“I apprehend that he is rather addicted to profane
song. The turmoils and 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,” said her companion.
“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.”'

[figure description] Page 026.[end figure description]

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, had opened the volume with a
care and veneration suited to its sacred purposes.
Then, without circumlocution or apology, first pronouncing
the magical 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 head to th' 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 significant
preposition which the poet had so judiciously

[figure description] Page 027.[end figure description]

selected for the close of his verse, had been duly delivered
in the fullest dignity of 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 is convenient. You will, then,
pardon me, Alice, should I diminish your enjoyments
for a time, by requesting this gentleman to postpone
his chant until a safer opportunity.”

“You will diminish them, indeed,” returned the
arch maiden, “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,
evidently 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 contemptuously to himself, as
he believed he had mistaken some shining herry of the

[figure description] Page 028.[end figure description]

woods, for the glistening eye-balls of a prowling savage,
and he rode forward, continuing the conversation
which had been thus interrupted by the passing
thought.

Major Heyward was mistaken only in suffering his
youthful and generous pride to suppress for a single
moment 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.

[figure description] Page 029.[end figure description]

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 might be observed, 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 glassy 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
vapours 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

[figure description] Page 030.[end figure description]

secluded spot, interrupted, only, by the low voices of
the men in question, an occasional and lazy tap of a
reviving wood-pecker, the discordant cry of some
gaudy jay, or a swelling on the ear, from the dull
roar of a distant water-fall.

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 sun-burnt
and long-faded complexion of one who might
claim descent from an 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 colours 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

[figure description] Page 031.[end figure description]

vigour 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, 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 were gartered above the knees, with
the sinews of a deer. A pouch and horn completed
his personal accoutrements, though a rifle of a great
length, which the theory of the more ingenious
whites had taught them, was the most dangerous of
all fire-arms, leaned against a neighbouring 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 these symptoms of habitual
suspicion, his countenance was not only without guile,
but at the moment at which he is introduced was
charged with an expression of sturdy honesty.

“Even your traditions make the case in my

[figure description] Page 032.[end figure description]

favour, Chingachgook,” he said, speaking in the
tongue which was known to all the natives who formerly
inhabited the country between the Hudson and
the Potomack, and of which we shall give a free
translation for the benefit of the reader; endeavouring,
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!”

“My fathers fought with the naked red-man!” returned
the Indian, sternly, in the same language;
“Is there no difference, Hawk-eye, 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 to 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 chaces, 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

[figure description] Page 033.[end figure description]

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, in proud disdain.
“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 or
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 colour
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 mispend
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 all 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

[figure description] Page 034.[end figure description]

has its two sides; so I ask you, Chingachgook, what
passed 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, Hawk-eye, and your ears shall drink no
lies. 'Tis what my fathers have said, and what the
Mohicans have done.” He hesitated a single instant,
and bending a cautious glance towards 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, it

[figure description] Page 035.[end figure description]

runs 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
every thing 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 were none to meet us. The

[figure description] Page 036.[end figure description]

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 red men
around them. Then, Hawk-eye,” 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,
Hawk-eye, 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 any thing 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,” said the

[figure description] Page 037.[end figure description]

native, “but I am an unmixed man. The blood of
chiefs is in my veins, where it must stay for ever.
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 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 your race, which 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 wishes Uncas?”

The white man loosened his knife in its leathern
sheath, and made an involuntary movement of the
hand towards his rifle, at this sudden interruption,

[figure description] Page 038.[end figure description]

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
made or reply given for several minutes, each appearing
to await the moment, when he might speak,
without betraying a 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 Hawk-eye,
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 towards the setting sun; “they shall be driven
like deer from their bushes. Hawk-eye, let us eat
to-night, and show the Maquas that we are men tomorrow.”

“I am as ready to do the one as the other,” replied
the scout; “but to fight the Iroquois, 'tis necessary

[figure description] Page 039.[end figure description]

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!”

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,

“Hawk-eye! 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

[figure description] Page 040.[end figure description]

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 bow 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, dying the waters with its blood to a great distance.

“'Twas done with Indian skill,” said the scout,
laughing inwardly, but with vast satisfaction; “and
was 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 his game.

“By the Lord, there is a drove of them!” exclaimed
the hunting scout, whose eyes began to glisten
with the ardour 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 that buck to
shelter, and are following in 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 all his

[figure description] Page 041.[end figure description]

former composure. “Hawk-eye, 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 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 tramping 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 torment thee for this injury.
Mid. Sum. Night's Dream.

[figure description] Page 042.[end figure description]

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 fore finger 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

[figure description] Page 043.[end figure description]

to the king,” returned he who rode foremost of the
party. “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

[figure description] Page 044.[end figure description]

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 every
body; 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 he is adopted in that tribe;
I think his birth place 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, immoveable, and apparently indifferent
to what passed, but who now sprang to their feet

[figure description] Page 045.[end figure description]

with an activity and interest that had evidently gotten
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 any thing 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

[figure description] Page 046.[end figure description]

manner, and speaking in a more gentle voice; “if you
will tell me the distance to Fort Edward, and conduct
me thither, your labour 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 60th.”

“The 60th! you can tell me but little of the
Royal Americans that I don't know, though I do
wear a hunting shift, 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 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
vastriches, 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

[figure description] Page 047.[end figure description]

qualified for his rank, he now speaks to you, and of
course can be no enemy to dread.”

The scout regarded Heyward a moment 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 creatur; 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 contributions.
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, again,
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

[figure description] Page 048.[end figure description]

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 are quite equal
to a ride of a few more miles.”

“'Tis a natural impossibility!” repeated the
scout, with a determined air. “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 endeavoured 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 his
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

[figure description] Page 049.[end figure description]

line with the bark of the tree, and,” tapping his rifle,
“I can take him, from where I stand, between the ankle
and the knee, with a single shot, putting an end of
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 any 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
to maim the runner, at the orders of his superior,
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 under tone, 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 fire-arms, they parted,
taking opposite sides of the path, and burying themselves
in the thicket, with such cautions movements,
that their steps were inaudible.

“Now go you back,” said the hunter, speaking

[figure description] Page 050.[end figure description]

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?”

“But 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 fearless 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
at hand. Stimulated by these quickened apprehensions,
he left the scout, without reply, who immediately
entered into a loud conversation with the
stranger that had so unceremoniously enlisted himself
in the party of the travellers that morning. In
passing his gentler companions, Heyward uttered a

[figure description] Page 051.[end figure description]

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
their 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.

“You may see, Magua,” he said, endeavouring
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 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 deer-paths 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 colour.”

[figure description] Page 052.[end figure description]

“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, though probably
quite ignorant of the character conveyed by the
appellation. “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?”

“The gray head has a loud voice, and a long arm,
but will le Renard hear him or feel him in the
woods?” returned the wary runner.

“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 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.

[figure description] Page 053.[end figure description]

“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 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 towards 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

[figure description] Page 054.[end figure description]

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 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 meet 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, as he darted beneath
it, plunged, at a single bound, into the opposite
thicket. At the next instant, the form of Chingachgook
appeared from the bushes, looking like a spectre
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 V.

—In such a night,
Did Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dew;
And saw the lion's shadow ere himself.”—
Merchant of Venice.

[figure description] Page 055.[end figure description]

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 you big
pine, I pulled as it might be on the scent; but
'twouldn't do! and yet for a reasoning aim, if any
body but myself had touched the trigger, I should

[figure description] Page 056.[end figure description]

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 every body 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 creatur 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-hoop
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 a 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's sun-down.”

This appalling declaration, which the scout uttered

[figure description] Page 057.[end figure description]

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 all human aid,
his unresisting companions would soon lay at the entire
mercy of their 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 neverceasing
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-colour, while
the embedded stream which glided past the spot where
he stood, was to be traced only by the dark boundary
of its wooded banks.

“What is then 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

[figure description] Page 058.[end figure description]

distinguish the earnest tones of the younger warrior.
from the more deliberate speeches of his senior.
It was evident, that they debated on the propriety of
some measure, that nearly concerned the welfare of
the travellers. 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 groupe, 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 harbouring place for ever. If
you would save these tender blossoms from the fangs
of the worst of sarpents, 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 wisedom
to carcumvent 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!”

[figure description] Page 059.[end figure description]

“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 moved in his footsteps, swiftly, towards
the place where he had left the remainder of his
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 their 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, when they descended,
quickly, to the water's edge, where the scout had collected
the rest of the party, more by the agency of
his expressive gestures than by any use of words.

“What to do with these dumb creaturs!” 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

[figure description] Page 060.[end figure description]

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
fire-balls 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 a 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 not 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 motion of the struggling victim, he
dashed it into the river, down whose stream it glided

[figure description] Page 061.[end figure description]

away, gasping audibly for breath with its ebbing life.
This deed of apparent cruelty, but of real necessity,
fell upon the spirits of the travellers, 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 down 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
mean time, the scout drew a canoe of bark from its
place of concealment beneath some low bushes,
whose branches were waving with the eddyings of the
current, into which he silently motioned the females
to enter. They complied without hesitation,
though many a fearful and anxious glance was thrown
behind them, towards 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,

[figure description] Page 062.[end figure description]

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 living sounds that
might arise from the slumbering forest. When assured
that all was still, and unable to detect, even by
the aid of his practised senses, any sign of 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, which had 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

[figure description] Page 063.[end figure description]

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 increased
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 travellers to seat themselves in the forward end

[figure description] Page 064.[end figure description]

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 towards 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 centre of 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 breathe, lest
they should expose the frail fabric to the fury of the
stream, the anxious 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, and
their eyes glanced over a confused mass of the murmuring
element—so swift was the passage between it and
their little vessel. A long, a vigorous, and, as it
appeared to the females, a desperate effort, closed the
scene. 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 upsets, and you

[figure description] Page 065.[end figure description]

should go down again the hard road we have travelled,
faster than you came up it; 'tis a hard rift to stem,
when the river is a little swelled; and five is an unnatural
number to keep dry in the 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 travellers 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 you see any thing 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

[figure description] Page 066.[end figure description]

wants faith and honesty in a 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
outlandish Frenchmen!”

“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!”

“Ay, shame on the Hollanders and Iroquois, who
carcumvented them by their deviltries into such a
treaty! But I have known them for twenty years, and
will call him liar, that says cowardly blood runs in the
veins of a Delaware. You have driven their tribes
from the sea-shore, 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.”

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,
adroitly changed the subject.

“Treaty or no treaty, I know full well, that your
two companions are brave and cautious warriors! have
they then heard or seen any thing 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.”

[figure description] Page 067.[end figure description]

“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
skrimmage. 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, uttering
less equivocal sounds; “thy foal was foreordained to
become a prey to ravenous beasts!” Then suddenly
lifting 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 wont 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

[figure description] Page 068.[end figure description]

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, whilst making his remarks, was busied
in collecting certain necessary implements; as he
concluded, he moved silently by the groupe of travellers,
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 VI.

“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.

[figure description] Page 069.[end figure description]

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 the vision of those without,
and laid bare the much prized secret of the place.

At the farther 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

[figure description] Page 070.[end figure description]

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 by its situation and proximity.
The travellers 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 skreened 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 burthen of doubt, as the proud and
determined, though wild, expression of the features of
the young warrior forced itself on their notice. They

[figure description] Page 071.[end figure description]

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 practise a deception on ourselves, by expecting
any other exhibition of what we esteem virtue,
than according to the fashion of a 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 honour of our common
nature, neither are incapable of producing them.
Let us then hope, that this Mohican may not

[figure description] Page 072.[end figure description]

disappoint our wishes, and prove, what his looks assert
him to be, a brave and constant friend.”

“Now Major Heyward speaks, as Major Heyward
should,” murmured Cora; “who, that looks at this
creature of nature, remembers the shades of his
skin!”

A short, and apparently an embarrassed, silence
succeeded this characteristic 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 saxafrax 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
flavour than the skin of any hog can do, be it of Guinea,
or be it of any other land. Come, friend, dont
be mournful for the colt; 'twas an innocent thing, and
had not seen much hardship. Its death will save the
creatur many a sore back and weary foot!”

Uncas did as the other had directed, and when
the voice of Hawk-eye 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

[figure description] Page 073.[end figure description]

single armed man, at its entrance, would hold us at his
mercy.”

A spectral looking figure stalked from out the darkness
behind the scout, and seizing a blazing brand,
held it towards 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 burrow with one hole,” said
Hawk-eye, laughing; “you can easily see the cunning
of the place—the rock is black limestone, which
every body 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

[figure description] Page 074.[end figure description]

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 by the spot that Providence
first placed them at, but where, it seems, they were
too rebellious to stay. The rock proved softer on
either side of us, and so they left the centre 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 quake the 'arth; and thereaway, 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 fish net, 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 every thing. And yet what does it

[figure description] Page 075.[end figure description]

amount to! After the water has been suffered 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 towards
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 Hawk-eye, 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 labours 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.

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 wearied 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 favour of their women. As the rites of
hospitality were, however, considered sacred among
them, this little departure from the dignity of

[figure description] Page 076.[end figure description]

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 calabash of sweet
water, and the venison in a trencher, neatly carved
from the knot of the pepperage, with sufficient courtesy,
in performing the same offices to her sister,
his dark eye lingered on her rich, speaking, countenance,
with a softness that banished the bright gleams
of pride, that were usually glancing there, entirely
from their expression. Once or twice he was compelled
to speak, to command the 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 Chingachgook 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

[figure description] Page 077.[end figure description]

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 calabash 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 was, for a time, forgotten.

“Come, friend,” said Hawk-eye, drawing out a
keg from beneath a cover of leaves, towards 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 horseflesh
may leave no heart-burnings atween us. How do
you name yourself?”

“Gamut—David Gamut,” returned the singing.

[figure description] Page 078.[end figure description]

master, mechanically wiping his mouth, preparatory
to washing down his sorrows, in a powerful draught
of the woodman's high-flavoured and well-laced compound.

“A very good name,” returned the other, taking
breath after a draught, whose length announced how
much he admired his own skill in brewing, “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 was 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
smooth bore, or handle the rifle?”

“Praised be God, I have never had occasion to
meddle with such murderous implements!”

“Perhaps you understand the compass, and lay
down the water courses and mountains of the

[figure description] Page 079.[end figure description]

wilderness on paper, in order that they who follow may find
places by their given names?”

“I practise 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 Hawk-eye,
with an inward laugh, “to go through life, like a cat-bird,
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 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 again, 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 both
her pious inclinations and her keen relish for gentle

[figure description] Page 080.[end figure description]

sounds, had before so strongly urged upon her. 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 pitch-pipe 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 sweet
maidens, who hung over their little book in holy excitement,
and again it sunk 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 their
confined cavern, every crevice and cranny of which
was filled with the thrilling notes of their flexib
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 his
boyhood, when his ears had been accustomed to listen
to similar, though far less sweet, sounds of praise,
in the settlements of the colony. His roving eyes began
to moisten, and before the hymn was ended,
large, 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,

[figure description] Page 081.[end figure description]

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 Heyward, aloud.

Neither Hawk-eye, 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.

[figure description] Page 082.[end figure description]

“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 any thing
else! Well, Uncas!” speaking in the 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
Hawk-eye, 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 favourable 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.

[figure description] Page 083.[end figure description]

“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 farther end of the cavern, to
an outlet, which, like the others, was concealed by
blankets, and removing the thick skreen, 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 defence,
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

[figure description] Page 084.[end figure description]

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 so much embarrassment, but I would have
proved to him, that however others might neglect
him, in his strait, his children 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
honour 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, after having known her so
well,” 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

[figure description] Page 085.[end figure description]

rivetted on those of Alice, who had turned towards
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 unknown danger,
against which all his cunning and experience
might prove of no avail.

CHAPTER VII.

“They do not sleep.
On yonder cliffs, a grisly band,
I see them sit.”
—Gray.

[figure description] Page 086.[end figure description]

“'Twould be neglecting a warning that is given for
our good, to lie hid any longer,” said Hawk-eye,
“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 60th 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 confirmed
to such as proceed from supernatural causes, we have

[figure description] Page 087.[end figure description]

but little occasion to be alarmed,” continued the undisturbed
maiden; “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
so often on the quickness of his ears. There
is no whine of the partner; no whistle of the cat-bird;
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!” exclaimed 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 their spirits, by exchanging the pent air of
their hiding place, for the cool and invigorating atmosphere,
which played around the whirlpools and

[figure description] Page 088.[end figure description]

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 caverns,
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 deep 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, or 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 conductive 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?”

[figure description] Page 089.[end figure description]

demanded Hawk-eye, 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 his
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 I cannot 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 and expressive exclamation,
“hugh!” as the truth first glanced upon their
minds, while the former, after a short musing pause,
took on 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.”

[figure description] Page 090.[end figure description]

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 Hawk-eye, turning away from his
companions; “now we begin again to know the signs
of our course, and the paths are cleared from briars!
Seat yourselves in the shade, which the moon throws
from yonder beach—'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 fullest 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

[figure description] Page 091.[end figure description]

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 by 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 Hawk-eye 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;

[figure description] Page 092.[end figure description]

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 tree tops, at a bend of the river, a little
below, announced the approach of day.

Then, for the first time, Hawk-eye 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 gotten 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 fair
ones. 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 delighted
youth; “Duncan is here, and while life continue,
or danger remain, 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

[figure description] Page 093.[end figure description]

Heyward, there had arisen such a tumult of yells
and cries, as served to drive the swift currents of his
own youthful 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 humours 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
as they witnessed 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 no where to be seen on its dark waters. He
had just fancied they were cruelly deserted by the

[figure description] Page 094.[end figure description]

scout, as a stream of flame issued from the rock beneath
him, and a fierce yell, blended with a shriek
of agony, announced that the messenger of death,
hurled from the fatal weapon of Hawk-eye, had
found a victim. At this slight repulse the assailants
instantly withdrew and, gradually, the place became
still as before the sudden tumult.

Duncan seized the favourable 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
Hawk-eye, 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; and 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 Hawk-eye, 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 saxafrax. 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

[figure description] Page 095.[end figure description]

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 well knows the Indian customs!”

“You hear our probable fortunes, Cora,” said
Duncan; “and you know we have every thing 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, immediately
arresting the steps of the youth. He
turned, and beheld the speaker, whose rich colour
had changed to a deadly paleness, and whose lip

[figure description] Page 096.[end figure description]

quivered with her emotion, 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 tell-tale blood stole over her features, crimsoning
her very temples, “how very deservedly dear you are
to all of the name of Munro.”

“If any thing 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 60th,
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 any 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 or
bringing the death screech from a Mingo! At least,
such has been my experience with the creaturs.
Come, friends; let us to our covers, for no man can
tell when or where a Maqua will strike his blow!”

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 centre of the little island, a few short

[figure description] Page 097.[end figure description]

and stinted pines had found root, forming a thicket,
into which Hawk-eye 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 either 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 the
dark canopy of gloomy pines and bushes.

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 companion,
it was met by Hawk-eye with an incredulous shake
of the head, as he answered—

“You know not the nature of a Maqua, if you think
he is so easily beaten back, without a scalp! 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!”

[figure description] Page 098.[end figure description]

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 them, if successful, to their
intended victims. As Hawk-eye 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 true line
of the island. The savage struggled powerfully to
gain the point of safety, and favoured 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 whirling current, appeared to rise into the
air, with uplifted arms, and starting eye-balls, and then
fell, with a sullen plunge, into that deep and yawning
abyss over which he hovered. A single, wild, despairing
shriek, rose from the cavern, above the dull roar of
the cataract, 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 immoveable
scout.

“Would ye bring certain death upon us, by telling

[figure description] Page 099.[end figure description]

the Mingoes where we lie?” demanded Hawk-eye,
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 mist of the
falls is apt to dampen the brimstone—and stand firm
for a close struggle, while I fire on their rush.”

He placed his finger in his mouth, and drew a long,
shrill whistle, which was answered from the rocks below,
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. Hawk-eye
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 barrelled,
true grooved, soft metalled 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 horsemens'—”

He was interrupted by the low, but expressive
“hugh” of Uncas.

“I see them, boy, I see them!” continued

[figure description] Page 100.[end figure description]

Hawk-eye; “they are gathering for their 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 drift wood. 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 leaped over
the black rocks that divided them, with long bounds,
uttering the wildest yells, were within a few rods,
the rifle of Hawk-eye 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 ardour,
“take the screeching imp behind; 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 Hawk-eye, and together they rushed down a little
declivity towards 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!”

[figure description] Page 101.[end figure description]