CHAPTER I
“Mine ear is open, and my heart
prepared:
The worst is worldly 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 practised 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.”[1]
Winding its way among countless
islands, and imbedded in mountains, the “holy lake” extended a
dozen leagues still farther 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 sceptres 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.[2] 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 traveller 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 of 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.
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, towards 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 travelled 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 doubt 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 practised 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 the trappings and arms of an
officer of the staff; while the rest, from the plainness of the
housings, and the travelling mails with which they were encumbered,
were evidently fitted for the reception of as many menials, who
were, seemingly, already awaiting 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 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; 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 the 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 of 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 in the centre 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 snows 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 has 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 most 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 attentions 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 moulded with the same exquisite proportions, of which none
of the graces were lost by the travelling 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, towards the northern entrance of the encampment. As
they traversed that short distance, not a voice was heard amongst
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 II.
“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 spectres frequent in
the woods, Heyward; or is this sight an especial entertainment 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.
[3]
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 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 Narragansett[4] 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 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 meagre beast to endure without
coming to an open rupture. Until now this personage had escaped the
observation of the travellers. 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,
whilst 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 is 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 defence and
offence; or, perhaps, you are one who draws lines and angles, under
the pretence 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 offence, I hope there is
none, to either party: of defence, 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 practised 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 practised 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 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
pronouncing 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 beard, that downward went,
His garment’s skirts unto.”
The delivery of these skilful
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
that 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
towards 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 travellers. 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 III.
“Before these fields were shorn
and tilled, Full to the brim our rivers flowed;
The melody of waters filled
The fresh and boundless
wood;
And torrents dashed, and rivulets
played, 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 accoutrements
of a native of the woods, the other exhibited, through the mask of
his rude and nearly savage equipments, the brighter, though
sunburnt and long-faded 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[5] 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 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[6], 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 accoutrements, though
a rifle of great length[7], which the theory of the more ingenious
whites had taught them was the most dangerous of all fire- arms,
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.
“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,[8] 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!”
“My fathers fought with the naked
redmen!” 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 redmen, 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 loth 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 redmen, 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 towards 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 lake, 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 suns’ journey toward the summer. The land
we had taken like warriors, we kept like men. 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 redmen around them. Then, Hawkeye,” he
continued, betraying his deep emotion only by permitting his voice
to fall to those low, guttural tones, which rendered 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 a just 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 hill-top, 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 towards 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 towards 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 bushy 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 towards 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 learnt 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 creatur’, he can’t tell
where the rest of him should be!”
Copyright by Charles Scribner’s
Sons
UNCAS SLAYS A DEER
Avoiding the horns of the
infuriated animal, Uncas darted to his side, and passed his knife
across the throat
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 will I, 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 redskins 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 IV.
“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
travellers, who had produced a surprise so unusual in the depths of
the forest, advanced slowly towards 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 better 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 which 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.