavor to snatch a little sleep!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If shame could cure me of my drowsiness, I should never close an eye
- again,” said the uneasy youth, gazing at the ingenuous countenance of
- Alice, where, however, in its sweet solicitude, he read nothing to confirm
- his half-awakened suspicion. “It is but too true, that after leading you
- into danger by my heedlessness, I have not even the merit of guarding your
- pillows as should become a soldier.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No one but Duncan himself should accuse Duncan of such a weakness. Go,
- then, and sleep; believe me, neither of us, weak girls as we are, will
- betray our watch.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The young man was relieved from the awkwardness of making any further
- protestations of his own demerits, by an exclamation from Chingachgook,
- and the attitude of riveted attention assumed by his son.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Mohicans hear an enemy!” whispered Hawkeye, who, by this time, in
- common with the whole party, was awake and stirring. “They scent danger in
- the wind!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “God forbid!” exclaimed Heyward. “Surely we have had enough of bloodshed!”
- </p>
- <p>
- While he spoke, however, the young soldier seized his rifle, and advancing
- toward the front, prepared to atone for his venial remissness, by freely
- exposing his life in defense of those he attended.
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis some creature of the forest prowling around us in quest of food,” he
- said, in a whisper, as soon as the low, and apparently distant sounds,
- which had startled the Mohicans, reached his own ears.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hist!” returned the attentive scout; “'tis man; even I can now tell his
- tread, poor as my senses are when compared to an Indian's! That Scampering
- Huron has fallen in with one of Montcalm's outlying parties, and they have
- struck upon our trail. I shouldn't like, myself, to spill more human blood
- in this spot,” he added, looking around with anxiety in his features, at
- the dim objects by which he was surrounded; “but what must be, must! Lead
- the horses into the blockhouse, Uncas; and, friends, do you follow to the
- same shelter. Poor and old as it is, it offers a cover, and has rung with
- the crack of a rifle afore to-night!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He was instantly obeyed, the Mohicans leading the Narrangansetts within
- the ruin, whither the whole party repaired with the most guarded silence.
- </p>
- <p>
- The sound of approaching footsteps were now too distinctly audible to
- leave any doubts as to the nature of the interruption. They were soon
- mingled with voices calling to each other in an Indian dialect, which the
- hunter, in a whisper, affirmed to Heyward was the language of the Hurons.
- When the party reached the point where the horses had entered the thicket
- which surrounded the blockhouse, they were evidently at fault, having lost
- those marks which, until that moment, had directed their pursuit.
- </p>
- <p>
- It would seem by the voices that twenty men were soon collected at that
- one spot, mingling their different opinions and advice in noisy clamor.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The knaves know our weakness,” whispered Hawkeye, who stood by the side
- of Heyward, in deep shade, looking through an opening in the logs, “or
- they wouldn't indulge their idleness in such a squaw's march. Listen to
- the reptiles! each man among them seems to have two tongues, and but a
- single leg.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan, brave as he was in the combat, could not, in such a moment of
- painful suspense, make any reply to the cool and characteristic remark of
- the scout. He only grasped his rifle more firmly, and fastened his eyes
- upon the narrow opening, through which he gazed upon the moonlight view
- with increasing anxiety. The deeper tones of one who spoke as having
- authority were next heard, amid a silence that denoted the respect with
- which his orders, or rather advice, was received. After which, by the
- rustling of leaves, and crackling of dried twigs, it was apparent the
- savages were separating in pursuit of the lost trail. Fortunately for the
- pursued, the light of the moon, while it shed a flood of mild luster upon
- the little area around the ruin, was not sufficiently strong to penetrate
- the deep arches of the forest, where the objects still lay in deceptive
- shadow. The search proved fruitless; for so short and sudden had been the
- passage from the faint path the travelers had journeyed into the thicket,
- that every trace of their footsteps was lost in the obscurity of the
- woods.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was not long, however, before the restless savages were heard beating
- the brush, and gradually approaching the inner edge of that dense border
- of young chestnuts which encircled the little area.
- </p>
- <p>
- “They are coming,” muttered Heyward, endeavoring to thrust his rifle
- through the chink in the logs; “let us fire on their approach.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Keep everything in the shade,” returned the scout; “the snapping of a
- flint, or even the smell of a single karnel of the brimstone, would bring
- the hungry varlets upon us in a body. Should it please God that we must
- give battle for the scalps, trust to the experience of men who know the
- ways of the savages, and who are not often backward when the war-whoop is
- howled.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan cast his eyes behind him, and saw that the trembling sisters were
- cowering in the far corner of the building, while the Mohicans stood in
- the shadow, like two upright posts, ready, and apparently willing, to
- strike when the blow should be needed. Curbing his impatience, he again
- looked out upon the area, and awaited the result in silence. At that
- instant the thicket opened, and a tall and armed Huron advanced a few
- paces into the open space. As he gazed upon the silent blockhouse, the
- moon fell upon his swarthy countenance, and betrayed its surprise and
- curiosity. He made the exclamation which usually accompanies the former
- emotion in an Indian, and, calling in a low voice, soon drew a companion
- to his side.
- </p>
- <p>
- These children of the woods stood together for several moments pointing at
- the crumbling edifice, and conversing in the unintelligible language of
- their tribe. They then approached, though with slow and cautious steps,
- pausing every instant to look at the building, like startled deer whose
- curiosity struggled powerfully with their awakened apprehensions for the
- mastery. The foot of one of them suddenly rested on the mound, and he
- stopped to examine its nature. At this moment, Heyward observed that the
- scout loosened his knife in its sheath, and lowered the muzzle of his
- rifle. Imitating these movements, the young man prepared himself for the
- struggle which now seemed inevitable.
- </p>
- <p>
- The savages were so near, that the least motion in one of the horses, or
- even a breath louder than common, would have betrayed the fugitives. But
- in discovering the character of the mound, the attention of the Hurons
- appeared directed to a different object. They spoke together, and the
- sounds of their voices were low and solemn, as if influenced by a
- reverence that was deeply blended with awe. Then they drew warily back,
- keeping their eyes riveted on the ruin, as if they expected to see the
- apparitions of the dead issue from its silent walls, until, having reached
- the boundary of the area, they moved slowly into the thicket and
- disappeared.
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye dropped the breech of his rifle to the earth, and drawing a long,
- free breath, exclaimed, in an audible whisper:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay! they respect the dead, and it has this time saved their own lives,
- and, it may be, the lives of better men too.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward lent his attention for a single moment to his companion, but
- without replying, he again turned toward those who just then interested
- him more. He heard the two Hurons leave the bushes, and it was soon plain
- that all the pursuers were gathered about them, in deep attention to their
- report. After a few minutes of earnest and solemn dialogue, altogether
- different from the noisy clamor with which they had first collected about
- the spot, the sounds grew fainter and more distant, and finally were lost
- in the depths of the forest.
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye waited until a signal from the listening Chingachgook assured him
- that every sound from the retiring party was completely swallowed by the
- distance, when he motioned to Heyward to lead forth the horses, and to
- assist the sisters into their saddles. The instant this was done they
- issued through the broken gateway, and stealing out by a direction
- opposite to the one by which they entered, they quitted the spot, the
- sisters casting furtive glances at the silent, grave and crumbling ruin,
- as they left the soft light of the moon, to bury themselves in the gloom
- of the woods.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 14
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Guard.—Qui est la?
- Puc. —Paisans, pauvres gens de France.”
- —King Henry VI
-</pre>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/5215.jpg" alt="5215" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/5215.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- During the rapid movement from the blockhouse, and until the party was
- deeply buried in the forest, each individual was too much interested in
- the escape to hazard a word even in whispers. The scout resumed his post
- in advance, though his steps, after he had thrown a safe distance between
- himself and his enemies, were more deliberate than in their previous
- march, in consequence of his utter ignorance of the localities of the
- surrounding woods. More than once he halted to consult with his
- confederates, the Mohicans, pointing upward at the moon, and examining the
- barks of the trees with care. In these brief pauses, Heyward and the
- sisters listened, with senses rendered doubly acute by the danger, to
- detect any symptoms which might announce the proximity of their foes. At
- such moments, it seemed as if a vast range of country lay buried in
- eternal sleep; not the least sound arising from the forest, unless it was
- the distant and scarcely audible rippling of a water-course. Birds,
- beasts, and man, appeared to slumber alike, if, indeed, any of the latter
- were to be found in that wide tract of wilderness. But the sounds of the
- rivulet, feeble and murmuring as they were, relieved the guides at once
- from no trifling embarrassment, and toward it they immediately held their
- way.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the banks of the little stream were gained, Hawkeye made another
- halt; and taking the moccasins from his feet, he invited Heyward and Gamut
- to follow his example. He then entered the water, and for near an hour
- they traveled in the bed of the brook, leaving no trail. The moon had
- already sunk into an immense pile of black clouds, which lay impending
- above the western horizon, when they issued from the low and devious
- water-course to rise again to the light and level of the sandy but wooded
- plain. Here the scout seemed to be once more at home, for he held on this
- way with the certainty and diligence of a man who moved in the security of
- his own knowledge. The path soon became more uneven, and the travelers
- could plainly perceive that the mountains drew nigher to them on each
- hand, and that they were, in truth, about entering one of their gorges.
- Suddenly, Hawkeye made a pause, and, waiting until he was joined by the
- whole party, he spoke, though in tones so low and cautious, that they
- added to the solemnity of his words, in the quiet and darkness of the
- place.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is easy to know the pathways, and to find the licks and water-courses
- of the wilderness,” he said; “but who that saw this spot could venture to
- say, that a mighty army was at rest among yonder silent trees and barren
- mountains?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are, then, at no great distance from William Henry?” said Heyward,
- advancing nigher to the scout.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is yet a long and weary path, and when and where to strike it is now
- our greatest difficulty. See,” he said, pointing through the trees toward
- a spot where a little basin of water reflected the stars from its placid
- bosom, “here is the 'bloody pond'; and I am on ground that I have not only
- often traveled, but over which I have fou't the enemy, from the rising to
- the setting sun.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ha! that sheet of dull and dreary water, then, is the sepulcher of the
- brave men who fell in the contest. I have heard it named, but never have I
- stood on its banks before.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Three battles did we make with the Dutch-Frenchman* in a day,” continued
- Hawkeye, pursuing the train of his own thoughts, rather than replying to
- the remark of Duncan. “He met us hard by, in our outward march to ambush
- his advance, and scattered us, like driven deer, through the defile, to
- the shores of Horican. Then we rallied behind our fallen trees, and made
- head against him, under Sir William—who was made Sir William for
- that very deed; and well did we pay him for the disgrace of the morning!
- Hundreds of Frenchmen saw the sun that day for the last time; and even
- their leader, Dieskau himself, fell into our hands, so cut and torn with
- the lead, that he has gone back to his own country, unfit for further acts
- in war.”
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * Baron Dieskau, a German, in the service of France. A few
- years previously to the period of the tale, this officer was
- defeated by Sir William Johnson, of Johnstown, New York, on
- the shores of Lake George.
-</pre>
- <p>
- “'Twas a noble repulse!” exclaimed Heyward, in the heat of his youthful
- ardor; “the fame of it reached us early, in our southern army.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay! but it did not end there. I was sent by Major Effingham, at Sir
- William's own bidding, to outflank the French, and carry the tidings of
- their disaster across the portage, to the fort on the Hudson. Just
- hereaway, where you see the trees rise into a mountain swell, I met a
- party coming down to our aid, and I led them where the enemy were taking
- their meal, little dreaming that they had not finished the bloody work of
- the day.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And you surprised them?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If death can be a surprise to men who are thinking only of the cravings
- of their appetites. We gave them but little breathing time, for they had
- borne hard upon us in the fight of the morning, and there were few in our
- party who had not lost friend or relative by their hands.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “When all was over, the dead, and some say the dying, were cast into that
- little pond. These eyes have seen its waters colored with blood, as
- natural water never yet flowed from the bowels of the 'arth.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It was a convenient, and, I trust, will prove a peaceful grave for a
- soldier. You have then seen much service on this frontier?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay!” said the scout, erecting his tall person with an air of military
- pride; “there are not many echoes among these hills that haven't rung with
- the crack of my rifle, nor is there the space of a square mile atwixt
- Horican and the river, that 'killdeer' hasn't dropped a living body on, be
- it an enemy or be it a brute beast. As for the grave there being as quiet
- as you mention, it is another matter. There are them in the camp who say
- and think, man, to lie still, should not be buried while the breath is in
- the body; and certain it is that in the hurry of that evening, the doctors
- had but little time to say who was living and who was dead. Hist! see you
- nothing walking on the shore of the pond?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis not probable that any are as houseless as ourselves in this dreary
- forest.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Such as he may care but little for house or shelter, and night dew can
- never wet a body that passes its days in the water,” returned the scout,
- grasping the shoulder of Heyward with such convulsive strength as to make
- the young soldier painfully sensible how much superstitious terror had got
- the mastery of a man usually so dauntless.
- </p>
- <p>
- “By heaven, there is a human form, and it approaches! Stand to your arms,
- my friends; for we know not whom we encounter.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Qui vive?” demanded a stern, quick voice, which sounded like a challenge
- from another world, issuing out of that solitary and solemn place.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What says it?” whispered the scout; “it speaks neither Indian nor
- English.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Qui vive?” repeated the same voice, which was quickly followed by the
- rattling of arms, and a menacing attitude.
- </p>
- <p>
- “France!” cried Heyward, advancing from the shadow of the trees to the
- shore of the pond, within a few yards of the sentinel.
- </p>
- <p>
- “D'ou venez-vous—ou allez-vous, d'aussi bonne heure?” demanded the
- grenadier, in the language and with the accent of a man from old France.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Je viens de la decouverte, et je vais me coucher.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Etes-vous officier du roi?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sans doute, mon camarade; me prends-tu pour un provincial! Je suis
- capitaine de chasseurs (Heyward well knew that the other was of a regiment
- in the line); j'ai ici, avec moi, les filles du commandant de la
- fortification. Aha! tu en as entendu parler! je les ai fait prisonnieres
- pres de l'autre fort, et je les conduis au general.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ma foi! mesdames; j'en suis fâche pour vous,” exclaimed the young
- soldier, touching his cap with grace; “mais—fortune de guerre! vous
- trouverez notre general un brave homme, et bien poli avec les dames.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “C'est le caractere des gens de guerre,” said Cora, with admirable
- self-possession. “Adieu, mon ami; je vous souhaiterais un devoir plus
- agreable a remplir.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The soldier made a low and humble acknowledgment for her civility; and
- Heyward adding a “Bonne nuit, mon camarade,” they moved deliberately
- forward, leaving the sentinel pacing the banks of the silent pond, little
- suspecting an enemy of so much effrontery, and humming to himself those
- words which were recalled to his mind by the sight of women, and, perhaps,
- by recollections of his own distant and beautiful France: “Vive le vin,
- vive l'amour,” etc., etc.
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis well you understood the knave!” whispered the scout, when they had
- gained a little distance from the place, and letting his rifle fall into
- the hollow of his arm again; “I soon saw that he was one of them uneasy
- Frenchers; and well for him it was that his speech was friendly and his
- wishes kind, or a place might have been found for his bones among those of
- his countrymen.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He was interrupted by a long and heavy groan which arose from the little
- basin, as though, in truth, the spirits of the departed lingered about
- their watery sepulcher.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Surely it was of flesh,” continued the scout; “no spirit could handle its
- arms so steadily.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It was of flesh; but whether the poor fellow still belongs to this world
- may well be doubted,” said Heyward, glancing his eyes around him, and
- missing Chingachgook from their little band. Another groan more faint than
- the former was succeeded by a heavy and sullen plunge into the water, and
- all was still again as if the borders of the dreary pool had never been
- awakened from the silence of creation. While they yet hesitated in
- uncertainty, the form of the Indian was seen gliding out of the thicket.
- As the chief rejoined them, with one hand he attached the reeking scalp of
- the unfortunate young Frenchman to his girdle, and with the other he
- replaced the knife and tomahawk that had drunk his blood. He then took his
- wonted station, with the air of a man who believed he had done a deed of
- merit.
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout dropped one end of his rifle to the earth, and leaning his hands
- on the other, he stood musing in profound silence. Then, shaking his head
- in a mournful manner, he muttered:
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Twould have been a cruel and an unhuman act for a white-skin; but 'tis
- the gift and natur' of an Indian, and I suppose it should not be denied. I
- could wish, though, it had befallen an accursed Mingo, rather than that
- gay young boy from the old countries.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Enough!” said Heyward, apprehensive the unconscious sisters might
- comprehend the nature of the detention, and conquering his disgust by a
- train of reflections very much like that of the hunter; “'tis done; and
- though better it were left undone, cannot be amended. You see, we are, too
- obviously within the sentinels of the enemy; what course do you propose to
- follow?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes,” said Hawkeye, rousing himself again; “'tis as you say, too late to
- harbor further thoughts about it. Ay, the French have gathered around the
- fort in good earnest and we have a delicate needle to thread in passing
- them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And but little time to do it in,” added Heyward, glancing his eyes
- upwards, toward the bank of vapor that concealed the setting moon.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And little time to do it in!” repeated the scout. “The thing may be done
- in two fashions, by the help of Providence, without which it may not be
- done at all.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Name them quickly for time presses.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “One would be to dismount the gentle ones, and let their beasts range the
- plain, by sending the Mohicans in front, we might then cut a lane through
- their sentries, and enter the fort over the dead bodies.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It will not do—it will not do!” interrupted the generous Heyward;
- “a soldier might force his way in this manner, but never with such a
- convoy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Twould be, indeed, a bloody path for such tender feet to wade in,”
- returned the equally reluctant scout; “but I thought it befitting my
- manhood to name it. We must, then, turn in our trail and get without the
- line of their lookouts, when we will bend short to the west, and enter the
- mountains; where I can hide you, so that all the devil's hounds in
- Montcalm's pay would be thrown off the scent for months to come.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let it be done, and that instantly.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Further words were unnecessary; for Hawkeye, merely uttering the mandate
- to “follow,” moved along the route by which they had just entered their
- present critical and even dangerous situation. Their progress, like their
- late dialogue, was guarded, and without noise; for none knew at what
- moment a passing patrol, or a crouching picket of the enemy, might rise
- upon their path. As they held their silent way along the margin of the
- pond, again Heyward and the scout stole furtive glances at its appalling
- dreariness. They looked in vain for the form they had so recently seen
- stalking along in silent shores, while a low and regular wash of the
- little waves, by announcing that the waters were not yet subsided,
- furnished a frightful memorial of the deed of blood they had just
- witnessed. Like all that passing and gloomy scene, the low basin, however,
- quickly melted in the darkness, and became blended with the mass of black
- objects in the rear of the travelers.
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye soon deviated from the line of their retreat, and striking off
- towards the mountains which form the western boundary of the narrow plain,
- he led his followers, with swift steps, deep within the shadows that were
- cast from their high and broken summits. The route was now painful; lying
- over ground ragged with rocks, and intersected with ravines, and their
- progress proportionately slow. Bleak and black hills lay on every side of
- them, compensating in some degree for the additional toil of the march by
- the sense of security they imparted. At length the party began slowly to
- rise a steep and rugged ascent, by a path that curiously wound among rocks
- and trees, avoiding the one and supported by the other, in a manner that
- showed it had been devised by men long practised in the arts of the
- wilderness. As they gradually rose from the level of the valleys, the
- thick darkness which usually precedes the approach of day began to
- disperse, and objects were seen in the plain and palpable colors with
- which they had been gifted by nature. When they issued from the stunted
- woods which clung to the barren sides of the mountain, upon a flat and
- mossy rock that formed its summit, they met the morning, as it came
- blushing above the green pines of a hill that lay on the opposite side of
- the valley of the Horican.
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout now told the sisters to dismount; and taking the bridles from
- the mouths, and the saddles off the backs of the jaded beasts, he turned
- them loose, to glean a scanty subsistence among the shrubs and meager
- herbage of that elevated region.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Go,” he said, “and seek your food where natur' gives it to you; and
- beware that you become not food to ravenous wolves yourselves, among these
- hills.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Have we no further need of them?” demanded Heyward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “See, and judge with your own eyes,” said the scout, advancing toward the
- eastern brow of the mountain, whither he beckoned for the whole party to
- follow; “if it was as easy to look into the heart of man as it is to spy
- out the nakedness of Montcalm's camp from this spot, hypocrites would grow
- scarce, and the cunning of a Mingo might prove a losing game, compared to
- the honesty of a Delaware.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When the travelers reached the verge of the precipices they saw, at a
- glance, the truth of the scout's declaration, and the admirable foresight
- with which he had led them to their commanding station.
- </p>
- <p>
- The mountain on which they stood, elevated perhaps a thousand feet in the
- air, was a high cone that rose a little in advance of that range which
- stretches for miles along the western shores of the lake, until meeting
- its sisters miles beyond the water, it ran off toward the Canadas, in
- confused and broken masses of rock, thinly sprinkled with evergreens.
- Immediately at the feet of the party, the southern shore of the Horican
- swept in a broad semicircle from mountain to mountain, marking a wide
- strand, that soon rose into an uneven and somewhat elevated plain. To the
- north stretched the limpid, and, as it appeared from that dizzy height,
- the narrow sheet of the “holy lake,” indented with numberless bays,
- embellished by fantastic headlands, and dotted with countless islands. At
- the distance of a few leagues, the bed of the water became lost among
- mountains, or was wrapped in the masses of vapor that came slowly rolling
- along their bosom, before a light morning air. But a narrow opening
- between the crests of the hills pointed out the passage by which they
- found their way still further north, to spread their pure and ample sheets
- again, before pouring out their tribute into the distant Champlain. To the
- south stretched the defile, or rather broken plain, so often mentioned.
- For several miles in this direction, the mountains appeared reluctant to
- yield their dominion, but within reach of the eye they diverged, and
- finally melted into the level and sandy lands, across which we have
- accompanied our adventurers in their double journey. Along both ranges of
- hills, which bounded the opposite sides of the lake and valley, clouds of
- light vapor were rising in spiral wreaths from the uninhabited woods,
- looking like the smoke of hidden cottages; or rolled lazily down the
- declivities, to mingle with the fogs of the lower land. A single,
- solitary, snow-white cloud floated above the valley, and marked the spot
- beneath which lay the silent pool of the “bloody pond.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Directly on the shore of the lake, and nearer to its western than to its
- eastern margin, lay the extensive earthen ramparts and low buildings of
- William Henry. Two of the sweeping bastions appeared to rest on the water
- which washed their bases, while a deep ditch and extensive morasses
- guarded its other sides and angles. The land had been cleared of wood for
- a reasonable distance around the work, but every other part of the scene
- lay in the green livery of nature, except where the limpid water mellowed
- the view, or the bold rocks thrust their black and naked heads above the
- undulating outline of the mountain ranges. In its front might be seen the
- scattered sentinels, who held a weary watch against their numerous foes;
- and within the walls themselves, the travelers looked down upon men still
- drowsy with a night of vigilance. Toward the southeast, but in immediate
- contact with the fort, was an entrenched camp, posted on a rocky eminence,
- that would have been far more eligible for the work itself, in which
- Hawkeye pointed out the presence of those auxiliary regiments that had so
- recently left the Hudson in their company. From the woods, a little
- further to the south, rose numerous dark and lurid smokes, that were
- easily to be distinguished from the purer exhalations of the springs, and
- which the scout also showed to Heyward, as evidences that the enemy lay in
- force in that direction.
- </p>
- <p>
- But the spectacle which most concerned the young soldier was on the
- western bank of the lake, though quite near to its southern termination.
- On a strip of land, which appeared from his stand too narrow to contain
- such an army, but which, in truth, extended many hundreds of yards from
- the shores of the Horican to the base of the mountain, were to be seen the
- white tents and military engines of an encampment of ten thousand men.
- Batteries were already thrown up in their front, and even while the
- spectators above them were looking down, with such different emotions, on
- a scene which lay like a map beneath their feet, the roar of artillery
- rose from the valley, and passed off in thundering echoes along the
- eastern hills.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Morning is just touching them below,” said the deliberate and musing
- scout, “and the watchers have a mind to wake up the sleepers by the sound
- of cannon. We are a few hours too late! Montcalm has already filled the
- woods with his accursed Iroquois.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The place is, indeed, invested,” returned Duncan; “but is there no
- expedient by which we may enter? capture in the works would be far
- preferable to falling again into the hands of roving Indians.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “See!” exclaimed the scout, unconsciously directing the attention of Cora
- to the quarters of her own father, “how that shot has made the stones fly
- from the side of the commandant's house! Ay! these Frenchers will pull it
- to pieces faster than it was put together, solid and thick though it be!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Heyward, I sicken at the sight of danger that I cannot share,” said the
- undaunted but anxious daughter. “Let us go to Montcalm, and demand
- admission: he dare not deny a child the boon.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You would scarce find the tent of the Frenchman with the hair on your
- head”; said the blunt scout. “If I had but one of the thousand boats which
- lie empty along that shore, it might be done! Ha! here will soon be an end
- of the firing, for yonder comes a fog that will turn day to night, and
- make an Indian arrow more dangerous than a molded cannon. Now, if you are
- equal to the work, and will follow, I will make a push; for I long to get
- down into that camp, if it be only to scatter some Mingo dogs that I see
- lurking in the skirts of yonder thicket of birch.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are equal,” said Cora, firmly; “on such an errand we will follow to
- any danger.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout turned to her with a smile of honest and cordial approbation, as
- he answered:
- </p>
- <p>
- “I would I had a thousand men, of brawny limbs and quick eyes, that feared
- death as little as you! I'd send them jabbering Frenchers back into their
- den again, afore the week was ended, howling like so many fettered hounds
- or hungry wolves. But, sir,” he added, turning from her to the rest of the
- party, “the fog comes rolling down so fast, we shall have but just the
- time to meet it on the plain, and use it as a cover. Remember, if any
- accident should befall me, to keep the air blowing on your left cheeks—or,
- rather, follow the Mohicans; they'd scent their way, be it in day or be it
- at night.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He then waved his hand for them to follow, and threw himself down the
- steep declivity, with free, but careful footsteps. Heyward assisted the
- sisters to descend, and in a few minutes they were all far down a mountain
- whose sides they had climbed with so much toil and pain.
- </p>
- <p>
- The direction taken by Hawkeye soon brought the travelers to the level of
- the plain, nearly opposite to a sally-port in the western curtain of the
- fort, which lay itself at the distance of about half a mile from the point
- where he halted to allow Duncan to come up with his charge. In their
- eagerness, and favored by the nature of the ground, they had anticipated
- the fog, which was rolling heavily down the lake, and it became necessary
- to pause, until the mists had wrapped the camp of the enemy in their
- fleecy mantle. The Mohicans profited by the delay, to steal out of the
- woods, and to make a survey of surrounding objects. They were followed at
- a little distance by the scout, with a view to profit early by their
- report, and to obtain some faint knowledge for himself of the more
- immediate localities.
- </p>
- <p>
- In a very few moments he returned, his face reddened with vexation, while
- he muttered his disappointment in words of no very gentle import.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Here has the cunning Frenchman been posting a picket directly in our
- path,” he said; “red-skins and whites; and we shall be as likely to fall
- into their midst as to pass them in the fog!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Cannot we make a circuit to avoid the danger,” asked Heyward, “and come
- into our path again when it is passed?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who that once bends from the line of his march in a fog can tell when or
- how to find it again! The mists of Horican are not like the curls from a
- peace-pipe, or the smoke which settles above a mosquito fire.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He was yet speaking, when a crashing sound was heard, and a cannon-ball
- entered the thicket, striking the body of a sapling, and rebounding to the
- earth, its force being much expended by previous resistance. The Indians
- followed instantly like busy attendants on the terrible messenger, and
- Uncas commenced speaking earnestly and with much action, in the Delaware
- tongue.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It may be so, lad,” muttered the scout, when he had ended; “for desperate
- fevers are not to be treated like a toothache. Come, then, the fog is
- shutting in.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Stop!” cried Heyward; “first explain your expectations.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis soon done, and a small hope it is; but it is better than nothing.
- This shot that you see,” added the scout, kicking the harmless iron with
- his foot, “has plowed the 'arth in its road from the fort, and we shall
- hunt for the furrow it has made, when all other signs may fail. No more
- words, but follow, or the fog may leave us in the middle of our path, a
- mark for both armies to shoot at.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward perceiving that, in fact, a crisis had arrived, when acts were
- more required than words, placed himself between the sisters, and drew
- them swiftly forward, keeping the dim figure of their leader in his eye.
- It was soon apparent that Hawkeye had not magnified the power of the fog,
- for before they had proceeded twenty yards, it was difficult for the
- different individuals of the party to distinguish each other in the vapor.
- </p>
- <p>
- They had made their little circuit to the left, and were already inclining
- again toward the right, having, as Heyward thought, got over nearly half
- the distance to the friendly works, when his ears were saluted with the
- fierce summons, apparently within twenty feet of them, of:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Qui va la?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Push on!” whispered the scout, once more bending to the left.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Push on!” repeated Heyward; when the summons was renewed by a dozen
- voices, each of which seemed charged with menace.
- </p>
- <p>
- “C'est moi,” cried Duncan, dragging rather than leading those he supported
- swiftly onward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bete!—qui?—moi!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ami de la France.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tu m'as plus l'air d'un ennemi de la France; arrete ou pardieu je te
- ferai ami du diable. Non! feu, camarades, feu!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The order was instantly obeyed, and the fog was stirred by the explosion
- of fifty muskets. Happily, the aim was bad, and the bullets cut the air in
- a direction a little different from that taken by the fugitives; though
- still so nigh them, that to the unpractised ears of David and the two
- females, it appeared as if they whistled within a few inches of the
- organs. The outcry was renewed, and the order, not only to fire again, but
- to pursue, was too plainly audible. When Heyward briefly explained the
- meaning of the words they heard, Hawkeye halted and spoke with quick
- decision and great firmness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let us deliver our fire,” he said; “they will believe it a sortie, and
- give way, or they will wait for reinforcements.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scheme was well conceived, but failed in its effects. The instant the
- French heard the pieces, it seemed as if the plain was alive with men,
- muskets rattling along its whole extent, from the shores of the lake to
- the furthest boundary of the woods.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We shall draw their entire army upon us, and bring on a general assault,”
- said Duncan: “lead on, my friend, for your own life and ours.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout seemed willing to comply; but, in the hurry of the moment, and
- in the change of position, he had lost the direction. In vain he turned
- either cheek toward the light air; they felt equally cool. In this
- dilemma, Uncas lighted on the furrow of the cannon ball, where it had cut
- the ground in three adjacent ant-hills.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Give me the range!” said Hawkeye, bending to catch a glimpse of the
- direction, and then instantly moving onward.
- </p>
- <p>
- Cries, oaths, voices calling to each other, and the reports of muskets,
- were now quick and incessant, and, apparently, on every side of them.
- Suddenly a strong glare of light flashed across the scene, the fog rolled
- upward in thick wreaths, and several cannons belched across the plain, and
- the roar was thrown heavily back from the bellowing echoes of the
- mountain.
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis from the fort!” exclaimed Hawkeye, turning short on his tracks; “and
- we, like stricken fools, were rushing to the woods, under the very knives
- of the Maquas.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The instant their mistake was rectified, the whole party retraced the
- error with the utmost diligence. Duncan willingly relinquished the support
- of Cora to the arm of Uncas and Cora as readily accepted the welcome
- assistance. Men, hot and angry in pursuit, were evidently on their
- footsteps, and each instant threatened their capture, if not their
- destruction.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Point de quartier aux coquins!” cried an eager pursuer, who seemed to
- direct the operations of the enemy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Stand firm, and be ready, my gallant Sixtieths!” suddenly exclaimed a
- voice above them; “wait to see the enemy, fire low and sweep the glacis.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Father! father!” exclaimed a piercing cry from out the mist: “it is I!
- Alice! thy own Elsie! Spare, oh! save your daughters!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hold!” shouted the former speaker, in the awful tones of parental agony,
- the sound reaching even to the woods, and rolling back in solemn echo.
- “'Tis she! God has restored me to my children! Throw open the sally-port;
- to the field, Sixtieths, to the field; pull not a trigger, lest ye kill my
- lambs! Drive off these dogs of France with your steel.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan heard the grating of the rusty hinges, and darting to the spot,
- directed by the sound, he met a long line of dark red warriors, passing
- swiftly toward the glacis. He knew them for his own battalion of the Royal
- Americans, and flying to their head, soon swept every trace of his
- pursuers from before the works.
- </p>
- <p>
- For an instant, Cora and Alice had stood trembling and bewildered by this
- unexpected desertion; but before either had leisure for speech, or even
- thought, an officer of gigantic frame, whose locks were bleached with
- years and service, but whose air of military grandeur had been rather
- softened than destroyed by time, rushed out of the body of mist, and
- folded them to his bosom, while large scalding tears rolled down his pale
- and wrinkled cheeks, and he exclaimed, in the peculiar accent of Scotland:
- </p>
- <p>
- “For this I thank thee, Lord! Let danger come as it will, thy servant is
- now prepared!”
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 15
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Then go we in, to know his embassy;
- Which I could, with ready guess, declare,
- Before the Frenchmen speak a word of it.”
- —King Henry V
-</pre>
- <p>
- A few succeeding days were passed amid the privations, the uproar, and the
- dangers of the siege, which was vigorously pressed by a power, against
- whose approaches Munro possessed no competent means of resistance. It
- appeared as if Webb, with his army, which lay slumbering on the banks of
- the Hudson, had utterly forgotten the strait to which his countrymen were
- reduced. Montcalm had filled the woods of the portage with his savages,
- every yell and whoop from whom rang through the British encampment,
- chilling the hearts of men who were already but too much disposed to
- magnify the danger.
- </p>
- <p>
- Not so, however, with the besieged. Animated by the words, and stimulated
- by the examples of their leaders, they had found their courage, and
- maintained their ancient reputation, with a zeal that did justice to the
- stern character of their commander. As if satisfied with the toil of
- marching through the wilderness to encounter his enemy, the French
- general, though of approved skill, had neglected to seize the adjacent
- mountains; whence the besieged might have been exterminated with impunity,
- and which, in the more modern warfare of the country, would not have been
- neglected for a single hour. This sort of contempt for eminences, or
- rather dread of the labor of ascending them, might have been termed the
- besetting weakness of the warfare of the period. It originated in the
- simplicity of the Indian contests, in which, from the nature of the
- combats, and the density of the forests, fortresses were rare, and
- artillery next to useless. The carelessness engendered by these usages
- descended even to the war of the Revolution and lost the States the
- important fortress of Ticonderoga opening a way for the army of Burgoyne
- into what was then the bosom of the country. We look back at this
- ignorance, or infatuation, whichever it may be called, with wonder,
- knowing that the neglect of an eminence, whose difficulties, like those of
- Mount Defiance, have been so greatly exaggerated, would, at the present
- time, prove fatal to the reputation of the engineer who had planned the
- works at their base, or to that of the general whose lot it was to defend
- them.
- </p>
- <p>
- The tourist, the valetudinarian, or the amateur of the beauties of nature,
- who, in the train of his four-in-hand, now rolls through the scenes we
- have attempted to describe, in quest of information, health, or pleasure,
- or floats steadily toward his object on those artificial waters which have
- sprung up under the administration of a statesman* who has dared to stake
- his political character on the hazardous issue, is not to suppose that his
- ancestors traversed those hills, or struggled with the same currents with
- equal facility. The transportation of a single heavy gun was often
- considered equal to a victory gained; if happily, the difficulties of the
- passage had not so far separated it from its necessary concomitant, the
- ammunition, as to render it no more than a useless tube of unwieldy iron.
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * Evidently the late De Witt Clinton, who died governor of
- New York in 1828.
-</pre>
- <p>
- The evils of this state of things pressed heavily on the fortunes of the
- resolute Scotsman who now defended William Henry. Though his adversary
- neglected the hills, he had planted his batteries with judgment on the
- plain, and caused them to be served with vigor and skill. Against this
- assault, the besieged could only oppose the imperfect and hasty
- preparations of a fortress in the wilderness.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was in the afternoon of the fifth day of the siege, and the fourth of
- his own service in it, that Major Heyward profited by a parley that had
- just been beaten, by repairing to the ramparts of one of the water
- bastions, to breathe the cool air from the lake, and to take a survey of
- the progress of the siege. He was alone, if the solitary sentinel who
- paced the mound be excepted; for the artillerists had hastened also to
- profit by the temporary suspension of their arduous duties. The evening
- was delightfully calm, and the light air from the limpid water fresh and
- soothing. It seemed as if, with the termination of the roar of artillery
- and the plunging of shot, nature had also seized the moment to assume her
- mildest and most captivating form. The sun poured down his parting glory
- on the scene, without the oppression of those fierce rays that belong to
- the climate and the season. The mountains looked green, and fresh, and
- lovely, tempered with the milder light, or softened in shadow, as thin
- vapors floated between them and the sun. The numerous islands rested on
- the bosom of the Horican, some low and sunken, as if embedded in the
- waters, and others appearing to hover about the element, in little
- hillocks of green velvet; among which the fishermen of the beleaguering
- army peacefully rowed their skiffs, or floated at rest on the glassy
- mirror in quiet pursuit of their employment.
- </p>
- <p>
- The scene was at once animated and still. All that pertained to nature was
- sweet, or simply grand; while those parts which depended on the temper and
- movements of man were lively and playful.
- </p>
- <p>
- Two little spotless flags were abroad, the one on a salient angle of the
- fort, and the other on the advanced battery of the besiegers; emblems of
- the truth which existed, not only to the acts, but it would seem, also, to
- the enmity of the combatants.
- </p>
- <p>
- Behind these again swung, heavily opening and closing in silken folds, the
- rival standards of England and France.
- </p>
- <p>
- A hundred gay and thoughtless young Frenchmen were drawing a net to the
- pebbly beach, within dangerous proximity to the sullen but silent cannon
- of the fort, while the eastern mountain was sending back the loud shouts
- and gay merriment that attended their sport. Some were rushing eagerly to
- enjoy the aquatic games of the lake, and others were already toiling their
- way up the neighboring hills, with the restless curiosity of their nation.
- To all these sports and pursuits, those of the enemy who watched the
- besieged, and the besieged themselves, were, however, merely the idle
- though sympathizing spectators. Here and there a picket had, indeed,
- raised a song, or mingled in a dance, which had drawn the dusky savages
- around them, from their lairs in the forest. In short, everything wore
- rather the appearance of a day of pleasure, than of an hour stolen from
- the dangers and toil of a bloody and vindictive warfare.
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan had stood in a musing attitude, contemplating this scene a few
- minutes, when his eyes were directed to the glacis in front of the
- sally-port already mentioned, by the sounds of approaching footsteps. He
- walked to an angle of the bastion, and beheld the scout advancing, under
- the custody of a French officer, to the body of the fort. The countenance
- of Hawkeye was haggard and careworn, and his air dejected, as though he
- felt the deepest degradation at having fallen into the power of his
- enemies. He was without his favorite weapon, and his arms were even bound
- behind him with thongs, made of the skin of a deer. The arrival of flags
- to cover the messengers of summons, had occurred so often of late, that
- when Heyward first threw his careless glance on this group, he expected to
- see another of the officers of the enemy, charged with a similar office
- but the instant he recognized the tall person and still sturdy though
- downcast features of his friend, the woodsman, he started with surprise,
- and turned to descend from the bastion into the bosom of the work.
- </p>
- <p>
- The sounds of other voices, however, caught his attention, and for a
- moment caused him to forget his purpose. At the inner angle of the mound
- he met the sisters, walking along the parapet, in search, like himself, of
- air and relief from confinement. They had not met from that painful moment
- when he deserted them on the plain, only to assure their safety. He had
- parted from them worn with care, and jaded with fatigue; he now saw them
- refreshed and blooming, though timid and anxious. Under such an inducement
- it will cause no surprise that the young man lost sight for a time, of
- other objects in order to address them. He was, however, anticipated by
- the voice of the ingenuous and youthful Alice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah! thou tyrant! thou recreant knight! he who abandons his damsels in the
- very lists,” she cried; “here have we been days, nay, ages, expecting you
- at our feet, imploring mercy and forgetfulness of your craven backsliding,
- or I should rather say, backrunning—for verily you fled in the
- manner that no stricken deer, as our worthy friend the scout would say,
- could equal!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You know that Alice means our thanks and our blessings,” added the graver
- and more thoughtful Cora. “In truth, we have a little wonder why you
- should so rigidly absent yourself from a place where the gratitude of the
- daughters might receive the support of a parent's thanks.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Your father himself could tell you, that, though absent from your
- presence, I have not been altogether forgetful of your safety,” returned
- the young man; “the mastery of yonder village of huts,” pointing to the
- neighboring entrenched camp, “has been keenly disputed; and he who holds
- it is sure to be possessed of this fort, and that which it contains. My
- days and nights have all been passed there since we separated, because I
- thought that duty called me thither. But,” he added, with an air of
- chagrin, which he endeavored, though unsuccessfully, to conceal, “had I
- been aware that what I then believed a soldier's conduct could be so
- construed, shame would have been added to the list of reasons.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Heyward! Duncan!” exclaimed Alice, bending forward to read his
- half-averted countenance, until a lock of her golden hair rested on her
- flushed cheek, and nearly concealed the tear that had started to her eye;
- “did I think this idle tongue of mine had pained you, I would silence it
- forever. Cora can say, if Cora would, how justly we have prized your
- services, and how deep—I had almost said, how fervent—is our
- gratitude.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And will Cora attest the truth of this?” cried Duncan, suffering the
- cloud to be chased from his countenance by a smile of open pleasure. “What
- says our graver sister? Will she find an excuse for the neglect of the
- knight in the duty of a soldier?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Cora made no immediate answer, but turned her face toward the water, as if
- looking on the sheet of the Horican. When she did bend her dark eyes on
- the young man, they were yet filled with an expression of anguish that at
- once drove every thought but that of kind solicitude from his mind.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are not well, dearest Miss Munro!” he exclaimed; “we have trifled
- while you are in suffering!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis nothing,” she answered, refusing his support with feminine reserve.
- “That I cannot see the sunny side of the picture of life, like this
- artless but ardent enthusiast,” she added, laying her hand lightly, but
- affectionately, on the arm of her sister, “is the penalty of experience,
- and, perhaps, the misfortune of my nature. See,” she continued, as if
- determined to shake off infirmity, in a sense of duty; “look around you,
- Major Heyward, and tell me what a prospect is this for the daughter of a
- soldier whose greatest happiness is his honor and his military renown.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Neither ought nor shall be tarnished by circumstances over which he has
- had no control,” Duncan warmly replied. “But your words recall me to my
- own duty. I go now to your gallant father, to hear his determination in
- matters of the last moment to the defense. God bless you in every fortune,
- noble—Cora—I may and must call you.” She frankly gave him her
- hand, though her lip quivered, and her cheeks gradually became of ashly
- paleness. “In every fortune, I know you will be an ornament and honor to
- your sex. Alice, adieu”—his voice changed from admiration to
- tenderness—“adieu, Alice; we shall soon meet again; as conquerors, I
- trust, and amid rejoicings!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Without waiting for an answer from either, the young man threw himself
- down the grassy steps of the bastion, and moving rapidly across the
- parade, he was quickly in the presence of their father. Munro was pacing
- his narrow apartment with a disturbed air and gigantic strides as Duncan
- entered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have anticipated my wishes, Major Heyward,” he said; “I was about to
- request this favor.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am sorry to see, sir, that the messenger I so warmly recommended has
- returned in custody of the French! I hope there is no reason to distrust
- his fidelity?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The fidelity of 'The Long Rifle' is well known to me,” returned Munro,
- “and is above suspicion; though his usual good fortune seems, at last, to
- have failed. Montcalm has got him, and with the accursed politeness of his
- nation, he has sent him in with a doleful tale, of 'knowing how I valued
- the fellow, he could not think of retaining him.' A Jesuitical way that,
- Major Duncan Heyward, of telling a man of his misfortunes!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But the general and his succor?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did ye look to the south as ye entered, and could ye not see them?” said
- the old soldier, laughing bitterly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hoot! hoot! you're an impatient boy, sir, and cannot give the gentlemen
- leisure for their march!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They are coming, then? The scout has said as much?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “When? and by what path? for the dunce has omitted to tell me this. There
- is a letter, it would seem, too; and that is the only agreeable part of
- the matter. For the customary attentions of your Marquis of Montcalm—I
- warrant me, Duncan, that he of Lothian would buy a dozen such marquisates—but
- if the news of the letter were bad, the gentility of this French monsieur
- would certainly compel him to let us know it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He keeps the letter, then, while he releases the messenger?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, that does he, and all for the sake of what you call your 'bonhommie'
- I would venture, if the truth was known, the fellow's grandfather taught
- the noble science of dancing.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But what says the scout? he has eyes and ears, and a tongue. What verbal
- report does he make?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! sir, he is not wanting in natural organs, and he is free to tell all
- that he has seen and heard. The whole amount is this; there is a fort of
- his majesty's on the banks of the Hudson, called Edward, in honor of his
- gracious highness of York, you'll know; and it is well filled with armed
- men, as such a work should be.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But was there no movement, no signs of any intention to advance to our
- relief?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There were the morning and evening parades; and when one of the
- provincial loons—you'll know, Duncan, you're half a Scotsman
- yourself—when one of them dropped his powder over his porretch, if
- it touched the coals, it just burned!” Then, suddenly changing his bitter,
- ironical manner, to one more grave and thoughtful, he continued: “and yet
- there might, and must be, something in that letter which it would be well
- to know!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Our decision should be speedy,” said Duncan, gladly availing himself of
- this change of humor, to press the more important objects of their
- interview; “I cannot conceal from you, sir, that the camp will not be much
- longer tenable; and I am sorry to add, that things appear no better in the
- fort; more than half the guns are bursted.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And how should it be otherwise? Some were fished from the bottom of the
- lake; some have been rusting in woods since the discovery of the country;
- and some were never guns at all—mere privateersmen's playthings! Do
- you think, sir, you can have Woolwich Warren in the midst of a wilderness,
- three thousand miles from Great Britain?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The walls are crumbling about our ears, and provisions begin to fail us,”
- continued Heyward, without regarding the new burst of indignation; “even
- the men show signs of discontent and alarm.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Major Heyward,” said Munro, turning to his youthful associate with the
- dignity of his years and superior rank; “I should have served his majesty
- for half a century, and earned these gray hairs in vain, were I ignorant
- of all you say, and of the pressing nature of our circumstances; still,
- there is everything due to the honor of the king's arms, and something to
- ourselves. While there is hope of succor, this fortress will I defend,
- though it be to be done with pebbles gathered on the lake shore. It is a
- sight of the letter, therefore, that we want, that we may know the
- intentions of the man the earl of Loudon has left among us as his
- substitute.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And can I be of service in the matter?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sir, you can; the marquis of Montcalm has, in addition to his other
- civilities, invited me to a personal interview between the works and his
- own camp; in order, as he says, to impart some additional information.
- Now, I think it would not be wise to show any undue solicitude to meet
- him, and I would employ you, an officer of rank, as my substitute; for it
- would but ill comport with the honor of Scotland to let it be said one of
- her gentlemen was outdone in civility by a native of any other country on
- earth.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Without assuming the supererogatory task of entering into a discussion of
- the comparative merits of national courtesy, Duncan cheerfully assented to
- supply the place of the veteran in the approaching interview. A long and
- confidential communication now succeeded, during which the young man
- received some additional insight into his duty, from the experience and
- native acuteness of his commander, and then the former took his leave.
- </p>
- <p>
- As Duncan could only act as the representative of the commandant of the
- fort, the ceremonies which should have accompanied a meeting between the
- heads of the adverse forces were, of course, dispensed with. The truce
- still existed, and with a roll and beat of the drum, and covered by a
- little white flag, Duncan left the sally-port, within ten minutes after
- his instructions were ended. He was received by the French officer in
- advance with the usual formalities, and immediately accompanied to a
- distant marquee of the renowned soldier who led the forces of France.
- </p>
- <p>
- The general of the enemy received the youthful messenger, surrounded by
- his principal officers, and by a swarthy band of the native chiefs, who
- had followed him to the field, with the warriors of their several tribes.
- Heyward paused short, when, in glancing his eyes rapidly over the dark
- group of the latter, he beheld the malignant countenance of Magua,
- regarding him with the calm but sullen attention which marked the
- expression of that subtle savage. A slight exclamation of surprise even
- burst from the lips of the young man, but instantly, recollecting his
- errand, and the presence in which he stood, he suppressed every appearance
- of emotion, and turned to the hostile leader, who had already advanced a
- step to receive him.
- </p>
- <p>
- The marquis of Montcalm was, at the period of which we write, in the
- flower of his age, and, it may be added, in the zenith of his fortunes.
- But even in that enviable situation, he was affable, and distinguished as
- much for his attention to the forms of courtesy, as for that chivalrous
- courage which, only two short years afterward, induced him to throw away
- his life on the plains of Abraham. Duncan, in turning his eyes from the
- malign expression of Magua, suffered them to rest with pleasure on the
- smiling and polished features, and the noble military air, of the French
- general.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Monsieur,” said the latter, “j'ai beaucoup de plaisir a—bah!—ou
- est cet interprete?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Je crois, monsieur, qu'il ne sear pas necessaire,” Heyward modestly
- replied; “je parle un peu francais.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah! j'en suis bien aise,” said Montcalm, taking Duncan familiarly by the
- arm, and leading him deep into the marquee, a little out of earshot; “je
- deteste ces fripons-la; on ne sait jamais sur quel pie on est avec eux.
- Eh, bien! monsieur,” he continued still speaking in French; “though I
- should have been proud of receiving your commandant, I am very happy that
- he has seen proper to employ an officer so distinguished, and who, I am
- sure, is so amiable, as yourself.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan bowed low, pleased with the compliment, in spite of a most heroic
- determination to suffer no artifice to allure him into forgetfulness of
- the interest of his prince; and Montcalm, after a pause of a moment, as if
- to collect his thoughts, proceeded:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Your commandant is a brave man, and well qualified to repel my assault.
- Mais, monsieur, is it not time to begin to take more counsel of humanity,
- and less of your courage? The one as strongly characterizes the hero as
- the other.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We consider the qualities as inseparable,” returned Duncan, smiling; “but
- while we find in the vigor of your excellency every motive to stimulate
- the one, we can, as yet, see no particular call for the exercise of the
- other.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Montcalm, in his turn, slightly bowed, but it was with the air of a man
- too practised to remember the language of flattery. After musing a moment,
- he added:
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is possible my glasses have deceived me, and that your works resist
- our cannon better than I had supposed. You know our force?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Our accounts vary,” said Duncan, carelessly; “the highest, however, has
- not exceeded twenty thousand men.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Frenchman bit his lip, and fastened his eyes keenly on the other as if
- to read his thoughts; then, with a readiness peculiar to himself, he
- continued, as if assenting to the truth of an enumeration which quite
- doubled his army:
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is a poor compliment to the vigilance of us soldiers, monsieur, that,
- do what we will, we never can conceal our numbers. If it were to be done
- at all, one would believe it might succeed in these woods. Though you
- think it too soon to listen to the calls of humanity,” he added, smiling
- archly, “I may be permitted to believe that gallantry is not forgotten by
- one so young as yourself. The daughters of the commandant, I learn, have
- passed into the fort since it was invested?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is true, monsieur; but, so far from weakening our efforts, they set us
- an example of courage in their own fortitude. Were nothing but resolution
- necessary to repel so accomplished a soldier as M. de Montcalm, I would
- gladly trust the defense of William Henry to the elder of those ladies.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We have a wise ordinance in our Salique laws, which says, 'The crown of
- France shall never degrade the lance to the distaff',” said Montcalm,
- dryly, and with a little hauteur; but instantly adding, with his former
- frank and easy air: “as all the nobler qualities are hereditary, I can
- easily credit you; though, as I said before, courage has its limits, and
- humanity must not be forgotten. I trust, monsieur, you come authorized to
- treat for the surrender of the place?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Has your excellency found our defense so feeble as to believe the measure
- necessary?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I should be sorry to have the defense protracted in such a manner as to
- irritate my red friends there,” continued Montcalm, glancing his eyes at
- the group of grave and attentive Indians, without attending to the other's
- questions; “I find it difficult, even now, to limit them to the usages of
- war.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward was silent; for a painful recollection of the dangers he had so
- recently escaped came over his mind, and recalled the images of those
- defenseless beings who had shared in all his sufferings.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ces messieurs-la,” said Montcalm, following up the advantage which he
- conceived he had gained, “are most formidable when baffled; and it is
- unnecessary to tell you with what difficulty they are restrained in their
- anger. Eh bien, monsieur! shall we speak of the terms?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I fear your excellency has been deceived as to the strength of William
- Henry, and the resources of its garrison!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have not sat down before Quebec, but an earthen work, that is defended
- by twenty-three hundred gallant men,” was the laconic reply.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Our mounds are earthen, certainly—nor are they seated on the rocks
- of Cape Diamond; but they stand on that shore which proved so destructive
- to Dieskau and his army. There is also a powerful force within a few
- hours' march of us, which we account upon as a part of our means.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Some six or eight thousand men,” returned Montcalm, with much apparent
- indifference, “whom their leader wisely judges to be safer in their works
- than in the field.”
- </p>
- <p>
- It was now Heyward's turn to bite his lip with vexation as the other so
- coolly alluded to a force which the young man knew to be overrated. Both
- mused a little while in silence, when Montcalm renewed the conversation,
- in a way that showed he believed the visit of his guest was solely to
- propose terms of capitulation. On the other hand, Heyward began to throw
- sundry inducements in the way of the French general, to betray the
- discoveries he had made through the intercepted letter. The artifice of
- neither, however, succeeded; and after a protracted and fruitless
- interview, Duncan took his leave, favorably impressed with an opinion of
- the courtesy and talents of the enemy's captain, but as ignorant of what
- he came to learn as when he arrived. Montcalm followed him as far as the
- entrance of the marquee, renewing his invitations to the commandant of the
- fort to give him an immediate meeting in the open ground between the two
- armies.
- </p>
- <p>
- There they separated, and Duncan returned to the advanced post of the
- French, accompanied as before; whence he instantly proceeded to the fort,
- and to the quarters of his own commander.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 16
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “EDG.—Before you fight the battle ope this letter.”
- —Lear
-</pre>
- <p>
- Major Heyward found Munro attended only by his daughters. Alice sat upon
- his knee, parting the gray hairs on the forehead of the old man with her
- delicate fingers; and whenever he affected to frown on her trifling,
- appeasing his assumed anger by pressing her ruby lips fondly on his
- wrinkled brow. Cora was seated nigh them, a calm and amused looker-on;
- regarding the wayward movements of her more youthful sister with that
- species of maternal fondness which characterized her love for Alice. Not
- only the dangers through which they had passed, but those which still
- impended above them, appeared to be momentarily forgotten, in the soothing
- indulgence of such a family meeting. It seemed as if they had profited by
- the short truce, to devote an instant to the purest and best affection;
- the daughters forgetting their fears, and the veteran his cares, in the
- security of the moment. Of this scene, Duncan, who, in his eagerness to
- report his arrival, had entered unannounced, stood many moments an
- unobserved and a delighted spectator. But the quick and dancing eyes of
- Alice soon caught a glimpse of his figure reflected from a glass, and she
- sprang blushing from her father's knee, exclaiming aloud:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Major Heyward!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What of the lad?” demanded her father; “I have sent him to crack a little
- with the Frenchman. Ha, sir, you are young, and you're nimble! Away with
- you, ye baggage; as if there were not troubles enough for a soldier,
- without having his camp filled with such prattling hussies as yourself!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Alice laughingly followed her sister, who instantly led the way from an
- apartment where she perceived their presence was no longer desirable.
- Munro, instead of demanding the result of the young man's mission, paced
- the room for a few moments, with his hands behind his back, and his head
- inclined toward the floor, like a man lost in thought. At length he raised
- his eyes, glistening with a father's fondness, and exclaimed:
- </p>
- <p>
- “They are a pair of excellent girls, Heyward, and such as any one may
- boast of.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are not now to learn my opinion of your daughters, Colonel Munro.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “True, lad, true,” interrupted the impatient old man; “you were about
- opening your mind more fully on that matter the day you got in, but I did
- not think it becoming in an old soldier to be talking of nuptial blessings
- and wedding jokes when the enemies of his king were likely to be unbidden
- guests at the feast. But I was wrong, Duncan, boy, I was wrong there; and
- I am now ready to hear what you have to say.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Notwithstanding the pleasure your assurance gives me, dear sir, I have
- just now, a message from Montcalm—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let the Frenchman and all his host go to the devil, sir!” exclaimed the
- hasty veteran. “He is not yet master of William Henry, nor shall he ever
- be, provided Webb proves himself the man he should. No, sir, thank Heaven
- we are not yet in such a strait that it can be said Munro is too much
- pressed to discharge the little domestic duties of his own family. Your
- mother was the only child of my bosom friend, Duncan; and I'll just give
- you a hearing, though all the knights of St. Louis were in a body at the
- sally-port, with the French saint at their head, crying to speak a word
- under favor. A pretty degree of knighthood, sir, is that which can be
- bought with sugar hogsheads! and then your twopenny marquisates. The
- thistle is the order for dignity and antiquity; the veritable 'nemo me
- impune lacessit' of chivalry. Ye had ancestors in that degree, Duncan, and
- they were an ornament to the nobles of Scotland.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward, who perceived that his superior took a malicious pleasure in
- exhibiting his contempt for the message of the French general, was fain to
- humor a spleen that he knew would be short-lived; he therefore, replied
- with as much indifference as he could assume on such a subject:
- </p>
- <p>
- “My request, as you know, sir, went so far as to presume to the honor of
- being your son.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, boy, you found words to make yourself very plainly comprehended. But,
- let me ask ye, sir, have you been as intelligible to the girl?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “On my honor, no,” exclaimed Duncan, warmly; “there would have been an
- abuse of a confided trust, had I taken advantage of my situation for such
- a purpose.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Your notions are those of a gentleman, Major Heyward, and well enough in
- their place. But Cora Munro is a maiden too discreet, and of a mind too
- elevated and improved, to need the guardianship even of a father.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Cora!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay—Cora! we are talking of your pretensions to Miss Munro, are we
- not, sir?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I—I—I was not conscious of having mentioned her name,” said
- Duncan, stammering.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And to marry whom, then, did you wish my consent, Major Heyward?”
- demanded the old soldier, erecting himself in the dignity of offended
- feeling.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have another, and not less lovely child.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Alice!” exclaimed the father, in an astonishment equal to that with which
- Duncan had just repeated the name of her sister.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Such was the direction of my wishes, sir.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The young man awaited in silence the result of the extraordinary effect
- produced by a communication, which, as it now appeared, was so unexpected.
- For several minutes Munro paced the chamber with long and rapid strides,
- his rigid features working convulsively, and every faculty seemingly
- absorbed in the musings of his own mind. At length, he paused directly in
- front of Heyward, and riveting his eyes upon those of the other, he said,
- with a lip that quivered violently:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Duncan Heyward, I have loved you for the sake of him whose blood is in
- your veins; I have loved you for your own good qualities; and I have loved
- you, because I thought you would contribute to the happiness of my child.
- But all this love would turn to hatred, were I assured that what I so much
- apprehend is true.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “God forbid that any act or thought of mine should lead to such a change!”
- exclaimed the young man, whose eye never quailed under the penetrating
- look it encountered. Without adverting to the impossibility of the other's
- comprehending those feelings which were hid in his own bosom, Munro
- suffered himself to be appeased by the unaltered countenance he met, and
- with a voice sensibly softened, he continued:
- </p>
- <p>
- “You would be my son, Duncan, and you're ignorant of the history of the
- man you wish to call your father. Sit ye down, young man, and I will open
- to you the wounds of a seared heart, in as few words as may be suitable.”
- </p>
- <p>
- By this time, the message of Montcalm was as much forgotten by him who
- bore it as by the man for whose ears it was intended. Each drew a chair,
- and while the veteran communed a few moments with his own thoughts,
- apparently in sadness, the youth suppressed his impatience in a look and
- attitude of respectful attention. At length, the former spoke:
- </p>
- <p>
- “You'll know, already, Major Heyward, that my family was both ancient and
- honorable,” commenced the Scotsman; “though it might not altogether be
- endowed with that amount of wealth that should correspond with its degree.
- I was, maybe, such an one as yourself when I plighted my faith to Alice
- Graham, the only child of a neighboring laird of some estate. But the
- connection was disagreeable to her father, on more accounts than my
- poverty. I did, therefore, what an honest man should—restored the
- maiden her troth, and departed the country in the service of my king. I
- had seen many regions, and had shed much blood in different lands, before
- duty called me to the islands of the West Indies. There it was my lot to
- form a connection with one who in time became my wife, and the mother of
- Cora. She was the daughter of a gentleman of those isles, by a lady whose
- misfortune it was, if you will,” said the old man, proudly, “to be
- descended, remotely, from that unfortunate class who are so basely
- enslaved to administer to the wants of a luxurious people. Ay, sir, that
- is a curse, entailed on Scotland by her unnatural union with a foreign and
- trading people. But could I find a man among them who would dare to
- reflect on my child, he should feel the weight of a father's anger! Ha!
- Major Heyward, you are yourself born at the south, where these unfortunate
- beings are considered of a race inferior to your own.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis most unfortunately true, sir,” said Duncan, unable any longer to
- prevent his eyes from sinking to the floor in embarrassment.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And you cast it on my child as a reproach! You scorn to mingle the blood
- of the Heywards with one so degraded—lovely and virtuous though she
- be?” fiercely demanded the jealous parent.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Heaven protect me from a prejudice so unworthy of my reason!” returned
- Duncan, at the same time conscious of such a feeling, and that as deeply
- rooted as if it had been ingrafted in his nature. “The sweetness, the
- beauty, the witchery of your younger daughter, Colonel Munro, might
- explain my motives without imputing to me this injustice.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ye are right, sir,” returned the old man, again changing his tones to
- those of gentleness, or rather softness; “the girl is the image of what
- her mother was at her years, and before she had become acquainted with
- grief. When death deprived me of my wife I returned to Scotland, enriched
- by the marriage; and, would you think it, Duncan! the suffering angel had
- remained in the heartless state of celibacy twenty long years, and that
- for the sake of a man who could forget her! She did more, sir; she
- overlooked my want of faith, and, all difficulties being now removed, she
- took me for her husband.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And became the mother of Alice?” exclaimed Duncan, with an eagerness that
- might have proved dangerous at a moment when the thoughts of Munro were
- less occupied that at present.
- </p>
- <p>
- “She did, indeed,” said the old man, “and dearly did she pay for the
- blessing she bestowed. But she is a saint in heaven, sir; and it ill
- becomes one whose foot rests on the grave to mourn a lot so blessed. I had
- her but a single year, though; a short term of happiness for one who had
- seen her youth fade in hopeless pining.”
- </p>
- <p>
- There was something so commanding in the distress of the old man, that
- Heyward did not dare to venture a syllable of consolation. Munro sat
- utterly unconscious of the other's presence, his features exposed and
- working with the anguish of his regrets, while heavy tears fell from his
- eyes, and rolled unheeded from his cheeks to the floor. At length he
- moved, and as if suddenly recovering his recollection; when he arose, and
- taking a single turn across the room, he approached his companion with an
- air of military grandeur, and demanded:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Have you not, Major Heyward, some communication that I should hear from
- the marquis de Montcalm?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan started in his turn, and immediately commenced in an embarrassed
- voice, the half-forgotten message. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the
- evasive though polite manner with which the French general had eluded
- every attempt of Heyward to worm from him the purport of the communication
- he had proposed making, or on the decided, though still polished message,
- by which he now gave his enemy to understand, that, unless he chose to
- receive it in person, he should not receive it at all. As Munro listened
- to the detail of Duncan, the excited feelings of the father gradually gave
- way before the obligations of his station, and when the other was done, he
- saw before him nothing but the veteran, swelling with the wounded feelings
- of a soldier.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have said enough, Major Heyward,” exclaimed the angry old man;
- “enough to make a volume of commentary on French civility. Here has this
- gentleman invited me to a conference, and when I send him a capable
- substitute, for ye're all that, Duncan, though your years are but few, he
- answers me with a riddle.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He may have thought less favorably of the substitute, my dear sir; and
- you will remember that the invitation, which he now repeats, was to the
- commandant of the works, and not to his second.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, sir, is not a substitute clothed with all the power and dignity of
- him who grants the commission? He wishes to confer with Munro! Faith, sir,
- I have much inclination to indulge the man, if it should only be to let
- him behold the firm countenance we maintain in spite of his numbers and
- his summons. There might be not bad policy in such a stroke, young man.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan, who believed it of the last importance that they should speedily
- come to the contents of the letter borne by the scout, gladly encouraged
- this idea.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Without doubt, he could gather no confidence by witnessing our
- indifference,” he said.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You never said truer word. I could wish, sir, that he would visit the
- works in open day, and in the form of a storming party; that is the least
- failing method of proving the countenance of an enemy, and would be far
- preferable to the battering system he has chosen. The beauty and manliness
- of warfare has been much deformed, Major Heyward, by the arts of your
- Monsieur Vauban. Our ancestors were far above such scientific cowardice!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It may be very true, sir; but we are now obliged to repel art by art.
- What is your pleasure in the matter of the interview?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I will meet the Frenchman, and that without fear or delay; promptly, sir,
- as becomes a servant of my royal master. Go, Major Heyward, and give them
- a flourish of the music; and send out a messenger to let them know who is
- coming. We will follow with a small guard, for such respect is due to one
- who holds the honor of his king in keeping; and hark'ee, Duncan,” he
- added, in a half whisper, though they were alone, “it may be prudent to
- have some aid at hand, in case there should be treachery at the bottom of
- it all.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The young man availed himself of this order to quit the apartment; and, as
- the day was fast coming to a close, he hastened without delay, to make the
- necessary arrangements. A very few minutes only were necessary to parade a
- few files, and to dispatch an orderly with a flag to announce the approach
- of the commandant of the fort. When Duncan had done both these, he led the
- guard to the sally-port, near which he found his superior ready, waiting
- his appearance. As soon as the usual ceremonials of a military departure
- were observed, the veteran and his more youthful companion left the
- fortress, attended by the escort.
- </p>
- <p>
- They had proceeded only a hundred yards from the works, when the little
- array which attended the French general to the conference was seen issuing
- from the hollow way which formed the bed of a brook that ran between the
- batteries of the besiegers and the fort. From the moment that Munro left
- his own works to appear in front of his enemy's, his air had been grand,
- and his step and countenance highly military. The instant he caught a
- glimpse of the white plume that waved in the hat of Montcalm, his eye
- lighted, and age no longer appeared to possess any influence over his vast
- and still muscular person.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Speak to the boys to be watchful, sir,” he said, in an undertone, to
- Duncan; “and to look well to their flints and steel, for one is never safe
- with a servant of these Louis's; at the same time, we shall show them the
- front of men in deep security. Ye'll understand me, Major Heyward!”
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0213.jpg" alt="0213" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0213.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- He was interrupted by the clamor of a drum from the approaching Frenchmen,
- which was immediately answered, when each party pushed an orderly in
- advance, bearing a white flag, and the wary Scotsman halted with his guard
- close at his back. As soon as this slight salutation had passed, Montcalm
- moved toward them with a quick but graceful step, baring his head to the
- veteran, and dropping his spotless plume nearly to the earth in courtesy.
- If the air of Munro was more commanding and manly, it wanted both the ease
- and insinuating polish of that of the Frenchman. Neither spoke for a few
- moments, each regarding the other with curious and interested eyes. Then,
- as became his superior rank and the nature of the interview, Montcalm
- broke the silence. After uttering the usual words of greeting, he turned
- to Duncan, and continued, with a smile of recognition, speaking always in
- French:
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am rejoiced, monsieur, that you have given us the pleasure of your
- company on this occasion. There will be no necessity to employ an ordinary
- interpreter; for, in your hands, I feel the same security as if I spoke
- your language myself.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan acknowledged the compliment, when Montcalm, turning to his guard,
- which in imitation of that of their enemies, pressed close upon him,
- continued:
- </p>
- <p>
- “En arriere, mes enfants—il fait chaud—-retirez-vous un peu.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Before Major Heyward would imitate this proof of confidence, he glanced
- his eyes around the plain, and beheld with uneasiness the numerous dusky
- groups of savages, who looked out from the margin of the surrounding
- woods, curious spectators of the interview.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Monsieur de Montcalm will readily acknowledge the difference in our
- situation,” he said, with some embarrassment, pointing at the same time
- toward those dangerous foes, who were to be seen in almost every
- direction. “Were we to dismiss our guard, we should stand here at the
- mercy of our enemies.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Monsieur, you have the plighted faith of 'un gentilhomme Francais', for
- your safety,” returned Montcalm, laying his hand impressively on his
- heart; “it should suffice.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It shall. Fall back,” Duncan added to the officer who led the escort;
- “fall back, sir, beyond hearing, and wait for orders.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Munro witnessed this movement with manifest uneasiness; nor did he fail to
- demand an instant explanation.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is it not our interest, sir, to betray distrust?” retorted Duncan.
- “Monsieur de Montcalm pledges his word for our safety, and I have ordered
- the men to withdraw a little, in order to prove how much we depend on his
- assurance.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It may be all right, sir, but I have no overweening reliance on the faith
- of these marquesses, or marquis, as they call themselves. Their patents of
- nobility are too common to be certain that they bear the seal of true
- honor.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You forget, dear sir, that we confer with an officer, distinguished alike
- in Europe and America for his deeds. From a soldier of his reputation we
- can have nothing to apprehend.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The old man made a gesture of resignation, though his rigid features still
- betrayed his obstinate adherence to a distrust, which he derived from a
- sort of hereditary contempt of his enemy, rather than from any present
- signs which might warrant so uncharitable a feeling. Montcalm waited
- patiently until this little dialogue in demi-voice was ended, when he drew
- nigher, and opened the subject of their conference.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have solicited this interview from your superior, monsieur,” he said,
- “because I believe he will allow himself to be persuaded that he has
- already done everything which is necessary for the honor of his prince,
- and will now listen to the admonitions of humanity. I will forever bear
- testimony that his resistance has been gallant, and was continued as long
- as there was hope.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When this opening was translated to Munro, he answered with dignity, but
- with sufficient courtesy:
- </p>
- <p>
- “However I may prize such testimony from Monsieur Montcalm, it will be
- more valuable when it shall be better merited.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The French general smiled, as Duncan gave him the purport of this reply,
- and observed:
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is now so freely accorded to approved courage, may be refused to
- useless obstinacy. Monsieur would wish to see my camp, and witness for
- himself our numbers, and the impossibility of his resisting them with
- success?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know that the king of France is well served,” returned the unmoved
- Scotsman, as soon as Duncan ended his translation; “but my own royal
- master has as many and as faithful troops.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Though not at hand, fortunately for us,” said Montcalm, without waiting,
- in his ardor, for the interpreter. “There is a destiny in war, to which a
- brave man knows how to submit with the same courage that he faces his
- foes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Had I been conscious that Monsieur Montcalm was master of the English, I
- should have spared myself the trouble of so awkward a translation,” said
- the vexed Duncan, dryly; remembering instantly his recent by-play with
- Munro.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Your pardon, monsieur,” rejoined the Frenchman, suffering a slight color
- to appear on his dark cheek. “There is a vast difference between
- understanding and speaking a foreign tongue; you will, therefore, please
- to assist me still.” Then, after a short pause, he added: “These hills
- afford us every opportunity of reconnoitering your works, messieurs, and I
- am possibly as well acquainted with their weak condition as you can be
- yourselves.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ask the French general if his glasses can reach to the Hudson,” said
- Munro, proudly; “and if he knows when and where to expect the army of
- Webb.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let General Webb be his own interpreter,” returned the politic Montcalm,
- suddenly extending an open letter toward Munro as he spoke; “you will
- there learn, monsieur, that his movements are not likely to prove
- embarrassing to my army.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The veteran seized the offered paper, without waiting for Duncan to
- translate the speech, and with an eagerness that betrayed how important he
- deemed its contents. As his eye passed hastily over the words, his
- countenance changed from its look of military pride to one of deep
- chagrin; his lip began to quiver; and suffering the paper to fall from his
- hand, his head dropped upon his chest, like that of a man whose hopes were
- withered at a single blow. Duncan caught the letter from the ground, and
- without apology for the liberty he took, he read at a glance its cruel
- purport. Their common superior, so far from encouraging them to resist,
- advised a speedy surrender, urging in the plainest language, as a reason,
- the utter impossibility of his sending a single man to their rescue.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Here is no deception!” exclaimed Duncan, examining the billet both inside
- and out; “this is the signature of Webb, and must be the captured letter.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The man has betrayed me!” Munro at length bitterly exclaimed; “he has
- brought dishonor to the door of one where disgrace was never before known
- to dwell, and shame has he heaped heavily on my gray hairs.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Say not so,” cried Duncan; “we are yet masters of the fort, and of our
- honor. Let us, then, sell our lives at such a rate as shall make our
- enemies believe the purchase too dear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Boy, I thank thee,” exclaimed the old man, rousing himself from his
- stupor; “you have, for once, reminded Munro of his duty. We will go back,
- and dig our graves behind those ramparts.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Messieurs,” said Montcalm, advancing toward them a step, in generous
- interest, “you little know Louis de St. Veran if you believe him capable
- of profiting by this letter to humble brave men, or to build up a
- dishonest reputation for himself. Listen to my terms before you leave me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What says the Frenchman?” demanded the veteran, sternly; “does he make a
- merit of having captured a scout, with a note from headquarters? Sir, he
- had better raise this siege, to go and sit down before Edward if he wishes
- to frighten his enemy with words.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan explained the other's meaning.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Monsieur de Montcalm, we will hear you,” the veteran added, more calmly,
- as Duncan ended.
- </p>
- <p>
- “To retain the fort is now impossible,” said his liberal enemy; “it is
- necessary to the interests of my master that it should be destroyed; but
- as for yourselves and your brave comrades, there is no privilege dear to a
- soldier that shall be denied.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Our colors?” demanded Heyward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Carry them to England, and show them to your king.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Our arms?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Keep them; none can use them better.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Our march; the surrender of the place?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Shall all be done in a way most honorable to yourselves.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan now turned to explain these proposals to his commander, who heard
- him with amazement, and a sensibility that was deeply touched by so
- unusual and unexpected generosity.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Go you, Duncan,” he said; “go with this marquess, as, indeed, marquess he
- should be; go to his marquee and arrange it all. I have lived to see two
- things in my old age that never did I expect to behold. An Englishman
- afraid to support a friend, and a Frenchman too honest to profit by his
- advantage.”
- </p>
- <p>
- So saying, the veteran again dropped his head to his chest, and returned
- slowly toward the fort, exhibiting, by the dejection of his air, to the
- anxious garrison, a harbinger of evil tidings.
- </p>
- <p>
- From the shock of this unexpected blow the haughty feelings of Munro never
- recovered; but from that moment there commenced a change in his determined
- character, which accompanied him to a speedy grave. Duncan remained to
- settle the terms of the capitulation. He was seen to re-enter the works
- during the first watches of the night, and immediately after a private
- conference with the commandant, to leave them again. It was then openly
- announced that hostilities must cease—Munro having signed a treaty
- by which the place was to be yielded to the enemy, with the morning; the
- garrison to retain their arms, the colors and their baggage, and,
- consequently, according to military opinion, their honor.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 17
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Weave we the woof.
- The thread is spun.
- The web is wove.
- The work is done.”—Gray
-</pre>
- <p>
- The hostile armies, which lay in the wilds of the Horican, passed the
- night of the ninth of August, 1757, much in the manner they would, had
- they encountered on the fairest field of Europe. While the conquered were
- still, sullen, and dejected, the victors triumphed. But there are limits
- alike to grief and joy; and long before the watches of the morning came
- the stillness of those boundless woods was only broken by a gay call from
- some exulting young Frenchman of the advanced pickets, or a menacing
- challenge from the fort, which sternly forbade the approach of any hostile
- footsteps before the stipulated moment. Even these occasional threatening
- sounds ceased to be heard in that dull hour which precedes the day, at
- which period a listener might have sought in vain any evidence of the
- presence of those armed powers that then slumbered on the shores of the
- “holy lake.”
- </p>
- <p>
- It was during these moments of deep silence that the canvas which
- concealed the entrance to a spacious marquee in the French encampment was
- shoved aside, and a man issued from beneath the drapery into the open air.
- He was enveloped in a cloak that might have been intended as a protection
- from the chilling damps of the woods, but which served equally well as a
- mantle to conceal his person. He was permitted to pass the grenadier, who
- watched over the slumbers of the French commander, without interruption,
- the man making the usual salute which betokens military deference, as the
- other passed swiftly through the little city of tents, in the direction of
- William Henry. Whenever this unknown individual encountered one of the
- numberless sentinels who crossed his path, his answer was prompt, and, as
- it appeared, satisfactory; for he was uniformly allowed to proceed without
- further interrogation.
- </p>
- <p>
- With the exception of such repeated but brief interruptions, he had moved
- silently from the center of the camp to its most advanced outposts, when
- he drew nigh the soldier who held his watch nearest to the works of the
- enemy. As he approached he was received with the usual challenge:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Qui vive?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “France,” was the reply.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Le mot d'ordre?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “La victorie,” said the other, drawing so nigh as to be heard in a loud
- whisper.
- </p>
- <p>
- “C'est bien,” returned the sentinel, throwing his musket from the charge
- to his shoulder; “vous promenez bien matin, monsieur!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Il est necessaire d'etre vigilant, mon enfant,” the other observed,
- dropping a fold of his cloak, and looking the soldier close in the face as
- he passed him, still continuing his way toward the British fortification.
- The man started; his arms rattled heavily as he threw them forward in the
- lowest and most respectful salute; and when he had again recovered his
- piece, he turned to walk his post, muttering between his teeth:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Il faut etre vigilant, en verite! je crois que nous avons la, un caporal
- qui ne dort jamais!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The officer proceeded, without affecting to hear the words which escaped
- the sentinel in his surprise; nor did he again pause until he had reached
- the low strand, and in a somewhat dangerous vicinity to the western water
- bastion of the fort. The light of an obscure moon was just sufficient to
- render objects, though dim, perceptible in their outlines. He, therefore,
- took the precaution to place himself against the trunk of a tree, where he
- leaned for many minutes, and seemed to contemplate the dark and silent
- mounds of the English works in profound attention. His gaze at the
- ramparts was not that of a curious or idle spectator; but his looks
- wandered from point to point, denoting his knowledge of military usages,
- and betraying that his search was not unaccompanied by distrust. At length
- he appeared satisfied; and having cast his eyes impatiently upward toward
- the summit of the eastern mountain, as if anticipating the approach of the
- morning, he was in the act of turning on his footsteps, when a light sound
- on the nearest angle of the bastion caught his ear, and induced him to
- remain.
- </p>
- <p>
- Just then a figure was seen to approach the edge of the rampart, where it
- stood, apparently contemplating in its turn the distant tents of the
- French encampment. Its head was then turned toward the east, as though
- equally anxious for the appearance of light, when the form leaned against
- the mound, and seemed to gaze upon the glassy expanse of the waters,
- which, like a submarine firmament, glittered with its thousand mimic
- stars. The melancholy air, the hour, together with the vast frame of the
- man who thus leaned, musing, against the English ramparts, left no doubt
- as to his person in the mind of the observant spectator. Delicacy, no less
- than prudence, now urged him to retire; and he had moved cautiously round
- the body of the tree for that purpose, when another sound drew his
- attention, and once more arrested his footsteps. It was a low and almost
- inaudible movement of the water, and was succeeded by a grating of pebbles
- one against the other. In a moment he saw a dark form rise, as it were,
- out of the lake, and steal without further noise to the land, within a few
- feet of the place where he himself stood. A rifle next slowly rose between
- his eyes and the watery mirror; but before it could be discharged his own
- hand was on the lock.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hugh!” exclaimed the savage, whose treacherous aim was so singularly and
- so unexpectedly interrupted.
- </p>
- <p>
- Without making any reply, the French officer laid his hand on the shoulder
- of the Indian, and led him in profound silence to a distance from the
- spot, where their subsequent dialogue might have proved dangerous, and
- where it seemed that one of them, at least, sought a victim. Then throwing
- open his cloak, so as to expose his uniform and the cross of St. Louis
- which was suspended at his breast, Montcalm sternly demanded:
- </p>
- <p>
- “What means this? Does not my son know that the hatchet is buried between
- the English and his Canadian Father?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What can the Hurons do?” returned the savage, speaking also, though
- imperfectly, in the French language.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not a warrior has a scalp, and the pale faces make friends!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ha, Le Renard Subtil! Methinks this is an excess of zeal for a friend who
- was so late an enemy! How many suns have set since Le Renard struck the
- war-post of the English?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where is that sun?” demanded the sullen savage. “Behind the hill; and it
- is dark and cold. But when he comes again, it will be bright and warm. Le
- Subtil is the sun of his tribe. There have been clouds, and many mountains
- between him and his nation; but now he shines and it is a clear sky!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That Le Renard has power with his people, I well know,” said Montcalm;
- “for yesterday he hunted for their scalps, and to-day they hear him at the
- council-fire.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Magua is a great chief.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let him prove it, by teaching his nation how to conduct themselves toward
- our new friends.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why did the chief of the Canadas bring his young men into the woods, and
- fire his cannon at the earthen house?” demanded the subtle Indian.
- </p>
- <p>
- “To subdue it. My master owns the land, and your father was ordered to
- drive off these English squatters. They have consented to go, and now he
- calls them enemies no longer.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis well. Magua took the hatchet to color it with blood. It is now
- bright; when it is red, it shall be buried.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But Magua is pledged not to sully the lilies of France. The enemies of
- the great king across the salt lake are his enemies; his friends, the
- friends of the Hurons.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Friends!” repeated the Indian in scorn. “Let his father give Magua a
- hand.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Montcalm, who felt that his influence over the warlike tribes he had
- gathered was to be maintained by concession rather than by power, complied
- reluctantly with the other's request. The savage placed the fingers of the
- French commander on a deep scar in his bosom, and then exultingly
- demanded:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Does my father know that?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What warrior does not? 'Tis where a leaden bullet has cut.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And this?” continued the Indian, who had turned his naked back to the
- other, his body being without its usual calico mantle.
- </p>
- <p>
- “This!—my son has been sadly injured here; who has done this?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Magua slept hard in the English wigwams, and the sticks have left their
- mark,” returned the savage, with a hollow laugh, which did not conceal the
- fierce temper that nearly choked him. Then, recollecting himself, with
- sudden and native dignity, he added: “Go; teach your young men it is
- peace. Le Renard Subtil knows how to speak to a Huron warrior.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Without deigning to bestow further words, or to wait for any answer, the
- savage cast his rifle into the hollow of his arm, and moved silently
- through the encampment toward the woods where his own tribe was known to
- lie. Every few yards as he proceeded he was challenged by the sentinels;
- but he stalked sullenly onward, utterly disregarding the summons of the
- soldiers, who only spared his life because they knew the air and tread no
- less than the obstinate daring of an Indian.
- </p>
- <p>
- Montcalm lingered long and melancholy on the strand where he had been left
- by his companion, brooding deeply on the temper which his ungovernable
- ally had just discovered. Already had his fair fame been tarnished by one
- horrid scene, and in circumstances fearfully resembling those under which
- he now found himself. As he mused he became keenly sensible of the deep
- responsibility they assume who disregard the means to attain the end, and
- of all the danger of setting in motion an engine which it exceeds human
- power to control. Then shaking off a train of reflections that he
- accounted a weakness in such a moment of triumph, he retraced his steps
- toward his tent, giving the order as he passed to make the signal that
- should arouse the army from its slumbers.
- </p>
- <p>
- The first tap of the French drums was echoed from the bosom of the fort,
- and presently the valley was filled with the strains of martial music,
- rising long, thrilling and lively above the rattling accompaniment. The
- horns of the victors sounded merry and cheerful flourishes, until the last
- laggard of the camp was at his post; but the instant the British fifes had
- blown their shrill signal, they became mute. In the meantime the day had
- dawned, and when the line of the French army was ready to receive its
- general, the rays of a brilliant sun were glancing along the glittering
- array. Then that success, which was already so well known, was officially
- announced; the favored band who were selected to guard the gates of the
- fort were detailed, and defiled before their chief; the signal of their
- approach was given, and all the usual preparations for a change of masters
- were ordered and executed directly under the guns of the contested works.
- </p>
- <p>
- A very different scene presented itself within the lines of the
- Anglo-American army. As soon as the warning signal was given, it exhibited
- all the signs of a hurried and forced departure. The sullen soldiers
- shouldered their empty tubes and fell into their places, like men whose
- blood had been heated by the past contest, and who only desired the
- opportunity to revenge an indignity which was still wounding to their
- pride, concealed as it was under the observances of military etiquette.
- </p>
- <p>
- Women and children ran from place to place, some bearing the scanty
- remnants of their baggage, and others searching in the ranks for those
- countenances they looked up to for protection.
- </p>
- <p>
- Munro appeared among his silent troops firm but dejected. It was evident
- that the unexpected blow had struck deep into his heart, though he
- struggled to sustain his misfortune with the port of a man.
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan was touched at the quiet and impressive exhibition of his grief. He
- had discharged his own duty, and he now pressed to the side of the old
- man, to know in what particular he might serve him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My daughters,” was the brief but expressive reply.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good heavens! are not arrangements already made for their convenience?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “To-day I am only a soldier, Major Heyward,” said the veteran. “All that
- you see here, claim alike to be my children.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan had heard enough. Without losing one of those moments which had now
- become so precious, he flew toward the quarters of Munro, in quest of the
- sisters. He found them on the threshold of the low edifice, already
- prepared to depart, and surrounded by a clamorous and weeping assemblage
- of their own sex, that had gathered about the place, with a sort of
- instinctive consciousness that it was the point most likely to be
- protected. Though the cheeks of Cora were pale and her countenance
- anxious, she had lost none of her firmness; but the eyes of Alice were
- inflamed, and betrayed how long and bitterly she had wept. They both,
- however, received the young man with undisguised pleasure; the former, for
- a novelty, being the first to speak.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The fort is lost,” she said, with a melancholy smile; “though our good
- name, I trust, remains.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis brighter than ever. But, dearest Miss Munro, it is time to think
- less of others, and to make some provision for yourself. Military usage—pride—that
- pride on which you so much value yourself, demands that your father and I
- should for a little while continue with the troops. Then where to seek a
- proper protector for you against the confusion and chances of such a
- scene?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “None is necessary,” returned Cora; “who will dare to injure or insult the
- daughter of such a father, at a time like this?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I would not leave you alone,” continued the youth, looking about him in a
- hurried manner, “for the command of the best regiment in the pay of the
- king. Remember, our Alice is not gifted with all your firmness, and God
- only knows the terror she might endure.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You may be right,” Cora replied, smiling again, but far more sadly than
- before. “Listen! chance has already sent us a friend when he is most
- needed.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan did listen, and on the instant comprehended her meaning. The low
- and serious sounds of the sacred music, so well known to the eastern
- provinces, caught his ear, and instantly drew him to an apartment in an
- adjacent building, which had already been deserted by its customary
- tenants. There he found David, pouring out his pious feelings through the
- only medium in which he ever indulged. Duncan waited, until, by the
- cessation of the movement of the hand, he believed the strain was ended,
- when, by touching his shoulder, he drew the attention of the other to
- himself, and in a few words explained his wishes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Even so,” replied the single-minded disciple of the King of Israel, when
- the young man had ended; “I have found much that is comely and melodious
- in the maidens, and it is fitting that we who have consorted in so much
- peril, should abide together in peace. I will attend them, when I have
- completed my morning praise, to which nothing is now wanting but the
- doxology. Wilt thou bear a part, friend? The meter is common, and the tune
- 'Southwell'.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Then, extending the little volume, and giving the pitch of the air anew
- with considerate attention, David recommenced and finished his strains,
- with a fixedness of manner that it was not easy to interrupt. Heyward was
- fain to wait until the verse was ended; when, seeing David relieving
- himself from the spectacles, and replacing the book, he continued.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It will be your duty to see that none dare to approach the ladies with
- any rude intention, or to offer insult or taunt at the misfortune of their
- brave father. In this task you will be seconded by the domestics of their
- household.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Even so.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is possible that the Indians and stragglers of the enemy may intrude,
- in which case you will remind them of the terms of the capitulation, and
- threaten to report their conduct to Montcalm. A word will suffice.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If not, I have that here which shall,” returned David, exhibiting his
- book, with an air in which meekness and confidence were singularly
- blended. Here are words which, uttered, or rather thundered, with proper
- emphasis, and in measured time, shall quiet the most unruly temper:
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Why rage the heathen furiously'?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Enough,” said Heyward, interrupting the burst of his musical invocation;
- “we understand each other; it is time that we should now assume our
- respective duties.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gamut cheerfully assented, and together they sought the females. Cora
- received her new and somewhat extraordinary protector courteously, at
- least; and even the pallid features of Alice lighted again with some of
- their native archness as she thanked Heyward for his care. Duncan took
- occasion to assure them he had done the best that circumstances permitted,
- and, as he believed, quite enough for the security of their feelings; of
- danger there was none. He then spoke gladly of his intention to rejoin
- them the moment he had led the advance a few miles toward the Hudson, and
- immediately took his leave.
- </p>
- <p>
- By this time the signal for departure had been given, and the head of the
- English column was in motion. The sisters started at the sound, and
- glancing their eyes around, they saw the white uniforms of the French
- grenadiers, who had already taken possession of the gates of the fort. At
- that moment an enormous cloud seemed to pass suddenly above their heads,
- and, looking upward, they discovered that they stood beneath the wide
- folds of the standard of France.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let us go,” said Cora; “this is no longer a fit place for the children of
- an English officer.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Alice clung to the arm of her sister, and together they left the parade,
- accompanied by the moving throng that surrounded them.
- </p>
- <p>
- As they passed the gates, the French officers, who had learned their rank,
- bowed often and low, forbearing, however, to intrude those attentions
- which they saw, with peculiar tact, might not be agreeable. As every
- vehicle and each beast of burden was occupied by the sick and wounded,
- Cora had decided to endure the fatigues of a foot march, rather than
- interfere with their comforts. Indeed, many a maimed and feeble soldier
- was compelled to drag his exhausted limbs in the rear of the columns, for
- the want of the necessary means of conveyance in that wilderness. The
- whole, however, was in motion; the weak and wounded, groaning and in
- suffering; their comrades silent and sullen; and the women and children in
- terror, they knew not of what.
- </p>
- <p>
- As the confused and timid throng left the protecting mounds of the fort,
- and issued on the open plain, the whole scene was at once presented to
- their eyes. At a little distance on the right, and somewhat in the rear,
- the French army stood to their arms, Montcalm having collected his
- parties, so soon as his guards had possession of the works. They were
- attentive but silent observers of the proceedings of the vanquished,
- failing in none of the stipulated military honors, and offering no taunt
- or insult, in their success, to their less fortunate foes. Living masses
- of the English, to the amount, in the whole, of near three thousand, were
- moving slowly across the plain, toward the common center, and gradually
- approached each other, as they converged to the point of their march, a
- vista cut through the lofty trees, where the road to the Hudson entered
- the forest. Along the sweeping borders of the woods hung a dark cloud of
- savages, eyeing the passage of their enemies, and hovering at a distance,
- like vultures who were only kept from swooping on their prey by the
- presence and restraint of a superior army. A few had straggled among the
- conquered columns, where they stalked in sullen discontent; attentive,
- though, as yet, passive observers of the moving multitude.
- </p>
- <p>
- The advance, with Heyward at its head, had already reached the defile, and
- was slowly disappearing, when the attention of Cora was drawn to a
- collection of stragglers by the sounds of contention. A truant provincial
- was paying the forfeit of his disobedience, by being plundered of those
- very effects which had caused him to desert his place in the ranks. The
- man was of powerful frame, and too avaricious to part with his goods
- without a struggle. Individuals from either party interfered; the one side
- to prevent and the other to aid in the robbery. Voices grew loud and
- angry, and a hundred savages appeared, as it were, by magic, where a dozen
- only had been seen a minute before. It was then that Cora saw the form of
- Magua gliding among his countrymen, and speaking with his fatal and artful
- eloquence. The mass of women and children stopped, and hovered together
- like alarmed and fluttering birds. But the cupidity of the Indian was soon
- gratified, and the different bodies again moved slowly onward.
- </p>
- <p>
- The savages now fell back, and seemed content to let their enemies advance
- without further molestation. But, as the female crowd approached them, the
- gaudy colors of a shawl attracted the eyes of a wild and untutored Huron.
- He advanced to seize it without the least hesitation. The woman, more in
- terror than through love of the ornament, wrapped her child in the coveted
- article, and folded both more closely to her bosom. Cora was in the act of
- speaking, with an intent to advise the woman to abandon the trifle, when
- the savage relinquished his hold of the shawl, and tore the screaming
- infant from her arms. Abandoning everything to the greedy grasp of those
- around her, the mother darted, with distraction in her mien, to reclaim
- her child. The Indian smiled grimly, and extended one hand, in sign of a
- willingness to exchange, while, with the other, he flourished the babe
- over his head, holding it by the feet as if to enhance the value of the
- ransom.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Here—here—there—all—any—everything!”
- exclaimed the breathless woman, tearing the lighter articles of dress from
- her person with ill-directed and trembling fingers; “take all, but give me
- my babe!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The savage spurned the worthless rags, and perceiving that the shawl had
- already become a prize to another, his bantering but sullen smile changing
- to a gleam of ferocity, he dashed the head of the infant against a rock,
- and cast its quivering remains to her very feet. For an instant the mother
- stood, like a statue of despair, looking wildly down at the unseemly
- object, which had so lately nestled in her bosom and smiled in her face;
- and then she raised her eyes and countenance toward heaven, as if calling
- on God to curse the perpetrator of the foul deed. She was spared the sin
- of such a prayer for, maddened at his disappointment, and excited at the
- sight of blood, the Huron mercifully drove his tomahawk into her own
- brain. The mother sank under the blow, and fell, grasping at her child, in
- death, with the same engrossing love that had caused her to cherish it
- when living.
- </p>
- <p>
- At that dangerous moment, Magua placed his hands to his mouth, and raised
- the fatal and appalling whoop. The scattered Indians started at the
- well-known cry, as coursers bound at the signal to quit the goal; and
- directly there arose such a yell along the plain, and through the arches
- of the wood, as seldom burst from human lips before. They who heard it
- listened with a curdling horror at the heart, little inferior to that
- dread which may be expected to attend the blasts of the final summons.
- </p>
- <p>
- More than two thousand raving savages broke from the forest at the signal,
- and threw themselves across the fatal plain with instinctive alacrity. We
- shall not dwell on the revolting horrors that succeeded. Death was
- everywhere, and in his most terrific and disgusting aspects. Resistance
- only served to inflame the murderers, who inflicted their furious blows
- long after their victims were beyond the power of their resentment. The
- flow of blood might be likened to the outbreaking of a torrent; and as the
- natives became heated and maddened by the sight, many among them even
- kneeled to the earth, and drank freely, exultingly, hellishly, of the
- crimson tide.
- </p>
- <p>
- The trained bodies of the troops threw themselves quickly into solid
- masses, endeavoring to awe their assailants by the imposing appearance of
- a military front. The experiment in some measure succeeded, though far too
- many suffered their unloaded muskets to be torn from their hands, in the
- vain hope of appeasing the savages.
- </p>
- <p>
- In such a scene none had leisure to note the fleeting moments. It might
- have been ten minutes (it seemed an age) that the sisters had stood
- riveted to one spot, horror-stricken and nearly helpless. When the first
- blow was struck, their screaming companions had pressed upon them in a
- body, rendering flight impossible; and now that fear or death had
- scattered most, if not all, from around them, they saw no avenue open, but
- such as conducted to the tomahawks of their foes. On every side arose
- shrieks, groans, exhortations and curses. At this moment, Alice caught a
- glimpse of the vast form of her father, moving rapidly across the plain,
- in the direction of the French army. He was, in truth, proceeding to
- Montcalm, fearless of every danger, to claim the tardy escort for which he
- had before conditioned. Fifty glittering axes and barbed spears were
- offered unheeded at his life, but the savages respected his rank and
- calmness, even in their fury. The dangerous weapons were brushed aside by
- the still nervous arm of the veteran, or fell of themselves, after
- menacing an act that it would seem no one had courage to perform.
- Fortunately, the vindictive Magua was searching for his victim in the very
- band the veteran had just quitted.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Father—father—we are here!” shrieked Alice, as he passed, at
- no great distance, without appearing to heed them. “Come to us, father, or
- we die!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The cry was repeated, and in terms and tones that might have melted a
- heart of stone, but it was unanswered. Once, indeed, the old man appeared
- to catch the sound, for he paused and listened; but Alice had dropped
- senseless on the earth, and Cora had sunk at her side, hovering in
- untiring tenderness over her lifeless form. Munro shook his head in
- disappointment, and proceeded, bent on the high duty of his station.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lady,” said Gamut, who, helpless and useless as he was, had not yet
- dreamed of deserting his trust, “it is the jubilee of the devils, and this
- is not a meet place for Christians to tarry in. Let us up and fly.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Go,” said Cora, still gazing at her unconscious sister; “save thyself. To
- me thou canst not be of further use.”
- </p>
- <p>
- David comprehended the unyielding character of her resolution, by the
- simple but expressive gesture that accompanied her words. He gazed for a
- moment at the dusky forms that were acting their hellish rites on every
- side of him, and his tall person grew more erect while his chest heaved,
- and every feature swelled, and seemed to speak with the power of the
- feelings by which he was governed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “If the Jewish boy might tame the great spirit of Saul by the sound of his
- harp, and the words of sacred song, it may not be amiss,” he said, “to try
- the potency of music here.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Then raising his voice to its highest tone, he poured out a strain so
- powerful as to be heard even amid the din of that bloody field. More than
- one savage rushed toward them, thinking to rifle the unprotected sisters
- of their attire, and bear away their scalps; but when they found this
- strange and unmoved figure riveted to his post, they paused to listen.
- Astonishment soon changed to admiration, and they passed on to other and
- less courageous victims, openly expressing their satisfaction at the
- firmness with which the white warrior sang his death song. Encouraged and
- deluded by his success, David exerted all his powers to extend what he
- believed so holy an influence. The unwonted sounds caught the ears of a
- distant savage, who flew raging from group to group, like one who,
- scorning to touch the vulgar herd, hunted for some victim more worthy of
- his renown. It was Magua, who uttered a yell of pleasure when he beheld
- his ancient prisoners again at his mercy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come,” he said, laying his soiled hands on the dress of Cora, “the wigwam
- of the Huron is still open. Is it not better than this place?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Away!” cried Cora, veiling her eyes from his revolting aspect.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Indian laughed tauntingly, as he held up his reeking hand, and
- answered: “It is red, but it comes from white veins!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Monster! there is blood, oceans of blood, upon thy soul; thy spirit has
- moved this scene.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Magua is a great chief!” returned the exulting savage, “will the
- dark-hair go to his tribe?”
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0233.jpg" alt="0233" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0233.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- “Never! strike if thou wilt, and complete thy revenge.” He hesitated a
- moment, and then catching the light and senseless form of Alice in his
- arms, the subtle Indian moved swiftly across the plain toward the woods.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hold!” shrieked Cora, following wildly on his footsteps; “release the
- child! wretch! what is't you do?”
- </p>
- <p>
- But Magua was deaf to her voice; or, rather, he knew his power, and was
- determined to maintain it.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Stay—lady—stay,” called Gamut, after the unconscious Cora.
- “The holy charm is beginning to be felt, and soon shalt thou see this
- horrid tumult stilled.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Perceiving that, in his turn, he was unheeded, the faithful David followed
- the distracted sister, raising his voice again in sacred song, and
- sweeping the air to the measure, with his long arm, in diligent
- accompaniment. In this manner they traversed the plain, through the
- flying, the wounded and the dead. The fierce Huron was, at any time,
- sufficient for himself and the victim that he bore; though Cora would have
- fallen more than once under the blows of her savage enemies, but for the
- extraordinary being who stalked in her rear, and who now appeared to the
- astonished natives gifted with the protecting spirit of madness.
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua, who knew how to avoid the more pressing dangers, and also to elude
- pursuit, entered the woods through a low ravine, where he quickly found
- the Narragansetts, which the travelers had abandoned so shortly before,
- awaiting his appearance, in custody of a savage as fierce and malign in
- his expression as himself. Laying Alice on one of the horses, he made a
- sign to Cora to mount the other.
- </p>
- <p>
- Notwithstanding the horror excited by the presence of her captor, there
- was a present relief in escaping from the bloody scene enacting on the
- plain, to which Cora could not be altogether insensible. She took her
- seat, and held forth her arms for her sister, with an air of entreaty and
- love that even the Huron could not deny. Placing Alice, then, on the same
- animal with Cora, he seized the bridle, and commenced his route by
- plunging deeper into the forest. David, perceiving that he was left alone,
- utterly disregarded as a subject too worthless even to destroy, threw his
- long limb across the saddle of the beast they had deserted, and made such
- progress in the pursuit as the difficulties of the path permitted.
- </p>
- <p>
- They soon began to ascend; but as the motion had a tendency to revive the
- dormant faculties of her sister, the attention of Cora was too much
- divided between the tenderest solicitude in her behalf, and in listening
- to the cries which were still too audible on the plain, to note the
- direction in which they journeyed. When, however, they gained the
- flattened surface of the mountain-top, and approached the eastern
- precipice, she recognized the spot to which she had once before been led
- under the more friendly auspices of the scout. Here Magua suffered them to
- dismount; and notwithstanding their own captivity, the curiosity which
- seems inseparable from horror, induced them to gaze at the sickening sight
- below.
- </p>
- <p>
- The cruel work was still unchecked. On every side the captured were flying
- before their relentless persecutors, while the armed columns of the
- Christian king stood fast in an apathy which has never been explained, and
- which has left an immovable blot on the otherwise fair escutcheon of their
- leader. Nor was the sword of death stayed until cupidity got the mastery
- of revenge. Then, indeed, the shrieks of the wounded, and the yells of
- their murderers grew less frequent, until, finally, the cries of horror
- were lost to their ear, or were drowned in the loud, long and piercing
- whoops of the triumphant savages.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 18
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Why, anything;
- An honorable murderer, if you will;
- For naught I did in hate, but all in honor.”
- —Othello
-</pre>
- <p>
- The bloody and inhuman scene rather incidentally mentioned than described
- in the preceding chapter, is conspicuous in the pages of colonial history
- by the merited title of “The Massacre of William Henry.” It so far
- deepened the stain which a previous and very similar event had left upon
- the reputation of the French commander that it was not entirely erased by
- his early and glorious death. It is now becoming obscured by time; and
- thousands, who know that Montcalm died like a hero on the plains of
- Abraham, have yet to learn how much he was deficient in that moral courage
- without which no man can be truly great. Pages might yet be written to
- prove, from this illustrious example, the defects of human excellence; to
- show how easy it is for generous sentiments, high courtesy, and chivalrous
- courage to lose their influence beneath the chilling blight of
- selfishness, and to exhibit to the world a man who was great in all the
- minor attributes of character, but who was found wanting when it became
- necessary to prove how much principle is superior to policy. But the task
- would exceed our prerogatives; and, as history, like love, is so apt to
- surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness, it is
- probable that Louis de Saint Veran will be viewed by posterity only as the
- gallant defender of his country, while his cruel apathy on the shores of
- the Oswego and of the Horican will be forgotten. Deeply regretting this
- weakness on the part of a sister muse, we shall at once retire from her
- sacred precincts, within the proper limits of our own humble vocation.
- </p>
- <p>
- The third day from the capture of the fort was drawing to a close, but the
- business of the narrative must still detain the reader on the shores of
- the “holy lake.” When last seen, the environs of the works were filled
- with violence and uproar. They were now possessed by stillness and death.
- The blood-stained conquerors had departed; and their camp, which had so
- lately rung with the merry rejoicings of a victorious army, lay a silent
- and deserted city of huts. The fortress was a smoldering ruin; charred
- rafters, fragments of exploded artillery, and rent mason-work covering its
- earthen mounds in confused disorder.
- </p>
- <p>
- A frightful change had also occurred in the season. The sun had hid its
- warmth behind an impenetrable mass of vapor, and hundreds of human forms,
- which had blackened beneath the fierce heats of August, were stiffening in
- their deformity before the blasts of a premature November. The curling and
- spotless mists, which had been seen sailing above the hills toward the
- north, were now returning in an interminable dusky sheet, that was urged
- along by the fury of a tempest. The crowded mirror of the Horican was
- gone; and, in its place, the green and angry waters lashed the shores, as
- if indignantly casting back its impurities to the polluted strand. Still
- the clear fountain retained a portion of its charmed influence, but it
- reflected only the somber gloom that fell from the impending heavens. That
- humid and congenial atmosphere which commonly adorned the view, veiling
- its harshness, and softening its asperities, had disappeared, the northern
- air poured across the waste of water so harsh and unmingled, that nothing
- was left to be conjectured by the eye, or fashioned by the fancy.
- </p>
- <p>
- The fiercer element had cropped the verdure of the plain, which looked as
- though it were scathed by the consuming lightning. But, here and there, a
- dark green tuft rose in the midst of the desolation; the earliest fruits
- of a soil that had been fattened with human blood. The whole landscape,
- which, seen by a favoring light, and in a genial temperature, had been
- found so lovely, appeared now like some pictured allegory of life, in
- which objects were arrayed in their harshest but truest colors, and
- without the relief of any shadowing.
- </p>
- <p>
- The solitary and arid blades of grass arose from the passing gusts
- fearfully perceptible; the bold and rocky mountains were too distinct in
- their barrenness, and the eye even sought relief, in vain, by attempting
- to pierce the illimitable void of heaven, which was shut to its gaze by
- the dusky sheet of ragged and driving vapor.
- </p>
- <p>
- The wind blew unequally; sometimes sweeping heavily along the ground,
- seeming to whisper its moanings in the cold ears of the dead, then rising
- in a shrill and mournful whistling, it entered the forest with a rush that
- filled the air with the leaves and branches it scattered in its path. Amid
- the unnatural shower, a few hungry ravens struggled with the gale; but no
- sooner was the green ocean of woods which stretched beneath them, passed,
- than they gladly stopped, at random, to their hideous banquet.
- </p>
- <p>
- In short, it was a scene of wildness and desolation; and it appeared as if
- all who had profanely entered it had been stricken, at a blow, by the
- relentless arm of death. But the prohibition had ceased; and for the first
- time since the perpetrators of those foul deeds which had assisted to
- disfigure the scene were gone, living human beings had now presumed to
- approach the place.
- </p>
- <p>
- About an hour before the setting of the sun, on the day already mentioned,
- the forms of five men might have been seen issuing from the narrow vista
- of trees, where the path to the Hudson entered the forest, and advancing
- in the direction of the ruined works. At first their progress was slow and
- guarded, as though they entered with reluctance amid the horrors of the
- post, or dreaded the renewal of its frightful incidents. A light figure
- preceded the rest of the party, with the caution and activity of a native;
- ascending every hillock to reconnoiter, and indicating by gestures, to his
- companions, the route he deemed it most prudent to pursue. Nor were those
- in the rear wanting in every caution and foresight known to forest
- warfare. One among them, he also was an Indian, moved a little on one
- flank, and watched the margin of the woods, with eyes long accustomed to
- read the smallest sign of danger. The remaining three were white, though
- clad in vestments adapted, both in quality and color, to their present
- hazardous pursuit—that of hanging on the skirts of a retiring army
- in the wilderness.
- </p>
- <p>
- The effects produced by the appalling sights that constantly arose in
- their path to the lake shore, were as different as the characters of the
- respective individuals who composed the party. The youth in front threw
- serious but furtive glances at the mangled victims, as he stepped lightly
- across the plain, afraid to exhibit his feelings, and yet too
- inexperienced to quell entirely their sudden and powerful influence. His
- red associate, however, was superior to such a weakness. He passed the
- groups of dead with a steadiness of purpose, and an eye so calm, that
- nothing but long and inveterate practise could enable him to maintain. The
- sensations produced in the minds of even the white men were different,
- though uniformly sorrowful. One, whose gray locks and furrowed lineaments,
- blending with a martial air and tread, betrayed, in spite of the disguise
- of a woodsman's dress, a man long experienced in scenes of war, was not
- ashamed to groan aloud, whenever a spectacle of more than usual horror
- came under his view. The young man at his elbow shuddered, but seemed to
- suppress his feelings in tenderness to his companion. Of them all, the
- straggler who brought up the rear appeared alone to betray his real
- thoughts, without fear of observation or dread of consequences. He gazed
- at the most appalling sight with eyes and muscles that knew not how to
- waver, but with execrations so bitter and deep as to denote how much he
- denounced the crime of his enemies.
- </p>
- <p>
- The reader will perceive at once, in these respective characters, the
- Mohicans, and their white friend, the scout; together with Munro and
- Heyward. It was, in truth, the father in quest of his children, attended
- by the youth who felt so deep a stake in their happiness, and those brave
- and trusty foresters, who had already proved their skill and fidelity
- through the trying scenes related.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Uncas, who moved in front, had reached the center of the plain, he
- raised a cry that drew his companions in a body to the spot. The young
- warrior had halted over a group of females who lay in a cluster, a
- confused mass of dead. Notwithstanding the revolting horror of the
- exhibition, Munro and Heyward flew toward the festering heap, endeavoring,
- with a love that no unseemliness could extinguish, to discover whether any
- vestiges of those they sought were to be seen among the tattered and
- many-colored garments. The father and the lover found instant relief in
- the search; though each was condemned again to experience the misery of an
- uncertainty that was hardly less insupportable than the most revolting
- truth. They were standing, silent and thoughtful, around the melancholy
- pile, when the scout approached. Eyeing the sad spectacle with an angry
- countenance, the sturdy woodsman, for the first time since his entering
- the plain, spoke intelligibly and aloud:
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have been on many a shocking field, and have followed a trail of blood
- for weary miles,” he said, “but never have I found the hand of the devil
- so plain as it is here to be seen! Revenge is an Indian feeling, and all
- who know me know that there is no cross in my veins; but this much will I
- say—here, in the face of heaven, and with the power of the Lord so
- manifest in this howling wilderness—that should these Frenchers ever
- trust themselves again within the range of a ragged bullet, there is one
- rifle which shall play its part so long as flint will fire or powder burn!
- I leave the tomahawk and knife to such as have a natural gift to use them.
- What say you, Chingachgook,” he added, in Delaware; “shall the Hurons
- boast of this to their women when the deep snows come?”
- </p>
- <p>
- A gleam of resentment flashed across the dark lineaments of the Mohican
- chief; he loosened his knife in his sheath; and then turning calmly from
- the sight, his countenance settled into a repose as deep as if he knew the
- instigation of passion.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Montcalm! Montcalm!” continued the deeply resentful and less
- self-restrained scout; “they say a time must come when all the deeds done
- in the flesh will be seen at a single look; and that by eyes cleared from
- mortal infirmities. Woe betide the wretch who is born to behold this
- plain, with the judgment hanging about his soul! Ha—as I am a man of
- white blood, yonder lies a red-skin, without the hair of his head where
- nature rooted it! Look to him, Delaware; it may be one of your missing
- people; and he should have burial like a stout warrior. I see it in your
- eye, Sagamore; a Huron pays for this, afore the fall winds have blown away
- the scent of the blood!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Chingachgook approached the mutilated form, and, turning it over, he found
- the distinguishing marks of one of those six allied tribes, or nations, as
- they were called, who, while they fought in the English ranks, were so
- deadly hostile to his own people. Spurning the loathsome object with his
- foot, he turned from it with the same indifference he would have quitted a
- brute carcass. The scout comprehended the action, and very deliberately
- pursued his own way, continuing, however, his denunciations against the
- French commander in the same resentful strain.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nothing but vast wisdom and unlimited power should dare to sweep off men
- in multitudes,” he added; “for it is only the one that can know the
- necessity of the judgment; and what is there, short of the other, that can
- replace the creatures of the Lord? I hold it a sin to kill the second buck
- afore the first is eaten, unless a march in front, or an ambushment, be
- contemplated. It is a different matter with a few warriors in open and
- rugged fight, for 'tis their gift to die with the rifle or the tomahawk in
- hand; according as their natures may happen to be, white or red. Uncas,
- come this way, lad, and let the ravens settle upon the Mingo. I know, from
- often seeing it, that they have a craving for the flesh of an Oneida; and
- it is as well to let the bird follow the gift of its natural appetite.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hugh!” exclaimed the young Mohican, rising on the extremities of his
- feet, and gazing intently in his front, frightening the ravens to some
- other prey by the sound and the action.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is it, boy?” whispered the scout, lowering his tall form into a
- crouching attitude, like a panther about to take his leap; “God send it be
- a tardy Frencher, skulking for plunder. I do believe 'killdeer' would take
- an uncommon range today!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncas, without making any reply, bounded away from the spot, and in the
- next instant he was seen tearing from a bush, and waving in triumph, a
- fragment of the green riding-veil of Cora. The movement, the exhibition,
- and the cry which again burst from the lips of the young Mohican,
- instantly drew the whole party about him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My child!” said Munro, speaking quickly and wildly; “give me my child!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Uncas will try,” was the short and touching answer.
- </p>
- <p>
- The simple but meaning assurance was lost on the father, who seized the
- piece of gauze, and crushed it in his hand, while his eyes roamed
- fearfully among the bushes, as if he equally dreaded and hoped for the
- secrets they might reveal.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Here are no dead,” said Heyward; “the storm seems not to have passed this
- way.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That's manifest; and clearer than the heavens above our heads,” returned
- the undisturbed scout; “but either she, or they that have robbed her, have
- passed the bush; for I remember the rag she wore to hide a face that all
- did love to look upon. Uncas, you are right; the dark-hair has been here,
- and she has fled like a frightened fawn, to the wood; none who could fly
- would remain to be murdered. Let us search for the marks she left; for, to
- Indian eyes, I sometimes think a humming-bird leaves his trail in the
- air.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The young Mohican darted away at the suggestion, and the scout had hardly
- done speaking, before the former raised a cry of success from the margin
- of the forest. On reaching the spot, the anxious party perceived another
- portion of the veil fluttering on the lower branch of a beech.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Softly, softly,” said the scout, extending his long rifle in front of the
- eager Heyward; “we now know our work, but the beauty of the trail must not
- be deformed. A step too soon may give us hours of trouble. We have them,
- though; that much is beyond denial.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bless ye, bless ye, worthy man!” exclaimed Munro; “whither then, have
- they fled, and where are my babes?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The path they have taken depends on many chances. If they have gone
- alone, they are quite as likely to move in a circle as straight, and they
- may be within a dozen miles of us; but if the Hurons, or any of the French
- Indians, have laid hands on them, 'tis probably they are now near the
- borders of the Canadas. But what matters that?” continued the deliberate
- scout, observing the powerful anxiety and disappointment the listeners
- exhibited; “here are the Mohicans and I on one end of the trail, and, rely
- on it, we find the other, though they should be a hundred leagues asunder!
- Gently, gently, Uncas, you are as impatient as a man in the settlements;
- you forget that light feet leave but faint marks!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hugh!” exclaimed Chingachgook, who had been occupied in examining an
- opening that had been evidently made through the low underbrush which
- skirted the forest; and who now stood erect, as he pointed downward, in
- the attitude and with the air of a man who beheld a disgusting serpent.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Here is the palpable impression of the footstep of a man,” cried Heyward,
- bending over the indicated spot; “he has trod in the margin of this pool,
- and the mark cannot be mistaken. They are captives.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Better so than left to starve in the wilderness,” returned the scout;
- “and they will leave a wider trail. I would wager fifty beaver skins
- against as many flints, that the Mohicans and I enter their wigwams within
- the month! Stoop to it, Uncas, and try what you can make of the moccasin;
- for moccasin it plainly is, and no shoe.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The young Mohican bent over the track, and removing the scattered leaves
- from around the place, he examined it with much of that sort of scrutiny
- that a money dealer, in these days of pecuniary doubts, would bestow on a
- suspected due-bill. At length he arose from his knees, satisfied with the
- result of the examination.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, boy,” demanded the attentive scout; “what does it say? Can you make
- anything of the tell-tale?”
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/5299.jpg" alt="5299" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/5299.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- “Le Renard Subtil!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ha! that rampaging devil again! there will never be an end of his loping
- till 'killdeer' has said a friendly word to him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward reluctantly admitted the truth of this intelligence, and now
- expressed rather his hopes than his doubts by saying:
- </p>
- <p>
- “One moccasin is so much like another, it is probable there is some
- mistake.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “One moccasin like another! you may as well say that one foot is like
- another; though we all know that some are long, and others short; some
- broad and others narrow; some with high, and some with low insteps; some
- intoed, and some out. One moccasin is no more like another than one book
- is like another: though they who can read in one are seldom able to tell
- the marks of the other. Which is all ordered for the best, giving to every
- man his natural advantages. Let me get down to it, Uncas; neither book nor
- moccasin is the worse for having two opinions, instead of one.” The scout
- stooped to the task, and instantly added:
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are right, boy; here is the patch we saw so often in the other chase.
- And the fellow will drink when he can get an opportunity; your drinking
- Indian always learns to walk with a wider toe than the natural savage, it
- being the gift of a drunkard to straddle, whether of white or red skin.
- 'Tis just the length and breadth, too! look at it, Sagamore; you measured
- the prints more than once, when we hunted the varmints from Glenn's to the
- health springs.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Chingachgook complied; and after finishing his short examination, he
- arose, and with a quiet demeanor, he merely pronounced the word:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Magua!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, 'tis a settled thing; here, then, have passed the dark-hair and
- Magua.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And not Alice?” demanded Heyward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of her we have not yet seen the signs,” returned the scout, looking
- closely around at the trees, the bushes and the ground. “What have we
- there? Uncas, bring hither the thing you see dangling from yonder
- thorn-bush.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When the Indian had complied, the scout received the prize, and holding it
- on high, he laughed in his silent but heartfelt manner.
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis the tooting we'pon of the singer! now we shall have a trail a priest
- might travel,” he said. “Uncas, look for the marks of a shoe that is long
- enough to uphold six feet two of tottering human flesh. I begin to have
- some hopes of the fellow, since he has given up squalling to follow some
- better trade.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “At least he has been faithful to his trust,” said Heyward. “And Cora and
- Alice are not without a friend.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes,” said Hawkeye, dropping his rifle, and leaning on it with an air of
- visible contempt, “he will do their singing. Can he slay a buck for their
- dinner; journey by the moss on the beeches, or cut the throat of a Huron?
- If not, the first catbird* he meets is the cleverer of the two. Well, boy,
- any signs of such a foundation?”
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * The powers of the American mocking-bird are generally
- known. But the true mocking-bird is not found so far north
- as the state of New York, where it has, however, two
- substitutes of inferior excellence, the catbird, so often
- named by the scout, and the bird vulgarly called ground-
- thresher. Either of these last two birds is superior to the
- nightingale or the lark, though, in general, the American
- birds are less musical than those of Europe.
-</pre>
- <p>
- “Here is something like the footstep of one who has worn a shoe; can it be
- that of our friend?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Touch the leaves lightly or you'll disconsart the formation. That! that
- is the print of a foot, but 'tis the dark-hair's; and small it is, too,
- for one of such a noble height and grand appearance. The singer would
- cover it with his heel.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where! let me look on the footsteps of my child,” said Munro, shoving the
- bushes aside, and bending fondly over the nearly obliterated impression.
- Though the tread which had left the mark had been light and rapid, it was
- still plainly visible. The aged soldier examined it with eyes that grew
- dim as he gazed; nor did he rise from this stooping posture until Heyward
- saw that he had watered the trace of his daughter's passage with a
- scalding tear. Willing to divert a distress which threatened each moment
- to break through the restraint of appearances, by giving the veteran
- something to do, the young man said to the scout:
- </p>
- <p>
- “As we now possess these infallible signs, let us commence our march. A
- moment, at such a time, will appear an age to the captives.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is not the swiftest leaping deer that gives the longest chase,”
- returned Hawkeye, without moving his eyes from the different marks that
- had come under his view; “we know that the rampaging Huron has passed, and
- the dark-hair, and the singer, but where is she of the yellow locks and
- blue eyes? Though little, and far from being as bold as her sister, she is
- fair to the view, and pleasant in discourse. Has she no friend, that none
- care for her?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “God forbid she should ever want hundreds! Are we not now in her pursuit?
- For one, I will never cease the search till she be found.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “In that case we may have to journey by different paths; for here she has
- not passed, light and little as her footsteps would be.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward drew back, all his ardor to proceed seeming to vanish on the
- instant. Without attending to this sudden change in the other's humor, the
- scout after musing a moment continued:
- </p>
- <p>
- “There is no woman in this wilderness could leave such a print as that,
- but the dark-hair or her sister. We know that the first has been here, but
- where are the signs of the other? Let us push deeper on the trail, and if
- nothing offers, we must go back to the plain and strike another scent.
- Move on, Uncas, and keep your eyes on the dried leaves. I will watch the
- bushes, while your father shall run with a low nose to the ground. Move
- on, friends; the sun is getting behind the hills.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is there nothing that I can do?” demanded the anxious Heyward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You?” repeated the scout, who, with his red friends, was already
- advancing in the order he had prescribed; “yes, you can keep in our rear
- and be careful not to cross the trail.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Before they had proceeded many rods, the Indians stopped, and appeared to
- gaze at some signs on the earth with more than their usual keenness. Both
- father and son spoke quick and loud, now looking at the object of their
- mutual admiration, and now regarding each other with the most unequivocal
- pleasure.
- </p>
- <p>
- “They have found the little foot!” exclaimed the scout, moving forward,
- without attending further to his own portion of the duty. “What have we
- here? An ambushment has been planted in the spot! No, by the truest rifle
- on the frontiers, here have been them one-sided horses again! Now the
- whole secret is out, and all is plain as the north star at midnight. Yes,
- here they have mounted. There the beasts have been bound to a sapling, in
- waiting; and yonder runs the broad path away to the north, in full sweep
- for the Canadas.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But still there are no signs of Alice, of the younger Miss Munro,” said
- Duncan.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Unless the shining bauble Uncas has just lifted from the ground should
- prove one. Pass it this way, lad, that we may look at it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward instantly knew it for a trinket that Alice was fond of wearing,
- and which he recollected, with the tenacious memory of a lover, to have
- seen, on the fatal morning of the massacre, dangling from the fair neck of
- his mistress. He seized the highly prized jewel; and as he proclaimed the
- fact, it vanished from the eyes of the wondering scout, who in vain looked
- for it on the ground, long after it was warmly pressed against the beating
- heart of Duncan.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Pshaw!” said the disappointed Hawkeye, ceasing to rake the leaves with
- the breech of his rifle; “'tis a certain sign of age, when the sight
- begins to weaken. Such a glittering gewgaw, and not to be seen! Well,
- well, I can squint along a clouded barrel yet, and that is enough to
- settle all disputes between me and the Mingoes. I should like to find the
- thing, too, if it were only to carry it to the right owner, and that would
- be bringing the two ends of what I call a long trail together, for by this
- time the broad St. Lawrence, or perhaps, the Great Lakes themselves, are
- between us.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “So much the more reason why we should not delay our march,” returned
- Heyward; “let us proceed.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Young blood and hot blood, they say, are much the same thing. We are not
- about to start on a squirrel hunt, or to drive a deer into the Horican,
- but to outlie for days and nights, and to stretch across a wilderness
- where the feet of men seldom go, and where no bookish knowledge would
- carry you through harmless. An Indian never starts on such an expedition
- without smoking over his council-fire; and, though a man of white blood, I
- honor their customs in this particular, seeing that they are deliberate
- and wise. We will, therefore, go back, and light our fire to-night in the
- ruins of the old fort, and in the morning we shall be fresh, and ready to
- undertake our work like men, and not like babbling women or eager boys.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward saw, by the manner of the scout, that altercation would be
- useless. Munro had again sunk into that sort of apathy which had beset him
- since his late overwhelming misfortunes, and from which he was apparently
- to be roused only by some new and powerful excitement. Making a merit of
- necessity, the young man took the veteran by the arm, and followed in the
- footsteps of the Indians and the scout, who had already begun to retrace
- the path which conducted them to the plain.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 19
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Salar.—Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take
- his flesh; what's that good for?
- Shy.—To bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else, it
- will feed my revenge.”
- —Merchant of Venice
-</pre>
- <p>
- The shades of evening had come to increase the dreariness of the place,
- when the party entered the ruins of William Henry. The scout and his
- companions immediately made their preparations to pass the night there;
- but with an earnestness and sobriety of demeanor that betrayed how much
- the unusual horrors they had just witnessed worked on even their practised
- feelings. A few fragments of rafters were reared against a blackened wall;
- and when Uncas had covered them slightly with brush, the temporary
- accommodations were deemed sufficient. The young Indian pointed toward his
- rude hut when his labor was ended; and Heyward, who understood the meaning
- of the silent gestures, gently urged Munro to enter. Leaving the bereaved
- old man alone with his sorrows, Duncan immediately returned into the open
- air, too much excited himself to seek the repose he had recommended to his
- veteran friend.
- </p>
- <p>
- While Hawkeye and the Indians lighted their fire and took their evening's
- repast, a frugal meal of dried bear's meat, the young man paid a visit to
- that curtain of the dilapidated fort which looked out on the sheet of the
- Horican. The wind had fallen, and the waves were already rolling on the
- sandy beach beneath him, in a more regular and tempered succession. The
- clouds, as if tired of their furious chase, were breaking asunder; the
- heavier volumes, gathering in black masses about the horizon, while the
- lighter scud still hurried above the water, or eddied among the tops of
- the mountains, like broken flights of birds, hovering around their roosts.
- Here and there, a red and fiery star struggled through the drifting vapor,
- furnishing a lurid gleam of brightness to the dull aspect of the heavens.
- Within the bosom of the encircling hills, an impenetrable darkness had
- already settled; and the plain lay like a vast and deserted charnel-house,
- without omen or whisper to disturb the slumbers of its numerous and
- hapless tenants.
- </p>
- <p>
- Of this scene, so chillingly in accordance with the past, Duncan stood for
- many minutes a rapt observer. His eyes wandered from the bosom of the
- mound, where the foresters were seated around their glimmering fire, to
- the fainter light which still lingered in the skies, and then rested long
- and anxiously on the embodied gloom, which lay like a dreary void on that
- side of him where the dead reposed. He soon fancied that inexplicable
- sounds arose from the place, though so indistinct and stolen, as to render
- not only their nature but even their existence uncertain. Ashamed of his
- apprehensions, the young man turned toward the water, and strove to divert
- his attention to the mimic stars that dimly glimmered on its moving
- surface. Still, his too-conscious ears performed their ungrateful duty, as
- if to warn him of some lurking danger. At length, a swift trampling
- seemed, quite audibly, to rush athwart the darkness. Unable any longer to
- quiet his uneasiness, Duncan spoke in a low voice to the scout, requesting
- him to ascend the mound to the place where he stood. Hawkeye threw his
- rifle across an arm and complied, but with an air so unmoved and calm, as
- to prove how much he counted on the security of their position.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Listen!” said Duncan, when the other placed himself deliberately at his
- elbow; “there are suppressed noises on the plain which may show Montcalm
- has not yet entirely deserted his conquest.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then ears are better than eyes,” said the undisturbed scout, who, having
- just deposited a portion of a bear between his grinders, spoke thick and
- slow, like one whose mouth was doubly occupied. “I myself saw him caged in
- Ty, with all his host; for your Frenchers, when they have done a clever
- thing, like to get back, and have a dance, or a merry-making, with the
- women over their success.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know not. An Indian seldom sleeps in war, and plunder may keep a Huron
- here after his tribe has departed. It would be well to extinguish the
- fire, and have a watch—listen! you hear the noise I mean!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “An Indian more rarely lurks about the graves. Though ready to slay, and
- not over regardful of the means, he is commonly content with the scalp,
- unless when blood is hot, and temper up; but after spirit is once fairly
- gone, he forgets his enmity, and is willing to let the dead find their
- natural rest. Speaking of spirits, major, are you of opinion that the
- heaven of a red-skin and of us whites will be of one and the same?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No doubt—no doubt. I thought I heard it again! or was it the
- rustling of the leaves in the top of the beech?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “For my own part,” continued Hawkeye, turning his face for a moment in the
- direction indicated by Heyward, but with a vacant and careless manner, “I
- believe that paradise is ordained for happiness; and that men will be
- indulged in it according to their dispositions and gifts. I, therefore,
- judge that a red-skin is not far from the truth when he believes he is to
- find them glorious hunting grounds of which his traditions tell; nor, for
- that matter, do I think it would be any disparagement to a man without a
- cross to pass his time—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You hear it again?” interrupted Duncan.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, ay; when food is scarce, and when food is plenty, a wolf grows bold,”
- said the unmoved scout. “There would be picking, too, among the skins of
- the devils, if there was light and time for the sport. But, concerning the
- life that is to come, major; I have heard preachers say, in the
- settlements, that heaven was a place of rest. Now, men's minds differ as
- to their ideas of enjoyment. For myself, and I say it with reverence to
- the ordering of Providence, it would be no great indulgence to be kept
- shut up in those mansions of which they preach, having a natural longing
- for motion and the chase.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan, who was now made to understand the nature of the noise he had
- heard, answered, with more attention to the subject which the humor of the
- scout had chosen for discussion, by saying:
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is difficult to account for the feelings that may attend the last
- great change.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It would be a change, indeed, for a man who has passed his days in the
- open air,” returned the single-minded scout; “and who has so often broken
- his fast on the head waters of the Hudson, to sleep within sound of the
- roaring Mohawk. But it is a comfort to know we serve a merciful Master,
- though we do it each after his fashion, and with great tracts of
- wilderness atween us—what goes there?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is it not the rushing of the wolves you have mentioned?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye slowly shook his head, and beckoned for Duncan to follow him to a
- spot to which the glare from the fire did not extend. When he had taken
- this precaution, the scout placed himself in an attitude of intense
- attention and listened long and keenly for a repetition of the low sound
- that had so unexpectedly startled him. His vigilance, however, seemed
- exercised in vain; for after a fruitless pause, he whispered to Duncan:
- </p>
- <p>
- “We must give a call to Uncas. The boy has Indian senses, and he may hear
- what is hid from us; for, being a white-skin, I will not deny my nature.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The young Mohican, who was conversing in a low voice with his father,
- started as he heard the moaning of an owl, and, springing on his feet, he
- looked toward the black mounds, as if seeking the place whence the sounds
- proceeded. The scout repeated the call, and in a few moments, Duncan saw
- the figure of Uncas stealing cautiously along the rampart, to the spot
- where they stood.
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye explained his wishes in a very few words, which were spoken in the
- Delaware tongue. So soon as Uncas was in possession of the reason why he
- was summoned, he threw himself flat on the turf; where, to the eyes of
- Duncan, he appeared to lie quiet and motionless. Surprised at the
- immovable attitude of the young warrior, and curious to observe the manner
- in which he employed his faculties to obtain the desired information,
- Heyward advanced a few steps, and bent over the dark object on which he
- had kept his eye riveted. Then it was he discovered that the form of Uncas
- vanished, and that he beheld only the dark outline of an inequality in the
- embankment.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What has become of the Mohican?” he demanded of the scout, stepping back
- in amazement; “it was here that I saw him fall, and could have sworn that
- here he yet remained.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hist! speak lower; for we know not what ears are open, and the Mingoes
- are a quick-witted breed. As for Uncas, he is out on the plain, and the
- Maquas, if any such are about us, will find their equal.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You think that Montcalm has not called off all his Indians? Let us give
- the alarm to our companions, that we may stand to our arms. Here are five
- of us, who are not unused to meet an enemy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not a word to either, as you value your life. Look at the Sagamore, how
- like a grand Indian chief he sits by the fire. If there are any skulkers
- out in the darkness, they will never discover, by his countenance, that we
- suspect danger at hand.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But they may discover him, and it will prove his death. His person can be
- too plainly seen by the light of that fire, and he will become the first
- and most certain victim.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is undeniable that now you speak the truth,” returned the scout,
- betraying more anxiety than was usual; “yet what can be done? A single
- suspicious look might bring on an attack before we are ready to receive
- it. He knows, by the call I gave to Uncas, that we have struck a scent; I
- will tell him that we are on the trail of the Mingoes; his Indian nature
- will teach him how to act.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout applied his fingers to his mouth, and raised a low hissing
- sound, that caused Duncan at first to start aside, believing that he heard
- a serpent. The head of Chingachgook was resting on a hand, as he sat
- musing by himself but the moment he had heard the warning of the animal
- whose name he bore, he arose to an upright position, and his dark eyes
- glanced swiftly and keenly on every side of him. With his sudden and,
- perhaps, involuntary movement, every appearance of surprise or alarm
- ended. His rifle lay untouched, and apparently unnoticed, within reach of
- his hand. The tomahawk that he had loosened in his belt for the sake of
- ease, was even suffered to fall from its usual situation to the ground,
- and his form seemed to sink, like that of a man whose nerves and sinews
- were suffered to relax for the purpose of rest. Cunningly resuming his
- former position, though with a change of hands, as if the movement had
- been made merely to relieve the limb, the native awaited the result with a
- calmness and fortitude that none but an Indian warrior would have known
- how to exercise.
- </p>
- <p>
- But Heyward saw that while to a less instructed eye the Mohican chief
- appeared to slumber, his nostrils were expanded, his head was turned a
- little to one side, as if to assist the organs of hearing, and that his
- quick and rapid glances ran incessantly over every object within the power
- of his vision.
- </p>
- <p>
- “See the noble fellow!” whispered Hawkeye, pressing the arm of Heyward;
- “he knows that a look or a motion might disconsart our schemes, and put us
- at the mercy of them imps—”
- </p>
- <p>
- He was interrupted by the flash and report of a rifle. The air was filled
- with sparks of fire, around that spot where the eyes of Heyward were still
- fastened, with admiration and wonder. A second look told him that
- Chingachgook had disappeared in the confusion. In the meantime, the scout
- had thrown forward his rifle, like one prepared for service, and awaited
- impatiently the moment when an enemy might rise to view. But with the
- solitary and fruitless attempt made on the life of Chingachgook, the
- attack appeared to have terminated. Once or twice the listeners thought
- they could distinguish the distant rustling of bushes, as bodies of some
- unknown description rushed through them; nor was it long before Hawkeye
- pointed out the “scampering of the wolves,” as they fled precipitately
- before the passage of some intruder on their proper domains. After an
- impatient and breathless pause, a plunge was heard in the water, and it
- was immediately followed by the report of another rifle.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There goes Uncas!” said the scout; “the boy bears a smart piece! I know
- its crack, as well as a father knows the language of his child, for I
- carried the gun myself until a better offered.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What can this mean?” demanded Duncan, “we are watched, and, as it would
- seem, marked for destruction.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yonder scattered brand can witness that no good was intended, and this
- Indian will testify that no harm has been done,” returned the scout,
- dropping his rifle across his arm again, and following Chingachgook, who
- just then reappeared within the circle of light, into the bosom of the
- work. “How is it, Sagamore? Are the Mingoes upon us in earnest, or is it
- only one of those reptiles who hang upon the skirts of a war-party, to
- scalp the dead, go in, and make their boast among the squaws of the
- valiant deeds done on the pale faces?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Chingachgook very quietly resumed his seat; nor did he make any reply,
- until after he had examined the firebrand which had been struck by the
- bullet that had nearly proved fatal to himself. After which he was content
- to reply, holding a single finger up to view, with the English
- monosyllable:
- </p>
- <p>
- “One.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I thought as much,” returned Hawkeye, seating himself; “and as he had got
- the cover of the lake afore Uncas pulled upon him, it is more than
- probable the knave will sing his lies about some great ambushment, in
- which he was outlying on the trail of two Mohicans and a white hunter—for
- the officers can be considered as little better than idlers in such a
- scrimmage. Well, let him—let him. There are always some honest men
- in every nation, though heaven knows, too, that they are scarce among the
- Maquas, to look down an upstart when he brags ag'in the face of reason.
- The varlet sent his lead within whistle of your ears, Sagamore.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Chingachgook turned a calm and incurious eye toward the place where the
- ball had struck, and then resumed his former attitude, with a composure
- that could not be disturbed by so trifling an incident. Just then Uncas
- glided into the circle, and seated himself at the fire, with the same
- appearance of indifference as was maintained by his father.
- </p>
- <p>
- Of these several moments Heyward was a deeply interested and wondering
- observer. It appeared to him as though the foresters had some secret means
- of intelligence, which had escaped the vigilance of his own faculties. In
- place of that eager and garrulous narration with which a white youth would
- have endeavored to communicate, and perhaps exaggerate, that which had
- passed out in the darkness of the plain, the young warrior was seemingly
- content to let his deeds speak for themselves. It was, in fact, neither
- the moment nor the occasion for an Indian to boast of his exploits; and it
- is probably that, had Heyward neglected to inquire, not another syllable
- would, just then, have been uttered on the subject.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What has become of our enemy, Uncas?” demanded Duncan; “we heard your
- rifle, and hoped you had not fired in vain.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The young chief removed a fold of his hunting skirt, and quietly exposed
- the fatal tuft of hair, which he bore as the symbol of victory.
- Chingachgook laid his hand on the scalp, and considered it for a moment
- with deep attention. Then dropping it, with disgust depicted in his strong
- features, he ejaculated:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oneida!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oneida!” repeated the scout, who was fast losing his interest in the
- scene, in an apathy nearly assimilated to that of his red associates, but
- who now advanced in uncommon earnestness to regard the bloody badge. “By
- the Lord, if the Oneidas are outlying upon the trail, we shall by flanked
- by devils on every side of us! Now, to white eyes there is no difference
- between this bit of skin and that of any other Indian, and yet the
- Sagamore declares it came from the poll of a Mingo; nay, he even names the
- tribe of the poor devil, with as much ease as if the scalp was the leaf of
- a book, and each hair a letter. What right have Christian whites to boast
- of their learning, when a savage can read a language that would prove too
- much for the wisest of them all! What say you, lad, of what people was the
- knave?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncas raised his eyes to the face of the scout, and answered, in his soft
- voice:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oneida.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oneida, again! when one Indian makes a declaration it is commonly true;
- but when he is supported by his people, set it down as gospel!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The poor fellow has mistaken us for French,” said Heyward; “or he would
- not have attempted the life of a friend.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He mistake a Mohican in his paint for a Huron! You would be as likely to
- mistake the white-coated grenadiers of Montcalm for the scarlet jackets of
- the Royal Americans,” returned the scout. “No, no, the sarpent knew his
- errand; nor was there any great mistake in the matter, for there is but
- little love atween a Delaware and a Mingo, let their tribes go out to
- fight for whom they may, in a white quarrel. For that matter, though the
- Oneidas do serve his sacred majesty, who is my sovereign lord and master,
- I should not have deliberated long about letting off 'killdeer' at the imp
- myself, had luck thrown him in my way.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That would have been an abuse of our treaties, and unworthy of your
- character.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “When a man consort much with a people,” continued Hawkeye, “if they were
- honest and he no knave, love will grow up atwixt them. It is true that
- white cunning has managed to throw the tribes into great confusion, as
- respects friends and enemies; so that the Hurons and the Oneidas, who
- speak the same tongue, or what may be called the same, take each other's
- scalps, and the Delawares are divided among themselves; a few hanging
- about their great council-fire on their own river, and fighting on the
- same side with the Mingoes while the greater part are in the Canadas, out
- of natural enmity to the Maquas—thus throwing everything into
- disorder, and destroying all the harmony of warfare. Yet a red natur' is
- not likely to alter with every shift of policy; so that the love atwixt a
- Mohican and a Mingo is much like the regard between a white man and a
- sarpent.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I regret to hear it; for I had believed those natives who dwelt within
- our boundaries had found us too just and liberal, not to identify
- themselves fully with our quarrels.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why, I believe it is natur' to give a preference to one's own quarrels
- before those of strangers. Now, for myself, I do love justice; and,
- therefore, I will not say I hate a Mingo, for that may be unsuitable to my
- color and my religion, though I will just repeat, it may have been owing
- to the night that 'killdeer' had no hand in the death of this skulking
- Oneida.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Then, as if satisfied with the force of his own reasons, whatever might be
- their effect on the opinions of the other disputant, the honest but
- implacable woodsman turned from the fire, content to let the controversy
- slumber. Heyward withdrew to the rampart, too uneasy and too little
- accustomed to the warfare of the woods to remain at ease under the
- possibility of such insidious attacks. Not so, however, with the scout and
- the Mohicans. Those acute and long-practised senses, whose powers so often
- exceed the limits of all ordinary credulity, after having detected the
- danger, had enabled them to ascertain its magnitude and duration. Not one
- of the three appeared in the least to doubt their perfect security, as was
- indicated by the preparations that were soon made to sit in council over
- their future proceedings.
- </p>
- <p>
- The confusion of nations, and even of tribes, to which Hawkeye alluded,
- existed at that period in the fullest force. The great tie of language,
- and, of course, of a common origin, was severed in many places; and it was
- one of its consequences, that the Delaware and the Mingo (as the people of
- the Six Nations were called) were found fighting in the same ranks, while
- the latter sought the scalp of the Huron, though believed to be the root
- of his own stock. The Delawares were even divided among themselves. Though
- love for the soil which had belonged to his ancestors kept the Sagamore of
- the Mohicans with a small band of followers who were serving at Edward,
- under the banners of the English king, by far the largest portion of his
- nation were known to be in the field as allies of Montcalm. The reader
- probably knows, if enough has not already been gleaned form this
- narrative, that the Delaware, or Lenape, claimed to be the progenitors of
- that numerous people, who once were masters of most of the eastern and
- northern states of America, of whom the community of the Mohicans was an
- ancient and highly honored member.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was, of course, with a perfect understanding of the minute and
- intricate interests which had armed friend against friend, and brought
- natural enemies to combat by each other's side, that the scout and his
- companions now disposed themselves to deliberate on the measures that were
- to govern their future movements, amid so many jarring and savage races of
- men. Duncan knew enough of Indian customs to understand the reason that
- the fire was replenished, and why the warriors, not excepting Hawkeye,
- took their seats within the curl of its smoke with so much gravity and
- decorum. Placing himself at an angle of the works, where he might be a
- spectator of the scene without, he awaited the result with as much
- patience as he could summon.
- </p>
- <p>
- After a short and impressive pause, Chingachgook lighted a pipe whose bowl
- was curiously carved in one of the soft stones of the country, and whose
- stem was a tube of wood, and commenced smoking. When he had inhaled enough
- of the fragrance of the soothing weed, he passed the instrument into the
- hands of the scout. In this manner the pipe had made its rounds three
- several times, amid the most profound silence, before either of the party
- opened his lips. Then the Sagamore, as the oldest and highest in rank, in
- a few calm and dignified words, proposed the subject for deliberation. He
- was answered by the scout; and Chingachgook rejoined, when the other
- objected to his opinions. But the youthful Uncas continued a silent and
- respectful listener, until Hawkeye, in complaisance, demanded his opinion.
- Heyward gathered from the manners of the different speakers, that the
- father and son espoused one side of a disputed question, while the white
- man maintained the other. The contest gradually grew warmer, until it was
- quite evident the feelings of the speakers began to be somewhat enlisted
- in the debate.
- </p>
- <p>
- Notwithstanding the increasing warmth of the amicable contest, the most
- decorous Christian assembly, not even excepting those in which its
- reverend ministers are collected, might have learned a wholesome lesson of
- moderation from the forbearance and courtesy of the disputants. The words
- of Uncas were received with the same deep attention as those which fell
- from the maturer wisdom of his father; and so far from manifesting any
- impatience, neither spoke in reply, until a few moments of silent
- meditation were, seemingly, bestowed in deliberating on what had already
- been said.
- </p>
- <p>
- The language of the Mohicans was accompanied by gestures so direct and
- natural that Heyward had but little difficulty in following the thread of
- their argument. On the other hand, the scout was obscure; because from the
- lingering pride of color, he rather affected the cold and artificial
- manner which characterizes all classes of Anglo-Americans when unexcited.
- By the frequency with which the Indians described the marks of a forest
- trial, it was evident they urged a pursuit by land, while the repeated
- sweep of Hawkeye's arm toward the Horican denoted that he was for a
- passage across its waters.
- </p>
- <p>
- The latter was to every appearance fast losing ground, and the point was
- about to be decided against him, when he arose to his feet, and shaking
- off his apathy, he suddenly assumed the manner of an Indian, and adopted
- all the arts of native eloquence. Elevating an arm, he pointed out the
- track of the sun, repeating the gesture for every day that was necessary
- to accomplish their objects. Then he delineated a long and painful path,
- amid rocks and water-courses. The age and weakness of the slumbering and
- unconscious Munro were indicated by signs too palpable to be mistaken.
- Duncan perceived that even his own powers were spoken lightly of, as the
- scout extended his palm, and mentioned him by the appellation of the “Open
- Hand”—a name his liberality had purchased of all the friendly
- tribes. Then came a representation of the light and graceful movements of
- a canoe, set in forcible contrast to the tottering steps of one enfeebled
- and tired. He concluded by pointing to the scalp of the Oneida, and
- apparently urging the necessity of their departing speedily, and in a
- manner that should leave no trail.
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/5015.jpg" alt="5015" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/5015.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- The Mohicans listened gravely, and with countenances that reflected the
- sentiments of the speaker. Conviction gradually wrought its influence, and
- toward the close of Hawkeye's speech, his sentences were accompanied by
- the customary exclamation of commendation. In short, Uncas and his father
- became converts to his way of thinking, abandoning their own previously
- expressed opinions with a liberality and candor that, had they been the
- representatives of some great and civilized people, would have infallibly
- worked their political ruin, by destroying forever their reputation for
- consistency.
- </p>
- <p>
- The instant the matter in discussion was decided, the debate, and
- everything connected with it, except the result appeared to be forgotten.
- Hawkeye, without looking round to read his triumph in applauding eyes,
- very composedly stretched his tall frame before the dying embers, and
- closed his own organs in sleep.
- </p>
- <p>
- Left now in a measure to themselves, the Mohicans, whose time had been so
- much devoted to the interests of others, seized the moment to devote some
- attention to themselves. Casting off at once the grave and austere
- demeanor of an Indian chief, Chingachgook commenced speaking to his son in
- the soft and playful tones of affection. Uncas gladly met the familiar air
- of his father; and before the hard breathing of the scout announced that
- he slept, a complete change was effected in the manner of his two
- associates.
- </p>
- <p>
- It is impossible to describe the music of their language, while thus
- engaged in laughter and endearments, in such a way as to render it
- intelligible to those whose ears have never listened to its melody. The
- compass of their voices, particularly that of the youth, was wonderful—extending
- from the deepest bass to tones that were even feminine in softness. The
- eyes of the father followed the plastic and ingenious movements of the son
- with open delight, and he never failed to smile in reply to the other's
- contagious but low laughter. While under the influence of these gentle and
- natural feelings, no trace of ferocity was to be seen in the softened
- features of the Sagamore. His figured panoply of death looked more like a
- disguise assumed in mockery than a fierce annunciation of a desire to
- carry destruction in his footsteps.
- </p>
- <p>
- After an hour had passed in the indulgence of their better feelings,
- Chingachgook abruptly announced his desire to sleep, by wrapping his head
- in his blanket and stretching his form on the naked earth. The merriment
- of Uncas instantly ceased; and carefully raking the coals in such a manner
- that they should impart their warmth to his father's feet, the youth
- sought his own pillow among the ruins of the place.
- </p>
- <p>
- Imbibing renewed confidence from the security of these experienced
- foresters, Heyward soon imitated their example; and long before the night
- had turned, they who lay in the bosom of the ruined work, seemed to
- slumber as heavily as the unconscious multitude whose bones were already
- beginning to bleach on the surrounding plain.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 20
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Land of Albania! let me bend mine eyes
- On thee; thou rugged nurse of savage men!”
- —Childe Harold
-</pre>
- <p>
- The heavens were still studded with stars, when Hawkeye came to arouse the
- sleepers. Casting aside their cloaks Munro and Heyward were on their feet
- while the woodsman was still making his low calls, at the entrance of the
- rude shelter where they had passed the night. When they issued from
- beneath its concealment, they found the scout awaiting their appearance
- nigh by, and the only salutation between them was the significant gesture
- for silence, made by their sagacious leader.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Think over your prayers,” he whispered, as they approached him; “for He
- to whom you make them, knows all tongues; that of the heart, as well as
- those of the mouth. But speak not a syllable; it is rare for a white voice
- to pitch itself properly in the woods, as we have seen by the example of
- that miserable devil, the singer. Come,” he continued, turning toward a
- curtain of the works; “let us get into the ditch on this side, and be
- regardful to step on the stones and fragments of wood as you go.”
- </p>
- <p>
- His companions complied, though to two of them the reasons of this
- extraordinary precaution were yet a mystery. When they were in the low
- cavity that surrounded the earthen fort on three sides, they found that
- passage nearly choked by the ruins. With care and patience, however, they
- succeeded in clambering after the scout, until they reached the sandy
- shore of the Horican.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That's a trail that nothing but a nose can follow,” said the satisfied
- scout, looking back along their difficult way; “grass is a treacherous
- carpet for a flying party to tread on, but wood and stone take no print
- from a moccasin. Had you worn your armed boots, there might, indeed, have
- been something to fear; but with the deer-skin suitably prepared, a man
- may trust himself, generally, on rocks with safety. Shove in the canoe
- nigher to the land, Uncas; this sand will take a stamp as easily as the
- butter of the Jarmans on the Mohawk. Softly, lad, softly; it must not
- touch the beach, or the knaves will know by what road we have left the
- place.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The young man observed the precaution; and the scout, laying a board from
- the ruins to the canoe, made a sign for the two officers to enter. When
- this was done, everything was studiously restored to its former disorder;
- and then Hawkeye succeeded in reaching his little birchen vessel, without
- leaving behind him any of those marks which he appeared so much to dread.
- Heyward was silent until the Indians had cautiously paddled the canoe some
- distance from the fort, and within the broad and dark shadows that fell
- from the eastern mountain on the glassy surface of the lake; then he
- demanded:
- </p>
- <p>
- “What need have we for this stolen and hurried departure?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If the blood of an Oneida could stain such a sheet of pure water as this
- we float on,” returned the scout, “your two eyes would answer your own
- question. Have you forgotten the skulking reptile Uncas slew?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “By no means. But he was said to be alone, and dead men give no cause for
- fear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, he was alone in his deviltry! but an Indian whose tribe counts so
- many warriors, need seldom fear his blood will run without the death
- shriek coming speedily from some of his enemies.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But our presence—the authority of Colonel Munro—would prove
- sufficient protection against the anger of our allies, especially in a
- case where the wretch so well merited his fate. I trust in Heaven you have
- not deviated a single foot from the direct line of our course with so
- slight a reason!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you think the bullet of that varlet's rifle would have turned aside,
- though his sacred majesty the king had stood in its path?” returned the
- stubborn scout. “Why did not the grand Frencher, he who is captain-general
- of the Canadas, bury the tomahawks of the Hurons, if a word from a white
- can work so strongly on the natur' of an Indian?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The reply of Heyward was interrupted by a groan from Munro; but after he
- had paused a moment, in deference to the sorrow of his aged friend he
- resumed the subject.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The marquis of Montcalm can only settle that error with his God,” said
- the young man solemnly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, ay, now there is reason in your words, for they are bottomed on
- religion and honesty. There is a vast difference between throwing a
- regiment of white coats atwixt the tribes and the prisoners, and coaxing
- an angry savage to forget he carries a knife and rifle, with words that
- must begin with calling him your son. No, no,” continued the scout,
- looking back at the dim shore of William Henry, which was now fast
- receding, and laughing in his own silent but heartfelt manner; “I have put
- a trail of water atween us; and unless the imps can make friends with the
- fishes, and hear who has paddled across their basin this fine morning, we
- shall throw the length of the Horican behind us before they have made up
- their minds which path to take.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “With foes in front, and foes in our rear, our journey is like to be one
- of danger.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Danger!” repeated Hawkeye, calmly; “no, not absolutely of danger; for,
- with vigilant ears and quick eyes, we can manage to keep a few hours ahead
- of the knaves; or, if we must try the rifle, there are three of us who
- understand its gifts as well as any you can name on the borders. No, not
- of danger; but that we shall have what you may call a brisk push of it, is
- probable; and it may happen, a brush, a scrimmage, or some such divarsion,
- but always where covers are good, and ammunition abundant.”
- </p>
- <p>
- It is possible that Heyward's estimate of danger differed in some degree
- from that of the scout, for, instead of replying, he now sat in silence,
- while the canoe glided over several miles of water. Just as the day
- dawned, they entered the narrows of the lake*, and stole swiftly and
- cautiously among their numberless little islands. It was by this road that
- Montcalm had retired with his army, and the adventurers knew not but he
- had left some of his Indians in ambush, to protect the rear of his forces,
- and collect the stragglers. They, therefore, approached the passage with
- the customary silence of their guarded habits.
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * The beauties of Lake George are well known to every
- American tourist. In the height of the mountains which
- surround it, and in artificial accessories, it is inferior
- to the finest of the Swiss and Italian lakes, while in
- outline and purity of water it is fully their equal; and in
- the number and disposition of its isles and islets much
- superior to them all together. There are said to be some
- hundreds of islands in a sheet of water less than thirty
- miles long. The narrows, which connect what may be called,
- in truth, two lakes, are crowded with islands to such a
- degree as to leave passages between them frequently of only
- a few feet in width. The lake itself varies in breadth from
- one to three miles.
-</pre>
- <p>
- Chingachgook laid aside his paddle; while Uncas and the scout urged the
- light vessel through crooked and intricate channels, where every foot that
- they advanced exposed them to the danger of some sudden rising on their
- progress. The eyes of the Sagamore moved warily from islet to islet, and
- copse to copse, as the canoe proceeded; and, when a clearer sheet of water
- permitted, his keen vision was bent along the bald rocks and impending
- forests that frowned upon the narrow strait.
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward, who was a doubly interested spectator, as well from the beauties
- of the place as from the apprehension natural to his situation, was just
- believing that he had permitted the latter to be excited without
- sufficient reason, when the paddle ceased moving, in obedience to a signal
- from Chingachgook.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hugh!” exclaimed Uncas, nearly at the moment that the light tap his
- father had made on the side of the canoe notified them of the vicinity of
- danger.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What now?” asked the scout; “the lake is as smooth as if the winds had
- never blown, and I can see along its sheet for miles; there is not so much
- as the black head of a loon dotting the water.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Indian gravely raised his paddle, and pointed in the direction in
- which his own steady look was riveted. Duncan's eyes followed the motion.
- A few rods in their front lay another of the wooded islets, but it
- appeared as calm and peaceful as if its solitude had never been disturbed
- by the foot of man.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I see nothing,” he said, “but land and water; and a lovely scene it is.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hist!” interrupted the scout. “Ay, Sagamore, there is always a reason for
- what you do. 'Tis but a shade, and yet it is not natural. You see the
- mist, major, that is rising above the island; you can't call it a fog, for
- it is more like a streak of thin cloud—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is vapor from the water.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That a child could tell. But what is the edging of blacker smoke that
- hangs along its lower side, and which you may trace down into the thicket
- of hazel? 'Tis from a fire; but one that, in my judgment, has been
- suffered to burn low.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let us, then, push for the place, and relieve our doubts,” said the
- impatient Duncan; “the party must be small that can lie on such a bit of
- land.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If you judge of Indian cunning by the rules you find in books, or by
- white sagacity, they will lead you astray, if not to your death,” returned
- Hawkeye, examining the signs of the place with that acuteness which
- distinguished him. “If I may be permitted to speak in this matter, it will
- be to say, that we have but two things to choose between: the one is, to
- return, and give up all thoughts of following the Hurons—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Never!” exclaimed Heyward, in a voice far too loud for their
- circumstances.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, well,” continued Hawkeye, making a hasty sign to repress his
- impatience; “I am much of your mind myself; though I thought it becoming
- my experience to tell the whole. We must, then, make a push, and if the
- Indians or Frenchers are in the narrows, run the gauntlet through these
- toppling mountains. Is there reason in my words, Sagamore?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Indian made no other answer than by dropping his paddle into the
- water, and urging forward the canoe. As he held the office of directing
- its course, his resolution was sufficiently indicated by the movement. The
- whole party now plied their paddles vigorously, and in a very few moments
- they had reached a point whence they might command an entire view of the
- northern shore of the island, the side that had hitherto been concealed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There they are, by all the truth of signs,” whispered the scout, “two
- canoes and a smoke. The knaves haven't yet got their eyes out of the mist,
- or we should hear the accursed whoop. Together, friends! we are leaving
- them, and are already nearly out of whistle of a bullet.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The well-known crack of a rifle, whose ball came skipping along the placid
- surface of the strait, and a shrill yell from the island, interrupted his
- speech, and announced that their passage was discovered. In another
- instant several savages were seen rushing into canoes, which were soon
- dancing over the water in pursuit. These fearful precursors of a coming
- struggle produced no change in the countenances and movements of his three
- guides, so far as Duncan could discover, except that the strokes of their
- paddles were longer and more in unison, and caused the little bark to
- spring forward like a creature possessing life and volition.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hold them there, Sagamore,” said Hawkeye, looking coolly backward over
- this left shoulder, while he still plied his paddle; “keep them just
- there. Them Hurons have never a piece in their nation that will execute at
- this distance; but 'killdeer' has a barrel on which a man may calculate.”
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0271.jpg" alt="0271" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0271.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- The scout having ascertained that the Mohicans were sufficient of
- themselves to maintain the requisite distance, deliberately laid aside his
- paddle, and raised the fatal rifle. Three several times he brought the
- piece to his shoulder, and when his companions were expecting its report,
- he as often lowered it to request the Indians would permit their enemies
- to approach a little nigher. At length his accurate and fastidious eye
- seemed satisfied, and, throwing out his left arm on the barrel, he was
- slowly elevating the muzzle, when an exclamation from Uncas, who sat in
- the bow, once more caused him to suspend the shot.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What, now, lad?” demanded Hawkeye; “you save a Huron from the
- death-shriek by that word; have you reason for what you do?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncas pointed toward a rocky shore a little in their front, whence another
- war canoe was darting directly across their course. It was too obvious now
- that their situation was imminently perilous to need the aid of language
- to confirm it. The scout laid aside his rifle, and resumed the paddle,
- while Chingachgook inclined the bows of the canoe a little toward the
- western shore, in order to increase the distance between them and this new
- enemy. In the meantime they were reminded of the presence of those who
- pressed upon their rear, by wild and exulting shouts. The stirring scene
- awakened even Munro from his apathy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let us make for the rocks on the main,” he said, with the mien of a tired
- soldier, “and give battle to the savages. God forbid that I, or those
- attached to me and mine, should ever trust again to the faith of any
- servant of the Louis's!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He who wishes to prosper in Indian warfare,” returned the scout, “must
- not be too proud to learn from the wit of a native. Lay her more along the
- land, Sagamore; we are doubling on the varlets, and perhaps they may try
- to strike our trail on the long calculation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye was not mistaken; for when the Hurons found their course was
- likely to throw them behind their chase they rendered it less direct,
- until, by gradually bearing more and more obliquely, the two canoes were,
- ere long, gliding on parallel lines, within two hundred yards of each
- other. It now became entirely a trial of speed. So rapid was the progress
- of the light vessels, that the lake curled in their front, in miniature
- waves, and their motion became undulating by its own velocity. It was,
- perhaps, owing to this circumstance, in addition to the necessity of
- keeping every hand employed at the paddles, that the Hurons had not
- immediate recourse to their firearms. The exertions of the fugitives were
- too severe to continue long, and the pursuers had the advantage of
- numbers. Duncan observed with uneasiness, that the scout began to look
- anxiously about him, as if searching for some further means of assisting
- their flight.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Edge her a little more from the sun, Sagamore,” said the stubborn
- woodsman; “I see the knaves are sparing a man to the rifle. A single
- broken bone might lose us our scalps. Edge more from the sun and we will
- put the island between us.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The expedient was not without its use. A long, low island lay at a little
- distance before them, and, as they closed with it, the chasing canoe was
- compelled to take a side opposite to that on which the pursued passed. The
- scout and his companions did not neglect this advantage, but the instant
- they were hid from observation by the bushes, they redoubled efforts that
- before had seemed prodigious. The two canoes came round the last low
- point, like two coursers at the top of their speed, the fugitives taking
- the lead. This change had brought them nigher to each other, however,
- while it altered their relative positions.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You showed knowledge in the shaping of a birchen bark, Uncas, when you
- chose this from among the Huron canoes,” said the scout, smiling,
- apparently more in satisfaction at their superiority in the race than from
- that prospect of final escape which now began to open a little upon them.
- “The imps have put all their strength again at the paddles, and we are to
- struggle for our scalps with bits of flattened wood, instead of clouded
- barrels and true eyes. A long stroke, and together, friends.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They are preparing for a shot,” said Heyward; “and as we are in a line
- with them, it can scarcely fail.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Get you, then, into the bottom of the canoe,” returned the scout; “you
- and the colonel; it will be so much taken from the size of the mark.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward smiled, as he answered:
- </p>
- <p>
- “It would be but an ill example for the highest in rank to dodge, while
- the warriors were under fire.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lord! Lord! That is now a white man's courage!” exclaimed the scout; “and
- like to many of his notions, not to be maintained by reason. Do you think
- the Sagamore, or Uncas, or even I, who am a man without a cross, would
- deliberate about finding a cover in the scrimmage, when an open body would
- do no good? For what have the Frenchers reared up their Quebec, if
- fighting is always to be done in the clearings?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All that you say is very true, my friend,” replied Heyward; “still, our
- customs must prevent us from doing as you wish.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A volley from the Hurons interrupted the discourse, and as the bullets
- whistled about them, Duncan saw the head of Uncas turned, looking back at
- himself and Munro. Notwithstanding the nearness of the enemy, and his own
- great personal danger, the countenance of the young warrior expressed no
- other emotion, as the former was compelled to think, than amazement at
- finding men willing to encounter so useless an exposure. Chingachgook was
- probably better acquainted with the notions of white men, for he did not
- even cast a glance aside from the riveted look his eye maintained on the
- object by which he governed their course. A ball soon struck the light and
- polished paddle from the hands of the chief, and drove it through the air,
- far in the advance. A shout arose from the Hurons, who seized the
- opportunity to fire another volley. Uncas described an arc in the water
- with his own blade, and as the canoe passed swiftly on, Chingachgook
- recovered his paddle, and flourishing it on high, he gave the war-whoop of
- the Mohicans, and then lent his strength and skill again to the important
- task.
- </p>
- <p>
- The clamorous sounds of “Le Gros Serpent!” “La Longue Carabine!” “Le Cerf
- Agile!” burst at once from the canoes behind, and seemed to give new zeal
- to the pursuers. The scout seized “killdeer” in his left hand, and
- elevating it about his head, he shook it in triumph at his enemies. The
- savages answered the insult with a yell, and immediately another volley
- succeeded. The bullets pattered along the lake, and one even pierced the
- bark of their little vessel. No perceptible emotion could be discovered in
- the Mohicans during this critical moment, their rigid features expressing
- neither hope nor alarm; but the scout again turned his head, and, laughing
- in his own silent manner, he said to Heyward:
- </p>
- <p>
- “The knaves love to hear the sounds of their pieces; but the eye is not to
- be found among the Mingoes that can calculate a true range in a dancing
- canoe! You see the dumb devils have taken off a man to charge, and by the
- smallest measurement that can be allowed, we move three feet to their
- two!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan, who was not altogether as easy under this nice estimate of
- distances as his companions, was glad to find, however, that owing to
- their superior dexterity, and the diversion among their enemies, they were
- very sensibly obtaining the advantage. The Hurons soon fired again, and a
- bullet struck the blade of Hawkeye's paddle without injury.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That will do,” said the scout, examining the slight indentation with a
- curious eye; “it would not have cut the skin of an infant, much less of
- men, who, like us, have been blown upon by the heavens in their anger.
- Now, major, if you will try to use this piece of flattened wood, I'll let
- 'killdeer' take a part in the conversation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward seized the paddle, and applied himself to the work with an
- eagerness that supplied the place of skill, while Hawkeye was engaged in
- inspecting the priming of his rifle. The latter then took a swift aim and
- fired. The Huron in the bows of the leading canoe had risen with a similar
- object, and he now fell backward, suffering his gun to escape from his
- hands into the water. In an instant, however, he recovered his feet,
- though his gestures were wild and bewildered. At the same moment his
- companions suspended their efforts, and the chasing canoes clustered
- together, and became stationary. Chingachgook and Uncas profited by the
- interval to regain their wind, though Duncan continued to work with the
- most persevering industry. The father and son now cast calm but inquiring
- glances at each other, to learn if either had sustained any injury by the
- fire; for both well knew that no cry or exclamation would, in such a
- moment of necessity have been permitted to betray the accident. A few
- large drops of blood were trickling down the shoulder of the Sagamore,
- who, when he perceived that the eyes of Uncas dwelt too long on the sight,
- raised some water in the hollow of his hand, and washing off the stain,
- was content to manifest, in this simple manner, the slightness of the
- injury.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Softly, softly, major,” said the scout, who by this time had reloaded his
- rifle; “we are a little too far already for a rifle to put forth its
- beauties, and you see yonder imps are holding a council. Let them come up
- within striking distance—my eye may well be trusted in such a matter—and
- I will trail the varlets the length of the Horican, guaranteeing that not
- a shot of theirs shall, at the worst, more than break the skin, while
- 'killdeer' shall touch the life twice in three times.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We forget our errand,” returned the diligent Duncan. “For God's sake let
- us profit by this advantage, and increase our distance from the enemy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Give me my children,” said Munro, hoarsely; “trifle no longer with a
- father's agony, but restore me my babes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Long and habitual deference to the mandates of his superiors had taught
- the scout the virtue of obedience. Throwing a last and lingering glance at
- the distant canoes, he laid aside his rifle, and, relieving the wearied
- Duncan, resumed the paddle, which he wielded with sinews that never tired.
- His efforts were seconded by those of the Mohicans and a very few minutes
- served to place such a sheet of water between them and their enemies, that
- Heyward once more breathed freely.
- </p>
- <p>
- The lake now began to expand, and their route lay along a wide reach, that
- was lined, as before, by high and ragged mountains. But the islands were
- few, and easily avoided. The strokes of the paddles grew more measured and
- regular, while they who plied them continued their labor, after the close
- and deadly chase from which they had just relieved themselves, with as
- much coolness as though their speed had been tried in sport, rather than
- under such pressing, nay, almost desperate, circumstances.
- </p>
- <p>
- Instead of following the western shore, whither their errand led them, the
- wary Mohican inclined his course more toward those hills behind which
- Montcalm was known to have led his army into the formidable fortress of
- Ticonderoga. As the Hurons, to every appearance, had abandoned the
- pursuit, there was no apparent reason for this excess of caution. It was,
- however, maintained for hours, until they had reached a bay, nigh the
- northern termination of the lake. Here the canoe was driven upon the
- beach, and the whole party landed. Hawkeye and Heyward ascended an
- adjacent bluff, where the former, after considering the expanse of water
- beneath him, pointed out to the latter a small black object, hovering
- under a headland, at the distance of several miles.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you see it?” demanded the scout. “Now, what would you account that
- spot, were you left alone to white experience to find your way through
- this wilderness?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But for its distance and its magnitude, I should suppose it a bird. Can
- it be a living object?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis a canoe of good birchen bark, and paddled by fierce and crafty
- Mingoes. Though Providence has lent to those who inhabit the woods eyes
- that would be needless to men in the settlements, where there are
- inventions to assist the sight, yet no human organs can see all the
- dangers which at this moment circumvent us. These varlets pretend to be
- bent chiefly on their sun-down meal, but the moment it is dark they will
- be on our trail, as true as hounds on the scent. We must throw them off,
- or our pursuit of Le Renard Subtil may be given up. These lakes are useful
- at times, especially when the game take the water,” continued the scout,
- gazing about him with a countenance of concern; “but they give no cover,
- except it be to the fishes. God knows what the country would be, if the
- settlements should ever spread far from the two rivers. Both hunting and
- war would lose their beauty.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let us not delay a moment, without some good and obvious cause.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I little like that smoke, which you may see worming up along the rock
- above the canoe,” interrupted the abstracted scout. “My life on it, other
- eyes than ours see it, and know its meaning. Well, words will not mend the
- matter, and it is time that we were doing.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye moved away from the lookout, and descended, musing profoundly, to
- the shore. He communicated the result of his observations to his
- companions, in Delaware, and a short and earnest consultation succeeded.
- When it terminated, the three instantly set about executing their new
- resolutions.
- </p>
- <p>
- The canoe was lifted from the water, and borne on the shoulders of the
- party, they proceeded into the wood, making as broad and obvious a trail
- as possible. They soon reached the water-course, which they crossed, and,
- continuing onward, until they came to an extensive and naked rock. At this
- point, where their footsteps might be expected to be no longer visible,
- they retraced their route to the brook, walking backward, with the utmost
- care. They now followed the bed of the little stream to the lake, into
- which they immediately launched their canoe again. A low point concealed
- them from the headland, and the margin of the lake was fringed for some
- distance with dense and overhanging bushes. Under the cover of these
- natural advantages, they toiled their way, with patient industry, until
- the scout pronounced that he believed it would be safe once more to land.
- </p>
- <p>
- The halt continued until evening rendered objects indistinct and uncertain
- to the eye. Then they resumed their route, and, favored by the darkness,
- pushed silently and vigorously toward the western shore. Although the
- rugged outline of mountain, to which they were steering, presented no
- distinctive marks to the eyes of Duncan, the Mohican entered the little
- haven he had selected with the confidence and accuracy of an experienced
- pilot.
- </p>
- <p>
- The boat was again lifted and borne into the woods, where it was carefully
- concealed under a pile of brush. The adventurers assumed their arms and
- packs, and the scout announced to Munro and Heyward that he and the
- Indians were at last in readiness to proceed.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 21
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “If you find a man there, he shall die a flea's death.”
- —Merry Wives of Windsor.
-</pre>
- <p>
- The party had landed on the border of a region that is, even to this day,
- less known to the inhabitants of the States than the deserts of Arabia, or
- the steppes of Tartary. It was the sterile and rugged district which
- separates the tributaries of Champlain from those of the Hudson, the
- Mohawk, and the St. Lawrence. Since the period of our tale the active
- spirit of the country has surrounded it with a belt of rich and thriving
- settlements, though none but the hunter or the savage is ever known even
- now to penetrate its wild recesses.
- </p>
- <p>
- As Hawkeye and the Mohicans had, however, often traversed the mountains
- and valleys of this vast wilderness, they did not hesitate to plunge into
- its depth, with the freedom of men accustomed to its privations and
- difficulties. For many hours the travelers toiled on their laborious way,
- guided by a star, or following the direction of some water-course, until
- the scout called a halt, and holding a short consultation with the
- Indians, they lighted their fire, and made the usual preparations to pass
- the remainder of the night where they then were.
- </p>
- <p>
- Imitating the example, and emulating the confidence of their more
- experienced associates, Munro and Duncan slept without fear, if not
- without uneasiness. The dews were suffered to exhale, and the sun had
- dispersed the mists, and was shedding a strong and clear light in the
- forest, when the travelers resumed their journey.
- </p>
- <p>
- After proceeding a few miles, the progress of Hawkeye, who led the
- advance, became more deliberate and watchful. He often stopped to examine
- the trees; nor did he cross a rivulet without attentively considering the
- quantity, the velocity, and the color of its waters. Distrusting his own
- judgment, his appeals to the opinion of Chingachgook were frequent and
- earnest. During one of these conferences Heyward observed that Uncas stood
- a patient and silent, though, as he imagined, an interested listener. He
- was strongly tempted to address the young chief, and demand his opinion of
- their progress; but the calm and dignified demeanor of the native induced
- him to believe, that, like himself, the other was wholly dependent on the
- sagacity and intelligence of the seniors of the party. At last the scout
- spoke in English, and at once explained the embarrassment of their
- situation.
- </p>
- <p>
- “When I found that the home path of the Hurons run north,” he said, “it
- did not need the judgment of many long years to tell that they would
- follow the valleys, and keep atween the waters of the Hudson and the
- Horican, until they might strike the springs of the Canada streams, which
- would lead them into the heart of the country of the Frenchers. Yet here
- are we, within a short range of the Scaroons, and not a sign of a trail
- have we crossed! Human natur' is weak, and it is possible we may not have
- taken the proper scent.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Heaven protect us from such an error!” exclaimed Duncan. “Let us retrace
- our steps, and examine as we go, with keener eyes. Has Uncas no counsel to
- offer in such a strait?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The young Mohican cast a glance at his father, but, maintaining his quiet
- and reserved mien, he continued silent. Chingachgook had caught the look,
- and motioning with his hand, he bade him speak. The moment this permission
- was accorded, the countenance of Uncas changed from its grave composure to
- a gleam of intelligence and joy. Bounding forward like a deer, he sprang
- up the side of a little acclivity, a few rods in advance, and stood,
- exultingly, over a spot of fresh earth, that looked as though it had been
- recently upturned by the passage of some heavy animal. The eyes of the
- whole party followed the unexpected movement, and read their success in
- the air of triumph that the youth assumed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis the trail!” exclaimed the scout, advancing to the spot; “the lad is
- quick of sight and keen of wit for his years.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis extraordinary that he should have withheld his knowledge so long,”
- muttered Duncan, at his elbow.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It would have been more wonderful had he spoken without a bidding. No,
- no; your young white, who gathers his learning from books and can measure
- what he knows by the page, may conceit that his knowledge, like his legs,
- outruns that of his fathers', but, where experience is the master, the
- scholar is made to know the value of years, and respects them
- accordingly.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “See!” said Uncas, pointing north and south, at the evident marks of the
- broad trail on either side of him, “the dark-hair has gone toward the
- forest.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hound never ran on a more beautiful scent,” responded the scout, dashing
- forward, at once, on the indicated route; “we are favored, greatly
- favored, and can follow with high noses. Ay, here are both your waddling
- beasts: this Huron travels like a white general. The fellow is stricken
- with a judgment, and is mad! Look sharp for wheels, Sagamore,” he
- continued, looking back, and laughing in his newly awakened satisfaction;
- “we shall soon have the fool journeying in a coach, and that with three of
- the best pair of eyes on the borders in his rear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The spirits of the scout, and the astonishing success of the chase, in
- which a circuitous distance of more than forty miles had been passed, did
- not fail to impart a portion of hope to the whole party. Their advance was
- rapid; and made with as much confidence as a traveler would proceed along
- a wide highway. If a rock, or a rivulet, or a bit of earth harder than
- common, severed the links of the clew they followed, the true eye of the
- scout recovered them at a distance, and seldom rendered the delay of a
- single moment necessary. Their progress was much facilitated by the
- certainty that Magua had found it necessary to journey through the
- valleys; a circumstance which rendered the general direction of the route
- sure. Nor had the Huron entirely neglected the arts uniformly practised by
- the natives when retiring in front of an enemy. False trails and sudden
- turnings were frequent, wherever a brook or the formation of the ground
- rendered them feasible; but his pursuers were rarely deceived, and never
- failed to detect their error, before they had lost either time or distance
- on the deceptive track.
- </p>
- <p>
- By the middle of the afternoon they had passed the Scaroons, and were
- following the route of the declining sun. After descending an eminence to
- a low bottom, through which a swift stream glided, they suddenly came to a
- place where the party of Le Renard had made a halt. Extinguished brands
- were lying around a spring, the offals of a deer were scattered about the
- place, and the trees bore evident marks of having been browsed by the
- horses. At a little distance, Heyward discovered, and contemplated with
- tender emotion, the small bower under which he was fain to believe that
- Cora and Alice had reposed. But while the earth was trodden, and the
- footsteps of both men and beasts were so plainly visible around the place,
- the trail appeared to have suddenly ended.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was easy to follow the tracks of the Narragansetts, but they seemed
- only to have wandered without guides, or any other object than the pursuit
- of food. At length Uncas, who, with his father, had endeavored to trace
- the route of the horses, came upon a sign of their presence that was quite
- recent. Before following the clew, he communicated his success to his
- companions; and while the latter were consulting on the circumstance, the
- youth reappeared, leading the two fillies, with their saddles broken, and
- the housings soiled, as though they had been permitted to run at will for
- several days.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What should this prove?” said Duncan, turning pale, and glancing his eyes
- around him, as if he feared the brush and leaves were about to give up
- some horrid secret.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That our march is come to a quick end, and that we are in an enemy's
- country,” returned the scout. “Had the knave been pressed, and the gentle
- ones wanted horses to keep up with the party, he might have taken their
- scalps; but without an enemy at his heels, and with such rugged beasts as
- these, he would not hurt a hair of their heads. I know your thoughts, and
- shame be it to our color that you have reason for them; but he who thinks
- that even a Mingo would ill-treat a woman, unless it be to tomahawk her,
- knows nothing of Indian natur', or the laws of the woods. No, no; I have
- heard that the French Indians had come into these hills to hunt the moose,
- and we are getting within scent of their camp. Why should they not? The
- morning and evening guns of Ty may be heard any day among these mountains;
- for the Frenchers are running a new line atween the provinces of the king
- and the Canadas. It is true that the horses are here, but the Hurons are
- gone; let us, then, hunt for the path by which they parted.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye and the Mohicans now applied themselves to their task in good
- earnest. A circle of a few hundred feet in circumference was drawn, and
- each of the party took a segment for his portion. The examination,
- however, resulted in no discovery. The impressions of footsteps were
- numerous, but they all appeared like those of men who had wandered about
- the spot, without any design to quit it. Again the scout and his
- companions made the circuit of the halting place, each slowly following
- the other, until they assembled in the center once more, no wiser than
- when they started.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Such cunning is not without its deviltry,” exclaimed Hawkeye, when he met
- the disappointed looks of his assistants.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We must get down to it, Sagamore, beginning at the spring, and going over
- the ground by inches. The Huron shall never brag in his tribe that he has
- a foot which leaves no print.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Setting the example himself, the scout engaged in the scrutiny with
- renewed zeal. Not a leaf was left unturned. The sticks were removed, and
- the stones lifted; for Indian cunning was known frequently to adopt these
- objects as covers, laboring with the utmost patience and industry, to
- conceal each footstep as they proceeded. Still no discovery was made. At
- length Uncas, whose activity had enabled him to achieve his portion of the
- task the soonest, raked the earth across the turbid little rill which ran
- from the spring, and diverted its course into another channel. So soon as
- its narrow bed below the dam was dry, he stooped over it with keen and
- curious eyes. A cry of exultation immediately announced the success of the
- young warrior. The whole party crowded to the spot where Uncas pointed out
- the impression of a moccasin in the moist alluvion.
- </p>
- <p>
- “This lad will be an honor to his people,” said Hawkeye, regarding the
- trail with as much admiration as a naturalist would expend on the tusk of
- a mammoth or the rib of a mastodon; “ay, and a thorn in the sides of the
- Hurons. Yet that is not the footstep of an Indian! the weight is too much
- on the heel, and the toes are squared, as though one of the French dancers
- had been in, pigeon-winging his tribe! Run back, Uncas, and bring me the
- size of the singer's foot. You will find a beautiful print of it just
- opposite yon rock, agin the hillside.”
- </p>
- <p>
- While the youth was engaged in this commission, the scout and Chingachgook
- were attentively considering the impressions. The measurements agreed, and
- the former unhesitatingly pronounced that the footstep was that of David,
- who had once more been made to exchange his shoes for moccasins.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can now read the whole of it, as plainly as if I had seen the arts of
- Le Subtil,” he added; “the singer being a man whose gifts lay chiefly in
- his throat and feet, was made to go first, and the others have trod in his
- steps, imitating their formation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But,” cried Duncan, “I see no signs of—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The gentle ones,” interrupted the scout; “the varlet has found a way to
- carry them, until he supposed he had thrown any followers off the scent.
- My life on it, we see their pretty little feet again, before many rods go
- by.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The whole party now proceeded, following the course of the rill, keeping
- anxious eyes on the regular impressions. The water soon flowed into its
- bed again, but watching the ground on either side, the foresters pursued
- their way content with knowing that the trail lay beneath. More than half
- a mile was passed, before the rill rippled close around the base of an
- extensive and dry rock. Here they paused to make sure that the Hurons had
- not quitted the water.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was fortunate they did so. For the quick and active Uncas soon found
- the impression of a foot on a bunch of moss, where it would seem an Indian
- had inadvertently trodden. Pursuing the direction given by this discovery,
- he entered the neighboring thicket, and struck the trail, as fresh and
- obvious as it had been before they reached the spring. Another shout
- announced the good fortune of the youth to his companions, and at once
- terminated the search.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, it has been planned with Indian judgment,” said the scout, when the
- party was assembled around the place, “and would have blinded white eyes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Shall we proceed?” demanded Heyward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Softly, softly, we know our path; but it is good to examine the formation
- of things. This is my schooling, major; and if one neglects the book,
- there is little chance of learning from the open land of Providence. All
- is plain but one thing, which is the manner that the knave contrived to
- get the gentle ones along the blind trail. Even a Huron would be too proud
- to let their tender feet touch the water.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Will this assist in explaining the difficulty?” said Heyward, pointing
- toward the fragments of a sort of handbarrow, that had been rudely
- constructed of boughs, and bound together with withes, and which now
- seemed carelessly cast aside as useless.
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis explained!” cried the delighted Hawkeye. “If them varlets have
- passed a minute, they have spent hours in striving to fabricate a lying
- end to their trail! Well, I've known them to waste a day in the same
- manner to as little purpose. Here we have three pair of moccasins, and two
- of little feet. It is amazing that any mortal beings can journey on limbs
- so small! Pass me the thong of buckskin, Uncas, and let me take the length
- of this foot. By the Lord, it is no longer than a child's and yet the
- maidens are tall and comely. That Providence is partial in its gifts, for
- its own wise reasons, the best and most contented of us must allow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The tender limbs of my daughters are unequal to these hardships,” said
- Munro, looking at the light footsteps of his children, with a parent's
- love; “we shall find their fainting forms in this desert.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of that there is little cause of fear,” returned the scout, slowly
- shaking his head; “this is a firm and straight, though a light step, and
- not over long. See, the heel has hardly touched the ground; and there the
- dark-hair has made a little jump, from root to root. No, no; my knowledge
- for it, neither of them was nigh fainting, hereaway. Now, the singer was
- beginning to be footsore and leg-weary, as is plain by his trail. There,
- you see, he slipped; here he has traveled wide and tottered; and there
- again it looks as though he journeyed on snowshoes. Ay, ay, a man who uses
- his throat altogether, can hardly give his legs a proper training.”
- </p>
- <p>
- From such undeniable testimony did the practised woodsman arrive at the
- truth, with nearly as much certainty and precision as if he had been a
- witness of all those events which his ingenuity so easily elucidated.
- Cheered by these assurances, and satisfied by a reasoning that was so
- obvious, while it was so simple, the party resumed its course, after
- making a short halt, to take a hurried repast.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the meal was ended, the scout cast a glance upward at the setting
- sun, and pushed forward with a rapidity which compelled Heyward and the
- still vigorous Munro to exert all their muscles to equal. Their route now
- lay along the bottom which has already been mentioned. As the Hurons had
- made no further efforts to conceal their footsteps, the progress of the
- pursuers was no longer delayed by uncertainty. Before an hour had elapsed,
- however, the speed of Hawkeye sensibly abated, and his head, instead of
- maintaining its former direct and forward look, began to turn suspiciously
- from side to side, as if he were conscious of approaching danger. He soon
- stopped again, and waited for the whole party to come up.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I scent the Hurons,” he said, speaking to the Mohicans; “yonder is open
- sky, through the treetops, and we are getting too nigh their encampment.
- Sagamore, you will take the hillside, to the right; Uncas will bend along
- the brook to the left, while I will try the trail. If anything should
- happen, the call will be three croaks of a crow. I saw one of the birds
- fanning himself in the air, just beyond the dead oak—another sign
- that we are approaching an encampment.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Indians departed their several ways without reply, while Hawkeye
- cautiously proceeded with the two gentlemen. Heyward soon pressed to the
- side of their guide, eager to catch an early glimpse of those enemies he
- had pursued with so much toil and anxiety. His companion told him to steal
- to the edge of the wood, which, as usual, was fringed with a thicket, and
- wait his coming, for he wished to examine certain suspicious signs a
- little on one side. Duncan obeyed, and soon found himself in a situation
- to command a view which he found as extraordinary as it was novel.
- </p>
- <p>
- The trees of many acres had been felled, and the glow of a mild summer's
- evening had fallen on the clearing, in beautiful contrast to the gray
- light of the forest. A short distance from the place where Duncan stood,
- the stream had seemingly expanded into a little lake, covering most of the
- low land, from mountain to mountain. The water fell out of this wide
- basin, in a cataract so regular and gentle, that it appeared rather to be
- the work of human hands than fashioned by nature. A hundred earthen
- dwellings stood on the margin of the lake, and even in its waters, as
- though the latter had overflowed its usual banks. Their rounded roofs,
- admirably molded for defense against the weather, denoted more of industry
- and foresight than the natives were wont to bestow on their regular
- habitations, much less on those they occupied for the temporary purposes
- of hunting and war. In short, the whole village or town, whichever it
- might be termed, possessed more of method and neatness of execution, than
- the white men had been accustomed to believe belonged, ordinarily, to the
- Indian habits. It appeared, however, to be deserted. At least, so thought
- Duncan for many minutes; but, at length, he fancied he discovered several
- human forms advancing toward him on all fours, and apparently dragging in
- the train some heavy, and as he was quick to apprehend, some formidable
- engine. Just then a few dark-looking heads gleamed out of the dwellings,
- and the place seemed suddenly alive with beings, which, however, glided
- from cover to cover so swiftly, as to allow no opportunity of examining
- their humors or pursuits. Alarmed at these suspicious and inexplicable
- movements, he was about to attempt the signal of the crows, when the
- rustling of leaves at hand drew his eyes in another direction.
- </p>
- <p>
- The young man started, and recoiled a few paces instinctively, when he
- found himself within a hundred yards of a stranger Indian. Recovering his
- recollection on the instant, instead of sounding an alarm, which might
- prove fatal to himself, he remained stationary, an attentive observer of
- the other's motions.
- </p>
- <p>
- An instant of calm observation served to assure Duncan that he was
- undiscovered. The native, like himself, seemed occupied in considering the
- low dwellings of the village, and the stolen movements of its inhabitants.
- It was impossible to discover the expression of his features through the
- grotesque mask of paint under which they were concealed, though Duncan
- fancied it was rather melancholy than savage. His head was shaved, as
- usual, with the exception of the crown, from whose tuft three or four
- faded feathers from a hawk's wing were loosely dangling. A ragged calico
- mantle half encircled his body, while his nether garment was composed of
- an ordinary shirt, the sleeves of which were made to perform the office
- that is usually executed by a much more commodious arrangement. His legs
- were, however, covered with a pair of good deer-skin moccasins.
- Altogether, the appearance of the individual was forlorn and miserable.
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan was still curiously observing the person of his neighbor when the
- scout stole silently and cautiously to his side.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You see we have reached their settlement or encampment,” whispered the
- young man; “and here is one of the savages himself, in a very embarrassing
- position for our further movements.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye started, and dropped his rifle, when, directed by the finger of
- his companion, the stranger came under his view. Then lowering the
- dangerous muzzle he stretched forward his long neck, as if to assist a
- scrutiny that was already intensely keen.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The imp is not a Huron,” he said, “nor of any of the Canada tribes; and
- yet you see, by his clothes, the knave has been plundering a white. Ay,
- Montcalm has raked the woods for his inroad, and a whooping, murdering set
- of varlets has he gathered together. Can you see where he has put his
- rifle or his bow?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He appears to have no arms; nor does he seem to be viciously inclined.
- Unless he communicate the alarm to his fellows, who, as you see, are
- dodging about the water, we have but little to fear from him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout turned to Heyward, and regarded him a moment with unconcealed
- amazement. Then opening wide his mouth, he indulged in unrestrained and
- heartfelt laughter, though in that silent and peculiar manner which danger
- had so long taught him to practise.
- </p>
- <p>
- Repeating the words, “Fellows who are dodging about the water!” he added,
- “so much for schooling and passing a boyhood in the settlements! The knave
- has long legs, though, and shall not be trusted. Do you keep him under
- your rifle while I creep in behind, through the bush, and take him alive.
- Fire on no account.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward had already permitted his companion to bury part of his person in
- the thicket, when, stretching forth his arm, he arrested him, in order to
- ask:
- </p>
- <p>
- “If I see you in danger, may I not risk a shot?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye regarded him a moment, like one who knew not how to take the
- question; then, nodding his head, he answered, still laughing, though
- inaudibly:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Fire a whole platoon, major.”
- </p>
- <p>
- In the next moment he was concealed by the leaves. Duncan waited several
- minutes in feverish impatience, before he caught another glimpse of the
- scout. Then he reappeared, creeping along the earth, from which his dress
- was hardly distinguishable, directly in the rear of his intended captive.
- Having reached within a few yards of the latter, he arose to his feet,
- silently and slowly. At that instant, several loud blows were struck on
- the water, and Duncan turned his eyes just in time to perceive that a
- hundred dark forms were plunging, in a body, into the troubled little
- sheet. Grasping his rifle his looks were again bent on the Indian near
- him. Instead of taking the alarm, the unconscious savage stretched forward
- his neck, as if he also watched the movements about the gloomy lake, with
- a sort of silly curiosity. In the meantime, the uplifted hand of Hawkeye
- was above him. But, without any apparent reason, it was withdrawn, and its
- owner indulged in another long, though still silent, fit of merriment.
- When the peculiar and hearty laughter of Hawkeye was ended, instead of
- grasping his victim by the throat, he tapped him lightly on the shoulder,
- and exclaimed aloud:
- </p>
- <p>
- “How now, friend! have you a mind to teach the beavers to sing?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Even so,” was the ready answer. “It would seem that the Being that gave
- them power to improve His gifts so well, would not deny them voices to
- proclaim His praise.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 22
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Bot.—Abibl we all met?
- Qui.—Pat—pat; and here's a marvelous convenient place
- for our rehearsal.”
- —Midsummer Night's Dream
-</pre>
- <p>
- The reader may better imagine, than we describe the surprise of Heyward.
- His lurking Indians were suddenly converted into four-footed beasts; his
- lake into a beaver pond; his cataract into a dam, constructed by those
- industrious and ingenious quadrupeds; and a suspected enemy into his tried
- friend, David Gamut, the master of psalmody. The presence of the latter
- created so many unexpected hopes relative to the sisters that, without a
- moment's hesitation, the young man broke out of his ambush, and sprang
- forward to join the two principal actors in the scene.
- </p>
- <p>
- The merriment of Hawkeye was not easily appeased. Without ceremony, and
- with a rough hand, he twirled the supple Gamut around on his heel, and
- more than once affirmed that the Hurons had done themselves great credit
- in the fashion of his costume. Then, seizing the hand of the other, he
- squeezed it with a grip that brought tears into the eyes of the placid
- David, and wished him joy of his new condition.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You were about opening your throat-practisings among the beavers, were
- ye?” he said. “The cunning devils know half the trade already, for they
- beat the time with their tails, as you heard just now; and in good time it
- was, too, or 'killdeer' might have sounded the first note among them. I
- have known greater fools, who could read and write, than an experienced
- old beaver; but as for squalling, the animals are born dumb! What think
- you of such a song as this?”
- </p>
- <p>
- David shut his sensitive ears, and even Heyward apprised as he was of the
- nature of the cry, looked upward in quest of the bird, as the cawing of a
- crow rang in the air about them.
- </p>
- <p>
- “See!” continued the laughing scout, as he pointed toward the remainder of
- the party, who, in obedience to the signal, were already approaching;
- “this is music which has its natural virtues; it brings two good rifles to
- my elbow, to say nothing of the knives and tomahawks. But we see that you
- are safe; now tell us what has become of the maidens.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They are captives to the heathen,” said David; “and, though greatly
- troubled in spirit, enjoying comfort and safety in the body.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Both!” demanded the breathless Heyward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Even so. Though our wayfaring has been sore and our sustenance scanty, we
- have had little other cause for complaint, except the violence done our
- feelings, by being thus led in captivity into a far land.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bless ye for these very words!” exclaimed the trembling Munro; “I shall
- then receive my babes, spotless and angel-like, as I lost them!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know not that their delivery is at hand,” returned the doubting David;
- “the leader of these savages is possessed of an evil spirit that no power
- short of Omnipotence can tame. I have tried him sleeping and waking, but
- neither sounds nor language seem to touch his soul.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where is the knave?” bluntly interrupted the scout.
- </p>
- <p>
- “He hunts the moose to-day, with his young men; and tomorrow, as I hear,
- they pass further into the forests, and nigher to the borders of Canada.
- The elder maiden is conveyed to a neighboring people, whose lodges are
- situate beyond yonder black pinnacle of rock; while the younger is
- detained among the women of the Hurons, whose dwellings are but two short
- miles hence, on a table-land, where the fire had done the office of the
- axe, and prepared the place for their reception.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Alice, my gentle Alice!” murmured Heyward; “she has lost the consolation
- of her sister's presence!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Even so. But so far as praise and thanksgiving in psalmody can temper the
- spirit in affliction, she has not suffered.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Has she then a heart for music?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of the graver and more solemn character; though it must be acknowledged
- that, in spite of all my endeavors, the maiden weeps oftener than she
- smiles. At such moments I forbear to press the holy songs; but there are
- many sweet and comfortable periods of satisfactory communication, when the
- ears of the savages are astounded with the upliftings of our voices.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And why are you permitted to go at large, unwatched?”
- </p>
- <p>
- David composed his features into what he intended should express an air of
- modest humility, before he meekly replied:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Little be the praise to such a worm as I. But, though the power of
- psalmody was suspended in the terrible business of that field of blood
- through which we have passed, it has recovered its influence even over the
- souls of the heathen, and I am suffered to go and come at will.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout laughed, and, tapping his own forehead significantly, he perhaps
- explained the singular indulgence more satisfactorily when he said:
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Indians never harm a non-composser. But why, when the path lay open
- before your eyes, did you not strike back on your own trail (it is not so
- blind as that which a squirrel would make), and bring in the tidings to
- Edward?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout, remembering only his own sturdy and iron nature, had probably
- exacted a task that David, under no circumstances, could have performed.
- But, without entirely losing the meekness of his air, the latter was
- content to answer:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Though my soul would rejoice to visit the habitations of Christendom once
- more, my feet would rather follow the tender spirits intrusted to my
- keeping, even into the idolatrous province of the Jesuits, than take one
- step backward, while they pined in captivity and sorrow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Though the figurative language of David was not very intelligible, the
- sincere and steady expression of his eye, and the glow of his honest
- countenance, were not easily mistaken. Uncas pressed closer to his side,
- and regarded the speaker with a look of commendation, while his father
- expressed his satisfaction by the ordinary pithy exclamation of
- approbation. The scout shook his head as he rejoined:
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Lord never intended that the man should place all his endeavors in
- his throat, to the neglect of other and better gifts! But he has fallen
- into the hands of some silly woman, when he should have been gathering his
- education under a blue sky, among the beauties of the forest. Here,
- friend; I did intend to kindle a fire with this tooting-whistle of thine;
- but, as you value the thing, take it, and blow your best on it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gamut received his pitch-pipe with as strong an expression of pleasure as
- he believed compatible with the grave functions he exercised. After
- essaying its virtues repeatedly, in contrast with his own voice, and,
- satisfying himself that none of its melody was lost, he made a very
- serious demonstration toward achieving a few stanzas of one of the longest
- effusions in the little volume so often mentioned.
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward, however, hastily interrupted his pious purpose by continuing
- questions concerning the past and present condition of his fellow
- captives, and in a manner more methodical than had been permitted by his
- feelings in the opening of their interview. David, though he regarded his
- treasure with longing eyes, was constrained to answer, especially as the
- venerable father took a part in the interrogatories, with an interest too
- imposing to be denied. Nor did the scout fail to throw in a pertinent
- inquiry, whenever a fitting occasion presented. In this manner, though
- with frequent interruptions which were filled with certain threatening
- sounds from the recovered instrument, the pursuers were put in possession
- of such leading circumstances as were likely to prove useful in
- accomplishing their great and engrossing object—the recovery of the
- sisters. The narrative of David was simple, and the facts but few.
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua had waited on the mountain until a safe moment to retire presented
- itself, when he had descended, and taken the route along the western side
- of the Horican in direction of the Canadas. As the subtle Huron was
- familiar with the paths, and well knew there was no immediate danger of
- pursuit, their progress had been moderate, and far from fatiguing. It
- appeared from the unembellished statement of David, that his own presence
- had been rather endured than desired; though even Magua had not been
- entirely exempt from that veneration with which the Indians regard those
- whom the Great Spirit had visited in their intellects. At night, the
- utmost care had been taken of the captives, both to prevent injury from
- the damps of the woods and to guard against an escape. At the spring, the
- horses were turned loose, as has been seen; and, notwithstanding the
- remoteness and length of their trail, the artifices already named were
- resorted to, in order to cut off every clue to their place of retreat. On
- their arrival at the encampment of his people, Magua, in obedience to a
- policy seldom departed from, separated his prisoners. Cora had been sent
- to a tribe that temporarily occupied an adjacent valley, though David was
- far too ignorant of the customs and history of the natives, to be able to
- declare anything satisfactory concerning their name or character. He only
- knew that they had not engaged in the late expedition against William
- Henry; that, like the Hurons themselves they were allies of Montcalm; and
- that they maintained an amicable, though a watchful intercourse with the
- warlike and savage people whom chance had, for a time, brought in such
- close and disagreeable contact with themselves.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Mohicans and the scout listened to his interrupted and imperfect
- narrative, with an interest that obviously increased as he proceeded; and
- it was while attempting to explain the pursuits of the community in which
- Cora was detained, that the latter abruptly demanded:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did you see the fashion of their knives? were they of English or French
- formation?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My thoughts were bent on no such vanities, but rather mingled in
- consolation with those of the maidens.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The time may come when you will not consider the knife of a savage such a
- despicable vanity,” returned the scout, with a strong expression of
- contempt for the other's dullness. “Had they held their corn feast—or
- can you say anything of the totems of the tribe?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of corn, we had many and plentiful feasts; for the grain, being in the
- milk is both sweet to the mouth and comfortable to the stomach. Of totem,
- I know not the meaning; but if it appertaineth in any wise to the art of
- Indian music, it need not be inquired after at their hands. They never
- join their voices in praise, and it would seem that they are among the
- profanest of the idolatrous.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Therein you belie the natur' of an Indian. Even the Mingo adores but the
- true and loving God. 'Tis wicked fabrication of the whites, and I say it
- to the shame of my color that would make the warrior bow down before
- images of his own creation. It is true, they endeavor to make truces to
- the wicked one—as who would not with an enemy he cannot conquer! but
- they look up for favor and assistance to the Great and Good Spirit only.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It may be so,” said David; “but I have seen strange and fantastic images
- drawn in their paint, of which their admiration and care savored of
- spiritual pride; especially one, and that, too, a foul and loathsome
- object.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Was it a sarpent?” quickly demanded the scout.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Much the same. It was in the likeness of an abject and creeping
- tortoise.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hugh!” exclaimed both the attentive Mohicans in a breath; while the scout
- shook his head with the air of one who had made an important but by no
- means a pleasing discovery. Then the father spoke, in the language of the
- Delawares, and with a calmness and dignity that instantly arrested the
- attention even of those to whom his words were unintelligible. His
- gestures were impressive, and at times energetic. Once he lifted his arm
- on high; and, as it descended, the action threw aside the folds of his
- light mantle, a finger resting on his breast, as if he would enforce his
- meaning by the attitude. Duncan's eyes followed the movement, and he
- perceived that the animal just mentioned was beautifully, though faintly,
- worked in blue tint, on the swarthy breast of the chief. All that he had
- ever heard of the violent separation of the vast tribes of the Delawares
- rushed across his mind, and he awaited the proper moment to speak, with a
- suspense that was rendered nearly intolerable by his interest in the
- stake. His wish, however, was anticipated by the scout who turned from his
- red friend, saying:
- </p>
- <p>
- “We have found that which may be good or evil to us, as heaven disposes.
- The Sagamore is of the high blood of the Delawares, and is the great chief
- of their Tortoises! That some of this stock are among the people of whom
- the singer tells us, is plain by his words; and, had he but spent half the
- breath in prudent questions that he has blown away in making a trumpet of
- his throat, we might have known how many warriors they numbered. It is,
- altogether, a dangerous path we move in; for a friend whose face is turned
- from you often bears a bloodier mind than the enemy who seeks your scalp.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Explain,” said Duncan.
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis a long and melancholy tradition, and one I little like to think of;
- for it is not to be denied that the evil has been mainly done by men with
- white skins. But it has ended in turning the tomahawk of brother against
- brother, and brought the Mingo and the Delaware to travel in the same
- path.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You, then, suspect it is a portion of that people among whom Cora
- resides?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout nodded his head in assent, though he seemed anxious to waive the
- further discussion of a subject that appeared painful. The impatient
- Duncan now made several hasty and desperate propositions to attempt the
- release of the sisters. Munro seemed to shake off his apathy, and listened
- to the wild schemes of the young man with a deference that his gray hairs
- and reverend years should have denied. But the scout, after suffering the
- ardor of the lover to expend itself a little, found means to convince him
- of the folly of precipitation, in a manner that would require their
- coolest judgment and utmost fortitude.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It would be well,” he added, “to let this man go in again, as usual, and
- for him to tarry in the lodges, giving notice to the gentle ones of our
- approach, until we call him out, by signal, to consult. You know the cry
- of a crow, friend, from the whistle of the whip-poor-will?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis a pleasing bird,” returned David, “and has a soft and melancholy
- note! though the time is rather quick and ill-measured.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He speaks of the wish-ton-wish,” said the scout; “well, since you like
- his whistle, it shall be your signal. Remember, then, when you hear the
- whip-poor-will's call three times repeated, you are to come into the
- bushes where the bird might be supposed—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Stop,” interrupted Heyward; “I will accompany him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You!” exclaimed the astonished Hawkeye; “are you tired of seeing the sun
- rise and set?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “David is a living proof that the Hurons can be merciful.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, but David can use his throat, as no man in his senses would pervart
- the gift.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I too can play the madman, the fool, the hero; in short, any or
- everything to rescue her I love. Name your objections no longer: I am
- resolved.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye regarded the young man a moment in speechless amazement. But
- Duncan, who, in deference to the other's skill and services, had hitherto
- submitted somewhat implicitly to his dictation, now assumed the superior,
- with a manner that was not easily resisted. He waved his hand, in sign of
- his dislike to all remonstrance, and then, in more tempered language, he
- continued:
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have the means of disguise; change me; paint me, too, if you will; in
- short, alter me to anything—a fool.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is not for one like me to say that he who is already formed by so
- powerful a hand as Providence, stands in need of a change,” muttered the
- discontented scout. “When you send your parties abroad in war, you find it
- prudent, at least, to arrange the marks and places of encampment, in order
- that they who fight on your side may know when and where to expect a
- friend.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Listen,” interrupted Duncan; “you have heard from this faithful follower
- of the captives, that the Indians are of two tribes, if not of different
- nations. With one, whom you think to be a branch of the Delawares, is she
- you call the 'dark-hair'; the other, and younger, of the ladies, is
- undeniably with our declared enemies, the Hurons. It becomes my youth and
- rank to attempt the latter adventure. While you, therefore, are
- negotiating with your friends for the release of one of the sisters, I
- will effect that of the other, or die.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The awakened spirit of the young soldier gleamed in his eyes, and his form
- became imposing under its influence. Hawkeye, though too much accustomed
- to Indian artifices not to foresee the danger of the experiment, knew not
- well how to combat this sudden resolution.
- </p>
- <p>
- Perhaps there was something in the proposal that suited his own hardy
- nature, and that secret love of desperate adventure, which had increased
- with his experience, until hazard and danger had become, in some measure,
- necessary to the enjoyment of his existence. Instead of continuing to
- oppose the scheme of Duncan, his humor suddenly altered, and he lent
- himself to its execution.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come,” he said, with a good-humored smile; “the buck that will take to
- the water must be headed, and not followed. Chingachgook has as many
- different paints as the engineer officer's wife, who takes down natur' on
- scraps of paper, making the mountains look like cocks of rusty hay, and
- placing the blue sky in reach of your hand. The Sagamore can use them,
- too. Seat yourself on the log; and my life on it, he can soon make a
- natural fool of you, and that well to your liking.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan complied; and the Mohican, who had been an attentive listener to
- the discourse, readily undertook the office. Long practised in all the
- subtle arts of his race, he drew, with great dexterity and quickness, the
- fantastic shadow that the natives were accustomed to consider as the
- evidence of a friendly and jocular disposition. Every line that could
- possibly be interpreted into a secret inclination for war, was carefully
- avoided; while, on the other hand, he studied those conceits that might be
- construed into amity.
- </p>
- <p>
- In short, he entirely sacrificed every appearance of the warrior to the
- masquerade of a buffoon. Such exhibitions were not uncommon among the
- Indians, and as Duncan was already sufficiently disguised in his dress,
- there certainly did exist some reason for believing that, with his
- knowledge of French, he might pass for a juggler from Ticonderoga,
- straggling among the allied and friendly tribes.
- </p>
- <p>
- When he was thought to be sufficiently painted, the scout gave him much
- friendly advice; concerted signals, and appointed the place where they
- should meet, in the event of mutual success. The parting between Munro and
- his young friend was more melancholy; still, the former submitted to the
- separation with an indifference that his warm and honest nature would
- never have permitted in a more healthful state of mind. The scout led
- Heyward aside, and acquainted him with his intention to leave the veteran
- in some safe encampment, in charge of Chingachgook, while he and Uncas
- pursued their inquires among the people they had reason to believe were
- Delawares. Then, renewing his cautions and advice, he concluded by saying,
- with a solemnity and warmth of feeling, with which Duncan was deeply
- touched:
- </p>
- <p>
- “And, now, God bless you! You have shown a spirit that I like; for it is
- the gift of youth, more especially one of warm blood and a stout heart.
- But believe the warning of a man who has reason to know all he says to be
- true. You will have occasion for your best manhood, and for a sharper wit
- than what is to be gathered in books, afore you outdo the cunning or get
- the better of the courage of a Mingo. God bless you! if the Hurons master
- your scalp, rely on the promise of one who has two stout warriors to back
- him. They shall pay for their victory, with a life for every hair it
- holds. I say, young gentleman, may Providence bless your undertaking,
- which is altogether for good; and, remember, that to outwit the knaves it
- is lawful to practise things that may not be naturally the gift of a
- white-skin.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan shook his worthy and reluctant associate warmly by the hand, once
- more recommended his aged friend to his care, and returning his good
- wishes, he motioned to David to proceed. Hawkeye gazed after the
- high-spirited and adventurous young man for several moments, in open
- admiration; then, shaking his head doubtingly, he turned, and led his own
- division of the party into the concealment of the forest.
- </p>
- <p>
- The route taken by Duncan and David lay directly across the clearing of
- the beavers, and along the margin of their pond.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the former found himself alone with one so simple, and so little
- qualified to render any assistance in desperate emergencies, he first
- began to be sensible of the difficulties of the task he had undertaken.
- The fading light increased the gloominess of the bleak and savage
- wilderness that stretched so far on every side of him, and there was even
- a fearful character in the stillness of those little huts, that he knew
- were so abundantly peopled. It struck him, as he gazed at the admirable
- structures and the wonderful precautions of their sagacious inmates, that
- even the brutes of these vast wilds were possessed of an instinct nearly
- commensurate with his own reason; and he could not reflect, without
- anxiety, on the unequal contest that he had so rashly courted. Then came
- the glowing image of Alice; her distress; her actual danger; and all the
- peril of his situation was forgotten. Cheering David, he moved on with the
- light and vigorous step of youth and enterprise.
- </p>
- <p>
- After making nearly a semicircle around the pond, they diverged from the
- water-course, and began to ascend to the level of a slight elevation in
- that bottom land, over which they journeyed. Within half an hour they
- gained the margin of another opening that bore all the signs of having
- been also made by the beavers, and which those sagacious animals had
- probably been induced, by some accident, to abandon, for the more eligible
- position they now occupied. A very natural sensation caused Duncan to
- hesitate a moment, unwilling to leave the cover of their bushy path, as a
- man pauses to collect his energies before he essays any hazardous
- experiment, in which he is secretly conscious they will all be needed. He
- profited by the halt, to gather such information as might be obtained from
- his short and hasty glances.
- </p>
- <p>
- On the opposite side of the clearing, and near the point where the brook
- tumbled over some rocks, from a still higher level, some fifty or sixty
- lodges, rudely fabricated of logs brush, and earth intermingled, were to
- be discovered. They were arranged without any order, and seemed to be
- constructed with very little attention to neatness or beauty. Indeed, so
- very inferior were they in the two latter particulars to the village
- Duncan had just seen, that he began to expect a second surprise, no less
- astonishing that the former. This expectation was in no degree diminished,
- when, by the doubtful twilight, he beheld twenty or thirty forms rising
- alternately from the cover of the tall, coarse grass, in front of the
- lodges, and then sinking again from the sight, as it were to burrow in the
- earth. By the sudden and hasty glimpses that he caught of these figures,
- they seemed more like dark, glancing specters, or some other unearthly
- beings, than creatures fashioned with the ordinary and vulgar materials of
- flesh and blood. A gaunt, naked form was seen, for a single instant,
- tossing its arms wildly in the air, and then the spot it had filled was
- vacant; the figure appearing suddenly in some other and distant place, or
- being succeeded by another, possessing the same mysterious character.
- David, observing that his companion lingered, pursued the direction of his
- gaze, and in some measure recalled the recollection of Heyward, by
- speaking.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There is much fruitful soil uncultivated here,” he said; “and, I may add,
- without the sinful leaven of self-commendation, that, since my short
- sojourn in these heathenish abodes, much good seed has been scattered by
- the wayside.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The tribes are fonder of the chase than of the arts of men of labor,”
- returned the unconscious Duncan, still gazing at the objects of his
- wonder.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is rather joy than labor to the spirit, to lift up the voice in
- praise; but sadly do these boys abuse their gifts. Rarely have I found any
- of their age, on whom nature has so freely bestowed the elements of
- psalmody; and surely, surely, there are none who neglect them more. Three
- nights have I now tarried here, and three several times have I assembled
- the urchins to join in sacred song; and as often have they responded to my
- efforts with whoopings and howlings that have chilled my soul!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of whom speak you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of those children of the devil, who waste the precious moments in yonder
- idle antics. Ah! the wholesome restraint of discipline is but little known
- among this self-abandoned people. In a country of birches, a rod is never
- seen, and it ought not to appear a marvel in my eyes, that the choicest
- blessings of Providence are wasted in such cries as these.”
- </p>
- <p>
- David closed his ears against the juvenile pack, whose yell just then rang
- shrilly through the forest; and Duncan, suffering his lip to curl, as in
- mockery of his own superstition, said firmly:
- </p>
- <p>
- “We will proceed.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Without removing the safeguards form his ears, the master of song
- complied, and together they pursued their way toward what David was
- sometimes wont to call the “tents of the Philistines.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 23
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “But though the beast of game
- The privilege of chase may claim;
- Though space and law the stag we lend
- Ere hound we slip, or bow we bend;
- Whoever recked, where, how, or when
- The prowling fox was trapped or slain?”
- —Lady of the Lake.
-</pre>
- <p>
- It is unusual to find an encampment of the natives, like those of the more
- instructed whites, guarded by the presence of armed men. Well informed of
- the approach of every danger, while it is yet at a distance, the Indian
- generally rests secure under his knowledge of the signs of the forest, and
- the long and difficult paths that separate him from those he has most
- reason to dread. But the enemy who, by any lucky concurrence of accidents,
- has found means to elude the vigilance of the scouts, will seldom meet
- with sentinels nearer home to sound the alarm. In addition to this general
- usage, the tribes friendly to the French knew too well the weight of the
- blow that had just been struck, to apprehend any immediate danger from the
- hostile nations that were tributary to the crown of Britain.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Duncan and David, therefore, found themselves in the center of the
- children, who played the antics already mentioned, it was without the
- least previous intimation of their approach. But so soon as they were
- observed the whole of the juvenile pack raised, by common consent, a
- shrill and warning whoop; and then sank, as it were, by magic, from before
- the sight of their visitors. The naked, tawny bodies of the crouching
- urchins blended so nicely at that hour, with the withered herbage, that at
- first it seemed as if the earth had, in truth, swallowed up their forms;
- though when surprise permitted Duncan to bend his look more curiously
- about the spot, he found it everywhere met by dark, quick, and rolling
- eyeballs.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gathering no encouragement from this startling presage of the nature of
- the scrutiny he was likely to undergo from the more mature judgments of
- the men, there was an instant when the young soldier would have retreated.
- It was, however, too late to appear to hesitate. The cry of the children
- had drawn a dozen warriors to the door of the nearest lodge, where they
- stood clustered in a dark and savage group, gravely awaiting the nearer
- approach of those who had unexpectedly come among them.
- </p>
- <p>
- David, in some measure familiarized to the scene, led the way with a
- steadiness that no slight obstacle was likely to disconcert, into this
- very building. It was the principal edifice of the village, though roughly
- constructed of the bark and branches of trees; being the lodge in which
- the tribe held its councils and public meetings during their temporary
- residence on the borders of the English province. Duncan found it
- difficult to assume the necessary appearance of unconcern, as he brushed
- the dark and powerful frames of the savages who thronged its threshold;
- but, conscious that his existence depended on his presence of mind, he
- trusted to the discretion of his companion, whose footsteps he closely
- followed, endeavoring, as he proceeded, to rally his thoughts for the
- occasion. His blood curdled when he found himself in absolute contact with
- such fierce and implacable enemies; but he so far mastered his feelings as
- to pursue his way into the center of the lodge, with an exterior that did
- not betray the weakness. Imitating the example of the deliberate Gamut, he
- drew a bundle of fragrant brush from beneath a pile that filled the corner
- of the hut, and seated himself in silence.
- </p>
- <p>
- So soon as their visitor had passed, the observant warriors fell back from
- the entrance, and arranging themselves about him, they seemed patiently to
- await the moment when it might comport with the dignity of the stranger to
- speak. By far the greater number stood leaning, in lazy, lounging
- attitudes, against the upright posts that supported the crazy building,
- while three or four of the oldest and most distinguished of the chiefs
- placed themselves on the earth a little more in advance.
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0307.jpg" alt="0307" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0307.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- A flaring torch was burning in the place, and set its red glare from face
- to face and figure to figure, as it waved in the currents of air. Duncan
- profited by its light to read the probable character of his reception, in
- the countenances of his hosts. But his ingenuity availed him little,
- against the cold artifices of the people he had encountered. The chiefs in
- front scarce cast a glance at his person, keeping their eyes on the
- ground, with an air that might have been intended for respect, but which
- it was quite easy to construe into distrust. The men in the shadow were
- less reserved. Duncan soon detected their searching, but stolen, looks
- which, in truth, scanned his person and attire inch by inch; leaving no
- emotion of the countenance, no gesture, no line of the paint, nor even the
- fashion of a garment, unheeded, and without comment.
- </p>
- <p>
- At length one whose hair was beginning to be sprinkled with gray, but
- whose sinewy limbs and firm tread announced that he was still equal to the
- duties of manhood, advanced out of the gloom of a corner, whither he had
- probably posted himself to make his observations unseen, and spoke. He
- used the language of the Wyandots, or Hurons; his words were,
- consequently, unintelligible to Heyward, though they seemed, by the
- gestures that accompanied them, to be uttered more in courtesy than anger.
- The latter shook his head, and made a gesture indicative of his inability
- to reply.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do none of my brothers speak the French or the English?” he said, in the
- former language, looking about him from countenance to countenance, in
- hopes of finding a nod of assent.
- </p>
- <p>
- Though more than one had turned, as if to catch the meaning of his words,
- they remained unanswered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I should be grieved to think,” continued Duncan, speaking slowly, and
- using the simplest French of which he was the master, “to believe that
- none of this wise and brave nation understand the language that the 'Grand
- Monarque' uses when he talks to his children. His heart would be heavy did
- he believe his red warriors paid him so little respect!”
- </p>
- <p>
- A long and grave pause succeeded, during which no movement of a limb, nor
- any expression of an eye, betrayed the expression produced by his remark.
- Duncan, who knew that silence was a virtue among his hosts, gladly had
- recourse to the custom, in order to arrange his ideas. At length the same
- warrior who had before addressed him replied, by dryly demanding, in the
- language of the Canadas:
- </p>
- <p>
- “When our Great Father speaks to his people, is it with the tongue of a
- Huron?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He knows no difference in his children, whether the color of the skin be
- red, or black, or white,” returned Duncan, evasively; “though chiefly is
- he satisfied with the brave Hurons.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “In what manner will he speak,” demanded the wary chief, “when the runners
- count to him the scalps which five nights ago grew on the heads of the
- Yengeese?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They were his enemies,” said Duncan, shuddering involuntarily; “and
- doubtless, he will say, it is good; my Hurons are very gallant.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Our Canada father does not think it. Instead of looking forward to reward
- his Indians, his eyes are turned backward. He sees the dead Yengeese, but
- no Huron. What can this mean?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “A great chief, like him, has more thoughts than tongues. He looks to see
- that no enemies are on his trail.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The canoe of a dead warrior will not float on the Horican,” returned the
- savage, gloomily. “His ears are open to the Delawares, who are not our
- friends, and they fill them with lies.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It cannot be. See; he has bid me, who am a man that knows the art of
- healing, to go to his children, the red Hurons of the great lakes, and ask
- if any are sick!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Another silence succeeded this annunciation of the character Duncan had
- assumed. Every eye was simultaneously bent on his person, as if to inquire
- into the truth or falsehood of the declaration, with an intelligence and
- keenness that caused the subject of their scrutiny to tremble for the
- result. He was, however, relieved again by the former speaker.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do the cunning men of the Canadas paint their skins?” the Huron coldly
- continued; “we have heard them boast that their faces were pale.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “When an Indian chief comes among his white fathers,” returned Duncan,
- with great steadiness, “he lays aside his buffalo robe, to carry the shirt
- that is offered him. My brothers have given me paint and I wear it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A low murmur of applause announced that the compliment of the tribe was
- favorably received. The elderly chief made a gesture of commendation,
- which was answered by most of his companions, who each threw forth a hand
- and uttered a brief exclamation of pleasure. Duncan began to breathe more
- freely, believing that the weight of his examination was past; and, as he
- had already prepared a simple and probable tale to support his pretended
- occupation, his hopes of ultimate success grew brighter.
- </p>
- <p>
- After a silence of a few moments, as if adjusting his thoughts, in order
- to make a suitable answer to the declaration their guests had just given,
- another warrior arose, and placed himself in an attitude to speak. While
- his lips were yet in the act of parting, a low but fearful sound arose
- from the forest, and was immediately succeeded by a high, shrill yell,
- that was drawn out, until it equaled the longest and most plaintive howl
- of the wolf. The sudden and terrible interruption caused Duncan to start
- from his seat, unconscious of everything but the effect produced by so
- frightful a cry. At the same moment, the warriors glided in a body from
- the lodge, and the outer air was filled with loud shouts, that nearly
- drowned those awful sounds, which were still ringing beneath the arches of
- the woods. Unable to command himself any longer, the youth broke from the
- place, and presently stood in the center of a disorderly throng, that
- included nearly everything having life, within the limits of the
- encampment. Men, women, and children; the aged, the inform, the active,
- and the strong, were alike abroad, some exclaiming aloud, others clapping
- their hands with a joy that seemed frantic, and all expressing their
- savage pleasure in some unexpected event. Though astounded, at first, by
- the uproar, Heyward was soon enabled to find its solution by the scene
- that followed.
- </p>
- <p>
- There yet lingered sufficient light in the heavens to exhibit those bright
- openings among the tree-tops, where different paths left the clearing to
- enter the depths of the wilderness. Beneath one of them, a line of
- warriors issued from the woods, and advanced slowly toward the dwellings.
- One in front bore a short pole, on which, as it afterwards appeared, were
- suspended several human scalps. The startling sounds that Duncan had heard
- were what the whites have not inappropriately called the “death-hallo”;
- and each repetition of the cry was intended to announce to the tribe the
- fate of an enemy. Thus far the knowledge of Heyward assisted him in the
- explanation; and as he now knew that the interruption was caused by the
- unlooked-for return of a successful war-party, every disagreeable
- sensation was quieted in inward congratulation, for the opportune relief
- and insignificance it conferred on himself.
- </p>
- <p>
- When at the distance of a few hundred feet from the lodges the newly
- arrived warriors halted. Their plaintive and terrific cry, which was
- intended to represent equally the wailings of the dead and the triumph to
- the victors, had entirely ceased. One of their number now called aloud, in
- words that were far from appalling, though not more intelligible to those
- for whose ears they were intended, than their expressive yells. It would
- be difficult to convey a suitable idea of the savage ecstasy with which
- the news thus imparted was received. The whole encampment, in a moment,
- became a scene of the most violent bustle and commotion. The warriors drew
- their knives, and flourishing them, they arranged themselves in two lines,
- forming a lane that extended from the war-party to the lodges. The squaws
- seized clubs, axes, or whatever weapon of offense first offered itself to
- their hands, and rushed eagerly to act their part in the cruel game that
- was at hand. Even the children would not be excluded; but boys, little
- able to wield the instruments, tore the tomahawks from the belts of their
- fathers, and stole into the ranks, apt imitators of the savage traits
- exhibited by their parents.
- </p>
- <p>
- Large piles of brush lay scattered about the clearing, and a wary and aged
- squaw was occupied in firing as many as might serve to light the coming
- exhibition. As the flame arose, its power exceeded that of the parting
- day, and assisted to render objects at the same time more distinct and
- more hideous. The whole scene formed a striking picture, whose frame was
- composed of the dark and tall border of pines. The warriors just arrived
- were the most distant figures. A little in advance stood two men, who were
- apparently selected from the rest, as the principal actors in what was to
- follow. The light was not strong enough to render their features distinct,
- though it was quite evident that they were governed by very different
- emotions. While one stood erect and firm, prepared to meet his fate like a
- hero, the other bowed his head, as if palsied by terror or stricken with
- shame. The high-spirited Duncan felt a powerful impulse of admiration and
- pity toward the former, though no opportunity could offer to exhibit his
- generous emotions. He watched his slightest movement, however, with eager
- eyes; and, as he traced the fine outline of his admirably proportioned and
- active frame, he endeavored to persuade himself, that, if the powers of
- man, seconded by such noble resolution, could bear one harmless through so
- severe a trial, the youthful captive before him might hope for success in
- the hazardous race he was about to run. Insensibly the young man drew
- nigher to the swarthy lines of the Hurons, and scarcely breathed, so
- intense became his interest in the spectacle. Just then the signal yell
- was given, and the momentary quiet which had preceded it was broken by a
- burst of cries, that far exceeded any before heard. The more abject of the
- two victims continued motionless; but the other bounded from the place at
- the cry, with the activity and swiftness of a deer. Instead of rushing
- through the hostile lines, as had been expected, he just entered the
- dangerous defile, and before time was given for a single blow, turned
- short, and leaping the heads of a row of children, he gained at once the
- exterior and safer side of the formidable array. The artifice was answered
- by a hundred voices raised in imprecations; and the whole of the excited
- multitude broke from their order, and spread themselves about the place in
- wild confusion.
- </p>
- <p>
- A dozen blazing piles now shed their lurid brightness on the place, which
- resembled some unhallowed and supernatural arena, in which malicious
- demons had assembled to act their bloody and lawless rites. The forms in
- the background looked like unearthly beings, gliding before the eye, and
- cleaving the air with frantic and unmeaning gestures; while the savage
- passions of such as passed the flames were rendered fearfully distinct by
- the gleams that shot athwart their inflamed visages.
- </p>
- <p>
- It will easily be understood that, amid such a concourse of vindictive
- enemies, no breathing time was allowed the fugitive. There was a single
- moment when it seemed as if he would have reached the forest, but the
- whole body of his captors threw themselves before him, and drove him back
- into the center of his relentless persecutors. Turning like a headed deer,
- he shot, with the swiftness of an arrow, through a pillar of forked flame,
- and passing the whole multitude harmless, he appeared on the opposite side
- of the clearing. Here, too, he was met and turned by a few of the older
- and more subtle of the Hurons. Once more he tried the throng, as if
- seeking safety in its blindness, and then several moments succeeded,
- during which Duncan believed the active and courageous young stranger was
- lost.
- </p>
- <p>
- Nothing could be distinguished but a dark mass of human forms tossed and
- involved in inexplicable confusion. Arms, gleaming knives, and formidable
- clubs, appeared above them, but the blows were evidently given at random.
- The awful effect was heightened by the piercing shrieks of the women and
- the fierce yells of the warriors. Now and then Duncan caught a glimpse of
- a light form cleaving the air in some desperate bound, and he rather hoped
- than believed that the captive yet retained the command of his astonishing
- powers of activity. Suddenly the multitude rolled backward, and approached
- the spot where he himself stood. The heavy body in the rear pressed upon
- the women and children in front, and bore them to the earth. The stranger
- reappeared in the confusion. Human power could not, however, much longer
- endure so severe a trial. Of this the captive seemed conscious. Profiting
- by the momentary opening, he darted from among the warriors, and made a
- desperate, and what seemed to Duncan a final effort to gain the wood. As
- if aware that no danger was to be apprehended from the young soldier, the
- fugitive nearly brushed his person in his flight. A tall and powerful
- Huron, who had husbanded his forces, pressed close upon his heels, and
- with an uplifted arm menaced a fatal blow. Duncan thrust forth a foot, and
- the shock precipitated the eager savage headlong, many feet in advance of
- his intended victim. Thought itself is not quicker than was the motion
- with which the latter profited by the advantage; he turned, gleamed like a
- meteor again before the eyes of Duncan, and, at the next moment, when the
- latter recovered his recollection, and gazed around in quest of the
- captive, he saw him quietly leaning against a small painted post, which
- stood before the door of the principal lodge.
- </p>
- <p>
- Apprehensive that the part he had taken in the escape might prove fatal to
- himself, Duncan left the place without delay. He followed the crowd, which
- drew nigh the lodges, gloomy and sullen, like any other multitude that had
- been disappointed in an execution. Curiosity, or perhaps a better feeling,
- induced him to approach the stranger. He found him, standing with one arm
- cast about the protecting post, and breathing thick and hard, after his
- exertions, but disdaining to permit a single sign of suffering to escape.
- His person was now protected by immemorial and sacred usage, until the
- tribe in council had deliberated and determined on his fate. It was not
- difficult, however, to foretell the result, if any presage could be drawn
- from the feelings of those who crowded the place.
- </p>
- <p>
- There was no term of abuse known to the Huron vocabulary that the
- disappointed women did not lavishly expend on the successful stranger.
- They flouted at his efforts, and told him, with bitter scoffs, that his
- feet were better than his hands; and that he merited wings, while he knew
- not the use of an arrow or a knife. To all this the captive made no reply;
- but was content to preserve an attitude in which dignity was singularly
- blended with disdain. Exasperated as much by his composure as by his
- good-fortune, their words became unintelligible, and were succeeded by
- shrill, piercing yells. Just then the crafty squaw, who had taken the
- necessary precaution to fire the piles, made her way through the throng,
- and cleared a place for herself in front of the captive. The squalid and
- withered person of this hag might well have obtained for her the character
- of possessing more than human cunning. Throwing back her light vestment,
- she stretched forth her long, skinny arm, in derision, and using the
- language of the Lenape, as more intelligible to the subject of her gibes,
- she commenced aloud:
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0319.jpg" alt="0319" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0319.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- “Look you, Delaware,” she said, snapping her fingers in his face; “your
- nation is a race of women, and the hoe is better fitted to your hands than
- the gun. Your squaws are the mothers of deer; but if a bear, or a wildcat,
- or a serpent were born among you, ye would flee. The Huron girls shall
- make you petticoats, and we will find you a husband.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A burst of savage laughter succeeded this attack, during which the soft
- and musical merriment of the younger females strangely chimed with the
- cracked voice of their older and more malignant companion. But the
- stranger was superior to all their efforts. His head was immovable; nor
- did he betray the slightest consciousness that any were present, except
- when his haughty eye rolled toward the dusky forms of the warriors, who
- stalked in the background silent and sullen observers of the scene.
- </p>
- <p>
- Infuriated at the self-command of the captive, the woman placed her arms
- akimbo; and, throwing herself into a posture of defiance, she broke out
- anew, in a torrent of words that no art of ours could commit successfully
- to paper. Her breath was, however, expended in vain; for, although
- distinguished in her nation as a proficient in the art of abuse, she was
- permitted to work herself into such a fury as actually to foam at the
- mouth, without causing a muscle to vibrate in the motionless figure of the
- stranger. The effect of his indifference began to extend itself to the
- other spectators; and a youngster, who was just quitting the condition of
- a boy to enter the state of manhood, attempted to assist the termagant, by
- flourishing his tomahawk before their victim, and adding his empty boasts
- to the taunts of the women. Then, indeed, the captive turned his face
- toward the light, and looked down on the stripling with an expression that
- was superior to contempt. At the next moment he resumed his quiet and
- reclining attitude against the post. But the change of posture had
- permitted Duncan to exchange glances with the firm and piercing eyes of
- Uncas.
- </p>
- <p>
- Breathless with amazement, and heavily oppressed with the critical
- situation of his friend, Heyward recoiled before the look, trembling lest
- its meaning might, in some unknown manner, hasten the prisoner's fate.
- There was not, however, any instant cause for such an apprehension. Just
- then a warrior forced his way into the exasperated crowd. Motioning the
- women and children aside with a stern gesture, he took Uncas by the arm,
- and led him toward the door of the council-lodge. Thither all the chiefs,
- and most of the distinguished warriors, followed; among whom the anxious
- Heyward found means to enter without attracting any dangerous attention to
- himself.
- </p>
- <p>
- A few minutes were consumed in disposing of those present in a manner
- suitable to their rank and influence in the tribe. An order very similar
- to that adopted in the preceding interview was observed; the aged and
- superior chiefs occupying the area of the spacious apartment, within the
- powerful light of a glaring torch, while their juniors and inferiors were
- arranged in the background, presenting a dark outline of swarthy and
- marked visages. In the very center of the lodge, immediately under an
- opening that admitted the twinkling light of one or two stars, stood
- Uncas, calm, elevated, and collected. His high and haughty carriage was
- not lost on his captors, who often bent their looks on his person, with
- eyes which, while they lost none of their inflexibility of purpose,
- plainly betrayed their admiration of the stranger's daring.
- </p>
- <p>
- The case was different with the individual whom Duncan had observed to
- stand forth with his friend, previously to the desperate trial of speed;
- and who, instead of joining in the chase, had remained, throughout its
- turbulent uproar, like a cringing statue, expressive of shame and
- disgrace. Though not a hand had been extended to greet him, nor yet an eye
- had condescended to watch his movements, he had also entered the lodge, as
- though impelled by a fate to whose decrees he submitted, seemingly,
- without a struggle. Heyward profited by the first opportunity to gaze in
- his face, secretly apprehensive he might find the features of another
- acquaintance; but they proved to be those of a stranger, and, what was
- still more inexplicable, of one who bore all the distinctive marks of a
- Huron warrior. Instead of mingling with his tribe, however, he sat apart,
- a solitary being in a multitude, his form shrinking into a crouching and
- abject attitude, as if anxious to fill as little space as possible. When
- each individual had taken his proper station, and silence reigned in the
- place, the gray-haired chief already introduced to the reader, spoke
- aloud, in the language of the Lenni Lenape.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Delaware,” he said, “though one of a nation of women, you have proved
- yourself a man. I would give you food; but he who eats with a Huron should
- become his friend. Rest in peace till the morning sun, when our last words
- shall be spoken.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Seven nights, and as many summer days, have I fasted on the trail of the
- Hurons,” Uncas coldly replied; “the children of the Lenape know how to
- travel the path of the just without lingering to eat.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Two of my young men are in pursuit of your companion,” resumed the other,
- without appearing to regard the boast of his captive; “when they get back,
- then will our wise man say to you 'live' or 'die'.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Has a Huron no ears?” scornfully exclaimed Uncas; “twice, since he has
- been your prisoner, has the Delaware heard a gun that he knows. Your young
- men will never come back!”
- </p>
- <p>
- A short and sullen pause succeeded this bold assertion. Duncan, who
- understood the Mohican to allude to the fatal rifle of the scout, bent
- forward in earnest observation of the effect it might produce on the
- conquerors; but the chief was content with simply retorting:
- </p>
- <p>
- “If the Lenape are so skillful, why is one of their bravest warriors
- here?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He followed in the steps of a flying coward, and fell into a snare. The
- cunning beaver may be caught.”
- </p>
- <p>
- As Uncas thus replied, he pointed with his finger toward the solitary
- Huron, but without deigning to bestow any other notice on so unworthy an
- object. The words of the answer and the air of the speaker produced a
- strong sensation among his auditors. Every eye rolled sullenly toward the
- individual indicated by the simple gesture, and a low, threatening murmur
- passed through the crowd. The ominous sounds reached the outer door, and
- the women and children pressing into the throng, no gap had been left,
- between shoulder and shoulder, that was not now filled with the dark
- lineaments of some eager and curious human countenance.
- </p>
- <p>
- In the meantime, the more aged chiefs, in the center, communed with each
- other in short and broken sentences. Not a word was uttered that did not
- convey the meaning of the speaker, in the simplest and most energetic
- form. Again, a long and deeply solemn pause took place. It was known, by
- all present, to be the brave precursor of a weighty and important
- judgment. They who composed the outer circle of faces were on tiptoe to
- gaze; and even the culprit for an instant forgot his shame in a deeper
- emotion, and exposed his abject features, in order to cast an anxious and
- troubled glance at the dark assemblage of chiefs. The silence was finally
- broken by the aged warrior so often named. He arose from the earth, and
- moving past the immovable form of Uncas, placed himself in a dignified
- attitude before the offender. At that moment, the withered squaw already
- mentioned moved into the circle, in a slow, sidling sort of a dance,
- holding the torch, and muttering the indistinct words of what might have
- been a species of incantation. Though her presence was altogether an
- intrusion, it was unheeded.
- </p>
- <p>
- Approaching Uncas, she held the blazing brand in such a manner as to cast
- its red glare on his person, and to expose the slightest emotion of his
- countenance. The Mohican maintained his firm and haughty attitude; and his
- eyes, so far from deigning to meet her inquisitive look, dwelt steadily on
- the distance, as though it penetrated the obstacles which impeded the view
- and looked into futurity. Satisfied with her examination, she left him,
- with a slight expression of pleasure, and proceeded to practise the same
- trying experiment on her delinquent countryman.
- </p>
- <p>
- The young Huron was in his war paint, and very little of a finely molded
- form was concealed by his attire. The light rendered every limb and joint
- discernible, and Duncan turned away in horror when he saw they were
- writhing in irrepressible agony. The woman was commencing a low and
- plaintive howl at the sad and shameful spectacle, when the chief put forth
- his hand and gently pushed her aside.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Reed-that-bends,” he said, addressing the young culprit by name, and in
- his proper language, “though the Great Spirit has made you pleasant to the
- eyes, it would have been better that you had not been born. Your tongue is
- loud in the village, but in battle it is still. None of my young men
- strike the tomahawk deeper into the war-post—none of them so lightly
- on the Yengeese. The enemy know the shape of your back, but they have
- never seen the color of your eyes. Three times have they called on you to
- come, and as often did you forget to answer. Your name will never be
- mentioned again in your tribe—it is already forgotten.”
- </p>
- <p>
- As the chief slowly uttered these words, pausing impressively between each
- sentence, the culprit raised his face, in deference to the other's rank
- and years. Shame, horror, and pride struggled in its lineaments. His eye,
- which was contracted with inward anguish, gleamed on the persons of those
- whose breath was his fame; and the latter emotion for an instant
- predominated. He arose to his feet, and baring his bosom, looked steadily
- on the keen, glittering knife, that was already upheld by his inexorable
- judge. As the weapon passed slowly into his heart he even smiled, as if in
- joy at having found death less dreadful than he had anticipated, and fell
- heavily on his face, at the feet of the rigid and unyielding form of
- Uncas.
- </p>
- <p>
- The squaw gave a loud and plaintive yell, dashed the torch to the earth,
- and buried everything in darkness. The whole shuddering group of
- spectators glided from the lodge like troubled sprites; and Duncan thought
- that he and the yet throbbing body of the victim of an Indian judgment had
- now become its only tenants.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 24
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Thus spoke the sage: the kings without delay
- Dissolve the council, and their chief obey.”
- —Pope's Iliad
-</pre>
- <p>
- A single moment served to convince the youth that he was mistaken. A hand
- was laid, with a powerful pressure, on his arm, and the low voice of Uncas
- muttered in his ear:
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Hurons are dogs. The sight of a coward's blood can never make a
- warrior tremble. The 'Gray Head' and the Sagamore are safe, and the rifle
- of Hawkeye is not asleep. Go—Uncas and the 'Open Hand' are now
- strangers. It is enough.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward would gladly have heard more, but a gentle push from his friend
- urged him toward the door, and admonished him of the danger that might
- attend the discovery of their intercourse. Slowly and reluctantly yielding
- to the necessity, he quitted the place, and mingled with the throng that
- hovered nigh. The dying fires in the clearing cast a dim and uncertain
- light on the dusky figures that were silently stalking to and fro; and
- occasionally a brighter gleam than common glanced into the lodge, and
- exhibited the figure of Uncas still maintaining its upright attitude near
- the dead body of the Huron.
- </p>
- <p>
- A knot of warriors soon entered the place again, and reissuing, they bore
- the senseless remains into the adjacent woods. After this termination of
- the scene, Duncan wandered among the lodges, unquestioned and unnoticed,
- endeavoring to find some trace of her in whose behalf he incurred the risk
- he ran. In the present temper of the tribe it would have been easy to have
- fled and rejoined his companions, had such a wish crossed his mind. But,
- in addition to the never-ceasing anxiety on account of Alice, a fresher
- though feebler interest in the fate of Uncas assisted to chain him to the
- spot. He continued, therefore, to stray from hut to hut, looking into each
- only to encounter additional disappointment, until he had made the entire
- circuit of the village. Abandoning a species of inquiry that proved so
- fruitless, he retraced his steps to the council-lodge, resolved to seek
- and question David, in order to put an end to his doubts.
- </p>
- <p>
- On reaching the building, which had proved alike the seat of judgment and
- the place of execution, the young man found that the excitement had
- already subsided. The warriors had reassembled, and were now calmly
- smoking, while they conversed gravely on the chief incidents of their
- recent expedition to the head of the Horican. Though the return of Duncan
- was likely to remind them of his character, and the suspicious
- circumstances of his visit, it produced no visible sensation. So far, the
- terrible scene that had just occurred proved favorable to his views, and
- he required no other prompter than his own feelings to convince him of the
- expediency of profiting by so unexpected an advantage.
- </p>
- <p>
- Without seeming to hesitate, he walked into the lodge, and took his seat
- with a gravity that accorded admirably with the deportment of his hosts. A
- hasty but searching glance sufficed to tell him that, though Uncas still
- remained where he had left him, David had not reappeared. No other
- restraint was imposed on the former than the watchful looks of a young
- Huron, who had placed himself at hand; though an armed warrior leaned
- against the post that formed one side of the narrow doorway. In every
- other respect, the captive seemed at liberty; still he was excluded from
- all participation in the discourse, and possessed much more of the air of
- some finely molded statue than a man having life and volition.
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward had too recently witnessed a frightful instance of the prompt
- punishments of the people into whose hands he had fallen to hazard an
- exposure by any officious boldness. He would greatly have preferred
- silence and meditation to speech, when a discovery of his real condition
- might prove so instantly fatal. Unfortunately for this prudent resolution,
- his entertainers appeared otherwise disposed. He had not long occupied the
- seat wisely taken a little in the shade, when another of the elder
- warriors, who spoke the French language, addressed him:
- </p>
- <p>
- “My Canada father does not forget his children,” said the chief; “I thank
- him. An evil spirit lives in the wife of one of my young men. Can the
- cunning stranger frighten him away?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward possessed some knowledge of the mummery practised among the
- Indians, in the cases of such supposed visitations. He saw, at a glance,
- that the circumstance might possibly be improved to further his own ends.
- It would, therefore, have been difficult, just then to have uttered a
- proposal that would have given him more satisfaction. Aware of the
- necessity of preserving the dignity of his imaginary character, however,
- he repressed his feelings, and answered with suitable mystery:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Spirits differ; some yield to the power of wisdom, while others are too
- strong.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My brother is a great medicine,” said the cunning savage; “he will try?”
- </p>
- <p>
- A gesture of assent was the answer. The Huron was content with the
- assurance, and, resuming his pipe, he awaited the proper moment to move.
- The impatient Heyward, inwardly execrating the cold customs of the
- savages, which required such sacrifices to appearance, was fain to assume
- an air of indifference, equal to that maintained by the chief, who was, in
- truth, a near relative of the afflicted woman. The minutes lingered, and
- the delay had seemed an hour to the adventurer in empiricism, when the
- Huron laid aside his pipe and drew his robe across his breast, as if about
- to lead the way to the lodge of the invalid. Just then, a warrior of
- powerful frame, darkened the door, and stalking silently among the
- attentive group, he seated himself on one end of the low pile of brush
- which sustained Duncan. The latter cast an impatient look at his neighbor,
- and felt his flesh creep with uncontrollable horror when he found himself
- in actual contact with Magua.
- </p>
- <p>
- The sudden return of this artful and dreaded chief caused a delay in the
- departure of the Huron. Several pipes, that had been extinguished, were
- lighted again; while the newcomer, without speaking a word, drew his
- tomahawk from his girdle, and filling the bowl on its head began to inhale
- the vapors of the weed through the hollow handle, with as much
- indifference as if he had not been absent two weary days on a long and
- toilsome hunt. Ten minutes, which appeared so many ages to Duncan, might
- have passed in this manner; and the warriors were fairly enveloped in a
- cloud of white smoke before any of them spoke.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Welcome!” one at length uttered; “has my friend found the moose?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The young men stagger under their burdens,” returned Magua. “Let
- 'Reed-that-bends' go on the hunting path; he will meet them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A deep and awful silence succeeded the utterance of the forbidden name.
- Each pipe dropped from the lips of its owner as though all had inhaled an
- impurity at the same instant. The smoke wreathed above their heads in
- little eddies, and curling in a spiral form it ascended swiftly through
- the opening in the roof of the lodge, leaving the place beneath clear of
- its fumes, and each dark visage distinctly visible. The looks of most of
- the warriors were riveted on the earth; though a few of the younger and
- less gifted of the party suffered their wild and glaring eyeballs to roll
- in the direction of a white-headed savage, who sat between two of the most
- venerated chiefs of the tribe. There was nothing in the air or attire of
- this Indian that would seem to entitle him to such a distinction. The
- former was rather depressed, than remarkable for the bearing of the
- natives; and the latter was such as was commonly worn by the ordinary men
- of the nation. Like most around him for more than a minute his look, too,
- was on the ground; but, trusting his eyes at length to steal a glance
- aside, he perceived that he was becoming an object of general attention.
- Then he arose and lifted his voice in the general silence.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It was a lie,” he said; “I had no son. He who was called by that name is
- forgotten; his blood was pale, and it came not from the veins of a Huron;
- the wicked Chippewas cheated my squaw. The Great Spirit has said, that the
- family of Wiss-entush should end; he is happy who knows that the evil of
- his race dies with himself. I have done.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The speaker, who was the father of the recreant young Indian, looked round
- and about him, as if seeking commendation of his stoicism in the eyes of
- the auditors. But the stern customs of his people had made too severe an
- exaction of the feeble old man. The expression of his eye contradicted his
- figurative and boastful language, while every muscle in his wrinkled
- visage was working with anguish. Standing a single minute to enjoy his
- bitter triumph, he turned away, as if sickening at the gaze of men, and,
- veiling his face in his blanket, he walked from the lodge with the
- noiseless step of an Indian seeking, in the privacy of his own abode, the
- sympathy of one like himself, aged, forlorn and childless.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Indians, who believe in the hereditary transmission of virtues and
- defects in character, suffered him to depart in silence. Then, with an
- elevation of breeding that many in a more cultivated state of society
- might profitably emulate, one of the chiefs drew the attention of the
- young men from the weakness they had just witnessed, by saying, in a
- cheerful voice, addressing himself in courtesy to Magua, as the newest
- comer:
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Delawares have been like bears after the honey pots, prowling around
- my village. But who has ever found a Huron asleep?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The darkness of the impending cloud which precedes a burst of thunder was
- not blacker than the brow of Magua as he exclaimed:
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Delawares of the Lakes!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not so. They who wear the petticoats of squaws, on their own river. One
- of them has been passing the tribe.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did my young men take his scalp?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “His legs were good, though his arm is better for the hoe than the
- tomahawk,” returned the other, pointing to the immovable form of Uncas.
- </p>
- <p>
- Instead of manifesting any womanish curiosity to feast his eyes with the
- sight of a captive from a people he was known to have so much reason to
- hate, Magua continued to smoke, with the meditative air that he usually
- maintained, when there was no immediate call on his cunning or his
- eloquence. Although secretly amazed at the facts communicated by the
- speech of the aged father, he permitted himself to ask no questions,
- reserving his inquiries for a more suitable moment. It was only after a
- sufficient interval that he shook the ashes from his pipe, replaced the
- tomahawk, tightened his girdle, and arose, casting for the first time a
- glance in the direction of the prisoner, who stood a little behind him.
- The wary, though seemingly abstracted Uncas, caught a glimpse of the
- movement, and turning suddenly to the light, their looks met. Near a
- minute these two bold and untamed spirits stood regarding one another
- steadily in the eye, neither quailing in the least before the fierce gaze
- he encountered. The form of Uncas dilated, and his nostrils opened like
- those of a tiger at bay; but so rigid and unyielding was his posture, that
- he might easily have been converted by the imagination into an exquisite
- and faultless representation of the warlike deity of his tribe. The
- lineaments of the quivering features of Magua proved more ductile; his
- countenance gradually lost its character of defiance in an expression of
- ferocious joy, and heaving a breath from the very bottom of his chest, he
- pronounced aloud the formidable name of:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Le Cerf Agile!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Each warrior sprang upon his feet at the utterance of the well-known
- appellation, and there was a short period during which the stoical
- constancy of the natives was completely conquered by surprise. The hated
- and yet respected name was repeated as by one voice, carrying the sound
- even beyond the limits of the lodge. The women and children, who lingered
- around the entrance, took up the words in an echo, which was succeeded by
- another shrill and plaintive howl. The latter was not yet ended, when the
- sensation among the men had entirely abated. Each one in presence seated
- himself, as though ashamed of his precipitation; but it was many minutes
- before their meaning eyes ceased to roll toward their captive, in curious
- examination of a warrior who had so often proved his prowess on the best
- and proudest of their nation. Uncas enjoyed his victory, but was content
- with merely exhibiting his triumph by a quiet smile—an emblem of
- scorn which belongs to all time and every nation.
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua caught the expression, and raising his arm, he shook it at the
- captive, the light silver ornaments attached to his bracelet rattling with
- the trembling agitation of the limb, as, in a tone of vengeance, he
- exclaimed, in English:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mohican, you die!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The healing waters will never bring the dead Hurons to life,” returned
- Uncas, in the music of the Delawares; “the tumbling river washes their
- bones; their men are squaws: their women owls. Go! call together the Huron
- dogs, that they may look upon a warrior, My nostrils are offended; they
- scent the blood of a coward.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The latter allusion struck deep, and the injury rankled. Many of the
- Hurons understood the strange tongue in which the captive spoke, among
- which number was Magua. This cunning savage beheld, and instantly profited
- by his advantage. Dropping the light robe of skin from his shoulder, he
- stretched forth his arm, and commenced a burst of his dangerous and artful
- eloquence. However much his influence among his people had been impaired
- by his occasional and besetting weakness, as well as by his desertion of
- the tribe, his courage and his fame as an orator were undeniable. He never
- spoke without auditors, and rarely without making converts to his
- opinions. On the present occasion, his native powers were stimulated by
- the thirst of revenge.
- </p>
- <p>
- He again recounted the events of the attack on the island at Glenn's, the
- death of his associates and the escape of their most formidable enemies.
- Then he described the nature and position of the mount whither he had led
- such captives as had fallen into their hands. Of his own bloody intentions
- toward the maidens, and of his baffled malice he made no mention, but
- passed rapidly on to the surprise of the party by “La Longue Carabine,”
- and its fatal termination. Here he paused, and looked about him, in
- affected veneration for the departed, but, in truth, to note the effect of
- his opening narrative. As usual, every eye was riveted on his face. Each
- dusky figure seemed a breathing statue, so motionless was the posture, so
- intense the attention of the individual.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then Magua dropped his voice which had hitherto been clear, strong and
- elevated, and touched upon the merits of the dead. No quality that was
- likely to command the sympathy of an Indian escaped his notice. One had
- never been known to follow the chase in vain; another had been
- indefatigable on the trail of their enemies. This was brave, that
- generous. In short, he so managed his allusions, that in a nation which
- was composed of so few families, he contrived to strike every chord that
- might find, in its turn, some breast in which to vibrate.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are the bones of my young men,” he concluded, “in the burial-place of the
- Hurons? You know they are not. Their spirits are gone toward the setting
- sun, and are already crossing the great waters, to the happy
- hunting-grounds. But they departed without food, without guns or knives,
- without moccasins, naked and poor as they were born. Shall this be? Are
- their souls to enter the land of the just like hungry Iroquois or unmanly
- Delawares, or shall they meet their friends with arms in their hands and
- robes on their backs? What will our fathers think the tribes of the
- Wyandots have become? They will look on their children with a dark eye,
- and say, 'Go! a Chippewa has come hither with the name of a Huron.'
- Brothers, we must not forget the dead; a red-skin never ceases to
- remember. We will load the back of this Mohican until he staggers under
- our bounty, and dispatch him after my young men. They call to us for aid,
- though our ears are not open; they say, 'Forget us not.' When they see the
- spirit of this Mohican toiling after them with his burden, they will know
- we are of that mind. Then will they go on happy; and our children will
- say, 'So did our fathers to their friends, so must we do to them.' What is
- a Yengee? we have slain many, but the earth is still pale. A stain on the
- name of Huron can only be hid by blood that comes from the veins of an
- Indian. Let this Delaware die.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The effect of such an harangue, delivered in the nervous language and with
- the emphatic manner of a Huron orator, could scarcely be mistaken. Magua
- had so artfully blended the natural sympathies with the religious
- superstition of his auditors, that their minds, already prepared by custom
- to sacrifice a victim to the manes of their countrymen, lost every vestige
- of humanity in a wish for revenge. One warrior in particular, a man of
- wild and ferocious mien, had been conspicuous for the attention he had
- given to the words of the speaker. His countenance had changed with each
- passing emotion, until it settled into a look of deadly malice. As Magua
- ended he arose and, uttering the yell of a demon, his polished little axe
- was seen glancing in the torchlight as he whirled it above his head. The
- motion and the cry were too sudden for words to interrupt his bloody
- intention. It appeared as if a bright gleam shot from his hand, which was
- crossed at the same moment by a dark and powerful line. The former was the
- tomahawk in its passage; the latter the arm that Magua darted forward to
- divert its aim. The quick and ready motion of the chief was not entirely
- too late. The keen weapon cut the war plume from the scalping tuft of
- Uncas, and passed through the frail wall of the lodge as though it were
- hurled from some formidable engine.
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan had seen the threatening action, and sprang upon his feet, with a
- heart which, while it leaped into his throat, swelled with the most
- generous resolution in behalf of his friend. A glance told him that the
- blow had failed, and terror changed to admiration. Uncas stood still,
- looking his enemy in the eye with features that seemed superior to
- emotion. Marble could not be colder, calmer, or steadier than the
- countenance he put upon this sudden and vindictive attack. Then, as if
- pitying a want of skill which had proved so fortunate to himself, he
- smiled, and muttered a few words of contempt in his own tongue.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No!” said Magua, after satisfying himself of the safety of the captive;
- “the sun must shine on his shame; the squaws must see his flesh tremble,
- or our revenge will be like the play of boys. Go! take him where there is
- silence; let us see if a Delaware can sleep at night, and in the morning
- die.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The young men whose duty it was to guard the prisoner instantly passed
- their ligaments of bark across his arms, and led him from the lodge, amid
- a profound and ominous silence. It was only as the figure of Uncas stood
- in the opening of the door that his firm step hesitated. There he turned,
- and, in the sweeping and haughty glance that he threw around the circle of
- his enemies, Duncan caught a look which he was glad to construe into an
- expression that he was not entirely deserted by hope.
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua was content with his success, or too much occupied with his secret
- purposes to push his inquiries any further. Shaking his mantle, and
- folding it on his bosom, he also quitted the place, without pursuing a
- subject which might have proved so fatal to the individual at his elbow.
- Notwithstanding his rising resentment, his natural firmness, and his
- anxiety on behalf of Uncas, Heyward felt sensibly relieved by the absence
- of so dangerous and so subtle a foe. The excitement produced by the speech
- gradually subsided. The warriors resumed their seats and clouds of smoke
- once more filled the lodge. For near half an hour, not a syllable was
- uttered, or scarcely a look cast aside; a grave and meditative silence
- being the ordinary succession to every scene of violence and commotion
- among these beings, who were alike so impetuous and yet so
- self-restrained.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the chief, who had solicited the aid of Duncan, finished his pipe, he
- made a final and successful movement toward departing. A motion of a
- finger was the intimation he gave the supposed physician to follow; and
- passing through the clouds of smoke, Duncad was glad, on more accounts
- than one, to be able at last to breathe the pure air of a cool and
- refreshing summer evening.
- </p>
- <p>
- Instead of pursuing his way among those lodges where Heyward had already
- made his unsuccessful search, his companion turned aside, and proceeded
- directly toward the base of an adjacent mountain, which overhung the
- temporary village. A thicket of brush skirted its foot, and it became
- necessary to proceed through a crooked and narrow path. The boys had
- resumed their sports in the clearing, and were enacting a mimic chase to
- the post among themselves. In order to render their games as like the
- reality as possible, one of the boldest of their number had conveyed a few
- brands into some piles of tree-tops that had hitherto escaped the burning.
- The blaze of one of these fires lighted the way of the chief and Duncan,
- and gave a character of additional wildness to the rude scenery. At a
- little distance from a bald rock, and directly in its front, they entered
- a grassy opening, which they prepared to cross. Just then fresh fuel was
- added to the fire, and a powerful light penetrated even to that distant
- spot. It fell upon the white surface of the mountain, and was reflected
- downward upon a dark and mysterious-looking being that arose,
- unexpectedly, in their path. The Indian paused, as if doubtful whether to
- proceed, and permitted his companion to approach his side. A large black
- ball, which at first seemed stationary, now began to move in a manner that
- to the latter was inexplicable. Again the fire brightened and its glare
- fell more distinctly on the object. Then even Duncan knew it, by its
- restless and sidling attitudes, which kept the upper part of its form in
- constant motion, while the animal itself appeared seated, to be a bear.
- Though it growled loudly and fiercely, and there were instants when its
- glistening eyeballs might be seen, it gave no other indications of
- hostility. The Huron, at least, seemed assured that the intentions of this
- singular intruder were peaceable, for after giving it an attentive
- examination, he quietly pursued his course.
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan, who knew that the animal was often domesticated among the Indians,
- followed the example of his companion, believing that some favorite of the
- tribe had found its way into the thicket, in search of food. They passed
- it unmolested. Though obliged to come nearly in contact with the monster,
- the Huron, who had at first so warily determined the character of his
- strange visitor, was now content with proceeding without wasting a moment
- in further examination; but Heyward was unable to prevent his eyes from
- looking backward, in salutary watchfulness against attacks in the rear.
- His uneasiness was in no degree diminished when he perceived the beast
- rolling along their path, and following their footsteps. He would have
- spoken, but the Indian at that moment shoved aside a door of bark, and
- entered a cavern in the bosom of the mountain.
- </p>
- <p>
- Profiting by so easy a method of retreat, Duncan stepped after him, and
- was gladly closing the slight cover to the opening, when he felt it drawn
- from his hand by the beast, whose shaggy form immediately darkened the
- passage. They were now in a straight and long gallery, in a chasm of the
- rocks, where retreat without encountering the animal was impossible.
- Making the best of the circumstances, the young man pressed forward,
- keeping as close as possible to his conductor. The bear growled frequently
- at his heels, and once or twice its enormous paws were laid on his person,
- as if disposed to prevent his further passage into the den.
- </p>
- <p>
- How long the nerves of Heyward would have sustained him in this
- extraordinary situation, it might be difficult to decide, for, happily, he
- soon found relief. A glimmer of light had constantly been in their front,
- and they now arrived at the place whence it proceeded.
- </p>
- <p>
- A large cavity in the rock had been rudely fitted to answer the purposes
- of many apartments. The subdivisions were simple but ingenious, being
- composed of stone, sticks, and bark, intermingled. Openings above admitted
- the light by day, and at night fires and torches supplied the place of the
- sun. Hither the Hurons had brought most of their valuables, especially
- those which more particularly pertained to the nation; and hither, as it
- now appeared, the sick woman, who was believed to be the victim of
- supernatural power, had been transported also, under an impression that
- her tormentor would find more difficulty in making his assaults through
- walls of stone than through the leafy coverings of the lodges. The
- apartment into which Duncan and his guide first entered, had been
- exclusively devoted to her accommodation. The latter approached her
- bedside, which was surrounded by females, in the center of whom Heyward
- was surprised to find his missing friend David.
- </p>
- <p>
- A single look was sufficient to apprise the pretended leech that the
- invalid was far beyond his powers of healing. She lay in a sort of
- paralysis, indifferent to the objects which crowded before her sight, and
- happily unconscious of suffering. Heyward was far from regretting that his
- mummeries were to be performed on one who was much too ill to take an
- interest in their failure or success. The slight qualm of conscience which
- had been excited by the intended deception was instantly appeased, and he
- began to collect his thoughts, in order to enact his part with suitable
- spirit, when he found he was about to be anticipated in his skill by an
- attempt to prove the power of music.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gamut, who had stood prepared to pour forth his spirit in song when the
- visitors entered, after delaying a moment, drew a strain from his pipe,
- and commenced a hymn that might have worked a miracle, had faith in its
- efficacy been of much avail. He was allowed to proceed to the close, the
- Indians respecting his imaginary infirmity, and Duncan too glad of the
- delay to hazard the slightest interruption. As the dying cadence of his
- strains was falling on the ears of the latter, he started aside at hearing
- them repeated behind him, in a voice half human and half sepulchral.
- Looking around, he beheld the shaggy monster seated on end in a shadow of
- the cavern, where, while his restless body swung in the uneasy manner of
- the animal, it repeated, in a sort of low growl, sounds, if not words,
- which bore some slight resemblance to the melody of the singer.
- </p>
- <p>
- The effect of so strange an echo on David may better be imagined than
- described. His eyes opened as if he doubted their truth; and his voice
- became instantly mute in excess of wonder. A deep-laid scheme, of
- communicating some important intelligence to Heyward, was driven from his
- recollection by an emotion which very nearly resembled fear, but which he
- was fain to believe was admiration. Under its influence, he exclaimed
- aloud: “She expects you, and is at hand”; and precipitately left the
- cavern.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 25
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Snug.—Have you the lion's part written? Pray you, if it
- be, give it to me, for I am slow of study.
-
- Quince.—You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but
- roaring.”
- —Midsummer Night's Dream.
-</pre>
- <p>
- There was a strange blending of the ridiculous with that which was solemn
- in this scene. The beast still continued its rolling, and apparently
- untiring movements, though its ludicrous attempt to imitate the melody of
- David ceased the instant the latter abandoned the field. The words of
- Gamut were, as has been seen, in his native tongue; and to Duncan they
- seem pregnant with some hidden meaning, though nothing present assisted
- him in discovering the object of their allusion. A speedy end was,
- however, put to every conjecture on the subject, by the manner of the
- chief, who advanced to the bedside of the invalid, and beckoned away the
- whole group of female attendants that had clustered there to witness the
- skill of the stranger. He was implicitly, though reluctantly, obeyed; and
- when the low echo which rang along the hollow, natural gallery, from the
- distant closing door, had ceased, pointing toward his insensible daughter,
- he said:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now let my brother show his power.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Thus unequivocally called on to exercise the functions of his assumed
- character, Heyward was apprehensive that the smallest delay might prove
- dangerous. Endeavoring, then, to collect his ideas, he prepared to perform
- that species of incantation, and those uncouth rites, under which the
- Indian conjurers are accustomed to conceal their ignorance and impotency.
- It is more than probable that, in the disordered state of his thoughts, he
- would soon have fallen into some suspicious, if not fatal, error had not
- his incipient attempts been interrupted by a fierce growl from the
- quadruped. Three several times did he renew his efforts to proceed, and as
- often was he met by the same unaccountable opposition, each interruption
- seeming more savage and threatening than the preceding.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The cunning ones are jealous,” said the Huron; “I go. Brother, the woman
- is the wife of one of my bravest young men; deal justly by her. Peace!” he
- added, beckoning to the discontented beast to be quiet; “I go.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The chief was as good as his word, and Duncan now found himself alone in
- that wild and desolate abode with the helpless invalid and the fierce and
- dangerous brute. The latter listened to the movements of the Indian with
- that air of sagacity that a bear is known to possess, until another echo
- announced that he had also left the cavern, when it turned and came
- waddling up to Duncan before whom it seated itself in its natural
- attitude, erect like a man. The youth looked anxiously about him for some
- weapon, with which he might make a resistance against the attack he now
- seriously expected.
- </p>
- <p>
- It seemed, however, as if the humor of the animal had suddenly changed.
- Instead of continuing its discontented growls, or manifesting any further
- signs of anger, the whole of its shaggy body shook violently, as if
- agitated by some strange internal convulsion. The huge and unwieldy talons
- pawed stupidly about the grinning muzzle, and while Heyward kept his eyes
- riveted on its movements with jealous watchfulness, the grim head fell on
- one side and in its place appeared the honest sturdy countenance of the
- scout, who was indulging from the bottom of his soul in his own peculiar
- expression of merriment.
- </p>
-
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0343.jpg" alt="0343" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0343.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- “Hist!” said the wary woodsman, interrupting Heyward's exclamation of
- surprise; “the varlets are about the place, and any sounds that are not
- natural to witchcraft would bring them back upon us in a body.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tell me the meaning of this masquerade; and why you have attempted so
- desperate an adventure?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah, reason and calculation are often outdone by accident,” returned the
- scout. “But, as a story should always commence at the beginning, I will
- tell you the whole in order. After we parted I placed the commandant and
- the Sagamore in an old beaver lodge, where they are safer from the Hurons
- than they would be in the garrison of Edward; for your high north-west
- Indians, not having as yet got the traders among them, continued to
- venerate the beaver. After which Uncas and I pushed for the other
- encampment as was agreed. Have you seen the lad?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “To my great grief! He is captive, and condemned to die at the rising of
- the sun.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I had misgivings that such would be his fate,” resumed the scout, in a
- less confident and joyous tone. But soon regaining his naturally firm
- voice, he continued: “His bad fortune is the true reason of my being here,
- for it would never do to abandon such a boy to the Hurons. A rare time the
- knaves would have of it, could they tie 'The Bounding Elk' and 'The Long
- Carabine', as they call me, to the same stake! Though why they have given
- me such a name I never knew, there being as little likeness between the
- gifts of 'killdeer' and the performance of one of your real Canada
- carabynes, as there is between the natur' of a pipe-stone and a flint.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Keep to your tale,” said the impatient Heyward; “we know not at what
- moment the Hurons may return.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No fear of them. A conjurer must have his time, like a straggling priest
- in the settlements. We are as safe from interruption as a missionary would
- be at the beginning of a two hours' discourse. Well, Uncas and I fell in
- with a return party of the varlets; the lad was much too forward for a
- scout; nay, for that matter, being of hot blood, he was not so much to
- blame; and, after all, one of the Hurons proved a coward, and in fleeing
- led him into an ambushment.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And dearly has he paid for the weakness.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout significantly passed his hand across his own throat, and nodded,
- as if he said, “I comprehend your meaning.” After which he continued, in a
- more audible though scarcely more intelligible language:
- </p>
- <p>
- “After the loss of the boy I turned upon the Hurons, as you may judge.
- There have been scrimmages atween one or two of their outlyers and myself;
- but that is neither here nor there. So, after I had shot the imps, I got
- in pretty nigh to the lodges without further commotion. Then what should
- luck do in my favor but lead me to the very spot where one of the most
- famous conjurers of the tribe was dressing himself, as I well knew, for
- some great battle with Satan—though why should I call that luck,
- which it now seems was an especial ordering of Providence. So a
- judgmatical rap over the head stiffened the lying impostor for a time, and
- leaving him a bit of walnut for his supper, to prevent an uproar, and
- stringing him up atween two saplings, I made free with his finery, and
- took the part of the bear on myself, in order that the operations might
- proceed.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And admirably did you enact the character; the animal itself might have
- been shamed by the representation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lord, major,” returned the flattered woodsman, “I should be but a poor
- scholar for one who has studied so long in the wilderness, did I not know
- how to set forth the movements or natur' of such a beast. Had it been now
- a catamount, or even a full-size panther, I would have embellished a
- performance for you worth regarding. But it is no such marvelous feat to
- exhibit the feats of so dull a beast; though, for that matter, too, a bear
- may be overacted. Yes, yes; it is not every imitator that knows natur' may
- be outdone easier than she is equaled. But all our work is yet before us.
- Where is the gentle one?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Heaven knows. I have examined every lodge in the village, without
- discovering the slightest trace of her presence in the tribe.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You heard what the singer said, as he left us: 'She is at hand, and
- expects you'?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have been compelled to believe he alluded to this unhappy woman.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The simpleton was frightened, and blundered through his message; but he
- had a deeper meaning. Here are walls enough to separate the whole
- settlement. A bear ought to climb; therefore will I take a look above
- them. There may be honey-pots hid in these rocks, and I am a beast, you
- know, that has a hankering for the sweets.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout looked behind him, laughing at his own conceit, while he
- clambered up the partition, imitating, as he went, the clumsy motions of
- the beast he represented; but the instant the summit was gained he made a
- gesture for silence, and slid down with the utmost precipitation.
- </p>
- <p>
- “She is here,” he whispered, “and by that door you will find her. I would
- have spoken a word of comfort to the afflicted soul; but the sight of such
- a monster might upset her reason. Though for that matter, major, you are
- none of the most inviting yourself in your paint.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan, who had already swung eagerly forward, drew instantly back on
- hearing these discouraging words.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Am I, then, so very revolting?” he demanded, with an air of chagrin.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You might not startle a wolf, or turn the Royal Americans from a
- discharge; but I have seen the time when you had a better favored look;
- your streaked countenances are not ill-judged of by the squaws, but young
- women of white blood give the preference to their own color. See,” he
- added, pointing to a place where the water trickled from a rock, forming a
- little crystal spring, before it found an issue through the adjacent
- crevices; “you may easily get rid of the Sagamore's daub, and when you
- come back I will try my hand at a new embellishment. It's as common for a
- conjurer to alter his paint as for a buck in the settlements to change his
- finery.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The deliberate woodsman had little occasion to hunt for arguments to
- enforce his advice. He was yet speaking when Duncan availed himself of the
- water. In a moment every frightful or offensive mark was obliterated, and
- the youth appeared again in the lineaments with which he had been gifted
- by nature. Thus prepared for an interview with his mistress, he took a
- hasty leave of his companion, and disappeared through the indicated
- passage. The scout witnessed his departure with complacency, nodding his
- head after him, and muttering his good wishes; after which he very coolly
- set about an examination of the state of the larder, among the Hurons, the
- cavern, among other purposes, being used as a receptacle for the fruits of
- their hunts.
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan had no other guide than a distant glimmering light, which served,
- however, the office of a polar star to the lover. By its aid he was
- enabled to enter the haven of his hopes, which was merely another
- apartment of the cavern, that had been solely appropriated to the
- safekeeping of so important a prisoner as a daughter of the commandant of
- William Henry. It was profusely strewed with the plunder of that unlucky
- fortress. In the midst of this confusion he found her he sought, pale,
- anxious and terrified, but lovely. David had prepared her for such a
- visit.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Duncan!” she exclaimed, in a voice that seemed to tremble at the sounds
- created by itself.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Alice!” he answered, leaping carelessly among trunks, boxes, arms, and
- furniture, until he stood at her side.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I knew that you would never desert me,” she said, looking up with a
- momentary glow on her otherwise dejected countenance. “But you are alone!
- Grateful as it is to be thus remembered, I could wish to think you are not
- entirely alone.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan, observing that she trembled in a manner which betrayed her
- inability to stand, gently induced her to be seated, while he recounted
- those leading incidents which it has been our task to accord. Alice
- listened with breathless interest; and though the young man touched
- lightly on the sorrows of the stricken father; taking care, however, not
- to wound the self-love of his auditor, the tears ran as freely down the
- cheeks of the daughter as though she had never wept before. The soothing
- tenderness of Duncan, however, soon quieted the first burst of her
- emotions, and she then heard him to the close with undivided attention, if
- not with composure.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And now, Alice,” he added, “you will see how much is still expected of
- you. By the assistance of our experienced and invaluable friend, the
- scout, we may find our way from this savage people, but you will have to
- exert your utmost fortitude. Remember that you fly to the arms of your
- venerable parent, and how much his happiness, as well as your own, depends
- on those exertions.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can I do otherwise for a father who has done so much for me?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And for me, too,” continued the youth, gently pressing the hand he held
- in both his own.
- </p>
- <p>
- The look of innocence and surprise which he received in return convinced
- Duncan of the necessity of being more explicit.
- </p>
- <p>
- “This is neither the place nor the occasion to detain you with selfish
- wishes,” he added; “but what heart loaded like mine would not wish to cast
- its burden? They say misery is the closest of all ties; our common
- suffering in your behalf left but little to be explained between your
- father and myself.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And, dearest Cora, Duncan; surely Cora was not forgotten?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not forgotten! no; regretted, as woman was seldom mourned before. Your
- venerable father knew no difference between his children; but I—Alice,
- you will not be offended when I say, that to me her worth was in a degree
- obscured—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you knew not the merit of my sister,” said Alice, withdrawing her
- hand; “of you she ever speaks as of one who is her dearest friend.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I would gladly believe her such,” returned Duncan, hastily; “I could wish
- her to be even more; but with you, Alice, I have the permission of your
- father to aspire to a still nearer and dearer tie.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Alice trembled violently, and there was an instant during which she bent
- her face aside, yielding to the emotions common to her sex; but they
- quickly passed away, leaving her mistress of her deportment, if not of her
- affections.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Heyward,” she said, looking him full in the face with a touching
- expression of innocence and dependency, “give me the sacred presence and
- the holy sanction of that parent before you urge me further.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Though more I should not, less I could not say,” the youth was about to
- answer, when he was interrupted by a light tap on his shoulder. Starting
- to his feet, he turned, and, confronting the intruder, his looks fell on
- the dark form and malignant visage of Magua. The deep guttural laugh of
- the savage sounded, at such a moment, to Duncan, like the hellish taunt of
- a demon. Had he pursued the sudden and fierce impulse of the instant, he
- would have cast himself on the Huron, and committed their fortunes to the
- issue of a deadly struggle. But, without arms of any description, ignorant
- of what succor his subtle enemy could command, and charged with the safety
- of one who was just then dearer than ever to his heart, he no sooner
- entertained than he abandoned the desperate intention.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is your purpose?” said Alice, meekly folding her arms on her bosom,
- and struggling to conceal an agony of apprehension in behalf of Heyward,
- in the usual cold and distant manner with which she received the visits of
- her captor.
- </p>
- <p>
- The exulting Indian had resumed his austere countenance, though he drew
- warily back before the menacing glance of the young man's fiery eye. He
- regarded both his captives for a moment with a steady look, and then,
- stepping aside, he dropped a log of wood across a door different from that
- by which Duncan had entered. The latter now comprehended the manner of his
- surprise, and, believing himself irretrievably lost, he drew Alice to his
- bosom, and stood prepared to meet a fate which he hardly regretted, since
- it was to be suffered in such company. But Magua meditated no immediate
- violence. His first measures were very evidently taken to secure his new
- captive; nor did he even bestow a second glance at the motionless forms in
- the center of the cavern, until he had completely cut off every hope of
- retreat through the private outlet he had himself used. He was watched in
- all his movements by Heyward, who, however, remained firm, still folding
- the fragile form of Alice to his heart, at once too proud and too hopeless
- to ask favor of an enemy so often foiled. When Magua had effected his
- object he approached his prisoners, and said in English:
- </p>
- <p>
- “The pale faces trap the cunning beavers; but the red-skins know how to
- take the Yengeese.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Huron, do your worst!” exclaimed the excited Heyward, forgetful that a
- double stake was involved in his life; “you and your vengeance are alike
- despised.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Will the white man speak these words at the stake?” asked Magua;
- manifesting, at the same time, how little faith he had in the other's
- resolution by the sneer that accompanied his words.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Here; singly to your face, or in the presence of your nation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Le Renard Subtil is a great chief!” returned the Indian; “he will go and
- bring his young men, to see how bravely a pale face can laugh at
- tortures.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He turned away while speaking, and was about to leave the place through
- the avenue by which Duncan had approached, when a growl caught his ear,
- and caused him to hesitate. The figure of the bear appeared in the door,
- where it sat, rolling from side to side in its customary restlessness.
- Magua, like the father of the sick woman, eyed it keenly for a moment, as
- if to ascertain its character. He was far above the more vulgar
- superstitions of his tribe, and so soon as he recognized the well-known
- attire of the conjurer, he prepared to pass it in cool contempt. But a
- louder and more threatening growl caused him again to pause. Then he
- seemed as if suddenly resolved to trifle no longer, and moved resolutely
- forward.
- </p>
- <p>
- The mimic animal, which had advanced a little, retired slowly in his
- front, until it arrived again at the pass, when, rearing on his hinder
- legs, it beat the air with its paws, in the manner practised by its brutal
- prototype.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Fool!” exclaimed the chief, in Huron, “go play with the children and
- squaws; leave men to their wisdom.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He once more endeavored to pass the supposed empiric, scorning even the
- parade of threatening to use the knife, or tomahawk, that was pendent from
- his belt. Suddenly the beast extended its arms, or rather legs, and
- inclosed him in a grasp that might have vied with the far-famed power of
- the “bear's hug” itself. Heyward had watched the whole procedure, on the
- part of Hawkeye, with breathless interest. At first he relinquished his
- hold of Alice; then he caught up a thong of buckskin, which had been used
- around some bundle, and when he beheld his enemy with his two arms pinned
- to his side by the iron muscles of the scout, he rushed upon him, and
- effectually secured them there. Arms, legs, and feet were encircled in
- twenty folds of the thong, in less time than we have taken to record the
- circumstance. When the formidable Huron was completely pinioned, the scout
- released his hold, and Duncan laid his enemy on his back, utterly
- helpless.
- </p>
- <p>
- Throughout the whole of this sudden and extraordinary operation, Magua,
- though he had struggled violently, until assured he was in the hands of
- one whose nerves were far better strung than his own, had not uttered the
- slightest exclamation. But when Hawkeye, by way of making a summary
- explanation of his conduct, removed the shaggy jaws of the beast, and
- exposed his own rugged and earnest countenance to the gaze of the Huron,
- the philosophy of the latter was so far mastered as to permit him to utter
- the never failing:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hugh!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, you've found your tongue,” said his undisturbed conqueror; “now, in
- order that you shall not use it to our ruin, I must make free to stop your
- mouth.”
- </p>
- <p>
- As there was no time to be lost, the scout immediately set about effecting
- so necessary a precaution; and when he had gagged the Indian, his enemy
- might safely have been considered as “hors de combat.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “By what place did the imp enter?” asked the industrious scout, when his
- work was ended. “Not a soul has passed my way since you left me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan pointed out the door by which Magua had come, and which now
- presented too many obstacles to a quick retreat.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bring on the gentle one, then,” continued his friend; “we must make a
- push for the woods by the other outlet.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis impossible!” said Duncan; “fear has overcome her, and she is
- helpless. Alice! my sweet, my own Alice, arouse yourself; now is the
- moment to fly. 'Tis in vain! she hears, but is unable to follow. Go, noble
- and worthy friend; save yourself, and leave me to my fate.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Every trail has its end, and every calamity brings its lesson!” returned
- the scout. “There, wrap her in them Indian cloths. Conceal all of her
- little form. Nay, that foot has no fellow in the wilderness; it will
- betray her. All, every part. Now take her in your arms, and follow. Leave
- the rest to me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan, as may be gathered from the words of his companion, was eagerly
- obeying; and, as the other finished speaking, he took the light person of
- Alice in his arms, and followed in the footsteps of the scout. They found
- the sick woman as they had left her, still alone, and passed swiftly on,
- by the natural gallery, to the place of entrance. As they approached the
- little door of bark, a murmur of voices without announced that the friends
- and relatives of the invalid were gathered about the place, patiently
- awaiting a summons to re-enter.
- </p>
- <p>
- “If I open my lips to speak,” Hawkeye whispered, “my English, which is the
- genuine tongue of a white-skin, will tell the varlets that an enemy is
- among them. You must give 'em your jargon, major; and say that we have
- shut the evil spirit in the cave, and are taking the woman to the woods in
- order to find strengthening roots. Practise all your cunning, for it is a
- lawful undertaking.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The door opened a little, as if one without was listening to the
- proceedings within, and compelled the scout to cease his directions. A
- fierce growl repelled the eavesdropper, and then the scout boldly threw
- open the covering of bark, and left the place, enacting the character of a
- bear as he proceeded. Duncan kept close at his heels, and soon found
- himself in the center of a cluster of twenty anxious relatives and
- friends.
- </p>
- <p>
- The crowd fell back a little, and permitted the father, and one who
- appeared to be the husband of the woman, to approach.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Has my brother driven away the evil spirit?” demanded the former. “What
- has he in his arms?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thy child,” returned Duncan, gravely; “the disease has gone out of her;
- it is shut up in the rocks. I take the woman to a distance, where I will
- strengthen her against any further attacks. She will be in the wigwam of
- the young man when the sun comes again.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When the father had translated the meaning of the stranger's words into
- the Huron language, a suppressed murmur announced the satisfaction with
- which this intelligence was received. The chief himself waved his hand for
- Duncan to proceed, saying aloud, in a firm voice, and with a lofty manner:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Go; I am a man, and I will enter the rock and fight the wicked one.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward had gladly obeyed, and was already past the little group, when
- these startling words arrested him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is my brother mad?” he exclaimed; “is he cruel? He will meet the disease,
- and it will enter him; or he will drive out the disease, and it will chase
- his daughter into the woods. No; let my children wait without, and if the
- spirit appears beat him down with clubs. He is cunning, and will bury
- himself in the mountain, when he sees how many are ready to fight him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- This singular warning had the desired effect. Instead of entering the
- cavern, the father and husband drew their tomahawks, and posted themselves
- in readiness to deal their vengeance on the imaginary tormentor of their
- sick relative, while the women and children broke branches from the
- bushes, or seized fragments of the rock, with a similar intention. At this
- favorable moment the counterfeit conjurers disappeared.
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye, at the same time that he had presumed so far on the nature of the
- Indian superstitions, was not ignorant that they were rather tolerated
- than relied on by the wisest of the chiefs. He well knew the value of time
- in the present emergency. Whatever might be the extent of the
- self-delusion of his enemies, and however it had tended to assist his
- schemes, the slightest cause of suspicion, acting on the subtle nature of
- an Indian, would be likely to prove fatal. Taking the path, therefore,
- that was most likely to avoid observation, he rather skirted than entered
- the village. The warriors were still to be seen in the distance, by the
- fading light of the fires, stalking from lodge to lodge. But the children
- had abandoned their sports for their beds of skins, and the quiet of night
- was already beginning to prevail over the turbulence and excitement of so
- busy and important an evening.
- </p>
- <p>
- Alice revived under the renovating influence of the open air, and, as her
- physical rather than her mental powers had been the subject of weakness,
- she stood in no need of any explanation of that which had occurred.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now let me make an effort to walk,” she said, when they had entered the
- forest, blushing, though unseen, that she had not been sooner able to quit
- the arms of Duncan; “I am indeed restored.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nay, Alice, you are yet too weak.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The maiden struggled gently to release herself, and Heyward was compelled
- to part with his precious burden. The representative of the bear had
- certainly been an entire stranger to the delicious emotions of the lover
- while his arms encircled his mistress; and he was, perhaps, a stranger
- also to the nature of that feeling of ingenuous shame that oppressed the
- trembling Alice. But when he found himself at a suitable distance from the
- lodges he made a halt, and spoke on a subject of which he was thoroughly
- the master.
- </p>
- <p>
- “This path will lead you to the brook,” he said; “follow its northern bank
- until you come to a fall; mount the hill on your right, and you will see
- the fires of the other people. There you must go and demand protection; if
- they are true Delawares you will be safe. A distant flight with that
- gentle one, just now, is impossible. The Hurons would follow up our trail,
- and master our scalps before we had got a dozen miles. Go, and Providence
- be with you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And you!” demanded Heyward, in surprise; “surely we part not here?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Hurons hold the pride of the Delawares; the last of the high blood of
- the Mohicans is in their power,” returned the scout; “I go to see what can
- be done in his favor. Had they mastered your scalp, major, a knave should
- have fallen for every hair it held, as I promised; but if the young
- Sagamore is to be led to the stake, the Indians shall see also how a man
- without a cross can die.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Not in the least offended with the decided preference that the sturdy
- woodsman gave to one who might, in some degree, be called the child of his
- adoption, Duncan still continued to urge such reasons against so desperate
- an effort as presented themselves. He was aided by Alice, who mingled her
- entreaties with those of Heyward that he would abandon a resolution that
- promised so much danger, with so little hope of success. Their eloquence
- and ingenuity were expended in vain. The scout heard them attentively, but
- impatiently, and finally closed the discussion, by answering, in a tone
- that instantly silenced Alice, while it told Heyward how fruitless any
- further remonstrances would be.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have heard,” he said, “that there is a feeling in youth which binds man
- to woman closer than the father is tied to the son. It may be so. I have
- seldom been where women of my color dwell; but such may be the gifts of
- nature in the settlements. You have risked life, and all that is dear to
- you, to bring off this gentle one, and I suppose that some such
- disposition is at the bottom of it all. As for me, I taught the lad the
- real character of a rifle; and well has he paid me for it. I have fou't at
- his side in many a bloody scrimmage; and so long as I could hear the crack
- of his piece in one ear, and that of the Sagamore in the other, I knew no
- enemy was on my back. Winters and summer, nights and days, have we roved
- the wilderness in company, eating of the same dish, one sleeping while the
- other watched; and afore it shall be said that Uncas was taken to the
- torment, and I at hand—There is but a single Ruler of us all,
- whatever may the color of the skin; and Him I call to witness, that before
- the Mohican boy shall perish for the want of a friend, good faith shall
- depart the 'arth, and 'killdeer' become as harmless as the tooting we'pon
- of the singer!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan released his hold on the arm of the scout, who turned, and steadily
- retraced his steps toward the lodges. After pausing a moment to gaze at
- his retiring form, the successful and yet sorrowful Heyward and Alice took
- their way together toward the distant village of the Delawares.
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0359.jpg" alt="0359" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0359.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 26
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Bot.—Let me play the lion too.”
- —Midsummer Night's Dream
-</pre>
- <p>
- Notwithstanding the high resolution of Hawkeye he fully comprehended all
- the difficulties and danger he was about to incur. In his return to the
- camp, his acute and practised intellects were intently engaged in devising
- means to counteract a watchfulness and suspicion on the part of his
- enemies, that he knew were, in no degree, inferior to his own. Nothing but
- the color of his skin had saved the lives of Magua and the conjurer, who
- would have been the first victims sacrificed to his own security, had not
- the scout believed such an act, however congenial it might be to the
- nature of an Indian, utterly unworthy of one who boasted a descent from
- men that knew no cross of blood. Accordingly, he trusted to the withes and
- ligaments with which he had bound his captives, and pursued his way
- directly toward the center of the lodges. As he approached the buildings,
- his steps become more deliberate, and his vigilant eye suffered no sign,
- whether friendly or hostile, to escape him. A neglected hut was a little
- in advance of the others, and appeared as if it had been deserted when
- half completed—most probably on account of failing in some of the
- more important requisites; such as wood or water. A faint light glimmered
- through its cracks, however, and announced that, notwithstanding its
- imperfect structure, it was not without a tenant. Thither, then, the scout
- proceeded, like a prudent general, who was about to feel the advanced
- positions of his enemy, before he hazarded the main attack.
- </p>
- <p>
- Throwing himself into a suitable posture for the beast he represented,
- Hawkeye crawled to a little opening, where he might command a view of the
- interior. It proved to be the abiding place of David Gamut. Hither the
- faithful singing-master had now brought himself, together with all his
- sorrows, his apprehensions, and his meek dependence on the protection of
- Providence. At the precise moment when his ungainly person came under the
- observation of the scout, in the manner just mentioned, the woodsman
- himself, though in his assumed character, was the subject of the solitary
- being's profounded reflections.
- </p>
- <p>
- However implicit the faith of David was in the performance of ancient
- miracles, he eschewed the belief of any direct supernatural agency in the
- management of modern morality. In other words, while he had implicit faith
- in the ability of Balaam's ass to speak, he was somewhat skeptical on the
- subject of a bear's singing; and yet he had been assured of the latter, on
- the testimony of his own exquisite organs. There was something in his air
- and manner that betrayed to the scout the utter confusion of the state of
- his mind. He was seated on a pile of brush, a few twigs from which
- occasionally fed his low fire, with his head leaning on his arm, in a
- posture of melancholy musing. The costume of the votary of music had
- undergone no other alteration from that so lately described, except that
- he had covered his bald head with the triangular beaver, which had not
- proved sufficiently alluring to excite the cupidity of any of his captors.
- </p>
- <p>
- The ingenious Hawkeye, who recalled the hasty manner in which the other
- had abandoned his post at the bedside of the sick woman, was not without
- his suspicions concerning the subject of so much solemn deliberation.
- First making the circuit of the hut, and ascertaining that it stood quite
- alone, and that the character of its inmate was likely to protect it from
- visitors, he ventured through its low door, into the very presence of
- Gamut. The position of the latter brought the fire between them; and when
- Hawkeye had seated himself on end, near a minute elapsed, during which the
- two remained regarding each other without speaking. The suddenness and the
- nature of the surprise had nearly proved too much for—we will not
- say the philosophy—but for the pitch and resolution of David. He
- fumbled for his pitch-pipe, and arose with a confused intention of
- attempting a musical exorcism.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dark and mysterious monster!” he exclaimed, while with trembling hands he
- disposed of his auxiliary eyes, and sought his never-failing resource in
- trouble, the gifted version of the psalms; “I know not your nature nor
- intents; but if aught you meditate against the person and rights of one of
- the humblest servants of the temple, listen to the inspired language of
- the youth of Israel, and repent.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The bear shook his shaggy sides, and then a well-known voice replied:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Put up the tooting we'pon, and teach your throat modesty. Five words of
- plain and comprehendible English are worth just now an hour of squalling.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What art thou?” demanded David, utterly disqualified to pursue his
- original intention, and nearly gasping for breath.
- </p>
- <p>
- “A man like yourself; and one whose blood is as little tainted by the
- cross of a bear, or an Indian, as your own. Have you so soon forgotten
- from whom you received the foolish instrument you hold in your hand?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can these things be?” returned David, breathing more freely, as the truth
- began to dawn upon him. “I have found many marvels during my sojourn with
- the heathen, but surely nothing to excel this.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come, come,” returned Hawkeye, uncasing his honest countenance, the
- better to assure the wavering confidence of his companion; “you may see a
- skin, which, if it be not as white as one of the gentle ones, has no tinge
- of red to it that the winds of the heaven and the sun have not bestowed.
- Now let us to business.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “First tell me of the maiden, and of the youth who so bravely sought her,”
- interrupted David.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, they are happily freed from the tomahawks of these varlets. But can
- you put me on the scent of Uncas?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The young man is in bondage, and much I fear his death is decreed. I
- greatly mourn that one so well disposed should die in his ignorance, and I
- have sought a goodly hymn—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can you lead me to him?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The task will not be difficult,” returned David, hesitating; “though I
- greatly fear your presence would rather increase than mitigate his unhappy
- fortunes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No more words, but lead on,” returned Hawkeye, concealing his face again,
- and setting the example in his own person, by instantly quitting the
- lodge.
- </p>
- <p>
- As they proceeded, the scout ascertained that his companion found access
- to Uncas, under privilege of his imaginary infirmity, aided by the favor
- he had acquired with one of the guards, who, in consequence of speaking a
- little English, had been selected by David as the subject of a religious
- conversion. How far the Huron comprehended the intentions of his new
- friend may well be doubted; but as exclusive attention is as flattering to
- a savage as to a more civilized individual, it had produced the effect we
- have mentioned. It is unnecessary to repeat the shrewd manner with which
- the scout extracted these particulars from the simple David; neither shall
- we dwell in this place on the nature of the instruction he delivered, when
- completely master of all the necessary facts; as the whole will be
- sufficiently explained to the reader in the course of the narrative.
- </p>
- <p>
- The lodge in which Uncas was confined was in the very center of the
- village, and in a situation, perhaps, more difficult than any other to
- approach, or leave, without observation. But it was not the policy of
- Hawkeye to affect the least concealment. Presuming on his disguise, and
- his ability to sustain the character he had assumed, he took the most
- plain and direct route to the place. The hour, however, afforded him some
- little of that protection which he appeared so much to despise. The boys
- were already buried in sleep, and all the women, and most of the warriors,
- had retired to their lodges for the night. Four or five of the latter only
- lingered about the door of the prison of Uncas, wary but close observers
- of the manner of their captive.
- </p>
- <p>
- At the sight of Gamut, accompanied by one in the well-known masquerade of
- their most distinguished conjurer, they readily made way for them both.
- Still they betrayed no intention to depart. On the other hand, they were
- evidently disposed to remain bound to the place by an additional interest
- in the mysterious mummeries that they of course expected from such a
- visit.
- </p>
- <p>
- From the total inability of the scout to address the Hurons in their own
- language, he was compelled to trust the conversation entirely to David.
- Notwithstanding the simplicity of the latter, he did ample justice to the
- instructions he had received, more than fulfilling the strongest hopes of
- his teacher.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Delawares are women!” he exclaimed, addressing himself to the savage
- who had a slight understanding of the language in which he spoke; “the
- Yengeese, my foolish countrymen, have told them to take up the tomahawk,
- and strike their fathers in the Canadas, and they have forgotten their
- sex. Does my brother wish to hear 'Le Cerf Agile' ask for his petticoats,
- and see him weep before the Hurons, at the stake?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The exclamation “Hugh!” delivered in a strong tone of assent, announced
- the gratification the savage would receive in witnessing such an
- exhibition of weakness in an enemy so long hated and so much feared.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then let him step aside, and the cunning man will blow upon the dog. Tell
- it to my brothers.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Huron explained the meaning of David to his fellows, who, in their
- turn, listened to the project with that sort of satisfaction that their
- untamed spirits might be expected to find in such a refinement in cruelty.
- They drew back a little from the entrance and motioned to the supposed
- conjurer to enter. But the bear, instead of obeying, maintained the seat
- it had taken, and growled:
- </p>
- <p>
- “The cunning man is afraid that his breath will blow upon his brothers,
- and take away their courage too,” continued David, improving the hint he
- received; “they must stand further off.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Hurons, who would have deemed such a misfortune the heaviest calamity
- that could befall them, fell back in a body, taking a position where they
- were out of earshot, though at the same time they could command a view of
- the entrance to the lodge. Then, as if satisfied of their safety, the
- scout left his position, and slowly entered the place. It was silent and
- gloomy, being tenanted solely by the captive, and lighted by the dying
- embers of a fire, which had been used for the purposed of cookery.
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncas occupied a distant corner, in a reclining attitude, being rigidly
- bound, both hands and feet, by strong and painful withes. When the
- frightful object first presented itself to the young Mohican, he did not
- deign to bestow a single glance on the animal. The scout, who had left
- David at the door, to ascertain they were not observed, thought it prudent
- to preserve his disguise until assured of their privacy. Instead of
- speaking, therefore, he exerted himself to enact one of the antics of the
- animal he represented. The young Mohican, who at first believed his
- enemies had sent in a real beast to torment him, and try his nerves,
- detected in those performances that to Heyward had appeared so accurate,
- certain blemishes, that at once betrayed the counterfeit. Had Hawkeye been
- aware of the low estimation in which the skillful Uncas held his
- representations, he would probably have prolonged the entertainment a
- little in pique. But the scornful expression of the young man's eye
- admitted of so many constructions, that the worthy scout was spared the
- mortification of such a discovery. As soon, therefore, as David gave the
- preconcerted signal, a low hissing sound was heard in the lodge in place
- of the fierce growlings of the bear.
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/5433.jpg" alt="5433" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/5433.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- Uncas had cast his body back against the wall of the hut and closed his
- eyes, as if willing to exclude so contemptible and disagreeable an object
- from his sight. But the moment the noise of the serpent was heard, he
- arose, and cast his looks on each side of him, bending his head low, and
- turning it inquiringly in every direction, until his keen eye rested on
- the shaggy monster, where it remained riveted, as though fixed by the
- power of a charm. Again the same sounds were repeated, evidently
- proceeding from the mouth of the beast. Once more the eyes of the youth
- roamed over the interior of the lodge, and returning to the former resting
- place, he uttered, in a deep, suppressed voice:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hawkeye!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Cut his bands,” said Hawkeye to David, who just then approached them.
- </p>
- <p>
- The singer did as he was ordered, and Uncas found his limbs released. At
- the same moment the dried skin of the animal rattled, and presently the
- scout arose to his feet, in proper person. The Mohican appeared to
- comprehend the nature of the attempt his friend had made, intuitively,
- neither tongue nor feature betraying another symptom of surprise. When
- Hawkeye had cast his shaggy vestment, which was done by simply loosing
- certain thongs of skin, he drew a long, glittering knife, and put it in
- the hands of Uncas.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The red Hurons are without,” he said; “let us be ready.” At the same time
- he laid his finger significantly on another similar weapon, both being the
- fruits of his prowess among their enemies during the evening.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We will go,” said Uncas.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Whither?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “To the Tortoises; they are the children of my grandfathers.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, lad,” said the scout in English—a language he was apt to use
- when a little abstracted in mind; “the same blood runs in your veins, I
- believe; but time and distance has a little changed its color. What shall
- we do with the Mingoes at the door? They count six, and this singer is as
- good as nothing.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Hurons are boasters,” said Uncas, scornfully; “their 'totem' is a
- moose, and they run like snails. The Delawares are children of the
- tortoise, and they outstrip the deer.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, lad, there is truth in what you say; and I doubt not, on a rush, you
- would pass the whole nation; and, in a straight race of two miles, would
- be in, and get your breath again, afore a knave of them all was within
- hearing of the other village. But the gift of a white man lies more in his
- arms than in his legs. As for myself, I can brain a Huron as well as a
- better man; but when it comes to a race the knaves would prove too much
- for me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncas, who had already approached the door, in readiness to lead the way,
- now recoiled, and placed himself, once more, in the bottom of the lodge.
- But Hawkeye, who was too much occupied with his own thoughts to note the
- movement, continued speaking more to himself than to his companion.
- </p>
- <p>
- “After all,” he said, “it is unreasonable to keep one man in bondage to
- the gifts of another. So, Uncas, you had better take the lead, while I
- will put on the skin again, and trust to cunning for want of speed.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The young Mohican made no reply, but quietly folded his arms, and leaned
- his body against one of the upright posts that supported the wall of the
- hut.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well,” said the scout looking up at him, “why do you tarry? There will be
- time enough for me, as the knaves will give chase to you at first.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Uncas will stay,” was the calm reply.
- </p>
- <p>
- “For what?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “To fight with his father's brother, and die with the friend of the
- Delawares.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, lad,” returned Hawkeye, squeezing the hand of Uncas between his own
- iron fingers; “'twould have been more like a Mingo than a Mohican had you
- left me. But I thought I would make the offer, seeing that youth commonly
- loves life. Well, what can't be done by main courage, in war, must be done
- by circumvention. Put on the skin; I doubt not you can play the bear
- nearly as well as myself.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Whatever might have been the private opinion of Uncas of their respective
- abilities in this particular, his grave countenance manifested no opinion
- of his superiority. He silently and expeditiously encased himself in the
- covering of the beast, and then awaited such other movements as his more
- aged companion saw fit to dictate.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, friend,” said Hawkeye, addressing David, “an exchange of garments
- will be a great convenience to you, inasmuch as you are but little
- accustomed to the make-shifts of the wilderness. Here, take my hunting
- shirt and cap, and give me your blanket and hat. You must trust me with
- the book and spectacles, as well as the tooter, too; if we ever meet
- again, in better times, you shall have all back again, with many thanks
- into the bargain.”
- </p>
- <p>
- David parted with the several articles named with a readiness that would
- have done great credit to his liberality, had he not certainly profited,
- in many particulars, by the exchange. Hawkeye was not long in assuming his
- borrowed garments; and when his restless eyes were hid behind the glasses,
- and his head was surmounted by the triangular beaver, as their statures
- were not dissimilar, he might readily have passed for the singer, by
- starlight. As soon as these dispositions were made, the scout turned to
- David, and gave him his parting instructions.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are you much given to cowardice?” he bluntly asked, by way of obtaining a
- suitable understanding of the whole case before he ventured a
- prescription.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My pursuits are peaceful, and my temper, I humbly trust, is greatly given
- to mercy and love,” returned David, a little nettled at so direct an
- attack on his manhood; “but there are none who can say that I have ever
- forgotten my faith in the Lord, even in the greatest straits.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Your chiefest danger will be at the moment when the savages find out that
- they have been deceived. If you are not then knocked on the head, your
- being a non-composser will protect you; and you'll then have a good reason
- to expect to die in your bed. If you stay, it must be to sit down here in
- the shadow, and take the part of Uncas, until such times as the cunning of
- the Indians discover the cheat, when, as I have already said, your times
- of trial will come. So choose for yourself—to make a rush or tarry
- here.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Even so,” said David, firmly; “I will abide in the place of the Delaware.
- Bravely and generously has he battled in my behalf, and this, and more,
- will I dare in his service.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have spoken as a man, and like one who, under wiser schooling, would
- have been brought to better things. Hold your head down, and draw in your
- legs; their formation might tell the truth too early. Keep silent as long
- as may be; and it would be wise, when you do speak, to break out suddenly
- in one of your shoutings, which will serve to remind the Indians that you
- are not altogether as responsible as men should be. If however, they take
- your scalp, as I trust and believe they will not, depend on it, Uncas and
- I will not forget the deed, but revenge it as becomes true warriors and
- trusty friends.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hold!” said David, perceiving that with this assurance they were about to
- leave him; “I am an unworthy and humble follower of one who taught not the
- damnable principle of revenge. Should I fall, therefore, seek no victims
- to my manes, but rather forgive my destroyers; and if you remember them at
- all, let it be in prayers for the enlightening of their minds, and for
- their eternal welfare.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout hesitated, and appeared to muse.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There is a principle in that,” he said, “different from the law of the
- woods; and yet it is fair and noble to reflect upon.” Then heaving a heavy
- sigh, probably among the last he ever drew in pining for a condition he
- had so long abandoned, he added: “it is what I would wish to practise
- myself, as one without a cross of blood, though it is not always easy to
- deal with an Indian as you would with a fellow Christian. God bless you,
- friend; I do believe your scent is not greatly wrong, when the matter is
- duly considered, and keeping eternity before the eyes, though much depends
- on the natural gifts, and the force of temptation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- So saying, the scout returned and shook David cordially by the hand; after
- which act of friendship he immediately left the lodge, attended by the new
- representative of the beast.
- </p>
- <p>
- The instant Hawkeye found himself under the observation of the Hurons, he
- drew up his tall form in the rigid manner of David, threw out his arm in
- the act of keeping time, and commenced what he intended for an imitation
- of his psalmody. Happily for the success of this delicate adventure, he
- had to deal with ears but little practised in the concord of sweet sounds,
- or the miserable effort would infallibly have been detected. It was
- necessary to pass within a dangerous proximity of the dark group of the
- savages, and the voice of the scout grew louder as they drew nigher. When
- at the nearest point the Huron who spoke the English thrust out an arm,
- and stopped the supposed singing-master.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Delaware dog!” he said, leaning forward, and peering through the dim
- light to catch the expression of the other's features; “is he afraid? Will
- the Hurons hear his groans?”
- </p>
- <p>
- A growl, so exceedingly fierce and natural, proceeded from the beast, that
- the young Indian released his hold and started aside, as if to assure
- himself that it was not a veritable bear, and no counterfeit, that was
- rolling before him. Hawkeye, who feared his voice would betray him to his
- subtle enemies, gladly profited by the interruption, to break out anew in
- such a burst of musical expression as would, probably, in a more refined
- state of society have been termed “a grand crash.” Among his actual
- auditors, however, it merely gave him an additional claim to that respect
- which they never withhold from such as are believed to be the subjects of
- mental alienation. The little knot of Indians drew back in a body, and
- suffered, as they thought, the conjurer and his inspired assistant to
- proceed.
- </p>
- <p>
- It required no common exercise of fortitude in Uncas and the scout to
- continue the dignified and deliberate pace they had assumed in passing the
- lodge; especially as they immediately perceived that curiosity had so far
- mastered fear, as to induce the watchers to approach the hut, in order to
- witness the effect of the incantations. The least injudicious or impatient
- movement on the part of David might betray them, and time was absolutely
- necessary to insure the safety of the scout. The loud noise the latter
- conceived it politic to continue, drew many curious gazers to the doors of
- the different huts as thy passed; and once or twice a dark-looking warrior
- stepped across their path, led to the act by superstition and
- watchfulness. They were not, however, interrupted, the darkness of the
- hour, and the boldness of the attempt, proving their principal friends.
- </p>
- <p>
- The adventurers had got clear of the village, and were now swiftly
- approaching the shelter of the woods, when a loud and long cry arose from
- the lodge where Uncas had been confined. The Mohican started on his feet,
- and shook his shaggy covering, as though the animal he counterfeited was
- about to make some desperate effort.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hold!” said the scout, grasping his friend by the shoulder, “let them
- yell again! 'Twas nothing but wonderment.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He had no occasion to delay, for at the next instant a burst of cries
- filled the outer air, and ran along the whole extent of the village. Uncas
- cast his skin, and stepped forth in his own beautiful proportions. Hawkeye
- tapped him lightly on the shoulder, and glided ahead.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now let the devils strike our scent!” said the scout, tearing two rifles,
- with all their attendant accouterments, from beneath a bush, and
- flourishing “killdeer” as he handed Uncas his weapon; “two, at least, will
- find it to their deaths.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Then, throwing their pieces to a low trail, like sportsmen in readiness
- for their game, they dashed forward, and were soon buried in the somber
- darkness of the forest.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 27
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Ant. I shall remember: When C'sar says
- Do this, it is performed.”
- —Julius Caesar
-</pre>
- <p>
- The impatience of the savages who lingered about the prison of Uncas, as
- has been seen, had overcome their dread of the conjurer's breath. They
- stole cautiously, and with beating hearts, to a crevice, through which the
- faint light of the fire was glimmering. For several minutes they mistook
- the form of David for that of the prisoner; but the very accident which
- Hawkeye had foreseen occurred. Tired of keeping the extremities of his
- long person so near together, the singer gradually suffered the lower
- limbs to extend themselves, until one of his misshapen feet actually came
- in contact with and shoved aside the embers of the fire. At first the
- Hurons believed the Delaware had been thus deformed by witchcraft. But
- when David, unconscious of being observed, turned his head, and exposed
- his simple, mild countenance, in place of the haughty lineaments of their
- prisoner, it would have exceeded the credulity of even a native to have
- doubted any longer. They rushed together into the lodge, and, laying their
- hands, with but little ceremony, on their captive, immediately detected
- the imposition. Then arose the cry first heard by the fugitives. It was
- succeeded by the most frantic and angry demonstrations of vengeance.
- David, however, firm in his determination to cover the retreat of his
- friends, was compelled to believe that his own final hour had come.
- Deprived of his book and his pipe, he was fain to trust to a memory that
- rarely failed him on such subjects; and breaking forth in a loud and
- impassioned strain, he endeavored to smooth his passage into the other
- world by singing the opening verse of a funeral anthem. The Indians were
- seasonably reminded of his infirmity, and, rushing into the open air, they
- aroused the village in the manner described.
- </p>
- <p>
- A native warrior fights as he sleeps, without the protection of anything
- defensive. The sounds of the alarm were, therefore, hardly uttered before
- two hundred men were afoot, and ready for the battle or the chase, as
- either might be required. The escape was soon known; and the whole tribe
- crowded, in a body, around the council-lodge, impatiently awaiting the
- instruction of their chiefs. In such a sudden demand on their wisdom, the
- presence of the cunning Magua could scarcely fail of being needed. His
- name was mentioned, and all looked round in wonder that he did not appear.
- Messengers were then despatched to his lodge requiring his presence.
- </p>
- <p>
- In the meantime, some of the swiftest and most discreet of the young men
- were ordered to make the circuit of the clearing, under cover of the
- woods, in order to ascertain that their suspected neighbors, the
- Delawares, designed no mischief. Women and children ran to and fro; and,
- in short, the whole encampment exhibited another scene of wild and savage
- confusion. Gradually, however, these symptoms of disorder diminished; and
- in a few minutes the oldest and most distinguished chiefs were assembled
- in the lodge, in grave consultation.
- </p>
- <p>
- The clamor of many voices soon announced that a party approached, who
- might be expected to communicate some intelligence that would explain the
- mystery of the novel surprise. The crowd without gave way, and several
- warriors entered the place, bringing with them the hapless conjurer, who
- had been left so long by the scout in duress.
- </p>
- <p>
- Notwithstanding this man was held in very unequal estimation among the
- Hurons, some believing implicitly in his power, and others deeming him an
- impostor, he was now listened to by all with the deepest attention. When
- his brief story was ended, the father of the sick woman stepped forth,
- and, in a few pithy expression, related, in his turn, what he knew. These
- two narratives gave a proper direction to the subsequent inquiries, which
- were now made with the characteristic cunning of savages.
- </p>
- <p>
- Instead of rushing in a confused and disorderly throng to the cavern, ten
- of the wisest and firmest among the chiefs were selected to prosecute the
- investigation. As no time was to be lost, the instant the choice was made
- the individuals appointed rose in a body and left the place without
- speaking. On reaching the entrance, the younger men in advance made way
- for their seniors; and the whole proceeded along the low, dark gallery,
- with the firmness of warriors ready to devote themselves to the public
- good, though, at the same time, secretly doubting the nature of the power
- with which they were about to contend.
- </p>
- <p>
- The outer apartment of the cavern was silent and gloomy. The woman lay in
- her usual place and posture, though there were those present who affirmed
- they had seen her borne to the woods by the supposed “medicine of the
- white men.” Such a direct and palpable contradiction of the tale related
- by the father caused all eyes to be turned on him. Chafed by the silent
- imputation, and inwardly troubled by so unaccountable a circumstance, the
- chief advanced to the side of the bed, and, stooping, cast an incredulous
- look at the features, as if distrusting their reality. His daughter was
- dead.
- </p>
- <p>
- The unerring feeling of nature for a moment prevailed and the old warrior
- hid his eyes in sorrow. Then, recovering his self-possession, he faced his
- companions, and, pointing toward the corpse, he said, in the language of
- his people:
- </p>
- <p>
- “The wife of my young man has left us! The Great Spirit is angry with his
- children.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The mournful intelligence was received in solemn silence. After a short
- pause, one of the elder Indians was about to speak, when a dark-looking
- object was seen rolling out of an adjoining apartment, into the very
- center of the room where they stood. Ignorant of the nature of the beings
- they had to deal with, the whole party drew back a little, and, rising on
- end, exhibited the distorted but still fierce and sullen features of
- Magua. The discovery was succeeded by a general exclamation of amazement.
- </p>
- <p>
- As soon, however, as the true situation of the chief was understood,
- several knives appeared, and his limbs and tongue were quickly released.
- The Huron arose, and shook himself like a lion quitting his lair. Not a
- word escaped him, though his hand played convulsively with the handle of
- his knife, while his lowering eyes scanned the whole party, as if they
- sought an object suited to the first burst of his vengeance.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was happy for Uncas and the scout, and even David, that they were all
- beyond the reach of his arm at such a moment; for, assuredly, no
- refinement in cruelty would then have deferred their deaths, in opposition
- to the promptings of the fierce temper that nearly choked him. Meeting
- everywhere faces that he knew as friends, the savage grated his teeth
- together like rasps of iron, and swallowed his passion for want of a
- victim on whom to vent it. This exhibition of anger was noted by all
- present; and from an apprehension of exasperating a temper that was
- already chafed nearly to madness, several minutes were suffered to pass
- before another word was uttered. When, however, suitable time had elapsed,
- the oldest of the party spoke.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My friend has found an enemy,” he said. “Is he nigh that the Hurons might
- take revenge?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let the Delaware die!” exclaimed Magua, in a voice of thunder.
- </p>
- <p>
- Another longer and expressive silence was observed, and was broken, as
- before, with due precaution, by the same individual.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Mohican is swift of foot, and leaps far,” he said; “but my young men
- are on his trail.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is he gone?” demanded Magua, in tones so deep and guttural, that they
- seemed to proceed from his inmost chest.
- </p>
- <p>
- “An evil spirit has been among us, and the Delaware has blinded our eyes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “An evil spirit!” repeated the other, mockingly; “'tis the spirit that has
- taken the lives of so many Hurons; the spirit that slew my young men at
- 'the tumbling river'; that took their scalps at the 'healing spring'; and
- who has, now, bound the arms of Le Renard Subtil!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of whom does my friend speak?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of the dog who carries the heart and cunning of a Huron under a pale skin—La
- Longue Carabine.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The pronunciation of so terrible a name produced the usual effect among
- his auditors. But when time was given for reflection, and the warriors
- remembered that their formidable and daring enemy had even been in the
- bosom of their encampment, working injury, fearful rage took the place of
- wonder, and all those fierce passions with which the bosom of Magua had
- just been struggling were suddenly transferred to his companions. Some
- among them gnashed their teeth in anger, others vented their feelings in
- yells, and some, again, beat the air as frantically as if the object of
- their resentment were suffering under their blows. But this sudden
- outbreaking of temper as quickly subsided in the still and sullen
- restraint they most affected in their moments of inaction.
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua, who had in his turn found leisure for reflection, now changed his
- manner, and assumed the air of one who knew how to think and act with a
- dignity worthy of so grave a subject.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let us go to my people,” he said; “they wait for us.”
- </p>
- <p>
- His companions consented in silence, and the whole of the savage party
- left the cavern and returned to the council-lodge. When they were seated,
- all eyes turned on Magua, who understood, from such an indication, that,
- by common consent, they had devolved the duty of relating what had passed
- on him. He arose, and told his tale without duplicity or reservation. The
- whole deception practised by both Duncan and Hawkeye was, of course, laid
- naked, and no room was found, even for the most superstitious of the
- tribe, any longer to affix a doubt on the character of the occurrences. It
- was but too apparent that they had been insultingly, shamefully,
- disgracefully deceived. When he had ended, and resumed his seat, the
- collected tribe—for his auditors, in substance, included all the
- fighting men of the party—sat regarding each other like men
- astonished equally at the audacity and the success of their enemies. The
- next consideration, however, was the means and opportunities for revenge.
- </p>
- <p>
- Additional pursuers were sent on the trail of the fugitives; and then the
- chiefs applied themselves, in earnest, to the business of consultation.
- Many different expedients were proposed by the elder warriors, in
- succession, to all of which Magua was a silent and respectful listener.
- That subtle savage had recovered his artifice and self-command, and now
- proceeded toward his object with his customary caution and skill. It was
- only when each one disposed to speak had uttered his sentiments, that he
- prepared to advance his own opinions. They were given with additional
- weight from the circumstance that some of the runners had already
- returned, and reported that their enemies had been traced so far as to
- leave no doubt of their having sought safety in the neighboring camp of
- their suspected allies, the Delawares. With the advantage of possessing
- this important intelligence, the chief warily laid his plans before his
- fellows, and, as might have been anticipated from his eloquence and
- cunning, they were adopted without a dissenting voice. They were, briefly,
- as follows, both in opinions and in motives.
- </p>
- <p>
- It has been already stated that, in obedience to a policy rarely departed
- from, the sisters were separated so soon as they reached the Huron
- village. Magua had early discovered that in retaining the person of Alice,
- he possessed the most effectual check on Cora. When they parted,
- therefore, he kept the former within reach of his hand, consigning the one
- he most valued to the keeping of their allies. The arrangement was
- understood to be merely temporary, and was made as much with a view to
- flatter his neighbors as in obedience to the invariable rule of Indian
- policy.
- </p>
- <p>
- While goaded incessantly by these revengeful impulses that in a savage
- seldom slumber, the chief was still attentive to his more permanent
- personal interests. The follies and disloyalty committed in his youth were
- to be expiated by a long and painful penance, ere he could be restored to
- the full enjoyment of the confidence of his ancient people; and without
- confidence there could be no authority in an Indian tribe. In this
- delicate and arduous situation, the crafty native had neglected no means
- of increasing his influence; and one of the happiest of his expedients had
- been the success with which he had cultivated the favor of their powerful
- and dangerous neighbors. The result of his experiment had answered all the
- expectations of his policy; for the Hurons were in no degree exempt from
- that governing principle of nature, which induces man to value his gifts
- precisely in the degree that they are appreciated by others.
- </p>
- <p>
- But, while he was making this ostensible sacrifice to general
- considerations, Magua never lost sight of his individual motives. The
- latter had been frustrated by the unlooked-for events which had placed all
- his prisoners beyond his control; and he now found himself reduced to the
- necessity of suing for favors to those whom it had so lately been his
- policy to oblige.
- </p>
- <p>
- Several of the chiefs had proposed deep and treacherous schemes to
- surprise the Delawares and, by gaining possession of their camp, to
- recover their prisoners by the same blow; for all agreed that their honor,
- their interests, and the peace and happiness of their dead countrymen,
- imperiously required them speedily to immolate some victims to their
- revenge. But plans so dangerous to attempt, and of such doubtful issue,
- Magua found little difficulty in defeating. He exposed their risk and
- fallacy with his usual skill; and it was only after he had removed every
- impediment, in the shape of opposing advice, that he ventured to propose
- his own projects.
- </p>
- <p>
- He commenced by flattering the self-love of his auditors; a never-failing
- method of commanding attention. When he had enumerated the many different
- occasions on which the Hurons had exhibited their courage and prowess, in
- the punishment of insults, he digressed in a high encomium on the virtue
- of wisdom. He painted the quality as forming the great point of difference
- between the beaver and other brutes; between the brutes and men; and,
- finally, between the Hurons, in particular, and the rest of the human
- race. After he had sufficiently extolled the property of discretion, he
- undertook to exhibit in what manner its use was applicable to the present
- situation of their tribe. On the one hand, he said, was their great pale
- father, the governor of the Canadas, who had looked upon his children with
- a hard eye since their tomahawks had been so red; on the other, a people
- as numerous as themselves, who spoke a different language, possessed
- different interests, and loved them not, and who would be glad of any
- pretense to bring them in disgrace with the great white chief. Then he
- spoke of their necessities; of the gifts they had a right to expect for
- their past services; of their distance from their proper hunting-grounds
- and native villages; and of the necessity of consulting prudence more, and
- inclination less, in so critical circumstances. When he perceived that,
- while the old men applauded his moderation, many of the fiercest and most
- distinguished of the warriors listened to these politic plans with
- lowering looks, he cunningly led them back to the subject which they most
- loved. He spoke openly of the fruits of their wisdom, which he boldly
- pronounced would be a complete and final triumph over their enemies. He
- even darkly hinted that their success might be extended, with proper
- caution, in such a manner as to include the destruction of all whom they
- had reason to hate. In short, he so blended the warlike with the artful,
- the obvious with the obscure, as to flatter the propensities of both
- parties, and to leave to each subject of hope, while neither could say it
- clearly comprehended his intentions.
- </p>
- <p>
- The orator, or the politician, who can produce such a state of things, is
- commonly popular with his contemporaries, however he may be treated by
- posterity. All perceived that more was meant than was uttered, and each
- one believed that the hidden meaning was precisely such as his own
- faculties enabled him to understand, or his own wishes led him to
- anticipate.
- </p>
- <p>
- In this happy state of things, it is not surprising that the management of
- Magua prevailed. The tribe consented to act with deliberation, and with
- one voice they committed the direction of the whole affair to the
- government of the chief who had suggested such wise and intelligible
- expedients.
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua had now attained one great object of all his cunning and enterprise.
- The ground he had lost in the favor of his people was completely regained,
- and he found himself even placed at the head of affairs. He was, in truth,
- their ruler; and, so long as he could maintain his popularity, no monarch
- could be more despotic, especially while the tribe continued in a hostile
- country. Throwing off, therefore, the appearance of consultation, he
- assumed the grave air of authority necessary to support the dignity of his
- office.
- </p>
- <p>
- Runners were despatched for intelligence in different directions; spies
- were ordered to approach and feel the encampment of the Delawares; the
- warriors were dismissed to their lodges, with an intimation that their
- services would soon be needed; and the women and children were ordered to
- retire, with a warning that it was their province to be silent. When these
- several arrangements were made, Magua passed through the village, stopping
- here and there to pay a visit where he thought his presence might be
- flattering to the individual. He confirmed his friends in their
- confidence, fixed the wavering, and gratified all. Then he sought his own
- lodge. The wife the Huron chief had abandoned, when he was chased from
- among his people, was dead. Children he had none; and he now occupied a
- hut, without companion of any sort. It was, in fact, the dilapidated and
- solitary structure in which David had been discovered, and whom he had
- tolerated in his presence, on those few occasions when they met, with the
- contemptuous indifference of a haughty superiority.
- </p>
- <p>
- Hither, then, Magua retired, when his labors of policy were ended. While
- others slept, however, he neither knew or sought repose. Had there been
- one sufficiently curious to have watched the movements of the newly
- elected chief, he would have seen him seated in a corner of his lodge,
- musing on the subject of his future plans, from the hour of his retirement
- to the time he had appointed for the warriors to assemble again.
- Occasionally the air breathed through the crevices of the hut, and the low
- flame that fluttered about the embers of the fire threw their wavering
- light on the person of the sullen recluse. At such moments it would not
- have been difficult to have fancied the dusky savage the Prince of
- Darkness brooding on his own fancied wrongs, and plotting evil.
- </p>
- <p>
- Long before the day dawned, however, warrior after warrior entered the
- solitary hut of Magua, until they had collected to the number of twenty.
- Each bore his rifle, and all the other accouterments of war, though the
- paint was uniformly peaceful. The entrance of these fierce-looking beings
- was unnoticed: some seating themselves in the shadows of the place, and
- others standing like motionless statues, until the whole of the designated
- band was collected.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then Magua arose and gave the signal to proceed, marching himself in
- advance. They followed their leader singly, and in that well-known order
- which has obtained the distinguishing appellation of “Indian file.” Unlike
- other men engaged in the spirit-stirring business of war, they stole from
- their camp unostentatiously and unobserved resembling a band of gliding
- specters, more than warriors seeking the bubble reputation by deeds of
- desperate daring.
- </p>
- <p>
- Instead of taking the path which led directly toward the camp of the
- Delawares, Magua led his party for some distance down the windings of the
- stream, and along the little artificial lake of the beavers. The day began
- to dawn as they entered the clearing which had been formed by those
- sagacious and industrious animals. Though Magua, who had resumed his
- ancient garb, bore the outline of a fox on the dressed skin which formed
- his robe, there was one chief of his party who carried the beaver as his
- peculiar symbol, or “totem.” There would have been a species of profanity
- in the omission, had this man passed so powerful a community of his
- fancied kindred, without bestowing some evidence of his regard.
- Accordingly, he paused, and spoke in words as kind and friendly as if he
- were addressing more intelligent beings. He called the animals his
- cousins, and reminded them that his protecting influence was the reason
- they remained unharmed, while many avaricious traders were prompting the
- Indians to take their lives. He promised a continuance of his favors, and
- admonished them to be grateful. After which, he spoke of the expedition in
- which he was himself engaged, and intimated, though with sufficient
- delicacy and circumlocution, the expediency of bestowing on their relative
- a portion of that wisdom for which they were so renowned.*
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * These harangues of the beasts were frequent among the
- Indians. They often address their victims in this way,
- reproaching them for cowardice or commending their
- resolution, as they may happen to exhibit fortitude or the
- reverse, in suffering.
-</pre>
- <p>
- During the utterance of this extraordinary address, the companions of the
- speaker were as grave and as attentive to his language as though they were
- all equally impressed with its propriety. Once or twice black objects were
- seen rising to the surface of the water, and the Huron expressed pleasure,
- conceiving that his words were not bestowed in vain. Just as he ended his
- address, the head of a large beaver was thrust from the door of a lodge,
- whose earthen walls had been much injured, and which the party had
- believed, from its situation, to be uninhabited. Such an extraordinary
- sign of confidence was received by the orator as a highly favorable omen;
- and though the animal retreated a little precipitately, he was lavish of
- his thanks and commendations.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Magua thought sufficient time had been lost in gratifying the family
- affection of the warrior, he again made the signal to proceed. As the
- Indians moved away in a body, and with a step that would have been
- inaudible to the ears of any common man, the same venerable-looking beaver
- once more ventured his head from its cover. Had any of the Hurons turned
- to look behind them, they would have seen the animal watching their
- movements with an interest and sagacity that might easily have been
- mistaken for reason. Indeed, so very distinct and intelligible were the
- devices of the quadruped, that even the most experienced observer would
- have been at a loss to account for its actions, until the moment when the
- party entered the forest, when the whole would have been explained, by
- seeing the entire animal issue from the lodge, uncasing, by the act, the
- grave features of Chingachgook from his mask of fur.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 28
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Brief, I pray for you; for you see, 'tis a busy time with me.”
- —Much Ado About Nothing.
-</pre>
- <p>
- The tribe, or rather half tribe, of Delawares, which has been so often
- mentioned, and whose present place of encampment was so nigh the temporary
- village of the Hurons, could assemble about an equal number of warriors
- with the latter people. Like their neighbors, they had followed Montcalm
- into the territories of the English crown, and were making heavy and
- serious inroads on the hunting-grounds of the Mohawks; though they had
- seen fit, with the mysterious reserve so common among the natives, to
- withhold their assistance at the moment when it was most required. The
- French had accounted for this unexpected defection on the part of their
- ally in various ways. It was the prevalent opinion, however, that they had
- been influenced by veneration for the ancient treaty, that had once made
- them dependent on the Six Nations for military protection, and now
- rendered them reluctant to encounter their former masters. As for the
- tribe itself, it had been content to announce to Montcalm, through his
- emissaries, with Indian brevity, that their hatchets were dull, and time
- was necessary to sharpen them. The politic captain of the Canadas had
- deemed it wiser to submit to entertain a passive friend, than by any acts
- of ill-judged severity to convert him into an open enemy.
- </p>
- <p>
- On that morning when Magua led his silent party from the settlement of the
- beavers into the forests, in the manner described, the sun rose upon the
- Delaware encampment as if it had suddenly burst upon a busy people,
- actively employed in all the customary avocations of high noon. The women
- ran from lodge to lodge, some engaged in preparing their morning's meal, a
- few earnestly bent on seeking the comforts necessary to their habits, but
- more pausing to exchange hasty and whispered sentences with their friends.
- The warriors were lounging in groups, musing more than they conversed and
- when a few words were uttered, speaking like men who deeply weighed their
- opinions. The instruments of the chase were to be seen in abundance among
- the lodges; but none departed. Here and there a warrior was examining his
- arms, with an attention that is rarely bestowed on the implements, when no
- other enemy than the beasts of the forest is expected to be encountered.
- And occasionally, the eyes of a whole group were turned simultaneously
- toward a large and silent lodge in the center of the village, as if it
- contained the subject of their common thoughts.
- </p>
- <p>
- During the existence of this scene, a man suddenly appeared at the
- furthest extremity of a platform of rock which formed the level of the
- village. He was without arms, and his paint tended rather to soften than
- increase the natural sternness of his austere countenance. When in full
- view of the Delawares he stopped, and made a gesture of amity, by throwing
- his arm upward toward heaven, and then letting it fall impressively on his
- breast. The inhabitants of the village answered his salute by a low murmur
- of welcome, and encouraged him to advance by similar indications of
- friendship. Fortified by these assurances, the dark figure left the brow
- of the natural rocky terrace, where it had stood a moment, drawn in a
- strong outline against the blushing morning sky, and moved with dignity
- into the very center of the huts. As he approached, nothing was audible
- but the rattling of the light silver ornaments that loaded his arms and
- neck, and the tinkling of the little bells that fringed his deerskin
- moccasins. He made, as he advanced, many courteous signs of greeting to
- the men he passed, neglecting to notice the women, however, like one who
- deemed their favor, in the present enterprise, of no importance. When he
- had reached the group in which it was evident, by the haughtiness of their
- common mien, that the principal chiefs were collected, the stranger
- paused, and then the Delawares saw that the active and erect form that
- stood before them was that of the well-known Huron chief, Le Renard
- Subtil.
- </p>
- <p>
- His reception was grave, silent, and wary. The warriors in front stepped
- aside, opening the way to their most approved orator by the action; one
- who spoke all those languages that were cultivated among the northern
- aborigines.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The wise Huron is welcome,” said the Delaware, in the language of the
- Maquas; “he is come to eat his 'succotash' *, with his brothers of the
- lakes.”
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * A dish composed of cracked corn and beans. It is much used
- also by the whites. By corn is meant maise.
-</pre>
- <p>
- “He is come,” repeated Magua, bending his head with the dignity of an
- eastern prince.
- </p>
- <p>
- The chief extended his arm and taking the other by the wrist, they once
- more exchanged friendly salutations. Then the Delaware invited his guest
- to enter his own lodge, and share his morning meal. The invitation was
- accepted; and the two warriors, attended by three or four of the old men,
- walked calmly away, leaving the rest of the tribe devoured by a desire to
- understand the reasons of so unusual a visit, and yet not betraying the
- least impatience by sign or word.
- </p>
- <p>
- During the short and frugal repast that followed, the conversation was
- extremely circumspect, and related entirely to the events of the hunt, in
- which Magua had so lately been engaged. It would have been impossible for
- the most finished breeding to wear more of the appearance of considering
- the visit as a thing of course, than did his hosts, notwithstanding every
- individual present was perfectly aware that it must be connected with some
- secret object and that probably of importance to themselves. When the
- appetites of the whole were appeased, the squaws removed the trenchers and
- gourds, and the two parties began to prepare themselves for a subtle trial
- of their wits.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is the face of my great Canada father turned again toward his Huron
- children?” demanded the orator of the Delawares.
- </p>
- <p>
- “When was it ever otherwise?” returned Magua. “He calls my people 'most
- beloved'.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Delaware gravely bowed his acquiescence to what he knew to be false,
- and continued:
- </p>
- <p>
- “The tomahawks of your young men have been very red.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is so; but they are now bright and dull; for the Yengeese are dead,
- and the Delawares are our neighbors.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The other acknowledged the pacific compliment by a gesture of the hand,
- and remained silent. Then Magua, as if recalled to such a recollection, by
- the allusion to the massacre, demanded:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Does my prisoner give trouble to my brothers?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She is welcome.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The path between the Hurons and the Delawares is short and it is open;
- let her be sent to my squaws, if she gives trouble to my brother.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She is welcome,” returned the chief of the latter nation, still more
- emphatically.
- </p>
- <p>
- The baffled Magua continued silent several minutes, apparently
- indifferent, however, to the repulse he had received in this his opening
- effort to regain possession of Cora.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do my young men leave the Delawares room on the mountains for their
- hunts?” he at length continued.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Lenape are rulers of their own hills,” returned the other a little
- haughtily.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is well. Justice is the master of a red-skin. Why should they brighten
- their tomahawks and sharpen their knives against each other? Are not the
- pale faces thicker than the swallows in the season of flowers?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good!” exclaimed two or three of his auditors at the same time.
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua waited a little, to permit his words to soften the feelings of the
- Delawares, before he added:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Have there not been strange moccasins in the woods? Have not my brothers
- scented the feet of white men?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let my Canada father come,” returned the other, evasively; “his children
- are ready to see him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “When the great chief comes, it is to smoke with the Indians in their
- wigwams. The Hurons say, too, he is welcome. But the Yengeese have long
- arms, and legs that never tire! My young men dreamed they had seen the
- trail of the Yengeese nigh the village of the Delawares!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They will not find the Lenape asleep.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is well. The warrior whose eye is open can see his enemy,” said Magua,
- once more shifting his ground, when he found himself unable to penetrate
- the caution of his companion. “I have brought gifts to my brother. His
- nation would not go on the warpath, because they did not think it well,
- but their friends have remembered where they lived.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When he had thus announced his liberal intention, the crafty chief arose,
- and gravely spread his presents before the dazzled eyes of his hosts. They
- consisted principally of trinkets of little value, plundered from the
- slaughtered females of William Henry. In the division of the baubles the
- cunning Huron discovered no less art than in their selection. While he
- bestowed those of greater value on the two most distinguished warriors,
- one of whom was his host, he seasoned his offerings to their inferiors
- with such well-timed and apposite compliments, as left them no ground of
- complaint. In short, the whole ceremony contained such a happy blending of
- the profitable with the flattering, that it was not difficult for the
- donor immediately to read the effect of a generosity so aptly mingled with
- praise, in the eyes of those he addressed.
- </p>
- <p>
- This well-judged and politic stroke on the part of Magua was not without
- instantaneous results. The Delawares lost their gravity in a much more
- cordial expression; and the host, in particular, after contemplating his
- own liberal share of the spoil for some moments with peculiar
- gratification, repeated with strong emphasis, the words:
- </p>
- <p>
- “My brother is a wise chief. He is welcome.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Hurons love their friends the Delawares,” returned Magua. “Why should
- they not? they are colored by the same sun, and their just men will hunt
- in the same grounds after death. The red-skins should be friends, and look
- with open eyes on the white men. Has not my brother scented spies in the
- woods?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Delaware, whose name in English signified “Hard Heart,” an appellation
- that the French had translated into “le Coeur-dur,” forgot that obduracy
- of purpose, which had probably obtained him so significant a title. His
- countenance grew very sensibly less stern and he now deigned to answer
- more directly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There have been strange moccasins about my camp. They have been tracked
- into my lodges.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did my brother beat out the dogs?” asked Magua, without adverting in any
- manner to the former equivocation of the chief.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It would not do. The stranger is always welcome to the children of the
- Lenape.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The stranger, but not the spy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Would the Yengeese send their women as spies? Did not the Huron chief say
- he took women in the battle?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He told no lie. The Yengeese have sent out their scouts. They have been
- in my wigwams, but they found there no one to say welcome. Then they fled
- to the Delawares—for, say they, the Delawares are our friends; their
- minds are turned from their Canada father!”
- </p>
- <p>
- This insinuation was a home thrust, and one that in a more advanced state
- of society would have entitled Magua to the reputation of a skillful
- diplomatist. The recent defection of the tribe had, as they well knew
- themselves, subjected the Delawares to much reproach among their French
- allies; and they were now made to feel that their future actions were to
- be regarded with jealousy and distrust. There was no deep insight into
- causes and effects necessary to foresee that such a situation of things
- was likely to prove highly prejudicial to their future movements. Their
- distant villages, their hunting-grounds and hundreds of their women and
- children, together with a material part of their physical force, were
- actually within the limits of the French territory. Accordingly, this
- alarming annunciation was received, as Magua intended, with manifest
- disapprobation, if not with alarm.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let my father look in my face,” said Le Coeur-dur; “he will see no
- change. It is true, my young men did not go out on the war-path; they had
- dreams for not doing so. But they love and venerate the great white
- chief.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Will he think so when he hears that his greatest enemy is fed in the camp
- of his children? When he is told a bloody Yengee smokes at your fire? That
- the pale face who has slain so many of his friends goes in and out among
- the Delawares? Go! my great Canada father is not a fool!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where is the Yengee that the Delawares fear?” returned the other; “who
- has slain my young men? Who is the mortal enemy of my Great Father?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “La Longue Carabine!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Delaware warriors started at the well-known name, betraying by their
- amazement, that they now learned, for the first time, one so famous among
- the Indian allies of France was within their power.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What does my brother mean?” demanded Le Coeur-dur, in a tone that, by its
- wonder, far exceeded the usual apathy of his race.
- </p>
- <p>
- “A Huron never lies!” returned Magua, coldly, leaning his head against the
- side of the lodge, and drawing his slight robe across his tawny breast.
- “Let the Delawares count their prisoners; they will find one whose skin is
- neither red nor pale.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A long and musing pause succeeded. The chief consulted apart with his
- companions, and messengers despatched to collect certain others of the
- most distinguished men of the tribe.
- </p>
- <p>
- As warrior after warrior dropped in, they were each made acquainted, in
- turn, with the important intelligence that Magua had just communicated.
- The air of surprise, and the usual low, deep, guttural exclamation, were
- common to them all. The news spread from mouth to mouth, until the whole
- encampment became powerfully agitated. The women suspended their labors,
- to catch such syllables as unguardedly fell from the lips of the
- consulting warriors. The boys deserted their sports, and walking
- fearlessly among their fathers, looked up in curious admiration, as they
- heard the brief exclamations of wonder they so freely expressed the
- temerity of their hated foe. In short, every occupation was abandoned for
- the time, and all other pursuits seemed discarded in order that the tribe
- might freely indulge, after their own peculiar manner, in an open
- expression of feeling.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the excitement had a little abated, the old men disposed themselves
- seriously to consider that which it became the honor and safety of their
- tribe to perform, under circumstances of so much delicacy and
- embarrassment. During all these movements, and in the midst of the general
- commotion, Magua had not only maintained his seat, but the very attitude
- he had originally taken, against the side of the lodge, where he continued
- as immovable, and, apparently, as unconcerned, as if he had no interest in
- the result. Not a single indication of the future intentions of his hosts,
- however, escaped his vigilant eyes. With his consummate knowledge of the
- nature of the people with whom he had to deal, he anticipated every
- measure on which they decided; and it might almost be said, that, in many
- instances, he knew their intentions, even before they became known to
- themselves.
- </p>
- <p>
- The council of the Delawares was short. When it was ended, a general
- bustle announced that it was to be immediately succeeded by a solemn and
- formal assemblage of the nation. As such meetings were rare, and only
- called on occasions of the last importance, the subtle Huron, who still
- sat apart, a wily and dark observer of the proceedings, now knew that all
- his projects must be brought to their final issue. He, therefore, left the
- lodge and walked silently forth to the place, in front of the encampment,
- whither the warriors were already beginning to collect.
- </p>
- <p>
- It might have been half an hour before each individual, including even the
- women and children, was in his place. The delay had been created by the
- grave preparations that were deemed necessary to so solemn and unusual a
- conference. But when the sun was seen climbing above the tops of that
- mountain, against whose bosom the Delawares had constructed their
- encampment, most were seated; and as his bright rays darted from behind
- the outline of trees that fringed the eminence, they fell upon as grave,
- as attentive, and as deeply interested a multitude, as was probably ever
- before lighted by his morning beams. Its number somewhat exceeded a
- thousand souls.
- </p>
- <p>
- In a collection of so serious savages, there is never to be found any
- impatient aspirant after premature distinction, standing ready to move his
- auditors to some hasty, and, perhaps, injudicious discussion, in order
- that his own reputation may be the gainer. An act of so much precipitancy
- and presumption would seal the downfall of precocious intellect forever.
- It rested solely with the oldest and most experienced of the men to lay
- the subject of the conference before the people. Until such a one chose to
- make some movement, no deeds in arms, no natural gifts, nor any renown as
- an orator, would have justified the slightest interruption. On the present
- occasion, the aged warrior whose privilege it was to speak, was silent,
- seemingly oppressed with the magnitude of his subject. The delay had
- already continued long beyond the usual deliberative pause that always
- preceded a conference; but no sign of impatience or surprise escaped even
- the youngest boy. Occasionally an eye was raised from the earth, where the
- looks of most were riveted, and strayed toward a particular lodge, that
- was, however, in no manner distinguished from those around it, except in
- the peculiar care that had been taken to protect it against the assaults
- of the weather.
- </p>
- <p>
- At length one of those low murmurs, that are so apt to disturb a
- multitude, was heard, and the whole nation arose to their feet by a common
- impulse. At that instant the door of the lodge in question opened, and
- three men, issuing from it, slowly approached the place of consultation.
- They were all aged, even beyond that period to which the oldest present
- had reached; but one in the center, who leaned on his companions for
- support, had numbered an amount of years to which the human race is seldom
- permitted to attain. His frame, which had once been tall and erect, like
- the cedar, was now bending under the pressure of more than a century. The
- elastic, light step of an Indian was gone, and in its place he was
- compelled to toil his tardy way over the ground, inch by inch. His dark,
- wrinkled countenance was in singular and wild contrast with the long white
- locks which floated on his shoulders, in such thickness, as to announce
- that generations had probably passed away since they had last been shorn.
- </p>
- <p>
- The dress of this patriarch—for such, considering his vast age, in
- conjunction with his affinity and influence with his people, he might very
- properly be termed—was rich and imposing, though strictly after the
- simple fashions of the tribe. His robe was of the finest skins, which had
- been deprived of their fur, in order to admit of a hieroglyphical
- representation of various deeds in arms, done in former ages. His bosom
- was loaded with medals, some in massive silver, and one or two even in
- gold, the gifts of various Christian potentates during the long period of
- his life. He also wore armlets, and cinctures above the ankles, of the
- latter precious metal. His head, on the whole of which the hair had been
- permitted to grow, the pursuits of war having so long been abandoned, was
- encircled by a sort of plated diadem, which, in its turn, bore lesser and
- more glittering ornaments, that sparkled amid the glossy hues of three
- drooping ostrich feathers, dyed a deep black, in touching contrast to the
- color of his snow-white locks. His tomahawk was nearly hid in silver, and
- the handle of his knife shone like a horn of solid gold.
- </p>
- <p>
- So soon as the first hum of emotion and pleasure, which the sudden
- appearance of this venerated individual created, had a little subsided,
- the name of “Tamenund” was whispered from mouth to mouth. Magua had often
- heard the fame of this wise and just Delaware; a reputation that even
- proceeded so far as to bestow on him the rare gift of holding secret
- communion with the Great Spirit, and which has since transmitted his name,
- with some slight alteration, to the white usurpers of his ancient
- territory, as the imaginary tutelar saint* of a vast empire. The Huron
- chief, therefore, stepped eagerly out a little from the throng, to a spot
- whence he might catch a nearer glimpse of the features of the man, whose
- decision was likely to produce so deep an influence on his own fortunes.
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * The Americans sometimes called their tutelar saint
- Tamenay, a corruption of the name of the renowned chief here
- introduced. There are many traditions which speak of the
- character and power of Tamenund.
-</pre>
- <p>
- The eyes of the old man were closed, as though the organs were wearied
- with having so long witnessed the selfish workings of the human passions.
- The color of his skin differed from that of most around him, being richer
- and darker, the latter having been produced by certain delicate and mazy
- lines of complicated and yet beautiful figures, which had been traced over
- most of his person by the operation of tattooing. Notwithstanding the
- position of the Huron, he passed the observant and silent Magua without
- notice, and leaning on his two venerable supporters proceeded to the high
- place of the multitude, where he seated himself in the center of his
- nation, with the dignity of a monarch and the air of a father.
- </p>
- <p>
- Nothing could surpass the reverence and affection with which this
- unexpected visit from one who belongs rather to another world than to
- this, was received by his people. After a suitable and decent pause, the
- principal chiefs arose, and, approaching the patriarch, they placed his
- hands reverently on their heads, seeming to entreat a blessing. The
- younger men were content with touching his robe, or even drawing nigh his
- person, in order to breathe in the atmosphere of one so aged, so just, and
- so valiant. None but the most distinguished among the youthful warriors
- even presumed so far as to perform the latter ceremony, the great mass of
- the multitude deeming it a sufficient happiness to look upon a form so
- deeply venerated, and so well beloved. When these acts of affection and
- respect were performed, the chiefs drew back again to their several
- places, and silence reigned in the whole encampment.
- </p>
- <p>
- After a short delay, a few of the young men, to whom instructions had been
- whispered by one of the aged attendants of Tamenund, arose, left the
- crowd, and entered the lodge which has already been noted as the object of
- so much attention throughout that morning. In a few minutes they
- reappeared, escorting the individuals who had caused all these solemn
- preparations toward the seat of judgment. The crowd opened in a lane; and
- when the party had re-entered, it closed in again, forming a large and
- dense belt of human bodies, arranged in an open circle.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 29
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “The assembly seated, rising o'er the rest,
- Achilles thus the king of men addressed.”
- —Pope's Illiad
-</pre>
- <p>
- Cora stood foremost among the prisoners, entwining her arms in those of
- Alice, in the tenderness of sisterly love. Notwithstanding the fearful and
- menacing array of savages on every side of her, no apprehension on her own
- account could prevent the nobler-minded maiden from keeping her eyes
- fastened on the pale and anxious features of the trembling Alice. Close at
- their side stood Heyward, with an interest in both, that, at such a moment
- of intense uncertainty, scarcely knew a preponderance in favor of her whom
- he most loved. Hawkeye had placed himself a little in the rear, with a
- deference to the superior rank of his companions, that no similarity in
- the state of their present fortunes could induce him to forget. Uncas was
- not there.
- </p>
- <p>
- When perfect silence was again restored, and after the usual long,
- impressive pause, one of the two aged chiefs who sat at the side of the
- patriarch arose, and demanded aloud, in very intelligible English:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Which of my prisoners is La Longue Carabine?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Neither Duncan nor the scout answered. The former, however, glanced his
- eyes around the dark and silent assembly, and recoiled a pace, when they
- fell on the malignant visage of Magua. He saw, at once, that this wily
- savage had some secret agency in their present arraignment before the
- nation, and determined to throw every possible impediment in the way of
- the execution of his sinister plans. He had witnessed one instance of the
- summary punishments of the Indians, and now dreaded that his companion was
- to be selected for a second. In this dilemma, with little or no time for
- reflection, he suddenly determined to cloak his invaluable friend, at any
- or every hazard to himself. Before he had time, however, to speak, the
- question was repeated in a louder voice, and with a clearer utterance.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Give us arms,” the young man haughtily replied, “and place us in yonder
- woods. Our deeds shall speak for us!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “This is the warrior whose name has filled our ears!” returned the chief,
- regarding Heyward with that sort of curious interest which seems
- inseparable from man, when first beholding one of his fellows to whom
- merit or accident, virtue or crime, has given notoriety. “What has brought
- the white man into the camp of the Delawares?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My necessities. I come for food, shelter, and friends.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It cannot be. The woods are full of game. The head of a warrior needs no
- other shelter than a sky without clouds; and the Delawares are the
- enemies, and not the friends of the Yengeese. Go, the mouth has spoken,
- while the heart said nothing.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan, a little at a loss in what manner to proceed, remained silent; but
- the scout, who had listened attentively to all that passed, now advanced
- steadily to the front.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That I did not answer to the call for La Longue Carabine, was not owing
- either to shame or fear,” he said, “for neither one nor the other is the
- gift of an honest man. But I do not admit the right of the Mingoes to
- bestow a name on one whose friends have been mindful of his gifts, in this
- particular; especially as their title is a lie, 'killdeer' being a grooved
- barrel and no carabyne. I am the man, however, that got the name of
- Nathaniel from my kin; the compliment of Hawkeye from the Delawares, who
- live on their own river; and whom the Iroquois have presumed to style the
- 'Long Rifle', without any warranty from him who is most concerned in the
- matter.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The eyes of all present, which had hitherto been gravely scanning the
- person of Duncan, were now turned, on the instant, toward the upright iron
- frame of this new pretender to the distinguished appellation. It was in no
- degree remarkable that there should be found two who were willing to claim
- so great an honor, for impostors, though rare, were not unknown among the
- natives; but it was altogether material to the just and severe intentions
- of the Delawares, that there should be no mistake in the matter. Some of
- their old men consulted together in private, and then, as it would seem,
- they determined to interrogate their visitor on the subject.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My brother has said that a snake crept into my camp,” said the chief to
- Magua; “which is he?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Huron pointed to the scout.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Will a wise Delaware believe the barking of a wolf?” exclaimed Duncan,
- still more confirmed in the evil intentions of his ancient enemy: “a dog
- never lies, but when was a wolf known to speak the truth?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The eyes of Magua flashed fire; but suddenly recollecting the necessity of
- maintaining his presence of mind, he turned away in silent disdain, well
- assured that the sagacity of the Indians would not fail to extract the
- real merits of the point in controversy. He was not deceived; for, after
- another short consultation, the wary Delaware turned to him again, and
- expressed the determination of the chiefs, though in the most considerate
- language.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My brother has been called a liar,” he said, “and his friends are angry.
- They will show that he has spoken the truth. Give my prisoners guns, and
- let them prove which is the man.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua affected to consider the expedient, which he well knew proceeded
- from distrust of himself, as a compliment, and made a gesture of
- acquiescence, well content that his veracity should be supported by so
- skillful a marksman as the scout. The weapons were instantly placed in the
- hands of the friendly opponents, and they were bid to fire, over the heads
- of the seated multitude, at an earthen vessel, which lay, by accident, on
- a stump, some fifty yards from the place where they stood.
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward smiled to himself at the idea of a competition with the scout,
- though he determined to persevere in the deception, until apprised of the
- real designs of Magua.
- </p>
- <p>
- Raising his rifle with the utmost care, and renewing his aim three several
- times, he fired. The bullet cut the wood within a few inches of the
- vessel; and a general exclamation of satisfaction announced that the shot
- was considered a proof of great skill in the use of a weapon. Even Hawkeye
- nodded his head, as if he would say, it was better than he expected. But,
- instead of manifesting an intention to contend with the successful
- marksman, he stood leaning on his rifle for more than a minute, like a man
- who was completely buried in thought. From this reverie, he was, however,
- awakened by one of the young Indians who had furnished the arms, and who
- now touched his shoulder, saying in exceedingly broken English:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can the pale face beat it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, Huron!” exclaimed the scout, raising the short rifle in his right
- hand, and shaking it at Magua, with as much apparent ease as if it were a
- reed; “yes, Huron, I could strike you now, and no power on earth could
- prevent the deed! The soaring hawk is not more certain of the dove than I
- am this moment of you, did I choose to send a bullet to your heart! Why
- should I not? Why!—because the gifts of my color forbid it, and I
- might draw down evil on tender and innocent heads. If you know such a
- being as God, thank Him, therefore, in your inward soul; for you have
- reason!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The flushed countenance, angry eye and swelling figure of the scout,
- produced a sensation of secret awe in all that heard him. The Delawares
- held their breath in expectation; but Magua himself, even while he
- distrusted the forbearance of his enemy, remained immovable and calm,
- where he stood wedged in by the crowd, as one who grew to the spot.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Beat it,” repeated the young Delaware at the elbow of the scout.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Beat what, fool!—what?” exclaimed Hawkeye, still flourishing the
- weapon angrily above his head, though his eye no longer sought the person
- of Magua.
- </p>
- <p>
- “If the white man is the warrior he pretends,” said the aged chief, “let
- him strike nigher to the mark.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout laughed aloud—a noise that produced the startling effect
- of an unnatural sound on Heyward; then dropping the piece, heavily, into
- his extended left hand, it was discharged, apparently by the shock,
- driving the fragments of the vessel into the air, and scattering them on
- every side. Almost at the same instant, the rattling sound of the rifle
- was heard, as he suffered it to fall, contemptuously, to the earth.
- </p>
- <p>
- The first impression of so strange a scene was engrossing admiration. Then
- a low, but increasing murmur, ran through the multitude, and finally
- swelled into sounds that denoted a lively opposition in the sentiments of
- the spectators. While some openly testified their satisfaction at so
- unexampled dexterity, by far the larger portion of the tribe were inclined
- to believe the success of the shot was the result of accident. Heyward was
- not slow to confirm an opinion that was so favorable to his own
- pretensions.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It was chance!” he exclaimed; “none can shoot without an aim!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Chance!” echoed the excited woodsman, who was now stubbornly bent on
- maintaining his identity at every hazard, and on whom the secret hints of
- Heyward to acquiesce in the deception were entirely lost. “Does yonder
- lying Huron, too, think it chance? Give him another gun, and place us face
- to face, without cover or dodge, and let Providence, and our own eyes,
- decide the matter atween us! I do not make the offer, to you, major; for
- our blood is of a color, and we serve the same master.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That the Huron is a liar, is very evident,” returned Heyward, coolly;
- “you have yourself heard him assert you to be La Longue Carabine.”
- </p>
- <p>
- It were impossible to say what violent assertion the stubborn Hawkeye
- would have next made, in his headlong wish to vindicate his identity, had
- not the aged Delaware once more interposed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The hawk which comes from the clouds can return when he will,” he said;
- “give them the guns.”
- </p>
- <p>
- This time the scout seized the rifle with avidity; nor had Magua, though
- he watched the movements of the marksman with jealous eyes, any further
- cause for apprehension.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now let it be proved, in the face of this tribe of Delawares, which is
- the better man,” cried the scout, tapping the butt of his piece with that
- finger which had pulled so many fatal triggers.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You see that gourd hanging against yonder tree, major; if you are a
- marksman fit for the borders, let me see you break its shell!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Duncan noted the object, and prepared himself to renew the trial. The
- gourd was one of the usual little vessels used by the Indians, and it was
- suspended from a dead branch of a small pine, by a thong of deerskin, at
- the full distance of a hundred yards. So strangely compounded is the
- feeling of self-love, that the young soldier, while he knew the utter
- worthlessness of the suffrages of his savage umpires, forgot the sudden
- motives of the contest in a wish to excel. It had been seen, already, that
- his skill was far from being contemptible, and he now resolved to put
- forth its nicest qualities. Had his life depended on the issue, the aim of
- Duncan could not have been more deliberate or guarded. He fired; and three
- or four young Indians, who sprang forward at the report, announced with a
- shout, that the ball was in the tree, a very little on one side of the
- proper object. The warriors uttered a common ejaculation of pleasure, and
- then turned their eyes, inquiringly, on the movements of his rival.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It may do for the Royal Americans!” said Hawkeye, laughing once more in
- his own silent, heartfelt manner; “but had my gun often turned so much
- from the true line, many a marten, whose skin is now in a lady's muff,
- would still be in the woods; ay, and many a bloody Mingo, who has departed
- to his final account, would be acting his deviltries at this very day,
- atween the provinces. I hope the squaw who owns the gourd has more of them
- in her wigwam, for this will never hold water again!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout had shook his priming, and cocked his piece, while speaking;
- and, as he ended, he threw back a foot, and slowly raised the muzzle from
- the earth: the motion was steady, uniform, and in one direction. When on a
- perfect level, it remained for a single moment, without tremor or
- variation, as though both man and rifle were carved in stone. During that
- stationary instant, it poured forth its contents, in a bright, glancing
- sheet of flame. Again the young Indians bounded forward; but their hurried
- search and disappointed looks announced that no traces of the bullet were
- to be seen.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Go!” said the old chief to the scout, in a tone of strong disgust; “thou
- art a wolf in the skin of a dog. I will talk to the 'Long Rifle' of the
- Yengeese.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah! had I that piece which furnished the name you use, I would obligate
- myself to cut the thong, and drop the gourd without breaking it!” returned
- Hawkeye, perfectly undisturbed by the other's manner. “Fools, if you would
- find the bullet of a sharpshooter in these woods, you must look in the
- object, and not around it!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Indian youths instantly comprehended his meaning—for this time
- he spoke in the Delaware tongue—and tearing the gourd from the tree,
- they held it on high with an exulting shout, displaying a hole in its
- bottom, which had been cut by the bullet, after passing through the usual
- orifice in the center of its upper side. At this unexpected exhibition, a
- loud and vehement expression of pleasure burst from the mouth of every
- warrior present. It decided the question, and effectually established
- Hawkeye in the possession of his dangerous reputation. Those curious and
- admiring eyes which had been turned again on Heyward, were finally
- directed to the weather-beaten form of the scout, who immediately became
- the principal object of attention to the simple and unsophisticated beings
- by whom he was surrounded. When the sudden and noisy commotion had a
- little subsided, the aged chief resumed his examination.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why did you wish to stop my ears?” he said, addressing Duncan; “are the
- Delawares fools that they could not know the young panther from the cat?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They will yet find the Huron a singing-bird,” said Duncan, endeavoring to
- adopt the figurative language of the natives.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is good. We will know who can shut the ears of men. Brother,” added
- the chief turning his eyes on Magua, “the Delawares listen.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Thus singled, and directly called on to declare his object, the Huron
- arose; and advancing with great deliberation and dignity into the very
- center of the circle, where he stood confronted by the prisoners, he
- placed himself in an attitude to speak. Before opening his mouth, however,
- he bent his eyes slowly along the whole living boundary of earnest faces,
- as if to temper his expressions to the capacities of his audience. On
- Hawkeye he cast a glance of respectful enmity; on Duncan, a look of
- inextinguishable hatred; the shrinking figure of Alice he scarcely deigned
- to notice; but when his glance met the firm, commanding, and yet lovely
- form of Cora, his eye lingered a moment, with an expression that it might
- have been difficult to define. Then, filled with his own dark intentions,
- he spoke in the language of the Canadas, a tongue that he well knew was
- comprehended by most of his auditors.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Spirit that made men colored them differently,” commenced the subtle
- Huron. “Some are blacker than the sluggish bear. These He said should be
- slaves; and He ordered them to work forever, like the beaver. You may hear
- them groan, when the south wind blows, louder than the lowing buffaloes,
- along the shores of the great salt lake, where the big canoes come and go
- with them in droves. Some He made with faces paler than the ermine of the
- forests; and these He ordered to be traders; dogs to their women, and
- wolves to their slaves. He gave this people the nature of the pigeon;
- wings that never tire; young, more plentiful than the leaves on the trees,
- and appetites to devour the earth. He gave them tongues like the false
- call of the wildcat; hearts like rabbits; the cunning of the hog (but none
- of the fox), and arms longer than the legs of the moose. With his tongue
- he stops the ears of the Indians; his heart teaches him to pay warriors to
- fight his battles; his cunning tells him how to get together the goods of
- the earth; and his arms inclose the land from the shores of the salt-water
- to the islands of the great lake. His gluttony makes him sick. God gave
- him enough, and yet he wants all. Such are the pale faces.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Some the Great Spirit made with skins brighter and redder than yonder
- sun,” continued Magua, pointing impressively upward to the lurid luminary,
- which was struggling through the misty atmosphere of the horizon; “and
- these did He fashion to His own mind. He gave them this island as He had
- made it, covered with trees, and filled with game. The wind made their
- clearings; the sun and rain ripened their fruits; and the snows came to
- tell them to be thankful. What need had they of roads to journey by! They
- saw through the hills! When the beavers worked, they lay in the shade, and
- looked on. The winds cooled them in summer; in winter, skins kept them
- warm. If they fought among themselves, it was to prove that they were men.
- They were brave; they were just; they were happy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Here the speaker paused, and again looked around him to discover if his
- legend had touched the sympathies of his listeners. He met everywhere,
- with eyes riveted on his own, heads erect and nostrils expanded, as if
- each individual present felt himself able and willing, singly, to redress
- the wrongs of his race.
- </p>
- <p>
- “If the Great Spirit gave different tongues to his red children,” he
- continued, in a low, still melancholy voice, “it was that all animals
- might understand them. Some He placed among the snows, with their cousin,
- the bear. Some he placed near the setting sun, on the road to the happy
- hunting grounds. Some on the lands around the great fresh waters; but to
- His greatest, and most beloved, He gave the sands of the salt lake. Do my
- brothers know the name of this favored people?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It was the Lenape!” exclaimed twenty eager voices in a breath.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It was the Lenni Lenape,” returned Magua, affecting to bend his head in
- reverence to their former greatness. “It was the tribes of the Lenape! The
- sun rose from water that was salt, and set in water that was sweet, and
- never hid himself from their eyes. But why should I, a Huron of the woods,
- tell a wise people their own traditions? Why remind them of their
- injuries; their ancient greatness; their deeds; their glory; their
- happiness; their losses; their defeats; their misery? Is there not one
- among them who has seen it all, and who knows it to be true? I have done.
- My tongue is still for my heart is of lead. I listen.”
- </p>
- <p>
- As the voice of the speaker suddenly ceased, every face and all eyes
- turned, by a common movement, toward the venerable Tamenund. From the
- moment that he took his seat, until the present instant, the lips of the
- patriarch had not severed, and scarcely a sign of life had escaped him. He
- sat bent in feebleness, and apparently unconscious of the presence he was
- in, during the whole of that opening scene, in which the skill of the
- scout had been so clearly established. At the nicely graduated sound of
- Magua's voice, however, he betrayed some evidence of consciousness, and
- once or twice he even raised his head, as if to listen. But when the
- crafty Huron spoke of his nation by name, the eyelids of the old man
- raised themselves, and he looked out upon the multitude with that sort of
- dull, unmeaning expression which might be supposed to belong to the
- countenance of a specter. Then he made an effort to rise, and being upheld
- by his supporters, he gained his feet, in a posture commanding by its
- dignity, while he tottered with weakness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who calls upon the children of the Lenape?” he said, in a deep, guttural
- voice, that was rendered awfully audible by the breathless silence of the
- multitude; “who speaks of things gone? Does not the egg become a worm—the
- worm a fly, and perish? Why tell the Delawares of good that is past?
- Better thank the Manitou for that which remains.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is a Wyandot,” said Magua, stepping nigher to the rude platform on
- which the other stood; “a friend of Tamenund.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “A friend!” repeated the sage, on whose brow a dark frown settled,
- imparting a portion of that severity which had rendered his eye so
- terrible in middle age. “Are the Mingoes rulers of the earth? What brings
- a Huron in here?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Justice. His prisoners are with his brothers, and he comes for his own.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Tamenund turned his head toward one of his supporters, and listened to the
- short explanation the man gave.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then, facing the applicant, he regarded him a moment with deep attention;
- after which he said, in a low and reluctant voice:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Justice is the law of the great Manitou. My children, give the stranger
- food. Then, Huron, take thine own and depart.”
- </p>
- <p>
- On the delivery of this solemn judgment, the patriarch seated himself, and
- closed his eyes again, as if better pleased with the images of his own
- ripened experience than with the visible objects of the world. Against
- such a decree there was no Delaware sufficiently hardy to murmur, much
- less oppose himself. The words were barely uttered when four or five of
- the younger warriors, stepping behind Heyward and the scout, passed thongs
- so dexterously and rapidly around their arms, as to hold them both in
- instant bondage. The former was too much engrossed with his precious and
- nearly insensible burden, to be aware of their intentions before they were
- executed; and the latter, who considered even the hostile tribes of the
- Delawares a superior race of beings, submitted without resistance.
- Perhaps, however, the manner of the scout would not have been so passive,
- had he fully comprehended the language in which the preceding dialogue had
- been conducted.
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua cast a look of triumph around the whole assembly before he proceeded
- to the execution of his purpose. Perceiving that the men were unable to
- offer any resistance, he turned his looks on her he valued most. Cora met
- his gaze with an eye so calm and firm, that his resolution wavered. Then,
- recollecting his former artifice, he raised Alice from the arms of the
- warrior against whom she leaned, and beckoning Heyward to follow, he
- motioned for the encircling crowd to open. But Cora, instead of obeying
- the impulse he had expected, rushed to the feet of the patriarch, and,
- raising her voice, exclaimed aloud:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Just and venerable Delaware, on thy wisdom and power we lean for mercy!
- Be deaf to yonder artful and remorseless monster, who poisons thy ears
- with falsehoods to feed his thirst for blood. Thou that hast lived long,
- and that hast seen the evil of the world, should know how to temper its
- calamities to the miserable.”
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0407.jpg" alt="0407" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0407.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- The eyes of the old man opened heavily, and he once more looked upward at
- the multitude. As the piercing tones of the suppliant swelled on his ears,
- they moved slowly in the direction of her person, and finally settled
- there in a steady gaze. Cora had cast herself to her knees; and, with
- hands clenched in each other and pressed upon her bosom, she remained like
- a beauteous and breathing model of her sex, looking up in his faded but
- majestic countenance, with a species of holy reverence. Gradually the
- expression of Tamenund's features changed, and losing their vacancy in
- admiration, they lighted with a portion of that intelligence which a
- century before had been wont to communicate his youthful fire to the
- extensive bands of the Delawares. Rising without assistance, and seemingly
- without an effort, he demanded, in a voice that startled its auditors by
- its firmness:
- </p>
- <p>
- “What art thou?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “A woman. One of a hated race, if thou wilt—a Yengee. But one who
- has never harmed thee, and who cannot harm thy people, if she would; who
- asks for succor.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tell me, my children,” continued the patriarch, hoarsely, motioning to
- those around him, though his eyes still dwelt upon the kneeling form of
- Cora, “where have the Delawares camped?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “In the mountains of the Iroquois, beyond the clear springs of the
- Horican.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Many parching summers are come and gone,” continued the sage, “since I
- drank of the water of my own rivers. The children of Minquon* are the
- justest white men, but they were thirsty and they took it to themselves.
- Do they follow us so far?”
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * William Penn was termed Minquon by the Delawares, and, as
- he never used violence or injustice in his dealings with
- them, his reputation for probity passed into a proverb. The
- American is justly proud of the origin of his nation, which
- is perhaps unequaled in the history of the world; but the
- Pennsylvanian and Jerseyman have more reason to value
- themselves in their ancestors than the natives of any other
- state, since no wrong was done the original owners of the
- soil.
-</pre>
- <p>
- “We follow none, we covet nothing,” answered Cora. “Captives against our
- wills, have we been brought amongst you; and we ask but permission to
- depart to our own in peace. Art thou not Tamenund—the father, the
- judge, I had almost said, the prophet—of this people?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am Tamenund of many days.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis now some seven years that one of thy people was at the mercy of a
- white chief on the borders of this province. He claimed to be of the blood
- of the good and just Tamenund. 'Go', said the white man, 'for thy parent's
- sake thou art free.' Dost thou remember the name of that English warrior?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I remember, that when a laughing boy,” returned the patriarch, with the
- peculiar recollection of vast age, “I stood upon the sands of the sea
- shore, and saw a big canoe, with wings whiter than the swan's, and wider
- than many eagles, come from the rising sun.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nay, nay; I speak not of a time so very distant, but of favor shown to
- thy kindred by one of mine, within the memory of thy youngest warrior.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Was it when the Yengeese and the Dutchmanne fought for the
- hunting-grounds of the Delawares? Then Tamenund was a chief, and first
- laid aside the bow for the lightning of the pale faces—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not yet then,” interrupted Cora, “by many ages; I speak of a thing of
- yesterday. Surely, surely, you forget it not.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It was but yesterday,” rejoined the aged man, with touching pathos, “that
- the children of the Lenape were masters of the world. The fishes of the
- salt lake, the birds, the beasts, and the Mengee of the woods, owned them
- for Sagamores.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Cora bowed her head in disappointment, and, for a bitter moment struggled
- with her chagrin. Then, elevating her rich features and beaming eyes, she
- continued, in tones scarcely less penetrating than the unearthly voice of
- the patriarch himself:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tell me, is Tamenund a father?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The old man looked down upon her from his elevated stand, with a benignant
- smile on his wasted countenance, and then casting his eyes slowly over the
- whole assemblage, he answered:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of a nation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “For myself I ask nothing. Like thee and thine, venerable chief,” she
- continued, pressing her hands convulsively on her heart, and suffering her
- head to droop until her burning cheeks were nearly concealed in the maze
- of dark, glossy tresses that fell in disorder upon her shoulders, “the
- curse of my ancestors has fallen heavily on their child. But yonder is one
- who has never known the weight of Heaven's displeasure until now. She is
- the daughter of an old and failing man, whose days are near their close.
- She has many, very many, to love her, and delight in her; and she is too
- good, much too precious, to become the victim of that villain.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know that the pale faces are a proud and hungry race. I know that they
- claim not only to have the earth, but that the meanest of their color is
- better than the Sachems of the red man. The dogs and crows of their
- tribes,” continued the earnest old chieftain, without heeding the wounded
- spirit of his listener, whose head was nearly crushed to the earth in
- shame, as he proceeded, “would bark and caw before they would take a woman
- to their wigwams whose blood was not of the color of snow. But let them
- not boast before the face of the Manitou too loud. They entered the land
- at the rising, and may yet go off at the setting sun. I have often seen
- the locusts strip the leaves from the trees, but the season of blossoms
- has always come again.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is so,” said Cora, drawing a long breath, as if reviving from a
- trance, raising her face, and shaking back her shining veil, with a
- kindling eye, that contradicted the death-like paleness of her
- countenance; “but why—it is not permitted us to inquire. There is
- yet one of thine own people who has not been brought before thee; before
- thou lettest the Huron depart in triumph, hear him speak.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Observing Tamenund to look about him doubtingly, one of his companions
- said:
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is a snake—a red-skin in the pay of the Yengeese. We keep him
- for the torture.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let him come,” returned the sage.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then Tamenund once more sank into his seat, and a silence so deep
- prevailed while the young man prepared to obey his simple mandate, that
- the leaves, which fluttered in the draught of the light morning air, were
- distinctly heard rustling in the surrounding forest.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 30
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “If you deny me, fie upon your law!
- There is no force in the decrees of Venice:
- I stand for judgment: answer, shall I have it?”
- —Merchant of Venice
-</pre>
- <p>
- The silence continued unbroken by human sounds for many anxious minutes.
- Then the waving multitude opened and shut again, and Uncas stood in the
- living circle. All those eyes, which had been curiously studying the
- lineaments of the sage, as the source of their own intelligence, turned on
- the instant, and were now bent in secret admiration on the erect, agile,
- and faultless person of the captive. But neither the presence in which he
- found himself, nor the exclusive attention that he attracted, in any
- manner disturbed the self-possession of the young Mohican. He cast a
- deliberate and observing look on every side of him, meeting the settled
- expression of hostility that lowered in the visages of the chiefs with the
- same calmness as the curious gaze of the attentive children. But when,
- last in this haughty scrutiny, the person of Tamenund came under his
- glance, his eye became fixed, as though all other objects were already
- forgotten. Then, advancing with a slow and noiseless step up the area, he
- placed himself immediately before the footstool of the sage. Here he stood
- unnoted, though keenly observant himself, until one of the chiefs apprised
- the latter of his presence.
- </p>
- <p>
- “With what tongue does the prisoner speak to the Manitou?” demanded the
- patriarch, without unclosing his eyes.
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/5491.jpg" alt="5491" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/5491.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- “Like his fathers,” Uncas replied; “with the tongue of a Delaware.”
- </p>
- <p>
- At this sudden and unexpected annunciation, a low, fierce yell ran through
- the multitude, that might not inaptly be compared to the growl of the
- lion, as his choler is first awakened—a fearful omen of the weight
- of his future anger. The effect was equally strong on the sage, though
- differently exhibited. He passed a hand before his eyes, as if to exclude
- the least evidence of so shameful a spectacle, while he repeated, in his
- low, guttural tones, the words he had just heard.
- </p>
- <p>
- “A Delaware! I have lived to see the tribes of the Lenape driven from
- their council-fires, and scattered, like broken herds of deer, among the
- hills of the Iroquois! I have seen the hatchets of a strong people sweep
- woods from the valleys, that the winds of heaven have spared! The beasts
- that run on the mountains, and the birds that fly above the trees, have I
- seen living in the wigwams of men; but never before have I found a
- Delaware so base as to creep, like a poisonous serpent, into the camps of
- his nation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The singing-birds have opened their bills,” returned Uncas, in the
- softest notes of his own musical voice; “and Tamenund has heard their
- song.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The sage started, and bent his head aside, as if to catch the fleeting
- sounds of some passing melody.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Does Tamenund dream!” he exclaimed. “What voice is at his ear! Have the
- winters gone backward! Will summer come again to the children of the
- Lenape!”
- </p>
- <p>
- A solemn and respectful silence succeeded this incoherent burst from the
- lips of the Delaware prophet. His people readily constructed his
- unintelligible language into one of those mysterious conferences he was
- believed to hold so frequently with a superior intelligence and they
- awaited the issue of the revelation in awe. After a patient pause,
- however, one of the aged men, perceiving that the sage had lost the
- recollection of the subject before them, ventured to remind him again of
- the presence of the prisoner.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The false Delaware trembles lest he should hear the words of Tamenund,”
- he said. “'Tis a hound that howls, when the Yengeese show him a trail.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And ye,” returned Uncas, looking sternly around him, “are dogs that
- whine, when the Frenchman casts ye the offals of his deer!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Twenty knives gleamed in the air, and as many warriors sprang to their
- feet, at this biting, and perhaps merited retort; but a motion from one of
- the chiefs suppressed the outbreaking of their tempers, and restored the
- appearance of quiet. The task might probably have been more difficult, had
- not a movement made by Tamenund indicated that he was again about to
- speak.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Delaware!” resumed the sage, “little art thou worthy of thy name. My
- people have not seen a bright sun in many winters; and the warrior who
- deserts his tribe when hid in clouds is doubly a traitor. The law of the
- Manitou is just. It is so; while the rivers run and the mountains stand,
- while the blossoms come and go on the trees, it must be so. He is thine,
- my children; deal justly by him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Not a limb was moved, nor was a breath drawn louder and longer than
- common, until the closing syllable of this final decree had passed the
- lips of Tamenund. Then a cry of vengeance burst at once, as it might be,
- from the united lips of the nation; a frightful augury of their ruthless
- intentions. In the midst of these prolonged and savage yells, a chief
- proclaimed, in a high voice, that the captive was condemned to endure the
- dreadful trial of torture by fire. The circle broke its order, and screams
- of delight mingled with the bustle and tumult of preparation. Heyward
- struggled madly with his captors; the anxious eye of Hawkeye began to look
- around him, with an expression of peculiar earnestness; and Cora again
- threw herself at the feet of the patriarch, once more a suppliant for
- mercy.
- </p>
- <p>
- Throughout the whole of these trying moments, Uncas had alone preserved
- his serenity. He looked on the preparations with a steady eye, and when
- the tormentors came to seize him, he met them with a firm and upright
- attitude. One among them, if possible more fierce and savage than his
- fellows, seized the hunting-shirt of the young warrior, and at a single
- effort tore it from his body. Then, with a yell of frantic pleasure, he
- leaped toward his unresisting victim and prepared to lead him to the
- stake. But, at that moment, when he appeared most a stranger to the
- feelings of humanity, the purpose of the savage was arrested as suddenly
- as if a supernatural agency had interposed in the behalf of Uncas. The
- eyeballs of the Delaware seemed to start from their sockets; his mouth
- opened and his whole form became frozen in an attitude of amazement.
- Raising his hand with a slow and regulated motion, he pointed with a
- finger to the bosom of the captive. His companions crowded about him in
- wonder and every eye was like his own, fastened intently on the figure of
- a small tortoise, beautifully tattooed on the breast of the prisoner, in a
- bright blue tint.
- </p>
- <p>
- For a single instant Uncas enjoyed his triumph, smiling calmly on the
- scene. Then motioning the crowd away with a high and haughty sweep of his
- arm, he advanced in front of the nation with the air of a king, and spoke
- in a voice louder than the murmur of admiration that ran through the
- multitude.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Men of the Lenni Lenape!” he said, “my race upholds the earth! Your
- feeble tribe stands on my shell! What fire that a Delaware can light would
- burn the child of my fathers,” he added, pointing proudly to the simple
- blazonry on his skin; “the blood that came from such a stock would smother
- your flames! My race is the grandfather of nations!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who art thou?” demanded Tamenund, rising at the startling tones he heard,
- more than at any meaning conveyed by the language of the prisoner.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Uncas, the son of Chingachgook,” answered the captive modestly, turning
- from the nation, and bending his head in reverence to the other's
- character and years; “a son of the great Unamis.” *
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * Turtle.
-</pre>
- <p>
- “The hour of Tamenund is nigh!” exclaimed the sage; “the day is come, at
- last, to the night! I thank the Manitou, that one is here to fill my place
- at the council-fire. Uncas, the child of Uncas, is found! Let the eyes of
- a dying eagle gaze on the rising sun.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The youth stepped lightly, but proudly on the platform, where he became
- visible to the whole agitated and wondering multitude. Tamenund held him
- long at the length of his arm and read every turn in the fine lineaments
- of his countenance, with the untiring gaze of one who recalled days of
- happiness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is Tamenund a boy?” at length the bewildered prophet exclaimed. “Have I
- dreamed of so many snows—that my people were scattered like floating
- sands—of Yengeese, more plenty than the leaves on the trees! The
- arrow of Tamenund would not frighten the fawn; his arm is withered like
- the branch of a dead oak; the snail would be swifter in the race; yet is
- Uncas before him as they went to battle against the pale faces! Uncas, the
- panther of his tribe, the eldest son of the Lenape, the wisest Sagamore of
- the Mohicans! Tell me, ye Delawares, has Tamenund been a sleeper for a
- hundred winters?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The calm and deep silence which succeeded these words sufficiently
- announced the awful reverence with which his people received the
- communication of the patriarch. None dared to answer, though all listened
- in breathless expectation of what might follow. Uncas, however, looking in
- his face with the fondness and veneration of a favored child, presumed on
- his own high and acknowledged rank, to reply.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Four warriors of his race have lived and died,” he said, “since the
- friend of Tamenund led his people in battle. The blood of the turtle has
- been in many chiefs, but all have gone back into the earth from whence
- they came, except Chingachgook and his son.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is true—it is true,” returned the sage, a flash of recollection
- destroying all his pleasing fancies, and restoring him at once to a
- consciousness of the true history of his nation. “Our wise men have often
- said that two warriors of the unchanged race were in the hills of the
- Yengeese; why have their seats at the council-fires of the Delawares been
- so long empty?”
- </p>
- <p>
- At these words the young man raised his head, which he had still kept
- bowed a little, in reverence; and lifting his voice so as to be heard by
- the multitude, as if to explain at once and forever the policy of his
- family, he said aloud:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Once we slept where we could hear the salt lake speak in its anger. Then
- we were rulers and Sagamores over the land. But when a pale face was seen
- on every brook, we followed the deer back to the river of our nation. The
- Delawares were gone. Few warriors of them all stayed to drink of the
- stream they loved. Then said my fathers, 'Here will we hunt. The waters of
- the river go into the salt lake. If we go toward the setting sun, we shall
- find streams that run into the great lakes of sweet water; there would a
- Mohican die, like fishes of the sea, in the clear springs. When the
- Manitou is ready and shall say “Come,” we will follow the river to the
- sea, and take our own again.' Such, Delawares, is the belief of the
- children of the Turtle. Our eyes are on the rising and not toward the
- setting sun. We know whence he comes, but we know not whither he goes. It
- is enough.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The men of the Lenape listened to his words with all the respect that
- superstition could lend, finding a secret charm even in the figurative
- language with which the young Sagamore imparted his ideas. Uncas himself
- watched the effect of his brief explanation with intelligent eyes, and
- gradually dropped the air of authority he had assumed, as he perceived
- that his auditors were content. Then, permitting his looks to wander over
- the silent throng that crowded around the elevated seat of Tamenund, he
- first perceived Hawkeye in his bonds. Stepping eagerly from his stand, he
- made way for himself to the side of his friend; and cutting his thongs
- with a quick and angry stroke of his own knife, he motioned to the crowd
- to divide. The Indians silently obeyed, and once more they stood ranged in
- their circle, as before his appearance among them. Uncas took the scout by
- the hand, and led him to the feet of the patriarch.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Father,” he said, “look at this pale face; a just man, and the friend of
- the Delawares.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is he a son of Minquon?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not so; a warrior known to the Yengeese, and feared by the Maquas.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What name has he gained by his deeds?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We call him Hawkeye,” Uncas replied, using the Delaware phrase; “for his
- sight never fails. The Mingoes know him better by the death he gives their
- warriors; with them he is 'The Long Rifle'.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “La Longue Carabine!” exclaimed Tamenund, opening his eyes, and regarding
- the scout sternly. “My son has not done well to call him friend.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I call him so who proves himself such,” returned the young chief, with
- great calmness, but with a steady mien. “If Uncas is welcome among the
- Delawares, then is Hawkeye with his friends.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The pale face has slain my young men; his name is great for the blows he
- has struck the Lenape.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If a Mingo has whispered that much in the ear of the Delaware, he has
- only shown that he is a singing-bird,” said the scout, who now believed
- that it was time to vindicate himself from such offensive charges, and who
- spoke as the man he addressed, modifying his Indian figures, however, with
- his own peculiar notions. “That I have slain the Maquas I am not the man
- to deny, even at their own council-fires; but that, knowingly, my hand has
- never harmed a Delaware, is opposed to the reason of my gifts, which is
- friendly to them, and all that belongs to their nation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A low exclamation of applause passed among the warriors who exchanged
- looks with each other like men that first began to perceive their error.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where is the Huron?” demanded Tamenund. “Has he stopped my ears?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua, whose feelings during that scene in which Uncas had triumphed may
- be much better imagined than described, answered to the call by stepping
- boldly in front of the patriarch.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The just Tamenund,” he said, “will not keep what a Huron has lent.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tell me, son of my brother,” returned the sage, avoiding the dark
- countenance of Le Subtil, and turning gladly to the more ingenuous
- features of Uncas, “has the stranger a conqueror's right over you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He has none. The panther may get into snares set by the women; but he is
- strong, and knows how to leap through them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “La Longue Carabine?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Laughs at the Mingoes. Go, Huron, ask your squaws the color of a bear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The stranger and white maiden that come into my camp together?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Should journey on an open path.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And the woman that Huron left with my warriors?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncas made no reply.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And the woman that the Mingo has brought into my camp?” repeated
- Tamenund, gravely.
- </p>
- <p>
- “She is mine,” cried Magua, shaking his hand in triumph at Uncas.
- “Mohican, you know that she is mine.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My son is silent,” said Tamenund, endeavoring to read the expression of
- the face that the youth turned from him in sorrow.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is so,” was the low answer.
- </p>
- <p>
- A short and impressive pause succeeded, during which it was very apparent
- with what reluctance the multitude admitted the justice of the Mingo's
- claim. At length the sage, on whom alone the decision depended, said, in a
- firm voice:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Huron, depart.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “As he came, just Tamenund,” demanded the wily Magua, “or with hands
- filled with the faith of the Delawares? The wigwam of Le Renard Subtil is
- empty. Make him strong with his own.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The aged man mused with himself for a time; and then, bending his head
- toward one of his venerable companions, he asked:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are my ears open?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is true.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is this Mingo a chief?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The first in his nation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Girl, what wouldst thou? A great warrior takes thee to wife. Go! thy race
- will not end.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Better, a thousand times, it should,” exclaimed the horror-struck Cora,
- “than meet with such a degradation!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Huron, her mind is in the tents of her fathers. An unwilling maiden makes
- an unhappy wigwam.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She speaks with the tongue of her people,” returned Magua, regarding his
- victim with a look of bitter irony.
- </p>
- <p>
- “She is of a race of traders, and will bargain for a bright look. Let
- Tamenund speak the words.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Take you the wampum, and our love.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nothing hence but what Magua brought hither.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then depart with thine own. The Great Manitou forbids that a Delaware
- should be unjust.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua advanced, and seized his captive strongly by the arm; the Delawares
- fell back, in silence; and Cora, as if conscious that remonstrance would
- be useless, prepared to submit to her fate without resistance.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hold, hold!” cried Duncan, springing forward; “Huron, have mercy! her
- ransom shall make thee richer than any of thy people were ever yet known
- to be.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Magua is a red-skin; he wants not the beads of the pale faces.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gold, silver, powder, lead—all that a warrior needs shall be in thy
- wigwam; all that becomes the greatest chief.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Le Subtil is very strong,” cried Magua, violently shaking the hand which
- grasped the unresisting arm of Cora; “he has his revenge!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mighty ruler of Providence!” exclaimed Heyward, clasping his hands
- together in agony, “can this be suffered! To you, just Tamenund, I appeal
- for mercy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The words of the Delaware are said,” returned the sage, closing his eyes,
- and dropping back into his seat, alike wearied with his mental and his
- bodily exertion. “Men speak not twice.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That a chief should not misspend his time in unsaying what has once been
- spoken is wise and reasonable,” said Hawkeye, motioning to Duncan to be
- silent; “but it is also prudent in every warrior to consider well before
- he strikes his tomahawk into the head of his prisoner. Huron, I love you
- not; nor can I say that any Mingo has ever received much favor at my
- hands. It is fair to conclude that, if this war does not soon end, many
- more of your warriors will meet me in the woods. Put it to your judgment,
- then, whether you would prefer taking such a prisoner as that into your
- encampment, or one like myself, who am a man that it would greatly rejoice
- your nation to see with naked hands.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Will 'The Long Rifle' give his life for the woman?” demanded Magua,
- hesitatingly; for he had already made a motion toward quitting the place
- with his victim.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, no; I have not said so much as that,” returned Hawkeye, drawing back
- with suitable discretion, when he noted the eagerness with which Magua
- listened to his proposal. “It would be an unequal exchange, to give a
- warrior, in the prime of his age and usefulness, for the best woman on the
- frontiers. I might consent to go into winter quarters, now —at least
- six weeks afore the leaves will turn—on condition you will release
- the maiden.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua shook his head, and made an impatient sign for the crowd to open.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, then,” added the scout, with the musing air of a man who had not
- half made up his mind; “I will throw 'killdeer' into the bargain. Take the
- word of an experienced hunter, the piece has not its equal atween the
- provinces.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Magua still disdained to reply, continuing his efforts to disperse the
- crowd.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Perhaps,” added the scout, losing his dissembled coolness exactly in
- proportion as the other manifested an indifference to the exchange, “if I
- should condition to teach your young men the real virtue of the we'pon, it
- would smoothe the little differences in our judgments.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Le Renard fiercely ordered the Delawares, who still lingered in an
- impenetrable belt around him, in hopes he would listen to the amicable
- proposal, to open his path, threatening, by the glance of his eye, another
- appeal to the infallible justice of their “prophet.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is ordered must sooner or later arrive,” continued Hawkeye, turning
- with a sad and humbled look to Uncas. “The varlet knows his advantage and
- will keep it! God bless you, boy; you have found friends among your
- natural kin, and I hope they will prove as true as some you have met who
- had no Indian cross. As for me, sooner or later, I must die; it is,
- therefore, fortunate there are but few to make my death-howl. After all,
- it is likely the imps would have managed to master my scalp, so a day or
- two will make no great difference in the everlasting reckoning of time.
- God bless you,” added the rugged woodsman, bending his head aside, and
- then instantly changing its direction again, with a wistful look toward
- the youth; “I loved both you and your father, Uncas, though our skins are
- not altogether of a color, and our gifts are somewhat different. Tell the
- Sagamore I never lost sight of him in my greatest trouble; and, as for
- you, think of me sometimes when on a lucky trail, and depend on it, boy,
- whether there be one heaven or two, there is a path in the other world by
- which honest men may come together again. You'll find the rifle in the
- place we hid it; take it, and keep it for my sake; and, harkee, lad, as
- your natural gifts don't deny you the use of vengeance, use it a little
- freely on the Mingoes; it may unburden griefs at my loss, and ease your
- mind. Huron, I accept your offer; release the woman. I am your prisoner!”
- </p>
- <p>
- A suppressed, but still distinct murmur of approbation ran through the
- crowd at this generous proposition; even the fiercest among the Delaware
- warriors manifesting pleasure at the manliness of the intended sacrifice.
- Magua paused, and for an anxious moment, it might be said, he doubted;
- then, casting his eyes on Cora, with an expression in which ferocity and
- admiration were strangely mingled, his purpose became fixed forever.
- </p>
- <p>
- He intimated his contempt of the offer with a backward motion of his head,
- and said, in a steady and settled voice:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Le Renard Subtil is a great chief; he has but one mind. Come,” he added,
- laying his hand too familiarly on the shoulder of his captive to urge her
- onward; “a Huron is no tattler; we will go.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The maiden drew back in lofty womanly reserve, and her dark eye kindled,
- while the rich blood shot, like the passing brightness of the sun, into
- her very temples, at the indignity.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am your prisoner, and, at a fitting time shall be ready to follow, even
- to my death. But violence is unnecessary,” she coldly said; and
- immediately turning to Hawkeye, added: “Generous hunter! from my soul I
- thank you. Your offer is vain, neither could it be accepted; but still you
- may serve me, even more than in your own noble intention. Look at that
- drooping humbled child! Abandon her not until you leave her in the
- habitations of civilized men. I will not say,” wringing the hard hand of
- the scout, “that her father will reward you—for such as you are
- above the rewards of men—but he will thank you and bless you. And,
- believe me, the blessing of a just and aged man has virtue in the sight of
- Heaven. Would to God I could hear one word from his lips at this awful
- moment!” Her voice became choked, and, for an instant, she was silent;
- then, advancing a step nigher to Duncan, who was supporting her
- unconscious sister, she continued, in more subdued tones, but in which
- feeling and the habits of her sex maintained a fearful struggle: “I need
- not tell you to cherish the treasure you will possess. You love her,
- Heyward; that would conceal a thousand faults, though she had them. She is
- kind, gentle, sweet, good, as mortal may be. There is not a blemish in
- mind or person at which the proudest of you all would sicken. She is fair—oh!
- how surpassingly fair!” laying her own beautiful, but less brilliant, hand
- in melancholy affection on the alabaster forehead of Alice, and parting
- the golden hair which clustered about her brows; “and yet her soul is pure
- and spotless as her skin! I could say much—more, perhaps, than
- cooler reason would approve; but I will spare you and myself—” Her
- voice became inaudible, and her face was bent over the form of her sister.
- After a long and burning kiss, she arose, and with features of the hue of
- death, but without even a tear in her feverish eye, she turned away, and
- added, to the savage, with all her former elevation of manner: “Now, sir,
- if it be your pleasure, I will follow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, go,” cried Duncan, placing Alice in the arms of an Indian girl; “go,
- Magua, go. These Delawares have their laws, which forbid them to detain
- you; but I—I have no such obligation. Go, malignant monster—why
- do you delay?”
- </p>
- <p>
- It would be difficult to describe the expression with which Magua listened
- to this threat to follow. There was at first a fierce and manifest display
- of joy, and then it was instantly subdued in a look of cunning coldness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The words are open,” he was content with answering, “'The Open Hand' can
- come.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hold,” cried Hawkeye, seizing Duncan by the arm, and detaining him by
- violence; “you know not the craft of the imp. He would lead you to an
- ambushment, and your death—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Huron,” interrupted Uncas, who submissive to the stern customs of his
- people, had been an attentive and grave listener to all that passed;
- “Huron, the justice of the Delawares comes from the Manitou. Look at the
- sun. He is now in the upper branches of the hemlock. Your path is short
- and open. When he is seen above the trees, there will be men on your
- trail.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I hear a crow!” exclaimed Magua, with a taunting laugh. “Go!” he added,
- shaking his hand at the crowd, which had slowly opened to admit his
- passage. “Where are the petticoats of the Delawares! Let them send their
- arrows and their guns to the Wyandots; they shall have venison to eat, and
- corn to hoe. Dogs, rabbits, thieves—I spit on you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- His parting gibes were listened to in a dead, boding silence, and, with
- these biting words in his mouth, the triumphant Magua passed unmolested
- into the forest, followed by his passive captive, and protected by the
- inviolable laws of Indian hospitality.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 31
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “Flue.—Kill the poys and the luggage! 'Tis expressly
- against the law of arms; 'tis as arrant a piece of knavery,
- mark you now, as can be offered in the 'orld.”
- —King Henry V.
-</pre>
- <p>
- So long as their enemy and his victim continued in sight, the multitude
- remained motionless as beings charmed to the place by some power that was
- friendly to the Huron; but, the instant he disappeared, it became tossed
- and agitated by fierce and powerful passion. Uncas maintained his elevated
- stand, keeping his eyes on the form of Cora, until the colors of her dress
- were blended with the foliage of the forest; when he descended, and,
- moving silently through the throng, he disappeared in that lodge from
- which he had so recently issued. A few of the graver and more attentive
- warriors, who caught the gleams of anger that shot from the eyes of the
- young chief in passing, followed him to the place he had selected for his
- meditations. After which, Tamenund and Alice were removed, and the women
- and children were ordered to disperse. During the momentous hour that
- succeeded, the encampment resembled a hive of troubled bees, who only
- awaited the appearance and example of their leader to take some distant
- and momentous flight.
- </p>
- <p>
- A young warrior at length issued from the lodge of Uncas; and, moving
- deliberately, with a sort of grave march, toward a dwarf pine that grew in
- the crevices of the rocky terrace, he tore the bark from its body, and
- then turned whence he came without speaking. He was soon followed by
- another, who stripped the sapling of its branches, leaving it a naked and
- blazed* trunk. A third colored the post with stripes of a dark red paint;
- all which indications of a hostile design in the leaders of the nation
- were received by the men without in a gloomy and ominous silence. Finally,
- the Mohican himself reappeared, divested of all his attire, except his
- girdle and leggings, and with one-half of his fine features hid under a
- cloud of threatening black.
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * A tree which has been partially or entirely stripped of
- its bark is said, in the language of the country, to be
- “blazed.” The term is strictly English, for a horse is said
- to be blazed when it has a white mark.
-</pre>
- <p>
- Uncas moved with a slow and dignified tread toward the post, which he
- immediately commenced encircling with a measured step, not unlike an
- ancient dance, raising his voice, at the same time, in the wild and
- irregular chant of his war song. The notes were in the extremes of human
- sounds; being sometimes melancholy and exquisitely plaintive, even
- rivaling the melody of birds—and then, by sudden and startling
- transitions, causing the auditors to tremble by their depth and energy.
- The words were few and often repeated, proceeding gradually from a sort of
- invocation, or hymn, to the Deity, to an intimation of the warrior's
- object, and terminating as they commenced with an acknowledgment of his
- own dependence on the Great Spirit. If it were possible to translate the
- comprehensive and melodious language in which he spoke, the ode might read
- something like the following: “Manitou! Manitou! Manitou! Thou art great,
- thou art good, thou art wise: Manitou! Manitou! Thou art just. In the
- heavens, in the clouds, oh, I see many spots—many dark, many red: In
- the heavens, oh, I see many clouds.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “In the woods, in the air, oh, I hear the whoop, the long yell, and the
- cry: In the woods, oh, I hear the loud whoop!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Manitou! Manitou! Manitou! I am weak—thou art strong; I am slow;
- Manitou! Manitou! Give me aid.”
- </p>
- <p>
- At the end of what might be called each verse he made a pause, by raising
- a note louder and longer than common, that was peculiarly suited to the
- sentiment just expressed. The first close was solemn, and intended to
- convey the idea of veneration; the second descriptive, bordering on the
- alarming; and the third was the well-known and terrific war-whoop, which
- burst from the lips of the young warrior, like a combination of all the
- frightful sounds of battle. The last was like the first, humble and
- imploring. Three times did he repeat this song, and as often did he
- encircle the post in his dance.
- </p>
- <p>
- At the close of the first turn, a grave and highly esteemed chief of the
- Lenape followed his example, singing words of his own, however, to music
- of a similar character. Warrior after warrior enlisted in the dance, until
- all of any renown and authority were numbered in its mazes. The spectacle
- now became wildly terrific; the fierce-looking and menacing visages of the
- chiefs receiving additional power from the appalling strains in which they
- mingled their guttural tones. Just then Uncas struck his tomahawk deep
- into the post, and raised his voice in a shout, which might be termed his
- own battle cry. The act announced that he had assumed the chief authority
- in the intended expedition.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was a signal that awakened all the slumbering passions of the nation. A
- hundred youths, who had hitherto been restrained by the diffidence of
- their years, rushed in a frantic body on the fancied emblem of their
- enemy, and severed it asunder, splinter by splinter, until nothing
- remained of the trunk but its roots in the earth. During this moment of
- tumult, the most ruthless deeds of war were performed on the fragments of
- the tree, with as much apparent ferocity as if they were the living
- victims of their cruelty. Some were scalped; some received the keen and
- trembling axe; and others suffered by thrusts from the fatal knife. In
- short, the manifestations of zeal and fierce delight were so great and
- unequivocal, that the expedition was declared to be a war of the nation.
- </p>
- <p>
- The instant Uncas had struck the blow, he moved out of the circle, and
- cast his eyes up to the sun, which was just gaining the point, when the
- truce with Magua was to end. The fact was soon announced by a significant
- gesture, accompanied by a corresponding cry; and the whole of the excited
- multitude abandoned their mimic warfare, with shrill yells of pleasure, to
- prepare for the more hazardous experiment of the reality.
- </p>
- <p>
- The whole face of the encampment was instantly changed. The warriors, who
- were already armed and painted, became as still as if they were incapable
- of any uncommon burst of emotion. On the other hand, the women broke out
- of the lodges, with the songs of joy and those of lamentation so strangely
- mixed that it might have been difficult to have said which passion
- preponderated. None, however, was idle. Some bore their choicest articles,
- others their young, and some their aged and infirm, into the forest, which
- spread itself like a verdant carpet of bright green against the side of
- the mountain. Thither Tamenund also retired, with calm composure, after a
- short and touching interview with Uncas; from whom the sage separated with
- the reluctance that a parent would quit a long lost and just recovered
- child. In the meantime, Duncan saw Alice to a place of safety, and then
- sought the scout, with a countenance that denoted how eagerly he also
- panted for the approaching contest.
- </p>
- <p>
- But Hawkeye was too much accustomed to the war song and the enlistments of
- the natives, to betray any interest in the passing scene. He merely cast
- an occasional look at the number and quality of the warriors, who, from
- time to time, signified their readiness to accompany Uncas to the field.
- In this particular he was soon satisfied; for, as has been already seen,
- the power of the young chief quickly embraced every fighting man in the
- nation. After this material point was so satisfactorily decided, he
- despatched an Indian boy in quest of “killdeer” and the rifle of Uncas, to
- the place where they had deposited their weapons on approaching the camp
- of the Delawares; a measure of double policy, inasmuch as it protected the
- arms from their own fate, if detained as prisoners, and gave them the
- advantage of appearing among the strangers rather as sufferers than as men
- provided with means of defense and subsistence. In selecting another to
- perform the office of reclaiming his highly prized rifle, the scout had
- lost sight of none of his habitual caution. He knew that Magua had not
- come unattended, and he also knew that Huron spies watched the movements
- of their new enemies, along the whole boundary of the woods. It would,
- therefore, have been fatal to himself to have attempted the experiment; a
- warrior would have fared no better; but the danger of a boy would not be
- likely to commence until after his object was discovered. When Heyward
- joined him, the scout was coolly awaiting the result of this experiment.
- </p>
- <p>
- The boy, who had been well instructed, and was sufficiently crafty,
- proceeded, with a bosom that was swelling with the pride of such a
- confidence, and all the hopes of young ambition, carelessly across the
- clearing to the wood, which he entered at a point at some little distance
- from the place where the guns were secreted. The instant, however, he was
- concealed by the foliage of the bushes, his dusky form was to be seen
- gliding, like that of a serpent, toward the desired treasure. He was
- successful; and in another moment he appeared flying across the narrow
- opening that skirted the base of the terrace on which the village stood,
- with the velocity of an arrow, and bearing a prize in each hand. He had
- actually gained the crags, and was leaping up their sides with incredible
- activity, when a shot from the woods showed how accurate had been the
- judgment of the scout. The boy answered it with a feeble but contemptuous
- shout; and immediately a second bullet was sent after him from another
- part of the cover. At the next instant he appeared on the level above,
- elevating his guns in triumph, while he moved with the air of a conqueror
- toward the renowned hunter who had honored him by so glorious a
- commission.
- </p>
- <p>
- Notwithstanding the lively interest Hawkeye had taken in the fate of his
- messenger, he received “killdeer” with a satisfaction that, momentarily,
- drove all other recollections from his mind. After examining the piece
- with an intelligent eye, and opening and shutting the pan some ten or
- fifteen times, and trying sundry other equally important experiments on
- the lock, he turned to the boy and demanded with great manifestations of
- kindness, if he was hurt. The urchin looked proudly up in his face, but
- made no reply.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah! I see, lad, the knaves have barked your arm!” added the scout, taking
- up the limb of the patient sufferer, across which a deep flesh wound had
- been made by one of the bullets; “but a little bruised alder will act like
- a charm. In the meantime I will wrap it in a badge of wampum! You have
- commenced the business of a warrior early, my brave boy, and are likely to
- bear a plenty of honorable scars to your grave. I know many young men that
- have taken scalps who cannot show such a mark as this. Go!” having bound
- up the arm; “you will be a chief!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The lad departed, prouder of his flowing blood than the vainest courtier
- could be of his blushing ribbon; and stalked among the fellows of his age,
- an object of general admiration and envy.
- </p>
- <p>
- But, in a moment of so many serious and important duties, this single act
- of juvenile fortitude did not attract the general notice and commendation
- it would have received under milder auspices. It had, however, served to
- apprise the Delawares of the position and the intentions of their enemies.
- Accordingly a party of adventurers, better suited to the task than the
- weak though spirited boy, was ordered to dislodge the skulkers. The duty
- was soon performed; for most of the Hurons retired of themselves when they
- found they had been discovered. The Delawares followed to a sufficient
- distance from their own encampment, and then halted for orders,
- apprehensive of being led into an ambush. As both parties secreted
- themselves, the woods were again as still and quiet as a mild summer
- morning and deep solitude could render them.
- </p>
- <p>
- The calm but still impatient Uncas now collected his chiefs, and divided
- his power. He presented Hawkeye as a warrior, often tried, and always
- found deserving of confidence. When he found his friend met with a
- favorable reception, he bestowed on him the command of twenty men, like
- himself, active, skillful and resolute. He gave the Delawares to
- understand the rank of Heyward among the troops of the Yengeese, and then
- tendered to him a trust of equal authority. But Duncan declined the
- charge, professing his readiness to serve as a volunteer by the side of
- the scout. After this disposition, the young Mohican appointed various
- native chiefs to fill the different situations of responsibility, and, the
- time pressing, he gave forth the word to march. He was cheerfully, but
- silently obeyed by more than two hundred men.
- </p>
- <p>
- Their entrance into the forest was perfectly unmolested; nor did they
- encounter any living objects that could either give the alarm, or furnish
- the intelligence they needed, until they came upon the lairs of their own
- scouts. Here a halt was ordered, and the chiefs were assembled to hold a
- “whispering council.”
- </p>
- <p>
- At this meeting divers plans of operation were suggested, though none of a
- character to meet the wishes of their ardent leader. Had Uncas followed
- the promptings of his own inclinations, he would have led his followers to
- the charge without a moment's delay, and put the conflict to the hazard of
- an instant issue; but such a course would have been in opposition to all
- the received practises and opinions of his countrymen. He was, therefore,
- fain to adopt a caution that in the present temper of his mind he
- execrated, and to listen to advice at which his fiery spirit chafed, under
- the vivid recollection of Cora's danger and Magua's insolence.
- </p>
- <p>
- After an unsatisfactory conference of many minutes, a solitary individual
- was seen advancing from the side of the enemy, with such apparent haste,
- as to induce the belief he might be a messenger charged with pacific
- overtures. When within a hundred yards, however, of the cover behind which
- the Delaware council had assembled, the stranger hesitated, appeared
- uncertain what course to take, and finally halted. All eyes were turned
- now on Uncas, as if seeking directions how to proceed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hawkeye,” said the young chief, in a low voice, “he must never speak to
- the Hurons again.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “His time has come,” said the laconic scout, thrusting the long barrel of
- his rifle through the leaves, and taking his deliberate and fatal aim.
- But, instead of pulling the trigger, he lowered the muzzle again, and
- indulged himself in a fit of his peculiar mirth. “I took the imp for a
- Mingo, as I'm a miserable sinner!” he said; “but when my eye ranged along
- his ribs for a place to get the bullet in—would you think it, Uncas—I
- saw the musicianer's blower; and so, after all, it is the man they call
- Gamut, whose death can profit no one, and whose life, if this tongue can
- do anything but sing, may be made serviceable to our own ends. If sounds
- have not lost their virtue, I'll soon have a discourse with the honest
- fellow, and that in a voice he'll find more agreeable than the speech of
- 'killdeer'.”
- </p>
- <p>
- So saying, Hawkeye laid aside his rifle; and, crawling through the bushes
- until within hearing of David, he attempted to repeat the musical effort,
- which had conducted himself, with so much safety and eclat, through the
- Huron encampment. The exquisite organs of Gamut could not readily be
- deceived (and, to say the truth, it would have been difficult for any
- other than Hawkeye to produce a similar noise), and, consequently, having
- once before heard the sounds, he now knew whence they proceeded. The poor
- fellow appeared relieved from a state of great embarrassment; for,
- pursuing the direction of the voice—a task that to him was not much
- less arduous that it would have been to have gone up in the face of a
- battery—he soon discovered the hidden songster.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wonder what the Hurons will think of that!” said the scout, laughing,
- as he took his companion by the arm, and urged him toward the rear. “If
- the knaves lie within earshot, they will say there are two non-compossers
- instead of one! But here we are safe,” he added, pointing to Uncas and his
- associates. “Now give us the history of the Mingo inventions in natural
- English, and without any ups and downs of voice.”
- </p>
- <p>
- David gazed about him, at the fierce and wild-looking chiefs, in mute
- wonder; but assured by the presence of faces that he knew, he soon rallied
- his faculties so far as to make an intelligent reply.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The heathen are abroad in goodly numbers,” said David; “and, I fear, with
- evil intent. There has been much howling and ungodly revelry, together
- with such sounds as it is profanity to utter, in their habitations within
- the past hour, so much so, in truth, that I have fled to the Delawares in
- search of peace.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Your ears might not have profited much by the exchange, had you been
- quicker of foot,” returned the scout a little dryly. “But let that be as
- it may; where are the Hurons?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They lie hid in the forest, between this spot and their village in such
- force, that prudence would teach you instantly to return.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncas cast a glance along the range of trees which concealed his own band
- and mentioned the name of:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Magua?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is among them. He brought in the maiden that had sojourned with the
- Delawares; and, leaving her in the cave, has put himself, like a raging
- wolf, at the head of his savages. I know not what has troubled his spirit
- so greatly!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He has left her, you say, in the cave!” interrupted Heyward; “'tis well
- that we know its situation! May not something be done for her instant
- relief?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncas looked earnestly at the scout, before he asked:
- </p>
- <p>
- “What says Hawkeye?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Give me twenty rifles, and I will turn to the right, along the stream;
- and, passing by the huts of the beaver, will join the Sagamore and the
- colonel. You shall then hear the whoop from that quarter; with this wind
- one may easily send it a mile. Then, Uncas, do you drive in the front;
- when they come within range of our pieces, we will give them a blow that,
- I pledge the good name of an old frontiersman, shall make their line bend
- like an ashen bow. After which, we will carry the village, and take the
- woman from the cave; when the affair may be finished with the tribe,
- according to a white man's battle, by a blow and a victory; or, in the
- Indian fashion, with dodge and cover. There may be no great learning,
- major, in this plan, but with courage and patience it can all be done.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I like it very much,” cried Duncan, who saw that the release of Cora was
- the primary object in the mind of the scout; “I like it much. Let it be
- instantly attempted.”
- </p>
- <p>
- After a short conference, the plan was matured, and rendered more
- intelligible to the several parties; the different signals were appointed,
- and the chiefs separated, each to his allotted station.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0031" id="link2HCH0031">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 32
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “But plagues shall spread, and funeral fires increase,
- Till the great king, without a ransom paid,
- To her own Chrysa send the black-eyed maid.”
- —Pope.
-</pre>
- <p>
- During the time Uncas was making this disposition of his forces, the woods
- were as still, and, with the exception of those who had met in council,
- apparently as much untenanted as when they came fresh from the hands of
- their Almighty Creator. The eye could range, in every direction, through
- the long and shadowed vistas of the trees; but nowhere was any object to
- be seen that did not properly belong to the peaceful and slumbering
- scenery.
- </p>
- <p>
- Here and there a bird was heard fluttering among the branches of the
- beeches, and occasionally a squirrel dropped a nut, drawing the startled
- looks of the party for a moment to the place; but the instant the casual
- interruption ceased, the passing air was heard murmuring above their
- heads, along that verdant and undulating surface of forest, which spread
- itself unbroken, unless by stream or lake, over such a vast region of
- country. Across the tract of wilderness which lay between the Delawares
- and the village of their enemies, it seemed as if the foot of man had
- never trodden, so breathing and deep was the silence in which it lay. But
- Hawkeye, whose duty led him foremost in the adventure, knew the character
- of those with whom he was about to contend too well to trust the
- treacherous quiet.
- </p>
- <p>
- When he saw his little band collected, the scout threw “killdeer” into the
- hollow of his arm, and making a silent signal that he would be followed,
- he led them many rods toward the rear, into the bed of a little brook
- which they had crossed in advancing. Here he halted, and after waiting for
- the whole of his grave and attentive warriors to close about him, he spoke
- in Delaware, demanding:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do any of my young men know whither this run will lead us?”
- </p>
- <p>
- A Delaware stretched forth a hand, with the two fingers separated, and
- indicating the manner in which they were joined at the root, he answered:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Before the sun could go his own length, the little water will be in the
- big.” Then he added, pointing in the direction of the place he mentioned,
- “the two make enough for the beavers.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I thought as much,” returned the scout, glancing his eye upward at the
- opening in the tree-tops, “from the course it takes, and the bearings of
- the mountains. Men, we will keep within the cover of its banks till we
- scent the Hurons.”
- </p>
- <p>
- His companions gave the usual brief exclamation of assent, but, perceiving
- that their leader was about to lead the way in person, one or two made
- signs that all was not as it should be. Hawkeye, who comprehended their
- meaning glances, turned and perceived that his party had been followed
- thus far by the singing-master.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you know, friend,” asked the scout, gravely, and perhaps with a little
- of the pride of conscious deserving in his manner, “that this is a band of
- rangers chosen for the most desperate service, and put under the command
- of one who, though another might say it with a better face, will not be
- apt to leave them idle. It may not be five, it cannot be thirty minutes,
- before we tread on the body of a Huron, living or dead.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Though not admonished of your intentions in words,” returned David, whose
- face was a little flushed, and whose ordinarily quiet and unmeaning eyes
- glimmered with an expression of unusual fire, “your men have reminded me
- of the children of Jacob going out to battle against the Shechemites, for
- wickedly aspiring to wedlock with a woman of a race that was favored of
- the Lord. Now, I have journeyed far, and sojourned much in good and evil
- with the maiden ye seek; and, though not a man of war, with my loins
- girded and my sword sharpened, yet would I gladly strike a blow in her
- behalf.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout hesitated, as if weighing the chances of such a strange
- enlistment in his mind before he answered:
- </p>
- <p>
- “You know not the use of any we'pon. You carry no rifle; and believe me,
- what the Mingoes take they will freely give again.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Though not a vaunting and bloodily disposed Goliath,” returned David,
- drawing a sling from beneath his parti-colored and uncouth attire, “I have
- not forgotten the example of the Jewish boy. With this ancient instrument
- of war have I practised much in my youth, and peradventure the skill has
- not entirely departed from me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay!” said Hawkeye, considering the deer-skin thong and apron, with a cold
- and discouraging eye; “the thing might do its work among arrows, or even
- knives; but these Mengwe have been furnished by the Frenchers with a good
- grooved barrel a man. However, it seems to be your gift to go unharmed
- amid fire; and as you have hitherto been favored—major, you have
- left your rifle at a cock; a single shot before the time would be just
- twenty scalps lost to no purpose—singer, you can follow; we may find
- use for you in the shoutings.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I thank you, friend,” returned David, supplying himself, like his royal
- namesake, from among the pebbles of the brook; “though not given to the
- desire to kill, had you sent me away my spirit would have been troubled.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Remember,” added the scout, tapping his own head significantly on that
- spot where Gamut was yet sore, “we come to fight, and not to musickate.
- Until the general whoop is given, nothing speaks but the rifle.”
- </p>
- <p>
- David nodded, as much to signify his acquiescence with the terms; and then
- Hawkeye, casting another observant glance over his followers made the
- signal to proceed.
- </p>
- <p>
- Their route lay, for the distance of a mile, along the bed of the
- water-course. Though protected from any great danger of observation by the
- precipitous banks, and the thick shrubbery which skirted the stream, no
- precaution known to an Indian attack was neglected. A warrior rather
- crawled than walked on each flank so as to catch occasional glimpses into
- the forest; and every few minutes the band came to a halt, and listened
- for hostile sounds, with an acuteness of organs that would be scarcely
- conceivable to a man in a less natural state. Their march was, however,
- unmolested, and they reached the point where the lesser stream was lost in
- the greater, without the smallest evidence that their progress had been
- noted. Here the scout again halted, to consult the signs of the forest.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are likely to have a good day for a fight,” he said, in English,
- addressing Heyward, and glancing his eyes upward at the clouds, which
- began to move in broad sheets across the firmament; “a bright sun and a
- glittering barrel are no friends to true sight. Everything is favorable;
- they have the wind, which will bring down their noises and their smoke,
- too, no little matter in itself; whereas, with us it will be first a shot,
- and then a clear view. But here is an end to our cover; the beavers have
- had the range of this stream for hundreds of years, and what atween their
- food and their dams, there is, as you see, many a girdled stub, but few
- living trees.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Hawkeye had, in truth, in these few words, given no bad description of the
- prospect that now lay in their front. The brook was irregular in its
- width, sometimes shooting through narrow fissures in the rocks, and at
- others spreading over acres of bottom land, forming little areas that
- might be termed ponds. Everywhere along its bands were the moldering
- relics of dead trees, in all the stages of decay, from those that groaned
- on their tottering trunks to such as had recently been robbed of those
- rugged coats that so mysteriously contain their principle of life. A few
- long, low, and moss-covered piles were scattered among them, like the
- memorials of a former and long-departed generation.
- </p>
- <p>
- All these minute particulars were noted by the scout, with a gravity and
- interest that they probably had never before attracted. He knew that the
- Huron encampment lay a short half mile up the brook; and, with the
- characteristic anxiety of one who dreaded a hidden danger, he was greatly
- troubled at not finding the smallest trace of the presence of his enemy.
- Once or twice he felt induced to give the order for a rush, and to attempt
- the village by surprise; but his experience quickly admonished him of the
- danger of so useless an experiment. Then he listened intently, and with
- painful uncertainty, for the sounds of hostility in the quarter where
- Uncas was left; but nothing was audible except the sighing of the wind,
- that began to sweep over the bosom of the forest in gusts which threatened
- a tempest. At length, yielding rather to his unusual impatience than
- taking counsel from his knowledge, he determined to bring matters to an
- issue, by unmasking his force, and proceeding cautiously, but steadily, up
- the stream.
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout had stood, while making his observations, sheltered by a brake,
- and his companions still lay in the bed of the ravine, through which the
- smaller stream debouched; but on hearing his low, though intelligible,
- signal the whole party stole up the bank, like so many dark specters, and
- silently arranged themselves around him. Pointing in the direction he
- wished to proceed, Hawkeye advanced, the band breaking off in single
- files, and following so accurately in his footsteps, as to leave it, if we
- except Heyward and David, the trail of but a single man.
- </p>
- <p>
- The party was, however, scarcely uncovered before a volley from a dozen
- rifles was heard in their rear; and a Delaware leaping high in to the air,
- like a wounded deer, fell at his whole length, dead.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah, I feared some deviltry like this!” exclaimed the scout, in English,
- adding, with the quickness of thought, in his adopted tongue: “To cover,
- men, and charge!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The band dispersed at the word, and before Heyward had well recovered from
- his surprise, he found himself standing alone with David. Luckily the
- Hurons had already fallen back, and he was safe from their fire. But this
- state of things was evidently to be of short continuance; for the scout
- set the example of pressing on their retreat, by discharging his rifle,
- and darting from tree to tree as his enemy slowly yielded ground.
- </p>
- <p>
- It would seem that the assault had been made by a very small party of the
- Hurons, which, however, continued to increase in numbers, as it retired on
- its friends, until the return fire was very nearly, if not quite, equal to
- that maintained by the advancing Delawares. Heyward threw himself among
- the combatants, and imitating the necessary caution of his companions, he
- made quick discharges with his own rifle. The contest now grew warm and
- stationary. Few were injured, as both parties kept their bodies as much
- protected as possible by the trees; never, indeed, exposing any part of
- their persons except in the act of taking aim. But the chances were
- gradually growing unfavorable to Hawkeye and his band. The quick-sighted
- scout perceived his danger without knowing how to remedy it. He saw it was
- more dangerous to retreat than to maintain his ground: while he found his
- enemy throwing out men on his flank; which rendered the task of keeping
- themselves covered so very difficult to the Delawares, as nearly to
- silence their fire. At this embarrassing moment, when they began to think
- the whole of the hostile tribe was gradually encircling them, they heard
- the yell of combatants and the rattling of arms echoing under the arches
- of the wood at the place where Uncas was posted, a bottom which, in a
- manner, lay beneath the ground on which Hawkeye and his party were
- contending.
- </p>
- <p>
- The effects of this attack were instantaneous, and to the scout and his
- friends greatly relieving. It would seem that, while his own surprise had
- been anticipated, and had consequently failed, the enemy, in their turn,
- having been deceived in its object and in his numbers, had left too small
- a force to resist the impetuous onset of the young Mohican. This fact was
- doubly apparent, by the rapid manner in which the battle in the forest
- rolled upward toward the village, and by an instant falling off in the
- number of their assailants, who rushed to assist in maintaining the front,
- and, as it now proved to be, the principal point of defense.
- </p>
- <p>
- Animating his followers by his voice, and his own example, Hawkeye then
- gave the word to bear down upon their foes. The charge, in that rude
- species of warfare, consisted merely in pushing from cover to cover,
- nigher to the enemy; and in this maneuver he was instantly and
- successfully obeyed. The Hurons were compelled to withdraw, and the scene
- of the contest rapidly changed from the more open ground, on which it had
- commenced, to a spot where the assailed found a thicket to rest upon. Here
- the struggle was protracted, arduous and seemingly of doubtful issue; the
- Delawares, though none of them fell, beginning to bleed freely, in
- consequence of the disadvantage at which they were held.
- </p>
- <p>
- In this crisis, Hawkeye found means to get behind the same tree as that
- which served for a cover to Heyward; most of his own combatants being
- within call, a little on his right, where they maintained rapid, though
- fruitless, discharges on their sheltered enemies.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are a young man, major,” said the scout, dropping the butt of
- “killdeer” to the earth, and leaning on the barrel, a little fatigued with
- his previous industry; “and it may be your gift to lead armies, at some
- future day, ag'in these imps, the Mingoes. You may here see the philosophy
- of an Indian fight. It consists mainly in ready hand, a quick eye and a
- good cover. Now, if you had a company of the Royal Americans here, in what
- manner would you set them to work in this business?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The bayonet would make a road.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ay, there is white reason in what you say; but a man must ask himself, in
- this wilderness, how many lives he can spare. No—horse*,” continued
- the scout, shaking his head, like one who mused; “horse, I am ashamed to
- say must sooner or later decide these scrimmages. The brutes are better
- than men, and to horse must we come at last. Put a shodden hoof on the
- moccasin of a red-skin, and, if his rifle be once emptied, he will never
- stop to load it again.”
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- * The American forest admits of the passage of horses, there
- being little underbrush, and few tangled brakes. The plan of
- Hawkeye is the one which has always proved the most
- successful in the battles between the whites and the
- Indians. Wayne, in his celebrated campaign on the Miami,
- received the fire of his enemies in line; and then causing
- his dragoons to wheel round his flanks, the Indians were
- driven from their covers before they had time to load. One
- of the most conspicuous of the chiefs who fought in the
- battle of Miami assured the writer, that the red men could
- not fight the warriors with “long knives and leather
- stockings”; meaning the dragoons with their sabers and
- boots.
-</pre>
- <p>
- “This is a subject that might better be discussed at another time,”
- returned Heyward; “shall we charge?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I see no contradiction to the gifts of any man in passing his breathing
- spells in useful reflections,” the scout replied. “As to rush, I little
- relish such a measure; for a scalp or two must be thrown away in the
- attempt. And yet,” he added, bending his head aside, to catch the sounds
- of the distant combat, “if we are to be of use to Uncas, these knaves in
- our front must be got rid of.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Then, turning with a prompt and decided air, he called aloud to his
- Indians, in their own language. His words were answered by a shout; and,
- at a given signal, each warrior made a swift movement around his
- particular tree. The sight of so many dark bodies, glancing before their
- eyes at the same instant, drew a hasty and consequently an ineffectual
- fire from the Hurons. Without stopping to breathe, the Delawares leaped in
- long bounds toward the wood, like so many panthers springing upon their
- prey. Hawkeye was in front, brandishing his terrible rifle and animating
- his followers by his example. A few of the older and more cunning Hurons,
- who had not been deceived by the artifice which had been practiced to draw
- their fire, now made a close and deadly discharge of their pieces and
- justified the apprehensions of the scout by felling three of his foremost
- warriors. But the shock was insufficient to repel the impetus of the
- charge. The Delawares broke into the cover with the ferocity of their
- natures and swept away every trace of resistance by the fury of the onset.
- </p>
- <p>
- The combat endured only for an instant, hand to hand, and then the
- assailed yielded ground rapidly, until they reached the opposite margin of
- the thicket, where they clung to the cover, with the sort of obstinacy
- that is so often witnessed in hunted brutes. At this critical moment, when
- the success of the struggle was again becoming doubtful, the crack of a
- rifle was heard behind the Hurons, and a bullet came whizzing from among
- some beaver lodges, which were situated in the clearing, in their rear,
- and was followed by the fierce and appalling yell of the war-whoop.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There speaks the Sagamore!” shouted Hawkeye, answering the cry with his
- own stentorian voice; “we have them now in face and back!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The effect on the Hurons was instantaneous. Discouraged by an assault from
- a quarter that left them no opportunity for cover, the warriors uttered a
- common yell of disappointment, and breaking off in a body, they spread
- themselves across the opening, heedless of every consideration but flight.
- Many fell, in making the experiment, under the bullets and the blows of
- the pursuing Delawares.
- </p>
- <p>
- We shall not pause to detail the meeting between the scout and
- Chingachgook, or the more touching interview that Duncan held with Munro.
- A few brief and hurried words served to explain the state of things to
- both parties; and then Hawkeye, pointing out the Sagamore to his band,
- resigned the chief authority into the hands of the Mohican chief.
- Chingachgook assumed the station to which his birth and experience gave
- him so distinguished a claim, with the grave dignity that always gives
- force to the mandates of a native warrior. Following the footsteps of the
- scout, he led the party back through the thicket, his men scalping the
- fallen Hurons and secreting the bodies of their own dead as they
- proceeded, until they gained a point where the former was content to make
- a halt.
- </p>
- <p>
- The warriors, who had breathed themselves freely in the preceding
- struggle, were now posted on a bit of level ground, sprinkled with trees
- in sufficient numbers to conceal them. The land fell away rather
- precipitately in front, and beneath their eyes stretched, for several
- miles, a narrow, dark, and wooded vale. It was through this dense and dark
- forest that Uncas was still contending with the main body of the Hurons.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Mohican and his friends advanced to the brow of the hill, and
- listened, with practised ears, to the sounds of the combat. A few birds
- hovered over the leafy bosom of the valley, frightened from their secluded
- nests; and here and there a light vapory cloud, which seemed already
- blending with the atmosphere, arose above the trees, and indicated some
- spot where the struggle had been fierce and stationary.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The fight is coming up the ascent,” said Duncan, pointing in the
- direction of a new explosion of firearms; “we are too much in the center
- of their line to be effective.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They will incline into the hollow, where the cover is thicker,” said the
- scout, “and that will leave us well on their flank. Go, Sagamore; you will
- hardly be in time to give the whoop, and lead on the young men. I will
- fight this scrimmage with warriors of my own color. You know me, Mohican;
- not a Huron of them all shall cross the swell, into your rear, without the
- notice of 'killdeer'.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Indian chief paused another moment to consider the signs of the
- contest, which was now rolling rapidly up the ascent, a certain evidence
- that the Delawares triumphed; nor did he actually quit the place until
- admonished of the proximity of his friends, as well as enemies, by the
- bullets of the former, which began to patter among the dried leaves on the
- ground, like the bits of falling hail which precede the bursting of the
- tempest. Hawkeye and his three companions withdrew a few paces to a
- shelter, and awaited the issue with calmness that nothing but great
- practise could impart in such a scene.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was not long before the reports of the rifles began to lose the echoes
- of the woods, and to sound like weapons discharged in the open air. Then a
- warrior appeared, here and there, driven to the skirts of the forest, and
- rallying as he entered the clearing, as at the place where the final stand
- was to be made. These were soon joined by others, until a long line of
- swarthy figures was to be seen clinging to the cover with the obstinacy of
- desperation. Heyward began to grow impatient, and turned his eyes
- anxiously in the direction of Chingachgook. The chief was seated on a
- rock, with nothing visible but his calm visage, considering the spectacle
- with an eye as deliberate as if he were posted there merely to view the
- struggle.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The time has come for the Delaware to strike!” said Duncan.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not so, not so,” returned the scout; “when he scents his friends, he will
- let them know that he is here. See, see; the knaves are getting in that
- clump of pines, like bees settling after their flight. By the Lord, a
- squaw might put a bullet into the center of such a knot of dark skins!”
- </p>
- <p>
- At that instant the whoop was given, and a dozen Hurons fell by a
- discharge from Chingachgook and his band. The shout that followed was
- answered by a single war-cry from the forest, and a yell passed through
- the air that sounded as if a thousand throats were united in a common
- effort. The Hurons staggered, deserting the center of their line, and
- Uncas issued from the forest through the opening they left, at the head of
- a hundred warriors.
- </p>
- <p>
- Waving his hands right and left, the young chief pointed out the enemy to
- his followers, who separated in pursuit. The war now divided, both wings
- of the broken Hurons seeking protection in the woods again, hotly pressed
- by the victorious warriors of the Lenape. A minute might have passed, but
- the sounds were already receding in different directions, and gradually
- losing their distinctness beneath the echoing arches of the woods. One
- little knot of Hurons, however, had disdained to seek a cover, and were
- retiring, like lions at bay, slowly and sullenly up the acclivity which
- Chingachgook and his band had just deserted, to mingle more closely in the
- fray. Magua was conspicuous in this party, both by his fierce and savage
- mien, and by the air of haughty authority he yet maintained.
- </p>
- <p>
- In his eagerness to expedite the pursuit, Uncas had left himself nearly
- alone; but the moment his eye caught the figure of Le Subtil, every other
- consideration was forgotten. Raising his cry of battle, which recalled
- some six or seven warriors, and reckless of the disparity of their
- numbers, he rushed upon his enemy. Le Renard, who watched the movement,
- paused to receive him with secret joy. But at the moment when he thought
- the rashness of his impetuous young assailant had left him at his mercy,
- another shout was given, and La Longue Carabine was seen rushing to the
- rescue, attended by all his white associates. The Huron instantly turned,
- and commenced a rapid retreat up the ascent.
- </p>
- <p>
- There was no time for greetings or congratulations; for Uncas, though
- unconscious of the presence of his friends, continued the pursuit with the
- velocity of the wind. In vain Hawkeye called to him to respect the covers;
- the young Mohican braved the dangerous fire of his enemies, and soon
- compelled them to a flight as swift as his own headlong speed. It was
- fortunate that the race was of short continuance, and that the white men
- were much favored by their position, or the Delaware would soon have
- outstripped all his companions, and fallen a victim to his own temerity.
- But, ere such a calamity could happen, the pursuers and pursued entered
- the Wyandot village, within striking distance of each other.
- </p>
- <p>
- Excited by the presence of their dwellings, and tired of the chase, the
- Hurons now made a stand, and fought around their council-lodge with the
- fury of despair. The onset and the issue were like the passage and
- destruction of a whirlwind. The tomahawk of Uncas, the blows of Hawkeye,
- and even the still nervous arm of Munro were all busy for that passing
- moment, and the ground was quickly strewed with their enemies. Still
- Magua, though daring and much exposed, escaped from every effort against
- his life, with that sort of fabled protection that was made to overlook
- the fortunes of favored heroes in the legends of ancient poetry. Raising a
- yell that spoke volumes of anger and disappointment, the subtle chief,
- when he saw his comrades fallen, darted away from the place, attended by
- his two only surviving friends, leaving the Delawares engaged in stripping
- the dead of the bloody trophies of their victory.
- </p>
- <p>
- But Uncas, who had vainly sought him in the melee, bounded forward in
- pursuit; Hawkeye, Heyward and David still pressing on his footsteps. The
- utmost that the scout could effect, was to keep the muzzle of his rifle a
- little in advance of his friend, to whom, however, it answered every
- purpose of a charmed shield. Once Magua appeared disposed to make another
- and a final effort to revenge his losses; but, abandoning his intention as
- soon as demonstrated, he leaped into a thicket of bushes, through which he
- was followed by his enemies, and suddenly entered the mouth of the cave
- already known to the reader. Hawkeye, who had only forborne to fire in
- tenderness to Uncas, raised a shout of success, and proclaimed aloud that
- now they were certain of their game. The pursuers dashed into the long and
- narrow entrance, in time to catch a glimpse of the retreating forms of the
- Hurons. Their passage through the natural galleries and subterraneous
- apartments of the cavern was preceded by the shrieks and cries of hundreds
- of women and children. The place, seen by its dim and uncertain light,
- appeared like the shades of the infernal regions, across which unhappy
- ghosts and savage demons were flitting in multitudes.
- </p>
- <p>
- Still Uncas kept his eye on Magua, as if life to him possessed but a
- single object. Heyward and the scout still pressed on his rear, actuated,
- though possibly in a less degree, by a common feeling. But their way was
- becoming intricate, in those dark and gloomy passages, and the glimpses of
- the retiring warriors less distinct and frequent; and for a moment the
- trace was believed to be lost, when a white robe was seen fluttering in
- the further extremity of a passage that seemed to lead up the mountain.
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis Cora!” exclaimed Heyward, in a voice in which horror and delight
- were wildly mingled.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Cora! Cora!” echoed Uncas, bounding forward like a deer.
- </p>
- <p>
- “'Tis the maiden!” shouted the scout. “Courage, lady; we come! we come!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The chase was renewed with a diligence rendered tenfold encouraging by
- this glimpse of the captive. But the way was rugged, broken, and in spots
- nearly impassable. Uncas abandoned his rifle, and leaped forward with
- headlong precipitation. Heyward rashly imitated his example, though both
- were, a moment afterward, admonished of his madness by hearing the
- bellowing of a piece, that the Hurons found time to discharge down the
- passage in the rocks, the bullet from which even gave the young Mohican a
- slight wound.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We must close!” said the scout, passing his friends by a desperate leap;
- “the knaves will pick us all off at this distance; and see, they hold the
- maiden so as to shield themselves!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Though his words were unheeded, or rather unheard, his example was
- followed by his companions, who, by incredible exertions, got near enough
- to the fugitives to perceive that Cora was borne along between the two
- warriors while Magua prescribed the direction and manner of their flight.
- At this moment the forms of all four were strongly drawn against an
- opening in the sky, and they disappeared. Nearly frantic with
- disappointment, Uncas and Heyward increased efforts that already seemed
- superhuman, and they issued from the cavern on the side of the mountain,
- in time to note the route of the pursued. The course lay up the ascent,
- and still continued hazardous and laborious.
- </p>
- <p>
- Encumbered by his rifle, and, perhaps, not sustained by so deep an
- interest in the captive as his companions, the scout suffered the latter
- to precede him a little, Uncas, in his turn, taking the lead of Heyward.
- In this manner, rocks, precipices and difficulties were surmounted in an
- incredibly short space, that at another time, and under other
- circumstances, would have been deemed almost insuperable. But the
- impetuous young men were rewarded by finding that, encumbered with Cora,
- the Hurons were losing ground in the race.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Stay, dog of the Wyandots!” exclaimed Uncas, shaking his bright tomahawk
- at Magua; “a Delaware girl calls stay!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I will go no further!” cried Cora, stopping unexpectedly on a ledge of
- rock, that overhung a deep precipice, at no great distance from the summit
- of the mountain. “Kill me if thou wilt, detestable Huron; I will go no
- further.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The supporters of the maiden raised their ready tomahawks with the impious
- joy that fiends are thought to take in mischief, but Magua stayed the
- uplifted arms. The Huron chief, after casting the weapons he had wrested
- from his companions over the rock, drew his knife, and turned to his
- captive, with a look in which conflicting passions fiercely contended.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Woman,” he said, “chose; the wigwam or the knife of Le Subtil!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Cora regarded him not, but dropping on her knees, she raised her eyes and
- stretched her arms toward heaven, saying in a meek and yet confiding
- voice:
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am thine; do with me as thou seest best!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Woman,” repeated Magua, hoarsely, and endeavoring in vain to catch a
- glance from her serene and beaming eye, “choose!”
- </p>
- <p>
- But Cora neither heard nor heeded his demand. The form of the Huron
- trembled in every fibre, and he raised his arm on high, but dropped it
- again with a bewildered air, like one who doubted. Once more he struggled
- with himself and lifted the keen weapon again; but just then a piercing
- cry was heard above them, and Uncas appeared, leaping frantically, from a
- fearful height, upon the ledge. Magua recoiled a step; and one of his
- assistants, profiting by the chance, sheathed his own knife in the bosom
- of Cora.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Huron sprang like a tiger on his offending and already retreating
- country man, but the falling form of Uncas separated the unnatural
- combatants. Diverted from his object by this interruption, and maddened by
- the murder he had just witnessed, Magua buried his weapon in the back of
- the prostrate Delaware, uttering an unearthly shout as he committed the
- dastardly deed. But Uncas arose from the blow, as the wounded panther
- turns upon his foe, and struck the murderer of Cora to his feet, by an
- effort in which the last of his failing strength was expended. Then, with
- a stern and steady look, he turned to Le Subtil, and indicated by the
- expression of his eye all that he would do had not the power deserted him.
- The latter seized the nerveless arm of the unresisting Delaware, and
- passed his knife into his bosom three several times, before his victim,
- still keeping his gaze riveted on his enemy, with a look of
- inextinguishable scorn, fell dead at his feet.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mercy! mercy! Huron,” cried Heyward, from above, in tones nearly choked
- by horror; “give mercy, and thou shalt receive from it!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Whirling the bloody knife up at the imploring youth, the victorious Magua
- uttered a cry so fierce, so wild, and yet so joyous, that it conveyed the
- sounds of savage triumph to the ears of those who fought in the valley, a
- thousand feet below. He was answered by a burst from the lips of the
- scout, whose tall person was just then seen moving swiftly toward him,
- along those dangerous crags, with steps as bold and reckless as if he
- possessed the power to move in air. But when the hunter reached the scene
- of the ruthless massacre, the ledge was tenanted only by the dead.
- </p>
- <p>
- His keen eye took a single look at the victims, and then shot its glances
- over the difficulties of the ascent in his front. A form stood at the brow
- of the mountain, on the very edge of the giddy height, with uplifted arms,
- in an awful attitude of menace. Without stopping to consider his person,
- the rifle of Hawkeye was raised; but a rock, which fell on the head of one
- of the fugitives below, exposed the indignant and glowing countenance of
- the honest Gamut. Then Magua issued from a crevice, and, stepping with
- calm indifference over the body of the last of his associates, he leaped a
- wide fissure, and ascended the rocks at a point where the arm of David
- could not reach him. A single bound would carry him to the brow of the
- precipice, and assure his safety. Before taking the leap, however, the
- Huron paused, and shaking his hand at the scout, he shouted:
- </p>
- <p>
- “The pale faces are dogs! the Delawares women! Magua leaves them on the
- rocks, for the crows!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Laughing hoarsely, he made a desperate leap, and fell short of his mark,
- though his hands grasped a shrub on the verge of the height. The form of
- Hawkeye had crouched like a beast about to take its spring, and his frame
- trembled so violently with eagerness that the muzzle of the half-raised
- rifle played like a leaf fluttering in the wind. Without exhausting
- himself with fruitless efforts, the cunning Magua suffered his body to
- drop to the length of his arms, and found a fragment for his feet to rest
- on. Then, summoning all his powers, he renewed the attempt, and so far
- succeeded as to draw his knees on the edge of the mountain. It was now,
- when the body of his enemy was most collected together, that the agitated
- weapon of the scout was drawn to his shoulder. The surrounding rocks
- themselves were not steadier than the piece became, for the single instant
- that it poured out its contents. The arms of the Huron relaxed, and his
- body fell back a little, while his knees still kept their position.
- Turning a relentless look on his enemy, he shook a hand in grim defiance.
- But his hold loosened, and his dark person was seen cutting the air with
- its head downward, for a fleeting instant, until it glided past the fringe
- of shrubbery which clung to the mountain, in its rapid flight to
- destruction.
- </p>
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0032" id="link2HCH0032">
- <!-- H2 anchor --> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER 33
- </h2>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- “They fought, like brave men, long and well,
- They piled that ground with Moslem slain,
- They conquered—but Bozzaris fell,
- Bleeding at every vein.
- His few surviving comrades saw
- His smile when rang their loud hurrah,
- And the red field was won;
- Then saw in death his eyelids close
- Calmly, as to a night's repose,
- Like flowers at set of sun.”
- —Halleck.
-</pre>
- <p>
- The sun found the Lenape, on the succeeding day, a nation of mourners. The
- sounds of the battle were over, and they had fed fat their ancient grudge,
- and had avenged their recent quarrel with the Mengwe, by the destruction
- of a whole community. The black and murky atmosphere that floated around
- the spot where the Hurons had encamped, sufficiently announced of itself,
- the fate of that wandering tribe; while hundreds of ravens, that struggled
- above the summits of the mountains, or swept, in noisy flocks, across the
- wide ranges of the woods, furnished a frightful direction to the scene of
- the combat. In short, any eye at all practised in the signs of a frontier
- warfare might easily have traced all those unerring evidences of the
- ruthless results which attend an Indian vengeance.
- </p>
- <p>
- Still, the sun rose on the Lenape a nation of mourners. No shouts of
- success, no songs of triumph, were heard, in rejoicings for their victory.
- The latest straggler had returned from his fell employment, only to strip
- himself of the terrific emblems of his bloody calling, and to join in the
- lamentations of his countrymen, as a stricken people. Pride and exultation
- were supplanted by humility, and the fiercest of human passions was
- already succeeded by the most profound and unequivocal demonstrations of
- grief.
- </p>
- <p>
- The lodges were deserted; but a broad belt of earnest faces encircled a
- spot in their vicinity, whither everything possessing life had repaired,
- and where all were now collected, in deep and awful silence. Though beings
- of every rank and age, of both sexes, and of all pursuits, had united to
- form this breathing wall of bodies, they were influenced by a single
- emotion. Each eye was riveted on the center of that ring, which contained
- the objects of so much and of so common an interest.
- </p>
- <p>
- Six Delaware girls, with their long, dark, flowing tresses falling loosely
- across their bosoms, stood apart, and only gave proof of their existence
- as they occasionally strewed sweet-scented herbs and forest flowers on a
- litter of fragrant plants that, under a pall of Indian robes, supported
- all that now remained of the ardent, high-souled, and generous Cora. Her
- form was concealed in many wrappers of the same simple manufacture, and
- her face was shut forever from the gaze of men. At her feet was seated the
- desolate Munro. His aged head was bowed nearly to the earth, in compelled
- submission to the stroke of Providence; but a hidden anguish struggled
- about his furrowed brow, that was only partially concealed by the careless
- locks of gray that had fallen, neglected, on his temples. Gamut stood at
- his side, his meek head bared to the rays of the sun, while his eyes,
- wandering and concerned, seemed to be equally divided between that little
- volume, which contained so many quaint but holy maxims, and the being in
- whose behalf his soul yearned to administer consolation. Heyward was also
- nigh, supporting himself against a tree, and endeavoring to keep down
- those sudden risings of sorrow that it required his utmost manhood to
- subdue.
- </p>
- <p>
- But sad and melancholy as this group may easily be imagined, it was far
- less touching than another, that occupied the opposite space of the same
- area. Seated, as in life, with his form and limbs arranged in grave and
- decent composure, Uncas appeared, arrayed in the most gorgeous ornaments
- that the wealth of the tribe could furnish. Rich plumes nodded above his
- head; wampum, gorgets, bracelets, and medals, adorned his person in
- profusion; though his dull eye and vacant lineaments too strongly
- contradicted the idle tale of pride they would convey.
- </p>
- <p>
- Directly in front of the corpse Chingachgook was placed, without arms,
- paint or adornment of any sort, except the bright blue blazonry of his
- race, that was indelibly impressed on his naked bosom. During the long
- period that the tribe had thus been collected, the Mohican warrior had
- kept a steady, anxious look on the cold and senseless countenance of his
- son. So riveted and intense had been that gaze, and so changeless his
- attitude, that a stranger might not have told the living from the dead,
- but for the occasional gleamings of a troubled spirit, that shot athwart
- the dark visage of one, and the deathlike calm that had forever settled on
- the lineaments of the other. The scout was hard by, leaning in a pensive
- posture on his own fatal and avenging weapon; while Tamenund, supported by
- the elders of his nation, occupied a high place at hand, whence he might
- look down on the mute and sorrowful assemblage of his people.
- </p>
- <p>
- Just within the inner edge of the circle stood a soldier, in the military
- attire of a strange nation; and without it was his warhorse, in the center
- of a collection of mounted domestics, seemingly in readiness to undertake
- some distant journey. The vestments of the stranger announced him to be
- one who held a responsible situation near the person of the captain of the
- Canadas; and who, as it would now seem, finding his errand of peace
- frustrated by the fierce impetuosity of his allies, was content to become
- a silent and sad spectator of the fruits of a contest that he had arrived
- too late to anticipate.
- </p>
- <p>
- The day was drawing to the close of its first quarter, and yet had the
- multitude maintained its breathing stillness since its dawn.
- </p>
- <p>
- No sound louder than a stifled sob had been heard among them, nor had even
- a limb been moved throughout that long and painful period, except to
- perform the simple and touching offerings that were made, from time to
- time, in commemoration of the dead. The patience and forbearance of Indian
- fortitude could alone support such an appearance of abstraction, as seemed
- now to have turned each dark and motionless figure into stone.
- </p>
- <p>
- At length, the sage of the Delawares stretched forth an arm, and leaning
- on the shoulders of his attendants, he arose with an air as feeble as if
- another age had already intervened between the man who had met his nation
- the preceding day, and him who now tottered on his elevated stand.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Men of the Lenape!” he said, in low, hollow tones, that sounded like a
- voice charged with some prophetic mission: “the face of the Manitou is
- behind a cloud! His eye is turned from you; His ears are shut; His tongue
- gives no answer. You see him not; yet His judgments are before you. Let
- your hearts be open and your spirits tell no lie. Men of the Lenape! the
- face of the Manitou is behind a cloud.”
- </p>
- <p>
- As this simple and yet terrible annunciation stole on the ears of the
- multitude, a stillness as deep and awful succeeded as if the venerated
- spirit they worshiped had uttered the words without the aid of human
- organs; and even the inanimate Uncas appeared a being of life, compared
- with the humbled and submissive throng by whom he was surrounded. As the
- immediate effect, however, gradually passed away, a low murmur of voices
- commenced a sort of chant in honor of the dead. The sounds were those of
- females, and were thrillingly soft and wailing. The words were connected
- by no regular continuation, but as one ceased another took up the eulogy,
- or lamentation, whichever it might be called, and gave vent to her
- emotions in such language as was suggested by her feelings and the
- occasion. At intervals the speaker was interrupted by general and loud
- bursts of sorrow, during which the girls around the bier of Cora plucked
- the plants and flowers blindly from her body, as if bewildered with grief.
- But, in the milder moments of their plaint, these emblems of purity and
- sweetness were cast back to their places, with every sign of tenderness
- and regret. Though rendered less connected by many and general
- interruptions and outbreakings, a translation of their language would have
- contained a regular descant, which, in substance, might have proved to
- possess a train of consecutive ideas.
- </p>
- <p>
- A girl, selected for the task by her rank and qualifications, commenced by
- modest allusions to the qualities of the deceased warrior, embellishing
- her expressions with those oriental images that the Indians have probably
- brought with them from the extremes of the other continent, and which form
- of themselves a link to connect the ancient histories of the two worlds.
- She called him the “panther of his tribe”; and described him as one whose
- moccasin left no trail on the dews; whose bound was like the leap of a
- young fawn; whose eye was brighter than a star in the dark night; and
- whose voice, in battle, was loud as the thunder of the Manitou. She
- reminded him of the mother who bore him, and dwelt forcibly on the
- happiness she must feel in possessing such a son. She bade him tell her,
- when they met in the world of spirits, that the Delaware girls had shed
- tears above the grave of her child, and had called her blessed.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then, they who succeeded, changing their tones to a milder and still more
- tender strain, alluded, with the delicacy and sensitiveness of women, to
- the stranger maiden, who had left the upper earth at a time so near his
- own departure, as to render the will of the Great Spirit too manifest to
- be disregarded. They admonished him to be kind to her, and to have
- consideration for her ignorance of those arts which were so necessary to
- the comfort of a warrior like himself. They dwelled upon her matchless
- beauty, and on her noble resolution, without the taint of envy, and as
- angels may be thought to delight in a superior excellence; adding, that
- these endowments should prove more than equivalent for any little
- imperfection in her education.
- </p>
- <p>
- After which, others again, in due succession, spoke to the maiden herself,
- in the low, soft language of tenderness and love. They exhorted her to be
- of cheerful mind, and to fear nothing for her future welfare. A hunter
- would be her companion, who knew how to provide for her smallest wants;
- and a warrior was at her side who was able to protect he against every
- danger. They promised that her path should be pleasant, and her burden
- light. They cautioned her against unavailing regrets for the friends of
- her youth, and the scenes where her father had dwelt; assuring her that
- the “blessed hunting grounds of the Lenape,” contained vales as pleasant,
- streams as pure; and flowers as sweet, as the “heaven of the pale faces.”
- They advised her to be attentive to the wants of her companion, and never
- to forget the distinction which the Manitou had so wisely established
- between them. Then, in a wild burst of their chant they sang with united
- voices the temper of the Mohican's mind. They pronounced him noble, manly
- and generous; all that became a warrior, and all that a maid might love.
- Clothing their ideas in the most remote and subtle images, they betrayed,
- that, in the short period of their intercourse, they had discovered, with
- the intuitive perception of their sex, the truant disposition of his
- inclinations. The Delaware girls had found no favor in his eyes! He was of
- a race that had once been lords on the shores of the salt lake, and his
- wishes had led him back to a people who dwelt about the graves of his
- fathers. Why should not such a predilection be encouraged! That she was of
- a blood purer and richer than the rest of her nation, any eye might have
- seen; that she was equal to the dangers and daring of a life in the woods,
- her conduct had proved; and now, they added, the “wise one of the earth”
- had transplanted her to a place where she would find congenial spirits,
- and might be forever happy.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then, with another transition in voice and subject, allusions were made to
- the virgin who wept in the adjacent lodge. They compared her to flakes of
- snow; as pure, as white, as brilliant, and as liable to melt in the fierce
- heats of summer, or congeal in the frosts of winter. They doubted not that
- she was lovely in the eyes of the young chief, whose skin and whose sorrow
- seemed so like her own; but though far from expressing such a preference,
- it was evident they deemed her less excellent than the maid they mourned.
- Still they denied her no need her rare charms might properly claim. Her
- ringlets were compared to the exuberant tendrils of the vine, her eye to
- the blue vault of heavens, and the most spotless cloud, with its glowing
- flush of the sun, was admitted to be less attractive than her bloom.
- </p>
- <p>
- During these and similar songs nothing was audible but the murmurs of the
- music; relieved, as it was, or rather rendered terrible, by those
- occasional bursts of grief which might be called its choruses. The
- Delawares themselves listened like charmed men; and it was very apparent,
- by the variations of their speaking countenances, how deep and true was
- their sympathy. Even David was not reluctant to lend his ears to the tones
- of voices so sweet; and long ere the chant was ended, his gaze announced
- that his soul was enthralled.
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout, to whom alone, of all the white men, the words were
- intelligible, suffered himself to be a little aroused from his meditative
- posture, and bent his face aside, to catch their meaning, as the girls
- proceeded. But when they spoke of the future prospects of Cora and Uncas,
- he shook his head, like one who knew the error of their simple creed, and
- resuming his reclining attitude, he maintained it until the ceremony, if
- that might be called a ceremony, in which feeling was so deeply imbued,
- was finished. Happily for the self-command of both Heyward and Munro, they
- knew not the meaning of the wild sounds they heard.
- </p>
- <p>
- Chingachgook was a solitary exception to the interest manifested by the
- native part of the audience. His look never changed throughout the whole
- of the scene, nor did a muscle move in his rigid countenance, even at the
- wildest or the most pathetic parts of the lamentation. The cold and
- senseless remains of his son was all to him, and every other sense but
- that of sight seemed frozen, in order that his eyes might take their final
- gaze at those lineaments he had so long loved, and which were now about to
- be closed forever from his view.
- </p>
- <p>
- In this stage of the obsequies, a warrior much renowned for deed in arms,
- and more especially for services in the recent combat, a man of stern and
- grave demeanor, advanced slowly from the crowd, and placed himself nigh
- the person of the dead.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why hast thou left us, pride of the Wapanachki?” he said, addressing
- himself to the dull ears of Uncas, as if the empty clay retained the
- faculties of the animated man; “thy time has been like that of the sun
- when in the trees; thy glory brighter than his light at noonday. Thou art
- gone, youthful warrior, but a hundred Wyandots are clearing the briers
- from thy path to the world of the spirits. Who that saw thee in battle
- would believe that thou couldst die? Who before thee has ever shown Uttawa
- the way into the fight? Thy feet were like the wings of eagles; thine arm
- heavier than falling branches from the pine; and thy voice like the
- Manitou when He speaks in the clouds. The tongue of Uttawa is weak,” he
- added, looking about him with a melancholy gaze, “and his heart exceeding
- heavy. Pride of the Wapanachki, why hast thou left us?”
- </p>
- <p>
- He was succeeded by others, in due order, until most of the high and
- gifted men of the nation had sung or spoken their tribute of praise over
- the manes of the deceased chief. When each had ended, another deep and
- breathing silence reigned in all the place.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then a low, deep sound was heard, like the suppressed accompaniment of
- distant music, rising just high enough on the air to be audible, and yet
- so indistinctly, as to leave its character, and the place whence it
- proceeded, alike matters of conjecture. It was, however, succeeded by
- another and another strain, each in a higher key, until they grew on the
- ear, first in long drawn and often repeated interjections, and finally in
- words. The lips of Chingachgook had so far parted, as to announce that it
- was the monody of the father. Though not an eye was turned toward him nor
- the smallest sign of impatience exhibited, it was apparent, by the manner
- in which the multitude elevated their heads to listen, that they drank in
- the sounds with an intenseness of attention, that none but Tamenund
- himself had ever before commanded. But they listened in vain. The strains
- rose just so loud as to become intelligible, and then grew fainter and
- more trembling, until they finally sank on the ear, as if borne away by a
- passing breath of wind. The lips of the Sagamore closed, and he remained
- silent in his seat, looking with his riveted eye and motionless form, like
- some creature that had been turned from the Almighty hand with the form
- but without the spirit of a man. The Delawares who knew by these symptoms
- that the mind of their friend was not prepared for so mighty an effort of
- fortitude, relaxed in their attention; and, with an innate delicacy,
- seemed to bestow all their thoughts on the obsequies of the stranger
- maiden.
- </p>
- <p>
- A signal was given, by one of the elder chiefs, to the women who crowded
- that part of the circle near which the body of Cora lay. Obedient to the
- sign, the girls raised the bier to the elevation of their heads, and
- advanced with slow and regulated steps, chanting, as they proceeded,
- another wailing song in praise of the deceased. Gamut, who had been a
- close observer of rites he deemed so heathenish, now bent his head over
- the shoulder of the unconscious father, whispering:
- </p>
- <p>
- “They move with the remains of thy child; shall we not follow, and see
- them interred with Christian burial?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Munro started, as if the last trumpet had sounded in his ear, and
- bestowing one anxious and hurried glance around him, he arose and followed
- in the simple train, with the mien of a soldier, but bearing the full
- burden of a parent's suffering. His friends pressed around him with a
- sorrow that was too strong to be termed sympathy—even the young
- Frenchman joining in the procession, with the air of a man who was
- sensibly touched at the early and melancholy fate of one so lovely. But
- when the last and humblest female of the tribe had joined in the wild and
- yet ordered array, the men of the Lenape contracted their circle, and
- formed again around the person of Uncas, as silent, as grave, and as
- motionless as before.
- </p>
- <p>
- The place which had been chosen for the grave of Cora was a little knoll,
- where a cluster of young and healthful pines had taken root, forming of
- themselves a melancholy and appropriate shade over the spot. On reaching
- it the girls deposited their burden, and continued for many minutes
- waiting, with characteristic patience, and native timidity, for some
- evidence that they whose feelings were most concerned were content with
- the arrangement. At length the scout, who alone understood their habits,
- said, in their own language:
- </p>
- <p>
- “My daughters have done well; the white men thank them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Satisfied with this testimony in their favor, the girls proceeded to
- deposit the body in a shell, ingeniously, and not inelegantly, fabricated
- of the bark of the birch; after which they lowered it into its dark and
- final abode. The ceremony of covering the remains, and concealing the
- marks of the fresh earth, by leaves and other natural and customary
- objects, was conducted with the same simple and silent forms. But when the
- labors of the kind beings who had performed these sad and friendly offices
- were so far completed, they hesitated, in a way to show that they knew not
- how much further they might proceed. It was in this stage of the rites
- that the scout again addressed them:
- </p>
- <p>
- “My young women have done enough,” he said: “the spirit of the pale face
- has no need of food or raiment, their gifts being according to the heaven
- of their color. I see,” he added, glancing an eye at David, who was
- preparing his book in a manner that indicated an intention to lead the way
- in sacred song, “that one who better knows the Christian fashions is about
- to speak.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The females stood modestly aside, and, from having been the principal
- actors in the scene, they now became the meek and attentive observers of
- that which followed. During the time David occupied in pouring out the
- pious feelings of his spirit in this manner, not a sign of surprise, nor a
- look of impatience, escaped them. They listened like those who knew the
- meaning of the strange words, and appeared as if they felt the mingled
- emotions of sorrow, hope, and resignation, they were intended to convey.
- </p>
- <p>
- Excited by the scene he had just witnessed, and perhaps influenced by his
- own secret emotions, the master of song exceeded his usual efforts. His
- full rich voice was not found to suffer by a comparison with the soft
- tones of the girls; and his more modulated strains possessed, at least for
- the ears of those to whom they were peculiarly addressed, the additional
- power of intelligence. He ended the anthem, as he had commenced it, in the
- midst of a grave and solemn stillness.
- </p>
- <p>
- When, however, the closing cadence had fallen on the ears of his auditors,
- the secret, timorous glances of the eyes, and the general and yet subdued
- movement of the assemblage, betrayed that something was expected from the
- father of the deceased. Munro seemed sensible that the time was come for
- him to exert what is, perhaps, the greatest effort of which human nature
- is capable. He bared his gray locks, and looked around the timid and quiet
- throng by which he was encircled, with a firm and collected countenance.
- Then, motioning with his hand for the scout to listen, he said:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Say to these kind and gentle females, that a heart-broken and failing man
- returns them his thanks. Tell them, that the Being we all worship, under
- different names, will be mindful of their charity; and that the time shall
- not be distant when we may assemble around His throne without distinction
- of sex, or rank, or color.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scout listened to the tremulous voice in which the veteran delivered
- these words, and shook his head slowly when they were ended, as one who
- doubted their efficacy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “To tell them this,” he said, “would be to tell them that the snows come
- not in the winter, or that the sun shines fiercest when the trees are
- stripped of their leaves.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Then turning to the women, he made such a communication of the other's
- gratitude as he deemed most suited to the capacities of his listeners. The
- head of Munro had already sunk upon his chest, and he was again fast
- relapsing into melancholy, when the young Frenchman before named ventured
- to touch him lightly on the elbow. As soon as he had gained the attention
- of the mourning old man, he pointed toward a group of young Indians, who
- approached with a light but closely covered litter, and then pointed
- upward toward the sun.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I understand you, sir,” returned Munro, with a voice of forced firmness;
- “I understand you. It is the will of Heaven, and I submit. Cora, my child!
- if the prayers of a heart-broken father could avail thee now, how blessed
- shouldst thou be! Come, gentlemen,” he added, looking about him with an
- air of lofty composure, though the anguish that quivered in his faded
- countenance was far too powerful to be concealed, “our duty here is ended;
- let us depart.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Heyward gladly obeyed a summons that took them from a spot where, each
- instant, he felt his self-control was about to desert him. While his
- companions were mounting, however, he found time to press the hand of the
- scout, and to repeat the terms of an engagement they had made to meet
- again within the posts of the British army. Then, gladly throwing himself
- into the saddle, he spurred his charger to the side of the litter, whence
- low and stifled sobs alone announced the presence of Alice. In this
- manner, the head of Munro again drooping on his bosom, with Heyward and
- David following in sorrowing silence, and attended by the aide of Montcalm
- with his guard, all the white men, with the exception of Hawkeye, passed
- from before the eyes of the Delawares, and were buried in the vast forests
- of that region.
- </p>
- <p>
- But the tie which, through their common calamity, had united the feelings
- of these simple dwellers in the woods with the strangers who had thus
- transiently visited them, was not so easily broken. Years passed away
- before the traditionary tale of the white maiden, and of the young warrior
- of the Mohicans ceased to beguile the long nights and tedious marches, or
- to animate their youthful and brave with a desire for vengeance. Neither
- were the secondary actors in these momentous incidents forgotten. Through
- the medium of the scout, who served for years afterward as a link between
- them and civilized life, they learned, in answer to their inquiries, that
- the “Gray Head” was speedily gathered to his fathers—borne down, as
- was erroneously believed, by his military misfortunes; and that the “Open
- Hand” had conveyed his surviving daughter far into the settlements of the
- pale faces, where her tears had at last ceased to flow, and had been
- succeeded by the bright smiles which were better suited to her joyous
- nature.
- </p>
- <p>
- But these were events of a time later than that which concerns our tale.
- Deserted by all of his color, Hawkeye returned to the spot where his
- sympathies led him, with a force that no ideal bond of union could
- destroy. He was just in time to catch a parting look of the features of
- Uncas, whom the Delawares were already inclosing in his last vestment of
- skins. They paused to permit the longing and lingering gaze of the sturdy
- woodsman, and when it was ended, the body was enveloped, never to be
- unclosed again. Then came a procession like the other, and the whole
- nation was collected about the temporary grave of the chief—temporary,
- because it was proper that, at some future day, his bones should rest
- among those of his own people.
- </p>
- <p>
- The movement, like the feeling, had been simultaneous and general. The
- same grave expression of grief, the same rigid silence, and the same
- deference to the principal mourner, were observed around the place of
- interment as have been already described. The body was deposited in an
- attitude of repose, facing the rising sun, with the implements of war and
- of the chase at hand, in readiness for the final journey. An opening was
- left in the shell, by which it was protected from the soil, for the spirit
- to communicate with its earthly tenement, when necessary; and the whole
- was concealed from the instinct, and protected from the ravages of the
- beasts of prey, with an ingenuity peculiar to the natives. The manual
- rites then ceased and all present reverted to the more spiritual part of
- the ceremonies.
- </p>
- <p>
- Chingachgook became once more the object of the common attention. He had
- not yet spoken, and something consolatory and instructive was expected
- from so renowned a chief on an occasion of such interest. Conscious of the
- wishes of the people, the stern and self-restrained warrior raised his
- face, which had latterly been buried in his robe, and looked about him
- with a steady eye. His firmly compressed and expressive lips then severed,
- and for the first time during the long ceremonies his voice was distinctly
- audible. “Why do my brothers mourn?” he said, regarding the dark race of
- dejected warriors by whom he was environed; “why do my daughters weep?
- that a young man has gone to the happy hunting-grounds; that a chief has
- filled his time with honor? He was good; he was dutiful; he was brave. Who
- can deny it? The Manitou had need of such a warrior, and He has called him
- away. As for me, the son and the father of Uncas, I am a blazed pine, in a
- clearing of the pale faces. My race has gone from the shores of the salt
- lake and the hills of the Delawares. But who can say that the serpent of
- his tribe has forgotten his wisdom? I am alone—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, no,” cried Hawkeye, who had been gazing with a yearning look at the
- rigid features of his friend, with something like his own self-command,
- but whose philosophy could endure no longer; “no, Sagamore, not alone. The
- gifts of our colors may be different, but God has so placed us as to
- journey in the same path. I have no kin, and I may also say, like you, no
- people. He was your son, and a red-skin by nature; and it may be that your
- blood was nearer—but, if ever I forget the lad who has so often
- fou't at my side in war, and slept at my side in peace, may He who made us
- all, whatever may be our color or our gifts, forget me! The boy has left
- us for a time; but, Sagamore, you are not alone.”
- </p>
-<div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> <img src="images/0461.jpg" alt="0461" width="100%" /><br /> </div> <h5> <a href="images/0461.jpg"> <img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> </h5>
-
- <p>
- Chingachgook grasped the hand that, in the warmth of feeling, the scout
- had stretched across the fresh earth, and in an attitude of friendship
- these two sturdy and intrepid woodsmen bowed their heads together, while
- scalding tears fell to their feet, watering the grave of Uncas like drops
- of falling rain.
- </p>
- <p>
- In the midst of the awful stillness with which such a burst of feeling,
- coming as it did, from the two most renowned warriors of that region, was
- received, Tamenund lifted his voice to disperse the multitude.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is enough,” he said. “Go, children of the Lenape, the anger of the
- Manitou is not done. Why should Tamenund stay? The pale faces are masters
- of the earth, and the time of the red men has not yet come again. My day
- has been too long. In the morning I saw the sons of Unamis happy and
- strong; and yet, before the night has come, have I lived to see the last
- warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans.”
- </p>
- <div style="height: 6em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-
-
-
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diff --git a/old/940.txt b/old/940.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 6c3996a..0000000 --- a/old/940.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,15788 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Last of the Mohicans - -Author: James Fenimore Cooper - -Release Date: February 5, 2006 [EBook #940] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS *** - - - - -Produced by John Horner and David Widger - - - - - -THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS - -A Narrative of 1757 - -by James Fenimore Cooper - - - - -INTRODUCTION - -It is believed that the scene of this tale, and most of the information -necessary to understand its allusions, are rendered sufficiently obvious -to the reader in the text itself, or in the accompanying notes. Still -there is so much obscurity in the Indian traditions, and so much -confusion in the Indian names, as to render some explanation useful. - -Few men exhibit greater diversity, or, if we may so express it, greater -antithesis of character, than the native warrior of North America. -In war, he is daring, boastful, cunning, ruthless, self-denying, -and self-devoted; in peace, just, generous, hospitable, revengeful, -superstitious, modest, and commonly chaste. These are qualities, it -is true, which do not distinguish all alike; but they are so far the -predominating traits of these remarkable people as to be characteristic. - -It is generally believed that the Aborigines of the American continent -have an Asiatic origin. There are many physical as well as moral facts -which corroborate this opinion, and some few that would seem to weigh -against it. - -The color of the Indian, the writer believes, is peculiar to himself, -and while his cheek-bones have a very striking indication of a Tartar -origin, his eyes have not. Climate may have had great influence on -the former, but it is difficult to see how it can have produced the -substantial difference which exists in the latter. The imagery of the -Indian, both in his poetry and in his oratory, is oriental; chastened, -and perhaps improved, by the limited range of his practical knowledge. -He draws his metaphors from the clouds, the seasons, the birds, the -beasts, and the vegetable world. In this, perhaps, he does no more than -any other energetic and imaginative race would do, being compelled to -set bounds to fancy by experience; but the North American Indian clothes -his ideas in a dress which is different from that of the African, and -is oriental in itself. His language has the richness and sententious -fullness of the Chinese. He will express a phrase in a word, and he will -qualify the meaning of an entire sentence by a syllable; he will even -convey different significations by the simplest inflections of the -voice. - -Philologists have said that there are but two or three languages, -properly speaking, among all the numerous tribes which formerly occupied -the country that now composes the United States. They ascribe the known -difficulty one people have to understand another to corruptions and -dialects. The writer remembers to have been present at an interview -between two chiefs of the Great Prairies west of the Mississippi, and -when an interpreter was in attendance who spoke both their languages. -The warriors appeared to be on the most friendly terms, and seemingly -conversed much together; yet, according to the account of the -interpreter, each was absolutely ignorant of what the other said. -They were of hostile tribes, brought together by the influence of the -American government; and it is worthy of remark, that a common policy -led them both to adopt the same subject. They mutually exhorted each -other to be of use in the event of the chances of war throwing either of -the parties into the hands of his enemies. Whatever may be the truth, -as respects the root and the genius of the Indian tongues, it is quite -certain they are now so distinct in their words as to possess most of -the disadvantages of strange languages; hence much of the embarrassment -that has arisen in learning their histories, and most of the uncertainty -which exists in their traditions. - -Like nations of higher pretensions, the American Indian gives a very -different account of his own tribe or race from that which is given by -other people. He is much addicted to overestimating his own perfections, -and to undervaluing those of his rival or his enemy; a trait which may -possibly be thought corroborative of the Mosaic account of the creation. - -The whites have assisted greatly in rendering the traditions of the -Aborigines more obscure by their own manner of corrupting names. Thus, -the term used in the title of this book has undergone the changes of -Mahicanni, Mohicans, and Mohegans; the latter being the word commonly -used by the whites. When it is remembered that the Dutch (who first -settled New York), the English, and the French, all gave appellations -to the tribes that dwelt within the country which is the scene of this -story, and that the Indians not only gave different names to their -enemies, but frequently to themselves, the cause of the confusion will -be understood. - -In these pages, Lenni-Lenape, Lenope, Delawares, Wapanachki, and -Mohicans, all mean the same people, or tribes of the same stock. The -Mengwe, the Maquas, the Mingoes, and the Iroquois, though not all -strictly the same, are identified frequently by the speakers, being -politically confederated and opposed to those just named. Mingo was a -term of peculiar reproach, as were Mengwe and Maqua in a less degree. - -The Mohicans were the possessors of the country first occupied by the -Europeans in this portion of the continent. They were, consequently, -the first dispossessed; and the seemingly inevitable fate of all these -people, who disappear before the advances, or it might be termed the -inroads, of civilization, as the verdure of their native forests falls -before the nipping frosts, is represented as having already befallen -them. There is sufficient historical truth in the picture to justify the -use that has been made of it. - -In point of fact, the country which is the scene of the following tale -has undergone as little change, since the historical events alluded to -had place, as almost any other district of equal extent within the whole -limits of the United States. There are fashionable and well-attended -watering-places at and near the spring where Hawkeye halted to drink, -and roads traverse the forests where he and his friends were compelled -to journey without even a path. Glen's has a large village; and while -William Henry, and even a fortress of later date, are only to be traced -as ruins, there is another village on the shores of the Horican. But, -beyond this, the enterprise and energy of a people who have done so much -in other places have done little here. The whole of that wilderness, -in which the latter incidents of the legend occurred, is nearly a -wilderness still, though the red man has entirely deserted this part of -the state. Of all the tribes named in these pages, there exist only a -few half-civilized beings of the Oneidas, on the reservations of their -people in New York. The rest have disappeared, either from the regions -in which their fathers dwelt, or altogether from the earth. - -There is one point on which we would wish to say a word before closing -this preface. Hawkeye calls the Lac du Saint Sacrement, the "Horican." -As we believe this to be an appropriation of the name that has its -origin with ourselves, the time has arrived, perhaps, when the fact -should be frankly admitted. While writing this book, fully a quarter of -a century since, it occurred to us that the French name of this lake -was too complicated, the American too commonplace, and the Indian too -unpronounceable, for either to be used familiarly in a work of fiction. -Looking over an ancient map, it was ascertained that a tribe of Indians, -called "Les Horicans" by the French, existed in the neighborhood of this -beautiful sheet of water. As every word uttered by Natty Bumppo was -not to be received as rigid truth, we took the liberty of putting the -"Horican" into his mouth, as the substitute for "Lake George." The name -has appeared to find favor, and all things considered, it may possibly -be quite as well to let it stand, instead of going back to the House of -Hanover for the appellation of our finest sheet of water. We relieve our -conscience by the confession, at all events leaving it to exercise its -authority as it may see fit. - - - - -CHAPTER 1 - - "Mine ear is open, and my heart prepared: - The worst is wordly loss thou canst unfold:-- - Say, is my kingdom lost?"--Shakespeare - -It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America, that -the toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered before -the adverse hosts could meet. A wide and apparently an impervious -boundary of forests severed the possessions of the hostile provinces -of France and England. The hardy colonist, and the trained European who -fought at his side, frequently expended months in struggling against -the rapids of the streams, or in effecting the rugged passes of the -mountains, in quest of an opportunity to exhibit their courage in a more -martial conflict. But, emulating the patience and self-denial of the -practiced native warriors, they learned to overcome every difficulty; -and it would seem that, in time, there was no recess of the woods so -dark, nor any secret place so lovely, that it might claim exemption -from the inroads of those who had pledged their blood to satiate their -vengeance, or to uphold the cold and selfish policy of the distant -monarchs of Europe. - -Perhaps no district throughout the wide extent of the intermediate -frontiers can furnish a livelier picture of the cruelty and fierceness -of the savage warfare of those periods than the country which lies -between the head waters of the Hudson and the adjacent lakes. - -The facilities which nature had there offered to the march of the -combatants were too obvious to be neglected. The lengthened sheet of -the Champlain stretched from the frontiers of Canada, deep within the -borders of the neighboring province of New York, forming a natural -passage across half the distance that the French were compelled to -master in order to strike their enemies. Near its southern termination, -it received the contributions of another lake, whose waters were so -limpid as to have been exclusively selected by the Jesuit missionaries -to perform the typical purification of baptism, and to obtain for it -the title of lake "du Saint Sacrement." The less zealous English thought -they conferred a sufficient honor on its unsullied fountains, when they -bestowed the name of their reigning prince, the second of the house of -Hanover. The two united to rob the untutored possessors of its wooded -scenery of their native right to perpetuate its original appellation of -"Horican."* - - * As each nation of the Indians had its language or its - dialect, they usually gave different names to the same - places, though nearly all of their appellations were - descriptive of the object. Thus a literal translation of the - name of this beautiful sheet of water, used by the tribe - that dwelt on its banks, would be "The Tail of the Lake." - Lake George, as it is vulgarly, and now, indeed, legally, - called, forms a sort of tail to Lake Champlain, when viewed - on the map. Hence, the name. - -Winding its way among countless islands, and imbedded in mountains, the -"holy lake" extended a dozen leagues still further to the south. With -the high plain that there interposed itself to the further passage of -the water, commenced a portage of as many miles, which conducted the -adventurer to the banks of the Hudson, at a point where, with the usual -obstructions of the rapids, or rifts, as they were then termed in the -language of the country, the river became navigable to the tide. - -While, in the pursuit of their daring plans of annoyance, the restless -enterprise of the French even attempted the distant and difficult -gorges of the Alleghany, it may easily be imagined that their proverbial -acuteness would not overlook the natural advantages of the district we -have just described. It became, emphatically, the bloody arena, in which -most of the battles for the mastery of the colonies were contested. -Forts were erected at the different points that commanded the facilities -of the route, and were taken and retaken, razed and rebuilt, as victory -alighted on the hostile banners. While the husbandman shrank back from -the dangerous passes, within the safer boundaries of the more ancient -settlements, armies larger than those that had often disposed of the -scepters of the mother countries, were seen to bury themselves in these -forests, whence they rarely returned but in skeleton bands, that were -haggard with care or dejected by defeat. Though the arts of peace were -unknown to this fatal region, its forests were alive with men; its -shades and glens rang with the sounds of martial music, and the echoes -of its mountains threw back the laugh, or repeated the wanton cry, -of many a gallant and reckless youth, as he hurried by them, in the -noontide of his spirits, to slumber in a long night of forgetfulness. - -It was in this scene of strife and bloodshed that the incidents we -shall attempt to relate occurred, during the third year of the war -which England and France last waged for the possession of a country that -neither was destined to retain. - -The imbecility of her military leaders abroad, and the fatal want of -energy in her councils at home, had lowered the character of Great -Britain from the proud elevation on which it had been placed by the -talents and enterprise of her former warriors and statesmen. No longer -dreaded by her enemies, her servants were fast losing the confidence -of self-respect. In this mortifying abasement, the colonists, though -innocent of her imbecility, and too humble to be the agents of her -blunders, were but the natural participators. They had recently seen a -chosen army from that country, which, reverencing as a mother, they -had blindly believed invincible--an army led by a chief who had been -selected from a crowd of trained warriors, for his rare military -endowments, disgracefully routed by a handful of French and Indians, and -only saved from annihilation by the coolness and spirit of a Virginian -boy, whose riper fame has since diffused itself, with the steady -influence of moral truth, to the uttermost confines of Christendom.* A -wide frontier had been laid naked by this unexpected disaster, and more -substantial evils were preceded by a thousand fanciful and imaginary -dangers. The alarmed colonists believed that the yells of the savages -mingled with every fitful gust of wind that issued from the interminable -forests of the west. The terrific character of their merciless enemies -increased immeasurably the natural horrors of warfare. Numberless recent -massacres were still vivid in their recollections; nor was there any -ear in the provinces so deaf as not to have drunk in with avidity the -narrative of some fearful tale of midnight murder, in which the natives -of the forests were the principal and barbarous actors. As the credulous -and excited traveler related the hazardous chances of the wilderness, -the blood of the timid curdled with terror, and mothers cast anxious -glances even at those children which slumbered within the security of -the largest towns. In short, the magnifying influence of fear began to -set at naught the calculations of reason, and to render those who should -have remembered their manhood, the slaves of the basest passions. Even -the most confident and the stoutest hearts began to think the issue -of the contest was becoming doubtful; and that abject class was hourly -increasing in numbers, who thought they foresaw all the possessions of -the English crown in America subdued by their Christian foes, or laid -waste by the inroads of their relentless allies. - - * Washington, who, after uselessly admonishing the European - general of the danger into which he was heedlessly running, - saved the remnants of the British army, on this occasion, by - his decision and courage. The reputation earned by - Washington in this battle was the principal cause of his - being selected to command the American armies at a later - day. It is a circumstance worthy of observation, that while - all America rang with his well-merited reputation, his name - does not occur in any European account of the battle; at - least the author has searched for it without success. In - this manner does the mother country absorb even the fame, - under that system of rule. - -When, therefore, intelligence was received at the fort which covered the -southern termination of the portage between the Hudson and the lakes, -that Montcalm had been seen moving up the Champlain, with an army -"numerous as the leaves on the trees," its truth was admitted with more -of the craven reluctance of fear than with the stern joy that a warrior -should feel, in finding an enemy within reach of his blow. The news had -been brought, toward the decline of a day in midsummer, by an Indian -runner, who also bore an urgent request from Munro, the commander of -a work on the shore of the "holy lake," for a speedy and powerful -reinforcement. It has already been mentioned that the distance between -these two posts was less than five leagues. The rude path, which -originally formed their line of communication, had been widened for the -passage of wagons; so that the distance which had been traveled by the -son of the forest in two hours, might easily be effected by a detachment -of troops, with their necessary baggage, between the rising and setting -of a summer sun. The loyal servants of the British crown had given to -one of these forest-fastnesses the name of William Henry, and to the -other that of Fort Edward, calling each after a favorite prince of the -reigning family. The veteran Scotchman just named held the first, with -a regiment of regulars and a few provincials; a force really by far -too small to make head against the formidable power that Montcalm was -leading to the foot of his earthen mounds. At the latter, however, -lay General Webb, who commanded the armies of the king in the northern -provinces, with a body of more than five thousand men. By uniting the -several detachments of his command, this officer might have arrayed -nearly double that number of combatants against the enterprising -Frenchman, who had ventured so far from his reinforcements, with an army -but little superior in numbers. - -But under the influence of their degraded fortunes, both officers and -men appeared better disposed to await the approach of their formidable -antagonists, within their works, than to resist the progress of their -march, by emulating the successful example of the French at Fort du -Quesne, and striking a blow on their advance. - -After the first surprise of the intelligence had a little abated, a -rumor was spread through the entrenched camp, which stretched along the -margin of the Hudson, forming a chain of outworks to the body of the -fort itself, that a chosen detachment of fifteen hundred men was to -depart, with the dawn, for William Henry, the post at the northern -extremity of the portage. That which at first was only rumor, -soon became certainty, as orders passed from the quarters of the -commander-in-chief to the several corps he had selected for this -service, to prepare for their speedy departure. All doubts as to the -intention of Webb now vanished, and an hour or two of hurried footsteps -and anxious faces succeeded. The novice in the military art flew from -point to point, retarding his own preparations by the excess of his -violent and somewhat distempered zeal; while the more practiced veteran -made his arrangements with a deliberation that scorned every appearance -of haste; though his sober lineaments and anxious eye sufficiently -betrayed that he had no very strong professional relish for the, as yet, -untried and dreaded warfare of the wilderness. At length the sun set in -a flood of glory, behind the distant western hills, and as darkness drew -its veil around the secluded spot the sounds of preparation diminished; -the last light finally disappeared from the log cabin of some officer; -the trees cast their deeper shadows over the mounds and the rippling -stream, and a silence soon pervaded the camp, as deep as that which -reigned in the vast forest by which it was environed. - -According to the orders of the preceding night, the heavy sleep of the -army was broken by the rolling of the warning drums, whose rattling -echoes were heard issuing, on the damp morning air, out of every vista -of the woods, just as day began to draw the shaggy outlines of some tall -pines of the vicinity, on the opening brightness of a soft and cloudless -eastern sky. In an instant the whole camp was in motion; the meanest -soldier arousing from his lair to witness the departure of his comrades, -and to share in the excitement and incidents of the hour. The simple -array of the chosen band was soon completed. While the regular and -trained hirelings of the king marched with haughtiness to the right of -the line, the less pretending colonists took their humbler position -on its left, with a docility that long practice had rendered easy. -The scouts departed; strong guards preceded and followed the lumbering -vehicles that bore the baggage; and before the gray light of the morning -was mellowed by the rays of the sun, the main body of the combatants -wheeled into column, and left the encampment with a show of high -military bearing, that served to drown the slumbering apprehensions of -many a novice, who was now about to make his first essay in arms. While -in view of their admiring comrades, the same proud front and ordered -array was observed, until the notes of their fifes growing fainter in -distance, the forest at length appeared to swallow up the living mass -which had slowly entered its bosom. - -The deepest sounds of the retiring and invisible column had ceased to -be borne on the breeze to the listeners, and the latest straggler had -already disappeared in pursuit; but there still remained the signs -of another departure, before a log cabin of unusual size and -accommodations, in front of which those sentinels paced their rounds, -who were known to guard the person of the English general. At this spot -were gathered some half dozen horses, caparisoned in a manner which -showed that two, at least, were destined to bear the persons of females, -of a rank that it was not usual to meet so far in the wilds of the -country. A third wore trappings and arms of an officer of the staff; -while the rest, from the plainness of the housings, and the traveling -mails with which they were encumbered, were evidently fitted for the -reception of as many menials, who were, seemingly, already waiting -the pleasure of those they served. At a respectful distance from this -unusual show, were gathered divers groups of curious idlers; some -admiring the blood and bone of the high-mettled military charger, -and others gazing at the preparations, with the dull wonder of vulgar -curiosity. There was one man, however, who, by his countenance and -actions, formed a marked exception to those who composed the latter -class of spectators, being neither idle, nor seemingly very ignorant. - -The person of this individual was to the last degree ungainly, without -being in any particular manner deformed. He had all the bones and joints -of other men, without any of their proportions. Erect, his stature -surpassed that of his fellows; though seated, he appeared reduced within -the ordinary limits of the race. The same contrariety in his members -seemed to exist throughout the whole man. His head was large; his -shoulders narrow; his arms long and dangling; while his hands were -small, if not delicate. His legs and thighs were thin, nearly to -emaciation, but of extraordinary length; and his knees would have -been considered tremendous, had they not been outdone by the broader -foundations on which this false superstructure of blended human orders -was so profanely reared. The ill-assorted and injudicious attire of the -individual only served to render his awkwardness more conspicuous. A -sky-blue coat, with short and broad skirts and low cape, exposed a long, -thin neck, and longer and thinner legs, to the worst animadversions -of the evil-disposed. His nether garment was a yellow nankeen, closely -fitted to the shape, and tied at his bunches of knees by large knots of -white ribbon, a good deal sullied by use. Clouded cotton stockings, and -shoes, on one of the latter of which was a plated spur, completed the -costume of the lower extremity of this figure, no curve or angle of -which was concealed, but, on the other hand, studiously exhibited, -through the vanity or simplicity of its owner. - -From beneath the flap of an enormous pocket of a soiled vest of embossed -silk, heavily ornamented with tarnished silver lace, projected an -instrument, which, from being seen in such martial company, might have -been easily mistaken for some mischievous and unknown implement of war. -Small as it was, this uncommon engine had excited the curiosity of most -of the Europeans in the camp, though several of the provincials -were seen to handle it, not only without fear, but with the utmost -familiarity. A large, civil cocked hat, like those worn by clergymen -within the last thirty years, surmounted the whole, furnishing dignity -to a good-natured and somewhat vacant countenance, that apparently -needed such artificial aid, to support the gravity of some high and -extraordinary trust. - -While the common herd stood aloof, in deference to the quarters of Webb, -the figure we have described stalked into the center of the domestics, -freely expressing his censures or commendations on the merits of the -horses, as by chance they displeased or satisfied his judgment. - -"This beast, I rather conclude, friend, is not of home raising, but is -from foreign lands, or perhaps from the little island itself over the -blue water?" he said, in a voice as remarkable for the softness and -sweetness of its tones, as was his person for its rare proportions; "I -may speak of these things, and be no braggart; for I have been down at -both havens; that which is situate at the mouth of Thames, and is named -after the capital of Old England, and that which is called 'Haven', with -the addition of the word 'New'; and have seen the scows and brigantines -collecting their droves, like the gathering to the ark, being outward -bound to the Island of Jamaica, for the purpose of barter and traffic -in four-footed animals; but never before have I beheld a beast which -verified the true scripture war-horse like this: 'He paweth in the -valley, and rejoiceth in his strength; he goeth on to meet the armed -men. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle -afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting' It would seem -that the stock of the horse of Israel had descended to our own time; -would it not, friend?" - -Receiving no reply to this extraordinary appeal, which in truth, as it -was delivered with the vigor of full and sonorous tones, merited some -sort of notice, he who had thus sung forth the language of the holy -book turned to the silent figure to whom he had unwittingly addressed -himself, and found a new and more powerful subject of admiration in the -object that encountered his gaze. His eyes fell on the still, upright, -and rigid form of the "Indian runner," who had borne to the camp the -unwelcome tidings of the preceding evening. Although in a state of -perfect repose, and apparently disregarding, with characteristic -stoicism, the excitement and bustle around him, there was a sullen -fierceness mingled with the quiet of the savage, that was likely to -arrest the attention of much more experienced eyes than those which now -scanned him, in unconcealed amazement. The native bore both the tomahawk -and knife of his tribe; and yet his appearance was not altogether that -of a warrior. On the contrary, there was an air of neglect about his -person, like that which might have proceeded from great and recent -exertion, which he had not yet found leisure to repair. The colors -of the war-paint had blended in dark confusion about his fierce -countenance, and rendered his swarthy lineaments still more savage -and repulsive than if art had attempted an effect which had been thus -produced by chance. His eye, alone, which glistened like a fiery star -amid lowering clouds, was to be seen in its state of native wildness. -For a single instant his searching and yet wary glance met the wondering -look of the other, and then changing its direction, partly in cunning, -and partly in disdain, it remained fixed, as if penetrating the distant -air. - -It is impossible to say what unlooked-for remark this short and silent -communication, between two such singular men, might have elicited from -the white man, had not his active curiosity been again drawn to other -objects. A general movement among the domestics, and a low sound of -gentle voices, announced the approach of those whose presence alone -was wanted to enable the cavalcade to move. The simple admirer of the -war-horse instantly fell back to a low, gaunt, switch-tailed mare, that -was unconsciously gleaning the faded herbage of the camp nigh by; where, -leaning with one elbow on the blanket that concealed an apology for a -saddle, he became a spectator of the departure, while a foal was quietly -making its morning repast, on the opposite side of the same animal. - -A young man, in the dress of an officer, conducted to their steeds two -females, who, as it was apparent by their dresses, were prepared to -encounter the fatigues of a journey in the woods. One, and she was -the more juvenile in her appearance, though both were young, permitted -glimpses of her dazzling complexion, fair golden hair, and bright blue -eyes, to be caught, as she artlessly suffered the morning air to blow -aside the green veil which descended low from her beaver. - -The flush which still lingered above the pines in the western sky was -not more bright nor delicate than the bloom on her cheek; nor was the -opening day more cheering than the animated smile which she bestowed on -the youth, as he assisted her into the saddle. The other, who appeared -to share equally in the attention of the young officer, concealed her -charms from the gaze of the soldiery with a care that seemed better -fitted to the experience of four or five additional years. It could be -seen, however, that her person, though molded with the same exquisite -proportions, of which none of the graces were lost by the traveling -dress she wore, was rather fuller and more mature than that of her -companion. - -No sooner were these females seated, than their attendant sprang lightly -into the saddle of the war-horse, when the whole three bowed to Webb, -who in courtesy, awaited their parting on the threshold of his cabin and -turning their horses' heads, they proceeded at a slow amble, followed -by their train, toward the northern entrance of the encampment. As they -traversed that short distance, not a voice was heard among them; but -a slight exclamation proceeded from the younger of the females, as the -Indian runner glided by her, unexpectedly, and led the way along the -military road in her front. Though this sudden and startling movement -of the Indian produced no sound from the other, in the surprise her veil -also was allowed to open its folds, and betrayed an indescribable look -of pity, admiration, and horror, as her dark eye followed the easy -motions of the savage. The tresses of this lady were shining and black, -like the plumage of the raven. Her complexion was not brown, but it -rather appeared charged with the color of the rich blood, that seemed -ready to burst its bounds. And yet there was neither coarseness nor -want of shadowing in a countenance that was exquisitely regular, and -dignified and surpassingly beautiful. She smiled, as if in pity at her -own momentary forgetfulness, discovering by the act a row of teeth that -would have shamed the purest ivory; when, replacing the veil, she bowed -her face, and rode in silence, like one whose thoughts were abstracted -from the scene around her. - - - - -CHAPTER 2 - - "Sola, sola, wo ha, ho, sola!" - --Shakespeare - -While one of the lovely beings we have so cursorily presented to the -reader was thus lost in thought, the other quickly recovered from the -alarm which induced the exclamation, and, laughing at her own weakness, -she inquired of the youth who rode by her side: - -"Are such specters frequent in the woods, Heyward, or is this sight an -especial entertainment ordered on our behalf? If the latter, gratitude -must close our mouths; but if the former, both Cora and I shall have -need to draw largely on that stock of hereditary courage which we boast, -even before we are made to encounter the redoubtable Montcalm." - -"Yon Indian is a 'runner' of the army; and, after the fashion of his -people, he may be accounted a hero," returned the officer. "He has -volunteered to guide us to the lake, by a path but little known, -sooner than if we followed the tardy movements of the column; and, by -consequence, more agreeably." - -"I like him not," said the lady, shuddering, partly in assumed, yet more -in real terror. "You know him, Duncan, or you would not trust yourself -so freely to his keeping?" - -"Say, rather, Alice, that I would not trust you. I do know him, or he -would not have my confidence, and least of all at this moment. He -is said to be a Canadian too; and yet he served with our friends the -Mohawks, who, as you know, are one of the six allied nations. He was -brought among us, as I have heard, by some strange accident in which -your father was interested, and in which the savage was rigidly dealt -by; but I forget the idle tale, it is enough, that he is now our -friend." - -"If he has been my father's enemy, I like him still less!" exclaimed the -now really anxious girl. "Will you not speak to him, Major Heyward, that -I may hear his tones? Foolish though it may be, you have often heard me -avow my faith in the tones of the human voice!" - -"It would be in vain; and answered, most probably, by an ejaculation. -Though he may understand it, he affects, like most of his people, to be -ignorant of the English; and least of all will he condescend to speak -it, now that the war demands the utmost exercise of his dignity. But -he stops; the private path by which we are to journey is, doubtless, at -hand." - -The conjecture of Major Heyward was true. When they reached the spot -where the Indian stood, pointing into the thicket that fringed the -military road; a narrow and blind path, which might, with some little -inconvenience, receive one person at a time, became visible. - -"Here, then, lies our way," said the young man, in a low voice. -"Manifest no distrust, or you may invite the danger you appear to -apprehend." - -"Cora, what think you?" asked the reluctant fair one. "If we journey -with the troops, though we may find their presence irksome, shall we not -feel better assurance of our safety?" - -"Being little accustomed to the practices of the savages, Alice, you -mistake the place of real danger," said Heyward. "If enemies have -reached the portage at all, a thing by no means probable, as our scouts -are abroad, they will surely be found skirting the column, where scalps -abound the most. The route of the detachment is known, while ours, -having been determined within the hour, must still be secret." - -"Should we distrust the man because his manners are not our manners, and -that his skin is dark?" coldly asked Cora. - -Alice hesitated no longer; but giving her Narrangansett* a smart cut -of the whip, she was the first to dash aside the slight branches of the -bushes, and to follow the runner along the dark and tangled pathway. -The young man regarded the last speaker in open admiration, and even -permitted her fairer, though certainly not more beautiful companion, to -proceed unattended, while he sedulously opened the way himself for -the passage of her who has been called Cora. It would seem that the -domestics had been previously instructed; for, instead of penetrating -the thicket, they followed the route of the column; a measure which -Heyward stated had been dictated by the sagacity of their guide, in -order to diminish the marks of their trail, if, haply, the Canadian -savages should be lurking so far in advance of their army. For many -minutes the intricacy of the route admitted of no further dialogue; -after which they emerged from the broad border of underbrush which -grew along the line of the highway, and entered under the high but dark -arches of the forest. Here their progress was less interrupted; and the -instant the guide perceived that the females could command their steeds, -he moved on, at a pace between a trot and a walk, and at a rate which -kept the sure-footed and peculiar animals they rode at a fast yet easy -amble. The youth had turned to speak to the dark-eyed Cora, when the -distant sound of horses hoofs, clattering over the roots of the broken -way in his rear, caused him to check his charger; and, as his companions -drew their reins at the same instant, the whole party came to a halt, in -order to obtain an explanation of the unlooked-for interruption. - - * In the state of Rhode Island there is a bay called - Narragansett, so named after a powerful tribe of Indians, - which formerly dwelt on its banks. Accident, or one of those - unaccountable freaks which nature sometimes plays in the - animal world, gave rise to a breed of horses which were once - well known in America, and distinguished by their habit of - pacing. Horses of this race were, and are still, in much - request as saddle horses, on account of their hardiness and - the ease of their movements. As they were also sure of foot, - the Narragansetts were greatly sought for by females who - were obliged to travel over the roots and holes in the "new - countries." - -In a few moments a colt was seen gliding, like a fallow deer, among the -straight trunks of the pines; and, in another instant, the person of the -ungainly man, described in the preceding chapter, came into view, with -as much rapidity as he could excite his meager beast to endure without -coming to an open rupture. Until now this personage had escaped the -observation of the travelers. If he possessed the power to arrest any -wandering eye when exhibiting the glories of his altitude on foot, his -equestrian graces were still more likely to attract attention. - -Notwithstanding a constant application of his one armed heel to the -flanks of the mare, the most confirmed gait that he could establish -was a Canterbury gallop with the hind legs, in which those more forward -assisted for doubtful moments, though generally content to maintain a -loping trot. Perhaps the rapidity of the changes from one of these paces -to the other created an optical illusion, which might thus magnify the -powers of the beast; for it is certain that Heyward, who possessed -a true eye for the merits of a horse, was unable, with his utmost -ingenuity, to decide by what sort of movement his pursuer worked his -sinuous way on his footsteps with such persevering hardihood. - -The industry and movements of the rider were not less remarkable than -those of the ridden. At each change in the evolutions of the latter, -the former raised his tall person in the stirrups; producing, in this -manner, by the undue elongation of his legs, such sudden growths and -diminishings of the stature, as baffled every conjecture that might -be made as to his dimensions. If to this be added the fact that, in -consequence of the ex parte application of the spur, one side of the -mare appeared to journey faster than the other; and that the aggrieved -flank was resolutely indicated by unremitted flourishes of a bushy tail, -we finish the picture of both horse and man. - -The frown which had gathered around the handsome, open, and manly brow -of Heyward, gradually relaxed, and his lips curled into a slight smile, -as he regarded the stranger. Alice made no very powerful effort to -control her merriment; and even the dark, thoughtful eye of Cora lighted -with a humor that it would seem, the habit, rather than the nature, of -its mistress repressed. - -"Seek you any here?" demanded Heyward, when the other had arrived -sufficiently nigh to abate his speed; "I trust you are no messenger of -evil tidings?" - -"Even so," replied the stranger, making diligent use of his triangular -castor, to produce a circulation in the close air of the woods, and -leaving his hearers in doubt to which of the young man's questions he -responded; when, however, he had cooled his face, and recovered his -breath, he continued, "I hear you are riding to William Henry; as I -am journeying thitherward myself, I concluded good company would seem -consistent to the wishes of both parties." - -"You appear to possess the privilege of a casting vote," returned -Heyward; "we are three, while you have consulted no one but yourself." - -"Even so. The first point to be obtained is to know one's own mind. Once -sure of that, and where women are concerned it is not easy, the next is, -to act up to the decision. I have endeavored to do both, and here I am." - -"If you journey to the lake, you have mistaken your route," said -Heyward, haughtily; "the highway thither is at least half a mile behind -you." - -"Even so," returned the stranger, nothing daunted by this cold -reception; "I have tarried at 'Edward' a week, and I should be dumb not -to have inquired the road I was to journey; and if dumb there would be -an end to my calling." After simpering in a small way, like one whose -modesty prohibited a more open expression of his admiration of -a witticism that was perfectly unintelligible to his hearers, he -continued, "It is not prudent for any one of my profession to be too -familiar with those he has to instruct; for which reason I follow not -the line of the army; besides which, I conclude that a gentleman of -your character has the best judgment in matters of wayfaring; I have, -therefore, decided to join company, in order that the ride may be made -agreeable, and partake of social communion." - -"A most arbitrary, if not a hasty decision!" exclaimed Heyward, -undecided whether to give vent to his growing anger, or to laugh in the -other's face. "But you speak of instruction, and of a profession; are -you an adjunct to the provincial corps, as a master of the noble science -of defense and offense; or, perhaps, you are one who draws lines and -angles, under the pretense of expounding the mathematics?" - -The stranger regarded his interrogator a moment in wonder; and then, -losing every mark of self-satisfaction in an expression of solemn -humility, he answered: - -"Of offense, I hope there is none, to either party: of defense, I make -none--by God's good mercy, having committed no palpable sin since last -entreating his pardoning grace. I understand not your allusions about -lines and angles; and I leave expounding to those who have been called -and set apart for that holy office. I lay claim to no higher gift than a -small insight into the glorious art of petitioning and thanksgiving, as -practiced in psalmody." - -"The man is, most manifestly, a disciple of Apollo," cried the amused -Alice, "and I take him under my own especial protection. Nay, throw -aside that frown, Heyward, and in pity to my longing ears, suffer him to -journey in our train. Besides," she added, in a low and hurried voice, -casting a glance at the distant Cora, who slowly followed the footsteps -of their silent, but sullen guide, "it may be a friend added to our -strength, in time of need." - -"Think you, Alice, that I would trust those I love by this secret path, -did I imagine such need could happen?" - -"Nay, nay, I think not of it now; but this strange man amuses me; and if -he 'hath music in his soul', let us not churlishly reject his company." -She pointed persuasively along the path with her riding whip, while -their eyes met in a look which the young man lingered a moment to -prolong; then, yielding to her gentle influence, he clapped his spurs -into his charger, and in a few bounds was again at the side of Cora. - -"I am glad to encounter thee, friend," continued the maiden, waving her -hand to the stranger to proceed, as she urged her Narragansett to renew -its amble. "Partial relatives have almost persuaded me that I am not -entirely worthless in a duet myself; and we may enliven our wayfaring -by indulging in our favorite pursuit. It might be of signal advantage to -one, ignorant as I, to hear the opinions and experience of a master in -the art." - -"It is refreshing both to the spirits and to the body to indulge -in psalmody, in befitting seasons," returned the master of song, -unhesitatingly complying with her intimation to follow; "and nothing -would relieve the mind more than such a consoling communion. But four -parts are altogether necessary to the perfection of melody. You have all -the manifestations of a soft and rich treble; I can, by especial aid, -carry a full tenor to the highest letter; but we lack counter and bass! -Yon officer of the king, who hesitated to admit me to his company, might -fill the latter, if one may judge from the intonations of his voice in -common dialogue." - -"Judge not too rashly from hasty and deceptive appearances," said the -lady, smiling; "though Major Heyward can assume such deep notes on -occasion, believe me, his natural tones are better fitted for a mellow -tenor than the bass you heard." - -"Is he, then, much practiced in the art of psalmody?" demanded her -simple companion. - -Alice felt disposed to laugh, though she succeeded in suppressing her -merriment, ere she answered: - -"I apprehend that he is rather addicted to profane song. The chances -of a soldier's life are but little fitted for the encouragement of more -sober inclinations." - -"Man's voice is given to him, like his other talents, to be used, and -not to be abused. None can say they have ever known me to neglect my -gifts! I am thankful that, though my boyhood may be said to have been -set apart, like the youth of the royal David, for the purposes of music, -no syllable of rude verse has ever profaned my lips." - -"You have, then, limited your efforts to sacred song?" - -"Even so. As the psalms of David exceed all other language, so does the -psalmody that has been fitted to them by the divines and sages of the -land, surpass all vain poetry. Happily, I may say that I utter nothing -but the thoughts and the wishes of the King of Israel himself; for -though the times may call for some slight changes, yet does this version -which we use in the colonies of New England so much exceed all other -versions, that, by its richness, its exactness, and its spiritual -simplicity, it approacheth, as near as may be, to the great work of the -inspired writer. I never abide in any place, sleeping or waking, without -an example of this gifted work. 'Tis the six-and-twentieth edition, -promulgated at Boston, Anno Domini 1744; and is entitled, 'The Psalms, -Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Old and New Testaments; faithfully -translated into English Metre, for the Use, Edification, and Comfort of -the Saints, in Public and Private, especially in New England'." - -During this eulogium on the rare production of his native poets, the -stranger had drawn the book from his pocket, and fitting a pair of -iron-rimmed spectacles to his nose, opened the volume with a care and -veneration suited to its sacred purposes. Then, without circumlocution -or apology, first pronounced the word "Standish," and placing the -unknown engine, already described, to his mouth, from which he drew a -high, shrill sound, that was followed by an octave below, from his own -voice, he commenced singing the following words, in full, sweet, and -melodious tones, that set the music, the poetry, and even the uneasy -motion of his ill-trained beast at defiance; "How good it is, O see, And -how it pleaseth well, Together e'en in unity, For brethren so to dwell. -It's like the choice ointment, From the head to the beard did go; Down -Aaron's head, that downward went His garment's skirts unto." - -The delivery of these skillful rhymes was accompanied, on the part -of the stranger, by a regular rise and fall of his right hand, which -terminated at the descent, by suffering the fingers to dwell a moment on -the leaves of the little volume; and on the ascent, by such a flourish -of the member as none but the initiated may ever hope to imitate. -It would seem long practice had rendered this manual accompaniment -necessary; for it did not cease until the preposition which the poet had -selected for the close of his verse had been duly delivered like a word -of two syllables. - -Such an innovation on the silence and retirement of the forest could not -fail to enlist the ears of those who journeyed at so short a distance in -advance. The Indian muttered a few words in broken English to Heyward, -who, in his turn, spoke to the stranger; at once interrupting, and, for -the time, closing his musical efforts. - -"Though we are not in danger, common prudence would teach us to journey -through this wilderness in as quiet a manner as possible. You will then, -pardon me, Alice, should I diminish your enjoyments, by requesting this -gentleman to postpone his chant until a safer opportunity." - -"You will diminish them, indeed," returned the arch girl; "for never did -I hear a more unworthy conjunction of execution and language than that -to which I have been listening; and I was far gone in a learned inquiry -into the causes of such an unfitness between sound and sense, when you -broke the charm of my musings by that bass of yours, Duncan!" - -"I know not what you call my bass," said Heyward, piqued at her remark, -"but I know that your safety, and that of Cora, is far dearer to me than -could be any orchestra of Handel's music." He paused and turned his head -quickly toward a thicket, and then bent his eyes suspiciously on their -guide, who continued his steady pace, in undisturbed gravity. The young -man smiled to himself, for he believed he had mistaken some shining -berry of the woods for the glistening eyeballs of a prowling savage, and -he rode forward, continuing the conversation which had been interrupted -by the passing thought. - -Major Heyward was mistaken only in suffering his youthful and generous -pride to suppress his active watchfulness. The cavalcade had not long -passed, before the branches of the bushes that formed the thicket were -cautiously moved asunder, and a human visage, as fiercely wild as savage -art and unbridled passions could make it, peered out on the retiring -footsteps of the travelers. A gleam of exultation shot across the -darkly-painted lineaments of the inhabitant of the forest, as he traced -the route of his intended victims, who rode unconsciously onward, the -light and graceful forms of the females waving among the trees, in the -curvatures of their path, followed at each bend by the manly figure of -Heyward, until, finally, the shapeless person of the singing master -was concealed behind the numberless trunks of trees, that rose, in dark -lines, in the intermediate space. - - - - -CHAPTER 3 - - "Before these fields were shorn and till'd, - Full to the brim our rivers flow'd; - The melody of waters fill'd - The fresh and boundless wood; - And torrents dash'd, and rivulets play'd, - And fountains spouted in the shade."--Bryant - -Leaving the unsuspecting Heyward and his confiding companions to -penetrate still deeper into a forest that contained such treacherous -inmates, we must use an author's privilege, and shift the scene a few -miles to the westward of the place where we have last seen them. - -On that day, two men were lingering on the banks of a small but rapid -stream, within an hour's journey of the encampment of Webb, like those -who awaited the appearance of an absent person, or the approach of some -expected event. The vast canopy of woods spread itself to the margin of -the river, overhanging the water, and shadowing its dark current with a -deeper hue. The rays of the sun were beginning to grow less fierce, and -the intense heat of the day was lessened, as the cooler vapors of the -springs and fountains rose above their leafy beds, and rested in -the atmosphere. Still that breathing silence, which marks the drowsy -sultriness of an American landscape in July, pervaded the secluded spot, -interrupted only by the low voices of the men, the occasional and lazy -tap of a woodpecker, the discordant cry of some gaudy jay, or a swelling -on the ear, from the dull roar of a distant waterfall. These feeble and -broken sounds were, however, too familiar to the foresters to draw their -attention from the more interesting matter of their dialogue. While -one of these loiterers showed the red skin and wild accouterments of a -native of the woods, the other exhibited, through the mask of his -rude and nearly savage equipments, the brighter, though sun-burned and -long-faced complexion of one who might claim descent from a European -parentage. The former was seated on the end of a mossy log, in a posture -that permitted him to heighten the effect of his earnest language, by -the calm but expressive gestures of an Indian engaged in debate. His -body, which was nearly naked, presented a terrific emblem of death, -drawn in intermingled colors of white and black. His closely-shaved -head, on which no other hair than the well-known and chivalrous -scalping tuft* was preserved, was without ornament of any kind, with -the exception of a solitary eagle's plume, that crossed his crown, -and depended over the left shoulder. A tomahawk and scalping knife, of -English manufacture, were in his girdle; while a short military rifle, -of that sort with which the policy of the whites armed their savage -allies, lay carelessly across his bare and sinewy knee. The expanded -chest, full formed limbs, and grave countenance of this warrior, would -denote that he had reached the vigor of his days, though no symptoms of -decay appeared to have yet weakened his manhood. - - * The North American warrior caused the hair to be plucked - from his whole body; a small tuft was left on the crown of - his head, in order that his enemy might avail himself of it, - in wrenching off the scalp in the event of his fall. The - scalp was the only admissible trophy of victory. Thus, it - was deemed more important to obtain the scalp than to kill - the man. Some tribes lay great stress on the honor of - striking a dead body. These practices have nearly - disappeared among the Indians of the Atlantic states. - -The frame of the white man, judging by such parts as were not concealed -by his clothes, was like that of one who had known hardships and -exertion from his earliest youth. His person, though muscular, was -rather attenuated than full; but every nerve and muscle appeared strung -and indurated by unremitted exposure and toil. He wore a hunting shirt -of forest-green, fringed with faded yellow*, and a summer cap of skins -which had been shorn of their fur. He also bore a knife in a girdle of -wampum, like that which confined the scanty garments of the Indian, but -no tomahawk. His moccasins were ornamented after the gay fashion of the -natives, while the only part of his under dress which appeared below the -hunting-frock was a pair of buckskin leggings, that laced at the sides, -and which were gartered above the knees, with the sinews of a deer. A -pouch and horn completed his personal accouterments, though a rifle of -great length**, which the theory of the more ingenious whites had -taught them was the most dangerous of all firearms, leaned against a -neighboring sapling. The eye of the hunter, or scout, whichever he might -be, was small, quick, keen, and restless, roving while he spoke, on -every side of him, as if in quest of game, or distrusting the sudden -approach of some lurking enemy. Notwithstanding the symptoms of habitual -suspicion, his countenance was not only without guile, but at the moment -at which he is introduced, it was charged with an expression of sturdy -honesty. - - * The hunting-shirt is a picturesque smock-frock, being - shorter, and ornamented with fringes and tassels. The colors - are intended to imitate the hues of the wood, with a view to - concealment. Many corps of American riflemen have been thus - attired, and the dress is one of the most striking of modern - times. The hunting-shirt is frequently white. - - ** The rifle of the army is short; that of the hunter is - always long. - -"Even your traditions make the case in my favor, Chingachgook," he said, -speaking in the tongue which was known to all the natives who formerly -inhabited the country between the Hudson and the Potomac, and of -which we shall give a free translation for the benefit of the reader; -endeavoring, at the same time, to preserve some of the peculiarities, -both of the individual and of the language. "Your fathers came from the -setting sun, crossed the big river*, fought the people of the country, -and took the land; and mine came from the red sky of the morning, over -the salt lake, and did their work much after the fashion that had been -set them by yours; then let God judge the matter between us, and friends -spare their words!" - - * The Mississippi. The scout alludes to a tradition which is - very popular among the tribes of the Atlantic states. - Evidence of their Asiatic origin is deduced from the - circumstances, though great uncertainty hangs over the whole - history of the Indians. - -"My fathers fought with the naked red man!" returned the Indian, -sternly, in the same language. "Is there no difference, Hawkeye, between -the stone-headed arrow of the warrior, and the leaden bullet with which -you kill?" - -"There is reason in an Indian, though nature has made him with a red -skin!" said the white man, shaking his head like one on whom such an -appeal to his justice was not thrown away. For a moment he appeared to -be conscious of having the worst of the argument, then, rallying again, -he answered the objection of his antagonist in the best manner his -limited information would allow: - -"I am no scholar, and I care not who knows it; but, judging from what -I have seen, at deer chases and squirrel hunts, of the sparks below, -I should think a rifle in the hands of their grandfathers was not so -dangerous as a hickory bow and a good flint-head might be, if drawn with -Indian judgment, and sent by an Indian eye." - -"You have the story told by your fathers," returned the other, coldly -waving his hand. "What say your old men? Do they tell the young warriors -that the pale faces met the red men, painted for war and armed with the -stone hatchet and wooden gun?" - -"I am not a prejudiced man, nor one who vaunts himself on his natural -privileges, though the worst enemy I have on earth, and he is an -Iroquois, daren't deny that I am genuine white," the scout replied, -surveying, with secret satisfaction, the faded color of his bony and -sinewy hand, "and I am willing to own that my people have many ways, of -which, as an honest man, I can't approve. It is one of their customs to -write in books what they have done and seen, instead of telling them -in their villages, where the lie can be given to the face of a cowardly -boaster, and the brave soldier can call on his comrades to witness for -the truth of his words. In consequence of this bad fashion, a man, who -is too conscientious to misspend his days among the women, in learning -the names of black marks, may never hear of the deeds of his fathers, -nor feel a pride in striving to outdo them. For myself, I conclude the -Bumppos could shoot, for I have a natural turn with a rifle, which -must have been handed down from generation to generation, as, our holy -commandments tell us, all good and evil gifts are bestowed; though I -should be loath to answer for other people in such a matter. But every -story has its two sides; so I ask you, Chingachgook, what passed, -according to the traditions of the red men, when our fathers first met?" - -A silence of a minute succeeded, during which the Indian sat mute; then, -full of the dignity of his office, he commenced his brief tale, with a -solemnity that served to heighten its appearance of truth. - -"Listen, Hawkeye, and your ear shall drink no lie. 'Tis what my fathers -have said, and what the Mohicans have done." He hesitated a single -instant, and bending a cautious glance toward his companion, he -continued, in a manner that was divided between interrogation and -assertion. "Does not this stream at our feet run toward the summer, -until its waters grow salt, and the current flows upward?" - -"It can't be denied that your traditions tell you true in both these -matters," said the white man; "for I have been there, and have seen -them, though why water, which is so sweet in the shade, should become -bitter in the sun, is an alteration for which I have never been able to -account." - -"And the current!" demanded the Indian, who expected his reply with that -sort of interest that a man feels in the confirmation of testimony, at -which he marvels even while he respects it; "the fathers of Chingachgook -have not lied!" - -"The holy Bible is not more true, and that is the truest thing in -nature. They call this up-stream current the tide, which is a thing soon -explained, and clear enough. Six hours the waters run in, and six hours -they run out, and the reason is this: when there is higher water in the -sea than in the river, they run in until the river gets to be highest, -and then it runs out again." - -"The waters in the woods, and on the great lakes, run downward -until they lie like my hand," said the Indian, stretching the limb -horizontally before him, "and then they run no more." - -"No honest man will deny it," said the scout, a little nettled at the -implied distrust of his explanation of the mystery of the tides; "and I -grant that it is true on the small scale, and where the land is level. -But everything depends on what scale you look at things. Now, on the -small scale, the 'arth is level; but on the large scale it is round. In -this manner, pools and ponds, and even the great fresh-water lakes, may -be stagnant, as you and I both know they are, having seen them; but when -you come to spread water over a great tract, like the sea, where the -earth is round, how in reason can the water be quiet? You might as well -expect the river to lie still on the brink of those black rocks a mile -above us, though your own ears tell you that it is tumbling over them at -this very moment." - -If unsatisfied by the philosophy of his companion, the Indian was far -too dignified to betray his unbelief. He listened like one who was -convinced, and resumed his narrative in his former solemn manner. - -"We came from the place where the sun is hid at night, over great plains -where the buffaloes live, until we reached the big river. There we -fought the Alligewi, till the ground was red with their blood. From the -banks of the big river to the shores of the salt lake, there was none to -meet us. The Maquas followed at a distance. We said the country should -be ours from the place where the water runs up no longer on this stream, -to a river twenty sun's journey toward the summer. We drove the Maquas -into the woods with the bears. They only tasted salt at the licks; they -drew no fish from the great lake; we threw them the bones." - -"All this I have heard and believe," said the white man, observing that -the Indian paused; "but it was long before the English came into the -country." - -"A pine grew then where this chestnut now stands. The first pale faces -who came among us spoke no English. They came in a large canoe, when -my fathers had buried the tomahawk with the red men around them. Then, -Hawkeye," he continued, betraying his deep emotion, only by permitting -his voice to fall to those low, guttural tones, which render his -language, as spoken at times, so very musical; "then, Hawkeye, we were -one people, and we were happy. The salt lake gave us its fish, the wood -its deer, and the air its birds. We took wives who bore us children; we -worshipped the Great Spirit; and we kept the Maquas beyond the sound of -our songs of triumph." - -"Know you anything of your own family at that time?" demanded the white. -"But you are just a man, for an Indian; and as I suppose you hold their -gifts, your fathers must have been brave warriors, and wise men at the -council-fire." - -"My tribe is the grandfather of nations, but I am an unmixed man. The -blood of chiefs is in my veins, where it must stay forever. The Dutch -landed, and gave my people the fire-water; they drank until the heavens -and the earth seemed to meet, and they foolishly thought they had found -the Great Spirit. Then they parted with their land. Foot by foot, -they were driven back from the shores, until I, that am a chief and a -Sagamore, have never seen the sun shine but through the trees, and have -never visited the graves of my fathers." - -"Graves bring solemn feelings over the mind," returned the scout, a good -deal touched at the calm suffering of his companion; "and they often aid -a man in his good intentions; though, for myself, I expect to leave my -own bones unburied, to bleach in the woods, or to be torn asunder by the -wolves. But where are to be found those of your race who came to their -kin in the Delaware country, so many summers since?" - -"Where are the blossoms of those summers!--fallen, one by one; so all -of my family departed, each in his turn, to the land of spirits. I am on -the hilltop and must go down into the valley; and when Uncas follows in -my footsteps there will no longer be any of the blood of the Sagamores, -for my boy is the last of the Mohicans." - -"Uncas is here," said another voice, in the same soft, guttural tones, -near his elbow; "who speaks to Uncas?" - -The white man loosened his knife in his leathern sheath, and made -an involuntary movement of the hand toward his rifle, at this sudden -interruption; but the Indian sat composed, and without turning his head -at the unexpected sounds. - -At the next instant, a youthful warrior passed between them, with a -noiseless step, and seated himself on the bank of the rapid stream. No -exclamation of surprise escaped the father, nor was any question asked, -or reply given, for several minutes; each appearing to await the moment -when he might speak, without betraying womanish curiosity or childish -impatience. The white man seemed to take counsel from their customs, -and, relinquishing his grasp of the rifle, he also remained silent and -reserved. At length Chingachgook turned his eyes slowly toward his son, -and demanded: - -"Do the Maquas dare to leave the print of their moccasins in these -woods?" - -"I have been on their trail," replied the young Indian, "and know that -they number as many as the fingers of my two hands; but they lie hid -like cowards." - -"The thieves are outlying for scalps and plunder," said the white man, -whom we shall call Hawkeye, after the manner of his companions. "That -busy Frenchman, Montcalm, will send his spies into our very camp, but he -will know what road we travel!" - -"'Tis enough," returned the father, glancing his eye toward the setting -sun; "they shall be driven like deer from their bushes. Hawkeye, let us -eat to-night, and show the Maquas that we are men to-morrow." - -"I am as ready to do the one as the other; but to fight the Iroquois -'tis necessary to find the skulkers; and to eat, 'tis necessary to get -the game--talk of the devil and he will come; there is a pair of the -biggest antlers I have seen this season, moving the bushes below the -hill! Now, Uncas," he continued, in a half whisper, and laughing with a -kind of inward sound, like one who had learned to be watchful, "I will -bet my charger three times full of powder, against a foot of wampum, -that I take him atwixt the eyes, and nearer to the right than to the -left." - -"It cannot be!" said the young Indian, springing to his feet with -youthful eagerness; "all but the tips of his horns are hid!" - -"He's a boy!" said the white man, shaking his head while he spoke, and -addressing the father. "Does he think when a hunter sees a part of the -creature', he can't tell where the rest of him should be!" - -Adjusting his rifle, he was about to make an exhibition of that skill -on which he so much valued himself, when the warrior struck up the piece -with his hand, saying: - -"Hawkeye! will you fight the Maquas?" - -"These Indians know the nature of the woods, as it might be by -instinct!" returned the scout, dropping his rifle, and turning away like -a man who was convinced of his error. "I must leave the buck to your -arrow, Uncas, or we may kill a deer for them thieves, the Iroquois, to -eat." - -The instant the father seconded this intimation by an expressive gesture -of the hand, Uncas threw himself on the ground, and approached the -animal with wary movements. When within a few yards of the cover, he -fitted an arrow to his bow with the utmost care, while the antlers -moved, as if their owner snuffed an enemy in the tainted air. In another -moment the twang of the cord was heard, a white streak was seen glancing -into the bushes, and the wounded buck plunged from the cover, to the -very feet of his hidden enemy. Avoiding the horns of the infuriated -animal, Uncas darted to his side, and passed his knife across the -throat, when bounding to the edge of the river it fell, dyeing the -waters with its blood. - -"'Twas done with Indian skill," said the scout laughing inwardly, but -with vast satisfaction; "and 'twas a pretty sight to behold! Though an -arrow is a near shot, and needs a knife to finish the work." - -"Hugh!" ejaculated his companion, turning quickly, like a hound who -scented game. - -"By the Lord, there is a drove of them!" exclaimed the scout, whose eyes -began to glisten with the ardor of his usual occupation; "if they come -within range of a bullet I will drop one, though the whole Six Nations -should be lurking within sound! What do you hear, Chingachgook? for to -my ears the woods are dumb." - -"There is but one deer, and he is dead," said the Indian, bending his -body till his ear nearly touched the earth. "I hear the sounds of feet!" - -"Perhaps the wolves have driven the buck to shelter, and are following -on his trail." - -"No. The horses of white men are coming!" returned the other, raising -himself with dignity, and resuming his seat on the log with his former -composure. "Hawkeye, they are your brothers; speak to them." - -"That I will, and in English that the king needn't be ashamed to -answer," returned the hunter, speaking in the language of which he -boasted; "but I see nothing, nor do I hear the sounds of man or beast; -'tis strange that an Indian should understand white sounds better than a -man who, his very enemies will own, has no cross in his blood, although -he may have lived with the red skins long enough to be suspected! Ha! -there goes something like the cracking of a dry stick, too--now I hear -the bushes move--yes, yes, there is a trampling that I mistook for -the falls--and--but here they come themselves; God keep them from the -Iroquois!" - - - - -CHAPTER 4 - - "Well go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove - Till I torment thee for this injury."--Midsummer Night's Dream. - -The words were still in the mouth of the scout, when the leader of the -party, whose approaching footsteps had caught the vigilant ear of the -Indian, came openly into view. A beaten path, such as those made by the -periodical passage of the deer, wound through a little glen at no great -distance, and struck the river at the point where the white man and his -red companions had posted themselves. Along this track the travelers, -who had produced a surprise so unusual in the depths of the forest, -advanced slowly toward the hunter, who was in front of his associates, -in readiness to receive them. - -"Who comes?" demanded the scout, throwing his rifle carelessly across -his left arm, and keeping the forefinger of his right hand on the -trigger, though he avoided all appearance of menace in the act. "Who -comes hither, among the beasts and dangers of the wilderness?" - -"Believers in religion, and friends to the law and to the king," -returned he who rode foremost. "Men who have journeyed since the rising -sun, in the shades of this forest, without nourishment, and are sadly -tired of their wayfaring." - -"You are, then, lost," interrupted the hunter, "and have found how -helpless 'tis not to know whether to take the right hand or the left?" - -"Even so; sucking babes are not more dependent on those who guide them -than we who are of larger growth, and who may now be said to possess the -stature without the knowledge of men. Know you the distance to a post of -the crown called William Henry?" - -"Hoot!" shouted the scout, who did not spare his open laughter, though -instantly checking the dangerous sounds he indulged his merriment at -less risk of being overheard by any lurking enemies. "You are as much -off the scent as a hound would be, with Horican atwixt him and the deer! -William Henry, man! if you are friends to the king and have business -with the army, your way would be to follow the river down to Edward, and -lay the matter before Webb, who tarries there, instead of pushing into -the defiles, and driving this saucy Frenchman back across Champlain, -into his den again." - -Before the stranger could make any reply to this unexpected proposition, -another horseman dashed the bushes aside, and leaped his charger into -the pathway, in front of his companion. - -"What, then, may be our distance from Fort Edward?" demanded a new -speaker; "the place you advise us to seek we left this morning, and our -destination is the head of the lake." - -"Then you must have lost your eyesight afore losing your way, for the -road across the portage is cut to a good two rods, and is as grand a -path, I calculate, as any that runs into London, or even before the -palace of the king himself." - -"We will not dispute concerning the excellence of the passage," returned -Heyward, smiling; for, as the reader has anticipated, it was he. "It is -enough, for the present, that we trusted to an Indian guide to take -us by a nearer, though blinder path, and that we are deceived in his -knowledge. In plain words, we know not where we are." - -"An Indian lost in the woods!" said the scout, shaking his head -doubtingly; "When the sun is scorching the tree tops, and the water -courses are full; when the moss on every beech he sees will tell him in -what quarter the north star will shine at night. The woods are full -of deer-paths which run to the streams and licks, places well known to -everybody; nor have the geese done their flight to the Canada waters -altogether! 'Tis strange that an Indian should be lost atwixt Horican -and the bend in the river! Is he a Mohawk?" - -"Not by birth, though adopted in that tribe; I think his birthplace was -farther north, and he is one of those you call a Huron." - -"Hugh!" exclaimed the two companions of the scout, who had continued -until this part of the dialogue, seated immovable, and apparently -indifferent to what passed, but who now sprang to their feet with an -activity and interest that had evidently got the better of their reserve -by surprise. - -"A Huron!" repeated the sturdy scout, once more shaking his head in -open distrust; "they are a thievish race, nor do I care by whom they are -adopted; you can never make anything of them but skulks and vagabonds. -Since you trusted yourself to the care of one of that nation, I only -wonder that you have not fallen in with more." - -"Of that there is little danger, since William Henry is so many miles -in our front. You forget that I have told you our guide is now a Mohawk, -and that he serves with our forces as a friend." - -"And I tell you that he who is born a Mingo will die a Mingo," returned -the other positively. "A Mohawk! No, give me a Delaware or a Mohican -for honesty; and when they will fight, which they won't all do, having -suffered their cunning enemies, the Maquas, to make them women--but -when they will fight at all, look to a Delaware, or a Mohican, for a -warrior!" - -"Enough of this," said Heyward, impatiently; "I wish not to inquire into -the character of a man that I know, and to whom you must be a stranger. -You have not yet answered my question; what is our distance from the -main army at Edward?" - -"It seems that may depend on who is your guide. One would think such -a horse as that might get over a good deal of ground atwixt sun-up and -sun-down." - -"I wish no contention of idle words with you, friend," said Heyward, -curbing his dissatisfied manner, and speaking in a more gentle voice; -"if you will tell me the distance to Fort Edward, and conduct me -thither, your labor shall not go without its reward." - -"And in so doing, how know I that I don't guide an enemy and a spy of -Montcalm, to the works of the army? It is not every man who can speak -the English tongue that is an honest subject." - -"If you serve with the troops, of whom I judge you to be a scout, you -should know of such a regiment of the king as the Sixtieth." - -"The Sixtieth! you can tell me little of the Royal Americans that -I don't know, though I do wear a hunting-shirt instead of a scarlet -jacket." - -"Well, then, among other things, you may know the name of its major?" - -"Its major!" interrupted the hunter, elevating his body like one who was -proud of his trust. "If there is a man in the country who knows Major -Effingham, he stands before you." - -"It is a corps which has many majors; the gentleman you name is the -senior, but I speak of the junior of them all; he who commands the -companies in garrison at William Henry." - -"Yes, yes, I have heard that a young gentleman of vast riches, from one -of the provinces far south, has got the place. He is over young, too, -to hold such rank, and to be put above men whose heads are beginning to -bleach; and yet they say he is a soldier in his knowledge, and a gallant -gentleman!" - -"Whatever he may be, or however he may be qualified for his rank, he now -speaks to you and, of course, can be no enemy to dread." - -The scout regarded Heyward in surprise, and then lifting his cap, he -answered, in a tone less confident than before--though still expressing -doubt. - -"I have heard a party was to leave the encampment this morning for the -lake shore?" - -"You have heard the truth; but I preferred a nearer route, trusting to -the knowledge of the Indian I mentioned." - -"And he deceived you, and then deserted?" - -"Neither, as I believe; certainly not the latter, for he is to be found -in the rear." - -"I should like to look at the creature; if it is a true Iroquois I -can tell him by his knavish look, and by his paint," said the scout; -stepping past the charger of Heyward, and entering the path behind the -mare of the singing master, whose foal had taken advantage of the halt -to exact the maternal contribution. After shoving aside the bushes, -and proceeding a few paces, he encountered the females, who awaited -the result of the conference with anxiety, and not entirely without -apprehension. Behind these, the runner leaned against a tree, where he -stood the close examination of the scout with an air unmoved, though -with a look so dark and savage, that it might in itself excite fear. -Satisfied with his scrutiny, the hunter soon left him. As he repassed -the females, he paused a moment to gaze upon their beauty, answering to -the smile and nod of Alice with a look of open pleasure. Thence he went -to the side of the motherly animal, and spending a minute in a fruitless -inquiry into the character of her rider, he shook his head and returned -to Heyward. - -"A Mingo is a Mingo, and God having made him so, neither the Mohawks nor -any other tribe can alter him," he said, when he had regained his former -position. "If we were alone, and you would leave that noble horse at the -mercy of the wolves to-night, I could show you the way to Edward myself, -within an hour, for it lies only about an hour's journey hence; but with -such ladies in your company 'tis impossible!" - -"And why? They are fatigued, but they are quite equal to a ride of a few -more miles." - -"'Tis a natural impossibility!" repeated the scout; "I wouldn't walk -a mile in these woods after night gets into them, in company with that -runner, for the best rifle in the colonies. They are full of outlying -Iroquois, and your mongrel Mohawk knows where to find them too well to -be my companion." - -"Think you so?" said Heyward, leaning forward in the saddle, and -dropping his voice nearly to a whisper; "I confess I have not been -without my own suspicions, though I have endeavored to conceal them, -and affected a confidence I have not always felt, on account of my -companions. It was because I suspected him that I would follow no -longer; making him, as you see, follow me." - -"I knew he was one of the cheats as soon as I laid eyes on him!" -returned the scout, placing a finger on his nose, in sign of caution. - -"The thief is leaning against the foot of the sugar sapling, that you -can see over them bushes; his right leg is in a line with the bark of -the tree, and," tapping his rifle, "I can take him from where I stand, -between the angle and the knee, with a single shot, putting an end -to his tramping through the woods, for at least a month to come. If I -should go back to him, the cunning varmint would suspect something, and -be dodging through the trees like a frightened deer." - -"It will not do. He may be innocent, and I dislike the act. Though, if I -felt confident of his treachery--" - -"'Tis a safe thing to calculate on the knavery of an Iroquois," said the -scout, throwing his rifle forward, by a sort of instinctive movement. - -"Hold!" interrupted Heyward, "it will not do--we must think of some -other scheme--and yet, I have much reason to believe the rascal has -deceived me." - -The hunter, who had already abandoned his intention of maiming the -runner, mused a moment, and then made a gesture, which instantly brought -his two red companions to his side. They spoke together earnestly in the -Delaware language, though in an undertone; and by the gestures of -the white man, which were frequently directed towards the top of the -sapling, it was evident he pointed out the situation of their hidden -enemy. His companions were not long in comprehending his wishes, and -laying aside their firearms, they parted, taking opposite sides of -the path, and burying themselves in the thicket, with such cautious -movements, that their steps were inaudible. - -"Now, go you back," said the hunter, speaking again to Heyward, "and -hold the imp in talk; these Mohicans here will take him without breaking -his paint." - -"Nay," said Heyward, proudly, "I will seize him myself." - -"Hist! what could you do, mounted, against an Indian in the bushes!" - -"I will dismount." - -"And, think you, when he saw one of your feet out of the stirrup, he -would wait for the other to be free? Whoever comes into the woods to -deal with the natives, must use Indian fashions, if he would wish to -prosper in his undertakings. Go, then; talk openly to the miscreant, and -seem to believe him the truest friend you have on 'arth." - -Heyward prepared to comply, though with strong disgust at the nature of -the office he was compelled to execute. Each moment, however, pressed -upon him a conviction of the critical situation in which he had suffered -his invaluable trust to be involved through his own confidence. The sun -had already disappeared, and the woods, suddenly deprived of his light*, -were assuming a dusky hue, which keenly reminded him that the hour the -savage usually chose for his most barbarous and remorseless acts -of vengeance or hostility, was speedily drawing near. Stimulated by -apprehension, he left the scout, who immediately entered into a loud -conversation with the stranger that had so unceremoniously enlisted -himself in the party of travelers that morning. In passing his gentler -companions Heyward uttered a few words of encouragement, and was -pleased to find that, though fatigued with the exercise of the day, they -appeared to entertain no suspicion that their present embarrassment was -other than the result of accident. Giving them reason to believe he -was merely employed in a consultation concerning the future route, -he spurred his charger, and drew the reins again when the animal had -carried him within a few yards of the place where the sullen runner -still stood, leaning against the tree. - - * The scene of this tale was in the 42d degree of latitude, - where the twilight is never of long continuation. - -"You may see, Magua," he said, endeavoring to assume an air of freedom -and confidence, "that the night is closing around us, and yet we are no -nearer to William Henry than when we left the encampment of Webb with -the rising sun. - -"You have missed the way, nor have I been more fortunate. But, happily, -we have fallen in with a hunter, he whom you hear talking to the singer, -that is acquainted with the deerpaths and by-ways of the woods, and -who promises to lead us to a place where we may rest securely till the -morning." - -The Indian riveted his glowing eyes on Heyward as he asked, in his -imperfect English, "Is he alone?" - -"Alone!" hesitatingly answered Heyward, to whom deception was too new to -be assumed without embarrassment. "Oh! not alone, surely, Magua, for you -know that we are with him." - -"Then Le Renard Subtil will go," returned the runner, coolly raising -his little wallet from the place where it had lain at his feet; "and the -pale faces will see none but their own color." - -"Go! Whom call you Le Renard?" - -"'Tis the name his Canada fathers have given to Magua," returned the -runner, with an air that manifested his pride at the distinction. "Night -is the same as day to Le Subtil, when Munro waits for him." - -"And what account will Le Renard give the chief of William Henry -concerning his daughters? Will he dare to tell the hot-blooded Scotsman -that his children are left without a guide, though Magua promised to be -one?" - -"Though the gray head has a loud voice, and a long arm, Le Renard will -not hear him, nor feel him, in the woods." - -"But what will the Mohawks say? They will make him petticoats, and bid -him stay in the wigwam with the women, for he is no longer to be trusted -with the business of a man." - -"Le Subtil knows the path to the great lakes, and he can find the bones -of his fathers," was the answer of the unmoved runner. - -"Enough, Magua," said Heyward; "are we not friends? Why should there be -bitter words between us? Munro has promised you a gift for your services -when performed, and I shall be your debtor for another. Rest your weary -limbs, then, and open your wallet to eat. We have a few moments to -spare; let us not waste them in talk like wrangling women. When the -ladies are refreshed we will proceed." - -"The pale faces make themselves dogs to their women," muttered the -Indian, in his native language, "and when they want to eat, their -warriors must lay aside the tomahawk to feed their laziness." - -"What say you, Renard?" - -"Le Subtil says it is good." - -The Indian then fastened his eyes keenly on the open countenance of -Heyward, but meeting his glance, he turned them quickly away, and -seating himself deliberately on the ground, he drew forth the remnant of -some former repast, and began to eat, though not without first bending -his looks slowly and cautiously around him. - -"This is well," continued Heyward; "and Le Renard will have strength and -sight to find the path in the morning"; he paused, for sounds like the -snapping of a dried stick, and the rustling of leaves, rose from the -adjacent bushes, but recollecting himself instantly, he continued, "we -must be moving before the sun is seen, or Montcalm may lie in our path, -and shut us out from the fortress." - -The hand of Magua dropped from his mouth to his side, and though -his eyes were fastened on the ground, his head was turned aside, his -nostrils expanded, and his ears seemed even to stand more erect than -usual, giving to him the appearance of a statue that was made to -represent intense attention. - -Heyward, who watched his movements with a vigilant eye, carelessly -extricated one of his feet from the stirrup, while he passed a hand -toward the bear-skin covering of his holsters. - -Every effort to detect the point most regarded by the runner was -completely frustrated by the tremulous glances of his organs, which -seemed not to rest a single instant on any particular object, and which, -at the same time, could be hardly said to move. While he hesitated how -to proceed, Le Subtil cautiously raised himself to his feet, though with -a motion so slow and guarded, that not the slightest noise was produced -by the change. Heyward felt it had now become incumbent on him to act. -Throwing his leg over the saddle, he dismounted, with a determination to -advance and seize his treacherous companion, trusting the result to his -own manhood. In order, however, to prevent unnecessary alarm, he still -preserved an air of calmness and friendship. - -"Le Renard Subtil does not eat," he said, using the appellation he had -found most flattering to the vanity of the Indian. "His corn is not -well parched, and it seems dry. Let me examine; perhaps something may be -found among my own provisions that will help his appetite." - -Magua held out the wallet to the proffer of the other. He even suffered -their hands to meet, without betraying the least emotion, or varying his -riveted attitude of attention. But when he felt the fingers of Heyward -moving gently along his own naked arm, he struck up the limb of the -young man, and, uttering a piercing cry, he darted beneath it, and -plunged, at a single bound, into the opposite thicket. At the next -instant the form of Chingachgook appeared from the bushes, looking like -a specter in its paint, and glided across the path in swift pursuit. -Next followed the shout of Uncas, when the woods were lighted by a -sudden flash, that was accompanied by the sharp report of the hunter's -rifle. - - - - -CHAPTER 5 - - ..."In such a night - Did This be fearfully o'ertrip the dew; - And saw the lion's shadow ere himself."--Merchant of Venice - -The suddenness of the flight of his guide, and the wild cries of the -pursuers, caused Heyward to remain fixed, for a few moments, in inactive -surprise. Then recollecting the importance of securing the fugitive, he -dashed aside the surrounding bushes, and pressed eagerly forward to lend -his aid in the chase. Before he had, however, proceeded a hundred yards, -he met the three foresters already returning from their unsuccessful -pursuit. - -"Why so soon disheartened!" he exclaimed; "the scoundrel must be -concealed behind some of these trees, and may yet be secured. We are not -safe while he goes at large." - -"Would you set a cloud to chase the wind?" returned the disappointed -scout; "I heard the imp brushing over the dry leaves, like a black -snake, and blinking a glimpse of him, just over ag'in yon big pine, I -pulled as it might be on the scent; but 'twouldn't do! and yet for a -reasoning aim, if anybody but myself had touched the trigger, I should -call it a quick sight; and I may be accounted to have experience in -these matters, and one who ought to know. Look at this sumach; its -leaves are red, though everybody knows the fruit is in the yellow -blossom in the month of July!" - -"'Tis the blood of Le Subtil! he is hurt, and may yet fall!" - -"No, no," returned the scout, in decided disapprobation of this opinion, -"I rubbed the bark off a limb, perhaps, but the creature leaped the -longer for it. A rifle bullet acts on a running animal, when it barks -him, much the same as one of your spurs on a horse; that is, it quickens -motion, and puts life into the flesh, instead of taking it away. But -when it cuts the ragged hole, after a bound or two, there is, commonly, -a stagnation of further leaping, be it Indian or be it deer!" - -"We are four able bodies, to one wounded man!" - -"Is life grievous to you?" interrupted the scout. "Yonder red devil -would draw you within swing of the tomahawks of his comrades, before you -were heated in the chase. It was an unthoughtful act in a man who has so -often slept with the war-whoop ringing in the air, to let off his piece -within sound of an ambushment! But then it was a natural temptation! -'twas very natural! Come, friends, let us move our station, and in such -fashion, too, as will throw the cunning of a Mingo on a wrong scent, or -our scalps will be drying in the wind in front of Montcalm's marquee, -ag'in this hour to-morrow." - -This appalling declaration, which the scout uttered with the cool -assurance of a man who fully comprehended, while he did not fear to face -the danger, served to remind Heyward of the importance of the charge -with which he himself had been intrusted. Glancing his eyes around, with -a vain effort to pierce the gloom that was thickening beneath the -leafy arches of the forest, he felt as if, cut off from human aid, -his unresisting companions would soon lie at the entire mercy of those -barbarous enemies, who, like beasts of prey, only waited till the -gathering darkness might render their blows more fatally certain. His -awakened imagination, deluded by the deceptive light, converted each -waving bush, or the fragment of some fallen tree, into human forms, and -twenty times he fancied he could distinguish the horrid visages of -his lurking foes, peering from their hiding places, in never ceasing -watchfulness of the movements of his party. Looking upward, he found -that the thin fleecy clouds, which evening had painted on the blue -sky, were already losing their faintest tints of rose-color, while the -imbedded stream, which glided past the spot where he stood, was to be -traced only by the dark boundary of its wooded banks. - -"What is to be done!" he said, feeling the utter helplessness of doubt -in such a pressing strait; "desert me not, for God's sake! remain to -defend those I escort, and freely name your own reward!" - -His companions, who conversed apart in the language of their tribe, -heeded not this sudden and earnest appeal. Though their dialogue was -maintained in low and cautious sounds, but little above a whisper, -Heyward, who now approached, could easily distinguish the earnest tones -of the younger warrior from the more deliberate speeches of his seniors. -It was evident that they debated on the propriety of some measure, that -nearly concerned the welfare of the travelers. Yielding to his powerful -interest in the subject, and impatient of a delay that seemed fraught -with so much additional danger, Heyward drew still nigher to the dusky -group, with an intention of making his offers of compensation more -definite, when the white man, motioning with his hand, as if he conceded -the disputed point, turned away, saying in a sort of soliloquy, and in -the English tongue: - -"Uncas is right! it would not be the act of men to leave such harmless -things to their fate, even though it breaks up the harboring place -forever. If you would save these tender blossoms from the fangs of -the worst of serpents, gentleman, you have neither time to lose nor -resolution to throw away!" - -"How can such a wish be doubted! Have I not already offered--" - -"Offer your prayers to Him who can give us wisdom to circumvent the -cunning of the devils who fill these woods," calmly interrupted the -scout, "but spare your offers of money, which neither you may live to -realize, nor I to profit by. These Mohicans and I will do what man's -thoughts can invent, to keep such flowers, which, though so sweet, were -never made for the wilderness, from harm, and that without hope of -any other recompense but such as God always gives to upright dealings. -First, you must promise two things, both in your own name and for your -friends, or without serving you we shall only injure ourselves!" - -"Name them." - -"The one is, to be still as these sleeping woods, let what will happen -and the other is, to keep the place where we shall take you, forever a -secret from all mortal men." - -"I will do my utmost to see both these conditions fulfilled." - -"Then follow, for we are losing moments that are as precious as the -heart's blood to a stricken deer!" - -Heyward could distinguish the impatient gesture of the scout, through -the increasing shadows of the evening, and he moved in his footsteps, -swiftly, toward the place where he had left the remainder of the -party. When they rejoined the expecting and anxious females, he briefly -acquainted them with the conditions of their new guide, and with the -necessity that existed for their hushing every apprehension in instant -and serious exertions. Although his alarming communication was not -received without much secret terror by the listeners, his earnest and -impressive manner, aided perhaps by the nature of the danger, succeeded -in bracing their nerves to undergo some unlooked-for and unusual trial. -Silently, and without a moment's delay, they permitted him to assist -them from their saddles, and when they descended quickly to the water's -edge, where the scout had collected the rest of the party, more by the -agency of expressive gestures than by any use of words. - -"What to do with these dumb creatures!" muttered the white man, on whom -the sole control of their future movements appeared to devolve; "it -would be time lost to cut their throats, and cast them into the river; -and to leave them here would be to tell the Mingoes that they have not -far to seek to find their owners!" - -"Then give them their bridles, and let them range the woods," Heyward -ventured to suggest. - -"No; it would be better to mislead the imps, and make them believe they -must equal a horse's speed to run down their chase. Ay, ay, that will -blind their fireballs of eyes! Chingach--Hist! what stirs the bush?" - -"The colt." - -"That colt, at least, must die," muttered the scout, grasping at the -mane of the nimble beast, which easily eluded his hand; "Uncas, your -arrows!" - -"Hold!" exclaimed the proprietor of the condemned animal, aloud, without -regard to the whispering tones used by the others; "spare the foal -of Miriam! it is the comely offspring of a faithful dam, and would -willingly injure naught." - -"When men struggle for the single life God has given them," said the -scout, sternly, "even their own kind seem no more than the beasts of the -wood. If you speak again, I shall leave you to the mercy of the Maquas! -Draw to your arrow's head, Uncas; we have no time for second blows." - -The low, muttering sounds of his threatening voice were still audible, -when the wounded foal, first rearing on its hinder legs, plunged forward -to its knees. It was met by Chingachgook, whose knife passed across its -throat quicker than thought, and then precipitating the motions of the -struggling victim, he dashed into the river, down whose stream it glided -away, gasping audibly for breath with its ebbing life. This deed of -apparent cruelty, but of real necessity, fell upon the spirits of the -travelers like a terrific warning of the peril in which they stood, -heightened as it was by the calm though steady resolution of the actors -in the scene. The sisters shuddered and clung closer to each other, -while Heyward instinctively laid his hand on one of the pistols he had -just drawn from their holsters, as he placed himself between his charge -and those dense shadows that seemed to draw an impenetrable veil before -the bosom of the forest. - -The Indians, however, hesitated not a moment, but taking the bridles, -they led the frightened and reluctant horses into the bed of the river. - -At a short distance from the shore they turned, and were soon concealed -by the projection of the bank, under the brow of which they moved, in -a direction opposite to the course of the waters. In the meantime, the -scout drew a canoe of bark from its place of concealment beneath some -low bushes, whose branches were waving with the eddies of the current, -into which he silently motioned for the females to enter. They complied -without hesitation, though many a fearful and anxious glance was thrown -behind them, toward the thickening gloom, which now lay like a dark -barrier along the margin of the stream. - -So soon as Cora and Alice were seated, the scout, without regarding the -element, directed Heyward to support one side of the frail vessel, -and posting himself at the other, they bore it up against the stream, -followed by the dejected owner of the dead foal. In this manner they -proceeded, for many rods, in a silence that was only interrupted by the -rippling of the water, as its eddies played around them, or the low dash -made by their own cautious footsteps. Heyward yielded the guidance of -the canoe implicitly to the scout, who approached or receded from the -shore, to avoid the fragments of rocks, or deeper parts of the river, -with a readiness that showed his knowledge of the route they held. -Occasionally he would stop; and in the midst of a breathing stillness, -that the dull but increasing roar of the waterfall only served to render -more impressive, he would listen with painful intenseness, to catch any -sounds that might arise from the slumbering forest. When assured that -all was still, and unable to detect, even by the aid of his practiced -senses, any sign of his approaching foes, he would deliberately resume -his slow and guarded progress. At length they reached a point in the -river where the roving eye of Heyward became riveted on a cluster of -black objects, collected at a spot where the high bank threw a deeper -shadow than usual on the dark waters. Hesitating to advance, he pointed -out the place to the attention of his companion. - -"Ay," returned the composed scout, "the Indians have hid the beasts with -the judgment of natives! Water leaves no trail, and an owl's eyes would -be blinded by the darkness of such a hole." - -The whole party was soon reunited, and another consultation was held -between the scout and his new comrades, during which, they, whose fates -depended on the faith and ingenuity of these unknown foresters, had a -little leisure to observe their situation more minutely. - -The river was confined between high and cragged rocks, one of which -impended above the spot where the canoe rested. As these, again, were -surmounted by tall trees, which appeared to totter on the brows of the -precipice, it gave the stream the appearance of running through a deep -and narrow dell. All beneath the fantastic limbs and ragged tree tops, -which were, here and there, dimly painted against the starry zenith, -lay alike in shadowed obscurity. Behind them, the curvature of the banks -soon bounded the view by the same dark and wooded outline; but in front, -and apparently at no great distance, the water seemed piled against -the heavens, whence it tumbled into caverns, out of which issued those -sullen sounds that had loaded the evening atmosphere. It seemed, in -truth, to be a spot devoted to seclusion, and the sisters imbibed a -soothing impression of security, as they gazed upon its romantic though -not unappalling beauties. A general movement among their conductors, -however, soon recalled them from a contemplation of the wild charms that -night had assisted to lend the place to a painful sense of their real -peril. - -The horses had been secured to some scattering shrubs that grew in the -fissures of the rocks, where, standing in the water, they were left to -pass the night. The scout directed Heyward and his disconsolate fellow -travelers to seat themselves in the forward end of the canoe, and took -possession of the other himself, as erect and steady as if he floated -in a vessel of much firmer materials. The Indians warily retraced their -steps toward the place they had left, when the scout, placing his pole -against a rock, by a powerful shove, sent his frail bark directly into -the turbulent stream. For many minutes the struggle between the light -bubble in which they floated and the swift current was severe and -doubtful. Forbidden to stir even a hand, and almost afraid to breath, -lest they should expose the frail fabric to the fury of the stream, -the passengers watched the glancing waters in feverish suspense. -Twenty times they thought the whirling eddies were sweeping them to -destruction, when the master-hand of their pilot would bring the bows of -the canoe to stem the rapid. A long, a vigorous, and, as it appeared -to the females, a desperate effort, closed the struggle. Just as Alice -veiled her eyes in horror, under the impression that they were about -to be swept within the vortex at the foot of the cataract, the canoe -floated, stationary, at the side of a flat rock, that lay on a level -with the water. - -"Where are we, and what is next to be done!" demanded Heyward, -perceiving that the exertions of the scout had ceased. - -"You are at the foot of Glenn's," returned the other, speaking aloud, -without fear of consequences within the roar of the cataract; "and the -next thing is to make a steady landing, lest the canoe upset, and you -should go down again the hard road we have traveled faster than you came -up; 'tis a hard rift to stem, when the river is a little swelled; and -five is an unnatural number to keep dry, in a hurry-skurry, with a -little birchen bark and gum. There, go you all on the rock, and I will -bring up the Mohicans with the venison. A man had better sleep without -his scalp, than famish in the midst of plenty." - -His passengers gladly complied with these directions. As the last foot -touched the rock, the canoe whirled from its station, when the tall form -of the scout was seen, for an instant, gliding above the waters, before -it disappeared in the impenetrable darkness that rested on the bed of -the river. Left by their guide, the travelers remained a few minutes in -helpless ignorance, afraid even to move along the broken rocks, lest a -false step should precipitate them down some one of the many deep and -roaring caverns, into which the water seemed to tumble, on every side -of them. Their suspense, however, was soon relieved; for, aided by the -skill of the natives, the canoe shot back into the eddy, and floated -again at the side of the low rock, before they thought the scout had -even time to rejoin his companions. - -"We are now fortified, garrisoned, and provisioned," cried Heyward -cheerfully, "and may set Montcalm and his allies at defiance. How, now, -my vigilant sentinel, can see anything of those you call the Iroquois, -on the main land!" - -"I call them Iroquois, because to me every native, who speaks a foreign -tongue, is accounted an enemy, though he may pretend to serve the king! -If Webb wants faith and honesty in an Indian, let him bring out the -tribes of the Delawares, and send these greedy and lying Mohawks and -Oneidas, with their six nations of varlets, where in nature they belong, -among the French!" - -"We should then exchange a warlike for a useless friend! I have heard -that the Delawares have laid aside the hatchet, and are content to be -called women!" - -"Aye, shame on the Hollanders and Iroquois, who circumvented them by -their deviltries, into such a treaty! But I have known them for twenty -years, and I call him liar that says cowardly blood runs in the veins -of a Delaware. You have driven their tribes from the seashore, and would -now believe what their enemies say, that you may sleep at night upon an -easy pillow. No, no; to me, every Indian who speaks a foreign tongue -is an Iroquois, whether the castle* of his tribe be in Canada, or be in -York." - - * The principal villages of the Indians are still called - "castles" by the whites of New York. "Oneida castle" is no - more than a scattered hamlet; but the name is in general - use. - -Heyward, perceiving that the stubborn adherence of the scout to the -cause of his friends the Delawares, or Mohicans, for they were branches -of the same numerous people, was likely to prolong a useless discussion, -changed the subject. - -"Treaty or no treaty, I know full well that your two companions are -brave and cautious warriors! have they heard or seen anything of our -enemies!" - -"An Indian is a mortal to be felt afore he is seen," returned the scout, -ascending the rock, and throwing the deer carelessly down. "I trust to -other signs than such as come in at the eye, when I am outlying on the -trail of the Mingoes." - -"Do your ears tell you that they have traced our retreat?" - -"I should be sorry to think they had, though this is a spot that stout -courage might hold for a smart scrimmage. I will not deny, however, -but the horses cowered when I passed them, as though they scented the -wolves; and a wolf is a beast that is apt to hover about an Indian -ambushment, craving the offals of the deer the savages kill." - -"You forget the buck at your feet! or, may we not owe their visit to the -dead colt? Ha! what noise is that?" - -"Poor Miriam!" murmured the stranger; "thy foal was foreordained to -become a prey to ravenous beasts!" Then, suddenly lifting up his voice, -amid the eternal din of the waters, he sang aloud: "First born of Egypt, -smite did he, Of mankind, and of beast also: O, Egypt! wonders sent -'midst thee, On Pharaoh and his servants too!" - -"The death of the colt sits heavy on the heart of its owner," said the -scout; "but it's a good sign to see a man account upon his dumb friends. -He has the religion of the matter, in believing what is to happen will -happen; and with such a consolation, it won't be long afore he submits -to the rationality of killing a four-footed beast to save the lives of -human men. It may be as you say," he continued, reverting to the purport -of Heyward's last remark; "and the greater the reason why we should cut -our steaks, and let the carcass drive down the stream, or we shall have -the pack howling along the cliffs, begrudging every mouthful we swallow. -Besides, though the Delaware tongue is the same as a book to the -Iroquois, the cunning varlets are quick enough at understanding the -reason of a wolf's howl." - -The scout, while making his remarks, was busied in collecting certain -necessary implements; as he concluded, he moved silently by the group -of travelers, accompanied by the Mohicans, who seemed to comprehend his -intentions with instinctive readiness, when the whole three -disappeared in succession, seeming to vanish against the dark face of -a perpendicular rock that rose to the height of a few yards, within as -many feet of the water's edge. - - - - -CHAPTER 6 - - "Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide; - He wales a portion with judicious care; - And 'Let us worship God', he says, with solemn air."--Burns - -Heyward and his female companions witnessed this mysterious movement -with secret uneasiness; for, though the conduct of the white man had -hitherto been above reproach, his rude equipments, blunt address, -and strong antipathies, together with the character of his silent -associates, were all causes for exciting distrust in minds that had been -so recently alarmed by Indian treachery. - -The stranger alone disregarded the passing incidents. He seated -himself on a projection of the rocks, whence he gave no other signs -of consciousness than by the struggles of his spirit, as manifested in -frequent and heavy sighs. Smothered voices were next heard, as though -men called to each other in the bowels of the earth, when a sudden light -flashed upon those without, and laid bare the much-prized secret of the -place. - -At the further extremity of a narrow, deep cavern in the rock, whose -length appeared much extended by the perspective and the nature of the -light by which it was seen, was seated the scout, holding a blazing -knot of pine. The strong glare of the fire fell full upon his sturdy, -weather-beaten countenance and forest attire, lending an air of romantic -wildness to the aspect of an individual, who, seen by the sober light of -day, would have exhibited the peculiarities of a man remarkable for the -strangeness of his dress, the iron-like inflexibility of his frame, -and the singular compound of quick, vigilant sagacity, and of exquisite -simplicity, that by turns usurped the possession of his muscular -features. At a little distance in advance stood Uncas, his whole person -thrown powerfully into view. The travelers anxiously regarded the -upright, flexible figure of the young Mohican, graceful and unrestrained -in the attitudes and movements of nature. Though his person was more -than usually screened by a green and fringed hunting-shirt, like that of -the white man, there was no concealment to his dark, glancing, fearless -eye, alike terrible and calm; the bold outline of his high, haughty -features, pure in their native red; or to the dignified elevation of his -receding forehead, together with all the finest proportions of a noble -head, bared to the generous scalping tuft. It was the first opportunity -possessed by Duncan and his companions to view the marked lineaments of -either of their Indian attendants, and each individual of the party felt -relieved from a burden of doubt, as the proud and determined, though -wild expression of the features of the young warrior forced itself on -their notice. They felt it might be a being partially benighted in the -vale of ignorance, but it could not be one who would willingly devote -his rich natural gifts to the purposes of wanton treachery. The -ingenuous Alice gazed at his free air and proud carriage, as she would -have looked upon some precious relic of the Grecian chisel, to which -life had been imparted by the intervention of a miracle; while Heyward, -though accustomed to see the perfection of form which abounds among -the uncorrupted natives, openly expressed his admiration at such an -unblemished specimen of the noblest proportions of man. - -"I could sleep in peace," whispered Alice, in reply, "with such a -fearless and generous-looking youth for my sentinel. Surely, Duncan, -those cruel murders, those terrific scenes of torture, of which we read -and hear so much, are never acted in the presence of such as he!" - -"This certainly is a rare and brilliant instance of those natural -qualities in which these peculiar people are said to excel," he -answered. "I agree with you, Alice, in thinking that such a front and -eye were formed rather to intimidate than to deceive; but let us not -practice a deception upon ourselves, by expecting any other exhibition -of what we esteem virtue than according to the fashion of the savage. -As bright examples of great qualities are but too uncommon among -Christians, so are they singular and solitary with the Indians; though, -for the honor of our common nature, neither are incapable of producing -them. Let us then hope that this Mohican may not disappoint our wishes, -but prove what his looks assert him to be, a brave and constant friend." - -"Now Major Heyward speaks as Major Heyward should," said Cora; "who that -looks at this creature of nature, remembers the shade of his skin?" - -A short and apparently an embarrassed silence succeeded this remark, -which was interrupted by the scout calling to them, aloud, to enter. - -"This fire begins to show too bright a flame," he continued, as they -complied, "and might light the Mingoes to our undoing. Uncas, drop the -blanket, and show the knaves its dark side. This is not such a supper -as a major of the Royal Americans has a right to expect, but I've -known stout detachments of the corps glad to eat their venison raw, and -without a relish, too*. Here, you see, we have plenty of salt, and can -make a quick broil. There's fresh sassafras boughs for the ladies to sit -on, which may not be as proud as their my-hog-guinea chairs, but which -sends up a sweeter flavor, than the skin of any hog can do, be it of -Guinea, or be it of any other land. Come, friend, don't be mournful for -the colt; 'twas an innocent thing, and had not seen much hardship. Its -death will save the creature many a sore back and weary foot!" - - * In vulgar parlance the condiments of a repast are called - by the American "a relish," substituting the thing for its - effect. These provincial terms are frequently put in the - mouths of the speakers, according to their several - conditions in life. Most of them are of local use, and - others quite peculiar to the particular class of men to - which the character belongs. In the present instance, the - scout uses the word with immediate reference to the "salt," - with which his own party was so fortunate as to be provided. - -Uncas did as the other had directed, and when the voice of Hawkeye -ceased, the roar of the cataract sounded like the rumbling of distant -thunder. - -"Are we quite safe in this cavern?" demanded Heyward. "Is there no -danger of surprise? A single armed man, at its entrance, would hold us -at his mercy." - -A spectral-looking figure stalked from out of the darkness behind the -scout, and seizing a blazing brand, held it toward the further extremity -of their place of retreat. Alice uttered a faint shriek, and even Cora -rose to her feet, as this appalling object moved into the light; but -a single word from Heyward calmed them, with the assurance it was only -their attendant, Chingachgook, who, lifting another blanket, discovered -that the cavern had two outlets. Then, holding the brand, he crossed -a deep, narrow chasm in the rocks which ran at right angles with the -passage they were in, but which, unlike that, was open to the heavens, -and entered another cave, answering to the description of the first, in -every essential particular. - -"Such old foxes as Chingachgook and myself are not often caught in a -barrow with one hole," said Hawkeye, laughing; "you can easily see the -cunning of the place--the rock is black limestone, which everybody knows -is soft; it makes no uncomfortable pillow, where brush and pine wood is -scarce; well, the fall was once a few yards below us, and I dare to say -was, in its time, as regular and as handsome a sheet of water as any -along the Hudson. But old age is a great injury to good looks, as these -sweet young ladies have yet to l'arn! The place is sadly changed! These -rocks are full of cracks, and in some places they are softer than at -othersome, and the water has worked out deep hollows for itself, until -it has fallen back, ay, some hundred feet, breaking here and wearing -there, until the falls have neither shape nor consistency." - -"In what part of them are we?" asked Heyward. - -"Why, we are nigh the spot that Providence first placed them at, but -where, it seems, they were too rebellious to stay. The rock proved -softer on each side of us, and so they left the center of the river bare -and dry, first working out these two little holes for us to hide in." - -"We are then on an island!" - -"Ay! there are the falls on two sides of us, and the river above and -below. If you had daylight, it would be worth the trouble to step up -on the height of this rock, and look at the perversity of the water. It -falls by no rule at all; sometimes it leaps, sometimes it tumbles; -there it skips; here it shoots; in one place 'tis white as snow, and in -another 'tis green as grass; hereabouts, it pitches into deep hollows, -that rumble and crush the 'arth; and thereaways, it ripples and sings -like a brook, fashioning whirlpools and gullies in the old stone, as if -'twas no harder than trodden clay. The whole design of the river seems -disconcerted. First it runs smoothly, as if meaning to go down the -descent as things were ordered; then it angles about and faces the -shores; nor are there places wanting where it looks backward, as if -unwilling to leave the wilderness, to mingle with the salt. Ay, lady, -the fine cobweb-looking cloth you wear at your throat is coarse, -and like a fishnet, to little spots I can show you, where the river -fabricates all sorts of images, as if having broke loose from order, it -would try its hand at everything. And yet what does it amount to! After -the water has been suffered so to have its will, for a time, like a -headstrong man, it is gathered together by the hand that made it, and a -few rods below you may see it all, flowing on steadily toward the sea, -as was foreordained from the first foundation of the 'arth!" - -While his auditors received a cheering assurance of the security of -their place of concealment from this untutored description of Glenn's,* -they were much inclined to judge differently from Hawkeye, of its wild -beauties. But they were not in a situation to suffer their thoughts to -dwell on the charms of natural objects; and, as the scout had not found -it necessary to cease his culinary labors while he spoke, unless to -point out, with a broken fork, the direction of some particularly -obnoxious point in the rebellious stream, they now suffered their -attention to be drawn to the necessary though more vulgar consideration -of their supper. - - * Glenn's Falls are on the Hudson, some forty or fifty miles - above the head of tide, or that place where the river - becomes navigable for sloops. The description of this - picturesque and remarkable little cataract, as given by the - scout, is sufficiently correct, though the application of - the water to uses of civilized life has materially injured - its beauties. The rocky island and the two caverns are known - to every traveler, since the former sustains the pier of a - bridge, which is now thrown across the river, immediately - above the fall. In explanation of the taste of Hawkeye, it - should be remembered that men always prize that most which - is least enjoyed. Thus, in a new country, the woods and - other objects, which in an old country would be maintained - at great cost, are got rid of, simply with a view of - "improving" as it is called. - -The repast, which was greatly aided by the addition of a few delicacies -that Heyward had the precaution to bring with him when they left their -horses, was exceedingly refreshing to the weary party. Uncas acted as -attendant to the females, performing all the little offices within his -power, with a mixture of dignity and anxious grace, that served to amuse -Heyward, who well knew that it was an utter innovation on the -Indian customs, which forbid their warriors to descend to any menial -employment, especially in favor of their women. As the rights of -hospitality were, however, considered sacred among them, this little -departure from the dignity of manhood excited no audible comment. Had -there been one there sufficiently disengaged to become a close observer, -he might have fancied that the services of the young chief were not -entirely impartial. That while he tendered to Alice the gourd of sweet -water, and the venison in a trencher, neatly carved from the knot of the -pepperidge, with sufficient courtesy, in performing the same offices -to her sister, his dark eye lingered on her rich, speaking countenance. -Once or twice he was compelled to speak, to command her attention -of those he served. In such cases he made use of English, broken and -imperfect, but sufficiently intelligible, and which he rendered so mild -and musical, by his deep, guttural voice, that it never failed to cause -both ladies to look up in admiration and astonishment. In the course -of these civilities, a few sentences were exchanged, that served to -establish the appearance of an amicable intercourse between the parties. - -In the meanwhile, the gravity of Chingcachgook remained immovable. He -had seated himself more within the circle of light, where the frequent, -uneasy glances of his guests were better enabled to separate the natural -expression of his face from the artificial terrors of the war paint. -They found a strong resemblance between father and son, with the -difference that might be expected from age and hardships. The fierceness -of his countenance now seemed to slumber, and in its place was to be -seen the quiet, vacant composure which distinguishes an Indian warrior, -when his faculties are not required for any of the greater purposes -of his existence. It was, however, easy to be seen, by the occasional -gleams that shot across his swarthy visage, that it was only necessary -to arouse his passions, in order to give full effect to the terrific -device which he had adopted to intimidate his enemies. On the other -hand, the quick, roving eye of the scout seldom rested. He ate and -drank with an appetite that no sense of danger could disturb, but his -vigilance seemed never to desert him. Twenty times the gourd or the -venison was suspended before his lips, while his head was turned aside, -as though he listened to some distant and distrusted sounds--a movement -that never failed to recall his guests from regarding the novelties -of their situation, to a recollection of the alarming reasons that had -driven them to seek it. As these frequent pauses were never followed by -any remark, the momentary uneasiness they created quickly passed away, -and for a time was forgotten. - -"Come, friend," said Hawkeye, drawing out a keg from beneath a cover of -leaves, toward the close of the repast, and addressing the stranger -who sat at his elbow, doing great justice to his culinary skill, "try -a little spruce; 'twill wash away all thoughts of the colt, and quicken -the life in your bosom. I drink to our better friendship, hoping that -a little horse-flesh may leave no heart-burnings atween us. How do you -name yourself?" - -"Gamut--David Gamut," returned the singing master, preparing to wash -down his sorrows in a powerful draught of the woodsman's high-flavored -and well-laced compound. - -"A very good name, and, I dare say, handed down from honest forefathers. -I'm an admirator of names, though the Christian fashions fall far below -savage customs in this particular. The biggest coward I ever knew as -called Lyon; and his wife, Patience, would scold you out of hearing -in less time than a hunted deer would run a rod. With an Indian 'tis a -matter of conscience; what he calls himself, he generally is--not that -Chingachgook, which signifies Big Sarpent, is really a snake, big or -little; but that he understands the windings and turnings of human -natur', and is silent, and strikes his enemies when they least expect -him. What may be your calling?" - -"I am an unworthy instructor in the art of psalmody." - -"Anan!" - -"I teach singing to the youths of the Connecticut levy." - -"You might be better employed. The young hounds go laughing and singing -too much already through the woods, when they ought not to breathe -louder than a fox in his cover. Can you use the smoothbore, or handle -the rifle?" - -"Praised be God, I have never had occasion to meddle with murderous -implements!" - -"Perhaps you understand the compass, and lay down the watercourses and -mountains of the wilderness on paper, in order that they who follow may -find places by their given names?" - -"I practice no such employment." - -"You have a pair of legs that might make a long path seem short! you -journey sometimes, I fancy, with tidings for the general." - -"Never; I follow no other than my own high vocation, which is -instruction in sacred music!" - -"'Tis a strange calling!" muttered Hawkeye, with an inward laugh, "to -go through life, like a catbird, mocking all the ups and downs that may -happen to come out of other men's throats. Well, friend, I suppose it -is your gift, and mustn't be denied any more than if 'twas shooting, or -some other better inclination. Let us hear what you can do in that way; -'twill be a friendly manner of saying good-night, for 'tis time that -these ladies should be getting strength for a hard and a long push, in -the pride of the morning, afore the Maquas are stirring." - -"With joyful pleasure do I consent", said David, adjusting his -iron-rimmed spectacles, and producing his beloved little volume, -which he immediately tendered to Alice. "What can be more fitting -and consolatory, than to offer up evening praise, after a day of such -exceeding jeopardy!" - -Alice smiled; but, regarding Heyward, she blushed and hesitated. - -"Indulge yourself," he whispered; "ought not the suggestion of the -worthy namesake of the Psalmist to have its weight at such a moment?" - -Encouraged by his opinion, Alice did what her pious inclinations, and -her keen relish for gentle sounds, had before so strongly urged. The -book was open at a hymn not ill adapted to their situation, and in which -the poet, no longer goaded by his desire to excel the inspired King -of Israel, had discovered some chastened and respectable powers. Cora -betrayed a disposition to support her sister, and the sacred song -proceeded, after the indispensable preliminaries of the pitchpipe, and -the tune had been duly attended to by the methodical David. - -The air was solemn and slow. At times it rose to the fullest compass of -the rich voices of the females, who hung over their little book in holy -excitement, and again it sank so low, that the rushing of the waters ran -through their melody, like a hollow accompaniment. The natural taste and -true ear of David governed and modified the sounds to suit the confined -cavern, every crevice and cranny of which was filled with the thrilling -notes of their flexible voices. The Indians riveted their eyes on the -rocks, and listened with an attention that seemed to turn them into -stone. But the scout, who had placed his chin in his hand, with an -expression of cold indifference, gradually suffered his rigid features -to relax, until, as verse succeeded verse, he felt his iron nature -subdued, while his recollection was carried back to boyhood, when his -ears had been accustomed to listen to similar sounds of praise, in the -settlements of the colony. His roving eyes began to moisten, and before -the hymn was ended scalding tears rolled out of fountains that had long -seemed dry, and followed each other down those cheeks, that had oftener -felt the storms of heaven than any testimonials of weakness. The singers -were dwelling on one of those low, dying chords, which the ear devours -with such greedy rapture, as if conscious that it is about to lose them, -when a cry, that seemed neither human nor earthly, rose in the outward -air, penetrating not only the recesses of the cavern, but to the inmost -hearts of all who heard it. It was followed by a stillness apparently -as deep as if the waters had been checked in their furious progress, at -such a horrid and unusual interruption. - -"What is it?" murmured Alice, after a few moments of terrible suspense. - -"What is it?" repeated Hewyard aloud. - -Neither Hawkeye nor the Indians made any reply. They listened, as if -expecting the sound would be repeated, with a manner that expressed -their own astonishment. At length they spoke together, earnestly, in the -Delaware language, when Uncas, passing by the inner and most concealed -aperture, cautiously left the cavern. When he had gone, the scout first -spoke in English. - -"What it is, or what it is not, none here can tell, though two of us -have ranged the woods for more than thirty years. I did believe there -was no cry that Indian or beast could make, that my ears had not heard; -but this has proved that I was only a vain and conceited mortal." - -"Was it not, then, the shout the warriors make when they wish to -intimidate their enemies?" asked Cora who stood drawing her veil about -her person, with a calmness to which her agitated sister was a stranger. - -"No, no; this was bad, and shocking, and had a sort of unhuman sound; -but when you once hear the war-whoop, you will never mistake it for -anything else. Well, Uncas!" speaking in Delaware to the young chief as -he re-entered, "what see you? do our lights shine through the blankets?" - -The answer was short, and apparently decided, being given in the same -tongue. - -"There is nothing to be seen without," continued Hawkeye, shaking his -head in discontent; "and our hiding-place is still in darkness. Pass -into the other cave, you that need it, and seek for sleep; we must -be afoot long before the sun, and make the most of our time to get to -Edward, while the Mingoes are taking their morning nap." - -Cora set the example of compliance, with a steadiness that taught the -more timid Alice the necessity of obedience. Before leaving the place, -however, she whispered a request to Duncan, that he would follow. Uncas -raised the blanket for their passage, and as the sisters turned to thank -him for this act of attention, they saw the scout seated again before -the dying embers, with his face resting on his hands, in a manner which -showed how deeply he brooded on the unaccountable interruption which had -broken up their evening devotions. - -Heyward took with him a blazing knot, which threw a dim light through -the narrow vista of their new apartment. Placing it in a favorable -position, he joined the females, who now found themselves alone with -him for the first time since they had left the friendly ramparts of Fort -Edward. - -"Leave us not, Duncan," said Alice: "we cannot sleep in such a place as -this, with that horrid cry still ringing in our ears." - -"First let us examine into the security of your fortress," he answered, -"and then we will speak of rest." - -He approached the further end of the cavern, to an outlet, which, like -the others, was concealed by blankets; and removing the thick screen, -breathed the fresh and reviving air from the cataract. One arm of the -river flowed through a deep, narrow ravine, which its current had -worn in the soft rock, directly beneath his feet, forming an effectual -defense, as he believed, against any danger from that quarter; the -water, a few rods above them, plunging, glancing, and sweeping along in -its most violent and broken manner. - -"Nature has made an impenetrable barrier on this side," he continued, -pointing down the perpendicular declivity into the dark current before -he dropped the blanket; "and as you know that good men and true are on -guard in front I see no reason why the advice of our honest host should -be disregarded. I am certain Cora will join me in saying that sleep is -necessary to you both." - -"Cora may submit to the justice of your opinion though she cannot put it -in practice," returned the elder sister, who had placed herself by the -side of Alice, on a couch of sassafras; "there would be other causes to -chase away sleep, though we had been spared the shock of this mysterious -noise. Ask yourself, Heyward, can daughters forget the anxiety a father -must endure, whose children lodge he knows not where or how, in such a -wilderness, and in the midst of so many perils?" - -"He is a soldier, and knows how to estimate the chances of the woods." - -"He is a father, and cannot deny his nature." - -"How kind has he ever been to all my follies, how tender and indulgent -to all my wishes!" sobbed Alice. "We have been selfish, sister, in -urging our visit at such hazard." - -"I may have been rash in pressing his consent in a moment of much -embarrassment, but I would have proved to him, that however others might -neglect him in his strait his children at least were faithful." - -"When he heard of your arrival at Edward," said Heyward, kindly, "there -was a powerful struggle in his bosom between fear and love; though -the latter, heightened, if possible, by so long a separation, quickly -prevailed. 'It is the spirit of my noble-minded Cora that leads them, -Duncan', he said, 'and I will not balk it. Would to God, that he who -holds the honor of our royal master in his guardianship, would show but -half her firmness!'" - -"And did he not speak of me, Heyward?" demanded Alice, with jealous -affection; "surely, he forgot not altogether his little Elsie?" - -"That were impossible," returned the young man; "he called you by a -thousand endearing epithets, that I may not presume to use, but to the -justice of which, I can warmly testify. Once, indeed, he said--" - -Duncan ceased speaking; for while his eyes were riveted on those of -Alice, who had turned toward him with the eagerness of filial affection, -to catch his words, the same strong, horrid cry, as before, filled the -air, and rendered him mute. A long, breathless silence succeeded, during -which each looked at the others in fearful expectation of hearing the -sound repeated. At length, the blanket was slowly raised, and the scout -stood in the aperture with a countenance whose firmness evidently -began to give way before a mystery that seemed to threaten some danger, -against which all his cunning and experience might prove of no avail. - - - - -CHAPTER 7 - - "They do not sleep, - On yonder cliffs, a grizzly band, - I see them sit."--Gray - -"'Twould be neglecting a warning that is given for our good to lie hid -any longer," said Hawkeye "when such sounds are raised in the forest. -These gentle ones may keep close, but the Mohicans and I will watch upon -the rock, where I suppose a major of the Sixtieth would wish to keep us -company." - -"Is, then, our danger so pressing?" asked Cora. - -"He who makes strange sounds, and gives them out for man's information, -alone knows our danger. I should think myself wicked, unto rebellion -against His will, was I to burrow with such warnings in the air! Even -the weak soul who passes his days in singing is stirred by the cry, -and, as he says, is 'ready to go forth to the battle' If 'twere only a -battle, it would be a thing understood by us all, and easily managed; -but I have heard that when such shrieks are atween heaven and 'arth, it -betokens another sort of warfare!" - -"If all our reasons for fear, my friend, are confined to such as proceed -from supernatural causes, we have but little occasion to be alarmed," -continued the undisturbed Cora, "are you certain that our enemies have -not invented some new and ingenious method to strike us with terror, -that their conquest may become more easy?" - -"Lady," returned the scout, solemnly, "I have listened to all the sounds -of the woods for thirty years, as a man will listen whose life and death -depend on the quickness of his ears. There is no whine of the panther, -no whistle of the catbird, nor any invention of the devilish Mingoes, -that can cheat me! I have heard the forest moan like mortal men in their -affliction; often, and again, have I listened to the wind playing -its music in the branches of the girdled trees; and I have heard the -lightning cracking in the air like the snapping of blazing brush as it -spitted forth sparks and forked flames; but never have I thought that I -heard more than the pleasure of him who sported with the things of his -hand. But neither the Mohicans, nor I, who am a white man without a -cross, can explain the cry just heard. We, therefore, believe it a sign -given for our good." - -"It is extraordinary!" said Heyward, taking his pistols from the place -where he had laid them on entering; "be it a sign of peace or a signal -of war, it must be looked to. Lead the way, my friend; I follow." - -On issuing from their place of confinement, the whole party instantly -experienced a grateful renovation of spirits, by exchanging the pent -air of the hiding-place for the cool and invigorating atmosphere which -played around the whirlpools and pitches of the cataract. A heavy -evening breeze swept along the surface of the river, and seemed to drive -the roar of the falls into the recesses of their own cavern, whence it -issued heavily and constant, like thunder rumbling beyond the distant -hills. The moon had risen, and its light was already glancing here and -there on the waters above them; but the extremity of the rock where they -stood still lay in shadow. With the exception of the sounds produced -by the rushing waters, and an occasional breathing of the air, as it -murmured past them in fitful currents, the scene was as still as night -and solitude could make it. In vain were the eyes of each individual -bent along the opposite shores, in quest of some signs of life, that -might explain the nature of the interruption they had heard. Their -anxious and eager looks were baffled by the deceptive light, or rested -only on naked rocks, and straight and immovable trees. - -"Here is nothing to be seen but the gloom and quiet of a lovely -evening," whispered Duncan; "how much should we prize such a scene, and -all this breathing solitude, at any other moment, Cora! Fancy yourselves -in security, and what now, perhaps, increases your terror, may be made -conducive to enjoyment--" - -"Listen!" interrupted Alice. - -The caution was unnecessary. Once more the same sound arose, as if from -the bed of the river, and having broken out of the narrow bounds of the -cliffs, was heard undulating through the forest, in distant and dying -cadences. - -"Can any here give a name to such a cry?" demanded Hawkeye, when the -last echo was lost in the woods; "if so, let him speak; for myself, I -judge it not to belong to 'arth!" - -"Here, then, is one who can undeceive you," said Duncan; "I know the -sound full well, for often have I heard it on the field of battle, and -in situations which are frequent in a soldier's life. 'Tis the horrid -shriek that a horse will give in his agony; oftener drawn from him in -pain, though sometimes in terror. My charger is either a prey to the -beasts of the forest, or he sees his danger, without the power to avoid -it. The sound might deceive me in the cavern, but in the open air I know -it too well to be wrong." - -The scout and his companions listened to this simple explanation with -the interest of men who imbibe new ideas, at the same time that they get -rid of old ones, which had proved disagreeable inmates. The two latter -uttered their usual expressive exclamation, "hugh!" as the truth first -glanced upon their minds, while the former, after a short, musing pause, -took upon himself to reply. - -"I cannot deny your words," he said, "for I am little skilled in horses, -though born where they abound. The wolves must be hovering above their -heads on the bank, and the timorsome creatures are calling on man -for help, in the best manner they are able. Uncas"--he spoke in -Delaware--"Uncas, drop down in the canoe, and whirl a brand among the -pack; or fear may do what the wolves can't get at to perform, and leave -us without horses in the morning, when we shall have so much need to -journey swiftly!" - -The young native had already descended to the water to comply, when a -long howl was raised on the edge of the river, and was borne swiftly -off into the depths of the forest, as though the beasts, of their -own accord, were abandoning their prey in sudden terror. Uncas, with -instinctive quickness, receded, and the three foresters held another of -their low, earnest conferences. - -"We have been like hunters who have lost the points of the heavens, and -from whom the sun has been hid for days," said Hawkeye, turning away -from his companions; "now we begin again to know the signs of our -course, and the paths are cleared from briers! Seat yourselves in the -shade which the moon throws from yonder beech--'tis thicker than that -of the pines--and let us wait for that which the Lord may choose to -send next. Let all your conversation be in whispers; though it would be -better, and, perhaps, in the end, wiser, if each one held discourse with -his own thoughts, for a time." - -The manner of the scout was seriously impressive, though no longer -distinguished by any signs of unmanly apprehension. It was evident that -his momentary weakness had vanished with the explanation of a mystery -which his own experience had not served to fathom; and though he now -felt all the realities of their actual condition, that he was prepared -to meet them with the energy of his hardy nature. This feeling seemed -also common to the natives, who placed themselves in positions which -commanded a full view of both shores, while their own persons were -effectually concealed from observation. In such circumstances, common -prudence dictated that Heyward and his companions should imitate a -caution that proceeded from so intelligent a source. The young man drew -a pile of the sassafras from the cave, and placing it in the chasm which -separated the two caverns, it was occupied by the sisters, who were -thus protected by the rocks from any missiles, while their anxiety -was relieved by the assurance that no danger could approach without -a warning. Heyward himself was posted at hand, so near that he might -communicate with his companions without raising his voice to a dangerous -elevation; while David, in imitation of the woodsmen, bestowed his -person in such a manner among the fissures of the rocks, that his -ungainly limbs were no longer offensive to the eye. - -In this manner hours passed without further interruption. The moon -reached the zenith, and shed its mild light perpendicularly on the -lovely sight of the sisters slumbering peacefully in each other's arms. -Duncan cast the wide shawl of Cora before a spectacle he so much loved -to contemplate, and then suffered his own head to seek a pillow on the -rock. David began to utter sounds that would have shocked his delicate -organs in more wakeful moments; in short, all but Hawkeye and the -Mohicans lost every idea of consciousness, in uncontrollable drowsiness. -But the watchfulness of these vigilant protectors neither tired nor -slumbered. Immovable as that rock, of which each appeared to form a -part, they lay, with their eyes roving, without intermission, along the -dark margin of trees, that bounded the adjacent shores of the narrow -stream. Not a sound escaped them; the most subtle examination could -not have told they breathed. It was evident that this excess of caution -proceeded from an experience that no subtlety on the part of their -enemies could deceive. It was, however, continued without any apparent -consequences, until the moon had set, and a pale streak above the -treetops, at the bend of the river a little below, announced the -approach of day. - -Then, for the first time, Hawkeye was seen to stir. He crawled along the -rock and shook Duncan from his heavy slumbers. - -"Now is the time to journey," he whispered; "awake the gentle ones, and -be ready to get into the canoe when I bring it to the landing-place." - -"Have you had a quiet night?" said Heyward; "for myself, I believe sleep -has got the better of my vigilance." - -"All is yet still as midnight. Be silent, but be quick." - -By this time Duncan was thoroughly awake, and he immediately lifted the -shawl from the sleeping females. The motion caused Cora to raise her -hand as if to repulse him, while Alice murmured, in her soft, gentle -voice, "No, no, dear father, we were not deserted; Duncan was with us!" - -"Yes, sweet innocence," whispered the youth; "Duncan is here, and while -life continues or danger remains, he will never quit thee. Cora! Alice! -awake! The hour has come to move!" - -A loud shriek from the younger of the sisters, and the form of the other -standing upright before him, in bewildered horror, was the unexpected -answer he received. - -While the words were still on the lips of Heyward, there had arisen such -a tumult of yells and cries as served to drive the swift currents of his -own blood back from its bounding course into the fountains of his heart. -It seemed, for near a minute, as if the demons of hell had possessed -themselves of the air about them, and were venting their savage humors -in barbarous sounds. The cries came from no particular direction, though -it was evident they filled the woods, and, as the appalled listeners -easily imagined, the caverns of the falls, the rocks, the bed of the -river, and the upper air. David raised his tall person in the midst of -the infernal din, with a hand on either ear, exclaiming: - -"Whence comes this discord! Has hell broke loose, that man should utter -sounds like these!" - -The bright flashes and the quick reports of a dozen rifles, from the -opposite banks of the stream, followed this incautious exposure of his -person, and left the unfortunate singing master senseless on that rock -where he had been so long slumbering. The Mohicans boldly sent back the -intimidating yell of their enemies, who raised a shout of savage triumph -at the fall of Gamut. The flash of rifles was then quick and close -between them, but either party was too well skilled to leave even a limb -exposed to the hostile aim. Duncan listened with intense anxiety for the -strokes of the paddle, believing that flight was now their only refuge. -The river glanced by with its ordinary velocity, but the canoe was -nowhere to be seen on its dark waters. He had just fancied they were -cruelly deserted by their scout, as a stream of flame issued from the -rock beneath them, and a fierce yell, blended with a shriek of agony, -announced that the messenger of death sent from the fatal weapon of -Hawkeye, had found a victim. At this slight repulse the assailants -instantly withdrew, and gradually the place became as still as before -the sudden tumult. - -Duncan seized the favorable moment to spring to the body of Gamut, -which he bore within the shelter of the narrow chasm that protected the -sisters. In another minute the whole party was collected in this spot of -comparative safety. - -"The poor fellow has saved his scalp," said Hawkeye, coolly passing his -hand over the head of David; "but he is a proof that a man may be born -with too long a tongue! 'Twas downright madness to show six feet of -flesh and blood, on a naked rock, to the raging savages. I only wonder -he has escaped with life." - -"Is he not dead?" demanded Cora, in a voice whose husky tones showed how -powerfully natural horror struggled with her assumed firmness. "Can we -do aught to assist the wretched man?" - -"No, no! the life is in his heart yet, and after he has slept awhile he -will come to himself, and be a wiser man for it, till the hour of his -real time shall come," returned Hawkeye, casting another oblique glance -at the insensible body, while he filled his charger with admirable -nicety. "Carry him in, Uncas, and lay him on the sassafras. The longer -his nap lasts the better it will be for him, as I doubt whether he can -find a proper cover for such a shape on these rocks; and singing won't -do any good with the Iroquois." - -"You believe, then, the attack will be renewed?" asked Heyward. - -"Do I expect a hungry wolf will satisfy his craving with a mouthful! -They have lost a man, and 'tis their fashion, when they meet a loss, -and fail in the surprise, to fall back; but we shall have them on again, -with new expedients to circumvent us, and master our scalps. Our main -hope," he continued, raising his rugged countenance, across which a -shade of anxiety just then passed like a darkening cloud, "will be to -keep the rock until Munro can send a party to our help! God send it may -be soon and under a leader that knows the Indian customs!" - -"You hear our probable fortunes, Cora," said Duncan, "and you know we -have everything to hope from the anxiety and experience of your father. -Come, then, with Alice, into this cavern, where you, at least, will be -safe from the murderous rifles of our enemies, and where you may bestow -a care suited to your gentle natures on our unfortunate comrade." - -The sisters followed him into the outer cave, where David was beginning, -by his sighs, to give symptoms of returning consciousness, and then -commending the wounded man to their attention, he immediately prepared -to leave them. - -"Duncan!" said the tremulous voice of Cora, when he had reached the -mouth of the cavern. He turned and beheld the speaker, whose color had -changed to a deadly paleness, and whose lips quivered, gazing after him, -with an expression of interest which immediately recalled him to her -side. "Remember, Duncan, how necessary your safety is to our own--how -you bear a father's sacred trust--how much depends on your discretion -and care--in short," she added, while the telltale blood stole over her -features, crimsoning her very temples, "how very deservedly dear you are -to all of the name of Munro." - -"If anything could add to my own base love of life," said Heyward, -suffering his unconscious eyes to wander to the youthful form of -the silent Alice, "it would be so kind an assurance. As major of the -Sixtieth, our honest host will tell you I must take my share of the -fray; but our task will be easy; it is merely to keep these blood-hounds -at bay for a few hours." - -Without waiting for a reply, he tore himself from the presence of the -sisters, and joined the scout and his companions, who still lay within -the protection of the little chasm between the two caves. - -"I tell you, Uncas," said the former, as Heyward joined them, "you are -wasteful of your powder, and the kick of the rifle disconcerts your aim! -Little powder, light lead, and a long arm, seldom fail of bringing the -death screech from a Mingo! At least, such has been my experience with -the creatur's. Come, friends: let us to our covers, for no man can tell -when or where a Maqua* will strike his blow." - - * Mingo was the Delaware term of the Five Nations. Maquas - was the name given them by the Dutch. The French, from their - first intercourse with them, called them Iroquois. - -The Indians silently repaired to their appointed stations, which were -fissures in the rocks, whence they could command the approaches to the -foot of the falls. In the center of the little island, a few short and -stunted pines had found root, forming a thicket, into which Hawkeye -darted with the swiftness of a deer, followed by the active Duncan. Here -they secured themselves, as well as circumstances would permit, among -the shrubs and fragments of stone that were scattered about the place. -Above them was a bare, rounded rock, on each side of which the water -played its gambols, and plunged into the abysses beneath, in the manner -already described. As the day had now dawned, the opposite shores no -longer presented a confused outline, but they were able to look into the -woods, and distinguish objects beneath a canopy of gloomy pines. - -A long and anxious watch succeeded, but without any further evidences -of a renewed attack; and Duncan began to hope that their fire had -proved more fatal than was supposed, and that their enemies had been -effectually repulsed. When he ventured to utter this impression to his -companions, it was met by Hawkeye with an incredulous shake of the head. - -"You know not the nature of a Maqua, if you think he is so easily -beaten back without a scalp!" he answered. "If there was one of the imps -yelling this morning, there were forty! and they know our number and -quality too well to give up the chase so soon. Hist! look into the water -above, just where it breaks over the rocks. I am no mortal, if the risky -devils haven't swam down upon the very pitch, and, as bad luck would -have it, they have hit the head of the island. Hist! man, keep close! or -the hair will be off your crown in the turning of a knife!" - -Heyward lifted his head from the cover, and beheld what he justly -considered a prodigy of rashness and skill. The river had worn away the -edge of the soft rock in such a manner as to render its first pitch -less abrupt and perpendicular than is usual at waterfalls. With no other -guide than the ripple of the stream where it met the head of the island, -a party of their insatiable foes had ventured into the current, and -swam down upon this point, knowing the ready access it would give, if -successful, to their intended victims. - -As Hawkeye ceased speaking, four human heads could be seen peering above -a few logs of drift-wood that had lodged on these naked rocks, and which -had probably suggested the idea of the practicability of the hazardous -undertaking. At the next moment, a fifth form was seen floating over the -green edge of the fall, a little from the line of the island. The savage -struggled powerfully to gain the point of safety, and, favored by the -glancing water, he was already stretching forth an arm to meet the grasp -of his companions, when he shot away again with the shirling current, -appeared to rise into the air, with uplifted arms and starting eyeballs, -and fell, with a sudden plunge, into that deep and yawning abyss over -which he hovered. A single, wild, despairing shriek rose from the -cavern, and all was hushed again as the grave. - -The first generous impulse of Duncan was to rush to the rescue of the -hapless wretch; but he felt himself bound to the spot by the iron grasp -of the immovable scout. - -"Would ye bring certain death upon us, by telling the Mingoes where we -lie?" demanded Hawkeye, sternly; "'Tis a charge of powder saved, and -ammunition is as precious now as breath to a worried deer! Freshen the -priming of your pistols--the midst of the falls is apt to dampen the -brimstone--and stand firm for a close struggle, while I fire on their -rush." - -He placed a finger in his mouth, and drew a long, shrill whistle, which -was answered from the rocks that were guarded by the Mohicans. Duncan -caught glimpses of heads above the scattered drift-wood, as this signal -rose on the air, but they disappeared again as suddenly as they had -glanced upon his sight. A low, rustling sound next drew his attention -behind him, and turning his head, he beheld Uncas within a few feet, -creeping to his side. Hawkeye spoke to him in Delaware, when the young -chief took his position with singular caution and undisturbed coolness. -To Heyward this was a moment of feverish and impatient suspense; though -the scout saw fit to select it as a fit occasion to read a lecture -to his more youthful associates on the art of using firearms with -discretion. - -"Of all we'pons," he commenced, "the long barreled, true-grooved, -soft-metaled rifle is the most dangerous in skillful hands, though it -wants a strong arm, a quick eye, and great judgment in charging, to put -forth all its beauties. The gunsmiths can have but little insight into -their trade when they make their fowling-pieces and short horsemen's--" - -He was interrupted by the low but expressive "hugh" of Uncas. - -"I see them, boy, I see them!" continued Hawkeye; "they are gathering -for the rush, or they would keep their dingy backs below the logs. Well, -let them," he added, examining his flint; "the leading man certainly -comes on to his death, though it should be Montcalm himself!" - -At that moment the woods were filled with another burst of cries, and at -the signal four savages sprang from the cover of the driftwood. Heyward -felt a burning desire to rush forward to meet them, so intense was the -delirious anxiety of the moment; but he was restrained by the deliberate -examples of the scout and Uncas. - -When their foes, who had leaped over the black rocks that divided them, -with long bounds, uttering the wildest yells, were within a few rods, -the rifle of Hawkeye slowly rose among the shrubs, and poured out its -fatal contents. The foremost Indian bounded like a stricken deer, and -fell headlong among the clefts of the island. - -"Now, Uncas!" cried the scout, drawing his long knife, while his quick -eyes began to flash with ardor, "take the last of the screeching imps; -of the other two we are sartain!" - -He was obeyed; and but two enemies remained to be overcome. Heyward had -given one of his pistols to Hawkeye, and together they rushed down a -little declivity toward their foes; they discharged their weapons at the -same instant, and equally without success. - -"I know'd it! and I said it!" muttered the scout, whirling the despised -little implement over the falls with bitter disdain. "Come on, ye bloody -minded hell-hounds! ye meet a man without a cross!" - -The words were barely uttered, when he encountered a savage of gigantic -stature, of the fiercest mien. At the same moment, Duncan found himself -engaged with the other, in a similar contest of hand to hand. With ready -skill, Hawkeye and his antagonist each grasped that uplifted arm of -the other which held the dangerous knife. For near a minute they stood -looking one another in the eye, and gradually exerting the power of -their muscles for the mastery. - -At length, the toughened sinews of the white man prevailed over the less -practiced limbs of the native. The arm of the latter slowly gave way -before the increasing force of the scout, who, suddenly wresting his -armed hand from the grasp of the foe, drove the sharp weapon through his -naked bosom to the heart. In the meantime, Heyward had been pressed in -a more deadly struggle. His slight sword was snapped in the first -encounter. As he was destitute of any other means of defense, his -safety now depended entirely on bodily strength and resolution. Though -deficient in neither of these qualities, he had met an enemy every way -his equal. Happily, he soon succeeded in disarming his adversary, whose -knife fell on the rock at their feet; and from this moment it became a -fierce struggle who should cast the other over the dizzy height into a -neighboring cavern of the falls. Every successive struggle brought them -nearer to the verge, where Duncan perceived the final and conquering -effort must be made. Each of the combatants threw all his energies into -that effort, and the result was, that both tottered on the brink of the -precipice. Heyward felt the grasp of the other at his throat, and -saw the grim smile the savage gave, under the revengeful hope that he -hurried his enemy to a fate similar to his own, as he felt his body -slowly yielding to a resistless power, and the young man experienced the -passing agony of such a moment in all its horrors. At that instant of -extreme danger, a dark hand and glancing knife appeared before him; the -Indian released his hold, as the blood flowed freely from around the -severed tendons of the wrist; and while Duncan was drawn backward by the -saving hand of Uncas, his charmed eyes still were riveted on the -fierce and disappointed countenance of his foe, who fell sullenly and -disappointed down the irrecoverable precipice. - -"To cover! to cover!" cried Hawkeye, who just then had despatched the -enemy; "to cover, for your lives! the work is but half ended!" - -The young Mohican gave a shout of triumph, and followed by Duncan, he -glided up the acclivity they had descended to the combat, and sought the -friendly shelter of the rocks and shrubs. - - - - -CHAPTER 8 - - "They linger yet, - Avengers of their native land."--Gray - -The warning call of the scout was not uttered without occasion. During -the occurrence of the deadly encounter just related, the roar of the -falls was unbroken by any human sound whatever. It would seem that -interest in the result had kept the natives on the opposite shores in -breathless suspense, while the quick evolutions and swift changes in -the positions of the combatants effectually prevented a fire that might -prove dangerous alike to friend and enemy. But the moment the struggle -was decided, a yell arose as fierce and savage as wild and revengeful -passions could throw into the air. It was followed by the swift flashes -of the rifles, which sent their leaden messengers across the rock in -volleys, as though the assailants would pour out their impotent fury on -the insensible scene of the fatal contest. - -A steady, though deliberate return was made from the rifle of -Chingachgook, who had maintained his post throughout the fray with -unmoved resolution. When the triumphant shout of Uncas was borne to his -ears, the gratified father raised his voice in a single responsive cry, -after which his busy piece alone proved that he still guarded his pass -with unwearied diligence. In this manner many minutes flew by with the -swiftness of thought; the rifles of the assailants speaking, at times, -in rattling volleys, and at others in occasional, scattering shots. -Though the rock, the trees, and the shrubs, were cut and torn in a -hundred places around the besieged, their cover was so close, and so -rigidly maintained, that, as yet, David had been the only sufferer in -their little band. - -"Let them burn their powder," said the deliberate scout, while bullet -after bullet whizzed by the place where he securely lay; "there will be -a fine gathering of lead when it is over, and I fancy the imps will tire -of the sport afore these old stones cry out for mercy! Uncas, boy, you -waste the kernels by overcharging; and a kicking rifle never carries a -true bullet. I told you to take that loping miscreant under the line -of white point; now, if your bullet went a hair's breadth it went two -inches above it. The life lies low in a Mingo, and humanity teaches us -to make a quick end to the sarpents." - -A quiet smile lighted the haughty features of the young Mohican, -betraying his knowledge of the English language as well as of the -other's meaning; but he suffered it to pass away without vindication of -reply. - -"I cannot permit you to accuse Uncas of want of judgment or of skill," -said Duncan; "he saved my life in the coolest and readiest manner, and -he has made a friend who never will require to be reminded of the debt -he owes." - -Uncas partly raised his body, and offered his hand to the grasp of -Heyward. During this act of friendship, the two young men exchanged -looks of intelligence which caused Duncan to forget the character and -condition of his wild associate. In the meanwhile, Hawkeye, who looked -on this burst of youthful feeling with a cool but kind regard made the -following reply: - -"Life is an obligation which friends often owe each other in the -wilderness. I dare say I may have served Uncas some such turn myself -before now; and I very well remember that he has stood between me -and death five different times; three times from the Mingoes, once in -crossing Horican, and--" - -"That bullet was better aimed than common!" exclaimed Duncan, -involuntarily shrinking from a shot which struck the rock at his side -with a smart rebound. - -Hawkeye laid his hand on the shapeless metal, and shook his head, as he -examined it, saying, "Falling lead is never flattened, had it come from -the clouds this might have happened." - -But the rifle of Uncas was deliberately raised toward the heavens, -directing the eyes of his companions to a point, where the mystery was -immediately explained. A ragged oak grew on the right bank of the river, -nearly opposite to their position, which, seeking the freedom of the -open space, had inclined so far forward that its upper branches overhung -that arm of the stream which flowed nearest to its own shore. Among the -topmost leaves, which scantily concealed the gnarled and stunted limbs, -a savage was nestled, partly concealed by the trunk of the tree, and -partly exposed, as though looking down upon them to ascertain the effect -produced by his treacherous aim. - -"These devils will scale heaven to circumvent us to our ruin," said -Hawkeye; "keep him in play, boy, until I can bring 'killdeer' to bear, -when we will try his metal on each side of the tree at once." - -Uncas delayed his fire until the scout uttered the word. - -The rifles flashed, the leaves and bark of the oak flew into the air, -and were scattered by the wind, but the Indian answered their assault by -a taunting laugh, sending down upon them another bullet in return, that -struck the cap of Hawkeye from his head. Once more the savage yells -burst out of the woods, and the leaden hail whistled above the heads of -the besieged, as if to confine them to a place where they might become -easy victims to the enterprise of the warrior who had mounted the tree. - -"This must be looked to," said the scout, glancing about him with -an anxious eye. "Uncas, call up your father; we have need of all our -we'pons to bring the cunning varmint from his roost." - -The signal was instantly given; and, before Hawkeye had reloaded his -rifle, they were joined by Chingachgook. When his son pointed out to the -experienced warrior the situation of their dangerous enemy, the -usual exclamatory "hugh" burst from his lips; after which, no further -expression of surprise or alarm was suffered to escape him. Hawkeye and -the Mohicans conversed earnestly together in Delaware for a few moments, -when each quietly took his post, in order to execute the plan they had -speedily devised. - -The warrior in the oak had maintained a quick, though ineffectual fire, -from the moment of his discovery. But his aim was interrupted by the -vigilance of his enemies, whose rifles instantaneously bore on any -part of his person that was left exposed. Still his bullets fell in the -center of the crouching party. The clothes of Heyward, which rendered -him peculiarly conspicuous, were repeatedly cut, and once blood was -drawn from a slight wound in his arm. - -At length, emboldened by the long and patient watchfulness of his -enemies, the Huron attempted a better and more fatal aim. The quick eyes -of the Mohicans caught the dark line of his lower limbs incautiously -exposed through the thin foliage, a few inches from the trunk of the -tree. Their rifles made a common report, when, sinking on his wounded -limb, part of the body of the savage came into view. Swift as thought, -Hawkeye seized the advantage, and discharged his fatal weapon into the -top of the oak. The leaves were unusually agitated; the dangerous rifle -fell from its commanding elevation, and after a few moments of vain -struggling, the form of the savage was seen swinging in the wind, -while he still grasped a ragged and naked branch of the tree with hands -clenched in desperation. - -"Give him, in pity, give him the contents of another rifle," cried -Duncan, turning away his eyes in horror from the spectacle of a fellow -creature in such awful jeopardy. - -"Not a karnel!" exclaimed the obdurate Hawkeye; "his death is certain, -and we have no powder to spare, for Indian fights sometimes last for -days; 'tis their scalps or ours! and God, who made us, has put into our -natures the craving to keep the skin on the head." - -Against this stern and unyielding morality, supported as it was by such -visible policy, there was no appeal. From that moment the yells in the -forest once more ceased, the fire was suffered to decline, and all -eyes, those of friends as well as enemies, became fixed on the hopeless -condition of the wretch who was dangling between heaven and earth. -The body yielded to the currents of air, and though no murmur or groan -escaped the victim, there were instants when he grimly faced his foes, -and the anguish of cold despair might be traced, through the intervening -distance, in possession of his swarthy lineaments. Three several times -the scout raised his piece in mercy, and as often, prudence getting the -better of his intention, it was again silently lowered. At length one -hand of the Huron lost its hold, and dropped exhausted to his side. A -desperate and fruitless struggle to recover the branch succeeded, and -then the savage was seen for a fleeting instant, grasping wildly at -the empty air. The lightning is not quicker than was the flame from the -rifle of Hawkeye; the limbs of the victim trembled and contracted, the -head fell to the bosom, and the body parted the foaming waters like -lead, when the element closed above it, in its ceaseless velocity, and -every vestige of the unhappy Huron was lost forever. - -No shout of triumph succeeded this important advantage, but even the -Mohicans gazed at each other in silent horror. A single yell burst -from the woods, and all was again still. Hawkeye, who alone appeared to -reason on the occasion, shook his head at his own momentary weakness, -even uttering his self-disapprobation aloud. - -"'Twas the last charge in my horn and the last bullet in my pouch, and -'twas the act of a boy!" he said; "what mattered it whether he struck -the rock living or dead! feeling would soon be over. Uncas, lad, go down -to the canoe, and bring up the big horn; it is all the powder we have -left, and we shall need it to the last grain, or I am ignorant of the -Mingo nature." - -The young Mohican complied, leaving the scout turning over the -useless contents of his pouch, and shaking the empty horn with renewed -discontent. From this unsatisfactory examination, however, he was soon -called by a loud and piercing exclamation from Uncas, that sounded, -even to the unpracticed ears of Duncan, as the signal of some new and -unexpected calamity. Every thought filled with apprehension for the -previous treasure he had concealed in the cavern, the young man started -to his feet, totally regardless of the hazard he incurred by such an -exposure. As if actuated by a common impulse, his movement was imitated -by his companions, and, together they rushed down the pass to the -friendly chasm, with a rapidity that rendered the scattering fire of -their enemies perfectly harmless. The unwonted cry had brought the -sisters, together with the wounded David, from their place of refuge; -and the whole party, at a single glance, was made acquainted with the -nature of the disaster that had disturbed even the practiced stoicism of -their youthful Indian protector. - -At a short distance from the rock, their little bark was to be seen -floating across the eddy, toward the swift current of the river, in a -manner which proved that its course was directed by some hidden agent. -The instant this unwelcome sight caught the eye of the scout, his rifle -was leveled as by instinct, but the barrel gave no answer to the bright -sparks of the flint. - -"'Tis too late, 'tis too late!" Hawkeye exclaimed, dropping the useless -piece in bitter disappointment; "the miscreant has struck the rapid; and -had we powder, it could hardly send the lead swifter than he now goes!" - -The adventurous Huron raised his head above the shelter of the canoe, -and, while it glided swiftly down the stream, he waved his hand, and -gave forth the shout, which was the known signal of success. His cry was -answered by a yell and a laugh from the woods, as tauntingly exulting -as if fifty demons were uttering their blasphemies at the fall of some -Christian soul. - -"Well may you laugh, ye children of the devil!" said the scout, seating -himself on a projection of the rock, and suffering his gun to fall -neglected at his feet, "for the three quickest and truest rifles in -these woods are no better than so many stalks of mullein, or the last -year's horns of a buck!" - -"What is to be done?" demanded Duncan, losing the first feeling of -disappointment in a more manly desire for exertion; "what will become of -us?" - -Hawkeye made no other reply than by passing his finger around the crown -of his head, in a manner so significant, that none who witnessed the -action could mistake its meaning. - -"Surely, surely, our case is not so desperate!" exclaimed the youth; -"the Hurons are not here; we may make good the caverns, we may oppose -their landing." - -"With what?" coolly demanded the scout. "The arrows of Uncas, or such -tears as women shed! No, no; you are young, and rich, and have friends, -and at such an age I know it is hard to die! But," glancing his eyes at -the Mohicans, "let us remember we are men without a cross, and let us -teach these natives of the forest that white blood can run as freely as -red, when the appointed hour is come." - -Duncan turned quickly in the direction indicated by the other's eyes, -and read a confirmation of his worst apprehensions in the conduct of the -Indians. Chingachgook, placing himself in a dignified posture on another -fragment of the rock, had already laid aside his knife and tomahawk, and -was in the act of taking the eagle's plume from his head, and smoothing -the solitary tuft of hair in readiness to perform its last and revolting -office. His countenance was composed, though thoughtful, while his dark, -gleaming eyes were gradually losing the fierceness of the combat in -an expression better suited to the change he expected momentarily to -undergo. - -"Our case is not, cannot be so hopeless!" said Duncan; "even at this -very moment succor may be at hand. I see no enemies! They have sickened -of a struggle in which they risk so much with so little prospect of -gain!" - -"It may be a minute, or it may be an hour, afore the wily sarpents steal -upon us, and it is quite in natur' for them to be lying within hearing -at this very moment," said Hawkeye; "but come they will, and in such -a fashion as will leave us nothing to hope! Chingachgook"--he spoke in -Delaware--"my brother, we have fought our last battle together, and the -Maquas will triumph in the death of the sage man of the Mohicans, and of -the pale face, whose eyes can make night as day, and level the clouds to -the mists of the springs!" - -"Let the Mingo women go weep over the slain!" returned the Indian, -with characteristic pride and unmoved firmness; "the Great Snake of the -Mohicans has coiled himself in their wigwams, and has poisoned their -triumph with the wailings of children, whose fathers have not returned! -Eleven warriors lie hid from the graves of their tribes since the snows -have melted, and none will tell where to find them when the tongue of -Chingachgook shall be silent! Let them draw the sharpest knife, and -whirl the swiftest tomahawk, for their bitterest enemy is in their -hands. Uncas, topmost branch of a noble trunk, call on the cowards to -hasten, or their hearts will soften, and they will change to women!" - -"They look among the fishes for their dead!" returned the low, soft -voice of the youthful chieftain; "the Hurons float with the slimy eels! -They drop from the oaks like fruit that is ready to be eaten! and the -Delawares laugh!" - -"Ay, ay," muttered the scout, who had listened to this peculiar burst -of the natives with deep attention; "they have warmed their Indian -feelings, and they'll soon provoke the Maquas to give them a speedy end. -As for me, who am of the whole blood of the whites, it is befitting that -I should die as becomes my color, with no words of scoffing in my mouth, -and without bitterness at the heart!" - -"Why die at all!" said Cora, advancing from the place where natural -horror had, until this moment, held her riveted to the rock; "the path -is open on every side; fly, then, to the woods, and call on God for -succor. Go, brave men, we owe you too much already; let us no longer -involve you in our hapless fortunes!" - -"You but little know the craft of the Iroquois, lady, if you judge they -have left the path open to the woods!" returned Hawkeye, who, however, -immediately added in his simplicity, "the down stream current, it is -certain, might soon sweep us beyond the reach of their rifles or the -sound of their voices." - -"Then try the river. Why linger to add to the number of the victims of -our merciless enemies?" - -"Why," repeated the scout, looking about him proudly; "because it is -better for a man to die at peace with himself than to live haunted by an -evil conscience! What answer could we give Munro, when he asked us where -and how we left his children?" - -"Go to him, and say that you left them with a message to hasten to -their aid," returned Cora, advancing nigher to the scout in her generous -ardor; "that the Hurons bear them into the northern wilds, but that -by vigilance and speed they may yet be rescued; and if, after all, it -should please heaven that his assistance come too late, bear to him," -she continued, her voice gradually lowering, until it seemed nearly -choked, "the love, the blessings, the final prayers of his daughters, -and bid him not mourn their early fate, but to look forward with humble -confidence to the Christian's goal to meet his children." The hard, -weather-beaten features of the scout began to work, and when she had -ended, he dropped his chin to his hand, like a man musing profoundly on -the nature of the proposal. - -"There is reason in her words!" at length broke from his compressed -and trembling lips; "ay, and they bear the spirit of Christianity; what -might be right and proper in a red-skin, may be sinful in a man who -has not even a cross in blood to plead for his ignorance. Chingachgook! -Uncas! hear you the talk of the dark-eyed woman?" - -He now spoke in Delaware to his companions, and his address, though calm -and deliberate, seemed very decided. The elder Mohican heard with deep -gravity, and appeared to ponder on his words, as though he felt the -importance of their import. After a moment of hesitation, he waved his -hand in assent, and uttered the English word "Good!" with the peculiar -emphasis of his people. Then, replacing his knife and tomahawk in his -girdle, the warrior moved silently to the edge of the rock which was -most concealed from the banks of the river. Here he paused a moment, -pointed significantly to the woods below, and saying a few words in his -own language, as if indicating his intended route, he dropped into the -water, and sank from before the eyes of the witnesses of his movements. - -The scout delayed his departure to speak to the generous girl, whose -breathing became lighter as she saw the success of her remonstrance. - -"Wisdom is sometimes given to the young, as well as to the old," he -said; "and what you have spoken is wise, not to call it by a better -word. If you are led into the woods, that is such of you as may be -spared for awhile, break the twigs on the bushes as you pass, and make -the marks of your trail as broad as you can, when, if mortal eyes can -see them, depend on having a friend who will follow to the ends of the -'arth afore he desarts you." - -He gave Cora an affectionate shake of the hand, lifted his rifle, -and after regarding it a moment with melancholy solicitude, laid it -carefully aside, and descended to the place where Chingachgook had just -disappeared. For an instant he hung suspended by the rock, and looking -about him, with a countenance of peculiar care, he added bitterly, "Had -the powder held out, this disgrace could never have befallen!" then, -loosening his hold, the water closed above his head, and he also became -lost to view. - -All eyes now were turned on Uncas, who stood leaning against the ragged -rock, in immovable composure. After waiting a short time, Cora pointed -down the river, and said: - -"Your friends have not been seen, and are now, most probably, in safety. -Is it not time for you to follow?" - -"Uncas will stay," the young Mohican calmly answered in English. - -"To increase the horror of our capture, and to diminish the chances of -our release! Go, generous young man," Cora continued, lowering her -eyes under the gaze of the Mohican, and perhaps, with an intuitive -consciousness of her power; "go to my father, as I have said, and be the -most confidential of my messengers. Tell him to trust you with the means -to buy the freedom of his daughters. Go! 'tis my wish, 'tis my prayer, -that you will go!" - -The settled, calm look of the young chief changed to an expression of -gloom, but he no longer hesitated. With a noiseless step he crossed the -rock, and dropped into the troubled stream. Hardly a breath was drawn by -those he left behind, until they caught a glimpse of his head emerging -for air, far down the current, when he again sank, and was seen no more. - -These sudden and apparently successful experiments had all taken place -in a few minutes of that time which had now become so precious. After -a last look at Uncas, Cora turned and with a quivering lip, addressed -herself to Heyward: - -"I have heard of your boasted skill in the water, too, Duncan," she -said; "follow, then, the wise example set you by these simple and -faithful beings." - -"Is such the faith that Cora Munro would exact from her protector?" said -the young man, smiling mournfully, but with bitterness. - -"This is not a time for idle subtleties and false opinions," she -answered; "but a moment when every duty should be equally considered. To -us you can be of no further service here, but your precious life may be -saved for other and nearer friends." - -He made no reply, though his eye fell wistfully on the beautiful form of -Alice, who was clinging to his arm with the dependency of an infant. - -"Consider," continued Cora, after a pause, during which she seemed -to struggle with a pang even more acute than any that her fears had -excited, "that the worst to us can be but death; a tribute that all must -pay at the good time of God's appointment." - -"There are evils worse than death," said Duncan, speaking hoarsely, and -as if fretful at her importunity, "but which the presence of one who -would die in your behalf may avert." - -Cora ceased her entreaties; and veiling her face in her shawl, drew the -nearly insensible Alice after her into the deepest recess of the inner -cavern. - - - - -CHAPTER 9 - - "Be gay securely; - Dispel, my fair, with smiles, the tim'rous clouds, - That hang on thy clear brow."--Death of Agrippina - -The sudden and almost magical change, from the stirring incidents of the -combat to the stillness that now reigned around him, acted on the heated -imagination of Heyward like some exciting dream. While all the images -and events he had witnessed remained deeply impressed on his memory, he -felt a difficulty in persuading him of their truth. Still ignorant of -the fate of those who had trusted to the aid of the swift current, he -at first listened intently to any signal or sounds of alarm, which might -announce the good or evil fortune of their hazardous undertaking. His -attention was, however, bestowed in vain; for with the disappearance of -Uncas, every sign of the adventurers had been lost, leaving him in total -uncertainty of their fate. - -In a moment of such painful doubt, Duncan did not hesitate to look -around him, without consulting that protection from the rocks which just -before had been so necessary to his safety. Every effort, however, to -detect the least evidence of the approach of their hidden enemies was as -fruitless as the inquiry after his late companions. The wooded banks of -the river seemed again deserted by everything possessing animal life. -The uproar which had so lately echoed through the vaults of the forest -was gone, leaving the rush of the waters to swell and sink on the -currents of the air, in the unmingled sweetness of nature. A fish-hawk, -which, secure on the topmost branches of a dead pine, had been a distant -spectator of the fray, now swooped from his high and ragged perch, and -soared, in wide sweeps, above his prey; while a jay, whose noisy voice -had been stilled by the hoarser cries of the savages, ventured again -to open his discordant throat, as though once more in undisturbed -possession of his wild domains. Duncan caught from these natural -accompaniments of the solitary scene a glimmering of hope; and he began -to rally his faculties to renewed exertions, with something like a -reviving confidence of success. - -"The Hurons are not to be seen," he said, addressing David, who had -by no means recovered from the effects of the stunning blow he had -received; "let us conceal ourselves in the cavern, and trust the rest to -Providence." - -"I remember to have united with two comely maidens, in lifting up -our voices in praise and thanksgiving," returned the bewildered -singing-master; "since which time I have been visited by a heavy -judgment for my sins. I have been mocked with the likeness of sleep, -while sounds of discord have rent my ears, such as might manifest the -fullness of time, and that nature had forgotten her harmony." - -"Poor fellow! thine own period was, in truth, near its accomplishment! -But arouse, and come with me; I will lead you where all other sounds but -those of your own psalmody shall be excluded." - -"There is melody in the fall of the cataract, and the rushing of many -waters is sweet to the senses!" said David, pressing his hand confusedly -on his brow. "Is not the air yet filled with shrieks and cries, as -though the departed spirits of the damned--" - -"Not now, not now," interrupted the impatient Heyward, "they have -ceased, and they who raised them, I trust in God, they are gone, too! -everything but the water is still and at peace; in, then, where you may -create those sounds you love so well to hear." - -David smiled sadly, though not without a momentary gleam of pleasure, at -this allusion to his beloved vocation. He no longer hesitated to be led -to a spot which promised such unalloyed gratification to his wearied -senses; and leaning on the arm of his companion, he entered the narrow -mouth of the cave. Duncan seized a pile of the sassafras, which he -drew before the passage, studiously concealing every appearance of an -aperture. Within this fragile barrier he arranged the blankets abandoned -by the foresters, darkening the inner extremity of the cavern, while its -outer received a chastened light from the narrow ravine, through which -one arm of the river rushed to form the junction with its sister branch -a few rods below. - -"I like not the principle of the natives, which teaches them to submit -without a struggle, in emergencies that appear desperate," he said, -while busied in this employment; "our own maxim, which says, 'while -life remains there is hope', is more consoling, and better suited to -a soldier's temperament. To you, Cora, I will urge no words of idle -encouragement; your own fortitude and undisturbed reason will teach -you all that may become your sex; but cannot we dry the tears of that -trembling weeper on your bosom?" - -"I am calmer, Duncan," said Alice, raising herself from the arms of her -sister, and forcing an appearance of composure through her tears; "much -calmer, now. Surely, in this hidden spot we are safe, we are secret, -free from injury; we will hope everything from those generous men who -have risked so much already in our behalf." - -"Now does our gentle Alice speak like a daughter of Munro!" said -Heyward, pausing to press her hand as he passed toward the outer -entrance of the cavern. "With two such examples of courage before him, a -man would be ashamed to prove other than a hero." He then seated himself -in the center of the cavern, grasping his remaining pistol with a hand -convulsively clenched, while his contracted and frowning eye announced -the sullen desperation of his purpose. "The Hurons, if they come, may -not gain our position so easily as they think," he slowly muttered; and -propping his head back against the rock, he seemed to await the result -in patience, though his gaze was unceasingly bent on the open avenue to -their place of retreat. - -With the last sound of his voice, a deep, a long, and almost breathless -silence succeeded. The fresh air of the morning had penetrated the -recess, and its influence was gradually felt on the spirits of its -inmates. As minute after minute passed by, leaving them in undisturbed -security, the insinuating feeling of hope was gradually gaining -possession of every bosom, though each one felt reluctant to give -utterance to expectations that the next moment might so fearfully -destroy. - -David alone formed an exception to these varying emotions. A gleam of -light from the opening crossed his wan countenance, and fell upon -the pages of the little volume, whose leaves he was again occupied in -turning, as if searching for some song more fitted to their condition -than any that had yet met their eye. He was, most probably, acting all -this time under a confused recollection of the promised consolation of -Duncan. At length, it would seem, his patient industry found its reward; -for, without explanation or apology, he pronounced aloud the words "Isle -of Wight," drew a long, sweet sound from his pitch-pipe, and then ran -through the preliminary modulations of the air whose name he had just -mentioned, with the sweeter tones of his own musical voice. - -"May not this prove dangerous?" asked Cora, glancing her dark eye at -Major Heyward. - -"Poor fellow! his voice is too feeble to be heard above the din of the -falls," was the answer; "beside, the cavern will prove his friend. Let -him indulge his passions since it may be done without hazard." - -"Isle of Wight!" repeated David, looking about him with that dignity -with which he had long been wont to silence the whispering echoes of his -school; "'tis a brave tune, and set to solemn words! let it be sung with -meet respect!" - -After allowing a moment of stillness to enforce his discipline, the -voice of the singer was heard, in low, murmuring syllables, gradually -stealing on the ear, until it filled the narrow vault with sounds -rendered trebly thrilling by the feeble and tremulous utterance produced -by his debility. The melody, which no weakness could destroy, gradually -wrought its sweet influence on the senses of those who heard it. It even -prevailed over the miserable travesty of the song of David which the -singer had selected from a volume of similar effusions, and caused the -sense to be forgotten in the insinuating harmony of the sounds. Alice -unconsciously dried her tears, and bent her melting eyes on the pallid -features of Gamut, with an expression of chastened delight that she -neither affected or wished to conceal. Cora bestowed an approving smile -on the pious efforts of the namesake of the Jewish prince, and Heyward -soon turned his steady, stern look from the outlet of the cavern, to -fasten it, with a milder character, on the face of David, or to meet the -wandering beams which at moments strayed from the humid eyes of Alice. -The open sympathy of the listeners stirred the spirit of the votary of -music, whose voice regained its richness and volume, without losing that -touching softness which proved its secret charm. Exerting his renovated -powers to their utmost, he was yet filling the arches of the cave -with long and full tones, when a yell burst into the air without, that -instantly stilled his pious strains, choking his voice suddenly, as -though his heart had literally bounded into the passage of his throat. - -"We are lost!" exclaimed Alice, throwing herself into the arms of Cora. - -"Not yet, not yet," returned the agitated but undaunted Heyward: "the -sound came from the center of the island, and it has been produced by -the sight of their dead companions. We are not yet discovered, and there -is still hope." - -Faint and almost despairing as was the prospect of escape, the words of -Duncan were not thrown away, for it awakened the powers of the sisters -in such a manner that they awaited the results in silence. A second yell -soon followed the first, when a rush of voices was heard pouring down -the island, from its upper to its lower extremity, until they reached -the naked rock above the caverns, where, after a shout of savage -triumph, the air continued full of horrible cries and screams, such -as man alone can utter, and he only when in a state of the fiercest -barbarity. - -The sounds quickly spread around them in every direction. Some called to -their fellows from the water's edge, and were answered from the heights -above. Cries were heard in the startling vicinity of the chasm between -the two caves, which mingled with hoarser yells that arose out of the -abyss of the deep ravine. In short, so rapidly had the savage sounds -diffused themselves over the barren rock, that it was not difficult -for the anxious listeners to imagine they could be heard beneath, as in -truth they were above on every side of them. - -In the midst of this tumult, a triumphant yell was raised within a few -yards of the hidden entrance to the cave. Heyward abandoned every hope, -with the belief it was the signal that they were discovered. Again the -impression passed away, as he heard the voices collect near the spot -where the white man had so reluctantly abandoned his rifle. Amid the -jargon of Indian dialects that he now plainly heard, it was easy to -distinguish not only words, but sentences, in the patois of the Canadas. -A burst of voices had shouted simultaneously, "La Longue Carabine!" -causing the opposite woods to re-echo with a name which, Heyward well -remembered, had been given by his enemies to a celebrated hunter and -scout of the English camp, and who, he now learned for the first time, -had been his late companion. - -"La Longue Carabine! La Longue Carabine!" passed from mouth to mouth, -until the whole band appeared to be collected around a trophy which -would seem to announce the death of its formidable owner. After a -vociferous consultation, which was, at times, deafened by bursts of -savage joy, they again separated, filling the air with the name of a -foe, whose body, Heywood could collect from their expressions, they -hoped to find concealed in some crevice of the island. - -"Now," he whispered to the trembling sisters, "now is the moment of -uncertainty! if our place of retreat escape this scrutiny, we are -still safe! In every event, we are assured, by what has fallen from our -enemies, that our friends have escaped, and in two short hours we may -look for succor from Webb." - -There were now a few minutes of fearful stillness, during which Heyward -well knew that the savages conducted their search with greater vigilance -and method. More than once he could distinguish their footsteps, as -they brushed the sassafras, causing the faded leaves to rustle, and the -branches to snap. At length, the pile yielded a little, a corner of a -blanket fell, and a faint ray of light gleamed into the inner part of -the cave. Cora folded Alice to her bosom in agony, and Duncan sprang -to his feet. A shout was at that moment heard, as if issuing from the -center of the rock, announcing that the neighboring cavern had at -length been entered. In a minute, the number and loudness of the voices -indicated that the whole party was collected in and around that secret -place. - -As the inner passages to the two caves were so close to each other, -Duncan, believing that escape was no longer possible, passed David and -the sisters, to place himself between the latter and the first onset of -the terrible meeting. Grown desperate by his situation, he drew nigh -the slight barrier which separated him only by a few feet from his -relentless pursuers, and placing his face to the casual opening, he even -looked out with a sort of desperate indifference, on their movements. - -Within reach of his arm was the brawny shoulder of a gigantic Indian, -whose deep and authoritative voice appeared to give directions to the -proceedings of his fellows. Beyond him again, Duncan could look into the -vault opposite, which was filled with savages, upturning and rifling the -humble furniture of the scout. The wound of David had dyed the leaves -of sassafras with a color that the native well knew as anticipating the -season. Over this sign of their success, they sent up a howl, like an -opening from so many hounds who had recovered a lost trail. After this -yell of victory, they tore up the fragrant bed of the cavern, and bore -the branches into the chasm, scattering the boughs, as if they suspected -them of concealing the person of the man they had so long hated and -feared. One fierce and wild-looking warrior approached the chief, -bearing a load of the brush, and pointing exultingly to the deep red -stains with which it was sprinkled, uttered his joy in Indian yells, -whose meaning Heyward was only enabled to comprehend by the frequent -repetition of the name "La Longue Carabine!" When his triumph had -ceased, he cast the brush on the slight heap Duncan had made before -the entrance of the second cavern, and closed the view. His example was -followed by others, who, as they drew the branches from the cave of the -scout, threw them into one pile, adding, unconsciously, to the security -of those they sought. The very slightness of the defense was its chief -merit, for no one thought of disturbing a mass of brush, which all -of them believed, in that moment of hurry and confusion, had been -accidentally raised by the hands of their own party. - -As the blankets yielded before the outward pressure, and the branches -settled in the fissure of the rock by their own weight, forming a -compact body, Duncan once more breathed freely. With a light step and -lighter heart, he returned to the center of the cave, and took the -place he had left, where he could command a view of the opening next the -river. While he was in the act of making this movement, the Indians, as -if changing their purpose by a common impulse, broke away from the chasm -in a body, and were heard rushing up the island again, toward the point -whence they had originally descended. Here another wailing cry betrayed -that they were again collected around the bodies of their dead comrades. - -Duncan now ventured to look at his companions; for, during the most -critical moments of their danger, he had been apprehensive that the -anxiety of his countenance might communicate some additional alarm to -those who were so little able to sustain it. - -"They are gone, Cora!" he whispered; "Alice, they are returned whence -they came, and we are saved! To Heaven, that has alone delivered us from -the grasp of so merciless an enemy, be all the praise!" - -"Then to Heaven will I return my thanks!" exclaimed the younger sister, -rising from the encircling arm of Cora, and casting herself with -enthusiastic gratitude on the naked rock; "to that Heaven who has spared -the tears of a gray-headed father; has saved the lives of those I so -much love." - -Both Heyward and the more temperate Cora witnessed the act of -involuntary emotion with powerful sympathy, the former secretly -believing that piety had never worn a form so lovely as it had now -assumed in the youthful person of Alice. Her eyes were radiant with the -glow of grateful feelings; the flush of her beauty was again seated on -her cheeks, and her whole soul seemed ready and anxious to pour out its -thanksgivings through the medium of her eloquent features. But when her -lips moved, the words they should have uttered appeared frozen by some -new and sudden chill. Her bloom gave place to the paleness of death; -her soft and melting eyes grew hard, and seemed contracting with horror; -while those hands, which she had raised, clasped in each other, toward -heaven, dropped in horizontal lines before her, the fingers pointed -forward in convulsed motion. Heyward turned the instant she gave a -direction to his suspicions, and peering just above the ledge which -formed the threshold of the open outlet of the cavern, he beheld the -malignant, fierce and savage features of Le Renard Subtil. - -In that moment of surprise, the self-possession of Heyward did not -desert him. He observed by the vacant expression of the Indian's -countenance, that his eye, accustomed to the open air had not yet -been able to penetrate the dusky light which pervaded the depth of the -cavern. He had even thought of retreating beyond a curvature in the -natural wall, which might still conceal him and his companions, when by -the sudden gleam of intelligence that shot across the features of the -savage, he saw it was too late, and that they were betrayed. - -The look of exultation and brutal triumph which announced this terrible -truth was irresistibly irritating. Forgetful of everything but the -impulses of his hot blood, Duncan leveled his pistol and fired. The -report of the weapon made the cavern bellow like an eruption from a -volcano; and when the smoke it vomited had been driven away before the -current of air which issued from the ravine the place so lately occupied -by the features of his treacherous guide was vacant. Rushing to the -outlet, Heyward caught a glimpse of his dark figure stealing around a -low and narrow ledge, which soon hid him entirely from sight. - -Among the savages a frightful stillness succeeded the explosion, which -had just been heard bursting from the bowels of the rock. But when -Le Renard raised his voice in a long and intelligible whoop, it was -answered by a spontaneous yell from the mouth of every Indian within -hearing of the sound. - -The clamorous noises again rushed down the island; and before Duncan -had time to recover from the shock, his feeble barrier of brush was -scattered to the winds, the cavern was entered at both its extremities, -and he and his companions were dragged from their shelter and borne into -the day, where they stood surrounded by the whole band of the triumphant -Hurons. - - - - -CHAPTER 10 - - "I fear we shall outsleep the coming morn - As much as we this night have overwatched!" - --Midsummer Night's Dream - -The instant the shock of this sudden misfortune had abated, Duncan began -to make his observations on the appearance and proceedings of their -captors. Contrary to the usages of the natives in the wantonness of -their success they had respected, not only the persons of the trembling -sisters, but his own. The rich ornaments of his military attire had -indeed been repeatedly handled by different individuals of the tribes -with eyes expressing a savage longing to possess the baubles; but -before the customary violence could be resorted to, a mandate in the -authoritative voice of the large warrior, already mentioned, stayed the -uplifted hand, and convinced Heyward that they were to be reserved for -some object of particular moment. - -While, however, these manifestations of weakness were exhibited by the -young and vain of the party, the more experienced warriors continued -their search throughout both caverns, with an activity that denoted they -were far from being satisfied with those fruits of their conquest which -had already been brought to light. Unable to discover any new victim, -these diligent workers of vengeance soon approached their male -prisoners, pronouncing the name "La Longue Carabine," with a fierceness -that could not be easily mistaken. Duncan affected not to comprehend -the meaning of their repeated and violent interrogatories, while his -companion was spared the effort of a similar deception by his ignorance -of French. Wearied at length by their importunities, and apprehensive -of irritating his captors by too stubborn a silence, the former -looked about him in quest of Magua, who might interpret his answers -to questions which were at each moment becoming more earnest and -threatening. - -The conduct of this savage had formed a solitary exception to that of -all his fellows. While the others were busily occupied in seeking -to gratify their childish passion for finery, by plundering even -the miserable effects of the scout, or had been searching with such -bloodthirsty vengeance in their looks for their absent owner, Le Renard -had stood at a little distance from the prisoners, with a demeanor so -quiet and satisfied, as to betray that he had already effected the grand -purpose of his treachery. When the eyes of Heyward first met those of -his recent guide, he turned them away in horror at the sinister though -calm look he encountered. Conquering his disgust, however, he was able, -with an averted face, to address his successful enemy. - -"Le Renard Subtil is too much of a warrior," said the reluctant Heyward, -"to refuse telling an unarmed man what his conquerors say." - -"They ask for the hunter who knows the paths through the woods," -returned Magua, in his broken English, laying his hand, at the same -time, with a ferocious smile, on the bundle of leaves with which a wound -on his own shoulder was bandaged. "'La Longue Carabine'! His rifle -is good, and his eye never shut; but, like the short gun of the white -chief, it is nothing against the life of Le Subtil." - -"Le Renard is too brave to remember the hurts received in war, or the -hands that gave them." - -"Was it war, when the tired Indian rested at the sugartree to taste his -corn! who filled the bushes with creeping enemies! who drew the knife, -whose tongue was peace, while his heart was colored with blood! Did -Magua say that the hatchet was out of the ground, and that his hand had -dug it up?" - -As Duncan dared not retort upon his accuser by reminding him of his own -premeditated treachery, and disdained to deprecate his resentment by any -words of apology, he remained silent. Magua seemed also content to -rest the controversy as well as all further communication there, for he -resumed the leaning attitude against the rock from which, in momentary -energy, he had arisen. But the cry of "La Longue Carabine" was renewed -the instant the impatient savages perceived that the short dialogue was -ended. - -"You hear," said Magua, with stubborn indifference: "the red Hurons call -for the life of 'The Long Rifle', or they will have the blood of him -that keep him hid!" - -"He is gone--escaped; he is far beyond their reach." - -Renard smiled with cold contempt, as he answered: - -"When the white man dies, he thinks he is at peace; but the red men know -how to torture even the ghosts of their enemies. Where is his body? Let -the Hurons see his scalp." - -"He is not dead, but escaped." - -Magua shook his head incredulously. - -"Is he a bird, to spread his wings; or is he a fish, to swim without -air! The white chief read in his books, and he believes the Hurons are -fools!" - -"Though no fish, 'The Long Rifle' can swim. He floated down the stream -when the powder was all burned, and when the eyes of the Hurons were -behind a cloud." - -"And why did the white chief stay?" demanded the still incredulous -Indian. "Is he a stone that goes to the bottom, or does the scalp burn -his head?" - -"That I am not stone, your dead comrade, who fell into the falls, might -answer, were the life still in him," said the provoked young man, using, -in his anger, that boastful language which was most likely to excite the -admiration of an Indian. "The white man thinks none but cowards desert -their women." - -Magua muttered a few words, inaudibly, between his teeth, before he -continued, aloud: - -"Can the Delawares swim, too, as well as crawl in the bushes? Where is -'Le Gros Serpent'?" - -Duncan, who perceived by the use of these Canadian appellations, that -his late companions were much better known to his enemies than to -himself, answered, reluctantly: "He also is gone down with the water." - -"'Le Cerf Agile' is not here?" - -"I know not whom you call 'The Nimble Deer'," said Duncan gladly -profiting by any excuse to create delay. - -"Uncas," returned Magua, pronouncing the Delaware name with even greater -difficulty than he spoke his English words. "'Bounding Elk' is what the -white man says, when he calls to the young Mohican." - -"Here is some confusion in names between us, Le Renard," said Duncan, -hoping to provoke a discussion. "Daim is the French for deer, and cerf -for stag; elan is the true term, when one would speak of an elk." - -"Yes," muttered the Indian, in his native tongue; "the pale faces are -prattling women! they have two words for each thing, while a red-skin -will make the sound of his voice speak to him." Then, changing his -language, he continued, adhering to the imperfect nomenclature of his -provincial instructors. "The deer is swift, but weak; the elk is swift, -but strong; and the son of 'Le Serpent' is 'Le Cerf Agile.' Has he -leaped the river to the woods?" - -"If you mean the younger Delaware, he, too, has gone down with the -water." - -As there was nothing improbable to an Indian in the manner of the -escape, Magua admitted the truth of what he had heard, with a readiness -that afforded additional evidence how little he would prize such -worthless captives. With his companions, however, the feeling was -manifestly different. - -The Hurons had awaited the result of this short dialogue with -characteristic patience, and with a silence that increased until there -was a general stillness in the band. When Heyward ceased to speak, they -turned their eyes, as one man, on Magua, demanding, in this expressive -manner, an explanation of what had been said. Their interpreter pointed -to the river, and made them acquainted with the result, as much by -the action as by the few words he uttered. When the fact was generally -understood, the savages raised a frightful yell, which declared the -extent of their disappointment. Some ran furiously to the water's -edge, beating the air with frantic gestures, while others spat upon the -element, to resent the supposed treason it had committed against -their acknowledged rights as conquerors. A few, and they not the least -powerful and terrific of the band, threw lowering looks, in which the -fiercest passion was only tempered by habitual self-command, at those -captives who still remained in their power, while one or two even gave -vent to their malignant feelings by the most menacing gestures, against -which neither the sex nor the beauty of the sisters was any protection. -The young soldier made a desperate but fruitless effort to spring to the -side of Alice, when he saw the dark hand of a savage twisted in the rich -tresses which were flowing in volumes over her shoulders, while a knife -was passed around the head from which they fell, as if to denote the -horrid manner in which it was about to be robbed of its beautiful -ornament. But his hands were bound; and at the first movement he made, -he felt the grasp of the powerful Indian who directed the band, pressing -his shoulder like a vise. Immediately conscious how unavailing any -struggle against such an overwhelming force must prove, he submitted -to his fate, encouraging his gentle companions by a few low and tender -assurances, that the natives seldom failed to threaten more than they -performed. - -But while Duncan resorted to these words of consolation to quiet the -apprehensions of the sisters, he was not so weak as to deceive himself. -He well knew that the authority of an Indian chief was so little -conventional, that it was oftener maintained by physical superiority -than by any moral supremacy he might possess. The danger was, therefore, -magnified exactly in proportion to the number of the savage spirits -by which they were surrounded. The most positive mandate from him who -seemed the acknowledged leader, was liable to be violated at each moment -by any rash hand that might choose to sacrifice a victim to the manes of -some dead friend or relative. While, therefore, he sustained an outward -appearance of calmness and fortitude, his heart leaped into his throat, -whenever any of their fierce captors drew nearer than common to the -helpless sisters, or fastened one of their sullen, wandering looks on -those fragile forms which were so little able to resist the slightest -assault. - -His apprehensions were, however, greatly relieved, when he saw that -the leader had summoned his warriors to himself in counsel. Their -deliberations were short, and it would seem, by the silence of most of -the party, the decision unanimous. By the frequency with which the few -speakers pointed in the direction of the encampment of Webb, it was -apparent they dreaded the approach of danger from that quarter. This -consideration probably hastened their determination, and quickened the -subsequent movements. - -During his short conference, Heyward, finding a respite from his gravest -fears, had leisure to admire the cautious manner in which the Hurons had -made their approaches, even after hostilities had ceased. - -It has already been stated that the upper half of the island was a naked -rock, and destitute of any other defenses than a few scattered logs of -driftwood. They had selected this point to make their descent, having -borne the canoe through the wood around the cataract for that purpose. -Placing their arms in the little vessel a dozen men clinging to its -sides had trusted themselves to the direction of the canoe, which was -controlled by two of the most skillful warriors, in attitudes that -enabled them to command a view of the dangerous passage. Favored by this -arrangement, they touched the head of the island at that point which had -proved so fatal to their first adventurers, but with the advantages of -superior numbers, and the possession of firearms. That such had been the -manner of their descent was rendered quite apparent to Duncan; for they -now bore the light bark from the upper end of the rock, and placed it -in the water, near the mouth of the outer cavern. As soon as this change -was made, the leader made signs to the prisoners to descend and enter. - -As resistance was impossible, and remonstrance useless, Heyward set the -example of submission, by leading the way into the canoe, where he -was soon seated with the sisters and the still wondering David. -Notwithstanding the Hurons were necessarily ignorant of the little -channels among the eddies and rapids of the stream, they knew the common -signs of such a navigation too well to commit any material blunder. -When the pilot chosen for the task of guiding the canoe had taken his -station, the whole band plunged again into the river, the vessel glided -down the current, and in a few moments the captives found themselves on -the south bank of the stream, nearly opposite to the point where they -had struck it the preceding evening. - -Here was held another short but earnest consultation, during which the -horses, to whose panic their owners ascribed their heaviest misfortune, -were led from the cover of the woods, and brought to the sheltered spot. -The band now divided. The great chief, so often mentioned, mounting the -charger of Heyward, led the way directly across the river, followed by -most of his people, and disappeared in the woods, leaving the prisoners -in charge of six savages, at whose head was Le Renard Subtil. Duncan -witnessed all their movements with renewed uneasiness. - -He had been fond of believing, from the uncommon forbearance of the -savages, that he was reserved as a prisoner to be delivered to Montcalm. -As the thoughts of those who are in misery seldom slumber, and the -invention is never more lively than when it is stimulated by hope, -however feeble and remote, he had even imagined that the parental -feelings of Munro were to be made instrumental in seducing him from his -duty to the king. For though the French commander bore a high character -for courage and enterprise, he was also thought to be expert in those -political practises which do not always respect the nicer obligations -of morality, and which so generally disgraced the European diplomacy of -that period. - -All those busy and ingenious speculations were now annihilated by the -conduct of his captors. That portion of the band who had followed the -huge warrior took the route toward the foot of the Horican, and no other -expectation was left for himself and companions, than that they were to -be retained as hopeless captives by their savage conquerors. Anxious to -know the worst, and willing, in such an emergency, to try the potency of -gold he overcame his reluctance to speak to Magua. Addressing himself -to his former guide, who had now assumed the authority and manner of one -who was to direct the future movements of the party, he said, in tones -as friendly and confiding as he could assume: - -"I would speak to Magua, what is fit only for so great a chief to hear." - -The Indian turned his eyes on the young soldier scornfully, as he -answered: - -"Speak; trees have no ears." - -"But the red Hurons are not deaf; and counsel that is fit for the great -men of a nation would make the young warriors drunk. If Magua will not -listen, the officer of the king knows how to be silent." - -The savage spoke carelessly to his comrades, who were busied, after -their awkward manner, in preparing the horses for the reception of the -sisters, and moved a little to one side, whither by a cautious gesture -he induced Heyward to follow. - -"Now, speak," he said; "if the words are such as Magua should hear." - -"Le Renard Subtil has proved himself worthy of the honorable name given -to him by his Canada fathers," commenced Heyward; "I see his wisdom, -and all that he has done for us, and shall remember it when the hour to -reward him arrives. Yes! Renard has proved that he is not only a great -chief in council, but one who knows how to deceive his enemies!" - -"What has Renard done?" coldly demanded the Indian. - -"What! has he not seen that the woods were filled with outlying parties -of the enemies, and that the serpent could not steal through them -without being seen? Then, did he not lose his path to blind the eyes of -the Hurons? Did he not pretend to go back to his tribe, who had treated -him ill, and driven him from their wigwams like a dog? And when he saw -what he wished to do, did we not aid him, by making a false face, that -the Hurons might think the white man believed that his friend was his -enemy? Is not all this true? And when Le Subtil had shut the eyes and -stopped the ears of his nation by his wisdom, did they not forget that -they had once done him wrong, and forced him to flee to the Mohawks? -And did they not leave him on the south side of the river, with their -prisoners, while they have gone foolishly on the north? Does not Renard -mean to turn like a fox on his footsteps, and to carry to the rich and -gray-headed Scotchman his daughters? Yes, Magua, I see it all, and I -have already been thinking how so much wisdom and honesty should be -repaid. First, the chief of William Henry will give as a great chief -should for such a service. The medal* of Magua will no longer be of tin, -but of beaten gold; his horn will run over with powder; dollars will be -as plenty in his pouch as pebbles on the shore of Horican; and the deer -will lick his hand, for they will know it to be vain to fly from -the rifle he will carry! As for myself, I know not how to exceed the -gratitude of the Scotchman, but I--yes, I will--" - - * It has long been a practice with the whites to conciliate - the important men of the Indians by presenting medals, which - are worn in the place of their own rude ornaments. Those - given by the English generally bear the impression of the - reigning king, and those given by the Americans that of the - president. - -"What will the young chief, who comes from toward the sun, give?" -demanded the Huron, observing that Heyward hesitated in his desire to -end the enumeration of benefits with that which might form the climax of -an Indian's wishes. - -"He will make the fire-water from the islands in the salt lake flow -before the wigwam of Magua, until the heart of the Indian shall be -lighter than the feathers of the humming-bird, and his breath sweeter -than the wild honeysuckle." - -Le Renard had listened gravely as Heyward slowly proceeded in this -subtle speech. When the young man mentioned the artifice he supposed -the Indian to have practised on his own nation, the countenance of -the listener was veiled in an expression of cautious gravity. At the -allusion to the injury which Duncan affected to believe had driven -the Huron from his native tribe, a gleam of such ungovernable ferocity -flashed from the other's eyes, as induced the adventurous speaker to -believe he had struck the proper chord. And by the time he reached -the part where he so artfully blended the thirst of vengeance with the -desire of gain, he had, at least, obtained a command of the deepest -attention of the savage. The question put by Le Renard had been calm, -and with all the dignity of an Indian; but it was quite apparent, by the -thoughtful expression of the listener's countenance, that the answer was -most cunningly devised. The Huron mused a few moments, and then laying -his hand on the rude bandages of his wounded shoulder, he said, with -some energy: - -"Do friends make such marks?" - -"Would 'La Longue Carbine' cut one so slight on an enemy?" - -"Do the Delawares crawl upon those they love like snakes, twisting -themselves to strike?" - -"Would 'Le Gros Serpent' have been heard by the ears of one he wished to -be deaf?" - -"Does the white chief burn his powder in the faces of his brothers?" - -"Does he ever miss his aim, when seriously bent to kill?" returned -Duncan, smiling with well acted sincerity. - -Another long and deliberate pause succeeded these sententious questions -and ready replies. Duncan saw that the Indian hesitated. In order to -complete his victory, he was in the act of recommencing the enumeration -of the rewards, when Magua made an expressive gesture and said: - -"Enough; Le Renard is a wise chief, and what he does will be seen. -Go, and keep the mouth shut. When Magua speaks, it will be the time to -answer." - -Heyward, perceiving that the eyes of his companion were warily fastened -on the rest of the band, fell back immediately, in order to avoid -the appearance of any suspicious confederacy with their leader. -Magua approached the horses, and affected to be well pleased with the -diligence and ingenuity of his comrades. He then signed to Heyward to -assist the sisters into the saddles, for he seldom deigned to use the -English tongue, unless urged by some motive of more than usual moment. - -There was no longer any plausible pretext for delay; and Duncan was -obliged, however reluctantly, to comply. As he performed this office, he -whispered his reviving hopes in the ears of the trembling females, who, -through dread of encountering the savage countenances of their captors, -seldom raised their eyes from the ground. The mare of David had been -taken with the followers of the large chief; in consequence, its owner, -as well as Duncan, was compelled to journey on foot. The latter did not, -however, so much regret this circumstance, as it might enable him to -retard the speed of the party; for he still turned his longing looks in -the direction of Fort Edward, in the vain expectation of catching some -sound from that quarter of the forest, which might denote the approach -of succor. When all were prepared, Magua made the signal to proceed, -advancing in front to lead the party in person. Next followed David, who -was gradually coming to a true sense of his condition, as the effects of -the wound became less and less apparent. The sisters rode in his rear, -with Heyward at their side, while the Indians flanked the party, and -brought up the close of the march, with a caution that seemed never to -tire. - -In this manner they proceeded in uninterrupted silence, except when -Heyward addressed some solitary word of comfort to the females, or David -gave vent to the moanings of his spirit, in piteous exclamations, which -he intended should express the humility of resignation. Their direction -lay toward the south, and in a course nearly opposite to the road to -William Henry. Notwithstanding this apparent adherence in Magua to the -original determination of his conquerors, Heyward could not believe -his tempting bait was so soon forgotten; and he knew the windings of an -Indian's path too well to suppose that its apparent course led directly -to its object, when artifice was at all necessary. Mile after mile was, -however, passed through the boundless woods, in this painful manner, -without any prospect of a termination to their journey. Heyward watched -the sun, as he darted his meridian rays through the branches of the -trees, and pined for the moment when the policy of Magua should change -their route to one more favorable to his hopes. Sometimes he fancied the -wary savage, despairing of passing the army of Montcalm in safety, -was holding his way toward a well-known border settlement, where a -distinguished officer of the crown, and a favored friend of the Six -Nations, held his large possessions, as well as his usual residence. To -be delivered into the hands of Sir William Johnson was far preferable -to being led into the wilds of Canada; but in order to effect even the -former, it would be necessary to traverse the forest for many weary -leagues, each step of which was carrying him further from the scene of -the war, and, consequently, from the post, not only of honor, but of -duty. - -Cora alone remembered the parting injunctions of the scout, and whenever -an opportunity offered, she stretched forth her arm to bend aside the -twigs that met her hands. But the vigilance of the Indians rendered this -act of precaution both difficult and dangerous. She was often defeated -in her purpose, by encountering their watchful eyes, when it became -necessary to feign an alarm she did not feel, and occupy the limb by -some gesture of feminine apprehension. Once, and once only, was she -completely successful; when she broke down the bough of a large sumach, -and by a sudden thought, let her glove fall at the same instant. This -sign, intended for those that might follow, was observed by one of her -conductors, who restored the glove, broke the remaining branches of the -bush in such a manner that it appeared to proceed from the struggling of -some beast in its branches, and then laid his hand on his tomahawk, -with a look so significant, that it put an effectual end to these stolen -memorials of their passage. - -As there were horses, to leave the prints of their footsteps, in both -bands of the Indians, this interruption cut off any probable hopes of -assistance being conveyed through the means of their trail. - -Heyward would have ventured a remonstrance had there been anything -encouraging in the gloomy reserve of Magua. But the savage, during all -this time, seldom turned to look at his followers, and never spoke. With -the sun for his only guide, or aided by such blind marks as are only -known to the sagacity of a native, he held his way along the barrens -of pine, through occasional little fertile vales, across brooks and -rivulets, and over undulating hills, with the accuracy of instinct, -and nearly with the directness of a bird. He never seemed to hesitate. -Whether the path was hardly distinguishable, whether it disappeared, or -whether it lay beaten and plain before him, made no sensible difference -in his speed or certainty. It seemed as if fatigue could not affect him. -Whenever the eyes of the wearied travelers rose from the decayed leaves -over which they trod, his dark form was to be seen glancing among the -stems of the trees in front, his head immovably fastened in a forward -position, with the light plume on his crest fluttering in a current of -air, made solely by the swiftness of his own motion. - -But all this diligence and speed were not without an object. After -crossing a low vale, through which a gushing brook meandered, he -suddenly ascended a hill, so steep and difficult of ascent, that the -sisters were compelled to alight in order to follow. When the summit was -gained, they found themselves on a level spot, but thinly covered with -trees, under one of which Magua had thrown his dark form, as if willing -and ready to seek that rest which was so much needed by the whole party. - - - - -CHAPTER 11 - - "Cursed be my tribe If I forgive him." - --Shylock - -The Indian had selected for this desirable purpose one of those steep, -pyramidal hills, which bear a strong resemblance to artificial mounds, -and which so frequently occur in the valleys of America. The one in -question was high and precipitous; its top flattened, as usual; but with -one of its sides more than ordinarily irregular. It possessed no other -apparent advantage for a resting place, than in its elevation and form, -which might render defense easy, and surprise nearly impossible. As -Heyward, however, no longer expected that rescue which time and distance -now rendered so improbable, he regarded these little peculiarities with -an eye devoid of interest, devoting himself entirely to the comfort and -condolence of his feebler companions. The Narragansetts were suffered -to browse on the branches of the trees and shrubs that were thinly -scattered over the summit of the hill, while the remains of their -provisions were spread under the shade of a beech, that stretched its -horizontal limbs like a canopy above them. - -Notwithstanding the swiftness of their flight, one of the Indians had -found an opportunity to strike a straggling fawn with an arrow, and -had borne the more preferable fragments of the victim, patiently on his -shoulders, to the stopping place. Without any aid from the science of -cookery, he was immediately employed, in common with his fellows, in -gorging himself with this digestible sustenance. Magua alone sat apart, -without participating in the revolting meal, and apparently buried in -the deepest thought. - -This abstinence, so remarkable in an Indian, when he possessed the means -of satisfying hunger, at length attracted the notice of Heyward. The -young man willingly believed that the Huron deliberated on the most -eligible manner of eluding the vigilance of his associates. With a view -to assist his plans by any suggestion of his own, and to strengthen the -temptation, he left the beech, and straggled, as if without an object, -to the spot where Le Renard was seated. - -"Has not Magua kept the sun in his face long enough to escape all danger -from the Canadians?" he asked, as though no longer doubtful of the -good intelligence established between them; "and will not the chief -of William Henry be better pleased to see his daughters before another -night may have hardened his heart to their loss, to make him less -liberal in his reward?" - -"Do the pale faces love their children less in the morning than at -night?" asked the Indian, coldly. - -"By no means," returned Heyward, anxious to recall his error, if he had -made one; "the white man may, and does often, forget the burial place of -his fathers; he sometimes ceases to remember those he should love, and -has promised to cherish; but the affection of a parent for his child is -never permitted to die." - -"And is the heart of the white-headed chief soft, and will he think of -the babes that his squaws have given him? He is hard on his warriors and -his eyes are made of stone?" - -"He is severe to the idle and wicked, but to the sober and deserving -he is a leader, both just and humane. I have known many fond and tender -parents, but never have I seen a man whose heart was softer toward his -child. You have seen the gray-head in front of his warriors, Magua; but -I have seen his eyes swimming in water, when he spoke of those children -who are now in your power!" - -Heyward paused, for he knew not how to construe the remarkable -expression that gleamed across the swarthy features of the attentive -Indian. At first it seemed as if the remembrance of the promised reward -grew vivid in his mind, while he listened to the sources of parental -feeling which were to assure its possession; but, as Duncan proceeded, -the expression of joy became so fiercely malignant that it was -impossible not to apprehend it proceeded from some passion more sinister -than avarice. - -"Go," said the Huron, suppressing the alarming exhibition in an -instant, in a death-like calmness of countenance; "go to the dark-haired -daughter, and say, 'Magua waits to speak' The father will remember what -the child promises." - -Duncan, who interpreted this speech to express a wish for some -additional pledge that the promised gifts should not be withheld, slowly -and reluctantly repaired to the place where the sisters were now resting -from their fatigue, to communicate its purport to Cora. - -"You understand the nature of an Indian's wishes," he concluded, as he -led her toward the place where she was expected, "and must be prodigal -of your offers of powder and blankets. Ardent spirits are, however, the -most prized by such as he; nor would it be amiss to add some boon -from your own hand, with that grace you so well know how to practise. -Remember, Cora, that on your presence of mind and ingenuity, even your -life, as well as that of Alice, may in some measure depend." - -"Heyward, and yours!" - -"Mine is of little moment; it is already sold to my king, and is a prize -to be seized by any enemy who may possess the power. I have no father -to expect me, and but few friends to lament a fate which I have courted -with the insatiable longings of youth after distinction. But hush! we -approach the Indian. Magua, the lady with whom you wish to speak, is -here." - -The Indian rose slowly from his seat, and stood for near a minute silent -and motionless. He then signed with his hand for Heyward to retire, -saying, coldly: - -"When the Huron talks to the women, his tribe shut their ears." - -Duncan, still lingering, as if refusing to comply, Cora said, with a -calm smile: - -"You hear, Heyward, and delicacy at least should urge you to retire. Go -to Alice, and comfort her with our reviving prospects." - -She waited until he had departed, and then turning to the native, with -the dignity of her sex in her voice and manner, she added: "What would -Le Renard say to the daughter of Munro?" - -"Listen," said the Indian, laying his hand firmly upon her arm, as if -willing to draw her utmost attention to his words; a movement that Cora -as firmly but quietly repulsed, by extricating the limb from his grasp: -"Magua was born a chief and a warrior among the red Hurons of the lakes; -he saw the suns of twenty summers make the snows of twenty winters run -off in the streams before he saw a pale face; and he was happy! Then -his Canada fathers came into the woods, and taught him to drink the -fire-water, and he became a rascal. The Hurons drove him from the graves -of his fathers, as they would chase the hunted buffalo. He ran down the -shores of the lakes, and followed their outlet to the 'city of cannon' -There he hunted and fished, till the people chased him again through the -woods into the arms of his enemies. The chief, who was born a Huron, was -at last a warrior among the Mohawks!" - -"Something like this I had heard before," said Cora, observing that he -paused to suppress those passions which began to burn with too bright a -flame, as he recalled the recollection of his supposed injuries. - -"Was it the fault of Le Renard that his head was not made of rock? Who -gave him the fire-water? who made him a villain? 'Twas the pale faces, -the people of your own color." - -"And am I answerable that thoughtless and unprincipled men exist, whose -shades of countenance may resemble mine?" Cora calmly demanded of the -excited savage. - -"No; Magua is a man, and not a fool; such as you never open their lips -to the burning stream: the Great Spirit has given you wisdom!" - -"What, then, have I do to, or say, in the matter of your misfortunes, -not to say of your errors?" - -"Listen," repeated the Indian, resuming his earnest attitude; "when -his English and French fathers dug up the hatchet, Le Renard struck the -war-post of the Mohawks, and went out against his own nation. The pale -faces have driven the red-skins from their hunting grounds, and now when -they fight, a white man leads the way. The old chief at Horican, your -father, was the great captain of our war-party. He said to the Mohawks -do this, and do that, and he was minded. He made a law, that if an -Indian swallowed the fire-water, and came into the cloth wigwams of his -warriors, it should not be forgotten. Magua foolishly opened his -mouth, and the hot liquor led him into the cabin of Munro. What did the -gray-head? let his daughter say." - -"He forgot not his words, and did justice, by punishing the offender," -said the undaunted daughter. - -"Justice!" repeated the Indian, casting an oblique glance of the most -ferocious expression at her unyielding countenance; "is it justice to -make evil and then punish for it? Magua was not himself; it was the -fire-water that spoke and acted for him! but Munro did believe it. The -Huron chief was tied up before all the pale-faced warriors, and whipped -like a dog." - -Cora remained silent, for she knew not how to palliate this imprudent -severity on the part of her father in a manner to suit the comprehension -of an Indian. - -"See!" continued Magua, tearing aside the slight calico that very -imperfectly concealed his painted breast; "here are scars given by -knives and bullets--of these a warrior may boast before his nation; but -the gray-head has left marks on the back of the Huron chief that he must -hide like a squaw, under this painted cloth of the whites." - -"I had thought," resumed Cora, "that an Indian warrior was patient, and -that his spirit felt not and knew not the pain his body suffered." - -"When the Chippewas tied Magua to the stake, and cut this gash," said -the other, laying his finger on a deep scar, "the Huron laughed in their -faces, and told them, Women struck so light! His spirit was then in the -clouds! But when he felt the blows of Munro, his spirit lay under the -birch. The spirit of a Huron is never drunk; it remembers forever!" - -"But it may be appeased. If my father has done you this injustice, show -him how an Indian can forgive an injury, and take back his daughters. -You have heard from Major Heyward--" - -Magua shook his head, forbidding the repetition of offers he so much -despised. - -"What would you have?" continued Cora, after a most painful pause, -while the conviction forced itself on her mind that the too sanguine and -generous Duncan had been cruelly deceived by the cunning of the savage. - -"What a Huron loves--good for good; bad for bad!" - -"You would, then, revenge the injury inflicted by Munro on his helpless -daughters. Would it not be more like a man to go before his face, and -take the satisfaction of a warrior?" - -"The arms of the pale faces are long, and their knives sharp!" returned -the savage, with a malignant laugh: "why should Le Renard go among the -muskets of his warriors, when he holds the spirit of the gray-head in -his hand?" - -"Name your intention, Magua," said Cora, struggling with herself to -speak with steady calmness. "Is it to lead us prisoners to the woods, or -do you contemplate even some greater evil? Is there no reward, no means -of palliating the injury, and of softening your heart? At least, release -my gentle sister, and pour out all your malice on me. Purchase wealth -by her safety and satisfy your revenge with a single victim. The loss -of both his daughters might bring the aged man to his grave, and where -would then be the satisfaction of Le Renard?" - -"Listen," said the Indian again. "The light eyes can go back to the -Horican, and tell the old chief what has been done, if the dark-haired -woman will swear by the Great Spirit of her fathers to tell no lie." - -"What must I promise?" demanded Cora, still maintaining a secret -ascendancy over the fierce native by the collected and feminine dignity -of her presence. - -"When Magua left his people his wife was given to another chief; he has -now made friends with the Hurons, and will go back to the graves of his -tribe, on the shores of the great lake. Let the daughter of the English -chief follow, and live in his wigwam forever." - -However revolting a proposal of such a character might prove to -Cora, she retained, notwithstanding her powerful disgust, sufficient -self-command to reply, without betraying the weakness. - -"And what pleasure would Magua find in sharing his cabin with a wife he -did not love; one who would be of a nation and color different from his -own? It would be better to take the gold of Munro, and buy the heart of -some Huron maid with his gifts." - -The Indian made no reply for near a minute, but bent his fierce looks -on the countenance of Cora, in such wavering glances, that her eyes -sank with shame, under an impression that for the first time they had -encountered an expression that no chaste female might endure. While she -was shrinking within herself, in dread of having her ears wounded by -some proposal still more shocking than the last, the voice of Magua -answered, in its tones of deepest malignancy: - -"When the blows scorched the back of the Huron, he would know where to -find a woman to feel the smart. The daughter of Munro would draw his -water, hoe his corn, and cook his venison. The body of the gray-head -would sleep among his cannon, but his heart would lie within reach of -the knife of Le Subtil." - -"Monster! well dost thou deserve thy treacherous name," cried Cora, in -an ungovernable burst of filial indignation. "None but a fiend could -meditate such a vengeance. But thou overratest thy power! You shall find -it is, in truth, the heart of Munro you hold, and that it will defy your -utmost malice!" - -The Indian answered this bold defiance by a ghastly smile, that showed -an unaltered purpose, while he motioned her away, as if to close the -conference forever. Cora, already regretting her precipitation, was -obliged to comply, for Magua instantly left the spot, and approached his -gluttonous comrades. Heyward flew to the side of the agitated female, -and demanded the result of a dialogue that he had watched at a distance -with so much interest. But, unwilling to alarm the fears of Alice, she -evaded a direct reply, betraying only by her anxious looks fastened on -the slightest movements of her captors. To the reiterated and earnest -questions of her sister concerning their probable destination, she -made no other answer than by pointing toward the dark group, with an -agitation she could not control, and murmuring as she folded Alice to -her bosom. - -"There, there; read our fortunes in their faces; we shall see; we shall -see!" - -The action, and the choked utterance of Cora, spoke more impressively -than any words, and quickly drew the attention of her companions on that -spot where her own was riveted with an intenseness that nothing but the -importance of the stake could create. - -When Magua reached the cluster of lolling savages, who, gorged with -their disgusting meal, lay stretched on the earth in brutal indulgence, -he commenced speaking with the dignity of an Indian chief. The first -syllables he uttered had the effect to cause his listeners to raise -themselves in attitudes of respectful attention. As the Huron used -his native language, the prisoners, notwithstanding the caution of the -natives had kept them within the swing of their tomahawks, could only -conjecture the substance of his harangue from the nature of those -significant gestures with which an Indian always illustrates his -eloquence. - -At first, the language, as well as the action of Magua, appeared calm -and deliberative. When he had succeeded in sufficiently awakening -the attention of his comrades, Heyward fancied, by his pointing so -frequently toward the direction of the great lakes, that he spoke of the -land of their fathers, and of their distant tribe. Frequent indications -of applause escaped the listeners, who, as they uttered the expressive -"Hugh!" looked at each other in commendation of the speaker. Le Renard -was too skillful to neglect his advantage. He now spoke of the long and -painful route by which they had left those spacious grounds and happy -villages, to come and battle against the enemies of their Canadian -fathers. He enumerated the warriors of the party; their several merits; -their frequent services to the nation; their wounds, and the number of -the scalps they had taken. Whenever he alluded to any present (and the -subtle Indian neglected none), the dark countenance of the flattered -individual gleamed with exultation, nor did he even hesitate to assert -the truth of the words, by gestures of applause and confirmation. Then -the voice of the speaker fell, and lost the loud, animated tones of -triumph with which he had enumerated their deeds of success and victory. -He described the cataract of Glenn's; the impregnable position of its -rocky island, with its caverns and its numerous rapids and whirlpools; -he named the name of "La Longue Carabine," and paused until the forest -beneath them had sent up the last echo of a loud and long yell, with -which the hated appellation was received. He pointed toward the youthful -military captive, and described the death of a favorite warrior, who -had been precipitated into the deep ravine by his hand. He not only -mentioned the fate of him who, hanging between heaven and earth, had -presented such a spectacle of horror to the whole band, but he acted -anew the terrors of his situation, his resolution and his death, on the -branches of a sapling; and, finally, he rapidly recounted the manner -in which each of their friends had fallen, never failing to touch upon -their courage, and their most acknowledged virtues. When this recital of -events was ended, his voice once more changed, and became plaintive and -even musical, in its low guttural sounds. He now spoke of the wives and -children of the slain; their destitution; their misery, both physical -and moral; their distance; and, at last, of their unavenged wrongs. Then -suddenly lifting his voice to a pitch of terrific energy, he concluded -by demanding: - -"Are the Hurons dogs to bear this? Who shall say to the wife of Menowgua -that the fishes have his scalp, and that his nation have not taken -revenge! Who will dare meet the mother of Wassawattimie, that scornful -woman, with his hands clean! What shall be said to the old men when -they ask us for scalps, and we have not a hair from a white head to give -them! The women will point their fingers at us. There is a dark spot on -the names of the Hurons, and it must be hid in blood!" His voice was no -longer audible in the burst of rage which now broke into the air, as -if the wood, instead of containing so small a band, was filled with the -nation. During the foregoing address the progress of the speaker was too -plainly read by those most interested in his success through the medium -of the countenances of the men he addressed. They had answered his -melancholy and mourning by sympathy and sorrow; his assertions, by -gestures of confirmation; and his boasting, with the exultation of -savages. When he spoke of courage, their looks were firm and responsive; -when he alluded to their injuries, their eyes kindled with fury; when -he mentioned the taunts of the women, they dropped their heads in shame; -but when he pointed out their means of vengeance, he struck a chord -which never failed to thrill in the breast of an Indian. With the first -intimation that it was within their reach, the whole band sprang upon -their feet as one man; giving utterance to their rage in the most -frantic cries, they rushed upon their prisoners in a body with drawn -knives and uplifted tomahawks. Heyward threw himself between the sisters -and the foremost, whom he grappled with a desperate strength that for a -moment checked his violence. This unexpected resistance gave Magua time -to interpose, and with rapid enunciation and animated gesture, he drew -the attention of the band again to himself. In that language he knew so -well how to assume, he diverted his comrades from their instant purpose, -and invited them to prolong the misery of their victims. His proposal -was received with acclamations, and executed with the swiftness of -thought. - -Two powerful warriors cast themselves on Heyward, while another was -occupied in securing the less active singing-master. Neither of the -captives, however, submitted without a desperate, though fruitless, -struggle. Even David hurled his assailant to the earth; nor was Heyward -secured until the victory over his companion enabled the Indians to -direct their united force to that object. He was then bound and fastened -to the body of the sapling, on whose branches Magua had acted the -pantomime of the falling Huron. When the young soldier regained his -recollection, he had the painful certainty before his eyes that a -common fate was intended for the whole party. On his right was Cora in -a durance similar to his own, pale and agitated, but with an eye whose -steady look still read the proceedings of their enemies. On his left, -the withes which bound her to a pine, performed that office for Alice -which her trembling limbs refused, and alone kept her fragile form from -sinking. Her hands were clasped before her in prayer, but instead of -looking upward toward that power which alone could rescue them, her -unconscious looks wandered to the countenance of Duncan with infantile -dependency. David had contended, and the novelty of the circumstance -held him silent, in deliberation on the propriety of the unusual -occurrence. - -The vengeance of the Hurons had now taken a new direction, and they -prepared to execute it with that barbarous ingenuity with which they -were familiarized by the practise of centuries. Some sought knots, to -raise the blazing pile; one was riving the splinters of pine, in order -to pierce the flesh of their captives with the burning fragments; and -others bent the tops of two saplings to the earth, in order to suspend -Heyward by the arms between the recoiling branches. But the vengeance of -Magua sought a deeper and more malignant enjoyment. - -While the less refined monsters of the band prepared, before the eyes of -those who were to suffer, these well-known and vulgar means of torture, -he approached Cora, and pointed out, with the most malign expression of -countenance, the speedy fate that awaited her: - -"Ha!" he added, "what says the daughter of Munro? Her head is too good -to find a pillow in the wigwam of Le Renard; will she like it better -when it rolls about this hill a plaything for the wolves? Her bosom -cannot nurse the children of a Huron; she will see it spit upon by -Indians!" - -"What means the monster!" demanded the astonished Heyward. - -"Nothing!" was the firm reply. "He is a savage, a barbarous and ignorant -savage, and knows not what he does. Let us find leisure, with our dying -breath, to ask for him penitence and pardon." - -"Pardon!" echoed the fierce Huron, mistaking in his anger, the meaning -of her words; "the memory of an Indian is no longer than the arm of the -pale faces; his mercy shorter than their justice! Say; shall I send the -yellow hair to her father, and will you follow Magua to the great lakes, -to carry his water, and feed him with corn?" - -Cora beckoned him away, with an emotion of disgust she could not -control. - -"Leave me," she said, with a solemnity that for a moment checked the -barbarity of the Indian; "you mingle bitterness in my prayers; you stand -between me and my God!" - -The slight impression produced on the savage was, however, soon -forgotten, and he continued pointing, with taunting irony, toward Alice. - -"Look! the child weeps! She is too young to die! Send her to Munro, to -comb his gray hairs, and keep life in the heart of the old man." - -Cora could not resist the desire to look upon her youthful sister, in -whose eyes she met an imploring glance, that betrayed the longings of -nature. - -"What says he, dearest Cora?" asked the trembling voice of Alice. "Did -he speak of sending me to our father?" - -For many moments the elder sister looked upon the younger, with a -countenance that wavered with powerful and contending emotions. -At length she spoke, though her tones had lost their rich and calm -fullness, in an expression of tenderness that seemed maternal. - -"Alice," she said, "the Huron offers us both life, nay, more than both; -he offers to restore Duncan, our invaluable Duncan, as well as you, to -our friends--to our father--to our heart-stricken, childless father, if -I will bow down this rebellious, stubborn pride of mine, and consent--" - -Her voice became choked, and clasping her hands, she looked upward, as -if seeking, in her agony, intelligence from a wisdom that was infinite. - -"Say on," cried Alice; "to what, dearest Cora? Oh! that the proffer were -made to me! to save you, to cheer our aged father, to restore Duncan, -how cheerfully could I die!" - -"Die!" repeated Cora, with a calmer and firmer voice, "that were easy! -Perhaps the alternative may not be less so. He would have me," she -continued, her accents sinking under a deep consciousness of the -degradation of the proposal, "follow him to the wilderness; go to the -habitations of the Hurons; to remain there; in short, to become his -wife! Speak, then, Alice; child of my affections! sister of my love! And -you, too, Major Heyward, aid my weak reason with your counsel. Is life -to be purchased by such a sacrifice? Will you, Alice, receive it at my -hands at such a price? And you, Duncan, guide me; control me between -you; for I am wholly yours!" - -"Would I!" echoed the indignant and astonished youth. "Cora! Cora! you -jest with our misery! Name not the horrid alternative again; the thought -itself is worse than a thousand deaths." - -"That such would be your answer, I well knew!" exclaimed Cora, her -cheeks flushing, and her dark eyes once more sparkling with the -lingering emotions of a woman. "What says my Alice? for her will I -submit without another murmur." - -Although both Heyward and Cora listened with painful suspense and the -deepest attention, no sounds were heard in reply. It appeared as if the -delicate and sensitive form of Alice would shrink into itself, as she -listened to this proposal. Her arms had fallen lengthwise before her, -the fingers moving in slight convulsions; her head dropped upon her -bosom, and her whole person seemed suspended against the tree, looking -like some beautiful emblem of the wounded delicacy of her sex, devoid of -animation and yet keenly conscious. In a few moments, however, her head -began to move slowly, in a sign of deep, unconquerable disapprobation. - -"No, no, no; better that we die as we have lived, together!" - -"Then die!" shouted Magua, hurling his tomahawk with violence at the -unresisting speaker, and gnashing his teeth with a rage that could no -longer be bridled at this sudden exhibition of firmness in the one he -believed the weakest of the party. The axe cleaved the air in front of -Heyward, and cutting some of the flowing ringlets of Alice, quivered -in the tree above her head. The sight maddened Duncan to desperation. -Collecting all his energies in one effort he snapped the twigs which -bound him and rushed upon another savage, who was preparing, with loud -yells and a more deliberate aim, to repeat the blow. They encountered, -grappled, and fell to the earth together. The naked body of his -antagonist afforded Heyward no means of holding his adversary, who -glided from his grasp, and rose again with one knee on his chest, -pressing him down with the weight of a giant. Duncan already saw the -knife gleaming in the air, when a whistling sound swept past him, and -was rather accompanied than followed by the sharp crack of a rifle. He -felt his breast relieved from the load it had endured; he saw the savage -expression of his adversary's countenance change to a look of vacant -wildness, when the Indian fell dead on the faded leaves by his side. - - - - -CHAPTER 12 - - "Clo.--I am gone, sire, - And anon, sire, I'll be with you again." - --Twelfth Night - -The Hurons stood aghast at this sudden visitation of death on one of -their band. But as they regarded the fatal accuracy of an aim which had -dared to immolate an enemy at so much hazard to a friend, the name -of "La Longue Carabine" burst simultaneously from every lip, and was -succeeded by a wild and a sort of plaintive howl. The cry was answered -by a loud shout from a little thicket, where the incautious party had -piled their arms; and at the next moment, Hawkeye, too eager to load -the rifle he had regained, was seen advancing upon them, brandishing the -clubbed weapon, and cutting the air with wide and powerful sweeps. Bold -and rapid as was the progress of the scout, it was exceeded by that of -a light and vigorous form which, bounding past him, leaped, with -incredible activity and daring, into the very center of the Hurons, -where it stood, whirling a tomahawk, and flourishing a glittering knife, -with fearful menaces, in front of Cora. Quicker than the thoughts could -follow those unexpected and audacious movements, an image, armed in the -emblematic panoply of death, glided before their eyes, and assumed a -threatening attitude at the other's side. The savage tormentors recoiled -before these warlike intruders, and uttered, as they appeared in such -quick succession, the often repeated and peculiar exclamations of -surprise, followed by the well-known and dreaded appellations of: - -"Le Cerf Agile! Le Gros Serpent!" - -But the wary and vigilant leader of the Hurons was not so easily -disconcerted. Casting his keen eyes around the little plain, he -comprehended the nature of the assault at a glance, and encouraging his -followers by his voice as well as by his example, he unsheathed his -long and dangerous knife, and rushed with a loud whoop upon the expected -Chingachgook. It was the signal for a general combat. Neither party had -firearms, and the contest was to be decided in the deadliest manner, -hand to hand, with weapons of offense, and none of defense. - -Uncas answered the whoop, and leaping on an enemy, with a single, -well-directed blow of his tomahawk, cleft him to the brain. Heyward -tore the weapon of Magua from the sapling, and rushed eagerly toward -the fray. As the combatants were now equal in number, each singled an -opponent from the adverse band. The rush and blows passed with the fury -of a whirlwind, and the swiftness of lightning. Hawkeye soon got another -enemy within reach of his arm, and with one sweep of his formidable -weapon he beat down the slight and inartificial defenses of his -antagonist, crushing him to the earth with the blow. Heyward ventured -to hurl the tomahawk he had seized, too ardent to await the moment -of closing. It struck the Indian he had selected on the forehead, -and checked for an instant his onward rush. Encouraged by this slight -advantage, the impetuous young man continued his onset, and sprang upon -his enemy with naked hands. A single instant was enough to assure him -of the rashness of the measure, for he immediately found himself fully -engaged, with all his activity and courage, in endeavoring to ward the -desperate thrusts made with the knife of the Huron. Unable longer to -foil an enemy so alert and vigilant, he threw his arms about him, and -succeeded in pinning the limbs of the other to his side, with an iron -grasp, but one that was far too exhausting to himself to continue long. -In this extremity he heard a voice near him, shouting: - -"Extarminate the varlets! no quarter to an accursed Mingo!" - -At the next moment, the breech of Hawkeye's rifle fell on the naked head -of his adversary, whose muscles appeared to wither under the shock, as -he sank from the arms of Duncan, flexible and motionless. - -When Uncas had brained his first antagonist, he turned, like a hungry -lion, to seek another. The fifth and only Huron disengaged at the first -onset had paused a moment, and then seeing that all around him were -employed in the deadly strife, he had sought, with hellish vengeance, -to complete the baffled work of revenge. Raising a shout of triumph, he -sprang toward the defenseless Cora, sending his keen axe as the dreadful -precursor of his approach. The tomahawk grazed her shoulder, and cutting -the withes which bound her to the tree, left the maiden at liberty to -fly. She eluded the grasp of the savage, and reckless of her own -safety, threw herself on the bosom of Alice, striving with convulsed -and ill-directed fingers, to tear asunder the twigs which confined the -person of her sister. Any other than a monster would have relented at -such an act of generous devotion to the best and purest affection; but -the breast of the Huron was a stranger to sympathy. Seizing Cora by the -rich tresses which fell in confusion about her form, he tore her from -her frantic hold, and bowed her down with brutal violence to her knees. -The savage drew the flowing curls through his hand, and raising them -on high with an outstretched arm, he passed the knife around the -exquisitely molded head of his victim, with a taunting and exulting -laugh. But he purchased this moment of fierce gratification with the -loss of the fatal opportunity. It was just then the sight caught the eye -of Uncas. Bounding from his footsteps he appeared for an instant darting -through the air and descending in a ball he fell on the chest of his -enemy, driving him many yards from the spot, headlong and prostrate. The -violence of the exertion cast the young Mohican at his side. They arose -together, fought, and bled, each in his turn. But the conflict was soon -decided; the tomahawk of Heyward and the rifle of Hawkeye descended -on the skull of the Huron, at the same moment that the knife of Uncas -reached his heart. - -The battle was now entirely terminated with the exception of the -protracted struggle between "Le Renard Subtil" and "Le Gros Serpent." -Well did these barbarous warriors prove that they deserved those -significant names which had been bestowed for deeds in former wars. -When they engaged, some little time was lost in eluding the quick and -vigorous thrusts which had been aimed at their lives. Suddenly darting -on each other, they closed, and came to the earth, twisted together like -twining serpents, in pliant and subtle folds. At the moment when the -victors found themselves unoccupied, the spot where these experienced -and desperate combatants lay could only be distinguished by a cloud of -dust and leaves, which moved from the center of the little plain toward -its boundary, as if raised by the passage of a whirlwind. Urged by the -different motives of filial affection, friendship and gratitude, Heyward -and his companions rushed with one accord to the place, encircling the -little canopy of dust which hung above the warriors. In vain did Uncas -dart around the cloud, with a wish to strike his knife into the heart -of his father's foe; the threatening rifle of Hawkeye was raised and -suspended in vain, while Duncan endeavored to seize the limbs of the -Huron with hands that appeared to have lost their power. Covered as they -were with dust and blood, the swift evolutions of the combatants seemed -to incorporate their bodies into one. The death-like looking figure of -the Mohican, and the dark form of the Huron, gleamed before their eyes -in such quick and confused succession, that the friends of the former -knew not where to plant the succoring blow. It is true there were short -and fleeting moments, when the fiery eyes of Magua were seen glittering, -like the fabled organs of the basilisk through the dusty wreath by which -he was enveloped, and he read by those short and deadly glances the fate -of the combat in the presence of his enemies; ere, however, any hostile -hand could descend on his devoted head, its place was filled by the -scowling visage of Chingachgook. In this manner the scene of the combat -was removed from the center of the little plain to its verge. The -Mohican now found an opportunity to make a powerful thrust with his -knife; Magua suddenly relinquished his grasp, and fell backward without -motion, and seemingly without life. His adversary leaped on his feet, -making the arches of the forest ring with the sounds of triumph. - -"Well done for the Delawares! victory to the Mohicans!" cried Hawkeye, -once more elevating the butt of the long and fatal rifle; "a finishing -blow from a man without a cross will never tell against his honor, nor -rob him of his right to the scalp." - -But at the very moment when the dangerous weapon was in the act of -descending, the subtle Huron rolled swiftly from beneath the danger, -over the edge of the precipice, and falling on his feet, was seen -leaping, with a single bound, into the center of a thicket of low -bushes, which clung along its sides. The Delawares, who had believed -their enemy dead, uttered their exclamation of surprise, and were -following with speed and clamor, like hounds in open view of the deer, -when a shrill and peculiar cry from the scout instantly changed their -purpose, and recalled them to the summit of the hill. - -"'Twas like himself!" cried the inveterate forester, whose prejudices -contributed so largely to veil his natural sense of justice in all -matters which concerned the Mingoes; "a lying and deceitful varlet as -he is. An honest Delaware now, being fairly vanquished, would have lain -still, and been knocked on the head, but these knavish Maquas cling to -life like so many cats-o'-the-mountain. Let him go--let him go; 'tis but -one man, and he without rifle or bow, many a long mile from his French -commerades; and like a rattler that lost his fangs, he can do no further -mischief, until such time as he, and we too, may leave the prints of our -moccasins over a long reach of sandy plain. See, Uncas," he added, in -Delaware, "your father is flaying the scalps already. It may be well to -go round and feel the vagabonds that are left, or we may have another of -them loping through the woods, and screeching like a jay that has been -winged." - -So saying the honest but implacable scout made the circuit of the dead, -into whose senseless bosoms he thrust his long knife, with as much -coolness as though they had been so many brute carcasses. He had, -however, been anticipated by the elder Mohican, who had already torn the -emblems of victory from the unresisting heads of the slain. - -But Uncas, denying his habits, we had almost said his nature, flew with -instinctive delicacy, accompanied by Heyward, to the assistance of the -females, and quickly releasing Alice, placed her in the arms of Cora. We -shall not attempt to describe the gratitude to the Almighty Disposer -of Events which glowed in the bosoms of the sisters, who were thus -unexpectedly restored to life and to each other. Their thanksgivings -were deep and silent; the offerings of their gentle spirits burning -brightest and purest on the secret altars of their hearts; and their -renovated and more earthly feelings exhibiting themselves in long and -fervent though speechless caresses. As Alice rose from her knees, where -she had sunk by the side of Cora, she threw herself on the bosom of the -latter, and sobbed aloud the name of their aged father, while her soft, -dove-like eyes, sparkled with the rays of hope. - -"We are saved! we are saved!" she murmured; "to return to the arms of -our dear, dear father, and his heart will not be broken with grief. And -you, too, Cora, my sister, my more than sister, my mother; you, too, -are spared. And Duncan," she added, looking round upon the youth with a -smile of ineffable innocence, "even our own brave and noble Duncan has -escaped without a hurt." - -To these ardent and nearly innocent words Cora made no other answer than -by straining the youthful speaker to her heart, as she bent over her -in melting tenderness. The manhood of Heyward felt no shame in dropping -tears over this spectacle of affectionate rapture; and Uncas stood, -fresh and blood-stained from the combat, a calm, and, apparently, an -unmoved looker-on, it is true, but with eyes that had already lost their -fierceness, and were beaming with a sympathy that elevated him far -above the intelligence, and advanced him probably centuries before, the -practises of his nation. - -During this display of emotions so natural in their situation, Hawkeye, -whose vigilant distrust had satisfied itself that the Hurons, who -disfigured the heavenly scene, no longer possessed the power to -interrupt its harmony, approached David, and liberated him from the -bonds he had, until that moment, endured with the most exemplary -patience. - -"There," exclaimed the scout, casting the last withe behind him, "you -are once more master of your own limbs, though you seem not to use them -with much greater judgment than that in which they were first fashioned. -If advice from one who is not older than yourself, but who, having -lived most of his time in the wilderness, may be said to have experience -beyond his years, will give no offense, you are welcome to my thoughts; -and these are, to part with the little tooting instrument in your jacket -to the first fool you meet with, and buy some we'pon with the money, if -it be only the barrel of a horseman's pistol. By industry and care, you -might thus come to some prefarment; for by this time, I should think, -your eyes would plainly tell you that a carrion crow is a better bird -than a mocking-thresher. The one will, at least, remove foul sights -from before the face of man, while the other is only good to brew -disturbances in the woods, by cheating the ears of all that hear them." - -"Arms and the clarion for the battle, but the song of thanksgiving -to the victory!" answered the liberated David. "Friend," he added, -thrusting forth his lean, delicate hand toward Hawkeye, in kindness, -while his eyes twinkled and grew moist, "I thank thee that the hairs -of my head still grow where they were first rooted by Providence; for, -though those of other men may be more glossy and curling, I have ever -found mine own well suited to the brain they shelter. That I did not -join myself to the battle, was less owing to disinclination, than to the -bonds of the heathen. Valiant and skillful hast thou proved thyself in -the conflict, and I hereby thank thee, before proceeding to discharge -other and more important duties, because thou hast proved thyself well -worthy of a Christian's praise." - -"The thing is but a trifle, and what you may often see if you tarry long -among us," returned the scout, a good deal softened toward the man of -song, by this unequivocal expression of gratitude. "I have got back my -old companion, 'killdeer'," he added, striking his hand on the breech of -his rifle; "and that in itself is a victory. These Iroquois are cunning, -but they outwitted themselves when they placed their firearms out of -reach; and had Uncas or his father been gifted with only their common -Indian patience, we should have come in upon the knaves with three -bullets instead of one, and that would have made a finish of the whole -pack; yon loping varlet, as well as his commerades. But 'twas all -fore-ordered, and for the best." - -"Thou sayest well," returned David, "and hast caught the true spirit -of Christianity. He that is to be saved will be saved, and he that is -predestined to be damned will be damned. This is the doctrine of truth, -and most consoling and refreshing it is to the true believer." - -The scout, who by this time was seated, examining into the state of his -rifle with a species of parental assiduity, now looked up at the other -in a displeasure that he did not affect to conceal, roughly interrupting -further speech. - -"Doctrine or no doctrine," said the sturdy woodsman, "'tis the belief of -knaves, and the curse of an honest man. I can credit that yonder Huron -was to fall by my hand, for with my own eyes I have seen it; but nothing -short of being a witness will cause me to think he has met with any -reward, or that Chingachgook there will be condemned at the final day." - -"You have no warranty for such an audacious doctrine, nor any covenant -to support it," cried David who was deeply tinctured with the subtle -distinctions which, in his time, and more especially in his province, -had been drawn around the beautiful simplicity of revelation, by -endeavoring to penetrate the awful mystery of the divine nature, -supplying faith by self-sufficiency, and by consequence, involving those -who reasoned from such human dogmas in absurdities and doubt; "your -temple is reared on the sands, and the first tempest will wash away its -foundation. I demand your authorities for such an uncharitable assertion -(like other advocates of a system, David was not always accurate in his -use of terms). Name chapter and verse; in which of the holy books do you -find language to support you?" - -"Book!" repeated Hawkeye, with singular and ill-concealed disdain; "do -you take me for a whimpering boy at the apronstring of one of your old -gals; and this good rifle on my knee for the feather of a goose's -wing, my ox's horn for a bottle of ink, and my leathern pouch for a -cross-barred handkercher to carry my dinner? Book! what have such as I, -who am a warrior of the wilderness, though a man without a cross, to -do with books? I never read but in one, and the words that are written -there are too simple and too plain to need much schooling; though I may -boast that of forty long and hard-working years." - -"What call you the volume?" said David, misconceiving the other's -meaning. - -"'Tis open before your eyes," returned the scout; "and he who owns it -is not a niggard of its use. I have heard it said that there are men who -read in books to convince themselves there is a God. I know not but man -may so deform his works in the settlement, as to leave that which is so -clear in the wilderness a matter of doubt among traders and priests. If -any such there be, and he will follow me from sun to sun, through the -windings of the forest, he shall see enough to teach him that he is a -fool, and that the greatest of his folly lies in striving to rise to the -level of One he can never equal, be it in goodness, or be it in power." - -The instant David discovered that he battled with a disputant who -imbibed his faith from the lights of nature, eschewing all subtleties -of doctrine, he willingly abandoned a controversy from which he believed -neither profit nor credit was to be derived. While the scout was -speaking, he had also seated himself, and producing the ready little -volume and the iron-rimmed spectacles, he prepared to discharge a -duty, which nothing but the unexpected assault he had received in his -orthodoxy could have so long suspended. He was, in truth, a minstrel of -the western continent--of a much later day, certainly, than those gifted -bards, who formerly sang the profane renown of baron and prince, but -after the spirit of his own age and country; and he was now prepared -to exercise the cunning of his craft, in celebration of, or rather in -thanksgiving for, the recent victory. He waited patiently for Hawkeye to -cease, then lifting his eyes, together with his voice, he said, aloud: - -"I invite you, friends, to join in praise for this signal deliverance -from the hands of barbarians and infidels, to the comfortable and solemn -tones of the tune called 'Northampton'." - -He next named the page and verse where the rhymes selected were to be -found, and applied the pitch-pipe to his lips, with the decent gravity -that he had been wont to use in the temple. This time he was, however, -without any accompaniment, for the sisters were just then pouring out -those tender effusions of affection which have been already alluded -to. Nothing deterred by the smallness of his audience, which, in -truth, consisted only of the discontented scout, he raised his voice, -commencing and ending the sacred song without accident or interruption -of any kind. - -Hawkeye listened while he coolly adjusted his flint and reloaded his -rifle; but the sounds, wanting the extraneous assistance of scene and -sympathy, failed to awaken his slumbering emotions. Never minstrel, -or by whatever more suitable name David should be known, drew upon his -talents in the presence of more insensible auditors; though considering -the singleness and sincerity of his motive, it is probable that no bard -of profane song ever uttered notes that ascended so near to that throne -where all homage and praise is due. The scout shook his head, and -muttering some unintelligible words, among which "throat" and "Iroquois" -were alone audible, he walked away, to collect and to examine into the -state of the captured arsenal of the Hurons. In this office he was now -joined by Chingachgook, who found his own, as well as the rifle of his -son, among the arms. Even Heyward and David were furnished with weapons; -nor was ammunition wanting to render them all effectual. - -When the foresters had made their selection, and distributed their -prizes, the scout announced that the hour had arrived when it was -necessary to move. By this time the song of Gamut had ceased, and the -sisters had learned to still the exhibition of their emotions. Aided by -Duncan and the younger Mohican, the two latter descended the precipitous -sides of that hill which they had so lately ascended under so very -different auspices, and whose summit had so nearly proved the scene of -their massacre. At the foot they found the Narragansetts browsing the -herbage of the bushes, and having mounted, they followed the movements -of a guide, who, in the most deadly straits, had so often proved himself -their friend. The journey was, however, short. Hawkeye, leaving the -blind path that the Hurons had followed, turned short to his right, -and entering the thicket, he crossed a babbling brook, and halted in a -narrow dell, under the shade of a few water elms. Their distance from -the base of the fatal hill was but a few rods, and the steeds had been -serviceable only in crossing the shallow stream. - -The scout and the Indians appeared to be familiar with the sequestered -place where they now were; for, leaning their rifle against the trees, -they commenced throwing aside the dried leaves, and opening the blue -clay, out of which a clear and sparkling spring of bright, glancing -water, quickly bubbled. The white man then looked about him, as though -seeking for some object, which was not to be found as readily as he -expected. - -"Them careless imps, the Mohawks, with their Tuscarora and Onondaga -brethren, have been here slaking their thirst," he muttered, "and the -vagabonds have thrown away the gourd! This is the way with benefits, -when they are bestowed on such disremembering hounds! Here has the Lord -laid his hand, in the midst of the howling wilderness, for their good, -and raised a fountain of water from the bowels of the 'arth, that might -laugh at the richest shop of apothecary's ware in all the colonies; and -see! the knaves have trodden in the clay, and deformed the cleanliness -of the place, as though they were brute beasts, instead of human men." - -Uncas silently extended toward him the desired gourd, which the spleen -of Hawkeye had hitherto prevented him from observing on a branch of -an elm. Filling it with water, he retired a short distance, to a place -where the ground was more firm and dry; here he coolly seated himself, -and after taking a long, and, apparently, a grateful draught, he -commenced a very strict examination of the fragments of food left by the -Hurons, which had hung in a wallet on his arm. - -"Thank you, lad!" he continued, returning the empty gourd to Uncas; -"now we will see how these rampaging Hurons lived, when outlying in -ambushments. Look at this! The varlets know the better pieces of the -deer; and one would think they might carve and roast a saddle, equal to -the best cook in the land! But everything is raw, for the Iroquois are -thorough savages. Uncas, take my steel and kindle a fire; a mouthful of -a tender broil will give natur' a helping hand, after so long a trail." - -Heyward, perceiving that their guides now set about their repast in -sober earnest, assisted the ladies to alight, and placed himself at -their side, not unwilling to enjoy a few moments of grateful rest, after -the bloody scene he had just gone through. While the culinary process -was in hand, curiosity induced him to inquire into the circumstances -which had led to their timely and unexpected rescue: - -"How is it that we see you so soon, my generous friend," he asked, "and -without aid from the garrison of Edward?" - -"Had we gone to the bend in the river, we might have been in time -to rake the leaves over your bodies, but too late to have saved your -scalps," coolly answered the scout. "No, no; instead of throwing away -strength and opportunity by crossing to the fort, we lay by, under the -bank of the Hudson, waiting to watch the movements of the Hurons." - -"You were, then, witnesses of all that passed?" - -"Not of all; for Indian sight is too keen to be easily cheated, and we -kept close. A difficult matter it was, too, to keep this Mohican boy -snug in the ambushment. Ah! Uncas, Uncas, your behavior was more like -that of a curious woman than of a warrior on his scent." - -Uncas permitted his eyes to turn for an instant on the sturdy -countenance of the speaker, but he neither spoke nor gave any indication -of repentance. On the contrary, Heyward thought the manner of the young -Mohican was disdainful, if not a little fierce, and that he suppressed -passions that were ready to explode, as much in compliment to the -listeners, as from the deference he usually paid to his white associate. - -"You saw our capture?" Heyward next demanded. - -"We heard it," was the significant answer. "An Indian yell is plain -language to men who have passed their days in the woods. But when you -landed, we were driven to crawl like sarpents, beneath the leaves; and -then we lost sight of you entirely, until we placed eyes on you again -trussed to the trees, and ready bound for an Indian massacre." - -"Our rescue was the deed of Providence. It was nearly a miracle that you -did not mistake the path, for the Hurons divided, and each band had its -horses." - -"Ay! there we were thrown off the scent, and might, indeed, have lost -the trail, had it not been for Uncas; we took the path, however, that -led into the wilderness; for we judged, and judged rightly, that the -savages would hold that course with their prisoners. But when we had -followed it for many miles, without finding a single twig broken, as I -had advised, my mind misgave me; especially as all the footsteps had the -prints of moccasins." - -"Our captors had the precaution to see us shod like themselves," said -Duncan, raising a foot, and exhibiting the buckskin he wore. - -"Aye, 'twas judgmatical and like themselves; though we were too expart -to be thrown from a trail by so common an invention." - -"To what, then, are we indebted for our safety?" - -"To what, as a white man who has no taint of Indian blood, I should be -ashamed to own; to the judgment of the young Mohican, in matters which -I should know better than he, but which I can now hardly believe to be -true, though my own eyes tell me it is so." - -"'Tis extraordinary! will you not name the reason?" - -"Uncas was bold enough to say, that the beasts ridden by the gentle -ones," continued Hawkeye, glancing his eyes, not without curious -interest, on the fillies of the ladies, "planted the legs of one side on -the ground at the same time, which is contrary to the movements of all -trotting four-footed animals of my knowledge, except the bear. And yet -here are horses that always journey in this manner, as my own eyes have -seen, and as their trail has shown for twenty long miles." - -"'Tis the merit of the animal! They come from the shores of -Narrangansett Bay, in the small province of Providence Plantations, -and are celebrated for their hardihood, and the ease of this peculiar -movement; though other horses are not unfrequently trained to the same." - -"It may be--it may be," said Hawkeye, who had listened with singular -attention to this explanation; "though I am a man who has the full blood -of the whites, my judgment in deer and beaver is greater than in beasts -of burden. Major Effingham has many noble chargers, but I have never -seen one travel after such a sidling gait." - -"True; for he would value the animals for very different properties. -Still is this a breed highly esteemed and, as you witness, much honored -with the burdens it is often destined to bear." - -The Mohicans had suspended their operations about the glimmering fire -to listen; and, when Duncan had done, they looked at each other -significantly, the father uttering the never-failing exclamation of -surprise. The scout ruminated, like a man digesting his newly-acquired -knowledge, and once more stole a glance at the horses. - -"I dare to say there are even stranger sights to be seen in the -settlements!" he said, at length. "Natur' is sadly abused by man, when -he once gets the mastery. But, go sidling or go straight, Uncas had seen -the movement, and their trail led us on to the broken bush. The outer -branch, near the prints of one of the horses, was bent upward, as a lady -breaks a flower from its stem, but all the rest were ragged and broken -down, as if the strong hand of a man had been tearing them! So I -concluded that the cunning varments had seen the twig bent, and had torn -the rest, to make us believe a buck had been feeling the boughs with his -antlers." - -"I do believe your sagacity did not deceive you; for some such thing -occurred!" - -"That was easy to see," added the scout, in no degree conscious of -having exhibited any extraordinary sagacity; "and a very different -matter it was from a waddling horse! It then struck me the Mingoes -would push for this spring, for the knaves well know the vartue of its -waters!" - -"Is it, then, so famous?" demanded Heyward, examining, with a more -curious eye, the secluded dell, with its bubbling fountain, surrounded, -as it was, by earth of a deep, dingy brown. - -"Few red-skins, who travel south and east of the great lakes but have -heard of its qualities. Will you taste for yourself?" - -Heyward took the gourd, and after swallowing a little of the water, -threw it aside with grimaces of discontent. The scout laughed in his -silent but heartfelt manner, and shook his head with vast satisfaction. - -"Ah! you want the flavor that one gets by habit; the time was when I -liked it as little as yourself; but I have come to my taste, and I now -crave it, as a deer does the licks*. Your high-spiced wines are not -better liked than a red-skin relishes this water; especially when his -natur' is ailing. But Uncas has made his fire, and it is time we think -of eating, for our journey is long, and all before us." - - * Many of the animals of the American forests resort to - those spots where salt springs are found. These are called - "licks" or "salt licks," in the language of the country, - from the circumstance that the quadruped is often obliged to - lick the earth, in order to obtain the saline particles. - These licks are great places of resort with the hunters, who - waylay their game near the paths that lead to them. - -Interrupting the dialogue by this abrupt transition, the scout had -instant recourse to the fragments of food which had escaped the voracity -of the Hurons. A very summary process completed the simple cookery, when -he and the Mohicans commenced their humble meal, with the silence and -characteristic diligence of men who ate in order to enable themselves to -endure great and unremitting toil. - -When this necessary, and, happily, grateful duty had been performed, -each of the foresters stooped and took a long and parting draught at -that solitary and silent spring*, around which and its sister fountains, -within fifty years, the wealth, beauty and talents of a hemisphere were -to assemble in throngs, in pursuit of health and pleasure. Then Hawkeye -announced his determination to proceed. The sisters resumed their -saddles; Duncan and David grapsed their rifles, and followed on -footsteps; the scout leading the advance, and the Mohicans bringing up -the rear. The whole party moved swiftly through the narrow path, toward -the north, leaving the healing waters to mingle unheeded with the -adjacent brooks and the bodies of the dead to fester on the neighboring -mount, without the rites of sepulture; a fate but too common to the -warriors of the woods to excite either commiseration or comment. - - * The scene of the foregoing incidents is on the spot where - the village of Ballston now stands; one of the two principal - watering places of America. - - - - -CHAPTER 13 - - "I'll seek a readier path." - --Parnell - -The route taken by Hawkeye lay across those sandy plains, relived by -occasional valleys and swells of land, which had been traversed by their -party on the morning of the same day, with the baffled Magua for their -guide. The sun had now fallen low toward the distant mountains; and -as their journey lay through the interminable forest, the heat was no -longer oppressive. Their progress, in consequence, was proportionate; -and long before the twilight gathered about them, they had made good -many toilsome miles on their return. - -The hunter, like the savage whose place he filled, seemed to select -among the blind signs of their wild route, with a species of instinct, -seldom abating his speed, and never pausing to deliberate. A rapid and -oblique glance at the moss on the trees, with an occasional upward gaze -toward the setting sun, or a steady but passing look at the direction of -the numerous water courses, through which he waded, were sufficient -to determine his path, and remove his greatest difficulties. In the -meantime, the forest began to change its hues, losing that lively green -which had embellished its arches, in the graver light which is the usual -precursor of the close of day. - -While the eyes of the sisters were endeavoring to catch glimpses through -the trees, of the flood of golden glory which formed a glittering halo -around the sun, tinging here and there with ruby streaks, or bordering -with narrow edgings of shining yellow, a mass of clouds that lay piled -at no great distance above the western hills, Hawkeye turned suddenly -and pointing upward toward the gorgeous heavens, he spoke: - -"Yonder is the signal given to man to seek his food and natural rest," -he said; "better and wiser would it be, if he could understand the signs -of nature, and take a lesson from the fowls of the air and the beasts of -the field! Our night, however, will soon be over, for with the moon -we must be up and moving again. I remember to have fou't the Maquas, -hereaways, in the first war in which I ever drew blood from man; and we -threw up a work of blocks, to keep the ravenous varmints from handling -our scalps. If my marks do not fail me, we shall find the place a few -rods further to our left." - -Without waiting for an assent, or, indeed, for any reply, the sturdy -hunter moved boldly into a dense thicket of young chestnuts, shoving -aside the branches of the exuberant shoots which nearly covered the -ground, like a man who expected, at each step, to discover some object -he had formerly known. The recollection of the scout did not deceive -him. After penetrating through the brush, matted as it was with briars, -for a few hundred feet, he entered an open space, that surrounded a low, -green hillock, which was crowned by the decayed blockhouse in question. -This rude and neglected building was one of those deserted works, which, -having been thrown up on an emergency, had been abandoned with the -disappearance of danger, and was now quietly crumbling in the solitude -of the forest, neglected and nearly forgotten, like the circumstances -which had caused it to be reared. Such memorials of the passage and -struggles of man are yet frequent throughout the broad barrier of -wilderness which once separated the hostile provinces, and form a -species of ruins that are intimately associated with the recollections -of colonial history, and which are in appropriate keeping with the -gloomy character of the surrounding scenery. The roof of bark had long -since fallen, and mingled with the soil, but the huge logs of pine, -which had been hastily thrown together, still preserved their relative -positions, though one angle of the work had given way under the -pressure, and threatened a speedy downfall to the remainder of the -rustic edifice. While Heyward and his companions hesitated to approach -a building so decayed, Hawkeye and the Indians entered within the low -walls, not only without fear, but with obvious interest. While the -former surveyed the ruins, both internally and externally, with the -curiosity of one whose recollections were reviving at each moment, -Chingachgook related to his son, in the language of the Delawares, and -with the pride of a conqueror, the brief history of the skirmish which -had been fought, in his youth, in that secluded spot. A strain of -melancholy, however, blended with his triumph, rendering his voice, as -usual, soft and musical. - -In the meantime, the sisters gladly dismounted, and prepared to enjoy -their halt in the coolness of the evening, and in a security which they -believed nothing but the beasts of the forest could invade. - -"Would not our resting-place have been more retired, my worthy friend," -demanded the more vigilant Duncan, perceiving that the scout had already -finished his short survey, "had we chosen a spot less known, and one -more rarely visited than this?" - -"Few live who know the blockhouse was ever raised," was the slow and -musing answer; "'tis not often that books are made, and narratives -written of such a scrimmage as was here fou't atween the Mohicans and -the Mohawks, in a war of their own waging. I was then a younker, and -went out with the Delawares, because I know'd they were a scandalized -and wronged race. Forty days and forty nights did the imps crave our -blood around this pile of logs, which I designed and partly reared, -being, as you'll remember, no Indian myself, but a man without a cross. -The Delawares lent themselves to the work, and we made it good, ten to -twenty, until our numbers were nearly equal, and then we sallied out -upon the hounds, and not a man of them ever got back to tell the fate -of his party. Yes, yes; I was then young, and new to the sight of blood; -and not relishing the thought that creatures who had spirits like myself -should lay on the naked ground, to be torn asunder by beasts, or to -bleach in the rains, I buried the dead with my own hands, under that -very little hillock where you have placed yourselves; and no bad seat -does it make neither, though it be raised by the bones of mortal men." - -Heyward and the sisters arose, on the instant, from the grassy -sepulcher; nor could the two latter, notwithstanding the terrific scenes -they had so recently passed through, entirely suppress an emotion of -natural horror, when they found themselves in such familiar contact with -the grave of the dead Mohawks. The gray light, the gloomy little area -of dark grass, surrounded by its border of brush, beyond which the pines -rose, in breathing silence, apparently into the very clouds, and the -deathlike stillness of the vast forest, were all in unison to deepen -such a sensation. "They are gone, and they are harmless," continued -Hawkeye, waving his hand, with a melancholy smile at their manifest -alarm; "they'll never shout the war-whoop nor strike a blow with the -tomahawk again! And of all those who aided in placing them where they -lie, Chingachgook and I only are living! The brothers and family of the -Mohican formed our war party; and you see before you all that are now -left of his race." - -The eyes of the listeners involuntarily sought the forms of the Indians, -with a compassionate interest in their desolate fortune. Their dark -persons were still to be seen within the shadows of the blockhouse, -the son listening to the relation of his father with that sort of -intenseness which would be created by a narrative that redounded so much -to the honor of those whose names he had long revered for their courage -and savage virtues. - -"I had thought the Delawares a pacific people," said Duncan, "and that -they never waged war in person; trusting the defense of their hands to -those very Mohawks that you slew!" - -"'Tis true in part," returned the scout, "and yet, at the bottom, 'tis -a wicked lie. Such a treaty was made in ages gone by, through the -deviltries of the Dutchers, who wished to disarm the natives that had -the best right to the country, where they had settled themselves. The -Mohicans, though a part of the same nation, having to deal with the -English, never entered into the silly bargain, but kept to their -manhood; as in truth did the Delawares, when their eyes were open to -their folly. You see before you a chief of the great Mohican Sagamores! -Once his family could chase their deer over tracts of country wider than -that which belongs to the Albany Patteroon, without crossing brook or -hill that was not their own; but what is left of their descendant? He -may find his six feet of earth when God chooses, and keep it in peace, -perhaps, if he has a friend who will take the pains to sink his head so -low that the plowshares cannot reach it!" - -"Enough!" said Heyward, apprehensive that the subject might lead to -a discussion that would interrupt the harmony so necessary to the -preservation of his fair companions; "we have journeyed far, and few -among us are blessed with forms like that of yours, which seems to know -neither fatigue nor weakness." - -"The sinews and bones of a man carry me through it all," said the -hunter, surveying his muscular limbs with a simplicity that betrayed -the honest pleasure the compliment afforded him; "there are larger and -heavier men to be found in the settlements, but you might travel many -days in a city before you could meet one able to walk fifty miles -without stopping to take breath, or who has kept the hounds within -hearing during a chase of hours. However, as flesh and blood are not -always the same, it is quite reasonable to suppose that the gentle ones -are willing to rest, after all they have seen and done this day. Uncas, -clear out the spring, while your father and I make a cover for their -tender heads of these chestnut shoots, and a bed of grass and leaves." - -The dialogue ceased, while the hunter and his companions busied -themselves in preparations for the comfort and protection of those they -guided. A spring, which many long years before had induced the natives -to select the place for their temporary fortification, was soon cleared -of leaves, and a fountain of crystal gushed from the bed, diffusing -its waters over the verdant hillock. A corner of the building was then -roofed in such a manner as to exclude the heavy dew of the climate, -and piles of sweet shrubs and dried leaves were laid beneath it for the -sisters to repose on. - -While the diligent woodsmen were employed in this manner, Cora and -Alice partook of that refreshment which duty required much more than -inclination prompted them to accept. They then retired within the -walls, and first offering up their thanksgivings for past mercies, and -petitioning for a continuance of the Divine favor throughout the coming -night, they laid their tender forms on the fragrant couch, and in spite -of recollections and forebodings, soon sank into those slumbers which -nature so imperiously demanded, and which were sweetened by hopes -for the morrow. Duncan had prepared himself to pass the night in -watchfulness near them, just without the ruin, but the scout, perceiving -his intention, pointed toward Chingachgook, as he coolly disposed his -own person on the grass, and said: - -"The eyes of a white man are too heavy and too blind for such a watch as -this! The Mohican will be our sentinel, therefore let us sleep." - -"I proved myself a sluggard on my post during the past night," said -Heyward, "and have less need of repose than you, who did more credit -to the character of a soldier. Let all the party seek their rest, then, -while I hold the guard." - -"If we lay among the white tents of the Sixtieth, and in front of an -enemy like the French, I could not ask for a better watchman," returned -the scout; "but in the darkness and among the signs of the wilderness -your judgment would be like the folly of a child, and your vigilance -thrown away. Do then, like Uncas and myself, sleep, and sleep in -safety." - -Heyward perceived, in truth, that the younger Indian had thrown his form -on the side of the hillock while they were talking, like one who sought -to make the most of the time allotted to rest, and that his example had -been followed by David, whose voice literally "clove to his jaws," with -the fever of his wound, heightened, as it was, by their toilsome march. -Unwilling to prolong a useless discussion, the young man affected to -comply, by posting his back against the logs of the blockhouse, in a -half recumbent posture, though resolutely determined, in his own mind, -not to close an eye until he had delivered his precious charge into the -arms of Munro himself. Hawkeye, believing he had prevailed, soon fell -asleep, and a silence as deep as the solitude in which they had found -it, pervaded the retired spot. - -For many minutes Duncan succeeded in keeping his senses on the alert, -and alive to every moaning sound that arose from the forest. His vision -became more acute as the shades of evening settled on the place; and -even after the stars were glimmering above his head, he was able to -distinguish the recumbent forms of his companions, as they lay stretched -on the grass, and to note the person of Chingachgook, who sat upright -and motionless as one of the trees which formed the dark barrier on -every side. He still heard the gentle breathings of the sisters, who lay -within a few feet of him, and not a leaf was ruffled by the passing -air of which his ear did not detect the whispering sound. At length, -however, the mournful notes of a whip-poor-will became blended with the -moanings of an owl; his heavy eyes occasionally sought the bright rays -of the stars, and he then fancied he saw them through the fallen lids. -At instants of momentary wakefulness he mistook a bush for his associate -sentinel; his head next sank upon his shoulder, which, in its turn, -sought the support of the ground; and, finally, his whole person became -relaxed and pliant, and the young man sank into a deep sleep, dreaming -that he was a knight of ancient chivalry, holding his midnight vigils -before the tent of a recaptured princess, whose favor he did not despair -of gaining, by such a proof of devotion and watchfulness. - -How long the tired Duncan lay in this insensible state he never -knew himself, but his slumbering visions had been long lost in total -forgetfulness, when he was awakened by a light tap on the shoulder. -Aroused by this signal, slight as it was, he sprang upon his feet with -a confused recollection of the self-imposed duty he had assumed with the -commencement of the night. - -"Who comes?" he demanded, feeling for his sword, at the place where it -was usually suspended. "Speak! friend or enemy?" - -"Friend," replied the low voice of Chingachgook; who, pointing upward -at the luminary which was shedding its mild light through the opening -in the trees, directly in their bivouac, immediately added, in his rude -English: "Moon comes and white man's fort far--far off; time to move, -when sleep shuts both eyes of the Frenchman!" - -"You say true! Call up your friends, and bridle the horses while I -prepare my own companions for the march!" - -"We are awake, Duncan," said the soft, silvery tones of Alice within the -building, "and ready to travel very fast after so refreshing a sleep; -but you have watched through the tedious night in our behalf, after -having endured so much fatigue the livelong day!" - -"Say, rather, I would have watched, but my treacherous eyes betrayed me; -twice have I proved myself unfit for the trust I bear." - -"Nay, Duncan, deny it not," interrupted the smiling Alice, issuing -from the shadows of the building into the light of the moon, in all the -loveliness of her freshened beauty; "I know you to be a heedless one, -when self is the object of your care, and but too vigilant in favor of -others. Can we not tarry here a little longer while you find the rest -you need? Cheerfully, most cheerfully, will Cora and I keep the vigils, -while you and all these brave men endeavor to snatch a little sleep!" - -"If shame could cure me of my drowsiness, I should never close an eye -again," said the uneasy youth, gazing at the ingenuous countenance -of Alice, where, however, in its sweet solicitude, he read nothing to -confirm his half-awakened suspicion. "It is but too true, that after -leading you into danger by my heedlessness, I have not even the merit of -guarding your pillows as should become a soldier." - -"No one but Duncan himself should accuse Duncan of such a weakness. Go, -then, and sleep; believe me, neither of us, weak girls as we are, will -betray our watch." - -The young man was relieved from the awkwardness of making any further -protestations of his own demerits, by an exclamation from Chingachgook, -and the attitude of riveted attention assumed by his son. - -"The Mohicans hear an enemy!" whispered Hawkeye, who, by this time, in -common with the whole party, was awake and stirring. "They scent danger -in the wind!" - -"God forbid!" exclaimed Heyward. "Surely we have had enough of -bloodshed!" - -While he spoke, however, the young soldier seized his rifle, and -advancing toward the front, prepared to atone for his venial remissness, -by freely exposing his life in defense of those he attended. - -"'Tis some creature of the forest prowling around us in quest of food," -he said, in a whisper, as soon as the low, and apparently distant -sounds, which had startled the Mohicans, reached his own ears. - -"Hist!" returned the attentive scout; "'tis man; even I can now tell -his tread, poor as my senses are when compared to an Indian's! That -Scampering Huron has fallen in with one of Montcalm's outlying parties, -and they have struck upon our trail. I shouldn't like, myself, to spill -more human blood in this spot," he added, looking around with anxiety in -his features, at the dim objects by which he was surrounded; "but what -must be, must! Lead the horses into the blockhouse, Uncas; and, friends, -do you follow to the same shelter. Poor and old as it is, it offers a -cover, and has rung with the crack of a rifle afore to-night!" - -He was instantly obeyed, the Mohicans leading the Narrangansetts -within the ruin, whither the whole party repaired with the most guarded -silence. - -The sound of approaching footsteps were now too distinctly audible to -leave any doubts as to the nature of the interruption. They were soon -mingled with voices calling to each other in an Indian dialect, which -the hunter, in a whisper, affirmed to Heyward was the language of the -Hurons. When the party reached the point where the horses had entered -the thicket which surrounded the blockhouse, they were evidently at -fault, having lost those marks which, until that moment, had directed -their pursuit. - -It would seem by the voices that twenty men were soon collected at that -one spot, mingling their different opinions and advice in noisy clamor. - -"The knaves know our weakness," whispered Hawkeye, who stood by the side -of Heyward, in deep shade, looking through an opening in the logs, "or -they wouldn't indulge their idleness in such a squaw's march. Listen to -the reptiles! each man among them seems to have two tongues, and but a -single leg." - -Duncan, brave as he was in the combat, could not, in such a moment of -painful suspense, make any reply to the cool and characteristic remark -of the scout. He only grasped his rifle more firmly, and fastened his -eyes upon the narrow opening, through which he gazed upon the moonlight -view with increasing anxiety. The deeper tones of one who spoke as -having authority were next heard, amid a silence that denoted the -respect with which his orders, or rather advice, was received. After -which, by the rustling of leaves, and crackling of dried twigs, it -was apparent the savages were separating in pursuit of the lost trail. -Fortunately for the pursued, the light of the moon, while it shed a -flood of mild luster upon the little area around the ruin, was not -sufficiently strong to penetrate the deep arches of the forest, where -the objects still lay in deceptive shadow. The search proved fruitless; -for so short and sudden had been the passage from the faint path the -travelers had journeyed into the thicket, that every trace of their -footsteps was lost in the obscurity of the woods. - -It was not long, however, before the restless savages were heard beating -the brush, and gradually approaching the inner edge of that dense border -of young chestnuts which encircled the little area. - -"They are coming," muttered Heyward, endeavoring to thrust his rifle -through the chink in the logs; "let us fire on their approach." - -"Keep everything in the shade," returned the scout; "the snapping of -a flint, or even the smell of a single karnel of the brimstone, would -bring the hungry varlets upon us in a body. Should it please God that we -must give battle for the scalps, trust to the experience of men who -know the ways of the savages, and who are not often backward when the -war-whoop is howled." - -Duncan cast his eyes behind him, and saw that the trembling sisters were -cowering in the far corner of the building, while the Mohicans stood in -the shadow, like two upright posts, ready, and apparently willing, to -strike when the blow should be needed. Curbing his impatience, he again -looked out upon the area, and awaited the result in silence. At that -instant the thicket opened, and a tall and armed Huron advanced a few -paces into the open space. As he gazed upon the silent blockhouse, the -moon fell upon his swarthy countenance, and betrayed its surprise and -curiosity. He made the exclamation which usually accompanies the former -emotion in an Indian, and, calling in a low voice, soon drew a companion -to his side. - -These children of the woods stood together for several moments pointing -at the crumbling edifice, and conversing in the unintelligible language -of their tribe. They then approached, though with slow and cautious -steps, pausing every instant to look at the building, like startled deer -whose curiosity struggled powerfully with their awakened apprehensions -for the mastery. The foot of one of them suddenly rested on the mound, -and he stopped to examine its nature. At this moment, Heyward observed -that the scout loosened his knife in its sheath, and lowered the muzzle -of his rifle. Imitating these movements, the young man prepared himself -for the struggle which now seemed inevitable. - -The savages were so near, that the least motion in one of the horses, or -even a breath louder than common, would have betrayed the fugitives. But -in discovering the character of the mound, the attention of the Hurons -appeared directed to a different object. They spoke together, and -the sounds of their voices were low and solemn, as if influenced by a -reverence that was deeply blended with awe. Then they drew warily back, -keeping their eyes riveted on the ruin, as if they expected to see -the apparitions of the dead issue from its silent walls, until, having -reached the boundary of the area, they moved slowly into the thicket and -disappeared. - -Hawkeye dropped the breech of his rifle to the earth, and drawing a -long, free breath, exclaimed, in an audible whisper: - -"Ay! they respect the dead, and it has this time saved their own lives, -and, it may be, the lives of better men too." - -Heyward lent his attention for a single moment to his companion, but -without replying, he again turned toward those who just then interested -him more. He heard the two Hurons leave the bushes, and it was soon -plain that all the pursuers were gathered about them, in deep attention -to their report. After a few minutes of earnest and solemn dialogue, -altogether different from the noisy clamor with which they had first -collected about the spot, the sounds grew fainter and more distant, and -finally were lost in the depths of the forest. - -Hawkeye waited until a signal from the listening Chingachgook assured -him that every sound from the retiring party was completely swallowed by -the distance, when he motioned to Heyward to lead forth the horses, and -to assist the sisters into their saddles. The instant this was done -they issued through the broken gateway, and stealing out by a direction -opposite to the one by which they entered, they quitted the spot, the -sisters casting furtive glances at the silent, grave and crumbling ruin, -as they left the soft light of the moon, to bury themselves in the gloom -of the woods. - - - - -CHAPTER 14 - - "Guard.--Qui est la? - Puc. --Paisans, pauvres gens de France." - --King Henry VI - -During the rapid movement from the blockhouse, and until the party was -deeply buried in the forest, each individual was too much interested in -the escape to hazard a word even in whispers. The scout resumed his -post in advance, though his steps, after he had thrown a safe distance -between himself and his enemies, were more deliberate than in their -previous march, in consequence of his utter ignorance of the localities -of the surrounding woods. More than once he halted to consult with his -confederates, the Mohicans, pointing upward at the moon, and examining -the barks of the trees with care. In these brief pauses, Heyward and the -sisters listened, with senses rendered doubly acute by the danger, to -detect any symptoms which might announce the proximity of their foes. -At such moments, it seemed as if a vast range of country lay buried in -eternal sleep; not the least sound arising from the forest, unless it -was the distant and scarcely audible rippling of a water-course. Birds, -beasts, and man, appeared to slumber alike, if, indeed, any of the -latter were to be found in that wide tract of wilderness. But the sounds -of the rivulet, feeble and murmuring as they were, relieved the guides -at once from no trifling embarrassment, and toward it they immediately -held their way. - -When the banks of the little stream were gained, Hawkeye made another -halt; and taking the moccasins from his feet, he invited Heyward and -Gamut to follow his example. He then entered the water, and for near an -hour they traveled in the bed of the brook, leaving no trail. The -moon had already sunk into an immense pile of black clouds, which lay -impending above the western horizon, when they issued from the low and -devious water-course to rise again to the light and level of the sandy -but wooded plain. Here the scout seemed to be once more at home, for he -held on this way with the certainty and diligence of a man who moved in -the security of his own knowledge. The path soon became more uneven, and -the travelers could plainly perceive that the mountains drew nigher to -them on each hand, and that they were, in truth, about entering one of -their gorges. Suddenly, Hawkeye made a pause, and, waiting until he -was joined by the whole party, he spoke, though in tones so low and -cautious, that they added to the solemnity of his words, in the quiet -and darkness of the place. - -"It is easy to know the pathways, and to find the licks and -water-courses of the wilderness," he said; "but who that saw this spot -could venture to say, that a mighty army was at rest among yonder silent -trees and barren mountains?" - -"We are, then, at no great distance from William Henry?" said Heyward, -advancing nigher to the scout. - -"It is yet a long and weary path, and when and where to strike it is -now our greatest difficulty. See," he said, pointing through the trees -toward a spot where a little basin of water reflected the stars from its -placid bosom, "here is the 'bloody pond'; and I am on ground that I have -not only often traveled, but over which I have fou't the enemy, from the -rising to the setting sun." - -"Ha! that sheet of dull and dreary water, then, is the sepulcher of the -brave men who fell in the contest. I have heard it named, but never have -I stood on its banks before." - -"Three battles did we make with the Dutch-Frenchman* in a day," -continued Hawkeye, pursuing the train of his own thoughts, rather than -replying to the remark of Duncan. "He met us hard by, in our outward -march to ambush his advance, and scattered us, like driven deer, through -the defile, to the shores of Horican. Then we rallied behind our fallen -trees, and made head against him, under Sir William--who was made Sir -William for that very deed; and well did we pay him for the disgrace -of the morning! Hundreds of Frenchmen saw the sun that day for the last -time; and even their leader, Dieskau himself, fell into our hands, so -cut and torn with the lead, that he has gone back to his own country, -unfit for further acts in war." - - * Baron Dieskau, a German, in the service of France. A few - years previously to the period of the tale, this officer was - defeated by Sir William Johnson, of Johnstown, New York, on - the shores of Lake George. - -"'Twas a noble repulse!" exclaimed Heyward, in the heat of his youthful -ardor; "the fame of it reached us early, in our southern army." - -"Ay! but it did not end there. I was sent by Major Effingham, at Sir -William's own bidding, to outflank the French, and carry the tidings -of their disaster across the portage, to the fort on the Hudson. Just -hereaway, where you see the trees rise into a mountain swell, I met a -party coming down to our aid, and I led them where the enemy were taking -their meal, little dreaming that they had not finished the bloody work -of the day." - -"And you surprised them?" - -"If death can be a surprise to men who are thinking only of the cravings -of their appetites. We gave them but little breathing time, for they had -borne hard upon us in the fight of the morning, and there were few in -our party who had not lost friend or relative by their hands." - -"When all was over, the dead, and some say the dying, were cast into -that little pond. These eyes have seen its waters colored with blood, as -natural water never yet flowed from the bowels of the 'arth." - -"It was a convenient, and, I trust, will prove a peaceful grave for a -soldier. You have then seen much service on this frontier?" - -"Ay!" said the scout, erecting his tall person with an air of military -pride; "there are not many echoes among these hills that haven't rung -with the crack of my rifle, nor is there the space of a square mile -atwixt Horican and the river, that 'killdeer' hasn't dropped a living -body on, be it an enemy or be it a brute beast. As for the grave there -being as quiet as you mention, it is another matter. There are them -in the camp who say and think, man, to lie still, should not be buried -while the breath is in the body; and certain it is that in the hurry of -that evening, the doctors had but little time to say who was living and -who was dead. Hist! see you nothing walking on the shore of the pond?" - -"'Tis not probable that any are as houseless as ourselves in this dreary -forest." - -"Such as he may care but little for house or shelter, and night dew can -never wet a body that passes its days in the water," returned the scout, -grasping the shoulder of Heyward with such convulsive strength as to -make the young soldier painfully sensible how much superstitious terror -had got the mastery of a man usually so dauntless. - -"By heaven, there is a human form, and it approaches! Stand to your -arms, my friends; for we know not whom we encounter." - -"Qui vive?" demanded a stern, quick voice, which sounded like a -challenge from another world, issuing out of that solitary and solemn -place. - -"What says it?" whispered the scout; "it speaks neither Indian nor -English." - -"Qui vive?" repeated the same voice, which was quickly followed by the -rattling of arms, and a menacing attitude. - -"France!" cried Heyward, advancing from the shadow of the trees to the -shore of the pond, within a few yards of the sentinel. - -"D'ou venez-vous--ou allez-vous, d'aussi bonne heure?" demanded the -grenadier, in the language and with the accent of a man from old France. - -"Je viens de la decouverte, et je vais me coucher." - -"Etes-vous officier du roi?" - -"Sans doute, mon camarade; me prends-tu pour un provincial! Je suis -capitaine de chasseurs (Heyward well knew that the other was of a -regiment in the line); j'ai ici, avec moi, les filles du commandant -de la fortification. Aha! tu en as entendu parler! je les ai fait -prisonnieres pres de l'autre fort, et je les conduis au general." - -"Ma foi! mesdames; j'en suis fache pour vous," exclaimed the young -soldier, touching his cap with grace; "mais--fortune de guerre! vous -trouverez notre general un brave homme, et bien poli avec les dames." - -"C'est le caractere des gens de guerre," said Cora, with admirable -self-possession. "Adieu, mon ami; je vous souhaiterais un devoir plus -agreable a remplir." - -The soldier made a low and humble acknowledgment for her civility; and -Heyward adding a "Bonne nuit, mon camarade," they moved deliberately -forward, leaving the sentinel pacing the banks of the silent pond, -little suspecting an enemy of so much effrontery, and humming to himself -those words which were recalled to his mind by the sight of women, and, -perhaps, by recollections of his own distant and beautiful France: "Vive -le vin, vive l'amour," etc., etc. - -"'Tis well you understood the knave!" whispered the scout, when they had -gained a little distance from the place, and letting his rifle fall into -the hollow of his arm again; "I soon saw that he was one of them uneasy -Frenchers; and well for him it was that his speech was friendly and his -wishes kind, or a place might have been found for his bones among those -of his countrymen." - -He was interrupted by a long and heavy groan which arose from the little -basin, as though, in truth, the spirits of the departed lingered about -their watery sepulcher. - -"Surely it was of flesh," continued the scout; "no spirit could handle -its arms so steadily." - -"It was of flesh; but whether the poor fellow still belongs to this -world may well be doubted," said Heyward, glancing his eyes around him, -and missing Chingachgook from their little band. Another groan more -faint than the former was succeeded by a heavy and sullen plunge into -the water, and all was still again as if the borders of the dreary pool -had never been awakened from the silence of creation. While they yet -hesitated in uncertainty, the form of the Indian was seen gliding out of -the thicket. As the chief rejoined them, with one hand he attached the -reeking scalp of the unfortunate young Frenchman to his girdle, and with -the other he replaced the knife and tomahawk that had drunk his blood. -He then took his wonted station, with the air of a man who believed he -had done a deed of merit. - -The scout dropped one end of his rifle to the earth, and leaning his -hands on the other, he stood musing in profound silence. Then, shaking -his head in a mournful manner, he muttered: - -"'Twould have been a cruel and an unhuman act for a white-skin; but 'tis -the gift and natur' of an Indian, and I suppose it should not be denied. -I could wish, though, it had befallen an accursed Mingo, rather than -that gay young boy from the old countries." - -"Enough!" said Heyward, apprehensive the unconscious sisters might -comprehend the nature of the detention, and conquering his disgust by a -train of reflections very much like that of the hunter; "'tis done; and -though better it were left undone, cannot be amended. You see, we are, -too obviously within the sentinels of the enemy; what course do you -propose to follow?" - -"Yes," said Hawkeye, rousing himself again; "'tis as you say, too late -to harbor further thoughts about it. Ay, the French have gathered around -the fort in good earnest and we have a delicate needle to thread in -passing them." - -"And but little time to do it in," added Heyward, glancing his eyes -upwards, toward the bank of vapor that concealed the setting moon. - -"And little time to do it in!" repeated the scout. "The thing may be -done in two fashions, by the help of Providence, without which it may -not be done at all." - -"Name them quickly for time presses." - -"One would be to dismount the gentle ones, and let their beasts range -the plain, by sending the Mohicans in front, we might then cut a lane -through their sentries, and enter the fort over the dead bodies." - -"It will not do--it will not do!" interrupted the generous Heyward; -"a soldier might force his way in this manner, but never with such a -convoy." - -"'Twould be, indeed, a bloody path for such tender feet to wade in," -returned the equally reluctant scout; "but I thought it befitting my -manhood to name it. We must, then, turn in our trail and get without the -line of their lookouts, when we will bend short to the west, and enter -the mountains; where I can hide you, so that all the devil's hounds in -Montcalm's pay would be thrown off the scent for months to come." - -"Let it be done, and that instantly." - -Further words were unnecessary; for Hawkeye, merely uttering the mandate -to "follow," moved along the route by which they had just entered their -present critical and even dangerous situation. Their progress, like -their late dialogue, was guarded, and without noise; for none knew at -what moment a passing patrol, or a crouching picket of the enemy, might -rise upon their path. As they held their silent way along the margin -of the pond, again Heyward and the scout stole furtive glances at its -appalling dreariness. They looked in vain for the form they had so -recently seen stalking along in silent shores, while a low and regular -wash of the little waves, by announcing that the waters were not yet -subsided, furnished a frightful memorial of the deed of blood they had -just witnessed. Like all that passing and gloomy scene, the low basin, -however, quickly melted in the darkness, and became blended with the -mass of black objects in the rear of the travelers. - -Hawkeye soon deviated from the line of their retreat, and striking off -towards the mountains which form the western boundary of the narrow -plain, he led his followers, with swift steps, deep within the shadows -that were cast from their high and broken summits. The route was now -painful; lying over ground ragged with rocks, and intersected with -ravines, and their progress proportionately slow. Bleak and black -hills lay on every side of them, compensating in some degree for the -additional toil of the march by the sense of security they imparted. At -length the party began slowly to rise a steep and rugged ascent, by a -path that curiously wound among rocks and trees, avoiding the one and -supported by the other, in a manner that showed it had been devised by -men long practised in the arts of the wilderness. As they gradually rose -from the level of the valleys, the thick darkness which usually precedes -the approach of day began to disperse, and objects were seen in the -plain and palpable colors with which they had been gifted by nature. -When they issued from the stunted woods which clung to the barren sides -of the mountain, upon a flat and mossy rock that formed its summit, they -met the morning, as it came blushing above the green pines of a hill -that lay on the opposite side of the valley of the Horican. - -The scout now told the sisters to dismount; and taking the bridles from -the mouths, and the saddles off the backs of the jaded beasts, he turned -them loose, to glean a scanty subsistence among the shrubs and meager -herbage of that elevated region. - -"Go," he said, "and seek your food where natur' gives it to you; and -beware that you become not food to ravenous wolves yourselves, among -these hills." - -"Have we no further need of them?" demanded Heyward. - -"See, and judge with your own eyes," said the scout, advancing toward -the eastern brow of the mountain, whither he beckoned for the whole -party to follow; "if it was as easy to look into the heart of man as -it is to spy out the nakedness of Montcalm's camp from this spot, -hypocrites would grow scarce, and the cunning of a Mingo might prove a -losing game, compared to the honesty of a Delaware." - -When the travelers reached the verge of the precipices they saw, at -a glance, the truth of the scout's declaration, and the admirable -foresight with which he had led them to their commanding station. - -The mountain on which they stood, elevated perhaps a thousand feet in -the air, was a high cone that rose a little in advance of that range -which stretches for miles along the western shores of the lake, until -meeting its sisters miles beyond the water, it ran off toward the -Canadas, in confused and broken masses of rock, thinly sprinkled with -evergreens. Immediately at the feet of the party, the southern shore -of the Horican swept in a broad semicircle from mountain to mountain, -marking a wide strand, that soon rose into an uneven and somewhat -elevated plain. To the north stretched the limpid, and, as it appeared -from that dizzy height, the narrow sheet of the "holy lake," indented -with numberless bays, embellished by fantastic headlands, and dotted -with countless islands. At the distance of a few leagues, the bed of the -water became lost among mountains, or was wrapped in the masses of vapor -that came slowly rolling along their bosom, before a light morning air. -But a narrow opening between the crests of the hills pointed out the -passage by which they found their way still further north, to spread -their pure and ample sheets again, before pouring out their tribute -into the distant Champlain. To the south stretched the defile, or rather -broken plain, so often mentioned. For several miles in this direction, -the mountains appeared reluctant to yield their dominion, but within -reach of the eye they diverged, and finally melted into the level and -sandy lands, across which we have accompanied our adventurers in their -double journey. Along both ranges of hills, which bounded the opposite -sides of the lake and valley, clouds of light vapor were rising in -spiral wreaths from the uninhabited woods, looking like the smoke of -hidden cottages; or rolled lazily down the declivities, to mingle with -the fogs of the lower land. A single, solitary, snow-white cloud floated -above the valley, and marked the spot beneath which lay the silent pool -of the "bloody pond." - -Directly on the shore of the lake, and nearer to its western than to its -eastern margin, lay the extensive earthen ramparts and low buildings -of William Henry. Two of the sweeping bastions appeared to rest on -the water which washed their bases, while a deep ditch and extensive -morasses guarded its other sides and angles. The land had been cleared -of wood for a reasonable distance around the work, but every other part -of the scene lay in the green livery of nature, except where the limpid -water mellowed the view, or the bold rocks thrust their black and naked -heads above the undulating outline of the mountain ranges. In its front -might be seen the scattered sentinels, who held a weary watch against -their numerous foes; and within the walls themselves, the travelers -looked down upon men still drowsy with a night of vigilance. Toward the -southeast, but in immediate contact with the fort, was an entrenched -camp, posted on a rocky eminence, that would have been far more eligible -for the work itself, in which Hawkeye pointed out the presence of -those auxiliary regiments that had so recently left the Hudson in their -company. From the woods, a little further to the south, rose numerous -dark and lurid smokes, that were easily to be distinguished from the -purer exhalations of the springs, and which the scout also showed to -Heyward, as evidences that the enemy lay in force in that direction. - -But the spectacle which most concerned the young soldier was on the -western bank of the lake, though quite near to its southern termination. -On a strip of land, which appeared from his stand too narrow to contain -such an army, but which, in truth, extended many hundreds of yards from -the shores of the Horican to the base of the mountain, were to be seen -the white tents and military engines of an encampment of ten thousand -men. Batteries were already thrown up in their front, and even while the -spectators above them were looking down, with such different emotions, -on a scene which lay like a map beneath their feet, the roar of -artillery rose from the valley, and passed off in thundering echoes -along the eastern hills. - -"Morning is just touching them below," said the deliberate and musing -scout, "and the watchers have a mind to wake up the sleepers by the -sound of cannon. We are a few hours too late! Montcalm has already -filled the woods with his accursed Iroquois." - -"The place is, indeed, invested," returned Duncan; "but is there no -expedient by which we may enter? capture in the works would be far -preferable to falling again into the hands of roving Indians." - -"See!" exclaimed the scout, unconsciously directing the attention of -Cora to the quarters of her own father, "how that shot has made the -stones fly from the side of the commandant's house! Ay! these Frenchers -will pull it to pieces faster than it was put together, solid and thick -though it be!" - -"Heyward, I sicken at the sight of danger that I cannot share," said -the undaunted but anxious daughter. "Let us go to Montcalm, and demand -admission: he dare not deny a child the boon." - -"You would scarce find the tent of the Frenchman with the hair on your -head"; said the blunt scout. "If I had but one of the thousand boats -which lie empty along that shore, it might be done! Ha! here will soon -be an end of the firing, for yonder comes a fog that will turn day to -night, and make an Indian arrow more dangerous than a molded cannon. -Now, if you are equal to the work, and will follow, I will make a push; -for I long to get down into that camp, if it be only to scatter some -Mingo dogs that I see lurking in the skirts of yonder thicket of birch." - -"We are equal," said Cora, firmly; "on such an errand we will follow to -any danger." - -The scout turned to her with a smile of honest and cordial approbation, -as he answered: - -"I would I had a thousand men, of brawny limbs and quick eyes, that -feared death as little as you! I'd send them jabbering Frenchers back -into their den again, afore the week was ended, howling like so many -fettered hounds or hungry wolves. But, sir," he added, turning from her -to the rest of the party, "the fog comes rolling down so fast, we shall -have but just the time to meet it on the plain, and use it as a cover. -Remember, if any accident should befall me, to keep the air blowing on -your left cheeks--or, rather, follow the Mohicans; they'd scent their -way, be it in day or be it at night." - -He then waved his hand for them to follow, and threw himself down the -steep declivity, with free, but careful footsteps. Heyward assisted -the sisters to descend, and in a few minutes they were all far down a -mountain whose sides they had climbed with so much toil and pain. - -The direction taken by Hawkeye soon brought the travelers to the level -of the plain, nearly opposite to a sally-port in the western curtain of -the fort, which lay itself at the distance of about half a mile from -the point where he halted to allow Duncan to come up with his charge. -In their eagerness, and favored by the nature of the ground, they had -anticipated the fog, which was rolling heavily down the lake, and it -became necessary to pause, until the mists had wrapped the camp of the -enemy in their fleecy mantle. The Mohicans profited by the delay, to -steal out of the woods, and to make a survey of surrounding objects. -They were followed at a little distance by the scout, with a view to -profit early by their report, and to obtain some faint knowledge for -himself of the more immediate localities. - -In a very few moments he returned, his face reddened with vexation, -while he muttered his disappointment in words of no very gentle import. - -"Here has the cunning Frenchman been posting a picket directly in our -path," he said; "red-skins and whites; and we shall be as likely to fall -into their midst as to pass them in the fog!" - -"Cannot we make a circuit to avoid the danger," asked Heyward, "and come -into our path again when it is passed?" - -"Who that once bends from the line of his march in a fog can tell when -or how to find it again! The mists of Horican are not like the curls -from a peace-pipe, or the smoke which settles above a mosquito fire." - -He was yet speaking, when a crashing sound was heard, and a cannon-ball -entered the thicket, striking the body of a sapling, and rebounding to -the earth, its force being much expended by previous resistance. -The Indians followed instantly like busy attendants on the terrible -messenger, and Uncas commenced speaking earnestly and with much action, -in the Delaware tongue. - -"It may be so, lad," muttered the scout, when he had ended; "for -desperate fevers are not to be treated like a toothache. Come, then, the -fog is shutting in." - -"Stop!" cried Heyward; "first explain your expectations." - -"'Tis soon done, and a small hope it is; but it is better than nothing. -This shot that you see," added the scout, kicking the harmless iron with -his foot, "has plowed the 'arth in its road from the fort, and we shall -hunt for the furrow it has made, when all other signs may fail. No more -words, but follow, or the fog may leave us in the middle of our path, a -mark for both armies to shoot at." - -Heyward perceiving that, in fact, a crisis had arrived, when acts were -more required than words, placed himself between the sisters, and drew -them swiftly forward, keeping the dim figure of their leader in his eye. -It was soon apparent that Hawkeye had not magnified the power of the -fog, for before they had proceeded twenty yards, it was difficult for -the different individuals of the party to distinguish each other in the -vapor. - -They had made their little circuit to the left, and were already -inclining again toward the right, having, as Heyward thought, got over -nearly half the distance to the friendly works, when his ears were -saluted with the fierce summons, apparently within twenty feet of them, -of: - -"Qui va la?" - -"Push on!" whispered the scout, once more bending to the left. - -"Push on!" repeated Heyward; when the summons was renewed by a dozen -voices, each of which seemed charged with menace. - -"C'est moi," cried Duncan, dragging rather than leading those he -supported swiftly onward. - -"Bete!--qui?--moi!" - -"Ami de la France." - -"Tu m'as plus l'air d'un ennemi de la France; arrete ou pardieu je te -ferai ami du diable. Non! feu, camarades, feu!" - -The order was instantly obeyed, and the fog was stirred by the explosion -of fifty muskets. Happily, the aim was bad, and the bullets cut the -air in a direction a little different from that taken by the fugitives; -though still so nigh them, that to the unpractised ears of David and the -two females, it appeared as if they whistled within a few inches of the -organs. The outcry was renewed, and the order, not only to fire again, -but to pursue, was too plainly audible. When Heyward briefly explained -the meaning of the words they heard, Hawkeye halted and spoke with quick -decision and great firmness. - -"Let us deliver our fire," he said; "they will believe it a sortie, and -give way, or they will wait for reinforcements." - -The scheme was well conceived, but failed in its effects. The instant -the French heard the pieces, it seemed as if the plain was alive with -men, muskets rattling along its whole extent, from the shores of the -lake to the furthest boundary of the woods. - -"We shall draw their entire army upon us, and bring on a general -assault," said Duncan: "lead on, my friend, for your own life and ours." - -The scout seemed willing to comply; but, in the hurry of the moment, and -in the change of position, he had lost the direction. In vain he turned -either cheek toward the light air; they felt equally cool. In this -dilemma, Uncas lighted on the furrow of the cannon ball, where it had -cut the ground in three adjacent ant-hills. - -"Give me the range!" said Hawkeye, bending to catch a glimpse of the -direction, and then instantly moving onward. - -Cries, oaths, voices calling to each other, and the reports of muskets, -were now quick and incessant, and, apparently, on every side of them. -Suddenly a strong glare of light flashed across the scene, the fog -rolled upward in thick wreaths, and several cannons belched across the -plain, and the roar was thrown heavily back from the bellowing echoes of -the mountain. - -"'Tis from the fort!" exclaimed Hawkeye, turning short on his tracks; -"and we, like stricken fools, were rushing to the woods, under the very -knives of the Maquas." - -The instant their mistake was rectified, the whole party retraced the -error with the utmost diligence. Duncan willingly relinquished the -support of Cora to the arm of Uncas and Cora as readily accepted the -welcome assistance. Men, hot and angry in pursuit, were evidently on -their footsteps, and each instant threatened their capture, if not their -destruction. - -"Point de quartier aux coquins!" cried an eager pursuer, who seemed to -direct the operations of the enemy. - -"Stand firm, and be ready, my gallant Sixtieths!" suddenly exclaimed -a voice above them; "wait to see the enemy, fire low and sweep the -glacis." - -"Father! father!" exclaimed a piercing cry from out the mist: "it is I! -Alice! thy own Elsie! Spare, oh! save your daughters!" - -"Hold!" shouted the former speaker, in the awful tones of parental -agony, the sound reaching even to the woods, and rolling back in solemn -echo. "'Tis she! God has restored me to my children! Throw open the -sally-port; to the field, Sixtieths, to the field; pull not a trigger, -lest ye kill my lambs! Drive off these dogs of France with your steel." - -Duncan heard the grating of the rusty hinges, and darting to the spot, -directed by the sound, he met a long line of dark red warriors, passing -swiftly toward the glacis. He knew them for his own battalion of the -Royal Americans, and flying to their head, soon swept every trace of his -pursuers from before the works. - -For an instant, Cora and Alice had stood trembling and bewildered by -this unexpected desertion; but before either had leisure for speech, or -even thought, an officer of gigantic frame, whose locks were bleached -with years and service, but whose air of military grandeur had been -rather softened than destroyed by time, rushed out of the body of mist, -and folded them to his bosom, while large scalding tears rolled down his -pale and wrinkled cheeks, and he exclaimed, in the peculiar accent of -Scotland: - -"For this I thank thee, Lord! Let danger come as it will, thy servant is -now prepared!" - - - - -CHAPTER 15 - - "Then go we in, to know his embassy; - Which I could, with ready guess, declare, - Before the Frenchmen speak a word of it." - --King Henry V - -A few succeeding days were passed amid the privations, the uproar, -and the dangers of the siege, which was vigorously pressed by a -power, against whose approaches Munro possessed no competent means of -resistance. It appeared as if Webb, with his army, which lay slumbering -on the banks of the Hudson, had utterly forgotten the strait to which -his countrymen were reduced. Montcalm had filled the woods of the -portage with his savages, every yell and whoop from whom rang through -the British encampment, chilling the hearts of men who were already but -too much disposed to magnify the danger. - -Not so, however, with the besieged. Animated by the words, and -stimulated by the examples of their leaders, they had found their -courage, and maintained their ancient reputation, with a zeal that did -justice to the stern character of their commander. As if satisfied with -the toil of marching through the wilderness to encounter his enemy, the -French general, though of approved skill, had neglected to seize the -adjacent mountains; whence the besieged might have been exterminated -with impunity, and which, in the more modern warfare of the country, -would not have been neglected for a single hour. This sort of contempt -for eminences, or rather dread of the labor of ascending them, might -have been termed the besetting weakness of the warfare of the period. It -originated in the simplicity of the Indian contests, in which, from the -nature of the combats, and the density of the forests, fortresses were -rare, and artillery next to useless. The carelessness engendered by -these usages descended even to the war of the Revolution and lost the -States the important fortress of Ticonderoga opening a way for the army -of Burgoyne into what was then the bosom of the country. We look back at -this ignorance, or infatuation, whichever it may be called, with wonder, -knowing that the neglect of an eminence, whose difficulties, like those -of Mount Defiance, have been so greatly exaggerated, would, at the -present time, prove fatal to the reputation of the engineer who had -planned the works at their base, or to that of the general whose lot it -was to defend them. - -The tourist, the valetudinarian, or the amateur of the beauties of -nature, who, in the train of his four-in-hand, now rolls through the -scenes we have attempted to describe, in quest of information, health, -or pleasure, or floats steadily toward his object on those artificial -waters which have sprung up under the administration of a statesman* who -has dared to stake his political character on the hazardous issue, is -not to suppose that his ancestors traversed those hills, or struggled -with the same currents with equal facility. The transportation of a -single heavy gun was often considered equal to a victory gained; if -happily, the difficulties of the passage had not so far separated it -from its necessary concomitant, the ammunition, as to render it no more -than a useless tube of unwieldy iron. - - * Evidently the late De Witt Clinton, who died governor of - New York in 1828. - -The evils of this state of things pressed heavily on the fortunes of the -resolute Scotsman who now defended William Henry. Though his adversary -neglected the hills, he had planted his batteries with judgment on the -plain, and caused them to be served with vigor and skill. Against -this assault, the besieged could only oppose the imperfect and hasty -preparations of a fortress in the wilderness. - -It was in the afternoon of the fifth day of the siege, and the fourth of -his own service in it, that Major Heyward profited by a parley that -had just been beaten, by repairing to the ramparts of one of the water -bastions, to breathe the cool air from the lake, and to take a survey -of the progress of the siege. He was alone, if the solitary sentinel who -paced the mound be excepted; for the artillerists had hastened also to -profit by the temporary suspension of their arduous duties. The evening -was delightfully calm, and the light air from the limpid water fresh and -soothing. It seemed as if, with the termination of the roar of artillery -and the plunging of shot, nature had also seized the moment to assume -her mildest and most captivating form. The sun poured down his parting -glory on the scene, without the oppression of those fierce rays that -belong to the climate and the season. The mountains looked green, -and fresh, and lovely, tempered with the milder light, or softened in -shadow, as thin vapors floated between them and the sun. The numerous -islands rested on the bosom of the Horican, some low and sunken, as if -embedded in the waters, and others appearing to hover about the element, -in little hillocks of green velvet; among which the fishermen of the -beleaguering army peacefully rowed their skiffs, or floated at rest on -the glassy mirror in quiet pursuit of their employment. - -The scene was at once animated and still. All that pertained to nature -was sweet, or simply grand; while those parts which depended on the -temper and movements of man were lively and playful. - -Two little spotless flags were abroad, the one on a salient angle of the -fort, and the other on the advanced battery of the besiegers; emblems of -the truth which existed, not only to the acts, but it would seem, also, -to the enmity of the combatants. - -Behind these again swung, heavily opening and closing in silken folds, -the rival standards of England and France. - -A hundred gay and thoughtless young Frenchmen were drawing a net to the -pebbly beach, within dangerous proximity to the sullen but silent cannon -of the fort, while the eastern mountain was sending back the loud shouts -and gay merriment that attended their sport. Some were rushing eagerly -to enjoy the aquatic games of the lake, and others were already toiling -their way up the neighboring hills, with the restless curiosity of their -nation. To all these sports and pursuits, those of the enemy who watched -the besieged, and the besieged themselves, were, however, merely the -idle though sympathizing spectators. Here and there a picket had, -indeed, raised a song, or mingled in a dance, which had drawn the -dusky savages around them, from their lairs in the forest. In short, -everything wore rather the appearance of a day of pleasure, than of -an hour stolen from the dangers and toil of a bloody and vindictive -warfare. - -Duncan had stood in a musing attitude, contemplating this scene a few -minutes, when his eyes were directed to the glacis in front of the -sally-port already mentioned, by the sounds of approaching footsteps. He -walked to an angle of the bastion, and beheld the scout advancing, -under the custody of a French officer, to the body of the fort. The -countenance of Hawkeye was haggard and careworn, and his air dejected, -as though he felt the deepest degradation at having fallen into the -power of his enemies. He was without his favorite weapon, and his arms -were even bound behind him with thongs, made of the skin of a deer. The -arrival of flags to cover the messengers of summons, had occurred so -often of late, that when Heyward first threw his careless glance on this -group, he expected to see another of the officers of the enemy, charged -with a similar office but the instant he recognized the tall person and -still sturdy though downcast features of his friend, the woodsman, he -started with surprise, and turned to descend from the bastion into the -bosom of the work. - -The sounds of other voices, however, caught his attention, and for a -moment caused him to forget his purpose. At the inner angle of the mound -he met the sisters, walking along the parapet, in search, like himself, -of air and relief from confinement. They had not met from that painful -moment when he deserted them on the plain, only to assure their safety. -He had parted from them worn with care, and jaded with fatigue; he now -saw them refreshed and blooming, though timid and anxious. Under such an -inducement it will cause no surprise that the young man lost sight for -a time, of other objects in order to address them. He was, however, -anticipated by the voice of the ingenuous and youthful Alice. - -"Ah! thou tyrant! thou recreant knight! he who abandons his damsels -in the very lists," she cried; "here have we been days, nay, ages, -expecting you at our feet, imploring mercy and forgetfulness of your -craven backsliding, or I should rather say, backrunning--for verily you -fled in the manner that no stricken deer, as our worthy friend the scout -would say, could equal!" - -"You know that Alice means our thanks and our blessings," added the -graver and more thoughtful Cora. "In truth, we have a little wonder why -you should so rigidly absent yourself from a place where the gratitude -of the daughters might receive the support of a parent's thanks." - -"Your father himself could tell you, that, though absent from your -presence, I have not been altogether forgetful of your safety," returned -the young man; "the mastery of yonder village of huts," pointing to the -neighboring entrenched camp, "has been keenly disputed; and he who holds -it is sure to be possessed of this fort, and that which it contains. My -days and nights have all been passed there since we separated, because -I thought that duty called me thither. But," he added, with an air of -chagrin, which he endeavored, though unsuccessfully, to conceal, "had -I been aware that what I then believed a soldier's conduct could be so -construed, shame would have been added to the list of reasons." - -"Heyward! Duncan!" exclaimed Alice, bending forward to read his -half-averted countenance, until a lock of her golden hair rested on her -flushed cheek, and nearly concealed the tear that had started to her -eye; "did I think this idle tongue of mine had pained you, I would -silence it forever. Cora can say, if Cora would, how justly we have -prized your services, and how deep--I had almost said, how fervent--is -our gratitude." - -"And will Cora attest the truth of this?" cried Duncan, suffering the -cloud to be chased from his countenance by a smile of open pleasure. -"What says our graver sister? Will she find an excuse for the neglect of -the knight in the duty of a soldier?" - -Cora made no immediate answer, but turned her face toward the water, as -if looking on the sheet of the Horican. When she did bend her dark eyes -on the young man, they were yet filled with an expression of anguish -that at once drove every thought but that of kind solicitude from his -mind. - -"You are not well, dearest Miss Munro!" he exclaimed; "we have trifled -while you are in suffering!" - -"'Tis nothing," she answered, refusing his support with feminine -reserve. "That I cannot see the sunny side of the picture of life, like -this artless but ardent enthusiast," she added, laying her hand lightly, -but affectionately, on the arm of her sister, "is the penalty of -experience, and, perhaps, the misfortune of my nature. See," she -continued, as if determined to shake off infirmity, in a sense of duty; -"look around you, Major Heyward, and tell me what a prospect is this for -the daughter of a soldier whose greatest happiness is his honor and his -military renown." - -"Neither ought nor shall be tarnished by circumstances over which he has -had no control," Duncan warmly replied. "But your words recall me to my -own duty. I go now to your gallant father, to hear his determination -in matters of the last moment to the defense. God bless you in every -fortune, noble--Cora--I may and must call you." She frankly gave him her -hand, though her lip quivered, and her cheeks gradually became of ashly -paleness. "In every fortune, I know you will be an ornament and honor -to your sex. Alice, adieu"--his voice changed from admiration to -tenderness--"adieu, Alice; we shall soon meet again; as conquerors, I -trust, and amid rejoicings!" - -Without waiting for an answer from either, the young man threw himself -down the grassy steps of the bastion, and moving rapidly across the -parade, he was quickly in the presence of their father. Munro was pacing -his narrow apartment with a disturbed air and gigantic strides as Duncan -entered. - -"You have anticipated my wishes, Major Heyward," he said; "I was about -to request this favor." - -"I am sorry to see, sir, that the messenger I so warmly recommended has -returned in custody of the French! I hope there is no reason to distrust -his fidelity?" - -"The fidelity of 'The Long Rifle' is well known to me," returned Munro, -"and is above suspicion; though his usual good fortune seems, at last, -to have failed. Montcalm has got him, and with the accursed politeness -of his nation, he has sent him in with a doleful tale, of 'knowing how -I valued the fellow, he could not think of retaining him.' A Jesuitical -way that, Major Duncan Heyward, of telling a man of his misfortunes!" - -"But the general and his succor?" - -"Did ye look to the south as ye entered, and could ye not see them?" -said the old soldier, laughing bitterly. - -"Hoot! hoot! you're an impatient boy, sir, and cannot give the gentlemen -leisure for their march!" - -"They are coming, then? The scout has said as much?" - -"When? and by what path? for the dunce has omitted to tell me this. -There is a letter, it would seem, too; and that is the only agreeable -part of the matter. For the customary attentions of your Marquis of -Montcalm--I warrant me, Duncan, that he of Lothian would buy a dozen -such marquisates--but if the news of the letter were bad, the gentility -of this French monsieur would certainly compel him to let us know it." - -"He keeps the letter, then, while he releases the messenger?" - -"Ay, that does he, and all for the sake of what you call your -'bonhommie' I would venture, if the truth was known, the fellow's -grandfather taught the noble science of dancing." - -"But what says the scout? he has eyes and ears, and a tongue. What -verbal report does he make?" - -"Oh! sir, he is not wanting in natural organs, and he is free to tell -all that he has seen and heard. The whole amount is this; there is a -fort of his majesty's on the banks of the Hudson, called Edward, in -honor of his gracious highness of York, you'll know; and it is well -filled with armed men, as such a work should be." - -"But was there no movement, no signs of any intention to advance to our -relief?" - -"There were the morning and evening parades; and when one of the -provincial loons--you'll know, Duncan, you're half a Scotsman -yourself--when one of them dropped his powder over his porretch, if it -touched the coals, it just burned!" Then, suddenly changing his bitter, -ironical manner, to one more grave and thoughtful, he continued: "and -yet there might, and must be, something in that letter which it would be -well to know!" - -"Our decision should be speedy," said Duncan, gladly availing himself -of this change of humor, to press the more important objects of their -interview; "I cannot conceal from you, sir, that the camp will not be -much longer tenable; and I am sorry to add, that things appear no better -in the fort; more than half the guns are bursted." - -"And how should it be otherwise? Some were fished from the bottom of -the lake; some have been rusting in woods since the discovery of -the country; and some were never guns at all--mere privateersmen's -playthings! Do you think, sir, you can have Woolwich Warren in the midst -of a wilderness, three thousand miles from Great Britain?" - -"The walls are crumbling about our ears, and provisions begin to fail -us," continued Heyward, without regarding the new burst of indignation; -"even the men show signs of discontent and alarm." - -"Major Heyward," said Munro, turning to his youthful associate with -the dignity of his years and superior rank; "I should have served his -majesty for half a century, and earned these gray hairs in vain, were -I ignorant of all you say, and of the pressing nature of our -circumstances; still, there is everything due to the honor of the king's -arms, and something to ourselves. While there is hope of succor, this -fortress will I defend, though it be to be done with pebbles gathered -on the lake shore. It is a sight of the letter, therefore, that we want, -that we may know the intentions of the man the earl of Loudon has left -among us as his substitute." - -"And can I be of service in the matter?" - -"Sir, you can; the marquis of Montcalm has, in addition to his other -civilities, invited me to a personal interview between the works and his -own camp; in order, as he says, to impart some additional information. -Now, I think it would not be wise to show any undue solicitude to meet -him, and I would employ you, an officer of rank, as my substitute; for -it would but ill comport with the honor of Scotland to let it be said -one of her gentlemen was outdone in civility by a native of any other -country on earth." - -Without assuming the supererogatory task of entering into a discussion -of the comparative merits of national courtesy, Duncan cheerfully -assented to supply the place of the veteran in the approaching -interview. A long and confidential communication now succeeded, during -which the young man received some additional insight into his duty, -from the experience and native acuteness of his commander, and then the -former took his leave. - -As Duncan could only act as the representative of the commandant of the -fort, the ceremonies which should have accompanied a meeting between the -heads of the adverse forces were, of course, dispensed with. The truce -still existed, and with a roll and beat of the drum, and covered by a -little white flag, Duncan left the sally-port, within ten minutes after -his instructions were ended. He was received by the French officer in -advance with the usual formalities, and immediately accompanied to a -distant marquee of the renowned soldier who led the forces of France. - -The general of the enemy received the youthful messenger, surrounded by -his principal officers, and by a swarthy band of the native chiefs, -who had followed him to the field, with the warriors of their several -tribes. Heyward paused short, when, in glancing his eyes rapidly over -the dark group of the latter, he beheld the malignant countenance of -Magua, regarding him with the calm but sullen attention which marked the -expression of that subtle savage. A slight exclamation of surprise even -burst from the lips of the young man, but instantly, recollecting -his errand, and the presence in which he stood, he suppressed every -appearance of emotion, and turned to the hostile leader, who had already -advanced a step to receive him. - -The marquis of Montcalm was, at the period of which we write, in the -flower of his age, and, it may be added, in the zenith of his fortunes. -But even in that enviable situation, he was affable, and distinguished -as much for his attention to the forms of courtesy, as for that -chivalrous courage which, only two short years afterward, induced him -to throw away his life on the plains of Abraham. Duncan, in turning his -eyes from the malign expression of Magua, suffered them to rest with -pleasure on the smiling and polished features, and the noble military -air, of the French general. - -"Monsieur," said the latter, "j'ai beaucoup de plaisir a--bah!--ou est -cet interprete?" - -"Je crois, monsieur, qu'il ne sear pas necessaire," Heyward modestly -replied; "je parle un peu francais." - -"Ah! j'en suis bien aise," said Montcalm, taking Duncan familiarly by -the arm, and leading him deep into the marquee, a little out of earshot; -"je deteste ces fripons-la; on ne sait jamais sur quel pie on est avec -eux. Eh, bien! monsieur," he continued still speaking in French; "though -I should have been proud of receiving your commandant, I am very happy -that he has seen proper to employ an officer so distinguished, and who, -I am sure, is so amiable, as yourself." - -Duncan bowed low, pleased with the compliment, in spite of a most heroic -determination to suffer no artifice to allure him into forgetfulness of -the interest of his prince; and Montcalm, after a pause of a moment, as -if to collect his thoughts, proceeded: - -"Your commandant is a brave man, and well qualified to repel my -assault. Mais, monsieur, is it not time to begin to take more counsel -of humanity, and less of your courage? The one as strongly characterizes -the hero as the other." - -"We consider the qualities as inseparable," returned Duncan, smiling; -"but while we find in the vigor of your excellency every motive to -stimulate the one, we can, as yet, see no particular call for the -exercise of the other." - -Montcalm, in his turn, slightly bowed, but it was with the air of a -man too practised to remember the language of flattery. After musing a -moment, he added: - -"It is possible my glasses have deceived me, and that your works resist -our cannon better than I had supposed. You know our force?" - -"Our accounts vary," said Duncan, carelessly; "the highest, however, has -not exceeded twenty thousand men." - -The Frenchman bit his lip, and fastened his eyes keenly on the other as -if to read his thoughts; then, with a readiness peculiar to himself, he -continued, as if assenting to the truth of an enumeration which quite -doubled his army: - -"It is a poor compliment to the vigilance of us soldiers, monsieur, -that, do what we will, we never can conceal our numbers. If it were -to be done at all, one would believe it might succeed in these woods. -Though you think it too soon to listen to the calls of humanity," he -added, smiling archly, "I may be permitted to believe that gallantry -is not forgotten by one so young as yourself. The daughters of the -commandant, I learn, have passed into the fort since it was invested?" - -"It is true, monsieur; but, so far from weakening our efforts, they -set us an example of courage in their own fortitude. Were nothing -but resolution necessary to repel so accomplished a soldier as M. de -Montcalm, I would gladly trust the defense of William Henry to the elder -of those ladies." - -"We have a wise ordinance in our Salique laws, which says, 'The crown -of France shall never degrade the lance to the distaff'," said Montcalm, -dryly, and with a little hauteur; but instantly adding, with his former -frank and easy air: "as all the nobler qualities are hereditary, I can -easily credit you; though, as I said before, courage has its limits, and -humanity must not be forgotten. I trust, monsieur, you come authorized -to treat for the surrender of the place?" - -"Has your excellency found our defense so feeble as to believe the -measure necessary?" - -"I should be sorry to have the defense protracted in such a manner as to -irritate my red friends there," continued Montcalm, glancing his eyes -at the group of grave and attentive Indians, without attending to the -other's questions; "I find it difficult, even now, to limit them to the -usages of war." - -Heyward was silent; for a painful recollection of the dangers he had so -recently escaped came over his mind, and recalled the images of those -defenseless beings who had shared in all his sufferings. - -"Ces messieurs-la," said Montcalm, following up the advantage which he -conceived he had gained, "are most formidable when baffled; and it is -unnecessary to tell you with what difficulty they are restrained in -their anger. Eh bien, monsieur! shall we speak of the terms?" - -"I fear your excellency has been deceived as to the strength of William -Henry, and the resources of its garrison!" - -"I have not sat down before Quebec, but an earthen work, that is -defended by twenty-three hundred gallant men," was the laconic reply. - -"Our mounds are earthen, certainly--nor are they seated on the rocks of -Cape Diamond; but they stand on that shore which proved so destructive -to Dieskau and his army. There is also a powerful force within a few -hours' march of us, which we account upon as a part of our means." - -"Some six or eight thousand men," returned Montcalm, with much apparent -indifference, "whom their leader wisely judges to be safer in their -works than in the field." - -It was now Heyward's turn to bite his lip with vexation as the other so -coolly alluded to a force which the young man knew to be overrated. Both -mused a little while in silence, when Montcalm renewed the conversation, -in a way that showed he believed the visit of his guest was solely to -propose terms of capitulation. On the other hand, Heyward began to -throw sundry inducements in the way of the French general, to betray the -discoveries he had made through the intercepted letter. The artifice -of neither, however, succeeded; and after a protracted and fruitless -interview, Duncan took his leave, favorably impressed with an opinion of -the courtesy and talents of the enemy's captain, but as ignorant of what -he came to learn as when he arrived. Montcalm followed him as far as the -entrance of the marquee, renewing his invitations to the commandant of -the fort to give him an immediate meeting in the open ground between the -two armies. - -There they separated, and Duncan returned to the advanced post of the -French, accompanied as before; whence he instantly proceeded to the -fort, and to the quarters of his own commander. - - - - -CHAPTER 16 - - "EDG.--Before you fight the battle ope this letter." - --Lear - -Major Heyward found Munro attended only by his daughters. Alice sat upon -his knee, parting the gray hairs on the forehead of the old man with -her delicate fingers; and whenever he affected to frown on her trifling, -appeasing his assumed anger by pressing her ruby lips fondly on his -wrinkled brow. Cora was seated nigh them, a calm and amused looker-on; -regarding the wayward movements of her more youthful sister with that -species of maternal fondness which characterized her love for Alice. Not -only the dangers through which they had passed, but those which still -impended above them, appeared to be momentarily forgotten, in the -soothing indulgence of such a family meeting. It seemed as if they had -profited by the short truce, to devote an instant to the purest and best -affection; the daughters forgetting their fears, and the veteran his -cares, in the security of the moment. Of this scene, Duncan, who, in -his eagerness to report his arrival, had entered unannounced, stood -many moments an unobserved and a delighted spectator. But the quick and -dancing eyes of Alice soon caught a glimpse of his figure reflected -from a glass, and she sprang blushing from her father's knee, exclaiming -aloud: - -"Major Heyward!" - -"What of the lad?" demanded her father; "I have sent him to crack a -little with the Frenchman. Ha, sir, you are young, and you're nimble! -Away with you, ye baggage; as if there were not troubles enough for a -soldier, without having his camp filled with such prattling hussies as -yourself!" - -Alice laughingly followed her sister, who instantly led the way from an -apartment where she perceived their presence was no longer desirable. -Munro, instead of demanding the result of the young man's mission, paced -the room for a few moments, with his hands behind his back, and his -head inclined toward the floor, like a man lost in thought. At length he -raised his eyes, glistening with a father's fondness, and exclaimed: - -"They are a pair of excellent girls, Heyward, and such as any one may -boast of." - -"You are not now to learn my opinion of your daughters, Colonel Munro." - -"True, lad, true," interrupted the impatient old man; "you were about -opening your mind more fully on that matter the day you got in, but I -did not think it becoming in an old soldier to be talking of nuptial -blessings and wedding jokes when the enemies of his king were likely -to be unbidden guests at the feast. But I was wrong, Duncan, boy, I was -wrong there; and I am now ready to hear what you have to say." - -"Notwithstanding the pleasure your assurance gives me, dear sir, I have -just now, a message from Montcalm--" - -"Let the Frenchman and all his host go to the devil, sir!" exclaimed the -hasty veteran. "He is not yet master of William Henry, nor shall he -ever be, provided Webb proves himself the man he should. No, sir, thank -Heaven we are not yet in such a strait that it can be said Munro is too -much pressed to discharge the little domestic duties of his own family. -Your mother was the only child of my bosom friend, Duncan; and I'll just -give you a hearing, though all the knights of St. Louis were in a body -at the sally-port, with the French saint at their head, crying to speak -a word under favor. A pretty degree of knighthood, sir, is that which -can be bought with sugar hogsheads! and then your twopenny marquisates. -The thistle is the order for dignity and antiquity; the veritable -'nemo me impune lacessit' of chivalry. Ye had ancestors in that degree, -Duncan, and they were an ornament to the nobles of Scotland." - -Heyward, who perceived that his superior took a malicious pleasure in -exhibiting his contempt for the message of the French general, was -fain to humor a spleen that he knew would be short-lived; he therefore, -replied with as much indifference as he could assume on such a subject: - -"My request, as you know, sir, went so far as to presume to the honor of -being your son." - -"Ay, boy, you found words to make yourself very plainly comprehended. -But, let me ask ye, sir, have you been as intelligible to the girl?" - -"On my honor, no," exclaimed Duncan, warmly; "there would have been an -abuse of a confided trust, had I taken advantage of my situation for -such a purpose." - -"Your notions are those of a gentleman, Major Heyward, and well enough -in their place. But Cora Munro is a maiden too discreet, and of a mind -too elevated and improved, to need the guardianship even of a father." - -"Cora!" - -"Ay--Cora! we are talking of your pretensions to Miss Munro, are we not, -sir?" - -"I--I--I was not conscious of having mentioned her name," said Duncan, -stammering. - -"And to marry whom, then, did you wish my consent, Major Heyward?" -demanded the old soldier, erecting himself in the dignity of offended -feeling. - -"You have another, and not less lovely child." - -"Alice!" exclaimed the father, in an astonishment equal to that with -which Duncan had just repeated the name of her sister. - -"Such was the direction of my wishes, sir." - -The young man awaited in silence the result of the extraordinary -effect produced by a communication, which, as it now appeared, was so -unexpected. For several minutes Munro paced the chamber with long -and rapid strides, his rigid features working convulsively, and every -faculty seemingly absorbed in the musings of his own mind. At length, he -paused directly in front of Heyward, and riveting his eyes upon those of -the other, he said, with a lip that quivered violently: - -"Duncan Heyward, I have loved you for the sake of him whose blood is -in your veins; I have loved you for your own good qualities; and I have -loved you, because I thought you would contribute to the happiness of my -child. But all this love would turn to hatred, were I assured that what -I so much apprehend is true." - -"God forbid that any act or thought of mine should lead to such a -change!" exclaimed the young man, whose eye never quailed under the -penetrating look it encountered. Without adverting to the impossibility -of the other's comprehending those feelings which were hid in his -own bosom, Munro suffered himself to be appeased by the unaltered -countenance he met, and with a voice sensibly softened, he continued: - -"You would be my son, Duncan, and you're ignorant of the history of the -man you wish to call your father. Sit ye down, young man, and I will -open to you the wounds of a seared heart, in as few words as may be -suitable." - -By this time, the message of Montcalm was as much forgotten by him who -bore it as by the man for whose ears it was intended. Each drew a chair, -and while the veteran communed a few moments with his own thoughts, -apparently in sadness, the youth suppressed his impatience in a look and -attitude of respectful attention. At length, the former spoke: - -"You'll know, already, Major Heyward, that my family was both ancient -and honorable," commenced the Scotsman; "though it might not altogether -be endowed with that amount of wealth that should correspond with its -degree. I was, maybe, such an one as yourself when I plighted my faith -to Alice Graham, the only child of a neighboring laird of some estate. -But the connection was disagreeable to her father, on more accounts than -my poverty. I did, therefore, what an honest man should--restored the -maiden her troth, and departed the country in the service of my king. -I had seen many regions, and had shed much blood in different lands, -before duty called me to the islands of the West Indies. There it was -my lot to form a connection with one who in time became my wife, and the -mother of Cora. She was the daughter of a gentleman of those isles, by -a lady whose misfortune it was, if you will," said the old man, proudly, -"to be descended, remotely, from that unfortunate class who are so -basely enslaved to administer to the wants of a luxurious people. Ay, -sir, that is a curse, entailed on Scotland by her unnatural union with a -foreign and trading people. But could I find a man among them who would -dare to reflect on my child, he should feel the weight of a father's -anger! Ha! Major Heyward, you are yourself born at the south, where -these unfortunate beings are considered of a race inferior to your own." - -"'Tis most unfortunately true, sir," said Duncan, unable any longer to -prevent his eyes from sinking to the floor in embarrassment. - -"And you cast it on my child as a reproach! You scorn to mingle the -blood of the Heywards with one so degraded--lovely and virtuous though -she be?" fiercely demanded the jealous parent. - -"Heaven protect me from a prejudice so unworthy of my reason!" returned -Duncan, at the same time conscious of such a feeling, and that as deeply -rooted as if it had been ingrafted in his nature. "The sweetness, the -beauty, the witchery of your younger daughter, Colonel Munro, might -explain my motives without imputing to me this injustice." - -"Ye are right, sir," returned the old man, again changing his tones to -those of gentleness, or rather softness; "the girl is the image of what -her mother was at her years, and before she had become acquainted -with grief. When death deprived me of my wife I returned to Scotland, -enriched by the marriage; and, would you think it, Duncan! the suffering -angel had remained in the heartless state of celibacy twenty long years, -and that for the sake of a man who could forget her! She did more, -sir; she overlooked my want of faith, and, all difficulties being now -removed, she took me for her husband." - -"And became the mother of Alice?" exclaimed Duncan, with an eagerness -that might have proved dangerous at a moment when the thoughts of Munro -were less occupied that at present. - -"She did, indeed," said the old man, "and dearly did she pay for the -blessing she bestowed. But she is a saint in heaven, sir; and it ill -becomes one whose foot rests on the grave to mourn a lot so blessed. I -had her but a single year, though; a short term of happiness for one who -had seen her youth fade in hopeless pining." - -There was something so commanding in the distress of the old man, that -Heyward did not dare to venture a syllable of consolation. Munro sat -utterly unconscious of the other's presence, his features exposed and -working with the anguish of his regrets, while heavy tears fell from -his eyes, and rolled unheeded from his cheeks to the floor. At length -he moved, and as if suddenly recovering his recollection; when he arose, -and taking a single turn across the room, he approached his companion -with an air of military grandeur, and demanded: - -"Have you not, Major Heyward, some communication that I should hear from -the marquis de Montcalm?" - -Duncan started in his turn, and immediately commenced in an embarrassed -voice, the half-forgotten message. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the -evasive though polite manner with which the French general had -eluded every attempt of Heyward to worm from him the purport of the -communication he had proposed making, or on the decided, though still -polished message, by which he now gave his enemy to understand, that, -unless he chose to receive it in person, he should not receive it at -all. As Munro listened to the detail of Duncan, the excited feelings of -the father gradually gave way before the obligations of his station, -and when the other was done, he saw before him nothing but the veteran, -swelling with the wounded feelings of a soldier. - -"You have said enough, Major Heyward," exclaimed the angry old man; -"enough to make a volume of commentary on French civility. Here has -this gentleman invited me to a conference, and when I send him a capable -substitute, for ye're all that, Duncan, though your years are but few, -he answers me with a riddle." - -"He may have thought less favorably of the substitute, my dear sir; and -you will remember that the invitation, which he now repeats, was to the -commandant of the works, and not to his second." - -"Well, sir, is not a substitute clothed with all the power and dignity -of him who grants the commission? He wishes to confer with Munro! Faith, -sir, I have much inclination to indulge the man, if it should only be to -let him behold the firm countenance we maintain in spite of his numbers -and his summons. There might be not bad policy in such a stroke, young -man." - -Duncan, who believed it of the last importance that they should speedily -come to the contents of the letter borne by the scout, gladly encouraged -this idea. - -"Without doubt, he could gather no confidence by witnessing our -indifference," he said. - -"You never said truer word. I could wish, sir, that he would visit the -works in open day, and in the form of a storming party; that is the -least failing method of proving the countenance of an enemy, and would -be far preferable to the battering system he has chosen. The beauty and -manliness of warfare has been much deformed, Major Heyward, by the arts -of your Monsieur Vauban. Our ancestors were far above such scientific -cowardice!" - -"It may be very true, sir; but we are now obliged to repel art by art. -What is your pleasure in the matter of the interview?" - -"I will meet the Frenchman, and that without fear or delay; promptly, -sir, as becomes a servant of my royal master. Go, Major Heyward, and -give them a flourish of the music; and send out a messenger to let them -know who is coming. We will follow with a small guard, for such respect -is due to one who holds the honor of his king in keeping; and hark'ee, -Duncan," he added, in a half whisper, though they were alone, "it may be -prudent to have some aid at hand, in case there should be treachery at -the bottom of it all." - -The young man availed himself of this order to quit the apartment; and, -as the day was fast coming to a close, he hastened without delay, to -make the necessary arrangements. A very few minutes only were necessary -to parade a few files, and to dispatch an orderly with a flag to -announce the approach of the commandant of the fort. When Duncan had -done both these, he led the guard to the sally-port, near which he -found his superior ready, waiting his appearance. As soon as the usual -ceremonials of a military departure were observed, the veteran and his -more youthful companion left the fortress, attended by the escort. - -They had proceeded only a hundred yards from the works, when the little -array which attended the French general to the conference was seen -issuing from the hollow way which formed the bed of a brook that ran -between the batteries of the besiegers and the fort. From the moment -that Munro left his own works to appear in front of his enemy's, his -air had been grand, and his step and countenance highly military. The -instant he caught a glimpse of the white plume that waved in the hat -of Montcalm, his eye lighted, and age no longer appeared to possess any -influence over his vast and still muscular person. - -"Speak to the boys to be watchful, sir," he said, in an undertone, to -Duncan; "and to look well to their flints and steel, for one is never -safe with a servant of these Louis's; at the same time, we shall show -them the front of men in deep security. Ye'll understand me, Major -Heyward!" - -He was interrupted by the clamor of a drum from the approaching -Frenchmen, which was immediately answered, when each party pushed an -orderly in advance, bearing a white flag, and the wary Scotsman halted -with his guard close at his back. As soon as this slight salutation -had passed, Montcalm moved toward them with a quick but graceful step, -baring his head to the veteran, and dropping his spotless plume nearly -to the earth in courtesy. If the air of Munro was more commanding and -manly, it wanted both the ease and insinuating polish of that of the -Frenchman. Neither spoke for a few moments, each regarding the other -with curious and interested eyes. Then, as became his superior rank and -the nature of the interview, Montcalm broke the silence. After uttering -the usual words of greeting, he turned to Duncan, and continued, with a -smile of recognition, speaking always in French: - -"I am rejoiced, monsieur, that you have given us the pleasure of your -company on this occasion. There will be no necessity to employ an -ordinary interpreter; for, in your hands, I feel the same security as if -I spoke your language myself." - -Duncan acknowledged the compliment, when Montcalm, turning to his guard, -which in imitation of that of their enemies, pressed close upon him, -continued: - -"En arriere, mes enfants--il fait chaud---retirez-vous un peu." - -Before Major Heyward would imitate this proof of confidence, he glanced -his eyes around the plain, and beheld with uneasiness the numerous dusky -groups of savages, who looked out from the margin of the surrounding -woods, curious spectators of the interview. - -"Monsieur de Montcalm will readily acknowledge the difference in our -situation," he said, with some embarrassment, pointing at the same -time toward those dangerous foes, who were to be seen in almost every -direction. "Were we to dismiss our guard, we should stand here at the -mercy of our enemies." - -"Monsieur, you have the plighted faith of 'un gentilhomme Francais', -for your safety," returned Montcalm, laying his hand impressively on his -heart; "it should suffice." - -"It shall. Fall back," Duncan added to the officer who led the escort; -"fall back, sir, beyond hearing, and wait for orders." - -Munro witnessed this movement with manifest uneasiness; nor did he fail -to demand an instant explanation. - -"Is it not our interest, sir, to betray distrust?" retorted Duncan. -"Monsieur de Montcalm pledges his word for our safety, and I have -ordered the men to withdraw a little, in order to prove how much we -depend on his assurance." - -"It may be all right, sir, but I have no overweening reliance on the -faith of these marquesses, or marquis, as they call themselves. Their -patents of nobility are too common to be certain that they bear the seal -of true honor." - -"You forget, dear sir, that we confer with an officer, distinguished -alike in Europe and America for his deeds. From a soldier of his -reputation we can have nothing to apprehend." - -The old man made a gesture of resignation, though his rigid features -still betrayed his obstinate adherence to a distrust, which he derived -from a sort of hereditary contempt of his enemy, rather than from any -present signs which might warrant so uncharitable a feeling. Montcalm -waited patiently until this little dialogue in demi-voice was ended, -when he drew nigher, and opened the subject of their conference. - -"I have solicited this interview from your superior, monsieur," he said, -"because I believe he will allow himself to be persuaded that he has -already done everything which is necessary for the honor of his prince, -and will now listen to the admonitions of humanity. I will forever bear -testimony that his resistance has been gallant, and was continued as -long as there was hope." - -When this opening was translated to Munro, he answered with dignity, but -with sufficient courtesy: - -"However I may prize such testimony from Monsieur Montcalm, it will be -more valuable when it shall be better merited." - -The French general smiled, as Duncan gave him the purport of this reply, -and observed: - -"What is now so freely accorded to approved courage, may be refused to -useless obstinacy. Monsieur would wish to see my camp, and witness for -himself our numbers, and the impossibility of his resisting them with -success?" - -"I know that the king of France is well served," returned the unmoved -Scotsman, as soon as Duncan ended his translation; "but my own royal -master has as many and as faithful troops." - -"Though not at hand, fortunately for us," said Montcalm, without -waiting, in his ardor, for the interpreter. "There is a destiny in war, -to which a brave man knows how to submit with the same courage that he -faces his foes." - -"Had I been conscious that Monsieur Montcalm was master of the English, -I should have spared myself the trouble of so awkward a translation," -said the vexed Duncan, dryly; remembering instantly his recent by-play -with Munro. - -"Your pardon, monsieur," rejoined the Frenchman, suffering a slight -color to appear on his dark cheek. "There is a vast difference between -understanding and speaking a foreign tongue; you will, therefore, please -to assist me still." Then, after a short pause, he added: "These hills -afford us every opportunity of reconnoitering your works, messieurs, and -I am possibly as well acquainted with their weak condition as you can be -yourselves." - -"Ask the French general if his glasses can reach to the Hudson," said -Munro, proudly; "and if he knows when and where to expect the army of -Webb." - -"Let General Webb be his own interpreter," returned the politic -Montcalm, suddenly extending an open letter toward Munro as he spoke; -"you will there learn, monsieur, that his movements are not likely to -prove embarrassing to my army." - -The veteran seized the offered paper, without waiting for Duncan to -translate the speech, and with an eagerness that betrayed how important -he deemed its contents. As his eye passed hastily over the words, his -countenance changed from its look of military pride to one of deep -chagrin; his lip began to quiver; and suffering the paper to fall from -his hand, his head dropped upon his chest, like that of a man whose -hopes were withered at a single blow. Duncan caught the letter from the -ground, and without apology for the liberty he took, he read at a glance -its cruel purport. Their common superior, so far from encouraging them -to resist, advised a speedy surrender, urging in the plainest language, -as a reason, the utter impossibility of his sending a single man to -their rescue. - -"Here is no deception!" exclaimed Duncan, examining the billet both -inside and out; "this is the signature of Webb, and must be the captured -letter." - -"The man has betrayed me!" Munro at length bitterly exclaimed; "he has -brought dishonor to the door of one where disgrace was never before -known to dwell, and shame has he heaped heavily on my gray hairs." - -"Say not so," cried Duncan; "we are yet masters of the fort, and of our -honor. Let us, then, sell our lives at such a rate as shall make our -enemies believe the purchase too dear." - -"Boy, I thank thee," exclaimed the old man, rousing himself from his -stupor; "you have, for once, reminded Munro of his duty. We will go -back, and dig our graves behind those ramparts." - -"Messieurs," said Montcalm, advancing toward them a step, in generous -interest, "you little know Louis de St. Veran if you believe him capable -of profiting by this letter to humble brave men, or to build up a -dishonest reputation for himself. Listen to my terms before you leave -me." - -"What says the Frenchman?" demanded the veteran, sternly; "does he make -a merit of having captured a scout, with a note from headquarters? Sir, -he had better raise this siege, to go and sit down before Edward if he -wishes to frighten his enemy with words." - -Duncan explained the other's meaning. - -"Monsieur de Montcalm, we will hear you," the veteran added, more -calmly, as Duncan ended. - -"To retain the fort is now impossible," said his liberal enemy; "it is -necessary to the interests of my master that it should be destroyed; but -as for yourselves and your brave comrades, there is no privilege dear to -a soldier that shall be denied." - -"Our colors?" demanded Heyward. - -"Carry them to England, and show them to your king." - -"Our arms?" - -"Keep them; none can use them better." - -"Our march; the surrender of the place?" - -"Shall all be done in a way most honorable to yourselves." - -Duncan now turned to explain these proposals to his commander, who heard -him with amazement, and a sensibility that was deeply touched by so -unusual and unexpected generosity. - -"Go you, Duncan," he said; "go with this marquess, as, indeed, marquess -he should be; go to his marquee and arrange it all. I have lived to -see two things in my old age that never did I expect to behold. An -Englishman afraid to support a friend, and a Frenchman too honest to -profit by his advantage." - -So saying, the veteran again dropped his head to his chest, and returned -slowly toward the fort, exhibiting, by the dejection of his air, to the -anxious garrison, a harbinger of evil tidings. - -From the shock of this unexpected blow the haughty feelings of Munro -never recovered; but from that moment there commenced a change in his -determined character, which accompanied him to a speedy grave. Duncan -remained to settle the terms of the capitulation. He was seen -to re-enter the works during the first watches of the night, and -immediately after a private conference with the commandant, to -leave them again. It was then openly announced that hostilities must -cease--Munro having signed a treaty by which the place was to be yielded -to the enemy, with the morning; the garrison to retain their arms, -the colors and their baggage, and, consequently, according to military -opinion, their honor. - - - - -CHAPTER 17 - - "Weave we the woof. - The thread is spun. - The web is wove. - The work is done."--Gray - -The hostile armies, which lay in the wilds of the Horican, passed the -night of the ninth of August, 1757, much in the manner they would, had -they encountered on the fairest field of Europe. While the conquered -were still, sullen, and dejected, the victors triumphed. But there -are limits alike to grief and joy; and long before the watches of the -morning came the stillness of those boundless woods was only broken by a -gay call from some exulting young Frenchman of the advanced pickets, or -a menacing challenge from the fort, which sternly forbade the approach -of any hostile footsteps before the stipulated moment. Even these -occasional threatening sounds ceased to be heard in that dull hour which -precedes the day, at which period a listener might have sought in vain -any evidence of the presence of those armed powers that then slumbered -on the shores of the "holy lake." - -It was during these moments of deep silence that the canvas which -concealed the entrance to a spacious marquee in the French encampment -was shoved aside, and a man issued from beneath the drapery into the -open air. He was enveloped in a cloak that might have been intended as -a protection from the chilling damps of the woods, but which served -equally well as a mantle to conceal his person. He was permitted to pass -the grenadier, who watched over the slumbers of the French commander, -without interruption, the man making the usual salute which betokens -military deference, as the other passed swiftly through the little -city of tents, in the direction of William Henry. Whenever this unknown -individual encountered one of the numberless sentinels who crossed his -path, his answer was prompt, and, as it appeared, satisfactory; for he -was uniformly allowed to proceed without further interrogation. - -With the exception of such repeated but brief interruptions, he -had moved silently from the center of the camp to its most advanced -outposts, when he drew nigh the soldier who held his watch nearest to -the works of the enemy. As he approached he was received with the usual -challenge: - -"Qui vive?" - -"France," was the reply. - -"Le mot d'ordre?" - -"La victorie," said the other, drawing so nigh as to be heard in a loud -whisper. - -"C'est bien," returned the sentinel, throwing his musket from the charge -to his shoulder; "vous promenez bien matin, monsieur!" - -"Il est necessaire d'etre vigilant, mon enfant," the other observed, -dropping a fold of his cloak, and looking the soldier close in the -face as he passed him, still continuing his way toward the British -fortification. The man started; his arms rattled heavily as he threw -them forward in the lowest and most respectful salute; and when he had -again recovered his piece, he turned to walk his post, muttering between -his teeth: - -"Il faut etre vigilant, en verite! je crois que nous avons la, un -caporal qui ne dort jamais!" - -The officer proceeded, without affecting to hear the words which escaped -the sentinel in his surprise; nor did he again pause until he had -reached the low strand, and in a somewhat dangerous vicinity to the -western water bastion of the fort. The light of an obscure moon was just -sufficient to render objects, though dim, perceptible in their outlines. -He, therefore, took the precaution to place himself against the trunk of -a tree, where he leaned for many minutes, and seemed to contemplate the -dark and silent mounds of the English works in profound attention. His -gaze at the ramparts was not that of a curious or idle spectator; -but his looks wandered from point to point, denoting his knowledge of -military usages, and betraying that his search was not unaccompanied -by distrust. At length he appeared satisfied; and having cast his eyes -impatiently upward toward the summit of the eastern mountain, as if -anticipating the approach of the morning, he was in the act of turning -on his footsteps, when a light sound on the nearest angle of the bastion -caught his ear, and induced him to remain. - -Just then a figure was seen to approach the edge of the rampart, where -it stood, apparently contemplating in its turn the distant tents of the -French encampment. Its head was then turned toward the east, as though -equally anxious for the appearance of light, when the form leaned -against the mound, and seemed to gaze upon the glassy expanse of the -waters, which, like a submarine firmament, glittered with its thousand -mimic stars. The melancholy air, the hour, together with the vast frame -of the man who thus leaned, musing, against the English ramparts, -left no doubt as to his person in the mind of the observant spectator. -Delicacy, no less than prudence, now urged him to retire; and he had -moved cautiously round the body of the tree for that purpose, when -another sound drew his attention, and once more arrested his footsteps. -It was a low and almost inaudible movement of the water, and was -succeeded by a grating of pebbles one against the other. In a moment -he saw a dark form rise, as it were, out of the lake, and steal without -further noise to the land, within a few feet of the place where he -himself stood. A rifle next slowly rose between his eyes and the watery -mirror; but before it could be discharged his own hand was on the lock. - -"Hugh!" exclaimed the savage, whose treacherous aim was so singularly -and so unexpectedly interrupted. - -Without making any reply, the French officer laid his hand on the -shoulder of the Indian, and led him in profound silence to a distance -from the spot, where their subsequent dialogue might have proved -dangerous, and where it seemed that one of them, at least, sought a -victim. Then throwing open his cloak, so as to expose his uniform and -the cross of St. Louis which was suspended at his breast, Montcalm -sternly demanded: - -"What means this? Does not my son know that the hatchet is buried -between the English and his Canadian Father?" - -"What can the Hurons do?" returned the savage, speaking also, though -imperfectly, in the French language. - -"Not a warrior has a scalp, and the pale faces make friends!" - -"Ha, Le Renard Subtil! Methinks this is an excess of zeal for a friend -who was so late an enemy! How many suns have set since Le Renard struck -the war-post of the English?" - -"Where is that sun?" demanded the sullen savage. "Behind the hill; and -it is dark and cold. But when he comes again, it will be bright and -warm. Le Subtil is the sun of his tribe. There have been clouds, and -many mountains between him and his nation; but now he shines and it is a -clear sky!" - -"That Le Renard has power with his people, I well know," said Montcalm; -"for yesterday he hunted for their scalps, and to-day they hear him at -the council-fire." - -"Magua is a great chief." - -"Let him prove it, by teaching his nation how to conduct themselves -toward our new friends." - -"Why did the chief of the Canadas bring his young men into the woods, -and fire his cannon at the earthen house?" demanded the subtle Indian. - -"To subdue it. My master owns the land, and your father was ordered to -drive off these English squatters. They have consented to go, and now he -calls them enemies no longer." - -"'Tis well. Magua took the hatchet to color it with blood. It is now -bright; when it is red, it shall be buried." - -"But Magua is pledged not to sully the lilies of France. The enemies of -the great king across the salt lake are his enemies; his friends, the -friends of the Hurons." - -"Friends!" repeated the Indian in scorn. "Let his father give Magua a -hand." - -Montcalm, who felt that his influence over the warlike tribes he had -gathered was to be maintained by concession rather than by power, -complied reluctantly with the other's request. The savage placed the -fingers of the French commander on a deep scar in his bosom, and then -exultingly demanded: - -"Does my father know that?" - -"What warrior does not? 'Tis where a leaden bullet has cut." - -"And this?" continued the Indian, who had turned his naked back to the -other, his body being without its usual calico mantle. - -"This!--my son has been sadly injured here; who has done this?" - -"Magua slept hard in the English wigwams, and the sticks have left their -mark," returned the savage, with a hollow laugh, which did not conceal -the fierce temper that nearly choked him. Then, recollecting himself, -with sudden and native dignity, he added: "Go; teach your young men it -is peace. Le Renard Subtil knows how to speak to a Huron warrior." - -Without deigning to bestow further words, or to wait for any answer, -the savage cast his rifle into the hollow of his arm, and moved silently -through the encampment toward the woods where his own tribe was known to -lie. Every few yards as he proceeded he was challenged by the sentinels; -but he stalked sullenly onward, utterly disregarding the summons of the -soldiers, who only spared his life because they knew the air and tread -no less than the obstinate daring of an Indian. - -Montcalm lingered long and melancholy on the strand where he had -been left by his companion, brooding deeply on the temper which his -ungovernable ally had just discovered. Already had his fair fame been -tarnished by one horrid scene, and in circumstances fearfully resembling -those under which he now found himself. As he mused he became keenly -sensible of the deep responsibility they assume who disregard the means -to attain the end, and of all the danger of setting in motion an engine -which it exceeds human power to control. Then shaking off a train of -reflections that he accounted a weakness in such a moment of triumph, -he retraced his steps toward his tent, giving the order as he passed to -make the signal that should arouse the army from its slumbers. - -The first tap of the French drums was echoed from the bosom of the fort, -and presently the valley was filled with the strains of martial music, -rising long, thrilling and lively above the rattling accompaniment. The -horns of the victors sounded merry and cheerful flourishes, until the -last laggard of the camp was at his post; but the instant the British -fifes had blown their shrill signal, they became mute. In the meantime -the day had dawned, and when the line of the French army was ready to -receive its general, the rays of a brilliant sun were glancing along the -glittering array. Then that success, which was already so well known, -was officially announced; the favored band who were selected to guard -the gates of the fort were detailed, and defiled before their chief; the -signal of their approach was given, and all the usual preparations for -a change of masters were ordered and executed directly under the guns of -the contested works. - -A very different scene presented itself within the lines of the -Anglo-American army. As soon as the warning signal was given, it -exhibited all the signs of a hurried and forced departure. The sullen -soldiers shouldered their empty tubes and fell into their places, -like men whose blood had been heated by the past contest, and who only -desired the opportunity to revenge an indignity which was still wounding -to their pride, concealed as it was under the observances of military -etiquette. - -Women and children ran from place to place, some bearing the scanty -remnants of their baggage, and others searching in the ranks for those -countenances they looked up to for protection. - -Munro appeared among his silent troops firm but dejected. It was evident -that the unexpected blow had struck deep into his heart, though he -struggled to sustain his misfortune with the port of a man. - -Duncan was touched at the quiet and impressive exhibition of his grief. -He had discharged his own duty, and he now pressed to the side of the -old man, to know in what particular he might serve him. - -"My daughters," was the brief but expressive reply. - -"Good heavens! are not arrangements already made for their convenience?" - -"To-day I am only a soldier, Major Heyward," said the veteran. "All that -you see here, claim alike to be my children." - -Duncan had heard enough. Without losing one of those moments which had -now become so precious, he flew toward the quarters of Munro, in quest -of the sisters. He found them on the threshold of the low edifice, -already prepared to depart, and surrounded by a clamorous and weeping -assemblage of their own sex, that had gathered about the place, with a -sort of instinctive consciousness that it was the point most likely to -be protected. Though the cheeks of Cora were pale and her countenance -anxious, she had lost none of her firmness; but the eyes of Alice were -inflamed, and betrayed how long and bitterly she had wept. They both, -however, received the young man with undisguised pleasure; the former, -for a novelty, being the first to speak. - -"The fort is lost," she said, with a melancholy smile; "though our good -name, I trust, remains." - -"'Tis brighter than ever. But, dearest Miss Munro, it is time to think -less of others, and to make some provision for yourself. Military -usage--pride--that pride on which you so much value yourself, demands -that your father and I should for a little while continue with the -troops. Then where to seek a proper protector for you against the -confusion and chances of such a scene?" - -"None is necessary," returned Cora; "who will dare to injure or insult -the daughter of such a father, at a time like this?" - -"I would not leave you alone," continued the youth, looking about him -in a hurried manner, "for the command of the best regiment in the pay of -the king. Remember, our Alice is not gifted with all your firmness, and -God only knows the terror she might endure." - -"You may be right," Cora replied, smiling again, but far more sadly than -before. "Listen! chance has already sent us a friend when he is most -needed." - -Duncan did listen, and on the instant comprehended her meaning. The low -and serious sounds of the sacred music, so well known to the eastern -provinces, caught his ear, and instantly drew him to an apartment in -an adjacent building, which had already been deserted by its customary -tenants. There he found David, pouring out his pious feelings through -the only medium in which he ever indulged. Duncan waited, until, by the -cessation of the movement of the hand, he believed the strain was ended, -when, by touching his shoulder, he drew the attention of the other to -himself, and in a few words explained his wishes. - -"Even so," replied the single-minded disciple of the King of Israel, -when the young man had ended; "I have found much that is comely and -melodious in the maidens, and it is fitting that we who have consorted -in so much peril, should abide together in peace. I will attend them, -when I have completed my morning praise, to which nothing is now wanting -but the doxology. Wilt thou bear a part, friend? The meter is common, -and the tune 'Southwell'." - -Then, extending the little volume, and giving the pitch of the air anew -with considerate attention, David recommenced and finished his strains, -with a fixedness of manner that it was not easy to interrupt. Heyward -was fain to wait until the verse was ended; when, seeing David relieving -himself from the spectacles, and replacing the book, he continued. - -"It will be your duty to see that none dare to approach the ladies with -any rude intention, or to offer insult or taunt at the misfortune of -their brave father. In this task you will be seconded by the domestics -of their household." - -"Even so." - -"It is possible that the Indians and stragglers of the enemy may -intrude, in which case you will remind them of the terms of the -capitulation, and threaten to report their conduct to Montcalm. A word -will suffice." - -"If not, I have that here which shall," returned David, exhibiting -his book, with an air in which meekness and confidence were singularly -blended. Here are words which, uttered, or rather thundered, with proper -emphasis, and in measured time, shall quiet the most unruly temper: - -"'Why rage the heathen furiously'?" - -"Enough," said Heyward, interrupting the burst of his musical -invocation; "we understand each other; it is time that we should now -assume our respective duties." - -Gamut cheerfully assented, and together they sought the females. Cora -received her new and somewhat extraordinary protector courteously, at -least; and even the pallid features of Alice lighted again with some of -their native archness as she thanked Heyward for his care. Duncan -took occasion to assure them he had done the best that circumstances -permitted, and, as he believed, quite enough for the security of -their feelings; of danger there was none. He then spoke gladly of his -intention to rejoin them the moment he had led the advance a few miles -toward the Hudson, and immediately took his leave. - -By this time the signal for departure had been given, and the head of -the English column was in motion. The sisters started at the sound, and -glancing their eyes around, they saw the white uniforms of the French -grenadiers, who had already taken possession of the gates of the fort. -At that moment an enormous cloud seemed to pass suddenly above their -heads, and, looking upward, they discovered that they stood beneath the -wide folds of the standard of France. - -"Let us go," said Cora; "this is no longer a fit place for the children -of an English officer." - -Alice clung to the arm of her sister, and together they left the parade, -accompanied by the moving throng that surrounded them. - -As they passed the gates, the French officers, who had learned their -rank, bowed often and low, forbearing, however, to intrude those -attentions which they saw, with peculiar tact, might not be agreeable. -As every vehicle and each beast of burden was occupied by the sick and -wounded, Cora had decided to endure the fatigues of a foot march, rather -than interfere with their comforts. Indeed, many a maimed and feeble -soldier was compelled to drag his exhausted limbs in the rear of the -columns, for the want of the necessary means of conveyance in that -wilderness. The whole, however, was in motion; the weak and wounded, -groaning and in suffering; their comrades silent and sullen; and the -women and children in terror, they knew not of what. - -As the confused and timid throng left the protecting mounds of the fort, -and issued on the open plain, the whole scene was at once presented to -their eyes. At a little distance on the right, and somewhat in the -rear, the French army stood to their arms, Montcalm having collected his -parties, so soon as his guards had possession of the works. They were -attentive but silent observers of the proceedings of the vanquished, -failing in none of the stipulated military honors, and offering no taunt -or insult, in their success, to their less fortunate foes. Living masses -of the English, to the amount, in the whole, of near three thousand, -were moving slowly across the plain, toward the common center, and -gradually approached each other, as they converged to the point of their -march, a vista cut through the lofty trees, where the road to the Hudson -entered the forest. Along the sweeping borders of the woods hung a dark -cloud of savages, eyeing the passage of their enemies, and hovering at -a distance, like vultures who were only kept from swooping on their prey -by the presence and restraint of a superior army. A few had straggled -among the conquered columns, where they stalked in sullen discontent; -attentive, though, as yet, passive observers of the moving multitude. - -The advance, with Heyward at its head, had already reached the defile, -and was slowly disappearing, when the attention of Cora was drawn to -a collection of stragglers by the sounds of contention. A truant -provincial was paying the forfeit of his disobedience, by being -plundered of those very effects which had caused him to desert his place -in the ranks. The man was of powerful frame, and too avaricious to -part with his goods without a struggle. Individuals from either party -interfered; the one side to prevent and the other to aid in the robbery. -Voices grew loud and angry, and a hundred savages appeared, as it were, -by magic, where a dozen only had been seen a minute before. It was -then that Cora saw the form of Magua gliding among his countrymen, and -speaking with his fatal and artful eloquence. The mass of women and -children stopped, and hovered together like alarmed and fluttering -birds. But the cupidity of the Indian was soon gratified, and the -different bodies again moved slowly onward. - -The savages now fell back, and seemed content to let their enemies -advance without further molestation. But, as the female crowd approached -them, the gaudy colors of a shawl attracted the eyes of a wild and -untutored Huron. He advanced to seize it without the least hesitation. -The woman, more in terror than through love of the ornament, wrapped her -child in the coveted article, and folded both more closely to her bosom. -Cora was in the act of speaking, with an intent to advise the woman to -abandon the trifle, when the savage relinquished his hold of the shawl, -and tore the screaming infant from her arms. Abandoning everything -to the greedy grasp of those around her, the mother darted, with -distraction in her mien, to reclaim her child. The Indian smiled grimly, -and extended one hand, in sign of a willingness to exchange, while, with -the other, he flourished the babe over his head, holding it by the feet -as if to enhance the value of the ransom. - -"Here--here--there--all--any--everything!" exclaimed the breathless -woman, tearing the lighter articles of dress from her person with -ill-directed and trembling fingers; "take all, but give me my babe!" - -The savage spurned the worthless rags, and perceiving that the shawl -had already become a prize to another, his bantering but sullen smile -changing to a gleam of ferocity, he dashed the head of the infant -against a rock, and cast its quivering remains to her very feet. For an -instant the mother stood, like a statue of despair, looking wildly down -at the unseemly object, which had so lately nestled in her bosom and -smiled in her face; and then she raised her eyes and countenance toward -heaven, as if calling on God to curse the perpetrator of the foul -deed. She was spared the sin of such a prayer for, maddened at his -disappointment, and excited at the sight of blood, the Huron mercifully -drove his tomahawk into her own brain. The mother sank under the blow, -and fell, grasping at her child, in death, with the same engrossing love -that had caused her to cherish it when living. - -At that dangerous moment, Magua placed his hands to his mouth, and -raised the fatal and appalling whoop. The scattered Indians started at -the well-known cry, as coursers bound at the signal to quit the goal; -and directly there arose such a yell along the plain, and through the -arches of the wood, as seldom burst from human lips before. They who -heard it listened with a curdling horror at the heart, little inferior -to that dread which may be expected to attend the blasts of the final -summons. - -More than two thousand raving savages broke from the forest at the -signal, and threw themselves across the fatal plain with instinctive -alacrity. We shall not dwell on the revolting horrors that succeeded. -Death was everywhere, and in his most terrific and disgusting aspects. -Resistance only served to inflame the murderers, who inflicted their -furious blows long after their victims were beyond the power of their -resentment. The flow of blood might be likened to the outbreaking of -a torrent; and as the natives became heated and maddened by the sight, -many among them even kneeled to the earth, and drank freely, exultingly, -hellishly, of the crimson tide. - -The trained bodies of the troops threw themselves quickly into solid -masses, endeavoring to awe their assailants by the imposing appearance -of a military front. The experiment in some measure succeeded, though -far too many suffered their unloaded muskets to be torn from their -hands, in the vain hope of appeasing the savages. - -In such a scene none had leisure to note the fleeting moments. It might -have been ten minutes (it seemed an age) that the sisters had stood -riveted to one spot, horror-stricken and nearly helpless. When the first -blow was struck, their screaming companions had pressed upon them in -a body, rendering flight impossible; and now that fear or death had -scattered most, if not all, from around them, they saw no avenue open, -but such as conducted to the tomahawks of their foes. On every side -arose shrieks, groans, exhortations and curses. At this moment, Alice -caught a glimpse of the vast form of her father, moving rapidly across -the plain, in the direction of the French army. He was, in truth, -proceeding to Montcalm, fearless of every danger, to claim the tardy -escort for which he had before conditioned. Fifty glittering axes -and barbed spears were offered unheeded at his life, but the savages -respected his rank and calmness, even in their fury. The dangerous -weapons were brushed aside by the still nervous arm of the veteran, or -fell of themselves, after menacing an act that it would seem no one had -courage to perform. Fortunately, the vindictive Magua was searching for -his victim in the very band the veteran had just quitted. - -"Father--father--we are here!" shrieked Alice, as he passed, at no great -distance, without appearing to heed them. "Come to us, father, or we -die!" - -The cry was repeated, and in terms and tones that might have melted -a heart of stone, but it was unanswered. Once, indeed, the old man -appeared to catch the sound, for he paused and listened; but Alice had -dropped senseless on the earth, and Cora had sunk at her side, hovering -in untiring tenderness over her lifeless form. Munro shook his head in -disappointment, and proceeded, bent on the high duty of his station. - -"Lady," said Gamut, who, helpless and useless as he was, had not yet -dreamed of deserting his trust, "it is the jubilee of the devils, and -this is not a meet place for Christians to tarry in. Let us up and fly." - -"Go," said Cora, still gazing at her unconscious sister; "save thyself. -To me thou canst not be of further use." - -David comprehended the unyielding character of her resolution, by the -simple but expressive gesture that accompanied her words. He gazed for a -moment at the dusky forms that were acting their hellish rites on every -side of him, and his tall person grew more erect while his chest heaved, -and every feature swelled, and seemed to speak with the power of the -feelings by which he was governed. - -"If the Jewish boy might tame the great spirit of Saul by the sound of -his harp, and the words of sacred song, it may not be amiss," he said, -"to try the potency of music here." - -Then raising his voice to its highest tone, he poured out a strain so -powerful as to be heard even amid the din of that bloody field. More -than one savage rushed toward them, thinking to rifle the unprotected -sisters of their attire, and bear away their scalps; but when they found -this strange and unmoved figure riveted to his post, they paused to -listen. Astonishment soon changed to admiration, and they passed on to -other and less courageous victims, openly expressing their satisfaction -at the firmness with which the white warrior sang his death song. -Encouraged and deluded by his success, David exerted all his powers to -extend what he believed so holy an influence. The unwonted sounds caught -the ears of a distant savage, who flew raging from group to group, like -one who, scorning to touch the vulgar herd, hunted for some victim more -worthy of his renown. It was Magua, who uttered a yell of pleasure when -he beheld his ancient prisoners again at his mercy. - -"Come," he said, laying his soiled hands on the dress of Cora, "the -wigwam of the Huron is still open. Is it not better than this place?" - -"Away!" cried Cora, veiling her eyes from his revolting aspect. - -The Indian laughed tauntingly, as he held up his reeking hand, and -answered: "It is red, but it comes from white veins!" - -"Monster! there is blood, oceans of blood, upon thy soul; thy spirit has -moved this scene." - -"Magua is a great chief!" returned the exulting savage, "will the -dark-hair go to his tribe?" - -"Never! strike if thou wilt, and complete thy revenge." He hesitated a -moment, and then catching the light and senseless form of Alice in his -arms, the subtle Indian moved swiftly across the plain toward the woods. - -"Hold!" shrieked Cora, following wildly on his footsteps; "release the -child! wretch! what is't you do?" - -But Magua was deaf to her voice; or, rather, he knew his power, and was -determined to maintain it. - -"Stay--lady--stay," called Gamut, after the unconscious Cora. "The -holy charm is beginning to be felt, and soon shalt thou see this horrid -tumult stilled." - -Perceiving that, in his turn, he was unheeded, the faithful David -followed the distracted sister, raising his voice again in sacred song, -and sweeping the air to the measure, with his long arm, in diligent -accompaniment. In this manner they traversed the plain, through the -flying, the wounded and the dead. The fierce Huron was, at any time, -sufficient for himself and the victim that he bore; though Cora would -have fallen more than once under the blows of her savage enemies, -but for the extraordinary being who stalked in her rear, and who now -appeared to the astonished natives gifted with the protecting spirit of -madness. - -Magua, who knew how to avoid the more pressing dangers, and also to -elude pursuit, entered the woods through a low ravine, where he quickly -found the Narragansetts, which the travelers had abandoned so shortly -before, awaiting his appearance, in custody of a savage as fierce and -malign in his expression as himself. Laying Alice on one of the horses, -he made a sign to Cora to mount the other. - -Notwithstanding the horror excited by the presence of her captor, there -was a present relief in escaping from the bloody scene enacting on the -plain, to which Cora could not be altogether insensible. She took her -seat, and held forth her arms for her sister, with an air of entreaty -and love that even the Huron could not deny. Placing Alice, then, on the -same animal with Cora, he seized the bridle, and commenced his route -by plunging deeper into the forest. David, perceiving that he was left -alone, utterly disregarded as a subject too worthless even to destroy, -threw his long limb across the saddle of the beast they had deserted, -and made such progress in the pursuit as the difficulties of the path -permitted. - -They soon began to ascend; but as the motion had a tendency to revive -the dormant faculties of her sister, the attention of Cora was too much -divided between the tenderest solicitude in her behalf, and in listening -to the cries which were still too audible on the plain, to note the -direction in which they journeyed. When, however, they gained the -flattened surface of the mountain-top, and approached the eastern -precipice, she recognized the spot to which she had once before been led -under the more friendly auspices of the scout. Here Magua suffered them -to dismount; and notwithstanding their own captivity, the curiosity -which seems inseparable from horror, induced them to gaze at the -sickening sight below. - -The cruel work was still unchecked. On every side the captured were -flying before their relentless persecutors, while the armed columns -of the Christian king stood fast in an apathy which has never been -explained, and which has left an immovable blot on the otherwise fair -escutcheon of their leader. Nor was the sword of death stayed until -cupidity got the mastery of revenge. Then, indeed, the shrieks of the -wounded, and the yells of their murderers grew less frequent, until, -finally, the cries of horror were lost to their ear, or were drowned in -the loud, long and piercing whoops of the triumphant savages. - - - - -CHAPTER 18 - - "Why, anything; - An honorable murderer, if you will; - For naught I did in hate, but all in honor." - --Othello - -The bloody and inhuman scene rather incidentally mentioned than -described in the preceding chapter, is conspicuous in the pages of -colonial history by the merited title of "The Massacre of William -Henry." It so far deepened the stain which a previous and very similar -event had left upon the reputation of the French commander that it was -not entirely erased by his early and glorious death. It is now becoming -obscured by time; and thousands, who know that Montcalm died like a hero -on the plains of Abraham, have yet to learn how much he was deficient in -that moral courage without which no man can be truly great. Pages might -yet be written to prove, from this illustrious example, the defects of -human excellence; to show how easy it is for generous sentiments, high -courtesy, and chivalrous courage to lose their influence beneath the -chilling blight of selfishness, and to exhibit to the world a man who -was great in all the minor attributes of character, but who was found -wanting when it became necessary to prove how much principle is superior -to policy. But the task would exceed our prerogatives; and, as history, -like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of -imaginary brightness, it is probable that Louis de Saint Veran will be -viewed by posterity only as the gallant defender of his country, while -his cruel apathy on the shores of the Oswego and of the Horican will be -forgotten. Deeply regretting this weakness on the part of a sister muse, -we shall at once retire from her sacred precincts, within the proper -limits of our own humble vocation. - -The third day from the capture of the fort was drawing to a close, but -the business of the narrative must still detain the reader on the shores -of the "holy lake." When last seen, the environs of the works were -filled with violence and uproar. They were now possessed by stillness -and death. The blood-stained conquerors had departed; and their camp, -which had so lately rung with the merry rejoicings of a victorious army, -lay a silent and deserted city of huts. The fortress was a smoldering -ruin; charred rafters, fragments of exploded artillery, and rent -mason-work covering its earthen mounds in confused disorder. - -A frightful change had also occurred in the season. The sun had hid -its warmth behind an impenetrable mass of vapor, and hundreds of human -forms, which had blackened beneath the fierce heats of August, were -stiffening in their deformity before the blasts of a premature November. -The curling and spotless mists, which had been seen sailing above the -hills toward the north, were now returning in an interminable dusky -sheet, that was urged along by the fury of a tempest. The crowded mirror -of the Horican was gone; and, in its place, the green and angry waters -lashed the shores, as if indignantly casting back its impurities to -the polluted strand. Still the clear fountain retained a portion of its -charmed influence, but it reflected only the somber gloom that fell -from the impending heavens. That humid and congenial atmosphere which -commonly adorned the view, veiling its harshness, and softening its -asperities, had disappeared, the northern air poured across the waste of -water so harsh and unmingled, that nothing was left to be conjectured by -the eye, or fashioned by the fancy. - -The fiercer element had cropped the verdure of the plain, which looked -as though it were scathed by the consuming lightning. But, here and -there, a dark green tuft rose in the midst of the desolation; the -earliest fruits of a soil that had been fattened with human blood. -The whole landscape, which, seen by a favoring light, and in a genial -temperature, had been found so lovely, appeared now like some pictured -allegory of life, in which objects were arrayed in their harshest but -truest colors, and without the relief of any shadowing. - -The solitary and arid blades of grass arose from the passing gusts -fearfully perceptible; the bold and rocky mountains were too distinct in -their barrenness, and the eye even sought relief, in vain, by attempting -to pierce the illimitable void of heaven, which was shut to its gaze by -the dusky sheet of ragged and driving vapor. - -The wind blew unequally; sometimes sweeping heavily along the ground, -seeming to whisper its moanings in the cold ears of the dead, then -rising in a shrill and mournful whistling, it entered the forest with -a rush that filled the air with the leaves and branches it scattered in -its path. Amid the unnatural shower, a few hungry ravens struggled with -the gale; but no sooner was the green ocean of woods which stretched -beneath them, passed, than they gladly stopped, at random, to their -hideous banquet. - -In short, it was a scene of wildness and desolation; and it appeared as -if all who had profanely entered it had been stricken, at a blow, by -the relentless arm of death. But the prohibition had ceased; and for the -first time since the perpetrators of those foul deeds which had assisted -to disfigure the scene were gone, living human beings had now presumed -to approach the place. - -About an hour before the setting of the sun, on the day already -mentioned, the forms of five men might have been seen issuing from the -narrow vista of trees, where the path to the Hudson entered the forest, -and advancing in the direction of the ruined works. At first their -progress was slow and guarded, as though they entered with reluctance -amid the horrors of the post, or dreaded the renewal of its frightful -incidents. A light figure preceded the rest of the party, with -the caution and activity of a native; ascending every hillock to -reconnoiter, and indicating by gestures, to his companions, the route he -deemed it most prudent to pursue. Nor were those in the rear wanting in -every caution and foresight known to forest warfare. One among them, he -also was an Indian, moved a little on one flank, and watched the margin -of the woods, with eyes long accustomed to read the smallest sign -of danger. The remaining three were white, though clad in vestments -adapted, both in quality and color, to their present hazardous -pursuit--that of hanging on the skirts of a retiring army in the -wilderness. - -The effects produced by the appalling sights that constantly arose in -their path to the lake shore, were as different as the characters of the -respective individuals who composed the party. The youth in front -threw serious but furtive glances at the mangled victims, as he stepped -lightly across the plain, afraid to exhibit his feelings, and yet too -inexperienced to quell entirely their sudden and powerful influence. His -red associate, however, was superior to such a weakness. He passed the -groups of dead with a steadiness of purpose, and an eye so calm, that -nothing but long and inveterate practise could enable him to maintain. -The sensations produced in the minds of even the white men were -different, though uniformly sorrowful. One, whose gray locks and -furrowed lineaments, blending with a martial air and tread, betrayed, in -spite of the disguise of a woodsman's dress, a man long experienced in -scenes of war, was not ashamed to groan aloud, whenever a spectacle of -more than usual horror came under his view. The young man at his elbow -shuddered, but seemed to suppress his feelings in tenderness to his -companion. Of them all, the straggler who brought up the rear appeared -alone to betray his real thoughts, without fear of observation or dread -of consequences. He gazed at the most appalling sight with eyes and -muscles that knew not how to waver, but with execrations so bitter and -deep as to denote how much he denounced the crime of his enemies. - -The reader will perceive at once, in these respective characters, the -Mohicans, and their white friend, the scout; together with Munro and -Heyward. It was, in truth, the father in quest of his children, attended -by the youth who felt so deep a stake in their happiness, and those -brave and trusty foresters, who had already proved their skill and -fidelity through the trying scenes related. - -When Uncas, who moved in front, had reached the center of the plain, he -raised a cry that drew his companions in a body to the spot. The young -warrior had halted over a group of females who lay in a cluster, a -confused mass of dead. Notwithstanding the revolting horror of -the exhibition, Munro and Heyward flew toward the festering heap, -endeavoring, with a love that no unseemliness could extinguish, to -discover whether any vestiges of those they sought were to be seen among -the tattered and many-colored garments. The father and the lover -found instant relief in the search; though each was condemned again -to experience the misery of an uncertainty that was hardly less -insupportable than the most revolting truth. They were standing, silent -and thoughtful, around the melancholy pile, when the scout approached. -Eyeing the sad spectacle with an angry countenance, the sturdy woodsman, -for the first time since his entering the plain, spoke intelligibly and -aloud: - -"I have been on many a shocking field, and have followed a trail of -blood for weary miles," he said, "but never have I found the hand of the -devil so plain as it is here to be seen! Revenge is an Indian feeling, -and all who know me know that there is no cross in my veins; but this -much will I say--here, in the face of heaven, and with the power of the -Lord so manifest in this howling wilderness--that should these Frenchers -ever trust themselves again within the range of a ragged bullet, there -is one rifle which shall play its part so long as flint will fire or -powder burn! I leave the tomahawk and knife to such as have a natural -gift to use them. What say you, Chingachgook," he added, in Delaware; -"shall the Hurons boast of this to their women when the deep snows -come?" - -A gleam of resentment flashed across the dark lineaments of the Mohican -chief; he loosened his knife in his sheath; and then turning calmly from -the sight, his countenance settled into a repose as deep as if he knew -the instigation of passion. - -"Montcalm! Montcalm!" continued the deeply resentful and less -self-restrained scout; "they say a time must come when all the deeds -done in the flesh will be seen at a single look; and that by eyes -cleared from mortal infirmities. Woe betide the wretch who is born to -behold this plain, with the judgment hanging about his soul! Ha--as I -am a man of white blood, yonder lies a red-skin, without the hair of -his head where nature rooted it! Look to him, Delaware; it may be one of -your missing people; and he should have burial like a stout warrior. -I see it in your eye, Sagamore; a Huron pays for this, afore the fall -winds have blown away the scent of the blood!" - -Chingachgook approached the mutilated form, and, turning it over, he -found the distinguishing marks of one of those six allied tribes, or -nations, as they were called, who, while they fought in the English -ranks, were so deadly hostile to his own people. Spurning the loathsome -object with his foot, he turned from it with the same indifference he -would have quitted a brute carcass. The scout comprehended the action, -and very deliberately pursued his own way, continuing, however, his -denunciations against the French commander in the same resentful strain. - -"Nothing but vast wisdom and unlimited power should dare to sweep off -men in multitudes," he added; "for it is only the one that can know the -necessity of the judgment; and what is there, short of the other, that -can replace the creatures of the Lord? I hold it a sin to kill the -second buck afore the first is eaten, unless a march in front, or -an ambushment, be contemplated. It is a different matter with a few -warriors in open and rugged fight, for 'tis their gift to die with the -rifle or the tomahawk in hand; according as their natures may happen to -be, white or red. Uncas, come this way, lad, and let the ravens settle -upon the Mingo. I know, from often seeing it, that they have a craving -for the flesh of an Oneida; and it is as well to let the bird follow the -gift of its natural appetite." - -"Hugh!" exclaimed the young Mohican, rising on the extremities of his -feet, and gazing intently in his front, frightening the ravens to some -other prey by the sound and the action. - -"What is it, boy?" whispered the scout, lowering his tall form into a -crouching attitude, like a panther about to take his leap; "God send it -be a tardy Frencher, skulking for plunder. I do believe 'killdeer' would -take an uncommon range today!" - -Uncas, without making any reply, bounded away from the spot, and in the -next instant he was seen tearing from a bush, and waving in triumph, a -fragment of the green riding-veil of Cora. The movement, the exhibition, -and the cry which again burst from the lips of the young Mohican, -instantly drew the whole party about him. - -"My child!" said Munro, speaking quickly and wildly; "give me my child!" - -"Uncas will try," was the short and touching answer. - -The simple but meaning assurance was lost on the father, who seized -the piece of gauze, and crushed it in his hand, while his eyes roamed -fearfully among the bushes, as if he equally dreaded and hoped for the -secrets they might reveal. - -"Here are no dead," said Heyward; "the storm seems not to have passed -this way." - -"That's manifest; and clearer than the heavens above our heads," -returned the undisturbed scout; "but either she, or they that have -robbed her, have passed the bush; for I remember the rag she wore to -hide a face that all did love to look upon. Uncas, you are right; the -dark-hair has been here, and she has fled like a frightened fawn, to the -wood; none who could fly would remain to be murdered. Let us search -for the marks she left; for, to Indian eyes, I sometimes think a -humming-bird leaves his trail in the air." - -The young Mohican darted away at the suggestion, and the scout had -hardly done speaking, before the former raised a cry of success from the -margin of the forest. On reaching the spot, the anxious party perceived -another portion of the veil fluttering on the lower branch of a beech. - -"Softly, softly," said the scout, extending his long rifle in front of -the eager Heyward; "we now know our work, but the beauty of the trail -must not be deformed. A step too soon may give us hours of trouble. We -have them, though; that much is beyond denial." - -"Bless ye, bless ye, worthy man!" exclaimed Munro; "whither then, have -they fled, and where are my babes?" - -"The path they have taken depends on many chances. If they have gone -alone, they are quite as likely to move in a circle as straight, and -they may be within a dozen miles of us; but if the Hurons, or any of the -French Indians, have laid hands on them, 'tis probably they are now -near the borders of the Canadas. But what matters that?" continued the -deliberate scout, observing the powerful anxiety and disappointment -the listeners exhibited; "here are the Mohicans and I on one end of -the trail, and, rely on it, we find the other, though they should be a -hundred leagues asunder! Gently, gently, Uncas, you are as impatient -as a man in the settlements; you forget that light feet leave but faint -marks!" - -"Hugh!" exclaimed Chingachgook, who had been occupied in examining an -opening that had been evidently made through the low underbrush which -skirted the forest; and who now stood erect, as he pointed downward, in -the attitude and with the air of a man who beheld a disgusting serpent. - -"Here is the palpable impression of the footstep of a man," cried -Heyward, bending over the indicated spot; "he has trod in the margin of -this pool, and the mark cannot be mistaken. They are captives." - -"Better so than left to starve in the wilderness," returned the scout; -"and they will leave a wider trail. I would wager fifty beaver skins -against as many flints, that the Mohicans and I enter their wigwams -within the month! Stoop to it, Uncas, and try what you can make of the -moccasin; for moccasin it plainly is, and no shoe." - -The young Mohican bent over the track, and removing the scattered leaves -from around the place, he examined it with much of that sort of scrutiny -that a money dealer, in these days of pecuniary doubts, would bestow on -a suspected due-bill. At length he arose from his knees, satisfied with -the result of the examination. - -"Well, boy," demanded the attentive scout; "what does it say? Can you -make anything of the tell-tale?" - -"Le Renard Subtil!" - -"Ha! that rampaging devil again! there will never be an end of his -loping till 'killdeer' has said a friendly word to him." - -Heyward reluctantly admitted the truth of this intelligence, and now -expressed rather his hopes than his doubts by saying: - -"One moccasin is so much like another, it is probable there is some -mistake." - -"One moccasin like another! you may as well say that one foot is like -another; though we all know that some are long, and others short; some -broad and others narrow; some with high, and some with low insteps; some -intoed, and some out. One moccasin is no more like another than one book -is like another: though they who can read in one are seldom able to tell -the marks of the other. Which is all ordered for the best, giving to -every man his natural advantages. Let me get down to it, Uncas; neither -book nor moccasin is the worse for having two opinions, instead of one." -The scout stooped to the task, and instantly added: - -"You are right, boy; here is the patch we saw so often in the other -chase. And the fellow will drink when he can get an opportunity; your -drinking Indian always learns to walk with a wider toe than the natural -savage, it being the gift of a drunkard to straddle, whether of white or -red skin. 'Tis just the length and breadth, too! look at it, Sagamore; -you measured the prints more than once, when we hunted the varmints from -Glenn's to the health springs." - -Chingachgook complied; and after finishing his short examination, he -arose, and with a quiet demeanor, he merely pronounced the word: - -"Magua!" - -"Ay, 'tis a settled thing; here, then, have passed the dark-hair and -Magua." - -"And not Alice?" demanded Heyward. - -"Of her we have not yet seen the signs," returned the scout, looking -closely around at the trees, the bushes and the ground. "What have -we there? Uncas, bring hither the thing you see dangling from yonder -thorn-bush." - -When the Indian had complied, the scout received the prize, and holding -it on high, he laughed in his silent but heartfelt manner. - -"'Tis the tooting we'pon of the singer! now we shall have a trail a -priest might travel," he said. "Uncas, look for the marks of a shoe that -is long enough to uphold six feet two of tottering human flesh. I begin -to have some hopes of the fellow, since he has given up squalling to -follow some better trade." - -"At least he has been faithful to his trust," said Heyward. "And Cora -and Alice are not without a friend." - -"Yes," said Hawkeye, dropping his rifle, and leaning on it with an air -of visible contempt, "he will do their singing. Can he slay a buck for -their dinner; journey by the moss on the beeches, or cut the throat of -a Huron? If not, the first catbird* he meets is the cleverer of the two. -Well, boy, any signs of such a foundation?" - - * The powers of the American mocking-bird are generally - known. But the true mocking-bird is not found so far north - as the state of New York, where it has, however, two - substitutes of inferior excellence, the catbird, so often - named by the scout, and the bird vulgarly called ground- - thresher. Either of these last two birds is superior to the - nightingale or the lark, though, in general, the American - birds are less musical than those of Europe. - -"Here is something like the footstep of one who has worn a shoe; can it -be that of our friend?" - -"Touch the leaves lightly or you'll disconsart the formation. That! that -is the print of a foot, but 'tis the dark-hair's; and small it is, too, -for one of such a noble height and grand appearance. The singer would -cover it with his heel." - -"Where! let me look on the footsteps of my child," said Munro, shoving -the bushes aside, and bending fondly over the nearly obliterated -impression. Though the tread which had left the mark had been light and -rapid, it was still plainly visible. The aged soldier examined it with -eyes that grew dim as he gazed; nor did he rise from this stooping -posture until Heyward saw that he had watered the trace of his -daughter's passage with a scalding tear. Willing to divert a distress -which threatened each moment to break through the restraint of -appearances, by giving the veteran something to do, the young man said -to the scout: - -"As we now possess these infallible signs, let us commence our march. A -moment, at such a time, will appear an age to the captives." - -"It is not the swiftest leaping deer that gives the longest chase," -returned Hawkeye, without moving his eyes from the different marks that -had come under his view; "we know that the rampaging Huron has passed, -and the dark-hair, and the singer, but where is she of the yellow locks -and blue eyes? Though little, and far from being as bold as her sister, -she is fair to the view, and pleasant in discourse. Has she no friend, -that none care for her?" - -"God forbid she should ever want hundreds! Are we not now in her -pursuit? For one, I will never cease the search till she be found." - -"In that case we may have to journey by different paths; for here she -has not passed, light and little as her footsteps would be." - -Heyward drew back, all his ardor to proceed seeming to vanish on the -instant. Without attending to this sudden change in the other's humor, -the scout after musing a moment continued: - -"There is no woman in this wilderness could leave such a print as that, -but the dark-hair or her sister. We know that the first has been here, -but where are the signs of the other? Let us push deeper on the trail, -and if nothing offers, we must go back to the plain and strike another -scent. Move on, Uncas, and keep your eyes on the dried leaves. I will -watch the bushes, while your father shall run with a low nose to the -ground. Move on, friends; the sun is getting behind the hills." - -"Is there nothing that I can do?" demanded the anxious Heyward. - -"You?" repeated the scout, who, with his red friends, was already -advancing in the order he had prescribed; "yes, you can keep in our rear -and be careful not to cross the trail." - -Before they had proceeded many rods, the Indians stopped, and appeared -to gaze at some signs on the earth with more than their usual keenness. -Both father and son spoke quick and loud, now looking at the object -of their mutual admiration, and now regarding each other with the most -unequivocal pleasure. - -"They have found the little foot!" exclaimed the scout, moving forward, -without attending further to his own portion of the duty. "What have -we here? An ambushment has been planted in the spot! No, by the truest -rifle on the frontiers, here have been them one-sided horses again! Now -the whole secret is out, and all is plain as the north star at midnight. -Yes, here they have mounted. There the beasts have been bound to a -sapling, in waiting; and yonder runs the broad path away to the north, -in full sweep for the Canadas." - -"But still there are no signs of Alice, of the younger Miss Munro," said -Duncan. - -"Unless the shining bauble Uncas has just lifted from the ground should -prove one. Pass it this way, lad, that we may look at it." - -Heyward instantly knew it for a trinket that Alice was fond of wearing, -and which he recollected, with the tenacious memory of a lover, to have -seen, on the fatal morning of the massacre, dangling from the fair neck -of his mistress. He seized the highly prized jewel; and as he proclaimed -the fact, it vanished from the eyes of the wondering scout, who in vain -looked for it on the ground, long after it was warmly pressed against -the beating heart of Duncan. - -"Pshaw!" said the disappointed Hawkeye, ceasing to rake the leaves with -the breech of his rifle; "'tis a certain sign of age, when the sight -begins to weaken. Such a glittering gewgaw, and not to be seen! Well, -well, I can squint along a clouded barrel yet, and that is enough to -settle all disputes between me and the Mingoes. I should like to find -the thing, too, if it were only to carry it to the right owner, and that -would be bringing the two ends of what I call a long trail together, -for by this time the broad St. Lawrence, or perhaps, the Great Lakes -themselves, are between us." - -"So much the more reason why we should not delay our march," returned -Heyward; "let us proceed." - -"Young blood and hot blood, they say, are much the same thing. We are -not about to start on a squirrel hunt, or to drive a deer into the -Horican, but to outlie for days and nights, and to stretch across -a wilderness where the feet of men seldom go, and where no bookish -knowledge would carry you through harmless. An Indian never starts on -such an expedition without smoking over his council-fire; and, though -a man of white blood, I honor their customs in this particular, seeing -that they are deliberate and wise. We will, therefore, go back, and -light our fire to-night in the ruins of the old fort, and in the morning -we shall be fresh, and ready to undertake our work like men, and not -like babbling women or eager boys." - -Heyward saw, by the manner of the scout, that altercation would be -useless. Munro had again sunk into that sort of apathy which had beset -him since his late overwhelming misfortunes, and from which he was -apparently to be roused only by some new and powerful excitement. Making -a merit of necessity, the young man took the veteran by the arm, and -followed in the footsteps of the Indians and the scout, who had already -begun to retrace the path which conducted them to the plain. - - - - -CHAPTER 19 - - "Salar.--Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take - his flesh; what's that good for? - Shy.--To bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else, it - will feed my revenge." - --Merchant of Venice - -The shades of evening had come to increase the dreariness of the place, -when the party entered the ruins of William Henry. The scout and his -companions immediately made their preparations to pass the night there; -but with an earnestness and sobriety of demeanor that betrayed how -much the unusual horrors they had just witnessed worked on even their -practised feelings. A few fragments of rafters were reared against a -blackened wall; and when Uncas had covered them slightly with brush, -the temporary accommodations were deemed sufficient. The young Indian -pointed toward his rude hut when his labor was ended; and Heyward, who -understood the meaning of the silent gestures, gently urged Munro to -enter. Leaving the bereaved old man alone with his sorrows, Duncan -immediately returned into the open air, too much excited himself to seek -the repose he had recommended to his veteran friend. - -While Hawkeye and the Indians lighted their fire and took their -evening's repast, a frugal meal of dried bear's meat, the young man paid -a visit to that curtain of the dilapidated fort which looked out on the -sheet of the Horican. The wind had fallen, and the waves were already -rolling on the sandy beach beneath him, in a more regular and tempered -succession. The clouds, as if tired of their furious chase, were -breaking asunder; the heavier volumes, gathering in black masses about -the horizon, while the lighter scud still hurried above the water, or -eddied among the tops of the mountains, like broken flights of birds, -hovering around their roosts. Here and there, a red and fiery star -struggled through the drifting vapor, furnishing a lurid gleam of -brightness to the dull aspect of the heavens. Within the bosom of the -encircling hills, an impenetrable darkness had already settled; and -the plain lay like a vast and deserted charnel-house, without omen or -whisper to disturb the slumbers of its numerous and hapless tenants. - -Of this scene, so chillingly in accordance with the past, Duncan stood -for many minutes a rapt observer. His eyes wandered from the bosom of -the mound, where the foresters were seated around their glimmering fire, -to the fainter light which still lingered in the skies, and then rested -long and anxiously on the embodied gloom, which lay like a dreary -void on that side of him where the dead reposed. He soon fancied that -inexplicable sounds arose from the place, though so indistinct and -stolen, as to render not only their nature but even their existence -uncertain. Ashamed of his apprehensions, the young man turned toward the -water, and strove to divert his attention to the mimic stars that dimly -glimmered on its moving surface. Still, his too-conscious ears performed -their ungrateful duty, as if to warn him of some lurking danger. At -length, a swift trampling seemed, quite audibly, to rush athwart the -darkness. Unable any longer to quiet his uneasiness, Duncan spoke in a -low voice to the scout, requesting him to ascend the mound to the place -where he stood. Hawkeye threw his rifle across an arm and complied, but -with an air so unmoved and calm, as to prove how much he counted on the -security of their position. - -"Listen!" said Duncan, when the other placed himself deliberately at his -elbow; "there are suppressed noises on the plain which may show Montcalm -has not yet entirely deserted his conquest." - -"Then ears are better than eyes," said the undisturbed scout, who, -having just deposited a portion of a bear between his grinders, spoke -thick and slow, like one whose mouth was doubly occupied. "I myself saw -him caged in Ty, with all his host; for your Frenchers, when they -have done a clever thing, like to get back, and have a dance, or a -merry-making, with the women over their success." - -"I know not. An Indian seldom sleeps in war, and plunder may keep a -Huron here after his tribe has departed. It would be well to extinguish -the fire, and have a watch--listen! you hear the noise I mean!" - -"An Indian more rarely lurks about the graves. Though ready to slay, and -not over regardful of the means, he is commonly content with the scalp, -unless when blood is hot, and temper up; but after spirit is once fairly -gone, he forgets his enmity, and is willing to let the dead find their -natural rest. Speaking of spirits, major, are you of opinion that the -heaven of a red-skin and of us whites will be of one and the same?" - -"No doubt--no doubt. I thought I heard it again! or was it the rustling -of the leaves in the top of the beech?" - -"For my own part," continued Hawkeye, turning his face for a moment -in the direction indicated by Heyward, but with a vacant and careless -manner, "I believe that paradise is ordained for happiness; and that -men will be indulged in it according to their dispositions and gifts. -I, therefore, judge that a red-skin is not far from the truth when -he believes he is to find them glorious hunting grounds of which his -traditions tell; nor, for that matter, do I think it would be any -disparagement to a man without a cross to pass his time--" - -"You hear it again?" interrupted Duncan. - -"Ay, ay; when food is scarce, and when food is plenty, a wolf grows -bold," said the unmoved scout. "There would be picking, too, among the -skins of the devils, if there was light and time for the sport. But, -concerning the life that is to come, major; I have heard preachers say, -in the settlements, that heaven was a place of rest. Now, men's minds -differ as to their ideas of enjoyment. For myself, and I say it with -reverence to the ordering of Providence, it would be no great indulgence -to be kept shut up in those mansions of which they preach, having a -natural longing for motion and the chase." - -Duncan, who was now made to understand the nature of the noise he had -heard, answered, with more attention to the subject which the humor of -the scout had chosen for discussion, by saying: - -"It is difficult to account for the feelings that may attend the last -great change." - -"It would be a change, indeed, for a man who has passed his days in -the open air," returned the single-minded scout; "and who has so often -broken his fast on the head waters of the Hudson, to sleep within sound -of the roaring Mohawk. But it is a comfort to know we serve a merciful -Master, though we do it each after his fashion, and with great tracts of -wilderness atween us--what goes there?" - -"Is it not the rushing of the wolves you have mentioned?" - -Hawkeye slowly shook his head, and beckoned for Duncan to follow him -to a spot to which the glare from the fire did not extend. When he -had taken this precaution, the scout placed himself in an attitude of -intense attention and listened long and keenly for a repetition of the -low sound that had so unexpectedly startled him. His vigilance, however, -seemed exercised in vain; for after a fruitless pause, he whispered to -Duncan: - -"We must give a call to Uncas. The boy has Indian senses, and he may -hear what is hid from us; for, being a white-skin, I will not deny my -nature." - -The young Mohican, who was conversing in a low voice with his father, -started as he heard the moaning of an owl, and, springing on his feet, -he looked toward the black mounds, as if seeking the place whence the -sounds proceeded. The scout repeated the call, and in a few moments, -Duncan saw the figure of Uncas stealing cautiously along the rampart, to -the spot where they stood. - -Hawkeye explained his wishes in a very few words, which were spoken in -the Delaware tongue. So soon as Uncas was in possession of the reason -why he was summoned, he threw himself flat on the turf; where, to the -eyes of Duncan, he appeared to lie quiet and motionless. Surprised at -the immovable attitude of the young warrior, and curious to observe -the manner in which he employed his faculties to obtain the desired -information, Heyward advanced a few steps, and bent over the dark object -on which he had kept his eye riveted. Then it was he discovered that the -form of Uncas vanished, and that he beheld only the dark outline of an -inequality in the embankment. - -"What has become of the Mohican?" he demanded of the scout, stepping -back in amazement; "it was here that I saw him fall, and could have -sworn that here he yet remained." - -"Hist! speak lower; for we know not what ears are open, and the Mingoes -are a quick-witted breed. As for Uncas, he is out on the plain, and the -Maquas, if any such are about us, will find their equal." - -"You think that Montcalm has not called off all his Indians? Let us give -the alarm to our companions, that we may stand to our arms. Here are -five of us, who are not unused to meet an enemy." - -"Not a word to either, as you value your life. Look at the Sagamore, how -like a grand Indian chief he sits by the fire. If there are any skulkers -out in the darkness, they will never discover, by his countenance, that -we suspect danger at hand." - -"But they may discover him, and it will prove his death. His person can -be too plainly seen by the light of that fire, and he will become the -first and most certain victim." - -"It is undeniable that now you speak the truth," returned the scout, -betraying more anxiety than was usual; "yet what can be done? A single -suspicious look might bring on an attack before we are ready to receive -it. He knows, by the call I gave to Uncas, that we have struck a scent; -I will tell him that we are on the trail of the Mingoes; his Indian -nature will teach him how to act." - -The scout applied his fingers to his mouth, and raised a low hissing -sound, that caused Duncan at first to start aside, believing that he -heard a serpent. The head of Chingachgook was resting on a hand, as he -sat musing by himself but the moment he had heard the warning of the -animal whose name he bore, he arose to an upright position, and his dark -eyes glanced swiftly and keenly on every side of him. With his sudden -and, perhaps, involuntary movement, every appearance of surprise or -alarm ended. His rifle lay untouched, and apparently unnoticed, within -reach of his hand. The tomahawk that he had loosened in his belt for the -sake of ease, was even suffered to fall from its usual situation to the -ground, and his form seemed to sink, like that of a man whose nerves -and sinews were suffered to relax for the purpose of rest. Cunningly -resuming his former position, though with a change of hands, as if the -movement had been made merely to relieve the limb, the native awaited -the result with a calmness and fortitude that none but an Indian warrior -would have known how to exercise. - -But Heyward saw that while to a less instructed eye the Mohican chief -appeared to slumber, his nostrils were expanded, his head was turned a -little to one side, as if to assist the organs of hearing, and that his -quick and rapid glances ran incessantly over every object within the -power of his vision. - -"See the noble fellow!" whispered Hawkeye, pressing the arm of Heyward; -"he knows that a look or a motion might disconsart our schemes, and put -us at the mercy of them imps--" - -He was interrupted by the flash and report of a rifle. The air was -filled with sparks of fire, around that spot where the eyes of Heyward -were still fastened, with admiration and wonder. A second look told him -that Chingachgook had disappeared in the confusion. In the meantime, the -scout had thrown forward his rifle, like one prepared for service, and -awaited impatiently the moment when an enemy might rise to view. -But with the solitary and fruitless attempt made on the life of -Chingachgook, the attack appeared to have terminated. Once or twice the -listeners thought they could distinguish the distant rustling of bushes, -as bodies of some unknown description rushed through them; nor was it -long before Hawkeye pointed out the "scampering of the wolves," as they -fled precipitately before the passage of some intruder on their proper -domains. After an impatient and breathless pause, a plunge was heard -in the water, and it was immediately followed by the report of another -rifle. - -"There goes Uncas!" said the scout; "the boy bears a smart piece! I know -its crack, as well as a father knows the language of his child, for I -carried the gun myself until a better offered." - -"What can this mean?" demanded Duncan, "we are watched, and, as it would -seem, marked for destruction." - -"Yonder scattered brand can witness that no good was intended, and this -Indian will testify that no harm has been done," returned the scout, -dropping his rifle across his arm again, and following Chingachgook, who -just then reappeared within the circle of light, into the bosom of the -work. "How is it, Sagamore? Are the Mingoes upon us in earnest, or is it -only one of those reptiles who hang upon the skirts of a war-party, -to scalp the dead, go in, and make their boast among the squaws of the -valiant deeds done on the pale faces?" - -Chingachgook very quietly resumed his seat; nor did he make any reply, -until after he had examined the firebrand which had been struck by -the bullet that had nearly proved fatal to himself. After which he was -content to reply, holding a single finger up to view, with the English -monosyllable: - -"One." - -"I thought as much," returned Hawkeye, seating himself; "and as he had -got the cover of the lake afore Uncas pulled upon him, it is more than -probable the knave will sing his lies about some great ambushment, -in which he was outlying on the trail of two Mohicans and a white -hunter--for the officers can be considered as little better than idlers -in such a scrimmage. Well, let him--let him. There are always some -honest men in every nation, though heaven knows, too, that they are -scarce among the Maquas, to look down an upstart when he brags ag'in the -face of reason. The varlet sent his lead within whistle of your ears, -Sagamore." - -Chingachgook turned a calm and incurious eye toward the place where the -ball had struck, and then resumed his former attitude, with a composure -that could not be disturbed by so trifling an incident. Just then Uncas -glided into the circle, and seated himself at the fire, with the same -appearance of indifference as was maintained by his father. - -Of these several moments Heyward was a deeply interested and wondering -observer. It appeared to him as though the foresters had some secret -means of intelligence, which had escaped the vigilance of his own -faculties. In place of that eager and garrulous narration with which -a white youth would have endeavored to communicate, and perhaps -exaggerate, that which had passed out in the darkness of the plain, -the young warrior was seemingly content to let his deeds speak for -themselves. It was, in fact, neither the moment nor the occasion for an -Indian to boast of his exploits; and it is probably that, had Heyward -neglected to inquire, not another syllable would, just then, have been -uttered on the subject. - -"What has become of our enemy, Uncas?" demanded Duncan; "we heard your -rifle, and hoped you had not fired in vain." - -The young chief removed a fold of his hunting skirt, and quietly -exposed the fatal tuft of hair, which he bore as the symbol of victory. -Chingachgook laid his hand on the scalp, and considered it for a moment -with deep attention. Then dropping it, with disgust depicted in his -strong features, he ejaculated: - -"Oneida!" - -"Oneida!" repeated the scout, who was fast losing his interest in the -scene, in an apathy nearly assimilated to that of his red associates, -but who now advanced in uncommon earnestness to regard the bloody badge. -"By the Lord, if the Oneidas are outlying upon the trail, we shall by -flanked by devils on every side of us! Now, to white eyes there is no -difference between this bit of skin and that of any other Indian, and -yet the Sagamore declares it came from the poll of a Mingo; nay, he even -names the tribe of the poor devil, with as much ease as if the scalp was -the leaf of a book, and each hair a letter. What right have Christian -whites to boast of their learning, when a savage can read a language -that would prove too much for the wisest of them all! What say you, lad, -of what people was the knave?" - -Uncas raised his eyes to the face of the scout, and answered, in his -soft voice: - -"Oneida." - -"Oneida, again! when one Indian makes a declaration it is commonly true; -but when he is supported by his people, set it down as gospel!" - -"The poor fellow has mistaken us for French," said Heyward; "or he would -not have attempted the life of a friend." - -"He mistake a Mohican in his paint for a Huron! You would be as likely -to mistake the white-coated grenadiers of Montcalm for the scarlet -jackets of the Royal Americans," returned the scout. "No, no, the -sarpent knew his errand; nor was there any great mistake in the matter, -for there is but little love atween a Delaware and a Mingo, let their -tribes go out to fight for whom they may, in a white quarrel. For -that matter, though the Oneidas do serve his sacred majesty, who is -my sovereign lord and master, I should not have deliberated long about -letting off 'killdeer' at the imp myself, had luck thrown him in my -way." - -"That would have been an abuse of our treaties, and unworthy of your -character." - -"When a man consort much with a people," continued Hawkeye, "if they -were honest and he no knave, love will grow up atwixt them. It is true -that white cunning has managed to throw the tribes into great confusion, -as respects friends and enemies; so that the Hurons and the Oneidas, who -speak the same tongue, or what may be called the same, take each other's -scalps, and the Delawares are divided among themselves; a few hanging -about their great council-fire on their own river, and fighting on the -same side with the Mingoes while the greater part are in the Canadas, -out of natural enmity to the Maquas--thus throwing everything into -disorder, and destroying all the harmony of warfare. Yet a red natur' is -not likely to alter with every shift of policy; so that the love atwixt -a Mohican and a Mingo is much like the regard between a white man and a -sarpent." - -"I regret to hear it; for I had believed those natives who dwelt within -our boundaries had found us too just and liberal, not to identify -themselves fully with our quarrels." - -"Why, I believe it is natur' to give a preference to one's own quarrels -before those of strangers. Now, for myself, I do love justice; and, -therefore, I will not say I hate a Mingo, for that may be unsuitable to -my color and my religion, though I will just repeat, it may have been -owing to the night that 'killdeer' had no hand in the death of this -skulking Oneida." - -Then, as if satisfied with the force of his own reasons, whatever might -be their effect on the opinions of the other disputant, the honest but -implacable woodsman turned from the fire, content to let the controversy -slumber. Heyward withdrew to the rampart, too uneasy and too little -accustomed to the warfare of the woods to remain at ease under the -possibility of such insidious attacks. Not so, however, with the scout -and the Mohicans. Those acute and long-practised senses, whose powers so -often exceed the limits of all ordinary credulity, after having detected -the danger, had enabled them to ascertain its magnitude and duration. -Not one of the three appeared in the least to doubt their perfect -security, as was indicated by the preparations that were soon made to -sit in council over their future proceedings. - -The confusion of nations, and even of tribes, to which Hawkeye alluded, -existed at that period in the fullest force. The great tie of language, -and, of course, of a common origin, was severed in many places; and it -was one of its consequences, that the Delaware and the Mingo (as the -people of the Six Nations were called) were found fighting in the same -ranks, while the latter sought the scalp of the Huron, though believed -to be the root of his own stock. The Delawares were even divided among -themselves. Though love for the soil which had belonged to his ancestors -kept the Sagamore of the Mohicans with a small band of followers who -were serving at Edward, under the banners of the English king, by far -the largest portion of his nation were known to be in the field as -allies of Montcalm. The reader probably knows, if enough has not already -been gleaned form this narrative, that the Delaware, or Lenape, claimed -to be the progenitors of that numerous people, who once were masters -of most of the eastern and northern states of America, of whom the -community of the Mohicans was an ancient and highly honored member. - -It was, of course, with a perfect understanding of the minute and -intricate interests which had armed friend against friend, and brought -natural enemies to combat by each other's side, that the scout and his -companions now disposed themselves to deliberate on the measures that -were to govern their future movements, amid so many jarring and savage -races of men. Duncan knew enough of Indian customs to understand -the reason that the fire was replenished, and why the warriors, not -excepting Hawkeye, took their seats within the curl of its smoke with -so much gravity and decorum. Placing himself at an angle of the works, -where he might be a spectator of the scene without, he awaited the -result with as much patience as he could summon. - -After a short and impressive pause, Chingachgook lighted a pipe whose -bowl was curiously carved in one of the soft stones of the country, -and whose stem was a tube of wood, and commenced smoking. When he had -inhaled enough of the fragrance of the soothing weed, he passed the -instrument into the hands of the scout. In this manner the pipe had made -its rounds three several times, amid the most profound silence, before -either of the party opened his lips. Then the Sagamore, as the oldest -and highest in rank, in a few calm and dignified words, proposed the -subject for deliberation. He was answered by the scout; and Chingachgook -rejoined, when the other objected to his opinions. But the youthful -Uncas continued a silent and respectful listener, until Hawkeye, in -complaisance, demanded his opinion. Heyward gathered from the manners of -the different speakers, that the father and son espoused one side of a -disputed question, while the white man maintained the other. The contest -gradually grew warmer, until it was quite evident the feelings of the -speakers began to be somewhat enlisted in the debate. - -Notwithstanding the increasing warmth of the amicable contest, the -most decorous Christian assembly, not even excepting those in which its -reverend ministers are collected, might have learned a wholesome lesson -of moderation from the forbearance and courtesy of the disputants. The -words of Uncas were received with the same deep attention as those which -fell from the maturer wisdom of his father; and so far from manifesting -any impatience, neither spoke in reply, until a few moments of silent -meditation were, seemingly, bestowed in deliberating on what had already -been said. - -The language of the Mohicans was accompanied by gestures so direct and -natural that Heyward had but little difficulty in following the thread -of their argument. On the other hand, the scout was obscure; because -from the lingering pride of color, he rather affected the cold and -artificial manner which characterizes all classes of Anglo-Americans -when unexcited. By the frequency with which the Indians described the -marks of a forest trial, it was evident they urged a pursuit by land, -while the repeated sweep of Hawkeye's arm toward the Horican denoted -that he was for a passage across its waters. - -The latter was to every appearance fast losing ground, and the point was -about to be decided against him, when he arose to his feet, and shaking -off his apathy, he suddenly assumed the manner of an Indian, and adopted -all the arts of native eloquence. Elevating an arm, he pointed out the -track of the sun, repeating the gesture for every day that was necessary -to accomplish their objects. Then he delineated a long and painful path, -amid rocks and water-courses. The age and weakness of the slumbering and -unconscious Munro were indicated by signs too palpable to be mistaken. -Duncan perceived that even his own powers were spoken lightly of, as -the scout extended his palm, and mentioned him by the appellation of -the "Open Hand"--a name his liberality had purchased of all the friendly -tribes. Then came a representation of the light and graceful movements -of a canoe, set in forcible contrast to the tottering steps of one -enfeebled and tired. He concluded by pointing to the scalp of the -Oneida, and apparently urging the necessity of their departing speedily, -and in a manner that should leave no trail. - -The Mohicans listened gravely, and with countenances that reflected the -sentiments of the speaker. Conviction gradually wrought its influence, -and toward the close of Hawkeye's speech, his sentences were accompanied -by the customary exclamation of commendation. In short, Uncas and his -father became converts to his way of thinking, abandoning their own -previously expressed opinions with a liberality and candor that, had -they been the representatives of some great and civilized people, would -have infallibly worked their political ruin, by destroying forever their -reputation for consistency. - -The instant the matter in discussion was decided, the debate, and -everything connected with it, except the result appeared to be -forgotten. Hawkeye, without looking round to read his triumph in -applauding eyes, very composedly stretched his tall frame before the -dying embers, and closed his own organs in sleep. - -Left now in a measure to themselves, the Mohicans, whose time had been -so much devoted to the interests of others, seized the moment to devote -some attention to themselves. Casting off at once the grave and austere -demeanor of an Indian chief, Chingachgook commenced speaking to his -son in the soft and playful tones of affection. Uncas gladly met the -familiar air of his father; and before the hard breathing of the scout -announced that he slept, a complete change was effected in the manner of -his two associates. - -It is impossible to describe the music of their language, while thus -engaged in laughter and endearments, in such a way as to render it -intelligible to those whose ears have never listened to its melody. -The compass of their voices, particularly that of the youth, was -wonderful--extending from the deepest bass to tones that were even -feminine in softness. The eyes of the father followed the plastic and -ingenious movements of the son with open delight, and he never failed to -smile in reply to the other's contagious but low laughter. While under -the influence of these gentle and natural feelings, no trace of ferocity -was to be seen in the softened features of the Sagamore. His figured -panoply of death looked more like a disguise assumed in mockery than a -fierce annunciation of a desire to carry destruction in his footsteps. - -After an hour had passed in the indulgence of their better feelings, -Chingachgook abruptly announced his desire to sleep, by wrapping his -head in his blanket and stretching his form on the naked earth. The -merriment of Uncas instantly ceased; and carefully raking the coals in -such a manner that they should impart their warmth to his father's feet, -the youth sought his own pillow among the ruins of the place. - -Imbibing renewed confidence from the security of these experienced -foresters, Heyward soon imitated their example; and long before the -night had turned, they who lay in the bosom of the ruined work, seemed -to slumber as heavily as the unconscious multitude whose bones were -already beginning to bleach on the surrounding plain. - - - - -CHAPTER 20 - - "Land of Albania! let me bend mine eyes - On thee; thou rugged nurse of savage men!" - --Childe Harold - -The heavens were still studded with stars, when Hawkeye came to arouse -the sleepers. Casting aside their cloaks Munro and Heyward were on their -feet while the woodsman was still making his low calls, at the entrance -of the rude shelter where they had passed the night. When they issued -from beneath its concealment, they found the scout awaiting their -appearance nigh by, and the only salutation between them was the -significant gesture for silence, made by their sagacious leader. - -"Think over your prayers," he whispered, as they approached him; "for He -to whom you make them, knows all tongues; that of the heart, as well -as those of the mouth. But speak not a syllable; it is rare for a white -voice to pitch itself properly in the woods, as we have seen by the -example of that miserable devil, the singer. Come," he continued, -turning toward a curtain of the works; "let us get into the ditch on -this side, and be regardful to step on the stones and fragments of wood -as you go." - -His companions complied, though to two of them the reasons of this -extraordinary precaution were yet a mystery. When they were in the low -cavity that surrounded the earthen fort on three sides, they found that -passage nearly choked by the ruins. With care and patience, however, -they succeeded in clambering after the scout, until they reached the -sandy shore of the Horican. - -"That's a trail that nothing but a nose can follow," said the satisfied -scout, looking back along their difficult way; "grass is a treacherous -carpet for a flying party to tread on, but wood and stone take no print -from a moccasin. Had you worn your armed boots, there might, indeed, -have been something to fear; but with the deer-skin suitably prepared, -a man may trust himself, generally, on rocks with safety. Shove in the -canoe nigher to the land, Uncas; this sand will take a stamp as easily -as the butter of the Jarmans on the Mohawk. Softly, lad, softly; it must -not touch the beach, or the knaves will know by what road we have left -the place." - -The young man observed the precaution; and the scout, laying a board -from the ruins to the canoe, made a sign for the two officers to enter. -When this was done, everything was studiously restored to its former -disorder; and then Hawkeye succeeded in reaching his little birchen -vessel, without leaving behind him any of those marks which he appeared -so much to dread. Heyward was silent until the Indians had cautiously -paddled the canoe some distance from the fort, and within the broad and -dark shadows that fell from the eastern mountain on the glassy surface -of the lake; then he demanded: - -"What need have we for this stolen and hurried departure?" - -"If the blood of an Oneida could stain such a sheet of pure water as -this we float on," returned the scout, "your two eyes would answer your -own question. Have you forgotten the skulking reptile Uncas slew?" - -"By no means. But he was said to be alone, and dead men give no cause -for fear." - -"Ay, he was alone in his deviltry! but an Indian whose tribe counts so -many warriors, need seldom fear his blood will run without the death -shriek coming speedily from some of his enemies." - -"But our presence--the authority of Colonel Munro--would prove -sufficient protection against the anger of our allies, especially in a -case where the wretch so well merited his fate. I trust in Heaven you -have not deviated a single foot from the direct line of our course with -so slight a reason!" - -"Do you think the bullet of that varlet's rifle would have turned aside, -though his sacred majesty the king had stood in its path?" returned -the stubborn scout. "Why did not the grand Frencher, he who is -captain-general of the Canadas, bury the tomahawks of the Hurons, if a -word from a white can work so strongly on the natur' of an Indian?" - -The reply of Heyward was interrupted by a groan from Munro; but after -he had paused a moment, in deference to the sorrow of his aged friend he -resumed the subject. - -"The marquis of Montcalm can only settle that error with his God," said -the young man solemnly. - -"Ay, ay, now there is reason in your words, for they are bottomed on -religion and honesty. There is a vast difference between throwing a -regiment of white coats atwixt the tribes and the prisoners, and coaxing -an angry savage to forget he carries a knife and rifle, with words that -must begin with calling him your son. No, no," continued the scout, -looking back at the dim shore of William Henry, which was now fast -receding, and laughing in his own silent but heartfelt manner; "I have -put a trail of water atween us; and unless the imps can make friends -with the fishes, and hear who has paddled across their basin this fine -morning, we shall throw the length of the Horican behind us before they -have made up their minds which path to take." - -"With foes in front, and foes in our rear, our journey is like to be one -of danger." - -"Danger!" repeated Hawkeye, calmly; "no, not absolutely of danger; for, -with vigilant ears and quick eyes, we can manage to keep a few hours -ahead of the knaves; or, if we must try the rifle, there are three of us -who understand its gifts as well as any you can name on the borders. No, -not of danger; but that we shall have what you may call a brisk push of -it, is probable; and it may happen, a brush, a scrimmage, or some such -divarsion, but always where covers are good, and ammunition abundant." - -It is possible that Heyward's estimate of danger differed in some degree -from that of the scout, for, instead of replying, he now sat in silence, -while the canoe glided over several miles of water. Just as the day -dawned, they entered the narrows of the lake*, and stole swiftly and -cautiously among their numberless little islands. It was by this road -that Montcalm had retired with his army, and the adventurers knew not -but he had left some of his Indians in ambush, to protect the rear of -his forces, and collect the stragglers. They, therefore, approached the -passage with the customary silence of their guarded habits. - - * The beauties of Lake George are well known to every - American tourist. In the height of the mountains which - surround it, and in artificial accessories, it is inferior - to the finest of the Swiss and Italian lakes, while in - outline and purity of water it is fully their equal; and in - the number and disposition of its isles and islets much - superior to them all together. There are said to be some - hundreds of islands in a sheet of water less than thirty - miles long. The narrows, which connect what may be called, - in truth, two lakes, are crowded with islands to such a - degree as to leave passages between them frequently of only - a few feet in width. The lake itself varies in breadth from - one to three miles. - -Chingachgook laid aside his paddle; while Uncas and the scout urged the -light vessel through crooked and intricate channels, where every foot -that they advanced exposed them to the danger of some sudden rising -on their progress. The eyes of the Sagamore moved warily from islet to -islet, and copse to copse, as the canoe proceeded; and, when a clearer -sheet of water permitted, his keen vision was bent along the bald rocks -and impending forests that frowned upon the narrow strait. - -Heyward, who was a doubly interested spectator, as well from the -beauties of the place as from the apprehension natural to his situation, -was just believing that he had permitted the latter to be excited -without sufficient reason, when the paddle ceased moving, in obedience -to a signal from Chingachgook. - -"Hugh!" exclaimed Uncas, nearly at the moment that the light tap his -father had made on the side of the canoe notified them of the vicinity -of danger. - -"What now?" asked the scout; "the lake is as smooth as if the winds had -never blown, and I can see along its sheet for miles; there is not so -much as the black head of a loon dotting the water." - -The Indian gravely raised his paddle, and pointed in the direction -in which his own steady look was riveted. Duncan's eyes followed the -motion. A few rods in their front lay another of the wooded islets, -but it appeared as calm and peaceful as if its solitude had never been -disturbed by the foot of man. - -"I see nothing," he said, "but land and water; and a lovely scene it -is." - -"Hist!" interrupted the scout. "Ay, Sagamore, there is always a reason -for what you do. 'Tis but a shade, and yet it is not natural. You see -the mist, major, that is rising above the island; you can't call it a -fog, for it is more like a streak of thin cloud--" - -"It is vapor from the water." - -"That a child could tell. But what is the edging of blacker smoke -that hangs along its lower side, and which you may trace down into the -thicket of hazel? 'Tis from a fire; but one that, in my judgment, has -been suffered to burn low." - -"Let us, then, push for the place, and relieve our doubts," said the -impatient Duncan; "the party must be small that can lie on such a bit of -land." - -"If you judge of Indian cunning by the rules you find in books, or -by white sagacity, they will lead you astray, if not to your death," -returned Hawkeye, examining the signs of the place with that acuteness -which distinguished him. "If I may be permitted to speak in this matter, -it will be to say, that we have but two things to choose between: the -one is, to return, and give up all thoughts of following the Hurons--" - -"Never!" exclaimed Heyward, in a voice far too loud for their -circumstances. - -"Well, well," continued Hawkeye, making a hasty sign to repress his -impatience; "I am much of your mind myself; though I thought it becoming -my experience to tell the whole. We must, then, make a push, and if the -Indians or Frenchers are in the narrows, run the gauntlet through these -toppling mountains. Is there reason in my words, Sagamore?" - -The Indian made no other answer than by dropping his paddle into the -water, and urging forward the canoe. As he held the office of directing -its course, his resolution was sufficiently indicated by the movement. -The whole party now plied their paddles vigorously, and in a very few -moments they had reached a point whence they might command an entire -view of the northern shore of the island, the side that had hitherto -been concealed. - -"There they are, by all the truth of signs," whispered the scout, "two -canoes and a smoke. The knaves haven't yet got their eyes out of the -mist, or we should hear the accursed whoop. Together, friends! we are -leaving them, and are already nearly out of whistle of a bullet." - -The well-known crack of a rifle, whose ball came skipping along the -placid surface of the strait, and a shrill yell from the island, -interrupted his speech, and announced that their passage was discovered. -In another instant several savages were seen rushing into canoes, which -were soon dancing over the water in pursuit. These fearful precursors of -a coming struggle produced no change in the countenances and movements -of his three guides, so far as Duncan could discover, except that the -strokes of their paddles were longer and more in unison, and caused -the little bark to spring forward like a creature possessing life and -volition. - -"Hold them there, Sagamore," said Hawkeye, looking coolly backward over -this left shoulder, while he still plied his paddle; "keep them just -there. Them Hurons have never a piece in their nation that will execute -at this distance; but 'killdeer' has a barrel on which a man may -calculate." - -The scout having ascertained that the Mohicans were sufficient of -themselves to maintain the requisite distance, deliberately laid aside -his paddle, and raised the fatal rifle. Three several times he brought -the piece to his shoulder, and when his companions were expecting its -report, he as often lowered it to request the Indians would permit -their enemies to approach a little nigher. At length his accurate and -fastidious eye seemed satisfied, and, throwing out his left arm on the -barrel, he was slowly elevating the muzzle, when an exclamation from -Uncas, who sat in the bow, once more caused him to suspend the shot. - -"What, now, lad?" demanded Hawkeye; "you save a Huron from the -death-shriek by that word; have you reason for what you do?" - -Uncas pointed toward a rocky shore a little in their front, whence -another war canoe was darting directly across their course. It was too -obvious now that their situation was imminently perilous to need the aid -of language to confirm it. The scout laid aside his rifle, and resumed -the paddle, while Chingachgook inclined the bows of the canoe a little -toward the western shore, in order to increase the distance between them -and this new enemy. In the meantime they were reminded of the presence -of those who pressed upon their rear, by wild and exulting shouts. The -stirring scene awakened even Munro from his apathy. - -"Let us make for the rocks on the main," he said, with the mien of a -tired soldier, "and give battle to the savages. God forbid that I, or -those attached to me and mine, should ever trust again to the faith of -any servant of the Louis's!" - -"He who wishes to prosper in Indian warfare," returned the scout, "must -not be too proud to learn from the wit of a native. Lay her more along -the land, Sagamore; we are doubling on the varlets, and perhaps they may -try to strike our trail on the long calculation." - -Hawkeye was not mistaken; for when the Hurons found their course was -likely to throw them behind their chase they rendered it less direct, -until, by gradually bearing more and more obliquely, the two canoes -were, ere long, gliding on parallel lines, within two hundred yards of -each other. It now became entirely a trial of speed. So rapid was the -progress of the light vessels, that the lake curled in their front, in -miniature waves, and their motion became undulating by its own velocity. -It was, perhaps, owing to this circumstance, in addition to the -necessity of keeping every hand employed at the paddles, that the Hurons -had not immediate recourse to their firearms. The exertions of the -fugitives were too severe to continue long, and the pursuers had the -advantage of numbers. Duncan observed with uneasiness, that the scout -began to look anxiously about him, as if searching for some further -means of assisting their flight. - -"Edge her a little more from the sun, Sagamore," said the stubborn -woodsman; "I see the knaves are sparing a man to the rifle. A single -broken bone might lose us our scalps. Edge more from the sun and we will -put the island between us." - -The expedient was not without its use. A long, low island lay at a -little distance before them, and, as they closed with it, the chasing -canoe was compelled to take a side opposite to that on which the pursued -passed. The scout and his companions did not neglect this advantage, but -the instant they were hid from observation by the bushes, they redoubled -efforts that before had seemed prodigious. The two canoes came round -the last low point, like two coursers at the top of their speed, the -fugitives taking the lead. This change had brought them nigher to each -other, however, while it altered their relative positions. - -"You showed knowledge in the shaping of a birchen bark, Uncas, when -you chose this from among the Huron canoes," said the scout, smiling, -apparently more in satisfaction at their superiority in the race than -from that prospect of final escape which now began to open a little upon -them. "The imps have put all their strength again at the paddles, and we -are to struggle for our scalps with bits of flattened wood, instead of -clouded barrels and true eyes. A long stroke, and together, friends." - -"They are preparing for a shot," said Heyward; "and as we are in a line -with them, it can scarcely fail." - -"Get you, then, into the bottom of the canoe," returned the scout; "you -and the colonel; it will be so much taken from the size of the mark." - -Heyward smiled, as he answered: - -"It would be but an ill example for the highest in rank to dodge, while -the warriors were under fire." - -"Lord! Lord! That is now a white man's courage!" exclaimed the scout; -"and like to many of his notions, not to be maintained by reason. Do you -think the Sagamore, or Uncas, or even I, who am a man without a cross, -would deliberate about finding a cover in the scrimmage, when an open -body would do no good? For what have the Frenchers reared up their -Quebec, if fighting is always to be done in the clearings?" - -"All that you say is very true, my friend," replied Heyward; "still, our -customs must prevent us from doing as you wish." - -A volley from the Hurons interrupted the discourse, and as the bullets -whistled about them, Duncan saw the head of Uncas turned, looking back -at himself and Munro. Notwithstanding the nearness of the enemy, and -his own great personal danger, the countenance of the young warrior -expressed no other emotion, as the former was compelled to think, than -amazement at finding men willing to encounter so useless an exposure. -Chingachgook was probably better acquainted with the notions of white -men, for he did not even cast a glance aside from the riveted look his -eye maintained on the object by which he governed their course. A ball -soon struck the light and polished paddle from the hands of the chief, -and drove it through the air, far in the advance. A shout arose from -the Hurons, who seized the opportunity to fire another volley. Uncas -described an arc in the water with his own blade, and as the canoe -passed swiftly on, Chingachgook recovered his paddle, and flourishing -it on high, he gave the war-whoop of the Mohicans, and then lent his -strength and skill again to the important task. - -The clamorous sounds of "Le Gros Serpent!" "La Longue Carabine!" "Le -Cerf Agile!" burst at once from the canoes behind, and seemed to give -new zeal to the pursuers. The scout seized "killdeer" in his left hand, -and elevating it about his head, he shook it in triumph at his enemies. -The savages answered the insult with a yell, and immediately another -volley succeeded. The bullets pattered along the lake, and one even -pierced the bark of their little vessel. No perceptible emotion could -be discovered in the Mohicans during this critical moment, their rigid -features expressing neither hope nor alarm; but the scout again turned -his head, and, laughing in his own silent manner, he said to Heyward: - -"The knaves love to hear the sounds of their pieces; but the eye is -not to be found among the Mingoes that can calculate a true range in a -dancing canoe! You see the dumb devils have taken off a man to charge, -and by the smallest measurement that can be allowed, we move three feet -to their two!" - -Duncan, who was not altogether as easy under this nice estimate of -distances as his companions, was glad to find, however, that owing to -their superior dexterity, and the diversion among their enemies, they -were very sensibly obtaining the advantage. The Hurons soon fired again, -and a bullet struck the blade of Hawkeye's paddle without injury. - -"That will do," said the scout, examining the slight indentation with a -curious eye; "it would not have cut the skin of an infant, much less of -men, who, like us, have been blown upon by the heavens in their anger. -Now, major, if you will try to use this piece of flattened wood, I'll -let 'killdeer' take a part in the conversation." - -Heyward seized the paddle, and applied himself to the work with an -eagerness that supplied the place of skill, while Hawkeye was engaged -in inspecting the priming of his rifle. The latter then took a swift aim -and fired. The Huron in the bows of the leading canoe had risen with a -similar object, and he now fell backward, suffering his gun to escape -from his hands into the water. In an instant, however, he recovered his -feet, though his gestures were wild and bewildered. At the same moment -his companions suspended their efforts, and the chasing canoes clustered -together, and became stationary. Chingachgook and Uncas profited by the -interval to regain their wind, though Duncan continued to work with -the most persevering industry. The father and son now cast calm but -inquiring glances at each other, to learn if either had sustained any -injury by the fire; for both well knew that no cry or exclamation -would, in such a moment of necessity have been permitted to betray the -accident. A few large drops of blood were trickling down the shoulder -of the Sagamore, who, when he perceived that the eyes of Uncas dwelt -too long on the sight, raised some water in the hollow of his hand, and -washing off the stain, was content to manifest, in this simple manner, -the slightness of the injury. - -"Softly, softly, major," said the scout, who by this time had reloaded -his rifle; "we are a little too far already for a rifle to put forth its -beauties, and you see yonder imps are holding a council. Let them -come up within striking distance--my eye may well be trusted in such -a matter--and I will trail the varlets the length of the Horican, -guaranteeing that not a shot of theirs shall, at the worst, more than -break the skin, while 'killdeer' shall touch the life twice in three -times." - -"We forget our errand," returned the diligent Duncan. "For God's sake -let us profit by this advantage, and increase our distance from the -enemy." - -"Give me my children," said Munro, hoarsely; "trifle no longer with a -father's agony, but restore me my babes." - -Long and habitual deference to the mandates of his superiors had taught -the scout the virtue of obedience. Throwing a last and lingering glance -at the distant canoes, he laid aside his rifle, and, relieving the -wearied Duncan, resumed the paddle, which he wielded with sinews that -never tired. His efforts were seconded by those of the Mohicans and a -very few minutes served to place such a sheet of water between them and -their enemies, that Heyward once more breathed freely. - -The lake now began to expand, and their route lay along a wide reach, -that was lined, as before, by high and ragged mountains. But the islands -were few, and easily avoided. The strokes of the paddles grew more -measured and regular, while they who plied them continued their labor, -after the close and deadly chase from which they had just relieved -themselves, with as much coolness as though their speed had been tried -in sport, rather than under such pressing, nay, almost desperate, -circumstances. - -Instead of following the western shore, whither their errand led them, -the wary Mohican inclined his course more toward those hills behind -which Montcalm was known to have led his army into the formidable -fortress of Ticonderoga. As the Hurons, to every appearance, had -abandoned the pursuit, there was no apparent reason for this excess of -caution. It was, however, maintained for hours, until they had reached -a bay, nigh the northern termination of the lake. Here the canoe was -driven upon the beach, and the whole party landed. Hawkeye and Heyward -ascended an adjacent bluff, where the former, after considering the -expanse of water beneath him, pointed out to the latter a small black -object, hovering under a headland, at the distance of several miles. - -"Do you see it?" demanded the scout. "Now, what would you account that -spot, were you left alone to white experience to find your way through -this wilderness?" - -"But for its distance and its magnitude, I should suppose it a bird. Can -it be a living object?" - -"'Tis a canoe of good birchen bark, and paddled by fierce and crafty -Mingoes. Though Providence has lent to those who inhabit the woods -eyes that would be needless to men in the settlements, where there are -inventions to assist the sight, yet no human organs can see all the -dangers which at this moment circumvent us. These varlets pretend to be -bent chiefly on their sun-down meal, but the moment it is dark they will -be on our trail, as true as hounds on the scent. We must throw them -off, or our pursuit of Le Renard Subtil may be given up. These lakes are -useful at times, especially when the game take the water," continued the -scout, gazing about him with a countenance of concern; "but they give no -cover, except it be to the fishes. God knows what the country would -be, if the settlements should ever spread far from the two rivers. Both -hunting and war would lose their beauty." - -"Let us not delay a moment, without some good and obvious cause." - -"I little like that smoke, which you may see worming up along the rock -above the canoe," interrupted the abstracted scout. "My life on it, -other eyes than ours see it, and know its meaning. Well, words will not -mend the matter, and it is time that we were doing." - -Hawkeye moved away from the lookout, and descended, musing profoundly, -to the shore. He communicated the result of his observations to his -companions, in Delaware, and a short and earnest consultation succeeded. -When it terminated, the three instantly set about executing their new -resolutions. - -The canoe was lifted from the water, and borne on the shoulders of the -party, they proceeded into the wood, making as broad and obvious a trail -as possible. They soon reached the water-course, which they crossed, -and, continuing onward, until they came to an extensive and naked rock. -At this point, where their footsteps might be expected to be no longer -visible, they retraced their route to the brook, walking backward, with -the utmost care. They now followed the bed of the little stream to the -lake, into which they immediately launched their canoe again. A low -point concealed them from the headland, and the margin of the lake was -fringed for some distance with dense and overhanging bushes. Under the -cover of these natural advantages, they toiled their way, with patient -industry, until the scout pronounced that he believed it would be safe -once more to land. - -The halt continued until evening rendered objects indistinct and -uncertain to the eye. Then they resumed their route, and, favored by -the darkness, pushed silently and vigorously toward the western shore. -Although the rugged outline of mountain, to which they were steering, -presented no distinctive marks to the eyes of Duncan, the Mohican -entered the little haven he had selected with the confidence and -accuracy of an experienced pilot. - -The boat was again lifted and borne into the woods, where it was -carefully concealed under a pile of brush. The adventurers assumed their -arms and packs, and the scout announced to Munro and Heyward that he and -the Indians were at last in readiness to proceed. - - - - -CHAPTER 21 - - "If you find a man there, he shall die a flea's death." - --Merry Wives of Windsor. - -The party had landed on the border of a region that is, even to this -day, less known to the inhabitants of the States than the deserts -of Arabia, or the steppes of Tartary. It was the sterile and rugged -district which separates the tributaries of Champlain from those of the -Hudson, the Mohawk, and the St. Lawrence. Since the period of our tale -the active spirit of the country has surrounded it with a belt of rich -and thriving settlements, though none but the hunter or the savage is -ever known even now to penetrate its wild recesses. - -As Hawkeye and the Mohicans had, however, often traversed the mountains -and valleys of this vast wilderness, they did not hesitate to plunge -into its depth, with the freedom of men accustomed to its privations -and difficulties. For many hours the travelers toiled on their laborious -way, guided by a star, or following the direction of some water-course, -until the scout called a halt, and holding a short consultation with -the Indians, they lighted their fire, and made the usual preparations to -pass the remainder of the night where they then were. - -Imitating the example, and emulating the confidence of their more -experienced associates, Munro and Duncan slept without fear, if not -without uneasiness. The dews were suffered to exhale, and the sun had -dispersed the mists, and was shedding a strong and clear light in the -forest, when the travelers resumed their journey. - -After proceeding a few miles, the progress of Hawkeye, who led the -advance, became more deliberate and watchful. He often stopped to -examine the trees; nor did he cross a rivulet without attentively -considering the quantity, the velocity, and the color of its waters. -Distrusting his own judgment, his appeals to the opinion of Chingachgook -were frequent and earnest. During one of these conferences Heyward -observed that Uncas stood a patient and silent, though, as he imagined, -an interested listener. He was strongly tempted to address the young -chief, and demand his opinion of their progress; but the calm and -dignified demeanor of the native induced him to believe, that, like -himself, the other was wholly dependent on the sagacity and intelligence -of the seniors of the party. At last the scout spoke in English, and at -once explained the embarrassment of their situation. - -"When I found that the home path of the Hurons run north," he said, "it -did not need the judgment of many long years to tell that they would -follow the valleys, and keep atween the waters of the Hudson and the -Horican, until they might strike the springs of the Canada streams, -which would lead them into the heart of the country of the Frenchers. -Yet here are we, within a short range of the Scaroons, and not a sign of -a trail have we crossed! Human natur' is weak, and it is possible we may -not have taken the proper scent." - -"Heaven protect us from such an error!" exclaimed Duncan. "Let us -retrace our steps, and examine as we go, with keener eyes. Has Uncas no -counsel to offer in such a strait?" - -The young Mohican cast a glance at his father, but, maintaining his -quiet and reserved mien, he continued silent. Chingachgook had caught -the look, and motioning with his hand, he bade him speak. The moment -this permission was accorded, the countenance of Uncas changed from its -grave composure to a gleam of intelligence and joy. Bounding forward -like a deer, he sprang up the side of a little acclivity, a few rods in -advance, and stood, exultingly, over a spot of fresh earth, that looked -as though it had been recently upturned by the passage of some heavy -animal. The eyes of the whole party followed the unexpected movement, -and read their success in the air of triumph that the youth assumed. - -"'Tis the trail!" exclaimed the scout, advancing to the spot; "the lad -is quick of sight and keen of wit for his years." - -"'Tis extraordinary that he should have withheld his knowledge so long," -muttered Duncan, at his elbow. - -"It would have been more wonderful had he spoken without a bidding. -No, no; your young white, who gathers his learning from books and can -measure what he knows by the page, may conceit that his knowledge, like -his legs, outruns that of his fathers', but, where experience is the -master, the scholar is made to know the value of years, and respects -them accordingly." - -"See!" said Uncas, pointing north and south, at the evident marks of the -broad trail on either side of him, "the dark-hair has gone toward the -forest." - -"Hound never ran on a more beautiful scent," responded the scout, -dashing forward, at once, on the indicated route; "we are favored, -greatly favored, and can follow with high noses. Ay, here are both your -waddling beasts: this Huron travels like a white general. The fellow is -stricken with a judgment, and is mad! Look sharp for wheels, Sagamore," -he continued, looking back, and laughing in his newly awakened -satisfaction; "we shall soon have the fool journeying in a coach, and -that with three of the best pair of eyes on the borders in his rear." - -The spirits of the scout, and the astonishing success of the chase, in -which a circuitous distance of more than forty miles had been passed, -did not fail to impart a portion of hope to the whole party. Their -advance was rapid; and made with as much confidence as a traveler would -proceed along a wide highway. If a rock, or a rivulet, or a bit of earth -harder than common, severed the links of the clew they followed, the -true eye of the scout recovered them at a distance, and seldom rendered -the delay of a single moment necessary. Their progress was much -facilitated by the certainty that Magua had found it necessary to -journey through the valleys; a circumstance which rendered the general -direction of the route sure. Nor had the Huron entirely neglected the -arts uniformly practised by the natives when retiring in front of an -enemy. False trails and sudden turnings were frequent, wherever a brook -or the formation of the ground rendered them feasible; but his pursuers -were rarely deceived, and never failed to detect their error, before -they had lost either time or distance on the deceptive track. - -By the middle of the afternoon they had passed the Scaroons, and were -following the route of the declining sun. After descending an eminence -to a low bottom, through which a swift stream glided, they suddenly came -to a place where the party of Le Renard had made a halt. Extinguished -brands were lying around a spring, the offals of a deer were scattered -about the place, and the trees bore evident marks of having been -browsed by the horses. At a little distance, Heyward discovered, and -contemplated with tender emotion, the small bower under which he was -fain to believe that Cora and Alice had reposed. But while the earth -was trodden, and the footsteps of both men and beasts were so plainly -visible around the place, the trail appeared to have suddenly ended. - -It was easy to follow the tracks of the Narragansetts, but they seemed -only to have wandered without guides, or any other object than the -pursuit of food. At length Uncas, who, with his father, had endeavored -to trace the route of the horses, came upon a sign of their presence -that was quite recent. Before following the clew, he communicated his -success to his companions; and while the latter were consulting on the -circumstance, the youth reappeared, leading the two fillies, with -their saddles broken, and the housings soiled, as though they had been -permitted to run at will for several days. - -"What should this prove?" said Duncan, turning pale, and glancing his -eyes around him, as if he feared the brush and leaves were about to give -up some horrid secret. - -"That our march is come to a quick end, and that we are in an enemy's -country," returned the scout. "Had the knave been pressed, and the -gentle ones wanted horses to keep up with the party, he might have taken -their scalps; but without an enemy at his heels, and with such rugged -beasts as these, he would not hurt a hair of their heads. I know your -thoughts, and shame be it to our color that you have reason for them; -but he who thinks that even a Mingo would ill-treat a woman, unless it -be to tomahawk her, knows nothing of Indian natur', or the laws of the -woods. No, no; I have heard that the French Indians had come into these -hills to hunt the moose, and we are getting within scent of their camp. -Why should they not? The morning and evening guns of Ty may be heard -any day among these mountains; for the Frenchers are running a new line -atween the provinces of the king and the Canadas. It is true that the -horses are here, but the Hurons are gone; let us, then, hunt for the -path by which they parted." - -Hawkeye and the Mohicans now applied themselves to their task in good -earnest. A circle of a few hundred feet in circumference was drawn, -and each of the party took a segment for his portion. The examination, -however, resulted in no discovery. The impressions of footsteps were -numerous, but they all appeared like those of men who had wandered -about the spot, without any design to quit it. Again the scout and his -companions made the circuit of the halting place, each slowly following -the other, until they assembled in the center once more, no wiser than -when they started. - -"Such cunning is not without its deviltry," exclaimed Hawkeye, when he -met the disappointed looks of his assistants. - -"We must get down to it, Sagamore, beginning at the spring, and going -over the ground by inches. The Huron shall never brag in his tribe that -he has a foot which leaves no print." - -Setting the example himself, the scout engaged in the scrutiny with -renewed zeal. Not a leaf was left unturned. The sticks were removed, -and the stones lifted; for Indian cunning was known frequently to adopt -these objects as covers, laboring with the utmost patience and industry, -to conceal each footstep as they proceeded. Still no discovery was made. -At length Uncas, whose activity had enabled him to achieve his portion -of the task the soonest, raked the earth across the turbid little rill -which ran from the spring, and diverted its course into another channel. -So soon as its narrow bed below the dam was dry, he stooped over it with -keen and curious eyes. A cry of exultation immediately announced the -success of the young warrior. The whole party crowded to the spot where -Uncas pointed out the impression of a moccasin in the moist alluvion. - -"This lad will be an honor to his people," said Hawkeye, regarding the -trail with as much admiration as a naturalist would expend on the tusk -of a mammoth or the rib of a mastodon; "ay, and a thorn in the sides of -the Hurons. Yet that is not the footstep of an Indian! the weight is too -much on the heel, and the toes are squared, as though one of the French -dancers had been in, pigeon-winging his tribe! Run back, Uncas, and -bring me the size of the singer's foot. You will find a beautiful print -of it just opposite yon rock, agin the hillside." - -While the youth was engaged in this commission, the scout and -Chingachgook were attentively considering the impressions. The -measurements agreed, and the former unhesitatingly pronounced that the -footstep was that of David, who had once more been made to exchange his -shoes for moccasins. - -"I can now read the whole of it, as plainly as if I had seen the arts of -Le Subtil," he added; "the singer being a man whose gifts lay chiefly in -his throat and feet, was made to go first, and the others have trod in -his steps, imitating their formation." - -"But," cried Duncan, "I see no signs of--" - -"The gentle ones," interrupted the scout; "the varlet has found a way to -carry them, until he supposed he had thrown any followers off the scent. -My life on it, we see their pretty little feet again, before many rods -go by." - -The whole party now proceeded, following the course of the rill, keeping -anxious eyes on the regular impressions. The water soon flowed into its -bed again, but watching the ground on either side, the foresters pursued -their way content with knowing that the trail lay beneath. More than -half a mile was passed, before the rill rippled close around the base of -an extensive and dry rock. Here they paused to make sure that the Hurons -had not quitted the water. - -It was fortunate they did so. For the quick and active Uncas soon found -the impression of a foot on a bunch of moss, where it would seem an -Indian had inadvertently trodden. Pursuing the direction given by this -discovery, he entered the neighboring thicket, and struck the trail, as -fresh and obvious as it had been before they reached the spring. Another -shout announced the good fortune of the youth to his companions, and at -once terminated the search. - -"Ay, it has been planned with Indian judgment," said the scout, when -the party was assembled around the place, "and would have blinded white -eyes." - -"Shall we proceed?" demanded Heyward. - -"Softly, softly, we know our path; but it is good to examine the -formation of things. This is my schooling, major; and if one neglects -the book, there is little chance of learning from the open land of -Providence. All is plain but one thing, which is the manner that the -knave contrived to get the gentle ones along the blind trail. Even a -Huron would be too proud to let their tender feet touch the water." - -"Will this assist in explaining the difficulty?" said Heyward, pointing -toward the fragments of a sort of handbarrow, that had been rudely -constructed of boughs, and bound together with withes, and which now -seemed carelessly cast aside as useless. - -"'Tis explained!" cried the delighted Hawkeye. "If them varlets have -passed a minute, they have spent hours in striving to fabricate a lying -end to their trail! Well, I've known them to waste a day in the same -manner to as little purpose. Here we have three pair of moccasins, and -two of little feet. It is amazing that any mortal beings can journey on -limbs so small! Pass me the thong of buckskin, Uncas, and let me take -the length of this foot. By the Lord, it is no longer than a child's and -yet the maidens are tall and comely. That Providence is partial in its -gifts, for its own wise reasons, the best and most contented of us must -allow." - -"The tender limbs of my daughters are unequal to these hardships," said -Munro, looking at the light footsteps of his children, with a parent's -love; "we shall find their fainting forms in this desert." - -"Of that there is little cause of fear," returned the scout, slowly -shaking his head; "this is a firm and straight, though a light step, and -not over long. See, the heel has hardly touched the ground; and there -the dark-hair has made a little jump, from root to root. No, no; my -knowledge for it, neither of them was nigh fainting, hereaway. Now, the -singer was beginning to be footsore and leg-weary, as is plain by -his trail. There, you see, he slipped; here he has traveled wide and -tottered; and there again it looks as though he journeyed on snowshoes. -Ay, ay, a man who uses his throat altogether, can hardly give his legs a -proper training." - -From such undeniable testimony did the practised woodsman arrive at the -truth, with nearly as much certainty and precision as if he had been a -witness of all those events which his ingenuity so easily elucidated. -Cheered by these assurances, and satisfied by a reasoning that was so -obvious, while it was so simple, the party resumed its course, after -making a short halt, to take a hurried repast. - -When the meal was ended, the scout cast a glance upward at the setting -sun, and pushed forward with a rapidity which compelled Heyward and the -still vigorous Munro to exert all their muscles to equal. Their route -now lay along the bottom which has already been mentioned. As the Hurons -had made no further efforts to conceal their footsteps, the progress of -the pursuers was no longer delayed by uncertainty. Before an hour had -elapsed, however, the speed of Hawkeye sensibly abated, and his head, -instead of maintaining its former direct and forward look, began to turn -suspiciously from side to side, as if he were conscious of approaching -danger. He soon stopped again, and waited for the whole party to come -up. - -"I scent the Hurons," he said, speaking to the Mohicans; "yonder is open -sky, through the treetops, and we are getting too nigh their encampment. -Sagamore, you will take the hillside, to the right; Uncas will bend -along the brook to the left, while I will try the trail. If anything -should happen, the call will be three croaks of a crow. I saw one of the -birds fanning himself in the air, just beyond the dead oak--another sign -that we are approaching an encampment." - -The Indians departed their several ways without reply, while Hawkeye -cautiously proceeded with the two gentlemen. Heyward soon pressed to the -side of their guide, eager to catch an early glimpse of those enemies -he had pursued with so much toil and anxiety. His companion told him -to steal to the edge of the wood, which, as usual, was fringed with -a thicket, and wait his coming, for he wished to examine certain -suspicious signs a little on one side. Duncan obeyed, and soon found -himself in a situation to command a view which he found as extraordinary -as it was novel. - -The trees of many acres had been felled, and the glow of a mild summer's -evening had fallen on the clearing, in beautiful contrast to the gray -light of the forest. A short distance from the place where Duncan stood, -the stream had seemingly expanded into a little lake, covering most of -the low land, from mountain to mountain. The water fell out of this wide -basin, in a cataract so regular and gentle, that it appeared rather to -be the work of human hands than fashioned by nature. A hundred earthen -dwellings stood on the margin of the lake, and even in its waters, as -though the latter had overflowed its usual banks. Their rounded roofs, -admirably molded for defense against the weather, denoted more of -industry and foresight than the natives were wont to bestow on their -regular habitations, much less on those they occupied for the temporary -purposes of hunting and war. In short, the whole village or town, -whichever it might be termed, possessed more of method and neatness of -execution, than the white men had been accustomed to believe belonged, -ordinarily, to the Indian habits. It appeared, however, to be deserted. -At least, so thought Duncan for many minutes; but, at length, he fancied -he discovered several human forms advancing toward him on all fours, -and apparently dragging in the train some heavy, and as he was quick to -apprehend, some formidable engine. Just then a few dark-looking heads -gleamed out of the dwellings, and the place seemed suddenly alive with -beings, which, however, glided from cover to cover so swiftly, as to -allow no opportunity of examining their humors or pursuits. Alarmed at -these suspicious and inexplicable movements, he was about to attempt the -signal of the crows, when the rustling of leaves at hand drew his eyes -in another direction. - -The young man started, and recoiled a few paces instinctively, when he -found himself within a hundred yards of a stranger Indian. Recovering -his recollection on the instant, instead of sounding an alarm, which -might prove fatal to himself, he remained stationary, an attentive -observer of the other's motions. - -An instant of calm observation served to assure Duncan that he was -undiscovered. The native, like himself, seemed occupied in considering -the low dwellings of the village, and the stolen movements of its -inhabitants. It was impossible to discover the expression of his -features through the grotesque mask of paint under which they were -concealed, though Duncan fancied it was rather melancholy than savage. -His head was shaved, as usual, with the exception of the crown, from -whose tuft three or four faded feathers from a hawk's wing were loosely -dangling. A ragged calico mantle half encircled his body, while his -nether garment was composed of an ordinary shirt, the sleeves of which -were made to perform the office that is usually executed by a much more -commodious arrangement. His legs were, however, covered with a pair of -good deer-skin moccasins. Altogether, the appearance of the individual -was forlorn and miserable. - -Duncan was still curiously observing the person of his neighbor when the -scout stole silently and cautiously to his side. - -"You see we have reached their settlement or encampment," whispered -the young man; "and here is one of the savages himself, in a very -embarrassing position for our further movements." - -Hawkeye started, and dropped his rifle, when, directed by the finger -of his companion, the stranger came under his view. Then lowering the -dangerous muzzle he stretched forward his long neck, as if to assist a -scrutiny that was already intensely keen. - -"The imp is not a Huron," he said, "nor of any of the Canada tribes; and -yet you see, by his clothes, the knave has been plundering a white. Ay, -Montcalm has raked the woods for his inroad, and a whooping, murdering -set of varlets has he gathered together. Can you see where he has put -his rifle or his bow?" - -"He appears to have no arms; nor does he seem to be viciously inclined. -Unless he communicate the alarm to his fellows, who, as you see, are -dodging about the water, we have but little to fear from him." - -The scout turned to Heyward, and regarded him a moment with unconcealed -amazement. Then opening wide his mouth, he indulged in unrestrained -and heartfelt laughter, though in that silent and peculiar manner which -danger had so long taught him to practise. - -Repeating the words, "Fellows who are dodging about the water!" he -added, "so much for schooling and passing a boyhood in the settlements! -The knave has long legs, though, and shall not be trusted. Do you keep -him under your rifle while I creep in behind, through the bush, and take -him alive. Fire on no account." - -Heyward had already permitted his companion to bury part of his person -in the thicket, when, stretching forth his arm, he arrested him, in -order to ask: - -"If I see you in danger, may I not risk a shot?" - -Hawkeye regarded him a moment, like one who knew not how to take the -question; then, nodding his head, he answered, still laughing, though -inaudibly: - -"Fire a whole platoon, major." - -In the next moment he was concealed by the leaves. Duncan waited several -minutes in feverish impatience, before he caught another glimpse of -the scout. Then he reappeared, creeping along the earth, from which his -dress was hardly distinguishable, directly in the rear of his intended -captive. Having reached within a few yards of the latter, he arose to -his feet, silently and slowly. At that instant, several loud blows were -struck on the water, and Duncan turned his eyes just in time to perceive -that a hundred dark forms were plunging, in a body, into the troubled -little sheet. Grasping his rifle his looks were again bent on the Indian -near him. Instead of taking the alarm, the unconscious savage stretched -forward his neck, as if he also watched the movements about the gloomy -lake, with a sort of silly curiosity. In the meantime, the uplifted -hand of Hawkeye was above him. But, without any apparent reason, it was -withdrawn, and its owner indulged in another long, though still silent, -fit of merriment. When the peculiar and hearty laughter of Hawkeye -was ended, instead of grasping his victim by the throat, he tapped him -lightly on the shoulder, and exclaimed aloud: - -"How now, friend! have you a mind to teach the beavers to sing?" - -"Even so," was the ready answer. "It would seem that the Being that gave -them power to improve His gifts so well, would not deny them voices to -proclaim His praise." - - - - -CHAPTER 22 - - "Bot.--Abibl we all met? - Qui.--Pat--pat; and here's a marvelous convenient place - for our rehearsal." - --Midsummer Night's Dream - -The reader may better imagine, than we describe the surprise of Heyward. -His lurking Indians were suddenly converted into four-footed beasts; his -lake into a beaver pond; his cataract into a dam, constructed by those -industrious and ingenious quadrupeds; and a suspected enemy into his -tried friend, David Gamut, the master of psalmody. The presence of the -latter created so many unexpected hopes relative to the sisters that, -without a moment's hesitation, the young man broke out of his ambush, -and sprang forward to join the two principal actors in the scene. - -The merriment of Hawkeye was not easily appeased. Without ceremony, and -with a rough hand, he twirled the supple Gamut around on his heel, and -more than once affirmed that the Hurons had done themselves great credit -in the fashion of his costume. Then, seizing the hand of the other, he -squeezed it with a grip that brought tears into the eyes of the placid -David, and wished him joy of his new condition. - -"You were about opening your throat-practisings among the beavers, were -ye?" he said. "The cunning devils know half the trade already, for they -beat the time with their tails, as you heard just now; and in good time -it was, too, or 'killdeer' might have sounded the first note among -them. I have known greater fools, who could read and write, than an -experienced old beaver; but as for squalling, the animals are born dumb! -What think you of such a song as this?" - -David shut his sensitive ears, and even Heyward apprised as he was of -the nature of the cry, looked upward in quest of the bird, as the cawing -of a crow rang in the air about them. - -"See!" continued the laughing scout, as he pointed toward the remainder -of the party, who, in obedience to the signal, were already approaching; -"this is music which has its natural virtues; it brings two good rifles -to my elbow, to say nothing of the knives and tomahawks. But we see that -you are safe; now tell us what has become of the maidens." - -"They are captives to the heathen," said David; "and, though greatly -troubled in spirit, enjoying comfort and safety in the body." - -"Both!" demanded the breathless Heyward. - -"Even so. Though our wayfaring has been sore and our sustenance scanty, -we have had little other cause for complaint, except the violence done -our feelings, by being thus led in captivity into a far land." - -"Bless ye for these very words!" exclaimed the trembling Munro; "I shall -then receive my babes, spotless and angel-like, as I lost them!" - -"I know not that their delivery is at hand," returned the doubting -David; "the leader of these savages is possessed of an evil spirit that -no power short of Omnipotence can tame. I have tried him sleeping and -waking, but neither sounds nor language seem to touch his soul." - -"Where is the knave?" bluntly interrupted the scout. - -"He hunts the moose to-day, with his young men; and tomorrow, as I hear, -they pass further into the forests, and nigher to the borders of Canada. -The elder maiden is conveyed to a neighboring people, whose lodges -are situate beyond yonder black pinnacle of rock; while the younger -is detained among the women of the Hurons, whose dwellings are but two -short miles hence, on a table-land, where the fire had done the office -of the axe, and prepared the place for their reception." - -"Alice, my gentle Alice!" murmured Heyward; "she has lost the -consolation of her sister's presence!" - -"Even so. But so far as praise and thanksgiving in psalmody can temper -the spirit in affliction, she has not suffered." - -"Has she then a heart for music?" - -"Of the graver and more solemn character; though it must be acknowledged -that, in spite of all my endeavors, the maiden weeps oftener than she -smiles. At such moments I forbear to press the holy songs; but there are -many sweet and comfortable periods of satisfactory communication, -when the ears of the savages are astounded with the upliftings of our -voices." - -"And why are you permitted to go at large, unwatched?" - -David composed his features into what he intended should express an air -of modest humility, before he meekly replied: - -"Little be the praise to such a worm as I. But, though the power of -psalmody was suspended in the terrible business of that field of blood -through which we have passed, it has recovered its influence even over -the souls of the heathen, and I am suffered to go and come at will." - -The scout laughed, and, tapping his own forehead significantly, he -perhaps explained the singular indulgence more satisfactorily when he -said: - -"The Indians never harm a non-composser. But why, when the path lay open -before your eyes, did you not strike back on your own trail (it is not -so blind as that which a squirrel would make), and bring in the tidings -to Edward?" - -The scout, remembering only his own sturdy and iron nature, had probably -exacted a task that David, under no circumstances, could have performed. -But, without entirely losing the meekness of his air, the latter was -content to answer: - -"Though my soul would rejoice to visit the habitations of Christendom -once more, my feet would rather follow the tender spirits intrusted to -my keeping, even into the idolatrous province of the Jesuits, than take -one step backward, while they pined in captivity and sorrow." - -Though the figurative language of David was not very intelligible, the -sincere and steady expression of his eye, and the glow of his honest -countenance, were not easily mistaken. Uncas pressed closer to his side, -and regarded the speaker with a look of commendation, while his -father expressed his satisfaction by the ordinary pithy exclamation of -approbation. The scout shook his head as he rejoined: - -"The Lord never intended that the man should place all his endeavors in -his throat, to the neglect of other and better gifts! But he has fallen -into the hands of some silly woman, when he should have been gathering -his education under a blue sky, among the beauties of the forest. Here, -friend; I did intend to kindle a fire with this tooting-whistle of -thine; but, as you value the thing, take it, and blow your best on it." - -Gamut received his pitch-pipe with as strong an expression of pleasure -as he believed compatible with the grave functions he exercised. After -essaying its virtues repeatedly, in contrast with his own voice, and, -satisfying himself that none of its melody was lost, he made a very -serious demonstration toward achieving a few stanzas of one of the -longest effusions in the little volume so often mentioned. - -Heyward, however, hastily interrupted his pious purpose by continuing -questions concerning the past and present condition of his fellow -captives, and in a manner more methodical than had been permitted by his -feelings in the opening of their interview. David, though he regarded -his treasure with longing eyes, was constrained to answer, especially -as the venerable father took a part in the interrogatories, with an -interest too imposing to be denied. Nor did the scout fail to throw in -a pertinent inquiry, whenever a fitting occasion presented. In this -manner, though with frequent interruptions which were filled with -certain threatening sounds from the recovered instrument, the pursuers -were put in possession of such leading circumstances as were likely to -prove useful in accomplishing their great and engrossing object--the -recovery of the sisters. The narrative of David was simple, and the -facts but few. - -Magua had waited on the mountain until a safe moment to retire presented -itself, when he had descended, and taken the route along the western -side of the Horican in direction of the Canadas. As the subtle Huron was -familiar with the paths, and well knew there was no immediate danger of -pursuit, their progress had been moderate, and far from fatiguing. -It appeared from the unembellished statement of David, that his own -presence had been rather endured than desired; though even Magua had not -been entirely exempt from that veneration with which the Indians regard -those whom the Great Spirit had visited in their intellects. At night, -the utmost care had been taken of the captives, both to prevent injury -from the damps of the woods and to guard against an escape. At -the spring, the horses were turned loose, as has been seen; and, -notwithstanding the remoteness and length of their trail, the artifices -already named were resorted to, in order to cut off every clue to their -place of retreat. On their arrival at the encampment of his people, -Magua, in obedience to a policy seldom departed from, separated his -prisoners. Cora had been sent to a tribe that temporarily occupied an -adjacent valley, though David was far too ignorant of the customs and -history of the natives, to be able to declare anything satisfactory -concerning their name or character. He only knew that they had not -engaged in the late expedition against William Henry; that, like the -Hurons themselves they were allies of Montcalm; and that they maintained -an amicable, though a watchful intercourse with the warlike and -savage people whom chance had, for a time, brought in such close and -disagreeable contact with themselves. - -The Mohicans and the scout listened to his interrupted and imperfect -narrative, with an interest that obviously increased as he proceeded; -and it was while attempting to explain the pursuits of the community in -which Cora was detained, that the latter abruptly demanded: - -"Did you see the fashion of their knives? were they of English or French -formation?" - -"My thoughts were bent on no such vanities, but rather mingled in -consolation with those of the maidens." - -"The time may come when you will not consider the knife of a savage such -a despicable vanity," returned the scout, with a strong expression of -contempt for the other's dullness. "Had they held their corn feast--or -can you say anything of the totems of the tribe?" - -"Of corn, we had many and plentiful feasts; for the grain, being in -the milk is both sweet to the mouth and comfortable to the stomach. Of -totem, I know not the meaning; but if it appertaineth in any wise to the -art of Indian music, it need not be inquired after at their hands. They -never join their voices in praise, and it would seem that they are among -the profanest of the idolatrous." - -"Therein you belie the natur' of an Indian. Even the Mingo adores but -the true and loving God. 'Tis wicked fabrication of the whites, and I -say it to the shame of my color that would make the warrior bow down -before images of his own creation. It is true, they endeavor to make -truces to the wicked one--as who would not with an enemy he cannot -conquer! but they look up for favor and assistance to the Great and Good -Spirit only." - -"It may be so," said David; "but I have seen strange and fantastic -images drawn in their paint, of which their admiration and care savored -of spiritual pride; especially one, and that, too, a foul and loathsome -object." - -"Was it a sarpent?" quickly demanded the scout. - -"Much the same. It was in the likeness of an abject and creeping -tortoise." - -"Hugh!" exclaimed both the attentive Mohicans in a breath; while the -scout shook his head with the air of one who had made an important but -by no means a pleasing discovery. Then the father spoke, in the language -of the Delawares, and with a calmness and dignity that instantly -arrested the attention even of those to whom his words were -unintelligible. His gestures were impressive, and at times energetic. -Once he lifted his arm on high; and, as it descended, the action threw -aside the folds of his light mantle, a finger resting on his breast, as -if he would enforce his meaning by the attitude. Duncan's eyes followed -the movement, and he perceived that the animal just mentioned was -beautifully, though faintly, worked in blue tint, on the swarthy breast -of the chief. All that he had ever heard of the violent separation of -the vast tribes of the Delawares rushed across his mind, and he awaited -the proper moment to speak, with a suspense that was rendered nearly -intolerable by his interest in the stake. His wish, however, was -anticipated by the scout who turned from his red friend, saying: - -"We have found that which may be good or evil to us, as heaven disposes. -The Sagamore is of the high blood of the Delawares, and is the great -chief of their Tortoises! That some of this stock are among the people -of whom the singer tells us, is plain by his words; and, had he but -spent half the breath in prudent questions that he has blown away in -making a trumpet of his throat, we might have known how many warriors -they numbered. It is, altogether, a dangerous path we move in; for a -friend whose face is turned from you often bears a bloodier mind than -the enemy who seeks your scalp." - -"Explain," said Duncan. - -"'Tis a long and melancholy tradition, and one I little like to think -of; for it is not to be denied that the evil has been mainly done by men -with white skins. But it has ended in turning the tomahawk of brother -against brother, and brought the Mingo and the Delaware to travel in the -same path." - -"You, then, suspect it is a portion of that people among whom Cora -resides?" - -The scout nodded his head in assent, though he seemed anxious to waive -the further discussion of a subject that appeared painful. The impatient -Duncan now made several hasty and desperate propositions to attempt -the release of the sisters. Munro seemed to shake off his apathy, and -listened to the wild schemes of the young man with a deference that his -gray hairs and reverend years should have denied. But the scout, after -suffering the ardor of the lover to expend itself a little, found means -to convince him of the folly of precipitation, in a manner that would -require their coolest judgment and utmost fortitude. - -"It would be well," he added, "to let this man go in again, as usual, -and for him to tarry in the lodges, giving notice to the gentle ones of -our approach, until we call him out, by signal, to consult. You know the -cry of a crow, friend, from the whistle of the whip-poor-will?" - -"'Tis a pleasing bird," returned David, "and has a soft and melancholy -note! though the time is rather quick and ill-measured." - -"He speaks of the wish-ton-wish," said the scout; "well, since you like -his whistle, it shall be your signal. Remember, then, when you hear the -whip-poor-will's call three times repeated, you are to come into the -bushes where the bird might be supposed--" - -"Stop," interrupted Heyward; "I will accompany him." - -"You!" exclaimed the astonished Hawkeye; "are you tired of seeing the -sun rise and set?" - -"David is a living proof that the Hurons can be merciful." - -"Ay, but David can use his throat, as no man in his senses would pervart -the gift." - -"I too can play the madman, the fool, the hero; in short, any or -everything to rescue her I love. Name your objections no longer: I am -resolved." - -Hawkeye regarded the young man a moment in speechless amazement. -But Duncan, who, in deference to the other's skill and services, had -hitherto submitted somewhat implicitly to his dictation, now assumed the -superior, with a manner that was not easily resisted. He waved his hand, -in sign of his dislike to all remonstrance, and then, in more tempered -language, he continued: - -"You have the means of disguise; change me; paint me, too, if you will; -in short, alter me to anything--a fool." - -"It is not for one like me to say that he who is already formed by so -powerful a hand as Providence, stands in need of a change," muttered the -discontented scout. "When you send your parties abroad in war, you find -it prudent, at least, to arrange the marks and places of encampment, in -order that they who fight on your side may know when and where to expect -a friend." - -"Listen," interrupted Duncan; "you have heard from this faithful -follower of the captives, that the Indians are of two tribes, if not -of different nations. With one, whom you think to be a branch of the -Delawares, is she you call the 'dark-hair'; the other, and younger, -of the ladies, is undeniably with our declared enemies, the Hurons. It -becomes my youth and rank to attempt the latter adventure. While you, -therefore, are negotiating with your friends for the release of one of -the sisters, I will effect that of the other, or die." - -The awakened spirit of the young soldier gleamed in his eyes, and his -form became imposing under its influence. Hawkeye, though too much -accustomed to Indian artifices not to foresee the danger of the -experiment, knew not well how to combat this sudden resolution. - -Perhaps there was something in the proposal that suited his own hardy -nature, and that secret love of desperate adventure, which had increased -with his experience, until hazard and danger had become, in some -measure, necessary to the enjoyment of his existence. Instead of -continuing to oppose the scheme of Duncan, his humor suddenly altered, -and he lent himself to its execution. - -"Come," he said, with a good-humored smile; "the buck that will take -to the water must be headed, and not followed. Chingachgook has as many -different paints as the engineer officer's wife, who takes down natur' -on scraps of paper, making the mountains look like cocks of rusty hay, -and placing the blue sky in reach of your hand. The Sagamore can use -them, too. Seat yourself on the log; and my life on it, he can soon make -a natural fool of you, and that well to your liking." - -Duncan complied; and the Mohican, who had been an attentive listener to -the discourse, readily undertook the office. Long practised in all the -subtle arts of his race, he drew, with great dexterity and quickness, -the fantastic shadow that the natives were accustomed to consider as the -evidence of a friendly and jocular disposition. Every line that could -possibly be interpreted into a secret inclination for war, was carefully -avoided; while, on the other hand, he studied those conceits that might -be construed into amity. - -In short, he entirely sacrificed every appearance of the warrior to the -masquerade of a buffoon. Such exhibitions were not uncommon among the -Indians, and as Duncan was already sufficiently disguised in his dress, -there certainly did exist some reason for believing that, with his -knowledge of French, he might pass for a juggler from Ticonderoga, -straggling among the allied and friendly tribes. - -When he was thought to be sufficiently painted, the scout gave him much -friendly advice; concerted signals, and appointed the place where they -should meet, in the event of mutual success. The parting between Munro -and his young friend was more melancholy; still, the former submitted -to the separation with an indifference that his warm and honest nature -would never have permitted in a more healthful state of mind. The scout -led Heyward aside, and acquainted him with his intention to leave the -veteran in some safe encampment, in charge of Chingachgook, while he and -Uncas pursued their inquires among the people they had reason to believe -were Delawares. Then, renewing his cautions and advice, he concluded by -saying, with a solemnity and warmth of feeling, with which Duncan was -deeply touched: - -"And, now, God bless you! You have shown a spirit that I like; for it is -the gift of youth, more especially one of warm blood and a stout heart. -But believe the warning of a man who has reason to know all he says to -be true. You will have occasion for your best manhood, and for a sharper -wit than what is to be gathered in books, afore you outdo the cunning or -get the better of the courage of a Mingo. God bless you! if the Hurons -master your scalp, rely on the promise of one who has two stout warriors -to back him. They shall pay for their victory, with a life for every -hair it holds. I say, young gentleman, may Providence bless your -undertaking, which is altogether for good; and, remember, that to outwit -the knaves it is lawful to practise things that may not be naturally the -gift of a white-skin." - -Duncan shook his worthy and reluctant associate warmly by the hand, once -more recommended his aged friend to his care, and returning his good -wishes, he motioned to David to proceed. Hawkeye gazed after the -high-spirited and adventurous young man for several moments, in open -admiration; then, shaking his head doubtingly, he turned, and led his -own division of the party into the concealment of the forest. - -The route taken by Duncan and David lay directly across the clearing of -the beavers, and along the margin of their pond. - -When the former found himself alone with one so simple, and so little -qualified to render any assistance in desperate emergencies, he first -began to be sensible of the difficulties of the task he had undertaken. -The fading light increased the gloominess of the bleak and savage -wilderness that stretched so far on every side of him, and there was -even a fearful character in the stillness of those little huts, that -he knew were so abundantly peopled. It struck him, as he gazed at the -admirable structures and the wonderful precautions of their sagacious -inmates, that even the brutes of these vast wilds were possessed of -an instinct nearly commensurate with his own reason; and he could not -reflect, without anxiety, on the unequal contest that he had so rashly -courted. Then came the glowing image of Alice; her distress; her actual -danger; and all the peril of his situation was forgotten. Cheering -David, he moved on with the light and vigorous step of youth and -enterprise. - -After making nearly a semicircle around the pond, they diverged from the -water-course, and began to ascend to the level of a slight elevation in -that bottom land, over which they journeyed. Within half an hour they -gained the margin of another opening that bore all the signs of having -been also made by the beavers, and which those sagacious animals had -probably been induced, by some accident, to abandon, for the more -eligible position they now occupied. A very natural sensation caused -Duncan to hesitate a moment, unwilling to leave the cover of their -bushy path, as a man pauses to collect his energies before he essays any -hazardous experiment, in which he is secretly conscious they will all be -needed. He profited by the halt, to gather such information as might be -obtained from his short and hasty glances. - -On the opposite side of the clearing, and near the point where the brook -tumbled over some rocks, from a still higher level, some fifty or sixty -lodges, rudely fabricated of logs brush, and earth intermingled, were -to be discovered. They were arranged without any order, and seemed to be -constructed with very little attention to neatness or beauty. Indeed, -so very inferior were they in the two latter particulars to the village -Duncan had just seen, that he began to expect a second surprise, no -less astonishing that the former. This expectation was in no degree -diminished, when, by the doubtful twilight, he beheld twenty or thirty -forms rising alternately from the cover of the tall, coarse grass, in -front of the lodges, and then sinking again from the sight, as it were -to burrow in the earth. By the sudden and hasty glimpses that he caught -of these figures, they seemed more like dark, glancing specters, or some -other unearthly beings, than creatures fashioned with the ordinary and -vulgar materials of flesh and blood. A gaunt, naked form was seen, for a -single instant, tossing its arms wildly in the air, and then the spot it -had filled was vacant; the figure appearing suddenly in some other -and distant place, or being succeeded by another, possessing the same -mysterious character. David, observing that his companion lingered, -pursued the direction of his gaze, and in some measure recalled the -recollection of Heyward, by speaking. - -"There is much fruitful soil uncultivated here," he said; "and, I may -add, without the sinful leaven of self-commendation, that, since my -short sojourn in these heathenish abodes, much good seed has been -scattered by the wayside." - -"The tribes are fonder of the chase than of the arts of men of labor," -returned the unconscious Duncan, still gazing at the objects of his -wonder. - -"It is rather joy than labor to the spirit, to lift up the voice in -praise; but sadly do these boys abuse their gifts. Rarely have I found -any of their age, on whom nature has so freely bestowed the elements -of psalmody; and surely, surely, there are none who neglect them more. -Three nights have I now tarried here, and three several times have I -assembled the urchins to join in sacred song; and as often have they -responded to my efforts with whoopings and howlings that have chilled my -soul!" - -"Of whom speak you?" - -"Of those children of the devil, who waste the precious moments in -yonder idle antics. Ah! the wholesome restraint of discipline is but -little known among this self-abandoned people. In a country of birches, -a rod is never seen, and it ought not to appear a marvel in my eyes, -that the choicest blessings of Providence are wasted in such cries as -these." - -David closed his ears against the juvenile pack, whose yell just then -rang shrilly through the forest; and Duncan, suffering his lip to curl, -as in mockery of his own superstition, said firmly: - -"We will proceed." - -Without removing the safeguards form his ears, the master of song -complied, and together they pursued their way toward what David was -sometimes wont to call the "tents of the Philistines." - - - - -CHAPTER 23 - - "But though the beast of game - The privilege of chase may claim; - Though space and law the stag we lend - Ere hound we slip, or bow we bend; - Whoever recked, where, how, or when - The prowling fox was trapped or slain?" - --Lady of the Lake. - -It is unusual to find an encampment of the natives, like those of the -more instructed whites, guarded by the presence of armed men. Well -informed of the approach of every danger, while it is yet at a distance, -the Indian generally rests secure under his knowledge of the signs of -the forest, and the long and difficult paths that separate him from -those he has most reason to dread. But the enemy who, by any lucky -concurrence of accidents, has found means to elude the vigilance of the -scouts, will seldom meet with sentinels nearer home to sound the alarm. -In addition to this general usage, the tribes friendly to the French -knew too well the weight of the blow that had just been struck, to -apprehend any immediate danger from the hostile nations that were -tributary to the crown of Britain. - -When Duncan and David, therefore, found themselves in the center of the -children, who played the antics already mentioned, it was without the -least previous intimation of their approach. But so soon as they were -observed the whole of the juvenile pack raised, by common consent, a -shrill and warning whoop; and then sank, as it were, by magic, from -before the sight of their visitors. The naked, tawny bodies of the -crouching urchins blended so nicely at that hour, with the withered -herbage, that at first it seemed as if the earth had, in truth, -swallowed up their forms; though when surprise permitted Duncan to bend -his look more curiously about the spot, he found it everywhere met by -dark, quick, and rolling eyeballs. - -Gathering no encouragement from this startling presage of the nature of -the scrutiny he was likely to undergo from the more mature judgments -of the men, there was an instant when the young soldier would have -retreated. It was, however, too late to appear to hesitate. The cry -of the children had drawn a dozen warriors to the door of the nearest -lodge, where they stood clustered in a dark and savage group, gravely -awaiting the nearer approach of those who had unexpectedly come among -them. - -David, in some measure familiarized to the scene, led the way with a -steadiness that no slight obstacle was likely to disconcert, into this -very building. It was the principal edifice of the village, though -roughly constructed of the bark and branches of trees; being the lodge -in which the tribe held its councils and public meetings during their -temporary residence on the borders of the English province. Duncan found -it difficult to assume the necessary appearance of unconcern, as he -brushed the dark and powerful frames of the savages who thronged its -threshold; but, conscious that his existence depended on his presence of -mind, he trusted to the discretion of his companion, whose footsteps he -closely followed, endeavoring, as he proceeded, to rally his thoughts -for the occasion. His blood curdled when he found himself in absolute -contact with such fierce and implacable enemies; but he so far mastered -his feelings as to pursue his way into the center of the lodge, with an -exterior that did not betray the weakness. Imitating the example of the -deliberate Gamut, he drew a bundle of fragrant brush from beneath a pile -that filled the corner of the hut, and seated himself in silence. - -So soon as their visitor had passed, the observant warriors fell back -from the entrance, and arranging themselves about him, they seemed -patiently to await the moment when it might comport with the dignity of -the stranger to speak. By far the greater number stood leaning, in lazy, -lounging attitudes, against the upright posts that supported the crazy -building, while three or four of the oldest and most distinguished of -the chiefs placed themselves on the earth a little more in advance. - -A flaring torch was burning in the place, and set its red glare from -face to face and figure to figure, as it waved in the currents of air. -Duncan profited by its light to read the probable character of his -reception, in the countenances of his hosts. But his ingenuity availed -him little, against the cold artifices of the people he had encountered. -The chiefs in front scarce cast a glance at his person, keeping their -eyes on the ground, with an air that might have been intended for -respect, but which it was quite easy to construe into distrust. The men -in the shadow were less reserved. Duncan soon detected their searching, -but stolen, looks which, in truth, scanned his person and attire inch by -inch; leaving no emotion of the countenance, no gesture, no line of the -paint, nor even the fashion of a garment, unheeded, and without comment. - -At length one whose hair was beginning to be sprinkled with gray, but -whose sinewy limbs and firm tread announced that he was still equal to -the duties of manhood, advanced out of the gloom of a corner, whither he -had probably posted himself to make his observations unseen, and -spoke. He used the language of the Wyandots, or Hurons; his words were, -consequently, unintelligible to Heyward, though they seemed, by the -gestures that accompanied them, to be uttered more in courtesy than -anger. The latter shook his head, and made a gesture indicative of his -inability to reply. - -"Do none of my brothers speak the French or the English?" he said, in -the former language, looking about him from countenance to countenance, -in hopes of finding a nod of assent. - -Though more than one had turned, as if to catch the meaning of his -words, they remained unanswered. - -"I should be grieved to think," continued Duncan, speaking slowly, and -using the simplest French of which he was the master, "to believe that -none of this wise and brave nation understand the language that the -'Grand Monarque' uses when he talks to his children. His heart would be -heavy did he believe his red warriors paid him so little respect!" - -A long and grave pause succeeded, during which no movement of a limb, -nor any expression of an eye, betrayed the expression produced by his -remark. Duncan, who knew that silence was a virtue among his hosts, -gladly had recourse to the custom, in order to arrange his ideas. At -length the same warrior who had before addressed him replied, by dryly -demanding, in the language of the Canadas: - -"When our Great Father speaks to his people, is it with the tongue of a -Huron?" - -"He knows no difference in his children, whether the color of the skin -be red, or black, or white," returned Duncan, evasively; "though chiefly -is he satisfied with the brave Hurons." - -"In what manner will he speak," demanded the wary chief, "when the -runners count to him the scalps which five nights ago grew on the heads -of the Yengeese?" - -"They were his enemies," said Duncan, shuddering involuntarily; "and -doubtless, he will say, it is good; my Hurons are very gallant." - -"Our Canada father does not think it. Instead of looking forward to -reward his Indians, his eyes are turned backward. He sees the dead -Yengeese, but no Huron. What can this mean?" - -"A great chief, like him, has more thoughts than tongues. He looks to -see that no enemies are on his trail." - -"The canoe of a dead warrior will not float on the Horican," returned -the savage, gloomily. "His ears are open to the Delawares, who are not -our friends, and they fill them with lies." - -"It cannot be. See; he has bid me, who am a man that knows the art of -healing, to go to his children, the red Hurons of the great lakes, and -ask if any are sick!" - -Another silence succeeded this annunciation of the character Duncan -had assumed. Every eye was simultaneously bent on his person, as if -to inquire into the truth or falsehood of the declaration, with an -intelligence and keenness that caused the subject of their scrutiny to -tremble for the result. He was, however, relieved again by the former -speaker. - -"Do the cunning men of the Canadas paint their skins?" the Huron coldly -continued; "we have heard them boast that their faces were pale." - -"When an Indian chief comes among his white fathers," returned Duncan, -with great steadiness, "he lays aside his buffalo robe, to carry the -shirt that is offered him. My brothers have given me paint and I wear -it." - -A low murmur of applause announced that the compliment of the tribe was -favorably received. The elderly chief made a gesture of commendation, -which was answered by most of his companions, who each threw forth -a hand and uttered a brief exclamation of pleasure. Duncan began to -breathe more freely, believing that the weight of his examination was -past; and, as he had already prepared a simple and probable tale to -support his pretended occupation, his hopes of ultimate success grew -brighter. - -After a silence of a few moments, as if adjusting his thoughts, in -order to make a suitable answer to the declaration their guests had -just given, another warrior arose, and placed himself in an attitude to -speak. While his lips were yet in the act of parting, a low but fearful -sound arose from the forest, and was immediately succeeded by a high, -shrill yell, that was drawn out, until it equaled the longest and most -plaintive howl of the wolf. The sudden and terrible interruption caused -Duncan to start from his seat, unconscious of everything but the effect -produced by so frightful a cry. At the same moment, the warriors glided -in a body from the lodge, and the outer air was filled with loud shouts, -that nearly drowned those awful sounds, which were still ringing beneath -the arches of the woods. Unable to command himself any longer, the youth -broke from the place, and presently stood in the center of a disorderly -throng, that included nearly everything having life, within the limits -of the encampment. Men, women, and children; the aged, the inform, the -active, and the strong, were alike abroad, some exclaiming aloud, others -clapping their hands with a joy that seemed frantic, and all expressing -their savage pleasure in some unexpected event. Though astounded, at -first, by the uproar, Heyward was soon enabled to find its solution by -the scene that followed. - -There yet lingered sufficient light in the heavens to exhibit those -bright openings among the tree-tops, where different paths left the -clearing to enter the depths of the wilderness. Beneath one of them, a -line of warriors issued from the woods, and advanced slowly toward the -dwellings. One in front bore a short pole, on which, as it afterwards -appeared, were suspended several human scalps. The startling sounds that -Duncan had heard were what the whites have not inappropriately called -the "death-hallo"; and each repetition of the cry was intended to -announce to the tribe the fate of an enemy. Thus far the knowledge of -Heyward assisted him in the explanation; and as he now knew that the -interruption was caused by the unlooked-for return of a successful -war-party, every disagreeable sensation was quieted in inward -congratulation, for the opportune relief and insignificance it conferred -on himself. - -When at the distance of a few hundred feet from the lodges the newly -arrived warriors halted. Their plaintive and terrific cry, which was -intended to represent equally the wailings of the dead and the triumph -to the victors, had entirely ceased. One of their number now called -aloud, in words that were far from appalling, though not more -intelligible to those for whose ears they were intended, than their -expressive yells. It would be difficult to convey a suitable idea of the -savage ecstasy with which the news thus imparted was received. The whole -encampment, in a moment, became a scene of the most violent bustle and -commotion. The warriors drew their knives, and flourishing them, they -arranged themselves in two lines, forming a lane that extended from -the war-party to the lodges. The squaws seized clubs, axes, or whatever -weapon of offense first offered itself to their hands, and rushed -eagerly to act their part in the cruel game that was at hand. Even -the children would not be excluded; but boys, little able to wield the -instruments, tore the tomahawks from the belts of their fathers, and -stole into the ranks, apt imitators of the savage traits exhibited by -their parents. - -Large piles of brush lay scattered about the clearing, and a wary and -aged squaw was occupied in firing as many as might serve to light the -coming exhibition. As the flame arose, its power exceeded that of -the parting day, and assisted to render objects at the same time more -distinct and more hideous. The whole scene formed a striking picture, -whose frame was composed of the dark and tall border of pines. The -warriors just arrived were the most distant figures. A little in advance -stood two men, who were apparently selected from the rest, as the -principal actors in what was to follow. The light was not strong enough -to render their features distinct, though it was quite evident that -they were governed by very different emotions. While one stood erect and -firm, prepared to meet his fate like a hero, the other bowed his head, -as if palsied by terror or stricken with shame. The high-spirited Duncan -felt a powerful impulse of admiration and pity toward the former, though -no opportunity could offer to exhibit his generous emotions. He watched -his slightest movement, however, with eager eyes; and, as he traced -the fine outline of his admirably proportioned and active frame, he -endeavored to persuade himself, that, if the powers of man, seconded -by such noble resolution, could bear one harmless through so severe a -trial, the youthful captive before him might hope for success in the -hazardous race he was about to run. Insensibly the young man drew nigher -to the swarthy lines of the Hurons, and scarcely breathed, so intense -became his interest in the spectacle. Just then the signal yell was -given, and the momentary quiet which had preceded it was broken by a -burst of cries, that far exceeded any before heard. The more abject of -the two victims continued motionless; but the other bounded from the -place at the cry, with the activity and swiftness of a deer. Instead of -rushing through the hostile lines, as had been expected, he just entered -the dangerous defile, and before time was given for a single blow, -turned short, and leaping the heads of a row of children, he gained at -once the exterior and safer side of the formidable array. The artifice -was answered by a hundred voices raised in imprecations; and the whole -of the excited multitude broke from their order, and spread themselves -about the place in wild confusion. - -A dozen blazing piles now shed their lurid brightness on the place, -which resembled some unhallowed and supernatural arena, in which -malicious demons had assembled to act their bloody and lawless rites. -The forms in the background looked like unearthly beings, gliding before -the eye, and cleaving the air with frantic and unmeaning gestures; while -the savage passions of such as passed the flames were rendered fearfully -distinct by the gleams that shot athwart their inflamed visages. - -It will easily be understood that, amid such a concourse of vindictive -enemies, no breathing time was allowed the fugitive. There was a single -moment when it seemed as if he would have reached the forest, but the -whole body of his captors threw themselves before him, and drove him -back into the center of his relentless persecutors. Turning like a -headed deer, he shot, with the swiftness of an arrow, through a pillar -of forked flame, and passing the whole multitude harmless, he appeared -on the opposite side of the clearing. Here, too, he was met and turned -by a few of the older and more subtle of the Hurons. Once more he tried -the throng, as if seeking safety in its blindness, and then several -moments succeeded, during which Duncan believed the active and -courageous young stranger was lost. - -Nothing could be distinguished but a dark mass of human forms tossed -and involved in inexplicable confusion. Arms, gleaming knives, and -formidable clubs, appeared above them, but the blows were evidently -given at random. The awful effect was heightened by the piercing shrieks -of the women and the fierce yells of the warriors. Now and then Duncan -caught a glimpse of a light form cleaving the air in some desperate -bound, and he rather hoped than believed that the captive yet retained -the command of his astonishing powers of activity. Suddenly the -multitude rolled backward, and approached the spot where he himself -stood. The heavy body in the rear pressed upon the women and children -in front, and bore them to the earth. The stranger reappeared in the -confusion. Human power could not, however, much longer endure so -severe a trial. Of this the captive seemed conscious. Profiting by -the momentary opening, he darted from among the warriors, and made a -desperate, and what seemed to Duncan a final effort to gain the wood. -As if aware that no danger was to be apprehended from the young soldier, -the fugitive nearly brushed his person in his flight. A tall and -powerful Huron, who had husbanded his forces, pressed close upon his -heels, and with an uplifted arm menaced a fatal blow. Duncan thrust -forth a foot, and the shock precipitated the eager savage headlong, many -feet in advance of his intended victim. Thought itself is not quicker -than was the motion with which the latter profited by the advantage; he -turned, gleamed like a meteor again before the eyes of Duncan, and, at -the next moment, when the latter recovered his recollection, and gazed -around in quest of the captive, he saw him quietly leaning against a -small painted post, which stood before the door of the principal lodge. - -Apprehensive that the part he had taken in the escape might prove fatal -to himself, Duncan left the place without delay. He followed the crowd, -which drew nigh the lodges, gloomy and sullen, like any other multitude -that had been disappointed in an execution. Curiosity, or perhaps a -better feeling, induced him to approach the stranger. He found him, -standing with one arm cast about the protecting post, and breathing -thick and hard, after his exertions, but disdaining to permit a single -sign of suffering to escape. His person was now protected by immemorial -and sacred usage, until the tribe in council had deliberated and -determined on his fate. It was not difficult, however, to foretell the -result, if any presage could be drawn from the feelings of those who -crowded the place. - -There was no term of abuse known to the Huron vocabulary that the -disappointed women did not lavishly expend on the successful stranger. -They flouted at his efforts, and told him, with bitter scoffs, that his -feet were better than his hands; and that he merited wings, while he -knew not the use of an arrow or a knife. To all this the captive made -no reply; but was content to preserve an attitude in which dignity was -singularly blended with disdain. Exasperated as much by his composure -as by his good-fortune, their words became unintelligible, and were -succeeded by shrill, piercing yells. Just then the crafty squaw, who had -taken the necessary precaution to fire the piles, made her way through -the throng, and cleared a place for herself in front of the captive. The -squalid and withered person of this hag might well have obtained for her -the character of possessing more than human cunning. Throwing back her -light vestment, she stretched forth her long, skinny arm, in derision, -and using the language of the Lenape, as more intelligible to the -subject of her gibes, she commenced aloud: - -"Look you, Delaware," she said, snapping her fingers in his face; "your -nation is a race of women, and the hoe is better fitted to your hands -than the gun. Your squaws are the mothers of deer; but if a bear, or -a wildcat, or a serpent were born among you, ye would flee. The Huron -girls shall make you petticoats, and we will find you a husband." - -A burst of savage laughter succeeded this attack, during which the soft -and musical merriment of the younger females strangely chimed with -the cracked voice of their older and more malignant companion. But the -stranger was superior to all their efforts. His head was immovable; nor -did he betray the slightest consciousness that any were present, except -when his haughty eye rolled toward the dusky forms of the warriors, who -stalked in the background silent and sullen observers of the scene. - -Infuriated at the self-command of the captive, the woman placed her arms -akimbo; and, throwing herself into a posture of defiance, she broke -out anew, in a torrent of words that no art of ours could commit -successfully to paper. Her breath was, however, expended in vain; for, -although distinguished in her nation as a proficient in the art of -abuse, she was permitted to work herself into such a fury as actually to -foam at the mouth, without causing a muscle to vibrate in the motionless -figure of the stranger. The effect of his indifference began to extend -itself to the other spectators; and a youngster, who was just quitting -the condition of a boy to enter the state of manhood, attempted to -assist the termagant, by flourishing his tomahawk before their victim, -and adding his empty boasts to the taunts of the women. Then, indeed, -the captive turned his face toward the light, and looked down on the -stripling with an expression that was superior to contempt. At the next -moment he resumed his quiet and reclining attitude against the post. But -the change of posture had permitted Duncan to exchange glances with the -firm and piercing eyes of Uncas. - -Breathless with amazement, and heavily oppressed with the critical -situation of his friend, Heyward recoiled before the look, trembling -lest its meaning might, in some unknown manner, hasten the prisoner's -fate. There was not, however, any instant cause for such an -apprehension. Just then a warrior forced his way into the exasperated -crowd. Motioning the women and children aside with a stern gesture, he -took Uncas by the arm, and led him toward the door of the council-lodge. -Thither all the chiefs, and most of the distinguished warriors, -followed; among whom the anxious Heyward found means to enter without -attracting any dangerous attention to himself. - -A few minutes were consumed in disposing of those present in a manner -suitable to their rank and influence in the tribe. An order very similar -to that adopted in the preceding interview was observed; the aged and -superior chiefs occupying the area of the spacious apartment, within -the powerful light of a glaring torch, while their juniors and inferiors -were arranged in the background, presenting a dark outline of swarthy -and marked visages. In the very center of the lodge, immediately under -an opening that admitted the twinkling light of one or two stars, stood -Uncas, calm, elevated, and collected. His high and haughty carriage was -not lost on his captors, who often bent their looks on his person, with -eyes which, while they lost none of their inflexibility of purpose, -plainly betrayed their admiration of the stranger's daring. - -The case was different with the individual whom Duncan had observed to -stand forth with his friend, previously to the desperate trial of speed; -and who, instead of joining in the chase, had remained, throughout -its turbulent uproar, like a cringing statue, expressive of shame and -disgrace. Though not a hand had been extended to greet him, nor yet an -eye had condescended to watch his movements, he had also entered the -lodge, as though impelled by a fate to whose decrees he submitted, -seemingly, without a struggle. Heyward profited by the first opportunity -to gaze in his face, secretly apprehensive he might find the features -of another acquaintance; but they proved to be those of a stranger, and, -what was still more inexplicable, of one who bore all the distinctive -marks of a Huron warrior. Instead of mingling with his tribe, however, -he sat apart, a solitary being in a multitude, his form shrinking into a -crouching and abject attitude, as if anxious to fill as little space as -possible. When each individual had taken his proper station, and silence -reigned in the place, the gray-haired chief already introduced to the -reader, spoke aloud, in the language of the Lenni Lenape. - -"Delaware," he said, "though one of a nation of women, you have proved -yourself a man. I would give you food; but he who eats with a Huron -should become his friend. Rest in peace till the morning sun, when our -last words shall be spoken." - -"Seven nights, and as many summer days, have I fasted on the trail of -the Hurons," Uncas coldly replied; "the children of the Lenape know how -to travel the path of the just without lingering to eat." - -"Two of my young men are in pursuit of your companion," resumed the -other, without appearing to regard the boast of his captive; "when they -get back, then will our wise man say to you 'live' or 'die'." - -"Has a Huron no ears?" scornfully exclaimed Uncas; "twice, since he has -been your prisoner, has the Delaware heard a gun that he knows. Your -young men will never come back!" - -A short and sullen pause succeeded this bold assertion. Duncan, who -understood the Mohican to allude to the fatal rifle of the scout, bent -forward in earnest observation of the effect it might produce on the -conquerors; but the chief was content with simply retorting: - -"If the Lenape are so skillful, why is one of their bravest warriors -here?" - -"He followed in the steps of a flying coward, and fell into a snare. The -cunning beaver may be caught." - -As Uncas thus replied, he pointed with his finger toward the solitary -Huron, but without deigning to bestow any other notice on so unworthy -an object. The words of the answer and the air of the speaker produced -a strong sensation among his auditors. Every eye rolled sullenly toward -the individual indicated by the simple gesture, and a low, threatening -murmur passed through the crowd. The ominous sounds reached the outer -door, and the women and children pressing into the throng, no gap had -been left, between shoulder and shoulder, that was not now filled with -the dark lineaments of some eager and curious human countenance. - -In the meantime, the more aged chiefs, in the center, communed with each -other in short and broken sentences. Not a word was uttered that did not -convey the meaning of the speaker, in the simplest and most energetic -form. Again, a long and deeply solemn pause took place. It was known, -by all present, to be the brave precursor of a weighty and important -judgment. They who composed the outer circle of faces were on tiptoe to -gaze; and even the culprit for an instant forgot his shame in a deeper -emotion, and exposed his abject features, in order to cast an anxious -and troubled glance at the dark assemblage of chiefs. The silence was -finally broken by the aged warrior so often named. He arose from the -earth, and moving past the immovable form of Uncas, placed himself in -a dignified attitude before the offender. At that moment, the withered -squaw already mentioned moved into the circle, in a slow, sidling sort -of a dance, holding the torch, and muttering the indistinct words of -what might have been a species of incantation. Though her presence was -altogether an intrusion, it was unheeded. - -Approaching Uncas, she held the blazing brand in such a manner as to -cast its red glare on his person, and to expose the slightest emotion of -his countenance. The Mohican maintained his firm and haughty attitude; -and his eyes, so far from deigning to meet her inquisitive look, dwelt -steadily on the distance, as though it penetrated the obstacles -which impeded the view and looked into futurity. Satisfied with her -examination, she left him, with a slight expression of pleasure, and -proceeded to practise the same trying experiment on her delinquent -countryman. - -The young Huron was in his war paint, and very little of a finely molded -form was concealed by his attire. The light rendered every limb and -joint discernible, and Duncan turned away in horror when he saw they -were writhing in irrepressible agony. The woman was commencing a low -and plaintive howl at the sad and shameful spectacle, when the chief put -forth his hand and gently pushed her aside. - -"Reed-that-bends," he said, addressing the young culprit by name, and in -his proper language, "though the Great Spirit has made you pleasant to -the eyes, it would have been better that you had not been born. Your -tongue is loud in the village, but in battle it is still. None of my -young men strike the tomahawk deeper into the war-post--none of them so -lightly on the Yengeese. The enemy know the shape of your back, but they -have never seen the color of your eyes. Three times have they called on -you to come, and as often did you forget to answer. Your name will never -be mentioned again in your tribe--it is already forgotten." - -As the chief slowly uttered these words, pausing impressively between -each sentence, the culprit raised his face, in deference to the other's -rank and years. Shame, horror, and pride struggled in its lineaments. -His eye, which was contracted with inward anguish, gleamed on the -persons of those whose breath was his fame; and the latter emotion for -an instant predominated. He arose to his feet, and baring his bosom, -looked steadily on the keen, glittering knife, that was already upheld -by his inexorable judge. As the weapon passed slowly into his heart he -even smiled, as if in joy at having found death less dreadful than he -had anticipated, and fell heavily on his face, at the feet of the rigid -and unyielding form of Uncas. - -The squaw gave a loud and plaintive yell, dashed the torch to the -earth, and buried everything in darkness. The whole shuddering group -of spectators glided from the lodge like troubled sprites; and Duncan -thought that he and the yet throbbing body of the victim of an Indian -judgment had now become its only tenants. - - - - -CHAPTER 24 - - "Thus spoke the sage: the kings without delay - Dissolve the council, and their chief obey." - --Pope's Iliad - -A single moment served to convince the youth that he was mistaken. A -hand was laid, with a powerful pressure, on his arm, and the low voice -of Uncas muttered in his ear: - -"The Hurons are dogs. The sight of a coward's blood can never make a -warrior tremble. The 'Gray Head' and the Sagamore are safe, and the -rifle of Hawkeye is not asleep. Go--Uncas and the 'Open Hand' are now -strangers. It is enough." - -Heyward would gladly have heard more, but a gentle push from his friend -urged him toward the door, and admonished him of the danger that might -attend the discovery of their intercourse. Slowly and reluctantly -yielding to the necessity, he quitted the place, and mingled with the -throng that hovered nigh. The dying fires in the clearing cast a dim and -uncertain light on the dusky figures that were silently stalking to -and fro; and occasionally a brighter gleam than common glanced into the -lodge, and exhibited the figure of Uncas still maintaining its upright -attitude near the dead body of the Huron. - -A knot of warriors soon entered the place again, and reissuing, -they bore the senseless remains into the adjacent woods. After this -termination of the scene, Duncan wandered among the lodges, unquestioned -and unnoticed, endeavoring to find some trace of her in whose behalf he -incurred the risk he ran. In the present temper of the tribe it would -have been easy to have fled and rejoined his companions, had such a -wish crossed his mind. But, in addition to the never-ceasing anxiety on -account of Alice, a fresher though feebler interest in the fate of Uncas -assisted to chain him to the spot. He continued, therefore, to stray -from hut to hut, looking into each only to encounter additional -disappointment, until he had made the entire circuit of the village. -Abandoning a species of inquiry that proved so fruitless, he retraced -his steps to the council-lodge, resolved to seek and question David, in -order to put an end to his doubts. - -On reaching the building, which had proved alike the seat of judgment -and the place of execution, the young man found that the excitement -had already subsided. The warriors had reassembled, and were now calmly -smoking, while they conversed gravely on the chief incidents of their -recent expedition to the head of the Horican. Though the return of -Duncan was likely to remind them of his character, and the suspicious -circumstances of his visit, it produced no visible sensation. So far, -the terrible scene that had just occurred proved favorable to his views, -and he required no other prompter than his own feelings to convince him -of the expediency of profiting by so unexpected an advantage. - -Without seeming to hesitate, he walked into the lodge, and took his seat -with a gravity that accorded admirably with the deportment of his hosts. -A hasty but searching glance sufficed to tell him that, though Uncas -still remained where he had left him, David had not reappeared. No other -restraint was imposed on the former than the watchful looks of a young -Huron, who had placed himself at hand; though an armed warrior leaned -against the post that formed one side of the narrow doorway. In every -other respect, the captive seemed at liberty; still he was excluded from -all participation in the discourse, and possessed much more of the air -of some finely molded statue than a man having life and volition. - -Heyward had too recently witnessed a frightful instance of the prompt -punishments of the people into whose hands he had fallen to hazard an -exposure by any officious boldness. He would greatly have preferred -silence and meditation to speech, when a discovery of his real -condition might prove so instantly fatal. Unfortunately for this prudent -resolution, his entertainers appeared otherwise disposed. He had not -long occupied the seat wisely taken a little in the shade, when another -of the elder warriors, who spoke the French language, addressed him: - -"My Canada father does not forget his children," said the chief; "I -thank him. An evil spirit lives in the wife of one of my young men. Can -the cunning stranger frighten him away?" - -Heyward possessed some knowledge of the mummery practised among the -Indians, in the cases of such supposed visitations. He saw, at a glance, -that the circumstance might possibly be improved to further his own -ends. It would, therefore, have been difficult, just then to have -uttered a proposal that would have given him more satisfaction. Aware -of the necessity of preserving the dignity of his imaginary character, -however, he repressed his feelings, and answered with suitable mystery: - -"Spirits differ; some yield to the power of wisdom, while others are too -strong." - -"My brother is a great medicine," said the cunning savage; "he will -try?" - -A gesture of assent was the answer. The Huron was content with the -assurance, and, resuming his pipe, he awaited the proper moment to -move. The impatient Heyward, inwardly execrating the cold customs of -the savages, which required such sacrifices to appearance, was fain to -assume an air of indifference, equal to that maintained by the chief, -who was, in truth, a near relative of the afflicted woman. The minutes -lingered, and the delay had seemed an hour to the adventurer in -empiricism, when the Huron laid aside his pipe and drew his robe across -his breast, as if about to lead the way to the lodge of the invalid. -Just then, a warrior of powerful frame, darkened the door, and stalking -silently among the attentive group, he seated himself on one end of the -low pile of brush which sustained Duncan. The latter cast an impatient -look at his neighbor, and felt his flesh creep with uncontrollable -horror when he found himself in actual contact with Magua. - -The sudden return of this artful and dreaded chief caused a delay in the -departure of the Huron. Several pipes, that had been extinguished, were -lighted again; while the newcomer, without speaking a word, drew his -tomahawk from his girdle, and filling the bowl on its head began to -inhale the vapors of the weed through the hollow handle, with as much -indifference as if he had not been absent two weary days on a long and -toilsome hunt. Ten minutes, which appeared so many ages to Duncan, might -have passed in this manner; and the warriors were fairly enveloped in a -cloud of white smoke before any of them spoke. - -"Welcome!" one at length uttered; "has my friend found the moose?" - -"The young men stagger under their burdens," returned Magua. "Let -'Reed-that-bends' go on the hunting path; he will meet them." - -A deep and awful silence succeeded the utterance of the forbidden name. -Each pipe dropped from the lips of its owner as though all had inhaled -an impurity at the same instant. The smoke wreathed above their heads in -little eddies, and curling in a spiral form it ascended swiftly through -the opening in the roof of the lodge, leaving the place beneath clear of -its fumes, and each dark visage distinctly visible. The looks of most of -the warriors were riveted on the earth; though a few of the younger and -less gifted of the party suffered their wild and glaring eyeballs to -roll in the direction of a white-headed savage, who sat between two of -the most venerated chiefs of the tribe. There was nothing in the air -or attire of this Indian that would seem to entitle him to such a -distinction. The former was rather depressed, than remarkable for the -bearing of the natives; and the latter was such as was commonly worn -by the ordinary men of the nation. Like most around him for more than -a minute his look, too, was on the ground; but, trusting his eyes at -length to steal a glance aside, he perceived that he was becoming an -object of general attention. Then he arose and lifted his voice in the -general silence. - -"It was a lie," he said; "I had no son. He who was called by that name -is forgotten; his blood was pale, and it came not from the veins of a -Huron; the wicked Chippewas cheated my squaw. The Great Spirit has said, -that the family of Wiss-entush should end; he is happy who knows that -the evil of his race dies with himself. I have done." - -The speaker, who was the father of the recreant young Indian, looked -round and about him, as if seeking commendation of his stoicism in the -eyes of the auditors. But the stern customs of his people had made too -severe an exaction of the feeble old man. The expression of his eye -contradicted his figurative and boastful language, while every muscle in -his wrinkled visage was working with anguish. Standing a single minute -to enjoy his bitter triumph, he turned away, as if sickening at the gaze -of men, and, veiling his face in his blanket, he walked from the lodge -with the noiseless step of an Indian seeking, in the privacy of his own -abode, the sympathy of one like himself, aged, forlorn and childless. - -The Indians, who believe in the hereditary transmission of virtues and -defects in character, suffered him to depart in silence. Then, with an -elevation of breeding that many in a more cultivated state of society -might profitably emulate, one of the chiefs drew the attention of the -young men from the weakness they had just witnessed, by saying, in a -cheerful voice, addressing himself in courtesy to Magua, as the newest -comer: - -"The Delawares have been like bears after the honey pots, prowling -around my village. But who has ever found a Huron asleep?" - -The darkness of the impending cloud which precedes a burst of thunder -was not blacker than the brow of Magua as he exclaimed: - -"The Delawares of the Lakes!" - -"Not so. They who wear the petticoats of squaws, on their own river. One -of them has been passing the tribe." - -"Did my young men take his scalp?" - -"His legs were good, though his arm is better for the hoe than the -tomahawk," returned the other, pointing to the immovable form of Uncas. - -Instead of manifesting any womanish curiosity to feast his eyes with the -sight of a captive from a people he was known to have so much reason to -hate, Magua continued to smoke, with the meditative air that he usually -maintained, when there was no immediate call on his cunning or his -eloquence. Although secretly amazed at the facts communicated by the -speech of the aged father, he permitted himself to ask no questions, -reserving his inquiries for a more suitable moment. It was only after a -sufficient interval that he shook the ashes from his pipe, replaced the -tomahawk, tightened his girdle, and arose, casting for the first time a -glance in the direction of the prisoner, who stood a little behind him. -The wary, though seemingly abstracted Uncas, caught a glimpse of the -movement, and turning suddenly to the light, their looks met. Near a -minute these two bold and untamed spirits stood regarding one another -steadily in the eye, neither quailing in the least before the fierce -gaze he encountered. The form of Uncas dilated, and his nostrils opened -like those of a tiger at bay; but so rigid and unyielding was his -posture, that he might easily have been converted by the imagination -into an exquisite and faultless representation of the warlike deity of -his tribe. The lineaments of the quivering features of Magua proved more -ductile; his countenance gradually lost its character of defiance in an -expression of ferocious joy, and heaving a breath from the very bottom -of his chest, he pronounced aloud the formidable name of: - -"Le Cerf Agile!" - -Each warrior sprang upon his feet at the utterance of the well-known -appellation, and there was a short period during which the stoical -constancy of the natives was completely conquered by surprise. The hated -and yet respected name was repeated as by one voice, carrying the -sound even beyond the limits of the lodge. The women and children, who -lingered around the entrance, took up the words in an echo, which was -succeeded by another shrill and plaintive howl. The latter was not yet -ended, when the sensation among the men had entirely abated. Each one in -presence seated himself, as though ashamed of his precipitation; but it -was many minutes before their meaning eyes ceased to roll toward their -captive, in curious examination of a warrior who had so often proved -his prowess on the best and proudest of their nation. Uncas enjoyed his -victory, but was content with merely exhibiting his triumph by a quiet -smile--an emblem of scorn which belongs to all time and every nation. - -Magua caught the expression, and raising his arm, he shook it at the -captive, the light silver ornaments attached to his bracelet rattling -with the trembling agitation of the limb, as, in a tone of vengeance, he -exclaimed, in English: - -"Mohican, you die!" - -"The healing waters will never bring the dead Hurons to life," returned -Uncas, in the music of the Delawares; "the tumbling river washes their -bones; their men are squaws: their women owls. Go! call together the -Huron dogs, that they may look upon a warrior, My nostrils are offended; -they scent the blood of a coward." - -The latter allusion struck deep, and the injury rankled. Many of the -Hurons understood the strange tongue in which the captive spoke, among -which number was Magua. This cunning savage beheld, and instantly -profited by his advantage. Dropping the light robe of skin from his -shoulder, he stretched forth his arm, and commenced a burst of his -dangerous and artful eloquence. However much his influence among his -people had been impaired by his occasional and besetting weakness, as -well as by his desertion of the tribe, his courage and his fame as an -orator were undeniable. He never spoke without auditors, and rarely -without making converts to his opinions. On the present occasion, his -native powers were stimulated by the thirst of revenge. - -He again recounted the events of the attack on the island at Glenn's, -the death of his associates and the escape of their most formidable -enemies. Then he described the nature and position of the mount whither -he had led such captives as had fallen into their hands. Of his own -bloody intentions toward the maidens, and of his baffled malice he made -no mention, but passed rapidly on to the surprise of the party by "La -Longue Carabine," and its fatal termination. Here he paused, and looked -about him, in affected veneration for the departed, but, in truth, -to note the effect of his opening narrative. As usual, every eye was -riveted on his face. Each dusky figure seemed a breathing statue, so -motionless was the posture, so intense the attention of the individual. - -Then Magua dropped his voice which had hitherto been clear, strong and -elevated, and touched upon the merits of the dead. No quality that was -likely to command the sympathy of an Indian escaped his notice. One -had never been known to follow the chase in vain; another had been -indefatigable on the trail of their enemies. This was brave, that -generous. In short, he so managed his allusions, that in a nation which -was composed of so few families, he contrived to strike every chord that -might find, in its turn, some breast in which to vibrate. - -"Are the bones of my young men," he concluded, "in the burial-place of -the Hurons? You know they are not. Their spirits are gone toward the -setting sun, and are already crossing the great waters, to the happy -hunting-grounds. But they departed without food, without guns or knives, -without moccasins, naked and poor as they were born. Shall this be? -Are their souls to enter the land of the just like hungry Iroquois or -unmanly Delawares, or shall they meet their friends with arms in their -hands and robes on their backs? What will our fathers think the tribes -of the Wyandots have become? They will look on their children with a -dark eye, and say, 'Go! a Chippewa has come hither with the name of a -Huron.' Brothers, we must not forget the dead; a red-skin never ceases -to remember. We will load the back of this Mohican until he staggers -under our bounty, and dispatch him after my young men. They call to us -for aid, though our ears are not open; they say, 'Forget us not.' When -they see the spirit of this Mohican toiling after them with his burden, -they will know we are of that mind. Then will they go on happy; and our -children will say, 'So did our fathers to their friends, so must we do -to them.' What is a Yengee? we have slain many, but the earth is still -pale. A stain on the name of Huron can only be hid by blood that comes -from the veins of an Indian. Let this Delaware die." - -The effect of such an harangue, delivered in the nervous language and -with the emphatic manner of a Huron orator, could scarcely be mistaken. -Magua had so artfully blended the natural sympathies with the religious -superstition of his auditors, that their minds, already prepared by -custom to sacrifice a victim to the manes of their countrymen, lost -every vestige of humanity in a wish for revenge. One warrior in -particular, a man of wild and ferocious mien, had been conspicuous for -the attention he had given to the words of the speaker. His countenance -had changed with each passing emotion, until it settled into a look -of deadly malice. As Magua ended he arose and, uttering the yell of a -demon, his polished little axe was seen glancing in the torchlight as -he whirled it above his head. The motion and the cry were too sudden -for words to interrupt his bloody intention. It appeared as if a bright -gleam shot from his hand, which was crossed at the same moment by a -dark and powerful line. The former was the tomahawk in its passage; the -latter the arm that Magua darted forward to divert its aim. The quick -and ready motion of the chief was not entirely too late. The keen weapon -cut the war plume from the scalping tuft of Uncas, and passed through -the frail wall of the lodge as though it were hurled from some -formidable engine. - -Duncan had seen the threatening action, and sprang upon his feet, with -a heart which, while it leaped into his throat, swelled with the most -generous resolution in behalf of his friend. A glance told him that the -blow had failed, and terror changed to admiration. Uncas stood still, -looking his enemy in the eye with features that seemed superior to -emotion. Marble could not be colder, calmer, or steadier than the -countenance he put upon this sudden and vindictive attack. Then, as if -pitying a want of skill which had proved so fortunate to himself, he -smiled, and muttered a few words of contempt in his own tongue. - -"No!" said Magua, after satisfying himself of the safety of the captive; -"the sun must shine on his shame; the squaws must see his flesh tremble, -or our revenge will be like the play of boys. Go! take him where there -is silence; let us see if a Delaware can sleep at night, and in the -morning die." - -The young men whose duty it was to guard the prisoner instantly passed -their ligaments of bark across his arms, and led him from the lodge, -amid a profound and ominous silence. It was only as the figure of Uncas -stood in the opening of the door that his firm step hesitated. There he -turned, and, in the sweeping and haughty glance that he threw around -the circle of his enemies, Duncan caught a look which he was glad to -construe into an expression that he was not entirely deserted by hope. - -Magua was content with his success, or too much occupied with his secret -purposes to push his inquiries any further. Shaking his mantle, and -folding it on his bosom, he also quitted the place, without pursuing a -subject which might have proved so fatal to the individual at his elbow. -Notwithstanding his rising resentment, his natural firmness, and his -anxiety on behalf of Uncas, Heyward felt sensibly relieved by the -absence of so dangerous and so subtle a foe. The excitement produced -by the speech gradually subsided. The warriors resumed their seats and -clouds of smoke once more filled the lodge. For near half an hour, not -a syllable was uttered, or scarcely a look cast aside; a grave and -meditative silence being the ordinary succession to every scene of -violence and commotion among these beings, who were alike so impetuous -and yet so self-restrained. - -When the chief, who had solicited the aid of Duncan, finished his pipe, -he made a final and successful movement toward departing. A motion of a -finger was the intimation he gave the supposed physician to follow; and -passing through the clouds of smoke, Duncad was glad, on more accounts -than one, to be able at last to breathe the pure air of a cool and -refreshing summer evening. - -Instead of pursuing his way among those lodges where Heyward had already -made his unsuccessful search, his companion turned aside, and proceeded -directly toward the base of an adjacent mountain, which overhung the -temporary village. A thicket of brush skirted its foot, and it became -necessary to proceed through a crooked and narrow path. The boys had -resumed their sports in the clearing, and were enacting a mimic chase -to the post among themselves. In order to render their games as like the -reality as possible, one of the boldest of their number had conveyed a -few brands into some piles of tree-tops that had hitherto escaped the -burning. The blaze of one of these fires lighted the way of the chief -and Duncan, and gave a character of additional wildness to the rude -scenery. At a little distance from a bald rock, and directly in its -front, they entered a grassy opening, which they prepared to cross. Just -then fresh fuel was added to the fire, and a powerful light penetrated -even to that distant spot. It fell upon the white surface of the -mountain, and was reflected downward upon a dark and mysterious-looking -being that arose, unexpectedly, in their path. The Indian paused, as if -doubtful whether to proceed, and permitted his companion to approach his -side. A large black ball, which at first seemed stationary, now began -to move in a manner that to the latter was inexplicable. Again the fire -brightened and its glare fell more distinctly on the object. Then even -Duncan knew it, by its restless and sidling attitudes, which kept the -upper part of its form in constant motion, while the animal itself -appeared seated, to be a bear. Though it growled loudly and fiercely, -and there were instants when its glistening eyeballs might be seen, -it gave no other indications of hostility. The Huron, at least, seemed -assured that the intentions of this singular intruder were peaceable, -for after giving it an attentive examination, he quietly pursued his -course. - -Duncan, who knew that the animal was often domesticated among the -Indians, followed the example of his companion, believing that some -favorite of the tribe had found its way into the thicket, in search -of food. They passed it unmolested. Though obliged to come nearly -in contact with the monster, the Huron, who had at first so warily -determined the character of his strange visitor, was now content with -proceeding without wasting a moment in further examination; but Heyward -was unable to prevent his eyes from looking backward, in salutary -watchfulness against attacks in the rear. His uneasiness was in no -degree diminished when he perceived the beast rolling along their path, -and following their footsteps. He would have spoken, but the Indian at -that moment shoved aside a door of bark, and entered a cavern in the -bosom of the mountain. - -Profiting by so easy a method of retreat, Duncan stepped after him, -and was gladly closing the slight cover to the opening, when he felt it -drawn from his hand by the beast, whose shaggy form immediately darkened -the passage. They were now in a straight and long gallery, in a chasm of -the rocks, where retreat without encountering the animal was impossible. -Making the best of the circumstances, the young man pressed forward, -keeping as close as possible to his conductor. The bear growled -frequently at his heels, and once or twice its enormous paws were laid -on his person, as if disposed to prevent his further passage into the -den. - -How long the nerves of Heyward would have sustained him in this -extraordinary situation, it might be difficult to decide, for, happily, -he soon found relief. A glimmer of light had constantly been in their -front, and they now arrived at the place whence it proceeded. - -A large cavity in the rock had been rudely fitted to answer the purposes -of many apartments. The subdivisions were simple but ingenious, being -composed of stone, sticks, and bark, intermingled. Openings above -admitted the light by day, and at night fires and torches supplied the -place of the sun. Hither the Hurons had brought most of their valuables, -especially those which more particularly pertained to the nation; and -hither, as it now appeared, the sick woman, who was believed to be -the victim of supernatural power, had been transported also, under an -impression that her tormentor would find more difficulty in making his -assaults through walls of stone than through the leafy coverings of the -lodges. The apartment into which Duncan and his guide first entered, had -been exclusively devoted to her accommodation. The latter approached her -bedside, which was surrounded by females, in the center of whom Heyward -was surprised to find his missing friend David. - -A single look was sufficient to apprise the pretended leech that the -invalid was far beyond his powers of healing. She lay in a sort of -paralysis, indifferent to the objects which crowded before her sight, -and happily unconscious of suffering. Heyward was far from regretting -that his mummeries were to be performed on one who was much too ill -to take an interest in their failure or success. The slight qualm -of conscience which had been excited by the intended deception was -instantly appeased, and he began to collect his thoughts, in order to -enact his part with suitable spirit, when he found he was about to be -anticipated in his skill by an attempt to prove the power of music. - -Gamut, who had stood prepared to pour forth his spirit in song when the -visitors entered, after delaying a moment, drew a strain from his pipe, -and commenced a hymn that might have worked a miracle, had faith in its -efficacy been of much avail. He was allowed to proceed to the close, the -Indians respecting his imaginary infirmity, and Duncan too glad of the -delay to hazard the slightest interruption. As the dying cadence of -his strains was falling on the ears of the latter, he started aside -at hearing them repeated behind him, in a voice half human and half -sepulchral. Looking around, he beheld the shaggy monster seated on end -in a shadow of the cavern, where, while his restless body swung in -the uneasy manner of the animal, it repeated, in a sort of low growl, -sounds, if not words, which bore some slight resemblance to the melody -of the singer. - -The effect of so strange an echo on David may better be imagined than -described. His eyes opened as if he doubted their truth; and his voice -became instantly mute in excess of wonder. A deep-laid scheme, of -communicating some important intelligence to Heyward, was driven from -his recollection by an emotion which very nearly resembled fear, but -which he was fain to believe was admiration. Under its influence, he -exclaimed aloud: "She expects you, and is at hand"; and precipitately -left the cavern. - - - - -CHAPTER 25 - - "Snug.--Have you the lion's part written? Pray you, if it - be, give it to me, for I am slow of study. - - Quince.--You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but - roaring." - --Midsummer Night's Dream. - -There was a strange blending of the ridiculous with that which was -solemn in this scene. The beast still continued its rolling, and -apparently untiring movements, though its ludicrous attempt to imitate -the melody of David ceased the instant the latter abandoned the field. -The words of Gamut were, as has been seen, in his native tongue; and -to Duncan they seem pregnant with some hidden meaning, though nothing -present assisted him in discovering the object of their allusion. A -speedy end was, however, put to every conjecture on the subject, by the -manner of the chief, who advanced to the bedside of the invalid, and -beckoned away the whole group of female attendants that had clustered -there to witness the skill of the stranger. He was implicitly, though -reluctantly, obeyed; and when the low echo which rang along the hollow, -natural gallery, from the distant closing door, had ceased, pointing -toward his insensible daughter, he said: - -"Now let my brother show his power." - -Thus unequivocally called on to exercise the functions of his assumed -character, Heyward was apprehensive that the smallest delay might prove -dangerous. Endeavoring, then, to collect his ideas, he prepared to -perform that species of incantation, and those uncouth rites, under -which the Indian conjurers are accustomed to conceal their ignorance and -impotency. It is more than probable that, in the disordered state of his -thoughts, he would soon have fallen into some suspicious, if not fatal, -error had not his incipient attempts been interrupted by a fierce growl -from the quadruped. Three several times did he renew his efforts to -proceed, and as often was he met by the same unaccountable opposition, -each interruption seeming more savage and threatening than the -preceding. - -"The cunning ones are jealous," said the Huron; "I go. Brother, the -woman is the wife of one of my bravest young men; deal justly by her. -Peace!" he added, beckoning to the discontented beast to be quiet; "I -go." - -The chief was as good as his word, and Duncan now found himself alone -in that wild and desolate abode with the helpless invalid and the fierce -and dangerous brute. The latter listened to the movements of the Indian -with that air of sagacity that a bear is known to possess, until another -echo announced that he had also left the cavern, when it turned and -came waddling up to Duncan before whom it seated itself in its natural -attitude, erect like a man. The youth looked anxiously about him for -some weapon, with which he might make a resistance against the attack he -now seriously expected. - -It seemed, however, as if the humor of the animal had suddenly changed. -Instead of continuing its discontented growls, or manifesting any -further signs of anger, the whole of its shaggy body shook violently, as -if agitated by some strange internal convulsion. The huge and unwieldy -talons pawed stupidly about the grinning muzzle, and while Heyward kept -his eyes riveted on its movements with jealous watchfulness, the grim -head fell on one side and in its place appeared the honest sturdy -countenance of the scout, who was indulging from the bottom of his soul -in his own peculiar expression of merriment. - -"Hist!" said the wary woodsman, interrupting Heyward's exclamation of -surprise; "the varlets are about the place, and any sounds that are not -natural to witchcraft would bring them back upon us in a body." - -"Tell me the meaning of this masquerade; and why you have attempted so -desperate an adventure?" - -"Ah, reason and calculation are often outdone by accident," returned the -scout. "But, as a story should always commence at the beginning, I will -tell you the whole in order. After we parted I placed the commandant -and the Sagamore in an old beaver lodge, where they are safer from -the Hurons than they would be in the garrison of Edward; for your -high north-west Indians, not having as yet got the traders among them, -continued to venerate the beaver. After which Uncas and I pushed for the -other encampment as was agreed. Have you seen the lad?" - -"To my great grief! He is captive, and condemned to die at the rising of -the sun." - -"I had misgivings that such would be his fate," resumed the scout, in -a less confident and joyous tone. But soon regaining his naturally firm -voice, he continued: "His bad fortune is the true reason of my being -here, for it would never do to abandon such a boy to the Hurons. A rare -time the knaves would have of it, could they tie 'The Bounding Elk' and -'The Long Carabine', as they call me, to the same stake! Though why they -have given me such a name I never knew, there being as little likeness -between the gifts of 'killdeer' and the performance of one of your real -Canada carabynes, as there is between the natur' of a pipe-stone and a -flint." - -"Keep to your tale," said the impatient Heyward; "we know not at what -moment the Hurons may return." - -"No fear of them. A conjurer must have his time, like a straggling -priest in the settlements. We are as safe from interruption as a -missionary would be at the beginning of a two hours' discourse. Well, -Uncas and I fell in with a return party of the varlets; the lad was much -too forward for a scout; nay, for that matter, being of hot blood, he -was not so much to blame; and, after all, one of the Hurons proved a -coward, and in fleeing led him into an ambushment." - -"And dearly has he paid for the weakness." - -The scout significantly passed his hand across his own throat, and -nodded, as if he said, "I comprehend your meaning." After which he -continued, in a more audible though scarcely more intelligible language: - -"After the loss of the boy I turned upon the Hurons, as you may judge. -There have been scrimmages atween one or two of their outlyers and -myself; but that is neither here nor there. So, after I had shot the -imps, I got in pretty nigh to the lodges without further commotion. Then -what should luck do in my favor but lead me to the very spot where one -of the most famous conjurers of the tribe was dressing himself, as I -well knew, for some great battle with Satan--though why should I call -that luck, which it now seems was an especial ordering of Providence. So -a judgmatical rap over the head stiffened the lying impostor for a time, -and leaving him a bit of walnut for his supper, to prevent an uproar, -and stringing him up atween two saplings, I made free with his finery, -and took the part of the bear on myself, in order that the operations -might proceed." - -"And admirably did you enact the character; the animal itself might have -been shamed by the representation." - -"Lord, major," returned the flattered woodsman, "I should be but a poor -scholar for one who has studied so long in the wilderness, did I not -know how to set forth the movements or natur' of such a beast. Had -it been now a catamount, or even a full-size panther, I would have -embellished a performance for you worth regarding. But it is no such -marvelous feat to exhibit the feats of so dull a beast; though, for that -matter, too, a bear may be overacted. Yes, yes; it is not every imitator -that knows natur' may be outdone easier than she is equaled. But all our -work is yet before us. Where is the gentle one?" - -"Heaven knows. I have examined every lodge in the village, without -discovering the slightest trace of her presence in the tribe." - -"You heard what the singer said, as he left us: 'She is at hand, and -expects you'?" - -"I have been compelled to believe he alluded to this unhappy woman." - -"The simpleton was frightened, and blundered through his message; but -he had a deeper meaning. Here are walls enough to separate the whole -settlement. A bear ought to climb; therefore will I take a look above -them. There may be honey-pots hid in these rocks, and I am a beast, you -know, that has a hankering for the sweets." - -The scout looked behind him, laughing at his own conceit, while he -clambered up the partition, imitating, as he went, the clumsy motions of -the beast he represented; but the instant the summit was gained he made -a gesture for silence, and slid down with the utmost precipitation. - -"She is here," he whispered, "and by that door you will find her. I -would have spoken a word of comfort to the afflicted soul; but the sight -of such a monster might upset her reason. Though for that matter, major, -you are none of the most inviting yourself in your paint." - -Duncan, who had already swung eagerly forward, drew instantly back on -hearing these discouraging words. - -"Am I, then, so very revolting?" he demanded, with an air of chagrin. - -"You might not startle a wolf, or turn the Royal Americans from a -discharge; but I have seen the time when you had a better favored look; -your streaked countenances are not ill-judged of by the squaws, but -young women of white blood give the preference to their own color. See," -he added, pointing to a place where the water trickled from a rock, -forming a little crystal spring, before it found an issue through the -adjacent crevices; "you may easily get rid of the Sagamore's daub, and -when you come back I will try my hand at a new embellishment. It's -as common for a conjurer to alter his paint as for a buck in the -settlements to change his finery." - -The deliberate woodsman had little occasion to hunt for arguments to -enforce his advice. He was yet speaking when Duncan availed himself -of the water. In a moment every frightful or offensive mark was -obliterated, and the youth appeared again in the lineaments with which -he had been gifted by nature. Thus prepared for an interview with -his mistress, he took a hasty leave of his companion, and disappeared -through the indicated passage. The scout witnessed his departure with -complacency, nodding his head after him, and muttering his good wishes; -after which he very coolly set about an examination of the state of the -larder, among the Hurons, the cavern, among other purposes, being used -as a receptacle for the fruits of their hunts. - -Duncan had no other guide than a distant glimmering light, which served, -however, the office of a polar star to the lover. By its aid he was -enabled to enter the haven of his hopes, which was merely another -apartment of the cavern, that had been solely appropriated to the -safekeeping of so important a prisoner as a daughter of the commandant -of William Henry. It was profusely strewed with the plunder of that -unlucky fortress. In the midst of this confusion he found her he sought, -pale, anxious and terrified, but lovely. David had prepared her for such -a visit. - -"Duncan!" she exclaimed, in a voice that seemed to tremble at the sounds -created by itself. - -"Alice!" he answered, leaping carelessly among trunks, boxes, arms, and -furniture, until he stood at her side. - -"I knew that you would never desert me," she said, looking up with -a momentary glow on her otherwise dejected countenance. "But you are -alone! Grateful as it is to be thus remembered, I could wish to think -you are not entirely alone." - -Duncan, observing that she trembled in a manner which betrayed her -inability to stand, gently induced her to be seated, while he recounted -those leading incidents which it has been our task to accord. Alice -listened with breathless interest; and though the young man touched -lightly on the sorrows of the stricken father; taking care, however, not -to wound the self-love of his auditor, the tears ran as freely down the -cheeks of the daughter as though she had never wept before. The soothing -tenderness of Duncan, however, soon quieted the first burst of her -emotions, and she then heard him to the close with undivided attention, -if not with composure. - -"And now, Alice," he added, "you will see how much is still expected -of you. By the assistance of our experienced and invaluable friend, the -scout, we may find our way from this savage people, but you will have to -exert your utmost fortitude. Remember that you fly to the arms of your -venerable parent, and how much his happiness, as well as your own, -depends on those exertions." - -"Can I do otherwise for a father who has done so much for me?" - -"And for me, too," continued the youth, gently pressing the hand he held -in both his own. - -The look of innocence and surprise which he received in return convinced -Duncan of the necessity of being more explicit. - -"This is neither the place nor the occasion to detain you with selfish -wishes," he added; "but what heart loaded like mine would not wish to -cast its burden? They say misery is the closest of all ties; our common -suffering in your behalf left but little to be explained between your -father and myself." - -"And, dearest Cora, Duncan; surely Cora was not forgotten?" - -"Not forgotten! no; regretted, as woman was seldom mourned before. Your -venerable father knew no difference between his children; but I--Alice, -you will not be offended when I say, that to me her worth was in a -degree obscured--" - -"Then you knew not the merit of my sister," said Alice, withdrawing her -hand; "of you she ever speaks as of one who is her dearest friend." - -"I would gladly believe her such," returned Duncan, hastily; "I could -wish her to be even more; but with you, Alice, I have the permission of -your father to aspire to a still nearer and dearer tie." - -Alice trembled violently, and there was an instant during which she bent -her face aside, yielding to the emotions common to her sex; but they -quickly passed away, leaving her mistress of her deportment, if not of -her affections. - -"Heyward," she said, looking him full in the face with a touching -expression of innocence and dependency, "give me the sacred presence and -the holy sanction of that parent before you urge me further." - -"Though more I should not, less I could not say," the youth was about to -answer, when he was interrupted by a light tap on his shoulder. Starting -to his feet, he turned, and, confronting the intruder, his looks fell on -the dark form and malignant visage of Magua. The deep guttural laugh of -the savage sounded, at such a moment, to Duncan, like the hellish taunt -of a demon. Had he pursued the sudden and fierce impulse of the instant, -he would have cast himself on the Huron, and committed their fortunes -to the issue of a deadly struggle. But, without arms of any description, -ignorant of what succor his subtle enemy could command, and charged with -the safety of one who was just then dearer than ever to his heart, he no -sooner entertained than he abandoned the desperate intention. - -"What is your purpose?" said Alice, meekly folding her arms on her -bosom, and struggling to conceal an agony of apprehension in behalf of -Heyward, in the usual cold and distant manner with which she received -the visits of her captor. - -The exulting Indian had resumed his austere countenance, though he drew -warily back before the menacing glance of the young man's fiery eye. He -regarded both his captives for a moment with a steady look, and then, -stepping aside, he dropped a log of wood across a door different from -that by which Duncan had entered. The latter now comprehended the manner -of his surprise, and, believing himself irretrievably lost, he drew -Alice to his bosom, and stood prepared to meet a fate which he hardly -regretted, since it was to be suffered in such company. But Magua -meditated no immediate violence. His first measures were very evidently -taken to secure his new captive; nor did he even bestow a second glance -at the motionless forms in the center of the cavern, until he had -completely cut off every hope of retreat through the private outlet he -had himself used. He was watched in all his movements by Heyward, who, -however, remained firm, still folding the fragile form of Alice to his -heart, at once too proud and too hopeless to ask favor of an enemy -so often foiled. When Magua had effected his object he approached his -prisoners, and said in English: - -"The pale faces trap the cunning beavers; but the red-skins know how to -take the Yengeese." - -"Huron, do your worst!" exclaimed the excited Heyward, forgetful that a -double stake was involved in his life; "you and your vengeance are alike -despised." - -"Will the white man speak these words at the stake?" asked Magua; -manifesting, at the same time, how little faith he had in the other's -resolution by the sneer that accompanied his words. - -"Here; singly to your face, or in the presence of your nation." - -"Le Renard Subtil is a great chief!" returned the Indian; "he will go -and bring his young men, to see how bravely a pale face can laugh at -tortures." - -He turned away while speaking, and was about to leave the place through -the avenue by which Duncan had approached, when a growl caught his ear, -and caused him to hesitate. The figure of the bear appeared in the door, -where it sat, rolling from side to side in its customary restlessness. -Magua, like the father of the sick woman, eyed it keenly for a moment, -as if to ascertain its character. He was far above the more vulgar -superstitions of his tribe, and so soon as he recognized the well-known -attire of the conjurer, he prepared to pass it in cool contempt. But -a louder and more threatening growl caused him again to pause. Then he -seemed as if suddenly resolved to trifle no longer, and moved resolutely -forward. - -The mimic animal, which had advanced a little, retired slowly in his -front, until it arrived again at the pass, when, rearing on his hinder -legs, it beat the air with its paws, in the manner practised by its -brutal prototype. - -"Fool!" exclaimed the chief, in Huron, "go play with the children and -squaws; leave men to their wisdom." - -He once more endeavored to pass the supposed empiric, scorning even the -parade of threatening to use the knife, or tomahawk, that was pendent -from his belt. Suddenly the beast extended its arms, or rather legs, and -inclosed him in a grasp that might have vied with the far-famed power of -the "bear's hug" itself. Heyward had watched the whole procedure, on the -part of Hawkeye, with breathless interest. At first he relinquished his -hold of Alice; then he caught up a thong of buckskin, which had been -used around some bundle, and when he beheld his enemy with his two arms -pinned to his side by the iron muscles of the scout, he rushed upon him, -and effectually secured them there. Arms, legs, and feet were encircled -in twenty folds of the thong, in less time than we have taken to record -the circumstance. When the formidable Huron was completely pinioned, the -scout released his hold, and Duncan laid his enemy on his back, utterly -helpless. - -Throughout the whole of this sudden and extraordinary operation, Magua, -though he had struggled violently, until assured he was in the hands of -one whose nerves were far better strung than his own, had not uttered -the slightest exclamation. But when Hawkeye, by way of making a summary -explanation of his conduct, removed the shaggy jaws of the beast, and -exposed his own rugged and earnest countenance to the gaze of the Huron, -the philosophy of the latter was so far mastered as to permit him to -utter the never failing: - -"Hugh!" - -"Ay, you've found your tongue," said his undisturbed conqueror; "now, -in order that you shall not use it to our ruin, I must make free to stop -your mouth." - -As there was no time to be lost, the scout immediately set about -effecting so necessary a precaution; and when he had gagged the Indian, -his enemy might safely have been considered as "hors de combat." - -"By what place did the imp enter?" asked the industrious scout, when his -work was ended. "Not a soul has passed my way since you left me." - -Duncan pointed out the door by which Magua had come, and which now -presented too many obstacles to a quick retreat. - -"Bring on the gentle one, then," continued his friend; "we must make a -push for the woods by the other outlet." - -"'Tis impossible!" said Duncan; "fear has overcome her, and she is -helpless. Alice! my sweet, my own Alice, arouse yourself; now is the -moment to fly. 'Tis in vain! she hears, but is unable to follow. Go, -noble and worthy friend; save yourself, and leave me to my fate." - -"Every trail has its end, and every calamity brings its lesson!" -returned the scout. "There, wrap her in them Indian cloths. Conceal all -of her little form. Nay, that foot has no fellow in the wilderness; it -will betray her. All, every part. Now take her in your arms, and follow. -Leave the rest to me." - -Duncan, as may be gathered from the words of his companion, was eagerly -obeying; and, as the other finished speaking, he took the light person -of Alice in his arms, and followed in the footsteps of the scout. They -found the sick woman as they had left her, still alone, and passed -swiftly on, by the natural gallery, to the place of entrance. As they -approached the little door of bark, a murmur of voices without announced -that the friends and relatives of the invalid were gathered about the -place, patiently awaiting a summons to re-enter. - -"If I open my lips to speak," Hawkeye whispered, "my English, which is -the genuine tongue of a white-skin, will tell the varlets that an enemy -is among them. You must give 'em your jargon, major; and say that we -have shut the evil spirit in the cave, and are taking the woman to the -woods in order to find strengthening roots. Practise all your cunning, -for it is a lawful undertaking." - -The door opened a little, as if one without was listening to the -proceedings within, and compelled the scout to cease his directions. A -fierce growl repelled the eavesdropper, and then the scout boldly threw -open the covering of bark, and left the place, enacting the character of -a bear as he proceeded. Duncan kept close at his heels, and soon found -himself in the center of a cluster of twenty anxious relatives and -friends. - -The crowd fell back a little, and permitted the father, and one who -appeared to be the husband of the woman, to approach. - -"Has my brother driven away the evil spirit?" demanded the former. "What -has he in his arms?" - -"Thy child," returned Duncan, gravely; "the disease has gone out of her; -it is shut up in the rocks. I take the woman to a distance, where I will -strengthen her against any further attacks. She will be in the wigwam of -the young man when the sun comes again." - -When the father had translated the meaning of the stranger's words into -the Huron language, a suppressed murmur announced the satisfaction with -which this intelligence was received. The chief himself waved his hand -for Duncan to proceed, saying aloud, in a firm voice, and with a lofty -manner: - -"Go; I am a man, and I will enter the rock and fight the wicked one." - -Heyward had gladly obeyed, and was already past the little group, when -these startling words arrested him. - -"Is my brother mad?" he exclaimed; "is he cruel? He will meet the -disease, and it will enter him; or he will drive out the disease, and -it will chase his daughter into the woods. No; let my children wait -without, and if the spirit appears beat him down with clubs. He is -cunning, and will bury himself in the mountain, when he sees how many -are ready to fight him." - -This singular warning had the desired effect. Instead of entering -the cavern, the father and husband drew their tomahawks, and posted -themselves in readiness to deal their vengeance on the imaginary -tormentor of their sick relative, while the women and children broke -branches from the bushes, or seized fragments of the rock, with a -similar intention. At this favorable moment the counterfeit conjurers -disappeared. - -Hawkeye, at the same time that he had presumed so far on the nature -of the Indian superstitions, was not ignorant that they were rather -tolerated than relied on by the wisest of the chiefs. He well knew the -value of time in the present emergency. Whatever might be the extent of -the self-delusion of his enemies, and however it had tended to assist -his schemes, the slightest cause of suspicion, acting on the subtle -nature of an Indian, would be likely to prove fatal. Taking the path, -therefore, that was most likely to avoid observation, he rather skirted -than entered the village. The warriors were still to be seen in the -distance, by the fading light of the fires, stalking from lodge to -lodge. But the children had abandoned their sports for their beds of -skins, and the quiet of night was already beginning to prevail over the -turbulence and excitement of so busy and important an evening. - -Alice revived under the renovating influence of the open air, and, -as her physical rather than her mental powers had been the subject of -weakness, she stood in no need of any explanation of that which had -occurred. - -"Now let me make an effort to walk," she said, when they had entered the -forest, blushing, though unseen, that she had not been sooner able to -quit the arms of Duncan; "I am indeed restored." - -"Nay, Alice, you are yet too weak." - -The maiden struggled gently to release herself, and Heyward was -compelled to part with his precious burden. The representative of the -bear had certainly been an entire stranger to the delicious emotions of -the lover while his arms encircled his mistress; and he was, perhaps, -a stranger also to the nature of that feeling of ingenuous shame that -oppressed the trembling Alice. But when he found himself at a suitable -distance from the lodges he made a halt, and spoke on a subject of which -he was thoroughly the master. - -"This path will lead you to the brook," he said; "follow its northern -bank until you come to a fall; mount the hill on your right, and you -will see the fires of the other people. There you must go and demand -protection; if they are true Delawares you will be safe. A distant -flight with that gentle one, just now, is impossible. The Hurons would -follow up our trail, and master our scalps before we had got a dozen -miles. Go, and Providence be with you." - -"And you!" demanded Heyward, in surprise; "surely we part not here?" - -"The Hurons hold the pride of the Delawares; the last of the high blood -of the Mohicans is in their power," returned the scout; "I go to see -what can be done in his favor. Had they mastered your scalp, major, a -knave should have fallen for every hair it held, as I promised; but if -the young Sagamore is to be led to the stake, the Indians shall see also -how a man without a cross can die." - -Not in the least offended with the decided preference that the sturdy -woodsman gave to one who might, in some degree, be called the child of -his adoption, Duncan still continued to urge such reasons against so -desperate an effort as presented themselves. He was aided by Alice, who -mingled her entreaties with those of Heyward that he would abandon a -resolution that promised so much danger, with so little hope of success. -Their eloquence and ingenuity were expended in vain. The scout heard -them attentively, but impatiently, and finally closed the discussion, -by answering, in a tone that instantly silenced Alice, while it told -Heyward how fruitless any further remonstrances would be. - -"I have heard," he said, "that there is a feeling in youth which binds -man to woman closer than the father is tied to the son. It may be so. -I have seldom been where women of my color dwell; but such may be the -gifts of nature in the settlements. You have risked life, and all that -is dear to you, to bring off this gentle one, and I suppose that some -such disposition is at the bottom of it all. As for me, I taught the lad -the real character of a rifle; and well has he paid me for it. I have -fou't at his side in many a bloody scrimmage; and so long as I could -hear the crack of his piece in one ear, and that of the Sagamore in the -other, I knew no enemy was on my back. Winters and summer, nights and -days, have we roved the wilderness in company, eating of the same dish, -one sleeping while the other watched; and afore it shall be said that -Uncas was taken to the torment, and I at hand--There is but a single -Ruler of us all, whatever may the color of the skin; and Him I call -to witness, that before the Mohican boy shall perish for the want of -a friend, good faith shall depart the 'arth, and 'killdeer' become as -harmless as the tooting we'pon of the singer!" - -Duncan released his hold on the arm of the scout, who turned, and -steadily retraced his steps toward the lodges. After pausing a moment to -gaze at his retiring form, the successful and yet sorrowful Heyward -and Alice took their way together toward the distant village of the -Delawares. - - - - -CHAPTER 26 - - "Bot.--Let me play the lion too." - --Midsummer Night's Dream - -Notwithstanding the high resolution of Hawkeye he fully comprehended all -the difficulties and danger he was about to incur. In his return to -the camp, his acute and practised intellects were intently engaged in -devising means to counteract a watchfulness and suspicion on the part -of his enemies, that he knew were, in no degree, inferior to his own. -Nothing but the color of his skin had saved the lives of Magua and the -conjurer, who would have been the first victims sacrificed to his own -security, had not the scout believed such an act, however congenial it -might be to the nature of an Indian, utterly unworthy of one who boasted -a descent from men that knew no cross of blood. Accordingly, he trusted -to the withes and ligaments with which he had bound his captives, -and pursued his way directly toward the center of the lodges. As he -approached the buildings, his steps become more deliberate, and his -vigilant eye suffered no sign, whether friendly or hostile, to escape -him. A neglected hut was a little in advance of the others, and appeared -as if it had been deserted when half completed--most probably on account -of failing in some of the more important requisites; such as wood -or water. A faint light glimmered through its cracks, however, and -announced that, notwithstanding its imperfect structure, it was not -without a tenant. Thither, then, the scout proceeded, like a prudent -general, who was about to feel the advanced positions of his enemy, -before he hazarded the main attack. - -Throwing himself into a suitable posture for the beast he represented, -Hawkeye crawled to a little opening, where he might command a view of -the interior. It proved to be the abiding place of David Gamut. Hither -the faithful singing-master had now brought himself, together with -all his sorrows, his apprehensions, and his meek dependence on the -protection of Providence. At the precise moment when his ungainly person -came under the observation of the scout, in the manner just mentioned, -the woodsman himself, though in his assumed character, was the subject -of the solitary being's profounded reflections. - -However implicit the faith of David was in the performance of ancient -miracles, he eschewed the belief of any direct supernatural agency in -the management of modern morality. In other words, while he had implicit -faith in the ability of Balaam's ass to speak, he was somewhat skeptical -on the subject of a bear's singing; and yet he had been assured of -the latter, on the testimony of his own exquisite organs. There was -something in his air and manner that betrayed to the scout the utter -confusion of the state of his mind. He was seated on a pile of brush, -a few twigs from which occasionally fed his low fire, with his head -leaning on his arm, in a posture of melancholy musing. The costume -of the votary of music had undergone no other alteration from that so -lately described, except that he had covered his bald head with the -triangular beaver, which had not proved sufficiently alluring to excite -the cupidity of any of his captors. - -The ingenious Hawkeye, who recalled the hasty manner in which the other -had abandoned his post at the bedside of the sick woman, was not without -his suspicions concerning the subject of so much solemn deliberation. -First making the circuit of the hut, and ascertaining that it stood -quite alone, and that the character of its inmate was likely to protect -it from visitors, he ventured through its low door, into the very -presence of Gamut. The position of the latter brought the fire between -them; and when Hawkeye had seated himself on end, near a minute elapsed, -during which the two remained regarding each other without speaking. -The suddenness and the nature of the surprise had nearly proved too much -for--we will not say the philosophy--but for the pitch and resolution -of David. He fumbled for his pitch-pipe, and arose with a confused -intention of attempting a musical exorcism. - -"Dark and mysterious monster!" he exclaimed, while with trembling hands -he disposed of his auxiliary eyes, and sought his never-failing resource -in trouble, the gifted version of the psalms; "I know not your nature -nor intents; but if aught you meditate against the person and rights -of one of the humblest servants of the temple, listen to the inspired -language of the youth of Israel, and repent." - -The bear shook his shaggy sides, and then a well-known voice replied: - -"Put up the tooting we'pon, and teach your throat modesty. Five words -of plain and comprehendible English are worth just now an hour of -squalling." - -"What art thou?" demanded David, utterly disqualified to pursue his -original intention, and nearly gasping for breath. - -"A man like yourself; and one whose blood is as little tainted by the -cross of a bear, or an Indian, as your own. Have you so soon forgotten -from whom you received the foolish instrument you hold in your hand?" - -"Can these things be?" returned David, breathing more freely, as the -truth began to dawn upon him. "I have found many marvels during my -sojourn with the heathen, but surely nothing to excel this." - -"Come, come," returned Hawkeye, uncasing his honest countenance, the -better to assure the wavering confidence of his companion; "you may see -a skin, which, if it be not as white as one of the gentle ones, has no -tinge of red to it that the winds of the heaven and the sun have not -bestowed. Now let us to business." - -"First tell me of the maiden, and of the youth who so bravely sought -her," interrupted David. - -"Ay, they are happily freed from the tomahawks of these varlets. But can -you put me on the scent of Uncas?" - -"The young man is in bondage, and much I fear his death is decreed. I -greatly mourn that one so well disposed should die in his ignorance, and -I have sought a goodly hymn--" - -"Can you lead me to him?" - -"The task will not be difficult," returned David, hesitating; "though -I greatly fear your presence would rather increase than mitigate his -unhappy fortunes." - -"No more words, but lead on," returned Hawkeye, concealing his face -again, and setting the example in his own person, by instantly quitting -the lodge. - -As they proceeded, the scout ascertained that his companion found access -to Uncas, under privilege of his imaginary infirmity, aided by the favor -he had acquired with one of the guards, who, in consequence of speaking -a little English, had been selected by David as the subject of a -religious conversion. How far the Huron comprehended the intentions of -his new friend may well be doubted; but as exclusive attention is -as flattering to a savage as to a more civilized individual, it had -produced the effect we have mentioned. It is unnecessary to repeat the -shrewd manner with which the scout extracted these particulars from the -simple David; neither shall we dwell in this place on the nature of the -instruction he delivered, when completely master of all the necessary -facts; as the whole will be sufficiently explained to the reader in the -course of the narrative. - -The lodge in which Uncas was confined was in the very center of the -village, and in a situation, perhaps, more difficult than any other to -approach, or leave, without observation. But it was not the policy of -Hawkeye to affect the least concealment. Presuming on his disguise, and -his ability to sustain the character he had assumed, he took the most -plain and direct route to the place. The hour, however, afforded him -some little of that protection which he appeared so much to despise. The -boys were already buried in sleep, and all the women, and most of the -warriors, had retired to their lodges for the night. Four or five of -the latter only lingered about the door of the prison of Uncas, wary but -close observers of the manner of their captive. - -At the sight of Gamut, accompanied by one in the well-known masquerade -of their most distinguished conjurer, they readily made way for them -both. Still they betrayed no intention to depart. On the other hand, -they were evidently disposed to remain bound to the place by an -additional interest in the mysterious mummeries that they of course -expected from such a visit. - -From the total inability of the scout to address the Hurons in their own -language, he was compelled to trust the conversation entirely to David. -Notwithstanding the simplicity of the latter, he did ample justice to -the instructions he had received, more than fulfilling the strongest -hopes of his teacher. - -"The Delawares are women!" he exclaimed, addressing himself to the -savage who had a slight understanding of the language in which he spoke; -"the Yengeese, my foolish countrymen, have told them to take up the -tomahawk, and strike their fathers in the Canadas, and they have -forgotten their sex. Does my brother wish to hear 'Le Cerf Agile' ask -for his petticoats, and see him weep before the Hurons, at the stake?" - -The exclamation "Hugh!" delivered in a strong tone of assent, announced -the gratification the savage would receive in witnessing such an -exhibition of weakness in an enemy so long hated and so much feared. - -"Then let him step aside, and the cunning man will blow upon the dog. -Tell it to my brothers." - -The Huron explained the meaning of David to his fellows, who, in their -turn, listened to the project with that sort of satisfaction that -their untamed spirits might be expected to find in such a refinement in -cruelty. They drew back a little from the entrance and motioned to the -supposed conjurer to enter. But the bear, instead of obeying, maintained -the seat it had taken, and growled: - -"The cunning man is afraid that his breath will blow upon his brothers, -and take away their courage too," continued David, improving the hint he -received; "they must stand further off." - -The Hurons, who would have deemed such a misfortune the heaviest -calamity that could befall them, fell back in a body, taking a position -where they were out of earshot, though at the same time they could -command a view of the entrance to the lodge. Then, as if satisfied of -their safety, the scout left his position, and slowly entered the place. -It was silent and gloomy, being tenanted solely by the captive, and -lighted by the dying embers of a fire, which had been used for the -purposed of cookery. - -Uncas occupied a distant corner, in a reclining attitude, being rigidly -bound, both hands and feet, by strong and painful withes. When the -frightful object first presented itself to the young Mohican, he did not -deign to bestow a single glance on the animal. The scout, who had left -David at the door, to ascertain they were not observed, thought it -prudent to preserve his disguise until assured of their privacy. Instead -of speaking, therefore, he exerted himself to enact one of the antics of -the animal he represented. The young Mohican, who at first believed his -enemies had sent in a real beast to torment him, and try his nerves, -detected in those performances that to Heyward had appeared so accurate, -certain blemishes, that at once betrayed the counterfeit. Had Hawkeye -been aware of the low estimation in which the skillful Uncas held his -representations, he would probably have prolonged the entertainment -a little in pique. But the scornful expression of the young man's eye -admitted of so many constructions, that the worthy scout was spared the -mortification of such a discovery. As soon, therefore, as David gave the -preconcerted signal, a low hissing sound was heard in the lodge in place -of the fierce growlings of the bear. - -Uncas had cast his body back against the wall of the hut and closed -his eyes, as if willing to exclude so contemptible and disagreeable -an object from his sight. But the moment the noise of the serpent was -heard, he arose, and cast his looks on each side of him, bending his -head low, and turning it inquiringly in every direction, until his keen -eye rested on the shaggy monster, where it remained riveted, as though -fixed by the power of a charm. Again the same sounds were repeated, -evidently proceeding from the mouth of the beast. Once more the eyes of -the youth roamed over the interior of the lodge, and returning to the -former resting place, he uttered, in a deep, suppressed voice: - -"Hawkeye!" - -"Cut his bands," said Hawkeye to David, who just then approached them. - -The singer did as he was ordered, and Uncas found his limbs released. At -the same moment the dried skin of the animal rattled, and presently -the scout arose to his feet, in proper person. The Mohican appeared to -comprehend the nature of the attempt his friend had made, intuitively, -neither tongue nor feature betraying another symptom of surprise. When -Hawkeye had cast his shaggy vestment, which was done by simply loosing -certain thongs of skin, he drew a long, glittering knife, and put it in -the hands of Uncas. - -"The red Hurons are without," he said; "let us be ready." At the same -time he laid his finger significantly on another similar weapon, both -being the fruits of his prowess among their enemies during the evening. - -"We will go," said Uncas. - -"Whither?" - -"To the Tortoises; they are the children of my grandfathers." - -"Ay, lad," said the scout in English--a language he was apt to use -when a little abstracted in mind; "the same blood runs in your veins, -I believe; but time and distance has a little changed its color. What -shall we do with the Mingoes at the door? They count six, and this -singer is as good as nothing." - -"The Hurons are boasters," said Uncas, scornfully; "their 'totem' is -a moose, and they run like snails. The Delawares are children of the -tortoise, and they outstrip the deer." - -"Ay, lad, there is truth in what you say; and I doubt not, on a rush, -you would pass the whole nation; and, in a straight race of two miles, -would be in, and get your breath again, afore a knave of them all was -within hearing of the other village. But the gift of a white man lies -more in his arms than in his legs. As for myself, I can brain a Huron as -well as a better man; but when it comes to a race the knaves would prove -too much for me." - -Uncas, who had already approached the door, in readiness to lead the -way, now recoiled, and placed himself, once more, in the bottom of the -lodge. But Hawkeye, who was too much occupied with his own thoughts -to note the movement, continued speaking more to himself than to his -companion. - -"After all," he said, "it is unreasonable to keep one man in bondage to -the gifts of another. So, Uncas, you had better take the lead, while I -will put on the skin again, and trust to cunning for want of speed." - -The young Mohican made no reply, but quietly folded his arms, and leaned -his body against one of the upright posts that supported the wall of the -hut. - -"Well," said the scout looking up at him, "why do you tarry? There will -be time enough for me, as the knaves will give chase to you at first." - -"Uncas will stay," was the calm reply. - -"For what?" - -"To fight with his father's brother, and die with the friend of the -Delawares." - -"Ay, lad," returned Hawkeye, squeezing the hand of Uncas between his own -iron fingers; "'twould have been more like a Mingo than a Mohican had -you left me. But I thought I would make the offer, seeing that youth -commonly loves life. Well, what can't be done by main courage, in war, -must be done by circumvention. Put on the skin; I doubt not you can play -the bear nearly as well as myself." - -Whatever might have been the private opinion of Uncas of their -respective abilities in this particular, his grave countenance -manifested no opinion of his superiority. He silently and expeditiously -encased himself in the covering of the beast, and then awaited such -other movements as his more aged companion saw fit to dictate. - -"Now, friend," said Hawkeye, addressing David, "an exchange of garments -will be a great convenience to you, inasmuch as you are but little -accustomed to the make-shifts of the wilderness. Here, take my hunting -shirt and cap, and give me your blanket and hat. You must trust me with -the book and spectacles, as well as the tooter, too; if we ever meet -again, in better times, you shall have all back again, with many thanks -into the bargain." - -David parted with the several articles named with a readiness that would -have done great credit to his liberality, had he not certainly profited, -in many particulars, by the exchange. Hawkeye was not long in assuming -his borrowed garments; and when his restless eyes were hid behind the -glasses, and his head was surmounted by the triangular beaver, as their -statures were not dissimilar, he might readily have passed for the -singer, by starlight. As soon as these dispositions were made, the scout -turned to David, and gave him his parting instructions. - -"Are you much given to cowardice?" he bluntly asked, by way of obtaining -a suitable understanding of the whole case before he ventured a -prescription. - -"My pursuits are peaceful, and my temper, I humbly trust, is greatly -given to mercy and love," returned David, a little nettled at so direct -an attack on his manhood; "but there are none who can say that I have -ever forgotten my faith in the Lord, even in the greatest straits." - -"Your chiefest danger will be at the moment when the savages find out -that they have been deceived. If you are not then knocked on the head, -your being a non-composser will protect you; and you'll then have a good -reason to expect to die in your bed. If you stay, it must be to sit down -here in the shadow, and take the part of Uncas, until such times as the -cunning of the Indians discover the cheat, when, as I have already said, -your times of trial will come. So choose for yourself--to make a rush or -tarry here." - -"Even so," said David, firmly; "I will abide in the place of the -Delaware. Bravely and generously has he battled in my behalf, and this, -and more, will I dare in his service." - -"You have spoken as a man, and like one who, under wiser schooling, -would have been brought to better things. Hold your head down, and -draw in your legs; their formation might tell the truth too early. Keep -silent as long as may be; and it would be wise, when you do speak, to -break out suddenly in one of your shoutings, which will serve to remind -the Indians that you are not altogether as responsible as men should be. -If however, they take your scalp, as I trust and believe they will not, -depend on it, Uncas and I will not forget the deed, but revenge it as -becomes true warriors and trusty friends." - -"Hold!" said David, perceiving that with this assurance they were about -to leave him; "I am an unworthy and humble follower of one who taught -not the damnable principle of revenge. Should I fall, therefore, seek -no victims to my manes, but rather forgive my destroyers; and if you -remember them at all, let it be in prayers for the enlightening of their -minds, and for their eternal welfare." - -The scout hesitated, and appeared to muse. - -"There is a principle in that," he said, "different from the law of the -woods; and yet it is fair and noble to reflect upon." Then heaving -a heavy sigh, probably among the last he ever drew in pining for a -condition he had so long abandoned, he added: "it is what I would wish -to practise myself, as one without a cross of blood, though it is not -always easy to deal with an Indian as you would with a fellow Christian. -God bless you, friend; I do believe your scent is not greatly wrong, -when the matter is duly considered, and keeping eternity before the -eyes, though much depends on the natural gifts, and the force of -temptation." - -So saying, the scout returned and shook David cordially by the hand; -after which act of friendship he immediately left the lodge, attended by -the new representative of the beast. - -The instant Hawkeye found himself under the observation of the Hurons, -he drew up his tall form in the rigid manner of David, threw out his -arm in the act of keeping time, and commenced what he intended for an -imitation of his psalmody. Happily for the success of this delicate -adventure, he had to deal with ears but little practised in the concord -of sweet sounds, or the miserable effort would infallibly have been -detected. It was necessary to pass within a dangerous proximity of the -dark group of the savages, and the voice of the scout grew louder as -they drew nigher. When at the nearest point the Huron who spoke the -English thrust out an arm, and stopped the supposed singing-master. - -"The Delaware dog!" he said, leaning forward, and peering through -the dim light to catch the expression of the other's features; "is he -afraid? Will the Hurons hear his groans?" - -A growl, so exceedingly fierce and natural, proceeded from the beast, -that the young Indian released his hold and started aside, as if to -assure himself that it was not a veritable bear, and no counterfeit, -that was rolling before him. Hawkeye, who feared his voice would betray -him to his subtle enemies, gladly profited by the interruption, to break -out anew in such a burst of musical expression as would, probably, in -a more refined state of society have been termed "a grand crash." Among -his actual auditors, however, it merely gave him an additional claim to -that respect which they never withhold from such as are believed to be -the subjects of mental alienation. The little knot of Indians drew back -in a body, and suffered, as they thought, the conjurer and his inspired -assistant to proceed. - -It required no common exercise of fortitude in Uncas and the scout to -continue the dignified and deliberate pace they had assumed in passing -the lodge; especially as they immediately perceived that curiosity had -so far mastered fear, as to induce the watchers to approach the hut, in -order to witness the effect of the incantations. The least injudicious -or impatient movement on the part of David might betray them, and time -was absolutely necessary to insure the safety of the scout. The loud -noise the latter conceived it politic to continue, drew many curious -gazers to the doors of the different huts as thy passed; and once or -twice a dark-looking warrior stepped across their path, led to the act -by superstition and watchfulness. They were not, however, interrupted, -the darkness of the hour, and the boldness of the attempt, proving their -principal friends. - -The adventurers had got clear of the village, and were now swiftly -approaching the shelter of the woods, when a loud and long cry arose -from the lodge where Uncas had been confined. The Mohican started on -his feet, and shook his shaggy covering, as though the animal he -counterfeited was about to make some desperate effort. - -"Hold!" said the scout, grasping his friend by the shoulder, "let them -yell again! 'Twas nothing but wonderment." - -He had no occasion to delay, for at the next instant a burst of cries -filled the outer air, and ran along the whole extent of the village. -Uncas cast his skin, and stepped forth in his own beautiful proportions. -Hawkeye tapped him lightly on the shoulder, and glided ahead. - -"Now let the devils strike our scent!" said the scout, tearing two -rifles, with all their attendant accouterments, from beneath a bush, and -flourishing "killdeer" as he handed Uncas his weapon; "two, at least, -will find it to their deaths." - -Then, throwing their pieces to a low trail, like sportsmen in readiness -for their game, they dashed forward, and were soon buried in the somber -darkness of the forest. - - - - -CHAPTER 27 - - "Ant. I shall remember: When C'sar says - Do this, it is performed." - --Julius Caesar - -The impatience of the savages who lingered about the prison of Uncas, as -has been seen, had overcome their dread of the conjurer's breath. They -stole cautiously, and with beating hearts, to a crevice, through which -the faint light of the fire was glimmering. For several minutes they -mistook the form of David for that of the prisoner; but the very -accident which Hawkeye had foreseen occurred. Tired of keeping the -extremities of his long person so near together, the singer gradually -suffered the lower limbs to extend themselves, until one of his -misshapen feet actually came in contact with and shoved aside the embers -of the fire. At first the Hurons believed the Delaware had been thus -deformed by witchcraft. But when David, unconscious of being observed, -turned his head, and exposed his simple, mild countenance, in place of -the haughty lineaments of their prisoner, it would have exceeded the -credulity of even a native to have doubted any longer. They rushed -together into the lodge, and, laying their hands, with but little -ceremony, on their captive, immediately detected the imposition. Then -arose the cry first heard by the fugitives. It was succeeded by the most -frantic and angry demonstrations of vengeance. David, however, firm in -his determination to cover the retreat of his friends, was compelled to -believe that his own final hour had come. Deprived of his book and his -pipe, he was fain to trust to a memory that rarely failed him on such -subjects; and breaking forth in a loud and impassioned strain, he -endeavored to smooth his passage into the other world by singing the -opening verse of a funeral anthem. The Indians were seasonably reminded -of his infirmity, and, rushing into the open air, they aroused the -village in the manner described. - -A native warrior fights as he sleeps, without the protection of anything -defensive. The sounds of the alarm were, therefore, hardly uttered -before two hundred men were afoot, and ready for the battle or the -chase, as either might be required. The escape was soon known; and the -whole tribe crowded, in a body, around the council-lodge, impatiently -awaiting the instruction of their chiefs. In such a sudden demand on -their wisdom, the presence of the cunning Magua could scarcely fail of -being needed. His name was mentioned, and all looked round in wonder -that he did not appear. Messengers were then despatched to his lodge -requiring his presence. - -In the meantime, some of the swiftest and most discreet of the young -men were ordered to make the circuit of the clearing, under cover of -the woods, in order to ascertain that their suspected neighbors, the -Delawares, designed no mischief. Women and children ran to and fro; -and, in short, the whole encampment exhibited another scene of wild -and savage confusion. Gradually, however, these symptoms of disorder -diminished; and in a few minutes the oldest and most distinguished -chiefs were assembled in the lodge, in grave consultation. - -The clamor of many voices soon announced that a party approached, who -might be expected to communicate some intelligence that would explain -the mystery of the novel surprise. The crowd without gave way, and -several warriors entered the place, bringing with them the hapless -conjurer, who had been left so long by the scout in duress. - -Notwithstanding this man was held in very unequal estimation among the -Hurons, some believing implicitly in his power, and others deeming him -an impostor, he was now listened to by all with the deepest attention. -When his brief story was ended, the father of the sick woman stepped -forth, and, in a few pithy expression, related, in his turn, what he -knew. These two narratives gave a proper direction to the subsequent -inquiries, which were now made with the characteristic cunning of -savages. - -Instead of rushing in a confused and disorderly throng to the cavern, -ten of the wisest and firmest among the chiefs were selected to -prosecute the investigation. As no time was to be lost, the instant the -choice was made the individuals appointed rose in a body and left the -place without speaking. On reaching the entrance, the younger men in -advance made way for their seniors; and the whole proceeded along -the low, dark gallery, with the firmness of warriors ready to devote -themselves to the public good, though, at the same time, secretly -doubting the nature of the power with which they were about to contend. - -The outer apartment of the cavern was silent and gloomy. The woman lay -in her usual place and posture, though there were those present who -affirmed they had seen her borne to the woods by the supposed "medicine -of the white men." Such a direct and palpable contradiction of the tale -related by the father caused all eyes to be turned on him. Chafed by -the silent imputation, and inwardly troubled by so unaccountable a -circumstance, the chief advanced to the side of the bed, and, stooping, -cast an incredulous look at the features, as if distrusting their -reality. His daughter was dead. - -The unerring feeling of nature for a moment prevailed and the old -warrior hid his eyes in sorrow. Then, recovering his self-possession, he -faced his companions, and, pointing toward the corpse, he said, in the -language of his people: - -"The wife of my young man has left us! The Great Spirit is angry with -his children." - -The mournful intelligence was received in solemn silence. After a short -pause, one of the elder Indians was about to speak, when a dark-looking -object was seen rolling out of an adjoining apartment, into the very -center of the room where they stood. Ignorant of the nature of the -beings they had to deal with, the whole party drew back a little, and, -rising on end, exhibited the distorted but still fierce and sullen -features of Magua. The discovery was succeeded by a general exclamation -of amazement. - -As soon, however, as the true situation of the chief was understood, -several knives appeared, and his limbs and tongue were quickly released. -The Huron arose, and shook himself like a lion quitting his lair. Not a -word escaped him, though his hand played convulsively with the handle of -his knife, while his lowering eyes scanned the whole party, as if they -sought an object suited to the first burst of his vengeance. - -It was happy for Uncas and the scout, and even David, that they were -all beyond the reach of his arm at such a moment; for, assuredly, -no refinement in cruelty would then have deferred their deaths, in -opposition to the promptings of the fierce temper that nearly choked -him. Meeting everywhere faces that he knew as friends, the savage grated -his teeth together like rasps of iron, and swallowed his passion for -want of a victim on whom to vent it. This exhibition of anger was noted -by all present; and from an apprehension of exasperating a temper that -was already chafed nearly to madness, several minutes were suffered to -pass before another word was uttered. When, however, suitable time had -elapsed, the oldest of the party spoke. - -"My friend has found an enemy," he said. "Is he nigh that the Hurons -might take revenge?" - -"Let the Delaware die!" exclaimed Magua, in a voice of thunder. - -Another longer and expressive silence was observed, and was broken, as -before, with due precaution, by the same individual. - -"The Mohican is swift of foot, and leaps far," he said; "but my young -men are on his trail." - -"Is he gone?" demanded Magua, in tones so deep and guttural, that they -seemed to proceed from his inmost chest. - -"An evil spirit has been among us, and the Delaware has blinded our -eyes." - -"An evil spirit!" repeated the other, mockingly; "'tis the spirit that -has taken the lives of so many Hurons; the spirit that slew my young men -at 'the tumbling river'; that took their scalps at the 'healing spring'; -and who has, now, bound the arms of Le Renard Subtil!" - -"Of whom does my friend speak?" - -"Of the dog who carries the heart and cunning of a Huron under a pale -skin--La Longue Carabine." - -The pronunciation of so terrible a name produced the usual effect among -his auditors. But when time was given for reflection, and the warriors -remembered that their formidable and daring enemy had even been in the -bosom of their encampment, working injury, fearful rage took the place -of wonder, and all those fierce passions with which the bosom of Magua -had just been struggling were suddenly transferred to his companions. -Some among them gnashed their teeth in anger, others vented their -feelings in yells, and some, again, beat the air as frantically as if -the object of their resentment were suffering under their blows. But -this sudden outbreaking of temper as quickly subsided in the still and -sullen restraint they most affected in their moments of inaction. - -Magua, who had in his turn found leisure for reflection, now changed his -manner, and assumed the air of one who knew how to think and act with a -dignity worthy of so grave a subject. - -"Let us go to my people," he said; "they wait for us." - -His companions consented in silence, and the whole of the savage party -left the cavern and returned to the council-lodge. When they were -seated, all eyes turned on Magua, who understood, from such an -indication, that, by common consent, they had devolved the duty of -relating what had passed on him. He arose, and told his tale without -duplicity or reservation. The whole deception practised by both Duncan -and Hawkeye was, of course, laid naked, and no room was found, even for -the most superstitious of the tribe, any longer to affix a doubt on the -character of the occurrences. It was but too apparent that they had been -insultingly, shamefully, disgracefully deceived. When he had ended, and -resumed his seat, the collected tribe--for his auditors, in substance, -included all the fighting men of the party--sat regarding each other -like men astonished equally at the audacity and the success of -their enemies. The next consideration, however, was the means and -opportunities for revenge. - -Additional pursuers were sent on the trail of the fugitives; and -then the chiefs applied themselves, in earnest, to the business of -consultation. Many different expedients were proposed by the elder -warriors, in succession, to all of which Magua was a silent and -respectful listener. That subtle savage had recovered his artifice and -self-command, and now proceeded toward his object with his customary -caution and skill. It was only when each one disposed to speak had -uttered his sentiments, that he prepared to advance his own opinions. -They were given with additional weight from the circumstance that some -of the runners had already returned, and reported that their enemies had -been traced so far as to leave no doubt of their having sought safety in -the neighboring camp of their suspected allies, the Delawares. With the -advantage of possessing this important intelligence, the chief warily -laid his plans before his fellows, and, as might have been anticipated -from his eloquence and cunning, they were adopted without a dissenting -voice. They were, briefly, as follows, both in opinions and in motives. - -It has been already stated that, in obedience to a policy rarely -departed from, the sisters were separated so soon as they reached the -Huron village. Magua had early discovered that in retaining the person -of Alice, he possessed the most effectual check on Cora. When they -parted, therefore, he kept the former within reach of his hand, -consigning the one he most valued to the keeping of their allies. The -arrangement was understood to be merely temporary, and was made as much -with a view to flatter his neighbors as in obedience to the invariable -rule of Indian policy. - -While goaded incessantly by these revengeful impulses that in a savage -seldom slumber, the chief was still attentive to his more permanent -personal interests. The follies and disloyalty committed in his youth -were to be expiated by a long and painful penance, ere he could be -restored to the full enjoyment of the confidence of his ancient people; -and without confidence there could be no authority in an Indian tribe. -In this delicate and arduous situation, the crafty native had neglected -no means of increasing his influence; and one of the happiest of his -expedients had been the success with which he had cultivated the favor -of their powerful and dangerous neighbors. The result of his experiment -had answered all the expectations of his policy; for the Hurons were in -no degree exempt from that governing principle of nature, which induces -man to value his gifts precisely in the degree that they are appreciated -by others. - -But, while he was making this ostensible sacrifice to general -considerations, Magua never lost sight of his individual motives. The -latter had been frustrated by the unlooked-for events which had placed -all his prisoners beyond his control; and he now found himself reduced -to the necessity of suing for favors to those whom it had so lately been -his policy to oblige. - -Several of the chiefs had proposed deep and treacherous schemes to -surprise the Delawares and, by gaining possession of their camp, to -recover their prisoners by the same blow; for all agreed that their -honor, their interests, and the peace and happiness of their dead -countrymen, imperiously required them speedily to immolate some victims -to their revenge. But plans so dangerous to attempt, and of such -doubtful issue, Magua found little difficulty in defeating. He exposed -their risk and fallacy with his usual skill; and it was only after he -had removed every impediment, in the shape of opposing advice, that he -ventured to propose his own projects. - -He commenced by flattering the self-love of his auditors; a -never-failing method of commanding attention. When he had enumerated the -many different occasions on which the Hurons had exhibited their courage -and prowess, in the punishment of insults, he digressed in a high -encomium on the virtue of wisdom. He painted the quality as forming the -great point of difference between the beaver and other brutes; between -the brutes and men; and, finally, between the Hurons, in particular, -and the rest of the human race. After he had sufficiently extolled the -property of discretion, he undertook to exhibit in what manner its use -was applicable to the present situation of their tribe. On the one hand, -he said, was their great pale father, the governor of the Canadas, who -had looked upon his children with a hard eye since their tomahawks had -been so red; on the other, a people as numerous as themselves, who spoke -a different language, possessed different interests, and loved them not, -and who would be glad of any pretense to bring them in disgrace with the -great white chief. Then he spoke of their necessities; of the gifts they -had a right to expect for their past services; of their distance from -their proper hunting-grounds and native villages; and of the necessity -of consulting prudence more, and inclination less, in so critical -circumstances. When he perceived that, while the old men applauded his -moderation, many of the fiercest and most distinguished of the warriors -listened to these politic plans with lowering looks, he cunningly led -them back to the subject which they most loved. He spoke openly of the -fruits of their wisdom, which he boldly pronounced would be a complete -and final triumph over their enemies. He even darkly hinted that their -success might be extended, with proper caution, in such a manner as to -include the destruction of all whom they had reason to hate. In short, -he so blended the warlike with the artful, the obvious with the obscure, -as to flatter the propensities of both parties, and to leave to each -subject of hope, while neither could say it clearly comprehended his -intentions. - -The orator, or the politician, who can produce such a state of things, -is commonly popular with his contemporaries, however he may be treated -by posterity. All perceived that more was meant than was uttered, and -each one believed that the hidden meaning was precisely such as his -own faculties enabled him to understand, or his own wishes led him to -anticipate. - -In this happy state of things, it is not surprising that the management -of Magua prevailed. The tribe consented to act with deliberation, and -with one voice they committed the direction of the whole affair to the -government of the chief who had suggested such wise and intelligible -expedients. - -Magua had now attained one great object of all his cunning and -enterprise. The ground he had lost in the favor of his people was -completely regained, and he found himself even placed at the head -of affairs. He was, in truth, their ruler; and, so long as he could -maintain his popularity, no monarch could be more despotic, especially -while the tribe continued in a hostile country. Throwing off, therefore, -the appearance of consultation, he assumed the grave air of authority -necessary to support the dignity of his office. - -Runners were despatched for intelligence in different directions; spies -were ordered to approach and feel the encampment of the Delawares; the -warriors were dismissed to their lodges, with an intimation that their -services would soon be needed; and the women and children were ordered -to retire, with a warning that it was their province to be silent. When -these several arrangements were made, Magua passed through the village, -stopping here and there to pay a visit where he thought his presence -might be flattering to the individual. He confirmed his friends in their -confidence, fixed the wavering, and gratified all. Then he sought his -own lodge. The wife the Huron chief had abandoned, when he was chased -from among his people, was dead. Children he had none; and he now -occupied a hut, without companion of any sort. It was, in fact, the -dilapidated and solitary structure in which David had been discovered, -and whom he had tolerated in his presence, on those few occasions when -they met, with the contemptuous indifference of a haughty superiority. - -Hither, then, Magua retired, when his labors of policy were ended. While -others slept, however, he neither knew or sought repose. Had there been -one sufficiently curious to have watched the movements of the newly -elected chief, he would have seen him seated in a corner of his -lodge, musing on the subject of his future plans, from the hour of his -retirement to the time he had appointed for the warriors to assemble -again. Occasionally the air breathed through the crevices of the hut, -and the low flame that fluttered about the embers of the fire threw -their wavering light on the person of the sullen recluse. At such -moments it would not have been difficult to have fancied the dusky -savage the Prince of Darkness brooding on his own fancied wrongs, and -plotting evil. - -Long before the day dawned, however, warrior after warrior entered the -solitary hut of Magua, until they had collected to the number of twenty. -Each bore his rifle, and all the other accouterments of war, though -the paint was uniformly peaceful. The entrance of these fierce-looking -beings was unnoticed: some seating themselves in the shadows of the -place, and others standing like motionless statues, until the whole of -the designated band was collected. - -Then Magua arose and gave the signal to proceed, marching himself in -advance. They followed their leader singly, and in that well-known order -which has obtained the distinguishing appellation of "Indian file." -Unlike other men engaged in the spirit-stirring business of war, they -stole from their camp unostentatiously and unobserved resembling a band -of gliding specters, more than warriors seeking the bubble reputation by -deeds of desperate daring. - -Instead of taking the path which led directly toward the camp of the -Delawares, Magua led his party for some distance down the windings of -the stream, and along the little artificial lake of the beavers. The -day began to dawn as they entered the clearing which had been formed by -those sagacious and industrious animals. Though Magua, who had resumed -his ancient garb, bore the outline of a fox on the dressed skin which -formed his robe, there was one chief of his party who carried the beaver -as his peculiar symbol, or "totem." There would have been a species of -profanity in the omission, had this man passed so powerful a community -of his fancied kindred, without bestowing some evidence of his regard. -Accordingly, he paused, and spoke in words as kind and friendly as if -he were addressing more intelligent beings. He called the animals his -cousins, and reminded them that his protecting influence was the reason -they remained unharmed, while many avaricious traders were prompting the -Indians to take their lives. He promised a continuance of his favors, -and admonished them to be grateful. After which, he spoke of the -expedition in which he was himself engaged, and intimated, though with -sufficient delicacy and circumlocution, the expediency of bestowing -on their relative a portion of that wisdom for which they were so -renowned.* - - * These harangues of the beasts were frequent among the - Indians. They often address their victims in this way, - reproaching them for cowardice or commending their - resolution, as they may happen to exhibit fortitude or the - reverse, in suffering. - -During the utterance of this extraordinary address, the companions of -the speaker were as grave and as attentive to his language as though -they were all equally impressed with its propriety. Once or twice black -objects were seen rising to the surface of the water, and the Huron -expressed pleasure, conceiving that his words were not bestowed in vain. -Just as he ended his address, the head of a large beaver was thrust -from the door of a lodge, whose earthen walls had been much injured, -and which the party had believed, from its situation, to be uninhabited. -Such an extraordinary sign of confidence was received by the orator as -a highly favorable omen; and though the animal retreated a little -precipitately, he was lavish of his thanks and commendations. - -When Magua thought sufficient time had been lost in gratifying the -family affection of the warrior, he again made the signal to proceed. As -the Indians moved away in a body, and with a step that would have been -inaudible to the ears of any common man, the same venerable-looking -beaver once more ventured his head from its cover. Had any of the Hurons -turned to look behind them, they would have seen the animal watching -their movements with an interest and sagacity that might easily have -been mistaken for reason. Indeed, so very distinct and intelligible were -the devices of the quadruped, that even the most experienced observer -would have been at a loss to account for its actions, until the moment -when the party entered the forest, when the whole would have been -explained, by seeing the entire animal issue from the lodge, uncasing, -by the act, the grave features of Chingachgook from his mask of fur. - - - - -CHAPTER 28 - - "Brief, I pray for you; for you see, 'tis a busy time with me." - --Much Ado About Nothing. - -The tribe, or rather half tribe, of Delawares, which has been so -often mentioned, and whose present place of encampment was so nigh the -temporary village of the Hurons, could assemble about an equal number of -warriors with the latter people. Like their neighbors, they had followed -Montcalm into the territories of the English crown, and were making -heavy and serious inroads on the hunting-grounds of the Mohawks; though -they had seen fit, with the mysterious reserve so common among the -natives, to withhold their assistance at the moment when it was most -required. The French had accounted for this unexpected defection on -the part of their ally in various ways. It was the prevalent opinion, -however, that they had been influenced by veneration for the ancient -treaty, that had once made them dependent on the Six Nations for -military protection, and now rendered them reluctant to encounter their -former masters. As for the tribe itself, it had been content to announce -to Montcalm, through his emissaries, with Indian brevity, that their -hatchets were dull, and time was necessary to sharpen them. The politic -captain of the Canadas had deemed it wiser to submit to entertain a -passive friend, than by any acts of ill-judged severity to convert him -into an open enemy. - -On that morning when Magua led his silent party from the settlement of -the beavers into the forests, in the manner described, the sun rose upon -the Delaware encampment as if it had suddenly burst upon a busy people, -actively employed in all the customary avocations of high noon. The -women ran from lodge to lodge, some engaged in preparing their morning's -meal, a few earnestly bent on seeking the comforts necessary to their -habits, but more pausing to exchange hasty and whispered sentences with -their friends. The warriors were lounging in groups, musing more than -they conversed and when a few words were uttered, speaking like men who -deeply weighed their opinions. The instruments of the chase were to be -seen in abundance among the lodges; but none departed. Here and there -a warrior was examining his arms, with an attention that is rarely -bestowed on the implements, when no other enemy than the beasts of the -forest is expected to be encountered. And occasionally, the eyes of a -whole group were turned simultaneously toward a large and silent lodge -in the center of the village, as if it contained the subject of their -common thoughts. - -During the existence of this scene, a man suddenly appeared at the -furthest extremity of a platform of rock which formed the level of the -village. He was without arms, and his paint tended rather to soften than -increase the natural sternness of his austere countenance. When in -full view of the Delawares he stopped, and made a gesture of amity, -by throwing his arm upward toward heaven, and then letting it fall -impressively on his breast. The inhabitants of the village answered -his salute by a low murmur of welcome, and encouraged him to advance by -similar indications of friendship. Fortified by these assurances, the -dark figure left the brow of the natural rocky terrace, where it had -stood a moment, drawn in a strong outline against the blushing morning -sky, and moved with dignity into the very center of the huts. As he -approached, nothing was audible but the rattling of the light silver -ornaments that loaded his arms and neck, and the tinkling of the little -bells that fringed his deerskin moccasins. He made, as he advanced, many -courteous signs of greeting to the men he passed, neglecting to notice -the women, however, like one who deemed their favor, in the present -enterprise, of no importance. When he had reached the group in which it -was evident, by the haughtiness of their common mien, that the principal -chiefs were collected, the stranger paused, and then the Delawares saw -that the active and erect form that stood before them was that of the -well-known Huron chief, Le Renard Subtil. - -His reception was grave, silent, and wary. The warriors in front stepped -aside, opening the way to their most approved orator by the action; one -who spoke all those languages that were cultivated among the northern -aborigines. - -"The wise Huron is welcome," said the Delaware, in the language of the -Maquas; "he is come to eat his 'succotash'*, with his brothers of the -lakes." - - * A dish composed of cracked corn and beans. It is much used - also by the whites. By corn is meant maise. - -"He is come," repeated Magua, bending his head with the dignity of an -eastern prince. - -The chief extended his arm and taking the other by the wrist, they once -more exchanged friendly salutations. Then the Delaware invited his guest -to enter his own lodge, and share his morning meal. The invitation was -accepted; and the two warriors, attended by three or four of the old -men, walked calmly away, leaving the rest of the tribe devoured by a -desire to understand the reasons of so unusual a visit, and yet not -betraying the least impatience by sign or word. - -During the short and frugal repast that followed, the conversation was -extremely circumspect, and related entirely to the events of the hunt, -in which Magua had so lately been engaged. It would have been impossible -for the most finished breeding to wear more of the appearance of -considering the visit as a thing of course, than did his hosts, -notwithstanding every individual present was perfectly aware that -it must be connected with some secret object and that probably of -importance to themselves. When the appetites of the whole were appeased, -the squaws removed the trenchers and gourds, and the two parties began -to prepare themselves for a subtle trial of their wits. - -"Is the face of my great Canada father turned again toward his Huron -children?" demanded the orator of the Delawares. - -"When was it ever otherwise?" returned Magua. "He calls my people 'most -beloved'." - -The Delaware gravely bowed his acquiescence to what he knew to be false, -and continued: - -"The tomahawks of your young men have been very red." - -"It is so; but they are now bright and dull; for the Yengeese are dead, -and the Delawares are our neighbors." - -The other acknowledged the pacific compliment by a gesture of the hand, -and remained silent. Then Magua, as if recalled to such a recollection, -by the allusion to the massacre, demanded: - -"Does my prisoner give trouble to my brothers?" - -"She is welcome." - -"The path between the Hurons and the Delawares is short and it is open; -let her be sent to my squaws, if she gives trouble to my brother." - -"She is welcome," returned the chief of the latter nation, still more -emphatically. - -The baffled Magua continued silent several minutes, apparently -indifferent, however, to the repulse he had received in this his opening -effort to regain possession of Cora. - -"Do my young men leave the Delawares room on the mountains for their -hunts?" he at length continued. - -"The Lenape are rulers of their own hills," returned the other a little -haughtily. - -"It is well. Justice is the master of a red-skin. Why should they -brighten their tomahawks and sharpen their knives against each other? -Are not the pale faces thicker than the swallows in the season of -flowers?" - -"Good!" exclaimed two or three of his auditors at the same time. - -Magua waited a little, to permit his words to soften the feelings of the -Delawares, before he added: - -"Have there not been strange moccasins in the woods? Have not my -brothers scented the feet of white men?" - -"Let my Canada father come," returned the other, evasively; "his -children are ready to see him." - -"When the great chief comes, it is to smoke with the Indians in their -wigwams. The Hurons say, too, he is welcome. But the Yengeese have long -arms, and legs that never tire! My young men dreamed they had seen the -trail of the Yengeese nigh the village of the Delawares!" - -"They will not find the Lenape asleep." - -"It is well. The warrior whose eye is open can see his enemy," said -Magua, once more shifting his ground, when he found himself unable to -penetrate the caution of his companion. "I have brought gifts to my -brother. His nation would not go on the warpath, because they did not -think it well, but their friends have remembered where they lived." - -When he had thus announced his liberal intention, the crafty chief -arose, and gravely spread his presents before the dazzled eyes of his -hosts. They consisted principally of trinkets of little value, plundered -from the slaughtered females of William Henry. In the division of -the baubles the cunning Huron discovered no less art than in their -selection. While he bestowed those of greater value on the two most -distinguished warriors, one of whom was his host, he seasoned his -offerings to their inferiors with such well-timed and apposite -compliments, as left them no ground of complaint. In short, the whole -ceremony contained such a happy blending of the profitable with the -flattering, that it was not difficult for the donor immediately to read -the effect of a generosity so aptly mingled with praise, in the eyes of -those he addressed. - -This well-judged and politic stroke on the part of Magua was not without -instantaneous results. The Delawares lost their gravity in a much more -cordial expression; and the host, in particular, after contemplating -his own liberal share of the spoil for some moments with peculiar -gratification, repeated with strong emphasis, the words: - -"My brother is a wise chief. He is welcome." - -"The Hurons love their friends the Delawares," returned Magua. "Why -should they not? they are colored by the same sun, and their just men -will hunt in the same grounds after death. The red-skins should be -friends, and look with open eyes on the white men. Has not my brother -scented spies in the woods?" - -The Delaware, whose name in English signified "Hard Heart," an -appellation that the French had translated into "le Coeur-dur," forgot -that obduracy of purpose, which had probably obtained him so significant -a title. His countenance grew very sensibly less stern and he now -deigned to answer more directly. - -"There have been strange moccasins about my camp. They have been tracked -into my lodges." - -"Did my brother beat out the dogs?" asked Magua, without adverting in -any manner to the former equivocation of the chief. - -"It would not do. The stranger is always welcome to the children of the -Lenape." - -"The stranger, but not the spy." - -"Would the Yengeese send their women as spies? Did not the Huron chief -say he took women in the battle?" - -"He told no lie. The Yengeese have sent out their scouts. They have been -in my wigwams, but they found there no one to say welcome. Then they -fled to the Delawares--for, say they, the Delawares are our friends; -their minds are turned from their Canada father!" - -This insinuation was a home thrust, and one that in a more advanced -state of society would have entitled Magua to the reputation of a -skillful diplomatist. The recent defection of the tribe had, as they -well knew themselves, subjected the Delawares to much reproach among -their French allies; and they were now made to feel that their future -actions were to be regarded with jealousy and distrust. There was no -deep insight into causes and effects necessary to foresee that such -a situation of things was likely to prove highly prejudicial to their -future movements. Their distant villages, their hunting-grounds and -hundreds of their women and children, together with a material part -of their physical force, were actually within the limits of the French -territory. Accordingly, this alarming annunciation was received, as -Magua intended, with manifest disapprobation, if not with alarm. - -"Let my father look in my face," said Le Coeur-dur; "he will see no -change. It is true, my young men did not go out on the war-path; they -had dreams for not doing so. But they love and venerate the great white -chief." - -"Will he think so when he hears that his greatest enemy is fed in the -camp of his children? When he is told a bloody Yengee smokes at your -fire? That the pale face who has slain so many of his friends goes in -and out among the Delawares? Go! my great Canada father is not a fool!" - -"Where is the Yengee that the Delawares fear?" returned the other; "who -has slain my young men? Who is the mortal enemy of my Great Father?" - -"La Longue Carabine!" - -The Delaware warriors started at the well-known name, betraying by their -amazement, that they now learned, for the first time, one so famous -among the Indian allies of France was within their power. - -"What does my brother mean?" demanded Le Coeur-dur, in a tone that, by -its wonder, far exceeded the usual apathy of his race. - -"A Huron never lies!" returned Magua, coldly, leaning his head against -the side of the lodge, and drawing his slight robe across his tawny -breast. "Let the Delawares count their prisoners; they will find one -whose skin is neither red nor pale." - -A long and musing pause succeeded. The chief consulted apart with his -companions, and messengers despatched to collect certain others of the -most distinguished men of the tribe. - -As warrior after warrior dropped in, they were each made acquainted, in -turn, with the important intelligence that Magua had just communicated. -The air of surprise, and the usual low, deep, guttural exclamation, were -common to them all. The news spread from mouth to mouth, until the whole -encampment became powerfully agitated. The women suspended their -labors, to catch such syllables as unguardedly fell from the lips of -the consulting warriors. The boys deserted their sports, and walking -fearlessly among their fathers, looked up in curious admiration, as -they heard the brief exclamations of wonder they so freely expressed the -temerity of their hated foe. In short, every occupation was abandoned -for the time, and all other pursuits seemed discarded in order that the -tribe might freely indulge, after their own peculiar manner, in an open -expression of feeling. - -When the excitement had a little abated, the old men disposed themselves -seriously to consider that which it became the honor and safety of -their tribe to perform, under circumstances of so much delicacy and -embarrassment. During all these movements, and in the midst of the -general commotion, Magua had not only maintained his seat, but the very -attitude he had originally taken, against the side of the lodge, where -he continued as immovable, and, apparently, as unconcerned, as if he -had no interest in the result. Not a single indication of the future -intentions of his hosts, however, escaped his vigilant eyes. With his -consummate knowledge of the nature of the people with whom he had to -deal, he anticipated every measure on which they decided; and it might -almost be said, that, in many instances, he knew their intentions, even -before they became known to themselves. - -The council of the Delawares was short. When it was ended, a general -bustle announced that it was to be immediately succeeded by a solemn and -formal assemblage of the nation. As such meetings were rare, and only -called on occasions of the last importance, the subtle Huron, who still -sat apart, a wily and dark observer of the proceedings, now knew that -all his projects must be brought to their final issue. He, therefore, -left the lodge and walked silently forth to the place, in front of the -encampment, whither the warriors were already beginning to collect. - -It might have been half an hour before each individual, including even -the women and children, was in his place. The delay had been created -by the grave preparations that were deemed necessary to so solemn and -unusual a conference. But when the sun was seen climbing above the tops -of that mountain, against whose bosom the Delawares had constructed -their encampment, most were seated; and as his bright rays darted from -behind the outline of trees that fringed the eminence, they fell upon -as grave, as attentive, and as deeply interested a multitude, as was -probably ever before lighted by his morning beams. Its number somewhat -exceeded a thousand souls. - -In a collection of so serious savages, there is never to be found any -impatient aspirant after premature distinction, standing ready to move -his auditors to some hasty, and, perhaps, injudicious discussion, in -order that his own reputation may be the gainer. An act of so much -precipitancy and presumption would seal the downfall of precocious -intellect forever. It rested solely with the oldest and most experienced -of the men to lay the subject of the conference before the people. Until -such a one chose to make some movement, no deeds in arms, no natural -gifts, nor any renown as an orator, would have justified the slightest -interruption. On the present occasion, the aged warrior whose privilege -it was to speak, was silent, seemingly oppressed with the magnitude -of his subject. The delay had already continued long beyond the usual -deliberative pause that always preceded a conference; but no sign of -impatience or surprise escaped even the youngest boy. Occasionally an -eye was raised from the earth, where the looks of most were riveted, -and strayed toward a particular lodge, that was, however, in no manner -distinguished from those around it, except in the peculiar care that had -been taken to protect it against the assaults of the weather. - -At length one of those low murmurs, that are so apt to disturb a -multitude, was heard, and the whole nation arose to their feet by -a common impulse. At that instant the door of the lodge in question -opened, and three men, issuing from it, slowly approached the place of -consultation. They were all aged, even beyond that period to which the -oldest present had reached; but one in the center, who leaned on his -companions for support, had numbered an amount of years to which the -human race is seldom permitted to attain. His frame, which had once been -tall and erect, like the cedar, was now bending under the pressure of -more than a century. The elastic, light step of an Indian was gone, and -in its place he was compelled to toil his tardy way over the ground, -inch by inch. His dark, wrinkled countenance was in singular and wild -contrast with the long white locks which floated on his shoulders, in -such thickness, as to announce that generations had probably passed away -since they had last been shorn. - -The dress of this patriarch--for such, considering his vast age, in -conjunction with his affinity and influence with his people, he might -very properly be termed--was rich and imposing, though strictly after -the simple fashions of the tribe. His robe was of the finest -skins, which had been deprived of their fur, in order to admit of a -hieroglyphical representation of various deeds in arms, done in former -ages. His bosom was loaded with medals, some in massive silver, and one -or two even in gold, the gifts of various Christian potentates during -the long period of his life. He also wore armlets, and cinctures above -the ankles, of the latter precious metal. His head, on the whole of -which the hair had been permitted to grow, the pursuits of war having so -long been abandoned, was encircled by a sort of plated diadem, which, in -its turn, bore lesser and more glittering ornaments, that sparkled amid -the glossy hues of three drooping ostrich feathers, dyed a deep black, -in touching contrast to the color of his snow-white locks. His tomahawk -was nearly hid in silver, and the handle of his knife shone like a horn -of solid gold. - -So soon as the first hum of emotion and pleasure, which the sudden -appearance of this venerated individual created, had a little subsided, -the name of "Tamenund" was whispered from mouth to mouth. Magua had -often heard the fame of this wise and just Delaware; a reputation that -even proceeded so far as to bestow on him the rare gift of holding -secret communion with the Great Spirit, and which has since transmitted -his name, with some slight alteration, to the white usurpers of his -ancient territory, as the imaginary tutelar saint* of a vast empire. The -Huron chief, therefore, stepped eagerly out a little from the throng, -to a spot whence he might catch a nearer glimpse of the features of the -man, whose decision was likely to produce so deep an influence on his -own fortunes. - - * The Americans sometimes called their tutelar saint - Tamenay, a corruption of the name of the renowned chief here - introduced. There are many traditions which speak of the - character and power of Tamenund. - -The eyes of the old man were closed, as though the organs were wearied -with having so long witnessed the selfish workings of the human -passions. The color of his skin differed from that of most around him, -being richer and darker, the latter having been produced by certain -delicate and mazy lines of complicated and yet beautiful figures, which -had been traced over most of his person by the operation of tattooing. -Notwithstanding the position of the Huron, he passed the observant and -silent Magua without notice, and leaning on his two venerable supporters -proceeded to the high place of the multitude, where he seated himself in -the center of his nation, with the dignity of a monarch and the air of a -father. - -Nothing could surpass the reverence and affection with which this -unexpected visit from one who belongs rather to another world than to -this, was received by his people. After a suitable and decent pause, the -principal chiefs arose, and, approaching the patriarch, they placed -his hands reverently on their heads, seeming to entreat a blessing. The -younger men were content with touching his robe, or even drawing nigh -his person, in order to breathe in the atmosphere of one so aged, so -just, and so valiant. None but the most distinguished among the youthful -warriors even presumed so far as to perform the latter ceremony, the -great mass of the multitude deeming it a sufficient happiness to look -upon a form so deeply venerated, and so well beloved. When these acts -of affection and respect were performed, the chiefs drew back again to -their several places, and silence reigned in the whole encampment. - -After a short delay, a few of the young men, to whom instructions had -been whispered by one of the aged attendants of Tamenund, arose, left -the crowd, and entered the lodge which has already been noted as the -object of so much attention throughout that morning. In a few minutes -they reappeared, escorting the individuals who had caused all these -solemn preparations toward the seat of judgment. The crowd opened in a -lane; and when the party had re-entered, it closed in again, forming a -large and dense belt of human bodies, arranged in an open circle. - - - - -CHAPTER 29 - - "The assembly seated, rising o'er the rest, - Achilles thus the king of men addressed." - --Pope's Illiad - -Cora stood foremost among the prisoners, entwining her arms in those of -Alice, in the tenderness of sisterly love. Notwithstanding the fearful -and menacing array of savages on every side of her, no apprehension on -her own account could prevent the nobler-minded maiden from keeping her -eyes fastened on the pale and anxious features of the trembling Alice. -Close at their side stood Heyward, with an interest in both, that, at -such a moment of intense uncertainty, scarcely knew a preponderance in -favor of her whom he most loved. Hawkeye had placed himself a little in -the rear, with a deference to the superior rank of his companions, that -no similarity in the state of their present fortunes could induce him to -forget. Uncas was not there. - -When perfect silence was again restored, and after the usual long, -impressive pause, one of the two aged chiefs who sat at the side of the -patriarch arose, and demanded aloud, in very intelligible English: - -"Which of my prisoners is La Longue Carabine?" - -Neither Duncan nor the scout answered. The former, however, glanced his -eyes around the dark and silent assembly, and recoiled a pace, when they -fell on the malignant visage of Magua. He saw, at once, that this wily -savage had some secret agency in their present arraignment before the -nation, and determined to throw every possible impediment in the way of -the execution of his sinister plans. He had witnessed one instance -of the summary punishments of the Indians, and now dreaded that his -companion was to be selected for a second. In this dilemma, with -little or no time for reflection, he suddenly determined to cloak his -invaluable friend, at any or every hazard to himself. Before he had -time, however, to speak, the question was repeated in a louder voice, -and with a clearer utterance. - -"Give us arms," the young man haughtily replied, "and place us in yonder -woods. Our deeds shall speak for us!" - -"This is the warrior whose name has filled our ears!" returned the -chief, regarding Heyward with that sort of curious interest which seems -inseparable from man, when first beholding one of his fellows to whom -merit or accident, virtue or crime, has given notoriety. "What has -brought the white man into the camp of the Delawares?" - -"My necessities. I come for food, shelter, and friends." - -"It cannot be. The woods are full of game. The head of a warrior needs -no other shelter than a sky without clouds; and the Delawares are the -enemies, and not the friends of the Yengeese. Go, the mouth has spoken, -while the heart said nothing." - -Duncan, a little at a loss in what manner to proceed, remained silent; -but the scout, who had listened attentively to all that passed, now -advanced steadily to the front. - -"That I did not answer to the call for La Longue Carabine, was not owing -either to shame or fear," he said, "for neither one nor the other is the -gift of an honest man. But I do not admit the right of the Mingoes to -bestow a name on one whose friends have been mindful of his gifts, in -this particular; especially as their title is a lie, 'killdeer' being a -grooved barrel and no carabyne. I am the man, however, that got the name -of Nathaniel from my kin; the compliment of Hawkeye from the Delawares, -who live on their own river; and whom the Iroquois have presumed to -style the 'Long Rifle', without any warranty from him who is most -concerned in the matter." - -The eyes of all present, which had hitherto been gravely scanning the -person of Duncan, were now turned, on the instant, toward the upright -iron frame of this new pretender to the distinguished appellation. It -was in no degree remarkable that there should be found two who were -willing to claim so great an honor, for impostors, though rare, were not -unknown among the natives; but it was altogether material to the just -and severe intentions of the Delawares, that there should be no mistake -in the matter. Some of their old men consulted together in private, and -then, as it would seem, they determined to interrogate their visitor on -the subject. - -"My brother has said that a snake crept into my camp," said the chief to -Magua; "which is he?" - -The Huron pointed to the scout. - -"Will a wise Delaware believe the barking of a wolf?" exclaimed Duncan, -still more confirmed in the evil intentions of his ancient enemy: "a dog -never lies, but when was a wolf known to speak the truth?" - -The eyes of Magua flashed fire; but suddenly recollecting the necessity -of maintaining his presence of mind, he turned away in silent disdain, -well assured that the sagacity of the Indians would not fail to extract -the real merits of the point in controversy. He was not deceived; for, -after another short consultation, the wary Delaware turned to him -again, and expressed the determination of the chiefs, though in the most -considerate language. - -"My brother has been called a liar," he said, "and his friends are -angry. They will show that he has spoken the truth. Give my prisoners -guns, and let them prove which is the man." - -Magua affected to consider the expedient, which he well knew proceeded -from distrust of himself, as a compliment, and made a gesture of -acquiescence, well content that his veracity should be supported by so -skillful a marksman as the scout. The weapons were instantly placed in -the hands of the friendly opponents, and they were bid to fire, over -the heads of the seated multitude, at an earthen vessel, which lay, by -accident, on a stump, some fifty yards from the place where they stood. - -Heyward smiled to himself at the idea of a competition with the scout, -though he determined to persevere in the deception, until apprised of -the real designs of Magua. - -Raising his rifle with the utmost care, and renewing his aim three -several times, he fired. The bullet cut the wood within a few inches of -the vessel; and a general exclamation of satisfaction announced that the -shot was considered a proof of great skill in the use of a weapon. -Even Hawkeye nodded his head, as if he would say, it was better than he -expected. But, instead of manifesting an intention to contend with -the successful marksman, he stood leaning on his rifle for more than -a minute, like a man who was completely buried in thought. From this -reverie, he was, however, awakened by one of the young Indians who -had furnished the arms, and who now touched his shoulder, saying in -exceedingly broken English: - -"Can the pale face beat it?" - -"Yes, Huron!" exclaimed the scout, raising the short rifle in his right -hand, and shaking it at Magua, with as much apparent ease as if it were -a reed; "yes, Huron, I could strike you now, and no power on earth could -prevent the deed! The soaring hawk is not more certain of the dove than -I am this moment of you, did I choose to send a bullet to your heart! -Why should I not? Why!--because the gifts of my color forbid it, and I -might draw down evil on tender and innocent heads. If you know such a -being as God, thank Him, therefore, in your inward soul; for you have -reason!" - -The flushed countenance, angry eye and swelling figure of the scout, -produced a sensation of secret awe in all that heard him. The Delawares -held their breath in expectation; but Magua himself, even while he -distrusted the forbearance of his enemy, remained immovable and calm, -where he stood wedged in by the crowd, as one who grew to the spot. - -"Beat it," repeated the young Delaware at the elbow of the scout. - -"Beat what, fool!--what?" exclaimed Hawkeye, still flourishing the -weapon angrily above his head, though his eye no longer sought the -person of Magua. - -"If the white man is the warrior he pretends," said the aged chief, "let -him strike nigher to the mark." - -The scout laughed aloud--a noise that produced the startling effect of -an unnatural sound on Heyward; then dropping the piece, heavily, into -his extended left hand, it was discharged, apparently by the shock, -driving the fragments of the vessel into the air, and scattering them on -every side. Almost at the same instant, the rattling sound of the rifle -was heard, as he suffered it to fall, contemptuously, to the earth. - -The first impression of so strange a scene was engrossing admiration. -Then a low, but increasing murmur, ran through the multitude, and -finally swelled into sounds that denoted a lively opposition in -the sentiments of the spectators. While some openly testified their -satisfaction at so unexampled dexterity, by far the larger portion -of the tribe were inclined to believe the success of the shot was the -result of accident. Heyward was not slow to confirm an opinion that was -so favorable to his own pretensions. - -"It was chance!" he exclaimed; "none can shoot without an aim!" - -"Chance!" echoed the excited woodsman, who was now stubbornly bent on -maintaining his identity at every hazard, and on whom the secret hints -of Heyward to acquiesce in the deception were entirely lost. "Does -yonder lying Huron, too, think it chance? Give him another gun, and -place us face to face, without cover or dodge, and let Providence, and -our own eyes, decide the matter atween us! I do not make the offer, to -you, major; for our blood is of a color, and we serve the same master." - -"That the Huron is a liar, is very evident," returned Heyward, coolly; -"you have yourself heard him assert you to be La Longue Carabine." - -It were impossible to say what violent assertion the stubborn Hawkeye -would have next made, in his headlong wish to vindicate his identity, -had not the aged Delaware once more interposed. - -"The hawk which comes from the clouds can return when he will," he said; -"give them the guns." - -This time the scout seized the rifle with avidity; nor had Magua, though -he watched the movements of the marksman with jealous eyes, any further -cause for apprehension. - -"Now let it be proved, in the face of this tribe of Delawares, which -is the better man," cried the scout, tapping the butt of his piece with -that finger which had pulled so many fatal triggers. - -"You see that gourd hanging against yonder tree, major; if you are a -marksman fit for the borders, let me see you break its shell!" - -Duncan noted the object, and prepared himself to renew the trial. The -gourd was one of the usual little vessels used by the Indians, and -it was suspended from a dead branch of a small pine, by a thong -of deerskin, at the full distance of a hundred yards. So strangely -compounded is the feeling of self-love, that the young soldier, while -he knew the utter worthlessness of the suffrages of his savage umpires, -forgot the sudden motives of the contest in a wish to excel. It had been -seen, already, that his skill was far from being contemptible, and he -now resolved to put forth its nicest qualities. Had his life depended -on the issue, the aim of Duncan could not have been more deliberate or -guarded. He fired; and three or four young Indians, who sprang forward -at the report, announced with a shout, that the ball was in the tree, -a very little on one side of the proper object. The warriors uttered a -common ejaculation of pleasure, and then turned their eyes, inquiringly, -on the movements of his rival. - -"It may do for the Royal Americans!" said Hawkeye, laughing once more in -his own silent, heartfelt manner; "but had my gun often turned so much -from the true line, many a marten, whose skin is now in a lady's muff, -would still be in the woods; ay, and many a bloody Mingo, who has -departed to his final account, would be acting his deviltries at this -very day, atween the provinces. I hope the squaw who owns the gourd has -more of them in her wigwam, for this will never hold water again!" - -The scout had shook his priming, and cocked his piece, while speaking; -and, as he ended, he threw back a foot, and slowly raised the muzzle -from the earth: the motion was steady, uniform, and in one direction. -When on a perfect level, it remained for a single moment, without tremor -or variation, as though both man and rifle were carved in stone. During -that stationary instant, it poured forth its contents, in a bright, -glancing sheet of flame. Again the young Indians bounded forward; but -their hurried search and disappointed looks announced that no traces of -the bullet were to be seen. - -"Go!" said the old chief to the scout, in a tone of strong disgust; -"thou art a wolf in the skin of a dog. I will talk to the 'Long Rifle' -of the Yengeese." - -"Ah! had I that piece which furnished the name you use, I would obligate -myself to cut the thong, and drop the gourd without breaking it!" -returned Hawkeye, perfectly undisturbed by the other's manner. "Fools, -if you would find the bullet of a sharpshooter in these woods, you must -look in the object, and not around it!" - -The Indian youths instantly comprehended his meaning--for this time he -spoke in the Delaware tongue--and tearing the gourd from the tree, they -held it on high with an exulting shout, displaying a hole in its bottom, -which had been cut by the bullet, after passing through the usual -orifice in the center of its upper side. At this unexpected exhibition, -a loud and vehement expression of pleasure burst from the mouth of every -warrior present. It decided the question, and effectually established -Hawkeye in the possession of his dangerous reputation. Those curious -and admiring eyes which had been turned again on Heyward, were finally -directed to the weather-beaten form of the scout, who immediately became -the principal object of attention to the simple and unsophisticated -beings by whom he was surrounded. When the sudden and noisy commotion -had a little subsided, the aged chief resumed his examination. - -"Why did you wish to stop my ears?" he said, addressing Duncan; "are -the Delawares fools that they could not know the young panther from the -cat?" - -"They will yet find the Huron a singing-bird," said Duncan, endeavoring -to adopt the figurative language of the natives. - -"It is good. We will know who can shut the ears of men. Brother," added -the chief turning his eyes on Magua, "the Delawares listen." - -Thus singled, and directly called on to declare his object, the Huron -arose; and advancing with great deliberation and dignity into the very -center of the circle, where he stood confronted by the prisoners, -he placed himself in an attitude to speak. Before opening his mouth, -however, he bent his eyes slowly along the whole living boundary of -earnest faces, as if to temper his expressions to the capacities of his -audience. On Hawkeye he cast a glance of respectful enmity; on Duncan, -a look of inextinguishable hatred; the shrinking figure of Alice -he scarcely deigned to notice; but when his glance met the firm, -commanding, and yet lovely form of Cora, his eye lingered a moment, with -an expression that it might have been difficult to define. Then, filled -with his own dark intentions, he spoke in the language of the Canadas, a -tongue that he well knew was comprehended by most of his auditors. - -"The Spirit that made men colored them differently," commenced the -subtle Huron. "Some are blacker than the sluggish bear. These He said -should be slaves; and He ordered them to work forever, like the beaver. -You may hear them groan, when the south wind blows, louder than the -lowing buffaloes, along the shores of the great salt lake, where the big -canoes come and go with them in droves. Some He made with faces paler -than the ermine of the forests; and these He ordered to be traders; -dogs to their women, and wolves to their slaves. He gave this people the -nature of the pigeon; wings that never tire; young, more plentiful than -the leaves on the trees, and appetites to devour the earth. He gave them -tongues like the false call of the wildcat; hearts like rabbits; the -cunning of the hog (but none of the fox), and arms longer than the legs -of the moose. With his tongue he stops the ears of the Indians; his -heart teaches him to pay warriors to fight his battles; his cunning -tells him how to get together the goods of the earth; and his arms -inclose the land from the shores of the salt-water to the islands of the -great lake. His gluttony makes him sick. God gave him enough, and yet he -wants all. Such are the pale faces. - -"Some the Great Spirit made with skins brighter and redder than yonder -sun," continued Magua, pointing impressively upward to the lurid -luminary, which was struggling through the misty atmosphere of the -horizon; "and these did He fashion to His own mind. He gave them this -island as He had made it, covered with trees, and filled with game. The -wind made their clearings; the sun and rain ripened their fruits; and -the snows came to tell them to be thankful. What need had they of roads -to journey by! They saw through the hills! When the beavers worked, they -lay in the shade, and looked on. The winds cooled them in summer; in -winter, skins kept them warm. If they fought among themselves, it was -to prove that they were men. They were brave; they were just; they were -happy." - -Here the speaker paused, and again looked around him to discover if his -legend had touched the sympathies of his listeners. He met everywhere, -with eyes riveted on his own, heads erect and nostrils expanded, as -if each individual present felt himself able and willing, singly, to -redress the wrongs of his race. - -"If the Great Spirit gave different tongues to his red children," he -continued, in a low, still melancholy voice, "it was that all animals -might understand them. Some He placed among the snows, with their -cousin, the bear. Some he placed near the setting sun, on the road to -the happy hunting grounds. Some on the lands around the great fresh -waters; but to His greatest, and most beloved, He gave the sands of the -salt lake. Do my brothers know the name of this favored people?" - -"It was the Lenape!" exclaimed twenty eager voices in a breath. - -"It was the Lenni Lenape," returned Magua, affecting to bend his head in -reverence to their former greatness. "It was the tribes of the Lenape! -The sun rose from water that was salt, and set in water that was sweet, -and never hid himself from their eyes. But why should I, a Huron of the -woods, tell a wise people their own traditions? Why remind them of -their injuries; their ancient greatness; their deeds; their glory; their -happiness; their losses; their defeats; their misery? Is there not one -among them who has seen it all, and who knows it to be true? I have -done. My tongue is still for my heart is of lead. I listen." - -As the voice of the speaker suddenly ceased, every face and all eyes -turned, by a common movement, toward the venerable Tamenund. From the -moment that he took his seat, until the present instant, the lips of the -patriarch had not severed, and scarcely a sign of life had escaped him. -He sat bent in feebleness, and apparently unconscious of the presence -he was in, during the whole of that opening scene, in which the skill of -the scout had been so clearly established. At the nicely graduated sound -of Magua's voice, however, he betrayed some evidence of consciousness, -and once or twice he even raised his head, as if to listen. But when -the crafty Huron spoke of his nation by name, the eyelids of the old man -raised themselves, and he looked out upon the multitude with that sort -of dull, unmeaning expression which might be supposed to belong to the -countenance of a specter. Then he made an effort to rise, and being -upheld by his supporters, he gained his feet, in a posture commanding by -its dignity, while he tottered with weakness. - -"Who calls upon the children of the Lenape?" he said, in a deep, -guttural voice, that was rendered awfully audible by the breathless -silence of the multitude; "who speaks of things gone? Does not the egg -become a worm--the worm a fly, and perish? Why tell the Delawares of -good that is past? Better thank the Manitou for that which remains." - -"It is a Wyandot," said Magua, stepping nigher to the rude platform on -which the other stood; "a friend of Tamenund." - -"A friend!" repeated the sage, on whose brow a dark frown settled, -imparting a portion of that severity which had rendered his eye so -terrible in middle age. "Are the Mingoes rulers of the earth? What -brings a Huron in here?" - -"Justice. His prisoners are with his brothers, and he comes for his -own." - -Tamenund turned his head toward one of his supporters, and listened to -the short explanation the man gave. - -Then, facing the applicant, he regarded him a moment with deep -attention; after which he said, in a low and reluctant voice: - -"Justice is the law of the great Manitou. My children, give the stranger -food. Then, Huron, take thine own and depart." - -On the delivery of this solemn judgment, the patriarch seated himself, -and closed his eyes again, as if better pleased with the images of -his own ripened experience than with the visible objects of the world. -Against such a decree there was no Delaware sufficiently hardy to -murmur, much less oppose himself. The words were barely uttered when -four or five of the younger warriors, stepping behind Heyward and the -scout, passed thongs so dexterously and rapidly around their arms, as -to hold them both in instant bondage. The former was too much engrossed -with his precious and nearly insensible burden, to be aware of their -intentions before they were executed; and the latter, who considered -even the hostile tribes of the Delawares a superior race of beings, -submitted without resistance. Perhaps, however, the manner of the scout -would not have been so passive, had he fully comprehended the language -in which the preceding dialogue had been conducted. - -Magua cast a look of triumph around the whole assembly before he -proceeded to the execution of his purpose. Perceiving that the men were -unable to offer any resistance, he turned his looks on her he valued -most. Cora met his gaze with an eye so calm and firm, that his -resolution wavered. Then, recollecting his former artifice, he raised -Alice from the arms of the warrior against whom she leaned, and -beckoning Heyward to follow, he motioned for the encircling crowd to -open. But Cora, instead of obeying the impulse he had expected, rushed -to the feet of the patriarch, and, raising her voice, exclaimed aloud: - -"Just and venerable Delaware, on thy wisdom and power we lean for mercy! -Be deaf to yonder artful and remorseless monster, who poisons thy ears -with falsehoods to feed his thirst for blood. Thou that hast lived long, -and that hast seen the evil of the world, should know how to temper its -calamities to the miserable." - -The eyes of the old man opened heavily, and he once more looked upward -at the multitude. As the piercing tones of the suppliant swelled on -his ears, they moved slowly in the direction of her person, and finally -settled there in a steady gaze. Cora had cast herself to her knees; -and, with hands clenched in each other and pressed upon her bosom, she -remained like a beauteous and breathing model of her sex, looking up in -his faded but majestic countenance, with a species of holy reverence. -Gradually the expression of Tamenund's features changed, and losing -their vacancy in admiration, they lighted with a portion of that -intelligence which a century before had been wont to communicate his -youthful fire to the extensive bands of the Delawares. Rising without -assistance, and seemingly without an effort, he demanded, in a voice -that startled its auditors by its firmness: - -"What art thou?" - -"A woman. One of a hated race, if thou wilt--a Yengee. But one who has -never harmed thee, and who cannot harm thy people, if she would; who -asks for succor." - -"Tell me, my children," continued the patriarch, hoarsely, motioning to -those around him, though his eyes still dwelt upon the kneeling form of -Cora, "where have the Delawares camped?" - -"In the mountains of the Iroquois, beyond the clear springs of the -Horican." - -"Many parching summers are come and gone," continued the sage, "since -I drank of the water of my own rivers. The children of Minquon* are the -justest white men, but they were thirsty and they took it to themselves. -Do they follow us so far?" - - * William Penn was termed Minquon by the Delawares, and, as - he never used violence or injustice in his dealings with - them, his reputation for probity passed into a proverb. The - American is justly proud of the origin of his nation, which - is perhaps unequaled in the history of the world; but the - Pennsylvanian and Jerseyman have more reason to value - themselves in their ancestors than the natives of any other - state, since no wrong was done the original owners of the - soil. - -"We follow none, we covet nothing," answered Cora. "Captives against our -wills, have we been brought amongst you; and we ask but permission -to depart to our own in peace. Art thou not Tamenund--the father, the -judge, I had almost said, the prophet--of this people?" - -"I am Tamenund of many days." - -"'Tis now some seven years that one of thy people was at the mercy of -a white chief on the borders of this province. He claimed to be of the -blood of the good and just Tamenund. 'Go', said the white man, 'for -thy parent's sake thou art free.' Dost thou remember the name of that -English warrior?" - -"I remember, that when a laughing boy," returned the patriarch, with the -peculiar recollection of vast age, "I stood upon the sands of the sea -shore, and saw a big canoe, with wings whiter than the swan's, and wider -than many eagles, come from the rising sun." - -"Nay, nay; I speak not of a time so very distant, but of favor shown to -thy kindred by one of mine, within the memory of thy youngest warrior." - -"Was it when the Yengeese and the Dutchmanne fought for the -hunting-grounds of the Delawares? Then Tamenund was a chief, and first -laid aside the bow for the lightning of the pale faces--" - -"Not yet then," interrupted Cora, "by many ages; I speak of a thing of -yesterday. Surely, surely, you forget it not." - -"It was but yesterday," rejoined the aged man, with touching pathos, -"that the children of the Lenape were masters of the world. The fishes -of the salt lake, the birds, the beasts, and the Mengee of the woods, -owned them for Sagamores." - -Cora bowed her head in disappointment, and, for a bitter moment -struggled with her chagrin. Then, elevating her rich features and -beaming eyes, she continued, in tones scarcely less penetrating than the -unearthly voice of the patriarch himself: - -"Tell me, is Tamenund a father?" - -The old man looked down upon her from his elevated stand, with a -benignant smile on his wasted countenance, and then casting his eyes -slowly over the whole assemblage, he answered: - -"Of a nation." - -"For myself I ask nothing. Like thee and thine, venerable chief," she -continued, pressing her hands convulsively on her heart, and suffering -her head to droop until her burning cheeks were nearly concealed in the -maze of dark, glossy tresses that fell in disorder upon her shoulders, -"the curse of my ancestors has fallen heavily on their child. But yonder -is one who has never known the weight of Heaven's displeasure until now. -She is the daughter of an old and failing man, whose days are near their -close. She has many, very many, to love her, and delight in her; and she -is too good, much too precious, to become the victim of that villain." - -"I know that the pale faces are a proud and hungry race. I know that -they claim not only to have the earth, but that the meanest of their -color is better than the Sachems of the red man. The dogs and crows of -their tribes," continued the earnest old chieftain, without heeding the -wounded spirit of his listener, whose head was nearly crushed to the -earth in shame, as he proceeded, "would bark and caw before they would -take a woman to their wigwams whose blood was not of the color of snow. -But let them not boast before the face of the Manitou too loud. They -entered the land at the rising, and may yet go off at the setting sun. -I have often seen the locusts strip the leaves from the trees, but the -season of blossoms has always come again." - -"It is so," said Cora, drawing a long breath, as if reviving from a -trance, raising her face, and shaking back her shining veil, with -a kindling eye, that contradicted the death-like paleness of her -countenance; "but why--it is not permitted us to inquire. There is yet -one of thine own people who has not been brought before thee; before -thou lettest the Huron depart in triumph, hear him speak." - -Observing Tamenund to look about him doubtingly, one of his companions -said: - -"It is a snake--a red-skin in the pay of the Yengeese. We keep him for -the torture." - -"Let him come," returned the sage. - -Then Tamenund once more sank into his seat, and a silence so deep -prevailed while the young man prepared to obey his simple mandate, that -the leaves, which fluttered in the draught of the light morning air, -were distinctly heard rustling in the surrounding forest. - - - - -CHAPTER 30 - - "If you deny me, fie upon your law! - There is no force in the decrees of Venice: - I stand for judgment: answer, shall I have it?" - --Merchant of Venice - -The silence continued unbroken by human sounds for many anxious minutes. -Then the waving multitude opened and shut again, and Uncas stood in the -living circle. All those eyes, which had been curiously studying the -lineaments of the sage, as the source of their own intelligence, turned -on the instant, and were now bent in secret admiration on the erect, -agile, and faultless person of the captive. But neither the presence in -which he found himself, nor the exclusive attention that he attracted, -in any manner disturbed the self-possession of the young Mohican. He -cast a deliberate and observing look on every side of him, meeting -the settled expression of hostility that lowered in the visages of -the chiefs with the same calmness as the curious gaze of the attentive -children. But when, last in this haughty scrutiny, the person of -Tamenund came under his glance, his eye became fixed, as though all -other objects were already forgotten. Then, advancing with a slow and -noiseless step up the area, he placed himself immediately before the -footstool of the sage. Here he stood unnoted, though keenly observant -himself, until one of the chiefs apprised the latter of his presence. - -"With what tongue does the prisoner speak to the Manitou?" demanded the -patriarch, without unclosing his eyes. - -"Like his fathers," Uncas replied; "with the tongue of a Delaware." - -At this sudden and unexpected annunciation, a low, fierce yell ran -through the multitude, that might not inaptly be compared to the growl -of the lion, as his choler is first awakened--a fearful omen of the -weight of his future anger. The effect was equally strong on the sage, -though differently exhibited. He passed a hand before his eyes, as if -to exclude the least evidence of so shameful a spectacle, while he -repeated, in his low, guttural tones, the words he had just heard. - -"A Delaware! I have lived to see the tribes of the Lenape driven from -their council-fires, and scattered, like broken herds of deer, among the -hills of the Iroquois! I have seen the hatchets of a strong people sweep -woods from the valleys, that the winds of heaven have spared! The beasts -that run on the mountains, and the birds that fly above the trees, have -I seen living in the wigwams of men; but never before have I found a -Delaware so base as to creep, like a poisonous serpent, into the camps -of his nation." - -"The singing-birds have opened their bills," returned Uncas, in the -softest notes of his own musical voice; "and Tamenund has heard their -song." - -The sage started, and bent his head aside, as if to catch the fleeting -sounds of some passing melody. - -"Does Tamenund dream!" he exclaimed. "What voice is at his ear! Have -the winters gone backward! Will summer come again to the children of the -Lenape!" - -A solemn and respectful silence succeeded this incoherent burst from -the lips of the Delaware prophet. His people readily constructed his -unintelligible language into one of those mysterious conferences he was -believed to hold so frequently with a superior intelligence and they -awaited the issue of the revelation in awe. After a patient pause, -however, one of the aged men, perceiving that the sage had lost the -recollection of the subject before them, ventured to remind him again of -the presence of the prisoner. - -"The false Delaware trembles lest he should hear the words of Tamenund," -he said. "'Tis a hound that howls, when the Yengeese show him a trail." - -"And ye," returned Uncas, looking sternly around him, "are dogs that -whine, when the Frenchman casts ye the offals of his deer!" - -Twenty knives gleamed in the air, and as many warriors sprang to their -feet, at this biting, and perhaps merited retort; but a motion from one -of the chiefs suppressed the outbreaking of their tempers, and restored -the appearance of quiet. The task might probably have been more -difficult, had not a movement made by Tamenund indicated that he was -again about to speak. - -"Delaware!" resumed the sage, "little art thou worthy of thy name. My -people have not seen a bright sun in many winters; and the warrior who -deserts his tribe when hid in clouds is doubly a traitor. The law of the -Manitou is just. It is so; while the rivers run and the mountains stand, -while the blossoms come and go on the trees, it must be so. He is thine, -my children; deal justly by him." - -Not a limb was moved, nor was a breath drawn louder and longer than -common, until the closing syllable of this final decree had passed the -lips of Tamenund. Then a cry of vengeance burst at once, as it might be, -from the united lips of the nation; a frightful augury of their ruthless -intentions. In the midst of these prolonged and savage yells, a chief -proclaimed, in a high voice, that the captive was condemned to endure -the dreadful trial of torture by fire. The circle broke its order, and -screams of delight mingled with the bustle and tumult of preparation. -Heyward struggled madly with his captors; the anxious eye of Hawkeye -began to look around him, with an expression of peculiar earnestness; -and Cora again threw herself at the feet of the patriarch, once more a -suppliant for mercy. - -Throughout the whole of these trying moments, Uncas had alone preserved -his serenity. He looked on the preparations with a steady eye, and when -the tormentors came to seize him, he met them with a firm and upright -attitude. One among them, if possible more fierce and savage than his -fellows, seized the hunting-shirt of the young warrior, and at a single -effort tore it from his body. Then, with a yell of frantic pleasure, -he leaped toward his unresisting victim and prepared to lead him to -the stake. But, at that moment, when he appeared most a stranger to the -feelings of humanity, the purpose of the savage was arrested as suddenly -as if a supernatural agency had interposed in the behalf of Uncas. The -eyeballs of the Delaware seemed to start from their sockets; his mouth -opened and his whole form became frozen in an attitude of amazement. -Raising his hand with a slow and regulated motion, he pointed with a -finger to the bosom of the captive. His companions crowded about him in -wonder and every eye was like his own, fastened intently on the figure -of a small tortoise, beautifully tattooed on the breast of the prisoner, -in a bright blue tint. - -For a single instant Uncas enjoyed his triumph, smiling calmly on the -scene. Then motioning the crowd away with a high and haughty sweep of -his arm, he advanced in front of the nation with the air of a king, and -spoke in a voice louder than the murmur of admiration that ran through -the multitude. - -"Men of the Lenni Lenape!" he said, "my race upholds the earth! Your -feeble tribe stands on my shell! What fire that a Delaware can light -would burn the child of my fathers," he added, pointing proudly to the -simple blazonry on his skin; "the blood that came from such a stock -would smother your flames! My race is the grandfather of nations!" - -"Who art thou?" demanded Tamenund, rising at the startling tones -he heard, more than at any meaning conveyed by the language of the -prisoner. - -"Uncas, the son of Chingachgook," answered the captive modestly, turning -from the nation, and bending his head in reverence to the other's -character and years; "a son of the great Unamis."* - - * Turtle. - -"The hour of Tamenund is nigh!" exclaimed the sage; "the day is come, -at last, to the night! I thank the Manitou, that one is here to fill my -place at the council-fire. Uncas, the child of Uncas, is found! Let the -eyes of a dying eagle gaze on the rising sun." - -The youth stepped lightly, but proudly on the platform, where he became -visible to the whole agitated and wondering multitude. Tamenund held him -long at the length of his arm and read every turn in the fine lineaments -of his countenance, with the untiring gaze of one who recalled days of -happiness. - -"Is Tamenund a boy?" at length the bewildered prophet exclaimed. "Have -I dreamed of so many snows--that my people were scattered like floating -sands--of Yengeese, more plenty than the leaves on the trees! The arrow -of Tamenund would not frighten the fawn; his arm is withered like the -branch of a dead oak; the snail would be swifter in the race; yet is -Uncas before him as they went to battle against the pale faces! Uncas, -the panther of his tribe, the eldest son of the Lenape, the wisest -Sagamore of the Mohicans! Tell me, ye Delawares, has Tamenund been a -sleeper for a hundred winters?" - -The calm and deep silence which succeeded these words sufficiently -announced the awful reverence with which his people received the -communication of the patriarch. None dared to answer, though all -listened in breathless expectation of what might follow. Uncas, however, -looking in his face with the fondness and veneration of a favored child, -presumed on his own high and acknowledged rank, to reply. - -"Four warriors of his race have lived and died," he said, "since the -friend of Tamenund led his people in battle. The blood of the turtle has -been in many chiefs, but all have gone back into the earth from whence -they came, except Chingachgook and his son." - -"It is true--it is true," returned the sage, a flash of recollection -destroying all his pleasing fancies, and restoring him at once to a -consciousness of the true history of his nation. "Our wise men have -often said that two warriors of the unchanged race were in the hills of -the Yengeese; why have their seats at the council-fires of the Delawares -been so long empty?" - -At these words the young man raised his head, which he had still kept -bowed a little, in reverence; and lifting his voice so as to be heard -by the multitude, as if to explain at once and forever the policy of his -family, he said aloud: - -"Once we slept where we could hear the salt lake speak in its anger. -Then we were rulers and Sagamores over the land. But when a pale face -was seen on every brook, we followed the deer back to the river of our -nation. The Delawares were gone. Few warriors of them all stayed to -drink of the stream they loved. Then said my fathers, 'Here will we -hunt. The waters of the river go into the salt lake. If we go toward -the setting sun, we shall find streams that run into the great lakes of -sweet water; there would a Mohican die, like fishes of the sea, in the -clear springs. When the Manitou is ready and shall say "Come," we will -follow the river to the sea, and take our own again.' Such, Delawares, -is the belief of the children of the Turtle. Our eyes are on the rising -and not toward the setting sun. We know whence he comes, but we know not -whither he goes. It is enough." - -The men of the Lenape listened to his words with all the respect that -superstition could lend, finding a secret charm even in the figurative -language with which the young Sagamore imparted his ideas. Uncas himself -watched the effect of his brief explanation with intelligent eyes, and -gradually dropped the air of authority he had assumed, as he perceived -that his auditors were content. Then, permitting his looks to wander -over the silent throng that crowded around the elevated seat of -Tamenund, he first perceived Hawkeye in his bonds. Stepping eagerly -from his stand, he made way for himself to the side of his friend; and -cutting his thongs with a quick and angry stroke of his own knife, he -motioned to the crowd to divide. The Indians silently obeyed, and once -more they stood ranged in their circle, as before his appearance among -them. Uncas took the scout by the hand, and led him to the feet of the -patriarch. - -"Father," he said, "look at this pale face; a just man, and the friend -of the Delawares." - -"Is he a son of Minquon?" - -"Not so; a warrior known to the Yengeese, and feared by the Maquas." - -"What name has he gained by his deeds?" - -"We call him Hawkeye," Uncas replied, using the Delaware phrase; "for -his sight never fails. The Mingoes know him better by the death he gives -their warriors; with them he is 'The Long Rifle'." - -"La Longue Carabine!" exclaimed Tamenund, opening his eyes, and -regarding the scout sternly. "My son has not done well to call him -friend." - -"I call him so who proves himself such," returned the young chief, with -great calmness, but with a steady mien. "If Uncas is welcome among the -Delawares, then is Hawkeye with his friends." - -"The pale face has slain my young men; his name is great for the blows -he has struck the Lenape." - -"If a Mingo has whispered that much in the ear of the Delaware, he has -only shown that he is a singing-bird," said the scout, who now believed -that it was time to vindicate himself from such offensive charges, -and who spoke as the man he addressed, modifying his Indian figures, -however, with his own peculiar notions. "That I have slain the Maquas -I am not the man to deny, even at their own council-fires; but that, -knowingly, my hand has never harmed a Delaware, is opposed to the reason -of my gifts, which is friendly to them, and all that belongs to their -nation." - -A low exclamation of applause passed among the warriors who exchanged -looks with each other like men that first began to perceive their error. - -"Where is the Huron?" demanded Tamenund. "Has he stopped my ears?" - -Magua, whose feelings during that scene in which Uncas had triumphed may -be much better imagined than described, answered to the call by stepping -boldly in front of the patriarch. - -"The just Tamenund," he said, "will not keep what a Huron has lent." - -"Tell me, son of my brother," returned the sage, avoiding the dark -countenance of Le Subtil, and turning gladly to the more ingenuous -features of Uncas, "has the stranger a conqueror's right over you?" - -"He has none. The panther may get into snares set by the women; but he -is strong, and knows how to leap through them." - -"La Longue Carabine?" - -"Laughs at the Mingoes. Go, Huron, ask your squaws the color of a bear." - -"The stranger and white maiden that come into my camp together?" - -"Should journey on an open path." - -"And the woman that Huron left with my warriors?" - -Uncas made no reply. - -"And the woman that the Mingo has brought into my camp?" repeated -Tamenund, gravely. - -"She is mine," cried Magua, shaking his hand in triumph at Uncas. -"Mohican, you know that she is mine." - -"My son is silent," said Tamenund, endeavoring to read the expression of -the face that the youth turned from him in sorrow. - -"It is so," was the low answer. - -A short and impressive pause succeeded, during which it was very -apparent with what reluctance the multitude admitted the justice of the -Mingo's claim. At length the sage, on whom alone the decision depended, -said, in a firm voice: - -"Huron, depart." - -"As he came, just Tamenund," demanded the wily Magua, "or with hands -filled with the faith of the Delawares? The wigwam of Le Renard Subtil -is empty. Make him strong with his own." - -The aged man mused with himself for a time; and then, bending his head -toward one of his venerable companions, he asked: - -"Are my ears open?" - -"It is true." - -"Is this Mingo a chief?" - -"The first in his nation." - -"Girl, what wouldst thou? A great warrior takes thee to wife. Go! thy -race will not end." - -"Better, a thousand times, it should," exclaimed the horror-struck Cora, -"than meet with such a degradation!" - -"Huron, her mind is in the tents of her fathers. An unwilling maiden -makes an unhappy wigwam." - -"She speaks with the tongue of her people," returned Magua, regarding -his victim with a look of bitter irony. - -"She is of a race of traders, and will bargain for a bright look. Let -Tamenund speak the words." - -"Take you the wampum, and our love." - -"Nothing hence but what Magua brought hither." - -"Then depart with thine own. The Great Manitou forbids that a Delaware -should be unjust." - -Magua advanced, and seized his captive strongly by the arm; the -Delawares fell back, in silence; and Cora, as if conscious that -remonstrance would be useless, prepared to submit to her fate without -resistance. - -"Hold, hold!" cried Duncan, springing forward; "Huron, have mercy! her -ransom shall make thee richer than any of thy people were ever yet known -to be." - -"Magua is a red-skin; he wants not the beads of the pale faces." - -"Gold, silver, powder, lead--all that a warrior needs shall be in thy -wigwam; all that becomes the greatest chief." - -"Le Subtil is very strong," cried Magua, violently shaking the hand -which grasped the unresisting arm of Cora; "he has his revenge!" - -"Mighty ruler of Providence!" exclaimed Heyward, clasping his hands -together in agony, "can this be suffered! To you, just Tamenund, I -appeal for mercy." - -"The words of the Delaware are said," returned the sage, closing his -eyes, and dropping back into his seat, alike wearied with his mental and -his bodily exertion. "Men speak not twice." - -"That a chief should not misspend his time in unsaying what has once -been spoken is wise and reasonable," said Hawkeye, motioning to Duncan -to be silent; "but it is also prudent in every warrior to consider well -before he strikes his tomahawk into the head of his prisoner. Huron, I -love you not; nor can I say that any Mingo has ever received much favor -at my hands. It is fair to conclude that, if this war does not soon end, -many more of your warriors will meet me in the woods. Put it to your -judgment, then, whether you would prefer taking such a prisoner as that -into your encampment, or one like myself, who am a man that it would -greatly rejoice your nation to see with naked hands." - -"Will 'The Long Rifle' give his life for the woman?" demanded Magua, -hesitatingly; for he had already made a motion toward quitting the place -with his victim. - -"No, no; I have not said so much as that," returned Hawkeye, drawing -back with suitable discretion, when he noted the eagerness with which -Magua listened to his proposal. "It would be an unequal exchange, to -give a warrior, in the prime of his age and usefulness, for the best -woman on the frontiers. I might consent to go into winter quarters, now ---at least six weeks afore the leaves will turn--on condition you will -release the maiden." - -Magua shook his head, and made an impatient sign for the crowd to open. - -"Well, then," added the scout, with the musing air of a man who had not -half made up his mind; "I will throw 'killdeer' into the bargain. Take -the word of an experienced hunter, the piece has not its equal atween -the provinces." - -Magua still disdained to reply, continuing his efforts to disperse the -crowd. - -"Perhaps," added the scout, losing his dissembled coolness exactly in -proportion as the other manifested an indifference to the exchange, -"if I should condition to teach your young men the real virtue of the -we'pon, it would smoothe the little differences in our judgments." - -Le Renard fiercely ordered the Delawares, who still lingered in an -impenetrable belt around him, in hopes he would listen to the amicable -proposal, to open his path, threatening, by the glance of his eye, -another appeal to the infallible justice of their "prophet." - -"What is ordered must sooner or later arrive," continued Hawkeye, -turning with a sad and humbled look to Uncas. "The varlet knows his -advantage and will keep it! God bless you, boy; you have found friends -among your natural kin, and I hope they will prove as true as some you -have met who had no Indian cross. As for me, sooner or later, I -must die; it is, therefore, fortunate there are but few to make my -death-howl. After all, it is likely the imps would have managed to -master my scalp, so a day or two will make no great difference in -the everlasting reckoning of time. God bless you," added the rugged -woodsman, bending his head aside, and then instantly changing its -direction again, with a wistful look toward the youth; "I loved both you -and your father, Uncas, though our skins are not altogether of a color, -and our gifts are somewhat different. Tell the Sagamore I never lost -sight of him in my greatest trouble; and, as for you, think of me -sometimes when on a lucky trail, and depend on it, boy, whether there -be one heaven or two, there is a path in the other world by which honest -men may come together again. You'll find the rifle in the place we hid -it; take it, and keep it for my sake; and, harkee, lad, as your natural -gifts don't deny you the use of vengeance, use it a little freely on the -Mingoes; it may unburden griefs at my loss, and ease your mind. Huron, I -accept your offer; release the woman. I am your prisoner!" - -A suppressed, but still distinct murmur of approbation ran through the -crowd at this generous proposition; even the fiercest among the -Delaware warriors manifesting pleasure at the manliness of the intended -sacrifice. Magua paused, and for an anxious moment, it might be said, -he doubted; then, casting his eyes on Cora, with an expression in which -ferocity and admiration were strangely mingled, his purpose became fixed -forever. - -He intimated his contempt of the offer with a backward motion of his -head, and said, in a steady and settled voice: - -"Le Renard Subtil is a great chief; he has but one mind. Come," he -added, laying his hand too familiarly on the shoulder of his captive to -urge her onward; "a Huron is no tattler; we will go." - -The maiden drew back in lofty womanly reserve, and her dark eye kindled, -while the rich blood shot, like the passing brightness of the sun, into -her very temples, at the indignity. - -"I am your prisoner, and, at a fitting time shall be ready to follow, -even to my death. But violence is unnecessary," she coldly said; and -immediately turning to Hawkeye, added: "Generous hunter! from my soul I -thank you. Your offer is vain, neither could it be accepted; but still -you may serve me, even more than in your own noble intention. Look at -that drooping humbled child! Abandon her not until you leave her in the -habitations of civilized men. I will not say," wringing the hard hand of -the scout, "that her father will reward you--for such as you are above -the rewards of men--but he will thank you and bless you. And, believe -me, the blessing of a just and aged man has virtue in the sight of -Heaven. Would to God I could hear one word from his lips at this awful -moment!" Her voice became choked, and, for an instant, she was silent; -then, advancing a step nigher to Duncan, who was supporting her -unconscious sister, she continued, in more subdued tones, but in which -feeling and the habits of her sex maintained a fearful struggle: "I need -not tell you to cherish the treasure you will possess. You love her, -Heyward; that would conceal a thousand faults, though she had them. She -is kind, gentle, sweet, good, as mortal may be. There is not a blemish -in mind or person at which the proudest of you all would sicken. She -is fair--oh! how surpassingly fair!" laying her own beautiful, but less -brilliant, hand in melancholy affection on the alabaster forehead of -Alice, and parting the golden hair which clustered about her brows; "and -yet her soul is pure and spotless as her skin! I could say much--more, -perhaps, than cooler reason would approve; but I will spare you and -myself--" Her voice became inaudible, and her face was bent over the -form of her sister. After a long and burning kiss, she arose, and with -features of the hue of death, but without even a tear in her feverish -eye, she turned away, and added, to the savage, with all her former -elevation of manner: "Now, sir, if it be your pleasure, I will follow." - -"Ay, go," cried Duncan, placing Alice in the arms of an Indian girl; -"go, Magua, go. These Delawares have their laws, which forbid them to -detain you; but I--I have no such obligation. Go, malignant monster--why -do you delay?" - -It would be difficult to describe the expression with which Magua -listened to this threat to follow. There was at first a fierce and -manifest display of joy, and then it was instantly subdued in a look of -cunning coldness. - -"The words are open," he was content with answering, "'The Open Hand' -can come." - -"Hold," cried Hawkeye, seizing Duncan by the arm, and detaining him by -violence; "you know not the craft of the imp. He would lead you to an -ambushment, and your death--" - -"Huron," interrupted Uncas, who submissive to the stern customs of his -people, had been an attentive and grave listener to all that passed; -"Huron, the justice of the Delawares comes from the Manitou. Look at the -sun. He is now in the upper branches of the hemlock. Your path is short -and open. When he is seen above the trees, there will be men on your -trail." - -"I hear a crow!" exclaimed Magua, with a taunting laugh. "Go!" he added, -shaking his hand at the crowd, which had slowly opened to admit his -passage. "Where are the petticoats of the Delawares! Let them send their -arrows and their guns to the Wyandots; they shall have venison to eat, -and corn to hoe. Dogs, rabbits, thieves--I spit on you!" - -His parting gibes were listened to in a dead, boding silence, and, with -these biting words in his mouth, the triumphant Magua passed unmolested -into the forest, followed by his passive captive, and protected by the -inviolable laws of Indian hospitality. - - - - -CHAPTER 31 - - "Flue.--Kill the poys and the luggage! 'Tis expressly - against the law of arms; 'tis as arrant a piece of knavery, - mark you now, as can be offered in the 'orld." - --King Henry V. - -So long as their enemy and his victim continued in sight, the multitude -remained motionless as beings charmed to the place by some power that -was friendly to the Huron; but, the instant he disappeared, it became -tossed and agitated by fierce and powerful passion. Uncas maintained his -elevated stand, keeping his eyes on the form of Cora, until the colors -of her dress were blended with the foliage of the forest; when he -descended, and, moving silently through the throng, he disappeared in -that lodge from which he had so recently issued. A few of the graver and -more attentive warriors, who caught the gleams of anger that shot from -the eyes of the young chief in passing, followed him to the place he -had selected for his meditations. After which, Tamenund and Alice were -removed, and the women and children were ordered to disperse. During -the momentous hour that succeeded, the encampment resembled a hive of -troubled bees, who only awaited the appearance and example of their -leader to take some distant and momentous flight. - -A young warrior at length issued from the lodge of Uncas; and, moving -deliberately, with a sort of grave march, toward a dwarf pine that grew -in the crevices of the rocky terrace, he tore the bark from its body, -and then turned whence he came without speaking. He was soon followed -by another, who stripped the sapling of its branches, leaving it a naked -and blazed* trunk. A third colored the post with stripes of a dark red -paint; all which indications of a hostile design in the leaders of the -nation were received by the men without in a gloomy and ominous silence. -Finally, the Mohican himself reappeared, divested of all his attire, -except his girdle and leggings, and with one-half of his fine features -hid under a cloud of threatening black. - - * A tree which has been partially or entirely stripped of - its bark is said, in the language of the country, to be - "blazed." The term is strictly English, for a horse is said - to be blazed when it has a white mark. - -Uncas moved with a slow and dignified tread toward the post, which he -immediately commenced encircling with a measured step, not unlike an -ancient dance, raising his voice, at the same time, in the wild and -irregular chant of his war song. The notes were in the extremes of -human sounds; being sometimes melancholy and exquisitely plaintive, -even rivaling the melody of birds--and then, by sudden and startling -transitions, causing the auditors to tremble by their depth and energy. -The words were few and often repeated, proceeding gradually from a sort -of invocation, or hymn, to the Deity, to an intimation of the warrior's -object, and terminating as they commenced with an acknowledgment of his -own dependence on the Great Spirit. If it were possible to translate the -comprehensive and melodious language in which he spoke, the ode might -read something like the following: "Manitou! Manitou! Manitou! Thou art -great, thou art good, thou art wise: Manitou! Manitou! Thou art just. In -the heavens, in the clouds, oh, I see many spots--many dark, many red: -In the heavens, oh, I see many clouds." - -"In the woods, in the air, oh, I hear the whoop, the long yell, and the -cry: In the woods, oh, I hear the loud whoop!" - -"Manitou! Manitou! Manitou! I am weak--thou art strong; I am slow; -Manitou! Manitou! Give me aid." - -At the end of what might be called each verse he made a pause, by -raising a note louder and longer than common, that was peculiarly -suited to the sentiment just expressed. The first close was solemn, -and intended to convey the idea of veneration; the second descriptive, -bordering on the alarming; and the third was the well-known and terrific -war-whoop, which burst from the lips of the young warrior, like a -combination of all the frightful sounds of battle. The last was like the -first, humble and imploring. Three times did he repeat this song, and as -often did he encircle the post in his dance. - -At the close of the first turn, a grave and highly esteemed chief of the -Lenape followed his example, singing words of his own, however, to music -of a similar character. Warrior after warrior enlisted in the dance, -until all of any renown and authority were numbered in its mazes. The -spectacle now became wildly terrific; the fierce-looking and menacing -visages of the chiefs receiving additional power from the appalling -strains in which they mingled their guttural tones. Just then Uncas -struck his tomahawk deep into the post, and raised his voice in a shout, -which might be termed his own battle cry. The act announced that he had -assumed the chief authority in the intended expedition. - -It was a signal that awakened all the slumbering passions of the nation. -A hundred youths, who had hitherto been restrained by the diffidence -of their years, rushed in a frantic body on the fancied emblem of their -enemy, and severed it asunder, splinter by splinter, until nothing -remained of the trunk but its roots in the earth. During this moment of -tumult, the most ruthless deeds of war were performed on the fragments -of the tree, with as much apparent ferocity as if they were the living -victims of their cruelty. Some were scalped; some received the keen and -trembling axe; and others suffered by thrusts from the fatal knife. In -short, the manifestations of zeal and fierce delight were so great and -unequivocal, that the expedition was declared to be a war of the nation. - -The instant Uncas had struck the blow, he moved out of the circle, and -cast his eyes up to the sun, which was just gaining the point, when -the truce with Magua was to end. The fact was soon announced by a -significant gesture, accompanied by a corresponding cry; and the whole -of the excited multitude abandoned their mimic warfare, with shrill -yells of pleasure, to prepare for the more hazardous experiment of the -reality. - -The whole face of the encampment was instantly changed. The warriors, -who were already armed and painted, became as still as if they were -incapable of any uncommon burst of emotion. On the other hand, the women -broke out of the lodges, with the songs of joy and those of lamentation -so strangely mixed that it might have been difficult to have said which -passion preponderated. None, however, was idle. Some bore their choicest -articles, others their young, and some their aged and infirm, into -the forest, which spread itself like a verdant carpet of bright green -against the side of the mountain. Thither Tamenund also retired, with -calm composure, after a short and touching interview with Uncas; from -whom the sage separated with the reluctance that a parent would quit a -long lost and just recovered child. In the meantime, Duncan saw Alice -to a place of safety, and then sought the scout, with a countenance that -denoted how eagerly he also panted for the approaching contest. - -But Hawkeye was too much accustomed to the war song and the enlistments -of the natives, to betray any interest in the passing scene. He merely -cast an occasional look at the number and quality of the warriors, who, -from time to time, signified their readiness to accompany Uncas to -the field. In this particular he was soon satisfied; for, as has been -already seen, the power of the young chief quickly embraced every -fighting man in the nation. After this material point was so -satisfactorily decided, he despatched an Indian boy in quest of -"killdeer" and the rifle of Uncas, to the place where they had deposited -their weapons on approaching the camp of the Delawares; a measure of -double policy, inasmuch as it protected the arms from their own fate, -if detained as prisoners, and gave them the advantage of appearing among -the strangers rather as sufferers than as men provided with means of -defense and subsistence. In selecting another to perform the office of -reclaiming his highly prized rifle, the scout had lost sight of none of -his habitual caution. He knew that Magua had not come unattended, and he -also knew that Huron spies watched the movements of their new enemies, -along the whole boundary of the woods. It would, therefore, have been -fatal to himself to have attempted the experiment; a warrior would have -fared no better; but the danger of a boy would not be likely to commence -until after his object was discovered. When Heyward joined him, the -scout was coolly awaiting the result of this experiment. - -The boy, who had been well instructed, and was sufficiently crafty, -proceeded, with a bosom that was swelling with the pride of such a -confidence, and all the hopes of young ambition, carelessly across -the clearing to the wood, which he entered at a point at some little -distance from the place where the guns were secreted. The instant, -however, he was concealed by the foliage of the bushes, his dusky form -was to be seen gliding, like that of a serpent, toward the desired -treasure. He was successful; and in another moment he appeared flying -across the narrow opening that skirted the base of the terrace on which -the village stood, with the velocity of an arrow, and bearing a prize -in each hand. He had actually gained the crags, and was leaping up their -sides with incredible activity, when a shot from the woods showed how -accurate had been the judgment of the scout. The boy answered it with a -feeble but contemptuous shout; and immediately a second bullet was -sent after him from another part of the cover. At the next instant he -appeared on the level above, elevating his guns in triumph, while he -moved with the air of a conqueror toward the renowned hunter who had -honored him by so glorious a commission. - -Notwithstanding the lively interest Hawkeye had taken in the fate of his -messenger, he received "killdeer" with a satisfaction that, momentarily, -drove all other recollections from his mind. After examining the piece -with an intelligent eye, and opening and shutting the pan some ten or -fifteen times, and trying sundry other equally important experiments on -the lock, he turned to the boy and demanded with great manifestations of -kindness, if he was hurt. The urchin looked proudly up in his face, but -made no reply. - -"Ah! I see, lad, the knaves have barked your arm!" added the scout, -taking up the limb of the patient sufferer, across which a deep flesh -wound had been made by one of the bullets; "but a little bruised alder -will act like a charm. In the meantime I will wrap it in a badge of -wampum! You have commenced the business of a warrior early, my brave -boy, and are likely to bear a plenty of honorable scars to your grave. -I know many young men that have taken scalps who cannot show such a mark -as this. Go!" having bound up the arm; "you will be a chief!" - -The lad departed, prouder of his flowing blood than the vainest courtier -could be of his blushing ribbon; and stalked among the fellows of his -age, an object of general admiration and envy. - -But, in a moment of so many serious and important duties, this single -act of juvenile fortitude did not attract the general notice and -commendation it would have received under milder auspices. It had, -however, served to apprise the Delawares of the position and the -intentions of their enemies. Accordingly a party of adventurers, better -suited to the task than the weak though spirited boy, was ordered to -dislodge the skulkers. The duty was soon performed; for most of the -Hurons retired of themselves when they found they had been discovered. -The Delawares followed to a sufficient distance from their own -encampment, and then halted for orders, apprehensive of being led into -an ambush. As both parties secreted themselves, the woods were again as -still and quiet as a mild summer morning and deep solitude could render -them. - -The calm but still impatient Uncas now collected his chiefs, and divided -his power. He presented Hawkeye as a warrior, often tried, and always -found deserving of confidence. When he found his friend met with a -favorable reception, he bestowed on him the command of twenty men, -like himself, active, skillful and resolute. He gave the Delawares to -understand the rank of Heyward among the troops of the Yengeese, and -then tendered to him a trust of equal authority. But Duncan declined the -charge, professing his readiness to serve as a volunteer by the side of -the scout. After this disposition, the young Mohican appointed various -native chiefs to fill the different situations of responsibility, and, -the time pressing, he gave forth the word to march. He was cheerfully, -but silently obeyed by more than two hundred men. - -Their entrance into the forest was perfectly unmolested; nor did they -encounter any living objects that could either give the alarm, or -furnish the intelligence they needed, until they came upon the lairs of -their own scouts. Here a halt was ordered, and the chiefs were assembled -to hold a "whispering council." - -At this meeting divers plans of operation were suggested, though none -of a character to meet the wishes of their ardent leader. Had Uncas -followed the promptings of his own inclinations, he would have led his -followers to the charge without a moment's delay, and put the conflict -to the hazard of an instant issue; but such a course would have been in -opposition to all the received practises and opinions of his countrymen. -He was, therefore, fain to adopt a caution that in the present temper of -his mind he execrated, and to listen to advice at which his fiery -spirit chafed, under the vivid recollection of Cora's danger and Magua's -insolence. - -After an unsatisfactory conference of many minutes, a solitary -individual was seen advancing from the side of the enemy, with such -apparent haste, as to induce the belief he might be a messenger charged -with pacific overtures. When within a hundred yards, however, of the -cover behind which the Delaware council had assembled, the stranger -hesitated, appeared uncertain what course to take, and finally halted. -All eyes were turned now on Uncas, as if seeking directions how to -proceed. - -"Hawkeye," said the young chief, in a low voice, "he must never speak to -the Hurons again." - -"His time has come," said the laconic scout, thrusting the long barrel -of his rifle through the leaves, and taking his deliberate and fatal -aim. But, instead of pulling the trigger, he lowered the muzzle again, -and indulged himself in a fit of his peculiar mirth. "I took the imp for -a Mingo, as I'm a miserable sinner!" he said; "but when my eye ranged -along his ribs for a place to get the bullet in--would you think it, -Uncas--I saw the musicianer's blower; and so, after all, it is the man -they call Gamut, whose death can profit no one, and whose life, if this -tongue can do anything but sing, may be made serviceable to our own -ends. If sounds have not lost their virtue, I'll soon have a discourse -with the honest fellow, and that in a voice he'll find more agreeable -than the speech of 'killdeer'." - -So saying, Hawkeye laid aside his rifle; and, crawling through the -bushes until within hearing of David, he attempted to repeat the musical -effort, which had conducted himself, with so much safety and eclat, -through the Huron encampment. The exquisite organs of Gamut could not -readily be deceived (and, to say the truth, it would have been -difficult for any other than Hawkeye to produce a similar noise), and, -consequently, having once before heard the sounds, he now knew whence -they proceeded. The poor fellow appeared relieved from a state of great -embarrassment; for, pursuing the direction of the voice--a task that to -him was not much less arduous that it would have been to have gone up in -the face of a battery--he soon discovered the hidden songster. - -"I wonder what the Hurons will think of that!" said the scout, laughing, -as he took his companion by the arm, and urged him toward the rear. -"If the knaves lie within earshot, they will say there are two -non-compossers instead of one! But here we are safe," he added, pointing -to Uncas and his associates. "Now give us the history of the Mingo -inventions in natural English, and without any ups and downs of voice." - -David gazed about him, at the fierce and wild-looking chiefs, in mute -wonder; but assured by the presence of faces that he knew, he soon -rallied his faculties so far as to make an intelligent reply. - -"The heathen are abroad in goodly numbers," said David; "and, I fear, -with evil intent. There has been much howling and ungodly revelry, -together with such sounds as it is profanity to utter, in their -habitations within the past hour, so much so, in truth, that I have fled -to the Delawares in search of peace." - -"Your ears might not have profited much by the exchange, had you been -quicker of foot," returned the scout a little dryly. "But let that be as -it may; where are the Hurons?" - -"They lie hid in the forest, between this spot and their village in such -force, that prudence would teach you instantly to return." - -Uncas cast a glance along the range of trees which concealed his own -band and mentioned the name of: - -"Magua?" - -"Is among them. He brought in the maiden that had sojourned with the -Delawares; and, leaving her in the cave, has put himself, like a raging -wolf, at the head of his savages. I know not what has troubled his -spirit so greatly!" - -"He has left her, you say, in the cave!" interrupted Heyward; "'tis well -that we know its situation! May not something be done for her instant -relief?" - -Uncas looked earnestly at the scout, before he asked: - -"What says Hawkeye?" - -"Give me twenty rifles, and I will turn to the right, along the stream; -and, passing by the huts of the beaver, will join the Sagamore and the -colonel. You shall then hear the whoop from that quarter; with this wind -one may easily send it a mile. Then, Uncas, do you drive in the front; -when they come within range of our pieces, we will give them a blow -that, I pledge the good name of an old frontiersman, shall make their -line bend like an ashen bow. After which, we will carry the village, and -take the woman from the cave; when the affair may be finished with the -tribe, according to a white man's battle, by a blow and a victory; -or, in the Indian fashion, with dodge and cover. There may be no great -learning, major, in this plan, but with courage and patience it can all -be done." - -"I like it very much," cried Duncan, who saw that the release of Cora -was the primary object in the mind of the scout; "I like it much. Let it -be instantly attempted." - -After a short conference, the plan was matured, and rendered more -intelligible to the several parties; the different signals were -appointed, and the chiefs separated, each to his allotted station. - - - - -CHAPTER 32 - - "But plagues shall spread, and funeral fires increase, - Till the great king, without a ransom paid, - To her own Chrysa send the black-eyed maid." - --Pope. - -During the time Uncas was making this disposition of his forces, the -woods were as still, and, with the exception of those who had met in -council, apparently as much untenanted as when they came fresh from -the hands of their Almighty Creator. The eye could range, in every -direction, through the long and shadowed vistas of the trees; but -nowhere was any object to be seen that did not properly belong to the -peaceful and slumbering scenery. - -Here and there a bird was heard fluttering among the branches of the -beeches, and occasionally a squirrel dropped a nut, drawing the startled -looks of the party for a moment to the place; but the instant the casual -interruption ceased, the passing air was heard murmuring above their -heads, along that verdant and undulating surface of forest, which spread -itself unbroken, unless by stream or lake, over such a vast region of -country. Across the tract of wilderness which lay between the Delawares -and the village of their enemies, it seemed as if the foot of man had -never trodden, so breathing and deep was the silence in which it lay. -But Hawkeye, whose duty led him foremost in the adventure, knew the -character of those with whom he was about to contend too well to trust -the treacherous quiet. - -When he saw his little band collected, the scout threw "killdeer" into -the hollow of his arm, and making a silent signal that he would be -followed, he led them many rods toward the rear, into the bed of a -little brook which they had crossed in advancing. Here he halted, and -after waiting for the whole of his grave and attentive warriors to close -about him, he spoke in Delaware, demanding: - -"Do any of my young men know whither this run will lead us?" - -A Delaware stretched forth a hand, with the two fingers separated, -and indicating the manner in which they were joined at the root, he -answered: - -"Before the sun could go his own length, the little water will be in -the big." Then he added, pointing in the direction of the place he -mentioned, "the two make enough for the beavers." - -"I thought as much," returned the scout, glancing his eye upward at the -opening in the tree-tops, "from the course it takes, and the bearings of -the mountains. Men, we will keep within the cover of its banks till we -scent the Hurons." - -His companions gave the usual brief exclamation of assent, but, -perceiving that their leader was about to lead the way in person, one -or two made signs that all was not as it should be. Hawkeye, who -comprehended their meaning glances, turned and perceived that his party -had been followed thus far by the singing-master. - -"Do you know, friend," asked the scout, gravely, and perhaps with a -little of the pride of conscious deserving in his manner, "that this is -a band of rangers chosen for the most desperate service, and put under -the command of one who, though another might say it with a better face, -will not be apt to leave them idle. It may not be five, it cannot be -thirty minutes, before we tread on the body of a Huron, living or dead." - -"Though not admonished of your intentions in words," returned David, -whose face was a little flushed, and whose ordinarily quiet and -unmeaning eyes glimmered with an expression of unusual fire, "your men -have reminded me of the children of Jacob going out to battle against -the Shechemites, for wickedly aspiring to wedlock with a woman of a race -that was favored of the Lord. Now, I have journeyed far, and sojourned -much in good and evil with the maiden ye seek; and, though not a man -of war, with my loins girded and my sword sharpened, yet would I gladly -strike a blow in her behalf." - -The scout hesitated, as if weighing the chances of such a strange -enlistment in his mind before he answered: - -"You know not the use of any we'pon. You carry no rifle; and believe me, -what the Mingoes take they will freely give again." - -"Though not a vaunting and bloodily disposed Goliath," returned David, -drawing a sling from beneath his parti-colored and uncouth attire, "I -have not forgotten the example of the Jewish boy. With this ancient -instrument of war have I practised much in my youth, and peradventure -the skill has not entirely departed from me." - -"Ay!" said Hawkeye, considering the deer-skin thong and apron, with a -cold and discouraging eye; "the thing might do its work among arrows, or -even knives; but these Mengwe have been furnished by the Frenchers with -a good grooved barrel a man. However, it seems to be your gift to go -unharmed amid fire; and as you have hitherto been favored--major, you -have left your rifle at a cock; a single shot before the time would be -just twenty scalps lost to no purpose--singer, you can follow; we may -find use for you in the shoutings." - -"I thank you, friend," returned David, supplying himself, like his royal -namesake, from among the pebbles of the brook; "though not given to -the desire to kill, had you sent me away my spirit would have been -troubled." - -"Remember," added the scout, tapping his own head significantly on that -spot where Gamut was yet sore, "we come to fight, and not to musickate. -Until the general whoop is given, nothing speaks but the rifle." - -David nodded, as much to signify his acquiescence with the terms; and -then Hawkeye, casting another observant glance over his followers made -the signal to proceed. - -Their route lay, for the distance of a mile, along the bed of the -water-course. Though protected from any great danger of observation by -the precipitous banks, and the thick shrubbery which skirted the stream, -no precaution known to an Indian attack was neglected. A warrior rather -crawled than walked on each flank so as to catch occasional glimpses -into the forest; and every few minutes the band came to a halt, and -listened for hostile sounds, with an acuteness of organs that would be -scarcely conceivable to a man in a less natural state. Their march was, -however, unmolested, and they reached the point where the lesser stream -was lost in the greater, without the smallest evidence that their -progress had been noted. Here the scout again halted, to consult the -signs of the forest. - -"We are likely to have a good day for a fight," he said, in English, -addressing Heyward, and glancing his eyes upward at the clouds, which -began to move in broad sheets across the firmament; "a bright sun and a -glittering barrel are no friends to true sight. Everything is favorable; -they have the wind, which will bring down their noises and their smoke, -too, no little matter in itself; whereas, with us it will be first -a shot, and then a clear view. But here is an end to our cover; the -beavers have had the range of this stream for hundreds of years, and -what atween their food and their dams, there is, as you see, many a -girdled stub, but few living trees." - -Hawkeye had, in truth, in these few words, given no bad description of -the prospect that now lay in their front. The brook was irregular in its -width, sometimes shooting through narrow fissures in the rocks, and at -others spreading over acres of bottom land, forming little areas that -might be termed ponds. Everywhere along its bands were the moldering -relics of dead trees, in all the stages of decay, from those that -groaned on their tottering trunks to such as had recently been robbed of -those rugged coats that so mysteriously contain their principle of life. -A few long, low, and moss-covered piles were scattered among them, like -the memorials of a former and long-departed generation. - -All these minute particulars were noted by the scout, with a gravity and -interest that they probably had never before attracted. He knew that -the Huron encampment lay a short half mile up the brook; and, with -the characteristic anxiety of one who dreaded a hidden danger, he was -greatly troubled at not finding the smallest trace of the presence of -his enemy. Once or twice he felt induced to give the order for a rush, -and to attempt the village by surprise; but his experience quickly -admonished him of the danger of so useless an experiment. Then he -listened intently, and with painful uncertainty, for the sounds of -hostility in the quarter where Uncas was left; but nothing was audible -except the sighing of the wind, that began to sweep over the bosom of -the forest in gusts which threatened a tempest. At length, yielding -rather to his unusual impatience than taking counsel from his knowledge, -he determined to bring matters to an issue, by unmasking his force, and -proceeding cautiously, but steadily, up the stream. - -The scout had stood, while making his observations, sheltered by a -brake, and his companions still lay in the bed of the ravine, through -which the smaller stream debouched; but on hearing his low, though -intelligible, signal the whole party stole up the bank, like so many -dark specters, and silently arranged themselves around him. Pointing in -the direction he wished to proceed, Hawkeye advanced, the band breaking -off in single files, and following so accurately in his footsteps, as to -leave it, if we except Heyward and David, the trail of but a single man. - -The party was, however, scarcely uncovered before a volley from a dozen -rifles was heard in their rear; and a Delaware leaping high in to the -air, like a wounded deer, fell at his whole length, dead. - -"Ah, I feared some deviltry like this!" exclaimed the scout, in English, -adding, with the quickness of thought, in his adopted tongue: "To cover, -men, and charge!" - -The band dispersed at the word, and before Heyward had well recovered -from his surprise, he found himself standing alone with David. Luckily -the Hurons had already fallen back, and he was safe from their fire. But -this state of things was evidently to be of short continuance; for the -scout set the example of pressing on their retreat, by discharging his -rifle, and darting from tree to tree as his enemy slowly yielded ground. - -It would seem that the assault had been made by a very small party of -the Hurons, which, however, continued to increase in numbers, as it -retired on its friends, until the return fire was very nearly, if not -quite, equal to that maintained by the advancing Delawares. Heyward -threw himself among the combatants, and imitating the necessary caution -of his companions, he made quick discharges with his own rifle. The -contest now grew warm and stationary. Few were injured, as both parties -kept their bodies as much protected as possible by the trees; never, -indeed, exposing any part of their persons except in the act of taking -aim. But the chances were gradually growing unfavorable to Hawkeye and -his band. The quick-sighted scout perceived his danger without knowing -how to remedy it. He saw it was more dangerous to retreat than to -maintain his ground: while he found his enemy throwing out men on his -flank; which rendered the task of keeping themselves covered so very -difficult to the Delawares, as nearly to silence their fire. At this -embarrassing moment, when they began to think the whole of the hostile -tribe was gradually encircling them, they heard the yell of combatants -and the rattling of arms echoing under the arches of the wood at the -place where Uncas was posted, a bottom which, in a manner, lay beneath -the ground on which Hawkeye and his party were contending. - -The effects of this attack were instantaneous, and to the scout and his -friends greatly relieving. It would seem that, while his own surprise -had been anticipated, and had consequently failed, the enemy, in their -turn, having been deceived in its object and in his numbers, had left -too small a force to resist the impetuous onset of the young Mohican. -This fact was doubly apparent, by the rapid manner in which the battle -in the forest rolled upward toward the village, and by an instant -falling off in the number of their assailants, who rushed to assist in -maintaining the front, and, as it now proved to be, the principal point -of defense. - -Animating his followers by his voice, and his own example, Hawkeye then -gave the word to bear down upon their foes. The charge, in that rude -species of warfare, consisted merely in pushing from cover to cover, -nigher to the enemy; and in this maneuver he was instantly and -successfully obeyed. The Hurons were compelled to withdraw, and the -scene of the contest rapidly changed from the more open ground, on which -it had commenced, to a spot where the assailed found a thicket to -rest upon. Here the struggle was protracted, arduous and seemingly of -doubtful issue; the Delawares, though none of them fell, beginning to -bleed freely, in consequence of the disadvantage at which they were -held. - -In this crisis, Hawkeye found means to get behind the same tree as that -which served for a cover to Heyward; most of his own combatants being -within call, a little on his right, where they maintained rapid, though -fruitless, discharges on their sheltered enemies. - -"You are a young man, major," said the scout, dropping the butt of -"killdeer" to the earth, and leaning on the barrel, a little fatigued -with his previous industry; "and it may be your gift to lead armies, -at some future day, ag'in these imps, the Mingoes. You may here see the -philosophy of an Indian fight. It consists mainly in ready hand, a quick -eye and a good cover. Now, if you had a company of the Royal Americans -here, in what manner would you set them to work in this business?" - -"The bayonet would make a road." - -"Ay, there is white reason in what you say; but a man must ask himself, -in this wilderness, how many lives he can spare. No--horse*," continued -the scout, shaking his head, like one who mused; "horse, I am ashamed to -say must sooner or later decide these scrimmages. The brutes are better -than men, and to horse must we come at last. Put a shodden hoof on the -moccasin of a red-skin, and, if his rifle be once emptied, he will never -stop to load it again." - - * The American forest admits of the passage of horses, there - being little underbrush, and few tangled brakes. The plan of - Hawkeye is the one which has always proved the most - successful in the battles between the whites and the - Indians. Wayne, in his celebrated campaign on the Miami, - received the fire of his enemies in line; and then causing - his dragoons to wheel round his flanks, the Indians were - driven from their covers before they had time to load. One - of the most conspicuous of the chiefs who fought in the - battle of Miami assured the writer, that the red men could - not fight the warriors with "long knives and leather - stockings"; meaning the dragoons with their sabers and - boots. - -"This is a subject that might better be discussed at another time," -returned Heyward; "shall we charge?" - -"I see no contradiction to the gifts of any man in passing his breathing -spells in useful reflections," the scout replied. "As to rush, I little -relish such a measure; for a scalp or two must be thrown away in the -attempt. And yet," he added, bending his head aside, to catch the sounds -of the distant combat, "if we are to be of use to Uncas, these knaves in -our front must be got rid of." - -Then, turning with a prompt and decided air, he called aloud to his -Indians, in their own language. His words were answered by a shout; -and, at a given signal, each warrior made a swift movement around his -particular tree. The sight of so many dark bodies, glancing before their -eyes at the same instant, drew a hasty and consequently an ineffectual -fire from the Hurons. Without stopping to breathe, the Delawares leaped -in long bounds toward the wood, like so many panthers springing upon -their prey. Hawkeye was in front, brandishing his terrible rifle and -animating his followers by his example. A few of the older and more -cunning Hurons, who had not been deceived by the artifice which had been -practiced to draw their fire, now made a close and deadly discharge of -their pieces and justified the apprehensions of the scout by felling -three of his foremost warriors. But the shock was insufficient to repel -the impetus of the charge. The Delawares broke into the cover with the -ferocity of their natures and swept away every trace of resistance by -the fury of the onset. - -The combat endured only for an instant, hand to hand, and then the -assailed yielded ground rapidly, until they reached the opposite -margin of the thicket, where they clung to the cover, with the sort of -obstinacy that is so often witnessed in hunted brutes. At this critical -moment, when the success of the struggle was again becoming doubtful, -the crack of a rifle was heard behind the Hurons, and a bullet came -whizzing from among some beaver lodges, which were situated in the -clearing, in their rear, and was followed by the fierce and appalling -yell of the war-whoop. - -"There speaks the Sagamore!" shouted Hawkeye, answering the cry with his -own stentorian voice; "we have them now in face and back!" - -The effect on the Hurons was instantaneous. Discouraged by an assault -from a quarter that left them no opportunity for cover, the warriors -uttered a common yell of disappointment, and breaking off in a -body, they spread themselves across the opening, heedless of every -consideration but flight. Many fell, in making the experiment, under the -bullets and the blows of the pursuing Delawares. - -We shall not pause to detail the meeting between the scout and -Chingachgook, or the more touching interview that Duncan held with -Munro. A few brief and hurried words served to explain the state of -things to both parties; and then Hawkeye, pointing out the Sagamore to -his band, resigned the chief authority into the hands of the Mohican -chief. Chingachgook assumed the station to which his birth and -experience gave him so distinguished a claim, with the grave dignity -that always gives force to the mandates of a native warrior. Following -the footsteps of the scout, he led the party back through the thicket, -his men scalping the fallen Hurons and secreting the bodies of their own -dead as they proceeded, until they gained a point where the former was -content to make a halt. - -The warriors, who had breathed themselves freely in the preceding -struggle, were now posted on a bit of level ground, sprinkled with -trees in sufficient numbers to conceal them. The land fell away rather -precipitately in front, and beneath their eyes stretched, for several -miles, a narrow, dark, and wooded vale. It was through this dense and -dark forest that Uncas was still contending with the main body of the -Hurons. - -The Mohican and his friends advanced to the brow of the hill, and -listened, with practised ears, to the sounds of the combat. A few -birds hovered over the leafy bosom of the valley, frightened from their -secluded nests; and here and there a light vapory cloud, which seemed -already blending with the atmosphere, arose above the trees, and -indicated some spot where the struggle had been fierce and stationary. - -"The fight is coming up the ascent," said Duncan, pointing in the -direction of a new explosion of firearms; "we are too much in the center -of their line to be effective." - -"They will incline into the hollow, where the cover is thicker," said -the scout, "and that will leave us well on their flank. Go, Sagamore; -you will hardly be in time to give the whoop, and lead on the young men. -I will fight this scrimmage with warriors of my own color. You know me, -Mohican; not a Huron of them all shall cross the swell, into your rear, -without the notice of 'killdeer'." - -The Indian chief paused another moment to consider the signs of the -contest, which was now rolling rapidly up the ascent, a certain evidence -that the Delawares triumphed; nor did he actually quit the place until -admonished of the proximity of his friends, as well as enemies, by the -bullets of the former, which began to patter among the dried leaves on -the ground, like the bits of falling hail which precede the bursting of -the tempest. Hawkeye and his three companions withdrew a few paces to -a shelter, and awaited the issue with calmness that nothing but great -practise could impart in such a scene. - -It was not long before the reports of the rifles began to lose the -echoes of the woods, and to sound like weapons discharged in the open -air. Then a warrior appeared, here and there, driven to the skirts of -the forest, and rallying as he entered the clearing, as at the place -where the final stand was to be made. These were soon joined by others, -until a long line of swarthy figures was to be seen clinging to -the cover with the obstinacy of desperation. Heyward began to -grow impatient, and turned his eyes anxiously in the direction of -Chingachgook. The chief was seated on a rock, with nothing visible but -his calm visage, considering the spectacle with an eye as deliberate as -if he were posted there merely to view the struggle. - -"The time has come for the Delaware to strike!" said Duncan. - -"Not so, not so," returned the scout; "when he scents his friends, he -will let them know that he is here. See, see; the knaves are getting in -that clump of pines, like bees settling after their flight. By the -Lord, a squaw might put a bullet into the center of such a knot of dark -skins!" - -At that instant the whoop was given, and a dozen Hurons fell by a -discharge from Chingachgook and his band. The shout that followed was -answered by a single war-cry from the forest, and a yell passed through -the air that sounded as if a thousand throats were united in a common -effort. The Hurons staggered, deserting the center of their line, and -Uncas issued from the forest through the opening they left, at the head -of a hundred warriors. - -Waving his hands right and left, the young chief pointed out the enemy -to his followers, who separated in pursuit. The war now divided, both -wings of the broken Hurons seeking protection in the woods again, hotly -pressed by the victorious warriors of the Lenape. A minute might have -passed, but the sounds were already receding in different directions, -and gradually losing their distinctness beneath the echoing arches of -the woods. One little knot of Hurons, however, had disdained to seek a -cover, and were retiring, like lions at bay, slowly and sullenly up the -acclivity which Chingachgook and his band had just deserted, to mingle -more closely in the fray. Magua was conspicuous in this party, both by -his fierce and savage mien, and by the air of haughty authority he yet -maintained. - -In his eagerness to expedite the pursuit, Uncas had left himself nearly -alone; but the moment his eye caught the figure of Le Subtil, every -other consideration was forgotten. Raising his cry of battle, which -recalled some six or seven warriors, and reckless of the disparity of -their numbers, he rushed upon his enemy. Le Renard, who watched the -movement, paused to receive him with secret joy. But at the moment when -he thought the rashness of his impetuous young assailant had left him -at his mercy, another shout was given, and La Longue Carabine was seen -rushing to the rescue, attended by all his white associates. The Huron -instantly turned, and commenced a rapid retreat up the ascent. - -There was no time for greetings or congratulations; for Uncas, though -unconscious of the presence of his friends, continued the pursuit with -the velocity of the wind. In vain Hawkeye called to him to respect the -covers; the young Mohican braved the dangerous fire of his enemies, and -soon compelled them to a flight as swift as his own headlong speed. It -was fortunate that the race was of short continuance, and that the white -men were much favored by their position, or the Delaware would soon have -outstripped all his companions, and fallen a victim to his own temerity. -But, ere such a calamity could happen, the pursuers and pursued entered -the Wyandot village, within striking distance of each other. - -Excited by the presence of their dwellings, and tired of the chase, the -Hurons now made a stand, and fought around their council-lodge with -the fury of despair. The onset and the issue were like the passage and -destruction of a whirlwind. The tomahawk of Uncas, the blows of Hawkeye, -and even the still nervous arm of Munro were all busy for that passing -moment, and the ground was quickly strewed with their enemies. Still -Magua, though daring and much exposed, escaped from every effort against -his life, with that sort of fabled protection that was made to overlook -the fortunes of favored heroes in the legends of ancient poetry. Raising -a yell that spoke volumes of anger and disappointment, the subtle chief, -when he saw his comrades fallen, darted away from the place, attended -by his two only surviving friends, leaving the Delawares engaged in -stripping the dead of the bloody trophies of their victory. - -But Uncas, who had vainly sought him in the melee, bounded forward in -pursuit; Hawkeye, Heyward and David still pressing on his footsteps. The -utmost that the scout could effect, was to keep the muzzle of his rifle -a little in advance of his friend, to whom, however, it answered every -purpose of a charmed shield. Once Magua appeared disposed to make -another and a final effort to revenge his losses; but, abandoning his -intention as soon as demonstrated, he leaped into a thicket of bushes, -through which he was followed by his enemies, and suddenly entered the -mouth of the cave already known to the reader. Hawkeye, who had only -forborne to fire in tenderness to Uncas, raised a shout of success, and -proclaimed aloud that now they were certain of their game. The pursuers -dashed into the long and narrow entrance, in time to catch a glimpse of -the retreating forms of the Hurons. Their passage through the natural -galleries and subterraneous apartments of the cavern was preceded by the -shrieks and cries of hundreds of women and children. The place, seen by -its dim and uncertain light, appeared like the shades of the infernal -regions, across which unhappy ghosts and savage demons were flitting in -multitudes. - -Still Uncas kept his eye on Magua, as if life to him possessed but -a single object. Heyward and the scout still pressed on his rear, -actuated, though possibly in a less degree, by a common feeling. But -their way was becoming intricate, in those dark and gloomy passages, and -the glimpses of the retiring warriors less distinct and frequent; and -for a moment the trace was believed to be lost, when a white robe was -seen fluttering in the further extremity of a passage that seemed to -lead up the mountain. - -"'Tis Cora!" exclaimed Heyward, in a voice in which horror and delight -were wildly mingled. - -"Cora! Cora!" echoed Uncas, bounding forward like a deer. - -"'Tis the maiden!" shouted the scout. "Courage, lady; we come! we come!" - -The chase was renewed with a diligence rendered tenfold encouraging -by this glimpse of the captive. But the way was rugged, broken, and in -spots nearly impassable. Uncas abandoned his rifle, and leaped forward -with headlong precipitation. Heyward rashly imitated his example, though -both were, a moment afterward, admonished of his madness by hearing the -bellowing of a piece, that the Hurons found time to discharge down the -passage in the rocks, the bullet from which even gave the young Mohican -a slight wound. - -"We must close!" said the scout, passing his friends by a desperate -leap; "the knaves will pick us all off at this distance; and see, they -hold the maiden so as to shield themselves!" - -Though his words were unheeded, or rather unheard, his example was -followed by his companions, who, by incredible exertions, got near -enough to the fugitives to perceive that Cora was borne along between -the two warriors while Magua prescribed the direction and manner of -their flight. At this moment the forms of all four were strongly drawn -against an opening in the sky, and they disappeared. Nearly frantic with -disappointment, Uncas and Heyward increased efforts that already seemed -superhuman, and they issued from the cavern on the side of the mountain, -in time to note the route of the pursued. The course lay up the ascent, -and still continued hazardous and laborious. - -Encumbered by his rifle, and, perhaps, not sustained by so deep an -interest in the captive as his companions, the scout suffered the latter -to precede him a little, Uncas, in his turn, taking the lead of Heyward. -In this manner, rocks, precipices and difficulties were surmounted in -an incredibly short space, that at another time, and under other -circumstances, would have been deemed almost insuperable. But the -impetuous young men were rewarded by finding that, encumbered with Cora, -the Hurons were losing ground in the race. - -"Stay, dog of the Wyandots!" exclaimed Uncas, shaking his bright -tomahawk at Magua; "a Delaware girl calls stay!" - -"I will go no further!" cried Cora, stopping unexpectedly on a ledge -of rock, that overhung a deep precipice, at no great distance from the -summit of the mountain. "Kill me if thou wilt, detestable Huron; I will -go no further." - -The supporters of the maiden raised their ready tomahawks with the -impious joy that fiends are thought to take in mischief, but Magua -stayed the uplifted arms. The Huron chief, after casting the weapons -he had wrested from his companions over the rock, drew his knife, -and turned to his captive, with a look in which conflicting passions -fiercely contended. - -"Woman," he said, "chose; the wigwam or the knife of Le Subtil!" - -Cora regarded him not, but dropping on her knees, she raised her eyes -and stretched her arms toward heaven, saying in a meek and yet confiding -voice: - -"I am thine; do with me as thou seest best!" - -"Woman," repeated Magua, hoarsely, and endeavoring in vain to catch a -glance from her serene and beaming eye, "choose!" - -But Cora neither heard nor heeded his demand. The form of the Huron -trembled in every fibre, and he raised his arm on high, but dropped -it again with a bewildered air, like one who doubted. Once more he -struggled with himself and lifted the keen weapon again; but just then -a piercing cry was heard above them, and Uncas appeared, leaping -frantically, from a fearful height, upon the ledge. Magua recoiled a -step; and one of his assistants, profiting by the chance, sheathed his -own knife in the bosom of Cora. - -The Huron sprang like a tiger on his offending and already retreating -country man, but the falling form of Uncas separated the unnatural -combatants. Diverted from his object by this interruption, and maddened -by the murder he had just witnessed, Magua buried his weapon in the back -of the prostrate Delaware, uttering an unearthly shout as he committed -the dastardly deed. But Uncas arose from the blow, as the wounded -panther turns upon his foe, and struck the murderer of Cora to his feet, -by an effort in which the last of his failing strength was expended. -Then, with a stern and steady look, he turned to Le Subtil, and -indicated by the expression of his eye all that he would do had not -the power deserted him. The latter seized the nerveless arm of the -unresisting Delaware, and passed his knife into his bosom three several -times, before his victim, still keeping his gaze riveted on his enemy, -with a look of inextinguishable scorn, fell dead at his feet. - -"Mercy! mercy! Huron," cried Heyward, from above, in tones nearly choked -by horror; "give mercy, and thou shalt receive from it!" - -Whirling the bloody knife up at the imploring youth, the victorious -Magua uttered a cry so fierce, so wild, and yet so joyous, that it -conveyed the sounds of savage triumph to the ears of those who fought in -the valley, a thousand feet below. He was answered by a burst from the -lips of the scout, whose tall person was just then seen moving swiftly -toward him, along those dangerous crags, with steps as bold and reckless -as if he possessed the power to move in air. But when the hunter reached -the scene of the ruthless massacre, the ledge was tenanted only by the -dead. - -His keen eye took a single look at the victims, and then shot its -glances over the difficulties of the ascent in his front. A form stood -at the brow of the mountain, on the very edge of the giddy height, -with uplifted arms, in an awful attitude of menace. Without stopping to -consider his person, the rifle of Hawkeye was raised; but a rock, which -fell on the head of one of the fugitives below, exposed the indignant -and glowing countenance of the honest Gamut. Then Magua issued from a -crevice, and, stepping with calm indifference over the body of the last -of his associates, he leaped a wide fissure, and ascended the rocks at -a point where the arm of David could not reach him. A single bound would -carry him to the brow of the precipice, and assure his safety. Before -taking the leap, however, the Huron paused, and shaking his hand at the -scout, he shouted: - -"The pale faces are dogs! the Delawares women! Magua leaves them on the -rocks, for the crows!" - -Laughing hoarsely, he made a desperate leap, and fell short of his mark, -though his hands grasped a shrub on the verge of the height. The form -of Hawkeye had crouched like a beast about to take its spring, and -his frame trembled so violently with eagerness that the muzzle of the -half-raised rifle played like a leaf fluttering in the wind. Without -exhausting himself with fruitless efforts, the cunning Magua suffered -his body to drop to the length of his arms, and found a fragment for his -feet to rest on. Then, summoning all his powers, he renewed the attempt, -and so far succeeded as to draw his knees on the edge of the mountain. -It was now, when the body of his enemy was most collected together, -that the agitated weapon of the scout was drawn to his shoulder. The -surrounding rocks themselves were not steadier than the piece became, -for the single instant that it poured out its contents. The arms of the -Huron relaxed, and his body fell back a little, while his knees still -kept their position. Turning a relentless look on his enemy, he shook -a hand in grim defiance. But his hold loosened, and his dark person was -seen cutting the air with its head downward, for a fleeting instant, -until it glided past the fringe of shrubbery which clung to the -mountain, in its rapid flight to destruction. - - - - -CHAPTER 33 - - "They fought, like brave men, long and well, - They piled that ground with Moslem slain, - They conquered--but Bozzaris fell, - Bleeding at every vein. - His few surviving comrades saw - His smile when rang their loud hurrah, - And the red field was won; - Then saw in death his eyelids close - Calmly, as to a night's repose, - Like flowers at set of sun." - --Halleck. - -The sun found the Lenape, on the succeeding day, a nation of mourners. -The sounds of the battle were over, and they had fed fat their ancient -grudge, and had avenged their recent quarrel with the Mengwe, by the -destruction of a whole community. The black and murky atmosphere that -floated around the spot where the Hurons had encamped, sufficiently -announced of itself, the fate of that wandering tribe; while hundreds of -ravens, that struggled above the summits of the mountains, or swept, in -noisy flocks, across the wide ranges of the woods, furnished a frightful -direction to the scene of the combat. In short, any eye at all practised -in the signs of a frontier warfare might easily have traced all those -unerring evidences of the ruthless results which attend an Indian -vengeance. - -Still, the sun rose on the Lenape a nation of mourners. No shouts -of success, no songs of triumph, were heard, in rejoicings for their -victory. The latest straggler had returned from his fell employment, -only to strip himself of the terrific emblems of his bloody calling, -and to join in the lamentations of his countrymen, as a stricken people. -Pride and exultation were supplanted by humility, and the fiercest -of human passions was already succeeded by the most profound and -unequivocal demonstrations of grief. - -The lodges were deserted; but a broad belt of earnest faces encircled a -spot in their vicinity, whither everything possessing life had repaired, -and where all were now collected, in deep and awful silence. Though -beings of every rank and age, of both sexes, and of all pursuits, had -united to form this breathing wall of bodies, they were influenced by a -single emotion. Each eye was riveted on the center of that ring, which -contained the objects of so much and of so common an interest. - -Six Delaware girls, with their long, dark, flowing tresses falling -loosely across their bosoms, stood apart, and only gave proof of their -existence as they occasionally strewed sweet-scented herbs and forest -flowers on a litter of fragrant plants that, under a pall of Indian -robes, supported all that now remained of the ardent, high-souled, -and generous Cora. Her form was concealed in many wrappers of the same -simple manufacture, and her face was shut forever from the gaze of -men. At her feet was seated the desolate Munro. His aged head was -bowed nearly to the earth, in compelled submission to the stroke of -Providence; but a hidden anguish struggled about his furrowed brow, -that was only partially concealed by the careless locks of gray that -had fallen, neglected, on his temples. Gamut stood at his side, his -meek head bared to the rays of the sun, while his eyes, wandering and -concerned, seemed to be equally divided between that little volume, -which contained so many quaint but holy maxims, and the being in whose -behalf his soul yearned to administer consolation. Heyward was also -nigh, supporting himself against a tree, and endeavoring to keep down -those sudden risings of sorrow that it required his utmost manhood to -subdue. - -But sad and melancholy as this group may easily be imagined, it was far -less touching than another, that occupied the opposite space of the same -area. Seated, as in life, with his form and limbs arranged in grave and -decent composure, Uncas appeared, arrayed in the most gorgeous ornaments -that the wealth of the tribe could furnish. Rich plumes nodded above -his head; wampum, gorgets, bracelets, and medals, adorned his person -in profusion; though his dull eye and vacant lineaments too strongly -contradicted the idle tale of pride they would convey. - -Directly in front of the corpse Chingachgook was placed, without arms, -paint or adornment of any sort, except the bright blue blazonry of his -race, that was indelibly impressed on his naked bosom. During the long -period that the tribe had thus been collected, the Mohican warrior had -kept a steady, anxious look on the cold and senseless countenance of his -son. So riveted and intense had been that gaze, and so changeless his -attitude, that a stranger might not have told the living from the dead, -but for the occasional gleamings of a troubled spirit, that shot athwart -the dark visage of one, and the deathlike calm that had forever settled -on the lineaments of the other. The scout was hard by, leaning in a -pensive posture on his own fatal and avenging weapon; while Tamenund, -supported by the elders of his nation, occupied a high place at hand, -whence he might look down on the mute and sorrowful assemblage of his -people. - -Just within the inner edge of the circle stood a soldier, in the -military attire of a strange nation; and without it was his warhorse, in -the center of a collection of mounted domestics, seemingly in readiness -to undertake some distant journey. The vestments of the stranger -announced him to be one who held a responsible situation near the person -of the captain of the Canadas; and who, as it would now seem, finding -his errand of peace frustrated by the fierce impetuosity of his allies, -was content to become a silent and sad spectator of the fruits of a -contest that he had arrived too late to anticipate. - -The day was drawing to the close of its first quarter, and yet had the -multitude maintained its breathing stillness since its dawn. - -No sound louder than a stifled sob had been heard among them, nor had -even a limb been moved throughout that long and painful period, except -to perform the simple and touching offerings that were made, from time -to time, in commemoration of the dead. The patience and forbearance of -Indian fortitude could alone support such an appearance of abstraction, -as seemed now to have turned each dark and motionless figure into stone. - -At length, the sage of the Delawares stretched forth an arm, and leaning -on the shoulders of his attendants, he arose with an air as feeble as -if another age had already intervened between the man who had met his -nation the preceding day, and him who now tottered on his elevated -stand. - -"Men of the Lenape!" he said, in low, hollow tones, that sounded like a -voice charged with some prophetic mission: "the face of the Manitou -is behind a cloud! His eye is turned from you; His ears are shut; His -tongue gives no answer. You see him not; yet His judgments are before -you. Let your hearts be open and your spirits tell no lie. Men of the -Lenape! the face of the Manitou is behind a cloud." - -As this simple and yet terrible annunciation stole on the ears of the -multitude, a stillness as deep and awful succeeded as if the venerated -spirit they worshiped had uttered the words without the aid of human -organs; and even the inanimate Uncas appeared a being of life, compared -with the humbled and submissive throng by whom he was surrounded. As the -immediate effect, however, gradually passed away, a low murmur of voices -commenced a sort of chant in honor of the dead. The sounds were those of -females, and were thrillingly soft and wailing. The words were connected -by no regular continuation, but as one ceased another took up the -eulogy, or lamentation, whichever it might be called, and gave vent to -her emotions in such language as was suggested by her feelings and the -occasion. At intervals the speaker was interrupted by general and loud -bursts of sorrow, during which the girls around the bier of Cora plucked -the plants and flowers blindly from her body, as if bewildered with -grief. But, in the milder moments of their plaint, these emblems of -purity and sweetness were cast back to their places, with every sign -of tenderness and regret. Though rendered less connected by many and -general interruptions and outbreakings, a translation of their language -would have contained a regular descant, which, in substance, might have -proved to possess a train of consecutive ideas. - -A girl, selected for the task by her rank and qualifications, -commenced by modest allusions to the qualities of the deceased warrior, -embellishing her expressions with those oriental images that the -Indians have probably brought with them from the extremes of the other -continent, and which form of themselves a link to connect the ancient -histories of the two worlds. She called him the "panther of his tribe"; -and described him as one whose moccasin left no trail on the dews; whose -bound was like the leap of a young fawn; whose eye was brighter than -a star in the dark night; and whose voice, in battle, was loud as the -thunder of the Manitou. She reminded him of the mother who bore him, and -dwelt forcibly on the happiness she must feel in possessing such a son. -She bade him tell her, when they met in the world of spirits, that the -Delaware girls had shed tears above the grave of her child, and had -called her blessed. - -Then, they who succeeded, changing their tones to a milder and still -more tender strain, alluded, with the delicacy and sensitiveness of -women, to the stranger maiden, who had left the upper earth at a time -so near his own departure, as to render the will of the Great Spirit too -manifest to be disregarded. They admonished him to be kind to her, and -to have consideration for her ignorance of those arts which were so -necessary to the comfort of a warrior like himself. They dwelled upon -her matchless beauty, and on her noble resolution, without the taint of -envy, and as angels may be thought to delight in a superior excellence; -adding, that these endowments should prove more than equivalent for any -little imperfection in her education. - -After which, others again, in due succession, spoke to the maiden -herself, in the low, soft language of tenderness and love. They exhorted -her to be of cheerful mind, and to fear nothing for her future welfare. -A hunter would be her companion, who knew how to provide for her -smallest wants; and a warrior was at her side who was able to protect -he against every danger. They promised that her path should be pleasant, -and her burden light. They cautioned her against unavailing regrets for -the friends of her youth, and the scenes where her father had dwelt; -assuring her that the "blessed hunting grounds of the Lenape," contained -vales as pleasant, streams as pure; and flowers as sweet, as the "heaven -of the pale faces." They advised her to be attentive to the wants of her -companion, and never to forget the distinction which the Manitou had so -wisely established between them. Then, in a wild burst of their chant -they sang with united voices the temper of the Mohican's mind. They -pronounced him noble, manly and generous; all that became a warrior, and -all that a maid might love. Clothing their ideas in the most remote -and subtle images, they betrayed, that, in the short period of their -intercourse, they had discovered, with the intuitive perception of their -sex, the truant disposition of his inclinations. The Delaware girls had -found no favor in his eyes! He was of a race that had once been lords on -the shores of the salt lake, and his wishes had led him back to a -people who dwelt about the graves of his fathers. Why should not such -a predilection be encouraged! That she was of a blood purer and richer -than the rest of her nation, any eye might have seen; that she was -equal to the dangers and daring of a life in the woods, her conduct -had proved; and now, they added, the "wise one of the earth" had -transplanted her to a place where she would find congenial spirits, and -might be forever happy. - -Then, with another transition in voice and subject, allusions were -made to the virgin who wept in the adjacent lodge. They compared her to -flakes of snow; as pure, as white, as brilliant, and as liable to melt -in the fierce heats of summer, or congeal in the frosts of winter. They -doubted not that she was lovely in the eyes of the young chief, whose -skin and whose sorrow seemed so like her own; but though far from -expressing such a preference, it was evident they deemed her less -excellent than the maid they mourned. Still they denied her no need -her rare charms might properly claim. Her ringlets were compared to the -exuberant tendrils of the vine, her eye to the blue vault of heavens, -and the most spotless cloud, with its glowing flush of the sun, was -admitted to be less attractive than her bloom. - -During these and similar songs nothing was audible but the murmurs of -the music; relieved, as it was, or rather rendered terrible, by those -occasional bursts of grief which might be called its choruses. The -Delawares themselves listened like charmed men; and it was very -apparent, by the variations of their speaking countenances, how deep and -true was their sympathy. Even David was not reluctant to lend his ears -to the tones of voices so sweet; and long ere the chant was ended, his -gaze announced that his soul was enthralled. - -The scout, to whom alone, of all the white men, the words were -intelligible, suffered himself to be a little aroused from his -meditative posture, and bent his face aside, to catch their meaning, as -the girls proceeded. But when they spoke of the future prospects of -Cora and Uncas, he shook his head, like one who knew the error of their -simple creed, and resuming his reclining attitude, he maintained it -until the ceremony, if that might be called a ceremony, in which feeling -was so deeply imbued, was finished. Happily for the self-command of both -Heyward and Munro, they knew not the meaning of the wild sounds they -heard. - -Chingachgook was a solitary exception to the interest manifested by the -native part of the audience. His look never changed throughout the whole -of the scene, nor did a muscle move in his rigid countenance, even at -the wildest or the most pathetic parts of the lamentation. The cold and -senseless remains of his son was all to him, and every other sense but -that of sight seemed frozen, in order that his eyes might take their -final gaze at those lineaments he had so long loved, and which were now -about to be closed forever from his view. - -In this stage of the obsequies, a warrior much renowned for deed in -arms, and more especially for services in the recent combat, a man of -stern and grave demeanor, advanced slowly from the crowd, and placed -himself nigh the person of the dead. - -"Why hast thou left us, pride of the Wapanachki?" he said, addressing -himself to the dull ears of Uncas, as if the empty clay retained the -faculties of the animated man; "thy time has been like that of the sun -when in the trees; thy glory brighter than his light at noonday. Thou -art gone, youthful warrior, but a hundred Wyandots are clearing the -briers from thy path to the world of the spirits. Who that saw thee in -battle would believe that thou couldst die? Who before thee has ever -shown Uttawa the way into the fight? Thy feet were like the wings of -eagles; thine arm heavier than falling branches from the pine; and -thy voice like the Manitou when He speaks in the clouds. The tongue of -Uttawa is weak," he added, looking about him with a melancholy gaze, -"and his heart exceeding heavy. Pride of the Wapanachki, why hast thou -left us?" - -He was succeeded by others, in due order, until most of the high and -gifted men of the nation had sung or spoken their tribute of praise over -the manes of the deceased chief. When each had ended, another deep and -breathing silence reigned in all the place. - -Then a low, deep sound was heard, like the suppressed accompaniment of -distant music, rising just high enough on the air to be audible, and -yet so indistinctly, as to leave its character, and the place whence it -proceeded, alike matters of conjecture. It was, however, succeeded by -another and another strain, each in a higher key, until they grew on the -ear, first in long drawn and often repeated interjections, and finally -in words. The lips of Chingachgook had so far parted, as to announce -that it was the monody of the father. Though not an eye was turned -toward him nor the smallest sign of impatience exhibited, it was -apparent, by the manner in which the multitude elevated their heads to -listen, that they drank in the sounds with an intenseness of attention, -that none but Tamenund himself had ever before commanded. But -they listened in vain. The strains rose just so loud as to become -intelligible, and then grew fainter and more trembling, until they -finally sank on the ear, as if borne away by a passing breath of wind. -The lips of the Sagamore closed, and he remained silent in his seat, -looking with his riveted eye and motionless form, like some creature -that had been turned from the Almighty hand with the form but without -the spirit of a man. The Delawares who knew by these symptoms that -the mind of their friend was not prepared for so mighty an effort of -fortitude, relaxed in their attention; and, with an innate delicacy, -seemed to bestow all their thoughts on the obsequies of the stranger -maiden. - -A signal was given, by one of the elder chiefs, to the women who crowded -that part of the circle near which the body of Cora lay. Obedient to -the sign, the girls raised the bier to the elevation of their heads, -and advanced with slow and regulated steps, chanting, as they proceeded, -another wailing song in praise of the deceased. Gamut, who had been a -close observer of rites he deemed so heathenish, now bent his head over -the shoulder of the unconscious father, whispering: - -"They move with the remains of thy child; shall we not follow, and see -them interred with Christian burial?" - -Munro started, as if the last trumpet had sounded in his ear, and -bestowing one anxious and hurried glance around him, he arose and -followed in the simple train, with the mien of a soldier, but bearing -the full burden of a parent's suffering. His friends pressed around him -with a sorrow that was too strong to be termed sympathy--even the young -Frenchman joining in the procession, with the air of a man who was -sensibly touched at the early and melancholy fate of one so lovely. But -when the last and humblest female of the tribe had joined in the wild -and yet ordered array, the men of the Lenape contracted their circle, -and formed again around the person of Uncas, as silent, as grave, and as -motionless as before. - -The place which had been chosen for the grave of Cora was a little -knoll, where a cluster of young and healthful pines had taken root, -forming of themselves a melancholy and appropriate shade over the spot. -On reaching it the girls deposited their burden, and continued for many -minutes waiting, with characteristic patience, and native timidity, for -some evidence that they whose feelings were most concerned were content -with the arrangement. At length the scout, who alone understood their -habits, said, in their own language: - -"My daughters have done well; the white men thank them." - -Satisfied with this testimony in their favor, the girls proceeded -to deposit the body in a shell, ingeniously, and not inelegantly, -fabricated of the bark of the birch; after which they lowered it into -its dark and final abode. The ceremony of covering the remains, and -concealing the marks of the fresh earth, by leaves and other natural and -customary objects, was conducted with the same simple and silent forms. -But when the labors of the kind beings who had performed these sad and -friendly offices were so far completed, they hesitated, in a way to show -that they knew not how much further they might proceed. It was in this -stage of the rites that the scout again addressed them: - -"My young women have done enough," he said: "the spirit of the pale -face has no need of food or raiment, their gifts being according to the -heaven of their color. I see," he added, glancing an eye at David, who -was preparing his book in a manner that indicated an intention to -lead the way in sacred song, "that one who better knows the Christian -fashions is about to speak." - -The females stood modestly aside, and, from having been the principal -actors in the scene, they now became the meek and attentive observers of -that which followed. During the time David occupied in pouring out the -pious feelings of his spirit in this manner, not a sign of surprise, nor -a look of impatience, escaped them. They listened like those who knew -the meaning of the strange words, and appeared as if they felt the -mingled emotions of sorrow, hope, and resignation, they were intended to -convey. - -Excited by the scene he had just witnessed, and perhaps influenced by -his own secret emotions, the master of song exceeded his usual efforts. -His full rich voice was not found to suffer by a comparison with the -soft tones of the girls; and his more modulated strains possessed, at -least for the ears of those to whom they were peculiarly addressed, -the additional power of intelligence. He ended the anthem, as he had -commenced it, in the midst of a grave and solemn stillness. - -When, however, the closing cadence had fallen on the ears of his -auditors, the secret, timorous glances of the eyes, and the general -and yet subdued movement of the assemblage, betrayed that something was -expected from the father of the deceased. Munro seemed sensible that the -time was come for him to exert what is, perhaps, the greatest effort -of which human nature is capable. He bared his gray locks, and looked -around the timid and quiet throng by which he was encircled, with a firm -and collected countenance. Then, motioning with his hand for the scout -to listen, he said: - -"Say to these kind and gentle females, that a heart-broken and failing -man returns them his thanks. Tell them, that the Being we all worship, -under different names, will be mindful of their charity; and that the -time shall not be distant when we may assemble around His throne without -distinction of sex, or rank, or color." - -The scout listened to the tremulous voice in which the veteran delivered -these words, and shook his head slowly when they were ended, as one who -doubted their efficacy. - -"To tell them this," he said, "would be to tell them that the snows come -not in the winter, or that the sun shines fiercest when the trees are -stripped of their leaves." - -Then turning to the women, he made such a communication of the other's -gratitude as he deemed most suited to the capacities of his listeners. -The head of Munro had already sunk upon his chest, and he was again -fast relapsing into melancholy, when the young Frenchman before named -ventured to touch him lightly on the elbow. As soon as he had gained the -attention of the mourning old man, he pointed toward a group of young -Indians, who approached with a light but closely covered litter, and -then pointed upward toward the sun. - -"I understand you, sir," returned Munro, with a voice of forced -firmness; "I understand you. It is the will of Heaven, and I submit. -Cora, my child! if the prayers of a heart-broken father could avail thee -now, how blessed shouldst thou be! Come, gentlemen," he added, looking -about him with an air of lofty composure, though the anguish that -quivered in his faded countenance was far too powerful to be concealed, -"our duty here is ended; let us depart." - -Heyward gladly obeyed a summons that took them from a spot where, each -instant, he felt his self-control was about to desert him. While his -companions were mounting, however, he found time to press the hand of -the scout, and to repeat the terms of an engagement they had made to -meet again within the posts of the British army. Then, gladly throwing -himself into the saddle, he spurred his charger to the side of the -litter, whence low and stifled sobs alone announced the presence of -Alice. In this manner, the head of Munro again drooping on his bosom, -with Heyward and David following in sorrowing silence, and attended -by the aide of Montcalm with his guard, all the white men, with the -exception of Hawkeye, passed from before the eyes of the Delawares, and -were buried in the vast forests of that region. - -But the tie which, through their common calamity, had united the -feelings of these simple dwellers in the woods with the strangers who -had thus transiently visited them, was not so easily broken. Years -passed away before the traditionary tale of the white maiden, and of -the young warrior of the Mohicans ceased to beguile the long nights and -tedious marches, or to animate their youthful and brave with a desire -for vengeance. Neither were the secondary actors in these momentous -incidents forgotten. Through the medium of the scout, who served for -years afterward as a link between them and civilized life, they learned, -in answer to their inquiries, that the "Gray Head" was speedily gathered -to his fathers--borne down, as was erroneously believed, by his military -misfortunes; and that the "Open Hand" had conveyed his surviving -daughter far into the settlements of the pale faces, where her tears -had at last ceased to flow, and had been succeeded by the bright smiles -which were better suited to her joyous nature. - -But these were events of a time later than that which concerns our tale. -Deserted by all of his color, Hawkeye returned to the spot where his -sympathies led him, with a force that no ideal bond of union could -destroy. He was just in time to catch a parting look of the features of -Uncas, whom the Delawares were already inclosing in his last vestment -of skins. They paused to permit the longing and lingering gaze of the -sturdy woodsman, and when it was ended, the body was enveloped, never to -be unclosed again. Then came a procession like the other, and the whole -nation was collected about the temporary grave of the chief--temporary, -because it was proper that, at some future day, his bones should rest -among those of his own people. - -The movement, like the feeling, had been simultaneous and general. The -same grave expression of grief, the same rigid silence, and the same -deference to the principal mourner, were observed around the place of -interment as have been already described. The body was deposited in an -attitude of repose, facing the rising sun, with the implements of war -and of the chase at hand, in readiness for the final journey. An opening -was left in the shell, by which it was protected from the soil, for the -spirit to communicate with its earthly tenement, when necessary; and the -whole was concealed from the instinct, and protected from the ravages -of the beasts of prey, with an ingenuity peculiar to the natives. The -manual rites then ceased and all present reverted to the more spiritual -part of the ceremonies. - -Chingachgook became once more the object of the common attention. He had -not yet spoken, and something consolatory and instructive was expected -from so renowned a chief on an occasion of such interest. Conscious of -the wishes of the people, the stern and self-restrained warrior raised -his face, which had latterly been buried in his robe, and looked about -him with a steady eye. His firmly compressed and expressive lips then -severed, and for the first time during the long ceremonies his voice was -distinctly audible. "Why do my brothers mourn?" he said, regarding the -dark race of dejected warriors by whom he was environed; "why do my -daughters weep? that a young man has gone to the happy hunting-grounds; -that a chief has filled his time with honor? He was good; he was -dutiful; he was brave. Who can deny it? The Manitou had need of such a -warrior, and He has called him away. As for me, the son and the father -of Uncas, I am a blazed pine, in a clearing of the pale faces. My -race has gone from the shores of the salt lake and the hills of the -Delawares. But who can say that the serpent of his tribe has forgotten -his wisdom? I am alone--" - -"No, no," cried Hawkeye, who had been gazing with a yearning look at the -rigid features of his friend, with something like his own self-command, -but whose philosophy could endure no longer; "no, Sagamore, not alone. -The gifts of our colors may be different, but God has so placed us as to -journey in the same path. I have no kin, and I may also say, like you, -no people. He was your son, and a red-skin by nature; and it may be that -your blood was nearer--but, if ever I forget the lad who has so often -fou't at my side in war, and slept at my side in peace, may He who made -us all, whatever may be our color or our gifts, forget me! The boy has -left us for a time; but, Sagamore, you are not alone." - -Chingachgook grasped the hand that, in the warmth of feeling, the scout -had stretched across the fresh earth, and in an attitude of friendship -these two sturdy and intrepid woodsmen bowed their heads together, while -scalding tears fell to their feet, watering the grave of Uncas like -drops of falling rain. - -In the midst of the awful stillness with which such a burst of feeling, -coming as it did, from the two most renowned warriors of that region, -was received, Tamenund lifted his voice to disperse the multitude. - -"It is enough," he said. "Go, children of the Lenape, the anger of -the Manitou is not done. Why should Tamenund stay? The pale faces are -masters of the earth, and the time of the red men has not yet come -again. My day has been too long. In the morning I saw the sons of Unamis -happy and strong; and yet, before the night has come, have I lived to -see the last warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans." - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS *** - -***** This file should be named 940.txt or 940.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/9/4/940/ - -Produced by John Horner and David Widger - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.06/12/01*END* -[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart -and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] -[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales -of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or -software or any other related product without express permission.] - - - - - -This etext was produced by John Horner. - - - - - -The Last of the Mohicans -A Narrative of 1757 - -by James Fenimore Cooper - - - - -INTRODUCTION - -It is believed that the scene of this tale, and most of the -information necessary to understand its allusions, are -rendered sufficiently obvious to the reader in the text -itself, or in the accompanying notes. Still there is so -much obscurity in the Indian traditions, and so much -confusion in the Indian names, as to render some explanation -useful. - -Few men exhibit greater diversity, or, if we may so express -it, greater antithesis of character, than the native warrior -of North America. In war, he is daring, boastful, cunning, -ruthless, self-denying, and self-devoted; in peace, just, -generous, hospitable, revengeful, superstitious, modest, and -commonly chaste. These are qualities, it is true, which do -not distinguish all alike; but they are so far the -predominating traits of these remarkable people as to be -characteristic. - -It is generally believed that the Aborigines of the American -continent have an Asiatic origin. There are many physical -as well as moral facts which corroborate this opinion, and -some few that would seem to weigh against it. - -The color of the Indian, the writer believes, is peculiar to -himself, and while his cheek-bones have a very striking -indication of a Tartar origin, his eyes have not. Climate -may have had great influence on the former, but it is -difficult to see how it can have produced the substantial -difference which exists in the latter. The imagery of the -Indian, both in his poetry and in his oratory, is oriental; -chastened, and perhaps improved, by the limited range of his -practical knowledge. He draws his metaphors from the -clouds, the seasons, the birds, the beasts, and the -vegetable world. In this, perhaps, he does no more than any -other energetic and imaginative race would do, being -compelled to set bounds to fancy by experience; but the -North American Indian clothes his ideas in a dress which is -different from that of the African, and is oriental in -itself. His language has the richness and sententious -fullness of the Chinese. He will express a phrase in a -word, and he will qualify the meaning of an entire sentence -by a syllable; he will even convey different significations -by the simplest inflections of the voice. - -Philologists have said that there are but two or three -languages, properly speaking, among all the numerous tribes -which formerly occupied the country that now composes the -United States. They ascribe the known difficulty one people -have to understand another to corruptions and dialects. The -writer remembers to have been present at an interview -between two chiefs of the Great Prairies west of the -Mississippi, and when an interpreter was in attendance who -spoke both their languages. The warriors appeared to be on -the most friendly terms, and seemingly conversed much -together; yet, according to the account of the interpreter, -each was absolutely ignorant of what the other said. They -were of hostile tribes, brought together by the influence of -the American government; and it is worthy of remark, that a -common policy led them both to adopt the same subject. They -mutually exhorted each other to be of use in the event of -the chances of war throwing either of the parties into the -hands of his enemies. Whatever may be the truth, as -respects the root and the genius of the Indian tongues, it -is quite certain they are now so distinct in their words as -to possess most of the disadvantages of strange languages; -hence much of the embarrassment that has arisen in learning -their histories, and most of the uncertainty which exists in -their traditions. - -Like nations of higher pretensions, the American Indian -gives a very different account of his own tribe or race from -that which is given by other people. He is much addicted to -overestimating his own perfections, and to undervaluing -those of his rival or his enemy; a trait which may possibly -be thought corroborative of the Mosaic account of the -creation. - -The whites have assisted greatly in rendering the traditions -of the Aborigines more obscure by their own manner of -corrupting names. Thus, the term used in the title of this -book has undergone the changes of Mahicanni, Mohicans, and -Mohegans; the latter being the word commonly used by the -whites. When it is remembered that the Dutch (who first -settled New York), the English, and the French, all gave -appellations to the tribes that dwelt within the country -which is the scene of this story, and that the Indians not -only gave different names to their enemies, but frequently -to themselves, the cause of the confusion will be -understood. - -In these pages, Lenni-Lenape, Lenope, Delawares, Wapanachki, -and Mohicans, all mean the same people, or tribes of the -same stock. The Mengwe, the Maquas, the Mingoes, and the -Iroquois, though not all strictly the same, are identified -frequently by the speakers, being politically confederated -and opposed to those just named. Mingo was a term of -peculiar reproach, as were Mengwe and Maqua in a less -degree. - -The Mohicans were the possessors of the country first -occupied by the Europeans in this portion of the continent. -They were, consequently, the first dispossessed; and the -seemingly inevitable fate of all these people, who disappear -before the advances, or it might be termed the inroads, of -civilization, as the verdure of their native forests falls -before the nipping frosts, is represented as having already -befallen them. There is sufficient historical truth in the -picture to justify the use that has been made of it. - -In point of fact, the country which is the scene of the -following tale has undergone as little change, since the -historical events alluded to had place, as almost any other -district of equal extent within the whole limits of the -United States. There are fashionable and well-attended -watering-places at and near the spring where Hawkeye halted -to drink, and roads traverse the forests where he and his -friends were compelled to journey without even a path. -Glen's has a large village; and while William Henry, and -even a fortress of later date, are only to be traced as -ruins, there is another village on the shores of the -Horican. But, beyond this, the enterprise and energy of a -people who have done so much in other places have done -little here. The whole of that wilderness, in which the -latter incidents of the legend occurred, is nearly a -wilderness still, though the red man has entirely deserted -this part of the state. Of all the tribes named in these -pages, there exist only a few half-civilized beings of the -Oneidas, on the reservations of their people in New York. -The rest have disappeared, either from the regions in which -their fathers dwelt, or altogether from the earth. - -There is one point on which we would wish to say a word -before closing this preface. Hawkeye calls the Lac du Saint -Sacrement, the "Horican." As we believe this to be an -appropriation of the name that has its origin with -ourselves, the time has arrived, perhaps, when the fact -should be frankly admitted. While writing this book, fully -a quarter of a century since, it occurred to us that the -French name of this lake was too complicated, the American -too commonplace, and the Indian too unpronounceable, for -either to be used familiarly in a work of fiction. Looking -over an ancient map, it was ascertained that a tribe of -Indians, called "Les Horicans" by the French, existed in the -neighborhood of this beautiful sheet of water. As every -word uttered by Natty Bumppo was not to be received as rigid -truth, we took the liberty of putting the "Horican" into his -mouth, as the substitute for "Lake George." The name has -appeared to find favor, and all things considered, it may -possibly be quite as well to let it stand, instead of going -back to the House of Hanover for the appellation of our -finest sheet of water. We relieve our conscience by the -confession, at all events leaving it to exercise its -authority as it may see fit. - - - - -CHAPTER 1 - -"Mine ear is open, and my heart prepared: The worst is -wordly loss thou canst unfold:--Say, is my kingdom lost?" ---Shakespeare - -It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North -America, that the toils and dangers of the wilderness were -to be encountered before the adverse hosts could meet. A -wide and apparently an impervious boundary of forests -severed the possessions of the hostile provinces of France -and England. The hardy colonist, and the trained European -who fought at his side, frequently expended months in -struggling against the rapids of the streams, or in -effecting the rugged passes of the mountains, in quest of an -opportunity to exhibit their courage in a more martial -conflict. But, emulating the patience and self-denial of -the practiced native warriors, they learned to overcome -every difficulty; and it would seem that, in time, there was -no recess of the woods so dark, nor any secret place so -lovely, that it might claim exemption from the inroads of -those who had pledged their blood to satiate their -vengeance, or to uphold the cold and selfish policy of the -distant monarchs of Europe. - -Perhaps no district throughout the wide extent of the -intermediate frontiers can furnish a livelier picture of the -cruelty and fierceness of the savage warfare of those -periods than the country which lies between the head waters -of the Hudson and the adjacent lakes. - -The facilities which nature had there offered to the march -of the combatants were too obvious to be neglected. The -lengthened sheet of the Champlain stretched from the -frontiers of Canada, deep within the borders of the -neighboring province of New York, forming a natural passage -across half the distance that the French were compelled to -master in order to strike their enemies. Near its southern -termination, it received the contributions of another lake, -whose waters were so limpid as to have been exclusively -selected by the Jesuit missionaries to perform the typical -purification of baptism, and to obtain for it the title of -lake "du Saint Sacrement." The less zealous English thought -they conferred a sufficient honor on its unsullied -fountains, when they bestowed the name of their reigning -prince, the second of the house of Hanover. The two united -to rob the untutored possessors of its wooded scenery of -their native right to perpetuate its original appellation of -"Horican."* - -* As each nation of the Indians had its language or -its dialect, they usually gave different names to the same -places, though nearly all of their appellations were -descriptive of the object. Thus a literal translation of -the name of this beautiful sheet of water, used by the tribe -that dwelt on its banks, would be "The Tail of the Lake." -Lake George, as it is vulgarly, and now, indeed, legally, -called, forms a sort of tail to Lake Champlain, when viewed -on the map. Hence, the name. - -Winding its way among countless islands, and imbedded in -mountains, the "holy lake" extended a dozen leagues still -further to the south. With the high plain that there -interposed itself to the further passage of the water, -commenced a portage of as many miles, which conducted the -adventurer to the banks of the Hudson, at a point where, -with the usual obstructions of the rapids, or rifts, as they -were then termed in the language of the country, the river -became navigable to the tide. - -While, in the pursuit of their daring plans of annoyance, -the restless enterprise of the French even attempted the -distant and difficult gorges of the Alleghany, it may easily -be imagined that their proverbial acuteness would not -overlook the natural advantages of the district we have just -described. It became, emphatically, the bloody arena, in -which most of the battles for the mastery of the colonies -were contested. Forts were erected at the different points -that commanded the facilities of the route, and were taken -and retaken, razed and rebuilt, as victory alighted on the -hostile banners. While the husbandman shrank back from the -dangerous passes, within the safer boundaries of the more -ancient settlements, armies larger than those that had often -disposed of the scepters of the mother countries, were seen -to bury themselves in these forests, whence they rarely -returned but in skeleton bands, that were haggard with care -or dejected by defeat. Though the arts of peace were -unknown to this fatal region, its forests were alive with -men; its shades and glens rang with the sounds of martial -music, and the echoes of its mountains threw back the laugh, -or repeated the wanton cry, of many a gallant and reckless -youth, as he hurried by them, in the noontide of his -spirits, to slumber in a long night of forgetfulness. - -It was in this scene of strife and bloodshed that the -incidents we shall attempt to relate occurred, during the -third year of the war which England and France last waged -for the possession of a country that neither was destined to -retain. - -The imbecility of her military leaders abroad, and the fatal -want of energy in her councils at home, had lowered the -character of Great Britain from the proud elevation on which -it had been placed by the talents and enterprise of her -former warriors and statesmen. No longer dreaded by her -enemies, her servants were fast losing the confidence of -self-respect. In this mortifying abasement, the colonists, -though innocent of her imbecility, and too humble to be the -agents of her blunders, were but the natural participators. -They had recently seen a chosen army from that country, -which, reverencing as a mother, they had blindly believed -invincible--an army led by a chief who had been selected -from a crowd of trained warriors, for his rare military -endowments, disgracefully routed by a handful of French and -Indians, and only saved from annihilation by the coolness -and spirit of a Virginian boy, whose riper fame has since -diffused itself, with the steady influence of moral truth, -to the uttermost confines of Christendom.* A wide frontier -had been laid naked by this unexpected disaster, and more -substantial evils were preceded by a thousand fanciful and -imaginary dangers. The alarmed colonists believed that the -yells of the savages mingled with every fitful gust of wind -that issued from the interminable forests of the west. The -terrific character of their merciless enemies increased -immeasurably the natural horrors of warfare. Numberless -recent massacres were still vivid in their recollections; -nor was there any ear in the provinces so deaf as not to -have drunk in with avidity the narrative of some fearful -tale of midnight murder, in which the natives of the forests -were the principal and barbarous actors. As the credulous -and excited traveler related the hazardous chances of the -wilderness, the blood of the timid curdled with terror, and -mothers cast anxious glances even at those children which -slumbered within the security of the largest towns. In -short, the magnifying influence of fear began to set at -naught the calculations of reason, and to render those who -should have remembered their manhood, the slaves of the -basest passions. Even the most confident and the stoutest -hearts began to think the issue of the contest was becoming -doubtful; and that abject class was hourly increasing in -numbers, who thought they foresaw all the possessions of the -English crown in America subdued by their Christian foes, or -laid waste by the inroads of their relentless allies. - -* Washington, who, after uselessly admonishing the -European general of the danger into which he was heedlessly -running, saved the remnants of the British army, on this -occasion, by his decision and courage. The reputation -earned by Washington in this battle was the principal cause -of his being selected to command the American armies at a -later day. It is a circumstance worthy of observation, that -while all America rang with his well-merited reputation, his -name does not occur in any European account of the battle; -at least the author has searched for it without success. In -this manner does the mother country absorb even the fame, -under that system of rule. - -When, therefore, intelligence was received at the fort which -covered the southern termination of the portage between the -Hudson and the lakes, that Montcalm had been seen moving up -the Champlain, with an army "numerous as the leaves on the -trees," its truth was admitted with more of the craven -reluctance of fear than with the stern joy that a warrior -should feel, in finding an enemy within reach of his blow. -The news had been brought, toward the decline of a day in -midsummer, by an Indian runner, who also bore an urgent -request from Munro, the commander of a work on the shore of -the "holy lake," for a speedy and powerful reinforcement. -It has already been mentioned that the distance between -these two posts was less than five leagues. The rude path, -which originally formed their line of communication, had -been widened for the passage of wagons; so that the distance -which had been traveled by the son of the forest in two -hours, might easily be effected by a detachment of troops, -with their necessary baggage, between the rising and setting -of a summer sun. The loyal servants of the British crown -had given to one of these forest-fastnesses the name of -William Henry, and to the other that of Fort Edward, calling -each after a favorite prince of the reigning family. The -veteran Scotchman just named held the first, with a regiment -of regulars and a few provincials; a force really by far too -small to make head against the formidable power that -Montcalm was leading to the foot of his earthen mounds. At -the latter, however, lay General Webb, who commanded the -armies of the king in the northern provinces, with a body of -more than five thousand men. By uniting the several -detachments of his command, this officer might have arrayed -nearly double that number of combatants against the -enterprising Frenchman, who had ventured so far from his -reinforcements, with an army but little superior in numbers. - -But under the influence of their degraded fortunes, both -officers and men appeared better disposed to await the -approach of their formidable antagonists, within their -works, than to resist the progress of their march, by -emulating the successful example of the French at Fort du -Quesne, and striking a blow on their advance. - -After the first surprise of the intelligence had a little -abated, a rumor was spread through the entrenched camp, -which stretched along the margin of the Hudson, forming a -chain of outworks to the body of the fort itself, that a -chosen detachment of fifteen hundred men was to depart, with -the dawn, for William Henry, the post at the northern -extremity of the portage. That which at first was only -rumor, soon became certainty, as orders passed from the -quarters of the commander-in-chief to the several corps he -had selected for this service, to prepare for their speedy -departure. All doubts as to the intention of Webb now -vanished, and an hour or two of hurried footsteps and -anxious faces succeeded. The novice in the military art -flew from point to point, retarding his own preparations by -the excess of his violent and somewhat distempered zeal; -while the more practiced veteran made his arrangements with -a deliberation that scorned every appearance of haste; -though his sober lineaments and anxious eye sufficiently -betrayed that he had no very strong professional relish for -the, as yet, untried and dreaded warfare of the wilderness. -At length the sun set in a flood of glory, behind the -distant western hills, and as darkness drew its veil around -the secluded spot the sounds of preparation diminished; the -last light finally disappeared from the log cabin of some -officer; the trees cast their deeper shadows over the mounds -and the rippling stream, and a silence soon pervaded the -camp, as deep as that which reigned in the vast forest by -which it was environed. - -According to the orders of the preceding night, the heavy -sleep of the army was broken by the rolling of the warning -drums, whose rattling echoes were heard issuing, on the damp -morning air, out of every vista of the woods, just as day -began to draw the shaggy outlines of some tall pines of the -vicinity, on the opening brightness of a soft and cloudless -eastern sky. In an instant the whole camp was in motion; -the meanest soldier arousing from his lair to witness the -departure of his comrades, and to share in the excitement -and incidents of the hour. The simple array of the chosen -band was soon completed. While the regular and trained -hirelings of the king marched with haughtiness to the right -of the line, the less pretending colonists took their -humbler position on its left, with a docility that long -practice had rendered easy. The scouts departed; strong -guards preceded and followed the lumbering vehicles that -bore the baggage; and before the gray light of the morning -was mellowed by the rays of the sun, the main body of the -combatants wheeled into column, and left the encampment with -a show of high military bearing, that served to drown the -slumbering apprehensions of many a novice, who was now about -to make his first essay in arms. While in view of their -admiring comrades, the same proud front and ordered array -was observed, until the notes of their fifes growing fainter -in distance, the forest at length appeared to swallow up the -living mass which had slowly entered its bosom. - -The deepest sounds of the retiring and invisible column -had ceased to be borne on the breeze to the listeners, and -the latest straggler had already disappeared in pursuit; but -there still remained the signs of another departure, before -a log cabin of unusual size and accommodations, in front of -which those sentinels paced their rounds, who were known to -guard the person of the English general. At this spot were -gathered some half dozen horses, caparisoned in a manner -which showed that two, at least, were destined to bear the -persons of females, of a rank that it was not usual to meet -so far in the wilds of the country. A third wore trappings -and arms of an officer of the staff; while the rest, from -the plainness of the housings, and the traveling mails with -which they were encumbered, were evidently fitted for the -reception of as many menials, who were, seemingly, already -waiting the pleasure of those they served. At a respectful -distance from this unusual show, were gathered divers groups -of curious idlers; some admiring the blood and bone of the -high-mettled military charger, and others gazing at the -preparations, with the dull wonder of vulgar curiosity. -There was one man, however, who, by his countenance and -actions, formed a marked exception to those who composed the -latter class of spectators, being neither idle, nor -seemingly very ignorant. - -The person of this individual was to the last degree -ungainly, without being in any particular manner deformed. -He had all the bones and joints of other men, without any of -their proportions. Erect, his stature surpassed that of his -fellows; though seated, he appeared reduced within the -ordinary limits of the race. The same contrariety in his -members seemed to exist throughout the whole man. His head -was large; his shoulders narrow; his arms long and dangling; -while his hands were small, if not delicate. His legs and -thighs were thin, nearly to emaciation, but of extraordinary -length; and his knees would have been considered tremendous, -had they not been outdone by the broader foundations on -which this false superstructure of blended human orders was -so profanely reared. The ill-assorted and injudicious -attire of the individual only served to render his -awkwardness more conspicuous. A sky-blue coat, with short -and broad skirts and low cape, exposed a long, thin neck, -and longer and thinner legs, to the worst animadversions of -the evil-disposed. His nether garment was a yellow nankeen, -closely fitted to the shape, and tied at his bunches of -knees by large knots of white ribbon, a good deal sullied by -use. Clouded cotton stockings, and shoes, on one of the -latter of which was a plated spur, completed the costume of -the lower extremity of this figure, no curve or angle of -which was concealed, but, on the other hand, studiously -exhibited, through the vanity or simplicity of its owner. - -From beneath the flap of an enormous pocket of a soiled vest -of embossed silk, heavily ornamented with tarnished silver -lace, projected an instrument, which, from being seen in -such martial company, might have been easily mistaken for -some mischievous and unknown implement of war. Small as it -was, this uncommon engine had excited the curiosity of most -of the Europeans in the camp, though several of the -provincials were seen to handle it, not only without fear, -but with the utmost familiarity. A large, civil cocked hat, -like those worn by clergymen within the last thirty years, -surmounted the whole, furnishing dignity to a good-natured -and somewhat vacant countenance, that apparently needed such -artificial aid, to support the gravity of some high and -extraordinary trust. - -While the common herd stood aloof, in deference to the -quarters of Webb, the figure we have described stalked into -the center of the domestics, freely expressing his censures -or commendations on the merits of the horses, as by chance -they displeased or satisfied his judgment. - -"This beast, I rather conclude, friend, is not of home -raising, but is from foreign lands, or perhaps from the -little island itself over the blue water?" he said, in a -voice as remarkable for the softness and sweetness of its -tones, as was his person for its rare proportions; "I may -speak of these things, and be no braggart; for I have been -down at both havens; that which is situate at the mouth of -Thames, and is named after the capital of Old England, and -that which is called 'Haven', with the addition of the word -'New'; and have seen the scows and brigantines collecting -their droves, like the gathering to the ark, being outward -bound to the Island of Jamaica, for the purpose of barter -and traffic in four-footed animals; but never before have I -beheld a beast which verified the true scripture war-horse -like this: 'He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his -strength; he goeth on to meet the armed men. He saith among -the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, -the thunder of the captains, and the shouting' It would seem -that the stock of the horse of Israel had descended to our -own time; would it not, friend?" - -Receiving no reply to this extraordinary appeal, which in -truth, as it was delivered with the vigor of full and -sonorous tones, merited some sort of notice, he who had thus -sung forth the language of the holy book turned to the -silent figure to whom he had unwittingly addressed himself, -and found a new and more powerful subject of admiration in -the object that encountered his gaze. His eyes fell on the -still, upright, and rigid form of the "Indian runner," who -had borne to the camp the unwelcome tidings of the preceding -evening. Although in a state of perfect repose, and -apparently disregarding, with characteristic stoicism, the -excitement and bustle around him, there was a sullen -fierceness mingled with the quiet of the savage, that was -likely to arrest the attention of much more experienced eyes -than those which now scanned him, in unconcealed amazement. -The native bore both the tomahawk and knife of his tribe; -and yet his appearance was not altogether that of a warrior. -On the contrary, there was an air of neglect about his -person, like that which might have proceeded from great and -recent exertion, which he had not yet found leisure to -repair. The colors of the war-paint had blended in dark -confusion about his fierce countenance, and rendered his -swarthy lineaments still more savage and repulsive than if -art had attempted an effect which had been thus produced by -chance. His eye, alone, which glistened like a fiery star -amid lowering clouds, was to be seen in its state of native -wildness. For a single instant his searching and yet wary -glance met the wondering look of the other, and then -changing its direction, partly in cunning, and partly in -disdain, it remained fixed, as if penetrating the distant -air. - -It is impossible to say what unlooked-for remark this short -and silent communication, between two such singular men, -might have elicited from the white man, had not his active -curiosity been again drawn to other objects. A general -movement among the domestics, and a low sound of gentle -voices, announced the approach of those whose presence alone -was wanted to enable the cavalcade to move. The simple -admirer of the war-horse instantly fell back to a low, -gaunt, switch-tailed mare, that was unconsciously gleaning -the faded herbage of the camp nigh by; where, leaning with -one elbow on the blanket that concealed an apology for a -saddle, he became a spectator of the departure, while a foal -was quietly making its morning repast, on the opposite side -of the same animal. - -A young man, in the dress of an officer, conducted to their -steeds two females, who, as it was apparent by their -dresses, were prepared to encounter the fatigues of a -journey in the woods. One, and she was the more juvenile in -her appearance, though both were young, permitted glimpses -of her dazzling complexion, fair golden hair, and bright -blue eyes, to be caught, as she artlessly suffered the -morning air to blow aside the green veil which descended low -from her beaver. - -The flush which still lingered above the pines in the -western sky was not more bright nor delicate than the bloom -on her cheek; nor was the opening day more cheering than the -animated smile which she bestowed on the youth, as he -assisted her into the saddle. The other, who appeared to -share equally in the attention of the young officer, -concealed her charms from the gaze of the soldiery with a -care that seemed better fitted to the experience of four or -five additional years. It could be seen, however, that her -person, though molded with the same exquisite proportions, -of which none of the graces were lost by the traveling dress -she wore, was rather fuller and more mature than that of her -companion. - -No sooner were these females seated, than their attendant -sprang lightly into the saddle of the war-horse, when the -whole three bowed to Webb, who in courtesy, awaited their -parting on the threshold of his cabin and turning their -horses' heads, they proceeded at a slow amble, followed by -their train, toward the northern entrance of the encampment. -As they traversed that short distance, not a voice was heard -among them; but a slight exclamation proceeded from the -younger of the females, as the Indian runner glided by her, -unexpectedly, and led the way along the military road in her -front. Though this sudden and startling movement of the -Indian produced no sound from the other, in the surprise her -veil also was allowed to open its folds, and betrayed an -indescribable look of pity, admiration, and horror, as her -dark eye followed the easy motions of the savage. The -tresses of this lady were shining and black, like the -plumage of the raven. Her complexion was not brown, but it -rather appeared charged with the color of the rich blood, -that seemed ready to burst its bounds. And yet there was -neither coarseness nor want of shadowing in a countenance -that was exquisitely regular, and dignified and surpassingly -beautiful. She smiled, as if in pity at her own momentary -forgetfulness, discovering by the act a row of teeth that -would have shamed the purest ivory; when, replacing the -veil, she bowed her face, and rode in silence, like one -whose thoughts were abstracted from the scene around her. - - - -CHAPTER 2 - -"Sola, sola, wo ha, ho, sola!"--Shakespeare - -While one of the lovely beings we have so cursorily -presented to the reader was thus lost in thought, the other -quickly recovered from the alarm which induced the -exclamation, and, laughing at her own weakness, she inquired -of the youth who rode by her side: - -"Are such specters frequent in the woods, Heyward, or is -this sight an especial entertainment ordered on our behalf? -If the latter, gratitude must close our mouths; but if the -former, both Cora and I shall have need to draw largely on -that stock of hereditary courage which we boast, even before -we are made to encounter the redoubtable Montcalm." - -"Yon Indian is a 'runner' of the army; and, after the -fashion of his people, he may be accounted a hero," returned -the officer. "He has volunteered to guide us to the lake, -by a path but little known, sooner than if we followed the -tardy movements of the column; and, by consequence, more -agreeably." - -"I like him not," said the lady, shuddering, partly in -assumed, yet more in real terror. "You know him, Duncan, or -you would not trust yourself so freely to his keeping?" - -"Say, rather, Alice, that I would not trust you. I do know -him, or he would not have my confidence, and least of all at -this moment. He is said to be a Canadian too; and yet he -served with our friends the Mohawks, who, as you know, are -one of the six allied nations. He was brought among us, as -I have heard, by some strange accident in which your father -was interested, and in which the savage was rigidly dealt -by; but I forget the idle tale, it is enough, that he is now -our friend." - -"If he has been my father's enemy, I like him still less!" -exclaimed the now really anxious girl. "Will you not speak -to him, Major Heyward, that I may hear his tones? Foolish -though it may be, you have often heard me avow my faith in -the tones of the human voice!" - -"It would be in vain; and answered, most probably, by an -ejaculation. Though he may understand it, he affects, like -most of his people, to be ignorant of the English; and least -of all will he condescend to speak it, now that the war -demands the utmost exercise of his dignity. But he stops; -the private path by which we are to journey is, doubtless, -at hand." - -The conjecture of Major Heyward was true. When they reached -the spot where the Indian stood, pointing into the thicket -that fringed the military road; a narrow and blind path, -which might, with some little inconvenience, receive one -person at a time, became visible. - -"Here, then, lies our way," said the young man, in a low -voice. "Manifest no distrust, or you may invite the danger -you appear to apprehend." - -"Cora, what think you?" asked the reluctant fair one. "If -we journey with the troops, though we may find their -presence irksome, shall we not feel better assurance of our -safety?" - -"Being little accustomed to the practices of the savages, -Alice, you mistake the place of real danger," said Heyward. -"If enemies have reached the portage at all, a thing by no -means probable, as our scouts are abroad, they will surely -be found skirting the column, where scalps abound the most. -The route of the detachment is known, while ours, having -been determined within the hour, must still be secret." - -"Should we distrust the man because his manners are not our -manners, and that his skin is dark?" coldly asked Cora. - -Alice hesitated no longer; but giving her Narrangansett* a -smart cut of the whip, she was the first to dash aside the -slight branches of the bushes, and to follow the runner -along the dark and tangled pathway. The young man regarded -the last speaker in open admiration, and even permitted her -fairer, though certainly not more beautiful companion, to -proceed unattended, while he sedulously opened the way -himself for the passage of her who has been called Cora. It -would seem that the domestics had been previously -instructed; for, instead of penetrating the thicket, they -followed the route of the column; a measure which Heyward -stated had been dictated by the sagacity of their guide, in -order to diminish the marks of their trail, if, haply, the -Canadian savages should be lurking so far in advance of -their army. For many minutes the intricacy of the route -admitted of no further dialogue; after which they emerged -from the broad border of underbrush which grew along the -line of the highway, and entered under the high but dark -arches of the forest. Here their progress was less -interrupted; and the instant the guide perceived that the -females could command their steeds, he moved on, at a pace -between a trot and a walk, and at a rate which kept the sure- -footed and peculiar animals they rode at a fast yet easy -amble. The youth had turned to speak to the dark-eyed Cora, -when the distant sound of horses hoofs, clattering over the -roots of the broken way in his rear, caused him to check his -charger; and, as his companions drew their reins at the same -instant, the whole party came to a halt, in order to obtain -an explanation of the unlooked-for interruption. - -* In the state of Rhode Island there is a bay called -Narragansett, so named after a powerful tribe of Indians, -which formerly dwelt on its banks. Accident, or one of -those unaccountable freaks which nature sometimes plays in -the animal world, gave rise to a breed of horses which were -once well known in America, and distinguished by their habit -of pacing. Horses of this race were, and are still, in much -request as saddle horses, on account of their hardiness and -the ease of their movements. As they were also sure of -foot, the Narragansetts were greatly sought for by females -who were obliged to travel over the roots and holes in the -"new countries." - -In a few moments a colt was seen gliding, like a fallow -deer, among the straight trunks of the pines; and, in -another instant, the person of the ungainly man, described -in the preceding chapter, came into view, with as much -rapidity as he could excite his meager beast to endure -without coming to an open rupture. Until now this personage -had escaped the observation of the travelers. If he -possessed the power to arrest any wandering eye when -exhibiting the glories of his altitude on foot, his -equestrian graces were still more likely to attract -attention. - -Notwithstanding a constant application of his one armed heel -to the flanks of the mare, the most confirmed gait that he -could establish was a Canterbury gallop with the hind legs, -in which those more forward assisted for doubtful moments, -though generally content to maintain a loping trot. Perhaps -the rapidity of the changes from one of these paces to the -other created an optical illusion, which might thus magnify -the powers of the beast; for it is certain that Heyward, who -possessed a true eye for the merits of a horse, was unable, -with his utmost ingenuity, to decide by what sort of -movement his pursuer worked his sinuous way on his footsteps -with such persevering hardihood. - -The industry and movements of the rider were not less -remarkable than those of the ridden. At each change in the -evolutions of the latter, the former raised his tall person -in the stirrups; producing, in this manner, by the undue -elongation of his legs, such sudden growths and diminishings -of the stature, as baffled every conjecture that might be -made as to his dimensions. If to this be added the fact -that, in consequence of the ex parte application of the -spur, one side of the mare appeared to journey faster than -the other; and that the aggrieved flank was resolutely -indicated by unremitted flourishes of a bushy tail, we -finish the picture of both horse and man. - -The frown which had gathered around the handsome, open, and -manly brow of Heyward, gradually relaxed, and his lips -curled into a slight smile, as he regarded the stranger. -Alice made no very powerful effort to control her merriment; -and even the dark, thoughtful eye of Cora lighted with a -humor that it would seem, the habit, rather than the nature, -of its mistress repressed. - -"Seek you any here?" demanded Heyward, when the other had -arrived sufficiently nigh to abate his speed; "I trust you -are no messenger of evil tidings?" - -"Even so," replied the stranger, making diligent use of his -triangular castor, to produce a circulation in the close air -of the woods, and leaving his hearers in doubt to which of -the young man's questions he responded; when, however, he -had cooled his face, and recovered his breath, he continued, -"I hear you are riding to William Henry; as I am journeying -thitherward myself, I concluded good company would seem -consistent to the wishes of both parties." - -"You appear to possess the privilege of a casting vote," -returned Heyward; "we are three, while you have consulted no -one but yourself." - -"Even so. The first point to be obtained is to know one's -own mind. Once sure of that, and where women are concerned -it is not easy, the next is, to act up to the decision. I -have endeavored to do both, and here I am." - -"If you journey to the lake, you have mistaken your route," -said Heyward, haughtily; "the highway thither is at least -half a mile behind you." - -"Even so," returned the stranger, nothing daunted by this -cold reception; "I have tarried at 'Edward' a week, and I -should be dumb not to have inquired the road I was to -journey; and if dumb there would be an end to my calling." -After simpering in a small way, like one whose modesty -prohibited a more open expression of his admiration of a -witticism that was perfectly unintelligible to his hearers, -he continued, "It is not prudent for any one of my -profession to be too familiar with those he has to instruct; -for which reason I follow not the line of the army; besides -which, I conclude that a gentleman of your character has the -best judgment in matters of wayfaring; I have, therefore, -decided to join company, in order that the ride may be made -agreeable, and partake of social communion." - -"A most arbitrary, if not a hasty decision!" exclaimed -Heyward, undecided whether to give vent to his growing -anger, or to laugh in the other's face. "But you speak of -instruction, and of a profession; are you an adjunct to the -provincial corps, as a master of the noble science of -defense and offense; or, perhaps, you are one who draws -lines and angles, under the pretense of expounding the -mathematics?" - -The stranger regarded his interrogator a moment in wonder; -and then, losing every mark of self-satisfaction in an -expression of solemn humility, he answered: - -"Of offense, I hope there is none, to either party: of -defense, I make none--by God's good mercy, having -committed no palpable sin since last entreating his -pardoning grace. I understand not your allusions about -lines and angles; and I leave expounding to those who have -been called and set apart for that holy office. I lay claim -to no higher gift than a small insight into the glorious art -of petitioning and thanksgiving, as practiced in psalmody." - -"The man is, most manifestly, a disciple of Apollo," cried -the amused Alice, "and I take him under my own especial -protection. Nay, throw aside that frown, Heyward, and in -pity to my longing ears, suffer him to journey in our train. -Besides," she added, in a low and hurried voice, casting a -glance at the distant Cora, who slowly followed the -footsteps of their silent, but sullen guide, "it may be a -friend added to our strength, in time of need." - -"Think you, Alice, that I would trust those I love by this -secret path, did I imagine such need could happen?" - -"Nay, nay, I think not of it now; but this strange man -amuses me; and if he 'hath music in his soul', let us not -churlishly reject his company." She pointed persuasively -along the path with her riding whip, while their eyes met in -a look which the young man lingered a moment to prolong; -then, yielding to her gentle influence, he clapped his spurs -into his charger, and in a few bounds was again at the side -of Cora. - -"I am glad to encounter thee, friend," continued the maiden, -waving her hand to the stranger to proceed, as she urged her -Narragansett to renew its amble. "Partial relatives have -almost persuaded me that I am not entirely worthless in a -duet myself; and we may enliven our wayfaring by indulging -in our favorite pursuit. It might be of signal advantage to -one, ignorant as I, to hear the opinions and experience of a -master in the art." - -"It is refreshing both to the spirits and to the body to -indulge in psalmody, in befitting seasons," returned the -master of song, unhesitatingly complying with her intimation -to follow; "and nothing would relieve the mind more than -such a consoling communion. But four parts are altogether -necessary to the perfection of melody. You have all the -manifestations of a soft and rich treble; I can, by especial -aid, carry a full tenor to the highest letter; but we lack -counter and bass! Yon officer of the king, who hesitated to -admit me to his company, might fill the latter, if one may -judge from the intonations of his voice in common dialogue." - -"Judge not too rashly from hasty and deceptive appearances," -said the lady, smiling; "though Major Heyward can assume -such deep notes on occasion, believe me, his natural tones -are better fitted for a mellow tenor than the bass you -heard." - -"Is he, then, much practiced in the art of psalmody?" -demanded her simple companion. - -Alice felt disposed to laugh, though she succeeded in -suppressing her merriment, ere she answered: - -"I apprehend that he is rather addicted to profane song. -The chances of a soldier's life are but little fitted for -the encouragement of more sober inclinations." - -"Man's voice is given to him, like his other talents, to be -used, and not to be abused. None can say they have ever -known me to neglect my gifts! I am thankful that, though my -boyhood may be said to have been set apart, like the youth -of the royal David, for the purposes of music, no syllable -of rude verse has ever profaned my lips." - -"You have, then, limited your efforts to sacred song?" - -"Even so. As the psalms of David exceed all other language, -so does the psalmody that has been fitted to them by the -divines and sages of the land, surpass all vain poetry. -Happily, I may say that I utter nothing but the thoughts and -the wishes of the King of Israel himself; for though the -times may call for some slight changes, yet does this -version which we use in the colonies of New England so much -exceed all other versions, that, by its richness, its -exactness, and its spiritual simplicity, it approacheth, as -near as may be, to the great work of the inspired writer. -I never abide in any place, sleeping or waking, without an -example of this gifted work. 'Tis the six-and-twentieth -edition, promulgated at Boston, Anno Domini 1744; and is -entitled, 'The Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Old -and New Testaments; faithfully translated into English -Metre, for the Use, Edification, and Comfort of the Saints, -in Public and Private, especially in New England'." - -During this eulogium on the rare production of his native -poets, the stranger had drawn the book from his pocket, and -fitting a pair of iron-rimmed spectacles to his nose, opened -the volume with a care and veneration suited to its sacred -purposes. Then, without circumlocution or apology, first -pronounced the word "Standish," and placing the unknown -engine, already described, to his mouth, from which he drew -a high, shrill sound, that was followed by an octave below, -from his own voice, he commenced singing the following -words, in full, sweet, and melodious tones, that set the -music, the poetry, and even the uneasy motion of his ill- -trained beast at defiance; "How good it is, O see, And how -it pleaseth well, Together e'en in unity, For brethren so to -dwell. It's like the choice ointment, From the head to the -beard did go; Down Aaron's head, that downward went His -garment's skirts unto." - -The delivery of these skillful rhymes was accompanied, on -the part of the stranger, by a regular rise and fall of his -right hand, which terminated at the descent, by suffering -the fingers to dwell a moment on the leaves of the little -volume; and on the ascent, by such a flourish of the member -as none but the initiated may ever hope to imitate. It -would seem long practice had rendered this manual -accompaniment necessary; for it did not cease until the -preposition which the poet had selected for the close of his -verse had been duly delivered like a word of two syllables. - -Such an innovation on the silence and retirement of the -forest could not fail to enlist the ears of those who -journeyed at so short a distance in advance. The Indian -muttered a few words in broken English to Heyward, who, in -his turn, spoke to the stranger; at once interrupting, and, -for the time, closing his musical efforts. - -"Though we are not in danger, common prudence would teach us -to journey through this wilderness in as quiet a manner as -possible. You will then, pardon me, Alice, should I -diminish your enjoyments, by requesting this gentleman to -postpone his chant until a safer opportunity." - -"You will diminish them, indeed," returned the arch girl; -"for never did I hear a more unworthy conjunction of -execution and language than that to which I have been -listening; and I was far gone in a learned inquiry into the -causes of such an unfitness between sound and sense, when -you broke the charm of my musings by that bass of yours, -Duncan!" - -"I know not what you call my bass," said Heyward, piqued at -her remark, "but I know that your safety, and that of Cora, -is far dearer to me than could be any orchestra of Handel's -music." He paused and turned his head quickly toward a -thicket, and then bent his eyes suspiciously on their guide, -who continued his steady pace, in undisturbed gravity. The -young man smiled to himself, for he believed he had mistaken -some shining berry of the woods for the glistening eyeballs -of a prowling savage, and he rode forward, continuing the -conversation which had been interrupted by the passing -thought. - -Major Heyward was mistaken only in suffering his youthful -and generous pride to suppress his active watchfulness. The -cavalcade had not long passed, before the branches of the -bushes that formed the thicket were cautiously moved -asunder, and a human visage, as fiercely wild as savage art -and unbridled passions could make it, peered out on the -retiring footsteps of the travelers. A gleam of exultation -shot across the darkly-painted lineaments of the inhabitant -of the forest, as he traced the route of his intended -victims, who rode unconsciously onward, the light and -graceful forms of the females waving among the trees, in the -curvatures of their path, followed at each bend by the manly -figure of Heyward, until, finally, the shapeless person of -the singing master was concealed behind the numberless -trunks of trees, that rose, in dark lines, in the -intermediate space. - - - -CHAPTER 3 - -"Before these fields were shorn and till'd, Full to the brim -our rivers flow'd; The melody of waters fill'd The fresh and -boundless wood; And torrents dash'd, and rivulets play'd, -And fountains spouted in the shade."--Bryant - -Leaving the unsuspecting Heyward and his confiding -companions to penetrate still deeper into a forest that -contained such treacherous inmates, we must use an author's -privilege, and shift the scene a few miles to the westward -of the place where we have last seen them. - -On that day, two men were lingering on the banks of a small -but rapid stream, within an hour's journey of the encampment -of Webb, like those who awaited the appearance of an absent -person, or the approach of some expected event. The vast -canopy of woods spread itself to the margin of the river, -overhanging the water, and shadowing its dark current with a -deeper hue. The rays of the sun were beginning to grow less -fierce, and the intense heat of the day was lessened, as the -cooler vapors of the springs and fountains rose above their -leafy beds, and rested in the atmosphere. Still that -breathing silence, which marks the drowsy sultriness of an -American landscape in July, pervaded the secluded spot, -interrupted only by the low voices of the men, the -occasional and lazy tap of a woodpecker, the discordant cry -of some gaudy jay, or a swelling on the ear, from the dull -roar of a distant waterfall. These feeble and broken sounds -were, however, too familiar to the foresters to draw their -attention from the more interesting matter of their -dialogue. While one of these loiterers showed the red skin -and wild accouterments of a native of the woods, the other -exhibited, through the mask of his rude and nearly savage -equipments, the brighter, though sun-burned and long-faced -complexion of one who might claim descent from a European -parentage. The former was seated on the end of a mossy log, -in a posture that permitted him to heighten the effect of -his earnest language, by the calm but expressive gestures of -an Indian engaged in debate. His body, which was nearly -naked, presented a terrific emblem of death, drawn in -intermingled colors of white and black. His closely-shaved -head, on which no other hair than the well-known and -chivalrous scalping tuft* was preserved, was without -ornament of any kind, with the exception of a solitary -eagle's plume, that crossed his crown, and depended over the -left shoulder. A tomahawk and scalping knife, of English -manufacture, were in his girdle; while a short military -rifle, of that sort with which the policy of the whites -armed their savage allies, lay carelessly across his bare -and sinewy knee. The expanded chest, full formed limbs, and -grave countenance of this warrior, would denote that he had -reached the vigor of his days, though no symptoms of decay -appeared to have yet weakened his manhood. - -* The North American warrior caused the hair to be -plucked from his whole body; a small tuft was left on the -crown of his head, in order that his enemy might avail -himself of it, in wrenching off the scalp in the event of -his fall. The scalp was the only admissible trophy of -victory. Thus, it was deemed more important to obtain the -scalp than to kill the man. Some tribes lay great stress on -the honor of striking a dead body. These practices have -nearly disappeared among the Indians of the Atlantic states. - -The frame of the white man, judging by such parts as were -not concealed by his clothes, was like that of one who had -known hardships and exertion from his earliest youth. His -person, though muscular, was rather attenuated than full; -but every nerve and muscle appeared strung and indurated by -unremitted exposure and toil. He wore a hunting shirt of -forest-green, fringed with faded yellow*, and a summer cap -of skins which had been shorn of their fur. He also bore a -knife in a girdle of wampum, like that which confined the -scanty garments of the Indian, but no tomahawk. His -moccasins were ornamented after the gay fashion of the -natives, while the only part of his under dress which -appeared below the hunting-frock was a pair of buckskin -leggings, that laced at the sides, and which were gartered -above the knees, with the sinews of a deer. A pouch and -horn completed his personal accouterments, though a rifle of -great length**, which the theory of the more ingenious whites -had taught them was the most dangerous of all firearms, -leaned against a neighboring sapling. The eye of the -hunter, or scout, whichever he might be, was small, quick, -keen, and restless, roving while he spoke, on every side of -him, as if in quest of game, or distrusting the sudden -approach of some lurking enemy. Notwithstanding the -symptoms of habitual suspicion, his countenance was not only -without guile, but at the moment at which he is introduced, -it was charged with an expression of sturdy honesty. - -* The hunting-shirt is a picturesque smock-frock, -being shorter, and ornamented with fringes and tassels. The -colors are intended to imitate the hues of the wood, with a -view to concealment. Many corps of American riflemen have -been thus attired, and the dress is one of the most striking -of modern times. The hunting-shirt is frequently white. - -** The rifle of the army is short; that of the hunter -is always long. - -"Even your traditions make the case in my favor, -Chingachgook," he said, speaking in the tongue which was -known to all the natives who formerly inhabited the country -between the Hudson and the Potomac, and of which we shall -give a free translation for the benefit of the reader; -endeavoring, at the same time, to preserve some of the -peculiarities, both of the individual and of the language. -"Your fathers came from the setting sun, crossed the big -river*, fought the people of the country, and took the land; -and mine came from the red sky of the morning, over the salt -lake, and did their work much after the fashion that had -been set them by yours; then let God judge the matter -between us, and friends spare their words!" - -* The Mississippi. The scout alludes to a tradition -which is very popular among the tribes of the Atlantic -states. Evidence of their Asiatic origin is deduced from -the circumstances, though great uncertainty hangs over the -whole history of the Indians. - -"My fathers fought with the naked red man!" returned the -Indian, sternly, in the same language. "Is there no -difference, Hawkeye, between the stone-headed arrow of the -warrior, and the leaden bullet with which you kill?" - -"There is reason in an Indian, though nature has made him -with a red skin!" said the white man, shaking his head like -one on whom such an appeal to his justice was not thrown -away. For a moment he appeared to be conscious of having -the worst of the argument, then, rallying again, he answered -the objection of his antagonist in the best manner his -limited information would allow: - -"I am no scholar, and I care not who knows it; but, judging -from what I have seen, at deer chases and squirrel hunts, of -the sparks below, I should think a rifle in the hands of -their grandfathers was not so dangerous as a hickory bow and -a good flint-head might be, if drawn with Indian judgment, -and sent by an Indian eye." - -"You have the story told by your fathers," returned the -other, coldly waving his hand. "What say your old men? Do -they tell the young warriors that the pale faces met the red -men, painted for war and armed with the stone hatchet and -wooden gun?" - -"I am not a prejudiced man, nor one who vaunts himself on -his natural privileges, though the worst enemy I have on -earth, and he is an Iroquois, daren't deny that I am genuine -white," the scout replied, surveying, with secret -satisfaction, the faded color of his bony and sinewy hand, -"and I am willing to own that my people have many ways, of -which, as an honest man, I can't approve. It is one of -their customs to write in books what they have done and -seen, instead of telling them in their villages, where the -lie can be given to the face of a cowardly boaster, and the -brave soldier can call on his comrades to witness for the -truth of his words. In consequence of this bad fashion, a -man, who is too conscientious to misspend his days among the -women, in learning the names of black marks, may never hear -of the deeds of his fathers, nor feel a pride in striving to -outdo them. For myself, I conclude the Bumppos could shoot, -for I have a natural turn with a rifle, which must have been -handed down from generation to generation, as, our holy -commandments tell us, all good and evil gifts are bestowed; -though I should be loath to answer for other people in such -a matter. But every story has its two sides; so I ask you, -Chingachgook, what passed, according to the traditions of -the red men, when our fathers first met?" - -A silence of a minute succeeded, during which the Indian sat -mute; then, full of the dignity of his office, he commenced -his brief tale, with a solemnity that served to heighten its -appearance of truth. - -"Listen, Hawkeye, and your ear shall drink no lie. 'Tis -what my fathers have said, and what the Mohicans have done." -He hesitated a single instant, and bending a cautious glance -toward his companion, he continued, in a manner that was -divided between interrogation and assertion. "Does not this -stream at our feet run toward the summer, until its waters -grow salt, and the current flows upward?" - -"It can't be denied that your traditions tell you true in -both these matters," said the white man; "for I have been -there, and have seen them, though why water, which is so -sweet in the shade, should become bitter in the sun, is an -alteration for which I have never been able to account." - -"And the current!" demanded the Indian, who expected his -reply with that sort of interest that a man feels in the -confirmation of testimony, at which he marvels even while he -respects it; "the fathers of Chingachgook have not lied!" - -"The holy Bible is not more true, and that is the truest -thing in nature. They call this up-stream current the tide, -which is a thing soon explained, and clear enough. Six -hours the waters run in, and six hours they run out, and the -reason is this: when there is higher water in the sea than -in the river, they run in until the river gets to be -highest, and then it runs out again." - -"The waters in the woods, and on the great lakes, run -downward until they lie like my hand," said the Indian, -stretching the limb horizontally before him, "and then they -run no more." - -"No honest man will deny it," said the scout, a little -nettled at the implied distrust of his explanation of the -mystery of the tides; "and I grant that it is true on the -small scale, and where the land is level. But everything -depends on what scale you look at things. Now, on the small -scale, the 'arth is level; but on the large scale it is -round. In this manner, pools and ponds, and even the great -fresh-water lakes, may be stagnant, as you and I both know -they are, having seen them; but when you come to spread -water over a great tract, like the sea, where the earth is -round, how in reason can the water be quiet? You might as -well expect the river to lie still on the brink of those -black rocks a mile above us, though your own ears tell you -that it is tumbling over them at this very moment." - -If unsatisfied by the philosophy of his companion, the -Indian was far too dignified to betray his unbelief. He -listened like one who was convinced, and resumed his -narrative in his former solemn manner. - -"We came from the place where the sun is hid at night, over -great plains where the buffaloes live, until we reached the -big river. There we fought the Alligewi, till the ground -was red with their blood. From the banks of the big river -to the shores of the salt lake, there was none to meet us. -The Maquas followed at a distance. We said the country -should be ours from the place where the water runs up no -longer on this stream, to a river twenty sun's journey -toward the summer. We drove the Maquas into the woods with -the bears. They only tasted salt at the licks; they drew no -fish from the great lake; we threw them the bones." - -"All this I have heard and believe," said the white man, -observing that the Indian paused; "but it was long before -the English came into the country." - -"A pine grew then where this chestnut now stands. The first -pale faces who came among us spoke no English. They came in -a large canoe, when my fathers had buried the tomahawk with -the red men around them. Then, Hawkeye," he continued, -betraying his deep emotion, only by permitting his voice to -fall to those low, guttural tones, which render his -language, as spoken at times, so very musical; "then, -Hawkeye, we were one people, and we were happy. The salt -lake gave us its fish, the wood its deer, and the air its -birds. We took wives who bore us children; we worshipped -the Great Spirit; and we kept the Maquas beyond the sound of -our songs of triumph." - -"Know you anything of your own family at that time?" -demanded the white. "But you are just a man, for an Indian; -and as I suppose you hold their gifts, your fathers must -have been brave warriors, and wise men at the council-fire." - -"My tribe is the grandfather of nations, but I am an unmixed -man. The blood of chiefs is in my veins, where it must stay -forever. The Dutch landed, and gave my people the fire- -water; they drank until the heavens and the earth seemed to -meet, and they foolishly thought they had found the Great -Spirit. Then they parted with their land. Foot by foot, -they were driven back from the shores, until I, that am a -chief and a Sagamore, have never seen the sun shine but -through the trees, and have never visited the graves of my -fathers." - -"Graves bring solemn feelings over the mind," returned the -scout, a good deal touched at the calm suffering of his -companion; "and they often aid a man in his good intentions; -though, for myself, I expect to leave my own bones unburied, -to bleach in the woods, or to be torn asunder by the wolves. -But where are to be found those of your race who came to -their kin in the Delaware country, so many summers since?" - -"Where are the blossoms of those summers!--fallen, one by -one; so all of my family departed, each in his turn, to the -land of spirits. I am on the hilltop and must go down into -the valley; and when Uncas follows in my footsteps there -will no longer be any of the blood of the Sagamores, for my -boy is the last of the Mohicans." - -"Uncas is here," said another voice, in the same soft, -guttural tones, near his elbow; "who speaks to Uncas?" - -The white man loosened his knife in his leathern sheath, and -made an involuntary movement of the hand toward his rifle, -at this sudden interruption; but the Indian sat composed, -and without turning his head at the unexpected sounds. - -At the next instant, a youthful warrior passed between them, -with a noiseless step, and seated himself on the bank of the -rapid stream. No exclamation of surprise escaped the -father, nor was any question asked, or reply given, for -several minutes; each appearing to await the moment when he -might speak, without betraying womanish curiosity or -childish impatience. The white man seemed to take counsel -from their customs, and, relinquishing his grasp of the -rifle, he also remained silent and reserved. At length -Chingachgook turned his eyes slowly toward his son, and -demanded: - -"Do the Maquas dare to leave the print of their moccasins in -these woods?" - -"I have been on their trail," replied the young Indian, "and -know that they number as many as the fingers of my two -hands; but they lie hid like cowards." - -"The thieves are outlying for scalps and plunder," said the -white man, whom we shall call Hawkeye, after the manner of -his companions. "That busy Frenchman, Montcalm, will send -his spies into our very camp, but he will know what road we -travel!" - -"'Tis enough," returned the father, glancing his eye toward -the setting sun; "they shall be driven like deer from their -bushes. Hawkeye, let us eat to-night, and show the Maquas -that we are men to-morrow." - -"I am as ready to do the one as the other; but to fight the -Iroquois 'tis necessary to find the skulkers; and to eat, -'tis necessary to get the game--talk of the devil and he -will come; there is a pair of the biggest antlers I have -seen this season, moving the bushes below the hill! Now, -Uncas," he continued, in a half whisper, and laughing with a -kind of inward sound, like one who had learned to be -watchful, "I will bet my charger three times full of powder, -against a foot of wampum, that I take him atwixt the eyes, -and nearer to the right than to the left." - -"It cannot be!" said the young Indian, springing to his feet -with youthful eagerness; "all but the tips of his horns are -hid!" - -"He's a boy!" said the white man, shaking his head while he -spoke, and addressing the father. "Does he think when a -hunter sees a part of the creature', he can't tell where the -rest of him should be!" - -Adjusting his rifle, he was about to make an exhibition of -that skill on which he so much valued himself, when the -warrior struck up the piece with his hand, saying: - -"Hawkeye! will you fight the Maquas?" - -"These Indians know the nature of the woods, as it might be -by instinct!" returned the scout, dropping his rifle, and -turning away like a man who was convinced of his error. "I -must leave the buck to your arrow, Uncas, or we may kill a -deer for them thieves, the Iroquois, to eat." - -The instant the father seconded this intimation by an -expressive gesture of the hand, Uncas threw himself on the -ground, and approached the animal with wary movements. When -within a few yards of the cover, he fitted an arrow to his -bow with the utmost care, while the antlers moved, as if -their owner snuffed an enemy in the tainted air. In another -moment the twang of the cord was heard, a white streak was -seen glancing into the bushes, and the wounded buck plunged -from the cover, to the very feet of his hidden enemy. -Avoiding the horns of the infuriated animal, Uncas darted to -his side, and passed his knife across the throat, when -bounding to the edge of the river it fell, dyeing the waters -with its blood. - -"'Twas done with Indian skill," said the scout laughing -inwardly, but with vast satisfaction; "and 'twas a pretty -sight to behold! Though an arrow is a near shot, and needs -a knife to finish the work." - -"Hugh!" ejaculated his companion, turning quickly, like a -hound who scented game. - -"By the Lord, there is a drove of them!" exclaimed the -scout, whose eyes began to glisten with the ardor of his -usual occupation; "if they come within range of a bullet I -will drop one, though the whole Six Nations should be -lurking within sound! What do you hear, Chingachgook? for -to my ears the woods are dumb." - -"There is but one deer, and he is dead," said the Indian, -bending his body till his ear nearly touched the earth. "I -hear the sounds of feet!" - -"Perhaps the wolves have driven the buck to shelter, and are -following on his trail." - -"No. The horses of white men are coming!" returned the -other, raising himself with dignity, and resuming his seat -on the log with his former composure. "Hawkeye, they are -your brothers; speak to them." - -"That I will, and in English that the king needn't be -ashamed to answer," returned the hunter, speaking in the -language of which he boasted; "but I see nothing, nor do I -hear the sounds of man or beast; 'tis strange that an Indian -should understand white sounds better than a man who, his -very enemies will own, has no cross in his blood, although -he may have lived with the red skins long enough to be -suspected! Ha! there goes something like the cracking of a -dry stick, too--now I hear the bushes move--yes, yes, -there is a trampling that I mistook for the falls--and-- -but here they come themselves; God keep them from the -Iroquois!" - - - -CHAPTER 4 - -"Well go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove Till I -torment thee for this injury."--Midsummer Night's Dream. - - -The words were still in the mouth of the scout, when the -leader of the party, whose approaching footsteps had caught -the vigilant ear of the Indian, came openly into view. A -beaten path, such as those made by the periodical passage of -the deer, wound through a little glen at no great distance, -and struck the river at the point where the white man and -his red companions had posted themselves. Along this track -the travelers, who had produced a surprise so unusual in the -depths of the forest, advanced slowly toward the hunter, who -was in front of his associates, in readiness to receive -them. - -"Who comes?" demanded the scout, throwing his rifle -carelessly across his left arm, and keeping the forefinger -of his right hand on the trigger, though he avoided all -appearance of menace in the act. "Who comes hither, among -the beasts and dangers of the wilderness?" - -"Believers in religion, and friends to the law and to the -king," returned he who rode foremost. "Men who have -journeyed since the rising sun, in the shades of this -forest, without nourishment, and are sadly tired of their -wayfaring." - -"You are, then, lost," interrupted the hunter, "and have -found how helpless 'tis not to know whether to take the -right hand or the left?" - -"Even so; sucking babes are not more dependent on those who -guide them than we who are of larger growth, and who may now -be said to possess the stature without the knowledge of men. -Know you the distance to a post of the crown called William -Henry?" - -"Hoot!" shouted the scout, who did not spare his open -laughter, though instantly checking the dangerous sounds he -indulged his merriment at less risk of being overheard by -any lurking enemies. "You are as much off the scent as a -hound would be, with Horican atwixt him and the deer! -William Henry, man! if you are friends to the king and have -business with the army, your way would be to follow the -river down to Edward, and lay the matter before Webb, who -tarries there, instead of pushing into the defiles, and -driving this saucy Frenchman back across Champlain, into his -den again." - -Before the stranger could make any reply to this unexpected -proposition, another horseman dashed the bushes aside, and -leaped his charger into the pathway, in front of his -companion. - -"What, then, may be our distance from Fort Edward?" demanded -a new speaker; "the place you advise us to seek we left this -morning, and our destination is the head of the lake." - -"Then you must have lost your eyesight afore losing your -way, for the road across the portage is cut to a good two -rods, and is as grand a path, I calculate, as any that runs -into London, or even before the palace of the king himself." - -"We will not dispute concerning the excellence of the -passage," returned Heyward, smiling; for, as the reader has -anticipated, it was he. "It is enough, for the present, -that we trusted to an Indian guide to take us by a nearer, though -blinder path, and that we are deceived in his knowledge. In -plain words, we know not where we are." - -"An Indian lost in the woods!" said the scout, shaking his -head doubtingly; "When the sun is scorching the tree tops, -and the water courses are full; when the moss on every beech -he sees will tell him in what quarter the north star will -shine at night. The woods are full of deer-paths which run -to the streams and licks, places well known to everybody; -nor have the geese done their flight to the Canada waters -altogether! 'Tis strange that an Indian should be lost -atwixt Horican and the bend in the river! Is he a Mohawk?" - -"Not by birth, though adopted in that tribe; I think his -birthplace was farther north, and he is one of those you -call a Huron." - -"Hugh!" exclaimed the two companions of the scout, who had -continued until this part of the dialogue, seated immovable, -and apparently indifferent to what passed, but who now -sprang to their feet with an activity and interest that had -evidently got the better of their reserve by surprise. - -"A Huron!" repeated the sturdy scout, once more shaking his -head in open distrust; "they are a thievish race, nor do I -care by whom they are adopted; you can never make anything -of them but skulls and vagabonds. Since you trusted -yourself to the care of one of that nation, I only wonder -that you have not fallen in with more." - -"Of that there is little danger, since William Henry is so -many miles in our front. You forget that I have told you -our guide is now a Mohawk, and that he serves with our -forces as a friend." - -"And I tell you that he who is born a Mingo will die a -Mingo," returned the other positively. "A Mohawk! No, give -me a Delaware or a Mohican for honesty; and when -they will fight, which they won't all do, having suffered -their cunning enemies, the Maquas, to make them women--but -when they will fight at all, look to a Delaware, or a -Mohican, for a warrior!" - -"Enough of this," said Heyward, impatiently; "I wish not to -inquire into the character of a man that I know, and to whom -you must be a stranger. You have not yet answered my -question; what is our distance from the main army at -Edward?" - -"It seems that may depend on who is your guide. One would -think such a horse as that might get over a good deal of -ground atwixt sun-up and sun-down." - -"I wish no contention of idle words with you, friend," said -Heyward, curbing his dissatisfied manner, and speaking in a -more gentle voice; "if you will tell me the distance to Fort -Edward, and conduct me thither, your labor shall not go -without its reward." - -"And in so doing, how know I that I don't guide an enemy and -a spy of Montcalm, to the works of the army? It is not every -man who can speak the English tongue that is an honest -subject." - -"If you serve with the troops, of whom I judge you to be a -scout, you should know of such a regiment of the king as the -Sixtieth." - -"The Sixtieth! you can tell me little of the Royal Americans -that I don't know, though I do wear a hunting-shirt instead -of a scarlet jacket." - -"Well, then, among other things, you may know the name of -its major?" - -"Its major!" interrupted the hunter, elevating his body like -one who was proud of his trust. "If there is a man in the -country who knows Major Effingham, he stands before you." - -"It is a corps which has many majors; the gentleman you -name is the senior, but I speak of the junior of them all; -he who commands the companies in garrison at William Henry." - -"Yes, yes, I have heard that a young gentleman of vast -riches, from one of the provinces far south, has got the -place. He is over young, too, to hold such rank, and to be -put above men whose heads are beginning to bleach; and yet -they say he is a soldier in his knowledge, and a gallant -gentleman!" - -"Whatever he may be, or however he may be qualified for his -rank, he now speaks to you and, of course, can be no enemy -to dread." - -The scout regarded Heyward in surprise, and then lifting his -cap, he answered, in a tone less confident than before-- -though still expressing doubt. - -"I have heard a party was to leave the encampment this -morning for the lake shore?" - -"You have heard the truth; but I preferred a nearer route, -trusting to the knowledge of the Indian I mentioned." - -"And he deceived you, and then deserted?" - -"Neither, as I believe; certainly not the latter, for he is -to be found in the rear." - -"I should like to look at the creature; if it is a true -Iroquois I can tell him by his knavish look, and by his -paint," said the scout; stepping past the charger of -Heyward, and entering the path behind the mare of the -singing master, whose foal had taken advantage of the halt -to exact the maternal contribution. After shoving aside the -bushes, and proceeding a few paces, he encountered the -females, who awaited the result of the conference with -anxiety, and not entirely without apprehension. Behind -these, the runner leaned against a tree, where he stood the -close examination of the scout with an air unmoved, though -with a look so dark and savage, that it might in itself -excite fear. Satisfied with his scrutiny, the hunter soon -left him. As he repassed the females, he paused a moment to -gaze upon their beauty, answering to the smile and nod of -Alice with a look of open pleasure. Thence he went to the -side of the motherly animal, and spending a minute in a -fruitless inquiry into the character of her rider, he shook -his head and returned to Heyward. - -"A Mingo is a Mingo, and God having made him so, neither the -Mohawks nor any other tribe can alter him," he said, when he -had regained his former position. "If we were alone, and -you would leave that noble horse at the mercy of the wolves -to-night, I could show you the way to Edward myself, within -an hour, for it lies only about an hour's journey hence; but -with such ladies in your company 'tis impossible!" - -"And why? They are fatigued, but they are quite equal to a -ride of a few more miles." - -"'Tis a natural impossibility!" repeated the scout; "I -wouldn't walk a mile in these woods after night gets into -them, in company with that runner, for the best rifle in the -colonies. They are full of outlying Iroquois, and your -mongrel Mohawk knows where to find them too well to be my -companion." - -"Think you so?" said Heyward, leaning forward in the saddle, -and dropping his voice nearly to a whisper; "I confess I -have not been without my own suspicions, though I have -endeavored to conceal them, and affected a confidence I have -not always felt, on account of my companions. It was -because I suspected him that I would follow no longer; -making him, as you see, follow me." - -"I knew he was one of the cheats as soon as I laid eyes on -him!" returned the scout, placing a finger on his nose, in -sign of caution. - -"The thief is leaning against the foot of the sugar sapling, -that you can see over them bushes; his right leg is in a -line with the bark of the tree, and," tapping his rifle, "I -can take him from where I stand, between the angle and the -knee, with a single shot, putting an end to his tramping -through the woods, for at least a month to come. If I -should go back to him, the cunning varmint would suspect -something, and be dodging through the trees like a -frightened deer." - -"It will not do. He may be innocent, and I dislike the act. -Though, if I felt confident of his treachery--" - -"'Tis a safe thing to calculate on the knavery of an -Iroquois," said the scout, throwing his rifle forward, by a -sort of instinctive movement. - -"Hold!" interrupted Heyward, "it will not do--we must -think of some other scheme--and yet, I have much reason to -believe the rascal has deceived me." - -The hunter, who had already abandoned his intention of -maiming the runner, mused a moment, and then made a gesture, -which instantly brought his two red companions to his side. -They spoke together earnestly in the Delaware language, -though in an undertone; and by the gestures of the white -man, which were frequently directed towards the top of the -sapling, it was evident he pointed out the situation of -their hidden enemy. His companions were not long in -comprehending his wishes, and laying aside their firearms, -they parted, taking opposite sides of the path, and burying -themselves in the thicket, with such cautious movements, -that their steps were inaudible. - -"Now, go you back," said the hunter, speaking again to -Heyward, "and hold the imp in talk; these Mohicans here will -take him without breaking his paint." - -"Nay," said Heyward, proudly, "I will seize him myself." - -"Hist! what could you do, mounted, against an Indian in the -bushes!" - -"I will dismount." - -"And, think you, when he saw one of your feet out of the -stirrup, he would wait for the other to be free? Whoever -comes into the woods to deal with the natives, must use -Indian fashions, if he would wish to prosper in his -undertakings. Go, then; talk openly to the miscreant, and -seem to believe him the truest friend you have on 'arth." - -Heyward prepared to comply, though with strong disgust at -the nature of the office he was compelled to execute. Each -moment, however, pressed upon him a conviction of the -critical situation in which he had suffered his invaluable -trust to be involved through his own confidence. The sun -had already disappeared, and the woods, suddenly deprived of -his light*, were assuming a dusky hue, which keenly reminded -him that the hour the savage usually chose for his most -barbarous and remorseless acts of vengeance or hostility, -was speedily drawing near. Stimulated by apprehension, he -left the scout, who immediately entered into a loud -conversation with the stranger that had so unceremoniously -enlisted himself in the party of travelers that morning. In -passing his gentler companions Heyward uttered a few words -of encouragement, and was pleased to find that, though -fatigued with the exercise of the day, they appeared to -entertain no suspicion that their present embarrassment was -other than the result of accident. Giving them reason to -believe he was merely employed in a consultation concerning -the future route, he spurred his charger, and drew the reins -again when the animal had carried him within a few yards of -the place where the sullen runner still stood, leaning -against the tree. - -* The scene of this tale was in the 42d degree of -latitude, where the twilight is never of long continuation. - -"You may see, Magua," he said, endeavoring to assume an air -of freedom and confidence, "that the night is closing around -us, and yet we are no nearer to William Henry than when we -left the encampment of Webb with the rising sun. - -"You have missed the way, nor have I been more fortunate. -But, happily, we have fallen in with a hunter, he whom you -hear talking to the singer, that is acquainted with the -deerpaths and by-ways of the woods, and who promises to lead -us to a place where we may rest securely till the morning." - -The Indian riveted his glowing eyes on Heyward as he asked, -in his imperfect English, "Is he alone?" - -"Alone!" hesitatingly answered Heyward, to whom deception -was too new to be assumed without embarrassment. "Oh! not -alone, surely, Magua, for you know that we are with him." - -"Then Le Renard Subtil will go," returned the runner, coolly -raising his little wallet from the place where it had lain -at his feet; "and the pale faces will see none but their own -color." - -"Go! Whom call you Le Renard?" - -"'Tis the name his Canada fathers have given to Magua," -returned the runner, with an air that manifested his pride -at the distinction. "Night is the same as day to Le Subtil, -when Munro waits for him." - -"And what account will Le Renard give the chief of William -Henry concerning his daughters? Will he dare to tell the hot- -blooded Scotsman that his children are left without a guide, -though Magua promised to be one?" - -"Though the gray head has a loud voice, and a long arm, Le -Renard will not hear him, nor feel him, in the woods." - -"But what will the Mohawks say? They will make him -petticoats, and bid him stay in the wigwam with the women, -for he is no longer to be trusted with the business of a -man." - -"Le Subtil knows the path to the great lakes, and he can -find the bones of his fathers," was the answer of the -unmoved runner. - -"Enough, Magua," said Heyward; "are we not friends? -Why should there be bitter words between us? Munro has -promised you a gift for your services when performed, and I -shall be your debtor for another. Rest your weary limbs, -then, and open your wallet to eat. We have a few moments to -spare; let us not waste them in talk like wrangling women. -When the ladies are refreshed we will proceed." - -"The pale faces make themselves dogs to their women," -muttered the Indian, in his native language, "and when they -want to eat, their warriors must lay aside the tomahawk to -feed their laziness." - -"What say you, Renard?" - -"Le Subtil says it is good." - -The Indian then fastened his eyes keenly on the open -countenance of Heyward, but meeting his glance, he turned -them quickly away, and seating himself deliberately on the -ground, he drew forth the remnant of some former repast, and -began to eat, though not without first bending his looks -slowly and cautiously around him. - -"This is well," continued Heyward; "and Le Renard will have -strength and sight to find the path in the morning"; he -paused, for sounds like the snapping of a dried stick, and -the rustling of leaves, rose from the adjacent bushes, but -recollecting himself instantly, he continued, "we must be -moving before the sun is seen, or Montcalm may lie in our -path, and shut us out from the fortress." - -The hand of Magua dropped from his mouth to his side, and -though his eyes were fastened on the ground, his head was -turned aside, his nostrils expanded, and his ears seemed -even to stand more erect than usual, giving to him the -appearance of a statue that was made to represent intense -attention. - -Heyward, who watched his movements with a vigilant eye, -carelessly extricated one of his feet from the stirrup, -while he passed a hand toward the bear-skin covering of his -holsters. - -Every effort to detect the point most regarded by the runner -was completely frustrated by the tremulous glances of his -organs, which seemed not to rest a single instant on any -particular object, and which, at the same time, could be -hardly said to move. While he hesitated how to proceed, Le -Subtil cautiously raised himself to his feet, though with a -motion so slow and guarded, that not the slightest noise was -produced by the change. Heyward felt it had now become -incumbent on him to act. Throwing his leg over the saddle, -he dismounted, with a determination to advance and seize his -treacherous companion, trusting the result to his own -manhood. In order, however, to prevent unnecessary alarm, -he still preserved an air of calmness and friendship. - -"Le Renard Subtil does not eat," he said, using the -appellation he had found most flattering to the vanity of -the Indian. "His corn is not well parched, and it seems -dry. Let me examine; perhaps something may be found among -my own provisions that will help his appetite." - -Magua held out the wallet to the proffer of the other. He -even suffered their hands to meet, without betraying the -least emotion, or varying his riveted attitude of attention. -But when he felt the fingers of Heyward moving gently along -his own naked arm, he struck up the limb of the young man, -and, uttering a piercing cry, he darted beneath it, and -plunged, at a single bound, into the opposite thicket. At -the next instant the form of Chingachgook appeared from the -bushes, looking like a specter in its paint, and glided -across the path in swift pursuit. Next followed the shout -of Uncas, when the woods were lighted by a sudden flash, -that was accompanied by the sharp report of the hunter's -rifle. - - - -CHAPTER 5 - -..."In such a night Did Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dew; -And saw the lion's shadow ere himself." Merchant of Venice - -The suddenness of the flight of his guide, and the wild -cries of the pursuers, caused Heyward to remain fixed, for a -few moments, in inactive surprise. Then recollecting the -importance of securing the fugitive, he dashed aside the -surrounding bushes, and pressed eagerly forward to lend his -aid in the chase. Before he had, however, proceeded a -hundred yards, he met the three foresters already returning -from their unsuccessful pursuit. - -"Why so soon disheartened!" he exclaimed; "the scoundrel -must be concealed behind some of these trees, and may yet be -secured. We are not safe while he goes at large." - -"Would you set a cloud to chase the wind?" returned the -disappointed scout; "I heard the imp brushing over the dry -leaves, like a black snake, and blinking a glimpse of him, -just over ag'in yon big pine, I pulled as it might be on the -scent; but 'twouldn't do! and yet for a reasoning aim, if -anybody but myself had touched the trigger, I should call it -a quick sight; and I may be accounted to have experience in -these matters, and one who ought to know. Look at this -sumach; its leaves are red, though everybody knows the fruit -is in the yellow blossom in the month of July!" - -"'Tis the blood of Le Subtil! he is hurt, and may yet fall!" - -"No, no," returned the scout, in decided disapprobation of -this opinion, "I rubbed the bark off a limb, perhaps, but -the creature leaped the longer for it. A rifle bullet acts -on a running animal, when it barks him, much the same as one -of your spurs on a horse; that is, it quickens motion, and -puts life into the flesh, instead of taking it away. But -when it cuts the ragged hole, after a bound or two, there -is, commonly, a stagnation of further leaping, be it Indian -or be it deer!" - -"We are four able bodies, to one wounded man!" - -"Is life grievous to you?" interrupted the scout. "Yonder -red devil would draw you within swing of the tomahawks of -his comrades, before you were heated in the chase. It was -an unthoughtful act in a man who has so often slept with the -war-whoop ringing in the air, to let off his piece within -sound of an ambushment! But then it was a natural -temptation! 'twas very natural! Come, friends, let us move -our station, and in such fashion, too, as will throw the -cunning of a Mingo on a wrong scent, or our scalps will be -drying in the wind in front of Montcalm's marquee, ag'in -this hour to-morrow." - -This appalling declaration, which the scout uttered with the -cool assurance of a man who fully comprehended, while he did -not fear to face the danger, served to remind Heyward of the -importance of the charge with which he himself had been -intrusted. Glancing his eyes around, with a vain effort to -pierce the gloom that was thickening beneath the leafy -arches of the forest, he felt as if, cut off from human aid, -his unresisting companions would soon lie at the entire -mercy of those barbarous enemies, who, like beasts of prey, -only waited till the gathering darkness might render their -blows more fatally certain. His awakened imagination, -deluded by the deceptive light, converted each waving bush, -or the fragment of some fallen tree, into human forms, and -twenty times he fancied he could distinguish the horrid -visages of his lurking foes, peering from their hiding -places, in never ceasing watchfulness of the movements of -his party. Looking upward, he found that the thin fleecy -clouds, which evening had painted on the blue sky, were -already losing their faintest tints of rose-color, while the -imbedded stream, which glided past the spot where he stood, -was to be traced only by the dark boundary of its wooded -banks. - -"What is to be done!" he said, feeling the utter -helplessness of doubt in such a pressing strait; "desert me -not, for God's sake! remain to defend those I escort, and -freely name your own reward!" - -His companions, who conversed apart in the language of their -tribe, heeded not this sudden and earnest appeal. Though -their dialogue was maintained in low and cautious sounds, -but little above a whisper, Heyward, who now approached, -could easily distinguish the earnest tones of the younger -warrior from the more deliberate speeches of his seniors. -It was evident that they debated on the propriety of some -measure, that nearly concerned the welfare of the travelers. -Yielding to his powerful interest in the subject, and -impatient of a delay that seemed fraught with so much -additional danger, Heyward drew still nigher to the dusky -group, with an intention of making his offers of -compensation more definite, when the white man, motioning -with his hand, as if he conceded the disputed point, turned -away, saying in a sort of soliloquy, and in the English -tongue: - -"Uncas is right! it would not be the act of men to leave -such harmless things to their fate, even though it breaks up -the harboring place forever. If you would save these tender -blossoms from the fangs of the worst of serpents, gentleman, -you have neither time to lose nor resolution to throw away!" - -"How can such a wish be doubted! Have I not already offered ---" - -"Offer your prayers to Him who can give us wisdom to -circumvent the cunning of the devils who fill these woods," -calmly interrupted the scout, "but spare your offers of -money, which neither you may live to realize, nor I to -profit by. These Mohicans and I will do what man's thoughts -can invent, to keep such flowers, which, though so sweet, -were never made for the wilderness, from harm, and that -without hope of any other recompense but such as God always -gives to upright dealings. First, you must promise two -things, both in your own name and for your friends, or -without serving you we shall only injure ourselves!" - -"Name them." - -"The one is, to be still as these sleeping woods, let what -will happen and the other is, to keep the place where we -shall take you, forever a secret from all mortal men." - -"I will do my utmost to see both these conditions -fulfilled." - -"Then follow, for we are losing moments that are as precious -as the heart's blood to a stricken deer!" - -Heyward could distinguish the impatient gesture of the -scout, through the increasing shadows of the evening, and he -moved in his footsteps, swiftly, toward the place where he -had left the remainder of the party. When they rejoined the -expecting and anxious females, he briefly acquainted them -with the conditions of their new guide, and with the -necessity that existed for their hushing every apprehension -in instant and serious exertions. Although his alarming -communication was not received without much secret terror by -the listeners, his earnest and impressive manner, aided -perhaps by the nature of the danger, succeeded in bracing -their nerves to undergo some unlooked-for and unusual trial. -Silently, and without a moment's delay, they permitted him -to assist them from their saddles, and when they descended -quickly to the water's edge, where the scout had collected -the rest of the party, more by the agency of expressive -gestures than by any use of words. - -"What to do with these dumb creatures!" muttered the white -man, on whom the sole control of their future movements -appeared to devolve; "it would be time lost to cut their -throats, and cast them into the river; and to leave them -here would be to tell the Mingoes that they have not far to -seek to find their owners!" - -"Then give them their bridles, and let them range the -woods," Heyward ventured to suggest. - -"No; it would be better to mislead the imps, and make them -believe they must equal a horse's speed to run down their -chase. Ay, ay, that will blind their fireballs of eyes! -Chingach--Hist! what stirs the bush?" - -"The colt." - -"That colt, at least, must die," muttered the scout, -grasping at the mane of the nimble beast, which easily -eluded his hand; "Uncas, your arrows!" - -"Hold!" exclaimed the proprietor of the condemned animal, -aloud, without regard to the whispering tones used by the -others; "spare the foal of Miriam! it is the comely -offspring of a faithful dam, and would willingly injure -naught." - -"When men struggle for the single life God has given them," -said the scout, sternly, "even their own kind seem no more -than the beasts of the wood. If you speak again, I shall -leave you to the mercy of the Maquas! Draw to your arrow's -head, Uncas; we have no time for second blows." - -The low, muttering sounds of his threatening voice were -still audible, when the wounded foal, first rearing on its -hinder legs, plunged forward to its knees. It was met by -Chingachgook, whose knife passed across its throat quicker -than thought, and then precipitating the motions of the -struggling victim, he dashed into the river, down whose -stream it glided away, gasping audibly for breath with its -ebbing life. This deed of apparent cruelty, but of real -necessity, fell upon the spirits of the travelers like a -terrific warning of the peril in which they stood, -heightened as it was by the calm though steady resolution of -the actors in the scene. The sisters shuddered and clung -closer to each other, while Heyward instinctively laid his -hand on one of the pistols he had just drawn from their -holsters, as he placed himself between his charge and those -dense shadows that seemed to draw an impenetrable veil -before the bosom of the forest. - -The Indians, however, hesitated not a moment, but taking the -bridles, they led the frightened and reluctant horses into -the bed of the river. - -At a short distance from the shore they turned, and were -soon concealed by the projection of the bank, under the brow -of which they moved, in a direction opposite to the course -of the waters. In the meantime, the scout drew a canoe of -bark from its place of concealment beneath some low bushes, -whose branches were waving with the eddies of the current, -into which he silently motioned for the females to enter. -They complied without hesitation, though many a fearful and -anxious glance was thrown behind them, toward the thickening -gloom, which now lay like a dark barrier along the margin of -the stream. - -So soon as Cora and Alice were seated, the scout, without -regarding the element, directed Heyward to support one side -of the frail vessel, and posting himself at the other, they -bore it up against the stream, followed by the dejected -owner of the dead foal. In this manner they proceeded, for -many rods, in a silence that was only interrupted by the -rippling of the water, as its eddies played around them, or -the low dash made by their own cautious footsteps. Heyward -yielded the guidance of the canoe implicitly to the scout, -who approached or receded from the shore, to avoid the -fragments of rocks, or deeper parts of the river, with a -readiness that showed his knowledge of the route they held. -Occasionally he would stop; and in the midst of a breathing -stillness, that the dull but increasing roar of the -waterfall only served to render more impressive, he would -listen with painful intenseness, to catch any sounds that -might arise from the slumbering forest. When assured that -all was still, and unable to detect, even by the aid of his -practiced senses, any sign of his approaching foes, he would -deliberately resume his slow and guarded progress. At -length they reached a point in the river where the roving -eye of Heyward became riveted on a cluster of black objects, -collected at a spot where the high bank threw a deeper -shadow than usual on the dark waters. Hesitating to -advance, he pointed out the place to the attention of his -companion. - -"Ay," returned the composed scout, "the Indians have hid the -beasts with the judgment of natives! Water leaves no trail, -and an owl's eyes would be blinded by the darkness of such a -hole." - -The whole party was soon reunited, and another consultation -was held between the scout and his new comrades, during -which, they, whose fates depended on the faith and ingenuity -of these unknown foresters, had a little leisure to observe -their situation more minutely. - -The river was confined between high and cragged rocks, one -of which impended above the spot where the canoe rested. As -these, again, were surmounted by tall trees, which appeared -to totter on the brows of the precipice, it gave the stream -the appearance of running through a deep and narrow dell. -All beneath the fantastic limbs and ragged tree tops, which -were, here and there, dimly painted against the starry -zenith, lay alike in shadowed obscurity. Behind them, the -curvature of the banks soon bounded the view by the same -dark and wooded outline; but in front, and apparently at no -great distance, the water seemed piled against the heavens, -whence it tumbled into caverns, out of which issued those -sullen sounds that had loaded the evening atmosphere. It -seemed, in truth, to be a spot devoted to seclusion, and the -sisters imbibed a soothing impression of security, as they -gazed upon its romantic though not unappalling beauties. A -general movement among their conductors, however, soon -recalled them from a contemplation of the wild charms that -night had assisted to lend the place to a painful sense of -their real peril. - -The horses had been secured to some scattering shrubs that -grew in the fissures of the rocks, where, standing in the -water, they were left to pass the night. The scout directed -Heyward and his disconsolate fellow travelers to seat -themselves in the forward end of the canoe, and took -possession of the other himself, as erect and steady as if -he floated in a vessel of much firmer materials. The -Indians warily retraced their steps toward the place they -had left, when the scout, placing his pole against a rock, -by a powerful shove, sent his frail bark directly into the -turbulent stream. For many minutes the struggle between the -light bubble in which they floated and the swift current was -severe and doubtful. Forbidden to stir even a hand, and -almost afraid to breath, lest they should expose the frail -fabric to the fury of the stream, the passengers watched the -glancing waters in feverish suspense. Twenty times they -thought the whirling eddies were sweeping them to -destruction, when the master-hand of their pilot would -bring the bows of the canoe to stem the rapid. A long, a -vigorous, and, as it appeared to the females, a desperate -effort, closed the struggle. Just as Alice veiled her eyes -in horror, under the impression that they were about to be -swept within the vortex at the foot of the cataract, the -canoe floated, stationary, at the side of a flat rock, that -lay on a level with the water. - -"Where are we, and what is next to be done!" demanded -Heyward, perceiving that the exertions of the scout had -ceased. - -"You are at the foot of Glenn's," returned the other, -speaking aloud, without fear of consequences within the roar -of the cataract; "and the next thing is to make a steady -landing, lest the canoe upset, and you should go down again -the hard road we have traveled faster than you came up; 'tis -a hard rift to stem, when the river is a little swelled; and -five is an unnatural number to keep dry, in a hurry-skurry, -with a little birchen bark and gum. There, go you all on -the rock, and I will bring up the Mohicans with the venison. -A man had better sleep without his scalp, than famish in the -midst of plenty." - -His passengers gladly complied with these directions. As -the last foot touched the rock, the canoe whirled from its -station, when the tall form of the scout was seen, for an -instant, gliding above the waters, before it disappeared in -the impenetrable darkness that rested on the bed of the -river. Left by their guide, the travelers remained a few -minutes in helpless ignorance, afraid even to move along the -broken rocks, lest a false step should precipitate them down -some one of the many deep and roaring caverns, into which -the water seemed to tumble, on every side of them. Their -suspense, however, was soon relieved; for, aided by the -skill of the natives, the canoe shot back into the eddy, and -floated again at the side of the low rock, before they -thought the scout had even time to rejoin his companions. - -"We are now fortified, garrisoned, and provisioned," cried -Heyward cheerfully, "and may set Montcalm and his allies at -defiance. How, now, my vigilant sentinel, can see anything -of those you call the Iroquois, on the main land!" - -"I call them Iroquois, because to me every native, who -speaks a foreign tongue, is accounted an enemy, though he -may pretend to serve the king! If Webb wants faith and -honesty in an Indian, let him bring out the tribes of the -Delawares, and send these greedy and lying Mohawks and -Oneidas, with their six nations of varlets, where in nature -they belong, among the French!" - -"We should then exchange a warlike for a useless friend! I -have heard that the Delawares have laid aside the hatchet, -and are content to be called women!" - -"Aye, shame on the Hollanders and Iroquois, who circumvented -them by their deviltries, into such a treaty! But I have -known them for twenty years, and I call him liar that says -cowardly blood runs in the veins of a Delaware. You have -driven their tribes from the seashore, and would now believe -what their enemies say, that you may sleep at night upon an -easy pillow. No, no; to me, every Indian who speaks a -foreign tongue is an Iroquois, whether the castle* of his -tribe be in Canada, or be in York." - -* The principal villages of the Indians are still -called "castles" by the whites of New York. "Oneida castle" -is no more than a scattered hamlet; but the name is in -general use. - -Heyward, perceiving that the stubborn adherence of the scout -to the cause of his friends the Delawares, or Mohicans, for -they were branches of the same numerous people, was likely -to prolong a useless discussion, changed the subject. - -"Treaty or no treaty, I know full well that your two -companions are brave and cautious warriors! have they heard -or seen anything of our enemies!" - -"An Indian is a mortal to be felt afore he is seen," -returned the scout, ascending the rock, and throwing the -deer carelessly down. "I trust to other signs than such as -come in at the eye, when I am outlying on the trail of the -Mingoes." - -"Do your ears tell you that they have traced our retreat?" - -"I should be sorry to think they had, though this is a spot -that stout courage might hold for a smart scrimmage. I will -not deny, however, but the horses cowered when I passed -them, as though they scented the wolves; and a wolf is a -beast that is apt to hover about an Indian ambushment, -craving the offals of the deer the savages kill." - -"You forget the buck at your feet! or, may we not owe their -visit to the dead colt? Ha! what noise is that?" - -"Poor Miriam!" murmured the stranger; "thy foal was -foreordained to become a prey to ravenous beasts!" Then, -suddenly lifting up his voice, amid the eternal din of the -waters, he sang aloud: "First born of Egypt, smite did he, -Of mankind, and of beast also: O, Egypt! wonders sent 'midst -thee, On Pharaoh and his servants too!" - -"The death of the colt sits heavy on the heart of its -owner," said the scout; "but it's a good sign to see a man -account upon his dumb friends. He has the religion of the -matter, in believing what is to happen will happen; and with -such a consolation, it won't be long afore he submits to the -rationality of killing a four-footed beast to save the lives -of human men. It may be as you say," he continued, -reverting to the purport of Heyward's last remark; "and the -greater the reason why we should cut our steaks, and let the -carcass drive down the stream, or we shall have the pack -howling along the cliffs, begrudging every mouthful we -swallow. Besides, though the Delaware tongue is the same as -a book to the Iroquois, the cunning varlets are quick enough -at understanding the reason of a wolf's howl." - -The scout, while making his remarks, was busied in -collecting certain necessary implements; as he concluded, he -moved silently by the group of travelers, accompanied by the -Mohicans, who seemed to comprehend his intentions with -instinctive readiness, when the whole three disappeared in -succession, seeming to vanish against the dark face of a -perpendicular rock that rose to the height of a few yards, -within as many feet of the water's edge. - - - -CHAPTER 6 - -"Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide; He wales a -portion with judicious care; And 'Let us worship God', he -says, with solemn air."--Burns - -Heyward and his female companions witnessed this mysterious -movement with secret uneasiness; for, though the conduct of -the white man had hitherto been above reproach, his rude -equipments, blunt address, and strong antipathies, together -with the character of his silent associates, were all causes -for exciting distrust in minds that had been so recently -alarmed by Indian treachery. - -The stranger alone disregarded the passing incidents. He -seated himself on a projection of the rocks, whence he gave -no other signs of consciousness than by the struggles of his -spirit, as manifested in frequent and heavy sighs. -Smothered voices were next heard, as though men called to -each other in the bowels of the earth, when a sudden light -flashed upon those without, and laid bare the much-prized -secret of the place. - -At the further extremity of a narrow, deep cavern in the -rock, whose length appeared much extended by the perspective -and the nature of the light by which it was seen, was seated -the scout, holding a blazing knot of pine. The strong glare -of the fire fell full upon his sturdy, weather-beaten -countenance and forest attire, lending an air of romantic -wildness to the aspect of an individual, who, seen by the -sober light of day, would have exhibited the peculiarities -of a man remarkable for the strangeness of his dress, the -iron-like inflexibility of his frame, and the singular -compound of quick, vigilant sagacity, and of exquisite -simplicity, that by turns usurped the possession of his -muscular features. At a little distance in advance stood -Uncas, his whole person thrown powerfully into view. The -travelers anxiously regarded the upright, flexible figure of -the young Mohican, graceful and unrestrained in the -attitudes and movements of nature. Though his person was -more than usually screened by a green and fringed hunting- -shirt, like that of the white man, there was no concealment -to his dark, glancing, fearless eye, alike terrible and -calm; the bold outline of his high, haughty features, pure -in their native red; or to the dignified elevation of his -receding forehead, together with all the finest proportions -of a noble head, bared to the generous scalping tuft. It -was the first opportunity possessed by Duncan and his -companions to view the marked lineaments of either of their -Indian attendants, and each individual of the party felt -relieved from a burden of doubt, as the proud and -determined, though wild expression of the features of the -young warrior forced itself on their notice. They felt it -might be a being partially benighted in the vale of -ignorance, but it could not be one who would willingly -devote his rich natural gifts to the purposes of wanton -treachery. The ingenuous Alice gazed at his free air and -proud carriage, as she would have looked upon some precious -relic of the Grecian chisel, to which life had been imparted -by the intervention of a miracle; while Heyward, though -accustomed to see the perfection of form which abounds among -the uncorrupted natives, openly expressed his admiration at -such an unblemished specimen of the noblest proportions of -man. - -"I could sleep in peace," whispered Alice, in reply, "with -such a fearless and generous-looking youth for my sentinel. -Surely, Duncan, those cruel murders, those terrific scenes -of torture, of which we read and hear so much, are never -acted in the presence of such as he!" - -"This certainly is a rare and brilliant instance of those -natural qualities in which these peculiar people are said to -excel," he answered. "I agree with you, Alice, in thinking -that such a front and eye were formed rather to intimidate -than to deceive; but let us not practice a deception upon -ourselves, by expecting any other exhibition of what we -esteem virtue than according to the fashion of the savage. -As bright examples of great qualities are but too uncommon -among Christians, so are they singular and solitary with the -Indians; though, for the honor of our common nature, neither -are incapable of producing them. Let us then hope that this -Mohican may not disappoint our wishes, but prove what his -looks assert him to be, a brave and constant friend." - -"Now Major Heyward speaks as Major Heyward should," said -Cora; "who that looks at this creature of nature, remembers -the shade of his skin?" - -A short and apparently an embarrassed silence succeeded this -remark, which was interrupted by the scout calling to them, -aloud, to enter. - -"This fire begins to show too bright a flame," he continued, -as they complied, "and might light the Mingoes to our -undoing. Uncas, drop the blanket, and show the knaves its -dark side. This is not such a supper as a major of the -Royal Americans has a right to expect, but I've known stout -detachments of the corps glad to eat their venison raw, and -without a relish, too*. Here, you see, we have plenty of -salt, and can make a quick broil. There's fresh sassafras -boughs for the ladies to sit on, which may not be as proud -as their my-hog-guinea chairs, but which sends up a sweeter -flavor, than the skin of any hog can do, be it of Guinea, or -be it of any other land. Come, friend, don't be mournful -for the colt; 'twas an innocent thing, and had not seen much -hardship. Its death will save the creature many a sore back -and weary foot!" - -* In vulgar parlance the condiments of a repast are -called by the American "a relish," substituting the thing -for its effect. These provincial terms are frequently put -in the mouths of the speakers, according to their several -conditions in life. Most of them are of local use, and -others quite peculiar to the particular class of men to -which the character belongs. In the present instance, the -scout uses the word with immediate reference to the "salt," -with which his own party was so fortunate as to be provided. - -Uncas did as the other had directed, and when the voice of -Hawkeye ceased, the roar of the cataract sounded like the -rumbling of distant thunder. - -"Are we quite safe in this cavern?" demanded Heyward. "Is -there no danger of surprise? A single armed man, at its -entrance, would hold us at his mercy." - -A spectral-looking figure stalked from out of the darkness -behind the scout, and seizing a blazing brand, held it -toward the further extremity of their place of retreat. -Alice uttered a faint shriek, and even Cora rose to her -feet, as this appalling object moved into the light; but a -single word from Heyward calmed them, with the assurance it -was only their attendant, Chingachgook, who, lifting another -blanket, discovered that the cavern had two outlets. Then, -holding the brand, he crossed a deep, narrow chasm in the -rocks which ran at right angles with the passage they were -in, but which, unlike that, was open to the heavens, and -entered another cave, answering to the description of the -first, in every essential particular. - -"Such old foxes as Chingachgook and myself are not often -caught in a barrow with one hole," said Hawkeye, laughing; -"you can easily see the cunning of the place--the rock is -black limestone, which everybody knows is soft; it makes no -uncomfortable pillow, where brush and pine wood is scarce; -well, the fall was once a few yards below us, and I dare to -say was, in its time, as regular and as handsome a sheet of -water as any along the Hudson. But old age is a great -injury to good looks, as these sweet young ladies have yet -to l'arn! The place is sadly changed! These rocks are full -of cracks, and in some places they are softer than at -othersome, and the water has worked out deep hollows for -itself, until it has fallen back, ay, some hundred feet, -breaking here and wearing there, until the falls have -neither shape nor consistency." - -"In what part of them are we?" asked Heyward. - -"Why, we are nigh the spot that Providence first placed them -at, but where, it seems, they were too rebellious to stay. -The rock proved softer on each side of us, and so they left -the center of the river bare and dry, first working out -these two little holes for us to hide in." - -"We are then on an island!" - -"Ay! there are the falls on two sides of us, and the river -above and below. If you had daylight, it would be worth the -trouble to step up on the height of this rock, and look at -the perversity of the water. It falls by no rule at all; -sometimes it leaps, sometimes it tumbles; there it skips; -here it shoots; in one place 'tis white as snow, and in -another 'tis green as grass; hereabouts, it pitches into -deep hollows, that rumble and crush the 'arth; and -thereaways, it ripples and sings like a brook, fashioning -whirlpools and gullies in the old stone, as if 'twas no -harder than trodden clay. The whole design of the river -seems disconcerted. First it runs smoothly, as if meaning -to go down the descent as things were ordered; then it -angles about and faces the shores; nor are there places -wanting where it looks backward, as if unwilling to leave -the wilderness, to mingle with the salt. Ay, lady, the fine -cobweb-looking cloth you wear at your throat is coarse, and -like a fishnet, to little spots I can show you, where the -river fabricates all sorts of images, as if having broke -loose from order, it would try its hand at everything. And -yet what does it amount to! After the water has been -suffered so to have its will, for a time, like a headstrong -man, it is gathered together by the hand that made it, and a -few rods below you may see it all, flowing on steadily -toward the sea, as was foreordained from the first -foundation of the 'arth!" - -While his auditors received a cheering assurance of the -security of their place of concealment from this untutored -description of Glenn's,* they were much inclined to judge -differently from Hawkeye, of its wild beauties. But they -were not in a situation to suffer their thoughts to dwell on -the charms of natural objects; and, as the scout had not -found it necessary to cease his culinary labors while he -spoke, unless to point out, with a broken fork, the -direction of some particularly obnoxious point in the -rebellious stream, they now suffered their attention to be -drawn to the necessary though more vulgar consideration of -their supper. - -* Glenn's Falls are on the Hudson, some forty or fifty -miles above the head of tide, or that place where the river -becomes navigable for sloops. The description of this -picturesque and remarkable little cataract, as given by the -scout, is sufficiently correct, though the application of -the water to uses of civilized life has materially injured -its beauties. The rocky island and the two caverns are -known to every traveler, since the former sustains the pier -of a bridge, which is now thrown across the river, -immediately above the fall. In explanation of the taste of -Hawkeye, it should be remembered that men always prize that -most which is least enjoyed. Thus, in a new country, the -woods and other objects, which in an old country would be -maintained at great cost, are got rid of, simply with a view -of "improving" as it is called. - -The repast, which was greatly aided by the addition of a few -delicacies that Heyward had the precaution to bring with him -when they left their horses, was exceedingly refreshing to -the weary party. Uncas acted as attendant to the females, -performing all the little offices within his power, with a -mixture of dignity and anxious grace, that served to amuse -Heyward, who well knew that it was an utter innovation on -the Indian customs, which forbid their warriors to descend -to any menial employment, especially in favor of their -women. As the rights of hospitality were, however, -considered sacred among them, this little departure from the -dignity of manhood excited no audible comment. Had there -been one there sufficiently disengaged to become a close -observer, he might have fancied that the services of the -young chief were not entirely impartial. That while he -tendered to Alice the gourd of sweet water, and the venison -in a trencher, neatly carved from the knot of the -pepperidge, with sufficient courtesy, in performing the same -offices to her sister, his dark eye lingered on her rich, -speaking countenance. Once or twice he was compelled to -speak, to command her attention of those he served. In such -cases he made use of English, broken and imperfect, but -sufficiently intelligible, and which he rendered so mild and -musical, by his deep, guttural voice, that it never failed -to cause both ladies to look up in admiration and -astonishment. In the course of these civilities, a few -sentences were exchanged, that served to establish the -appearance of an amicable intercourse between the parties. - -In the meanwhile, the gravity of Chingcachgook remained -immovable. He had seated himself more within the circle of -light, where the frequent, uneasy glances of his guests were -better enabled to separate the natural expression of his -face from the artificial terrors of the war paint. They -found a strong resemblance between father and son, with the -difference that might be expected from age and hardships. -The fierceness of his countenance now seemed to slumber, and -in its place was to be seen the quiet, vacant composure -which distinguishes an Indian warrior, when his faculties -are not required for any of the greater purposes of his -existence. It was, however, easy to be seen, by the -occasional gleams that shot across his swarthy visage, that -it was only necessary to arouse his passions, in order to -give full effect to the terrific device which he had adopted -to intimidate his enemies. On the other hand, the quick, -roving eye of the scout seldom rested. He ate and drank -with an appetite that no sense of danger could disturb, but -his vigilance seemed never to desert him. Twenty times the -gourd or the venison was suspended before his lips, while -his head was turned aside, as though he listened to some -distant and distrusted sounds--a movement that never -failed to recall his guests from regarding the novelties of -their situation, to a recollection of the alarming reasons -that had driven them to seek it. As these frequent pauses -were never followed by any remark, the momentary uneasiness -they created quickly passed away, and for a time was -forgotten. - -"Come, friend," said Hawkeye, drawing out a keg from beneath -a cover of leaves, toward the close of the repast, and -addressing the stranger who sat at his elbow, doing great -justice to his culinary skill, "try a little spruce; 'twill -wash away all thoughts of the colt, and quicken the life in -your bosom. I drink to our better friendship, hoping that a -little horse-flesh may leave no heart-burnings atween us. -How do you name yourself?" - -"Gamut--David Gamut," returned the singing master, -preparing to wash down his sorrows in a powerful draught of -the woodsman's high-flavored and well-laced compound. - -"A very good name, and, I dare say, handed down from honest -forefathers. I'm an admirator of names, though the -Christian fashions fall far below savage customs in this -particular. The biggest coward I ever knew as called Lyon; -and his wife, Patience, would scold you out of hearing in -less time than a hunted deer would run a rod. With an -Indian 'tis a matter of conscience; what he calls himself, -he generally is--not that Chingachgook, which signifies -Big Sarpent, is really a snake, big or little; but that he -understands the windings and turnings of human natur', and -is silent, and strikes his enemies when they least expect -him. What may be your calling?" - -"I am an unworthy instructor in the art of psalmody." - -"Anan!" - -"I teach singing to the youths of the Connecticut levy." - -"You might be better employed. The young hounds go laughing -and singing too much already through the woods, when they -ought not to breathe louder than a fox in his cover. Can -you use the smoothbore, or handle the rifle?" - -"Praised be God, I have never had occasion to meddle with -murderous implements!" - -"Perhaps you understand the compass, and lay down the -watercourses and mountains of the wilderness on paper, in -order that they who follow may find places by their given -names?" - -"I practice no such employment." - -"You have a pair of legs that might make a long path seem -short! you journey sometimes, I fancy, with tidings for the -general." - -"Never; I follow no other than my own high vocation, which -is instruction in sacred music!" - -"'Tis a strange calling!" muttered Hawkeye, with an inward -laugh, "to go through life, like a catbird, mocking all the -ups and downs that may happen to come out of other men's -throats. Well, friend, I suppose it is your gift, and -mustn't be denied any more than if 'twas shooting, or some -other better inclination. Let us hear what you can do in -that way; 'twill be a friendly manner of saying good-night, -for 'tis time that these ladies should be getting strength -for a hard and a long push, in the pride of the morning, -afore the Maquas are stirring." - -"With joyful pleasure do I consent", said David, adjusting -his iron-rimmed spectacles, and producing his beloved little -volume, which he immediately tendered to Alice. "What can -be more fitting and consolatory, than to offer up evening -praise, after a day of such exceeding jeopardy!" - -Alice smiled; but, regarding Heyward, she blushed and -hesitated. - -"Indulge yourself," he whispered; "ought not the suggestion -of the worthy namesake of the Psalmist to have its weight at -such a moment?" - -Encouraged by his opinion, Alice did what her pious -inclinations, and her keen relish for gentle sounds, had -before so strongly urged. The book was open at a hymn not -ill adapted to their situation, and in which the poet, no -longer goaded by his desire to excel the inspired King of -Israel, had discovered some chastened and respectable -powers. Cora betrayed a disposition to support her sister, -and the sacred song proceeded, after the indispensable -preliminaries of the pitchpipe, and the tune had been duly -attended to by the methodical David. - -The air was solemn and slow. At times it rose to the -fullest compass of the rich voices of the females, who hung -over their little book in holy excitement, and again it sank -so low, that the rushing of the waters ran through their -melody, like a hollow accompaniment. The natural taste and -true ear of David governed and modified the sounds to suit -the confined cavern, every crevice and cranny of which was -filled with the thrilling notes of their flexible voices. -The Indians riveted their eyes on the rocks, and listened -with an attention that seemed to turn them into stone. But -the scout, who had placed his chin in his hand, with an -expression of cold indifference, gradually suffered his -rigid features to relax, until, as verse succeeded verse, he -felt his iron nature subdued, while his recollection was -carried back to boyhood, when his ears had been accustomed -to listen to similar sounds of praise, in the settlements of -the colony. His roving eyes began to moisten, and before -the hymn was ended scalding tears rolled out of fountains -that had long seemed dry, and followed each other down those -cheeks, that had oftener felt the storms of heaven than any -testimonials of weakness. The singers were dwelling on one -of those low, dying chords, which the ear devours with such -greedy rapture, as if conscious that it is about to lose -them, when a cry, that seemed neither human nor earthly, -rose in the outward air, penetrating not only the recesses -of the cavern, but to the inmost hearts of all who heard it. -It was followed by a stillness apparently as deep as if the -waters had been checked in their furious progress, at such a -horrid and unusual interruption. - -"What is it?" murmured Alice, after a few moments of -terrible suspense. - -"What is it?" repeated Hewyard aloud. - -Neither Hawkeye nor the Indians made any reply. They -listened, as if expecting the sound would be repeated, with -a manner that expressed their own astonishment. At length -they spoke together, earnestly, in the Delaware language, -when Uncas, passing by the inner and most concealed -aperture, cautiously left the cavern. When he had gone, the -scout first spoke in English. - -"What it is, or what it is not, none here can tell, though -two of us have ranged the woods for more than thirty years. -I did believe there was no cry that Indian or beast could -make, that my ears had not heard; but this has proved that I -was only a vain and conceited mortal." - -"Was it not, then, the shout the warriors make when they -wish to intimidate their enemies?" asked Cora who stood -drawing her veil about her person, with a calmness to which -her agitated sister was a stranger. - -"No, no; this was bad, and shocking, and had a sort of -unhuman sound; but when you once hear the war-whoop, you -will never mistake it for anything else. Well, Uncas!" -speaking in Delaware to the young chief as he re-entered, -"what see you? do our lights shine through the blankets?" - -The answer was short, and apparently decided, being given in -the same tongue. - -"There is nothing to be seen without," continued Hawkeye, -shaking his head in discontent; "and our hiding-place is -still in darkness. Pass into the other cave, you that need -it, and seek for sleep; we must be afoot long before the -sun, and make the most of our time to get to Edward, while -the Mingoes are taking their morning nap." - -Cora set the example of compliance, with a steadiness that -taught the more timid Alice the necessity of obedience. -Before leaving the place, however, she whispered a request -to Duncan, that he would follow. Uncas raised the blanket -for their passage, and as the sisters turned to thank him -for this act of attention, they saw the scout seated again -before the dying embers, with his face resting on his hands, -in a manner which showed how deeply he brooded on the -unaccountable interruption which had broken up their evening -devotions. - -Heyward took with him a blazing knot, which threw a dim -light through the narrow vista of their new apartment. -Placing it in a favorable position, he joined the females, -who now found themselves alone with him for the first time -since they had left the friendly ramparts of Fort Edward. - -"Leave us not, Duncan," said Alice: "we cannot sleep in such -a place as this, with that horrid cry still ringing in our -ears." - -"First let us examine into the security of your fortress," -he answered, "and then we will speak of rest." - -He approached the further end of the cavern, to an outlet, -which, like the others, was concealed by blankets; and -removing the thick screen, breathed the fresh and reviving -air from the cataract. One arm of the river flowed through -a deep, narrow ravine, which its current had worn in the -soft rock, directly beneath his feet, forming an effectual -defense, as he believed, against any danger from that -quarter; the water, a few rods above them, plunging, -glancing, and sweeping along in its most violent and broken -manner. - -"Nature has made an impenetrable barrier on this side," he -continued, pointing down the perpendicular declivity into -the dark current before he dropped the blanket; "and as you -know that good men and true are on guard in front I see no -reason why the advice of our honest host should be -disregarded. I am certain Cora will join me in saying that -sleep is necessary to you both." - -"Cora may submit to the justice of your opinion though she -cannot put it in practice," returned the elder sister, who -had placed herself by the side of Alice, on a couch of -sassafras; "there would be other causes to chase away sleep, -though we had been spared the shock of this mysterious -noise. Ask yourself, Heyward, can daughters forget the -anxiety a father must endure, whose children lodge he knows -not where or how, in such a wilderness, and in the midst of -so many perils?" - -"He is a soldier, and knows how to estimate the chances of -the woods." - -"He is a father, and cannot deny his nature." - -"How kind has he ever been to all my follies, how tender and -indulgent to all my wishes!" sobbed Alice. "We have been -selfish, sister, in urging our visit at such hazard." - -"I may have been rash in pressing his consent in a moment of -much embarrassment, but I would have proved to him, that -however others might neglect him in his strait his children -at least were faithful." - -"When he heard of your arrival at Edward," said Heyward, -kindly, "there was a powerful struggle in his bosom between -fear and love; though the latter, heightened, if possible, -by so long a separation, quickly prevailed. 'It is the -spirit of my noble-minded Cora that leads them, Duncan', he -said, 'and I will not balk it. Would to God, that he who -holds the honor of our royal master in his guardianship, -would show but half her firmness!'" - -"And did he not speak of me, Heyward?" demanded Alice, with -jealous affection; "surely, he forgot not altogether his -little Elsie?" - -"That were impossible," returned the young man; "he called -you by a thousand endearing epithets, that I may not presume -to use, but to the justice of which, I can warmly testify. -Once, indeed, he said--" - -Duncan ceased speaking; for while his eyes were riveted on -those of Alice, who had turned toward him with the eagerness -of filial affection, to catch his words, the same strong, -horrid cry, as before, filled the air, and rendered him -mute. A long, breathless silence succeeded, during which -each looked at the others in fearful expectation of hearing -the sound repeated. At length, the blanket was slowly -raised, and the scout stood in the aperture with a -countenance whose firmness evidently began to give way -before a mystery that seemed to threaten some danger, -against which all his cunning and experience might prove of -no avail. - - - -CHAPTER 7 - -"They do not sleep, On yonder cliffs, a grizzly band, I see -them sit." Gray - -"'Twould be neglecting a warning that is given for our good -to lie hid any longer," said Hawkeye "when such sounds are -raised in the forest. These gentle ones may keep close, but -the Mohicans and I will watch upon the rock, where I suppose -a major of the Sixtieth would wish to keep us company." - -"Is, then, our danger so pressing?" asked Cora. - -"He who makes strange sounds, and gives them out for man's -information, alone knows our danger. I should think myself -wicked, unto rebellion against His will, was I to burrow -with such warnings in the air! Even the weak soul who -passes his days in singing is stirred by the cry, and, as he -says, is 'ready to go forth to the battle' If 'twere only a -battle, it would be a thing understood by us all, and easily -managed; but I have heard that when such shrieks are atween -heaven and 'arth, it betokens another sort of warfare!" - -"If all our reasons for fear, my friend, are confined to -such as proceed from supernatural causes, we have but little -occasion to be alarmed," continued the undisturbed Cora, -"are you certain that our enemies have not invented some new -and ingenious method to strike us with terror, that their -conquest may become more easy?" - -"Lady," returned the scout, solemnly, "I have listened to -all the sounds of the woods for thirty years, as a man will -listen whose life and death depend on the quickness of his -ears. There is no whine of the panther, no whistle of the -catbird, nor any invention of the devilish Mingoes, that can -cheat me! I have heard the forest moan like mortal men in -their affliction; often, and again, have I listened to the -wind playing its music in the branches of the girdled trees; -and I have heard the lightning cracking in the air like the -snapping of blazing brush as it spitted forth sparks and -forked flames; but never have I thought that I heard more -than the pleasure of him who sported with the things of his -hand. But neither the Mohicans, nor I, who am a white man -without a cross, can explain the cry just heard. We, -therefore, believe it a sign given for our good." - -"It is extraordinary!" said Heyward, taking his pistols from -the place where he had laid them on entering; "be it a sign -of peace or a signal of war, it must be looked to. Lead the -way, my friend; I follow." - -On issuing from their place of confinement, the whole party -instantly experienced a grateful renovation of spirits, by -exchanging the pent air of the hiding-place for the cool and -invigorating atmosphere which played around the whirlpools -and pitches of the cataract. A heavy evening breeze swept -along the surface of the river, and seemed to drive the roar -of the falls into the recesses of their own cavern, whence -it issued heavily and constant, like thunder rumbling beyond -the distant hills. The moon had risen, and its light was -already glancing here and there on the waters above them; -but the extremity of the rock where they stood still lay in -shadow. With the exception of the sounds produced by the -rushing waters, and an occasional breathing of the air, as -it murmured past them in fitful currents, the scene was as -still as night and solitude could make it. In vain were the -eyes of each individual bent along the opposite shores, in -quest of some signs of life, that might explain the nature -of the interruption they had heard. Their anxious and eager -looks were baffled by the deceptive light, or rested only on -naked rocks, and straight and immovable trees. - -"Here is nothing to be seen but the gloom and quiet of a -lovely evening," whispered Duncan; "how much should we prize -such a scene, and all this breathing solitude, at any other -moment, Cora! Fancy yourselves in security, and what now, -perhaps, increases your terror, may be made conducive to -enjoyment--" - -"Listen!" interrupted Alice. - -The caution was unnecessary. Once more the same sound arose, -as if from the bed of the river, and having broken out of -the narrow bounds of the cliffs, was heard undulating -through the forest, in distant and dying cadences. - -"Can any here give a name to such a cry?" demanded Hawkeye, -when the last echo was lost in the woods; "if so, let him -speak; for myself, I judge it not to belong to 'arth!" - -"Here, then, is one who can undeceive you," said Duncan; "I -know the sound full well, for often have I heard it on the -field of battle, and in situations which are frequent in a -soldier's life. 'Tis the horrid shriek that a horse will -give in his agony; oftener drawn from him in pain, though -sometimes in terror. My charger is either a prey to the -beasts of the forest, or he sees his danger, without the -power to avoid it. The sound might deceive me in the -cavern, but in the open air I know it too well to be wrong." - -The scout and his companions listened to this simple -explanation with the interest of men who imbibe new ideas, -at the same time that they get rid of old ones, which had -proved disagreeable inmates. The two latter uttered their -usual expressive exclamation, "hugh!" as the truth first -glanced upon their minds, while the former, after a short, -musing pause, took upon himself to reply. - -"I cannot deny your words," he said, "for I am little -skilled in horses, though born where they abound. The -wolves must be hovering above their heads on the bank, and -the timorsome creatures are calling on man for help, in the -best manner they are able. Uncas" -- he spoke in Delaware --- "Uncas, drop down in the canoe, and whirl a brand among -the pack; or fear may do what the wolves can't get at to -perform, and leave us without horses in the morning, when we -shall have so much need to journey swiftly!" - -The young native had already descended to the water to -comply, when a long howl was raised on the edge of the -river, and was borne swiftly off into the depths of the -forest, as though the beasts, of their own accord, were -abandoning their prey in sudden terror. Uncas, with -instinctive quickness, receded, and the three foresters held -another of their low, earnest conferences. - -"We have been like hunters who have lost the points of the -heavens, and from whom the sun has been hid for days," said -Hawkeye, turning away from his companions; "now we begin -again to know the signs of our course, and the paths are -cleared from briers! Seat yourselves in the shade which the -moon throws from yonder beech -- 'tis thicker than that of -the pines -- and let us wait for that which the Lord may -choose to send next. Let all your conversation be in -whispers; though it would be better, and, perhaps, in the -end, wiser, if each one held discourse with his own -thoughts, for a time." - -The manner of the scout was seriously impressive, though no -longer distinguished by any signs of unmanly apprehension. -It was evident that his momentary weakness had vanished with -the explanation of a mystery which his own experience had -not served to fathom; and though he now felt all the -realities of their actual condition, that he was prepared to -meet them with the energy of his hardy nature. This feeling -seemed also common to the natives, who placed themselves in -positions which commanded a full view of both shores, while -their own persons were effectually concealed from -observation. In such circumstances, common prudence -dictated that Heyward and his companions should imitate a -caution that proceeded from so intelligent a source. The -young man drew a pile of the sassafras from the cave, and -placing it in the chasm which separated the two caverns, it -was occupied by the sisters, who were thus protected by the -rocks from any missiles, while their anxiety was relieved by -the assurance that no danger could approach without a -warning. Heyward himself was posted at hand, so near that -he might communicate with his companions without raising his -voice to a dangerous elevation; while David, in imitation of -the woodsmen, bestowed his person in such a manner among the -fissures of the rocks, that his ungainly limbs were no -longer offensive to the eye. - -In this manner hours passed without further interruption. -The moon reached the zenith, and shed its mild light -perpendicularly on the lovely sight of the sisters -slumbering peacefully in each other's arms. Duncan cast the -wide shawl of Cora before a spectacle he so much loved to -contemplate, and then suffered his own head to seek a pillow -on the rock. David began to utter sounds that would have -shocked his delicate organs in more wakeful moments; in -short, all but Hawkeye and the Mohicans lost every idea of -consciousness, in uncontrollable drowsiness. But the -watchfulness of these vigilant protectors neither tired nor -slumbered. Immovable as that rock, of which each appeared -to form a part, they lay, with their eyes roving, without -intermission, along the dark margin of trees, that bounded -the adjacent shores of the narrow stream. Not a sound -escaped them; the most subtle examination could not have -told they breathed. It was evident that this excess of -caution proceeded from an experience that no subtlety on the -part of their enemies could deceive. It was, however, -continued without any apparent consequences, until the moon -had set, and a pale streak above the treetops, at the bend -of the river a little below, announced the approach of day. - -Then, for the first time, Hawkeye was seen to stir. He -crawled along the rock and shook Duncan from his heavy -slumbers. - -"Now is the time to journey," he whispered; "awake the -gentle ones, and be ready to get into the canoe when I bring -it to the landing-place." - -"Have you had a quiet night?" said Heyward; "for myself, I -believe sleep has got the better of my vigilance." - -"All is yet still as midnight. Be silent, but be quick." - -By this time Duncan was thoroughly awake, and he immediately -lifted the shawl from the sleeping females. The motion -caused Cora to raise her hand as if to repulse him, while -Alice murmured, in her soft, gentle voice, "No, no, dear -father, we were not deserted; Duncan was with us!" - -"Yes, sweet innocence," whispered the youth; "Duncan is -here, and while life continues or danger remains, he will -never quit thee. Cora! Alice! awake! The hour has come to -move!" - -A loud shriek from the younger of the sisters, and the form -of the other standing upright before him, in bewildered -horror, was the unexpected answer he received. - -While the words were still on the lips of Heyward, there had -arisen such a tumult of yells and cries as served to drive -the swift currents of his own blood back from its bounding -course into the fountains of his heart. It seemed, for near -a minute, as if the demons of hell had possessed themselves -of the air about them, and were venting their savage humors -in barbarous sounds. The cries came from no particular -direction, though it was evident they filled the woods, and, -as the appalled listeners easily imagined, the caverns of -the falls, the rocks, the bed of the river, and the upper -air. David raised his tall person in the midst of the -infernal din, with a hand on either ear, exclaiming: - -"Whence comes this discord! Has hell broke loose, that man -should utter sounds like these!" - -The bright flashes and the quick reports of a dozen rifles, -from the opposite banks of the stream, followed this -incautious exposure of his person, and left the unfortunate -singing master senseless on that rock where he had been so -long slumbering. The Mohicans boldly sent back the -intimidating yell of their enemies, who raised a shout of -savage triumph at the fall of Gamut. The flash of rifles -was then quick and close between them, but either party was -too well skilled to leave even a limb exposed to the hostile -aim. Duncan listened with intense anxiety for the strokes -of the paddle, believing that flight was now their only -refuge. The river glanced by with its ordinary velocity, -but the canoe was nowhere to be seen on its dark waters. He -had just fancied they were cruelly deserted by their scout, -as a stream of flame issued from the rock beneath them, and -a fierce yell, blended with a shriek of agony, announced -that the messenger of death sent from the fatal weapon of -Hawkeye, had found a victim. At this slight repulse the -assailants instantly withdrew, and gradually the place -became as still as before the sudden tumult. - -Duncan seized the favorable moment to spring to the body of -Gamut, which he bore within the shelter of the narrow chasm -that protected the sisters. In another minute the whole -party was collected in this spot of comparative safety. - -"The poor fellow has saved his scalp," said Hawkeye, coolly -passing his hand over the head of David; "but he is a proof -that a man may be born with too long a tongue! 'Twas -downright madness to show six feet of flesh and blood, on a -naked rock, to the raging savages. I only wonder he has -escaped with life." - -"Is he not dead?" demanded Cora, in a voice whose husky -tones showed how powerfully natural horror struggled with -her assumed firmness. "Can we do aught to assist the -wretched man?" - -"No, no! the life is in his heart yet, and after he has -slept awhile he will come to himself, and be a wiser man for -it, till the hour of his real time shall come," returned -Hawkeye, casting another oblique glance at the insensible -body, while he filled his charger with admirable nicety. -"Carry him in, Uncas, and lay him on the sassafras. The -longer his nap lasts the better it will be for him, as I -doubt whether he can find a proper cover for such a shape on -these rocks; and singing won't do any good with the -Iroquois." - -"You believe, then, the attack will be renewed?" asked -Heyward. - -"Do I expect a hungry wolf will satisfy his craving with a -mouthful! They have lost a man, and 'tis their fashion, -when they meet a loss, and fail in the surprise, to fall -back; but we shall have them on again, with new expedients -to circumvent us, and master our scalps. Our main hope," he -continued, raising his rugged countenance, across which a -shade of anxiety just then passed like a darkening cloud, -"will be to keep the rock until Munro can send a party to -our help! God send it may be soon and under a leader that -knows the Indian customs!" - -"You hear our probable fortunes, Cora," said Duncan, "and -you know we have everything to hope from the anxiety and -experience of your father. Come, then, with Alice, into -this cavern, where you, at least, will be safe from the -murderous rifles of our enemies, and where you may bestow a -care suited to your gentle natures on our unfortunate -comrade." - -The sisters followed him into the outer cave, where David -was beginning, by his sighs, to give symptoms of returning -consciousness, and then commending the wounded man to their -attention, he immediately prepared to leave them. - -"Duncan!" said the tremulous voice of Cora, when he had -reached the mouth of the cavern. He turned and beheld the -speaker, whose color had changed to a deadly paleness, and -whose lips quivered, gazing after him, with an expression of -interest which immediately recalled him to her side. -"Remember, Duncan, how necessary your safety is to our own --- how you bear a father's sacred trust -- how much depends -on your discretion and care -- in short," she added, while -the telltale blood stole over her features, crimsoning her -very temples, "how very deservedly dear you are to all of -the name of Munro." - -"If anything could add to my own base love of life," said -Heyward, suffering his unconscious eyes to wander to the -youthful form of the silent Alice, "it would be so kind an -assurance. As major of the Sixtieth, our honest host will -tell you I must take my share of the fray; but our task will -be easy; it is merely to keep these blood-hounds at bay for -a few hours." - -Without waiting for a reply, he tore himself from the -presence of the sisters, and joined the scout and his -companions, who still lay within the protection of the -little chasm between the two caves. - -"I tell you, Uncas," said the former, as Heyward joined -them, "you are wasteful of your powder, and the kick of the -rifle disconcerts your aim! Little powder, light lead, and -a long arm, seldom fail of bringing the death screech from a -Mingo! At least, such has been my experience with the -creatur's. Come, friends: let us to our covers, for no man -can tell when or where a Maqua* will strike his blow." - -* Mingo was the Delaware term of the Five Nations. -Maquas was the name given them by the Dutch. The French, -from their first intercourse with them, called them -Iroquois. - -The Indians silently repaired to their appointed stations, -which were fissures in the rocks, whence they could command -the approaches to the foot of the falls. In the center of -the little island, a few short and stunted pines had found -root, forming a thicket, into which Hawkeye darted with the -swiftness of a deer, followed by the active Duncan. Here -they secured themselves, as well as circumstances would -permit, among the shrubs and fragments of stone that were -scattered about the place. Above them was a bare, rounded -rock, on each side of which the water played its gambols, -and plunged into the abysses beneath, in the manner already -described. As the day had now dawned, the opposite shores -no longer presented a confused outline, but they were able -to look into the woods, and distinguish objects beneath a -canopy of gloomy pines. - -A long and anxious watch succeeded, but without any further -evidences of a renewed attack; and Duncan began to hope that -their fire had proved more fatal than was supposed, and that -their enemies had been effectually repulsed. When he -ventured to utter this impression to his companions, it was -met by Hawkeye with an incredulous shake of the head. - -"You know not the nature of a Maqua, if you think he is so -easily beaten back without a scalp!" he answered. "If there -was one of the imps yelling this morning, there were forty! -and they know our number and quality too well to give up the -chase so soon. Hist! look into the water above, just where -it breaks over the rocks. I am no mortal, if the risky -devils haven't swam down upon the very pitch, and, as bad -luck would have it, they have hit the head of the island. -Hist! man, keep close! or the hair will be off your crown in -the turning of a knife!" - -Heyward lifted his head from the cover, and beheld what he -justly considered a prodigy of rashness and skill. The -river had worn away the edge of the soft rock in such a -manner as to render its first pitch less abrupt and -perpendicular than is usual at waterfalls. With no other -guide than the ripple of the stream where it met the head of -the island, a party of their insatiable foes had ventured -into the current, and swam down upon this point, knowing the -ready access it would give, if successful, to their intended -victims. - -As Hawkeye ceased speaking, four human heads could be seen -peering above a few logs of drift-wood that had lodged on -these naked rocks, and which had probably suggested the idea -of the practicability of the hazardous undertaking. At the -next moment, a fifth form was seen floating over the green -edge of the fall, a little from the line of the island. The -savage struggled powerfully to gain the point of safety, -and, favored by the glancing water, he was already -stretching forth an arm to meet the grasp of his companions, -when he shot away again with the shirling current, appeared -to rise into the air, with uplifted arms and starting -eyeballs, and fell, with a sudden plunge, into that deep and -yawning abyss over which he hovered. A single, wild, -despairing shriek rose from the cavern, and all was hushed -again as the grave. - -The first generous impulse of Duncan was to rush to the -rescue of the hapless wretch; but he felt himself bound to -the spot by the iron grasp of the immovable scout. - -"Would ye bring certain death upon us, by telling the -Mingoes where we lie?" demanded Hawkeye, sternly; "'Tis a -charge of powder saved, and ammunition is as precious now as -breath to a worried deer! Freshen the priming of your -pistols--the midst of the falls is apt to dampen the -brimstone--and stand firm for a close struggle, while I -fire on their rush." - -He placed a finger in his mouth, and drew a long, shrill -whistle, which was answered from the rocks that were guarded -by the Mohicans. Duncan caught glimpses of heads above the -scattered drift-wood, as this signal rose on the air, but -they disappeared again as suddenly as they had glanced upon -his sight. A low, rustling sound next drew his attention -behind him, and turning his head, he beheld Uncas within a -few feet, creeping to his side. Hawkeye spoke to him in -Delaware, when the young chief took his position with -singular caution and undisturbed coolness. To Heyward this -was a moment of feverish and impatient suspense; though the -scout saw fit to select it as a fit occasion to read a -lecture to his more youthful associates on the art of using -firearms with discretion. - -"Of all we'pons," he commenced, "the long barreled, -true-grooved, soft-metaled rifle is the most dangerous in -skillful hands, though it wants a strong arm, a quick eye, -and great judgment in charging, to put forth all its -beauties. The gunsmiths can have but little insight into -their trade when they make their fowling-pieces and short -horsemen's --" - -He was interrupted by the low but expressive "hugh" of -Uncas. - -"I see them, boy, I see them!" continued Hawkeye; "they are -gathering for the rush, or they would keep their dingy backs -below the logs. Well, let them," he added, examining his -flint; "the leading man certainly comes on to his death, -though it should be Montcalm himself!" - -At that moment the woods were filled with another burst of -cries, and at the signal four savages sprang from the cover -of the driftwood. Heyward felt a burning desire to rush -forward to meet them, so intense was the delirious anxiety -of the moment; but he was restrained by the deliberate -examples of the scout and Uncas. - -When their foes, who had leaped over the black rocks that -divided them, with long bounds, uttering the wildest yells, -were within a few rods, the rifle of Hawkeye slowly rose -among the shrubs, and poured out its fatal contents. The -foremost Indian bounded like a stricken deer, and fell -headlong among the clefts of the island. - -"Now, Uncas!" cried the scout, drawing his long knife, while -his quick eyes began to flash with ardor, "take the last of -the screeching imps; of the other two we are sartain!" - -He was obeyed; and but two enemies remained to be overcome. -Heyward had given one of his pistols to Hawkeye, and -together they rushed down a little declivity toward their -foes; they discharged their weapons at the same instant, and -equally without success. - -"I know'd it! and I said it!" muttered the scout, whirling -the despised little implement over the falls with bitter -disdain. "Come on, ye bloody minded hell-hounds! ye meet a -man without a cross!" - -The words were barely uttered, when he encountered a savage -of gigantic stature, of the fiercest mien. At the same -moment, Duncan found himself engaged with the other, in a -similar contest of hand to hand. With ready skill, Hawkeye -and his antagonist each grasped that uplifted arm of the -other which held the dangerous knife. For near a minute -they stood looking one another in the eye, and gradually -exerting the power of their muscles for the mastery. - -At length, the toughened sinews of the white man prevailed -over the less practiced limbs of the native. The arm of the -latter slowly gave way before the increasing force of the -scout, who, suddenly wresting his armed hand from the grasp -of the foe, drove the sharp weapon through his naked bosom -to the heart. In the meantime, Heyward had been pressed in -a more deadly struggle. His slight sword was snapped in the -first encounter. As he was destitute of any other means of -defense, his safety now depended entirely on bodily strength -and resolution. Though deficient in neither of these -qualities, he had met an enemy every way his equal. -Happily, he soon succeeded in disarming his adversary, whose -knife fell on the rock at their feet; and from this moment -it became a fierce struggle who should cast the other over -the dizzy height into a neighboring cavern of the falls. -Every successive struggle brought them nearer to the verge, -where Duncan perceived the final and conquering effort must -be made. Each of the combatants threw all his energies into -that effort, and the result was, that both tottered on the -brink of the precipice. Heyward felt the grasp of the other -at his throat, and saw the grim smile the savage gave, under -the revengeful hope that he hurried his enemy to a fate -similar to his own, as he felt his body slowly yielding to a -resistless power, and the young man experienced the passing -agony of such a moment in all its horrors. At that instant -of extreme danger, a dark hand and glancing knife appeared -before him; the Indian released his hold, as the blood -flowed freely from around the severed tendons of the wrist; -and while Duncan was drawn backward by the saving hand of -Uncas, his charmed eyes still were riveted on the fierce and -disappointed countenance of his foe, who fell sullenly and -disappointed down the irrecoverable precipice. - -"To cover! to cover!" cried Hawkeye, who just then had -despatched the enemy; "to cover, for your lives! the work is -but half ended!" - -The young Mohican gave a shout of triumph, and followed by -Duncan, he glided up the acclivity they had descended to the -combat, and sought the friendly shelter of the rocks and -shrubs. - - - -CHAPTER 8 - -"They linger yet, Avengers of their native land."--Gray - -The warning call of the scout was not uttered without -occasion. During the occurrence of the deadly encounter -just related, the roar of the falls was unbroken by any -human sound whatever. It would seem that interest in the -result had kept the natives on the opposite shores in -breathless suspense, while the quick evolutions and swift -changes in the positions of the combatants effectually -prevented a fire that might prove dangerous alike to friend -and enemy. But the moment the struggle was decided, a yell -arose as fierce and savage as wild and revengeful passions -could throw into the air. It was followed by the swift -flashes of the rifles, which sent their leaden messengers -across the rock in volleys, as though the assailants would -pour out their impotent fury on the insensible scene of the -fatal contest. - -A steady, though deliberate return was made from the rifle -of Chingachgook, who had maintained his post throughout the -fray with unmoved resolution. When the triumphant shout of -Uncas was borne to his ears, the gratified father raised his -voice in a single responsive cry, after which his busy piece -alone proved that he still guarded his pass with unwearied -diligence. In this manner many minutes flew by with the -swiftness of thought; the rifles of the assailants speaking, -at times, in rattling volleys, and at others in occasional, -scattering shots. Though the rock, the trees, and the -shrubs, were cut and torn in a hundred places around the -besieged, their cover was so close, and so rigidly -maintained, that, as yet, David had been the only sufferer -in their little band. - -"Let them burn their powder," said the deliberate scout, -while bullet after bullet whizzed by the place where he -securely lay; "there will be a fine gathering of lead when -it is over, and I fancy the imps will tire of the sport -afore these old stones cry out for mercy! Uncas, boy, you -waste the kernels by overcharging; and a kicking rifle never -carries a true bullet. I told you to take that loping -miscreant under the line of white point; now, if your bullet -went a hair's breadth it went two inches above it. The life -lies low in a Mingo, and humanity teaches us to make a quick -end to the sarpents." - -A quiet smile lighted the haughty features of the young -Mohican, betraying his knowledge of the English language as -well as of the other's meaning; but he suffered it to pass -away without vindication of reply. - -"I cannot permit you to accuse Uncas of want of judgment or -of skill," said Duncan; "he saved my life in the coolest and -readiest manner, and he has made a friend who never will -require to be reminded of the debt he owes." - -Uncas partly raised his body, and offered his hand to the -grasp of Heyward. During this act of friendship, the two -young men exchanged looks of intelligence which caused -Duncan to forget the character and condition of his wild -associate. In the meanwhile, Hawkeye, who looked on this -burst of youthful feeling with a cool but kind regard made -the following reply: - -"Life is an obligation which friends often owe each other in -the wilderness. I dare say I may have served Uncas some -such turn myself before now; and I very well remember that -he has stood between me and death five different times; -three times from the Mingoes, once in crossing Horican, and ---" - -"That bullet was better aimed than common!" exclaimed -Duncan, involuntarily shrinking from a shot which struck the -rock at his side with a smart rebound. - -Hawkeye laid his hand on the shapeless metal, and shook his -head, as he examined it, saying, "Falling lead is never -flattened, had it come from the clouds this might have -happened." - -But the rifle of Uncas was deliberately raised toward the -heavens, directing the eyes of his companions to a point, -where the mystery was immediately explained. A ragged oak -grew on the right bank of the river, nearly opposite to -their position, which, seeking the freedom of the open -space, had inclined so far forward that its upper branches -overhung that arm of the stream which flowed nearest to its -own shore. Among the topmost leaves, which scantily -concealed the gnarled and stunted limbs, a savage was -nestled, partly concealed by the trunk of the tree, and -partly exposed, as though looking down upon them to -ascertain the effect produced by his treacherous aim. - -"These devils will scale heaven to circumvent us to our -ruin," said Hawkeye; "keep him in play, boy, until I can -bring 'killdeer' to bear, when we will try his metal on each -side of the tree at once." - -Uncas delayed his fire until the scout uttered the word. - -The rifles flashed, the leaves and bark of the oak flew into -the air, and were scattered by the wind, but the Indian -answered their assault by a taunting laugh, sending down -upon them another bullet in return, that struck the cap of -Hawkeye from his head. Once more the savage yells burst out -of the woods, and the leaden hail whistled above the heads -of the besieged, as if to confine them to a place where they -might become easy victims to the enterprise of the warrior -who had mounted the tree. - -"This must be looked to," said the scout, glancing about him -with an anxious eye. "Uncas, call up your father; we have -need of all our we'pons to bring the cunning varmint from -his roost." - -The signal was instantly given; and, before Hawkeye had -reloaded his rifle, they were joined by Chingachgook. When -his son pointed out to the experienced warrior the situation -of their dangerous enemy, the usual exclamatory "hugh" burst -from his lips; after which, no further expression of -surprise or alarm was suffered to escape him. Hawkeye and -the Mohicans conversed earnestly together in Delaware for a -few moments, when each quietly took his post, in order to -execute the plan they had speedily devised. - -The warrior in the oak had maintained a quick, though -ineffectual fire, from the moment of his discovery. But his -aim was interrupted by the vigilance of his enemies, whose -rifles instantaneously bore on any part of his person that -was left exposed. Still his bullets fell in the center of -the crouching party. The clothes of Heyward, which rendered -him peculiarly conspicuous, were repeatedly cut, and once -blood was drawn from a slight wound in his arm. - -At length, emboldened by the long and patient watchfulness -of his enemies, the Huron attempted a better and more fatal -aim. The quick eyes of the Mohicans caught the dark line of -his lower limbs incautiously exposed through the thin -foliage, a few inches from the trunk of the tree. Their -rifles made a common report, when, sinking on his wounded -limb, part of the body of the savage came into view. Swift -as thought, Hawkeye seized the advantage, and discharged his -fatal weapon into the top of the oak. The leaves were -unusually agitated; the dangerous rifle fell from its -commanding elevation, and after a few moments of vain -struggling, the form of the savage was seen swinging in the -wind, while he still grasped a ragged and naked branch of -the tree with hands clenched in desperation. - -"Give him, in pity, give him the contents of another rifle," -cried Duncan, turning away his eyes in horror from the -spectacle of a fellow creature in such awful jeopardy. - -"Not a karnel!" exclaimed the obdurate Hawkeye; "his death -is certain, and we have no powder to spare, for Indian -fights sometimes last for days; 'tis their scalps or ours! -and God, who made us, has put into our natures the craving -to keep the skin on the head." - -Against this stern and unyielding morality, supported as it -was by such visible policy, there was no appeal. From that -moment the yells in the forest once more ceased, the fire -was suffered to decline, and all eyes, those of friends as -well as enemies, became fixed on the hopeless condition of -the wretch who was dangling between heaven and earth. The -body yielded to the currents of air, and though no murmur or -groan escaped the victim, there were instants when he grimly -faced his foes, and the anguish of cold despair might be -traced, through the intervening distance, in possession of -his swarthy lineaments. Three several times the scout -raised his piece in mercy, and as often, prudence getting -the better of his intention, it was again silently lowered. -At length one hand of the Huron lost its hold, and dropped -exhausted to his side. A desperate and fruitless struggle -to recover the branch succeeded, and then the savage was -seen for a fleeting instant, grasping wildly at the empty -air. The lightning is not quicker than was the flame from -the rifle of Hawkeye; the limbs of the victim trembled and -contracted, the head fell to the bosom, and the body parted -the foaming waters like lead, when the element closed above -it, in its ceaseless velocity, and every vestige of the -unhappy Huron was lost forever. - -No shout of triumph succeeded this important advantage, but -even the Mohicans gazed at each other in silent horror. A -single yell burst from the woods, and all was again still. -Hawkeye, who alone appeared to reason on the occasion, shook -his head at his own momentary weakness, even uttering his -self-disapprobation aloud. - -"'Twas the last charge in my horn and the last bullet in my -pouch, and 'twas the act of a boy!" he said; "what mattered -it whether he struck the rock living or dead! feeling would -soon be over. Uncas, lad, go down to the canoe, and bring -up the big horn; it is all the powder we have left, and we -shall need it to the last grain, or I am ignorant of the -Mingo nature." - -The young Mohican complied, leaving the scout turning over -the useless contents of his pouch, and shaking the empty -horn with renewed discontent. From this unsatisfactory -examination, however, he was soon called by a loud and -piercing exclamation from Uncas, that sounded, even to the -unpracticed ears of Duncan, as the signal of some new and -unexpected calamity. Every thought filled with apprehension -for the previous treasure he had concealed in the cavern, -the young man started to his feet, totally regardless of the -hazard he incurred by such an exposure. As if actuated by a -common impulse, his movement was imitated by his companions, -and, together they rushed down the pass to the friendly -chasm, with a rapidity that rendered the scattering fire of -their enemies perfectly harmless. The unwonted cry had -brought the sisters, together with the wounded David, from -their place of refuge; and the whole party, at a single -glance, was made acquainted with the nature of the disaster -that had disturbed even the practiced stoicism of their -youthful Indian protector. - -At a short distance from the rock, their little bark was to -be seen floating across the eddy, toward the swift current -of the river, in a manner which proved that its course was -directed by some hidden agent. The instant this unwelcome -sight caught the eye of the scout, his rifle was leveled as -by instinct, but the barrel gave no answer to the bright -sparks of the flint. - -"'Tis too late, 'tis too late!" Hawkeye exclaimed, dropping -the useless piece in bitter disappointment; "the miscreant -has struck the rapid; and had we powder, it could hardly -send the lead swifter than he now goes!" - -The adventurous Huron raised his head above the shelter of -the canoe, and, while it glided swiftly down the stream, he -waved his hand, and gave forth the shout, which was the -known signal of success. His cry was answered by a yell and -a laugh from the woods, as tauntingly exulting as if fifty -demons were uttering their blasphemies at the fall of some -Christian soul. - -"Well may you laugh, ye children of the devil!" said the -scout, seating himself on a projection of the rock, and -suffering his gun to fall neglected at his feet, "for the -three quickest and truest rifles in these woods are no -better than so many stalks of mullein, or the last year's -horns of a buck!" - -"What is to be done?" demanded Duncan, losing the first -feeling of disappointment in a more manly desire for -exertion; "what will become of us?" - -Hawkeye made no other reply than by passing his finger -around the crown of his head, in a manner so significant, -that none who witnessed the action could mistake its -meaning. - -"Surely, surely, our case is not so desperate!" exclaimed -the youth; "the Hurons are not here; we may make good the -caverns, we may oppose their landing." - -"With what?" coolly demanded the scout. "The arrows of -Uncas, or such tears as women shed! No, no; you are young, -and rich, and have friends, and at such an age I know it is -hard to die! But," glancing his eyes at the Mohicans, "let -us remember we are men without a cross, and let us teach -these natives of the forest that white blood can run as -freely as red, when the appointed hour is come." - -Duncan turned quickly in the direction indicated by the -other's eyes, and read a confirmation of his worst -apprehensions in the conduct of the Indians. Chingachgook, -placing himself in a dignified posture on another fragment -of the rock, had already laid aside his knife and tomahawk, -and was in the act of taking the eagle's plume from his -head, and smoothing the solitary tuft of hair in readiness -to perform its last and revolting office. His countenance -was composed, though thoughtful, while his dark, gleaming -eyes were gradually losing the fierceness of the combat in -an expression better suited to the change he expected -momentarily to undergo. - -"Our case is not, cannot be so hopeless!" said Duncan; "even -at this very moment succor may be at hand. I see no -enemies! They have sickened of a struggle in which they -risk so much with so little prospect of gain!" - -"It may be a minute, or it may be an hour, afore the wily -sarpents steal upon us, and it is quite in natur' for them -to be lying within hearing at this very moment," said -Hawkeye; "but come they will, and in such a fashion as will -leave us nothing to hope! Chingachgook"--he spoke in -Delaware--"my brother, we have fought our last battle -together, and the Maquas will triumph in the death of the -sage man of the Mohicans, and of the pale face, whose eyes -can make night as day, and level the clouds to the mists of -the springs!" - -"Let the Mingo women go weep over the slain!" returned the -Indian, with characteristic pride and unmoved firmness; "the -Great Snake of the Mohicans has coiled himself in their -wigwams, and has poisoned their triumph with the wailings of -children, whose fathers have not returned! Eleven warriors -lie hid from the graves of their tribes since the snows have -melted, and none will tell where to find them when the -tongue of Chingachgook shall be silent! Let them draw the -sharpest knife, and whirl the swiftest tomahawk, for their -bitterest enemy is in their hands. Uncas, topmost branch of -a noble trunk, call on the cowards to hasten, or their -hearts will soften, and they will change to women!" - -"They look among the fishes for their dead!" returned the -low, soft voice of the youthful chieftain; "the Hurons float -with the slimy eels! They drop from the oaks like fruit -that is ready to be eaten! and the Delawares laugh!" - -"Ay, ay," muttered the scout, who had listened to this -peculiar burst of the natives with deep attention; "they -have warmed their Indian feelings, and they'll soon provoke -the Maquas to give them a speedy end. As for me, who am of -the whole blood of the whites, it is befitting that I should -die as becomes my color, with no words of scoffing in my -mouth, and without bitterness at the heart!" - -"Why die at all!" said Cora, advancing from the place where -natural horror had, until this moment, held her riveted to -the rock; "the path is open on every side; fly, then, to the -woods, and call on God for succor. Go, brave men, we owe -you too much already; let us no longer involve you in our -hapless fortunes!" - -"You but little know the craft of the Iroquois, lady, if you -judge they have left the path open to the woods!" returned -Hawkeye, who, however, immediately added in his simplicity, -"the down stream current, it is certain, might soon sweep us -beyond the reach of their rifles or the sound of their -voices." - -"Then try the river. Why linger to add to the number of the -victims of our merciless enemies?" - -"Why," repeated the scout, looking about him proudly; -"because it is better for a man to die at peace with himself -than to live haunted by an evil conscience! What answer -could we give Munro, when he asked us where and how we left -his children?" - -"Go to him, and say that you left them with a message to -hasten to their aid," returned Cora, advancing nigher to the -scout in her generous ardor; "that the Hurons bear them into -the northern wilds, but that by vigilance and speed they may -yet be rescued; and if, after all, it should please heaven -that his assistance come too late, bear to him," she -continued, her voice gradually lowering, until it seemed -nearly choked, "the love, the blessings, the final prayers -of his daughters, and bid him not mourn their early fate, -but to look forward with humble confidence to the -Christian's goal to meet his children." The hard, weather- -beaten features of the scout began to work, and when she had -ended, he dropped his chin to his hand, like a man musing -profoundly on the nature of the proposal. - -"There is reason in her words!" at length broke from his -compressed and trembling lips; "ay, and they bear the spirit -of Christianity; what might be right and proper in a red- -skin, may be sinful in a man who has not even a cross in -blood to plead for his ignorance. Chingachgook! Uncas! hear -you the talk of the dark-eyed woman?" - -He now spoke in Delaware to his companions, and his address, -though calm and deliberate, seemed very decided. The elder -Mohican heard with deep gravity, and appeared to ponder on -his words, as though he felt the importance of their import. -After a moment of hesitation, he waved his hand in assent, -and uttered the English word "Good!" with the peculiar -emphasis of his people. Then, replacing his knife and -tomahawk in his girdle, the warrior moved silently to the -edge of the rock which was most concealed from the banks of -the river. Here he paused a moment, pointed significantly -to the woods below, and saying a few words in his own -language, as if indicating his intended route, he dropped -into the water, and sank from before the eyes of the -witnesses of his movements. - -The scout delayed his departure to speak to the generous -girl, whose breathing became lighter as she saw the success -of her remonstrance. - -"Wisdom is sometimes given to the young, as well as to the -old," he said; "and what you have spoken is wise, not to -call it by a better word. If you are led into the woods, -that is such of you as may be spared for awhile, break the -twigs on the bushes as you pass, and make the marks of your -trail as broad as you can, when, if mortal eyes can see -them, depend on having a friend who will follow to the ends -of the 'arth afore he desarts you." - -He gave Cora an affectionate shake of the hand, lifted his -rifle, and after regarding it a moment with melancholy -solicitude, laid it carefully aside, and descended to the -place where Chingachgook had just disappeared. For an -instant he hung suspended by the rock, and looking about -him, with a countenance of peculiar care, he added bitterly, -"Had the powder held out, this disgrace could never have -befallen!" then, loosening his hold, the water closed above -his head, and he also became lost to view. - -All eyes now were turned on Uncas, who stood leaning against -the ragged rock, in immovable composure. After waiting a -short time, Cora pointed down the river, and said: - -"Your friends have not been seen, and are now, most -probably, in safety. Is it not time for you to follow?" - -"Uncas will stay," the young Mohican calmly answered in -English. - -"To increase the horror of our capture, and to diminish the -chances of our release! Go, generous young man," Cora -continued, lowering her eyes under the gaze of the Mohican, -and perhaps, with an intuitive consciousness of her power; -"go to my father, as I have said, and be the most -confidential of my messengers. Tell him to trust you with -the means to buy the freedom of his daughters. Go! 'tis my -wish, 'tis my prayer, that you will go!" - -The settled, calm look of the young chief changed to an -expression of gloom, but he no longer hesitated. With a -noiseless step he crossed the rock, and dropped into the -troubled stream. Hardly a breath was drawn by those he left -behind, until they caught a glimpse of his head emerging for -air, far down the current, when he again sank, and was seen -no more. - -These sudden and apparently successful experiments had all -taken place in a few minutes of that time which had now -become so precious. After a last look at Uncas, Cora -turned and with a quivering lip, addressed herself to -Heyward: - -"I have heard of your boasted skill in the water, too, -Duncan," she said; "follow, then, the wise example set you -by these simple and faithful beings." - -"Is such the faith that Cora Munro would exact from her -protector?" said the young man, smiling mournfully, but with -bitterness. - -"This is not a time for idle subtleties and false opinions," -she answered; "but a moment when every duty should be -equally considered. To us you can be of no further service -here, but your precious life may be saved for other and -nearer friends." - -He made no reply, though his eye fell wistfully on the -beautiful form of Alice, who was clinging to his arm with -the dependency of an infant. - -"Consider," continued Cora, after a pause, during which she -seemed to struggle with a pang even more acute than any that -her fears had excited, "that the worst to us can be but -death; a tribute that all must pay at the good time of God's -appointment." - -"There are evils worse than death," said Duncan, speaking -hoarsely, and as if fretful at her importunity, "but which -the presence of one who would die in your behalf may avert." - -Cora ceased her entreaties; and veiling her face in her -shawl, drew the nearly insensible Alice after her into the -deepest recess of the inner cavern. - - - -CHAPTER 9 - -"Be gay securely; Dispel, my fair, with smiles, the tim'rous -clouds, That hang on thy clear brow."--Death of Agrippina - -The sudden and almost magical change, from the stirring -incidents of the combat to the stillness that now reigned -around him, acted on the heated imagination of Heyward like -some exciting dream. While all the images and events he had -witnessed remained deeply impressed on his memory, he felt a -difficulty in persuading him of their truth. Still ignorant -of the fate of those who had trusted to the aid of the swift -current, he at first listened intently to any signal or -sounds of alarm, which might announce the good or evil -fortune of their hazardous undertaking. His attention was, -however, bestowed in vain; for with the disappearance of -Uncas, every sign of the adventurers had been lost, leaving -him in total uncertainty of their fate. - -In a moment of such painful doubt, Duncan did not hesitate -to look around him, without consulting that protection from -the rocks which just before had been so necessary to his -safety. Every effort, however, to detect the least evidence -of the approach of their hidden enemies was as fruitless as -the inquiry after his late companions. The wooded banks of -the river seemed again deserted by everything possessing -animal life. The uproar which had so lately echoed through -the vaults of the forest was gone, leaving the rush of the -waters to swell and sink on the currents of the air, in the -unmingled sweetness of nature. A fish-hawk, which, secure -on the topmost branches of a dead pine, had been a distant -spectator of the fray, now swooped from his high and ragged -perch, and soared, in wide sweeps, above his prey; while a -jay, whose noisy voice had been stilled by the hoarser cries -of the savages, ventured again to open his discordant -throat, as though once more in undisturbed possession of his -wild domains. Duncan caught from these natural -accompaniments of the solitary scene a glimmering of hope; -and he began to rally his faculties to renewed exertions, -with something like a reviving confidence of success. - -"The Hurons are not to be seen," he said, addressing David, -who had by no means recovered from the effects of the -stunning blow he had received; "let us conceal ourselves in -the cavern, and trust the rest to Providence." - -"I remember to have united with two comely maidens, in -lifting up our voices in praise and thanksgiving," returned -the bewildered singing-master; "since which time I have been -visited by a heavy judgment for my sins. I have been mocked -with the likeness of sleep, while sounds of discord have -rent my ears, such as might manifest the fullness of time, -and that nature had forgotten her harmony." - -"Poor fellow! thine own period was, in truth, near its -accomplishment! But arouse, and come with me; I will lead -you where all other sounds but those of your own psalmody -shall be excluded." - -"There is melody in the fall of the cataract, and the -rushing of many waters is sweet to the senses!" said David, -pressing his hand confusedly on his brow. "Is not the air -yet filled with shrieks and cries, as though the departed -spirits of the damned--" - -"Not now, not now," interrupted the impatient Heyward, "they -have ceased, and they who raised them, I trust in God, they -are gone, too! everything but the water is still and at -peace; in, then, where you may create those sounds you love -so well to hear." - -David smiled sadly, though not without a momentary gleam of -pleasure, at this allusion to his beloved vocation. He no -longer hesitated to be led to a spot which promised such -unalloyed gratification to his wearied senses; and leaning -on the arm of his companion, he entered the narrow mouth of -the cave. Duncan seized a pile of the sassafras, which he -drew before the passage, studiously concealing every -appearance of an aperture. Within this fragile barrier he -arranged the blankets abandoned by the foresters, darkening -the inner extremity of the cavern, while its outer received -a chastened light from the narrow ravine, through which one -arm of the river rushed to form the junction with its sister -branch a few rods below. - -"I like not the principle of the natives, which teaches them -to submit without a struggle, in emergencies that appear -desperate," he said, while busied in this employment; "our -own maxim, which says, 'while life remains there is hope', -is more consoling, and better suited to a soldier's -temperament. To you, Cora, I will urge no words of idle -encouragement; your own fortitude and undisturbed reason -will teach you all that may become your sex; but cannot we -dry the tears of that trembling weeper on your bosom?" - -"I am calmer, Duncan," said Alice, raising herself from the -arms of her sister, and forcing an appearance of composure -through her tears; "much calmer, now. Surely, in this -hidden spot we are safe, we are secret, free from injury; we -will hope everything from those generous men who have risked -so much already in our behalf." - -"Now does our gentle Alice speak like a daughter of Munro!" -said Heyward, pausing to press her hand as he passed toward -the outer entrance of the cavern. "With two such examples -of courage before him, a man would be ashamed to prove other -than a hero." He then seated himself in the center of the -cavern, grasping his remaining pistol with a hand -convulsively clenched, while his contracted and frowning eye -announced the sullen desperation of his purpose. "The -Hurons, if they come, may not gain our position so easily as -they think," he slowly muttered; and propping his head back -against the rock, he seemed to await the result in patience, -though his gaze was unceasingly bent on the open avenue to -their place of retreat. - -With the last sound of his voice, a deep, a long, and almost -breathless silence succeeded. The fresh air of the morning -had penetrated the recess, and its influence was gradually -felt on the spirits of its inmates. As minute after minute -passed by, leaving them in undisturbed security, the -insinuating feeling of hope was gradually gaining possession -of every bosom, though each one felt reluctant to give -utterance to expectations that the next moment might so -fearfully destroy. - -David alone formed an exception to these varying emotions. -A gleam of light from the opening crossed his wan -countenance, and fell upon the pages of the little volume, -whose leaves he was again occupied in turning, as if -searching for some song more fitted to their condition than -any that had yet met their eye. He was, most probably, -acting all this time under a confused recollection of the -promised consolation of Duncan. At length, it would seem, -his patient industry found its reward; for, without -explanation or apology, he pronounced aloud the words "Isle -of Wight," drew a long, sweet sound from his pitch-pipe, and -then ran through the preliminary modulations of the air -whose name he had just mentioned, with the sweeter tones of -his own musical voice. - -"May not this prove dangerous?" asked Cora, glancing her -dark eye at Major Heyward. - -"Poor fellow! his voice is too feeble to be heard above the -din of the falls," was the answer; "beside, the cavern will -prove his friend. Let him indulge his passions since it may -be done without hazard." - -"Isle of Wight!" repeated David, looking about him with that -dignity with which he had long been wont to silence the -whispering echoes of his school; "'tis a brave tune, and set -to solemn words! let it be sung with meet respect!" - -After allowing a moment of stillness to enforce his -discipline, the voice of the singer was heard, in low, -murmuring syllables, gradually stealing on the ear, until it -filled the narrow vault with sounds rendered trebly -thrilling by the feeble and tremulous utterance produced by -his debility. The melody, which no weakness could destroy, -gradually wrought its sweet influence on the senses of those -who heard it. It even prevailed over the miserable travesty -of the song of David which the singer had selected from a -volume of similar effusions, and caused the sense to be -forgotten in the insinuating harmony of the sounds. Alice -unconsciously dried her tears, and bent her melting eyes on -the pallid features of Gamut, with an expression of -chastened delight that she neither affected or wished to -conceal. Cora bestowed an approving smile on the pious -efforts of the namesake of the Jewish prince, and Heyward -soon turned his steady, stern look from the outlet of the -cavern, to fasten it, with a milder character, on the face -of David, or to meet the wandering beams which at moments -strayed from the humid eyes of Alice. The open sympathy of -the listeners stirred the spirit of the votary of music, -whose voice regained its richness and volume, without losing -that touching softness which proved its secret charm. -Exerting his renovated powers to their utmost, he was yet -filling the arches of the cave with long and full tones, -when a yell burst into the air without, that instantly -stilled his pious strains, choking his voice suddenly, as -though his heart had literally bounded into the passage of -his throat. - -"We are lost!" exclaimed Alice, throwing herself into the -arms of Cora. - -"Not yet, not yet," returned the agitated but undaunted -Heyward: "the sound came from the center of the island, and -it has been produced by the sight of their dead companions. -We are not yet discovered, and there is still hope." - -Faint and almost despairing as was the prospect of escape, -the words of Duncan were not thrown away, for it awakened -the powers of the sisters in such a manner that they awaited -the results in silence. A second yell soon followed the -first, when a rush of voices was heard pouring down the -island, from its upper to its lower extremity, until they -reached the naked rock above the caverns, where, after a -shout of savage triumph, the air continued full of horrible -cries and screams, such as man alone can utter, and he only -when in a state of the fiercest barbarity. - -The sounds quickly spread around them in every direction. -Some called to their fellows from the water's edge, and were -answered from the heights above. Cries were heard in the -startling vicinity of the chasm between the two caves, which -mingled with hoarser yells that arose out of the abyss of -the deep ravine. In short, so rapidly had the savage sounds -diffused themselves over the barren rock, that it was not -difficult for the anxious listeners to imagine they could be -heard beneath, as in truth they were above on every side of -them. - -In the midst of this tumult, a triumphant yell was raised -within a few yards of the hidden entrance to the cave. -Heyward abandoned every hope, with the belief it was the -signal that they were discovered. Again the impression -passed away, as he heard the voices collect near the spot -where the white man had so reluctantly abandoned his rifle. -Amid the jargon of Indian dialects that he now plainly -heard, it was easy to distinguish not only words, but -sentences, in the patois of the Canadas. A burst of voices -had shouted simultaneously, "La Longue Carabine!" causing -the opposite woods to re-echo with a name which, Heyward -well remembered, had been given by his enemies to a -celebrated hunter and scout of the English camp, and who, he -now learned for the first time, had been his late companion. - -"La Longue Carabine! La Longue Carabine!" passed from mouth -to mouth, until the whole band appeared to be collected -around a trophy which would seem to announce the death of -its formidable owner. After a vociferous consultation, -which was, at times, deafened by bursts of savage joy, they -again separated, filling the air with the name of a foe, -whose body, Heywood could collect from their expressions, -they hoped to find concealed in some crevice of the island. - -"Now," he whispered to the trembling sisters, "now is the -moment of uncertainty! if our place of retreat escape this -scrutiny, we are still safe! In every event, we are -assured, by what has fallen from our enemies, that our -friends have escaped, and in two short hours we may look for -succor from Webb." - -There were now a few minutes of fearful stillness, during -which Heyward well knew that the savages conducted their -search with greater vigilance and method. More than once he -could distinguish their footsteps, as they brushed the -sassafras, causing the faded leaves to rustle, and the -branches to snap. At length, the pile yielded a little, a -corner of a blanket fell, and a faint ray of light gleamed -into the inner part of the cave. Cora folded Alice to her -bosom in agony, and Duncan sprang to his feet. A shout was -at that moment heard, as if issuing from the center of the -rock, announcing that the neighboring cavern had at length -been entered. In a minute, the number and loudness of the -voices indicated that the whole party was collected in and -around that secret place. - -As the inner passages to the two caves were so close to each -other, Duncan, believing that escape was no longer possible, -passed David and the sisters, to place himself between the -latter and the first onset of the terrible meeting. Grown -desperate by his situation, he drew nigh the slight barrier -which separated him only by a few feet from his relentless -pursuers, and placing his face to the casual opening, he -even looked out with a sort of desperate indifference, on -their movements. - -Within reach of his arm was the brawny shoulder of a -gigantic Indian, whose deep and authoritative voice appeared -to give directions to the proceedings of his fellows. -Beyond him again, Duncan could look into the vault opposite, -which was filled with savages, upturning and rifling the -humble furniture of the scout. The wound of David had dyed -the leaves of sassafras with a color that the native well -knew as anticipating the season. Over this sign of their -success, they sent up a howl, like an opening from so many -hounds who had recovered a lost trail. After this yell of -victory, they tore up the fragrant bed of the cavern, and -bore the branches into the chasm, scattering the boughs, as -if they suspected them of concealing the person of the man -they had so long hated and feared. One fierce and wild- -looking warrior approached the chief, bearing a load of the -brush, and pointing exultingly to the deep red stains with -which it was sprinkled, uttered his joy in Indian yells, -whose meaning Heyward was only enabled to comprehend by the -frequent repetition of the name "La Longue Carabine!" When -his triumph had ceased, he cast the brush on the slight heap -Duncan had made before the entrance of the second cavern, -and closed the view. His example was followed by others, -who, as they drew the branches from the cave of the scout, -threw them into one pile, adding, unconsciously, to the -security of those they sought. The very slightness of the -defense was its chief merit, for no one thought of -disturbing a mass of brush, which all of them believed, in -that moment of hurry and confusion, had been accidentally -raised by the hands of their own party. - -As the blankets yielded before the outward pressure, and the -branches settled in the fissure of the rock by their own -weight, forming a compact body, Duncan once more breathed -freely. With a light step and lighter heart, he returned to -the center of the cave, and took the place he had left, -where he could command a view of the opening next the river. -While he was in the act of making this movement, the -Indians, as if changing their purpose by a common impulse, -broke away from the chasm in a body, and were heard rushing -up the island again, toward the point whence they had -originally descended. Here another wailing cry betrayed -that they were again collected around the bodies of their -dead comrades. - -Duncan now ventured to look at his companions; for, during -the most critical moments of their danger, he had been -apprehensive that the anxiety of his countenance might -communicate some additional alarm to those who were so -little able to sustain it. - -"They are gone, Cora!" he whispered; "Alice, they are -returned whence they came, and we are saved! To Heaven, -that has alone delivered us from the grasp of so merciless -an enemy, be all the praise!" - -"Then to Heaven will I return my thanks!" exclaimed the -younger sister, rising from the encircling arm of Cora, and -casting herself with enthusiastic gratitude on the naked rock; -"to that Heaven who has spared the tears of a gray-headed -father; has saved the lives of those I so much love." - -Both Heyward and the more temperate Cora witnessed the act -of involuntary emotion with powerful sympathy, the former -secretly believing that piety had never worn a form so -lovely as it had now assumed in the youthful person of -Alice. Her eyes were radiant with the glow of grateful -feelings; the flush of her beauty was again seated on her -cheeks, and her whole soul seemed ready and anxious to pour -out its thanksgivings through the medium of her eloquent -features. But when her lips moved, the words they should -have uttered appeared frozen by some new and sudden chill. -Her bloom gave place to the paleness of death; her soft and -melting eyes grew hard, and seemed contracting with horror; -while those hands, which she had raised, clasped in each -other, toward heaven, dropped in horizontal lines before -her, the fingers pointed forward in convulsed motion. -Heyward turned the instant she gave a direction to his -suspicions, and peering just above the ledge which formed -the threshold of the open outlet of the cavern, he beheld -the malignant, fierce and savage features of Le Renard -Subtil. - -In that moment of surprise, the self-possession of Heyward -did not desert him. He observed by the vacant expression of -the Indian's countenance, that his eye, accustomed to the -open air had not yet been able to penetrate the dusky light -which pervaded the depth of the cavern. He had even thought -of retreating beyond a curvature in the natural wall, which -might still conceal him and his companions, when by the -sudden gleam of intelligence that shot across the features -of the savage, he saw it was too late, and that they were -betrayed. - -The look of exultation and brutal triumph which announced -this terrible truth was irresistibly irritating. Forgetful -of everything but the impulses of his hot blood, Duncan -leveled his pistol and fired. The report of the weapon made -the cavern bellow like an eruption from a volcano; and when -the smoke it vomited had been driven away before the current -of air which issued from the ravine the place so lately -occupied by the features of his treacherous guide was -vacant. Rushing to the outlet, Heyward caught a glimpse of -his dark figure stealing around a low and narrow ledge, -which soon hid him entirely from sight. - -Among the savages a frightful stillness succeeded the -explosion, which had just been heard bursting from the -bowels of the rock. But when Le Renard raised his voice in -a long and intelligible whoop, it was answered by a -spontaneous yell from the mouth of every Indian within -hearing of the sound. - -The clamorous noises again rushed down the island; and -before Duncan had time to recover from the shock, his feeble -barrier of brush was scattered to the winds, the cavern was -entered at both its extremities, and he and his companions -were dragged from their shelter and borne into the day, -where they stood surrounded by the whole band of the -triumphant Hurons. - - - -CHAPTER 10 - -"I fear we shall outsleep the coming morn As much as we this -night have overwatched!"--Midsummer Night's Dream - -The instant the shock of this sudden misfortune had abated, -Duncan began to make his observations on the appearance and -proceedings of their captors. Contrary to the usages of the -natives in the wantonness of their success they had -respected, not only the persons of the trembling sisters, -but his own. The rich ornaments of his military attire had -indeed been repeatedly handled by different individuals of -the tribes with eyes expressing a savage longing to possess -the baubles; but before the customary violence could be -resorted to, a mandate in the authoritative voice of the -large warrior, already mentioned, stayed the uplifted hand, -and convinced Heyward that they were to be reserved for some -object of particular moment. - -While, however, these manifestations of weakness were -exhibited by the young and vain of the party, the more -experienced warriors continued their search throughout both -caverns, with an activity that denoted they were far from -being satisfied with those fruits of their conquest which -had already been brought to light. Unable to discover any -new victim, these diligent workers of vengeance soon -approached their male prisoners, pronouncing the name "La -Longue Carabine," with a fierceness that could not be easily -mistaken. Duncan affected not to comprehend the meaning of -their repeated and violent interrogatories, while his -companion was spared the effort of a similar deception by -his ignorance of French. Wearied at length by their -importunities, and apprehensive of irritating his captors by -too stubborn a silence, the former looked about him in quest -of Magua, who might interpret his answers to questions which -were at each moment becoming more earnest and threatening. - -The conduct of this savage had formed a solitary exception -to that of all his fellows. While the others were busily -occupied in seeking to gratify their childish passion for -finery, by plundering even the miserable effects of the -scout, or had been searching with such bloodthirsty -vengeance in their looks for their absent owner, Le Renard -had stood at a little distance from the prisoners, with a -demeanor so quiet and satisfied, as to betray that he had -already effected the grand purpose of his treachery. When -the eyes of Heyward first met those of his recent guide, he -turned them away in horror at the sinister though calm look -he encountered. Conquering his disgust, however, he was -able, with an averted face, to address his successful enemy. - -"Le Renard Subtil is too much of a warrior," said the -reluctant Heyward, "to refuse telling an unarmed man what -his conquerors say." - -"They ask for the hunter who knows the paths through the -woods," returned Magua, in his broken English, laying his -hand, at the same time, with a ferocious smile, on the -bundle of leaves with which a wound on his own shoulder was -bandaged. "'La Longue Carabine'! His rifle is good, and his -eye never shut; but, like the short gun of the white chief, -it is nothing against the life of Le Subtil." - -"Le Renard is too brave to remember the hurts received in -war, or the hands that gave them." - -"Was it war, when the tired Indian rested at the sugartree -to taste his corn! who filled the bushes with creeping -enemies! who drew the knife, whose tongue was peace, while -his heart was colored with blood! Did Magua say that the -hatchet was out of the ground, and that his hand had dug it -up?" - -As Duncan dared not retort upon his accuser by reminding him -of his own premeditated treachery, and disdained to -deprecate his resentment by any words of apology, he -remained silent. Magua seemed also content to rest the -controversy as well as all further communication there, for -he resumed the leaning attitude against the rock from which, -in momentary energy, he had arisen. But the cry of "La -Longue Carabine" was renewed the instant the impatient -savages perceived that the short dialogue was ended. - -"You hear," said Magua, with stubborn indifference: "the red -Hurons call for the life of 'The Long Rifle', or they will -have the blood of him that keep him hid!" - -"He is gone -- escaped; he is far beyond their reach." - -Renard smiled with cold contempt, as he answered: - -"When the white man dies, he thinks he is at peace; but the -red men know how to torture even the ghosts of their -enemies. Where is his body? Let the Hurons see his scalp." - -"He is not dead, but escaped." - -Magua shook his head incredulously. - -"Is he a bird, to spread his wings; or is he a fish, to swim -without air! The white chief read in his books, and he -believes the Hurons are fools!" - -"Though no fish, 'The Long Rifle' can swim. He floated down -the stream when the powder was all burned, and when the eyes -of the Hurons were behind a cloud." - -"And why did the white chief stay?" demanded the still -incredulous Indian. "Is he a stone that goes to the bottom, -or does the scalp burn his head?" - -"That I am not stone, your dead comrade, who fell into the -falls, might answer, were the life still in him," said the -provoked young man, using, in his anger, that boastful -language which was most likely to excite the admiration of -an Indian. "The white man thinks none but cowards desert -their women." - -Magua muttered a few words, inaudibly, between his teeth, -before he continued, aloud: - -"Can the Delawares swim, too, as well as crawl in the -bushes? Where is 'Le Gros Serpent'?" - -Duncan, who perceived by the use of these Canadian -appellations, that his late companions were much better -known to his enemies than to himself, answered, reluctantly: -"He also is gone down with the water." - -"'Le Cerf Agile' is not here?" - -"I know not whom you call 'The Nimble Deer'," said Duncan -gladly profiting by any excuse to create delay. - -"Uncas," returned Magua, pronouncing the Delaware name with -even greater difficulty than he spoke his English words. -"'Bounding Elk' is what the white man says, when he calls to -the young Mohican." - -"Here is some confusion in names between us, Le Renard," -said Duncan, hoping to provoke a discussion. "Daim is the -French for deer, and cerf for stag; elan is the true term, -when one would speak of an elk." - -"Yes," muttered the Indian, in his native tongue; "the pale -faces are prattling women! they have two words for each -thing, while a red-skin will make the sound of his voice -speak to him." Then, changing his language, he continued, -adhering to the imperfect nomenclature of his provincial -instructors. "The deer is swift, but weak; the elk is -swift, but strong; and the son of 'Le Serpent' is 'Le Cerf -Agile.' Has he leaped the river to the woods?" - -"If you mean the younger Delaware, he, too, has gone down -with the water." - -As there was nothing improbable to an Indian in the manner -of the escape, Magua admitted the truth of what he had -heard, with a readiness that afforded additional evidence -how little he would prize such worthless captives. With his -companions, however, the feeling was manifestly different. - -The Hurons had awaited the result of this short dialogue -with characteristic patience, and with a silence that -increased until there was a general stillness in the band. -When Heyward ceased to speak, they turned their eyes, as one -man, on Magua, demanding, in this expressive manner, an -explanation of what had been said. Their interpreter -pointed to the river, and made them acquainted with the -result, as much by the action as by the few words he -uttered. When the fact was generally understood, the -savages raised a frightful yell, which declared the extent -of their disappointment. Some ran furiously to the water's -edge, beating the air with frantic gestures, while others -spat upon the element, to resent the supposed treason it had -committed against their acknowledged rights as conquerors. -A few, and they not the least powerful and terrific of the -band, threw lowering looks, in which the fiercest passion -was only tempered by habitual self-command, at those -captives who still remained in their power, while one or two -even gave vent to their malignant feelings by the most -menacing gestures, against which neither the sex nor the -beauty of the sisters was any protection. The young soldier -made a desperate but fruitless effort to spring to the side -of Alice, when he saw the dark hand of a savage twisted in -the rich tresses which were flowing in volumes over her -shoulders, while a knife was passed around the head from -which they fell, as if to denote the horrid manner in which -it was about to be robbed of its beautiful ornament. But -his hands were bound; and at the first movement he made, he -felt the grasp of the powerful Indian who directed the band, -pressing his shoulder like a vise. Immediately conscious -how unavailing any struggle against such an overwhelming -force must prove, he submitted to his fate, encouraging his -gentle companions by a few low and tender assurances, that -the natives seldom failed to threaten more than they -performed. - -But while Duncan resorted to these words of consolation to -quiet the apprehensions of the sisters, he was not so weak -as to deceive himself. He well knew that the authority of -an Indian chief was so little conventional, that it was -oftener maintained by physical superiority than by any moral -supremacy he might possess. The danger was, therefore, -magnified exactly in proportion to the number of the savage -spirits by which they were surrounded. The most positive -mandate from him who seemed the acknowledged leader, was -liable to be violated at each moment by any rash hand that -might choose to sacrifice a victim to the manes of some dead -friend or relative. While, therefore, he sustained an -outward appearance of calmness and fortitude, his heart -leaped into his throat, whenever any of their fierce captors -drew nearer than common to the helpless sisters, or fastened -one of their sullen, wandering looks on those fragile forms -which were so little able to resist the slightest assault. - -His apprehensions were, however, greatly relieved, when he -saw that the leader had summoned his warriors to himself in -counsel. Their deliberations were short, and it would seem, -by the silence of most of the party, the decision unanimous. -By the frequency with which the few speakers pointed in the -direction of the encampment of Webb, it was apparent they -dreaded the approach of danger from that quarter. This -consideration probably hastened their determination, and -quickened the subsequent movements. - -During his short conference, Heyward, finding a respite from -his gravest fears, had leisure to admire the cautious manner -in which the Hurons had made their approaches, even after -hostilities had ceased. - -It has already been stated that the upper half of the island -was a naked rock, and destitute of any other defenses than a -few scattered logs of driftwood. They had selected this -point to make their descent, having borne the canoe through -the wood around the cataract for that purpose. Placing -their arms in the little vessel a dozen men clinging to its -sides had trusted themselves to the direction of the canoe, -which was controlled by two of the most skillful warriors, -in attitudes that enabled them to command a view of the -dangerous passage. Favored by this arrangement, they -touched the head of the island at that point which had -proved so fatal to their first adventurers, but with the -advantages of superior numbers, and the possession of -firearms. That such had been the manner of their descent -was rendered quite apparent to Duncan; for they now bore the -light bark from the upper end of the rock, and placed it in -the water, near the mouth of the outer cavern. As soon as -this change was made, the leader made signs to the prisoners -to descend and enter. - -As resistance was impossible, and remonstrance useless, -Heyward set the example of submission, by leading the way -into the canoe, where he was soon seated with the sisters -and the still wondering David. Notwithstanding the Hurons -were necessarily ignorant of the little channels among the -eddies and rapids of the stream, they knew the common signs -of such a navigation too well to commit any material -blunder. When the pilot chosen for the task of guiding the -canoe had taken his station, the whole band plunged again -into the river, the vessel glided down the current, and in a -few moments the captives found themselves on the south bank -of the stream, nearly opposite to the point where they had -struck it the preceding evening. - -Here was held another short but earnest consultation, during -which the horses, to whose panic their owners ascribed their -heaviest misfortune, were led from the cover of the woods, -and brought to the sheltered spot. The band now divided. -The great chief, so often mentioned, mounting the charger of -Heyward, led the way directly across the river, followed by -most of his people, and disappeared in the woods, leaving -the prisoners in charge of six savages, at whose head was Le -Renard Subtil. Duncan witnessed all their movements with -renewed uneasiness. - -He had been fond of believing, from the uncommon forbearance -of the savages, that he was reserved as a prisoner to be -delivered to Montcalm. As the thoughts of those who are in -misery seldom slumber, and the invention is never more -lively than when it is stimulated by hope, however feeble -and remote, he had even imagined that the parental feelings -of Munro were to be made instrumental in seducing him from -his duty to the king. For though the French commander bore -a high character for courage and enterprise, he was also -thought to be expert in those political practises which do -not always respect the nicer obligations of morality, and -which so generally disgraced the European diplomacy of that -period. - -All those busy and ingenious speculations were now -annihilated by the conduct of his captors. That portion of -the band who had followed the huge warrior took the route -toward the foot of the Horican, and no other expectation was -left for himself and companions, than that they were to be -retained as hopeless captives by their savage conquerors. -Anxious to know the worst, and willing, in such an -emergency, to try the potency of gold he overcame his -reluctance to speak to Magua. Addressing himself to his -former guide, who had now assumed the authority and manner -of one who was to direct the future movements of the party, -he said, in tones as friendly and confiding as he could -assume: - -"I would speak to Magua, what is fit only for so great a -chief to hear." - -The Indian turned his eyes on the young soldier scornfully, -as he answered: - -"Speak; trees have no ears." - -"But the red Hurons are not deaf; and counsel that is fit -for the great men of a nation would make the young warriors -drunk. If Magua will not listen, the officer of the king -knows how to be silent." - -The savage spoke carelessly to his comrades, who were -busied, after their awkward manner, in preparing the horses -for the reception of the sisters, and moved a little to one -side, whither by a cautious gesture he induced Heyward to -follow. - -"Now, speak," he said; "if the words are such as Magua -should hear." - -"Le Renard Subtil has proved himself worthy of the honorable -name given to him by his Canada fathers," commenced Heyward; -"I see his wisdom, and all that he has done for us, and -shall remember it when the hour to reward him arrives. Yes! -Renard has proved that he is not only a great chief in -council, but one who knows how to deceive his enemies!" - -"What has Renard done?" coldly demanded the Indian. - -"What! has he not seen that the woods were filled with -outlying parties of the enemies, and that the serpent could -not steal through them without being seen? Then, did he not -lose his path to blind the eyes of the Hurons? Did he not -pretend to go back to his tribe, who had treated him ill, -and driven him from their wigwams like a dog? And when he -saw what he wished to do, did we not aid him, by making a -false face, that the Hurons might think the white man -believed that his friend was his enemy? Is not all this -true? And when Le Subtil had shut the eyes and stopped the -ears of his nation by his wisdom, did they not forget that -they had once done him wrong, and forced him to flee to the -Mohawks? And did they not leave him on the south side of the -river, with their prisoners, while they have gone foolishly -on the north? Does not Renard mean to turn like a fox on his -footsteps, and to carry to the rich and gray-headed -Scotchman his daughters? Yes, Magua, I see it all, and I -have already been thinking how so much wisdom and honesty -should be repaid. First, the chief of William Henry will -give as a great chief should for such a service. The medal* -of Magua will no longer be of tin, but of beaten gold; his -horn will run over with powder; dollars will be as plenty in -his pouch as pebbles on the shore of Horican; and the deer -will lick his hand, for they will know it to be vain to fly -from the rifle he will carry! As for myself, I know not how -to exceed the gratitude of the Scotchman, but I--yes, I -will--" - -* It has long been a practice with the whites to -conciliate the important men of the Indians by presenting -medals, which are worn in the place of their own rude -ornaments. Those given by the English generally bear the -impression of the reigning king, and those given by the -Americans that of the president. - -"What will the young chief, who comes from toward the sun, -give?" demanded the Huron, observing that Heyward hesitated -in his desire to end the enumeration of benefits with that -which might form the climax of an Indian's wishes. - -"He will make the fire-water from the islands in the salt -lake flow before the wigwam of Magua, until the heart of the -Indian shall be lighter than the feathers of the humming-bird, -and his breath sweeter than the wild honeysuckle." - -Le Renard had listened gravely as Heyward slowly proceeded -in this subtle speech. When the young man mentioned the -artifice he supposed the Indian to have practised on his own -nation, the countenance of the listener was veiled in an -expression of cautious gravity. At the allusion to the -injury which Duncan affected to believe had driven the Huron -from his native tribe, a gleam of such ungovernable ferocity -flashed from the other's eyes, as induced the adventurous -speaker to believe he had struck the proper chord. And by -the time he reached the part where he so artfully blended -the thirst of vengeance with the desire of gain, he had, at -least, obtained a command of the deepest attention of the -savage. The question put by Le Renard had been calm, and -with all the dignity of an Indian; but it was quite -apparent, by the thoughtful expression of the listener's -countenance, that the answer was most cunningly devised. -The Huron mused a few moments, and then laying his hand on -the rude bandages of his wounded shoulder, he said, with -some energy: - -"Do friends make such marks?" - -"Would 'La Longue Carbine' cut one so slight on an enemy?" - -"Do the Delawares crawl upon those they love like snakes, -twisting themselves to strike?" - -"Would 'Le Gros Serpent' have been heard by the ears of one -he wished to be deaf?" - -"Does the white chief burn his powder in the faces of his -brothers?" - -"Does he ever miss his aim, when seriously bent to kill?" -returned Duncan, smiling with well acted sincerity. - -Another long and deliberate pause succeeded these -sententious questions and ready replies. Duncan saw that -the Indian hesitated. In order to complete his victory, he -was in the act of recommencing the enumeration of the -rewards, when Magua made an expressive gesture and said: - -"Enough; Le Renard is a wise chief, and what he does will be -seen. Go, and keep the mouth shut. When Magua speaks, it -will be the time to answer." - -Heyward, perceiving that the eyes of his companion were -warily fastened on the rest of the band, fell back -immediately, in order to avoid the appearance of any -suspicious confederacy with their leader. Magua approached -the horses, and affected to be well pleased with the -diligence and ingenuity of his comrades. He then signed to -Heyward to assist the sisters into the saddles, for he -seldom deigned to use the English tongue, unless urged by -some motive of more than usual moment. - -There was no longer any plausible pretext for delay; and -Duncan was obliged, however reluctantly, to comply. As he -performed this office, he whispered his reviving hopes in -the ears of the trembling females, who, through dread of -encountering the savage countenances of their captors, -seldom raised their eyes from the ground. The mare of David -had been taken with the followers of the large chief; in -consequence, its owner, as well as Duncan, was compelled to -journey on foot. The latter did not, however, so much -regret this circumstance, as it might enable him to retard -the speed of the party; for he still turned his longing -looks in the direction of Fort Edward, in the vain -expectation of catching some sound from that quarter of the -forest, which might denote the approach of succor. When all -were prepared, Magua made the signal to proceed, advancing -in front to lead the party in person. Next followed David, -who was gradually coming to a true sense of his condition, -as the effects of the wound became less and less apparent. -The sisters rode in his rear, with Heyward at their side, -while the Indians flanked the party, and brought up the -close of the march, with a caution that seemed never to -tire. - -In this manner they proceeded in uninterrupted silence, -except when Heyward addressed some solitary word of comfort -to the females, or David gave vent to the moanings of his -spirit, in piteous exclamations, which he intended should -express the humility of resignation. Their direction lay -toward the south, and in a course nearly opposite to the -road to William Henry. Notwithstanding this apparent -adherence in Magua to the original determination of his -conquerors, Heyward could not believe his tempting bait was -so soon forgotten; and he knew the windings of an Indian's -path too well to suppose that its apparent course led -directly to its object, when artifice was at all necessary. -Mile after mile was, however, passed through the boundless -woods, in this painful manner, without any prospect of a -termination to their journey. Heyward watched the sun, as -he darted his meridian rays through the branches of the -trees, and pined for the moment when the policy of Magua -should change their route to one more favorable to his -hopes. Sometimes he fancied the wary savage, despairing of -passing the army of Montcalm in safety, was holding his way -toward a well-known border settlement, where a distinguished -officer of the crown, and a favored friend of the Six -Nations, held his large possessions, as well as his usual -residence. To be delivered into the hands of Sir William -Johnson was far preferable to being led into the wilds of -Canada; but in order to effect even the former, it would be -necessary to traverse the forest for many weary leagues, -each step of which was carrying him further from the scene -of the war, and, consequently, from the post, not only of -honor, but of duty. - -Cora alone remembered the parting injunctions of the scout, -and whenever an opportunity offered, she stretched forth her -arm to bend aside the twigs that met her hands. But the -vigilance of the Indians rendered this act of precaution -both difficult and dangerous. She was often defeated in her -purpose, by encountering their watchful eyes, when it became -necessary to feign an alarm she did not feel, and occupy the -limb by some gesture of feminine apprehension. Once, and -once only, was she completely successful; when she broke -down the bough of a large sumach, and by a sudden thought, -let her glove fall at the same instant. This sign, intended -for those that might follow, was observed by one of her -conductors, who restored the glove, broke the remaining -branches of the bush in such a manner that it appeared to -proceed from the struggling of some beast in its branches, -and then laid his hand on his tomahawk, with a look so -significant, that it put an effectual end to these stolen -memorials of their passage. - -As there were horses, to leave the prints of their -footsteps, in both bands of the Indians, this interruption -cut off any probable hopes of assistance being conveyed -through the means of their trail. - -Heyward would have ventured a remonstrance had there been -anything encouraging in the gloomy reserve of Magua. But -the savage, during all this time, seldom turned to look at -his followers, and never spoke. With the sun for his only -guide, or aided by such blind marks as are only known to the -sagacity of a native, he held his way along the barrens of -pine, through occasional little fertile vales, across brooks -and rivulets, and over undulating hills, with the accuracy -of instinct, and nearly with the directness of a bird. He -never seemed to hesitate. Whether the path was hardly -distinguishable, whether it disappeared, or whether it lay -beaten and plain before him, made no sensible difference in -his speed or certainty. It seemed as if fatigue could not -affect him. Whenever the eyes of the wearied travelers rose -from the decayed leaves over which they trod, his dark form -was to be seen glancing among the stems of the trees in -front, his head immovably fastened in a forward position, -with the light plume on his crest fluttering in a current of -air, made solely by the swiftness of his own motion. - -But all this diligence and speed were not without an object. -After crossing a low vale, through which a gushing brook -meandered, he suddenly ascended a hill, so steep and -difficult of ascent, that the sisters were compelled to -alight in order to follow. When the summit was gained, they -found themselves on a level spot, but thinly covered with -trees, under one of which Magua had thrown his dark form, as -if willing and ready to seek that rest which was so much -needed by the whole party. - - - -CHAPTER 11 - -"Cursed be my tribe If I forgive him."--Shylock - -The Indian had selected for this desirable purpose one of -those steep, pyramidal hills, which bear a strong -resemblance to artificial mounds, and which so frequently -occur in the valleys of America. The one in question was -high and precipitous; its top flattened, as usual; but with -one of its sides more than ordinarily irregular. It -possessed no other apparent advantage for a resting place, -than in its elevation and form, which might render defense -easy, and surprise nearly impossible. As Heyward, however, -no longer expected that rescue which time and distance now -rendered so improbable, he regarded these little -peculiarities with an eye devoid of interest, devoting -himself entirely to the comfort and condolence of his -feebler companions. The Narragansetts were suffered to -browse on the branches of the trees and shrubs that were -thinly scattered over the summit of the hill, while the -remains of their provisions were spread under the shade of a -beech, that stretched its horizontal limbs like a canopy -above them. - -Notwithstanding the swiftness of their flight, one of the -Indians had found an opportunity to strike a straggling fawn -with an arrow, and had borne the more preferable fragments -of the victim, patiently on his shoulders, to the stopping -place. Without any aid from the science of cookery, he was -immediately employed, in common with his fellows, in gorging -himself with this digestible sustenance. Magua alone sat -apart, without participating in the revolting meal, and -apparently buried in the deepest thought. - -This abstinence, so remarkable in an Indian, when he -possessed the means of satisfying hunger, at length -attracted the notice of Heyward. The young man willingly -believed that the Huron deliberated on the most eligible -manner of eluding the vigilance of his associates. With a -view to assist his plans by any suggestion of his own, and -to strengthen the temptation, he left the beech, and -straggled, as if without an object, to the spot where Le -Renard was seated. - -"Has not Magua kept the sun in his face long enough to -escape all danger from the Canadians?" he asked, as though -no longer doubtful of the good intelligence established -between them; "and will not the chief of William Henry be -better pleased to see his daughters before another night may -have hardened his heart to their loss, to make him less -liberal in his reward?" - -"Do the pale faces love their children less in the morning -than at night?" asked the Indian, coldly. - -"By no means," returned Heyward, anxious to recall his -error, if he had made one; "the white man may, and does -often, forget the burial place of his fathers; he sometimes -ceases to remember those he should love, and has promised to -cherish; but the affection of a parent for his child is -never permitted to die." - -"And is the heart of the white-headed chief soft, and will -he think of the babes that his squaws have given him? He is -hard on his warriors and his eyes are made of stone?" - -"He is severe to the idle and wicked, but to the sober and -deserving he is a leader, both just and humane. I have -known many fond and tender parents, but never have I seen a -man whose heart was softer toward his child. You have seen -the gray-head in front of his warriors, Magua; but I have -seen his eyes swimming in water, when he spoke of those -children who are now in your power!" - -Heyward paused, for he knew not how to construe the -remarkable expression that gleamed across the swarthy -features of the attentive Indian. At first it seemed as if -the remembrance of the promised reward grew vivid in his -mind, while he listened to the sources of parental feeling -which were to assure its possession; but, as Duncan -proceeded, the expression of joy became so fiercely -malignant that it was impossible not to apprehend it -proceeded from some passion more sinister than avarice. - -"Go," said the Huron, suppressing the alarming exhibition in -an instant, in a death-like calmness of countenance; "go to -the dark-haired daughter, and say, 'Magua waits to speak' -The father will remember what the child promises." - -Duncan, who interpreted this speech to express a wish for -some additional pledge that the promised gifts should not be -withheld, slowly and reluctantly repaired to the place where -the sisters were now resting from their fatigue, to -communicate its purport to Cora. - -"You understand the nature of an Indian's wishes," he -concluded, as he led her toward the place where she was -expected, "and must be prodigal of your offers of powder and -blankets. Ardent spirits are, however, the most prized by -such as he; nor would it be amiss to add some boon from your -own hand, with that grace you so well know how to practise. -Remember, Cora, that on your presence of mind and ingenuity, -even your life, as well as that of Alice, may in some -measure depend." - -"Heyward, and yours!" - -"Mine is of little moment; it is already sold to my king, -and is a prize to be seized by any enemy who may possess the -power. I have no father to expect me, and but few friends -to lament a fate which I have courted with the insatiable -longings of youth after distinction. But hush! we approach -the Indian. Magua, the lady with whom you wish to speak, is -here." - -The Indian rose slowly from his seat, and stood for near a -minute silent and motionless. He then signed with his hand -for Heyward to retire, saying, coldly: - -"When the Huron talks to the women, his tribe shut their -ears." - -Duncan, still lingering, as if refusing to comply, Cora -said, with a calm smile: - -"You hear, Heyward, and delicacy at least should urge you to -retire. Go to Alice, and comfort her with our reviving -prospects." - -She waited until he had departed, and then turning to the -native, with the dignity of her sex in her voice and manner, -she added: "What would Le Renard say to the daughter of -Munro?" - -"Listen," said the Indian, laying his hand firmly upon her -arm, as if willing to draw her utmost attention to his -words; a movement that Cora as firmly but quietly repulsed, -by extricating the limb from his grasp: "Magua was born a -chief and a warrior among the red Hurons of the lakes; he -saw the suns of twenty summers make the snows of twenty -winters run off in the streams before he saw a pale face; -and he was happy! Then his Canada fathers came into the -woods, and taught him to drink the fire-water, and he became -a rascal. The Hurons drove him from the graves of his -fathers, as they would chase the hunted buffalo. He ran -down the shores of the lakes, and followed their outlet to -the 'city of cannon' There he hunted and fished, till the -people chased him again through the woods into the arms of -his enemies. The chief, who was born a Huron, was at last a -warrior among the Mohawks!" - -"Something like this I had heard before," said Cora, -observing that he paused to suppress those passions which -began to burn with too bright a flame, as he recalled the -recollection of his supposed injuries. - -"Was it the fault of Le Renard that his head was not made of -rock? Who gave him the fire-water? who made him a villain? -'Twas the pale faces, the people of your own color." - -"And am I answerable that thoughtless and unprincipled men -exist, whose shades of countenance may resemble mine?" Cora -calmly demanded of the excited savage. - -"No; Magua is a man, and not a fool; such as you never open -their lips to the burning stream: the Great Spirit has given -you wisdom!" - -"What, then, have I do to, or say, in the matter of your -misfortunes, not to say of your errors?" - -"Listen," repeated the Indian, resuming his earnest -attitude; "when his English and French fathers dug up the -hatchet, Le Renard struck the war-post of the Mohawks, and -went out against his own nation. The pale faces have driven -the red-skins from their hunting grounds, and now when they -fight, a white man leads the way. The old chief at Horican, -your father, was the great captain of our war-party. He -said to the Mohawks do this, and do that, and he was minded. -He made a law, that if an Indian swallowed the fire-water, -and came into the cloth wigwams of his warriors, it should -not be forgotten. Magua foolishly opened his mouth, and the -hot liquor led him into the cabin of Munro. What did the -gray-head? let his daughter say." - -"He forgot not his words, and did justice, by punishing the -offender," said the undaunted daughter. - -"Justice!" repeated the Indian, casting an oblique glance of -the most ferocious expression at her unyielding countenance; -"is it justice to make evil and then punish for it? Magua -was not himself; it was the fire-water that spoke and acted -for him! but Munro did believe it. The Huron chief was tied -up before all the pale-faced warriors, and whipped like a -dog." - -Cora remained silent, for she knew not how to palliate this -imprudent severity on the part of her father in a manner to -suit the comprehension of an Indian. - -"See!" continued Magua, tearing aside the slight calico that -very imperfectly concealed his painted breast; "here are -scars given by knives and bullets--of these a warrior may -boast before his nation; but the gray-head has left marks on -the back of the Huron chief that he must hide like a squaw, -under this painted cloth of the whites." - -"I had thought," resumed Cora, "that an Indian warrior was -patient, and that his spirit felt not and knew not the pain -his body suffered." - -"When the Chippewas tied Magua to the stake, and cut this -gash," said the other, laying his finger on a deep scar, -"the Huron laughed in their faces, and told them, Women -struck so light! His spirit was then in the clouds! But -when he felt the blows of Munro, his spirit lay under the -birch. The spirit of a Huron is never drunk; it remembers -forever!" - -"But it may be appeased. If my father has done you this -injustice, show him how an Indian can forgive an injury, and -take back his daughters. You have heard from Major Heyward ---" - -Magua shook his head, forbidding the repetition of offers he -so much despised. - -"What would you have?" continued Cora, after a most painful -pause, while the conviction forced itself on her mind that -the too sanguine and generous Duncan had been cruelly -deceived by the cunning of the savage. - -"What a Huron loves -- good for good; bad for bad!" - -"You would, then, revenge the injury inflicted by Munro on -his helpless daughters. Would it not be more like a man to -go before his face, and take the satisfaction of a warrior?" - -"The arms of the pale faces are long, and their knives -sharp!" returned the savage, with a malignant laugh: "why -should Le Renard go among the muskets of his warriors, when -he holds the spirit of the gray-head in his hand?" - -"Name your intention, Magua," said Cora, struggling with -herself to speak with steady calmness. "Is it to lead us -prisoners to the woods, or do you contemplate even some -greater evil? Is there no reward, no means of palliating the -injury, and of softening your heart? At least, release my -gentle sister, and pour out all your malice on me. Purchase -wealth by her safety and satisfy your revenge with a single -victim. The loss of both his daughters might bring the aged -man to his grave, and where would then be the satisfaction -of Le Renard?" - -"Listen," said the Indian again. "The light eyes can go -back to the Horican, and tell the old chief what has been -done, if the dark-haired woman will swear by the Great -Spirit of her fathers to tell no lie." - -"What must I promise?" demanded Cora, still maintaining a -secret ascendancy over the fierce native by the collected -and feminine dignity of her presence. - -"When Magua left his people his wife was given to another -chief; he has now made friends with the Hurons, and will go -back to the graves of his tribe, on the shores of the great -lake. Let the daughter of the English chief follow, and -live in his wigwam forever." - -However revolting a proposal of such a character might prove -to Cora, she retained, notwithstanding her powerful disgust, -sufficient self-command to reply, without betraying the -weakness. - -"And what pleasure would Magua find in sharing his cabin -with a wife he did not love; one who would be of a nation -and color different from his own? It would be better to take -the gold of Munro, and buy the heart of some Huron maid with -his gifts." - -The Indian made no reply for near a minute, but bent his -fierce looks on the countenance of Cora, in such wavering -glances, that her eyes sank with shame, under an impression -that for the first time they had encountered an expression -that no chaste female might endure. While she was shrinking -within herself, in dread of having her ears wounded by some -proposal still more shocking than the last, the voice of -Magua answered, in its tones of deepest malignancy: - -"When the blows scorched the back of the Huron, he would -know where to find a woman to feel the smart. The daughter -of Munro would draw his water, hoe his corn, and cook his -venison. The body of the gray-head would sleep among his -cannon, but his heart would lie within reach of the knife of -Le Subtil." - -"Monster! well dost thou deserve thy treacherous name," -cried Cora, in an ungovernable burst of filial indignation. -"None but a fiend could meditate such a vengeance. But thou -overratest thy power! You shall find it is, in truth, the -heart of Munro you hold, and that it will defy your utmost -malice!" - -The Indian answered this bold defiance by a ghastly smile, -that showed an unaltered purpose, while he motioned her -away, as if to close the conference forever. Cora, already -regretting her precipitation, was obliged to comply, for -Magua instantly left the spot, and approached his gluttonous -comrades. Heyward flew to the side of the agitated female, -and demanded the result of a dialogue that he had watched at -a distance with so much interest. But, unwilling to alarm -the fears of Alice, she evaded a direct reply, betraying -only by her anxious looks fastened on the slightest -movements of her captors. To the reiterated and earnest -questions of her sister concerning their probable -destination, she made no other answer than by pointing -toward the dark group, with an agitation she could not -control, and murmuring as she folded Alice to her bosom. - -"There, there; read our fortunes in their faces; we shall -see; we shall see!" - -The action, and the choked utterance of Cora, spoke more -impressively than any words, and quickly drew the attention -of her companions on that spot where her own was riveted -with an intenseness that nothing but the importance of the -stake could create. - -When Magua reached the cluster of lolling savages, who, -gorged with their disgusting meal, lay stretched on the -earth in brutal indulgence, he commenced speaking with the -dignity of an Indian chief. The first syllables he uttered -had the effect to cause his listeners to raise themselves in -attitudes of respectful attention. As the Huron used his -native language, the prisoners, notwithstanding the caution -of the natives had kept them within the swing of their -tomahawks, could only conjecture the substance of his -harangue from the nature of those significant gestures with -which an Indian always illustrates his eloquence. - -At first, the language, as well as the action of Magua, -appeared calm and deliberative. When he had succeeded in -sufficiently awakening the attention of his comrades, -Heyward fancied, by his pointing so frequently toward the -direction of the great lakes, that he spoke of the land of -their fathers, and of their distant tribe. Frequent -indications of applause escaped the listeners, who, as they -uttered the expressive "Hugh!" looked at each other in -commendation of the speaker. Le Renard was too skillful to -neglect his advantage. He now spoke of the long and painful -route by which they had left those spacious grounds and -happy villages, to come and battle against the enemies of -their Canadian fathers. He enumerated the warriors of the -party; their several merits; their frequent services to the -nation; their wounds, and the number of the scalps they had -taken. Whenever he alluded to any present (and the subtle -Indian neglected none), the dark countenance of the -flattered individual gleamed with exultation, nor did he -even hesitate to assert the truth of the words, by gestures -of applause and confirmation. Then the voice of the speaker -fell, and lost the loud, animated tones of triumph with -which he had enumerated their deeds of success and victory. -He described the cataract of Glenn's; the impregnable -position of its rocky island, with its caverns and its -numerous rapids and whirlpools; he named the name of "La -Longue Carabine," and paused until the forest beneath them -had sent up the last echo of a loud and long yell, with -which the hated appellation was received. He pointed toward -the youthful military captive, and described the death of a -favorite warrior, who had been precipitated into the deep -ravine by his hand. He not only mentioned the fate of him -who, hanging between heaven and earth, had presented such a -spectacle of horror to the whole band, but he acted anew the -terrors of his situation, his resolution and his death, on -the branches of a sapling; and, finally, he rapidly -recounted the manner in which each of their friends had -fallen, never failing to touch upon their courage, and their -most acknowledged virtues. When this recital of events was -ended, his voice once more changed, and became plaintive and -even musical, in its low guttural sounds. He now spoke of -the wives and children of the slain; their destitution; -their misery, both physical and moral; their distance; and, -at last, of their unavenged wrongs. Then suddenly lifting -his voice to a pitch of terrific energy, he concluded by -demanding: - -"Are the Hurons dogs to bear this? Who shall say to the wife -of Menowgua that the fishes have his scalp, and that his -nation have not taken revenge! Who will dare meet the -mother of Wassawattimie, that scornful woman, with his hands -clean! What shall be said to the old men when they ask us -for scalps, and we have not a hair from a white head to give -them! The women will point their fingers at us. There is a -dark spot on the names of the Hurons, and it must be hid in -blood!" His voice was no longer audible in the burst of -rage which now broke into the air, as if the wood, instead -of containing so small a band, was filled with the nation. -During the foregoing address the progress of the speaker was -too plainly read by those most interested in his success -through the medium of the countenances of the men he -addressed. They had answered his melancholy and mourning by -sympathy and sorrow; his assertions, by gestures of -confirmation; and his boasting, with the exultation of -savages. When he spoke of courage, their looks were firm -and responsive; when he alluded to their injuries, their -eyes kindled with fury; when he mentioned the taunts of the -women, they dropped their heads in shame; but when he -pointed out their means of vengeance, he struck a chord -which never failed to thrill in the breast of an Indian. -With the first intimation that it was within their reach, -the whole band sprang upon their feet as one man; giving -utterance to their rage in the most frantic cries, they -rushed upon their prisoners in a body with drawn knives and -uplifted tomahawks. Heyward threw himself between the -sisters and the foremost, whom he grappled with a desperate -strength that for a moment checked his violence. This -unexpected resistance gave Magua time to interpose, and with -rapid enunciation and animated gesture, he drew the -attention of the band again to himself. In that language he -knew so well how to assume, he diverted his comrades from -their instant purpose, and invited them to prolong the -misery of their victims. His proposal was received with -acclamations, and executed with the swiftness of thought. - -Two powerful warriors cast themselves on Heyward, while -another was occupied in securing the less active singing-master. -Neither of the captives, however, submitted without a -desperate, though fruitless, struggle. Even David hurled -his assailant to the earth; nor was Heyward secured until -the victory over his companion enabled the Indians to direct -their united force to that object. He was then bound and -fastened to the body of the sapling, on whose branches Magua -had acted the pantomime of the falling Huron. When the -young soldier regained his recollection, he had the painful -certainty before his eyes that a common fate was intended -for the whole party. On his right was Cora in a durance -similar to his own, pale and agitated, but with an eye whose -steady look still read the proceedings of their enemies. On -his left, the withes which bound her to a pine, performed -that office for Alice which her trembling limbs refused, and -alone kept her fragile form from sinking. Her hands were -clasped before her in prayer, but instead of looking upward -toward that power which alone could rescue them, her -unconscious looks wandered to the countenance of Duncan with -infantile dependency. David had contended, and the novelty -of the circumstance held him silent, in deliberation on the -propriety of the unusual occurrence. - -The vengeance of the Hurons had now taken a new direction, -and they prepared to execute it with that barbarous -ingenuity with which they were familiarized by the practise -of centuries. Some sought knots, to raise the blazing pile; -one was riving the splinters of pine, in order to pierce the -flesh of their captives with the burning fragments; and -others bent the tops of two saplings to the earth, in order -to suspend Heyward by the arms between the recoiling -branches. But the vengeance of Magua sought a deeper and -more malignant enjoyment. - -While the less refined monsters of the band prepared, before -the eyes of those who were to suffer, these well-known and -vulgar means of torture, he approached Cora, and pointed -out, with the most malign expression of countenance, the -speedy fate that awaited her: - -"Ha!" he added, "what says the daughter of Munro? Her head -is too good to find a pillow in the wigwam of Le Renard; -will she like it better when it rolls about this hill a -plaything for the wolves? Her bosom cannot nurse the -children of a Huron; she will see it spit upon by Indians!" - -"What means the monster!" demanded the astonished Heyward. - -"Nothing!" was the firm reply. "He is a savage, a barbarous -and ignorant savage, and knows not what he does. Let us -find leisure, with our dying breath, to ask for him -penitence and pardon." - -"Pardon!" echoed the fierce Huron, mistaking in his anger, -the meaning of her words; "the memory of an Indian is no -longer than the arm of the pale faces; his mercy shorter -than their justice! Say; shall I send the yellow hair to -her father, and will you follow Magua to the great lakes, to -carry his water, and feed him with corn?" - -Cora beckoned him away, with an emotion of disgust she could -not control. - -"Leave me," she said, with a solemnity that for a moment -checked the barbarity of the Indian; "you mingle bitterness -in my prayers; you stand between me and my God!" - -The slight impression produced on the savage was, however, -soon forgotten, and he continued pointing, with taunting -irony, toward Alice. - -"Look! the child weeps! She is too young to die! Send her -to Munro, to comb his gray hairs, and keep life in the heart -of the old man." - -Cora could not resist the desire to look upon her youthful -sister, in whose eyes she met an imploring glance, that -betrayed the longings of nature. - -"What says he, dearest Cora?" asked the trembling voice of -Alice. "Did he speak of sending me to our father?" - -For many moments the elder sister looked upon the younger, -with a countenance that wavered with powerful and contending -emotions. At length she spoke, though her tones had lost -their rich and calm fullness, in an expression of tenderness -that seemed maternal. - -"Alice," she said, "the Huron offers us both life, nay, more -than both; he offers to restore Duncan, our invaluable -Duncan, as well as you, to our friends -- to our father -- -to our heart-stricken, childless father, if I will bow down -this rebellious, stubborn pride of mine, and consent --" - -Her voice became choked, and clasping her hands, she looked -upward, as if seeking, in her agony, intelligence from a -wisdom that was infinite. - -"Say on," cried Alice; "to what, dearest Cora? Oh! that the -proffer were made to me! to save you, to cheer our aged -father, to restore Duncan, how cheerfully could I die!" - -"Die!" repeated Cora, with a calmer and firmer voice, "that -were easy! Perhaps the alternative may not be less so. He -would have me," she continued, her accents sinking under a -deep consciousness of the degradation of the proposal, -"follow him to the wilderness; go to the habitations of the -Hurons; to remain there; in short, to become his wife! -Speak, then, Alice; child of my affections! sister of my -love! And you, too, Major Heyward, aid my weak reason with -your counsel. Is life to be purchased by such a sacrifice? -Will you, Alice, receive it at my hands at such a price? -And you, Duncan, guide me; control me between you; for I am -wholly yours!" - -"Would I!" echoed the indignant and astonished youth. -"Cora! Cora! you jest with our misery! Name not the horrid -alternative again; the thought itself is worse than a -thousand deaths." - -"That such would be your answer, I well knew!" exclaimed -Cora, her cheeks flushing, and her dark eyes once more -sparkling with the lingering emotions of a woman. "What -says my Alice? for her will I submit without another -murmur." - -Although both Heyward and Cora listened with painful -suspense and the deepest attention, no sounds were heard in -reply. It appeared as if the delicate and sensitive form of -Alice would shrink into itself, as she listened to this -proposal. Her arms had fallen lengthwise before her, the -fingers moving in slight convulsions; her head dropped upon -her bosom, and her whole person seemed suspended against the -tree, looking like some beautiful emblem of the wounded -delicacy of her sex, devoid of animation and yet keenly -conscious. In a few moments, however, her head began to -move slowly, in a sign of deep, unconquerable -disapprobation. - -"No, no, no; better that we die as we have lived, together!" - -"Then die!" shouted Magua, hurling his tomahawk with -violence at the unresisting speaker, and gnashing his teeth -with a rage that could no longer be bridled at this sudden -exhibition of firmness in the one he believed the weakest of -the party. The axe cleaved the air in front of Heyward, and -cutting some of the flowing ringlets of Alice, quivered in -the tree above her head. The sight maddened Duncan to -desperation. Collecting all his energies in one effort he -snapped the twigs which bound him and rushed upon another -savage, who was preparing, with loud yells and a more -deliberate aim, to repeat the blow. They encountered, -grappled, and fell to the earth together. The naked body of -his antagonist afforded Heyward no means of holding his -adversary, who glided from his grasp, and rose again with -one knee on his chest, pressing him down with the weight of -a giant. Duncan already saw the knife gleaming in the air, -when a whistling sound swept past him, and was rather -accompanied than followed by the sharp crack of a rifle. He -felt his breast relieved from the load it had endured; he -saw the savage expression of his adversary's countenance -change to a look of vacant wildness, when the Indian fell -dead on the faded leaves by his side. - - - -CHAPTER 12 - -"Clo.--I am gone, sire, And anon, sire, I'll be with you -again."--Twelfth Night - -The Hurons stood aghast at this sudden visitation of death -on one of their band. But as they regarded the fatal -accuracy of an aim which had dared to immolate an enemy at -so much hazard to a friend, the name of "La Longue Carabine" -burst simultaneously from every lip, and was succeeded by a -wild and a sort of plaintive howl. The cry was answered by -a loud shout from a little thicket, where the incautious -party had piled their arms; and at the next moment, Hawkeye, -too eager to load the rifle he had regained, was seen -advancing upon them, brandishing the clubbed weapon, and -cutting the air with wide and powerful sweeps. Bold and -rapid as was the progress of the scout, it was exceeded by -that of a light and vigorous form which, bounding past him, -leaped, with incredible activity and daring, into the very -center of the Hurons, where it stood, whirling a tomahawk, -and flourishing a glittering knife, with fearful menaces, in -front of Cora. Quicker than the thoughts could follow those -unexpected and audacious movements, an image, armed in the -emblematic panoply of death, glided before their eyes, and -assumed a threatening attitude at the other's side. The -savage tormentors recoiled before these warlike intruders, -and uttered, as they appeared in such quick succession, the -often repeated and peculiar exclamations of surprise, -followed by the well-known and dreaded appellations of: - -"Le Cerf Agile! Le Gros Serpent!" - -But the wary and vigilant leader of the Hurons was not so -easily disconcerted. Casting his keen eyes around the -little plain, he comprehended the nature of the assault at a -glance, and encouraging his followers by his voice as well -as by his example, he unsheathed his long and dangerous -knife, and rushed with a loud whoop upon the expected -Chingachgook. It was the signal for a general combat. -Neither party had firearms, and the contest was to be -decided in the deadliest manner, hand to hand, with weapons -of offense, and none of defense. - -Uncas answered the whoop, and leaping on an enemy, with a -single, well-directed blow of his tomahawk, cleft him to the -brain. Heyward tore the weapon of Magua from the sapling, -and rushed eagerly toward the fray. As the combatants were -now equal in number, each singled an opponent from the -adverse band. The rush and blows passed with the fury of a -whirlwind, and the swiftness of lightning. Hawkeye soon got -another enemy within reach of his arm, and with one sweep of -his formidable weapon he beat down the slight and -inartificial defenses of his antagonist, crushing him to the -earth with the blow. Heyward ventured to hurl the tomahawk -he had seized, too ardent to await the moment of closing. -It struck the Indian he had selected on the forehead, and -checked for an instant his onward rush. Encouraged by this -slight advantage, the impetuous young man continued his -onset, and sprang upon his enemy with naked hands. A single -instant was enough to assure him of the rashness of the -measure, for he immediately found himself fully engaged, -with all his activity and courage, in endeavoring to ward -the desperate thrusts made with the knife of the Huron. -Unable longer to foil an enemy so alert and vigilant, he -threw his arms about him, and succeeded in pinning the limbs -of the other to his side, with an iron grasp, but one that -was far too exhausting to himself to continue long. In this -extremity he heard a voice near him, shouting: - -"Extarminate the varlets! no quarter to an accursed Mingo!" - -At the next moment, the breech of Hawkeye's rifle fell on -the naked head of his adversary, whose muscles appeared to -wither under the shock, as he sank from the arms of Duncan, -flexible and motionless. - -When Uncas had brained his first antagonist, he turned, like -a hungry lion, to seek another. The fifth and only Huron -disengaged at the first onset had paused a moment, and then -seeing that all around him were employed in the deadly -strife, he had sought, with hellish vengeance, to complete -the baffled work of revenge. Raising a shout of triumph, he -sprang toward the defenseless Cora, sending his keen axe as -the dreadful precursor of his approach. The tomahawk grazed -her shoulder, and cutting the withes which bound her to the -tree, left the maiden at liberty to fly. She eluded the -grasp of the savage, and reckless of her own safety, threw -herself on the bosom of Alice, striving with convulsed and -ill-directed fingers, to tear asunder the twigs which -confined the person of her sister. Any other than a monster -would have relented at such an act of generous devotion to -the best and purest affection; but the breast of the Huron -was a stranger to sympathy. Seizing Cora by the rich -tresses which fell in confusion about her form, he tore her -from her frantic hold, and bowed her down with brutal -violence to her knees. The savage drew the flowing curls -through his hand, and raising them on high with an -outstretched arm, he passed the knife around the exquisitely -molded head of his victim, with a taunting and exulting -laugh. But he purchased this moment of fierce gratification -with the loss of the fatal opportunity. It was just then -the sight caught the eye of Uncas. Bounding from his -footsteps he appeared for an instant darting through the air -and descending in a ball he fell on the chest of his enemy, -driving him many yards from the spot, headlong and -prostrate. The violence of the exertion cast the young -Mohican at his side. They arose together, fought, and bled, -each in his turn. But the conflict was soon decided; the -tomahawk of Heyward and the rifle of Hawkeye descended on -the skull of the Huron, at the same moment that the knife of -Uncas reached his heart. - -The battle was now entirely terminated with the exception of -the protracted struggle between "Le Renard Subtil" and "Le -Gros Serpent." Well did these barbarous warriors prove that -they deserved those significant names which had been -bestowed for deeds in former wars. When they engaged, some -little time was lost in eluding the quick and vigorous -thrusts which had been aimed at their lives. Suddenly -darting on each other, they closed, and came to the earth, -twisted together like twining serpents, in pliant and subtle -folds. At the moment when the victors found themselves -unoccupied, the spot where these experienced and desperate -combatants lay could only be distinguished by a cloud of -dust and leaves, which moved from the center of the little -plain toward its boundary, as if raised by the passage of a -whirlwind. Urged by the different motives of filial -affection, friendship and gratitude, Heyward and his -companions rushed with one accord to the place, encircling -the little canopy of dust which hung above the warriors. In -vain did Uncas dart around the cloud, with a wish to strike -his knife into the heart of his father's foe; the -threatening rifle of Hawkeye was raised and suspended in -vain, while Duncan endeavored to seize the limbs of the -Huron with hands that appeared to have lost their power. -Covered as they were with dust and blood, the swift -evolutions of the combatants seemed to incorporate their -bodies into one. The death-like looking figure of the -Mohican, and the dark form of the Huron, gleamed before -their eyes in such quick and confused succession, that the -friends of the former knew not where to plant the succoring -blow. It is true there were short and fleeting moments, -when the fiery eyes of Magua were seen glittering, like the -fabled organs of the basilisk through the dusty wreath by -which he was enveloped, and he read by those short and -deadly glances the fate of the combat in the presence of his -enemies; ere, however, any hostile hand could descend on his -devoted head, its place was filled by the scowling visage of -Chingachgook. In this manner the scene of the combat was -removed from the center of the little plain to its verge. -The Mohican now found an opportunity to make a powerful -thrust with his knife; Magua suddenly relinquished his -grasp, and fell backward without motion, and seemingly -without life. His adversary leaped on his feet, making the -arches of the forest ring with the sounds of triumph. - -"Well done for the Delawares! victory to the Mohicans!" -cried Hawkeye, once more elevating the butt of the long and -fatal rifle; "a finishing blow from a man without a cross -will never tell against his honor, nor rob him of his right -to the scalp." - -But at the very moment when the dangerous weapon was in the -act of descending, the subtle Huron rolled swiftly from -beneath the danger, over the edge of the precipice, and -falling on his feet, was seen leaping, with a single bound, -into the center of a thicket of low bushes, which clung -along its sides. The Delawares, who had believed their -enemy dead, uttered their exclamation of surprise, and were -following with speed and clamor, like hounds in open view of -the deer, when a shrill and peculiar cry from the scout -instantly changed their purpose, and recalled them to the -summit of the hill. - -"'Twas like himself!" cried the inveterate forester, whose -prejudices contributed so largely to veil his natural sense -of justice in all matters which concerned the Mingoes; "a -lying and deceitful varlet as he is. An honest Delaware -now, being fairly vanquished, would have lain still, and -been knocked on the head, but these knavish Maquas cling to -life like so many cats-o'-the-mountain. Let him go -- let -him go; 'tis but one man, and he without rifle or bow, many -a long mile from his French commerades; and like a rattler -that lost his fangs, he can do no further mischief, until -such time as he, and we too, may leave the prints of our -moccasins over a long reach of sandy plain. See, Uncas," he -added, in Delaware, "your father is flaying the scalps -already. It may be well to go round and feel the vagabonds -that are left, or we may have another of them loping through -the woods, and screeching like a jay that has been winged." - -So saying the honest but implacable scout made the circuit -of the dead, into whose senseless bosoms he thrust his long -knife, with as much coolness as though they had been so many -brute carcasses. He had, however, been anticipated by the -elder Mohican, who had already torn the emblems of victory -from the unresisting heads of the slain. - -But Uncas, denying his habits, we had almost said his -nature, flew with instinctive delicacy, accompanied by -Heyward, to the assistance of the females, and quickly -releasing Alice, placed her in the arms of Cora. We shall -not attempt to describe the gratitude to the Almighty -Disposer of Events which glowed in the bosoms of the -sisters, who were thus unexpectedly restored to life and to -each other. Their thanksgivings were deep and silent; the -offerings of their gentle spirits burning brightest and -purest on the secret altars of their hearts; and their -renovated and more earthly feelings exhibiting themselves in -long and fervent though speechless caresses. As Alice rose -from her knees, where she had sunk by the side of Cora, she -threw herself on the bosom of the latter, and sobbed aloud -the name of their aged father, while her soft, dove-like -eyes, sparkled with the rays of hope. - -"We are saved! we are saved!" she murmured; "to return to -the arms of our dear, dear father, and his heart will not be -broken with grief. And you, too, Cora, my sister, my more -than sister, my mother; you, too, are spared. And Duncan," -she added, looking round upon the youth with a smile of -ineffable innocence, "even our own brave and noble Duncan -has escaped without a hurt." - -To these ardent and nearly innocent words Cora made no other -answer than by straining the youthful speaker to her heart, -as she bent over her in melting tenderness. The manhood of -Heyward felt no shame in dropping tears over this spectacle of -affectionate rapture; and Uncas stood, fresh and blood-stained -from the combat, a calm, and, apparently, an unmoved -looker-on, it is true, but with eyes that had already lost -their fierceness, and were beaming with a sympathy that -elevated him far above the intelligence, and advanced him -probably centuries before, the practises of his nation. - -During this display of emotions so natural in their -situation, Hawkeye, whose vigilant distrust had satisfied -itself that the Hurons, who disfigured the heavenly scene, -no longer possessed the power to interrupt its harmony, -approached David, and liberated him from the bonds he had, -until that moment, endured with the most exemplary patience. - -"There," exclaimed the scout, casting the last withe behind -him, "you are once more master of your own limbs, though you -seem not to use them with much greater judgment than that in -which they were first fashioned. If advice from one who is -not older than yourself, but who, having lived most of his -time in the wilderness, may be said to have experience -beyond his years, will give no offense, you are welcome to -my thoughts; and these are, to part with the little tooting -instrument in your jacket to the first fool you meet with, -and buy some we'pon with the money, if it be only the barrel -of a horseman's pistol. By industry and care, you might -thus come to some prefarment; for by this time, I should -think, your eyes would plainly tell you that a carrion crow -is a better bird than a mocking-thresher. The one will, at -least, remove foul sights from before the face of man, while -the other is only good to brew disturbances in the woods, by -cheating the ears of all that hear them." - -"Arms and the clarion for the battle, but the song of -thanksgiving to the victory!" answered the liberated David. -"Friend," he added, thrusting forth his lean, delicate hand -toward Hawkeye, in kindness, while his eyes twinkled and -grew moist, "I thank thee that the hairs of my head still -grow where they were first rooted by Providence; for, though -those of other men may be more glossy and curling, I have -ever found mine own well suited to the brain they shelter. -That I did not join myself to the battle, was less owing to -disinclination, than to the bonds of the heathen. Valiant -and skillful hast thou proved thyself in the conflict, and I -hereby thank thee, before proceeding to discharge other and -more important duties, because thou hast proved thyself well -worthy of a Christian's praise." - -"The thing is but a trifle, and what you may often see if -you tarry long among us," returned the scout, a good deal -softened toward the man of song, by this unequivocal -expression of gratitude. "I have got back my old companion, -'killdeer'," he added, striking his hand on the breech of -his rifle; "and that in itself is a victory. These Iroquois -are cunning, but they outwitted themselves when they placed -their firearms out of reach; and had Uncas or his father -been gifted with only their common Indian patience, we -should have come in upon the knaves with three bullets -instead of one, and that would have made a finish of the -whole pack; yon loping varlet, as well as his commerades. -But 'twas all fore-ordered, and for the best." - -"Thou sayest well," returned David, "and hast caught the -true spirit of Christianity. He that is to be saved will be -saved, and he that is predestined to be damned will be -damned. This is the doctrine of truth, and most consoling -and refreshing it is to the true believer." - -The scout, who by this time was seated, examining into the -state of his rifle with a species of parental assiduity, now -looked up at the other in a displeasure that he did not -affect to conceal, roughly interrupting further speech. - -"Doctrine or no doctrine," said the sturdy woodsman, "'tis -the belief of knaves, and the curse of an honest man. I can -credit that yonder Huron was to fall by my hand, for with my -own eyes I have seen it; but nothing short of being a -witness will cause me to think he has met with any reward, -or that Chingachgook there will be condemned at the final -day." - -"You have no warranty for such an audacious doctrine, nor -any covenant to support it," cried David who was deeply -tinctured with the subtle distinctions which, in his time, -and more especially in his province, had been drawn around -the beautiful simplicity of revelation, by endeavoring to -penetrate the awful mystery of the divine nature, supplying -faith by self-sufficiency, and by consequence, involving -those who reasoned from such human dogmas in absurdities and -doubt; "your temple is reared on the sands, and the first -tempest will wash away its foundation. I demand your -authorities for such an uncharitable assertion (like other -advocates of a system, David was not always accurate in his -use of terms). Name chapter and verse; in which of the holy -books do you find language to support you?" - -"Book!" repeated Hawkeye, with singular and ill-concealed -disdain; "do you take me for a whimpering boy at the -apronstring of one of your old gals; and this good rifle on -my knee for the feather of a goose's wing, my ox's horn for -a bottle of ink, and my leathern pouch for a cross-barred -handkercher to carry my dinner? Book! what have such as I, -who am a warrior of the wilderness, though a man without a -cross, to do with books? I never read but in one, and the -words that are written there are too simple and too plain to -need much schooling; though I may boast that of forty long -and hard-working years." - -"What call you the volume?" said David, misconceiving the -other's meaning. - -"'Tis open before your eyes," returned the scout; "and he -who owns it is not a niggard of its use. I have heard it -said that there are men who read in books to convince -themselves there is a God. I know not but man may so deform -his works in the settlement, as to leave that which is so -clear in the wilderness a matter of doubt among traders and -priests. If any such there be, and he will follow me from -sun to sun, through the windings of the forest, he shall see -enough to teach him that he is a fool, and that the greatest -of his folly lies in striving to rise to the level of One he -can never equal, be it in goodness, or be it in power." - -The instant David discovered that he battled with a -disputant who imbibed his faith from the lights of nature, -eschewing all subtleties of doctrine, he willingly abandoned -a controversy from which he believed neither profit nor -credit was to be derived. While the scout was speaking, he -had also seated himself, and producing the ready little -volume and the iron-rimmed spectacles, he prepared to -discharge a duty, which nothing but the unexpected assault -he had received in his orthodoxy could have so long -suspended. He was, in truth, a minstrel of the western -continent -- of a much later day, certainly, than those -gifted bards, who formerly sang the profane renown of baron -and prince, but after the spirit of his own age and country; -and he was now prepared to exercise the cunning of his -craft, in celebration of, or rather in thanksgiving for, the -recent victory. He waited patiently for Hawkeye to cease, -then lifting his eyes, together with his voice, he said, -aloud: - -"I invite you, friends, to join in praise for this signal -deliverance from the hands of barbarians and infidels, to the -comfortable and solemn tones of the tune called 'Northampton'." - -He next named the page and verse where the rhymes selected -were to be found, and applied the pitch-pipe to his lips, -with the decent gravity that he had been wont to use in the -temple. This time he was, however, without any -accompaniment, for the sisters were just then pouring out -those tender effusions of affection which have been already -alluded to. Nothing deterred by the smallness of his -audience, which, in truth, consisted only of the -discontented scout, he raised his voice, commencing and -ending the sacred song without accident or interruption of -any kind. - -Hawkeye listened while he coolly adjusted his flint and -reloaded his rifle; but the sounds, wanting the extraneous -assistance of scene and sympathy, failed to awaken his -slumbering emotions. Never minstrel, or by whatever more -suitable name David should be known, drew upon his talents -in the presence of more insensible auditors; though -considering the singleness and sincerity of his motive, it -is probable that no bard of profane song ever uttered notes -that ascended so near to that throne where all homage and -praise is due. The scout shook his head, and muttering some -unintelligible words, among which "throat" and "Iroquois" -were alone audible, he walked away, to collect and to -examine into the state of the captured arsenal of the -Hurons. In this office he was now joined by Chingachgook, -who found his own, as well as the rifle of his son, among -the arms. Even Heyward and David were furnished with -weapons; nor was ammunition wanting to render them all -effectual. - -When the foresters had made their selection, and distributed -their prizes, the scout announced that the hour had arrived -when it was necessary to move. By this time the song of -Gamut had ceased, and the sisters had learned to still the -exhibition of their emotions. Aided by Duncan and the -younger Mohican, the two latter descended the precipitous -sides of that hill which they had so lately ascended under -so very different auspices, and whose summit had so nearly -proved the scene of their massacre. At the foot they found -the Narragansetts browsing the herbage of the bushes, and -having mounted, they followed the movements of a guide, who, -in the most deadly straits, had so often proved himself -their friend. The journey was, however, short. Hawkeye, -leaving the blind path that the Hurons had followed, turned -short to his right, and entering the thicket, he crossed a -babbling brook, and halted in a narrow dell, under the shade -of a few water elms. Their distance from the base of the -fatal hill was but a few rods, and the steeds had been -serviceable only in crossing the shallow stream. - -The scout and the Indians appeared to be familiar with the -sequestered place where they now were; for, leaning their -rifle against the trees, they commenced throwing aside the -dried leaves, and opening the blue clay, out of which a -clear and sparkling spring of bright, glancing water, -quickly bubbled. The white man then looked about him, as -though seeking for some object, which was not to be found as -readily as he expected. - -"Them careless imps, the Mohawks, with their Tuscarora and -Onondaga brethren, have been here slaking their thirst," he -muttered, "and the vagabonds have thrown away the gourd! -This is the way with benefits, when they are bestowed on -such disremembering hounds! Here has the Lord laid his -hand, in the midst of the howling wilderness, for their -good, and raised a fountain of water from the bowels of the -'arth, that might laugh at the richest shop of apothecary's -ware in all the colonies; and see! the knaves have trodden -in the clay, and deformed the cleanliness of the place, as -though they were brute beasts, instead of human men." - -Uncas silently extended toward him the desired gourd, which -the spleen of Hawkeye had hitherto prevented him from -observing on a branch of an elm. Filling it with water, he -retired a short distance, to a place where the ground was -more firm and dry; here he coolly seated himself, and after -taking a long, and, apparently, a grateful draught, he -commenced a very strict examination of the fragments of food -left by the Hurons, which had hung in a wallet on his arm. - -"Thank you, lad!" he continued, returning the empty gourd to -Uncas; "now we will see how these rampaging Hurons lived, -when outlying in ambushments. Look at this! The varlets -know the better pieces of the deer; and one would think they -might carve and roast a saddle, equal to the best cook in -the land! But everything is raw, for the Iroquois are -thorough savages. Uncas, take my steel and kindle a fire; a -mouthful of a tender broil will give natur' a helping hand, -after so long a trail." - -Heyward, perceiving that their guides now set about their -repast in sober earnest, assisted the ladies to alight, and -placed himself at their side, not unwilling to enjoy a few -moments of grateful rest, after the bloody scene he had just -gone through. While the culinary process was in hand, -curiosity induced him to inquire into the circumstances -which had led to their timely and unexpected rescue: - -"How is it that we see you so soon, my generous friend," he -asked, "and without aid from the garrison of Edward?" - -"Had we gone to the bend in the river, we might have been in -time to rake the leaves over your bodies, but too late to -have saved your scalps," coolly answered the scout. "No, -no; instead of throwing away strength and opportunity by -crossing to the fort, we lay by, under the bank of the -Hudson, waiting to watch the movements of the Hurons." - -"You were, then, witnesses of all that passed?" - -"Not of all; for Indian sight is too keen to be easily -cheated, and we kept close. A difficult matter it was, too, -to keep this Mohican boy snug in the ambushment. Ah! Uncas, -Uncas, your behavior was more like that of a curious woman -than of a warrior on his scent." - -Uncas permitted his eyes to turn for an instant on the -sturdy countenance of the speaker, but he neither spoke nor -gave any indication of repentance. On the contrary, Heyward -thought the manner of the young Mohican was disdainful, if -not a little fierce, and that he suppressed passions that -were ready to explode, as much in compliment to the -listeners, as from the deference he usually paid to his -white associate. - -"You saw our capture?" Heyward next demanded. - -"We heard it," was the significant answer. "An Indian yell -is plain language to men who have passed their days in the -woods. But when you landed, we were driven to crawl like -sarpents, beneath the leaves; and then we lost sight of you -entirely, until we placed eyes on you again trussed to the -trees, and ready bound for an Indian massacre." - -"Our rescue was the deed of Providence. It was nearly a -miracle that you did not mistake the path, for the Hurons -divided, and each band had its horses." - -"Ay! there we were thrown off the scent, and might, indeed, -have lost the trail, had it not been for Uncas; we took the -path, however, that led into the wilderness; for we judged, -and judged rightly, that the savages would hold that course -with their prisoners. But when we had followed it for many -miles, without finding a single twig broken, as I had -advised, my mind misgave me; especially as all the footsteps -had the prints of moccasins." - -"Our captors had the precaution to see us shod like -themselves," said Duncan, raising a foot, and exhibiting the -buckskin he wore. - -"Aye, 'twas judgmatical and like themselves; though we were -too expart to be thrown from a trail by so common an -invention." - -"To what, then, are we indebted for our safety?" - -"To what, as a white man who has no taint of Indian blood, I -should be ashamed to own; to the judgment of the young -Mohican, in matters which I should know better than he, but -which I can now hardly believe to be true, though my own -eyes tell me it is so." - -"'Tis extraordinary! will you not name the reason?" - -"Uncas was bold enough to say, that the beasts ridden by the -gentle ones," continued Hawkeye, glancing his eyes, not -without curious interest, on the fillies of the ladies, -"planted the legs of one side on the ground at the same -time, which is contrary to the movements of all trotting -four-footed animals of my knowledge, except the bear. And -yet here are horses that always journey in this manner, as -my own eyes have seen, and as their trail has shown for -twenty long miles." - -"'Tis the merit of the animal! They come from the shores of -Narrangansett Bay, in the small province of Providence -Plantations, and are celebrated for their hardihood, and the -ease of this peculiar movement; though other horses are not -unfrequently trained to the same." - -"It may be--it may be," said Hawkeye, who had listened -with singular attention to this explanation; "though I am a -man who has the full blood of the whites, my judgment in -deer and beaver is greater than in beasts of burden. Major -Effingham has many noble chargers, but I have never seen one -travel after such a sidling gait." - -"True; for he would value the animals for very different -properties. Still is this a breed highly esteemed and, as -you witness, much honored with the burdens it is often -destined to bear." - -The Mohicans had suspended their operations about the -glimmering fire to listen; and, when Duncan had done, they -looked at each other significantly, the father uttering the -never-failing exclamation of surprise. The scout ruminated, -like a man digesting his newly-acquired knowledge, and once -more stole a glance at the horses. - -"I dare to say there are even stranger sights to be seen in -the settlements!" he said, at length. "Natur' is sadly abused -by man, when he once gets the mastery. But, go sidling or -go straight, Uncas had seen the movement, and their trail -led us on to the broken bush. The outer branch, near the -prints of one of the horses, was bent upward, as a lady -breaks a flower from its stem, but all the rest were ragged -and broken down, as if the strong hand of a man had been -tearing them! So I concluded that the cunning varments had -seen the twig bent, and had torn the rest, to make us -believe a buck had been feeling the boughs with his -antlers." - -"I do believe your sagacity did not deceive you; for some -such thing occurred!" - -"That was easy to see," added the scout, in no degree -conscious of having exhibited any extraordinary sagacity; -"and a very different matter it was from a waddling horse! -It then struck me the Mingoes would push for this spring, -for the knaves well know the vartue of its waters!" - -"Is it, then, so famous?" demanded Heyward, examining, with -a more curious eye, the secluded dell, with its bubbling -fountain, surrounded, as it was, by earth of a deep, dingy -brown. - -"Few red-skins, who travel south and east of the great lakes -but have heard of its qualities. Will you taste for -yourself?" - -Heyward took the gourd, and after swallowing a little of the -water, threw it aside with grimaces of discontent. The -scout laughed in his silent but heartfelt manner, and shook -his head with vast satisfaction. - -"Ah! you want the flavor that one gets by habit; the time -was when I liked it as little as yourself; but I have come -to my taste, and I now crave it, as a deer does the licks*. -Your high-spiced wines are not better liked than a red-skin -relishes this water; especially when his natur' is ailing. -But Uncas has made his fire, and it is time we think of -eating, for our journey is long, and all before us." - -* Many of the animals of the American forests resort -to those spots where salt springs are found. These are -called "licks" or "salt licks," in the language of the -country, from the circumstance that the quadruped is often -obliged to lick the earth, in order to obtain the saline -particles. These licks are great places of resort with the -hunters, who waylay their game near the paths that lead to -them. - -Interrupting the dialogue by this abrupt transition, the -scout had instant recourse to the fragments of food which -had escaped the voracity of the Hurons. A very summary -process completed the simple cookery, when he and the -Mohicans commenced their humble meal, with the silence and -characteristic diligence of men who ate in order to enable -themselves to endure great and unremitting toil. - -When this necessary, and, happily, grateful duty had been -performed, each of the foresters stooped and took a long and -parting draught at that solitary and silent spring*, around -which and its sister fountains, within fifty years, the -wealth, beauty and talents of a hemisphere were to assemble -in throngs, in pursuit of health and pleasure. Then Hawkeye -announced his determination to proceed. The sisters resumed -their saddles; Duncan and David grapsed their rifles, and -followed on footsteps; the scout leading the advance, and -the Mohicans bringing up the rear. The whole party moved -swiftly through the narrow path, toward the north, leaving -the healing waters to mingle unheeded with the adjacent -brooks and the bodies of the dead to fester on the -neighboring mount, without the rites of sepulture; a fate -but too common to the warriors of the woods to excite either -commiseration or comment. - -* The scene of the foregoing incidents is on the spot -where the village of Ballston now stands; one of the two -principal watering places of America. - - - -CHAPTER 13 - -"I'll seek a readier path."--Parnell - -The route taken by Hawkeye lay across those sandy plains, -relived by occasional valleys and swells of land, which had -been traversed by their party on the morning of the same -day, with the baffled Magua for their guide. The sun had -now fallen low toward the distant mountains; and as their -journey lay through the interminable forest, the heat was no -longer oppressive. Their progress, in consequence, was -proportionate; and long before the twilight gathered about -them, they had made good many toilsome miles on their -return. - -The hunter, like the savage whose place he filled, seemed to -select among the blind signs of their wild route, with a -species of instinct, seldom abating his speed, and never -pausing to deliberate. A rapid and oblique glance at the -moss on the trees, with an occasional upward gaze toward the -setting sun, or a steady but passing look at the direction -of the numerous water courses, through which he waded, were -sufficient to determine his path, and remove his greatest -difficulties. In the meantime, the forest began to change -its hues, losing that lively green which had embellished its -arches, in the graver light which is the usual precursor of -the close of day. - -While the eyes of the sisters were endeavoring to catch -glimpses through the trees, of the flood of golden glory -which formed a glittering halo around the sun, tinging here -and there with ruby streaks, or bordering with narrow -edgings of shining yellow, a mass of clouds that lay piled -at no great distance above the western hills, Hawkeye turned -suddenly and pointing upward toward the gorgeous heavens, he -spoke: - -"Yonder is the signal given to man to seek his food and -natural rest," he said; "better and wiser would it be, if he -could understand the signs of nature, and take a lesson from -the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field! Our -night, however, will soon be over, for with the moon we must -be up and moving again. I remember to have fou't the -Maquas, hereaways, in the first war in which I ever drew -blood from man; and we threw up a work of blocks, to keep -the ravenous varmints from handling our scalps. If my marks -do not fail me, we shall find the place a few rods further -to our left." - -Without waiting for an assent, or, indeed, for any reply, -the sturdy hunter moved boldly into a dense thicket of young -chestnuts, shoving aside the branches of the exuberant -shoots which nearly covered the ground, like a man who -expected, at each step, to discover some object he had -formerly known. The recollection of the scout did not -deceive him. After penetrating through the brush, matted as -it was with briars, for a few hundred feet, he entered an -open space, that surrounded a low, green hillock, which was -crowned by the decayed blockhouse in question. This rude -and neglected building was one of those deserted works, -which, having been thrown up on an emergency, had been -abandoned with the disappearance of danger, and was now -quietly crumbling in the solitude of the forest, neglected -and nearly forgotten, like the circumstances which had -caused it to be reared. Such memorials of the passage and -struggles of man are yet frequent throughout the broad -barrier of wilderness which once separated the hostile -provinces, and form a species of ruins that are intimately -associated with the recollections of colonial history, and -which are in appropriate keeping with the gloomy character -of the surrounding scenery. The roof of bark had long since -fallen, and mingled with the soil, but the huge logs of -pine, which had been hastily thrown together, still -preserved their relative positions, though one angle of the -work had given way under the pressure, and threatened a -speedy downfall to the remainder of the rustic edifice. -While Heyward and his companions hesitated to approach a -building so decayed, Hawkeye and the Indians entered within -the low walls, not only without fear, but with obvious -interest. While the former surveyed the ruins, both -internally and externally, with the curiosity of one whose -recollections were reviving at each moment, Chingachgook -related to his son, in the language of the Delawares, and -with the pride of a conqueror, the brief history of the -skirmish which had been fought, in his youth, in that -secluded spot. A strain of melancholy, however, blended -with his triumph, rendering his voice, as usual, soft and -musical. - -In the meantime, the sisters gladly dismounted, and prepared -to enjoy their halt in the coolness of the evening, and in a -security which they believed nothing but the beasts of the -forest could invade. - -"Would not our resting-place have been more retired, my -worthy friend," demanded the more vigilant Duncan, -perceiving that the scout had already finished his short -survey, "had we chosen a spot less known, and one more -rarely visited than this?" - -"Few live who know the blockhouse was ever raised," was the -slow and musing answer; "'tis not often that books are made, -and narratives written of such a scrimmage as was here fou't -atween the Mohicans and the Mohawks, in a war of their own -waging. I was then a younker, and went out with the -Delawares, because I know'd they were a scandalized and -wronged race. Forty days and forty nights did the imps -crave our blood around this pile of logs, which I designed -and partly reared, being, as you'll remember, no Indian -myself, but a man without a cross. The Delawares lent -themselves to the work, and we made it good, ten to twenty, -until our numbers were nearly equal, and then we sallied out -upon the hounds, and not a man of them ever got back to tell -the fate of his party. Yes, yes; I was then young, and new -to the sight of blood; and not relishing the thought that -creatures who had spirits like myself should lay on the -naked ground, to be torn asunder by beasts, or to bleach in -the rains, I buried the dead with my own hands, under that -very little hillock where you have placed yourselves; and no -bad seat does it make neither, though it be raised by the -bones of mortal men." - -Heyward and the sisters arose, on the instant, from the -grassy sepulcher; nor could the two latter, notwithstanding -the terrific scenes they had so recently passed through, -entirely suppress an emotion of natural horror, when they -found themselves in such familiar contact with the grave of -the dead Mohawks. The gray light, the gloomy little area of -dark grass, surrounded by its border of brush, beyond which -the pines rose, in breathing silence, apparently into the -very clouds, and the deathlike stillness of the vast forest, -were all in unison to deepen such a sensation. "They are -gone, and they are harmless," continued Hawkeye, waving his -hand, with a melancholy smile at their manifest alarm; -"they'll never shout the war-whoop nor strike a blow with -the tomahawk again! And of all those who aided in placing -them where they lie, Chingachgook and I only are living! -The brothers and family of the Mohican formed our war party; -and you see before you all that are now left of his race." - -The eyes of the listeners involuntarily sought the forms of -the Indians, with a compassionate interest in their desolate -fortune. Their dark persons were still to be seen within -the shadows of the blockhouse, the son listening to the -relation of his father with that sort of intenseness which -would be created by a narrative that redounded so much to -the honor of those whose names he had long revered for their -courage and savage virtues. - -"I had thought the Delawares a pacific people," said Duncan, -"and that they never waged war in person; trusting the -defense of their hands to those very Mohawks that you slew!" - -"'Tis true in part," returned the scout, "and yet, at the -bottom, 'tis a wicked lie. Such a treaty was made in ages -gone by, through the deviltries of the Dutchers, who wished -to disarm the natives that had the best right to the -country, where they had settled themselves. The Mohicans, -though a part of the same nation, having to deal with the -English, never entered into the silly bargain, but kept to -their manhood; as in truth did the Delawares, when their -eyes were open to their folly. You see before you a chief -of the great Mohican Sagamores! Once his family could chase -their deer over tracts of country wider than that which -belongs to the Albany Patteroon, without crossing brook or -hill that was not their own; but what is left of their -descendant? He may find his six feet of earth when God -chooses, and keep it in peace, perhaps, if he has a friend -who will take the pains to sink his head so low that the -plowshares cannot reach it!" - -"Enough!" said Heyward, apprehensive that the subject might -lead to a discussion that would interrupt the harmony so -necessary to the preservation of his fair companions; "we -have journeyed far, and few among us are blessed with forms -like that of yours, which seems to know neither fatigue nor -weakness." - -"The sinews and bones of a man carry me through it all," -said the hunter, surveying his muscular limbs with a -simplicity that betrayed the honest pleasure the compliment -afforded him; "there are larger and heavier men to be found -in the settlements, but you might travel many days in a city -before you could meet one able to walk fifty miles without -stopping to take breath, or who has kept the hounds within -hearing during a chase of hours. However, as flesh and -blood are not always the same, it is quite reasonable to -suppose that the gentle ones are willing to rest, after all -they have seen and done this day. Uncas, clear out the -spring, while your father and I make a cover for their -tender heads of these chestnut shoots, and a bed of grass -and leaves." - -The dialogue ceased, while the hunter and his companions -busied themselves in preparations for the comfort and -protection of those they guided. A spring, which many long -years before had induced the natives to select the place for -their temporary fortification, was soon cleared of leaves, -and a fountain of crystal gushed from the bed, diffusing its -waters over the verdant hillock. A corner of the building -was then roofed in such a manner as to exclude the heavy dew -of the climate, and piles of sweet shrubs and dried leaves -were laid beneath it for the sisters to repose on. - -While the diligent woodsmen were employed in this manner, -Cora and Alice partook of that refreshment which duty -required much more than inclination prompted them to accept. -They then retired within the walls, and first offering up -their thanksgivings for past mercies, and petitioning for a -continuance of the Divine favor throughout the coming night, -they laid their tender forms on the fragrant couch, and in -spite of recollections and forebodings, soon sank into those -slumbers which nature so imperiously demanded, and which -were sweetened by hopes for the morrow. Duncan had prepared -himself to pass the night in watchfulness near them, just -without the ruin, but the scout, perceiving his intention, -pointed toward Chingachgook, as he coolly disposed his own -person on the grass, and said: - -"The eyes of a white man are too heavy and too blind for -such a watch as this! The Mohican will be our sentinel, -therefore let us sleep." - -"I proved myself a sluggard on my post during the past -night," said Heyward, "and have less need of repose than -you, who did more credit to the character of a soldier. Let -all the party seek their rest, then, while I hold the -guard." - -"If we lay among the white tents of the Sixtieth, and in -front of an enemy like the French, I could not ask for a -better watchman," returned the scout; "but in the darkness -and among the signs of the wilderness your judgment would be -like the folly of a child, and your vigilance thrown away. -Do then, like Uncas and myself, sleep, and sleep in safety." - -Heyward perceived, in truth, that the younger Indian had -thrown his form on the side of the hillock while they were -talking, like one who sought to make the most of the time -allotted to rest, and that his example had been followed by -David, whose voice literally "clove to his jaws," with the -fever of his wound, heightened, as it was, by their toilsome -march. Unwilling to prolong a useless discussion, the young -man affected to comply, by posting his back against the logs -of the blockhouse, in a half recumbent posture, though -resolutely determined, in his own mind, not to close an eye -until he had delivered his precious charge into the arms of -Munro himself. Hawkeye, believing he had prevailed, soon -fell asleep, and a silence as deep as the solitude in which -they had found it, pervaded the retired spot. - -For many minutes Duncan succeeded in keeping his senses on -the alert, and alive to every moaning sound that arose from -the forest. His vision became more acute as the shades of -evening settled on the place; and even after the stars were -glimmering above his head, he was able to distinguish the -recumbent forms of his companions, as they lay stretched on -the grass, and to note the person of Chingachgook, who sat -upright and motionless as one of the trees which formed the -dark barrier on every side. He still heard the gentle -breathings of the sisters, who lay within a few feet of him, -and not a leaf was ruffled by the passing air of which his -ear did not detect the whispering sound. At length, -however, the mournful notes of a whip-poor-will became -blended with the moanings of an owl; his heavy eyes -occasionally sought the bright rays of the stars, and he -then fancied he saw them through the fallen lids. At -instants of momentary wakefulness he mistook a bush for his -associate sentinel; his head next sank upon his shoulder, -which, in its turn, sought the support of the ground; and, -finally, his whole person became relaxed and pliant, and the -young man sank into a deep sleep, dreaming that he was a -knight of ancient chivalry, holding his midnight vigils -before the tent of a recaptured princess, whose favor he did -not despair of gaining, by such a proof of devotion and -watchfulness. - -How long the tired Duncan lay in this insensible state he -never knew himself, but his slumbering visions had been long -lost in total forgetfulness, when he was awakened by a light -tap on the shoulder. Aroused by this signal, slight as it -was, he sprang upon his feet with a confused recollection of -the self-imposed duty he had assumed with the commencement -of the night. - -"Who comes?" he demanded, feeling for his sword, at the -place where it was usually suspended. "Speak! friend or -enemy?" - -"Friend," replied the low voice of Chingachgook; who, -pointing upward at the luminary which was shedding its mild -light through the opening in the trees, directly in their -bivouac, immediately added, in his rude English: "Moon comes -and white man's fort far -- far off; time to move, when -sleep shuts both eyes of the Frenchman!" - -"You say true! Call up your friends, and bridle the horses -while I prepare my own companions for the march!" - -"We are awake, Duncan," said the soft, silvery tones of -Alice within the building, "and ready to travel very fast -after so refreshing a sleep; but you have watched through -the tedious night in our behalf, after having endured so -much fatigue the livelong day!" - -"Say, rather, I would have watched, but my treacherous eyes -betrayed me; twice have I proved myself unfit for the trust -I bear." - -"Nay, Duncan, deny it not," interrupted the smiling Alice, -issuing from the shadows of the building into the light of -the moon, in all the loveliness of her freshened beauty; "I -know you to be a heedless one, when self is the object of -your care, and but too vigilant in favor of others. Can we -not tarry here a little longer while you find the rest you -need? Cheerfully, most cheerfully, will Cora and I keep the -vigils, while you and all these brave men endeavor to snatch -a little sleep!" - -"If shame could cure me of my drowsiness, I should never -close an eye again," said the uneasy youth, gazing at the -ingenuous countenance of Alice, where, however, in its sweet -solicitude, he read nothing to confirm his half-awakened -suspicion. "It is but too true, that after leading you into -danger by my heedlessness, I have not even the merit of -guarding your pillows as should become a soldier." - -"No one but Duncan himself should accuse Duncan of such a -weakness. Go, then, and sleep; believe me, neither of us, -weak girls as we are, will betray our watch." - -The young man was relieved from the awkwardness of making -any further protestations of his own demerits, by an -exclamation from Chingachgook, and the attitude of riveted -attention assumed by his son. - -"The Mohicans hear an enemy!" whispered Hawkeye, who, by -this time, in common with the whole party, was awake and -stirring. "They scent danger in the wind!" - -"God forbid!" exclaimed Heyward. "Surely we have had enough -of bloodshed!" - -While he spoke, however, the young soldier seized his rifle, -and advancing toward the front, prepared to atone for his -venial remissness, by freely exposing his life in defense of -those he attended. - -"'Tis some creature of the forest prowling around us in -quest of food," he said, in a whisper, as soon as the low, -and apparently distant sounds, which had startled the -Mohicans, reached his own ears. - -"Hist!" returned the attentive scout; "'tis man; even I can -now tell his tread, poor as my senses are when compared to -an Indian's! That Scampering Huron has fallen in with one -of Montcalm's outlying parties, and they have struck upon -our trail. I shouldn't like, myself, to spill more human -blood in this spot," he added, looking around with anxiety -in his features, at the dim objects by which he was -surrounded; "but what must be, must! Lead the horses into -the blockhouse, Uncas; and, friends, do you follow to the -same shelter. Poor and old as it is, it offers a cover, and -has rung with the crack of a rifle afore to-night!" - -He was instantly obeyed, the Mohicans leading the -Narrangansetts within the ruin, whither the whole party -repaired with the most guarded silence. - -The sound of approaching footsteps were now too distinctly -audible to leave any doubts as to the nature of the -interruption. They were soon mingled with voices calling to -each other in an Indian dialect, which the hunter, in a -whisper, affirmed to Heyward was the language of the Hurons. -When the party reached the point where the horses had -entered the thicket which surrounded the blockhouse, they -were evidently at fault, having lost those marks which, -until that moment, had directed their pursuit. - -It would seem by the voices that twenty men were soon -collected at that one spot, mingling their different -opinions and advice in noisy clamor. - -"The knaves know our weakness," whispered Hawkeye, who stood -by the side of Heyward, in deep shade, looking through an -opening in the logs, "or they wouldn't indulge their -idleness in such a squaw's march. Listen to the reptiles! -each man among them seems to have two tongues, and but a -single leg." - -Duncan, brave as he was in the combat, could not, in such a -moment of painful suspense, make any reply to the cool and -characteristic remark of the scout. He only grasped his -rifle more firmly, and fastened his eyes upon the narrow -opening, through which he gazed upon the moonlight view with -increasing anxiety. The deeper tones of one who spoke as -having authority were next heard, amid a silence that -denoted the respect with which his orders, or rather advice, -was received. After which, by the rustling of leaves, and -crackling of dried twigs, it was apparent the savages were -separating in pursuit of the lost trail. Fortunately for -the pursued, the light of the moon, while it shed a flood of -mild luster upon the little area around the ruin, was not -sufficiently strong to penetrate the deep arches of the -forest, where the objects still lay in deceptive shadow. -The search proved fruitless; for so short and sudden had -been the passage from the faint path the travelers had -journeyed into the thicket, that every trace of their -footsteps was lost in the obscurity of the woods. - -It was not long, however, before the restless savages were -heard beating the brush, and gradually approaching the inner -edge of that dense border of young chestnuts which encircled -the little area. - -"They are coming," muttered Heyward, endeavoring to thrust -his rifle through the chink in the logs; "let us fire on -their approach." - -"Keep everything in the shade," returned the scout; "the -snapping of a flint, or even the smell of a single karnel of the -brimstone, would bring the hungry varlets upon us in a body. -Should it please God that we must give battle for the scalps, -trust to the experience of men who know the ways of the savages, -and who are not often backward when the war-whoop is howled." - -Duncan cast his eyes behind him, and saw that the trembling -sisters were cowering in the far corner of the building, -while the Mohicans stood in the shadow, like two upright -posts, ready, and apparently willing, to strike when the -blow should be needed. Curbing his impatience, he again -looked out upon the area, and awaited the result in silence. -At that instant the thicket opened, and a tall and armed -Huron advanced a few paces into the open space. As he gazed -upon the silent blockhouse, the moon fell upon his swarthy -countenance, and betrayed its surprise and curiosity. He -made the exclamation which usually accompanies the former -emotion in an Indian, and, calling in a low voice, soon drew -a companion to his side. - -These children of the woods stood together for several -moments pointing at the crumbling edifice, and conversing in -the unintelligible language of their tribe. They then -approached, though with slow and cautious steps, pausing -every instant to look at the building, like startled deer -whose curiosity struggled powerfully with their awakened -apprehensions for the mastery. The foot of one of them -suddenly rested on the mound, and he stopped to examine its -nature. At this moment, Heyward observed that the scout -loosened his knife in its sheath, and lowered the muzzle of -his rifle. Imitating these movements, the young man -prepared himself for the struggle which now seemed -inevitable. - -The savages were so near, that the least motion in one of -the horses, or even a breath louder than common, would have -betrayed the fugitives. But in discovering the character of -the mound, the attention of the Hurons appeared directed to -a different object. They spoke together, and the sounds of -their voices were low and solemn, as if influenced by a -reverence that was deeply blended with awe. Then they drew -warily back, keeping their eyes riveted on the ruin, as if -they expected to see the apparitions of the dead issue from -its silent walls, until, having reached the boundary of the -area, they moved slowly into the thicket and disappeared. - -Hawkeye dropped the breech of his rifle to the earth, and -drawing a long, free breath, exclaimed, in an audible -whisper: - -"Ay! they respect the dead, and it has this time saved their -own lives, and, it may be, the lives of better men too." - -Heyward lent his attention for a single moment to his -companion, but without replying, he again turned toward -those who just then interested him more. He heard the two -Hurons leave the bushes, and it was soon plain that all the -pursuers were gathered about them, in deep attention to -their report. After a few minutes of earnest and solemn -dialogue, altogether different from the noisy clamor with -which they had first collected about the spot, the sounds -grew fainter and more distant, and finally were lost in the -depths of the forest. - -Hawkeye waited until a signal from the listening -Chingachgook assured him that every sound from the retiring -party was completely swallowed by the distance, when he -motioned to Heyward to lead forth the horses, and to assist -the sisters into their saddles. The instant this was done -they issued through the broken gateway, and stealing out by -a direction opposite to the one by which they entered, they -quitted the spot, the sisters casting furtive glances at the -silent, grave and crumbling ruin, as they left the soft -light of the moon, to bury themselves in the gloom of the -woods. - - - -CHAPTER 14 - -"Guard.--Qui est la? Puc.--Paisans, pauvres gens de -France."--King Henry VI - -During the rapid movement from the blockhouse, and until the -party was deeply buried in the forest, each individual was -too much interested in the escape to hazard a word even in -whispers. The scout resumed his post in advance, though his -steps, after he had thrown a safe distance between himself -and his enemies, were more deliberate than in their previous -march, in consequence of his utter ignorance of the -localities of the surrounding woods. More than once he -halted to consult with his confederates, the Mohicans, -pointing upward at the moon, and examining the barks of the -trees with care. In these brief pauses, Heyward and the -sisters listened, with senses rendered doubly acute by the -danger, to detect any symptoms which might announce the -proximity of their foes. At such moments, it seemed as if a -vast range of country lay buried in eternal sleep; not the -least sound arising from the forest, unless it was the -distant and scarcely audible rippling of a water-course. -Birds, beasts, and man, appeared to slumber alike, if, -indeed, any of the latter were to be found in that wide -tract of wilderness. But the sounds of the rivulet, feeble -and murmuring as they were, relieved the guides at once from -no trifling embarrassment, and toward it they immediately -held their way. - -When the banks of the little stream were gained, Hawkeye -made another halt; and taking the moccasins from his feet, -he invited Heyward and Gamut to follow his example. He then -entered the water, and for near an hour they traveled in the -bed of the brook, leaving no trail. The moon had already -sunk into an immense pile of black clouds, which lay -impending above the western horizon, when they issued from -the low and devious water-course to rise again to the light -and level of the sandy but wooded plain. Here the scout -seemed to be once more at home, for he held on this way with -the certainty and diligence of a man who moved in the -security of his own knowledge. The path soon became more -uneven, and the travelers could plainly perceive that the -mountains drew nigher to them on each hand, and that they -were, in truth, about entering one of their gorges. -Suddenly, Hawkeye made a pause, and, waiting until he was -joined by the whole party, he spoke, though in tones so low -and cautious, that they added to the solemnity of his words, -in the quiet and darkness of the place. - -"It is easy to know the pathways, and to find the licks and -water-courses of the wilderness," he said; "but who that saw -this spot could venture to say, that a mighty army was at -rest among yonder silent trees and barren mountains?" - -"We are, then, at no great distance from William Henry?" -said Heyward, advancing nigher to the scout. - -"It is yet a long and weary path, and when and where to -strike it is now our greatest difficulty. See," he said, -pointing through the trees toward a spot where a little -basin of water reflected the stars from its placid bosom, -"here is the 'bloody pond'; and I am on ground that I have -not only often traveled, but over which I have fou't the -enemy, from the rising to the setting sun." - -"Ha! that sheet of dull and dreary water, then, is the -sepulcher of the brave men who fell in the contest. I have -heard it named, but never have I stood on its banks before." - -"Three battles did we make with the Dutch-Frenchman* in a -day," continued Hawkeye, pursuing the train of his own -thoughts, rather than replying to the remark of Duncan. "He -met us hard by, in our outward march to ambush his advance, -and scattered us, like driven deer, through the defile, to -the shores of Horican. Then we rallied behind our fallen -trees, and made head against him, under Sir William--who -was made Sir William for that very deed; and well did we pay -him for the disgrace of the morning! Hundreds of Frenchmen -saw the sun that day for the last time; and even their -leader, Dieskau himself, fell into our hands, so cut and -torn with the lead, that he has gone back to his own -country, unfit for further acts in war." - -* Baron Dieskau, a German, in the service of France. -A few years previously to the period of the tale, this -officer was defeated by Sir William Johnson, of Johnstown, -New York, on the shores of Lake George. - -"'Twas a noble repulse!" exclaimed Heyward, in the heat of -his youthful ardor; "the fame of it reached us early, in our -southern army." - -"Ay! but it did not end there. I was sent by Major -Effingham, at Sir William's own bidding, to outflank the -French, and carry the tidings of their disaster across the -portage, to the fort on the Hudson. Just hereaway, where -you see the trees rise into a mountain swell, I met a party -coming down to our aid, and I led them where the enemy were -taking their meal, little dreaming that they had not -finished the bloody work of the day." - -"And you surprised them?" - -"If death can be a surprise to men who are thinking only of -the cravings of their appetites. We gave them but little -breathing time, for they had borne hard upon us in the fight -of the morning, and there were few in our party who had not -lost friend or relative by their hands." - -"When all was over, the dead, and some say the dying, were -cast into that little pond. These eyes have seen its waters -colored with blood, as natural water never yet flowed from -the bowels of the 'arth." - -"It was a convenient, and, I trust, will prove a peaceful -grave for a soldier. You have then seen much service on -this frontier?" - -"Ay!" said the scout, erecting his tall person with an air -of military pride; "there are not many echoes among these -hills that haven't rung with the crack of my rifle, nor is -there the space of a square mile atwixt Horican and the -river, that 'killdeer' hasn't dropped a living body on, be -it an enemy or be it a brute beast. As for the grave there -being as quiet as you mention, it is another matter. There -are them in the camp who say and think, man, to lie still, -should not be buried while the breath is in the body; and -certain it is that in the hurry of that evening, the doctors -had but little time to say who was living and who was dead. -Hist! see you nothing walking on the shore of the pond?" - -"'Tis not probable that any are as houseless as ourselves in -this dreary forest." - -"Such as he may care but little for house or shelter, and -night dew can never wet a body that passes its days in the -water," returned the scout, grasping the shoulder of Heyward -with such convulsive strength as to make the young soldier -painfully sensible how much superstitious terror had got the -mastery of a man usually so dauntless. - -"By heaven, there is a human form, and it approaches! Stand -to your arms, my friends; for we know not whom we -encounter." - -"Qui vive?" demanded a stern, quick voice, which sounded -like a challenge from another world, issuing out of that -solitary and solemn place. - -"What says it?" whispered the scout; "it speaks neither -Indian nor English." - -"Qui vive?" repeated the same voice, which was quickly -followed by the rattling of arms, and a menacing attitude. - -"France!" cried Heyward, advancing from the shadow of the -trees to the shore of the pond, within a few yards of the -sentinel. - -"D'ou venez-vous--ou allez-vous, d'aussi bonne heure?" -demanded the grenadier, in the language and with the accent -of a man from old France. - -"Je viens de la decouverte, et je vais me coucher." - -"Etes-vous officier du roi?" - -"Sans doute, mon camarade; me prends-tu pour un provincial! -Je suis capitaine de chasseurs (Heyward well knew that the -other was of a regiment in the line); j'ai ici, avec moi, -les filles du commandant de la fortification. Aha! tu en as -entendu parler! je les ai fait prisonnieres pres de l'autre -fort, et je les conduis au general." - -"Ma foi! mesdames; j'en suis fâche pour vous," exclaimed the -young soldier, touching his cap with grace; "mais -- fortune -de guerre! vous trouverez notre general un brave homme, et -bien poli avec les dames." - -"C'est le caractere des gens de guerre," said Cora, with -admirable self-possession. "Adieu, mon ami; je vous -souhaiterais un devoir plus agreable a remplir." - -The soldier made a low and humble acknowledgment for her -civility; and Heyward adding a "Bonne nuit, mon camarade," -they moved deliberately forward, leaving the sentinel pacing -the banks of the silent pond, little suspecting an enemy of -so much effrontery, and humming to himself those words which -were recalled to his mind by the sight of women, and, -perhaps, by recollections of his own distant and beautiful -France: "Vive le vin, vive l'amour," etc., etc. - -"'Tis well you understood the knave!" whispered the scout, -when they had gained a little distance from the place, and -letting his rifle fall into the hollow of his arm again; "I -soon saw that he was one of them uneasy Frenchers; and well -for him it was that his speech was friendly and his wishes -kind, or a place might have been found for his bones among -those of his countrymen." - -He was interrupted by a long and heavy groan which arose -from the little basin, as though, in truth, the spirits of -the departed lingered about their watery sepulcher. - -"Surely it was of flesh," continued the scout; "no spirit -could handle its arms so steadily." - -"It was of flesh; but whether the poor fellow still belongs -to this world may well be doubted," said Heyward, glancing -his eyes around him, and missing Chingachgook from their -little band. Another groan more faint than the former was -succeeded by a heavy and sullen plunge into the water, and -all was still again as if the borders of the dreary pool had -never been awakened from the silence of creation. While -they yet hesitated in uncertainty, the form of the Indian -was seen gliding out of the thicket. As the chief rejoined -them, with one hand he attached the reeking scalp of the -unfortunate young Frenchman to his girdle, and with the -other he replaced the knife and tomahawk that had drunk his -blood. He then took his wonted station, with the air of a -man who believed he had done a deed of merit. - -The scout dropped one end of his rifle to the earth, and -leaning his hands on the other, he stood musing in profound -silence. Then, shaking his head in a mournful manner, he -muttered: - -"'Twould have been a cruel and an unhuman act for a white-skin; -but 'tis the gift and natur' of an Indian, and I suppose it -should not be denied. I could wish, though, it had befallen an -accursed Mingo, rather than that gay young boy from the old countries." - -"Enough!" said Heyward, apprehensive the unconscious sisters -might comprehend the nature of the detention, and conquering -his disgust by a train of reflections very much like that of -the hunter; "'tis done; and though better it were left -undone, cannot be amended. You see, we are, too obviously -within the sentinels of the enemy; what course do you -propose to follow?" - -"Yes," said Hawkeye, rousing himself again; "'tis as you -say, too late to harbor further thoughts about it. Ay, the -French have gathered around the fort in good earnest and we -have a delicate needle to thread in passing them." - -"And but little time to do it in," added Heyward, glancing -his eyes upwards, toward the bank of vapor that concealed -the setting moon. - -"And little time to do it in!" repeated the scout. "The -thing may be done in two fashions, by the help of -Providence, without which it may not be done at all." - -"Name them quickly for time presses." - -"One would be to dismount the gentle ones, and let their -beasts range the plain, by sending the Mohicans in front, we -might then cut a lane through their sentries, and enter the -fort over the dead bodies." - -"It will not do -- it will not do!" interrupted the generous -Heyward; "a soldier might force his way in this manner, but -never with such a convoy." - -"'Twould be, indeed, a bloody path for such tender feet to -wade in," returned the equally reluctant scout; "but I -thought it befitting my manhood to name it. We must, then, -turn in our trail and get without the line of their -lookouts, when we will bend short to the west, and enter the -mountains; where I can hide you, so that all the devil's -hounds in Montcalm's pay would be thrown off the scent for -months to come." - -"Let it be done, and that instantly." - -Further words were unnecessary; for Hawkeye, merely uttering -the mandate to "follow," moved along the route by which they -had just entered their present critical and even dangerous -situation. Their progress, like their late dialogue, was -guarded, and without noise; for none knew at what moment a -passing patrol, or a crouching picket of the enemy, might -rise upon their path. As they held their silent way along -the margin of the pond, again Heyward and the scout stole -furtive glances at its appalling dreariness. They looked in -vain for the form they had so recently seen stalking along -in silent shores, while a low and regular wash of the little -waves, by announcing that the waters were not yet subsided, -furnished a frightful memorial of the deed of blood they had -just witnessed. Like all that passing and gloomy scene, the -low basin, however, quickly melted in the darkness, and -became blended with the mass of black objects in the rear of -the travelers. - -Hawkeye soon deviated from the line of their retreat, and -striking off towards the mountains which form the western -boundary of the narrow plain, he led his followers, with -swift steps, deep within the shadows that were cast from -their high and broken summits. The route was now painful; -lying over ground ragged with rocks, and intersected with -ravines, and their progress proportionately slow. Bleak and -black hills lay on every side of them, compensating in some -degree for the additional toil of the march by the sense of -security they imparted. At length the party began slowly to -rise a steep and rugged ascent, by a path that curiously -wound among rocks and trees, avoiding the one and supported -by the other, in a manner that showed it had been devised by -men long practised in the arts of the wilderness. As they -gradually rose from the level of the valleys, the thick -darkness which usually precedes the approach of day began to -disperse, and objects were seen in the plain and palpable -colors with which they had been gifted by nature. When they -issued from the stunted woods which clung to the barren -sides of the mountain, upon a flat and mossy rock that -formed its summit, they met the morning, as it came blushing -above the green pines of a hill that lay on the opposite -side of the valley of the Horican. - -The scout now told the sisters to dismount; and taking the -bridles from the mouths, and the saddles off the backs of -the jaded beasts, he turned them loose, to glean a scanty -subsistence among the shrubs and meager herbage of that -elevated region. - -"Go," he said, "and seek your food where natur' gives it to -you; and beware that you become not food to ravenous wolves -yourselves, among these hills." - -"Have we no further need of them?" demanded Heyward. - -"See, and judge with your own eyes," said the scout, -advancing toward the eastern brow of the mountain, whither -he beckoned for the whole party to follow; "if it was as -easy to look into the heart of man as it is to spy out the -nakedness of Montcalm's camp from this spot, hypocrites -would grow scarce, and the cunning of a Mingo might prove a -losing game, compared to the honesty of a Delaware." - -When the travelers reached the verge of the precipices they -saw, at a glance, the truth of the scout's declaration, and -the admirable foresight with which he had led them to their -commanding station. - -The mountain on which they stood, elevated perhaps a -thousand feet in the air, was a high cone that rose a little -in advance of that range which stretches for miles along the -western shores of the lake, until meeting its sisters miles -beyond the water, it ran off toward the Canadas, in confused -and broken masses of rock, thinly sprinkled with evergreens. -Immediately at the feet of the party, the southern shore of -the Horican swept in a broad semicircle from mountain to -mountain, marking a wide strand, that soon rose into an -uneven and somewhat elevated plain. To the north stretched -the limpid, and, as it appeared from that dizzy height, the -narrow sheet of the "holy lake," indented with numberless -bays, embellished by fantastic headlands, and dotted with -countless islands. At the distance of a few leagues, the -bed of the water became lost among mountains, or was wrapped -in the masses of vapor that came slowly rolling along their -bosom, before a light morning air. But a narrow opening -between the crests of the hills pointed out the passage by -which they found their way still further north, to spread -their pure and ample sheets again, before pouring out their -tribute into the distant Champlain. To the south stretched -the defile, or rather broken plain, so often mentioned. For -several miles in this direction, the mountains appeared -reluctant to yield their dominion, but within reach of the -eye they diverged, and finally melted into the level and -sandy lands, across which we have accompanied our -adventurers in their double journey. Along both ranges of -hills, which bounded the opposite sides of the lake and -valley, clouds of light vapor were rising in spiral wreaths -from the uninhabited woods, looking like the smoke of hidden -cottages; or rolled lazily down the declivities, to mingle -with the fogs of the lower land. A single, solitary, snow-white -cloud floated above the valley, and marked the spot beneath -which lay the silent pool of the "bloody pond." - -Directly on the shore of the lake, and nearer to its western -than to its eastern margin, lay the extensive earthen -ramparts and low buildings of William Henry. Two of the -sweeping bastions appeared to rest on the water which washed -their bases, while a deep ditch and extensive morasses -guarded its other sides and angles. The land had been -cleared of wood for a reasonable distance around the work, -but every other part of the scene lay in the green livery of -nature, except where the limpid water mellowed the view, or -the bold rocks thrust their black and naked heads above the -undulating outline of the mountain ranges. In its front -might be seen the scattered sentinels, who held a weary -watch against their numerous foes; and within the walls -themselves, the travelers looked down upon men still drowsy -with a night of vigilance. Toward the southeast, but in -immediate contact with the fort, was an entrenched camp, -posted on a rocky eminence, that would have been far more -eligible for the work itself, in which Hawkeye pointed out -the presence of those auxiliary regiments that had so -recently left the Hudson in their company. From the woods, -a little further to the south, rose numerous dark and lurid -smokes, that were easily to be distinguished from the purer -exhalations of the springs, and which the scout also showed -to Heyward, as evidences that the enemy lay in force in that -direction. - -But the spectacle which most concerned the young soldier was -on the western bank of the lake, though quite near to its -southern termination. On a strip of land, which appeared -from his stand too narrow to contain such an army, but -which, in truth, extended many hundreds of yards from the -shores of the Horican to the base of the mountain, were to -be seen the white tents and military engines of an -encampment of ten thousand men. Batteries were already -thrown up in their front, and even while the spectators -above them were looking down, with such different emotions, -on a scene which lay like a map beneath their feet, the roar -of artillery rose from the valley, and passed off in -thundering echoes along the eastern hills. - -"Morning is just touching them below," said the deliberate -and musing scout, "and the watchers have a mind to wake up -the sleepers by the sound of cannon. We are a few hours too -late! Montcalm has already filled the woods with his -accursed Iroquois." - -"The place is, indeed, invested," returned Duncan; "but is -there no expedient by which we may enter? capture in the -works would be far preferable to falling again into the -hands of roving Indians." - -"See!" exclaimed the scout, unconsciously directing the -attention of Cora to the quarters of her own father, "how -that shot has made the stones fly from the side of the -commandant's house! Ay! these Frenchers will pull it to -pieces faster than it was put together, solid and thick -though it be!" - -"Heyward, I sicken at the sight of danger that I cannot -share," said the undaunted but anxious daughter. "Let us go -to Montcalm, and demand admission: he dare not deny a child -the boon." - -"You would scarce find the tent of the Frenchman with the -hair on your head"; said the blunt scout. "If I had but one -of the thousand boats which lie empty along that shore, it -might be done! Ha! here will soon be an end of the firing, -for yonder comes a fog that will turn day to night, and make -an Indian arrow more dangerous than a molded cannon. Now, -if you are equal to the work, and will follow, I will make a -push; for I long to get down into that camp, if it be only -to scatter some Mingo dogs that I see lurking in the skirts -of yonder thicket of birch." - -"We are equal," said Cora, firmly; "on such an errand we -will follow to any danger." - -The scout turned to her with a smile of honest and cordial -approbation, as he answered: - -"I would I had a thousand men, of brawny limbs and quick -eyes, that feared death as little as you! I'd send them -jabbering Frenchers back into their den again, afore the -week was ended, howling like so many fettered hounds or -hungry wolves. But, sir," he added, turning from her to the -rest of the party, "the fog comes rolling down so fast, we -shall have but just the time to meet it on the plain, and -use it as a cover. Remember, if any accident should befall -me, to keep the air blowing on your left cheeks--or, -rather, follow the Mohicans; they'd scent their way, be it -in day or be it at night." - -He then waved his hand for them to follow, and threw himself -down the steep declivity, with free, but careful footsteps. -Heyward assisted the sisters to descend, and in a few -minutes they were all far down a mountain whose sides they -had climbed with so much toil and pain. - -The direction taken by Hawkeye soon brought the travelers to -the level of the plain, nearly opposite to a sally-port in -the western curtain of the fort, which lay itself at the -distance of about half a mile from the point where he halted -to allow Duncan to come up with his charge. In their -eagerness, and favored by the nature of the ground, they had -anticipated the fog, which was rolling heavily down the -lake, and it became necessary to pause, until the mists had -wrapped the camp of the enemy in their fleecy mantle. The -Mohicans profited by the delay, to steal out of the woods, -and to make a survey of surrounding objects. They were -followed at a little distance by the scout, with a view to -profit early by their report, and to obtain some faint -knowledge for himself of the more immediate localities. - -In a very few moments he returned, his face reddened with -vexation, while he muttered his disappointment in words of -no very gentle import. - -"Here has the cunning Frenchman been posting a picket -directly in our path," he said; "red-skins and whites; and -we shall be as likely to fall into their midst as to pass -them in the fog!" - -"Cannot we make a circuit to avoid the danger," asked -Heyward, "and come into our path again when it is passed?" - -"Who that once bends from the line of his march in a fog can -tell when or how to find it again! The mists of Horican are -not like the curls from a peace-pipe, or the smoke which -settles above a mosquito fire." - -He was yet speaking, when a crashing sound was heard, and a -cannon-ball entered the thicket, striking the body of a -sapling, and rebounding to the earth, its force being much -expended by previous resistance. The Indians followed -instantly like busy attendants on the terrible messenger, -and Uncas commenced speaking earnestly and with much action, -in the Delaware tongue. - -"It may be so, lad," muttered the scout, when he had ended; -"for desperate fevers are not to be treated like a -toothache. Come, then, the fog is shutting in." - -"Stop!" cried Heyward; "first explain your expectations." - -"'Tis soon done, and a small hope it is; but it is better -than nothing. This shot that you see," added the scout, -kicking the harmless iron with his foot, "has plowed the -'arth in its road from the fort, and we shall hunt for the -furrow it has made, when all other signs may fail. No more -words, but follow, or the fog may leave us in the middle of -our path, a mark for both armies to shoot at." - -Heyward perceiving that, in fact, a crisis had arrived, when -acts were more required than words, placed himself between -the sisters, and drew them swiftly forward, keeping the dim -figure of their leader in his eye. It was soon apparent -that Hawkeye had not magnified the power of the fog, for -before they had proceeded twenty yards, it was difficult for -the different individuals of the party to distinguish each -other in the vapor. - -They had made their little circuit to the left, and were -already inclining again toward the right, having, as Heyward -thought, got over nearly half the distance to the friendly -works, when his ears were saluted with the fierce summons, -apparently within twenty feet of them, of: - -"Qui va la?" - -"Push on!" whispered the scout, once more bending to the -left. - -"Push on!" repeated Heyward; when the summons was renewed by -a dozen voices, each of which seemed charged with menace. - -"C'est moi," cried Duncan, dragging rather than leading -those he supported swiftly onward. - -"Bete!--qui?--moi!" - -"Ami de la France." - -"Tu m'as plus l'air d'un ennemi de la France; arrete ou -pardieu je te ferai ami du diable. Non! feu, camarades, -feu!" - -The order was instantly obeyed, and the fog was stirred by -the explosion of fifty muskets. Happily, the aim was bad, -and the bullets cut the air in a direction a little -different from that taken by the fugitives; though still so -nigh them, that to the unpractised ears of David and the two -females, it appeared as if they whistled within a few inches -of the organs. The outcry was renewed, and the order, not -only to fire again, but to pursue, was too plainly audible. -When Heyward briefly explained the meaning of the words they -heard, Hawkeye halted and spoke with quick decision and -great firmness. - -"Let us deliver our fire," he said; "they will believe it a -sortie, and give way, or they will wait for reinforcements." - -The scheme was well conceived, but failed in its effects. -The instant the French heard the pieces, it seemed as if the -plain was alive with men, muskets rattling along its whole -extent, from the shores of the lake to the furthest boundary -of the woods. - -"We shall draw their entire army upon us, and bring on a -general assault," said Duncan: "lead on, my friend, for your -own life and ours." - -The scout seemed willing to comply; but, in the hurry of the -moment, and in the change of position, he had lost the -direction. In vain he turned either cheek toward the light -air; they felt equally cool. In this dilemma, Uncas lighted -on the furrow of the cannon ball, where it had cut the -ground in three adjacent ant-hills. - -"Give me the range!" said Hawkeye, bending to catch a -glimpse of the direction, and then instantly moving onward. - -Cries, oaths, voices calling to each other, and the reports -of muskets, were now quick and incessant, and, apparently, -on every side of them. Suddenly a strong glare of light -flashed across the scene, the fog rolled upward in thick -wreaths, and several cannons belched across the plain, and -the roar was thrown heavily back from the bellowing echoes -of the mountain. - -"'Tis from the fort!" exclaimed Hawkeye, turning short on -his tracks; "and we, like stricken fools, were rushing to -the woods, under the very knives of the Maquas." - -The instant their mistake was rectified, the whole party -retraced the error with the utmost diligence. Duncan -willingly relinquished the support of Cora to the arm of -Uncas and Cora as readily accepted the welcome assistance. -Men, hot and angry in pursuit, were evidently on their -footsteps, and each instant threatened their capture, if not -their destruction. - -"Point de quartier aux coquins!" cried an eager pursuer, who -seemed to direct the operations of the enemy. - -"Stand firm, and be ready, my gallant Sixtieths!" suddenly -exclaimed a voice above them; "wait to see the enemy, fire -low and sweep the glacis." - -"Father! father!" exclaimed a piercing cry from out the -mist: "it is I! Alice! thy own Elsie! Spare, oh! save -your daughters!" - -"Hold!" shouted the former speaker, in the awful tones of -parental agony, the sound reaching even to the woods, and -rolling back in solemn echo. "'Tis she! God has restored -me to my children! Throw open the sally-port; to the field, -Sixtieths, to the field; pull not a trigger, lest ye kill my -lambs! Drive off these dogs of France with your steel." - -Duncan heard the grating of the rusty hinges, and darting to -the spot, directed by the sound, he met a long line of dark -red warriors, passing swiftly toward the glacis. He knew -them for his own battalion of the Royal Americans, and -flying to their head, soon swept every trace of his pursuers -from before the works. - -For an instant, Cora and Alice had stood trembling and -bewildered by this unexpected desertion; but before either -had leisure for speech, or even thought, an officer of -gigantic frame, whose locks were bleached with years and -service, but whose air of military grandeur had been rather -softened than destroyed by time, rushed out of the body of -mist, and folded them to his bosom, while large scalding -tears rolled down his pale and wrinkled cheeks, and he -exclaimed, in the peculiar accent of Scotland: - -"For this I thank thee, Lord! Let danger come as it will, -thy servant is now prepared!" - - - -CHAPTER 15 - -"Then go we in, to know his embassy; Which I could, with -ready guess, declare, Before the Frenchmen speak a word of -it,"--King Henry V - -A few succeeding days were passed amid the privations, the -uproar, and the dangers of the siege, which was vigorously -pressed by a power, against whose approaches Munro possessed -no competent means of resistance. It appeared as if Webb, -with his army, which lay slumbering on the banks of the -Hudson, had utterly forgotten the strait to which his -countrymen were reduced. Montcalm had filled the woods of -the portage with his savages, every yell and whoop from whom -rang through the British encampment, chilling the hearts of -men who were already but too much disposed to magnify the -danger. - -Not so, however, with the besieged. Animated by the words, -and stimulated by the examples of their leaders, they had -found their courage, and maintained their ancient -reputation, with a zeal that did justice to the stern -character of their commander. As if satisfied with the toil -of marching through the wilderness to encounter his enemy, -the French general, though of approved skill, had neglected -to seize the adjacent mountains; whence the besieged might -have been exterminated with impunity, and which, in the more -modern warfare of the country, would not have been neglected -for a single hour. This sort of contempt for eminences, or -rather dread of the labor of ascending them, might have been -termed the besetting weakness of the warfare of the period. -It originated in the simplicity of the Indian contests, in -which, from the nature of the combats, and the density of -the forests, fortresses were rare, and artillery next to -useless. The carelessness engendered by these usages -descended even to the war of the Revolution and lost the -States the important fortress of Ticonderoga opening a way -for the army of Burgoyne into what was then the bosom of the -country. We look back at this ignorance, or infatuation, -whichever it may be called, with wonder, knowing that the -neglect of an eminence, whose difficulties, like those of -Mount Defiance, have been so greatly exaggerated, would, at -the present time, prove fatal to the reputation of the -engineer who had planned the works at their base, or to that -of the general whose lot it was to defend them. - -The tourist, the valetudinarian, or the amateur of the -beauties of nature, who, in the train of his four-in-hand, -now rolls through the scenes we have attempted to describe, -in quest of information, health, or pleasure, or floats -steadily toward his object on those artificial waters which -have sprung up under the administration of a statesman* who -has dared to stake his political character on the hazardous -issue, is not to suppose that his ancestors traversed those -hills, or struggled with the same currents with equal -facility. The transportation of a single heavy gun was -often considered equal to a victory gained; if happily, the -difficulties of the passage had not so far separated it from -its necessary concomitant, the ammunition, as to render it -no more than a useless tube of unwieldy iron. - -* Evidently the late De Witt Clinton, who died -governor of New York in 1828. - -The evils of this state of things pressed heavily on the -fortunes of the resolute Scotsman who now defended William -Henry. Though his adversary neglected the hills, he had -planted his batteries with judgment on the plain, and caused -them to be served with vigor and skill. Against this -assault, the besieged could only oppose the imperfect and -hasty preparations of a fortress in the wilderness. - -It was in the afternoon of the fifth day of the siege, and -the fourth of his own service in it, that Major Heyward -profited by a parley that had just been beaten, by repairing -to the ramparts of one of the water bastions, to breathe the -cool air from the lake, and to take a survey of the progress -of the siege. He was alone, if the solitary sentinel who -paced the mound be excepted; for the artillerists had -hastened also to profit by the temporary suspension of their -arduous duties. The evening was delightfully calm, and the -light air from the limpid water fresh and soothing. It -seemed as if, with the termination of the roar of artillery -and the plunging of shot, nature had also seized the moment -to assume her mildest and most captivating form. The sun -poured down his parting glory on the scene, without the -oppression of those fierce rays that belong to the climate -and the season. The mountains looked green, and fresh, and -lovely, tempered with the milder light, or softened in -shadow, as thin vapors floated between them and the sun. -The numerous islands rested on the bosom of the Horican, -some low and sunken, as if embedded in the waters, and -others appearing to hover about the element, in little -hillocks of green velvet; among which the fishermen of the -beleaguering army peacefully rowed their skiffs, or floated -at rest on the glassy mirror in quiet pursuit of their -employment. - -The scene was at once animated and still. All that -pertained to nature was sweet, or simply grand; while those -parts which depended on the temper and movements of man were -lively and playful. - -Two little spotless flags were abroad, the one on a salient -angle of the fort, and the other on the advanced battery of -the besiegers; emblems of the truth which existed, not only -to the acts, but it would seem, also, to the enmity of the -combatants. - -Behind these again swung, heavily opening and closing in -silken folds, the rival standards of England and France. - -A hundred gay and thoughtless young Frenchmen were drawing a -net to the pebbly beach, within dangerous proximity to the -sullen but silent cannon of the fort, while the eastern -mountain was sending back the loud shouts and gay merriment -that attended their sport. Some were rushing eagerly to -enjoy the aquatic games of the lake, and others were already -toiling their way up the neighboring hills, with the -restless curiosity of their nation. To all these sports and -pursuits, those of the enemy who watched the besieged, and -the besieged themselves, were, however, merely the idle -though sympathizing spectators. Here and there a picket -had, indeed, raised a song, or mingled in a dance, which had -drawn the dusky savages around them, from their lairs in the -forest. In short, everything wore rather the appearance of -a day of pleasure, than of an hour stolen from the dangers -and toil of a bloody and vindictive warfare. - -Duncan had stood in a musing attitude, contemplating this -scene a few minutes, when his eyes were directed to the -glacis in front of the sally-port already mentioned, by the -sounds of approaching footsteps. He walked to an angle of -the bastion, and beheld the scout advancing, under the -custody of a French officer, to the body of the fort. The -countenance of Hawkeye was haggard and careworn, and his air -dejected, as though he felt the deepest degradation at -having fallen into the power of his enemies. He was without -his favorite weapon, and his arms were even bound behind him -with thongs, made of the skin of a deer. The arrival of -flags to cover the messengers of summons, had occurred so -often of late, that when Heyward first threw his careless -glance on this group, he expected to see another of the -officers of the enemy, charged with a similar office but the -instant he recognized the tall person and still sturdy -though downcast features of his friend, the woodsman, he -started with surprise, and turned to descend from the -bastion into the bosom of the work. - -The sounds of other voices, however, caught his attention, -and for a moment caused him to forget his purpose. At the -inner angle of the mound he met the sisters, walking along -the parapet, in search, like himself, of air and relief from -confinement. They had not met from that painful moment when -he deserted them on the plain, only to assure their safety. -He had parted from them worn with care, and jaded with -fatigue; he now saw them refreshed and blooming, though -timid and anxious. Under such an inducement it will cause -no surprise that the young man lost sight for a time, of -other objects in order to address them. He was, however, -anticipated by the voice of the ingenuous and youthful -Alice. - -"Ah! thou tyrant! thou recreant knight! he who abandons his -damsels in the very lists," she cried; "here have we been -days, nay, ages, expecting you at our feet, imploring mercy -and forgetfulness of your craven backsliding, or I should -rather say, backrunning--for verily you fled in the manner -that no stricken deer, as our worthy friend the scout would -say, could equal!" - -"You know that Alice means our thanks and our blessings," -added the graver and more thoughtful Cora. "In truth, we -have a little wonder why you should so rigidly absent -yourself from a place where the gratitude of the daughters -might receive the support of a parent's thanks." - -"Your father himself could tell you, that, though absent -from your presence, I have not been altogether forgetful of -your safety," returned the young man; "the mastery of yonder -village of huts," pointing to the neighboring entrenched -camp, "has been keenly disputed; and he who holds it is sure -to be possessed of this fort, and that which it contains. -My days and nights have all been passed there since we -separated, because I thought that duty called me thither. -But," he added, with an air of chagrin, which he endeavored, -though unsuccessfully, to conceal, "had I been aware that -what I then believed a soldier's conduct could be so -construed, shame would have been added to the list of -reasons." - -"Heyward! Duncan!" exclaimed Alice, bending forward to read -his half-averted countenance, until a lock of her golden -hair rested on her flushed cheek, and nearly concealed the -tear that had started to her eye; "did I think this idle -tongue of mine had pained you, I would silence it forever. -Cora can say, if Cora would, how justly we have prized your -services, and how deep -- I had almost said, how fervent -- -is our gratitude." - -"And will Cora attest the truth of this?" cried Duncan, -suffering the cloud to be chased from his countenance by -a smile of open pleasure. "What says our graver sister? -Will she find an excuse for the neglect of the knight in -the duty of a soldier?" - -Cora made no immediate answer, but turned her face toward -the water, as if looking on the sheet of the Horican. When -she did bend her dark eyes on the young man, they were yet -filled with an expression of anguish that at once drove -every thought but that of kind solicitude from his mind. - -"You are not well, dearest Miss Munro!" he exclaimed; "we -have trifled while you are in suffering!" - -"'Tis nothing," she answered, refusing his support with -feminine reserve. "That I cannot see the sunny side of the -picture of life, like this artless but ardent enthusiast," -she added, laying her hand lightly, but affectionately, on -the arm of her sister, "is the penalty of experience, and, -perhaps, the misfortune of my nature. See," she continued, -as if determined to shake off infirmity, in a sense of duty; -"look around you, Major Heyward, and tell me what a prospect -is this for the daughter of a soldier whose greatest -happiness is his honor and his military renown." - -"Neither ought nor shall be tarnished by circumstances over -which he has had no control," Duncan warmly replied. "But -your words recall me to my own duty. I go now to your -gallant father, to hear his determination in matters of the -last moment to the defense. God bless you in every fortune, -noble -- Cora -- I may and must call you." She frankly gave -him her hand, though her lip quivered, and her cheeks -gradually became of ashly paleness. "In every fortune, I -know you will be an ornament and honor to your sex. Alice, -adieu" -- his voice changed from admiration to tenderness -- -"adieu, Alice; we shall soon meet again; as conquerors, I -trust, and amid rejoicings!" - -Without waiting for an answer from either, the young man -threw himself down the grassy steps of the bastion, and -moving rapidly across the parade, he was quickly in the -presence of their father. Munro was pacing his narrow -apartment with a disturbed air and gigantic strides as -Duncan entered. - -"You have anticipated my wishes, Major Heyward," he said; "I -was about to request this favor." - -"I am sorry to see, sir, that the messenger I so warmly -recommended has returned in custody of the French! I hope -there is no reason to distrust his fidelity?" - -"The fidelity of 'The Long Rifle' is well known to me," -returned Munro, "and is above suspicion; though his usual -good fortune seems, at last, to have failed. Montcalm has -got him, and with the accursed politeness of his nation, he -has sent him in with a doleful tale, of 'knowing how I -valued the fellow, he could not think of retaining him.' A -Jesuitical way that, Major Duncan Heyward, of telling a man -of his misfortunes!" - -"But the general and his succor?" - -"Did ye look to the south as ye entered, and could ye not -see them?" said the old soldier, laughing bitterly. - -"Hoot! hoot! you're an impatient boy, sir, and cannot give -the gentlemen leisure for their march!" - -"They are coming, then? The scout has said as much?" - -"When? and by what path? for the dunce has omitted to tell -me this. There is a letter, it would seem, too; and that is -the only agreeable part of the matter. For the customary -attentions of your Marquis of Montcalm -- I warrant me, -Duncan, that he of Lothian would buy a dozen such -marquisates -- but if the news of the letter were bad, the -gentility of this French monsieur would certainly compel him -to let us know it." - -"He keeps the letter, then, while he releases the -messenger?" - -"Ay, that does he, and all for the sake of what you call -your 'bonhommie' I would venture, if the truth was known, -the fellow's grandfather taught the noble science of -dancing." - -"But what says the scout? he has eyes and ears, and a -tongue. What verbal report does he make?" - -"Oh! sir, he is not wanting in natural organs, and he is -free to tell all that he has seen and heard. The whole -amount is this; there is a fort of his majesty's on the -banks of the Hudson, called Edward, in honor of his gracious -highness of York, you'll know; and it is well filled with -armed men, as such a work should be." - -"But was there no movement, no signs of any intention to -advance to our relief?" - -"There were the morning and evening parades; and when one of -the provincial loons -- you'll know, Duncan, you're half a -Scotsman yourself -- when one of them dropped his powder -over his porretch, if it touched the coals, it just burned!" -Then, suddenly changing his bitter, ironical manner, to one -more grave and thoughtful, he continued: "and yet there -might, and must be, something in that letter which it would -be well to know!" - -"Our decision should be speedy," said Duncan, gladly -availing himself of this change of humor, to press the more -important objects of their interview; "I cannot conceal from -you, sir, that the camp will not be much longer tenable; and -I am sorry to add, that things appear no better in the fort; -more than half the guns are bursted." - -"And how should it be otherwise? Some were fished from the -bottom of the lake; some have been rusting in woods since -the discovery of the country; and some were never guns at -all--mere privateersmen's playthings! Do you think, sir, -you can have Woolwich Warren in the midst of a wilderness, -three thousand miles from Great Britain?" - -"The walls are crumbling about our ears, and provisions -begin to fail us," continued Heyward, without regarding the -new burst of indignation; "even the men show signs of -discontent and alarm." - -"Major Heyward," said Munro, turning to his youthful -associate with the dignity of his years and superior rank; -"I should have served his majesty for half a century, and -earned these gray hairs in vain, were I ignorant of all you -say, and of the pressing nature of our circumstances; still, -there is everything due to the honor of the king's arms, and -something to ourselves. While there is hope of succor, this -fortress will I defend, though it be to be done with pebbles -gathered on the lake shore. It is a sight of the letter, -therefore, that we want, that we may know the intentions of -the man the earl of Loudon has left among us as his -substitute." - -"And can I be of service in the matter?" - -"Sir, you can; the marquis of Montcalm has, in addition to -his other civilities, invited me to a personal interview -between the works and his own camp; in order, as he says, to -impart some additional information. Now, I think it would -not be wise to show any undue solicitude to meet him, and I -would employ you, an officer of rank, as my substitute; for -it would but ill comport with the honor of Scotland to let -it be said one of her gentlemen was outdone in civility by a -native of any other country on earth." - -Without assuming the supererogatory task of entering into a -discussion of the comparative merits of national courtesy, -Duncan cheerfully assented to supply the place of the -veteran in the approaching interview. A long and -confidential communication now succeeded, during which the -young man received some additional insight into his duty, -from the experience and native acuteness of his commander, -and then the former took his leave. - -As Duncan could only act as the representative of the -commandant of the fort, the ceremonies which should have -accompanied a meeting between the heads of the adverse -forces were, of course, dispensed with. The truce still -existed, and with a roll and beat of the drum, and covered -by a little white flag, Duncan left the sally-port, within -ten minutes after his instructions were ended. He was -received by the French officer in advance with the usual -formalities, and immediately accompanied to a distant -marquee of the renowned soldier who led the forces of -France. - -The general of the enemy received the youthful messenger, -surrounded by his principal officers, and by a swarthy band -of the native chiefs, who had followed him to the field, -with the warriors of their several tribes. Heyward paused -short, when, in glancing his eyes rapidly over the dark -group of the latter, he beheld the malignant countenance of -Magua, regarding him with the calm but sullen attention -which marked the expression of that subtle savage. A slight -exclamation of surprise even burst from the lips of the -young man, but instantly, recollecting his errand, and the -presence in which he stood, he suppressed every appearance -of emotion, and turned to the hostile leader, who had -already advanced a step to receive him. - -The marquis of Montcalm was, at the period of which we -write, in the flower of his age, and, it may be added, in -the zenith of his fortunes. But even in that enviable -situation, he was affable, and distinguished as much for his -attention to the forms of courtesy, as for that chivalrous -courage which, only two short years afterward, induced him -to throw away his life on the plains of Abraham. Duncan, in -turning his eyes from the malign expression of Magua, -suffered them to rest with pleasure on the smiling and -polished features, and the noble military air, of the French -general. - -"Monsieur," said the latter, "j'ai beaucoup de plaisir a -- -bah! -- ou est cet interprete?" - -"Je crois, monsieur, qu'il ne sear pas necessaire," Heyward -modestly replied; "je parle un peu francais." - -"Ah! j'en suis bien aise," said Montcalm, taking Duncan -familiarly by the arm, and leading him deep into the -marquee, a little out of earshot; "je deteste ces fripons-la; -on ne sait jamais sur quel pie on est avec eux. Eh, -bien! monsieur," he continued still speaking in French; -"though I should have been proud of receiving your -commandant, I am very happy that he has seen proper to -employ an officer so distinguished, and who, I am sure, is -so amiable, as yourself." - -Duncan bowed low, pleased with the compliment, in spite of a -most heroic determination to suffer no artifice to allure -him into forgetfulness of the interest of his prince; and -Montcalm, after a pause of a moment, as if to collect his -thoughts, proceeded: - -"Your commandant is a brave man, and well qualified to repel -my assault. Mais, monsieur, is it not time to begin to take -more counsel of humanity, and less of your courage? The one -as strongly characterizes the hero as the other." - -"We consider the qualities as inseparable," returned Duncan, -smiling; "but while we find in the vigor of your excellency -every motive to stimulate the one, we can, as yet, see no -particular call for the exercise of the other." - -Montcalm, in his turn, slightly bowed, but it was with the -air of a man too practised to remember the language of -flattery. After musing a moment, he added: - -"It is possible my glasses have deceived me, and that your -works resist our cannon better than I had supposed. You -know our force?" - -"Our accounts vary," said Duncan, carelessly; "the highest, -however, has not exceeded twenty thousand men." - -The Frenchman bit his lip, and fastened his eyes keenly on -the other as if to read his thoughts; then, with a readiness -peculiar to himself, he continued, as if assenting to the -truth of an enumeration which quite doubled his army: - -"It is a poor compliment to the vigilance of us soldiers, -monsieur, that, do what we will, we never can conceal our -numbers. If it were to be done at all, one would believe it -might succeed in these woods. Though you think it too soon -to listen to the calls of humanity," he added, smiling -archly, "I may be permitted to believe that gallantry is not -forgotten by one so young as yourself. The daughters of the -commandant, I learn, have passed into the fort since it was -invested?" - -"It is true, monsieur; but, so far from weakening our -efforts, they set us an example of courage in their own -fortitude. Were nothing but resolution necessary to repel -so accomplished a soldier as M. de Montcalm, I would gladly -trust the defense of William Henry to the elder of those -ladies." - -"We have a wise ordinance in our Salique laws, which says, -'The crown of France shall never degrade the lance to the -distaff'," said Montcalm, dryly, and with a little hauteur; -but instantly adding, with his former frank and easy air: -"as all the nobler qualities are hereditary, I can easily -credit you; though, as I said before, courage has its -limits, and humanity must not be forgotten. I trust, -monsieur, you come authorized to treat for the surrender of -the place?" - -"Has your excellency found our defense so feeble as to -believe the measure necessary?" - -"I should be sorry to have the defense protracted in such a -manner as to irritate my red friends there," continued -Montcalm, glancing his eyes at the group of grave and -attentive Indians, without attending to the other's -questions; "I find it difficult, even now, to limit them to -the usages of war." - -Heyward was silent; for a painful recollection of the -dangers he had so recently escaped came over his mind, and -recalled the images of those defenseless beings who had -shared in all his sufferings. - -"Ces messieurs-la," said Montcalm, following up the -advantage which he conceived he had gained, "are most -formidable when baffled; and it is unnecessary to tell you -with what difficulty they are restrained in their anger. Eh -bien, monsieur! shall we speak of the terms?" - -"I fear your excellency has been deceived as to the strength -of William Henry, and the resources of its garrison!" - -"I have not sat down before Quebec, but an earthen work, -that is defended by twenty-three hundred gallant men," was -the laconic reply. - -"Our mounds are earthen, certainly--nor are they seated on -the rocks of Cape Diamond; but they stand on that shore -which proved so destructive to Dieskau and his army. There -is also a powerful force within a few hours' march of us, -which we account upon as a part of our means." - -"Some six or eight thousand men," returned Montcalm, with -much apparent indifference, "whom their leader wisely judges -to be safer in their works than in the field." - -It was now Heyward's turn to bite his lip with vexation as -the other so coolly alluded to a force which the young man -knew to be overrated. Both mused a little while in silence, -when Montcalm renewed the conversation, in a way that showed -he believed the visit of his guest was solely to propose -terms of capitulation. On the other hand, Heyward began to -throw sundry inducements in the way of the French general, -to betray the discoveries he had made through the -intercepted letter. The artifice of neither, however, -succeeded; and after a protracted and fruitless interview, -Duncan took his leave, favorably impressed with an opinion -of the courtesy and talents of the enemy's captain, but as -ignorant of what he came to learn as when he arrived. -Montcalm followed him as far as the entrance of the marquee, -renewing his invitations to the commandant of the fort to -give him an immediate meeting in the open ground between the -two armies. - -There they separated, and Duncan returned to the advanced -post of the French, accompanied as before; whence he -instantly proceeded to the fort, and to the quarters of his -own commander. - - - -CHAPTER 16 - -"EDG.--Before you fight the battle ope this letter."-- -Lear - -Major Heyward found Munro attended only by his daughters. -Alice sat upon his knee, parting the gray hairs on the -forehead of the old man with her delicate fingers; and -whenever he affected to frown on her trifling, appeasing his -assumed anger by pressing her ruby lips fondly on his -wrinkled brow. Cora was seated nigh them, a calm and amused -looker-on; regarding the wayward movements of her more -youthful sister with that species of maternal fondness which -characterized her love for Alice. Not only the dangers -through which they had passed, but those which still -impended above them, appeared to be momentarily forgotten, -in the soothing indulgence of such a family meeting. It -seemed as if they had profited by the short truce, to devote -an instant to the purest and best affection; the daughters -forgetting their fears, and the veteran his cares, in the -security of the moment. Of this scene, Duncan, who, in his -eagerness to report his arrival, had entered unannounced, -stood many moments an unobserved and a delighted spectator. -But the quick and dancing eyes of Alice soon caught a -glimpse of his figure reflected from a glass, and she sprang -blushing from her father's knee, exclaiming aloud: - -"Major Heyward!" - -"What of the lad?" demanded her father; "I have sent him to -crack a little with the Frenchman. Ha, sir, you are young, -and you're nimble! Away with you, ye baggage; as if there -were not troubles enough for a soldier, without having his -camp filled with such prattling hussies as yourself!" - -Alice laughingly followed her sister, who instantly led the -way from an apartment where she perceived their presence was -no longer desirable. Munro, instead of demanding the result -of the young man's mission, paced the room for a few -moments, with his hands behind his back, and his head -inclined toward the floor, like a man lost in thought. At -length he raised his eyes, glistening with a father's -fondness, and exclaimed: - -"They are a pair of excellent girls, Heyward, and such as -any one may boast of." - -"You are not now to learn my opinion of your daughters, -Colonel Munro." - -"True, lad, true," interrupted the impatient old man; "you -were about opening your mind more fully on that matter the -day you got in, but I did not think it becoming in an old -soldier to be talking of nuptial blessings and wedding jokes -when the enemies of his king were likely to be unbidden -guests at the feast. But I was wrong, Duncan, boy, I was -wrong there; and I am now ready to hear what you have to -say." - -"Notwithstanding the pleasure your assurance gives me, dear -sir, I have just now, a message from Montcalm --" - -"Let the Frenchman and all his host go to the devil, sir!" -exclaimed the hasty veteran. "He is not yet master of -William Henry, nor shall he ever be, provided Webb proves -himself the man he should. No, sir, thank Heaven we are not -yet in such a strait that it can be said Munro is too much -pressed to discharge the little domestic duties of his own -family. Your mother was the only child of my bosom friend, -Duncan; and I'll just give you a hearing, though all the -knights of St. Louis were in a body at the sally-port, with -the French saint at their head, crying to speak a word under -favor. A pretty degree of knighthood, sir, is that which -can be bought with sugar hogsheads! and then your twopenny -marquisates. The thistle is the order for dignity and -antiquity; the veritable 'nemo me impune lacessit' of -chivalry. Ye had ancestors in that degree, Duncan, and -they were an ornament to the nobles of Scotland." - -Heyward, who perceived that his superior took a malicious -pleasure in exhibiting his contempt for the message of the -French general, was fain to humor a spleen that he knew -would be short-lived; he therefore, replied with as much -indifference as he could assume on such a subject: - -"My request, as you know, sir, went so far as to presume to -the honor of being your son." - -"Ay, boy, you found words to make yourself very plainly -comprehended. But, let me ask ye, sir, have you been as -intelligible to the girl?" - -"On my honor, no," exclaimed Duncan, warmly; "there would -have been an abuse of a confided trust, had I taken -advantage of my situation for such a purpose." - -"Your notions are those of a gentleman, Major Heyward, and -well enough in their place. But Cora Munro is a maiden too -discreet, and of a mind too elevated and improved, to need -the guardianship even of a father." - -"Cora!" - -"Ay -- Cora! we are talking of your pretensions to Miss -Munro, are we not, sir?" - -"I -- I -- I was not conscious of having mentioned her -name," said Duncan, stammering. - -"And to marry whom, then, did you wish my consent, Major -Heyward?" demanded the old soldier, erecting himself in the -dignity of offended feeling. - -"You have another, and not less lovely child." - -"Alice!" exclaimed the father, in an astonishment equal to -that with which Duncan had just repeated the name of her -sister. - -"Such was the direction of my wishes, sir." - -The young man awaited in silence the result of the -extraordinary effect produced by a communication, which, as -it now appeared, was so unexpected. For several minutes -Munro paced the chamber with long and rapid strides, his -rigid features working convulsively, and every faculty -seemingly absorbed in the musings of his own mind. At -length, he paused directly in front of Heyward, and riveting -his eyes upon those of the other, he said, with a lip that -quivered violently: - -"Duncan Heyward, I have loved you for the sake of him whose -blood is in your veins; I have loved you for your own good -qualities; and I have loved you, because I thought you would -contribute to the happiness of my child. But all this love -would turn to hatred, were I assured that what I so much -apprehend is true." - -"God forbid that any act or thought of mine should lead to -such a change!" exclaimed the young man, whose eye never -quailed under the penetrating look it encountered. Without -adverting to the impossibility of the other's comprehending -those feelings which were hid in his own bosom, Munro -suffered himself to be appeased by the unaltered countenance -he met, and with a voice sensibly softened, he continued: - -"You would be my son, Duncan, and you're ignorant of the -history of the man you wish to call your father. Sit ye -down, young man, and I will open to you the wounds of a -seared heart, in as few words as may be suitable." - -By this time, the message of Montcalm was as much forgotten -by him who bore it as by the man for whose ears it was -intended. Each drew a chair, and while the veteran communed -a few moments with his own thoughts, apparently in sadness, -the youth suppressed his impatience in a look and attitude -of respectful attention. At length, the former spoke: - -"You'll know, already, Major Heyward, that my family was -both ancient and honorable," commenced the Scotsman; "though -it might not altogether be endowed with that amount of -wealth that should correspond with its degree. I was, -maybe, such an one as yourself when I plighted my faith to -Alice Graham, the only child of a neighboring laird of some -estate. But the connection was disagreeable to her father, -on more accounts than my poverty. I did, therefore, what an -honest man should -- restored the maiden her troth, and -departed the country in the service of my king. I had seen -many regions, and had shed much blood in different lands, -before duty called me to the islands of the West Indies. -There it was my lot to form a connection with one who in -time became my wife, and the mother of Cora. She was the -daughter of a gentleman of those isles, by a lady whose -misfortune it was, if you will," said the old man, proudly, -"to be descended, remotely, from that unfortunate class who -are so basely enslaved to administer to the wants of a -luxurious people. Ay, sir, that is a curse, entailed on -Scotland by her unnatural union with a foreign and trading -people. But could I find a man among them who would dare to -reflect on my child, he should feel the weight of a father's -anger! Ha! Major Heyward, you are yourself born at the -south, where these unfortunate beings are considered of a -race inferior to your own." - -"'Tis most unfortunately true, sir," said Duncan, unable any -longer to prevent his eyes from sinking to the floor in -embarrassment. - -"And you cast it on my child as a reproach! You scorn to -mingle the blood of the Heywards with one so degraded -- -lovely and virtuous though she be?" fiercely demanded the -jealous parent. - -"Heaven protect me from a prejudice so unworthy of my -reason!" returned Duncan, at the same time conscious of such -a feeling, and that as deeply rooted as if it had been -ingrafted in his nature. "The sweetness, the beauty, the -witchery of your younger daughter, Colonel Munro, might -explain my motives without imputing to me this injustice." - -"Ye are right, sir," returned the old man, again changing -his tones to those of gentleness, or rather softness; "the -girl is the image of what her mother was at her years, and -before she had become acquainted with grief. When death -deprived me of my wife I returned to Scotland, enriched by -the marriage; and, would you think it, Duncan! the suffering -angel had remained in the heartless state of celibacy twenty -long years, and that for the sake of a man who could forget -her! She did more, sir; she overlooked my want of faith, -and, all difficulties being now removed, she took me for her -husband." - -"And became the mother of Alice?" exclaimed Duncan, with an -eagerness that might have proved dangerous at a moment when -the thoughts of Munro were less occupied that at present. - -"She did, indeed," said the old man, "and dearly did she pay -for the blessing she bestowed. But she is a saint in -heaven, sir; and it ill becomes one whose foot rests on the -grave to mourn a lot so blessed. I had her but a single -year, though; a short term of happiness for one who had seen -her youth fade in hopeless pining." - -There was something so commanding in the distress of the old -man, that Heyward did not dare to venture a syllable of -consolation. Munro sat utterly unconscious of the other's -presence, his features exposed and working with the anguish -of his regrets, while heavy tears fell from his eyes, and -rolled unheeded from his cheeks to the floor. At length he -moved, and as if suddenly recovering his recollection; when -he arose, and taking a single turn across the room, he -approached his companion with an air of military grandeur, -and demanded: - -"Have you not, Major Heyward, some communication that I -should hear from the marquis de Montcalm?" - -Duncan started in his turn, and immediately commenced in an -embarrassed voice, the half-forgotten message. It is -unnecessary to dwell upon the evasive though polite manner -with which the French general had eluded every attempt of -Heyward to worm from him the purport of the communication he -had proposed making, or on the decided, though still -polished message, by which he now gave his enemy to -understand, that, unless he chose to receive it in person, -he should not receive it at all. As Munro listened to the -detail of Duncan, the excited feelings of the father -gradually gave way before the obligations of his station, -and when the other was done, he saw before him nothing but -the veteran, swelling with the wounded feelings of a -soldier. - -"You have said enough, Major Heyward," exclaimed the angry -old man; "enough to make a volume of commentary on French -civility. Here has this gentleman invited me to a -conference, and when I send him a capable substitute, for -ye're all that, Duncan, though your years are but few, he -answers me with a riddle." - -"He may have thought less favorably of the substitute, my -dear sir; and you will remember that the invitation, which -he now repeats, was to the commandant of the works, and not -to his second." - -"Well, sir, is not a substitute clothed with all the power -and dignity of him who grants the commission? He wishes to -confer with Munro! Faith, sir, I have much inclination to -indulge the man, if it should only be to let him behold the -firm countenance we maintain in spite of his numbers and his -summons. There might be not bad policy in such a stroke, -young man." - -Duncan, who believed it of the last importance that they -should speedily come to the contents of the letter borne by -the scout, gladly encouraged this idea. - -"Without doubt, he could gather no confidence by witnessing -our indifference," he said. - -"You never said truer word. I could wish, sir, that he -would visit the works in open day, and in the form of a -storming party; that is the least failing method of proving -the countenance of an enemy, and would be far preferable to -the battering system he has chosen. The beauty and -manliness of warfare has been much deformed, Major Heyward, -by the arts of your Monsieur Vauban. Our ancestors were far -above such scientific cowardice!" - -"It may be very true, sir; but we are now obliged to repel -art by art. What is your pleasure in the matter of the -interview?" - -"I will meet the Frenchman, and that without fear or delay; -promptly, sir, as becomes a servant of my royal master. Go, -Major Heyward, and give them a flourish of the music; and -send out a messenger to let them know who is coming. We -will follow with a small guard, for such respect is due to -one who holds the honor of his king in keeping; and hark'ee, -Duncan," he added, in a half whisper, though they were -alone, "it may be prudent to have some aid at hand, in case -there should be treachery at the bottom of it all." - -The young man availed himself of this order to quit the -apartment; and, as the day was fast coming to a close, he -hastened without delay, to make the necessary arrangements. -A very few minutes only were necessary to parade a few -files, and to dispatch an orderly with a flag to announce -the approach of the commandant of the fort. When Duncan had -done both these, he led the guard to the sally-port, near -which he found his superior ready, waiting his appearance. -As soon as the usual ceremonials of a military departure -were observed, the veteran and his more youthful companion -left the fortress, attended by the escort. - -They had proceeded only a hundred yards from the works, when -the little array which attended the French general to the -conference was seen issuing from the hollow way which formed -the bed of a brook that ran between the batteries of the -besiegers and the fort. From the moment that Munro left his -own works to appear in front of his enemy's, his air had -been grand, and his step and countenance highly military. -The instant he caught a glimpse of the white plume that -waved in the hat of Montcalm, his eye lighted, and age no -longer appeared to possess any influence over his vast and -still muscular person. - -"Speak to the boys to be watchful, sir," he said, in an -undertone, to Duncan; "and to look well to their flints and -steel, for one is never safe with a servant of these -Louis's; at the same time, we shall show them the front of -men in deep security. Ye'll understand me, Major Heyward!" - -He was interrupted by the clamor of a drum from the -approaching Frenchmen, which was immediately answered, when -each party pushed an orderly in advance, bearing a white -flag, and the wary Scotsman halted with his guard close at -his back. As soon as this slight salutation had passed, -Montcalm moved toward them with a quick but graceful step, -baring his head to the veteran, and dropping his spotless -plume nearly to the earth in courtesy. If the air of Munro -was more commanding and manly, it wanted both the ease and -insinuating polish of that of the Frenchman. Neither spoke -for a few moments, each regarding the other with curious and -interested eyes. Then, as became his superior rank and the -nature of the interview, Montcalm broke the silence. After -uttering the usual words of greeting, he turned to Duncan, -and continued, with a smile of recognition, speaking always -in French: - -"I am rejoiced, monsieur, that you have given us the -pleasure of your company on this occasion. There will be no -necessity to employ an ordinary interpreter; for, in your -hands, I feel the same security as if I spoke your language -myself." - -Duncan acknowledged the compliment, when Montcalm, turning -to his guard, which in imitation of that of their enemies, -pressed close upon him, continued: - -"En arriere, mes enfants -- il fait chaud ---retirez-vous un -peu." - -Before Major Heyward would imitate this proof of confidence, -he glanced his eyes around the plain, and beheld with -uneasiness the numerous dusky groups of savages, who looked -out from the margin of the surrounding woods, curious -spectators of the interview. - -"Monsieur de Montcalm will readily acknowledge the -difference in our situation," he said, with some -embarrassment, pointing at the same time toward those -dangerous foes, who were to be seen in almost every -direction. "Were we to dismiss our guard, we should stand -here at the mercy of our enemies." - -"Monsieur, you have the plighted faith of 'un gentilhomme -Francais', for your safety," returned Montcalm, laying his -hand impressively on his heart; "it should suffice." - -"It shall. Fall back," Duncan added to the officer who led -the escort; "fall back, sir, beyond hearing, and wait for -orders." - -Munro witnessed this movement with manifest uneasiness; nor -did he fail to demand an instant explanation. - -"Is it not our interest, sir, to betray distrust?" retorted -Duncan. "Monsieur de Montcalm pledges his word for our -safety, and I have ordered the men to withdraw a little, in -order to prove how much we depend on his assurance." - -"It may be all right, sir, but I have no overweening -reliance on the faith of these marquesses, or marquis, as -they call themselves. Their patents of nobility are too -common to be certain that they bear the seal of true honor." - -"You forget, dear sir, that we confer with an officer, -distinguished alike in Europe and America for his deeds. -From a soldier of his reputation we can have nothing to -apprehend." - -The old man made a gesture of resignation, though his rigid -features still betrayed his obstinate adherence to a -distrust, which he derived from a sort of hereditary -contempt of his enemy, rather than from any present signs -which might warrant so uncharitable a feeling. Montcalm -waited patiently until this little dialogue in demi-voice -was ended, when he drew nigher, and opened the subject of -their conference. - -"I have solicited this interview from your superior, -monsieur," he said, "because I believe he will allow himself -to be persuaded that he has already done everything which is -necessary for the honor of his prince, and will now listen -to the admonitions of humanity. I will forever bear -testimony that his resistance has been gallant, and was -continued as long as there was hope." - -When this opening was translated to Munro, he answered with -dignity, but with sufficient courtesy: - -"However I may prize such testimony from Monsieur Montcalm, -it will be more valuable when it shall be better merited." - -The French general smiled, as Duncan gave him the purport of -this reply, and observed: - -"What is now so freely accorded to approved courage, may be -refused to useless obstinacy. Monsieur would wish to see my -camp, and witness for himself our numbers, and the -impossibility of his resisting them with success?" - -"I know that the king of France is well served," returned -the unmoved Scotsman, as soon as Duncan ended his -translation; "but my own royal master has as many and as -faithful troops." - -"Though not at hand, fortunately for us," said Montcalm, -without waiting, in his ardor, for the interpreter. "There -is a destiny in war, to which a brave man knows how to -submit with the same courage that he faces his foes." - -"Had I been conscious that Monsieur Montcalm was master of -the English, I should have spared myself the trouble of so -awkward a translation," said the vexed Duncan, dryly; -remembering instantly his recent by-play with Munro. - -"Your pardon, monsieur," rejoined the Frenchman, suffering a -slight color to appear on his dark cheek. "There is a vast -difference between understanding and speaking a foreign -tongue; you will, therefore, please to assist me still." -Then, after a short pause, he added: "These hills afford us -every opportunity of reconnoitering your works, messieurs, -and I am possibly as well acquainted with their weak -condition as you can be yourselves." - -"Ask the French general if his glasses can reach to the -Hudson," said Munro, proudly; "and if he knows when and -where to expect the army of Webb." - -"Let General Webb be his own interpreter," returned the -politic Montcalm, suddenly extending an open letter toward -Munro as he spoke; "you will there learn, monsieur, that his -movements are not likely to prove embarrassing to my army." - -The veteran seized the offered paper, without waiting for -Duncan to translate the speech, and with an eagerness that -betrayed how important he deemed its contents. As his eye -passed hastily over the words, his countenance changed from -its look of military pride to one of deep chagrin; his lip -began to quiver; and suffering the paper to fall from his -hand, his head dropped upon his chest, like that of a man -whose hopes were withered at a single blow. Duncan caught -the letter from the ground, and without apology for the -liberty he took, he read at a glance its cruel purport. -Their common superior, so far from encouraging them to -resist, advised a speedy surrender, urging in the plainest -language, as a reason, the utter impossibility of his -sending a single man to their rescue. - -"Here is no deception!" exclaimed Duncan, examining the -billet both inside and out; "this is the signature of Webb, -and must be the captured letter." - -"The man has betrayed me!" Munro at length bitterly -exclaimed; "he has brought dishonor to the door of one where -disgrace was never before known to dwell, and shame has he -heaped heavily on my gray hairs." - -"Say not so," cried Duncan; "we are yet masters of the fort, -and of our honor. Let us, then, sell our lives at such a -rate as shall make our enemies believe the purchase too -dear." - -"Boy, I thank thee," exclaimed the old man, rousing himself -from his stupor; "you have, for once, reminded Munro of his -duty. We will go back, and dig our graves behind those -ramparts." - -"Messieurs," said Montcalm, advancing toward them a step, in -generous interest, "you little know Louis de St. Veran if -you believe him capable of profiting by this letter to -humble brave men, or to build up a dishonest reputation for -himself. Listen to my terms before you leave me." - -"What says the Frenchman?" demanded the veteran, sternly; -"does he make a merit of having captured a scout, with a -note from headquarters? Sir, he had better raise this -siege, to go and sit down before Edward if he wishes to -frighten his enemy with words." - -Duncan explained the other's meaning. - -"Monsieur de Montcalm, we will hear you," the veteran added, -more calmly, as Duncan ended. - -"To retain the fort is now impossible," said his liberal -enemy; "it is necessary to the interests of my master that -it should be destroyed; but as for yourselves and your brave -comrades, there is no privilege dear to a soldier that shall -be denied." - -"Our colors?" demanded Heyward. - -"Carry them to England, and show them to your king." - -"Our arms?" - -"Keep them; none can use them better." - -"Our march; the surrender of the place?" - -"Shall all be done in a way most honorable to yourselves." - -Duncan now turned to explain these proposals to his -commander, who heard him with amazement, and a sensibility -that was deeply touched by so unusual and unexpected -generosity. - -"Go you, Duncan," he said; "go with this marquess, as, -indeed, marquess he should be; go to his marquee and arrange -it all. I have lived to see two things in my old age that -never did I expect to behold. An Englishman afraid to -support a friend, and a Frenchman too honest to profit by -his advantage." - -So saying, the veteran again dropped his head to his chest, -and returned slowly toward the fort, exhibiting, by the -dejection of his air, to the anxious garrison, a harbinger -of evil tidings. - -From the shock of this unexpected blow the haughty feelings -of Munro never recovered; but from that moment there -commenced a change in his determined character, which -accompanied him to a speedy grave. Duncan remained to -settle the terms of the capitulation. He was seen to re- -enter the works during the first watches of the night, and -immediately after a private conference with the commandant, -to leave them again. It was then openly announced that -hostilities must cease -- Munro having signed a treaty by -which the place was to be yielded to the enemy, with the -morning; the garrison to retain their arms, the colors and -their baggage, and, consequently, according to military -opinion, their honor. - - - -CHAPTER 17 - -"Weave we the woof. The thread is spun. The web is wove. -The work is done."--Gray - -The hostile armies, which lay in the wilds of the Horican, -passed the night of the ninth of August, 1757, much in the -manner they would, had they encountered on the fairest field -of Europe. While the conquered were still, sullen, and -dejected, the victors triumphed. But there are limits alike -to grief and joy; and long before the watches of the morning -came the stillness of those boundless woods was only broken -by a gay call from some exulting young Frenchman of the -advanced pickets, or a menacing challenge from the fort, -which sternly forbade the approach of any hostile footsteps -before the stipulated moment. Even these occasional -threatening sounds ceased to be heard in that dull hour -which precedes the day, at which period a listener might -have sought in vain any evidence of the presence of those -armed powers that then slumbered on the shores of the "holy -lake." - -It was during these moments of deep silence that the canvas -which concealed the entrance to a spacious marquee in the -French encampment was shoved aside, and a man issued from -beneath the drapery into the open air. He was enveloped in -a cloak that might have been intended as a protection from -the chilling damps of the woods, but which served equally -well as a mantle to conceal his person. He was permitted to -pass the grenadier, who watched over the slumbers of the -French commander, without interruption, the man making the -usual salute which betokens military deference, as the other -passed swiftly through the little city of tents, in the -direction of William Henry. Whenever this unknown -individual encountered one of the numberless sentinels who -crossed his path, his answer was prompt, and, as it -appeared, satisfactory; for he was uniformly allowed to -proceed without further interrogation. - -With the exception of such repeated but brief interruptions, -he had moved silently from the center of the camp to its -most advanced outposts, when he drew nigh the soldier who -held his watch nearest to the works of the enemy. As he -approached he was received with the usual challenge: - -"Qui vive?" - -"France," was the reply. - -"Le mot d'ordre?" - -"La victorie," said the other, drawing so nigh as to be -heard in a loud whisper. - -"C'est bien," returned the sentinel, throwing his musket -from the charge to his shoulder; "vous promenez bien matin, -monsieur!" - -"Il est necessaire d'etre vigilant, mon enfant," the other -observed, dropping a fold of his cloak, and looking the -soldier close in the face as he passed him, still continuing -his way toward the British fortification. The man started; -his arms rattled heavily as he threw them forward in the -lowest and most respectful salute; and when he had again -recovered his piece, he turned to walk his post, muttering -between his teeth: - -"Il faut etre vigilant, en verite! je crois que nous avons -la, un caporal qui ne dort jamais!" - -The officer proceeded, without affecting to hear the words -which escaped the sentinel in his surprise; nor did he again -pause until he had reached the low strand, and in a somewhat -dangerous vicinity to the western water bastion of the fort. -The light of an obscure moon was just sufficient to render -objects, though dim, perceptible in their outlines. He, -therefore, took the precaution to place himself against the -trunk of a tree, where he leaned for many minutes, and -seemed to contemplate the dark and silent mounds of the -English works in profound attention. His gaze at the -ramparts was not that of a curious or idle spectator; but -his looks wandered from point to point, denoting his -knowledge of military usages, and betraying that his search -was not unaccompanied by distrust. At length he appeared -satisfied; and having cast his eyes impatiently upward -toward the summit of the eastern mountain, as if -anticipating the approach of the morning, he was in the act -of turning on his footsteps, when a light sound on the -nearest angle of the bastion caught his ear, and induced him -to remain. - -Just then a figure was seen to approach the edge of the -rampart, where it stood, apparently contemplating in its -turn the distant tents of the French encampment. Its head -was then turned toward the east, as though equally anxious -for the appearance of light, when the form leaned against -the mound, and seemed to gaze upon the glassy expanse of the -waters, which, like a submarine firmament, glittered with -its thousand mimic stars. The melancholy air, the hour, -together with the vast frame of the man who thus leaned, -musing, against the English ramparts, left no doubt as to -his person in the mind of the observant spectator. -Delicacy, no less than prudence, now urged him to retire; -and he had moved cautiously round the body of the tree for -that purpose, when another sound drew his attention, and -once more arrested his footsteps. It was a low and almost -inaudible movement of the water, and was succeeded by a -grating of pebbles one against the other. In a moment he -saw a dark form rise, as it were, out of the lake, and steal -without further noise to the land, within a few feet of the -place where he himself stood. A rifle next slowly rose -between his eyes and the watery mirror; but before it could -be discharged his own hand was on the lock. - -"Hugh!" exclaimed the savage, whose treacherous aim was so -singularly and so unexpectedly interrupted. - -Without making any reply, the French officer laid his hand -on the shoulder of the Indian, and led him in profound -silence to a distance from the spot, where their subsequent -dialogue might have proved dangerous, and where it seemed -that one of them, at least, sought a victim. Then throwing -open his cloak, so as to expose his uniform and the cross of -St. Louis which was suspended at his breast, Montcalm -sternly demanded: - -"What means this? Does not my son know that the hatchet is -buried between the English and his Canadian Father?" - -"What can the Hurons do?" returned the savage, speaking -also, though imperfectly, in the French language. - -"Not a warrior has a scalp, and the pale faces make -friends!" - -"Ha, Le Renard Subtil! Methinks this is an excess of zeal -for a friend who was so late an enemy! How many suns have -set since Le Renard struck the war-post of the English?" - -"Where is that sun?" demanded the sullen savage. "Behind -the hill; and it is dark and cold. But when he comes again, -it will be bright and warm. Le Subtil is the sun of his -tribe. There have been clouds, and many mountains between -him and his nation; but now he shines and it is a clear -sky!" - -"That Le Renard has power with his people, I well know," -said Montcalm; "for yesterday he hunted for their scalps, -and to-day they hear him at the council-fire." - -"Magua is a great chief." - -"Let him prove it, by teaching his nation how to conduct -themselves toward our new friends." - -"Why did the chief of the Canadas bring his young men into -the woods, and fire his cannon at the earthen house?" -demanded the subtle Indian. - -"To subdue it. My master owns the land, and your father was -ordered to drive off these English squatters. They have -consented to go, and now he calls them enemies no longer." - -"'Tis well. Magua took the hatchet to color it with blood. -It is now bright; when it is red, it shall be buried." - -"But Magua is pledged not to sully the lilies of France. -The enemies of the great king across the salt lake are his -enemies; his friends, the friends of the Hurons." - -"Friends!" repeated the Indian in scorn. "Let his father -give Magua a hand." - -Montcalm, who felt that his influence over the warlike -tribes he had gathered was to be maintained by concession -rather than by power, complied reluctantly with the other's -request. The savage placed the fingers of the French -commander on a deep scar in his bosom, and then exultingly -demanded: - -"Does my father know that?" - -"What warrior does not? 'Tis where a leaden bullet has cut." - -"And this?" continued the Indian, who had turned his naked -back to the other, his body being without its usual calico -mantle. - -"This! -- my son has been sadly injured here; who has done -this?" - -"Magua slept hard in the English wigwams, and the sticks -have left their mark," returned the savage, with a hollow -laugh, which did not conceal the fierce temper that nearly -choked him. Then, recollecting himself, with sudden and -native dignity, he added: "Go; teach your young men it is -peace. Le Renard Subtil knows how to speak to a Huron -warrior." - -Without deigning to bestow further words, or to wait for any -answer, the savage cast his rifle into the hollow of his -arm, and moved silently through the encampment toward the -woods where his own tribe was known to lie. Every few yards -as he proceeded he was challenged by the sentinels; but he -stalked sullenly onward, utterly disregarding the summons of -the soldiers, who only spared his life because they knew the -air and tread no less than the obstinate daring of an -Indian. - -Montcalm lingered long and melancholy on the strand where he -had been left by his companion, brooding deeply on the -temper which his ungovernable ally had just discovered. -Already had his fair fame been tarnished by one horrid -scene, and in circumstances fearfully resembling those under -which he now found himself. As he mused he became keenly -sensible of the deep responsibility they assume who -disregard the means to attain the end, and of all the danger -of setting in motion an engine which it exceeds human power -to control. Then shaking off a train of reflections that he -accounted a weakness in such a moment of triumph, he -retraced his steps toward his tent, giving the order as he -passed to make the signal that should arouse the army from -its slumbers. - -The first tap of the French drums was echoed from the bosom -of the fort, and presently the valley was filled with the -strains of martial music, rising long, thrilling and lively -above the rattling accompaniment. The horns of the victors -sounded merry and cheerful flourishes, until the last -laggard of the camp was at his post; but the instant the -British fifes had blown their shrill signal, they became -mute. In the meantime the day had dawned, and when the line -of the French army was ready to receive its general, the -rays of a brilliant sun were glancing along the glittering -array. Then that success, which was already so well known, -was officially announced; the favored band who were selected -to guard the gates of the fort were detailed, and defiled -before their chief; the signal of their approach was given, -and all the usual preparations for a change of masters were -ordered and executed directly under the guns of the -contested works. - -A very different scene presented itself within the lines of -the Anglo-American army. As soon as the warning signal was -given, it exhibited all the signs of a hurried and forced -departure. The sullen soldiers shouldered their empty tubes -and fell into their places, like men whose blood had been -heated by the past contest, and who only desired the -opportunity to revenge an indignity which was still wounding -to their pride, concealed as it was under the observances of -military etiquette. - -Women and children ran from place to place, some bearing the -scanty remnants of their baggage, and others searching in -the ranks for those countenances they looked up to for -protection. - -Munro appeared among his silent troops firm but dejected. -It was evident that the unexpected blow had struck deep into -his heart, though he struggled to sustain his misfortune -with the port of a man. - -Duncan was touched at the quiet and impressive exhibition of -his grief. He had discharged his own duty, and he now -pressed to the side of the old man, to know in what -particular he might serve him. - -"My daughters," was the brief but expressive reply. - -"Good heavens! are not arrangements already made for their -convenience?" - -"To-day I am only a soldier, Major Heyward," said the -veteran. "All that you see here, claim alike to be my -children." - -Duncan had heard enough. Without losing one of those -moments which had now become so precious, he flew toward the -quarters of Munro, in quest of the sisters. He found them -on the threshold of the low edifice, already prepared to -depart, and surrounded by a clamorous and weeping assemblage -of their own sex, that had gathered about the place, with a -sort of instinctive consciousness that it was the point most -likely to be protected. Though the cheeks of Cora were pale -and her countenance anxious, she had lost none of her -firmness; but the eyes of Alice were inflamed, and betrayed -how long and bitterly she had wept. They both, however, -received the young man with undisguised pleasure; the -former, for a novelty, being the first to speak. - -"The fort is lost," she said, with a melancholy smile; -"though our good name, I trust, remains." - -"'Tis brighter than ever. But, dearest Miss Munro, it is -time to think less of others, and to make some provision for -yourself. Military usage -- pride -- that pride on which -you so much value yourself, demands that your father and I -should for a little while continue with the troops. Then -where to seek a proper protector for you against the -confusion and chances of such a scene?" - -"None is necessary," returned Cora; "who will dare to injure -or insult the daughter of such a father, at a time like -this?" - -"I would not leave you alone," continued the youth, looking -about him in a hurried manner, "for the command of the best -regiment in the pay of the king. Remember, our Alice is not -gifted with all your firmness, and God only knows the terror -she might endure." - -"You may be right," Cora replied, smiling again, but far -more sadly than before. "Listen! chance has already sent us -a friend when he is most needed." - -Duncan did listen, and on the instant comprehended her -meaning. The low and serious sounds of the sacred music, so -well known to the eastern provinces, caught his ear, and -instantly drew him to an apartment in an adjacent building, -which had already been deserted by its customary tenants. -There he found David, pouring out his pious feelings through -the only medium in which he ever indulged. Duncan waited, -until, by the cessation of the movement of the hand, he -believed the strain was ended, when, by touching his -shoulder, he drew the attention of the other to himself, and -in a few words explained his wishes. - -"Even so," replied the single-minded disciple of the King of -Israel, when the young man had ended; "I have found much -that is comely and melodious in the maidens, and it is -fitting that we who have consorted in so much peril, should -abide together in peace. I will attend them, when I have -completed my morning praise, to which nothing is now wanting -but the doxology. Wilt thou bear a part, friend? The meter -is common, and the tune 'Southwell'." - -Then, extending the little volume, and giving the pitch of -the air anew with considerate attention, David recommenced -and finished his strains, with a fixedness of manner that it -was not easy to interrupt. Heyward was fain to wait until -the verse was ended; when, seeing David relieving himself -from the spectacles, and replacing the book, he continued. - -"It will be your duty to see that none dare to approach the -ladies with any rude intention, or to offer insult or taunt -at the misfortune of their brave father. In this task you -will be seconded by the domestics of their household." - -"Even so." - -"It is possible that the Indians and stragglers of the enemy -may intrude, in which case you will remind them of the terms -of the capitulation, and threaten to report their conduct to -Montcalm. A word will suffice." - -"If not, I have that here which shall," returned David, -exhibiting his book, with an air in which meekness and -confidence were singularly blended. Here are words which, -uttered, or rather thundered, with proper emphasis, and in -measured time, shall quiet the most unruly temper: - -"'Why rage the heathen furiously'?" - -"Enough," said Heyward, interrupting the burst of his -musical invocation; "we understand each other; it is time -that we should now assume our respective duties." - -Gamut cheerfully assented, and together they sought the -females. Cora received her new and somewhat extraordinary -protector courteously, at least; and even the pallid -features of Alice lighted again with some of their native -archness as she thanked Heyward for his care. Duncan took -occasion to assure them he had done the best that -circumstances permitted, and, as he believed, quite enough -for the security of their feelings; of danger there was -none. He then spoke gladly of his intention to rejoin them -the moment he had led the advance a few miles toward the -Hudson, and immediately took his leave. - -By this time the signal for departure had been given, and -the head of the English column was in motion. The sisters -started at the sound, and glancing their eyes around, they -saw the white uniforms of the French grenadiers, who had -already taken possession of the gates of the fort. At that -moment an enormous cloud seemed to pass suddenly above their -heads, and, looking upward, they discovered that they stood -beneath the wide folds of the standard of France. - -"Let us go," said Cora; "this is no longer a fit place for -the children of an English officer." - -Alice clung to the arm of her sister, and together they left -the parade, accompanied by the moving throng that surrounded -them. - -As they passed the gates, the French officers, who had -learned their rank, bowed often and low, forbearing, -however, to intrude those attentions which they saw, with -peculiar tact, might not be agreeable. As every vehicle and -each beast of burden was occupied by the sick and wounded, -Cora had decided to endure the fatigues of a foot march, -rather than interfere with their comforts. Indeed, many a -maimed and feeble soldier was compelled to drag his -exhausted limbs in the rear of the columns, for the want of -the necessary means of conveyance in that wilderness. The -whole, however, was in motion; the weak and wounded, -groaning and in suffering; their comrades silent and sullen; -and the women and children in terror, they knew not of what. - -As the confused and timid throng left the protecting mounds -of the fort, and issued on the open plain, the whole scene -was at once presented to their eyes. At a little distance -on the right, and somewhat in the rear, the French army -stood to their arms, Montcalm having collected his parties, -so soon as his guards had possession of the works. They -were attentive but silent observers of the proceedings of -the vanquished, failing in none of the stipulated military -honors, and offering no taunt or insult, in their success, -to their less fortunate foes. Living masses of the English, -to the amount, in the whole, of near three thousand, were -moving slowly across the plain, toward the common center, -and gradually approached each other, as they converged to -the point of their march, a vista cut through the lofty -trees, where the road to the Hudson entered the forest. -Along the sweeping borders of the woods hung a dark cloud of -savages, eyeing the passage of their enemies, and hovering -at a distance, like vultures who were only kept from -swooping on their prey by the presence and restraint of a -superior army. A few had straggled among the conquered -columns, where they stalked in sullen discontent; attentive, -though, as yet, passive observers of the moving multitude. - -The advance, with Heyward at its head, had already reached -the defile, and was slowly disappearing, when the attention -of Cora was drawn to a collection of stragglers by the -sounds of contention. A truant provincial was paying the -forfeit of his disobedience, by being plundered of those -very effects which had caused him to desert his place in the -ranks. The man was of powerful frame, and too avaricious to -part with his goods without a struggle. Individuals from -either party interfered; the one side to prevent and the -other to aid in the robbery. Voices grew loud and angry, -and a hundred savages appeared, as it were, by magic, where -a dozen only had been seen a minute before. It was then -that Cora saw the form of Magua gliding among his -countrymen, and speaking with his fatal and artful -eloquence. The mass of women and children stopped, and -hovered together like alarmed and fluttering birds. But the -cupidity of the Indian was soon gratified, and the different -bodies again moved slowly onward. - -The savages now fell back, and seemed content to let their -enemies advance without further molestation. But, as the -female crowd approached them, the gaudy colors of a shawl -attracted the eyes of a wild and untutored Huron. He -advanced to seize it without the least hesitation. The -woman, more in terror than through love of the ornament, -wrapped her child in the coveted article, and folded both -more closely to her bosom. Cora was in the act of speaking, -with an intent to advise the woman to abandon the trifle, -when the savage relinquished his hold of the shawl, and tore -the screaming infant from her arms. Abandoning everything -to the greedy grasp of those around her, the mother darted, -with distraction in her mien, to reclaim her child. The -Indian smiled grimly, and extended one hand, in sign of a -willingness to exchange, while, with the other, he -flourished the babe over his head, holding it by the feet as -if to enhance the value of the ransom. - -"Here -- here -- there -- all -- any -- everything!" -exclaimed the breathless woman, tearing the lighter articles -of dress from her person with ill-directed and trembling -fingers; "take all, but give me my babe!" - -The savage spurned the worthless rags, and perceiving that -the shawl had already become a prize to another, his -bantering but sullen smile changing to a gleam of ferocity, -he dashed the head of the infant against a rock, and cast -its quivering remains to her very feet. For an instant the -mother stood, like a statue of despair, looking wildly down -at the unseemly object, which had so lately nestled in her -bosom and smiled in her face; and then she raised her eyes -and countenance toward heaven, as if calling on God to curse -the perpetrator of the foul deed. She was spared the sin of -such a prayer for, maddened at his disappointment, and -excited at the sight of blood, the Huron mercifully drove -his tomahawk into her own brain. The mother sank under the -blow, and fell, grasping at her child, in death, with the -same engrossing love that had caused her to cherish it when -living. - -At that dangerous moment, Magua placed his hands to his -mouth, and raised the fatal and appalling whoop. The -scattered Indians started at the well-known cry, as coursers -bound at the signal to quit the goal; and directly there -arose such a yell along the plain, and through the arches of -the wood, as seldom burst from human lips before. They who -heard it listened with a curdling horror at the heart, -little inferior to that dread which may be expected to -attend the blasts of the final summons. - -More than two thousand raving savages broke from the forest -at the signal, and threw themselves across the fatal plain -with instinctive alacrity. We shall not dwell on the -revolting horrors that succeeded. Death was everywhere, and -in his most terrific and disgusting aspects. Resistance -only served to inflame the murderers, who inflicted their -furious blows long after their victims were beyond the power -of their resentment. The flow of blood might be likened to -the outbreaking of a torrent; and as the natives became -heated and maddened by the sight, many among them even -kneeled to the earth, and drank freely, exultingly, -hellishly, of the crimson tide. - -The trained bodies of the troops threw themselves quickly -into solid masses, endeavoring to awe their assailants by -the imposing appearance of a military front. The experiment -in some measure succeeded, though far too many suffered -their unloaded muskets to be torn from their hands, in the -vain hope of appeasing the savages. - -In such a scene none had leisure to note the fleeting moments. -It might have been ten minutes (it seemed an age) that the -sisters had stood riveted to one spot, horror-stricken and -nearly helpless. When the first blow was struck, their -screaming companions had pressed upon them in a body, rendering -flight impossible; and now that fear or death had scattered -most, if not all, from around them, they saw no avenue open, -but such as conducted to the tomahawks of their foes. On every -side arose shrieks, groans, exhortations and curses. At this -moment, Alice caught a glimpse of the vast form of her father, -moving rapidly across the plain, in the direction of the French -army. He was, in truth, proceeding to Montcalm, fearless of -every danger, to claim the tardy escort for which he had before -conditioned. Fifty glittering axes and barbed spears were -offered unheeded at his life, but the savages respected his -rank and calmness, even in their fury. The dangerous weapons -were brushed aside by the still nervous arm of the veteran, or -fell of themselves, after menacing an act that it would seem no -one had courage to perform. Fortunately, the vindictive Magua -was searching for his victim in the very band the veteran had -just quitted. - -"Father -- father -- we are here!" shrieked Alice, as he -passed, at no great distance, without appearing to heed -them. "Come to us, father, or we die!" - -The cry was repeated, and in terms and tones that might have -melted a heart of stone, but it was unanswered. Once, -indeed, the old man appeared to catch the sound, for he -paused and listened; but Alice had dropped senseless on the -earth, and Cora had sunk at her side, hovering in untiring -tenderness over her lifeless form. Munro shook his head in -disappointment, and proceeded, bent on the high duty of his -station. - -"Lady," said Gamut, who, helpless and useless as he was, had -not yet dreamed of deserting his trust, "it is the jubilee -of the devils, and this is not a meet place for Christians -to tarry in. Let us up and fly." - -"Go," said Cora, still gazing at her unconscious sister; -"save thyself. To me thou canst not be of further use." - -David comprehended the unyielding character of her -resolution, by the simple but expressive gesture that -accompanied her words. He gazed for a moment at the dusky -forms that were acting their hellish rites on every side of -him, and his tall person grew more erect while his chest -heaved, and every feature swelled, and seemed to speak with -the power of the feelings by which he was governed. - -"If the Jewish boy might tame the great spirit of Saul by -the sound of his harp, and the words of sacred song, it may -not be amiss," he said, "to try the potency of music here." - -Then raising his voice to its highest tone, he poured out a -strain so powerful as to be heard even amid the din of that -bloody field. More than one savage rushed toward them, -thinking to rifle the unprotected sisters of their attire, -and bear away their scalps; but when they found this strange -and unmoved figure riveted to his post, they paused to -listen. Astonishment soon changed to admiration, and they -passed on to other and less courageous victims, openly -expressing their satisfaction at the firmness with which the -white warrior sang his death song. Encouraged and deluded -by his success, David exerted all his powers to extend what -he believed so holy an influence. The unwonted sounds -caught the ears of a distant savage, who flew raging from -group to group, like one who, scorning to touch the vulgar -herd, hunted for some victim more worthy of his renown. It -was Magua, who uttered a yell of pleasure when he beheld his -ancient prisoners again at his mercy. - -"Come," he said, laying his soiled hands on the dress of -Cora, "the wigwam of the Huron is still open. Is it not -better than this place?" - -"Away!" cried Cora, veiling her eyes from his revolting -aspect. - -The Indian laughed tauntingly, as he held up his reeking -hand, and answered: "It is red, but it comes from white -veins!" - -"Monster! there is blood, oceans of blood, upon thy soul; -thy spirit has moved this scene." - -"Magua is a great chief!" returned the exulting savage, -"will the dark-hair go to his tribe?" - -"Never! strike if thou wilt, and complete thy revenge." He -hesitated a moment, and then catching the light and -senseless form of Alice in his arms, the subtle Indian moved -swiftly across the plain toward the woods. - -"Hold!" shrieked Cora, following wildly on his footsteps; -"release the child! wretch! what is't you do?" - -But Magua was deaf to her voice; or, rather, he knew his -power, and was determined to maintain it. - -"Stay -- lady -- stay," called Gamut, after the unconscious -Cora. "The holy charm is beginning to be felt, and soon -shalt thou see this horrid tumult stilled." - -Perceiving that, in his turn, he was unheeded, the faithful -David followed the distracted sister, raising his voice -again in sacred song, and sweeping the air to the measure, -with his long arm, in diligent accompaniment. In this -manner they traversed the plain, through the flying, the -wounded and the dead. The fierce Huron was, at any time, -sufficient for himself and the victim that he bore; though -Cora would have fallen more than once under the blows of her -savage enemies, but for the extraordinary being who stalked -in her rear, and who now appeared to the astonished natives -gifted with the protecting spirit of madness. - -Magua, who knew how to avoid the more pressing dangers, and -also to elude pursuit, entered the woods through a low -ravine, where he quickly found the Narragansetts, which the -travelers had abandoned so shortly before, awaiting his -appearance, in custody of a savage as fierce and malign in -his expression as himself. Laying Alice on one of the -horses, he made a sign to Cora to mount the other. - -Notwithstanding the horror excited by the presence of her -captor, there was a present relief in escaping from the -bloody scene enacting on the plain, to which Cora could not -be altogether insensible. She took her seat, and held forth -her arms for her sister, with an air of entreaty and love -that even the Huron could not deny. Placing Alice, then, on -the same animal with Cora, he seized the bridle, and -commenced his route by plunging deeper into the forest. -David, perceiving that he was left alone, utterly -disregarded as a subject too worthless even to destroy, -threw his long limb across the saddle of the beast they had -deserted, and made such progress in the pursuit as the -difficulties of the path permitted. - -They soon began to ascend; but as the motion had a tendency -to revive the dormant faculties of her sister, the attention -of Cora was too much divided between the tenderest -solicitude in her behalf, and in listening to the cries -which were still too audible on the plain, to note the -direction in which they journeyed. When, however, they -gained the flattened surface of the mountain-top, and -approached the eastern precipice, she recognized the spot to -which she had once before been led under the more friendly -auspices of the scout. Here Magua suffered them to -dismount; and notwithstanding their own captivity, the -curiosity which seems inseparable from horror, induced them -to gaze at the sickening sight below. - -The cruel work was still unchecked. On every side the -captured were flying before their relentless persecutors, -while the armed columns of the Christian king stood fast in -an apathy which has never been explained, and which has left -an immovable blot on the otherwise fair escutcheon of their -leader. Nor was the sword of death stayed until cupidity -got the mastery of revenge. Then, indeed, the shrieks of -the wounded, and the yells of their murderers grew less -frequent, until, finally, the cries of horror were lost to -their ear, or were drowned in the loud, long and piercing -whoops of the triumphant savages. - - - -CHAPTER 18 - -"Why, anything; An honorable murderer, if you will; For -naught I did in hate, but all in honor."--Othello - -The bloody and inhuman scene rather incidentally mentioned -than described in the preceding chapter, is conspicuous in -the pages of colonial history by the merited title of "The -Massacre of William Henry." It so far deepened the stain -which a previous and very similar event had left upon the -reputation of the French commander that it was not entirely -erased by his early and glorious death. It is now becoming -obscured by time; and thousands, who know that Montcalm died -like a hero on the plains of Abraham, have yet to learn how -much he was deficient in that moral courage without which no -man can be truly great. Pages might yet be written to prove, -from this illustrious example, the defects of human -excellence; to show how easy it is for generous sentiments, -high courtesy, and chivalrous courage to lose their -influence beneath the chilling blight of selfishness, and to -exhibit to the world a man who was great in all the minor -attributes of character, but who was found wanting when it -became necessary to prove how much principle is superior to -policy. But the task would exceed our prerogatives; and, as -history, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an -atmosphere of imaginary brightness, it is probable that -Louis de Saint Veran will be viewed by posterity only as the -gallant defender of his country, while his cruel apathy on -the shores of the Oswego and of the Horican will be -forgotten. Deeply regretting this weakness on the part of a -sister muse, we shall at once retire from her sacred -precincts, within the proper limits of our own humble -vocation. - -The third day from the capture of the fort was drawing to a -close, but the business of the narrative must still detain -the reader on the shores of the "holy lake." When last -seen, the environs of the works were filled with violence -and uproar. They were now possessed by stillness and death. -The blood-stained conquerors had departed; and their camp, -which had so lately rung with the merry rejoicings of a -victorious army, lay a silent and deserted city of huts. -The fortress was a smoldering ruin; charred rafters, -fragments of exploded artillery, and rent mason-work -covering its earthen mounds in confused disorder. - -A frightful change had also occurred in the season. The sun -had hid its warmth behind an impenetrable mass of vapor, and -hundreds of human forms, which had blackened beneath the -fierce heats of August, were stiffening in their deformity -before the blasts of a premature November. The curling and -spotless mists, which had been seen sailing above the hills -toward the north, were now returning in an interminable -dusky sheet, that was urged along by the fury of a tempest. -The crowded mirror of the Horican was gone; and, in its -place, the green and angry waters lashed the shores, as if -indignantly casting back its impurities to the polluted -strand. Still the clear fountain retained a portion of its -charmed influence, but it reflected only the somber gloom -that fell from the impending heavens. That humid and -congenial atmosphere which commonly adorned the view, -veiling its harshness, and softening its asperities, had -disappeared, the northern air poured across the waste of -water so harsh and unmingled, that nothing was left to be -conjectured by the eye, or fashioned by the fancy. - -The fiercer element had cropped the verdure of the plain, -which looked as though it were scathed by the consuming -lightning. But, here and there, a dark green tuft rose in -the midst of the desolation; the earliest fruits of a soil -that had been fattened with human blood. The whole -landscape, which, seen by a favoring light, and in a genial -temperature, had been found so lovely, appeared now like -some pictured allegory of life, in which objects were -arrayed in their harshest but truest colors, and without the -relief of any shadowing. - -The solitary and arid blades of grass arose from the passing -gusts fearfully perceptible; the bold and rocky mountains -were too distinct in their barrenness, and the eye even -sought relief, in vain, by attempting to pierce the -illimitable void of heaven, which was shut to its gaze by -the dusky sheet of ragged and driving vapor. - -The wind blew unequally; sometimes sweeping heavily along -the ground, seeming to whisper its moanings in the cold ears -of the dead, then rising in a shrill and mournful whistling, -it entered the forest with a rush that filled the air with -the leaves and branches it scattered in its path. Amid the -unnatural shower, a few hungry ravens struggled with the -gale; but no sooner was the green ocean of woods which -stretched beneath them, passed, than they gladly stopped, at -random, to their hideous banquet. - -In short, it was a scene of wildness and desolation; and it -appeared as if all who had profanely entered it had been -stricken, at a blow, by the relentless arm of death. But -the prohibition had ceased; and for the first time since the -perpetrators of those foul deeds which had assisted to -disfigure the scene were gone, living human beings had now -presumed to approach the place. - -About an hour before the setting of the sun, on the day -already mentioned, the forms of five men might have been -seen issuing from the narrow vista of trees, where the path -to the Hudson entered the forest, and advancing in the -direction of the ruined works. At first their progress was -slow and guarded, as though they entered with reluctance -amid the horrors of the post, or dreaded the renewal of its -frightful incidents. A light figure preceded the rest of -the party, with the caution and activity of a native; -ascending every hillock to reconnoiter, and indicating by -gestures, to his companions, the route he deemed it most -prudent to pursue. Nor were those in the rear wanting in -every caution and foresight known to forest warfare. One -among them, he also was an Indian, moved a little on one -flank, and watched the margin of the woods, with eyes long -accustomed to read the smallest sign of danger. The -remaining three were white, though clad in vestments -adapted, both in quality and color, to their present -hazardous pursuit--that of hanging on the skirts of a -retiring army in the wilderness. - -The effects produced by the appalling sights that constantly -arose in their path to the lake shore, were as different as -the characters of the respective individuals who composed -the party. The youth in front threw serious but furtive -glances at the mangled victims, as he stepped lightly across -the plain, afraid to exhibit his feelings, and yet too -inexperienced to quell entirely their sudden and powerful -influence. His red associate, however, was superior to such -a weakness. He passed the groups of dead with a steadiness -of purpose, and an eye so calm, that nothing but long and -inveterate practise could enable him to maintain. The -sensations produced in the minds of even the white men were -different, though uniformly sorrowful. One, whose gray -locks and furrowed lineaments, blending with a martial air -and tread, betrayed, in spite of the disguise of a -woodsman's dress, a man long experienced in scenes of war, -was not ashamed to groan aloud, whenever a spectacle of more -than usual horror came under his view. The young man at his -elbow shuddered, but seemed to suppress his feelings in -tenderness to his companion. Of them all, the straggler who -brought up the rear appeared alone to betray his real -thoughts, without fear of observation or dread of -consequences. He gazed at the most appalling sight with -eyes and muscles that knew not how to waver, but with -execrations so bitter and deep as to denote how much he -denounced the crime of his enemies. - -The reader will perceive at once, in these respective -characters, the Mohicans, and their white friend, the scout; -together with Munro and Heyward. It was, in truth, the -father in quest of his children, attended by the youth who -felt so deep a stake in their happiness, and those brave and -trusty foresters, who had already proved their skill and -fidelity through the trying scenes related. - -When Uncas, who moved in front, had reached the center of -the plain, he raised a cry that drew his companions in a -body to the spot. The young warrior had halted over a group -of females who lay in a cluster, a confused mass of dead. -Notwithstanding the revolting horror of the exhibition, -Munro and Heyward flew toward the festering heap, -endeavoring, with a love that no unseemliness could -extinguish, to discover whether any vestiges of those they -sought were to be seen among the tattered and many-colored -garments. The father and the lover found instant relief in -the search; though each was condemned again to experience -the misery of an uncertainty that was hardly less -insupportable than the most revolting truth. They were -standing, silent and thoughtful, around the melancholy pile, -when the scout approached. Eyeing the sad spectacle with an -angry countenance, the sturdy woodsman, for the first time -since his entering the plain, spoke intelligibly and aloud: - -"I have been on many a shocking field, and have followed a -trail of blood for weary miles," he said, "but never have I -found the hand of the devil so plain as it is here to be -seen! Revenge is an Indian feeling, and all who know me -know that there is no cross in my veins; but this much will -I say -- here, in the face of heaven, and with the power of -the Lord so manifest in this howling wilderness -- that -should these Frenchers ever trust themselves again within -the range of a ragged bullet, there is one rifle which shall -play its part so long as flint will fire or powder burn! I -leave the tomahawk and knife to such as have a natural gift -to use them. What say you, Chingachgook," he added, in -Delaware; "shall the Hurons boast of this to their women -when the deep snows come?" - -A gleam of resentment flashed across the dark lineaments of -the Mohican chief; he loosened his knife in his sheath; and -then turning calmly from the sight, his countenance settled -into a repose as deep as if he knew the instigation of -passion. - -"Montcalm! Montcalm!" continued the deeply resentful and -less self-restrained scout; "they say a time must come when -all the deeds done in the flesh will be seen at a single -look; and that by eyes cleared from mortal infirmities. Woe -betide the wretch who is born to behold this plain, with the -judgment hanging about his soul! Ha -- as I am a man of -white blood, yonder lies a red-skin, without the hair of his -head where nature rooted it! Look to him, Delaware; it may -be one of your missing people; and he should have burial -like a stout warrior. I see it in your eye, Sagamore; a -Huron pays for this, afore the fall winds have blown away -the scent of the blood!" - -Chingachgook approached the mutilated form, and, turning it -over, he found the distinguishing marks of one of those six -allied tribes, or nations, as they were called, who, while -they fought in the English ranks, were so deadly hostile to -his own people. Spurning the loathsome object with his -foot, he turned from it with the same indifference he would -have quitted a brute carcass. The scout comprehended the -action, and very deliberately pursued his own way, -continuing, however, his denunciations against the French -commander in the same resentful strain. - -"Nothing but vast wisdom and unlimited power should dare to -sweep off men in multitudes," he added; "for it is only the -one that can know the necessity of the judgment; and what is -there, short of the other, that can replace the creatures of -the Lord? I hold it a sin to kill the second buck afore the -first is eaten, unless a march in front, or an ambushment, -be contemplated. It is a different matter with a few -warriors in open and rugged fight, for 'tis their gift to -die with the rifle or the tomahawk in hand; according as -their natures may happen to be, white or red. Uncas, come -this way, lad, and let the ravens settle upon the Mingo. I -know, from often seeing it, that they have a craving for the -flesh of an Oneida; and it is as well to let the bird follow -the gift of its natural appetite." - -"Hugh!" exclaimed the young Mohican, rising on the -extremities of his feet, and gazing intently in his front, -frightening the ravens to some other prey by the sound and -the action. - -"What is it, boy?" whispered the scout, lowering his tall -form into a crouching attitude, like a panther about to take -his leap; "God send it be a tardy Frencher, skulking for -plunder. I do believe 'killdeer' would take an uncommon -range today!" - -Uncas, without making any reply, bounded away from the spot, -and in the next instant he was seen tearing from a bush, and -waving in triumph, a fragment of the green riding-veil of -Cora. The movement, the exhibition, and the cry which again -burst from the lips of the young Mohican, instantly drew the -whole party about him. - -"My child!" said Munro, speaking quickly and wildly; "give -me my child!" - -"Uncas will try," was the short and touching answer. - -The simple but meaning assurance was lost on the father, who -seized the piece of gauze, and crushed it in his hand, while -his eyes roamed fearfully among the bushes, as if he equally -dreaded and hoped for the secrets they might reveal. - -"Here are no dead," said Heyward; "the storm seems not to -have passed this way." - -"That's manifest; and clearer than the heavens above our -heads," returned the undisturbed scout; "but either she, or -they that have robbed her, have passed the bush; for I -remember the rag she wore to hide a face that all did love -to look upon. Uncas, you are right; the dark-hair has been -here, and she has fled like a frightened fawn, to the wood; -none who could fly would remain to be murdered. Let us -search for the marks she left; for, to Indian eyes, I -sometimes think a humming-bird leaves his trail in the air." - -The young Mohican darted away at the suggestion, and the -scout had hardly done speaking, before the former raised a -cry of success from the margin of the forest. On reaching -the spot, the anxious party perceived another portion of the -veil fluttering on the lower branch of a beech. - -"Softly, softly," said the scout, extending his long rifle -in front of the eager Heyward; "we now know our work, but -the beauty of the trail must not be deformed. A step too -soon may give us hours of trouble. We have them, though; -that much is beyond denial." - -"Bless ye, bless ye, worthy man!" exclaimed Munro; "whither -then, have they fled, and where are my babes?" - -"The path they have taken depends on many chances. If they -have gone alone, they are quite as likely to move in a -circle as straight, and they may be within a dozen miles of -us; but if the Hurons, or any of the French Indians, have -laid hands on them, 'tis probably they are now near the -borders of the Canadas. But what matters that?" continued -the deliberate scout, observing the powerful anxiety and -disappointment the listeners exhibited; "here are the -Mohicans and I on one end of the trail, and, rely on it, we -find the other, though they should be a hundred leagues -asunder! Gently, gently, Uncas, you are as impatient as a -man in the settlements; you forget that light feet leave but -faint marks!" - -"Hugh!" exclaimed Chingachgook, who had been occupied in -examining an opening that had been evidently made through -the low underbrush which skirted the forest; and who now -stood erect, as he pointed downward, in the attitude and -with the air of a man who beheld a disgusting serpent. - -"Here is the palpable impression of the footstep of a man," -cried Heyward, bending over the indicated spot; "he has trod -in the margin of this pool, and the mark cannot be mistaken. -They are captives." - -"Better so than left to starve in the wilderness," returned -the scout; "and they will leave a wider trail. I would -wager fifty beaver skins against as many flints, that the -Mohicans and I enter their wigwams within the month! Stoop -to it, Uncas, and try what you can make of the moccasin; for -moccasin it plainly is, and no shoe." - -The young Mohican bent over the track, and removing the -scattered leaves from around the place, he examined it with -much of that sort of scrutiny that a money dealer, in these -days of pecuniary doubts, would bestow on a suspected due-bill. -At length he arose from his knees, satisfied with the result -of the examination. - -"Well, boy," demanded the attentive scout; "what does it -say? Can you make anything of the tell-tale?" - -"Le Renard Subtil!" - -"Ha! that rampaging devil again! there will never be an end -of his loping till 'killdeer' has said a friendly word to -him." - -Heyward reluctantly admitted the truth of this intelligence, -and now expressed rather his hopes than his doubts by -saying: - -"One moccasin is so much like another, it is probable there -is some mistake." - -"One moccasin like another! you may as well say that one -foot is like another; though we all know that some are long, -and others short; some broad and others narrow; some with -high, and some with low insteps; some intoed, and some out. -One moccasin is no more like another than one book is like -another: though they who can read in one are seldom able to -tell the marks of the other. Which is all ordered for the -best, giving to every man his natural advantages. Let me -get down to it, Uncas; neither book nor moccasin is the -worse for having two opinions, instead of one." The scout -stooped to the task, and instantly added: - -"You are right, boy; here is the patch we saw so often in -the other chase. And the fellow will drink when he can get -an opportunity; your drinking Indian always learns to walk -with a wider toe than the natural savage, it being the gift -of a drunkard to straddle, whether of white or red skin. -'Tis just the length and breadth, too! look at it, Sagamore; -you measured the prints more than once, when we hunted the -varmints from Glenn's to the health springs." - -Chingachgook complied; and after finishing his short -examination, he arose, and with a quiet demeanor, he merely -pronounced the word: - -"Magua!" - -"Ay, 'tis a settled thing; here, then, have passed the -dark-hair and Magua." - -"And not Alice?" demanded Heyward. - -"Of her we have not yet seen the signs," returned the scout, -looking closely around at the trees, the bushes and the -ground. "What have we there? Uncas, bring hither the thing -you see dangling from yonder thorn-bush." - -When the Indian had complied, the scout received the prize, -and holding it on high, he laughed in his silent but -heartfelt manner. - -"'Tis the tooting we'pon of the singer! now we shall have a -trail a priest might travel," he said. "Uncas, look for the -marks of a shoe that is long enough to uphold six feet two -of tottering human flesh. I begin to have some hopes of the -fellow, since he has given up squalling to follow some -better trade." - -"At least he has been faithful to his trust," said Heyward. -"And Cora and Alice are not without a friend." - -"Yes," said Hawkeye, dropping his rifle, and leaning on it -with an air of visible contempt, "he will do their singing. -Can he slay a buck for their dinner; journey by the moss on -the beeches, or cut the throat of a Huron? If not, the -first catbird* he meets is the cleverer of the two. Well, -boy, any signs of such a foundation?" - -* The powers of the American mocking-bird are -generally known. But the true mocking-bird is not found so -far north as the state of New York, where it has, however, -two substitutes of inferior excellence, the catbird, so -often named by the scout, and the bird vulgarly called -ground-thresher. Either of these last two birds is superior -to the nightingale or the lark, though, in general, the -American birds are less musical than those of Europe. - -"Here is something like the footstep of one who has worn a -shoe; can it be that of our friend?" - -"Touch the leaves lightly or you'll disconsart the -formation. That! that is the print of a foot, but 'tis the -dark-hair's; and small it is, too, for one of such a noble -height and grand appearance. The singer would cover it with -his heel." - -"Where! let me look on the footsteps of my child," said -Munro, shoving the bushes aside, and bending fondly over the -nearly obliterated impression. Though the tread which had -left the mark had been light and rapid, it was still plainly -visible. The aged soldier examined it with eyes that grew -dim as he gazed; nor did he rise from this stooping posture -until Heyward saw that he had watered the trace of his -daughter's passage with a scalding tear. Willing to divert -a distress which threatened each moment to break through the -restraint of appearances, by giving the veteran something to -do, the young man said to the scout: - -"As we now possess these infallible signs, let us commence -our march. A moment, at such a time, will appear an age to -the captives." - -"It is not the swiftest leaping deer that gives the longest -chase," returned Hawkeye, without moving his eyes from the -different marks that had come under his view; "we know that -the rampaging Huron has passed, and the dark-hair, and the -singer, but where is she of the yellow locks and blue eyes? -Though little, and far from being as bold as her sister, she -is fair to the view, and pleasant in discourse. Has she no -friend, that none care for her?" - -"God forbid she should ever want hundreds! Are we not now -in her pursuit? For one, I will never cease the search till -she be found." - -"In that case we may have to journey by different paths; for -here she has not passed, light and little as her footsteps -would be." - -Heyward drew back, all his ardor to proceed seeming to -vanish on the instant. Without attending to this sudden -change in the other's humor, the scout after musing a moment -continued: - -"There is no woman in this wilderness could leave such a -print as that, but the dark-hair or her sister. We know -that the first has been here, but where are the signs of the -other? Let us push deeper on the trail, and if nothing -offers, we must go back to the plain and strike another -scent. Move on, Uncas, and keep your eyes on the dried -leaves. I will watch the bushes, while your father shall -run with a low nose to the ground. Move on, friends; the -sun is getting behind the hills." - -"Is there nothing that I can do?" demanded the anxious -Heyward. - -"You?" repeated the scout, who, with his red friends, was -already advancing in the order he had prescribed; "yes, you -can keep in our rear and be careful not to cross the trail." - -Before they had proceeded many rods, the Indians stopped, -and appeared to gaze at some signs on the earth with more -than their usual keenness. Both father and son spoke quick -and loud, now looking at the object of their mutual -admiration, and now regarding each other with the most -unequivocal pleasure. - -"They have found the little foot!" exclaimed the scout, -moving forward, without attending further to his own portion -of the duty. "What have we here? An ambushment has been -planted in the spot! No, by the truest rifle on the -frontiers, here have been them one-sided horses again! Now -the whole secret is out, and all is plain as the north star -at midnight. Yes, here they have mounted. There the beasts -have been bound to a sapling, in waiting; and yonder runs -the broad path away to the north, in full sweep for the -Canadas." - -"But still there are no signs of Alice, of the younger Miss -Munro," said Duncan. - -"Unless the shining bauble Uncas has just lifted from the -ground should prove one. Pass it this way, lad, that we may -look at it." - -Heyward instantly knew it for a trinket that Alice was fond -of wearing, and which he recollected, with the tenacious -memory of a lover, to have seen, on the fatal morning of the -massacre, dangling from the fair neck of his mistress. He -seized the highly prized jewel; and as he proclaimed the -fact, it vanished from the eyes of the wondering scout, who -in vain looked for it on the ground, long after it was -warmly pressed against the beating heart of Duncan. - -"Pshaw!" said the disappointed Hawkeye, ceasing to rake the -leaves with the breech of his rifle; "'tis a certain sign of -age, when the sight begins to weaken. Such a glittering -gewgaw, and not to be seen! Well, well, I can squint along -a clouded barrel yet, and that is enough to settle all -disputes between me and the Mingoes. I should like to find -the thing, too, if it were only to carry it to the right -owner, and that would be bringing the two ends of what I -call a long trail together, for by this time the broad St. -Lawrence, or perhaps, the Great Lakes themselves, are -between us." - -"So much the more reason why we should not delay our march," -returned Heyward; "let us proceed." - -"Young blood and hot blood, they say, are much the same -thing. We are not about to start on a squirrel hunt, or to -drive a deer into the Horican, but to outlie for days and -nights, and to stretch across a wilderness where the feet of -men seldom go, and where no bookish knowledge would carry -you through harmless. An Indian never starts on such an -expedition without smoking over his council-fire; and, -though a man of white blood, I honor their customs in this -particular, seeing that they are deliberate and wise. We -will, therefore, go back, and light our fire to-night in the -ruins of the old fort, and in the morning we shall be fresh, -and ready to undertake our work like men, and not like -babbling women or eager boys." - -Heyward saw, by the manner of the scout, that altercation -would be useless. Munro had again sunk into that sort of -apathy which had beset him since his late overwhelming -misfortunes, and from which he was apparently to be roused -only by some new and powerful excitement. Making a merit of -necessity, the young man took the veteran by the arm, and -followed in the footsteps of the Indians and the scout, who -had already begun to retrace the path which conducted them -to the plain. - - - -CHAPTER 19 - -"Salar.--Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not -take his flesh; what's that good for? Shy.--To bait fish -withal; if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my -revenge."--Merchant of Venice - -The shades of evening had come to increase the dreariness of -the place, when the party entered the ruins of William -Henry. The scout and his companions immediately made their -preparations to pass the night there; but with an -earnestness and sobriety of demeanor that betrayed how much -the unusual horrors they had just witnessed worked on even -their practised feelings. A few fragments of rafters were -reared against a blackened wall; and when Uncas had covered -them slightly with brush, the temporary accommodations were -deemed sufficient. The young Indian pointed toward his -rude hut when his labor was ended; and Heyward, who -understood the meaning of the silent gestures, gently urged -Munro to enter. Leaving the bereaved old man alone with his -sorrows, Duncan immediately returned into the open air, too -much excited himself to seek the repose he had recommended -to his veteran friend. - -While Hawkeye and the Indians lighted their fire and took -their evening's repast, a frugal meal of dried bear's meat, -the young man paid a visit to that curtain of the -dilapidated fort which looked out on the sheet of the -Horican. The wind had fallen, and the waves were already -rolling on the sandy beach beneath him, in a more regular -and tempered succession. The clouds, as if tired of their -furious chase, were breaking asunder; the heavier volumes, -gathering in black masses about the horizon, while the -lighter scud still hurried above the water, or eddied among -the tops of the mountains, like broken flights of birds, -hovering around their roosts. Here and there, a red and -fiery star struggled through the drifting vapor, furnishing -a lurid gleam of brightness to the dull aspect of the -heavens. Within the bosom of the encircling hills, an -impenetrable darkness had already settled; and the plain lay -like a vast and deserted charnel-house, without omen or -whisper to disturb the slumbers of its numerous and hapless -tenants. - -Of this scene, so chillingly in accordance with the past, -Duncan stood for many minutes a rapt observer. His eyes -wandered from the bosom of the mound, where the foresters -were seated around their glimmering fire, to the fainter -light which still lingered in the skies, and then rested -long and anxiously on the embodied gloom, which lay like a -dreary void on that side of him where the dead reposed. He -soon fancied that inexplicable sounds arose from the place, -though so indistinct and stolen, as to render not only their -nature but even their existence uncertain. Ashamed of his -apprehensions, the young man turned toward the water, and -strove to divert his attention to the mimic stars that dimly -glimmered on its moving surface. Still, his too-conscious -ears performed their ungrateful duty, as if to warn him of -some lurking danger. At length, a swift trampling seemed, -quite audibly, to rush athwart the darkness. Unable any -longer to quiet his uneasiness, Duncan spoke in a low voice -to the scout, requesting him to ascend the mound to the -place where he stood. Hawkeye threw his rifle across an arm -and complied, but with an air so unmoved and calm, as to -prove how much he counted on the security of their position. - -"Listen!" said Duncan, when the other placed himself -deliberately at his elbow; "there are suppressed noises on -the plain which may show Montcalm has not yet entirely -deserted his conquest." - -"Then ears are better than eyes," said the undisturbed -scout, who, having just deposited a portion of a bear -between his grinders, spoke thick and slow, like one whose -mouth was doubly occupied. "I myself saw him caged in Ty, -with all his host; for your Frenchers, when they have done a -clever thing, like to get back, and have a dance, or a -merry-making, with the women over their success." - -"I know not. An Indian seldom sleeps in war, and plunder -may keep a Huron here after his tribe has departed. It -would be well to extinguish the fire, and have a watch -- -listen! you hear the noise I mean!" - -"An Indian more rarely lurks about the graves. Though ready -to slay, and not over regardful of the means, he is commonly -content with the scalp, unless when blood is hot, and temper -up; but after spirit is once fairly gone, he forgets his -enmity, and is willing to let the dead find their natural -rest. Speaking of spirits, major, are you of opinion that -the heaven of a red-skin and of us whites will be of one and -the same?" - -"No doubt -- no doubt. I thought I heard it again! or was -it the rustling of the leaves in the top of the beech?" - -"For my own part," continued Hawkeye, turning his face for a -moment in the direction indicated by Heyward, but with a -vacant and careless manner, "I believe that paradise is -ordained for happiness; and that men will be indulged in it -according to their dispositions and gifts. I, therefore, -judge that a red-skin is not far from the truth when he -believes he is to find them glorious hunting grounds of -which his traditions tell; nor, for that matter, do I think -it would be any disparagement to a man without a cross to -pass his time --" - -"You hear it again?" interrupted Duncan. - -"Ay, ay; when food is scarce, and when food is plenty, a -wolf grows bold," said the unmoved scout. "There would be -picking, too, among the skins of the devils, if there was -light and time for the sport. But, concerning the life that -is to come, major; I have heard preachers say, in the -settlements, that heaven was a place of rest. Now, men's -minds differ as to their ideas of enjoyment. For myself, -and I say it with reverence to the ordering of Providence, -it would be no great indulgence to be kept shut up in those -mansions of which they preach, having a natural longing for -motion and the chase." - -Duncan, who was now made to understand the nature of the -noise he had heard, answered, with more attention to the -subject which the humor of the scout had chosen for -discussion, by saying: - -"It is difficult to account for the feelings that may attend -the last great change." - -"It would be a change, indeed, for a man who has passed his -days in the open air," returned the single-minded scout; -"and who has so often broken his fast on the head waters of -the Hudson, to sleep within sound of the roaring Mohawk. -But it is a comfort to know we serve a merciful Master, -though we do it each after his fashion, and with great -tracts of wilderness atween us -- what goes there?" - -"Is it not the rushing of the wolves you have mentioned?" - -Hawkeye slowly shook his head, and beckoned for Duncan to -follow him to a spot to which the glare from the fire did -not extend. When he had taken this precaution, the scout -placed himself in an attitude of intense attention and -listened long and keenly for a repetition of the low sound -that had so unexpectedly startled him. His vigilance, -however, seemed exercised in vain; for after a fruitless -pause, he whispered to Duncan: - -"We must give a call to Uncas. The boy has Indian senses, -and he may hear what is hid from us; for, being a white-skin, -I will not deny my nature." - -The young Mohican, who was conversing in a low voice with -his father, started as he heard the moaning of an owl, and, -springing on his feet, he looked toward the black mounds, as -if seeking the place whence the sounds proceeded. The scout -repeated the call, and in a few moments, Duncan saw the -figure of Uncas stealing cautiously along the rampart, to -the spot where they stood. - -Hawkeye explained his wishes in a very few words, which were -spoken in the Delaware tongue. So soon as Uncas was in -possession of the reason why he was summoned, he threw -himself flat on the turf; where, to the eyes of Duncan, he -appeared to lie quiet and motionless. Surprised at the -immovable attitude of the young warrior, and curious to -observe the manner in which he employed his faculties to -obtain the desired information, Heyward advanced a few -steps, and bent over the dark object on which he had kept -his eye riveted. Then it was he discovered that the form of -Uncas vanished, and that he beheld only the dark outline of -an inequality in the embankment. - -"What has become of the Mohican?" he demanded of the scout, -stepping back in amazement; "it was here that I saw him -fall, and could have sworn that here he yet remained." - -"Hist! speak lower; for we know not what ears are open, and -the Mingoes are a quick-witted breed. As for Uncas, he is -out on the plain, and the Maquas, if any such are about us, -will find their equal." - -"You think that Montcalm has not called off all his Indians? -Let us give the alarm to our companions, that we may stand -to our arms. Here are five of us, who are not unused to -meet an enemy." - -"Not a word to either, as you value your life. Look at the -Sagamore, how like a grand Indian chief he sits by the fire. -If there are any skulkers out in the darkness, they will -never discover, by his countenance, that we suspect danger -at hand." - -"But they may discover him, and it will prove his death. -His person can be too plainly seen by the light of that -fire, and he will become the first and most certain victim." - -"It is undeniable that now you speak the truth," returned -the scout, betraying more anxiety than was usual; "yet what -can be done? A single suspicious look might bring on an -attack before we are ready to receive it. He knows, by the -call I gave to Uncas, that we have struck a scent; I will -tell him that we are on the trail of the Mingoes; his Indian -nature will teach him how to act." - -The scout applied his fingers to his mouth, and raised a low -hissing sound, that caused Duncan at first to start aside, -believing that he heard a serpent. The head of Chingachgook -was resting on a hand, as he sat musing by himself but the -moment he had heard the warning of the animal whose name he -bore, he arose to an upright position, and his dark eyes -glanced swiftly and keenly on every side of him. With his -sudden and, perhaps, involuntary movement, every appearance -of surprise or alarm ended. His rifle lay untouched, and -apparently unnoticed, within reach of his hand. The -tomahawk that he had loosened in his belt for the sake of -ease, was even suffered to fall from its usual situation to -the ground, and his form seemed to sink, like that of a man -whose nerves and sinews were suffered to relax for the -purpose of rest. Cunningly resuming his former position, -though with a change of hands, as if the movement had been -made merely to relieve the limb, the native awaited the -result with a calmness and fortitude that none but an Indian -warrior would have known how to exercise. - -But Heyward saw that while to a less instructed eye the -Mohican chief appeared to slumber, his nostrils were -expanded, his head was turned a little to one side, as if to -assist the organs of hearing, and that his quick and rapid -glances ran incessantly over every object within the power -of his vision. - -"See the noble fellow!" whispered Hawkeye, pressing the arm -of Heyward; "he knows that a look or a motion might -disconsart our schemes, and put us at the mercy of them imps --" - -He was interrupted by the flash and report of a rifle. The -air was filled with sparks of fire, around that spot where -the eyes of Heyward were still fastened, with admiration and -wonder. A second look told him that Chingachgook had -disappeared in the confusion. In the meantime, the scout -had thrown forward his rifle, like one prepared for service, -and awaited impatiently the moment when an enemy might rise -to view. But with the solitary and fruitless attempt made -on the life of Chingachgook, the attack appeared to have -terminated. Once or twice the listeners thought they could -distinguish the distant rustling of bushes, as bodies of -some unknown description rushed through them; nor was it -long before Hawkeye pointed out the "scampering of the -wolves," as they fled precipitately before the passage of -some intruder on their proper domains. After an impatient -and breathless pause, a plunge was heard in the water, and -it was immediately followed by the report of another rifle. - -"There goes Uncas!" said the scout; "the boy bears a smart -piece! I know its crack, as well as a father knows the -language of his child, for I carried the gun myself until a -better offered." - -"What can this mean?" demanded Duncan, "we are watched, and, -as it would seem, marked for destruction." - -"Yonder scattered brand can witness that no good was -intended, and this Indian will testify that no harm has been -done," returned the scout, dropping his rifle across his arm -again, and following Chingachgook, who just then reappeared -within the circle of light, into the bosom of the work. -"How is it, Sagamore? Are the Mingoes upon us in earnest, -or is it only one of those reptiles who hang upon the skirts -of a war-party, to scalp the dead, go in, and make their -boast among the squaws of the valiant deeds done on the pale -faces?" - -Chingachgook very quietly resumed his seat; nor did he make -any reply, until after he had examined the firebrand which -had been struck by the bullet that had nearly proved fatal -to himself. After which he was content to reply, holding a -single finger up to view, with the English monosyllable: - -"One." - -"I thought as much," returned Hawkeye, seating himself; "and -as he had got the cover of the lake afore Uncas pulled upon -him, it is more than probable the knave will sing his lies -about some great ambushment, in which he was outlying on the -trail of two Mohicans and a white hunter -- for the officers -can be considered as little better than idlers in such a -scrimmage. Well, let him -- let him. There are always some -honest men in every nation, though heaven knows, too, that -they are scarce among the Maquas, to look down an upstart -when he brags ag'in the face of reason. The varlet sent his -lead within whistle of your ears, Sagamore." - -Chingachgook turned a calm and incurious eye toward the -place where the ball had struck, and then resumed his former -attitude, with a composure that could not be disturbed by so -trifling an incident. Just then Uncas glided into the -circle, and seated himself at the fire, with the same -appearance of indifference as was maintained by his father. - -Of these several moments Heyward was a deeply interested and -wondering observer. It appeared to him as though the -foresters had some secret means of intelligence, which had -escaped the vigilance of his own faculties. In place of -that eager and garrulous narration with which a white youth -would have endeavored to communicate, and perhaps -exaggerate, that which had passed out in the darkness of the -plain, the young warrior was seemingly content to let his -deeds speak for themselves. It was, in fact, neither the -moment nor the occasion for an Indian to boast of his -exploits; and it is probably that, had Heyward neglected to -inquire, not another syllable would, just then, have been -uttered on the subject. - -"What has become of our enemy, Uncas?" demanded Duncan; "we -heard your rifle, and hoped you had not fired in vain." - -The young chief removed a fold of his hunting skirt, and -quietly exposed the fatal tuft of hair, which he bore as the -symbol of victory. Chingachgook laid his hand on the scalp, -and considered it for a moment with deep attention. Then -dropping it, with disgust depicted in his strong features, -he ejaculated: - -"Oneida!" - -"Oneida!" repeated the scout, who was fast losing his -interest in the scene, in an apathy nearly assimilated to -that of his red associates, but who now advanced in uncommon -earnestness to regard the bloody badge. "By the Lord, if -the Oneidas are outlying upon the trail, we shall by flanked -by devils on every side of us! Now, to white eyes there is -no difference between this bit of skin and that of any other -Indian, and yet the Sagamore declares it came from the poll -of a Mingo; nay, he even names the tribe of the poor devil, -with as much ease as if the scalp was the leaf of a book, -and each hair a letter. What right have Christian whites to -boast of their learning, when a savage can read a language -that would prove too much for the wisest of them all! What -say you, lad, of what people was the knave?" - -Uncas raised his eyes to the face of the scout, and -answered, in his soft voice: - -"Oneida." - -"Oneida, again! when one Indian makes a declaration it is -commonly true; but when he is supported by his people, set -it down as gospel!" - -"The poor fellow has mistaken us for French," said Heyward; -"or he would not have attempted the life of a friend." - -"He mistake a Mohican in his paint for a Huron! You would -be as likely to mistake the white-coated grenadiers of -Montcalm for the scarlet jackets of the Royal Americans," -returned the scout. "No, no, the sarpent knew his errand; -nor was there any great mistake in the matter, for there is -but little love atween a Delaware and a Mingo, let their -tribes go out to fight for whom they may, in a white -quarrel. For that matter, though the Oneidas do serve his -sacred majesty, who is my sovereign lord and master, I -should not have deliberated long about letting off -'killdeer' at the imp myself, had luck thrown him in my -way." - -"That would have been an abuse of our treaties, and unworthy -of your character." - -"When a man consort much with a people," continued Hawkeye, -"if they were honest and he no knave, love will grow up -atwixt them. It is true that white cunning has managed to -throw the tribes into great confusion, as respects friends -and enemies; so that the Hurons and the Oneidas, who speak -the same tongue, or what may be called the same, take each -other's scalps, and the Delawares are divided among -themselves; a few hanging about their great council-fire on -their own river, and fighting on the same side with the -Mingoes while the greater part are in the Canadas, out of -natural enmity to the Maquas -- thus throwing everything -into disorder, and destroying all the harmony of warfare. -Yet a red natur' is not likely to alter with every shift of -policy; so that the love atwixt a Mohican and a Mingo is -much like the regard between a white man and a sarpent." - -"I regret to hear it; for I had believed those natives who -dwelt within our boundaries had found us too just and -liberal, not to identify themselves fully with our -quarrels." - -"Why, I believe it is natur' to give a preference to one's -own quarrels before those of strangers. Now, for myself, I -do love justice; and, therefore, I will not say I hate a -Mingo, for that may be unsuitable to my color and my -religion, though I will just repeat, it may have been owing -to the night that 'killdeer' had no hand in the death of -this skulking Oneida." - -Then, as if satisfied with the force of his own reasons, -whatever might be their effect on the opinions of the other -disputant, the honest but implacable woodsman turned from -the fire, content to let the controversy slumber. Heyward -withdrew to the rampart, too uneasy and too little -accustomed to the warfare of the woods to remain at ease -under the possibility of such insidious attacks. Not so, -however, with the scout and the Mohicans. Those acute and -long-practised senses, whose powers so often exceed the -limits of all ordinary credulity, after having detected the -danger, had enabled them to ascertain its magnitude and -duration. Not one of the three appeared in the least to -doubt their perfect security, as was indicated by the -preparations that were soon made to sit in council over -their future proceedings. - -The confusion of nations, and even of tribes, to which -Hawkeye alluded, existed at that period in the fullest -force. The great tie of language, and, of course, of a -common origin, was severed in many places; and it was one of -its consequences, that the Delaware and the Mingo (as the -people of the Six Nations were called) were found fighting -in the same ranks, while the latter sought the scalp of the -Huron, though believed to be the root of his own stock. The -Delawares were even divided among themselves. Though love -for the soil which had belonged to his ancestors kept the -Sagamore of the Mohicans with a small band of followers who -were serving at Edward, under the banners of the English -king, by far the largest portion of his nation were known to -be in the field as allies of Montcalm. The reader probably -knows, if enough has not already been gleaned form this -narrative, that the Delaware, or Lenape, claimed to be the -progenitors of that numerous people, who once were masters -of most of the eastern and northern states of America, of -whom the community of the Mohicans was an ancient and highly -honored member. - -It was, of course, with a perfect understanding of the -minute and intricate interests which had armed friend -against friend, and brought natural enemies to combat by -each other's side, that the scout and his companions now -disposed themselves to deliberate on the measures that were -to govern their future movements, amid so many jarring and -savage races of men. Duncan knew enough of Indian customs -to understand the reason that the fire was replenished, and -why the warriors, not excepting Hawkeye, took their seats -within the curl of its smoke with so much gravity and -decorum. Placing himself at an angle of the works, where he -might be a spectator of the scene without, he awaited the -result with as much patience as he could summon. - -After a short and impressive pause, Chingachgook lighted a -pipe whose bowl was curiously carved in one of the soft -stones of the country, and whose stem was a tube of wood, -and commenced smoking. When he had inhaled enough of the -fragrance of the soothing weed, he passed the instrument -into the hands of the scout. In this manner the pipe had -made its rounds three several times, amid the most profound -silence, before either of the party opened his lips. Then -the Sagamore, as the oldest and highest in rank, in a few -calm and dignified words, proposed the subject for -deliberation. He was answered by the scout; and -Chingachgook rejoined, when the other objected to his -opinions. But the youthful Uncas continued a silent and -respectful listener, until Hawkeye, in complaisance, -demanded his opinion. Heyward gathered from the manners of -the different speakers, that the father and son espoused one -side of a disputed question, while the white man maintained -the other. The contest gradually grew warmer, until it was -quite evident the feelings of the speakers began to be -somewhat enlisted in the debate. - -Notwithstanding the increasing warmth of the amicable -contest, the most decorous Christian assembly, not even -excepting those in which its reverend ministers are -collected, might have learned a wholesome lesson of -moderation from the forbearance and courtesy of the -disputants. The words of Uncas were received with the same -deep attention as those which fell from the maturer wisdom -of his father; and so far from manifesting any impatience, -neither spoke in reply, until a few moments of silent -meditation were, seemingly, bestowed in deliberating on what -had already been said. - -The language of the Mohicans was accompanied by gestures so -direct and natural that Heyward had but little difficulty in -following the thread of their argument. On the other hand, -the scout was obscure; because from the lingering pride of -color, he rather affected the cold and artificial manner -which characterizes all classes of Anglo-Americans when -unexcited. By the frequency with which the Indians -described the marks of a forest trial, it was evident they -urged a pursuit by land, while the repeated sweep of -Hawkeye's arm toward the Horican denoted that he was for a -passage across its waters. - -The latter was to every appearance fast losing ground, and -the point was about to be decided against him, when he arose -to his feet, and shaking off his apathy, he suddenly assumed -the manner of an Indian, and adopted all the arts of native -eloquence. Elevating an arm, he pointed out the track of -the sun, repeating the gesture for every day that was -necessary to accomplish their objects. Then he delineated a -long and painful path, amid rocks and water-courses. The -age and weakness of the slumbering and unconscious Munro -were indicated by signs too palpable to be mistaken. Duncan -perceived that even his own powers were spoken lightly of, -as the scout extended his palm, and mentioned him by the -appellation of the "Open Hand" -- a name his liberality had -purchased of all the friendly tribes. Then came a -representation of the light and graceful movements of a -canoe, set in forcible contrast to the tottering steps of -one enfeebled and tired. He concluded by pointing to the -scalp of the Oneida, and apparently urging the necessity of -their departing speedily, and in a manner that should leave -no trail. - -The Mohicans listened gravely, and with countenances that -reflected the sentiments of the speaker. Conviction -gradually wrought its influence, and toward the close of -Hawkeye's speech, his sentences were accompanied by the -customary exclamation of commendation. In short, Uncas and -his father became converts to his way of thinking, -abandoning their own previously expressed opinions with a -liberality and candor that, had they been the -representatives of some great and civilized people, would -have infallibly worked their political ruin, by destroying -forever their reputation for consistency. - -The instant the matter in discussion was decided, the -debate, and everything connected with it, except the result -appeared to be forgotten. Hawkeye, without looking round to -read his triumph in applauding eyes, very composedly -stretched his tall frame before the dying embers, and closed -his own organs in sleep. - -Left now in a measure to themselves, the Mohicans, whose -time had been so much devoted to the interests of others, -seized the moment to devote some attention to themselves. -Casting off at once the grave and austere demeanor of an -Indian chief, Chingachgook commenced speaking to his son in -the soft and playful tones of affection. Uncas gladly met -the familiar air of his father; and before the hard -breathing of the scout announced that he slept, a complete -change was effected in the manner of his two associates. - -It is impossible to describe the music of their language, -while thus engaged in laughter and endearments, in such a -way as to render it intelligible to those whose ears have -never listened to its melody. The compass of their voices, -particularly that of the youth, was wonderful--extending -from the deepest bass to tones that were even feminine in -softness. The eyes of the father followed the plastic and -ingenious movements of the son with open delight, and he -never failed to smile in reply to the other's contagious but -low laughter. While under the influence of these gentle and -natural feelings, no trace of ferocity was to be seen in the -softened features of the Sagamore. His figured panoply of -death looked more like a disguise assumed in mockery than a -fierce annunciation of a desire to carry destruction in his -footsteps. - -After an hour had passed in the indulgence of their better -feelings, Chingachgook abruptly announced his desire to -sleep, by wrapping his head in his blanket and stretching -his form on the naked earth. The merriment of Uncas -instantly ceased; and carefully raking the coals in such a -manner that they should impart their warmth to his father's -feet, the youth sought his own pillow among the ruins of the -place. - -Imbibing renewed confidence from the security of these -experienced foresters, Heyward soon imitated their example; -and long before the night had turned, they who lay in the -bosom of the ruined work, seemed to slumber as heavily as -the unconscious multitude whose bones were already beginning -to bleach on the surrounding plain. - - - -CHAPTER 20 - -"Land of Albania! let me bend mine eyes On thee; thou rugged -nurse of savage men!"--Childe Harold - -The heavens were still studded with stars, when Hawkeye came -to arouse the sleepers. Casting aside their cloaks Munro -and Heyward were on their feet while the woodsman was still -making his low calls, at the entrance of the rude shelter -where they had passed the night. When they issued from -beneath its concealment, they found the scout awaiting their -appearance nigh by, and the only salutation between them was -the significant gesture for silence, made by their sagacious -leader. - -"Think over your prayers," he whispered, as they approached -him; "for He to whom you make them, knows all tongues; that -of the heart, as well as those of the mouth. But speak not -a syllable; it is rare for a white voice to pitch itself -properly in the woods, as we have seen by the example of -that miserable devil, the singer. Come," he continued, -turning toward a curtain of the works; "let us get into the -ditch on this side, and be regardful to step on the stones -and fragments of wood as you go." - -His companions complied, though to two of them the reasons -of this extraordinary precaution were yet a mystery. When -they were in the low cavity that surrounded the earthen fort -on three sides, they found that passage nearly choked by the -ruins. With care and patience, however, they succeeded in -clambering after the scout, until they reached the sandy -shore of the Horican. - -"That's a trail that nothing but a nose can follow," said -the satisfied scout, looking back along their difficult way; -"grass is a treacherous carpet for a flying party to tread -on, but wood and stone take no print from a moccasin. Had -you worn your armed boots, there might, indeed, have been -something to fear; but with the deer-skin suitably prepared, -a man may trust himself, generally, on rocks with safety. -Shove in the canoe nigher to the land, Uncas; this sand will -take a stamp as easily as the butter of the Jarmans on the -Mohawk. Softly, lad, softly; it must not touch the beach, -or the knaves will know by what road we have left the -place." - -The young man observed the precaution; and the scout, laying -a board from the ruins to the canoe, made a sign for the two -officers to enter. When this was done, everything was -studiously restored to its former disorder; and then Hawkeye -succeeded in reaching his little birchen vessel, without -leaving behind him any of those marks which he appeared so -much to dread. Heyward was silent until the Indians had -cautiously paddled the canoe some distance from the fort, -and within the broad and dark shadows that fell from the -eastern mountain on the glassy surface of the lake; then he -demanded: - -"What need have we for this stolen and hurried departure?" - -"If the blood of an Oneida could stain such a sheet of pure -water as this we float on," returned the scout, "your two -eyes would answer your own question. Have you forgotten the -skulking reptile Uncas slew?" - -"By no means. But he was said to be alone, and dead men -give no cause for fear." - -"Ay, he was alone in his deviltry! but an Indian whose tribe -counts so many warriors, need seldom fear his blood will run -without the death shriek coming speedily from some of his -enemies." - -"But our presence -- the authority of Colonel Munro -- would -prove sufficient protection against the anger of our allies, -especially in a case where the wretch so well merited his -fate. I trust in Heaven you have not deviated a single foot -from the direct line of our course with so slight a reason!" - -"Do you think the bullet of that varlet's rifle would have -turned aside, though his sacred majesty the king had stood -in its path?" returned the stubborn scout. "Why did not the -grand Frencher, he who is captain-general of the Canadas, -bury the tomahawks of the Hurons, if a word from a white can -work so strongly on the natur' of an Indian?" - -The reply of Heyward was interrupted by a groan from Munro; -but after he had paused a moment, in deference to the sorrow -of his aged friend he resumed the subject. - -"The marquis of Montcalm can only settle that error with his -God," said the young man solemnly. - -"Ay, ay, now there is reason in your words, for they are -bottomed on religion and honesty. There is a vast -difference between throwing a regiment of white coats atwixt -the tribes and the prisoners, and coaxing an angry savage to -forget he carries a knife and rifle, with words that must -begin with calling him your son. No, no," continued the -scout, looking back at the dim shore of William Henry, which -was now fast receding, and laughing in his own silent but -heartfelt manner; "I have put a trail of water atween us; -and unless the imps can make friends with the fishes, and -hear who has paddled across their basin this fine morning, -we shall throw the length of the Horican behind us before -they have made up their minds which path to take." - -"With foes in front, and foes in our rear, our journey is -like to be one of danger." - -"Danger!" repeated Hawkeye, calmly; "no, not absolutely of -danger; for, with vigilant ears and quick eyes, we can -manage to keep a few hours ahead of the knaves; or, if we -must try the rifle, there are three of us who understand its -gifts as well as any you can name on the borders. No, not -of danger; but that we shall have what you may call a brisk -push of it, is probable; and it may happen, a brush, a -scrimmage, or some such divarsion, but always where covers -are good, and ammunition abundant." - -It is possible that Heyward's estimate of danger differed in -some degree from that of the scout, for, instead of -replying, he now sat in silence, while the canoe glided over -several miles of water. Just as the day dawned, they -entered the narrows of the lake*, and stole swiftly and -cautiously among their numberless little islands. It was by -this road that Montcalm had retired with his army, and the -adventurers knew not but he had left some of his Indians in -ambush, to protect the rear of his forces, and collect the -stragglers. They, therefore, approached the passage with -the customary silence of their guarded habits. - -* The beauties of Lake George are well known to every -American tourist. In the height of the mountains which -surround it, and in artificial accessories, it is inferior -to the finest of the Swiss and Italian lakes, while in -outline and purity of water it is fully their equal; and in -the number and disposition of its isles and islets much -superior to them all together. There are said to be some -hundreds of islands in a sheet of water less than thirty -miles long. The narrows, which connect what may be called, -in truth, two lakes, are crowded with islands to such a -degree as to leave passages between them frequently of only -a few feet in width. The lake itself varies in breadth from -one to three miles. - -Chingachgook laid aside his paddle; while Uncas and the -scout urged the light vessel through crooked and intricate -channels, where every foot that they advanced exposed them -to the danger of some sudden rising on their progress. The -eyes of the Sagamore moved warily from islet to islet, and -copse to copse, as the canoe proceeded; and, when a clearer -sheet of water permitted, his keen vision was bent along the -bald rocks and impending forests that frowned upon the -narrow strait. - -Heyward, who was a doubly interested spectator, as well from -the beauties of the place as from the apprehension natural -to his situation, was just believing that he had permitted -the latter to be excited without sufficient reason, when the -paddle ceased moving, in obedience to a signal from -Chingachgook. - -"Hugh!" exclaimed Uncas, nearly at the moment that the light -tap his father had made on the side of the canoe notified -them of the vicinity of danger. - -"What now?" asked the scout; "the lake is as smooth as if -the winds had never blown, and I can see along its sheet for -miles; there is not so much as the black head of a loon -dotting the water." - -The Indian gravely raised his paddle, and pointed in the -direction in which his own steady look was riveted. -Duncan's eyes followed the motion. A few rods in their -front lay another of the wooded islets, but it appeared as -calm and peaceful as if its solitude had never been -disturbed by the foot of man. - -"I see nothing," he said, "but land and water; and a lovely -scene it is." - -"Hist!" interrupted the scout. "Ay, Sagamore, there is -always a reason for what you do. 'Tis but a shade, and yet -it is not natural. You see the mist, major, that is rising -above the island; you can't call it a fog, for it is more -like a streak of thin cloud --" - -"It is vapor from the water." - -"That a child could tell. But what is the edging of blacker -smoke that hangs along its lower side, and which you may -trace down into the thicket of hazel? 'Tis from a fire; but -one that, in my judgment, has been suffered to burn low." - -"Let us, then, push for the place, and relieve our doubts," -said the impatient Duncan; "the party must be small that can -lie on such a bit of land." - -"If you judge of Indian cunning by the rules you find in -books, or by white sagacity, they will lead you astray, if -not to your death," returned Hawkeye, examining the signs of -the place with that acuteness which distinguished him. "If -I may be permitted to speak in this matter, it will be to -say, that we have but two things to choose between: the one -is, to return, and give up all thoughts of following the -Hurons --" - -"Never!" exclaimed Heyward, in a voice far too loud for -their circumstances. - -"Well, well," continued Hawkeye, making a hasty sign to -repress his impatience; "I am much of your mind myself; -though I thought it becoming my experience to tell the -whole. We must, then, make a push, and if the Indians or -Frenchers are in the narrows, run the gauntlet through these -toppling mountains. Is there reason in my words, Sagamore?" - -The Indian made no other answer than by dropping his paddle -into the water, and urging forward the canoe. As he held -the office of directing its course, his resolution was -sufficiently indicated by the movement. The whole party now -plied their paddles vigorously, and in a very few moments -they had reached a point whence they might command an entire -view of the northern shore of the island, the side that had -hitherto been concealed. - -"There they are, by all the truth of signs," whispered the -scout, "two canoes and a smoke. The knaves haven't yet got -their eyes out of the mist, or we should hear the accursed -whoop. Together, friends! we are leaving them, and are -already nearly out of whistle of a bullet." - -The well-known crack of a rifle, whose ball came skipping -along the placid surface of the strait, and a shrill yell -from the island, interrupted his speech, and announced that -their passage was discovered. In another instant several -savages were seen rushing into canoes, which were soon -dancing over the water in pursuit. These fearful precursors -of a coming struggle produced no change in the countenances -and movements of his three guides, so far as Duncan could -discover, except that the strokes of their paddles were -longer and more in unison, and caused the little bark to -spring forward like a creature possessing life and volition. - -"Hold them there, Sagamore," said Hawkeye, looking coolly -backward over this left shoulder, while he still plied his -paddle; "keep them just there. Them Hurons have never a -piece in their nation that will execute at this distance; -but 'killdeer' has a barrel on which a man may calculate." - -The scout having ascertained that the Mohicans were -sufficient of themselves to maintain the requisite distance, -deliberately laid aside his paddle, and raised the fatal -rifle. Three several times he brought the piece to his -shoulder, and when his companions were expecting its report, -he as often lowered it to request the Indians would permit -their enemies to approach a little nigher. At length his -accurate and fastidious eye seemed satisfied, and, throwing -out his left arm on the barrel, he was slowly elevating the -muzzle, when an exclamation from Uncas, who sat in the bow, -once more caused him to suspend the shot. - -"What, now, lad?" demanded Hawkeye; "you save a Huron from -the death-shriek by that word; have you reason for what you -do?" - -Uncas pointed toward a rocky shore a little in their front, -whence another war canoe was darting directly across their -course. It was too obvious now that their situation was -imminently perilous to need the aid of language to confirm -it. The scout laid aside his rifle, and resumed the paddle, -while Chingachgook inclined the bows of the canoe a little -toward the western shore, in order to increase the distance -between them and this new enemy. In the meantime they were -reminded of the presence of those who pressed upon their -rear, by wild and exulting shouts. The stirring scene -awakened even Munro from his apathy. - -"Let us make for the rocks on the main," he said, with the -mien of a tired soldier, "and give battle to the savages. -God forbid that I, or those attached to me and mine, should -ever trust again to the faith of any servant of the -Louis's!" - -"He who wishes to prosper in Indian warfare," returned the -scout, "must not be too proud to learn from the wit of a -native. Lay her more along the land, Sagamore; we are -doubling on the varlets, and perhaps they may try to strike -our trail on the long calculation." - -Hawkeye was not mistaken; for when the Hurons found their -course was likely to throw them behind their chase they -rendered it less direct, until, by gradually bearing more -and more obliquely, the two canoes were, ere long, gliding -on parallel lines, within two hundred yards of each other. -It now became entirely a trial of speed. So rapid was the -progress of the light vessels, that the lake curled in their -front, in miniature waves, and their motion became -undulating by its own velocity. It was, perhaps, owing to -this circumstance, in addition to the necessity of keeping -every hand employed at the paddles, that the Hurons had not -immediate recourse to their firearms. The exertions of the -fugitives were too severe to continue long, and the pursuers -had the advantage of numbers. Duncan observed with -uneasiness, that the scout began to look anxiously about -him, as if searching for some further means of assisting -their flight. - -"Edge her a little more from the sun, Sagamore," said the -stubborn woodsman; "I see the knaves are sparing a man to -the rifle. A single broken bone might lose us our scalps. -Edge more from the sun and we will put the island between -us." - -The expedient was not without its use. A long, low island -lay at a little distance before them, and, as they closed -with it, the chasing canoe was compelled to take a side -opposite to that on which the pursued passed. The scout and -his companions did not neglect this advantage, but the -instant they were hid from observation by the bushes, they -redoubled efforts that before had seemed prodigious. The -two canoes came round the last low point, like two coursers -at the top of their speed, the fugitives taking the lead. -This change had brought them nigher to each other, however, -while it altered their relative positions. - -"You showed knowledge in the shaping of a birchen bark, -Uncas, when you chose this from among the Huron canoes," -said the scout, smiling, apparently more in satisfaction at -their superiority in the race than from that prospect of -final escape which now began to open a little upon them. -"The imps have put all their strength again at the paddles, -and we are to struggle for our scalps with bits of flattened -wood, instead of clouded barrels and true eyes. A long -stroke, and together, friends." - -"They are preparing for a shot," said Heyward; "and as we -are in a line with them, it can scarcely fail." - -"Get you, then, into the bottom of the canoe," returned the -scout; "you and the colonel; it will be so much taken from -the size of the mark." - -Heyward smiled, as he answered: - -"It would be but an ill example for the highest in rank to -dodge, while the warriors were under fire." - -"Lord! Lord! That is now a white man's courage!" exclaimed -the scout; "and like to many of his notions, not to be -maintained by reason. Do you think the Sagamore, or Uncas, -or even I, who am a man without a cross, would deliberate -about finding a cover in the scrimmage, when an open body -would do no good? For what have the Frenchers reared up -their Quebec, if fighting is always to be done in the -clearings?" - -"All that you say is very true, my friend," replied Heyward; -"still, our customs must prevent us from doing as you wish." - -A volley from the Hurons interrupted the discourse, and as -the bullets whistled about them, Duncan saw the head of -Uncas turned, looking back at himself and Munro. -Notwithstanding the nearness of the enemy, and his own great -personal danger, the countenance of the young warrior -expressed no other emotion, as the former was compelled to -think, than amazement at finding men willing to encounter so -useless an exposure. Chingachgook was probably better -acquainted with the notions of white men, for he did not -even cast a glance aside from the riveted look his eye -maintained on the object by which he governed their course. -A ball soon struck the light and polished paddle from the -hands of the chief, and drove it through the air, far in the -advance. A shout arose from the Hurons, who seized the -opportunity to fire another volley. Uncas described an arc -in the water with his own blade, and as the canoe passed -swiftly on, Chingachgook recovered his paddle, and -flourishing it on high, he gave the war-whoop of the -Mohicans, and then lent his strength and skill again to the -important task. - -The clamorous sounds of "Le Gros Serpent!" "La Longue -Carabine!" "Le Cerf Agile!" burst at once from the canoes -behind, and seemed to give new zeal to the pursuers. The -scout seized "killdeer" in his left hand, and elevating it -about his head, he shook it in triumph at his enemies. The -savages answered the insult with a yell, and immediately -another volley succeeded. The bullets pattered along the -lake, and one even pierced the bark of their little vessel. -No perceptible emotion could be discovered in the Mohicans -during this critical moment, their rigid features expressing -neither hope nor alarm; but the scout again turned his head, -and, laughing in his own silent manner, he said to Heyward: - -"The knaves love to hear the sounds of their pieces; but the -eye is not to be found among the Mingoes that can calculate -a true range in a dancing canoe! You see the dumb devils -have taken off a man to charge, and by the smallest -measurement that can be allowed, we move three feet to their -two!" - -Duncan, who was not altogether as easy under this nice -estimate of distances as his companions, was glad to find, -however, that owing to their superior dexterity, and the -diversion among their enemies, they were very sensibly -obtaining the advantage. The Hurons soon fired again, and a -bullet struck the blade of Hawkeye's paddle without injury. - -"That will do," said the scout, examining the slight -indentation with a curious eye; "it would not have cut the -skin of an infant, much less of men, who, like us, have been -blown upon by the heavens in their anger. Now, major, if -you will try to use this piece of flattened wood, I'll let -'killdeer' take a part in the conversation." - -Heyward seized the paddle, and applied himself to the work -with an eagerness that supplied the place of skill, while -Hawkeye was engaged in inspecting the priming of his rifle. -The latter then took a swift aim and fired. The Huron in -the bows of the leading canoe had risen with a similar -object, and he now fell backward, suffering his gun to -escape from his hands into the water. In an instant, -however, he recovered his feet, though his gestures were -wild and bewildered. At the same moment his companions -suspended their efforts, and the chasing canoes clustered -together, and became stationary. Chingachgook and Uncas -profited by the interval to regain their wind, though Duncan -continued to work with the most persevering industry. The -father and son now cast calm but inquiring glances at each -other, to learn if either had sustained any injury by the -fire; for both well knew that no cry or exclamation would, -in such a moment of necessity have been permitted to betray -the accident. A few large drops of blood were trickling -down the shoulder of the Sagamore, who, when he perceived -that the eyes of Uncas dwelt too long on the sight, raised -some water in the hollow of his hand, and washing off the -stain, was content to manifest, in this simple manner, the -slightness of the injury. - -"Softly, softly, major," said the scout, who by this time -had reloaded his rifle; "we are a little too far already for -a rifle to put forth its beauties, and you see yonder imps -are holding a council. Let them come up within striking -distance -- my eye may well be trusted in such a matter -- -and I will trail the varlets the length of the Horican, -guaranteeing that not a shot of theirs shall, at the worst, -more than break the skin, while 'killdeer' shall touch the -life twice in three times." - -"We forget our errand," returned the diligent Duncan. "For -God's sake let us profit by this advantage, and increase our -distance from the enemy." - -"Give me my children," said Munro, hoarsely; "trifle no -longer with a father's agony, but restore me my babes." - -Long and habitual deference to the mandates of his superiors -had taught the scout the virtue of obedience. Throwing a -last and lingering glance at the distant canoes, he laid -aside his rifle, and, relieving the wearied Duncan, resumed -the paddle, which he wielded with sinews that never tired. -His efforts were seconded by those of the Mohicans and a -very few minutes served to place such a sheet of water -between them and their enemies, that Heyward once more -breathed freely. - -The lake now began to expand, and their route lay along a -wide reach, that was lined, as before, by high and ragged -mountains. But the islands were few, and easily avoided. -The strokes of the paddles grew more measured and regular, -while they who plied them continued their labor, after the -close and deadly chase from which they had just relieved -themselves, with as much coolness as though their speed had -been tried in sport, rather than under such pressing, nay, -almost desperate, circumstances. - -Instead of following the western shore, whither their errand -led them, the wary Mohican inclined his course more toward -those hills behind which Montcalm was known to have led his -army into the formidable fortress of Ticonderoga. As the -Hurons, to every appearance, had abandoned the pursuit, -there was no apparent reason for this excess of caution. It -was, however, maintained for hours, until they had reached a -bay, nigh the northern termination of the lake. Here the -canoe was driven upon the beach, and the whole party landed. -Hawkeye and Heyward ascended an adjacent bluff, where the -former, after considering the expanse of water beneath him, -pointed out to the latter a small black object, hovering -under a headland, at the distance of several miles. - -"Do you see it?" demanded the scout. "Now, what would you -account that spot, were you left alone to white experience -to find your way through this wilderness?" - -"But for its distance and its magnitude, I should suppose it -a bird. Can it be a living object?" - -"'Tis a canoe of good birchen bark, and paddled by fierce -and crafty Mingoes. Though Providence has lent to those who -inhabit the woods eyes that would be needless to men in the -settlements, where there are inventions to assist the sight, -yet no human organs can see all the dangers which at this -moment circumvent us. These varlets pretend to be bent -chiefly on their sun-down meal, but the moment it is dark -they will be on our trail, as true as hounds on the scent. -We must throw them off, or our pursuit of Le Renard Subtil -may be given up. These lakes are useful at times, -especially when the game take the water," continued the -scout, gazing about him with a countenance of concern; "but -they give no cover, except it be to the fishes. God knows -what the country would be, if the settlements should ever -spread far from the two rivers. Both hunting and war would -lose their beauty." - -"Let us not delay a moment, without some good and obvious -cause." - -"I little like that smoke, which you may see worming up -along the rock above the canoe," interrupted the abstracted -scout. "My life on it, other eyes than ours see it, and -know its meaning. Well, words will not mend the matter, and -it is time that we were doing." - -Hawkeye moved away from the lookout, and descended, musing -profoundly, to the shore. He communicated the result of his -observations to his companions, in Delaware, and a short and -earnest consultation succeeded. When it terminated, the -three instantly set about executing their new resolutions. - -The canoe was lifted from the water, and borne on the -shoulders of the party, they proceeded into the wood, making -as broad and obvious a trail as possible. They soon reached -the water-course, which they crossed, and, continuing -onward, until they came to an extensive and naked rock. At -this point, where their footsteps might be expected to be no -longer visible, they retraced their route to the brook, -walking backward, with the utmost care. They now followed -the bed of the little stream to the lake, into which they -immediately launched their canoe again. A low point -concealed them from the headland, and the margin of the lake -was fringed for some distance with dense and overhanging -bushes. Under the cover of these natural advantages, they -toiled their way, with patient industry, until the scout -pronounced that he believed it would be safe once more to -land. - -The halt continued until evening rendered objects indistinct -and uncertain to the eye. Then they resumed their route, -and, favored by the darkness, pushed silently and vigorously -toward the western shore. Although the rugged outline of -mountain, to which they were steering, presented no -distinctive marks to the eyes of Duncan, the Mohican entered -the little haven he had selected with the confidence and -accuracy of an experienced pilot. - -The boat was again lifted and borne into the woods, where it -was carefully concealed under a pile of brush. The -adventurers assumed their arms and packs, and the scout -announced to Munro and Heyward that he and the Indians were -at last in readiness to proceed. - - - -CHAPTER 21 - -"If you find a man there, he shall die a flea's death."-- -Merry Wives of Windsor - -The party had landed on the border of a region that is, even -to this day, less known to the inhabitants of the States -than the deserts of Arabia, or the steppes of Tartary. It -was the sterile and rugged district which separates the -tributaries of Champlain from those of the Hudson, the -Mohawk, and the St. Lawrence. Since the period of our tale -the active spirit of the country has surrounded it with a -belt of rich and thriving settlements, though none but the -hunter or the savage is ever known even now to penetrate its -wild recesses. - -As Hawkeye and the Mohicans had, however, often traversed -the mountains and valleys of this vast wilderness, they did -not hesitate to plunge into its depth, with the freedom of -men accustomed to its privations and difficulties. For many -hours the travelers toiled on their laborious way, guided by -a star, or following the direction of some water-course, -until the scout called a halt, and holding a short -consultation with the Indians, they lighted their fire, and -made the usual preparations to pass the remainder of the -night where they then were. - -Imitating the example, and emulating the confidence of their -more experienced associates, Munro and Duncan slept without -fear, if not without uneasiness. The dews were suffered to -exhale, and the sun had dispersed the mists, and was -shedding a strong and clear light in the forest, when the -travelers resumed their journey. - -After proceeding a few miles, the progress of Hawkeye, who -led the advance, became more deliberate and watchful. He -often stopped to examine the trees; nor did he cross a -rivulet without attentively considering the quantity, the -velocity, and the color of its waters. Distrusting his own -judgment, his appeals to the opinion of Chingachgook were -frequent and earnest. During one of these conferences -Heyward observed that Uncas stood a patient and silent, -though, as he imagined, an interested listener. He was -strongly tempted to address the young chief, and demand his -opinion of their progress; but the calm and dignified -demeanor of the native induced him to believe, that, like -himself, the other was wholly dependent on the sagacity and -intelligence of the seniors of the party. At last the scout -spoke in English, and at once explained the embarrassment of -their situation. - -"When I found that the home path of the Hurons run north," -he said, "it did not need the judgment of many long years to -tell that they would follow the valleys, and keep atween the -waters of the Hudson and the Horican, until they might -strike the springs of the Canada streams, which would lead -them into the heart of the country of the Frenchers. Yet -here are we, within a short range of the Scaroons, and not a -sign of a trail have we crossed! Human natur' is weak, and -it is possible we may not have taken the proper scent." - -"Heaven protect us from such an error!" exclaimed Duncan. -"Let us retrace our steps, and examine as we go, with keener -eyes. Has Uncas no counsel to offer in such a strait?" - -The young Mohican cast a glance at his father, but, -maintaining his quiet and reserved mien, he continued -silent. Chingachgook had caught the look, and motioning -with his hand, he bade him speak. The moment this -permission was accorded, the countenance of Uncas changed -from its grave composure to a gleam of intelligence and joy. -Bounding forward like a deer, he sprang up the side of a -little acclivity, a few rods in advance, and stood, -exultingly, over a spot of fresh earth, that looked as -though it had been recently upturned by the passage of some -heavy animal. The eyes of the whole party followed the -unexpected movement, and read their success in the air of -triumph that the youth assumed. - -"'Tis the trail!" exclaimed the scout, advancing to the -spot; "the lad is quick of sight and keen of wit for his -years." - -"'Tis extraordinary that he should have withheld his -knowledge so long," muttered Duncan, at his elbow. - -"It would have been more wonderful had he spoken without a -bidding. No, no; your young white, who gathers his learning -from books and can measure what he knows by the page, may -conceit that his knowledge, like his legs, outruns that of -his fathers', but, where experience is the master, the -scholar is made to know the value of years, and respects -them accordingly." - -"See!" said Uncas, pointing north and south, at the evident -marks of the broad trail on either side of him, "the -dark-hair has gone toward the forest." - -"Hound never ran on a more beautiful scent," responded the -scout, dashing forward, at once, on the indicated route; "we -are favored, greatly favored, and can follow with high -noses. Ay, here are both your waddling beasts: this Huron -travels like a white general. The fellow is stricken with a -judgment, and is mad! Look sharp for wheels, Sagamore," he -continued, looking back, and laughing in his newly awakened -satisfaction; "we shall soon have the fool journeying in a -coach, and that with three of the best pair of eyes on the -borders in his rear." - -The spirits of the scout, and the astonishing success of the -chase, in which a circuitous distance of more than forty -miles had been passed, did not fail to impart a portion of -hope to the whole party. Their advance was rapid; and made -with as much confidence as a traveler would proceed along a -wide highway. If a rock, or a rivulet, or a bit of earth -harder than common, severed the links of the clew they -followed, the true eye of the scout recovered them at a -distance, and seldom rendered the delay of a single moment -necessary. Their progress was much facilitated by the -certainty that Magua had found it necessary to journey -through the valleys; a circumstance which rendered the -general direction of the route sure. Nor had the Huron -entirely neglected the arts uniformly practised by the -natives when retiring in front of an enemy. False trails -and sudden turnings were frequent, wherever a brook or the -formation of the ground rendered them feasible; but his -pursuers were rarely deceived, and never failed to detect -their error, before they had lost either time or distance on -the deceptive track. - -By the middle of the afternoon they had passed the Scaroons, -and were following the route of the declining sun. After -descending an eminence to a low bottom, through which a -swift stream glided, they suddenly came to a place where the -party of Le Renard had made a halt. Extinguished brands -were lying around a spring, the offals of a deer were -scattered about the place, and the trees bore evident marks -of having been browsed by the horses. At a little distance, -Heyward discovered, and contemplated with tender emotion, -the small bower under which he was fain to believe that Cora -and Alice had reposed. But while the earth was trodden, and -the footsteps of both men and beasts were so plainly visible -around the place, the trail appeared to have suddenly ended. - -It was easy to follow the tracks of the Narragansetts, but -they seemed only to have wandered without guides, or any -other object than the pursuit of food. At length Uncas, -who, with his father, had endeavored to trace the route of -the horses, came upon a sign of their presence that was -quite recent. Before following the clew, he communicated -his success to his companions; and while the latter were -consulting on the circumstance, the youth reappeared, -leading the two fillies, with their saddles broken, and the -housings soiled, as though they had been permitted to run at -will for several days. - -"What should this prove?" said Duncan, turning pale, and -glancing his eyes around him, as if he feared the brush and -leaves were about to give up some horrid secret. - -"That our march is come to a quick end, and that we are in -an enemy's country," returned the scout. "Had the knave -been pressed, and the gentle ones wanted horses to keep up -with the party, he might have taken their scalps; but -without an enemy at his heels, and with such rugged beasts -as these, he would not hurt a hair of their heads. I know -your thoughts, and shame be it to our color that you have -reason for them; but he who thinks that even a Mingo would -ill-treat a woman, unless it be to tomahawk her, knows -nothing of Indian natur', or the laws of the woods. No, no; -I have heard that the French Indians had come into these -hills to hunt the moose, and we are getting within scent of -their camp. Why should they not? The morning and evening -guns of Ty may be heard any day among these mountains; for -the Frenchers are running a new line atween the provinces of -the king and the Canadas. It is true that the horses are -here, but the Hurons are gone; let us, then, hunt for the -path by which they parted." - -Hawkeye and the Mohicans now applied themselves to their -task in good earnest. A circle of a few hundred feet in -circumference was drawn, and each of the party took a -segment for his portion. The examination, however, resulted -in no discovery. The impressions of footsteps were -numerous, but they all appeared like those of men who had -wandered about the spot, without any design to quit it. -Again the scout and his companions made the circuit of the -halting place, each slowly following the other, until they -assembled in the center once more, no wiser than when they -started. - -"Such cunning is not without its deviltry," exclaimed -Hawkeye, when he met the disappointed looks of his -assistants. - -"We must get down to it, Sagamore, beginning at the spring, -and going over the ground by inches. The Huron shall never -brag in his tribe that he has a foot which leaves no print." - -Setting the example himself, the scout engaged in the -scrutiny with renewed zeal. Not a leaf was left unturned. -The sticks were removed, and the stones lifted; for Indian -cunning was known frequently to adopt these objects as -covers, laboring with the utmost patience and industry, to -conceal each footstep as they proceeded. Still no discovery -was made. At length Uncas, whose activity had enabled him -to achieve his portion of the task the soonest, raked the -earth across the turbid little rill which ran from the -spring, and diverted its course into another channel. So -soon as its narrow bed below the dam was dry, he stooped -over it with keen and curious eyes. A cry of exultation -immediately announced the success of the young warrior. The -whole party crowded to the spot where Uncas pointed out the -impression of a moccasin in the moist alluvion. - -"This lad will be an honor to his people," said Hawkeye, -regarding the trail with as much admiration as a naturalist -would expend on the tusk of a mammoth or the rib of a -mastodon; "ay, and a thorn in the sides of the Hurons. Yet -that is not the footstep of an Indian! the weight is too -much on the heel, and the toes are squared, as though one of -the French dancers had been in, pigeon-winging his tribe! -Run back, Uncas, and bring me the size of the singer's foot. -You will find a beautiful print of it just opposite yon -rock, agin the hillside." - -While the youth was engaged in this commission, the scout -and Chingachgook were attentively considering the -impressions. The measurements agreed, and the former -unhesitatingly pronounced that the footstep was that of -David, who had once more been made to exchange his shoes for -moccasins. - -"I can now read the whole of it, as plainly as if I had seen -the arts of Le Subtil," he added; "the singer being a man -whose gifts lay chiefly in his throat and feet, was made to -go first, and the others have trod in his steps, imitating -their formation." - -"But," cried Duncan, "I see no signs of --" - -"The gentle ones," interrupted the scout; "the varlet has -found a way to carry them, until he supposed he had thrown -any followers off the scent. My life on it, we see their -pretty little feet again, before many rods go by." - -The whole party now proceeded, following the course of the -rill, keeping anxious eyes on the regular impressions. The -water soon flowed into its bed again, but watching the -ground on either side, the foresters pursued their way -content with knowing that the trail lay beneath. More than -half a mile was passed, before the rill rippled close around -the base of an extensive and dry rock. Here they paused to -make sure that the Hurons had not quitted the water. - -It was fortunate they did so. For the quick and active -Uncas soon found the impression of a foot on a bunch of -moss, where it would seem an Indian had inadvertently -trodden. Pursuing the direction given by this discovery, he -entered the neighboring thicket, and struck the trail, as -fresh and obvious as it had been before they reached the -spring. Another shout announced the good fortune of the -youth to his companions, and at once terminated the search. - -"Ay, it has been planned with Indian judgment," said the -scout, when the party was assembled around the place, "and -would have blinded white eyes." - -"Shall we proceed?" demanded Heyward. - -"Softly, softly, we know our path; but it is good to examine -the formation of things. This is my schooling, major; and -if one neglects the book, there is little chance of learning -from the open land of Providence. All is plain but one -thing, which is the manner that the knave contrived to get -the gentle ones along the blind trail. Even a Huron would -be too proud to let their tender feet touch the water." - -"Will this assist in explaining the difficulty?" said -Heyward, pointing toward the fragments of a sort of -handbarrow, that had been rudely constructed of boughs, and -bound together with withes, and which now seemed carelessly -cast aside as useless. - -"'Tis explained!" cried the delighted Hawkeye. "If them -varlets have passed a minute, they have spent hours in -striving to fabricate a lying end to their trail! Well, -I've known them to waste a day in the same manner to as -little purpose. Here we have three pair of moccasins, and -two of little feet. It is amazing that any mortal beings -can journey on limbs so small! Pass me the thong of -buckskin, Uncas, and let me take the length of this foot. -By the Lord, it is no longer than a child's and yet the -maidens are tall and comely. That Providence is partial in -its gifts, for its own wise reasons, the best and most -contented of us must allow." - -"The tender limbs of my daughters are unequal to these -hardships," said Munro, looking at the light footsteps of -his children, with a parent's love; "we shall find their -fainting forms in this desert." - -"Of that there is little cause of fear," returned the scout, -slowly shaking his head; "this is a firm and straight, -though a light step, and not over long. See, the heel has -hardly touched the ground; and there the dark-hair has made -a little jump, from root to root. No, no; my knowledge for -it, neither of them was nigh fainting, hereaway. Now, the -singer was beginning to be footsore and leg-weary, as is -plain by his trail. There, you see, he slipped; here he has -traveled wide and tottered; and there again it looks as -though he journeyed on snowshoes. Ay, ay, a man who uses -his throat altogether, can hardly give his legs a proper -training." - -From such undeniable testimony did the practised woodsman -arrive at the truth, with nearly as much certainty and -precision as if he had been a witness of all those events -which his ingenuity so easily elucidated. Cheered by these -assurances, and satisfied by a reasoning that was so -obvious, while it was so simple, the party resumed its -course, after making a short halt, to take a hurried repast. - -When the meal was ended, the scout cast a glance upward at -the setting sun, and pushed forward with a rapidity which -compelled Heyward and the still vigorous Munro to exert all -their muscles to equal. Their route now lay along the -bottom which has already been mentioned. As the Hurons had -made no further efforts to conceal their footsteps, the -progress of the pursuers was no longer delayed by -uncertainty. Before an hour had elapsed, however, the speed -of Hawkeye sensibly abated, and his head, instead of -maintaining its former direct and forward look, began to -turn suspiciously from side to side, as if he were conscious -of approaching danger. He soon stopped again, and waited -for the whole party to come up. - -"I scent the Hurons," he said, speaking to the Mohicans; -"yonder is open sky, through the treetops, and we are -getting too nigh their encampment. Sagamore, you will take -the hillside, to the right; Uncas will bend along the brook -to the left, while I will try the trail. If anything should -happen, the call will be three croaks of a crow. I saw one -of the birds fanning himself in the air, just beyond the -dead oak -- another sign that we are approaching an -encampment." - -The Indians departed their several ways without reply, while -Hawkeye cautiously proceeded with the two gentlemen. -Heyward soon pressed to the side of their guide, eager to -catch an early glimpse of those enemies he had pursued with -so much toil and anxiety. His companion told him to steal -to the edge of the wood, which, as usual, was fringed with a -thicket, and wait his coming, for he wished to examine -certain suspicious signs a little on one side. Duncan -obeyed, and soon found himself in a situation to command a -view which he found as extraordinary as it was novel. - -The trees of many acres had been felled, and the glow of a -mild summer's evening had fallen on the clearing, in -beautiful contrast to the gray light of the forest. A short -distance from the place where Duncan stood, the stream had -seemingly expanded into a little lake, covering most of the -low land, from mountain to mountain. The water fell out of -this wide basin, in a cataract so regular and gentle, that -it appeared rather to be the work of human hands than -fashioned by nature. A hundred earthen dwellings stood on -the margin of the lake, and even in its waters, as though -the latter had overflowed its usual banks. Their rounded -roofs, admirably molded for defense against the weather, -denoted more of industry and foresight than the natives were -wont to bestow on their regular habitations, much less on -those they occupied for the temporary purposes of hunting -and war. In short, the whole village or town, whichever it -might be termed, possessed more of method and neatness of -execution, than the white men had been accustomed to believe -belonged, ordinarily, to the Indian habits. It appeared, -however, to be deserted. At least, so thought Duncan for -many minutes; but, at length, he fancied he discovered -several human forms advancing toward him on all fours, and -apparently dragging in the train some heavy, and as he was -quick to apprehend, some formidable engine. Just then a few -dark-looking heads gleamed out of the dwellings, and the -place seemed suddenly alive with beings, which, however, -glided from cover to cover so swiftly, as to allow no -opportunity of examining their humors or pursuits. Alarmed -at these suspicious and inexplicable movements, he was about -to attempt the signal of the crows, when the rustling of -leaves at hand drew his eyes in another direction. - -The young man started, and recoiled a few paces -instinctively, when he found himself within a hundred yards -of a stranger Indian. Recovering his recollection on the -instant, instead of sounding an alarm, which might prove -fatal to himself, he remained stationary, an attentive -observer of the other's motions. - -An instant of calm observation served to assure Duncan that -he was undiscovered. The native, like himself, seemed -occupied in considering the low dwellings of the village, -and the stolen movements of its inhabitants. It was -impossible to discover the expression of his features -through the grotesque mask of paint under which they were -concealed, though Duncan fancied it was rather melancholy -than savage. His head was shaved, as usual, with the -exception of the crown, from whose tuft three or four faded -feathers from a hawk's wing were loosely dangling. A ragged -calico mantle half encircled his body, while his nether -garment was composed of an ordinary shirt, the sleeves of -which were made to perform the office that is usually -executed by a much more commodious arrangement. His legs -were, however, covered with a pair of good deer-skin -moccasins. Altogether, the appearance of the individual was -forlorn and miserable. - -Duncan was still curiously observing the person of his -neighbor when the scout stole silently and cautiously to his -side. - -"You see we have reached their settlement or encampment," -whispered the young man; "and here is one of the savages -himself, in a very embarrassing position for our further -movements." - -Hawkeye started, and dropped his rifle, when, directed by -the finger of his companion, the stranger came under his -view. Then lowering the dangerous muzzle he stretched -forward his long neck, as if to assist a scrutiny that was -already intensely keen. - -"The imp is not a Huron," he said, "nor of any of the Canada -tribes; and yet you see, by his clothes, the knave has been -plundering a white. Ay, Montcalm has raked the woods for -his inroad, and a whooping, murdering set of varlets has he -gathered together. Can you see where he has put his rifle -or his bow?" - -"He appears to have no arms; nor does he seem to be -viciously inclined. Unless he communicate the alarm to his -fellows, who, as you see, are dodging about the water, we -have but little to fear from him." - -The scout turned to Heyward, and regarded him a moment with -unconcealed amazement. Then opening wide his mouth, he -indulged in unrestrained and heartfelt laughter, though in -that silent and peculiar manner which danger had so long -taught him to practise. - -Repeating the words, "Fellows who are dodging about the -water!" he added, "so much for schooling and passing a -boyhood in the settlements! The knave has long legs, -though, and shall not be trusted. Do you keep him under -your rifle while I creep in behind, through the bush, and -take him alive. Fire on no account." - -Heyward had already permitted his companion to bury part of -his person in the thicket, when, stretching forth his arm, -he arrested him, in order to ask: - -"If I see you in danger, may I not risk a shot?" - -Hawkeye regarded him a moment, like one who knew not how to -take the question; then, nodding his head, he answered, -still laughing, though inaudibly: - -"Fire a whole platoon, major." - -In the next moment he was concealed by the leaves. Duncan -waited several minutes in feverish impatience, before he -caught another glimpse of the scout. Then he reappeared, -creeping along the earth, from which his dress was hardly -distinguishable, directly in the rear of his intended -captive. Having reached within a few yards of the latter, -he arose to his feet, silently and slowly. At that instant, -several loud blows were struck on the water, and Duncan -turned his eyes just in time to perceive that a hundred dark -forms were plunging, in a body, into the troubled little -sheet. Grasping his rifle his looks were again bent on the -Indian near him. Instead of taking the alarm, the -unconscious savage stretched forward his neck, as if he also -watched the movements about the gloomy lake, with a sort of -silly curiosity. In the meantime, the uplifted hand of -Hawkeye was above him. But, without any apparent reason, it -was withdrawn, and its owner indulged in another long, -though still silent, fit of merriment. When the peculiar -and hearty laughter of Hawkeye was ended, instead of -grasping his victim by the throat, he tapped him lightly on -the shoulder, and exclaimed aloud: - -"How now, friend! have you a mind to teach the beavers to -sing?" - -"Even so," was the ready answer. "It would seem that the -Being that gave them power to improve His gifts so well, -would not deny them voices to proclaim His praise." - - - -CHAPTER 22 - -"Bot.--Abibl we all met? Qui.--Pat--pat; and here's -a marvelous convenient place for our rehearsal."-- -Midsummer Night's Dream - -The reader may better imagine, than we describe the surprise -of Heyward. His lurking Indians were suddenly converted -into four-footed beasts; his lake into a beaver pond; his -cataract into a dam, constructed by those industrious and -ingenious quadrupeds; and a suspected enemy into his tried -friend, David Gamut, the master of psalmody. The presence -of the latter created so many unexpected hopes relative to -the sisters that, without a moment's hesitation, the young -man broke out of his ambush, and sprang forward to join the -two principal actors in the scene. - -The merriment of Hawkeye was not easily appeased. Without -ceremony, and with a rough hand, he twirled the supple Gamut -around on his heel, and more than once affirmed that the -Hurons had done themselves great credit in the fashion of -his costume. Then, seizing the hand of the other, he -squeezed it with a grip that brought tears into the eyes of -the placid David, and wished him joy of his new condition. - -"You were about opening your throat-practisings among the -beavers, were ye?" he said. "The cunning devils know half -the trade already, for they beat the time with their tails, -as you heard just now; and in good time it was, too, or -'killdeer' might have sounded the first note among them. I -have known greater fools, who could read and write, than an -experienced old beaver; but as for squalling, the animals -are born dumb! What think you of such a song as this?" - -David shut his sensitive ears, and even Heyward apprised as -he was of the nature of the cry, looked upward in quest of -the bird, as the cawing of a crow rang in the air about -them. - -"See!" continued the laughing scout, as he pointed toward -the remainder of the party, who, in obedience to the signal, -were already approaching; "this is music which has its -natural virtues; it brings two good rifles to my elbow, to -say nothing of the knives and tomahawks. But we see that -you are safe; now tell us what has become of the maidens." - -"They are captives to the heathen," said David; "and, though -greatly troubled in spirit, enjoying comfort and safety in -the body." - -"Both!" demanded the breathless Heyward. - -"Even so. Though our wayfaring has been sore and our -sustenance scanty, we have had little other cause for -complaint, except the violence done our feelings, by being -thus led in captivity into a far land." - -"Bless ye for these very words!" exclaimed the trembling -Munro; "I shall then receive my babes, spotless and -angel-like, as I lost them!" - -"I know not that their delivery is at hand," returned the -doubting David; "the leader of these savages is possessed of -an evil spirit that no power short of Omnipotence can tame. -I have tried him sleeping and waking, but neither sounds nor -language seem to touch his soul." - -"Where is the knave?" bluntly interrupted the scout. - -"He hunts the moose to-day, with his young men; and -tomorrow, as I hear, they pass further into the forests, and -nigher to the borders of Canada. The elder maiden is -conveyed to a neighboring people, whose lodges are situate -beyond yonder black pinnacle of rock; while the younger is -detained among the women of the Hurons, whose dwellings are -but two short miles hence, on a table-land, where the fire -had done the office of the axe, and prepared the place for -their reception." - -"Alice, my gentle Alice!" murmured Heyward; "she has lost -the consolation of her sister's presence!" - -"Even so. But so far as praise and thanksgiving in psalmody -can temper the spirit in affliction, she has not suffered." - -"Has she then a heart for music?" - -"Of the graver and more solemn character; though it must be -acknowledged that, in spite of all my endeavors, the maiden -weeps oftener than she smiles. At such moments I forbear to -press the holy songs; but there are many sweet and -comfortable periods of satisfactory communication, when the -ears of the savages are astounded with the upliftings of our -voices." - -"And why are you permitted to go at large, unwatched?" - -David composed his features into what he intended should -express an air of modest humility, before he meekly replied: - -"Little be the praise to such a worm as I. But, though the -power of psalmody was suspended in the terrible business of -that field of blood through which we have passed, it has -recovered its influence even over the souls of the heathen, -and I am suffered to go and come at will." - -The scout laughed, and, tapping his own forehead -significantly, he perhaps explained the singular indulgence -more satisfactorily when he said: - -"The Indians never harm a non-composser. But why, when the -path lay open before your eyes, did you not strike back on -your own trail (it is not so blind as that which a squirrel -would make), and bring in the tidings to Edward?" - -The scout, remembering only his own sturdy and iron nature, -had probably exacted a task that David, under no -circumstances, could have performed. But, without entirely -losing the meekness of his air, the latter was content to -answer: - -"Though my soul would rejoice to visit the habitations of -Christendom once more, my feet would rather follow the -tender spirits intrusted to my keeping, even into the -idolatrous province of the Jesuits, than take one step -backward, while they pined in captivity and sorrow." - -Though the figurative language of David was not very -intelligible, the sincere and steady expression of his eye, -and the glow of his honest countenance, were not easily -mistaken. Uncas pressed closer to his side, and regarded -the speaker with a look of commendation, while his father -expressed his satisfaction by the ordinary pithy exclamation -of approbation. The scout shook his head as he rejoined: - -"The Lord never intended that the man should place all his -endeavors in his throat, to the neglect of other and better -gifts! But he has fallen into the hands of some silly -woman, when he should have been gathering his education -under a blue sky, among the beauties of the forest. Here, -friend; I did intend to kindle a fire with this tooting-whistle -of thine; but, as you value the thing, take it, and blow your -best on it." - -Gamut received his pitch-pipe with as strong an expression -of pleasure as he believed compatible with the grave -functions he exercised. After essaying its virtues -repeatedly, in contrast with his own voice, and, satisfying -himself that none of its melody was lost, he made a very -serious demonstration toward achieving a few stanzas of one -of the longest effusions in the little volume so often -mentioned. - -Heyward, however, hastily interrupted his pious purpose by -continuing questions concerning the past and present -condition of his fellow captives, and in a manner more -methodical than had been permitted by his feelings in the -opening of their interview. David, though he regarded his -treasure with longing eyes, was constrained to answer, -especially as the venerable father took a part in the -interrogatories, with an interest too imposing to be denied. -Nor did the scout fail to throw in a pertinent inquiry, -whenever a fitting occasion presented. In this manner, -though with frequent interruptions which were filled with -certain threatening sounds from the recovered instrument, -the pursuers were put in possession of such leading -circumstances as were likely to prove useful in -accomplishing their great and engrossing object -- the -recovery of the sisters. The narrative of David was simple, -and the facts but few. - -Magua had waited on the mountain until a safe moment to -retire presented itself, when he had descended, and taken -the route along the western side of the Horican in direction -of the Canadas. As the subtle Huron was familiar with the -paths, and well knew there was no immediate danger of -pursuit, their progress had been moderate, and far from -fatiguing. It appeared from the unembellished statement of -David, that his own presence had been rather endured than -desired; though even Magua had not been entirely exempt from -that veneration with which the Indians regard those whom the -Great Spirit had visited in their intellects. At night, the -utmost care had been taken of the captives, both to prevent -injury from the damps of the woods and to guard against an -escape. At the spring, the horses were turned loose, as has -been seen; and, notwithstanding the remoteness and length of -their trail, the artifices already named were resorted to, -in order to cut off every clue to their place of retreat. -On their arrival at the encampment of his people, Magua, in -obedience to a policy seldom departed from, separated his -prisoners. Cora had been sent to a tribe that temporarily -occupied an adjacent valley, though David was far too -ignorant of the customs and history of the natives, to be -able to declare anything satisfactory concerning their name -or character. He only knew that they had not engaged in the -late expedition against William Henry; that, like the Hurons -themselves they were allies of Montcalm; and that they -maintained an amicable, though a watchful intercourse with -the warlike and savage people whom chance had, for a time, -brought in such close and disagreeable contact with -themselves. - -The Mohicans and the scout listened to his interrupted and -imperfect narrative, with an interest that obviously -increased as he proceeded; and it was while attempting to -explain the pursuits of the community in which Cora was -detained, that the latter abruptly demanded: - -"Did you see the fashion of their knives? were they of -English or French formation?" - -"My thoughts were bent on no such vanities, but rather -mingled in consolation with those of the maidens." - -"The time may come when you will not consider the knife of a -savage such a despicable vanity," returned the scout, with a -strong expression of contempt for the other's dullness. -"Had they held their corn feast -- or can you say anything -of the totems of the tribe?" - -"Of corn, we had many and plentiful feasts; for the grain, -being in the milk is both sweet to the mouth and comfortable -to the stomach. Of totem, I know not the meaning; but if it -appertaineth in any wise to the art of Indian music, it need -not be inquired after at their hands. They never join their -voices in praise, and it would seem that they are among the -profanest of the idolatrous." - -"Therein you belie the natur' of an Indian. Even the Mingo -adores but the true and loving God. 'Tis wicked fabrication -of the whites, and I say it to the shame of my color that -would make the warrior bow down before images of his own -creation. It is true, they endeavor to make truces to the -wicked one -- as who would not with an enemy he cannot -conquer! but they look up for favor and assistance to the -Great and Good Spirit only." - -"It may be so," said David; "but I have seen strange and -fantastic images drawn in their paint, of which their -admiration and care savored of spiritual pride; especially -one, and that, too, a foul and loathsome object." - -"Was it a sarpent?" quickly demanded the scout. - -"Much the same. It was in the likeness of an abject and -creeping tortoise." - -"Hugh!" exclaimed both the attentive Mohicans in a breath; -while the scout shook his head with the air of one who had -made an important but by no means a pleasing discovery. -Then the father spoke, in the language of the Delawares, and -with a calmness and dignity that instantly arrested the -attention even of those to whom his words were -unintelligible. His gestures were impressive, and at times -energetic. Once he lifted his arm on high; and, as it -descended, the action threw aside the folds of his light -mantle, a finger resting on his breast, as if he would -enforce his meaning by the attitude. Duncan's eyes followed -the movement, and he perceived that the animal just -mentioned was beautifully, though faintly, worked in blue -tint, on the swarthy breast of the chief. All that he had -ever heard of the violent separation of the vast tribes of -the Delawares rushed across his mind, and he awaited the -proper moment to speak, with a suspense that was rendered -nearly intolerable by his interest in the stake. His wish, -however, was anticipated by the scout who turned from his -red friend, saying: - -"We have found that which may be good or evil to us, as -heaven disposes. The Sagamore is of the high blood of the -Delawares, and is the great chief of their Tortoises! That -some of this stock are among the people of whom the singer -tells us, is plain by his words; and, had he but spent half -the breath in prudent questions that he has blown away in -making a trumpet of his throat, we might have known how many -warriors they numbered. It is, altogether, a dangerous path -we move in; for a friend whose face is turned from you often -bears a bloodier mind than the enemy who seeks your scalp." - -"Explain," said Duncan. - -"'Tis a long and melancholy tradition, and one I little like -to think of; for it is not to be denied that the evil has -been mainly done by men with white skins. But it has ended -in turning the tomahawk of brother against brother, and -brought the Mingo and the Delaware to travel in the same -path." - -"You, then, suspect it is a portion of that people among -whom Cora resides?" - -The scout nodded his head in assent, though he seemed -anxious to waive the further discussion of a subject that -appeared painful. The impatient Duncan now made several -hasty and desperate propositions to attempt the release of -the sisters. Munro seemed to shake off his apathy, and -listened to the wild schemes of the young man with a -deference that his gray hairs and reverend years should have -denied. But the scout, after suffering the ardor of the -lover to expend itself a little, found means to convince him -of the folly of precipitation, in a manner that would -require their coolest judgment and utmost fortitude. - -"It would be well," he added, "to let this man go in again, -as usual, and for him to tarry in the lodges, giving notice -to the gentle ones of our approach, until we call him out, -by signal, to consult. You know the cry of a crow, friend, -from the whistle of the whip-poor-will?" - -"'Tis a pleasing bird," returned David, "and has a soft and -melancholy note! though the time is rather quick and ill-measured." - -"He speaks of the wish-ton-wish," said the scout; "well, -since you like his whistle, it shall be your signal. -Remember, then, when you hear the whip-poor-will's call -three times repeated, you are to come into the bushes where -the bird might be supposed --" - -"Stop," interrupted Heyward; "I will accompany him." - -"You!" exclaimed the astonished Hawkeye; "are you tired of -seeing the sun rise and set?" - -"David is a living proof that the Hurons can be merciful." - -"Ay, but David can use his throat, as no man in his senses -would pervart the gift." - -"I too can play the madman, the fool, the hero; in short, -any or everything to rescue her I love. Name your -objections no longer: I am resolved." - -Hawkeye regarded the young man a moment in speechless -amazement. But Duncan, who, in deference to the other's -skill and services, had hitherto submitted somewhat -implicitly to his dictation, now assumed the superior, with -a manner that was not easily resisted. He waved his hand, -in sign of his dislike to all remonstrance, and then, in -more tempered language, he continued: - -"You have the means of disguise; change me; paint me, too, -if you will; in short, alter me to anything -- a fool." - -"It is not for one like me to say that he who is already -formed by so powerful a hand as Providence, stands in need -of a change," muttered the discontented scout. "When you -send your parties abroad in war, you find it prudent, at -least, to arrange the marks and places of encampment, in -order that they who fight on your side may know when and -where to expect a friend." - -"Listen," interrupted Duncan; "you have heard from this -faithful follower of the captives, that the Indians are of -two tribes, if not of different nations. With one, whom you -think to be a branch of the Delawares, is she you call the -'dark-hair'; the other, and younger, of the ladies, is -undeniably with our declared enemies, the Hurons. It -becomes my youth and rank to attempt the latter adventure. -While you, therefore, are negotiating with your friends for -the release of one of the sisters, I will effect that of the -other, or die." - -The awakened spirit of the young soldier gleamed in his -eyes, and his form became imposing under its influence. -Hawkeye, though too much accustomed to Indian artifices not -to foresee the danger of the experiment, knew not well how -to combat this sudden resolution. - -Perhaps there was something in the proposal that suited his -own hardy nature, and that secret love of desperate -adventure, which had increased with his experience, until -hazard and danger had become, in some measure, necessary to -the enjoyment of his existence. Instead of continuing to -oppose the scheme of Duncan, his humor suddenly altered, and -he lent himself to its execution. - -"Come," he said, with a good-humored smile; "the buck that -will take to the water must be headed, and not followed. -Chingachgook has as many different paints as the engineer -officer's wife, who takes down natur' on scraps of paper, -making the mountains look like cocks of rusty hay, and -placing the blue sky in reach of your hand. The Sagamore -can use them, too. Seat yourself on the log; and my life on -it, he can soon make a natural fool of you, and that well to -your liking." - -Duncan complied; and the Mohican, who had been an attentive -listener to the discourse, readily undertook the office. -Long practised in all the subtle arts of his race, he drew, -with great dexterity and quickness, the fantastic shadow -that the natives were accustomed to consider as the evidence -of a friendly and jocular disposition. Every line that -could possibly be interpreted into a secret inclination for -war, was carefully avoided; while, on the other hand, he -studied those conceits that might be construed into amity. - -In short, he entirely sacrificed every appearance of the -warrior to the masquerade of a buffoon. Such exhibitions -were not uncommon among the Indians, and as Duncan was -already sufficiently disguised in his dress, there certainly -did exist some reason for believing that, with his knowledge -of French, he might pass for a juggler from Ticonderoga, -straggling among the allied and friendly tribes. - -When he was thought to be sufficiently painted, the scout -gave him much friendly advice; concerted signals, and -appointed the place where they should meet, in the event of -mutual success. The parting between Munro and his young -friend was more melancholy; still, the former submitted to -the separation with an indifference that his warm and honest -nature would never have permitted in a more healthful state -of mind. The scout led Heyward aside, and acquainted him -with his intention to leave the veteran in some safe -encampment, in charge of Chingachgook, while he and Uncas -pursued their inquires among the people they had reason to -believe were Delawares. Then, renewing his cautions and -advice, he concluded by saying, with a solemnity and warmth -of feeling, with which Duncan was deeply touched: - -"And, now, God bless you! You have shown a spirit that I -like; for it is the gift of youth, more especially one of -warm blood and a stout heart. But believe the warning of a -man who has reason to know all he says to be true. You will -have occasion for your best manhood, and for a sharper wit -than what is to be gathered in books, afore you outdo the -cunning or get the better of the courage of a Mingo. God -bless you! if the Hurons master your scalp, rely on the -promise of one who has two stout warriors to back him. They -shall pay for their victory, with a life for every hair it -holds. I say, young gentleman, may Providence bless your -undertaking, which is altogether for good; and, remember, -that to outwit the knaves it is lawful to practise things -that may not be naturally the gift of a white-skin." - -Duncan shook his worthy and reluctant associate warmly by -the hand, once more recommended his aged friend to his care, -and returning his good wishes, he motioned to David to -proceed. Hawkeye gazed after the high-spirited and -adventurous young man for several moments, in open -admiration; then, shaking his head doubtingly, he turned, -and led his own division of the party into the concealment -of the forest. - -The route taken by Duncan and David lay directly across the -clearing of the beavers, and along the margin of their pond. - -When the former found himself alone with one so simple, and -so little qualified to render any assistance in desperate -emergencies, he first began to be sensible of the -difficulties of the task he had undertaken. The fading -light increased the gloominess of the bleak and savage -wilderness that stretched so far on every side of him, and -there was even a fearful character in the stillness of those -little huts, that he knew were so abundantly peopled. It -struck him, as he gazed at the admirable structures and the -wonderful precautions of their sagacious inmates, that even -the brutes of these vast wilds were possessed of an instinct -nearly commensurate with his own reason; and he could not -reflect, without anxiety, on the unequal contest that he had -so rashly courted. Then came the glowing image of Alice; -her distress; her actual danger; and all the peril of his -situation was forgotten. Cheering David, he moved on with -the light and vigorous step of youth and enterprise. - -After making nearly a semicircle around the pond, they -diverged from the water-course, and began to ascend to the -level of a slight elevation in that bottom land, over which -they journeyed. Within half an hour they gained the margin -of another opening that bore all the signs of having been -also made by the beavers, and which those sagacious animals -had probably been induced, by some accident, to abandon, for -the more eligible position they now occupied. A very -natural sensation caused Duncan to hesitate a moment, -unwilling to leave the cover of their bushy path, as a man -pauses to collect his energies before he essays any -hazardous experiment, in which he is secretly conscious they -will all be needed. He profited by the halt, to gather such -information as might be obtained from his short and hasty -glances. - -On the opposite side of the clearing, and near the point -where the brook tumbled over some rocks, from a still higher -level, some fifty or sixty lodges, rudely fabricated of logs -brush, and earth intermingled, were to be discovered. They -were arranged without any order, and seemed to be -constructed with very little attention to neatness or -beauty. Indeed, so very inferior were they in the two -latter particulars to the village Duncan had just seen, that -he began to expect a second surprise, no less astonishing -that the former. This expectation was in no degree -diminished, when, by the doubtful twilight, he beheld twenty -or thirty forms rising alternately from the cover of the -tall, coarse grass, in front of the lodges, and then sinking -again from the sight, as it were to burrow in the earth. By -the sudden and hasty glimpses that he caught of these -figures, they seemed more like dark, glancing specters, or -some other unearthly beings, than creatures fashioned with -the ordinary and vulgar materials of flesh and blood. A -gaunt, naked form was seen, for a single instant, tossing -its arms wildly in the air, and then the spot it had filled -was vacant; the figure appearing suddenly in some other and -distant place, or being succeeded by another, possessing the -same mysterious character. David, observing that his -companion lingered, pursued the direction of his gaze, and -in some measure recalled the recollection of Heyward, by -speaking. - -"There is much fruitful soil uncultivated here," he said; -"and, I may add, without the sinful leaven of self-commendation, -that, since my short sojourn in these heathenish abodes, much -good seed has been scattered by the wayside." - -"The tribes are fonder of the chase than of the arts of men -of labor," returned the unconscious Duncan, still gazing at -the objects of his wonder. - -"It is rather joy than labor to the spirit, to lift up the -voice in praise; but sadly do these boys abuse their gifts. -Rarely have I found any of their age, on whom nature has so -freely bestowed the elements of psalmody; and surely, -surely, there are none who neglect them more. Three nights -have I now tarried here, and three several times have I -assembled the urchins to join in sacred song; and as often -have they responded to my efforts with whoopings and -howlings that have chilled my soul!" - -"Of whom speak you?" - -"Of those children of the devil, who waste the precious -moments in yonder idle antics. Ah! the wholesome restraint -of discipline is but little known among this self-abandoned -people. In a country of birches, a rod is never seen, and -it ought not to appear a marvel in my eyes, that the -choicest blessings of Providence are wasted in such cries as -these." - -David closed his ears against the juvenile pack, whose yell -just then rang shrilly through the forest; and Duncan, -suffering his lip to curl, as in mockery of his own -superstition, said firmly: - -"We will proceed." - -Without removing the safeguards form his ears, the master of -song complied, and together they pursued their way toward -what David was sometimes wont to call the "tents of the -Philistines." - - - -CHAPTER 23 - -"But though the beast of game The privilege of chase may -claim; Though space and law the stag we lend Ere hound we -slip, or bow we bend; Whoever recked, where, how, or when -The prowling fox was trapped or slain?"--Lady of the Lake - -It is unusual to find an encampment of the natives, like -those of the more instructed whites, guarded by the presence -of armed men. Well informed of the approach of every -danger, while it is yet at a distance, the Indian generally -rests secure under his knowledge of the signs of the forest, -and the long and difficult paths that separate him from -those he has most reason to dread. But the enemy who, by -any lucky concurrence of accidents, has found means to elude -the vigilance of the scouts, will seldom meet with sentinels -nearer home to sound the alarm. In addition to this general -usage, the tribes friendly to the French knew too well the -weight of the blow that had just been struck, to apprehend -any immediate danger from the hostile nations that were -tributary to the crown of Britain. - -When Duncan and David, therefore, found themselves in the -center of the children, who played the antics already -mentioned, it was without the least previous intimation of -their approach. But so soon as they were observed the whole -of the juvenile pack raised, by common consent, a shrill and -warning whoop; and then sank, as it were, by magic, from -before the sight of their visitors. The naked, tawny bodies -of the crouching urchins blended so nicely at that hour, -with the withered herbage, that at first it seemed as if the -earth had, in truth, swallowed up their forms; though when -surprise permitted Duncan to bend his look more curiously -about the spot, he found it everywhere met by dark, quick, -and rolling eyeballs. - -Gathering no encouragement from this startling presage of -the nature of the scrutiny he was likely to undergo from the -more mature judgments of the men, there was an instant when -the young soldier would have retreated. It was, however, -too late to appear to hesitate. The cry of the children had -drawn a dozen warriors to the door of the nearest lodge, -where they stood clustered in a dark and savage group, -gravely awaiting the nearer approach of those who had -unexpectedly come among them. - -David, in some measure familiarized to the scene, led the -way with a steadiness that no slight obstacle was likely to -disconcert, into this very building. It was the principal -edifice of the village, though roughly constructed of the -bark and branches of trees; being the lodge in which the -tribe held its councils and public meetings during their -temporary residence on the borders of the English province. -Duncan found it difficult to assume the necessary appearance -of unconcern, as he brushed the dark and powerful frames of -the savages who thronged its threshold; but, conscious that -his existence depended on his presence of mind, he trusted -to the discretion of his companion, whose footsteps he -closely followed, endeavoring, as he proceeded, to rally his -thoughts for the occasion. His blood curdled when he found -himself in absolute contact with such fierce and implacable -enemies; but he so far mastered his feelings as to pursue -his way into the center of the lodge, with an exterior that -did not betray the weakness. Imitating the example of the -deliberate Gamut, he drew a bundle of fragrant brush from -beneath a pile that filled the corner of the hut, and seated -himself in silence. - -So soon as their visitor had passed, the observant warriors -fell back from the entrance, and arranging themselves about -him, they seemed patiently to await the moment when it might -comport with the dignity of the stranger to speak. By far -the greater number stood leaning, in lazy, lounging -attitudes, against the upright posts that supported the -crazy building, while three or four of the oldest and most -distinguished of the chiefs placed themselves on the earth a -little more in advance. - -A flaring torch was burning in the place, and set its red -glare from face to face and figure to figure, as it waved in -the currents of air. Duncan profited by its light to read -the probable character of his reception, in the countenances -of his hosts. But his ingenuity availed him little, against -the cold artifices of the people he had encountered. The -chiefs in front scarce cast a glance at his person, keeping -their eyes on the ground, with an air that might have been -intended for respect, but which it was quite easy to -construe into distrust. The men in the shadow were less -reserved. Duncan soon detected their searching, but stolen, -looks which, in truth, scanned his person and attire inch by -inch; leaving no emotion of the countenance, no gesture, no -line of the paint, nor even the fashion of a garment, -unheeded, and without comment. - -At length one whose hair was beginning to be sprinkled with -gray, but whose sinewy limbs and firm tread announced that -he was still equal to the duties of manhood, advanced out of -the gloom of a corner, whither he had probably posted -himself to make his observations unseen, and spoke. He used -the language of the Wyandots, or Hurons; his words were, -consequently, unintelligible to Heyward, though they seemed, -by the gestures that accompanied them, to be uttered more in -courtesy than anger. The latter shook his head, and made a -gesture indicative of his inability to reply. - -"Do none of my brothers speak the French or the English?" he -said, in the former language, looking about him from -countenance to countenance, in hopes of finding a nod of -assent. - -Though more than one had turned, as if to catch the meaning -of his words, they remained unanswered. - -"I should be grieved to think," continued Duncan, speaking -slowly, and using the simplest French of which he was the -master, "to believe that none of this wise and brave nation -understand the language that the 'Grand Monarque' uses when -he talks to his children. His heart would be heavy did he -believe his red warriors paid him so little respect!" - -A long and grave pause succeeded, during which no movement -of a limb, nor any expression of an eye, betrayed the -expression produced by his remark. Duncan, who knew that -silence was a virtue among his hosts, gladly had recourse to -the custom, in order to arrange his ideas. At length the -same warrior who had before addressed him replied, by dryly -demanding, in the language of the Canadas: - -"When our Great Father speaks to his people, is it with the -tongue of a Huron?" - -"He knows no difference in his children, whether the color -of the skin be red, or black, or white," returned Duncan, -evasively; "though chiefly is he satisfied with the brave -Hurons." - -"In what manner will he speak," demanded the wary chief, -"when the runners count to him the scalps which five nights -ago grew on the heads of the Yengeese?" - -"They were his enemies," said Duncan, shuddering -involuntarily; "and doubtless, he will say, it is good; my -Hurons are very gallant." - -"Our Canada father does not think it. Instead of looking -forward to reward his Indians, his eyes are turned backward. -He sees the dead Yengeese, but no Huron. What can this -mean?" - -"A great chief, like him, has more thoughts than tongues. -He looks to see that no enemies are on his trail." - -"The canoe of a dead warrior will not float on the Horican," -returned the savage, gloomily. "His ears are open to the -Delawares, who are not our friends, and they fill them with -lies." - -"It cannot be. See; he has bid me, who am a man that knows -the art of healing, to go to his children, the red Hurons of -the great lakes, and ask if any are sick!" - -Another silence succeeded this annunciation of the character -Duncan had assumed. Every eye was simultaneously bent on -his person, as if to inquire into the truth or falsehood of -the declaration, with an intelligence and keenness that -caused the subject of their scrutiny to tremble for the -result. He was, however, relieved again by the former -speaker. - -"Do the cunning men of the Canadas paint their skins?" the -Huron coldly continued; "we have heard them boast that their -faces were pale." - -"When an Indian chief comes among his white fathers," -returned Duncan, with great steadiness, "he lays aside his -buffalo robe, to carry the shirt that is offered him. My -brothers have given me paint and I wear it." - -A low murmur of applause announced that the compliment of -the tribe was favorably received. The elderly chief made a -gesture of commendation, which was answered by most of his -companions, who each threw forth a hand and uttered a brief -exclamation of pleasure. Duncan began to breathe more -freely, believing that the weight of his examination was -past; and, as he had already prepared a simple and probable -tale to support his pretended occupation, his hopes of -ultimate success grew brighter. - -After a silence of a few moments, as if adjusting his -thoughts, in order to make a suitable answer to the -declaration their guests had just given, another warrior -arose, and placed himself in an attitude to speak. While -his lips were yet in the act of parting, a low but fearful -sound arose from the forest, and was immediately succeeded -by a high, shrill yell, that was drawn out, until it equaled -the longest and most plaintive howl of the wolf. The sudden -and terrible interruption caused Duncan to start from his -seat, unconscious of everything but the effect produced by -so frightful a cry. At the same moment, the warriors glided -in a body from the lodge, and the outer air was filled with -loud shouts, that nearly drowned those awful sounds, which -were still ringing beneath the arches of the woods. Unable -to command himself any longer, the youth broke from the -place, and presently stood in the center of a disorderly -throng, that included nearly everything having life, within -the limits of the encampment. Men, women, and children; the -aged, the inform, the active, and the strong, were alike -abroad, some exclaiming aloud, others clapping their hands -with a joy that seemed frantic, and all expressing their -savage pleasure in some unexpected event. Though astounded, -at first, by the uproar, Heyward was soon enabled to find -its solution by the scene that followed. - -There yet lingered sufficient light in the heavens to -exhibit those bright openings among the tree-tops, where -different paths left the clearing to enter the depths of the -wilderness. Beneath one of them, a line of warriors issued -from the woods, and advanced slowly toward the dwellings. -One in front bore a short pole, on which, as it afterwards -appeared, were suspended several human scalps. The -startling sounds that Duncan had heard were what the whites -have not inappropriately called the "death-hallo"; and each -repetition of the cry was intended to announce to the tribe -the fate of an enemy. Thus far the knowledge of Heyward -assisted him in the explanation; and as he now knew that the -interruption was caused by the unlooked-for return of a -successful war-party, every disagreeable sensation was -quieted in inward congratulation, for the opportune relief -and insignificance it conferred on himself. - -When at the distance of a few hundred feet from the lodges -the newly arrived warriors halted. Their plaintive and -terrific cry, which was intended to represent equally the -wailings of the dead and the triumph to the victors, had -entirely ceased. One of their number now called aloud, in -words that were far from appalling, though not more -intelligible to those for whose ears they were intended, -than their expressive yells. It would be difficult to -convey a suitable idea of the savage ecstasy with which the -news thus imparted was received. The whole encampment, in a -moment, became a scene of the most violent bustle and -commotion. The warriors drew their knives, and flourishing -them, they arranged themselves in two lines, forming a lane -that extended from the war-party to the lodges. The squaws -seized clubs, axes, or whatever weapon of offense first -offered itself to their hands, and rushed eagerly to act -their part in the cruel game that was at hand. Even the -children would not be excluded; but boys, little able to -wield the instruments, tore the tomahawks from the belts of -their fathers, and stole into the ranks, apt imitators of -the savage traits exhibited by their parents. - -Large piles of brush lay scattered about the clearing, and a -wary and aged squaw was occupied in firing as many as might -serve to light the coming exhibition. As the flame arose, -its power exceeded that of the parting day, and assisted to -render objects at the same time more distinct and more -hideous. The whole scene formed a striking picture, whose -frame was composed of the dark and tall border of pines. -The warriors just arrived were the most distant figures. A -little in advance stood two men, who were apparently -selected from the rest, as the principal actors in what was -to follow. The light was not strong enough to render their -features distinct, though it was quite evident that they -were governed by very different emotions. While one stood -erect and firm, prepared to meet his fate like a hero, the -other bowed his head, as if palsied by terror or stricken -with shame. The high-spirited Duncan felt a powerful -impulse of admiration and pity toward the former, though no -opportunity could offer to exhibit his generous emotions. -He watched his slightest movement, however, with eager eyes; -and, as he traced the fine outline of his admirably -proportioned and active frame, he endeavored to persuade -himself, that, if the powers of man, seconded by such noble -resolution, could bear one harmless through so severe a -trial, the youthful captive before him might hope for -success in the hazardous race he was about to run. -Insensibly the young man drew nigher to the swarthy lines of -the Hurons, and scarcely breathed, so intense became his -interest in the spectacle. Just then the signal yell was -given, and the momentary quiet which had preceded it was -broken by a burst of cries, that far exceeded any before -heard. The more abject of the two victims continued -motionless; but the other bounded from the place at the cry, -with the activity and swiftness of a deer. Instead of -rushing through the hostile lines, as had been expected, he -just entered the dangerous defile, and before time was given -for a single blow, turned short, and leaping the heads of a -row of children, he gained at once the exterior and safer -side of the formidable array. The artifice was answered by -a hundred voices raised in imprecations; and the whole of -the excited multitude broke from their order, and spread -themselves about the place in wild confusion. - -A dozen blazing piles now shed their lurid brightness on the -place, which resembled some unhallowed and supernatural -arena, in which malicious demons had assembled to act their -bloody and lawless rites. The forms in the background -looked like unearthly beings, gliding before the eye, and -cleaving the air with frantic and unmeaning gestures; while -the savage passions of such as passed the flames were -rendered fearfully distinct by the gleams that shot athwart -their inflamed visages. - -It will easily be understood that, amid such a concourse of -vindictive enemies, no breathing time was allowed the -fugitive. There was a single moment when it seemed as if he -would have reached the forest, but the whole body of his -captors threw themselves before him, and drove him back into -the center of his relentless persecutors. Turning like a -headed deer, he shot, with the swiftness of an arrow, -through a pillar of forked flame, and passing the whole -multitude harmless, he appeared on the opposite side of the -clearing. Here, too, he was met and turned by a few of the -older and more subtle of the Hurons. Once more he tried the -throng, as if seeking safety in its blindness, and then -several moments succeeded, during which Duncan believed the -active and courageous young stranger was lost. - -Nothing could be distinguished but a dark mass of human -forms tossed and involved in inexplicable confusion. Arms, -gleaming knives, and formidable clubs, appeared above them, -but the blows were evidently given at random. The awful -effect was heightened by the piercing shrieks of the women -and the fierce yells of the warriors. Now and then Duncan -caught a glimpse of a light form cleaving the air in some -desperate bound, and he rather hoped than believed that the -captive yet retained the command of his astonishing powers -of activity. Suddenly the multitude rolled backward, and -approached the spot where he himself stood. The heavy body -in the rear pressed upon the women and children in front, -and bore them to the earth. The stranger reappeared in the -confusion. Human power could not, however, much longer -endure so severe a trial. Of this the captive seemed -conscious. Profiting by the momentary opening, he darted -from among the warriors, and made a desperate, and what -seemed to Duncan a final effort to gain the wood. As if -aware that no danger was to be apprehended from the young -soldier, the fugitive nearly brushed his person in his -flight. A tall and powerful Huron, who had husbanded his -forces, pressed close upon his heels, and with an uplifted -arm menaced a fatal blow. Duncan thrust forth a foot, and -the shock precipitated the eager savage headlong, many feet -in advance of his intended victim. Thought itself is not -quicker than was the motion with which the latter profited -by the advantage; he turned, gleamed like a meteor again -before the eyes of Duncan, and, at the next moment, when the -latter recovered his recollection, and gazed around in quest -of the captive, he saw him quietly leaning against a small -painted post, which stood before the door of the principal -lodge. - -Apprehensive that the part he had taken in the escape might -prove fatal to himself, Duncan left the place without delay. -He followed the crowd, which drew nigh the lodges, gloomy -and sullen, like any other multitude that had been -disappointed in an execution. Curiosity, or perhaps a -better feeling, induced him to approach the stranger. He -found him, standing with one arm cast about the protecting -post, and breathing thick and hard, after his exertions, but -disdaining to permit a single sign of suffering to escape. -His person was now protected by immemorial and sacred usage, -until the tribe in council had deliberated and determined on -his fate. It was not difficult, however, to foretell the -result, if any presage could be drawn from the feelings of -those who crowded the place. - -There was no term of abuse known to the Huron vocabulary -that the disappointed women did not lavishly expend on the -successful stranger. They flouted at his efforts, and told -him, with bitter scoffs, that his feet were better than his -hands; and that he merited wings, while he knew not the use -of an arrow or a knife. To all this the captive made no -reply; but was content to preserve an attitude in which -dignity was singularly blended with disdain. Exasperated as -much by his composure as by his good-fortune, their words -became unintelligible, and were succeeded by shrill, -piercing yells. Just then the crafty squaw, who had taken -the necessary precaution to fire the piles, made her way -through the throng, and cleared a place for herself in front -of the captive. The squalid and withered person of this hag -might well have obtained for her the character of possessing -more than human cunning. Throwing back her light vestment, -she stretched forth her long, skinny arm, in derision, and -using the language of the Lenape, as more intelligible to -the subject of her gibes, she commenced aloud: - -"Look you, Delaware," she said, snapping her fingers in his -face; "your nation is a race of women, and the hoe is better -fitted to your hands than the gun. Your squaws are the -mothers of deer; but if a bear, or a wildcat, or a serpent -were born among you, ye would flee. The Huron girls shall -make you petticoats, and we will find you a husband." - -A burst of savage laughter succeeded this attack, during -which the soft and musical merriment of the younger females -strangely chimed with the cracked voice of their older and -more malignant companion. But the stranger was superior to -all their efforts. His head was immovable; nor did he -betray the slightest consciousness that any were present, -except when his haughty eye rolled toward the dusky forms of -the warriors, who stalked in the background silent and -sullen observers of the scene. - -Infuriated at the self-command of the captive, the woman -placed her arms akimbo; and, throwing herself into a posture -of defiance, she broke out anew, in a torrent of words that -no art of ours could commit successfully to paper. Her -breath was, however, expended in vain; for, although -distinguished in her nation as a proficient in the art of -abuse, she was permitted to work herself into such a fury as -actually to foam at the mouth, without causing a muscle to -vibrate in the motionless figure of the stranger. The -effect of his indifference began to extend itself to the -other spectators; and a youngster, who was just quitting the -condition of a boy to enter the state of manhood, attempted -to assist the termagant, by flourishing his tomahawk before -their victim, and adding his empty boasts to the taunts of -the women. Then, indeed, the captive turned his face toward -the light, and looked down on the stripling with an -expression that was superior to contempt. At the next -moment he resumed his quiet and reclining attitude against -the post. But the change of posture had permitted Duncan to -exchange glances with the firm and piercing eyes of Uncas. - -Breathless with amazement, and heavily oppressed with the -critical situation of his friend, Heyward recoiled before -the look, trembling lest its meaning might, in some unknown -manner, hasten the prisoner's fate. There was not, however, -any instant cause for such an apprehension. Just then a -warrior forced his way into the exasperated crowd. -Motioning the women and children aside with a stern gesture, -he took Uncas by the arm, and led him toward the door of the -council-lodge. Thither all the chiefs, and most of the -distinguished warriors, followed; among whom the anxious -Heyward found means to enter without attracting any -dangerous attention to himself. - -A few minutes were consumed in disposing of those present in -a manner suitable to their rank and influence in the tribe. -An order very similar to that adopted in the preceding -interview was observed; the aged and superior chiefs -occupying the area of the spacious apartment, within the -powerful light of a glaring torch, while their juniors and -inferiors were arranged in the background, presenting a dark -outline of swarthy and marked visages. In the very center -of the lodge, immediately under an opening that admitted the -twinkling light of one or two stars, stood Uncas, calm, -elevated, and collected. His high and haughty carriage was -not lost on his captors, who often bent their looks on his -person, with eyes which, while they lost none of their -inflexibility of purpose, plainly betrayed their admiration -of the stranger's daring. - -The case was different with the individual whom Duncan had -observed to stand forth with his friend, previously to the -desperate trial of speed; and who, instead of joining in the -chase, had remained, throughout its turbulent uproar, like a -cringing statue, expressive of shame and disgrace. Though -not a hand had been extended to greet him, nor yet an eye -had condescended to watch his movements, he had also entered -the lodge, as though impelled by a fate to whose decrees he -submitted, seemingly, without a struggle. Heyward profited -by the first opportunity to gaze in his face, secretly -apprehensive he might find the features of another -acquaintance; but they proved to be those of a stranger, -and, what was still more inexplicable, of one who bore all -the distinctive marks of a Huron warrior. Instead of -mingling with his tribe, however, he sat apart, a solitary -being in a multitude, his form shrinking into a crouching -and abject attitude, as if anxious to fill as little space -as possible. When each individual had taken his proper -station, and silence reigned in the place, the gray-haired -chief already introduced to the reader, spoke aloud, in the -language of the Lenni Lenape. - -"Delaware," he said, "though one of a nation of women, you -have proved yourself a man. I would give you food; but he -who eats with a Huron should become his friend. Rest in -peace till the morning sun, when our last words shall be -spoken." - -"Seven nights, and as many summer days, have I fasted on the -trail of the Hurons," Uncas coldly replied; "the children of -the Lenape know how to travel the path of the just without -lingering to eat." - -"Two of my young men are in pursuit of your companion," -resumed the other, without appearing to regard the boast of -his captive; "when they get back, then will our wise man say -to you 'live' or 'die'." - -"Has a Huron no ears?" scornfully exclaimed Uncas; "twice, -since he has been your prisoner, has the Delaware heard a -gun that he knows. Your young men will never come back!" - -A short and sullen pause succeeded this bold assertion. -Duncan, who understood the Mohican to allude to the fatal -rifle of the scout, bent forward in earnest observation of -the effect it might produce on the conquerors; but the chief -was content with simply retorting: - -"If the Lenape are so skillful, why is one of their bravest -warriors here?" - -"He followed in the steps of a flying coward, and fell into -a snare. The cunning beaver may be caught." - -As Uncas thus replied, he pointed with his finger toward the -solitary Huron, but without deigning to bestow any other -notice on so unworthy an object. The words of the answer -and the air of the speaker produced a strong sensation among -his auditors. Every eye rolled sullenly toward the -individual indicated by the simple gesture, and a low, -threatening murmur passed through the crowd. The ominous -sounds reached the outer door, and the women and children -pressing into the throng, no gap had been left, between -shoulder and shoulder, that was not now filled with the dark -lineaments of some eager and curious human countenance. - -In the meantime, the more aged chiefs, in the center, -communed with each other in short and broken sentences. Not -a word was uttered that did not convey the meaning of the -speaker, in the simplest and most energetic form. Again, a -long and deeply solemn pause took place. It was known, by -all present, to be the brave precursor of a weighty and -important judgment. They who composed the outer circle of -faces were on tiptoe to gaze; and even the culprit for an -instant forgot his shame in a deeper emotion, and exposed -his abject features, in order to cast an anxious and -troubled glance at the dark assemblage of chiefs. The -silence was finally broken by the aged warrior so often -named. He arose from the earth, and moving past the -immovable form of Uncas, placed himself in a dignified -attitude before the offender. At that moment, the withered -squaw already mentioned moved into the circle, in a slow, -sidling sort of a dance, holding the torch, and muttering -the indistinct words of what might have been a species of -incantation. Though her presence was altogether an -intrusion, it was unheeded. - -Approaching Uncas, she held the blazing brand in such a -manner as to cast its red glare on his person, and to expose -the slightest emotion of his countenance. The Mohican -maintained his firm and haughty attitude; and his eyes, so -far from deigning to meet her inquisitive look, dwelt -steadily on the distance, as though it penetrated the -obstacles which impeded the view and looked into futurity. -Satisfied with her examination, she left him, with a slight -expression of pleasure, and proceeded to practise the same -trying experiment on her delinquent countryman. - -The young Huron was in his war paint, and very little of a -finely molded form was concealed by his attire. The light -rendered every limb and joint discernible, and Duncan turned -away in horror when he saw they were writhing in -irrepressible agony. The woman was commencing a low and -plaintive howl at the sad and shameful spectacle, when the -chief put forth his hand and gently pushed her aside. - -"Reed-that-bends," he said, addressing the young culprit by -name, and in his proper language, "though the Great Spirit -has made you pleasant to the eyes, it would have been better -that you had not been born. Your tongue is loud in the -village, but in battle it is still. None of my young men -strike the tomahawk deeper into the war-post -- none of -them so lightly on the Yengeese. The enemy know the shape -of your back, but they have never seen the color of your -eyes. Three times have they called on you to come, and as -often did you forget to answer. Your name will never be -mentioned again in your tribe -- it is already forgotten." - -As the chief slowly uttered these words, pausing -impressively between each sentence, the culprit raised his -face, in deference to the other's rank and years. Shame, -horror, and pride struggled in its lineaments. His eye, -which was contracted with inward anguish, gleamed on the -persons of those whose breath was his fame; and the latter -emotion for an instant predominated. He arose to his feet, -and baring his bosom, looked steadily on the keen, -glittering knife, that was already upheld by his inexorable -judge. As the weapon passed slowly into his heart he even -smiled, as if in joy at having found death less dreadful -than he had anticipated, and fell heavily on his face, at -the feet of the rigid and unyielding form of Uncas. - -The squaw gave a loud and plaintive yell, dashed the torch -to the earth, and buried everything in darkness. The whole -shuddering group of spectators glided from the lodge like -troubled sprites; and Duncan thought that he and the yet -throbbing body of the victim of an Indian judgment had now -become its only tenants. - - - -CHAPTER 24 - -"Thus spoke the sage: the kings without delay Dissolve the -council, and their chief obey."--Pope's Iliad - -A single moment served to convince the youth that he was -mistaken. A hand was laid, with a powerful pressure, on his -arm, and the low voice of Uncas muttered in his ear: - -"The Hurons are dogs. The sight of a coward's blood can -never make a warrior tremble. The 'Gray Head' and the -Sagamore are safe, and the rifle of Hawkeye is not asleep. -Go -- Uncas and the 'Open Hand' are now strangers. It is -enough." - -Heyward would gladly have heard more, but a gentle push from -his friend urged him toward the door, and admonished him of -the danger that might attend the discovery of their -intercourse. Slowly and reluctantly yielding to the -necessity, he quitted the place, and mingled with the throng -that hovered nigh. The dying fires in the clearing cast a -dim and uncertain light on the dusky figures that were -silently stalking to and fro; and occasionally a brighter -gleam than common glanced into the lodge, and exhibited the -figure of Uncas still maintaining its upright attitude near -the dead body of the Huron. - -A knot of warriors soon entered the place again, and -reissuing, they bore the senseless remains into the adjacent -woods. After this termination of the scene, Duncan wandered -among the lodges, unquestioned and unnoticed, endeavoring to -find some trace of her in whose behalf he incurred the risk -he ran. In the present temper of the tribe it would have -been easy to have fled and rejoined his companions, had such -a wish crossed his mind. But, in addition to the never-ceasing -anxiety on account of Alice, a fresher though feebler interest -in the fate of Uncas assisted to chain him to the spot. He -continued, therefore, to stray from hut to hut, looking into -each only to encounter additional disappointment, until he had -made the entire circuit of the village. Abandoning a species of -inquiry that proved so fruitless, he retraced his steps to the -council-lodge, resolved to seek and question David, in order to -put an end to his doubts. - -On reaching the building, which had proved alike the seat of -judgment and the place of execution, the young man found -that the excitement had already subsided. The warriors had -reassembled, and were now calmly smoking, while they -conversed gravely on the chief incidents of their recent -expedition to the head of the Horican. Though the return of -Duncan was likely to remind them of his character, and the -suspicious circumstances of his visit, it produced no -visible sensation. So far, the terrible scene that had just -occurred proved favorable to his views, and he required no -other prompter than his own feelings to convince him of the -expediency of profiting by so unexpected an advantage. - -Without seeming to hesitate, he walked into the lodge, and -took his seat with a gravity that accorded admirably with -the deportment of his hosts. A hasty but searching glance -sufficed to tell him that, though Uncas still remained where -he had left him, David had not reappeared. No other -restraint was imposed on the former than the watchful looks -of a young Huron, who had placed himself at hand; though an -armed warrior leaned against the post that formed one side -of the narrow doorway. In every other respect, the captive -seemed at liberty; still he was excluded from all -participation in the discourse, and possessed much more of -the air of some finely molded statue than a man having life -and volition. - -Heyward had too recently witnessed a frightful instance of -the prompt punishments of the people into whose hands he had -fallen to hazard an exposure by any officious boldness. He -would greatly have preferred silence and meditation to -speech, when a discovery of his real condition might prove -so instantly fatal. Unfortunately for this prudent -resolution, his entertainers appeared otherwise disposed. -He had not long occupied the seat wisely taken a little in -the shade, when another of the elder warriors, who spoke the -French language, addressed him: - -"My Canada father does not forget his children," said the -chief; "I thank him. An evil spirit lives in the wife of -one of my young men. Can the cunning stranger frighten him -away?" - -Heyward possessed some knowledge of the mummery practised -among the Indians, in the cases of such supposed -visitations. He saw, at a glance, that the circumstance -might possibly be improved to further his own ends. It -would, therefore, have been difficult, just then to have -uttered a proposal that would have given him more -satisfaction. Aware of the necessity of preserving the -dignity of his imaginary character, however, he repressed -his feelings, and answered with suitable mystery: - -"Spirits differ; some yield to the power of wisdom, while -others are too strong." - -"My brother is a great medicine," said the cunning savage; -"he will try?" - -A gesture of assent was the answer. The Huron was content -with the assurance, and, resuming his pipe, he awaited the -proper moment to move. The impatient Heyward, inwardly -execrating the cold customs of the savages, which required -such sacrifices to appearance, was fain to assume an air of -indifference, equal to that maintained by the chief, who -was, in truth, a near relative of the afflicted woman. The -minutes lingered, and the delay had seemed an hour to the -adventurer in empiricism, when the Huron laid aside his pipe -and drew his robe across his breast, as if about to lead the -way to the lodge of the invalid. Just then, a warrior of -powerful frame, darkened the door, and stalking silently -among the attentive group, he seated himself on one end of -the low pile of brush which sustained Duncan. The latter -cast an impatient look at his neighbor, and felt his flesh -creep with uncontrollable horror when he found himself in -actual contact with Magua. - -The sudden return of this artful and dreaded chief caused a -delay in the departure of the Huron. Several pipes, that -had been extinguished, were lighted again; while the -newcomer, without speaking a word, drew his tomahawk from -his girdle, and filling the bowl on its head began to inhale -the vapors of the weed through the hollow handle, with as -much indifference as if he had not been absent two weary -days on a long and toilsome hunt. Ten minutes, which -appeared so many ages to Duncan, might have passed in this -manner; and the warriors were fairly enveloped in a cloud of -white smoke before any of them spoke. - -"Welcome!" one at length uttered; "has my friend found the -moose?" - -"The young men stagger under their burdens," returned Magua. -"Let 'Reed-that-bends' go on the hunting path; he will meet -them." - -A deep and awful silence succeeded the utterance of the -forbidden name. Each pipe dropped from the lips of its -owner as though all had inhaled an impurity at the same -instant. The smoke wreathed above their heads in little -eddies, and curling in a spiral form it ascended swiftly -through the opening in the roof of the lodge, leaving the -place beneath clear of its fumes, and each dark visage -distinctly visible. The looks of most of the warriors were -riveted on the earth; though a few of the younger and less -gifted of the party suffered their wild and glaring eyeballs -to roll in the direction of a white-headed savage, who sat -between two of the most venerated chiefs of the tribe. -There was nothing in the air or attire of this Indian that -would seem to entitle him to such a distinction. The former -was rather depressed, than remarkable for the bearing of the -natives; and the latter was such as was commonly worn by the -ordinary men of the nation. Like most around him for more -than a minute his look, too, was on the ground; but, -trusting his eyes at length to steal a glance aside, he -perceived that he was becoming an object of general -attention. Then he arose and lifted his voice in the -general silence. - -"It was a lie," he said; "I had no son. He who was called -by that name is forgotten; his blood was pale, and it came -not from the veins of a Huron; the wicked Chippewas cheated -my squaw. The Great Spirit has said, that the family of -Wiss-entush should end; he is happy who knows that the evil -of his race dies with himself. I have done." - -The speaker, who was the father of the recreant young -Indian, looked round and about him, as if seeking -commendation of his stoicism in the eyes of the auditors. -But the stern customs of his people had made too severe an -exaction of the feeble old man. The expression of his eye -contradicted his figurative and boastful language, while -every muscle in his wrinkled visage was working with -anguish. Standing a single minute to enjoy his bitter -triumph, he turned away, as if sickening at the gaze of men, -and, veiling his face in his blanket, he walked from the -lodge with the noiseless step of an Indian seeking, in the -privacy of his own abode, the sympathy of one like himself, -aged, forlorn and childless. - -The Indians, who believe in the hereditary transmission of -virtues and defects in character, suffered him to depart in -silence. Then, with an elevation of breeding that many in a -more cultivated state of society might profitably emulate, -one of the chiefs drew the attention of the young men from -the weakness they had just witnessed, by saying, in a -cheerful voice, addressing himself in courtesy to Magua, as -the newest comer: - -"The Delawares have been like bears after the honey pots, -prowling around my village. But who has ever found a Huron -asleep?" - -The darkness of the impending cloud which precedes a burst -of thunder was not blacker than the brow of Magua as he -exclaimed: - -"The Delawares of the Lakes!" - -"Not so. They who wear the petticoats of squaws, on their -own river. One of them has been passing the tribe." - -"Did my young men take his scalp?" - -"His legs were good, though his arm is better for the hoe -than the tomahawk," returned the other, pointing to the -immovable form of Uncas. - -Instead of manifesting any womanish curiosity to feast his -eyes with the sight of a captive from a people he was known -to have so much reason to hate, Magua continued to smoke, -with the meditative air that he usually maintained, when -there was no immediate call on his cunning or his eloquence. -Although secretly amazed at the facts communicated by the -speech of the aged father, he permitted himself to ask no -questions, reserving his inquiries for a more suitable -moment. It was only after a sufficient interval that he -shook the ashes from his pipe, replaced the tomahawk, -tightened his girdle, and arose, casting for the first time -a glance in the direction of the prisoner, who stood a -little behind him. The wary, though seemingly abstracted -Uncas, caught a glimpse of the movement, and turning -suddenly to the light, their looks met. Near a minute these -two bold and untamed spirits stood regarding one another -steadily in the eye, neither quailing in the least before -the fierce gaze he encountered. The form of Uncas dilated, -and his nostrils opened like those of a tiger at bay; but so -rigid and unyielding was his posture, that he might easily -have been converted by the imagination into an exquisite and -faultless representation of the warlike deity of his tribe. -The lineaments of the quivering features of Magua proved -more ductile; his countenance gradually lost its character -of defiance in an expression of ferocious joy, and heaving a -breath from the very bottom of his chest, he pronounced -aloud the formidable name of: - -"Le Cerf Agile!" - -Each warrior sprang upon his feet at the utterance of the -well-known appellation, and there was a short period during -which the stoical constancy of the natives was completely -conquered by surprise. The hated and yet respected name was -repeated as by one voice, carrying the sound even beyond the -limits of the lodge. The women and children, who lingered -around the entrance, took up the words in an echo, which was -succeeded by another shrill and plaintive howl. The latter -was not yet ended, when the sensation among the men had -entirely abated. Each one in presence seated himself, as -though ashamed of his precipitation; but it was many minutes -before their meaning eyes ceased to roll toward their -captive, in curious examination of a warrior who had so -often proved his prowess on the best and proudest of their -nation. Uncas enjoyed his victory, but was content with -merely exhibiting his triumph by a quiet smile -- an emblem -of scorn which belongs to all time and every nation. - -Magua caught the expression, and raising his arm, he shook -it at the captive, the light silver ornaments attached to -his bracelet rattling with the trembling agitation of the -limb, as, in a tone of vengeance, he exclaimed, in English: - -"Mohican, you die!" - -"The healing waters will never bring the dead Hurons to -life," returned Uncas, in the music of the Delawares; "the -tumbling river washes their bones; their men are squaws: -their women owls. Go! call together the Huron dogs, that -they may look upon a warrior, My nostrils are offended; they -scent the blood of a coward." - -The latter allusion struck deep, and the injury rankled. -Many of the Hurons understood the strange tongue in which -the captive spoke, among which number was Magua. This -cunning savage beheld, and instantly profited by his -advantage. Dropping the light robe of skin from his -shoulder, he stretched forth his arm, and commenced a burst -of his dangerous and artful eloquence. However much his -influence among his people had been impaired by his -occasional and besetting weakness, as well as by his -desertion of the tribe, his courage and his fame as an -orator were undeniable. He never spoke without auditors, -and rarely without making converts to his opinions. On the -present occasion, his native powers were stimulated by the -thirst of revenge. - -He again recounted the events of the attack on the island at -Glenn's, the death of his associates and the escape of their -most formidable enemies. Then he described the nature and -position of the mount whither he had led such captives as -had fallen into their hands. Of his own bloody intentions -toward the maidens, and of his baffled malice he made no -mention, but passed rapidly on to the surprise of the party -by "La Longue Carabine," and its fatal termination. Here he -paused, and looked about him, in affected veneration for the -departed, but, in truth, to note the effect of his opening -narrative. As usual, every eye was riveted on his face. -Each dusky figure seemed a breathing statue, so motionless -was the posture, so intense the attention of the individual. - -Then Magua dropped his voice which had hitherto been clear, -strong and elevated, and touched upon the merits of the -dead. No quality that was likely to command the sympathy of -an Indian escaped his notice. One had never been known to -follow the chase in vain; another had been indefatigable on -the trail of their enemies. This was brave, that generous. -In short, he so managed his allusions, that in a nation -which was composed of so few families, he contrived to -strike every chord that might find, in its turn, some breast -in which to vibrate. - -"Are the bones of my young men," he concluded, "in the -burial-place of the Hurons? You know they are not. Their -spirits are gone toward the setting sun, and are already -crossing the great waters, to the happy hunting-grounds. -But they departed without food, without guns or knives, -without moccasins, naked and poor as they were born. Shall -this be? Are their souls to enter the land of the just like -hungry Iroquois or unmanly Delawares, or shall they meet -their friends with arms in their hands and robes on their -backs? What will our fathers think the tribes of the -Wyandots have become? They will look on their children with -a dark eye, and say, 'Go! a Chippewa has come hither with -the name of a Huron.' Brothers, we must not forget the dead; -a red-skin never ceases to remember. We will load the back -of this Mohican until he staggers under our bounty, and -dispatch him after my young men. They call to us for aid, -though our ears are not open; they say, 'Forget us not.' When -they see the spirit of this Mohican toiling after them with -his burden, they will know we are of that mind. Then will -they go on happy; and our children will say, 'So did our -fathers to their friends, so must we do to them.' What is a -Yengee? we have slain many, but the earth is still pale. A -stain on the name of Huron can only be hid by blood that -comes from the veins of an Indian. Let this Delaware die." - -The effect of such an harangue, delivered in the nervous -language and with the emphatic manner of a Huron orator, -could scarcely be mistaken. Magua had so artfully blended -the natural sympathies with the religious superstition of -his auditors, that their minds, already prepared by custom -to sacrifice a victim to the manes of their countrymen, lost -every vestige of humanity in a wish for revenge. One -warrior in particular, a man of wild and ferocious mien, had -been conspicuous for the attention he had given to the words -of the speaker. His countenance had changed with each -passing emotion, until it settled into a look of deadly -malice. As Magua ended he arose and, uttering the yell of a -demon, his polished little axe was seen glancing in the -torchlight as he whirled it above his head. The motion and -the cry were too sudden for words to interrupt his bloody -intention. It appeared as if a bright gleam shot from his -hand, which was crossed at the same moment by a dark and -powerful line. The former was the tomahawk in its passage; -the latter the arm that Magua darted forward to divert its -aim. The quick and ready motion of the chief was not -entirely too late. The keen weapon cut the war plume from -the scalping tuft of Uncas, and passed through the frail -wall of the lodge as though it were hurled from some -formidable engine. - -Duncan had seen the threatening action, and sprang upon his -feet, with a heart which, while it leaped into his throat, -swelled with the most generous resolution in behalf of his -friend. A glance told him that the blow had failed, and -terror changed to admiration. Uncas stood still, looking -his enemy in the eye with features that seemed superior to -emotion. Marble could not be colder, calmer, or steadier -than the countenance he put upon this sudden and vindictive -attack. Then, as if pitying a want of skill which had -proved so fortunate to himself, he smiled, and muttered a -few words of contempt in his own tongue. - -"No!" said Magua, after satisfying himself of the safety of -the captive; "the sun must shine on his shame; the squaws -must see his flesh tremble, or our revenge will be like the -play of boys. Go! take him where there is silence; let us -see if a Delaware can sleep at night, and in the morning -die." - -The young men whose duty it was to guard the prisoner -instantly passed their ligaments of bark across his arms, -and led him from the lodge, amid a profound and ominous -silence. It was only as the figure of Uncas stood in the -opening of the door that his firm step hesitated. There he -turned, and, in the sweeping and haughty glance that he -threw around the circle of his enemies, Duncan caught a look -which he was glad to construe into an expression that he was -not entirely deserted by hope. - -Magua was content with his success, or too much occupied -with his secret purposes to push his inquiries any further. -Shaking his mantle, and folding it on his bosom, he also -quitted the place, without pursuing a subject which might -have proved so fatal to the individual at his elbow. -Notwithstanding his rising resentment, his natural firmness, -and his anxiety on behalf of Uncas, Heyward felt sensibly -relieved by the absence of so dangerous and so subtle a foe. -The excitement produced by the speech gradually subsided. -The warriors resumed their seats and clouds of smoke once -more filled the lodge. For near half an hour, not a -syllable was uttered, or scarcely a look cast aside; a grave -and meditative silence being the ordinary succession to -every scene of violence and commotion among these beings, -who were alike so impetuous and yet so self-restrained. - -When the chief, who had solicited the aid of Duncan, -finished his pipe, he made a final and successful movement -toward departing. A motion of a finger was the intimation -he gave the supposed physician to follow; and passing -through the clouds of smoke, Duncad was glad, on more -accounts than one, to be able at last to breathe the pure -air of a cool and refreshing summer evening. - -Instead of pursuing his way among those lodges where Heyward -had already made his unsuccessful search, his companion -turned aside, and proceeded directly toward the base of an -adjacent mountain, which overhung the temporary village. A -thicket of brush skirted its foot, and it became necessary -to proceed through a crooked and narrow path. The boys had -resumed their sports in the clearing, and were enacting a -mimic chase to the post among themselves. In order to -render their games as like the reality as possible, one of -the boldest of their number had conveyed a few brands into -some piles of tree-tops that had hitherto escaped the -burning. The blaze of one of these fires lighted the way of -the chief and Duncan, and gave a character of additional -wildness to the rude scenery. At a little distance from a -bald rock, and directly in its front, they entered a grassy -opening, which they prepared to cross. Just then fresh fuel -was added to the fire, and a powerful light penetrated even -to that distant spot. It fell upon the white surface of the -mountain, and was reflected downward upon a dark and -mysterious-looking being that arose, unexpectedly, in their -path. The Indian paused, as if doubtful whether to proceed, -and permitted his companion to approach his side. A large -black ball, which at first seemed stationary, now began to -move in a manner that to the latter was inexplicable. Again -the fire brightened and its glare fell more distinctly on -the object. Then even Duncan knew it, by its restless and -sidling attitudes, which kept the upper part of its form in -constant motion, while the animal itself appeared seated, to -be a bear. Though it growled loudly and fiercely, and there -were instants when its glistening eyeballs might be seen, it -gave no other indications of hostility. The Huron, at -least, seemed assured that the intentions of this singular -intruder were peaceable, for after giving it an attentive -examination, he quietly pursued his course. - -Duncan, who knew that the animal was often domesticated -among the Indians, followed the example of his companion, -believing that some favorite of the tribe had found its way -into the thicket, in search of food. They passed it -unmolested. Though obliged to come nearly in contact with -the monster, the Huron, who had at first so warily -determined the character of his strange visitor, was now -content with proceeding without wasting a moment in further -examination; but Heyward was unable to prevent his eyes from -looking backward, in salutary watchfulness against attacks -in the rear. His uneasiness was in no degree diminished -when he perceived the beast rolling along their path, and -following their footsteps. He would have spoken, but the -Indian at that moment shoved aside a door of bark, and -entered a cavern in the bosom of the mountain. - -Profiting by so easy a method of retreat, Duncan stepped -after him, and was gladly closing the slight cover to the -opening, when he felt it drawn from his hand by the beast, -whose shaggy form immediately darkened the passage. They -were now in a straight and long gallery, in a chasm of the -rocks, where retreat without encountering the animal was -impossible. Making the best of the circumstances, the young -man pressed forward, keeping as close as possible to his -conductor. The bear growled frequently at his heels, and -once or twice its enormous paws were laid on his person, as -if disposed to prevent his further passage into the den. - -How long the nerves of Heyward would have sustained him in -this extraordinary situation, it might be difficult to -decide, for, happily, he soon found relief. A glimmer of -light had constantly been in their front, and they now -arrived at the place whence it proceeded. - -A large cavity in the rock had been rudely fitted to answer -the purposes of many apartments. The subdivisions were -simple but ingenious, being composed of stone, sticks, and -bark, intermingled. Openings above admitted the light by -day, and at night fires and torches supplied the place of -the sun. Hither the Hurons had brought most of their -valuables, especially those which more particularly -pertained to the nation; and hither, as it now appeared, the -sick woman, who was believed to be the victim of -supernatural power, had been transported also, under an -impression that her tormentor would find more difficulty in -making his assaults through walls of stone than through the -leafy coverings of the lodges. The apartment into which -Duncan and his guide first entered, had been exclusively -devoted to her accommodation. The latter approached her -bedside, which was surrounded by females, in the center of -whom Heyward was surprised to find his missing friend David. - -A single look was sufficient to apprise the pretended leech -that the invalid was far beyond his powers of healing. She -lay in a sort of paralysis, indifferent to the objects which -crowded before her sight, and happily unconscious of -suffering. Heyward was far from regretting that his -mummeries were to be performed on one who was much too ill -to take an interest in their failure or success. The slight -qualm of conscience which had been excited by the intended -deception was instantly appeased, and he began to collect -his thoughts, in order to enact his part with suitable -spirit, when he found he was about to be anticipated in his -skill by an attempt to prove the power of music. - -Gamut, who had stood prepared to pour forth his spirit in -song when the visitors entered, after delaying a moment, -drew a strain from his pipe, and commenced a hymn that might -have worked a miracle, had faith in its efficacy been of much -avail. He was allowed to proceed to the close, the Indians -respecting his imaginary infirmity, and Duncan too glad of -the delay to hazard the slightest interruption. As the -dying cadence of his strains was falling on the ears of the -latter, he started aside at hearing them repeated behind -him, in a voice half human and half sepulchral. Looking -around, he beheld the shaggy monster seated on end in a -shadow of the cavern, where, while his restless body swung -in the uneasy manner of the animal, it repeated, in a sort -of low growl, sounds, if not words, which bore some slight -resemblance to the melody of the singer. - -The effect of so strange an echo on David may better be -imagined than described. His eyes opened as if he doubted -their truth; and his voice became instantly mute in excess -of wonder. A deep-laid scheme, of communicating some -important intelligence to Heyward, was driven from his -recollection by an emotion which very nearly resembled fear, -but which he was fain to believe was admiration. Under its -influence, he exclaimed aloud: "She expects you, and is at -hand"; and precipitately left the cavern. - - - -CHAPTER 25 - -"Snug.--Have you the lion's part written? Pray you, if -it be, give it to me, for I am slow of study. -Quince.--You may do it extempore, for it is nothing -but roaring."--Midsummer Night's Dream - -There was a strange blending of the ridiculous with that -which was solemn in this scene. The beast still continued -its rolling, and apparently untiring movements, though its -ludicrous attempt to imitate the melody of David ceased the -instant the latter abandoned the field. The words of Gamut -were, as has been seen, in his native tongue; and to Duncan -they seem pregnant with some hidden meaning, though nothing -present assisted him in discovering the object of their -allusion. A speedy end was, however, put to every -conjecture on the subject, by the manner of the chief, who -advanced to the bedside of the invalid, and beckoned away -the whole group of female attendants that had clustered -there to witness the skill of the stranger. He was -implicitly, though reluctantly, obeyed; and when the low -echo which rang along the hollow, natural gallery, from the -distant closing door, had ceased, pointing toward his -insensible daughter, he said: - -"Now let my brother show his power." - -Thus unequivocally called on to exercise the functions of -his assumed character, Heyward was apprehensive that the -smallest delay might prove dangerous. Endeavoring, then, to -collect his ideas, he prepared to perform that species of -incantation, and those uncouth rites, under which the Indian -conjurers are accustomed to conceal their ignorance and -impotency. It is more than probable that, in the disordered -state of his thoughts, he would soon have fallen into some -suspicious, if not fatal, error had not his incipient -attempts been interrupted by a fierce growl from the -quadruped. Three several times did he renew his efforts to -proceed, and as often was he met by the same unaccountable -opposition, each interruption seeming more savage and -threatening than the preceding. - -"The cunning ones are jealous," said the Huron; "I go. -Brother, the woman is the wife of one of my bravest young -men; deal justly by her. Peace!" he added, beckoning to the -discontented beast to be quiet; "I go." - -The chief was as good as his word, and Duncan now found -himself alone in that wild and desolate abode with the -helpless invalid and the fierce and dangerous brute. The -latter listened to the movements of the Indian with that air -of sagacity that a bear is known to possess, until another -echo announced that he had also left the cavern, when it -turned and came waddling up to Duncan before whom it seated -itself in its natural attitude, erect like a man. The youth -looked anxiously about him for some weapon, with which he -might make a resistance against the attack he now seriously -expected. - -It seemed, however, as if the humor of the animal had -suddenly changed. Instead of continuing its discontented -growls, or manifesting any further signs of anger, the whole -of its shaggy body shook violently, as if agitated by some -strange internal convulsion. The huge and unwieldy talons -pawed stupidly about the grinning muzzle, and while Heyward -kept his eyes riveted on its movements with jealous -watchfulness, the grim head fell on one side and in its -place appeared the honest sturdy countenance of the scout, -who was indulging from the bottom of his soul in his own -peculiar expression of merriment. - -"Hist!" said the wary woodsman, interrupting Heyward's -exclamation of surprise; "the varlets are about the place, -and any sounds that are not natural to witchcraft would -bring them back upon us in a body." - -"Tell me the meaning of this masquerade; and why you have -attempted so desperate an adventure?" - -"Ah, reason and calculation are often outdone by accident," -returned the scout. "But, as a story should always commence -at the beginning, I will tell you the whole in order. After -we parted I placed the commandant and the Sagamore in an old -beaver lodge, where they are safer from the Hurons than they -would be in the garrison of Edward; for your high north-west -Indians, not having as yet got the traders among them, -continued to venerate the beaver. After which Uncas and I -pushed for the other encampment as was agreed. Have you -seen the lad?" - -"To my great grief! He is captive, and condemned to die at -the rising of the sun." - -"I had misgivings that such would be his fate," resumed the -scout, in a less confident and joyous tone. But soon -regaining his naturally firm voice, he continued: "His bad -fortune is the true reason of my being here, for it would -never do to abandon such a boy to the Hurons. A rare time -the knaves would have of it, could they tie 'The Bounding -Elk' and 'The Long Carabine', as they call me, to the same -stake! Though why they have given me such a name I never -knew, there being as little likeness between the gifts of -'killdeer' and the performance of one of your real Canada -carabynes, as there is between the natur' of a pipe-stone -and a flint." - -"Keep to your tale," said the impatient Heyward; "we know -not at what moment the Hurons may return." - -"No fear of them. A conjurer must have his time, like a -straggling priest in the settlements. We are as safe from -interruption as a missionary would be at the beginning of a -two hours' discourse. Well, Uncas and I fell in with a -return party of the varlets; the lad was much too forward -for a scout; nay, for that matter, being of hot blood, he -was not so much to blame; and, after all, one of the Hurons -proved a coward, and in fleeing led him into an ambushment." - -"And dearly has he paid for the weakness." - -The scout significantly passed his hand across his own -throat, and nodded, as if he said, "I comprehend your -meaning." After which he continued, in a more audible -though scarcely more intelligible language: - -"After the loss of the boy I turned upon the Hurons, as you -may judge. There have been scrimmages atween one or two of -their outlyers and myself; but that is neither here nor -there. So, after I had shot the imps, I got in pretty nigh -to the lodges without further commotion. Then what should -luck do in my favor but lead me to the very spot where one -of the most famous conjurers of the tribe was dressing -himself, as I well knew, for some great battle with Satan -- -though why should I call that luck, which it now seems was -an especial ordering of Providence. So a judgmatical rap -over the head stiffened the lying impostor for a time, and -leaving him a bit of walnut for his supper, to prevent an -uproar, and stringing him up atween two saplings, I made -free with his finery, and took the part of the bear on -myself, in order that the operations might proceed." - -"And admirably did you enact the character; the animal -itself might have been shamed by the representation." - -"Lord, major," returned the flattered woodsman, "I should be -but a poor scholar for one who has studied so long in the -wilderness, did I not know how to set forth the movements or -natur' of such a beast. Had it been now a catamount, or -even a full-size panther, I would have embellished a -performance for you worth regarding. But it is no such -marvelous feat to exhibit the feats of so dull a beast; -though, for that matter, too, a bear may be overacted. Yes, -yes; it is not every imitator that knows natur' may be -outdone easier than she is equaled. But all our work is yet -before us. Where is the gentle one?" - -"Heaven knows. I have examined every lodge in the village, -without discovering the slightest trace of her presence in -the tribe." - -"You heard what the singer said, as he left us: 'She is at -hand, and expects you'?" - -"I have been compelled to believe he alluded to this unhappy -woman." - -"The simpleton was frightened, and blundered through his -message; but he had a deeper meaning. Here are walls enough -to separate the whole settlement. A bear ought to climb; -therefore will I take a look above them. There may be honey-pots -hid in these rocks, and I am a beast, you know, that has a -hankering for the sweets." - -The scout looked behind him, laughing at his own conceit, -while he clambered up the partition, imitating, as he went, -the clumsy motions of the beast he represented; but the -instant the summit was gained he made a gesture for silence, -and slid down with the utmost precipitation. - -"She is here," he whispered, "and by that door you will find -her. I would have spoken a word of comfort to the afflicted -soul; but the sight of such a monster might upset her -reason. Though for that matter, major, you are none of the -most inviting yourself in your paint." - -Duncan, who had already swung eagerly forward, drew -instantly back on hearing these discouraging words. - -"Am I, then, so very revolting?" he demanded, with an air of -chagrin. - -"You might not startle a wolf, or turn the Royal Americans -from a discharge; but I have seen the time when you had a -better favored look; your streaked countenances are not -ill-judged of by the squaws, but young women of white blood give -the preference to their own color. See," he added, pointing -to a place where the water trickled from a rock, forming a -little crystal spring, before it found an issue through the -adjacent crevices; "you may easily get rid of the Sagamore's -daub, and when you come back I will try my hand at a new -embellishment. It's as common for a conjurer to alter his -paint as for a buck in the settlements to change his -finery." - -The deliberate woodsman had little occasion to hunt for -arguments to enforce his advice. He was yet speaking when -Duncan availed himself of the water. In a moment every -frightful or offensive mark was obliterated, and the youth -appeared again in the lineaments with which he had been -gifted by nature. Thus prepared for an interview with his -mistress, he took a hasty leave of his companion, and -disappeared through the indicated passage. The scout -witnessed his departure with complacency, nodding his head -after him, and muttering his good wishes; after which he -very coolly set about an examination of the state of the -larder, among the Hurons, the cavern, among other purposes, -being used as a receptacle for the fruits of their hunts. - -Duncan had no other guide than a distant glimmering light, -which served, however, the office of a polar star to the -lover. By its aid he was enabled to enter the haven of his -hopes, which was merely another apartment of the cavern, -that had been solely appropriated to the safekeeping of so -important a prisoner as a daughter of the commandant of -William Henry. It was profusely strewed with the plunder of -that unlucky fortress. In the midst of this confusion he -found her he sought, pale, anxious and terrified, but -lovely. David had prepared her for such a visit. - -"Duncan!" she exclaimed, in a voice that seemed to tremble -at the sounds created by itself. - -"Alice!" he answered, leaping carelessly among trunks, -boxes, arms, and furniture, until he stood at her side. - -"I knew that you would never desert me," she said, looking -up with a momentary glow on her otherwise dejected -countenance. "But you are alone! Grateful as it is to be -thus remembered, I could wish to think you are not entirely -alone." - -Duncan, observing that she trembled in a manner which -betrayed her inability to stand, gently induced her to be -seated, while he recounted those leading incidents which it -has been our task to accord. Alice listened with breathless -interest; and though the young man touched lightly on the -sorrows of the stricken father; taking care, however, not to -wound the self-love of his auditor, the tears ran as freely -down the cheeks of the daughter as though she had never wept -before. The soothing tenderness of Duncan, however, soon -quieted the first burst of her emotions, and she then heard -him to the close with undivided attention, if not with -composure. - -"And now, Alice," he added, "you will see how much is still -expected of you. By the assistance of our experienced and -invaluable friend, the scout, we may find our way from this -savage people, but you will have to exert your utmost -fortitude. Remember that you fly to the arms of your -venerable parent, and how much his happiness, as well as -your own, depends on those exertions." - -"Can I do otherwise for a father who has done so much for -me?" - -"And for me, too," continued the youth, gently pressing the -hand he held in both his own. - -The look of innocence and surprise which he received in -return convinced Duncan of the necessity of being more -explicit. - -"This is neither the place nor the occasion to detain you -with selfish wishes," he added; "but what heart loaded like -mine would not wish to cast its burden? They say misery is -the closest of all ties; our common suffering in your behalf -left but little to be explained between your father and -myself." - -"And, dearest Cora, Duncan; surely Cora was not forgotten?" - -"Not forgotten! no; regretted, as woman was seldom mourned -before. Your venerable father knew no difference between -his children; but I -- Alice, you will not be offended when -I say, that to me her worth was in a degree obscured --" - -"Then you knew not the merit of my sister," said Alice, -withdrawing her hand; "of you she ever speaks as of one who -is her dearest friend." - -"I would gladly believe her such," returned Duncan, hastily; -"I could wish her to be even more; but with you, Alice, I -have the permission of your father to aspire to a still -nearer and dearer tie." - -Alice trembled violently, and there was an instant during -which she bent her face aside, yielding to the emotions -common to her sex; but they quickly passed away, leaving her -mistress of her deportment, if not of her affections. - -"Heyward," she said, looking him full in the face with a -touching expression of innocence and dependency, "give me -the sacred presence and the holy sanction of that parent -before you urge me further." - -"Though more I should not, less I could not say," the youth -was about to answer, when he was interrupted by a light tap -on his shoulder. Starting to his feet, he turned, and, -confronting the intruder, his looks fell on the dark form -and malignant visage of Magua. The deep guttural laugh of -the savage sounded, at such a moment, to Duncan, like the -hellish taunt of a demon. Had he pursued the sudden and -fierce impulse of the instant, he would have cast himself on -the Huron, and committed their fortunes to the issue of a -deadly struggle. But, without arms of any description, -ignorant of what succor his subtle enemy could command, and -charged with the safety of one who was just then dearer than -ever to his heart, he no sooner entertained than he -abandoned the desperate intention. - -"What is your purpose?" said Alice, meekly folding her arms -on her bosom, and struggling to conceal an agony of -apprehension in behalf of Heyward, in the usual cold and -distant manner with which she received the visits of her -captor. - -The exulting Indian had resumed his austere countenance, -though he drew warily back before the menacing glance of the -young man's fiery eye. He regarded both his captives for a -moment with a steady look, and then, stepping aside, he -dropped a log of wood across a door different from that by -which Duncan had entered. The latter now comprehended the -manner of his surprise, and, believing himself irretrievably -lost, he drew Alice to his bosom, and stood prepared to meet -a fate which he hardly regretted, since it was to be -suffered in such company. But Magua meditated no immediate -violence. His first measures were very evidently taken to -secure his new captive; nor did he even bestow a second -glance at the motionless forms in the center of the cavern, -until he had completely cut off every hope of retreat -through the private outlet he had himself used. He was -watched in all his movements by Heyward, who, however, -remained firm, still folding the fragile form of Alice to -his heart, at once too proud and too hopeless to ask favor -of an enemy so often foiled. When Magua had effected his -object he approached his prisoners, and said in English: - -"The pale faces trap the cunning beavers; but the red-skins -know how to take the Yengeese." - -"Huron, do your worst!" exclaimed the excited Heyward, -forgetful that a double stake was involved in his life; "you -and your vengeance are alike despised." - -"Will the white man speak these words at the stake?" asked -Magua; manifesting, at the same time, how little faith he -had in the other's resolution by the sneer that accompanied -his words. - -"Here; singly to your face, or in the presence of your -nation." - -"Le Renard Subtil is a great chief!" returned the Indian; -"he will go and bring his young men, to see how bravely a -pale face can laugh at tortures." - -He turned away while speaking, and was about to leave the -place through the avenue by which Duncan had approached, -when a growl caught his ear, and caused him to hesitate. -The figure of the bear appeared in the door, where it sat, -rolling from side to side in its customary restlessness. -Magua, like the father of the sick woman, eyed it keenly for -a moment, as if to ascertain its character. He was far -above the more vulgar superstitions of his tribe, and so -soon as he recognized the well-known attire of the conjurer, -he prepared to pass it in cool contempt. But a louder and -more threatening growl caused him again to pause. Then he -seemed as if suddenly resolved to trifle no longer, and -moved resolutely forward. - -The mimic animal, which had advanced a little, retired -slowly in his front, until it arrived again at the pass, -when, rearing on his hinder legs, it beat the air with its -paws, in the manner practised by its brutal prototype. - -"Fool!" exclaimed the chief, in Huron, "go play with the -children and squaws; leave men to their wisdom." - -He once more endeavored to pass the supposed empiric, -scorning even the parade of threatening to use the knife, or -tomahawk, that was pendent from his belt. Suddenly the -beast extended its arms, or rather legs, and inclosed him in -a grasp that might have vied with the far-famed power of the -"bear's hug" itself. Heyward had watched the whole -procedure, on the part of Hawkeye, with breathless interest. -At first he relinquished his hold of Alice; then he caught -up a thong of buckskin, which had been used around some -bundle, and when he beheld his enemy with his two arms -pinned to his side by the iron muscles of the scout, he -rushed upon him, and effectually secured them there. Arms, -legs, and feet were encircled in twenty folds of the thong, -in less time than we have taken to record the circumstance. -When the formidable Huron was completely pinioned, the scout -released his hold, and Duncan laid his enemy on his back, -utterly helpless. - -Throughout the whole of this sudden and extraordinary -operation, Magua, though he had struggled violently, until -assured he was in the hands of one whose nerves were far -better strung than his own, had not uttered the slightest -exclamation. But when Hawkeye, by way of making a summary -explanation of his conduct, removed the shaggy jaws of the -beast, and exposed his own rugged and earnest countenance to -the gaze of the Huron, the philosophy of the latter was so -far mastered as to permit him to utter the never failing: - -"Hugh!" - -"Ay, you've found your tongue," said his undisturbed -conqueror; "now, in order that you shall not use it to our -ruin, I must make free to stop your mouth." - -As there was no time to be lost, the scout immediately set -about effecting so necessary a precaution; and when he had -gagged the Indian, his enemy might safely have been -considered as "hors de combat." - -"By what place did the imp enter?" asked the industrious -scout, when his work was ended. "Not a soul has passed my -way since you left me." - -Duncan pointed out the door by which Magua had come, and -which now presented too many obstacles to a quick retreat. - -"Bring on the gentle one, then," continued his friend; "we -must make a push for the woods by the other outlet." - -"'Tis impossible!" said Duncan; "fear has overcome her, and -she is helpless. Alice! my sweet, my own Alice, arouse -yourself; now is the moment to fly. 'Tis in vain! she -hears, but is unable to follow. Go, noble and worthy -friend; save yourself, and leave me to my fate." - -"Every trail has its end, and every calamity brings its -lesson!" returned the scout. "There, wrap her in them -Indian cloths. Conceal all of her little form. Nay, that -foot has no fellow in the wilderness; it will betray her. -All, every part. Now take her in your arms, and follow. -Leave the rest to me." - -Duncan, as may be gathered from the words of his companion, -was eagerly obeying; and, as the other finished speaking, he -took the light person of Alice in his arms, and followed in -the footsteps of the scout. They found the sick woman as -they had left her, still alone, and passed swiftly on, by -the natural gallery, to the place of entrance. As they -approached the little door of bark, a murmur of voices -without announced that the friends and relatives of the -invalid were gathered about the place, patiently awaiting a -summons to re-enter. - -"If I open my lips to speak," Hawkeye whispered, "my -English, which is the genuine tongue of a white-skin, will -tell the varlets that an enemy is among them. You must give -'em your jargon, major; and say that we have shut the evil -spirit in the cave, and are taking the woman to the woods in -order to find strengthening roots. Practise all your -cunning, for it is a lawful undertaking." - -The door opened a little, as if one without was listening to -the proceedings within, and compelled the scout to cease his -directions. A fierce growl repelled the eavesdropper, and -then the scout boldly threw open the covering of bark, and -left the place, enacting the character of a bear as he -proceeded. Duncan kept close at his heels, and soon found -himself in the center of a cluster of twenty anxious -relatives and friends. - -The crowd fell back a little, and permitted the father, and -one who appeared to be the husband of the woman, to -approach. - -"Has my brother driven away the evil spirit?" demanded the -former. "What has he in his arms?" - -"Thy child," returned Duncan, gravely; "the disease has gone -out of her; it is shut up in the rocks. I take the woman to -a distance, where I will strengthen her against any further -attacks. She will be in the wigwam of the young man when -the sun comes again." - -When the father had translated the meaning of the stranger's -words into the Huron language, a suppressed murmur announced -the satisfaction with which this intelligence was received. -The chief himself waved his hand for Duncan to proceed, -saying aloud, in a firm voice, and with a lofty manner: - -"Go; I am a man, and I will enter the rock and fight the -wicked one." - -Heyward had gladly obeyed, and was already past the little -group, when these startling words arrested him. - -"Is my brother mad?" he exclaimed; "is he cruel? He will -meet the disease, and it will enter him; or he will drive -out the disease, and it will chase his daughter into the -woods. No; let my children wait without, and if the spirit -appears beat him down with clubs. He is cunning, and will -bury himself in the mountain, when he sees how many are -ready to fight him." - -This singular warning had the desired effect. Instead of -entering the cavern, the father and husband drew their -tomahawks, and posted themselves in readiness to deal their -vengeance on the imaginary tormentor of their sick relative, -while the women and children broke branches from the bushes, -or seized fragments of the rock, with a similar intention. -At this favorable moment the counterfeit conjurers -disappeared. - -Hawkeye, at the same time that he had presumed so far on the -nature of the Indian superstitions, was not ignorant that -they were rather tolerated than relied on by the wisest of -the chiefs. He well knew the value of time in the present -emergency. Whatever might be the extent of the self-delusion -of his enemies, and however it had tended to assist his -schemes, the slightest cause of suspicion, acting on the -subtle nature of an Indian, would be likely to prove fatal. -Taking the path, therefore, that was most likely to avoid -observation, he rather skirted than entered the village. -The warriors were still to be seen in the distance, by the -fading light of the fires, stalking from lodge to lodge. -But the children had abandoned their sports for their beds -of skins, and the quiet of night was already beginning to -prevail over the turbulence and excitement of so busy and -important an evening. - -Alice revived under the renovating influence of the open -air, and, as her physical rather than her mental powers had -been the subject of weakness, she stood in no need of any -explanation of that which had occurred. - -"Now let me make an effort to walk," she said, when they had -entered the forest, blushing, though unseen, that she had -not been sooner able to quit the arms of Duncan; "I am -indeed restored." - -"Nay, Alice, you are yet too weak." - -The maiden struggled gently to release herself, and Heyward -was compelled to part with his precious burden. The -representative of the bear had certainly been an entire -stranger to the delicious emotions of the lover while his -arms encircled his mistress; and he was, perhaps, a stranger -also to the nature of that feeling of ingenuous shame that -oppressed the trembling Alice. But when he found himself at -a suitable distance from the lodges he made a halt, and -spoke on a subject of which he was thoroughly the master. - -"This path will lead you to the brook," he said; "follow its -northern bank until you come to a fall; mount the hill on -your right, and you will see the fires of the other people. -There you must go and demand protection; if they are true -Delawares you will be safe. A distant flight with that -gentle one, just now, is impossible. The Hurons would -follow up our trail, and master our scalps before we had got -a dozen miles. Go, and Providence be with you." - -"And you!" demanded Heyward, in surprise; "surely we part -not here?" - -"The Hurons hold the pride of the Delawares; the last of the -high blood of the Mohicans is in their power," returned the -scout; "I go to see what can be done in his favor. Had they -mastered your scalp, major, a knave should have fallen for -every hair it held, as I promised; but if the young Sagamore -is to be led to the stake, the Indians shall see also how a -man without a cross can die." - -Not in the least offended with the decided preference that -the sturdy woodsman gave to one who might, in some degree, -be called the child of his adoption, Duncan still continued -to urge such reasons against so desperate an effort as -presented themselves. He was aided by Alice, who mingled -her entreaties with those of Heyward that he would abandon a -resolution that promised so much danger, with so little hope -of success. Their eloquence and ingenuity were expended in -vain. The scout heard them attentively, but impatiently, -and finally closed the discussion, by answering, in a tone -that instantly silenced Alice, while it told Heyward how -fruitless any further remonstrances would be. - -"I have heard," he said, "that there is a feeling in youth -which binds man to woman closer than the father is tied to -the son. It may be so. I have seldom been where women of -my color dwell; but such may be the gifts of nature in the -settlements. You have risked life, and all that is dear to -you, to bring off this gentle one, and I suppose that some -such disposition is at the bottom of it all. As for me, I -taught the lad the real character of a rifle; and well has -he paid me for it. I have fou't at his side in many a -bloody scrimmage; and so long as I could hear the crack of -his piece in one ear, and that of the Sagamore in the other, -I knew no enemy was on my back. Winters and summer, nights -and days, have we roved the wilderness in company, eating of -the same dish, one sleeping while the other watched; and -afore it shall be said that Uncas was taken to the torment, -and I at hand -- There is but a single Ruler of us all, -whatever may the color of the skin; and Him I call to -witness, that before the Mohican boy shall perish for the -want of a friend, good faith shall depart the 'arth, and -'killdeer' become as harmless as the tooting we'pon of the -singer!" - -Duncan released his hold on the arm of the scout, who -turned, and steadily retraced his steps toward the lodges. -After pausing a moment to gaze at his retiring form, the -successful and yet sorrowful Heyward and Alice took their -way together toward the distant village of the Delawares. - - - -CHAPTER 26 - -"Bot.--Let me play the lion too."--Midsummer Night's -Dream - -Notwithstanding the high resolution of Hawkeye he fully -comprehended all the difficulties and danger he was about to -incur. In his return to the camp, his acute and practised -intellects were intently engaged in devising means to -counteract a watchfulness and suspicion on the part of his -enemies, that he knew were, in no degree, inferior to his -own. Nothing but the color of his skin had saved the lives -of Magua and the conjurer, who would have been the first -victims sacrificed to his own security, had not the scout -believed such an act, however congenial it might be to the -nature of an Indian, utterly unworthy of one who boasted a -descent from men that knew no cross of blood. Accordingly, -he trusted to the withes and ligaments with which he had -bound his captives, and pursued his way directly toward the -center of the lodges. As he approached the buildings, his -steps become more deliberate, and his vigilant eye suffered -no sign, whether friendly or hostile, to escape him. A -neglected hut was a little in advance of the others, and -appeared as if it had been deserted when half completed -- -most probably on account of failing in some of the more -important requisites; such as wood or water. A faint light -glimmered through its cracks, however, and announced that, -notwithstanding its imperfect structure, it was not without -a tenant. Thither, then, the scout proceeded, like a -prudent general, who was about to feel the advanced -positions of his enemy, before he hazarded the main attack. - -Throwing himself into a suitable posture for the beast he -represented, Hawkeye crawled to a little opening, where he -might command a view of the interior. It proved to be the -abiding place of David Gamut. Hither the faithful singing-master -had now brought himself, together with all his sorrows, his -apprehensions, and his meek dependence on the protection of -Providence. At the precise moment when his ungainly person -came under the observation of the scout, in the manner just -mentioned, the woodsman himself, though in his assumed character, -was the subject of the solitary being's profounded reflections. - -However implicit the faith of David was in the performance -of ancient miracles, he eschewed the belief of any direct -supernatural agency in the management of modern morality. -In other words, while he had implicit faith in the ability -of Balaam's ass to speak, he was somewhat skeptical on the -subject of a bear's singing; and yet he had been assured of -the latter, on the testimony of his own exquisite organs. -There was something in his air and manner that betrayed to -the scout the utter confusion of the state of his mind. He -was seated on a pile of brush, a few twigs from which -occasionally fed his low fire, with his head leaning on his -arm, in a posture of melancholy musing. The costume of the -votary of music had undergone no other alteration from that -so lately described, except that he had covered his bald -head with the triangular beaver, which had not proved -sufficiently alluring to excite the cupidity of any of his -captors. - -The ingenious Hawkeye, who recalled the hasty manner in -which the other had abandoned his post at the bedside of the -sick woman, was not without his suspicions concerning the -subject of so much solemn deliberation. First making the -circuit of the hut, and ascertaining that it stood quite -alone, and that the character of its inmate was likely to -protect it from visitors, he ventured through its low door, -into the very presence of Gamut. The position of the latter -brought the fire between them; and when Hawkeye had seated -himself on end, near a minute elapsed, during which the two -remained regarding each other without speaking. The -suddenness and the nature of the surprise had nearly proved -too much for -- we will not say the philosophy -- but for -the pitch and resolution of David. He fumbled for his pitch-pipe, -and arose with a confused intention of attempting a musical exorcism. - -"Dark and mysterious monster!" he exclaimed, while with -trembling hands he disposed of his auxiliary eyes, and -sought his never-failing resource in trouble, the gifted -version of the psalms; "I know not your nature nor intents; -but if aught you meditate against the person and rights of -one of the humblest servants of the temple, listen to the -inspired language of the youth of Israel, and repent." - -The bear shook his shaggy sides, and then a well-known voice -replied: - -"Put up the tooting we'pon, and teach your throat modesty. -Five words of plain and comprehendible English are worth -just now an hour of squalling." - -"What art thou?" demanded David, utterly disqualified to -pursue his original intention, and nearly gasping for -breath. - -"A man like yourself; and one whose blood is as little -tainted by the cross of a bear, or an Indian, as your own. -Have you so soon forgotten from whom you received the -foolish instrument you hold in your hand?" - -"Can these things be?" returned David, breathing more -freely, as the truth began to dawn upon him. "I have found -many marvels during my sojourn with the heathen, but surely -nothing to excel this." - -"Come, come," returned Hawkeye, uncasing his honest -countenance, the better to assure the wavering confidence of -his companion; "you may see a skin, which, if it be not as -white as one of the gentle ones, has no tinge of red to it -that the winds of the heaven and the sun have not bestowed. -Now let us to business." - -"First tell me of the maiden, and of the youth who so -bravely sought her," interrupted David. - -"Ay, they are happily freed from the tomahawks of these -varlets. But can you put me on the scent of Uncas?" - -"The young man is in bondage, and much I fear his death is -decreed. I greatly mourn that one so well disposed should -die in his ignorance, and I have sought a goodly hymn --" - -"Can you lead me to him?" - -"The task will not be difficult," returned David, -hesitating; "though I greatly fear your presence would -rather increase than mitigate his unhappy fortunes." - -"No more words, but lead on," returned Hawkeye, concealing -his face again, and setting the example in his own person, -by instantly quitting the lodge. - -As they proceeded, the scout ascertained that his companion -found access to Uncas, under privilege of his imaginary -infirmity, aided by the favor he had acquired with one of -the guards, who, in consequence of speaking a little -English, had been selected by David as the subject of a -religious conversion. How far the Huron comprehended the -intentions of his new friend may well be doubted; but as -exclusive attention is as flattering to a savage as to a -more civilized individual, it had produced the effect we -have mentioned. It is unnecessary to repeat the shrewd -manner with which the scout extracted these particulars from -the simple David; neither shall we dwell in this place on -the nature of the instruction he delivered, when completely -master of all the necessary facts; as the whole will be -sufficiently explained to the reader in the course of the -narrative. - -The lodge in which Uncas was confined was in the very center -of the village, and in a situation, perhaps, more difficult -than any other to approach, or leave, without observation. -But it was not the policy of Hawkeye to affect the least -concealment. Presuming on his disguise, and his ability to -sustain the character he had assumed, he took the most plain -and direct route to the place. The hour, however, afforded -him some little of that protection which he appeared so much -to despise. The boys were already buried in sleep, and all -the women, and most of the warriors, had retired to their -lodges for the night. Four or five of the latter only -lingered about the door of the prison of Uncas, wary but -close observers of the manner of their captive. - -At the sight of Gamut, accompanied by one in the well-known -masquerade of their most distinguished conjurer, they -readily made way for them both. Still they betrayed no -intention to depart. On the other hand, they were evidently -disposed to remain bound to the place by an additional -interest in the mysterious mummeries that they of course -expected from such a visit. - -From the total inability of the scout to address the Hurons -in their own language, he was compelled to trust the -conversation entirely to David. Notwithstanding the -simplicity of the latter, he did ample justice to the -instructions he had received, more than fulfilling the -strongest hopes of his teacher. - -"The Delawares are women!" he exclaimed, addressing himself -to the savage who had a slight understanding of the language -in which he spoke; "the Yengeese, my foolish countrymen, -have told them to take up the tomahawk, and strike their -fathers in the Canadas, and they have forgotten their sex. -Does my brother wish to hear 'Le Cerf Agile' ask for his -petticoats, and see him weep before the Hurons, at the -stake?" - -The exclamation "Hugh!" delivered in a strong tone of -assent, announced the gratification the savage would receive -in witnessing such an exhibition of weakness in an enemy so -long hated and so much feared. - -"Then let him step aside, and the cunning man will blow upon -the dog. Tell it to my brothers." - -The Huron explained the meaning of David to his fellows, -who, in their turn, listened to the project with that sort -of satisfaction that their untamed spirits might be expected -to find in such a refinement in cruelty. They drew back a -little from the entrance and motioned to the supposed -conjurer to enter. But the bear, instead of obeying, -maintained the seat it had taken, and growled: - -"The cunning man is afraid that his breath will blow upon -his brothers, and take away their courage too," continued -David, improving the hint he received; "they must stand -further off." - -The Hurons, who would have deemed such a misfortune the -heaviest calamity that could befall them, fell back in a -body, taking a position where they were out of earshot, -though at the same time they could command a view of the -entrance to the lodge. Then, as if satisfied of their -safety, the scout left his position, and slowly entered the -place. It was silent and gloomy, being tenanted solely by -the captive, and lighted by the dying embers of a fire, -which had been used for the purposed of cookery. - -Uncas occupied a distant corner, in a reclining attitude, -being rigidly bound, both hands and feet, by strong and -painful withes. When the frightful object first presented -itself to the young Mohican, he did not deign to bestow a -single glance on the animal. The scout, who had left David -at the door, to ascertain they were not observed, thought it -prudent to preserve his disguise until assured of their -privacy. Instead of speaking, therefore, he exerted himself -to enact one of the antics of the animal he represented. -The young Mohican, who at first believed his enemies had -sent in a real beast to torment him, and try his nerves, -detected in those performances that to Heyward had appeared -so accurate, certain blemishes, that at once betrayed the -counterfeit. Had Hawkeye been aware of the low estimation -in which the skillful Uncas held his representations, he -would probably have prolonged the entertainment a little in -pique. But the scornful expression of the young man's eye -admitted of so many constructions, that the worthy scout was -spared the mortification of such a discovery. As soon, -therefore, as David gave the preconcerted signal, a low -hissing sound was heard in the lodge in place of the fierce -growlings of the bear. - -Uncas had cast his body back against the wall of the hut and -closed his eyes, as if willing to exclude so contemptible -and disagreeable an object from his sight. But the moment -the noise of the serpent was heard, he arose, and cast his -looks on each side of him, bending his head low, and turning -it inquiringly in every direction, until his keen eye rested -on the shaggy monster, where it remained riveted, as though -fixed by the power of a charm. Again the same sounds were -repeated, evidently proceeding from the mouth of the beast. -Once more the eyes of the youth roamed over the interior of -the lodge, and returning to the former resting place, he -uttered, in a deep, suppressed voice: - -"Hawkeye!" - -"Cut his bands," said Hawkeye to David, who just then -approached them. - -The singer did as he was ordered, and Uncas found his limbs -released. At the same moment the dried skin of the animal -rattled, and presently the scout arose to his feet, in -proper person. The Mohican appeared to comprehend the -nature of the attempt his friend had made, intuitively, -neither tongue nor feature betraying another symptom of -surprise. When Hawkeye had cast his shaggy vestment, which -was done by simply loosing certain thongs of skin, he drew a -long, glittering knife, and put it in the hands of Uncas. - -"The red Hurons are without," he said; "let us be ready." -At the same time he laid his finger significantly on another -similar weapon, both being the fruits of his prowess among -their enemies during the evening. - -"We will go," said Uncas. - -"Whither?" - -"To the Tortoises; they are the children of my -grandfathers." - -"Ay, lad," said the scout in English -- a language he was -apt to use when a little abstracted in mind; "the same blood -runs in your veins, I believe; but time and distance has a -little changed its color. What shall we do with the Mingoes -at the door? They count six, and this singer is as good as -nothing." - -"The Hurons are boasters," said Uncas, scornfully; "their -'totem' is a moose, and they run like snails. The Delawares -are children of the tortoise, and they outstrip the deer." - -"Ay, lad, there is truth in what you say; and I doubt not, -on a rush, you would pass the whole nation; and, in a -straight race of two miles, would be in, and get your breath -again, afore a knave of them all was within hearing of the -other village. But the gift of a white man lies more in his -arms than in his legs. As for myself, I can brain a Huron -as well as a better man; but when it comes to a race the -knaves would prove too much for me." - -Uncas, who had already approached the door, in readiness to -lead the way, now recoiled, and placed himself, once more, -in the bottom of the lodge. But Hawkeye, who was too much -occupied with his own thoughts to note the movement, -continued speaking more to himself than to his companion. - -"After all," he said, "it is unreasonable to keep one man in -bondage to the gifts of another. So, Uncas, you had better -take the lead, while I will put on the skin again, and trust -to cunning for want of speed." - -The young Mohican made no reply, but quietly folded his -arms, and leaned his body against one of the upright posts -that supported the wall of the hut. - -"Well," said the scout looking up at him, "why do you tarry? -There will be time enough for me, as the knaves will give -chase to you at first." - -"Uncas will stay," was the calm reply. - -"For what?" - -"To fight with his father's brother, and die with the friend -of the Delawares." - -"Ay, lad," returned Hawkeye, squeezing the hand of Uncas -between his own iron fingers; "'twould have been more like a -Mingo than a Mohican had you left me. But I thought I would -make the offer, seeing that youth commonly loves life. -Well, what can't be done by main courage, in war, must be -done by circumvention. Put on the skin; I doubt not you can -play the bear nearly as well as myself." - -Whatever might have been the private opinion of Uncas of -their respective abilities in this particular, his grave -countenance manifested no opinion of his superiority. He -silently and expeditiously encased himself in the covering -of the beast, and then awaited such other movements as his -more aged companion saw fit to dictate. - -"Now, friend," said Hawkeye, addressing David, "an exchange -of garments will be a great convenience to you, inasmuch as -you are but little accustomed to the make-shifts of the -wilderness. Here, take my hunting shirt and cap, and give -me your blanket and hat. You must trust me with the book -and spectacles, as well as the tooter, too; if we ever meet -again, in better times, you shall have all back again, with -many thanks into the bargain." - -David parted with the several articles named with a -readiness that would have done great credit to his -liberality, had he not certainly profited, in many -particulars, by the exchange. Hawkeye was not long in -assuming his borrowed garments; and when his restless eyes -were hid behind the glasses, and his head was surmounted by -the triangular beaver, as their statures were not -dissimilar, he might readily have passed for the singer, by -starlight. As soon as these dispositions were made, the -scout turned to David, and gave him his parting -instructions. - -"Are you much given to cowardice?" he bluntly asked, by way -of obtaining a suitable understanding of the whole case -before he ventured a prescription. - -"My pursuits are peaceful, and my temper, I humbly trust, is -greatly given to mercy and love," returned David, a little -nettled at so direct an attack on his manhood; "but there -are none who can say that I have ever forgotten my faith in -the Lord, even in the greatest straits." - -"Your chiefest danger will be at the moment when the savages -find out that they have been deceived. If you are not then -knocked on the head, your being a non-composser will protect -you; and you'll then have a good reason to expect to die in -your bed. If you stay, it must be to sit down here in the -shadow, and take the part of Uncas, until such times as the -cunning of the Indians discover the cheat, when, as I have -already said, your times of trial will come. So choose for -yourself -- to make a rush or tarry here." - -"Even so," said David, firmly; "I will abide in the place of -the Delaware. Bravely and generously has he battled in my -behalf, and this, and more, will I dare in his service." - -"You have spoken as a man, and like one who, under wiser -schooling, would have been brought to better things. Hold -your head down, and draw in your legs; their formation might -tell the truth too early. Keep silent as long as may be; -and it would be wise, when you do speak, to break out -suddenly in one of your shoutings, which will serve to -remind the Indians that you are not altogether as -responsible as men should be. If however, they take your -scalp, as I trust and believe they will not, depend on it, -Uncas and I will not forget the deed, but revenge it as -becomes true warriors and trusty friends." - -"Hold!" said David, perceiving that with this assurance they -were about to leave him; "I am an unworthy and humble -follower of one who taught not the damnable principle of -revenge. Should I fall, therefore, seek no victims to my -manes, but rather forgive my destroyers; and if you remember -them at all, let it be in prayers for the enlightening of -their minds, and for their eternal welfare." - -The scout hesitated, and appeared to muse. - -"There is a principle in that," he said, "different from the -law of the woods; and yet it is fair and noble to reflect -upon." Then heaving a heavy sigh, probably among the last -he ever drew in pining for a condition he had so long -abandoned, he added: "it is what I would wish to practise -myself, as one without a cross of blood, though it is not -always easy to deal with an Indian as you would with a -fellow Christian. God bless you, friend; I do believe your -scent is not greatly wrong, when the matter is duly -considered, and keeping eternity before the eyes, though -much depends on the natural gifts, and the force of -temptation." - -So saying, the scout returned and shook David cordially by -the hand; after which act of friendship he immediately left -the lodge, attended by the new representative of the beast. - -The instant Hawkeye found himself under the observation of -the Hurons, he drew up his tall form in the rigid manner of -David, threw out his arm in the act of keeping time, and -commenced what he intended for an imitation of his psalmody. -Happily for the success of this delicate adventure, he had -to deal with ears but little practised in the concord of -sweet sounds, or the miserable effort would infallibly have -been detected. It was necessary to pass within a dangerous -proximity of the dark group of the savages, and the voice of -the scout grew louder as they drew nigher. When at the -nearest point the Huron who spoke the English thrust out an -arm, and stopped the supposed singing-master. - -"The Delaware dog!" he said, leaning forward, and peering -through the dim light to catch the expression of the other's -features; "is he afraid? Will the Hurons hear his groans?" - -A growl, so exceedingly fierce and natural, proceeded from -the beast, that the young Indian released his hold and -started aside, as if to assure himself that it was not a -veritable bear, and no counterfeit, that was rolling before -him. Hawkeye, who feared his voice would betray him to his -subtle enemies, gladly profited by the interruption, to -break out anew in such a burst of musical expression as -would, probably, in a more refined state of society have -been termed "a grand crash." Among his actual auditors, -however, it merely gave him an additional claim to that -respect which they never withhold from such as are believed -to be the subjects of mental alienation. The little knot of -Indians drew back in a body, and suffered, as they thought, -the conjurer and his inspired assistant to proceed. - -It required no common exercise of fortitude in Uncas and the -scout to continue the dignified and deliberate pace they had -assumed in passing the lodge; especially as they immediately -perceived that curiosity had so far mastered fear, as to -induce the watchers to approach the hut, in order to witness -the effect of the incantations. The least injudicious or -impatient movement on the part of David might betray them, -and time was absolutely necessary to insure the safety of -the scout. The loud noise the latter conceived it politic -to continue, drew many curious gazers to the doors of the -different huts as thy passed; and once or twice a dark-looking -warrior stepped across their path, led to the act by -superstition and watchfulness. They were not, however, -interrupted, the darkness of the hour, and the boldness of -the attempt, proving their principal friends. - -The adventurers had got clear of the village, and were now -swiftly approaching the shelter of the woods, when a loud -and long cry arose from the lodge where Uncas had been -confined. The Mohican started on his feet, and shook his -shaggy covering, as though the animal he counterfeited was -about to make some desperate effort. - -"Hold!" said the scout, grasping his friend by the shoulder, -"let them yell again! 'Twas nothing but wonderment." - -He had no occasion to delay, for at the next instant a burst -of cries filled the outer air, and ran along the whole -extent of the village. Uncas cast his skin, and stepped -forth in his own beautiful proportions. Hawkeye tapped him -lightly on the shoulder, and glided ahead. - -"Now let the devils strike our scent!" said the scout, -tearing two rifles, with all their attendant accouterments, -from beneath a bush, and flourishing "killdeer" as he handed -Uncas his weapon; "two, at least, will find it to their -deaths." - -Then, throwing their pieces to a low trail, like sportsmen -in readiness for their game, they dashed forward, and were -soon buried in the somber darkness of the forest. - - - -CHAPTER 27 - -"Ant. I shall remember: When C'sar says Do this, it is -performed."--Julius Caesar - -The impatience of the savages who lingered about the prison -of Uncas, as has been seen, had overcome their dread of the -conjurer's breath. They stole cautiously, and with beating -hearts, to a crevice, through which the faint light of the -fire was glimmering. For several minutes they mistook the -form of David for that of the prisoner; but the very -accident which Hawkeye had foreseen occurred. Tired of -keeping the extremities of his long person so near together, -the singer gradually suffered the lower limbs to extend -themselves, until one of his misshapen feet actually came in -contact with and shoved aside the embers of the fire. At -first the Hurons believed the Delaware had been thus -deformed by witchcraft. But when David, unconscious of -being observed, turned his head, and exposed his simple, -mild countenance, in place of the haughty lineaments of -their prisoner, it would have exceeded the credulity of even -a native to have doubted any longer. They rushed together -into the lodge, and, laying their hands, with but little -ceremony, on their captive, immediately detected the -imposition. Then arose the cry first heard by the -fugitives. It was succeeded by the most frantic and angry -demonstrations of vengeance. David, however, firm in his -determination to cover the retreat of his friends, was -compelled to believe that his own final hour had come. -Deprived of his book and his pipe, he was fain to trust to a -memory that rarely failed him on such subjects; and breaking -forth in a loud and impassioned strain, he endeavored to -smooth his passage into the other world by singing the -opening verse of a funeral anthem. The Indians were -seasonably reminded of his infirmity, and, rushing into the -open air, they aroused the village in the manner described. - -A native warrior fights as he sleeps, without the protection -of anything defensive. The sounds of the alarm were, -therefore, hardly uttered before two hundred men were afoot, -and ready for the battle or the chase, as either might be -required. The escape was soon known; and the whole tribe -crowded, in a body, around the council-lodge, impatiently -awaiting the instruction of their chiefs. In such a sudden -demand on their wisdom, the presence of the cunning Magua -could scarcely fail of being needed. His name was -mentioned, and all looked round in wonder that he did not -appear. Messengers were then despatched to his lodge -requiring his presence. - -In the meantime, some of the swiftest and most discreet of -the young men were ordered to make the circuit of the -clearing, under cover of the woods, in order to ascertain -that their suspected neighbors, the Delawares, designed no -mischief. Women and children ran to and fro; and, in short, -the whole encampment exhibited another scene of wild and -savage confusion. Gradually, however, these symptoms of -disorder diminished; and in a few minutes the oldest and -most distinguished chiefs were assembled in the lodge, in -grave consultation. - -The clamor of many voices soon announced that a party -approached, who might be expected to communicate some -intelligence that would explain the mystery of the novel -surprise. The crowd without gave way, and several warriors -entered the place, bringing with them the hapless conjurer, -who had been left so long by the scout in duress. - -Notwithstanding this man was held in very unequal estimation -among the Hurons, some believing implicitly in his power, -and others deeming him an impostor, he was now listened to -by all with the deepest attention. When his brief story was -ended, the father of the sick woman stepped forth, and, in a -few pithy expression, related, in his turn, what he knew. -These two narratives gave a proper direction to the -subsequent inquiries, which were now made with the -characteristic cunning of savages. - -Instead of rushing in a confused and disorderly throng to -the cavern, ten of the wisest and firmest among the chiefs -were selected to prosecute the investigation. As no time -was to be lost, the instant the choice was made the -individuals appointed rose in a body and left the place -without speaking. On reaching the entrance, the younger men -in advance made way for their seniors; and the whole -proceeded along the low, dark gallery, with the firmness of -warriors ready to devote themselves to the public good, -though, at the same time, secretly doubting the nature of -the power with which they were about to contend. - -The outer apartment of the cavern was silent and gloomy. -The woman lay in her usual place and posture, though there -were those present who affirmed they had seen her borne to -the woods by the supposed "medicine of the white men." Such -a direct and palpable contradiction of the tale related by -the father caused all eyes to be turned on him. Chafed by -the silent imputation, and inwardly troubled by so -unaccountable a circumstance, the chief advanced to the side -of the bed, and, stooping, cast an incredulous look at the -features, as if distrusting their reality. His daughter was -dead. - -The unerring feeling of nature for a moment prevailed and -the old warrior hid his eyes in sorrow. Then, recovering -his self-possession, he faced his companions, and, pointing -toward the corpse, he said, in the language of his people: - -"The wife of my young man has left us! The Great Spirit is -angry with his children." - -The mournful intelligence was received in solemn silence. -After a short pause, one of the elder Indians was about to -speak, when a dark-looking object was seen rolling out of an -adjoining apartment, into the very center of the room where -they stood. Ignorant of the nature of the beings they had -to deal with, the whole party drew back a little, and, -rising on end, exhibited the distorted but still fierce and -sullen features of Magua. The discovery was succeeded by a -general exclamation of amazement. - -As soon, however, as the true situation of the chief was -understood, several knives appeared, and his limbs and -tongue were quickly released. The Huron arose, and shook -himself like a lion quitting his lair. Not a word escaped -him, though his hand played convulsively with the handle of -his knife, while his lowering eyes scanned the whole party, -as if they sought an object suited to the first burst of his -vengeance. - -It was happy for Uncas and the scout, and even David, that -they were all beyond the reach of his arm at such a moment; -for, assuredly, no refinement in cruelty would then have -deferred their deaths, in opposition to the promptings of -the fierce temper that nearly choked him. Meeting -everywhere faces that he knew as friends, the savage grated -his teeth together like rasps of iron, and swallowed his -passion for want of a victim on whom to vent it. This -exhibition of anger was noted by all present; and from an -apprehension of exasperating a temper that was already -chafed nearly to madness, several minutes were suffered to -pass before another word was uttered. When, however, -suitable time had elapsed, the oldest of the party spoke. - -"My friend has found an enemy," he said. "Is he nigh that -the Hurons might take revenge?" - -"Let the Delaware die!" exclaimed Magua, in a voice of -thunder. - -Another longer and expressive silence was observed, and was -broken, as before, with due precaution, by the same -individual. - -"The Mohican is swift of foot, and leaps far," he said; "but -my young men are on his trail." - -"Is he gone?" demanded Magua, in tones so deep and guttural, -that they seemed to proceed from his inmost chest. - -"An evil spirit has been among us, and the Delaware has -blinded our eyes." - -"An evil spirit!" repeated the other, mockingly; "'tis the -spirit that has taken the lives of so many Hurons; the -spirit that slew my young men at 'the tumbling river'; that -took their scalps at the 'healing spring'; and who has, now, -bound the arms of Le Renard Subtil!" - -"Of whom does my friend speak?" - -"Of the dog who carries the heart and cunning of a Huron -under a pale skin -- La Longue Carabine." - -The pronunciation of so terrible a name produced the usual -effect among his auditors. But when time was given for -reflection, and the warriors remembered that their -formidable and daring enemy had even been in the bosom of -their encampment, working injury, fearful rage took the -place of wonder, and all those fierce passions with which -the bosom of Magua had just been struggling were suddenly -transferred to his companions. Some among them gnashed -their teeth in anger, others vented their feelings in yells, -and some, again, beat the air as frantically as if the -object of their resentment were suffering under their blows. -But this sudden outbreaking of temper as quickly subsided in -the still and sullen restraint they most affected in their -moments of inaction. - -Magua, who had in his turn found leisure for reflection, now -changed his manner, and assumed the air of one who knew how -to think and act with a dignity worthy of so grave a -subject. - -"Let us go to my people," he said; "they wait for us." - -His companions consented in silence, and the whole of the -savage party left the cavern and returned to the council-lodge. -When they were seated, all eyes turned on Magua, who -understood, from such an indication, that, by common -consent, they had devolved the duty of relating what had -passed on him. He arose, and told his tale without -duplicity or reservation. The whole deception practised by -both Duncan and Hawkeye was, of course, laid naked, and no -room was found, even for the most superstitious of the -tribe, any longer to affix a doubt on the character of the -occurrences. It was but too apparent that they had been -insultingly, shamefully, disgracefully deceived. When he -had ended, and resumed his seat, the collected tribe -- for -his auditors, in substance, included all the fighting men of -the party -- sat regarding each other like men astonished -equally at the audacity and the success of their enemies. -The next consideration, however, was the means and -opportunities for revenge. - -Additional pursuers were sent on the trail of the fugitives; -and then the chiefs applied themselves, in earnest, to the -business of consultation. Many different expedients were -proposed by the elder warriors, in succession, to all of -which Magua was a silent and respectful listener. That -subtle savage had recovered his artifice and self-command, -and now proceeded toward his object with his customary -caution and skill. It was only when each one disposed to -speak had uttered his sentiments, that he prepared to -advance his own opinions. They were given with additional -weight from the circumstance that some of the runners had -already returned, and reported that their enemies had been -traced so far as to leave no doubt of their having sought -safety in the neighboring camp of their suspected allies, -the Delawares. With the advantage of possessing this -important intelligence, the chief warily laid his plans -before his fellows, and, as might have been anticipated from -his eloquence and cunning, they were adopted without a -dissenting voice. They were, briefly, as follows, both in -opinions and in motives. - -It has been already stated that, in obedience to a policy -rarely departed from, the sisters were separated so soon as -they reached the Huron village. Magua had early discovered -that in retaining the person of Alice, he possessed the most -effectual check on Cora. When they parted, therefore, he -kept the former within reach of his hand, consigning the one -he most valued to the keeping of their allies. The -arrangement was understood to be merely temporary, and was -made as much with a view to flatter his neighbors as in -obedience to the invariable rule of Indian policy. - -While goaded incessantly by these revengeful impulses that -in a savage seldom slumber, the chief was still attentive to -his more permanent personal interests. The follies and -disloyalty committed in his youth were to be expiated by a -long and painful penance, ere he could be restored to the -full enjoyment of the confidence of his ancient people; and -without confidence there could be no authority in an Indian -tribe. In this delicate and arduous situation, the crafty -native had neglected no means of increasing his influence; -and one of the happiest of his expedients had been the -success with which he had cultivated the favor of their -powerful and dangerous neighbors. The result of his -experiment had answered all the expectations of his policy; -for the Hurons were in no degree exempt from that governing -principle of nature, which induces man to value his gifts -precisely in the degree that they are appreciated by others. - -But, while he was making this ostensible sacrifice to -general considerations, Magua never lost sight of his -individual motives. The latter had been frustrated by the -unlooked-for events which had placed all his prisoners -beyond his control; and he now found himself reduced to the -necessity of suing for favors to those whom it had so lately -been his policy to oblige. - -Several of the chiefs had proposed deep and treacherous -schemes to surprise the Delawares and, by gaining possession -of their camp, to recover their prisoners by the same blow; -for all agreed that their honor, their interests, and the -peace and happiness of their dead countrymen, imperiously -required them speedily to immolate some victims to their -revenge. But plans so dangerous to attempt, and of such -doubtful issue, Magua found little difficulty in defeating. -He exposed their risk and fallacy with his usual skill; and -it was only after he had removed every impediment, in the -shape of opposing advice, that he ventured to propose his -own projects. - -He commenced by flattering the self-love of his auditors; a -never-failing method of commanding attention. When he had -enumerated the many different occasions on which the Hurons -had exhibited their courage and prowess, in the punishment -of insults, he digressed in a high encomium on the virtue of -wisdom. He painted the quality as forming the great point -of difference between the beaver and other brutes; between -the brutes and men; and, finally, between the Hurons, in -particular, and the rest of the human race. After he had -sufficiently extolled the property of discretion, he -undertook to exhibit in what manner its use was applicable -to the present situation of their tribe. On the one hand, -he said, was their great pale father, the governor of the -Canadas, who had looked upon his children with a hard eye -since their tomahawks had been so red; on the other, a -people as numerous as themselves, who spoke a different -language, possessed different interests, and loved them not, -and who would be glad of any pretense to bring them in -disgrace with the great white chief. Then he spoke of their -necessities; of the gifts they had a right to expect for -their past services; of their distance from their proper -hunting-grounds and native villages; and of the necessity of -consulting prudence more, and inclination less, in so -critical circumstances. When he perceived that, while the -old men applauded his moderation, many of the fiercest and -most distinguished of the warriors listened to these politic -plans with lowering looks, he cunningly led them back to the -subject which they most loved. He spoke openly of the -fruits of their wisdom, which he boldly pronounced would be -a complete and final triumph over their enemies. He even -darkly hinted that their success might be extended, with -proper caution, in such a manner as to include the -destruction of all whom they had reason to hate. In short, -he so blended the warlike with the artful, the obvious with -the obscure, as to flatter the propensities of both parties, -and to leave to each subject of hope, while neither could -say it clearly comprehended his intentions. - -The orator, or the politician, who can produce such a state -of things, is commonly popular with his contemporaries, -however he may be treated by posterity. All perceived that -more was meant than was uttered, and each one believed that -the hidden meaning was precisely such as his own faculties -enabled him to understand, or his own wishes led him to -anticipate. - -In this happy state of things, it is not surprising that the -management of Magua prevailed. The tribe consented to act -with deliberation, and with one voice they committed the -direction of the whole affair to the government of the chief -who had suggested such wise and intelligible expedients. - -Magua had now attained one great object of all his cunning -and enterprise. The ground he had lost in the favor of his -people was completely regained, and he found himself even -placed at the head of affairs. He was, in truth, their -ruler; and, so long as he could maintain his popularity, no -monarch could be more despotic, especially while the tribe -continued in a hostile country. Throwing off, therefore, -the appearance of consultation, he assumed the grave air of -authority necessary to support the dignity of his office. - -Runners were despatched for intelligence in different -directions; spies were ordered to approach and feel the -encampment of the Delawares; the warriors were dismissed to -their lodges, with an intimation that their services would -soon be needed; and the women and children were ordered to -retire, with a warning that it was their province to be -silent. When these several arrangements were made, Magua -passed through the village, stopping here and there to pay a -visit where he thought his presence might be flattering to -the individual. He confirmed his friends in their -confidence, fixed the wavering, and gratified all. Then he -sought his own lodge. The wife the Huron chief had -abandoned, when he was chased from among his people, was -dead. Children he had none; and he now occupied a hut, -without companion of any sort. It was, in fact, the -dilapidated and solitary structure in which David had been -discovered, and whom he had tolerated in his presence, on -those few occasions when they met, with the contemptuous -indifference of a haughty superiority. - -Hither, then, Magua retired, when his labors of policy were -ended. While others slept, however, he neither knew or -sought repose. Had there been one sufficiently curious to -have watched the movements of the newly elected chief, he -would have seen him seated in a corner of his lodge, musing -on the subject of his future plans, from the hour of his -retirement to the time he had appointed for the warriors to -assemble again. Occasionally the air breathed through the -crevices of the hut, and the low flame that fluttered about -the embers of the fire threw their wavering light on the -person of the sullen recluse. At such moments it would not -have been difficult to have fancied the dusky savage the -Prince of Darkness brooding on his own fancied wrongs, and -plotting evil. - -Long before the day dawned, however, warrior after warrior -entered the solitary hut of Magua, until they had collected -to the number of twenty. Each bore his rifle, and all the -other accouterments of war, though the paint was uniformly -peaceful. The entrance of these fierce-looking beings was -unnoticed: some seating themselves in the shadows of the -place, and others standing like motionless statues, until -the whole of the designated band was collected. - -Then Magua arose and gave the signal to proceed, marching -himself in advance. They followed their leader singly, and -in that well-known order which has obtained the -distinguishing appellation of "Indian file." Unlike other -men engaged in the spirit-stirring business of war, they -stole from their camp unostentatiously and unobserved -resembling a band of gliding specters, more than warriors -seeking the bubble reputation by deeds of desperate daring. - -Instead of taking the path which led directly toward the -camp of the Delawares, Magua led his party for some distance -down the windings of the stream, and along the little -artificial lake of the beavers. The day began to dawn as -they entered the clearing which had been formed by those -sagacious and industrious animals. Though Magua, who had -resumed his ancient garb, bore the outline of a fox on the -dressed skin which formed his robe, there was one chief of -his party who carried the beaver as his peculiar symbol, or -"totem." There would have been a species of profanity in -the omission, had this man passed so powerful a community of -his fancied kindred, without bestowing some evidence of his -regard. Accordingly, he paused, and spoke in words as kind -and friendly as if he were addressing more intelligent -beings. He called the animals his cousins, and reminded -them that his protecting influence was the reason they -remained unharmed, while many avaricious traders were -prompting the Indians to take their lives. He promised a -continuance of his favors, and admonished them to be -grateful. After which, he spoke of the expedition in which -he was himself engaged, and intimated, though with -sufficient delicacy and circumlocution, the expediency of -bestowing on their relative a portion of that wisdom for -which they were so renowned.* - -* These harangues of the beasts were frequent among -the Indians. They often address their victims in this way, -reproaching them for cowardice or commending their -resolution, as they may happen to exhibit fortitude or the -reverse, in suffering. - -During the utterance of this extraordinary address, the -companions of the speaker were as grave and as attentive to -his language as though they were all equally impressed with -its propriety. Once or twice black objects were seen rising -to the surface of the water, and the Huron expressed -pleasure, conceiving that his words were not bestowed in -vain. Just as he ended his address, the head of a large -beaver was thrust from the door of a lodge, whose earthen -walls had been much injured, and which the party had -believed, from its situation, to be uninhabited. Such an -extraordinary sign of confidence was received by the orator -as a highly favorable omen; and though the animal retreated -a little precipitately, he was lavish of his thanks and -commendations. - -When Magua thought sufficient time had been lost in -gratifying the family affection of the warrior, he again -made the signal to proceed. As the Indians moved away in a -body, and with a step that would have been inaudible to the -ears of any common man, the same venerable-looking beaver -once more ventured his head from its cover. Had any of the -Hurons turned to look behind them, they would have seen the -animal watching their movements with an interest and -sagacity that might easily have been mistaken for reason. -Indeed, so very distinct and intelligible were the devices -of the quadruped, that even the most experienced observer -would have been at a loss to account for its actions, until -the moment when the party entered the forest, when the whole -would have been explained, by seeing the entire animal issue -from the lodge, uncasing, by the act, the grave features of -Chingachgook from his mask of fur. - - - -CHAPTER 28 - -"Brief, I pray for you; for you see, 'tis a busy time with -me."--Much Ado About Nothing - -The tribe, or rather half tribe, of Delawares, which has -been so often mentioned, and whose present place of -encampment was so nigh the temporary village of the Hurons, -could assemble about an equal number of warriors with the -latter people. Like their neighbors, they had followed -Montcalm into the territories of the English crown, and were -making heavy and serious inroads on the hunting-grounds of -the Mohawks; though they had seen fit, with the mysterious -reserve so common among the natives, to withhold their -assistance at the moment when it was most required. The -French had accounted for this unexpected defection on the -part of their ally in various ways. It was the prevalent -opinion, however, that they had been influenced by -veneration for the ancient treaty, that had once made them -dependent on the Six Nations for military protection, and -now rendered them reluctant to encounter their former -masters. As for the tribe itself, it had been content to -announce to Montcalm, through his emissaries, with Indian -brevity, that their hatchets were dull, and time was -necessary to sharpen them. The politic captain of the -Canadas had deemed it wiser to submit to entertain a passive -friend, than by any acts of ill-judged severity to convert -him into an open enemy. - -On that morning when Magua led his silent party from the -settlement of the beavers into the forests, in the manner -described, the sun rose upon the Delaware encampment as if -it had suddenly burst upon a busy people, actively employed -in all the customary avocations of high noon. The women ran -from lodge to lodge, some engaged in preparing their -morning's meal, a few earnestly bent on seeking the comforts -necessary to their habits, but more pausing to exchange -hasty and whispered sentences with their friends. The -warriors were lounging in groups, musing more than they -conversed and when a few words were uttered, speaking like -men who deeply weighed their opinions. The instruments of -the chase were to be seen in abundance among the lodges; but -none departed. Here and there a warrior was examining his -arms, with an attention that is rarely bestowed on the -implements, when no other enemy than the beasts of the -forest is expected to be encountered. And occasionally, the -eyes of a whole group were turned simultaneously toward a -large and silent lodge in the center of the village, as if -it contained the subject of their common thoughts. - -During the existence of this scene, a man suddenly appeared -at the furthest extremity of a platform of rock which formed -the level of the village. He was without arms, and his -paint tended rather to soften than increase the natural -sternness of his austere countenance. When in full view of -the Delawares he stopped, and made a gesture of amity, by -throwing his arm upward toward heaven, and then letting it -fall impressively on his breast. The inhabitants of the -village answered his salute by a low murmur of welcome, and -encouraged him to advance by similar indications of -friendship. Fortified by these assurances, the dark figure -left the brow of the natural rocky terrace, where it had -stood a moment, drawn in a strong outline against the -blushing morning sky, and moved with dignity into the very -center of the huts. As he approached, nothing was audible -but the rattling of the light silver ornaments that loaded -his arms and neck, and the tinkling of the little bells that -fringed his deerskin moccasins. He made, as he advanced, -many courteous signs of greeting to the men he passed, -neglecting to notice the women, however, like one who deemed -their favor, in the present enterprise, of no importance. -When he had reached the group in which it was evident, by -the haughtiness of their common mien, that the principal -chiefs were collected, the stranger paused, and then the -Delawares saw that the active and erect form that stood -before them was that of the well-known Huron chief, Le -Renard Subtil. - -His reception was grave, silent, and wary. The warriors in -front stepped aside, opening the way to their most approved -orator by the action; one who spoke all those languages that -were cultivated among the northern aborigines. - -"The wise Huron is welcome," said the Delaware, in the -language of the Maquas; "he is come to eat his 'succotash'*, -with his brothers of the lakes." - -* A dish composed of cracked corn and beans. It is -much used also by the whites. By corn is meant maise. - -"He is come," repeated Magua, bending his head with the -dignity of an eastern prince. - -The chief extended his arm and taking the other by the -wrist, they once more exchanged friendly salutations. Then -the Delaware invited his guest to enter his own lodge, and -share his morning meal. The invitation was accepted; and -the two warriors, attended by three or four of the old men, -walked calmly away, leaving the rest of the tribe devoured -by a desire to understand the reasons of so unusual a visit, -and yet not betraying the least impatience by sign or word. - -During the short and frugal repast that followed, the -conversation was extremely circumspect, and related entirely -to the events of the hunt, in which Magua had so lately been -engaged. It would have been impossible for the most -finished breeding to wear more of the appearance of -considering the visit as a thing of course, than did his -hosts, notwithstanding every individual present was -perfectly aware that it must be connected with some secret -object and that probably of importance to themselves. When -the appetites of the whole were appeased, the squaws removed -the trenchers and gourds, and the two parties began to -prepare themselves for a subtle trial of their wits. - -"Is the face of my great Canada father turned again toward -his Huron children?" demanded the orator of the Delawares. - -"When was it ever otherwise?" returned Magua. "He calls my -people 'most beloved'." - -The Delaware gravely bowed his acquiescence to what he knew -to be false, and continued: - -"The tomahawks of your young men have been very red." - -"It is so; but they are now bright and dull; for the -Yengeese are dead, and the Delawares are our neighbors." - -The other acknowledged the pacific compliment by a gesture -of the hand, and remained silent. Then Magua, as if -recalled to such a recollection, by the allusion to the -massacre, demanded: - -"Does my prisoner give trouble to my brothers?" - -"She is welcome." - -"The path between the Hurons and the Delawares is short and -it is open; let her be sent to my squaws, if she gives -trouble to my brother." - -"She is welcome," returned the chief of the latter nation, -still more emphatically. - -The baffled Magua continued silent several minutes, -apparently indifferent, however, to the repulse he had -received in this his opening effort to regain possession of -Cora. - -"Do my young men leave the Delawares room on the mountains -for their hunts?" he at length continued. - -"The Lenape are rulers of their own hills," returned the -other a little haughtily. - -"It is well. Justice is the master of a red-skin. Why -should they brighten their tomahawks and sharpen their -knives against each other? Are not the pale faces thicker -than the swallows in the season of flowers?" - -"Good!" exclaimed two or three of his auditors at the same -time. - -Magua waited a little, to permit his words to soften the -feelings of the Delawares, before he added: - -"Have there not been strange moccasins in the woods? Have -not my brothers scented the feet of white men?" - -"Let my Canada father come," returned the other, evasively; -"his children are ready to see him." - -"When the great chief comes, it is to smoke with the Indians -in their wigwams. The Hurons say, too, he is welcome. But -the Yengeese have long arms, and legs that never tire! My -young men dreamed they had seen the trail of the Yengeese -nigh the village of the Delawares!" - -"They will not find the Lenape asleep." - -"It is well. The warrior whose eye is open can see his -enemy," said Magua, once more shifting his ground, when he -found himself unable to penetrate the caution of his -companion. "I have brought gifts to my brother. His nation -would not go on the warpath, because they did not think it -well, but their friends have remembered where they lived." - -When he had thus announced his liberal intention, the crafty -chief arose, and gravely spread his presents before the -dazzled eyes of his hosts. They consisted principally of -trinkets of little value, plundered from the slaughtered -females of William Henry. In the division of the baubles -the cunning Huron discovered no less art than in their -selection. While he bestowed those of greater value on the -two most distinguished warriors, one of whom was his host, -he seasoned his offerings to their inferiors with such well-timed -and apposite compliments, as left them no ground of complaint. -In short, the whole ceremony contained such a happy blending of -the profitable with the flattering, that it was not difficult for -the donor immediately to read the effect of a generosity so aptly -mingled with praise, in the eyes of those he addressed. - -This well-judged and politic stroke on the part of Magua was -not without instantaneous results. The Delawares lost their -gravity in a much more cordial expression; and the host, in -particular, after contemplating his own liberal share of the -spoil for some moments with peculiar gratification, repeated -with strong emphasis, the words: - -"My brother is a wise chief. He is welcome." - -"The Hurons love their friends the Delawares," returned -Magua. "Why should they not? they are colored by the same -sun, and their just men will hunt in the same grounds after -death. The red-skins should be friends, and look with open -eyes on the white men. Has not my brother scented spies in -the woods?" - -The Delaware, whose name in English signified "Hard Heart," -an appellation that the French had translated into "le Coeur- -dur," forgot that obduracy of purpose, which had probably -obtained him so significant a title. His countenance grew -very sensibly less stern and he now deigned to answer more -directly. - -"There have been strange moccasins about my camp. They have -been tracked into my lodges." - -"Did my brother beat out the dogs?" asked Magua, without -adverting in any manner to the former equivocation of the -chief. - -"It would not do. The stranger is always welcome to the -children of the Lenape." - -"The stranger, but not the spy." - -"Would the Yengeese send their women as spies? Did not the -Huron chief say he took women in the battle?" - -"He told no lie. The Yengeese have sent out their scouts. -They have been in my wigwams, but they found there no one to -say welcome. Then they fled to the Delawares -- for, say -they, the Delawares are our friends; their minds are turned -from their Canada father!" - -This insinuation was a home thrust, and one that in a more -advanced state of society would have entitled Magua to the -reputation of a skillful diplomatist. The recent defection -of the tribe had, as they well knew themselves, subjected -the Delawares to much reproach among their French allies; -and they were now made to feel that their future actions -were to be regarded with jealousy and distrust. There was -no deep insight into causes and effects necessary to foresee -that such a situation of things was likely to prove highly -prejudicial to their future movements. Their distant -villages, their hunting-grounds and hundreds of their women -and children, together with a material part of their -physical force, were actually within the limits of the -French territory. Accordingly, this alarming annunciation -was received, as Magua intended, with manifest -disapprobation, if not with alarm. - -"Let my father look in my face," said Le Coeur-dur; "he will -see no change. It is true, my young men did not go out on -the war-path; they had dreams for not doing so. But they -love and venerate the great white chief." - -"Will he think so when he hears that his greatest enemy is -fed in the camp of his children? When he is told a bloody -Yengee smokes at your fire? That the pale face who has -slain so many of his friends goes in and out among the -Delawares? Go! my great Canada father is not a fool!" - -"Where is the Yengee that the Delawares fear?" returned the -other; "who has slain my young men? Who is the mortal enemy -of my Great Father?" - -"La Longue Carabine!" - -The Delaware warriors started at the well-known name, -betraying by their amazement, that they now learned, for the -first time, one so famous among the Indian allies of France -was within their power. - -"What does my brother mean?" demanded Le Coeur-dur, in a -tone that, by its wonder, far exceeded the usual apathy of -his race. - -"A Huron never lies!" returned Magua, coldly, leaning his -head against the side of the lodge, and drawing his slight -robe across his tawny breast. "Let the Delawares count -their prisoners; they will find one whose skin is neither -red nor pale." - -A long and musing pause succeeded. The chief consulted -apart with his companions, and messengers despatched to -collect certain others of the most distinguished men of the -tribe. - -As warrior after warrior dropped in, they were each made -acquainted, in turn, with the important intelligence that -Magua had just communicated. The air of surprise, and the -usual low, deep, guttural exclamation, were common to them -all. The news spread from mouth to mouth, until the whole -encampment became powerfully agitated. The women suspended -their labors, to catch such syllables as unguardedly fell -from the lips of the consulting warriors. The boys deserted -their sports, and walking fearlessly among their fathers, -looked up in curious admiration, as they heard the brief -exclamations of wonder they so freely expressed the temerity -of their hated foe. In short, every occupation was -abandoned for the time, and all other pursuits seemed -discarded in order that the tribe might freely indulge, -after their own peculiar manner, in an open expression of -feeling. - -When the excitement had a little abated, the old men -disposed themselves seriously to consider that which it -became the honor and safety of their tribe to perform, under -circumstances of so much delicacy and embarrassment. During -all these movements, and in the midst of the general -commotion, Magua had not only maintained his seat, but the -very attitude he had originally taken, against the side of -the lodge, where he continued as immovable, and, apparently, -as unconcerned, as if he had no interest in the result. Not -a single indication of the future intentions of his hosts, -however, escaped his vigilant eyes. With his consummate -knowledge of the nature of the people with whom he had to -deal, he anticipated every measure on which they decided; -and it might almost be said, that, in many instances, he -knew their intentions, even before they became known to -themselves. - -The council of the Delawares was short. When it was ended, -a general bustle announced that it was to be immediately -succeeded by a solemn and formal assemblage of the nation. -As such meetings were rare, and only called on occasions of -the last importance, the subtle Huron, who still sat apart, -a wily and dark observer of the proceedings, now knew that -all his projects must be brought to their final issue. He, -therefore, left the lodge and walked silently forth to the -place, in front of the encampment, whither the warriors were -already beginning to collect. - -It might have been half an hour before each individual, -including even the women and children, was in his place. -The delay had been created by the grave preparations that -were deemed necessary to so solemn and unusual a conference. -But when the sun was seen climbing above the tops of that -mountain, against whose bosom the Delawares had constructed -their encampment, most were seated; and as his bright rays -darted from behind the outline of trees that fringed the -eminence, they fell upon as grave, as attentive, and as -deeply interested a multitude, as was probably ever before -lighted by his morning beams. Its number somewhat exceeded -a thousand souls. - -In a collection of so serious savages, there is never to be -found any impatient aspirant after premature distinction, -standing ready to move his auditors to some hasty, and, -perhaps, injudicious discussion, in order that his own -reputation may be the gainer. An act of so much -precipitancy and presumption would seal the downfall of -precocious intellect forever. It rested solely with the -oldest and most experienced of the men to lay the subject of -the conference before the people. Until such a one chose to -make some movement, no deeds in arms, no natural gifts, nor -any renown as an orator, would have justified the slightest -interruption. On the present occasion, the aged warrior -whose privilege it was to speak, was silent, seemingly -oppressed with the magnitude of his subject. The delay had -already continued long beyond the usual deliberative pause -that always preceded a conference; but no sign of impatience -or surprise escaped even the youngest boy. Occasionally an -eye was raised from the earth, where the looks of most were -riveted, and strayed toward a particular lodge, that was, -however, in no manner distinguished from those around it, -except in the peculiar care that had been taken to protect -it against the assaults of the weather. - -At length one of those low murmurs, that are so apt to -disturb a multitude, was heard, and the whole nation arose -to their feet by a common impulse. At that instant the door -of the lodge in question opened, and three men, issuing from -it, slowly approached the place of consultation. They were -all aged, even beyond that period to which the oldest -present had reached; but one in the center, who leaned on -his companions for support, had numbered an amount of years -to which the human race is seldom permitted to attain. His -frame, which had once been tall and erect, like the cedar, -was now bending under the pressure of more than a century. -The elastic, light step of an Indian was gone, and in its -place he was compelled to toil his tardy way over the -ground, inch by inch. His dark, wrinkled countenance was in -singular and wild contrast with the long white locks which -floated on his shoulders, in such thickness, as to announce -that generations had probably passed away since they had -last been shorn. - -The dress of this patriarch -- for such, considering his -vast age, in conjunction with his affinity and influence -with his people, he might very properly be termed -- was -rich and imposing, though strictly after the simple fashions -of the tribe. His robe was of the finest skins, which had -been deprived of their fur, in order to admit of a -hieroglyphical representation of various deeds in arms, done -in former ages. His bosom was loaded with medals, some in -massive silver, and one or two even in gold, the gifts of -various Christian potentates during the long period of his -life. He also wore armlets, and cinctures above the ankles, -of the latter precious metal. His head, on the whole of -which the hair had been permitted to grow, the pursuits of -war having so long been abandoned, was encircled by a sort -of plated diadem, which, in its turn, bore lesser and more -glittering ornaments, that sparkled amid the glossy hues of -three drooping ostrich feathers, dyed a deep black, in -touching contrast to the color of his snow-white locks. His -tomahawk was nearly hid in silver, and the handle of his -knife shone like a horn of solid gold. - -So soon as the first hum of emotion and pleasure, which the -sudden appearance of this venerated individual created, had -a little subsided, the name of "Tamenund" was whispered from -mouth to mouth. Magua had often heard the fame of this wise -and just Delaware; a reputation that even proceeded so far -as to bestow on him the rare gift of holding secret -communion with the Great Spirit, and which has since -transmitted his name, with some slight alteration, to the -white usurpers of his ancient territory, as the imaginary -tutelar saint* of a vast empire. The Huron chief, -therefore, stepped eagerly out a little from the throng, to -a spot whence he might catch a nearer glimpse of the -features of the man, whose decision was likely to produce so -deep an influence on his own fortunes. - -* The Americans sometimes called their tutelar saint -Tamenay, a corruption of the name of the renowned chief here -introduced. There are many traditions which speak of the -character and power of Tamenund. - -The eyes of the old man were closed, as though the organs -were wearied with having so long witnessed the selfish -workings of the human passions. The color of his skin -differed from that of most around him, being richer and -darker, the latter having been produced by certain delicate -and mazy lines of complicated and yet beautiful figures, -which had been traced over most of his person by the -operation of tattooing. Notwithstanding the position of the -Huron, he passed the observant and silent Magua without -notice, and leaning on his two venerable supporters -proceeded to the high place of the multitude, where he -seated himself in the center of his nation, with the dignity -of a monarch and the air of a father. - -Nothing could surpass the reverence and affection with which -this unexpected visit from one who belongs rather to another -world than to this, was received by his people. After a -suitable and decent pause, the principal chiefs arose, and, -approaching the patriarch, they placed his hands reverently -on their heads, seeming to entreat a blessing. The younger -men were content with touching his robe, or even drawing -nigh his person, in order to breathe in the atmosphere of -one so aged, so just, and so valiant. None but the most -distinguished among the youthful warriors even presumed so -far as to perform the latter ceremony, the great mass of the -multitude deeming it a sufficient happiness to look upon a -form so deeply venerated, and so well beloved. When these -acts of affection and respect were performed, the chiefs -drew back again to their several places, and silence reigned -in the whole encampment. - -After a short delay, a few of the young men, to whom -instructions had been whispered by one of the aged -attendants of Tamenund, arose, left the crowd, and entered -the lodge which has already been noted as the object of so -much attention throughout that morning. In a few minutes -they reappeared, escorting the individuals who had caused -all these solemn preparations toward the seat of judgment. -The crowd opened in a lane; and when the party had re-entered, -it closed in again, forming a large and dense belt of human -bodies, arranged in an open circle. - - - -CHAPTER 29 - - -"The assembly seated, rising o'er the rest, Achilles thus -the king of men addressed."--Pope's Illiad - -Cora stood foremost among the prisoners, entwining her arms -in those of Alice, in the tenderness of sisterly love. -Notwithstanding the fearful and menacing array of savages on -every side of her, no apprehension on her own account could -prevent the nobler-minded maiden from keeping her eyes -fastened on the pale and anxious features of the trembling -Alice. Close at their side stood Heyward, with an interest -in both, that, at such a moment of intense uncertainty, -scarcely knew a preponderance in favor of her whom he most -loved. Hawkeye had placed himself a little in the rear, -with a deference to the superior rank of his companions, -that no similarity in the state of their present fortunes -could induce him to forget. Uncas was not there. - -When perfect silence was again restored, and after the usual -long, impressive pause, one of the two aged chiefs who sat -at the side of the patriarch arose, and demanded aloud, in -very intelligible English: - -"Which of my prisoners is La Longue Carabine?" - -Neither Duncan nor the scout answered. The former, however, -glanced his eyes around the dark and silent assembly, and -recoiled a pace, when they fell on the malignant visage of -Magua. He saw, at once, that this wily savage had some -secret agency in their present arraignment before the -nation, and determined to throw every possible impediment in -the way of the execution of his sinister plans. He had -witnessed one instance of the summary punishments of the -Indians, and now dreaded that his companion was to be -selected for a second. In this dilemma, with little or no -time for reflection, he suddenly determined to cloak his -invaluable friend, at any or every hazard to himself. -Before he had time, however, to speak, the question was -repeated in a louder voice, and with a clearer utterance. - -"Give us arms," the young man haughtily replied, "and place -us in yonder woods. Our deeds shall speak for us!" - -"This is the warrior whose name has filled our ears!" -returned the chief, regarding Heyward with that sort of -curious interest which seems inseparable from man, when -first beholding one of his fellows to whom merit or -accident, virtue or crime, has given notoriety. "What has -brought the white man into the camp of the Delawares?" - -"My necessities. I come for food, shelter, and friends." - -"It cannot be. The woods are full of game. The head of a -warrior needs no other shelter than a sky without clouds; -and the Delawares are the enemies, and not the friends of -the Yengeese. Go, the mouth has spoken, while the heart -said nothing." - -Duncan, a little at a loss in what manner to proceed, -remained silent; but the scout, who had listened attentively -to all that passed, now advanced steadily to the front. - -"That I did not answer to the call for La Longue Carabine, -was not owing either to shame or fear," he said, "for -neither one nor the other is the gift of an honest man. But -I do not admit the right of the Mingoes to bestow a name on -one whose friends have been mindful of his gifts, in this -particular; especially as their title is a lie, 'killdeer' -being a grooved barrel and no carabyne. I am the man, -however, that got the name of Nathaniel from my kin; the -compliment of Hawkeye from the Delawares, who live on their -own river; and whom the Iroquois have presumed to style the -'Long Rifle', without any warranty from him who is most -concerned in the matter." - -The eyes of all present, which had hitherto been gravely -scanning the person of Duncan, were now turned, on the -instant, toward the upright iron frame of this new pretender -to the distinguished appellation. It was in no degree -remarkable that there should be found two who were willing -to claim so great an honor, for impostors, though rare, were -not unknown among the natives; but it was altogether -material to the just and severe intentions of the Delawares, -that there should be no mistake in the matter. Some of -their old men consulted together in private, and then, as it -would seem, they determined to interrogate their visitor on -the subject. - -"My brother has said that a snake crept into my camp," said -the chief to Magua; "which is he?" - -The Huron pointed to the scout. - -"Will a wise Delaware believe the barking of a wolf?" -exclaimed Duncan, still more confirmed in the evil -intentions of his ancient enemy: "a dog never lies, but -when was a wolf known to speak the truth?" - -The eyes of Magua flashed fire; but suddenly recollecting -the necessity of maintaining his presence of mind, he turned -away in silent disdain, well assured that the sagacity of -the Indians would not fail to extract the real merits of the -point in controversy. He was not deceived; for, after -another short consultation, the wary Delaware turned to him -again, and expressed the determination of the chiefs, though -in the most considerate language. - -"My brother has been called a liar," he said, "and his -friends are angry. They will show that he has spoken the -truth. Give my prisoners guns, and let them prove which is -the man." - -Magua affected to consider the expedient, which he well knew -proceeded from distrust of himself, as a compliment, and -made a gesture of acquiescence, well content that his -veracity should be supported by so skillful a marksman as -the scout. The weapons were instantly placed in the hands -of the friendly opponents, and they were bid to fire, over -the heads of the seated multitude, at an earthen vessel, -which lay, by accident, on a stump, some fifty yards from -the place where they stood. - -Heyward smiled to himself at the idea of a competition with -the scout, though he determined to persevere in the -deception, until apprised of the real designs of Magua. - -Raising his rifle with the utmost care, and renewing his aim -three several times, he fired. The bullet cut the wood -within a few inches of the vessel; and a general exclamation -of satisfaction announced that the shot was considered a -proof of great skill in the use of a weapon. Even Hawkeye -nodded his head, as if he would say, it was better than he -expected. But, instead of manifesting an intention to -contend with the successful marksman, he stood leaning on -his rifle for more than a minute, like a man who was -completely buried in thought. From this reverie, he was, -however, awakened by one of the young Indians who had -furnished the arms, and who now touched his shoulder, saying -in exceedingly broken English: - -"Can the pale face beat it?" - -"Yes, Huron!" exclaimed the scout, raising the short rifle -in his right hand, and shaking it at Magua, with as much -apparent ease as if it were a reed; "yes, Huron, I could -strike you now, and no power on earth could prevent the -deed! The soaring hawk is not more certain of the dove than -I am this moment of you, did I choose to send a bullet to -your heart! Why should I not? Why! -- because the gifts of -my color forbid it, and I might draw down evil on tender and -innocent heads. If you know such a being as God, thank Him, -therefore, in your inward soul; for you have reason!" - -The flushed countenance, angry eye and swelling figure of -the scout, produced a sensation of secret awe in all that -heard him. The Delawares held their breath in expectation; -but Magua himself, even while he distrusted the forbearance -of his enemy, remained immovable and calm, where he stood -wedged in by the crowd, as one who grew to the spot. - -"Beat it," repeated the young Delaware at the elbow of the -scout. - -"Beat what, fool! -- what?" exclaimed Hawkeye, still -flourishing the weapon angrily above his head, though his -eye no longer sought the person of Magua. - -"If the white man is the warrior he pretends," said the aged -chief, "let him strike nigher to the mark." - -The scout laughed aloud -- a noise that produced the -startling effect of an unnatural sound on Heyward; then -dropping the piece, heavily, into his extended left hand, it -was discharged, apparently by the shock, driving the -fragments of the vessel into the air, and scattering them on -every side. Almost at the same instant, the rattling sound -of the rifle was heard, as he suffered it to fall, -contemptuously, to the earth. - -The first impression of so strange a scene was engrossing -admiration. Then a low, but increasing murmur, ran through -the multitude, and finally swelled into sounds that denoted -a lively opposition in the sentiments of the spectators. -While some openly testified their satisfaction at so -unexampled dexterity, by far the larger portion of the tribe -were inclined to believe the success of the shot was the -result of accident. Heyward was not slow to confirm an -opinion that was so favorable to his own pretensions. - -"It was chance!" he exclaimed; "none can shoot without an -aim!" - -"Chance!" echoed the excited woodsman, who was now -stubbornly bent on maintaining his identity at every hazard, -and on whom the secret hints of Heyward to acquiesce in the -deception were entirely lost. "Does yonder lying Huron, -too, think it chance? Give him another gun, and place us -face to face, without cover or dodge, and let Providence, -and our own eyes, decide the matter atween us! I do not -make the offer, to you, major; for our blood is of a color, -and we serve the same master." - -"That the Huron is a liar, is very evident," returned -Heyward, coolly; "you have yourself heard him assert you -to be La Longue Carabine." - -It were impossible to say what violent assertion the -stubborn Hawkeye would have next made, in his headlong wish -to vindicate his identity, had not the aged Delaware once -more interposed. - -"The hawk which comes from the clouds can return when he -will," he said; "give them the guns." - -This time the scout seized the rifle with avidity; nor had -Magua, though he watched the movements of the marksman with -jealous eyes, any further cause for apprehension. - -"Now let it be proved, in the face of this tribe of -Delawares, which is the better man," cried the scout, -tapping the butt of his piece with that finger which had -pulled so many fatal triggers. - -"You see that gourd hanging against yonder tree, major; if -you are a marksman fit for the borders, let me see you break -its shell!" - -Duncan noted the object, and prepared himself to renew the -trial. The gourd was one of the usual little vessels used -by the Indians, and it was suspended from a dead branch of a -small pine, by a thong of deerskin, at the full distance of -a hundred yards. So strangely compounded is the feeling of -self-love, that the young soldier, while he knew the utter -worthlessness of the suffrages of his savage umpires, forgot -the sudden motives of the contest in a wish to excel. It -had been seen, already, that his skill was far from being -contemptible, and he now resolved to put forth its nicest -qualities. Had his life depended on the issue, the aim of -Duncan could not have been more deliberate or guarded. He -fired; and three or four young Indians, who sprang forward -at the report, announced with a shout, that the ball was in -the tree, a very little on one side of the proper object. -The warriors uttered a common ejaculation of pleasure, and -then turned their eyes, inquiringly, on the movements of his -rival. - -"It may do for the Royal Americans!" said Hawkeye, laughing -once more in his own silent, heartfelt manner; "but had my -gun often turned so much from the true line, many a marten, -whose skin is now in a lady's muff, would still be in the -woods; ay, and many a bloody Mingo, who has departed to his -final account, would be acting his deviltries at this very -day, atween the provinces. I hope the squaw who owns the -gourd has more of them in her wigwam, for this will never -hold water again!" - -The scout had shook his priming, and cocked his piece, while -speaking; and, as he ended, he threw back a foot, and slowly -raised the muzzle from the earth: the motion was steady, -uniform, and in one direction. When on a perfect level, it -remained for a single moment, without tremor or variation, -as though both man and rifle were carved in stone. During -that stationary instant, it poured forth its contents, in a -bright, glancing sheet of flame. Again the young Indians -bounded forward; but their hurried search and disappointed -looks announced that no traces of the bullet were to be -seen. - -"Go!" said the old chief to the scout, in a tone of strong -disgust; "thou art a wolf in the skin of a dog. I will talk -to the 'Long Rifle' of the Yengeese." - -"Ah! had I that piece which furnished the name you use, I -would obligate myself to cut the thong, and drop the gourd -without breaking it!" returned Hawkeye, perfectly -undisturbed by the other's manner. "Fools, if you would -find the bullet of a sharpshooter in these woods, you must -look in the object, and not around it!" - -The Indian youths instantly comprehended his meaning -- for -this time he spoke in the Delaware tongue -- and tearing the -gourd from the tree, they held it on high with an exulting -shout, displaying a hole in its bottom, which had been cut -by the bullet, after passing through the usual orifice in -the center of its upper side. At this unexpected -exhibition, a loud and vehement expression of pleasure burst -from the mouth of every warrior present. It decided the -question, and effectually established Hawkeye in the -possession of his dangerous reputation. Those curious and -admiring eyes which had been turned again on Heyward, were -finally directed to the weather-beaten form of the scout, -who immediately became the principal object of attention to -the simple and unsophisticated beings by whom he was -surrounded. When the sudden and noisy commotion had a -little subsided, the aged chief resumed his examination. - -"Why did you wish to stop my ears?" he said, addressing -Duncan; "are the Delawares fools that they could not know -the young panther from the cat?" - -"They will yet find the Huron a singing-bird," said Duncan, -endeavoring to adopt the figurative language of the natives. - -"It is good. We will know who can shut the ears of men. -Brother," added the chief turning his eyes on Magua, "the -Delawares listen." - -Thus singled, and directly called on to declare his object, -the Huron arose; and advancing with great deliberation and -dignity into the very center of the circle, where he stood -confronted by the prisoners, he placed himself in an -attitude to speak. Before opening his mouth, however, he -bent his eyes slowly along the whole living boundary of -earnest faces, as if to temper his expressions to the -capacities of his audience. On Hawkeye he cast a glance of -respectful enmity; on Duncan, a look of inextinguishable -hatred; the shrinking figure of Alice he scarcely deigned to -notice; but when his glance met the firm, commanding, and -yet lovely form of Cora, his eye lingered a moment, with an -expression that it might have been difficult to define. -Then, filled with his own dark intentions, he spoke in the -language of the Canadas, a tongue that he well knew was -comprehended by most of his auditors. - -"The Spirit that made men colored them differently," -commenced the subtle Huron. "Some are blacker than the -sluggish bear. These He said should be slaves; and He -ordered them to work forever, like the beaver. You may hear -them groan, when the south wind blows, louder than the -lowing buffaloes, along the shores of the great salt lake, -where the big canoes come and go with them in droves. Some -He made with faces paler than the ermine of the forests; and -these He ordered to be traders; dogs to their women, and -wolves to their slaves. He gave this people the nature of -the pigeon; wings that never tire; young, more plentiful -than the leaves on the trees, and appetites to devour the -earth. He gave them tongues like the false call of the -wildcat; hearts like rabbits; the cunning of the hog (but -none of the fox), and arms longer than the legs of the -moose. With his tongue he stops the ears of the Indians; -his heart teaches him to pay warriors to fight his battles; -his cunning tells him how to get together the goods of the -earth; and his arms inclose the land from the shores of the -salt-water to the islands of the great lake. His gluttony -makes him sick. God gave him enough, and yet he wants all. -Such are the pale faces. - -"Some the Great Spirit made with skins brighter and redder -than yonder sun," continued Magua, pointing impressively -upward to the lurid luminary, which was struggling through -the misty atmosphere of the horizon; "and these did He -fashion to His own mind. He gave them this island as He had -made it, covered with trees, and filled with game. The wind -made their clearings; the sun and rain ripened their fruits; -and the snows came to tell them to be thankful. What need -had they of roads to journey by! They saw through the -hills! When the beavers worked, they lay in the shade, and -looked on. The winds cooled them in summer; in winter, -skins kept them warm. If they fought among themselves, it -was to prove that they were men. They were brave; they were -just; they were happy." - -Here the speaker paused, and again looked around him to -discover if his legend had touched the sympathies of his -listeners. He met everywhere, with eyes riveted on his own, -heads erect and nostrils expanded, as if each individual -present felt himself able and willing, singly, to redress -the wrongs of his race. - -"If the Great Spirit gave different tongues to his red -children," he continued, in a low, still melancholy voice, -"it was that all animals might understand them. Some He -placed among the snows, with their cousin, the bear. Some -he placed near the setting sun, on the road to the happy -hunting grounds. Some on the lands around the great fresh -waters; but to His greatest, and most beloved, He gave the -sands of the salt lake. Do my brothers know the name of -this favored people?" - -"It was the Lenape!" exclaimed twenty eager voices in a -breath. - -"It was the Lenni Lenape," returned Magua, affecting to bend -his head in reverence to their former greatness. "It was -the tribes of the Lenape! The sun rose from water that was -salt, and set in water that was sweet, and never hid himself -from their eyes. But why should I, a Huron of the woods, -tell a wise people their own traditions? Why remind them of -their injuries; their ancient greatness; their deeds; their -glory; their happiness; their losses; their defeats; their -misery? Is there not one among them who has seen it all, -and who knows it to be true? I have done. My tongue is -still for my heart is of lead. I listen." - -As the voice of the speaker suddenly ceased, every face and -all eyes turned, by a common movement, toward the venerable -Tamenund. From the moment that he took his seat, until the -present instant, the lips of the patriarch had not severed, -and scarcely a sign of life had escaped him. He sat bent in -feebleness, and apparently unconscious of the presence he -was in, during the whole of that opening scene, in which the -skill of the scout had been so clearly established. At the -nicely graduated sound of Magua's voice, however, he -betrayed some evidence of consciousness, and once or twice -he even raised his head, as if to listen. But when the -crafty Huron spoke of his nation by name, the eyelids of the -old man raised themselves, and he looked out upon the -multitude with that sort of dull, unmeaning expression which -might be supposed to belong to the countenance of a specter. -Then he made an effort to rise, and being upheld by his -supporters, he gained his feet, in a posture commanding by -its dignity, while he tottered with weakness. - -"Who calls upon the children of the Lenape?" he said, in a -deep, guttural voice, that was rendered awfully audible by -the breathless silence of the multitude; "who speaks of -things gone? Does not the egg become a worm -- the worm a -fly, and perish? Why tell the Delawares of good that is -past? Better thank the Manitou for that which remains." - -"It is a Wyandot," said Magua, stepping nigher to the rude -platform on which the other stood; "a friend of Tamenund." - -"A friend!" repeated the sage, on whose brow a dark frown -settled, imparting a portion of that severity which had -rendered his eye so terrible in middle age. "Are the -Mingoes rulers of the earth? What brings a Huron in here?" - -"Justice. His prisoners are with his brothers, and he comes -for his own." - -Tamenund turned his head toward one of his supporters, and -listened to the short explanation the man gave. - -Then, facing the applicant, he regarded him a moment with -deep attention; after which he said, in a low and reluctant -voice: - -"Justice is the law of the great Manitou. My children, give -the stranger food. Then, Huron, take thine own and depart." - -On the delivery of this solemn judgment, the patriarch -seated himself, and closed his eyes again, as if better -pleased with the images of his own ripened experience than -with the visible objects of the world. Against such a -decree there was no Delaware sufficiently hardy to murmur, -much less oppose himself. The words were barely uttered -when four or five of the younger warriors, stepping behind -Heyward and the scout, passed thongs so dexterously and -rapidly around their arms, as to hold them both in instant -bondage. The former was too much engrossed with his -precious and nearly insensible burden, to be aware of their -intentions before they were executed; and the latter, who -considered even the hostile tribes of the Delawares a -superior race of beings, submitted without resistance. -Perhaps, however, the manner of the scout would not have -been so passive, had he fully comprehended the language in -which the preceding dialogue had been conducted. - -Magua cast a look of triumph around the whole assembly -before he proceeded to the execution of his purpose. -Perceiving that the men were unable to offer any resistance, -he turned his looks on her he valued most. Cora met his -gaze with an eye so calm and firm, that his resolution -wavered. Then, recollecting his former artifice, he raised -Alice from the arms of the warrior against whom she leaned, -and beckoning Heyward to follow, he motioned for the -encircling crowd to open. But Cora, instead of obeying the -impulse he had expected, rushed to the feet of the -patriarch, and, raising her voice, exclaimed aloud: - -"Just and venerable Delaware, on thy wisdom and power we -lean for mercy! Be deaf to yonder artful and remorseless -monster, who poisons thy ears with falsehoods to feed his -thirst for blood. Thou that hast lived long, and that hast -seen the evil of the world, should know how to temper its -calamities to the miserable." - -The eyes of the old man opened heavily, and he once more -looked upward at the multitude. As the piercing tones of -the suppliant swelled on his ears, they moved slowly in the -direction of her person, and finally settled there in a -steady gaze. Cora had cast herself to her knees; and, with -hands clenched in each other and pressed upon her bosom, she -remained like a beauteous and breathing model of her sex, -looking up in his faded but majestic countenance, with a -species of holy reverence. Gradually the expression of -Tamenund's features changed, and losing their vacancy in -admiration, they lighted with a portion of that intelligence -which a century before had been wont to communicate his -youthful fire to the extensive bands of the Delawares. -Rising without assistance, and seemingly without an effort, -he demanded, in a voice that startled its auditors by its -firmness: - -"What art thou?" - -"A woman. One of a hated race, if thou wilt -- a Yengee. -But one who has never harmed thee, and who cannot harm thy -people, if she would; who asks for succor." - -"Tell me, my children," continued the patriarch, hoarsely, -motioning to those around him, though his eyes still dwelt -upon the kneeling form of Cora, "where have the Delawares -camped?" - -"In the mountains of the Iroquois, beyond the clear springs -of the Horican." - -"Many parching summers are come and gone," continued the -sage, "since I drank of the water of my own rivers. The -children of Minquon* are the justest white men, but they -were thirsty and they took it to themselves. Do they follow -us so far?" - -* William Penn was termed Minquon by the Delawares, -and, as he never used violence or injustice in his dealings -with them, his reputation for probity passed into a proverb. -The American is justly proud of the origin of his nation, -which is perhaps unequaled in the history of the world; but -the Pennsylvanian and Jerseyman have more reason to value -themselves in their ancestors than the natives of any other -state, since no wrong was done the original owners of the -soil. - -"We follow none, we covet nothing," answered Cora. -"Captives against our wills, have we been brought amongst -you; and we ask but permission to depart to our own in -peace. Art thou not Tamenund -- the father, the judge, I -had almost said, the prophet -- of this people?" - -"I am Tamenund of many days." - -"'Tis now some seven years that one of thy people was at the -mercy of a white chief on the borders of this province. He -claimed to be of the blood of the good and just Tamenund. -'Go', said the white man, 'for thy parent's sake thou art -free.' Dost thou remember the name of that English warrior?" - -"I remember, that when a laughing boy," returned the -patriarch, with the peculiar recollection of vast age, "I -stood upon the sands of the sea shore, and saw a big canoe, -with wings whiter than the swan's, and wider than many -eagles, come from the rising sun." - -"Nay, nay; I speak not of a time so very distant, but of -favor shown to thy kindred by one of mine, within the memory -of thy youngest warrior." - -"Was it when the Yengeese and the Dutchmanne fought for the -hunting-grounds of the Delawares? Then Tamenund was a -chief, and first laid aside the bow for the lightning of the -pale faces --" - -"Not yet then," interrupted Cora, "by many ages; I speak of -a thing of yesterday. Surely, surely, you forget it not." - -"It was but yesterday," rejoined the aged man, with touching -pathos, "that the children of the Lenape were masters of the -world. The fishes of the salt lake, the birds, the beasts, -and the Mengee of the woods, owned them for Sagamores." - -Cora bowed her head in disappointment, and, for a bitter -moment struggled with her chagrin. Then, elevating her rich -features and beaming eyes, she continued, in tones scarcely -less penetrating than the unearthly voice of the patriarch -himself: - -"Tell me, is Tamenund a father?" - -The old man looked down upon her from his elevated stand, -with a benignant smile on his wasted countenance, and then -casting his eyes slowly over the whole assemblage, he -answered: - -"Of a nation." - -"For myself I ask nothing. Like thee and thine, venerable -chief," she continued, pressing her hands convulsively on -her heart, and suffering her head to droop until her burning -cheeks were nearly concealed in the maze of dark, glossy -tresses that fell in disorder upon her shoulders, "the curse -of my ancestors has fallen heavily on their child. But -yonder is one who has never known the weight of Heaven's -displeasure until now. She is the daughter of an old and -failing man, whose days are near their close. She has many, -very many, to love her, and delight in her; and she is too -good, much too precious, to become the victim of that -villain." - -"I know that the pale faces are a proud and hungry race. I -know that they claim not only to have the earth, but that -the meanest of their color is better than the Sachems of the -red man. The dogs and crows of their tribes," continued the -earnest old chieftain, without heeding the wounded spirit of -his listener, whose head was nearly crushed to the earth in -shame, as he proceeded, "would bark and caw before they -would take a woman to their wigwams whose blood was not of -the color of snow. But let them not boast before the face -of the Manitou too loud. They entered the land at the -rising, and may yet go off at the setting sun. I have often -seen the locusts strip the leaves from the trees, but the -season of blossoms has always come again." - -"It is so," said Cora, drawing a long breath, as if reviving -from a trance, raising her face, and shaking back her -shining veil, with a kindling eye, that contradicted the -death-like paleness of her countenance; "but why -- it is -not permitted us to inquire. There is yet one of thine own -people who has not been brought before thee; before thou -lettest the Huron depart in triumph, hear him speak." - -Observing Tamenund to look about him doubtingly, one of his -companions said: - -"It is a snake -- a red-skin in the pay of the Yengeese. We -keep him for the torture." - -"Let him come," returned the sage. - -Then Tamenund once more sank into his seat, and a silence so -deep prevailed while the young man prepared to obey his -simple mandate, that the leaves, which fluttered in the -draught of the light morning air, were distinctly heard -rustling in the surrounding forest. - - - -CHAPTER 30 - -"If you deny me, fie upon your law! There is no force in -the decrees of Venice: I stand for judgment: answer, shall I -have it?"--Merchant of Venice - -The silence continued unbroken by human sounds for many -anxious minutes. Then the waving multitude opened and shut -again, and Uncas stood in the living circle. All those -eyes, which had been curiously studying the lineaments of -the sage, as the source of their own intelligence, turned on -the instant, and were now bent in secret admiration on the -erect, agile, and faultless person of the captive. But -neither the presence in which he found himself, nor the -exclusive attention that he attracted, in any manner -disturbed the self-possession of the young Mohican. He cast -a deliberate and observing look on every side of him, -meeting the settled expression of hostility that lowered in -the visages of the chiefs with the same calmness as the -curious gaze of the attentive children. But when, last in -this haughty scrutiny, the person of Tamenund came under his -glance, his eye became fixed, as though all other objects -were already forgotten. Then, advancing with a slow and -noiseless step up the area, he placed himself immediately -before the footstool of the sage. Here he stood unnoted, -though keenly observant himself, until one of the chiefs -apprised the latter of his presence. - -"With what tongue does the prisoner speak to the Manitou?" -demanded the patriarch, without unclosing his eyes. - -"Like his fathers," Uncas replied; "with the tongue of a -Delaware." - -At this sudden and unexpected annunciation, a low, fierce -yell ran through the multitude, that might not inaptly be -compared to the growl of the lion, as his choler is first -awakened -- a fearful omen of the weight of his future -anger. The effect was equally strong on the sage, though -differently exhibited. He passed a hand before his eyes, as -if to exclude the least evidence of so shameful a spectacle, -while he repeated, in his low, guttural tones, the words he -had just heard. - -"A Delaware! I have lived to see the tribes of the Lenape -driven from their council-fires, and scattered, like broken -herds of deer, among the hills of the Iroquois! I have seen -the hatchets of a strong people sweep woods from the -valleys, that the winds of heaven have spared! The beasts -that run on the mountains, and the birds that fly above the -trees, have I seen living in the wigwams of men; but never -before have I found a Delaware so base as to creep, like a -poisonous serpent, into the camps of his nation." - -"The singing-birds have opened their bills," returned Uncas, -in the softest notes of his own musical voice; "and Tamenund -has heard their song." - -The sage started, and bent his head aside, as if to catch -the fleeting sounds of some passing melody. - -"Does Tamenund dream!" he exclaimed. "What voice is at his -ear! Have the winters gone backward! Will summer come -again to the children of the Lenape!" - -A solemn and respectful silence succeeded this incoherent -burst from the lips of the Delaware prophet. His people -readily constructed his unintelligible language into one of -those mysterious conferences he was believed to hold so -frequently with a superior intelligence and they awaited the -issue of the revelation in awe. After a patient pause, -however, one of the aged men, perceiving that the sage had -lost the recollection of the subject before them, ventured -to remind him again of the presence of the prisoner. - -"The false Delaware trembles lest he should hear the words -of Tamenund," he said. "'Tis a hound that howls, when the -Yengeese show him a trail." - -"And ye," returned Uncas, looking sternly around him, "are -dogs that whine, when the Frenchman casts ye the offals of -his deer!" - -Twenty knives gleamed in the air, and as many warriors -sprang to their feet, at this biting, and perhaps merited -retort; but a motion from one of the chiefs suppressed the -outbreaking of their tempers, and restored the appearance of -quiet. The task might probably have been more difficult, -had not a movement made by Tamenund indicated that he was -again about to speak. - -"Delaware!" resumed the sage, "little art thou worthy of thy -name. My people have not seen a bright sun in many winters; -and the warrior who deserts his tribe when hid in clouds is -doubly a traitor. The law of the Manitou is just. It is -so; while the rivers run and the mountains stand, while the -blossoms come and go on the trees, it must be so. He is -thine, my children; deal justly by him." - -Not a limb was moved, nor was a breath drawn louder and -longer than common, until the closing syllable of this final -decree had passed the lips of Tamenund. Then a cry of -vengeance burst at once, as it might be, from the united -lips of the nation; a frightful augury of their ruthless -intentions. In the midst of these prolonged and savage -yells, a chief proclaimed, in a high voice, that the captive -was condemned to endure the dreadful trial of torture by -fire. The circle broke its order, and screams of delight -mingled with the bustle and tumult of preparation. Heyward -struggled madly with his captors; the anxious eye of Hawkeye -began to look around him, with an expression of peculiar -earnestness; and Cora again threw herself at the feet of the -patriarch, once more a suppliant for mercy. - -Throughout the whole of these trying moments, Uncas had -alone preserved his serenity. He looked on the preparations -with a steady eye, and when the tormentors came to seize -him, he met them with a firm and upright attitude. One -among them, if possible more fierce and savage than his -fellows, seized the hunting-shirt of the young warrior, and -at a single effort tore it from his body. Then, with a yell -of frantic pleasure, he leaped toward his unresisting victim -and prepared to lead him to the stake. But, at that moment, -when he appeared most a stranger to the feelings of -humanity, the purpose of the savage was arrested as suddenly -as if a supernatural agency had interposed in the behalf of -Uncas. The eyeballs of the Delaware seemed to start from -their sockets; his mouth opened and his whole form became -frozen in an attitude of amazement. Raising his hand with a -slow and regulated motion, he pointed with a finger to the -bosom of the captive. His companions crowded about him in -wonder and every eye was like his own, fastened intently on -the figure of a small tortoise, beautifully tattooed on the -breast of the prisoner, in a bright blue tint. - -For a single instant Uncas enjoyed his triumph, smiling -calmly on the scene. Then motioning the crowd away with a -high and haughty sweep of his arm, he advanced in front of -the nation with the air of a king, and spoke in a voice -louder than the murmur of admiration that ran through the -multitude. - -"Men of the Lenni Lenape!" he said, "my race upholds the -earth! Your feeble tribe stands on my shell! What fire -that a Delaware can light would burn the child of my -fathers," he added, pointing proudly to the simple blazonry -on his skin; "the blood that came from such a stock would -smother your flames! My race is the grandfather of -nations!" - -"Who art thou?" demanded Tamenund, rising at the startling -tones he heard, more than at any meaning conveyed by the -language of the prisoner. - -"Uncas, the son of Chingachgook," answered the captive -modestly, turning from the nation, and bending his head in -reverence to the other's character and years; "a son of the -great Unamis."* - -* Turtle. - -"The hour of Tamenund is nigh!" exclaimed the sage; "the day -is come, at last, to the night! I thank the Manitou, that -one is here to fill my place at the council-fire. Uncas, -the child of Uncas, is found! Let the eyes of a dying eagle -gaze on the rising sun." - -The youth stepped lightly, but proudly on the platform, -where he became visible to the whole agitated and wondering -multitude. Tamenund held him long at the length of his arm -and read every turn in the fine lineaments of his -countenance, with the untiring gaze of one who recalled days -of happiness. - -"Is Tamenund a boy?" at length the bewildered prophet -exclaimed. "Have I dreamed of so many snows -- that my -people were scattered like floating sands -- of Yengeese, -more plenty than the leaves on the trees! The arrow of -Tamenund would not frighten the fawn; his arm is withered -like the branch of a dead oak; the snail would be swifter in -the race; yet is Uncas before him as they went to battle -against the pale faces! Uncas, the panther of his tribe, -the eldest son of the Lenape, the wisest Sagamore of the -Mohicans! Tell me, ye Delawares, has Tamenund been a sleeper -for a hundred winters?" - -The calm and deep silence which succeeded these words -sufficiently announced the awful reverence with which his -people received the communication of the patriarch. None -dared to answer, though all listened in breathless -expectation of what might follow. Uncas, however, looking -in his face with the fondness and veneration of a favored -child, presumed on his own high and acknowledged rank, to -reply. - -"Four warriors of his race have lived and died," he said, -"since the friend of Tamenund led his people in battle. The -blood of the turtle has been in many chiefs, but all have -gone back into the earth from whence they came, except -Chingachgook and his son." - -"It is true -- it is true," returned the sage, a flash of -recollection destroying all his pleasing fancies, and -restoring him at once to a consciousness of the true history -of his nation. "Our wise men have often said that two -warriors of the unchanged race were in the hills of the -Yengeese; why have their seats at the council-fires of the -Delawares been so long empty?" - -At these words the young man raised his head, which he had -still kept bowed a little, in reverence; and lifting his -voice so as to be heard by the multitude, as if to explain -at once and forever the policy of his family, he said aloud: - -"Once we slept where we could hear the salt lake speak in -its anger. Then we were rulers and Sagamores over the land. -But when a pale face was seen on every brook, we followed -the deer back to the river of our nation. The Delawares -were gone. Few warriors of them all stayed to drink of the -stream they loved. Then said my fathers, 'Here will we -hunt. The waters of the river go into the salt lake. If we -go toward the setting sun, we shall find streams that run -into the great lakes of sweet water; there would a Mohican -die, like fishes of the sea, in the clear springs. When the -Manitou is ready and shall say "Come," we will follow the -river to the sea, and take our own again.' Such, Delawares, -is the belief of the children of the Turtle. Our eyes are -on the rising and not toward the setting sun. We know -whence he comes, but we know not whither he goes. It is -enough." - -The men of the Lenape listened to his words with all the -respect that superstition could lend, finding a secret charm -even in the figurative language with which the young -Sagamore imparted his ideas. Uncas himself watched the -effect of his brief explanation with intelligent eyes, and -gradually dropped the air of authority he had assumed, as he -perceived that his auditors were content. Then, permitting -his looks to wander over the silent throng that crowded -around the elevated seat of Tamenund, he first perceived -Hawkeye in his bonds. Stepping eagerly from his stand, he -made way for himself to the side of his friend; and cutting -his thongs with a quick and angry stroke of his own knife, -he motioned to the crowd to divide. The Indians silently -obeyed, and once more they stood ranged in their circle, as -before his appearance among them. Uncas took the scout by -the hand, and led him to the feet of the patriarch. - -"Father," he said, "look at this pale face; a just man, and -the friend of the Delawares." - -"Is he a son of Minquon?" - -"Not so; a warrior known to the Yengeese, and feared by the -Maquas." - -"What name has he gained by his deeds?" - -"We call him Hawkeye," Uncas replied, using the Delaware -phrase; "for his sight never fails. The Mingoes know him -better by the death he gives their warriors; with them he is -'The Long Rifle'." - -"La Longue Carabine!" exclaimed Tamenund, opening his eyes, -and regarding the scout sternly. "My son has not done well -to call him friend." - -"I call him so who proves himself such," returned the young -chief, with great calmness, but with a steady mien. "If -Uncas is welcome among the Delawares, then is Hawkeye with -his friends." - -"The pale face has slain my young men; his name is great for -the blows he has struck the Lenape." - -"If a Mingo has whispered that much in the ear of the -Delaware, he has only shown that he is a singing-bird," said -the scout, who now believed that it was time to vindicate -himself from such offensive charges, and who spoke as the -man he addressed, modifying his Indian figures, however, -with his own peculiar notions. "That I have slain the Maquas -I am not the man to deny, even at their own council-fires; -but that, knowingly, my hand has never harmed a Delaware, is -opposed to the reason of my gifts, which is friendly to them, -and all that belongs to their nation." - -A low exclamation of applause passed among the warriors who -exchanged looks with each other like men that first began to -perceive their error. - -"Where is the Huron?" demanded Tamenund. "Has he stopped my -ears?" - -Magua, whose feelings during that scene in which Uncas had -triumphed may be much better imagined than described, -answered to the call by stepping boldly in front of the -patriarch. - -"The just Tamenund," he said, "will not keep what a Huron -has lent." - -"Tell me, son of my brother," returned the sage, avoiding -the dark countenance of Le Subtil, and turning gladly to the -more ingenuous features of Uncas, "has the stranger a -conqueror's right over you?" - -"He has none. The panther may get into snares set by the -women; but he is strong, and knows how to leap through -them." - -"La Longue Carabine?" - -"Laughs at the Mingoes. Go, Huron, ask your squaws the -color of a bear." - -"The stranger and white maiden that come into my camp -together?" - -"Should journey on an open path." - -"And the woman that Huron left with my warriors?" - -Uncas made no reply. - -"And the woman that the Mingo has brought into my camp?" -repeated Tamenund, gravely. - -"She is mine," cried Magua, shaking his hand in triumph at -Uncas. "Mohican, you know that she is mine." - -"My son is silent," said Tamenund, endeavoring to read the -expression of the face that the youth turned from him in -sorrow. - -"It is so," was the low answer. - -A short and impressive pause succeeded, during which it was -very apparent with what reluctance the multitude admitted -the justice of the Mingo's claim. At length the sage, on -whom alone the decision depended, said, in a firm voice: - -"Huron, depart." - -"As he came, just Tamenund," demanded the wily Magua, "or -with hands filled with the faith of the Delawares? The -wigwam of Le Renard Subtil is empty. Make him strong with -his own." - -The aged man mused with himself for a time; and then, -bending his head toward one of his venerable companions, he -asked: - -"Are my ears open?" - -"It is true." - -"Is this Mingo a chief?" - -"The first in his nation." - -"Girl, what wouldst thou? A great warrior takes thee to -wife. Go! thy race will not end." - -"Better, a thousand times, it should," exclaimed the -horror-struck Cora, "than meet with such a degradation!" - -"Huron, her mind is in the tents of her fathers. An -unwilling maiden makes an unhappy wigwam." - -"She speaks with the tongue of her people," returned Magua, -regarding his victim with a look of bitter irony. - -"She is of a race of traders, and will bargain for a bright -look. Let Tamenund speak the words." - -"Take you the wampum, and our love." - -"Nothing hence but what Magua brought hither." - -"Then depart with thine own. The Great Manitou forbids that -a Delaware should be unjust." - -Magua advanced, and seized his captive strongly by the arm; -the Delawares fell back, in silence; and Cora, as if -conscious that remonstrance would be useless, prepared to -submit to her fate without resistance. - -"Hold, hold!" cried Duncan, springing forward; "Huron, have -mercy! her ransom shall make thee richer than any of thy -people were ever yet known to be." - -"Magua is a red-skin; he wants not the beads of the pale -faces." - -"Gold, silver, powder, lead -- all that a warrior needs -shall be in thy wigwam; all that becomes the greatest -chief." - -"Le Subtil is very strong," cried Magua, violently shaking -the hand which grasped the unresisting arm of Cora; "he has -his revenge!" - -"Mighty ruler of Providence!" exclaimed Heyward, clasping -his hands together in agony, "can this be suffered! To you, -just Tamenund, I appeal for mercy." - -"The words of the Delaware are said," returned the sage, -closing his eyes, and dropping back into his seat, alike -wearied with his mental and his bodily exertion. "Men speak -not twice." - -"That a chief should not misspend his time in unsaying what -has once been spoken is wise and reasonable," said Hawkeye, -motioning to Duncan to be silent; "but it is also prudent in -every warrior to consider well before he strikes his -tomahawk into the head of his prisoner. Huron, I love you -not; nor can I say that any Mingo has ever received much -favor at my hands. It is fair to conclude that, if this war -does not soon end, many more of your warriors will meet me -in the woods. Put it to your judgment, then, whether you -would prefer taking such a prisoner as that into your -encampment, or one like myself, who am a man that it would -greatly rejoice your nation to see with naked hands." - -"Will 'The Long Rifle' give his life for the woman?" -demanded Magua, hesitatingly; for he had already made a -motion toward quitting the place with his victim. - -"No, no; I have not said so much as that," returned Hawkeye, -drawing back with suitable discretion, when he noted the -eagerness with which Magua listened to his proposal. "It -would be an unequal exchange, to give a warrior, in the -prime of his age and usefulness, for the best woman on the -frontiers. I might consent to go into winter quarters, now --- at least six weeks afore the leaves will turn -- on -condition you will release the maiden." - -Magua shook his head, and made an impatient sign for the -crowd to open. - -"Well, then," added the scout, with the musing air of a man -who had not half made up his mind; "I will throw 'killdeer' -into the bargain. Take the word of an experienced hunter, -the piece has not its equal atween the provinces." - -Magua still disdained to reply, continuing his efforts to -disperse the crowd. - -"Perhaps," added the scout, losing his dissembled coolness -exactly in proportion as the other manifested an -indifference to the exchange, "if I should condition to -teach your young men the real virtue of the we'pon, it would -smoothe the little differences in our judgments." - -Le Renard fiercely ordered the Delawares, who still lingered -in an impenetrable belt around him, in hopes he would listen -to the amicable proposal, to open his path, threatening, by -the glance of his eye, another appeal to the infallible -justice of their "prophet." - -"What is ordered must sooner or later arrive," continued -Hawkeye, turning with a sad and humbled look to Uncas. "The -varlet knows his advantage and will keep it! God bless you, -boy; you have found friends among your natural kin, and I -hope they will prove as true as some you have met who had no -Indian cross. As for me, sooner or later, I must die; it -is, therefore, fortunate there are but few to make my death-howl. -After all, it is likely the imps would have managed to master my -scalp, so a day or two will make no great difference in the -everlasting reckoning of time. God bless you," added the rugged -woodsman, bending his head aside, and then instantly changing its -direction again, with a wistful look toward the youth; "I loved -both you and your father, Uncas, though our skins are not -altogether of a color, and our gifts are somewhat different. -Tell the Sagamore I never lost sight of him in my greatest -trouble; and, as for you, think of me sometimes when on a lucky -trail, and depend on it, boy, whether there be one heaven or two, -there is a path in the other world by which honest men may come -together again. You'll find the rifle in the place we hid it; -take it, and keep it for my sake; and, harkee, lad, as your -natural gifts don't deny you the use of vengeance, use it a -little freely on the Mingoes; it may unburden griefs at my -loss, and ease your mind. Huron, I accept your offer; -release the woman. I am your prisoner!" - -A suppressed, but still distinct murmur of approbation ran -through the crowd at this generous proposition; even the -fiercest among the Delaware warriors manifesting pleasure at -the manliness of the intended sacrifice. Magua paused, and -for an anxious moment, it might be said, he doubted; then, -casting his eyes on Cora, with an expression in which -ferocity and admiration were strangely mingled, his purpose -became fixed forever. - -He intimated his contempt of the offer with a backward -motion of his head, and said, in a steady and settled voice: - -"Le Renard Subtil is a great chief; he has but one mind. -Come," he added, laying his hand too familiarly on the -shoulder of his captive to urge her onward; "a Huron is no -tattler; we will go." - -The maiden drew back in lofty womanly reserve, and her dark -eye kindled, while the rich blood shot, like the passing -brightness of the sun, into her very temples, at the -indignity. - -"I am your prisoner, and, at a fitting time shall be ready -to follow, even to my death. But violence is unnecessary," -she coldly said; and immediately turning to Hawkeye, added: -"Generous hunter! from my soul I thank you. Your offer is -vain, neither could it be accepted; but still you may serve -me, even more than in your own noble intention. Look at -that drooping humbled child! Abandon her not until you -leave her in the habitations of civilized men. I will not -say," wringing the hard hand of the scout, "that her father -will reward you -- for such as you are above the rewards of -men -- but he will thank you and bless you. And, believe -me, the blessing of a just and aged man has virtue in the -sight of Heaven. Would to God I could hear one word from -his lips at this awful moment!" Her voice became choked, -and, for an instant, she was silent; then, advancing a step -nigher to Duncan, who was supporting her unconscious sister, -she continued, in more subdued tones, but in which feeling -and the habits of her sex maintained a fearful struggle: "I -need not tell you to cherish the treasure you will possess. -You love her, Heyward; that would conceal a thousand faults, -though she had them. She is kind, gentle, sweet, good, as -mortal may be. There is not a blemish in mind or person at -which the proudest of you all would sicken. She is fair -- -oh! how surpassingly fair!" laying her own beautiful, but -less brilliant, hand in melancholy affection on the -alabaster forehead of Alice, and parting the golden hair -which clustered about her brows; "and yet her soul is pure -and spotless as her skin! I could say much -- more, -perhaps, than cooler reason would approve; but I will spare -you and myself --" Her voice became inaudible, and her face -was bent over the form of her sister. After a long and -burning kiss, she arose, and with features of the hue of -death, but without even a tear in her feverish eye, she -turned away, and added, to the savage, with all her former -elevation of manner: "Now, sir, if it be your pleasure, I -will follow." - -"Ay, go," cried Duncan, placing Alice in the arms of an -Indian girl; "go, Magua, go. These Delawares have their -laws, which forbid them to detain you; but I -- I have no -such obligation. Go, malignant monster -- why do you -delay?" - -It would be difficult to describe the expression with which -Magua listened to this threat to follow. There was at first -a fierce and manifest display of joy, and then it was -instantly subdued in a look of cunning coldness. - -"The words are open," he was content with answering, "'The -Open Hand' can come." - -"Hold," cried Hawkeye, seizing Duncan by the arm, and -detaining him by violence; "you know not the craft of the -imp. He would lead you to an ambushment, and your death --" - -"Huron," interrupted Uncas, who submissive to the stern -customs of his people, had been an attentive and grave -listener to all that passed; "Huron, the justice of the -Delawares comes from the Manitou. Look at the sun. He is -now in the upper branches of the hemlock. Your path is -short and open. When he is seen above the trees, there will -be men on your trail." - -"I hear a crow!" exclaimed Magua, with a taunting laugh. -"Go!" he added, shaking his hand at the crowd, which had -slowly opened to admit his passage. "Where are the -petticoats of the Delawares! Let them send their arrows and -their guns to the Wyandots; they shall have venison to eat, -and corn to hoe. Dogs, rabbits, thieves -- I spit on you!" - -His parting gibes were listened to in a dead, boding -silence, and, with these biting words in his mouth, the -triumphant Magua passed unmolested into the forest, followed -by his passive captive, and protected by the inviolable laws -of Indian hospitality. - - - -CHAPTER 31 - -"Flue.--Kill the poys and the luggage! 'Tis expressly -against the law of arms; 'tis as arrant a piece of knavery, -mark you now, as can be offered in the 'orld."--King -Henry V - -So long as their enemy and his victim continued in sight, -the multitude remained motionless as beings charmed to the -place by some power that was friendly to the Huron; but, the -instant he disappeared, it became tossed and agitated by -fierce and powerful passion. Uncas maintained his elevated -stand, keeping his eyes on the form of Cora, until the -colors of her dress were blended with the foliage of the -forest; when he descended, and, moving silently through the -throng, he disappeared in that lodge from which he had so -recently issued. A few of the graver and more attentive -warriors, who caught the gleams of anger that shot from the -eyes of the young chief in passing, followed him to the -place he had selected for his meditations. After which, -Tamenund and Alice were removed, and the women and children -were ordered to disperse. During the momentous hour that -succeeded, the encampment resembled a hive of troubled bees, -who only awaited the appearance and example of their leader -to take some distant and momentous flight. - -A young warrior at length issued from the lodge of Uncas; -and, moving deliberately, with a sort of grave march, toward -a dwarf pine that grew in the crevices of the rocky terrace, -he tore the bark from its body, and then turned whence he -came without speaking. He was soon followed by another, who -stripped the sapling of its branches, leaving it a naked and -blazed* trunk. A third colored the post with stripes of a -dark red paint; all which indications of a hostile design in -the leaders of the nation were received by the men without -in a gloomy and ominous silence. Finally, the Mohican -himself reappeared, divested of all his attire, except his -girdle and leggings, and with one-half of his fine features -hid under a cloud of threatening black. - -* A tree which has been partially or entirely stripped -of its bark is said, in the language of the country, to be -"blazed." The term is strictly English, for a horse is said -to be blazed when it has a white mark. - -Uncas moved with a slow and dignified tread toward the post, -which he immediately commenced encircling with a measured -step, not unlike an ancient dance, raising his voice, at the -same time, in the wild and irregular chant of his war song. -The notes were in the extremes of human sounds; being -sometimes melancholy and exquisitely plaintive, even -rivaling the melody of birds -- and then, by sudden and -startling transitions, causing the auditors to tremble by -their depth and energy. The words were few and often -repeated, proceeding gradually from a sort of invocation, or -hymn, to the Deity, to an intimation of the warrior's -object, and terminating as they commenced with an -acknowledgment of his own dependence on the Great Spirit. -If it were possible to translate the comprehensive and -melodious language in which he spoke, the ode might read -something like the following: "Manitou! Manitou! Manitou! -Thou art great, thou art good, thou art wise: Manitou! -Manitou! Thou art just. In the heavens, in the clouds, -oh, I see many spots -- many dark, many red: In the heavens, -oh, I see many clouds." - -"In the woods, in the air, oh, I -hear the whoop, the long yell, and the cry: In the woods, -oh, I hear the loud whoop!" - -"Manitou! Manitou! Manitou! I am weak -- thou art strong; -I am slow; Manitou! Manitou! Give me aid." - -At the end of what might be called each verse he made a -pause, by raising a note louder and longer than common, that -was peculiarly suited to the sentiment just expressed. The -first close was solemn, and intended to convey the idea of -veneration; the second descriptive, bordering on the alarming; -and the third was the well-known and terrific war-whoop, which -burst from the lips of the young warrior, like a combination -of all the frightful sounds of battle. The last was like the -first, humble and imploring. Three times did he repeat this -song, and as often did he encircle the post in his dance. - -At the close of the first turn, a grave and highly esteemed -chief of the Lenape followed his example, singing words of -his own, however, to music of a similar character. Warrior -after warrior enlisted in the dance, until all of any renown -and authority were numbered in its mazes. The spectacle now -became wildly terrific; the fierce-looking and menacing -visages of the chiefs receiving additional power from the -appalling strains in which they mingled their guttural -tones. Just then Uncas struck his tomahawk deep into the -post, and raised his voice in a shout, which might be termed -his own battle cry. The act announced that he had assumed -the chief authority in the intended expedition. - -It was a signal that awakened all the slumbering passions of -the nation. A hundred youths, who had hitherto been -restrained by the diffidence of their years, rushed in a -frantic body on the fancied emblem of their enemy, and -severed it asunder, splinter by splinter, until nothing -remained of the trunk but its roots in the earth. During -this moment of tumult, the most ruthless deeds of war were -performed on the fragments of the tree, with as much -apparent ferocity as if they were the living victims of -their cruelty. Some were scalped; some received the keen -and trembling axe; and others suffered by thrusts from the -fatal knife. In short, the manifestations of zeal and -fierce delight were so great and unequivocal, that the -expedition was declared to be a war of the nation. - -The instant Uncas had struck the blow, he moved out of the -circle, and cast his eyes up to the sun, which was just -gaining the point, when the truce with Magua was to end. -The fact was soon announced by a significant gesture, -accompanied by a corresponding cry; and the whole of the -excited multitude abandoned their mimic warfare, with shrill -yells of pleasure, to prepare for the more hazardous -experiment of the reality. - -The whole face of the encampment was instantly changed. The -warriors, who were already armed and painted, became as -still as if they were incapable of any uncommon burst of -emotion. On the other hand, the women broke out of the -lodges, with the songs of joy and those of lamentation so -strangely mixed that it might have been difficult to have -said which passion preponderated. None, however, was idle. -Some bore their choicest articles, others their young, and -some their aged and infirm, into the forest, which spread -itself like a verdant carpet of bright green against the -side of the mountain. Thither Tamenund also retired, with -calm composure, after a short and touching interview with -Uncas; from whom the sage separated with the reluctance that -a parent would quit a long lost and just recovered child. -In the meantime, Duncan saw Alice to a place of safety, and -then sought the scout, with a countenance that denoted how -eagerly he also panted for the approaching contest. - -But Hawkeye was too much accustomed to the war song and the -enlistments of the natives, to betray any interest in the -passing scene. He merely cast an occasional look at the -number and quality of the warriors, who, from time to time, -signified their readiness to accompany Uncas to the field. -In this particular he was soon satisfied; for, as has been -already seen, the power of the young chief quickly embraced -every fighting man in the nation. After this material point -was so satisfactorily decided, he despatched an Indian boy -in quest of "killdeer" and the rifle of Uncas, to the place -where they had deposited their weapons on approaching the -camp of the Delawares; a measure of double policy, inasmuch -as it protected the arms from their own fate, if detained as -prisoners, and gave them the advantage of appearing among -the strangers rather as sufferers than as men provided with -means of defense and subsistence. In selecting another to -perform the office of reclaiming his highly prized rifle, -the scout had lost sight of none of his habitual caution. -He knew that Magua had not come unattended, and he also knew -that Huron spies watched the movements of their new enemies, -along the whole boundary of the woods. It would, therefore, -have been fatal to himself to have attempted the experiment; -a warrior would have fared no better; but the danger of a -boy would not be likely to commence until after his object -was discovered. When Heyward joined him, the scout was -coolly awaiting the result of this experiment. - -The boy, who had been well instructed, and was sufficiently -crafty, proceeded, with a bosom that was swelling with the -pride of such a confidence, and all the hopes of young -ambition, carelessly across the clearing to the wood, which -he entered at a point at some little distance from the place -where the guns were secreted. The instant, however, he was -concealed by the foliage of the bushes, his dusky form was -to be seen gliding, like that of a serpent, toward the -desired treasure. He was successful; and in another moment -he appeared flying across the narrow opening that skirted -the base of the terrace on which the village stood, with the -velocity of an arrow, and bearing a prize in each hand. He -had actually gained the crags, and was leaping up their -sides with incredible activity, when a shot from the woods -showed how accurate had been the judgment of the scout. The -boy answered it with a feeble but contemptuous shout; and -immediately a second bullet was sent after him from another -part of the cover. At the next instant he appeared on the -level above, elevating his guns in triumph, while he moved -with the air of a conqueror toward the renowned hunter who -had honored him by so glorious a commission. - -Notwithstanding the lively interest Hawkeye had taken in the -fate of his messenger, he received "killdeer" with a -satisfaction that, momentarily, drove all other -recollections from his mind. After examining the piece with -an intelligent eye, and opening and shutting the pan some -ten or fifteen times, and trying sundry other equally -important experiments on the lock, he turned to the boy and -demanded with great manifestations of kindness, if he was -hurt. The urchin looked proudly up in his face, but made no -reply. - -"Ah! I see, lad, the knaves have barked your arm!" added the -scout, taking up the limb of the patient sufferer, across -which a deep flesh wound had been made by one of the -bullets; "but a little bruised alder will act like a charm. -In the meantime I will wrap it in a badge of wampum! You -have commenced the business of a warrior early, my brave -boy, and are likely to bear a plenty of honorable scars to -your grave. I know many young men that have taken scalps -who cannot show such a mark as this. Go! " having bound up -the arm; "you will be a chief!" - -The lad departed, prouder of his flowing blood than the -vainest courtier could be of his blushing ribbon; and -stalked among the fellows of his age, an object of general -admiration and envy. - -But, in a moment of so many serious and important duties, -this single act of juvenile fortitude did not attract the -general notice and commendation it would have received under -milder auspices. It had, however, served to apprise the -Delawares of the position and the intentions of their -enemies. Accordingly a party of adventurers, better suited -to the task than the weak though spirited boy, was ordered -to dislodge the skulkers. The duty was soon performed; for -most of the Hurons retired of themselves when they found -they had been discovered. The Delawares followed to a -sufficient distance from their own encampment, and then -halted for orders, apprehensive of being led into an ambush. -As both parties secreted themselves, the woods were again as -still and quiet as a mild summer morning and deep solitude -could render them. - -The calm but still impatient Uncas now collected his chiefs, -and divided his power. He presented Hawkeye as a warrior, -often tried, and always found deserving of confidence. When -he found his friend met with a favorable reception, he -bestowed on him the command of twenty men, like himself, -active, skillful and resolute. He gave the Delawares to -understand the rank of Heyward among the troops of the -Yengeese, and then tendered to him a trust of equal -authority. But Duncan declined the charge, professing his -readiness to serve as a volunteer by the side of the scout. -After this disposition, the young Mohican appointed various -native chiefs to fill the different situations of -responsibility, and, the time pressing, he gave forth the -word to march. He was cheerfully, but silently obeyed by -more than two hundred men. - -Their entrance into the forest was perfectly unmolested; nor -did they encounter any living objects that could either give -the alarm, or furnish the intelligence they needed, until -they came upon the lairs of their own scouts. Here a halt -was ordered, and the chiefs were assembled to hold a -"whispering council." - -At this meeting divers plans of operation were suggested, -though none of a character to meet the wishes of their -ardent leader. Had Uncas followed the promptings of his own -inclinations, he would have led his followers to the charge -without a moment's delay, and put the conflict to the hazard -of an instant issue; but such a course would have been in -opposition to all the received practises and opinions of his -countrymen. He was, therefore, fain to adopt a caution that -in the present temper of his mind he execrated, and to -listen to advice at which his fiery spirit chafed, under the -vivid recollection of Cora's danger and Magua's insolence. - -After an unsatisfactory conference of many minutes, a -solitary individual was seen advancing from the side of the -enemy, with such apparent haste, as to induce the belief he -might be a messenger charged with pacific overtures. When -within a hundred yards, however, of the cover behind which -the Delaware council had assembled, the stranger hesitated, -appeared uncertain what course to take, and finally halted. -All eyes were turned now on Uncas, as if seeking directions -how to proceed. - -"Hawkeye," said the young chief, in a low voice, "he must -never speak to the Hurons again." - -"His time has come," said the laconic scout, thrusting the -long barrel of his rifle through the leaves, and taking his -deliberate and fatal aim. But, instead of pulling the -trigger, he lowered the muzzle again, and indulged himself -in a fit of his peculiar mirth. "I took the imp for a -Mingo, as I'm a miserable sinner!" he said; "but when my eye -ranged along his ribs for a place to get the bullet in -- -would you think it, Uncas -- I saw the musicianer's blower; -and so, after all, it is the man they call Gamut, whose -death can profit no one, and whose life, if this tongue can -do anything but sing, may be made serviceable to our own -ends. If sounds have not lost their virtue, I'll soon have -a discourse with the honest fellow, and that in a voice -he'll find more agreeable than the speech of 'killdeer'." - -So saying, Hawkeye laid aside his rifle; and, crawling -through the bushes until within hearing of David, he -attempted to repeat the musical effort, which had conducted -himself, with so much safety and eclat, through the Huron -encampment. The exquisite organs of Gamut could not readily -be deceived (and, to say the truth, it would have been -difficult for any other than Hawkeye to produce a similar -noise), and, consequently, having once before heard the -sounds, he now knew whence they proceeded. The poor fellow -appeared relieved from a state of great embarrassment; for, -pursuing the direction of the voice -- a task that to him -was not much less arduous that it would have been to have -gone up in the face of a battery -- he soon discovered the -hidden songster. - -"I wonder what the Hurons will think of that!" said the -scout, laughing, as he took his companion by the arm, and -urged him toward the rear. "If the knaves lie within -earshot, they will say there are two non-compossers instead -of one! But here we are safe," he added, pointing to Uncas -and his associates. "Now give us the history of the Mingo -inventions in natural English, and without any ups and downs -of voice." - -David gazed about him, at the fierce and wild-looking -chiefs, in mute wonder; but assured by the presence of faces -that he knew, he soon rallied his faculties so far as to -make an intelligent reply. - -"The heathen are abroad in goodly numbers," said David; -"and, I fear, with evil intent. There has been much howling -and ungodly revelry, together with such sounds as it is -profanity to utter, in their habitations within the past -hour, so much so, in truth, that I have fled to the -Delawares in search of peace." - -"Your ears might not have profited much by the exchange, had -you been quicker of foot," returned the scout a little -dryly. "But let that be as it may; where are the Hurons?" - -"They lie hid in the forest, between this spot and their -village in such force, that prudence would teach you -instantly to return." - -Uncas cast a glance along the range of trees which concealed -his own band and mentioned the name of: - -"Magua?" - -"Is among them. He brought in the maiden that had sojourned -with the Delawares; and, leaving her in the cave, has put -himself, like a raging wolf, at the head of his savages. I -know not what has troubled his spirit so greatly!" - -"He has left her, you say, in the cave!" interrupted -Heyward; "'tis well that we know its situation! May not -something be done for her instant relief?" - -Uncas looked earnestly at the scout, before he asked: - -"What says Hawkeye?" - -"Give me twenty rifles, and I will turn to the right, along -the stream; and, passing by the huts of the beaver, will -join the Sagamore and the colonel. You shall then hear the -whoop from that quarter; with this wind one may easily send -it a mile. Then, Uncas, do you drive in the front; when -they come within range of our pieces, we will give them a -blow that, I pledge the good name of an old frontiersman, -shall make their line bend like an ashen bow. After which, -we will carry the village, and take the woman from the cave; -when the affair may be finished with the tribe, according to -a white man's battle, by a blow and a victory; or, in the -Indian fashion, with dodge and cover. There may be no great -learning, major, in this plan, but with courage and patience -it can all be done." - -"I like it very much," cried Duncan, who saw that the -release of Cora was the primary object in the mind of the -scout; "I like it much. Let it be instantly attempted." - -After a short conference, the plan was matured, and rendered -more intelligible to the several parties; the different -signals were appointed, and the chiefs separated, each to -his allotted station. - - - -CHAPTER 32 - -"But plagues shall spread, and funeral fires increase, Till -the great king, without a ransom paid, To her own Chrysa -send the black-eyed maid."--Pope - -During the time Uncas was making this disposition of his -forces, the woods were as still, and, with the exception of -those who had met in council, apparently as much untenanted -as when they came fresh from the hands of their Almighty -Creator. The eye could range, in every direction, through -the long and shadowed vistas of the trees; but nowhere was -any object to be seen that did not properly belong to the -peaceful and slumbering scenery. - -Here and there a bird was heard fluttering among the -branches of the beeches, and occasionally a squirrel dropped -a nut, drawing the startled looks of the party for a moment -to the place; but the instant the casual interruption -ceased, the passing air was heard murmuring above their -heads, along that verdant and undulating surface of forest, -which spread itself unbroken, unless by stream or lake, over -such a vast region of country. Across the tract of -wilderness which lay between the Delawares and the village -of their enemies, it seemed as if the foot of man had never -trodden, so breathing and deep was the silence in which it -lay. But Hawkeye, whose duty led him foremost in the -adventure, knew the character of those with whom he was -about to contend too well to trust the treacherous quiet. - -When he saw his little band collected, the scout threw -"killdeer" into the hollow of his arm, and making a silent -signal that he would be followed, he led them many rods -toward the rear, into the bed of a little brook which they -had crossed in advancing. Here he halted, and after waiting -for the whole of his grave and attentive warriors to close -about him, he spoke in Delaware, demanding: - -"Do any of my young men know whither this run will lead us?" - -A Delaware stretched forth a hand, with the two fingers -separated, and indicating the manner in which they were -joined at the root, he answered: - -"Before the sun could go his own length, the little water -will be in the big." Then he added, pointing in the -direction of the place he mentioned, "the two make enough -for the beavers." - -"I thought as much," returned the scout, glancing his eye -upward at the opening in the tree-tops, "from the course it -takes, and the bearings of the mountains. Men, we will keep -within the cover of its banks till we scent the Hurons." - -His companions gave the usual brief exclamation of assent, -but, perceiving that their leader was about to lead the way -in person, one or two made signs that all was not as it -should be. Hawkeye, who comprehended their meaning glances, -turned and perceived that his party had been followed thus -far by the singing-master. - -"Do you know, friend," asked the scout, gravely, and perhaps -with a little of the pride of conscious deserving in his -manner, "that this is a band of rangers chosen for the most -desperate service, and put under the command of one who, -though another might say it with a better face, will not be -apt to leave them idle. It may not be five, it cannot be -thirty minutes, before we tread on the body of a Huron, -living or dead." - -"Though not admonished of your intentions in words," -returned David, whose face was a little flushed, and whose -ordinarily quiet and unmeaning eyes glimmered with an -expression of unusual fire, "your men have reminded me of -the children of Jacob going out to battle against the -Shechemites, for wickedly aspiring to wedlock with a woman -of a race that was favored of the Lord. Now, I have -journeyed far, and sojourned much in good and evil with the -maiden ye seek; and, though not a man of war, with my loins -girded and my sword sharpened, yet would I gladly strike a -blow in her behalf." - -The scout hesitated, as if weighing the chances of such a -strange enlistment in his mind before he answered: - -"You know not the use of any we'pon. You carry no rifle; -and believe me, what the Mingoes take they will freely give -again." - -"Though not a vaunting and bloodily disposed Goliath," -returned David, drawing a sling from beneath his parti- -colored and uncouth attire, "I have not forgotten the -example of the Jewish boy. With this ancient instrument of -war have I practised much in my youth, and peradventure the -skill has not entirely departed from me." - -"Ay!" said Hawkeye, considering the deer-skin thong and -apron, with a cold and discouraging eye; "the thing might do -its work among arrows, or even knives; but these Mengwe have -been furnished by the Frenchers with a good grooved barrel a -man. However, it seems to be your gift to go unharmed amid -fire; and as you have hitherto been favored -- major, you -have left your rifle at a cock; a single shot before the -time would be just twenty scalps lost to no purpose -- -singer, you can follow; we may find use for you in the -shoutings." - -"I thank you, friend," returned David, supplying himself, -like his royal namesake, from among the pebbles of the -brook; "though not given to the desire to kill, had you sent -me away my spirit would have been troubled." - -"Remember," added the scout, tapping his own head -significantly on that spot where Gamut was yet sore, "we -come to fight, and not to musickate. Until the general -whoop is given, nothing speaks but the rifle." - -David nodded, as much to signify his acquiescence with the -terms; and then Hawkeye, casting another observant glance -over his followers made the signal to proceed. - -Their route lay, for the distance of a mile, along the bed -of the water-course. Though protected from any great danger -of observation by the precipitous banks, and the thick -shrubbery which skirted the stream, no precaution known to -an Indian attack was neglected. A warrior rather crawled -than walked on each flank so as to catch occasional glimpses -into the forest; and every few minutes the band came to a -halt, and listened for hostile sounds, with an acuteness of -organs that would be scarcely conceivable to a man in a less -natural state. Their march was, however, unmolested, and -they reached the point where the lesser stream was lost in -the greater, without the smallest evidence that their -progress had been noted. Here the scout again halted, to -consult the signs of the forest. - -"We are likely to have a good day for a fight," he said, in -English, addressing Heyward, and glancing his eyes upward at -the clouds, which began to move in broad sheets across the -firmament; "a bright sun and a glittering barrel are no -friends to true sight. Everything is favorable; they have -the wind, which will bring down their noises and their -smoke, too, no little matter in itself; whereas, with us it -will be first a shot, and then a clear view. But here is an -end to our cover; the beavers have had the range of this -stream for hundreds of years, and what atween their food and -their dams, there is, as you see, many a girdled stub, but -few living trees." - -Hawkeye had, in truth, in these few words, given no bad -description of the prospect that now lay in their front. -The brook was irregular in its width, sometimes shooting -through narrow fissures in the rocks, and at others -spreading over acres of bottom land, forming little areas -that might be termed ponds. Everywhere along its bands were -the moldering relics of dead trees, in all the stages of -decay, from those that groaned on their tottering trunks to -such as had recently been robbed of those rugged coats that -so mysteriously contain their principle of life. A few -long, low, and moss-covered piles were scattered among them, -like the memorials of a former and long-departed generation. - -All these minute particulars were noted by the scout, with a -gravity and interest that they probably had never before -attracted. He knew that the Huron encampment lay a short -half mile up the brook; and, with the characteristic anxiety -of one who dreaded a hidden danger, he was greatly troubled -at not finding the smallest trace of the presence of his -enemy. Once or twice he felt induced to give the order for -a rush, and to attempt the village by surprise; but his -experience quickly admonished him of the danger of so -useless an experiment. Then he listened intently, and with -painful uncertainty, for the sounds of hostility in the -quarter where Uncas was left; but nothing was audible except -the sighing of the wind, that began to sweep over the bosom -of the forest in gusts which threatened a tempest. At -length, yielding rather to his unusual impatience than -taking counsel from his knowledge, he determined to bring -matters to an issue, by unmasking his force, and proceeding -cautiously, but steadily, up the stream. - -The scout had stood, while making his observations, -sheltered by a brake, and his companions still lay in the -bed of the ravine, through which the smaller stream -debouched; but on hearing his low, though intelligible, -signal the whole party stole up the bank, like so many dark -specters, and silently arranged themselves around him. -Pointing in the direction he wished to proceed, Hawkeye -advanced, the band breaking off in single files, and -following so accurately in his footsteps, as to leave it, if -we except Heyward and David, the trail of but a single man. - -The party was, however, scarcely uncovered before a volley -from a dozen rifles was heard in their rear; and a Delaware -leaping high in to the air, like a wounded deer, fell at his -whole length, dead. - -"Ah, I feared some deviltry like this!" exclaimed the scout, -in English, adding, with the quickness of thought, in his -adopted tongue: "To cover, men, and charge!" - -The band dispersed at the word, and before Heyward had well -recovered from his surprise, he found himself standing alone -with David. Luckily the Hurons had already fallen back, and -he was safe from their fire. But this state of things was -evidently to be of short continuance; for the scout set the -example of pressing on their retreat, by discharging his -rifle, and darting from tree to tree as his enemy slowly -yielded ground. - -It would seem that the assault had been made by a very small -party of the Hurons, which, however, continued to increase -in numbers, as it retired on its friends, until the return -fire was very nearly, if not quite, equal to that maintained -by the advancing Delawares. Heyward threw himself among the -combatants, and imitating the necessary caution of his -companions, he made quick discharges with his own rifle. -The contest now grew warm and stationary. Few were injured, -as both parties kept their bodies as much protected as -possible by the trees; never, indeed, exposing any part of -their persons except in the act of taking aim. But the -chances were gradually growing unfavorable to Hawkeye and -his band. The quick-sighted scout perceived his danger -without knowing how to remedy it. He saw it was more -dangerous to retreat than to maintain his ground: while he -found his enemy throwing out men on his flank; which -rendered the task of keeping themselves covered so very -difficult to the Delawares, as nearly to silence their fire. -At this embarrassing moment, when they began to think the -whole of the hostile tribe was gradually encircling them, -they heard the yell of combatants and the rattling of arms -echoing under the arches of the wood at the place where -Uncas was posted, a bottom which, in a manner, lay beneath -the ground on which Hawkeye and his party were contending. - -The effects of this attack were instantaneous, and to the -scout and his friends greatly relieving. It would seem -that, while his own surprise had been anticipated, and had -consequently failed, the enemy, in their turn, having been -deceived in its object and in his numbers, had left too -small a force to resist the impetuous onset of the young -Mohican. This fact was doubly apparent, by the rapid manner -in which the battle in the forest rolled upward toward the -village, and by an instant falling off in the number of -their assailants, who rushed to assist in maintaining the -front, and, as it now proved to be, the principal point of -defense. - -Animating his followers by his voice, and his own example, -Hawkeye then gave the word to bear down upon their foes. -The charge, in that rude species of warfare, consisted -merely in pushing from cover to cover, nigher to the enemy; -and in this maneuver he was instantly and successfully -obeyed. The Hurons were compelled to withdraw, and the -scene of the contest rapidly changed from the more open -ground, on which it had commenced, to a spot where the -assailed found a thicket to rest upon. Here the struggle -was protracted, arduous and seemingly of doubtful issue; the -Delawares, though none of them fell, beginning to bleed -freely, in consequence of the disadvantage at which they -were held. - -In this crisis, Hawkeye found means to get behind the same -tree as that which served for a cover to Heyward; most of -his own combatants being within call, a little on his right, -where they maintained rapid, though fruitless, discharges on -their sheltered enemies. - -"You are a young man, major," said the scout, dropping the -butt of "killdeer" to the earth, and leaning on the barrel, -a little fatigued with his previous industry; "and it may be -your gift to lead armies, at some future day, ag'in these -imps, the Mingoes. You may here see the philosophy of an -Indian fight. It consists mainly in ready hand, a quick eye -and a good cover. Now, if you had a company of the Royal -Americans here, in what manner would you set them to work in -this business?" - -"The bayonet would make a road." - -"Ay, there is white reason in what you say; but a man must -ask himself, in this wilderness, how many lives he can -spare. No -- horse*," continued the scout, shaking his -head, like one who mused; "horse, I am ashamed to say must -sooner or later decide these scrimmages. The brutes are -better than men, and to horse must we come at last. Put a -shodden hoof on the moccasin of a red-skin, and, if his -rifle be once emptied, he will never stop to load it again." - -* The American forest admits of the passage of horses, -there being little underbrush, and few tangled brakes. The -plan of Hawkeye is the one which has always proved the most -successful in the battles between the whites and the -Indians. Wayne, in his celebrated campaign on the Miami, -received the fire of his enemies in line; and then causing -his dragoons to wheel round his flanks, the Indians were -driven from their covers before they had time to load. One -of the most conspicuous of the chiefs who fought in the -battle of Miami assured the writer, that the red men could -not fight the warriors with "long knives and leather -stockings"; meaning the dragoons with their sabers and -boots. - -"This is a subject that might better be discussed at another -time," returned Heyward; "shall we charge?" - -"I see no contradiction to the gifts of any man in passing -his breathing spells in useful reflections," the scout -replied. "As to rush, I little relish such a measure; for a -scalp or two must be thrown away in the attempt. And yet," -he added, bending his head aside, to catch the sounds of the -distant combat, "if we are to be of use to Uncas, these -knaves in our front must be got rid of." - -Then, turning with a prompt and decided air, he called aloud -to his Indians, in their own language. His words were -answered by a shout; and, at a given signal, each warrior -made a swift movement around his particular tree. The sight -of so many dark bodies, glancing before their eyes at the -same instant, drew a hasty and consequently an ineffectual -fire from the Hurons. Without stopping to breathe, the -Delawares leaped in long bounds toward the wood, like so -many panthers springing upon their prey. Hawkeye was in -front, brandishing his terrible rifle and animating his -followers by his example. A few of the older and more -cunning Hurons, who had not been deceived by the artifice -which had been practiced to draw their fire, now made a -close and deadly discharge of their pieces and justified the -apprehensions of the scout by felling three of his foremost -warriors. But the shock was insufficient to repel the -impetus of the charge. The Delawares broke into the cover -with the ferocity of their natures and swept away every -trace of resistance by the fury of the onset. - -The combat endured only for an instant, hand to hand, and -then the assailed yielded ground rapidly, until they reached -the opposite margin of the thicket, where they clung to the -cover, with the sort of obstinacy that is so often witnessed -in hunted brutes. At this critical moment, when the success -of the struggle was again becoming doubtful, the crack of a -rifle was heard behind the Hurons, and a bullet came -whizzing from among some beaver lodges, which were situated -in the clearing, in their rear, and was followed by the -fierce and appalling yell of the war-whoop. - -"There speaks the Sagamore!" shouted Hawkeye, answering the -cry with his own stentorian voice; "we have them now in face -and back!" - -The effect on the Hurons was instantaneous. Discouraged by -an assault from a quarter that left them no opportunity for -cover, the warriors uttered a common yell of disappointment, -and breaking off in a body, they spread themselves across -the opening, heedless of every consideration but flight. -Many fell, in making the experiment, under the bullets and -the blows of the pursuing Delawares. - -We shall not pause to detail the meeting between the scout -and Chingachgook, or the more touching interview that Duncan -held with Munro. A few brief and hurried words served to -explain the state of things to both parties; and then -Hawkeye, pointing out the Sagamore to his band, resigned the -chief authority into the hands of the Mohican chief. -Chingachgook assumed the station to which his birth and -experience gave him so distinguished a claim, with the grave -dignity that always gives force to the mandates of a native -warrior. Following the footsteps of the scout, he led the -party back through the thicket, his men scalping the fallen -Hurons and secreting the bodies of their own dead as they -proceeded, until they gained a point where the former was -content to make a halt. - -The warriors, who had breathed themselves freely in the -preceding struggle, were now posted on a bit of level -ground, sprinkled with trees in sufficient numbers to -conceal them. The land fell away rather precipitately in -front, and beneath their eyes stretched, for several miles, -a narrow, dark, and wooded vale. It was through this dense -and dark forest that Uncas was still contending with the -main body of the Hurons. - -The Mohican and his friends advanced to the brow of the -hill, and listened, with practised ears, to the sounds of -the combat. A few birds hovered over the leafy bosom of the -valley, frightened from their secluded nests; and here and -there a light vapory cloud, which seemed already blending -with the atmosphere, arose above the trees, and indicated -some spot where the struggle had been fierce and stationary. - -"The fight is coming up the ascent," said Duncan, pointing -in the direction of a new explosion of firearms; "we are too -much in the center of their line to be effective." - -"They will incline into the hollow, where the cover is -thicker," said the scout, "and that will leave us well on -their flank. Go, Sagamore; you will hardly be in time to -give the whoop, and lead on the young men. I will fight -this scrimmage with warriors of my own color. You know me, -Mohican; not a Huron of them all shall cross the swell, into -your rear, without the notice of 'killdeer'." - -The Indian chief paused another moment to consider the signs -of the contest, which was now rolling rapidly up the ascent, -a certain evidence that the Delawares triumphed; nor did he -actually quit the place until admonished of the proximity of -his friends, as well as enemies, by the bullets of the -former, which began to patter among the dried leaves on the -ground, like the bits of falling hail which precede the -bursting of the tempest. Hawkeye and his three companions -withdrew a few paces to a shelter, and awaited the issue -with calmness that nothing but great practise could impart -in such a scene. - -It was not long before the reports of the rifles began to -lose the echoes of the woods, and to sound like weapons -discharged in the open air. Then a warrior appeared, here -and there, driven to the skirts of the forest, and rallying -as he entered the clearing, as at the place where the final -stand was to be made. These were soon joined by others, -until a long line of swarthy figures was to be seen clinging -to the cover with the obstinacy of desperation. Heyward -began to grow impatient, and turned his eyes anxiously in -the direction of Chingachgook. The chief was seated on a -rock, with nothing visible but his calm visage, considering -the spectacle with an eye as deliberate as if he were posted -there merely to view the struggle. - -"The time has come for the Delaware to strike!" said Duncan. - -"Not so, not so," returned the scout; "when he scents his -friends, he will let them know that he is here. See, see; -the knaves are getting in that clump of pines, like bees -settling after their flight. By the Lord, a squaw might put -a bullet into the center of such a knot of dark skins!" - -At that instant the whoop was given, and a dozen Hurons fell -by a discharge from Chingachgook and his band. The shout -that followed was answered by a single war-cry from the -forest, and a yell passed through the air that sounded as if -a thousand throats were united in a common effort. The -Hurons staggered, deserting the center of their line, and -Uncas issued from the forest through the opening they left, -at the head of a hundred warriors. - -Waving his hands right and left, the young chief pointed out -the enemy to his followers, who separated in pursuit. The -war now divided, both wings of the broken Hurons seeking -protection in the woods again, hotly pressed by the -victorious warriors of the Lenape. A minute might have -passed, but the sounds were already receding in different -directions, and gradually losing their distinctness beneath -the echoing arches of the woods. One little knot of Hurons, -however, had disdained to seek a cover, and were retiring, -like lions at bay, slowly and sullenly up the acclivity -which Chingachgook and his band had just deserted, to mingle -more closely in the fray. Magua was conspicuous in this -party, both by his fierce and savage mien, and by the air of -haughty authority he yet maintained. - -In his eagerness to expedite the pursuit, Uncas had left -himself nearly alone; but the moment his eye caught the -figure of Le Subtil, every other consideration was -forgotten. Raising his cry of battle, which recalled some -six or seven warriors, and reckless of the disparity of -their numbers, he rushed upon his enemy. Le Renard, who -watched the movement, paused to receive him with secret joy. -But at the moment when he thought the rashness of his -impetuous young assailant had left him at his mercy, another -shout was given, and La Longue Carabine was seen rushing to -the rescue, attended by all his white associates. The Huron -instantly turned, and commenced a rapid retreat up the -ascent. - -There was no time for greetings or congratulations; for -Uncas, though unconscious of the presence of his friends, -continued the pursuit with the velocity of the wind. In -vain Hawkeye called to him to respect the covers; the young -Mohican braved the dangerous fire of his enemies, and soon -compelled them to a flight as swift as his own headlong -speed. It was fortunate that the race was of short -continuance, and that the white men were much favored by -their position, or the Delaware would soon have outstripped -all his companions, and fallen a victim to his own temerity. -But, ere such a calamity could happen, the pursuers and -pursued entered the Wyandot village, within striking -distance of each other. - -Excited by the presence of their dwellings, and tired of the -chase, the Hurons now made a stand, and fought around their -council-lodge with the fury of despair. The onset and the -issue were like the passage and destruction of a whirlwind. -The tomahawk of Uncas, the blows of Hawkeye, and even the -still nervous arm of Munro were all busy for that passing -moment, and the ground was quickly strewed with their -enemies. Still Magua, though daring and much exposed, -escaped from every effort against his life, with that sort -of fabled protection that was made to overlook the fortunes -of favored heroes in the legends of ancient poetry. Raising -a yell that spoke volumes of anger and disappointment, the -subtle chief, when he saw his comrades fallen, darted away -from the place, attended by his two only surviving friends, -leaving the Delawares engaged in stripping the dead of the -bloody trophies of their victory. - -But Uncas, who had vainly sought him in the melee, bounded -forward in pursuit; Hawkeye, Heyward and David still -pressing on his footsteps. The utmost that the scout could -effect, was to keep the muzzle of his rifle a little in -advance of his friend, to whom, however, it answered every -purpose of a charmed shield. Once Magua appeared disposed -to make another and a final effort to revenge his losses; -but, abandoning his intention as soon as demonstrated, he -leaped into a thicket of bushes, through which he was -followed by his enemies, and suddenly entered the mouth of -the cave already known to the reader. Hawkeye, who had only -forborne to fire in tenderness to Uncas, raised a shout of -success, and proclaimed aloud that now they were certain of -their game. The pursuers dashed into the long and narrow -entrance, in time to catch a glimpse of the retreating forms -of the Hurons. Their passage through the natural galleries -and subterraneous apartments of the cavern was preceded by -the shrieks and cries of hundreds of women and children. -The place, seen by its dim and uncertain light, appeared -like the shades of the infernal regions, across which -unhappy ghosts and savage demons were flitting in -multitudes. - -Still Uncas kept his eye on Magua, as if life to him -possessed but a single object. Heyward and the scout still -pressed on his rear, actuated, though possibly in a less -degree, by a common feeling. But their way was becoming -intricate, in those dark and gloomy passages, and the -glimpses of the retiring warriors less distinct and -frequent; and for a moment the trace was believed to be -lost, when a white robe was seen fluttering in the further -extremity of a passage that seemed to lead up the mountain. - -"'Tis Cora!" exclaimed Heyward, in a voice in which horror -and delight were wildly mingled. - -"Cora! Cora!" echoed Uncas, bounding forward like a deer. - -"'Tis the maiden!" shouted the scout. "Courage, lady; we -come! we come!" - -The chase was renewed with a diligence rendered tenfold -encouraging by this glimpse of the captive. But the way was -rugged, broken, and in spots nearly impassable. Uncas -abandoned his rifle, and leaped forward with headlong -precipitation. Heyward rashly imitated his example, though -both were, a moment afterward, admonished of his madness by -hearing the bellowing of a piece, that the Hurons found time -to discharge down the passage in the rocks, the bullet from -which even gave the young Mohican a slight wound. - -"We must close!" said the scout, passing his friends by a -desperate leap; "the knaves will pick us all off at this -distance; and see, they hold the maiden so as to shield -themselves!" - -Though his words were unheeded, or rather unheard, his -example was followed by his companions, who, by incredible -exertions, got near enough to the fugitives to perceive that -Cora was borne along between the two warriors while Magua -prescribed the direction and manner of their flight. At -this moment the forms of all four were strongly drawn -against an opening in the sky, and they disappeared. Nearly -frantic with disappointment, Uncas and Heyward increased -efforts that already seemed superhuman, and they issued from -the cavern on the side of the mountain, in time to note the -route of the pursued. The course lay up the ascent, and -still continued hazardous and laborious. - -Encumbered by his rifle, and, perhaps, not sustained by so -deep an interest in the captive as his companions, the scout -suffered the latter to precede him a little, Uncas, in his -turn, taking the lead of Heyward. In this manner, rocks, -precipices and difficulties were surmounted in an incredibly -short space, that at another time, and under other -circumstances, would have been deemed almost insuperable. -But the impetuous young men were rewarded by finding that, -encumbered with Cora, the Hurons were losing ground in the -race. - -"Stay, dog of the Wyandots!" exclaimed Uncas, shaking his -bright tomahawk at Magua; "a Delaware girl calls stay!" - -"I will go no further!" cried Cora, stopping unexpectedly on -a ledge of rock, that overhung a deep precipice, at no great -distance from the summit of the mountain. "Kill me if thou -wilt, detestable Huron; I will go no further." - -The supporters of the maiden raised their ready tomahawks -with the impious joy that fiends are thought to take in -mischief, but Magua stayed the uplifted arms. The Huron -chief, after casting the weapons he had wrested from his -companions over the rock, drew his knife, and turned to his -captive, with a look in which conflicting passions fiercely -contended. - -"Woman," he said, "chose; the wigwam or the knife of Le -Subtil!" - -Cora regarded him not, but dropping on her knees, she raised -her eyes and stretched her arms toward heaven, saying in a -meek and yet confiding voice: - -"I am thine; do with me as thou seest best!" - -"Woman," repeated Magua, hoarsely, and endeavoring in vain -to catch a glance from her serene and beaming eye, "choose!" - -But Cora neither heard nor heeded his demand. The form of -the Huron trembled in every fibre, and he raised his arm on -high, but dropped it again with a bewildered air, like one -who doubted. Once more he struggled with himself and lifted -the keen weapon again; but just then a piercing cry was -heard above them, and Uncas appeared, leaping frantically, -from a fearful height, upon the ledge. Magua recoiled a -step; and one of his assistants, profiting by the chance, -sheathed his own knife in the bosom of Cora. - -The Huron sprang like a tiger on his offending and already -retreating country man, but the falling form of Uncas -separated the unnatural combatants. Diverted from his -object by this interruption, and maddened by the murder he -had just witnessed, Magua buried his weapon in the back of -the prostrate Delaware, uttering an unearthly shout as he -committed the dastardly deed. But Uncas arose from the -blow, as the wounded panther turns upon his foe, and struck -the murderer of Cora to his feet, by an effort in which the -last of his failing strength was expended. Then, with a -stern and steady look, he turned to Le Subtil, and indicated -by the expression of his eye all that he would do had not -the power deserted him. The latter seized the nerveless arm -of the unresisting Delaware, and passed his knife into his -bosom three several times, before his victim, still keeping -his gaze riveted on his enemy, with a look of -inextinguishable scorn, fell dead at his feet. - -"Mercy! mercy! Huron," cried Heyward, from above, in tones -nearly choked by horror; "give mercy, and thou shalt receive -from it!" - -Whirling the bloody knife up at the imploring youth, the -victorious Magua uttered a cry so fierce, so wild, and yet -so joyous, that it conveyed the sounds of savage triumph to -the ears of those who fought in the valley, a thousand feet -below. He was answered by a burst from the lips of the -scout, whose tall person was just then seen moving swiftly -toward him, along those dangerous crags, with steps as bold -and reckless as if he possessed the power to move in air. -But when the hunter reached the scene of the ruthless -massacre, the ledge was tenanted only by the dead. - -His keen eye took a single look at the victims, and then -shot its glances over the difficulties of the ascent in his -front. A form stood at the brow of the mountain, on the -very edge of the giddy height, with uplifted arms, in an -awful attitude of menace. Without stopping to consider his -person, the rifle of Hawkeye was raised; but a rock, which -fell on the head of one of the fugitives below, exposed the -indignant and glowing countenance of the honest Gamut. Then -Magua issued from a crevice, and, stepping with calm -indifference over the body of the last of his associates, he -leaped a wide fissure, and ascended the rocks at a point -where the arm of David could not reach him. A single bound -would carry him to the brow of the precipice, and assure his -safety. Before taking the leap, however, the Huron paused, -and shaking his hand at the scout, he shouted: - -"The pale faces are dogs! the Delawares women! Magua leaves -them on the rocks, for the crows!" - -Laughing hoarsely, he made a desperate leap, and fell short -of his mark, though his hands grasped a shrub on the verge -of the height. The form of Hawkeye had crouched like a -beast about to take its spring, and his frame trembled so -violently with eagerness that the muzzle of the half-raised -rifle played like a leaf fluttering in the wind. Without -exhausting himself with fruitless efforts, the cunning Magua -suffered his body to drop to the length of his arms, and -found a fragment for his feet to rest on. Then, summoning -all his powers, he renewed the attempt, and so far succeeded -as to draw his knees on the edge of the mountain. It was -now, when the body of his enemy was most collected together, -that the agitated weapon of the scout was drawn to his -shoulder. The surrounding rocks themselves were not -steadier than the piece became, for the single instant that -it poured out its contents. The arms of the Huron relaxed, -and his body fell back a little, while his knees still kept -their position. Turning a relentless look on his enemy, he -shook a hand in grim defiance. But his hold loosened, and -his dark person was seen cutting the air with its head -downward, for a fleeting instant, until it glided past the -fringe of shrubbery which clung to the mountain, in its -rapid flight to destruction. - - - -CHAPTER 33 - -"They fought, like brave men, long and well, They piled that -ground with Moslem slain, They conquered--but Bozzaris -fell, Bleeding at every vein. His few surviving comrades -saw His smile when rang their loud hurrah, And the red field -was won; Then saw in death his eyelids close Calmly, as to a -night's repose, Like flowers at set of sun."--Halleck - -The sun found the Lenape, on the succeeding day, a nation of -mourners. The sounds of the battle were over, and they had -fed fat their ancient grudge, and had avenged their recent -quarrel with the Mengwe, by the destruction of a whole -community. The black and murky atmosphere that floated -around the spot where the Hurons had encamped, sufficiently -announced of itself, the fate of that wandering tribe; while -hundreds of ravens, that struggled above the summits of the -mountains, or swept, in noisy flocks, across the wide ranges -of the woods, furnished a frightful direction to the scene -of the combat. In short, any eye at all practised in the -signs of a frontier warfare might easily have traced all -those unerring evidences of the ruthless results which -attend an Indian vengeance. - -Still, the sun rose on the Lenape a nation of mourners. No -shouts of success, no songs of triumph, were heard, in -rejoicings for their victory. The latest straggler had -returned from his fell employment, only to strip himself of -the terrific emblems of his bloody calling, and to join in -the lamentations of his countrymen, as a stricken people. -Pride and exultation were supplanted by humility, and the -fiercest of human passions was already succeeded by the most -profound and unequivocal demonstrations of grief. - -The lodges were deserted; but a broad belt of earnest faces -encircled a spot in their vicinity, whither everything -possessing life had repaired, and where all were now -collected, in deep and awful silence. Though beings of -every rank and age, of both sexes, and of all pursuits, had -united to form this breathing wall of bodies, they were -influenced by a single emotion. Each eye was riveted on the -center of that ring, which contained the objects of so much -and of so common an interest. - -Six Delaware girls, with their long, dark, flowing tresses -falling loosely across their bosoms, stood apart, and only -gave proof of their existence as they occasionally strewed -sweet-scented herbs and forest flowers on a litter of -fragrant plants that, under a pall of Indian robes, -supported all that now remained of the ardent, high-souled, -and generous Cora. Her form was concealed in many wrappers -of the same simple manufacture, and her face was shut -forever from the gaze of men. At her feet was seated the -desolate Munro. His aged head was bowed nearly to the -earth, in compelled submission to the stroke of Providence; -but a hidden anguish struggled about his furrowed brow, that -was only partially concealed by the careless locks of gray -that had fallen, neglected, on his temples. Gamut stood at -his side, his meek head bared to the rays of the sun, while -his eyes, wandering and concerned, seemed to be equally -divided between that little volume, which contained so many -quaint but holy maxims, and the being in whose behalf his -soul yearned to administer consolation. Heyward was also -nigh, supporting himself against a tree, and endeavoring to -keep down those sudden risings of sorrow that it required -his utmost manhood to subdue. - -But sad and melancholy as this group may easily be imagined, -it was far less touching than another, that occupied the -opposite space of the same area. Seated, as in life, with -his form and limbs arranged in grave and decent composure, -Uncas appeared, arrayed in the most gorgeous ornaments that -the wealth of the tribe could furnish. Rich plumes nodded -above his head; wampum, gorgets, bracelets, and medals, -adorned his person in profusion; though his dull eye and -vacant lineaments too strongly contradicted the idle tale of -pride they would convey. - -Directly in front of the corpse Chingachgook was placed, -without arms, paint or adornment of any sort, except the -bright blue blazonry of his race, that was indelibly -impressed on his naked bosom. During the long period that -the tribe had thus been collected, the Mohican warrior had -kept a steady, anxious look on the cold and senseless -countenance of his son. So riveted and intense had been -that gaze, and so changeless his attitude, that a stranger -might not have told the living from the dead, but for the -occasional gleamings of a troubled spirit, that shot athwart -the dark visage of one, and the deathlike calm that had -forever settled on the lineaments of the other. The scout -was hard by, leaning in a pensive posture on his own fatal -and avenging weapon; while Tamenund, supported by the elders -of his nation, occupied a high place at hand, whence he -might look down on the mute and sorrowful assemblage of his -people. - -Just within the inner edge of the circle stood a soldier, in -the military attire of a strange nation; and without it was -his warhorse, in the center of a collection of mounted -domestics, seemingly in readiness to undertake some distant -journey. The vestments of the stranger announced him to be -one who held a responsible situation near the person of the -captain of the Canadas; and who, as it would now seem, -finding his errand of peace frustrated by the fierce -impetuosity of his allies, was content to become a silent -and sad spectator of the fruits of a contest that he had -arrived too late to anticipate. - -The day was drawing to the close of its first quarter, and -yet had the multitude maintained its breathing stillness -since its dawn. - -No sound louder than a stifled sob had been heard among -them, nor had even a limb been moved throughout that long -and painful period, except to perform the simple and -touching offerings that were made, from time to time, in -commemoration of the dead. The patience and forbearance of -Indian fortitude could alone support such an appearance of -abstraction, as seemed now to have turned each dark and -motionless figure into stone. - -At length, the sage of the Delawares stretched forth an arm, -and leaning on the shoulders of his attendants, he arose -with an air as feeble as if another age had already -intervened between the man who had met his nation the -preceding day, and him who now tottered on his elevated -stand. - -"Men of the Lenape!" he said, in low, hollow tones, that -sounded like a voice charged with some prophetic mission: -"the face of the Manitou is behind a cloud! His eye is -turned from you; His ears are shut; His tongue gives no -answer. You see him not; yet His judgments are before you. -Let your hearts be open and your spirits tell no lie. Men -of the Lenape! the face of the Manitou is behind a cloud." - -As this simple and yet terrible annunciation stole on the -ears of the multitude, a stillness as deep and awful -succeeded as if the venerated spirit they worshiped had -uttered the words without the aid of human organs; and even -the inanimate Uncas appeared a being of life, compared with -the humbled and submissive throng by whom he was surrounded. -As the immediate effect, however, gradually passed away, a -low murmur of voices commenced a sort of chant in honor of -the dead. The sounds were those of females, and were -thrillingly soft and wailing. The words were connected by -no regular continuation, but as one ceased another took up -the eulogy, or lamentation, whichever it might be called, -and gave vent to her emotions in such language as was -suggested by her feelings and the occasion. At intervals -the speaker was interrupted by general and loud bursts of -sorrow, during which the girls around the bier of Cora -plucked the plants and flowers blindly from her body, as if -bewildered with grief. But, in the milder moments of their -plaint, these emblems of purity and sweetness were cast back -to their places, with every sign of tenderness and regret. -Though rendered less connected by many and general -interruptions and outbreakings, a translation of their -language would have contained a regular descant, which, in -substance, might have proved to possess a train of -consecutive ideas. - -A girl, selected for the task by her rank and -qualifications, commenced by modest allusions to the -qualities of the deceased warrior, embellishing her -expressions with those oriental images that the Indians have -probably brought with them from the extremes of the other -continent, and which form of themselves a link to connect -the ancient histories of the two worlds. She called him the -"panther of his tribe"; and described him as one whose -moccasin left no trail on the dews; whose bound was like the -leap of a young fawn; whose eye was brighter than a star in -the dark night; and whose voice, in battle, was loud as the -thunder of the Manitou. She reminded him of the mother who -bore him, and dwelt forcibly on the happiness she must feel -in possessing such a son. She bade him tell her, when they -met in the world of spirits, that the Delaware girls had -shed tears above the grave of her child, and had called her -blessed. - -Then, they who succeeded, changing their tones to a milder -and still more tender strain, alluded, with the delicacy and -sensitiveness of women, to the stranger maiden, who had left -the upper earth at a time so near his own departure, as to -render the will of the Great Spirit too manifest to be -disregarded. They admonished him to be kind to her, and to -have consideration for her ignorance of those arts which -were so necessary to the comfort of a warrior like himself. -They dwelled upon her matchless beauty, and on her noble -resolution, without the taint of envy, and as angels may be -thought to delight in a superior excellence; adding, that -these endowments should prove more than equivalent for any -little imperfection in her education. - -After which, others again, in due succession, spoke to the -maiden herself, in the low, soft language of tenderness and -love. They exhorted her to be of cheerful mind, and to fear -nothing for her future welfare. A hunter would be her -companion, who knew how to provide for her smallest wants; -and a warrior was at her side who was able to protect he -against every danger. They promised that her path should be -pleasant, and her burden light. They cautioned her against -unavailing regrets for the friends of her youth, and the -scenes where her father had dwelt; assuring her that the -"blessed hunting grounds of the Lenape," contained vales as -pleasant, streams as pure; and flowers as sweet, as the -"heaven of the pale faces." They advised her to be -attentive to the wants of her companion, and never to forget -the distinction which the Manitou had so wisely established -between them. Then, in a wild burst of their chant they -sang with united voices the temper of the Mohican's mind. -They pronounced him noble, manly and generous; all that -became a warrior, and all that a maid might love. Clothing -their ideas in the most remote and subtle images, they -betrayed, that, in the short period of their intercourse, -they had discovered, with the intuitive perception of their -sex, the truant disposition of his inclinations. The -Delaware girls had found no favor in his eyes! He was of a -race that had once been lords on the shores of the salt -lake, and his wishes had led him back to a people who dwelt -about the graves of his fathers. Why should not such a -predilection be encouraged! That she was of a blood purer -and richer than the rest of her nation, any eye might have -seen; that she was equal to the dangers and daring of a life -in the woods, her conduct had proved; and now, they added, -the "wise one of the earth" had transplanted her to a place -where she would find congenial spirits, and might be forever -happy. - -Then, with another transition in voice and subject, -allusions were made to the virgin who wept in the adjacent -lodge. They compared her to flakes of snow; as pure, as -white, as brilliant, and as liable to melt in the fierce -heats of summer, or congeal in the frosts of winter. They -doubted not that she was lovely in the eyes of the young -chief, whose skin and whose sorrow seemed so like her own; -but though far from expressing such a preference, it was -evident they deemed her less excellent than the maid they -mourned. Still they denied her no need her rare charms -might properly claim. Her ringlets were compared to the -exuberant tendrils of the vine, her eye to the blue vault of -heavens, and the most spotless cloud, with its glowing flush -of the sun, was admitted to be less attractive than her -bloom. - -During these and similar songs nothing was audible but the -murmurs of the music; relieved, as it was, or rather -rendered terrible, by those occasional bursts of grief which -might be called its choruses. The Delawares themselves -listened like charmed men; and it was very apparent, by the -variations of their speaking countenances, how deep and true -was their sympathy. Even David was not reluctant to lend -his ears to the tones of voices so sweet; and long ere the -chant was ended, his gaze announced that his soul was -enthralled. - -The scout, to whom alone, of all the white men, the words -were intelligible, suffered himself to be a little aroused -from his meditative posture, and bent his face aside, to -catch their meaning, as the girls proceeded. But when they -spoke of the future prospects of Cora and Uncas, he shook -his head, like one who knew the error of their simple creed, -and resuming his reclining attitude, he maintained it until -the ceremony, if that might be called a ceremony, in which -feeling was so deeply imbued, was finished. Happily for the -self-command of both Heyward and Munro, they knew not the -meaning of the wild sounds they heard. - -Chingachgook was a solitary exception to the interest -manifested by the native part of the audience. His look -never changed throughout the whole of the scene, nor did a -muscle move in his rigid countenance, even at the wildest or -the most pathetic parts of the lamentation. The cold and -senseless remains of his son was all to him, and every other -sense but that of sight seemed frozen, in order that his -eyes might take their final gaze at those lineaments he had -so long loved, and which were now about to be closed forever -from his view. - -In this stage of the obsequies, a warrior much renowned for -deed in arms, and more especially for services in the recent -combat, a man of stern and grave demeanor, advanced slowly -from the crowd, and placed himself nigh the person of the -dead. - -"Why hast thou left us, pride of the Wapanachki?" he said, -addressing himself to the dull ears of Uncas, as if the -empty clay retained the faculties of the animated man; "thy -time has been like that of the sun when in the trees; thy -glory brighter than his light at noonday. Thou art gone, -youthful warrior, but a hundred Wyandots are clearing the -briers from thy path to the world of the spirits. Who that -saw thee in battle would believe that thou couldst die? Who -before thee has ever shown Uttawa the way into the fight? -Thy feet were like the wings of eagles; thine arm heavier -than falling branches from the pine; and thy voice like the -Manitou when He speaks in the clouds. The tongue of Uttawa -is weak," he added, looking about him with a melancholy -gaze, "and his heart exceeding heavy. Pride of the -Wapanachki, why hast thou left us?" - -He was succeeded by others, in due order, until most of the -high and gifted men of the nation had sung or spoken their -tribute of praise over the manes of the deceased chief. -When each had ended, another deep and breathing silence -reigned in all the place. - -Then a low, deep sound was heard, like the suppressed -accompaniment of distant music, rising just high enough on -the air to be audible, and yet so indistinctly, as to leave -its character, and the place whence it proceeded, alike -matters of conjecture. It was, however, succeeded by -another and another strain, each in a higher key, until they -grew on the ear, first in long drawn and often repeated -interjections, and finally in words. The lips of -Chingachgook had so far parted, as to announce that it was -the monody of the father. Though not an eye was turned -toward him nor the smallest sign of impatience exhibited, it -was apparent, by the manner in which the multitude elevated -their heads to listen, that they drank in the sounds with an -intenseness of attention, that none but Tamenund himself had -ever before commanded. But they listened in vain. The -strains rose just so loud as to become intelligible, and -then grew fainter and more trembling, until they finally -sank on the ear, as if borne away by a passing breath of -wind. The lips of the Sagamore closed, and he remained -silent in his seat, looking with his riveted eye and -motionless form, like some creature that had been turned -from the Almighty hand with the form but without the spirit -of a man. The Delawares who knew by these symptoms that the -mind of their friend was not prepared for so mighty an -effort of fortitude, relaxed in their attention; and, with -an innate delicacy, seemed to bestow all their thoughts on -the obsequies of the stranger maiden. - -A signal was given, by one of the elder chiefs, to the women -who crowded that part of the circle near which the body of -Cora lay. Obedient to the sign, the girls raised the bier -to the elevation of their heads, and advanced with slow and -regulated steps, chanting, as they proceeded, another -wailing song in praise of the deceased. Gamut, who had been -a close observer of rites he deemed so heathenish, now bent -his head over the shoulder of the unconscious father, -whispering: - -"They move with the remains of thy child; shall we not -follow, and see them interred with Christian burial?" - -Munro started, as if the last trumpet had sounded in his -ear, and bestowing one anxious and hurried glance around -him, he arose and followed in the simple train, with the -mien of a soldier, but bearing the full burden of a parent's -suffering. His friends pressed around him with a sorrow -that was too strong to be termed sympathy -- even the young -Frenchman joining in the procession, with the air of a man -who was sensibly touched at the early and melancholy fate of -one so lovely. But when the last and humblest female of the -tribe had joined in the wild and yet ordered array, the men -of the Lenape contracted their circle, and formed again -around the person of Uncas, as silent, as grave, and as -motionless as before. - -The place which had been chosen for the grave of Cora was a -little knoll, where a cluster of young and healthful pines -had taken root, forming of themselves a melancholy and -appropriate shade over the spot. On reaching it the girls -deposited their burden, and continued for many minutes -waiting, with characteristic patience, and native timidity, -for some evidence that they whose feelings were most -concerned were content with the arrangement. At length the -scout, who alone understood their habits, said, in their own -language: - -"My daughters have done well; the white men thank them." - -Satisfied with this testimony in their favor, the girls -proceeded to deposit the body in a shell, ingeniously, and -not inelegantly, fabricated of the bark of the birch; after -which they lowered it into its dark and final abode. The -ceremony of covering the remains, and concealing the marks -of the fresh earth, by leaves and other natural and -customary objects, was conducted with the same simple and -silent forms. But when the labors of the kind beings who -had performed these sad and friendly offices were so far -completed, they hesitated, in a way to show that they knew -not how much further they might proceed. It was in this -stage of the rites that the scout again addressed them: - -"My young women have done enough," he said: "the spirit of -the pale face has no need of food or raiment, their gifts -being according to the heaven of their color. I see," he -added, glancing an eye at David, who was preparing his book -in a manner that indicated an intention to lead the way in -sacred song, "that one who better knows the Christian -fashions is about to speak." - -The females stood modestly aside, and, from having been the -principal actors in the scene, they now became the meek and -attentive observers of that which followed. During the time -David occupied in pouring out the pious feelings of his -spirit in this manner, not a sign of surprise, nor a look of -impatience, escaped them. They listened like those who knew -the meaning of the strange words, and appeared as if they -felt the mingled emotions of sorrow, hope, and resignation, -they were intended to convey. - -Excited by the scene he had just witnessed, and perhaps -influenced by his own secret emotions, the master of song -exceeded his usual efforts. His full rich voice was not -found to suffer by a comparison with the soft tones of the -girls; and his more modulated strains possessed, at least -for the ears of those to whom they were peculiarly -addressed, the additional power of intelligence. He ended -the anthem, as he had commenced it, in the midst of a grave -and solemn stillness. - -When, however, the closing cadence had fallen on the ears of -his auditors, the secret, timorous glances of the eyes, and -the general and yet subdued movement of the assemblage, -betrayed that something was expected from the father of the -deceased. Munro seemed sensible that the time was come for -him to exert what is, perhaps, the greatest effort of which -human nature is capable. He bared his gray locks, and -looked around the timid and quiet throng by which he was -encircled, with a firm and collected countenance. Then, -motioning with his hand for the scout to listen, he said: - -"Say to these kind and gentle females, that a heart-broken -and failing man returns them his thanks. Tell them, that -the Being we all worship, under different names, will be -mindful of their charity; and that the time shall not be -distant when we may assemble around His throne without -distinction of sex, or rank, or color." - -The scout listened to the tremulous voice in which the -veteran delivered these words, and shook his head slowly -when they were ended, as one who doubted their efficacy. - -"To tell them this," he said, "would be to tell them that -the snows come not in the winter, or that the sun shines -fiercest when the trees are stripped of their leaves." - -Then turning to the women, he made such a communication of -the other's gratitude as he deemed most suited to the -capacities of his listeners. The head of Munro had already -sunk upon his chest, and he was again fast relapsing into -melancholy, when the young Frenchman before named ventured -to touch him lightly on the elbow. As soon as he had gained -the attention of the mourning old man, he pointed toward a -group of young Indians, who approached with a light but -closely covered litter, and then pointed upward toward the -sun. - -"I understand you, sir," returned Munro, with a voice of -forced firmness; "I understand you. It is the will of -Heaven, and I submit. Cora, my child! if the prayers of a -heart-broken father could avail thee now, how blessed -shouldst thou be! Come, gentlemen," he added, looking about -him with an air of lofty composure, though the anguish that -quivered in his faded countenance was far too powerful to be -concealed, "our duty here is ended; let us depart." - -Heyward gladly obeyed a summons that took them from a spot -where, each instant, he felt his self-control was about to -desert him. While his companions were mounting, however, he -found time to press the hand of the scout, and to repeat the -terms of an engagement they had made to meet again within -the posts of the British army. Then, gladly throwing -himself into the saddle, he spurred his charger to the side -of the litter, whence low and stifled sobs alone announced -the presence of Alice. In this manner, the head of Munro -again drooping on his bosom, with Heyward and David -following in sorrowing silence, and attended by the aide of -Montcalm with his guard, all the white men, with the -exception of Hawkeye, passed from before the eyes of the -Delawares, and were buried in the vast forests of that -region. - -But the tie which, through their common calamity, had united -the feelings of these simple dwellers in the woods with the -strangers who had thus transiently visited them, was not so -easily broken. Years passed away before the traditionary -tale of the white maiden, and of the young warrior of the -Mohicans ceased to beguile the long nights and tedious -marches, or to animate their youthful and brave with a -desire for vengeance. Neither were the secondary actors in -these momentous incidents forgotten. Through the medium of -the scout, who served for years afterward as a link between -them and civilized life, they learned, in answer to their -inquiries, that the "Gray Head" was speedily gathered to his -fathers -- borne down, as was erroneously believed, by his -military misfortunes; and that the "Open Hand" had conveyed -his surviving daughter far into the settlements of the pale -faces, where her tears had at last ceased to flow, and had -been succeeded by the bright smiles which were better suited -to her joyous nature. - -But these were events of a time later than that which -concerns our tale. Deserted by all of his color, Hawkeye -returned to the spot where his sympathies led him, with a -force that no ideal bond of union could destroy. He was -just in time to catch a parting look of the features of -Uncas, whom the Delawares were already inclosing in his last -vestment of skins. They paused to permit the longing and -lingering gaze of the sturdy woodsman, and when it was -ended, the body was enveloped, never to be unclosed again. -Then came a procession like the other, and the whole nation -was collected about the temporary grave of the chief -- -temporary, because it was proper that, at some future day, -his bones should rest among those of his own people. - -The movement, like the feeling, had been simultaneous and -general. The same grave expression of grief, the same rigid -silence, and the same deference to the principal mourner, -were observed around the place of interment as have been -already described. The body was deposited in an attitude of -repose, facing the rising sun, with the implements of war -and of the chase at hand, in readiness for the final -journey. An opening was left in the shell, by which it was -protected from the soil, for the spirit to communicate with -its earthly tenement, when necessary; and the whole was -concealed from the instinct, and protected from the ravages -of the beasts of prey, with an ingenuity peculiar to the -natives. The manual rites then ceased and all present -reverted to the more spiritual part of the ceremonies. - -Chingachgook became once more the object of the common -attention. He had not yet spoken, and something consolatory -and instructive was expected from so renowned a chief on an -occasion of such interest. Conscious of the wishes of the -people, the stern and self-restrained warrior raised his -face, which had latterly been buried in his robe, and looked -about him with a steady eye. His firmly compressed and -expressive lips then severed, and for the first time during -the long ceremonies his voice was distinctly audible. "Why -do my brothers mourn?" he said, regarding the dark race of -dejected warriors by whom he was environed; "why do my -daughters weep? that a young man has gone to the happy -hunting-grounds; that a chief has filled his time with -honor? He was good; he was dutiful; he was brave. Who can -deny it? The Manitou had need of such a warrior, and He has -called him away. As for me, the son and the father of -Uncas, I am a blazed pine, in a clearing of the pale faces. -My race has gone from the shores of the salt lake and the -hills of the Delawares. But who can say that the serpent of -his tribe has forgotten his wisdom? I am alone --" - -"No, no," cried Hawkeye, who had been gazing with a yearning -look at the rigid features of his friend, with something -like his own self-command, but whose philosophy could endure -no longer; "no, Sagamore, not alone. The gifts of our -colors may be different, but God has so placed us as to -journey in the same path. I have no kin, and I may also -say, like you, no people. He was your son, and a red-skin -by nature; and it may be that your blood was nearer -- but, -if ever I forget the lad who has so often fou't at my side -in war, and slept at my side in peace, may He who made us -all, whatever may be our color or our gifts, forget me! The -boy has left us for a time; but, Sagamore, you are not -alone." - -Chingachgook grasped the hand that, in the warmth of -feeling, the scout had stretched across the fresh earth, and -in an attitude of friendship these two sturdy and intrepid -woodsmen bowed their heads together, while scalding tears -fell to their feet, watering the grave of Uncas like drops -of falling rain. - -In the midst of the awful stillness with which such a burst -of feeling, coming as it did, from the two most renowned -warriors of that region, was received, Tamenund lifted his -voice to disperse the multitude. - -"It is enough," he said. "Go, children of the Lenape, the -anger of the Manitou is not done. Why should Tamenund stay? -The pale faces are masters of the earth, and the time of the -red men has not yet come again. My day has been too long. -In the morning I saw the sons of Unamis happy and strong; -and yet, before the night has come, have I lived to see the -last warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans." - - - - - -End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Last of the Mohicans - diff --git a/old/mohic10.zip b/old/mohic10.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index f6227fa..0000000 --- a/old/mohic10.zip +++ /dev/null |