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CHAPTER 12
(quote) "Clo.—I am gone, sire,
And anon, sire, I'll be with you again." —Twelfth Night
(unquote)
The Hurons stood aghast at this sudden visitation of death on one of
their band. But as they regarded the fatal accuracy of an aim which had
dared to immolate an enemy at so much hazard to a friend, the name
of "La Longue Carabine" burst simultaneously from every lip, and was
succeeded by a wild and a sort of plaintive howl. The cry was answered
by a loud shout from a little thicket, where the incautious party had
piled their arms; and at the next moment, Hawkeye, too eager to load
the rifle he had regained, was seen advancing upon them, brandishing the
clubbed weapon, and cutting the air with wide and powerful sweeps. Bold
and rapid as was the progress of the scout, it was exceeded by that of
a light and vigorous form which, bounding past him, leaped, with
incredible activity and daring, into the very center of the Hurons,
where it stood, whirling a tomahawk, and flourishing a glittering knife,
with fearful menaces, in front of Cora. Quicker than the thoughts could
follow those unexpected and audacious movements, an image, armed in the
emblematic panoply of death, glided before their eyes, and assumed a
threatening attitude at the other's side. The savage tormentors recoiled
before these warlike intruders, and uttered, as they appeared in such
quick succession, the often repeated and peculiar exclamations of
surprise, followed by the well-known and dreaded appellations of:
"Le Cerf Agile! Le Gros Serpent!"
But the wary and vigilant leader of the Hurons was not so easily
disconcerted. Casting his keen eyes around the little plain, he
comprehended the nature of the assault at a glance, and encouraging his
followers by his voice as well as by his example, he unsheathed his
long and dangerous knife, and rushed with a loud whoop upon the expected
Chingachgook. It was the signal for a general combat. Neither party had
firearms, and the contest was to be decided in the deadliest manner,
hand to hand, with weapons of offense, and none of defense.
Uncas answered the whoop, and leaping on an enemy, with a single,
well-directed blow of his tomahawk, cleft him to the brain. Heyward
tore the weapon of Magua from the sapling, and rushed eagerly toward
the fray. As the combatants were now equal in number, each singled an
opponent from the adverse band. The rush and blows passed with the fury
of a whirlwind, and the swiftness of lightning. Hawkeye soon got another
enemy within reach of his arm, and with one sweep of his formidable
weapon he beat down the slight and inartificial defenses of his
antagonist, crushing him to the earth with the blow. Heyward ventured
to hurl the tomahawk he had seized, too ardent to await the moment
of closing. It struck the Indian he had selected on the forehead,
and checked for an instant his onward rush. Encouraged by this slight
advantage, the impetuous young man continued his onset, and sprang upon
his enemy with naked hands. A single instant was enough to assure him
of the rashness of the measure, for he immediately found himself fully
engaged, with all his activity and courage, in endeavoring to ward the
desperate thrusts made with the knife of the Huron. Unable longer to
foil an enemy so alert and vigilant, he threw his arms about him, and
succeeded in pinning the limbs of the other to his side, with an iron
grasp, but one that was far too exhausting to himself to continue long.
In this extremity he heard a voice near him, shouting:
"Extarminate the varlets! no quarter to an accursed Mingo!"
At the next moment, the breech of Hawkeye's rifle fell on the naked head
of his adversary, whose muscles appeared to wither under the shock, as
he sank from the arms of Duncan, flexible and motionless.
When Uncas had brained his first antagonist, he turned, like a hungry
lion, to seek another. The fifth and only Huron disengaged at the first
onset had paused a moment, and then seeing that all around him were
employed in the deadly strife, he had sought, with hellish vengeance,
to complete the baffled work of revenge. Raising a shout of triumph, he
sprang toward the defenseless Cora, sending his keen axe as the dreadful
precursor of his approach. The tomahawk grazed her shoulder, and cutting
the withes which bound her to the tree, left the maiden at liberty to
fly. She eluded the grasp of the savage, and reckless of her own
safety, threw herself on the *** of Alice, striving with convulsed
and ill-directed fingers, to tear asunder the twigs which confined the
person of her sister. Any other than a monster would have relented at
such an act of generous devotion to the best and purest affection; but
the breast of the Huron was a stranger to sympathy. Seizing Cora by the
rich tresses which fell in confusion about her form, he tore her from
her frantic hold, and bowed her down with brutal violence to her knees.
The savage drew the flowing curls through his hand, and raising them
on high with an outstretched arm, he passed the knife around the
exquisitely molded head of his victim, with a taunting and exulting
laugh. But he purchased this moment of fierce gratification with the
loss of the fatal opportunity. It was just then the sight caught the eye
of Uncas. Bounding from his footsteps he appeared for an instant darting
through the air and descending in a ball he fell on the chest of his
enemy, driving him many yards from the spot, headlong and prostrate. The
violence of the exertion cast the young Mohican at his side. They arose
together, fought, and bled, each in his turn. But the conflict was soon
decided; the tomahawk of Heyward and the rifle of Hawkeye descended
on the skull of the Huron, at the same moment that the knife of Uncas
reached his heart.
The battle was now entirely terminated with the exception of the
protracted struggle between "Le Renard Subtil" and "Le Gros Serpent."
Well did these barbarous warriors prove that they deserved those
significant names which had been bestowed for deeds in former wars.
When they engaged, some little time was lost in eluding the quick and
vigorous thrusts which had been aimed at their lives. Suddenly darting
on each other, they closed, and came to the earth, twisted together like
twining serpents, in pliant and subtle folds. At the moment when the
victors found themselves unoccupied, the spot where these experienced
and desperate combatants lay could only be distinguished by a cloud of
dust and leaves, which moved from the center of the little plain toward
its boundary, as if raised by the passage of a whirlwind. Urged by the
different motives of filial affection, friendship and gratitude, Heyward
and his companions rushed with one accord to the place, encircling the
little canopy of dust which hung above the warriors. In vain did Uncas
dart around the cloud, with a wish to strike his knife into the heart
of his father's foe; the threatening rifle of Hawkeye was raised and
suspended in vain, while Duncan endeavored to seize the limbs of the
Huron with hands that appeared to have lost their power. Covered as they
were with dust and blood, the swift evolutions of the combatants seemed
to incorporate their bodies into one. The death-like looking figure of
the Mohican, and the dark form of the Huron, gleamed before their eyes
in such quick and confused succession, that the friends of the former
knew not where to plant the succoring blow. It is true there were short
and fleeting moments, when the fiery eyes of Magua were seen glittering,
like the fabled organs of the basilisk through the dusty wreath by which
he was enveloped, and he read by those short and deadly glances the fate
of the combat in the presence of his enemies; ere, however, any hostile
hand could descend on his devoted head, its place was filled by the
scowling visage of Chingachgook. In this manner the scene of the combat
was removed from the center of the little plain to its verge. The
Mohican now found an opportunity to make a powerful thrust with his
knife; Magua suddenly relinquished his grasp, and fell backward without
motion, and seemingly without life. His adversary leaped on his feet,
making the arches of the forest ring with the sounds of triumph.
"Well done for the Delawares! victory to the Mohicans!" cried Hawkeye,
once more elevating the butt of the long and fatal rifle; "a finishing
blow from a man without a cross will never tell against his honor, nor
rob him of his right to the scalp."
But at the very moment when the dangerous weapon was in the act of
descending, the subtle Huron rolled swiftly from beneath the danger,
over the edge of the precipice, and falling on his feet, was seen
leaping, with a single bound, into the center of a thicket of low
bushes, which clung along its sides. The Delawares, who had believed
their enemy dead, uttered their exclamation of surprise, and were
following with speed and clamor, like hounds in open view of the deer,
when a shrill and peculiar cry from the scout instantly changed their
purpose, and recalled them to the summit of the hill.
"'Twas like himself!" cried the inveterate forester, whose prejudices
contributed so largely to veil his natural sense of justice in all
matters which concerned the Mingoes; "a lying and deceitful varlet as
he is. An honest Delaware now, being fairly vanquished, would have lain
still, and been knocked on the head, but these knavish Maquas cling to
life like so many cats-o'-the-mountain. Let him go—let him go; 'tis but
one man, and he without rifle or bow, many a long mile from his French
commerades; and like a rattler that lost his fangs, he can do no further
mischief, until such time as he, and we too, may leave the prints of our
moccasins over a long reach of sandy plain. See, Uncas," he added, in
Delaware, "your father is flaying the scalps already. It may be well to
go round and feel the vagabonds that are left, or we may have another of
them loping through the woods, and screeching like a jay that has been
winged."
So saying the honest but implacable scout made the circuit of the dead,
into whose senseless bosoms he thrust his long knife, with as much
coolness as though they had been so many brute carcasses. He had,
however, been anticipated by the elder Mohican, who had already torn the
emblems of victory from the unresisting heads of the slain.
But Uncas, denying his habits, we had almost said his nature, flew with
instinctive delicacy, accompanied by Heyward, to the assistance of the
females, and quickly releasing Alice, placed her in the arms of Cora. We
shall not attempt to describe the gratitude to the Almighty Disposer
of Events which glowed in the bosoms of the sisters, who were thus
unexpectedly restored to life and to each other. Their thanksgivings
were deep and silent; the offerings of their gentle spirits burning
brightest and purest on the secret altars of their hearts; and their
renovated and more earthly feelings exhibiting themselves in long and
fervent though speechless caresses. As Alice rose from her knees, where
she had sunk by the side of Cora, she threw herself on the *** of the
latter, and sobbed aloud the name of their aged father, while her soft,
dove-like eyes, sparkled with the rays of hope.
"We are saved! we are saved!" she murmured; "to return to the arms of
our dear, dear father, and his heart will not be broken with grief. And
you, too, Cora, my sister, my more than sister, my mother; you, too,
are spared. And Duncan," she added, looking round upon the youth with a
smile of ineffable innocence, "even our own brave and noble Duncan has
escaped without a hurt."
To these ardent and nearly innocent words Cora made no other answer than
by straining the youthful speaker to her heart, as she bent over her
in melting tenderness. The manhood of Heyward felt no shame in dropping
tears over this spectacle of affectionate rapture; and Uncas stood,
fresh and blood-stained from the combat, a calm, and, apparently, an
unmoved looker-on, it is true, but with eyes that had already lost their
fierceness, and were beaming with a sympathy that elevated him far
above the intelligence, and advanced him probably centuries before, the
practises of his nation.
During this display of emotions so natural in their situation, Hawkeye,
whose vigilant distrust had satisfied itself that the Hurons, who
disfigured the heavenly scene, no longer possessed the power to
interrupt its harmony, approached David, and liberated him from the
bonds he had, until that moment, endured with the most exemplary
patience.
"There," exclaimed the scout, casting the last withe behind him, "you
are once more master of your own limbs, though you seem not to use them
with much greater judgment than that in which they were first fashioned.
If advice from one who is not older than yourself, but who, having
lived most of his time in the wilderness, may be said to have experience
beyond his years, will give no offense, you are welcome to my thoughts;
and these are, to part with the little tooting instrument in your jacket
to the first fool you meet with, and buy some we'pon with the money, if
it be only the barrel of a horseman's pistol. By industry and care, you
might thus come to some prefarment; for by this time, I should think,
your eyes would plainly tell you that a carrion crow is a better bird
than a mocking-thresher. The one will, at least, remove foul sights
from before the face of man, while the other is only good to brew
disturbances in the woods, by cheating the ears of all that hear them."
"Arms and the clarion for the battle, but the song of thanksgiving
to the victory!" answered the liberated David. "Friend," he added,
thrusting forth his lean, delicate hand toward Hawkeye, in kindness,
while his eyes twinkled and grew moist, "I thank thee that the hairs
of my head still grow where they were first rooted by Providence; for,
though those of other men may be more glossy and curling, I have ever
found mine own well suited to the brain they shelter. That I did not
join myself to the battle, was less owing to disinclination, than to the
bonds of the heathen. Valiant and skillful hast thou proved thyself in
the conflict, and I hereby thank thee, before proceeding to discharge
other and more important duties, because thou hast proved thyself well
worthy of a Christian's praise."
"The thing is but a trifle, and what you may often see if you tarry long
among us," returned the scout, a good deal softened toward the man of
song, by this unequivocal expression of gratitude. "I have got back my
old companion, 'killdeer'," he added, striking his hand on the breech of
his rifle; "and that in itself is a victory. These Iroquois are cunning,
but they outwitted themselves when they placed their firearms out of
reach; and had Uncas or his father been gifted with only their common
Indian patience, we should have come in upon the knaves with three
bullets instead of one, and that would have made a finish of the whole
pack; yon loping varlet, as well as his commerades. But 'twas all
fore-ordered, and for the best."
"Thou sayest well," returned David, "and hast caught the true spirit
of Christianity. He that is to be saved will be saved, and he that is
predestined to be damned will be damned. This is the doctrine of truth,
and most consoling and refreshing it is to the true believer."
The scout, who by this time was seated, examining into the state of his
rifle with a species of parental assiduity, now looked up at the other
in a displeasure that he did not affect to conceal, roughly interrupting
further speech.
"Doctrine or no doctrine," said the sturdy woodsman, "'tis the belief of
knaves, and the curse of an honest man. I can credit that yonder Huron
was to fall by my hand, for with my own eyes I have seen it; but nothing
short of being a witness will cause me to think he has met with any
reward, or that Chingachgook there will be condemned at the final day."
"You have no warranty for such an audacious doctrine, nor any covenant
to support it," cried David who was deeply tinctured with the subtle
distinctions which, in his time, and more especially in his province,
had been drawn around the beautiful simplicity of revelation, by
endeavoring to penetrate the awful mystery of the divine nature,
supplying faith by self-sufficiency, and by consequence, involving those
who reasoned from such human dogmas in absurdities and doubt; "your
temple is reared on the sands, and the first tempest will wash away its
foundation. I demand your authorities for such an uncharitable assertion
(like other advocates of a system, David was not always accurate in his
use of terms). Name chapter and verse; in which of the holy books do you
find language to support you?"
"Book!" repeated Hawkeye, with singular and ill-concealed disdain; "do
you take me for a whimpering boy at the apronstring of one of your old
gals; and this good rifle on my knee for the feather of a goose's
wing, my ox's horn for a bottle of ink, and my leathern pouch for a
cross-barred handkercher to carry my dinner? Book! what have such as I,
who am a warrior of the wilderness, though a man without a cross, to
do with books? I never read but in one, and the words that are written
there are too simple and too plain to need much schooling; though I may
boast that of forty long and hard-working years."
"What call you the volume?" said David, misconceiving the other's
meaning.
"'Tis open before your eyes," returned the scout; "and he who owns it
is not a niggard of its use. I have heard it said that there are men who
read in books to convince themselves there is a God. I know not but man
may so deform his works in the settlement, as to leave that which is so
clear in the wilderness a matter of doubt among traders and priests. If
any such there be, and he will follow me from sun to sun, through the
windings of the forest, he shall see enough to teach him that he is a
fool, and that the greatest of his folly lies in striving to rise to the
level of One he can never equal, be it in goodness, or be it in power."
The instant David discovered that he battled with a disputant who
imbibed his faith from the lights of nature, eschewing all subtleties
of doctrine, he willingly abandoned a controversy from which he believed
neither profit nor credit was to be derived. While the scout was
speaking, he had also seated himself, and producing the ready little
volume and the iron-rimmed spectacles, he prepared to discharge a
duty, which nothing but the unexpected assault he had received in his
orthodoxy could have so long suspended. He was, in truth, a minstrel of
the western continent—of a much later day, certainly, than those gifted
bards, who formerly sang the profane renown of baron and prince, but
after the spirit of his own age and country; and he was now prepared
to exercise the cunning of his craft, in celebration of, or rather in
thanksgiving for, the recent victory. He waited patiently for Hawkeye to
cease, then lifting his eyes, together with his voice, he said, aloud:
"I invite you, friends, to join in praise for this signal deliverance
from the hands of barbarians and infidels, to the comfortable and solemn
tones of the tune called 'Northampton'."
He next named the page and verse where the rhymes selected were to be
found, and applied the pitch-pipe to his lips, with the decent gravity
that he had been wont to use in the temple. This time he was, however,
without any accompaniment, for the sisters were just then pouring out
those tender effusions of affection which have been already alluded
to. Nothing deterred by the smallness of his audience, which, in
truth, consisted only of the discontented scout, he raised his voice,
commencing and ending the sacred song without accident or interruption
of any kind.
Hawkeye listened while he coolly adjusted his flint and reloaded his
rifle; but the sounds, wanting the extraneous assistance of scene and
sympathy, failed to awaken his slumbering emotions. Never minstrel,
or by whatever more suitable name David should be known, drew upon his
talents in the presence of more insensible auditors; though considering
the singleness and sincerity of his motive, it is probable that no bard
of profane song ever uttered notes that ascended so near to that throne
where all homage and praise is due. The scout shook his head, and
muttering some unintelligible words, among which "throat" and "Iroquois"
were alone audible, he walked away, to collect and to examine into the
state of the captured arsenal of the Hurons. In this office he was now
joined by Chingachgook, who found his own, as well as the rifle of his
son, among the arms. Even Heyward and David were furnished with weapons;
nor was ammunition wanting to render them all effectual.
When the foresters had made their selection, and distributed their
prizes, the scout announced that the hour had arrived when it was
necessary to move. By this time the song of Gamut had ceased, and the
sisters had learned to still the exhibition of their emotions. Aided by
Duncan and the younger Mohican, the two latter descended the precipitous
sides of that hill which they had so lately ascended under so very
different auspices, and whose summit had so nearly proved the scene of
their massacre. At the foot they found the Narragansetts browsing the
herbage of the bushes, and having mounted, they followed the movements
of a guide, who, in the most deadly straits, had so often proved himself
their friend. The journey was, however, short. Hawkeye, leaving the
blind path that the Hurons had followed, turned short to his right,
and entering the thicket, he crossed a babbling brook, and halted in a
narrow dell, under the shade of a few water elms. Their distance from
the base of the fatal hill was but a few rods, and the steeds had been
serviceable only in crossing the shallow stream.
The scout and the Indians appeared to be familiar with the sequestered
place where they now were; for, leaning their rifle against the trees,
they commenced throwing aside the dried leaves, and opening the blue
clay, out of which a clear and sparkling spring of bright, glancing
water, quickly bubbled. The white man then looked about him, as though
seeking for some object, which was not to be found as readily as he
expected.
"Them careless imps, the Mohawks, with their Tuscarora and Onondaga
brethren, have been here slaking their thirst," he muttered, "and the
vagabonds have thrown away the gourd! This is the way with benefits,
when they are bestowed on such disremembering hounds! Here has the Lord
laid his hand, in the midst of the howling wilderness, for their good,
and raised a fountain of water from the bowels of the 'arth, that might
laugh at the richest shop of apothecary's ware in all the colonies; and
see! the knaves have trodden in the clay, and deformed the cleanliness
of the place, as though they were brute beasts, instead of human men."
Uncas silently extended toward him the desired gourd, which the spleen
of Hawkeye had hitherto prevented him from observing on a branch of
an elm. Filling it with water, he retired a short distance, to a place
where the ground was more firm and dry; here he coolly seated himself,
and after taking a long, and, apparently, a grateful draught, he
commenced a very strict examination of the fragments of food left by the
Hurons, which had hung in a wallet on his arm.
"Thank you, lad!" he continued, returning the empty gourd to Uncas;
"now we will see how these rampaging Hurons lived, when outlying in
ambushments. Look at this! The varlets know the better pieces of the
deer; and one would think they might carve and roast a saddle, equal to
the best cook in the land! But everything is raw, for the Iroquois are
thorough savages. Uncas, take my steel and kindle a fire; a mouthful of
a tender broil will give natur' a helping hand, after so long a trail."
Heyward, perceiving that their guides now set about their repast in
sober earnest, assisted the ladies to alight, and placed himself at
their side, not unwilling to enjoy a few moments of grateful rest, after
the bloody scene he had just gone through. While the culinary process
was in hand, curiosity induced him to inquire into the circumstances
which had led to their timely and unexpected rescue:
"How is it that we see you so soon, my generous friend," he asked, "and
without aid from the garrison of Edward?"
"Had we gone to the bend in the river, we might have been in time
to rake the leaves over your bodies, but too late to have saved your
scalps," coolly answered the scout. "No, no; instead of throwing away
strength and opportunity by crossing to the fort, we lay by, under the
bank of the Hudson, waiting to watch the movements of the Hurons."
"You were, then, witnesses of all that passed?"
"Not of all; for Indian sight is too keen to be easily cheated, and we
kept close. A difficult matter it was, too, to keep this Mohican boy
snug in the ambushment. Ah! Uncas, Uncas, your behavior was more like
that of a curious woman than of a warrior on his scent."
Uncas permitted his eyes to turn for an instant on the sturdy
countenance of the speaker, but he neither spoke nor gave any indication
of repentance. On the contrary, Heyward thought the manner of the young
Mohican was disdainful, if not a little fierce, and that he suppressed
passions that were ready to explode, as much in compliment to the
listeners, as from the deference he usually paid to his white associate.
"You saw our capture?" Heyward next demanded.
"We heard it," was the significant answer. "An Indian yell is plain
language to men who have passed their days in the woods. But when you
landed, we were driven to crawl like sarpents, beneath the leaves; and
then we lost sight of you entirely, until we placed eyes on you again
trussed to the trees, and ready bound for an Indian massacre."
"Our rescue was the deed of Providence. It was nearly a miracle that you
did not mistake the path, for the Hurons divided, and each band had its
horses."
"Ay! there we were thrown off the scent, and might, indeed, have lost
the trail, had it not been for Uncas; we took the path, however, that
led into the wilderness; for we judged, and judged rightly, that the
savages would hold that course with their prisoners. But when we had
followed it for many miles, without finding a single twig broken, as I
had advised, my mind misgave me; especially as all the footsteps had the
prints of moccasins."
"Our captors had the precaution to see us shod like themselves," said
Duncan, raising a foot, and exhibiting the buckskin he wore.
"Aye, 'twas judgmatical and like themselves; though we were too expart
to be thrown from a trail by so common an invention."
"To what, then, are we indebted for our safety?"
"To what, as a white man who has no taint of Indian blood, I should be
ashamed to own; to the judgment of the young Mohican, in matters which
I should know better than he, but which I can now hardly believe to be
true, though my own eyes tell me it is so."
"'Tis extraordinary! will you not name the reason?"
"Uncas was bold enough to say, that the beasts ridden by the gentle
ones," continued Hawkeye, glancing his eyes, not without curious
interest, on the fillies of the ladies, "planted the legs of one side on
the ground at the same time, which is contrary to the movements of all
trotting four-footed animals of my knowledge, except the bear. And yet
here are horses that always journey in this manner, as my own eyes have
seen, and as their trail has shown for twenty long miles."
"'Tis the merit of the animal! They come from the shores of
Narrangansett Bay, in the small province of Providence Plantations,
and are celebrated for their hardihood, and the ease of this peculiar
movement; though other horses are not unfrequently trained to the same."
"It may be—it may be," said Hawkeye, who had listened with singular
attention to this explanation; "though I am a man who has the full blood
of the whites, my judgment in deer and beaver is greater than in beasts
of burden. Major Effingham has many noble chargers, but I have never
seen one travel after such a sidling gait."
"True; for he would value the animals for very different properties.
Still is this a breed highly esteemed and, as you witness, much honored
with the burdens it is often destined to bear."
The Mohicans had suspended their operations about the glimmering fire
to listen; and, when Duncan had done, they looked at each other
significantly, the father uttering the never-failing exclamation of
surprise. The scout ruminated, like a man digesting his newly-acquired
knowledge, and once more stole a glance at the horses.
"I dare to say there are even stranger sights to be seen in the
settlements!" he said, at length. "Natur' is sadly abused by man, when
he once gets the mastery. But, go sidling or go straight, Uncas had seen
the movement, and their trail led us on to the broken bush. The outer
branch, near the prints of one of the horses, was bent upward, as a lady
breaks a flower from its stem, but all the rest were ragged and broken
down, as if the strong hand of a man had been tearing them! So I
concluded that the cunning varments had seen the twig bent, and had torn
the rest, to make us believe a buck had been feeling the boughs with his
antlers."
"I do believe your sagacity did not deceive you; for some such thing
occurred!"
"That was easy to see," added the scout, in no degree conscious of
having exhibited any extraordinary sagacity; "and a very different
matter it was from a waddling horse! It then struck me the Mingoes
would push for this spring, for the knaves well know the vartue of its
waters!"
"Is it, then, so famous?" demanded Heyward, examining, with a more
curious eye, the secluded dell, with its bubbling fountain, surrounded,
as it was, by earth of a deep, dingy brown.
"Few red-skins, who travel south and east of the great lakes but have
heard of its qualities. Will you taste for yourself?"
Heyward took the gourd, and after swallowing a little of the water,
threw it aside with grimaces of discontent. The scout laughed in his
silent but heartfelt manner, and shook his head with vast satisfaction.
"Ah! you want the flavor that one gets by habit; the time was when I
liked it as little as yourself; but I have come to my taste, and I now
crave it, as a deer does the licks*. Your high-spiced wines are not
better liked than a red-skin relishes this water; especially when his
natur' is ailing. But Uncas has made his fire, and it is time we think
of eating, for our journey is long, and all before us."
* Many of the animals of the American forests resort to
those spots where salt springs are found. These are called
"licks" or "salt licks," in the language of the country,
from the circumstance that the quadruped is often obliged to
lick the earth, in order to obtain the saline particles.
These licks are great places of resort with the hunters, who
waylay their game near the paths that lead to them.
Interrupting the dialogue by this abrupt transition, the scout had
instant recourse to the fragments of food which had escaped the voracity
of the Hurons. A very summary process completed the simple cookery, when
he and the Mohicans commenced their humble meal, with the silence and
characteristic diligence of men who ate in order to enable themselves to
endure great and unremitting toil.
When this necessary, and, happily, grateful duty had been performed,
each of the foresters stooped and took a long and parting draught at
that solitary and silent spring*, around which and its sister fountains,
within fifty years, the wealth, beauty and talents of a hemisphere were
to assemble in throngs, in pursuit of health and pleasure. Then Hawkeye
announced his determination to proceed. The sisters resumed their
saddles; Duncan and David grapsed their rifles, and followed on
footsteps; the scout leading the advance, and the Mohicans bringing up
the rear. The whole party moved swiftly through the narrow path, toward
the north, leaving the healing waters to mingle unheeded with the
adjacent brooks and the bodies of the dead to fester on the neighboring
mount, without the rites of sepulture; a fate but too common to the
warriors of the woods to excite either commiseration or comment.
* The scene of the foregoing incidents is on the spot where
the village of Ballston now stands; one of the two principal
watering places of America.
End of Chapter 12
CHAPTER 13
"I'll seek a readier path." —Parnell
The route taken by Hawkeye lay across those sandy plains, relived by
occasional valleys and swells of land, which had been traversed by their
party on the morning of the same day, with the baffled Magua for their
guide. The sun had now fallen low toward the distant mountains; and
as their journey lay through the interminable forest, the heat was no
longer oppressive. Their progress, in consequence, was proportionate;
and long before the twilight gathered about them, they had made good
many toilsome miles on their return.
The hunter, like the savage whose place he filled, seemed to select
among the blind signs of their wild route, with a species of instinct,
seldom abating his speed, and never pausing to deliberate. A rapid and
oblique glance at the moss on the trees, with an occasional upward gaze
toward the setting sun, or a steady but passing look at the direction of
the numerous water courses, through which he waded, were sufficient
to determine his path, and remove his greatest difficulties. In the
meantime, the forest began to change its hues, losing that lively green
which had embellished its arches, in the graver light which is the usual
precursor of the close of day.
While the eyes of the sisters were endeavoring to catch glimpses through
the trees, of the flood of golden glory which formed a glittering halo
around the sun, tinging here and there with ruby streaks, or bordering
with narrow edgings of shining yellow, a mass of clouds that lay piled
at no great distance above the western hills, Hawkeye turned suddenly
and pointing upward toward the gorgeous heavens, he spoke:
"Yonder is the signal given to man to seek his food and natural rest,"
he said; "better and wiser would it be, if he could understand the signs
of nature, and take a lesson from the fowls of the air and the beasts of
the field! Our night, however, will soon be over, for with the moon
we must be up and moving again. I remember to have fou't the Maquas,
hereaways, in the first war in which I ever drew blood from man; and we
threw up a work of blocks, to keep the ravenous varmints from handling
our scalps. If my marks do not fail me, we shall find the place a few
rods further to our left."
Without waiting for an assent, or, indeed, for any reply, the sturdy
hunter moved boldly into a dense thicket of young chestnuts, shoving
aside the branches of the exuberant shoots which nearly covered the
ground, like a man who expected, at each step, to discover some object
he had formerly known. The recollection of the scout did not deceive
him. After penetrating through the brush, matted as it was with briars,
for a few hundred feet, he entered an open space, that surrounded a low,
green hillock, which was crowned by the decayed blockhouse in question.
This rude and neglected building was one of those deserted works, which,
having been thrown up on an emergency, had been abandoned with the
disappearance of danger, and was now quietly crumbling in the solitude
of the forest, neglected and nearly forgotten, like the circumstances
which had caused it to be reared. Such memorials of the passage and
struggles of man are yet frequent throughout the broad barrier of
wilderness which once separated the hostile provinces, and form a
species of ruins that are intimately associated with the recollections
of colonial history, and which are in appropriate keeping with the
gloomy character of the surrounding scenery. The roof of bark had long
since fallen, and mingled with the soil, but the huge logs of pine,
which had been hastily thrown together, still preserved their relative
positions, though one angle of the work had given way under the
pressure, and threatened a speedy downfall to the remainder of the
rustic edifice. While Heyward and his companions hesitated to approach
a building so decayed, Hawkeye and the Indians entered within the low
walls, not only without fear, but with obvious interest. While the
former surveyed the ruins, both internally and externally, with the
curiosity of one whose recollections were reviving at each moment,
Chingachgook related to his son, in the language of the Delawares, and
with the pride of a conqueror, the brief history of the skirmish which
had been fought, in his youth, in that secluded spot. A strain of
melancholy, however, blended with his triumph, rendering his voice, as
usual, soft and musical.
In the meantime, the sisters gladly dismounted, and prepared to enjoy
their halt in the coolness of the evening, and in a security which they
believed nothing but the beasts of the forest could invade.
"Would not our resting-place have been more retired, my worthy friend,"
demanded the more vigilant Duncan, perceiving that the scout had already
finished his short survey, "had we chosen a spot less known, and one
more rarely visited than this?"
"Few live who know the blockhouse was ever raised," was the slow and
musing answer; "'tis not often that books are made, and narratives
written of such a scrimmage as was here fou't atween the Mohicans and
the Mohawks, in a war of their own waging. I was then a younker, and
went out with the Delawares, because I know'd they were a scandalized
and wronged race. Forty days and forty nights did the imps crave our
blood around this pile of logs, which I designed and partly reared,
being, as you'll remember, no Indian myself, but a man without a cross.
The Delawares lent themselves to the work, and we made it good, ten to
twenty, until our numbers were nearly equal, and then we sallied out
upon the hounds, and not a man of them ever got back to tell the fate
of his party. Yes, yes; I was then young, and new to the sight of blood;
and not relishing the thought that creatures who had spirits like myself
should lay on the naked ground, to be torn asunder by beasts, or to
bleach in the rains, I buried the dead with my own hands, under that
very little hillock where you have placed yourselves; and no bad seat
does it make neither, though it be raised by the bones of mortal men."
Heyward and the sisters arose, on the instant, from the grassy
sepulcher; nor could the two latter, notwithstanding the terrific scenes
they had so recently passed through, entirely suppress an emotion of
natural horror, when they found themselves in such familiar contact with
the grave of the dead Mohawks. The gray light, the gloomy little area
of dark grass, surrounded by its border of brush, beyond which the pines
rose, in breathing silence, apparently into the very clouds, and the
deathlike stillness of the vast forest, were all in unison to deepen
such a sensation. "They are gone, and they are harmless," continued
Hawkeye, waving his hand, with a melancholy smile at their manifest
alarm; "they'll never shout the war-whoop nor strike a blow with the
tomahawk again! And of all those who aided in placing them where they
lie, Chingachgook and I only are living! The brothers and family of the
Mohican formed our war party; and you see before you all that are now
left of his race."
The eyes of the listeners involuntarily sought the forms of the Indians,
with a compassionate interest in their desolate fortune. Their dark
persons were still to be seen within the shadows of the blockhouse,
the son listening to the relation of his father with that sort of
intenseness which would be created by a narrative that redounded so much
to the honor of those whose names he had long revered for their courage
and savage virtues.
"I had thought the Delawares a pacific people," said Duncan, "and that
they never waged war in person; trusting the defense of their hands to
those very Mohawks that you slew!"
"'Tis true in part," returned the scout, "and yet, at the bottom, 'tis
a wicked lie. Such a treaty was made in ages gone by, through the
deviltries of the Dutchers, who wished to disarm the natives that had
the best right to the country, where they had settled themselves. The
Mohicans, though a part of the same nation, having to deal with the
English, never entered into the silly bargain, but kept to their
manhood; as in truth did the Delawares, when their eyes were open to
their folly. You see before you a chief of the great Mohican Sagamores!
Once his family could chase their deer over tracts of country wider than
that which belongs to the Albany Patteroon, without crossing brook or
hill that was not their own; but what is left of their descendant? He
may find his six feet of earth when God chooses, and keep it in peace,
perhaps, if he has a friend who will take the pains to sink his head so
low that the plowshares cannot reach it!"
"Enough!" said Heyward, apprehensive that the subject might lead to
a discussion that would interrupt the harmony so necessary to the
preservation of his fair companions; "we have journeyed far, and few
among us are blessed with forms like that of yours, which seems to know
neither fatigue nor weakness."
"The sinews and bones of a man carry me through it all," said the
hunter, surveying his muscular limbs with a simplicity that betrayed
the honest pleasure the compliment afforded him; "there are larger and
heavier men to be found in the settlements, but you might travel many
days in a city before you could meet one able to walk fifty miles
without stopping to take breath, or who has kept the hounds within
hearing during a chase of hours. However, as flesh and blood are not
always the same, it is quite reasonable to suppose that the gentle ones
are willing to rest, after all they have seen and done this day. Uncas,
clear out the spring, while your father and I make a cover for their
tender heads of these chestnut shoots, and a bed of grass and leaves."
The dialogue ceased, while the hunter and his companions busied
themselves in preparations for the comfort and protection of those they
guided. A spring, which many long years before had induced the natives
to select the place for their temporary fortification, was soon cleared
of leaves, and a fountain of crystal gushed from the bed, diffusing
its waters over the verdant hillock. A corner of the building was then
roofed in such a manner as to exclude the heavy dew of the climate,
and piles of sweet shrubs and dried leaves were laid beneath it for the
sisters to repose on.
While the diligent woodsmen were employed in this manner, Cora and
Alice partook of that refreshment which duty required much more than
inclination prompted them to accept. They then retired within the
walls, and first offering up their thanksgivings for past mercies, and
petitioning for a continuance of the Divine favor throughout the coming
night, they laid their tender forms on the fragrant couch, and in spite
of recollections and forebodings, soon sank into those slumbers which
nature so imperiously demanded, and which were sweetened by hopes
for the morrow. Duncan had prepared himself to pass the night in
watchfulness near them, just without the ruin, but the scout, perceiving
his intention, pointed toward Chingachgook, as he coolly disposed his
own person on the grass, and said:
"The eyes of a white man are too heavy and too blind for such a watch as
this! The Mohican will be our sentinel, therefore let us sleep."
"I proved myself a sluggard on my post during the past night," said
Heyward, "and have less need of repose than you, who did more credit
to the character of a soldier. Let all the party seek their rest, then,
while I hold the guard."
"If we lay among the white tents of the Sixtieth, and in front of an
enemy like the French, I could not ask for a better watchman," returned
the scout; "but in the darkness and among the signs of the wilderness
your judgment would be like the folly of a child, and your vigilance
thrown away. Do then, like Uncas and myself, sleep, and sleep in
safety."
Heyward perceived, in truth, that the younger Indian had thrown his form
on the side of the hillock while they were talking, like one who sought
to make the most of the time allotted to rest, and that his example had
been followed by David, whose voice literally "clove to his jaws," with
the fever of his wound, heightened, as it was, by their toilsome march.
Unwilling to prolong a useless discussion, the young man affected to
comply, by posting his back against the logs of the blockhouse, in a
half recumbent posture, though resolutely determined, in his own mind,
not to close an eye until he had delivered his precious charge into the
arms of Munro himself. Hawkeye, believing he had prevailed, soon fell
asleep, and a silence as deep as the solitude in which they had found
it, pervaded the retired spot.
For many minutes Duncan succeeded in keeping his senses on the alert,
and alive to every moaning sound that arose from the forest. His vision
became more acute as the shades of evening settled on the place; and
even after the stars were glimmering above his head, he was able to
distinguish the recumbent forms of his companions, as they lay stretched
on the grass, and to note the person of Chingachgook, who sat upright
and motionless as one of the trees which formed the dark barrier on
every side. He still heard the gentle breathings of the sisters, who lay
within a few feet of him, and not a leaf was ruffled by the passing
air of which his ear did not detect the whispering sound. At length,
however, the mournful notes of a whip-poor-will became blended with the
moanings of an owl; his heavy eyes occasionally sought the bright rays
of the stars, and he then fancied he saw them through the fallen lids.
At instants of momentary wakefulness he mistook a bush for his associate
sentinel; his head next sank upon his shoulder, which, in its turn,
sought the support of the ground; and, finally, his whole person became
relaxed and pliant, and the young man sank into a deep sleep, dreaming
that he was a knight of ancient chivalry, holding his midnight vigils
before the tent of a recaptured princess, whose favor he did not despair
of gaining, by such a proof of devotion and watchfulness.
How long the tired Duncan lay in this insensible state he never
knew himself, but his slumbering visions had been long lost in total
forgetfulness, when he was awakened by a light tap on the shoulder.
Aroused by this signal, slight as it was, he sprang upon his feet with
a confused recollection of the self-imposed duty he had assumed with the
commencement of the night.
"Who comes?" he demanded, feeling for his sword, at the place where it
was usually suspended. "Speak! friend or enemy?"
"Friend," replied the low voice of Chingachgook; who, pointing upward
at the luminary which was shedding its mild light through the opening
in the trees, directly in their bivouac, immediately added, in his rude
English: "Moon comes and white man's fort far—far off; time to move,
when sleep shuts both eyes of the Frenchman!"
"You say true! Call up your friends, and bridle the horses while I
prepare my own companions for the march!"
"We are awake, Duncan," said the soft, silvery tones of Alice within the
building, "and ready to travel very fast after so refreshing a sleep;
but you have watched through the tedious night in our behalf, after
having endured so much fatigue the livelong day!"
"Say, rather, I would have watched, but my treacherous eyes betrayed me;
twice have I proved myself unfit for the trust I bear."
"Nay, Duncan, deny it not," interrupted the smiling Alice, issuing
from the shadows of the building into the light of the moon, in all the
loveliness of her freshened beauty; "I know you to be a heedless one,
when self is the object of your care, and but too vigilant in favor of
others. Can we not tarry here a little longer while you find the rest
you need? Cheerfully, most cheerfully, will Cora and I keep the vigils,
while you and all these brave men endeavor to *** a little sleep!"
"If shame could cure me of my drowsiness, I should never close an eye
again," said the uneasy youth, gazing at the ingenuous countenance
of Alice, where, however, in its sweet solicitude, he read nothing to
confirm his half-awakened suspicion. "It is but too true, that after
leading you into danger by my heedlessness, I have not even the merit of
guarding your pillows as should become a soldier."
"No one but Duncan himself should accuse Duncan of such a weakness. Go,
then, and sleep; believe me, neither of us, weak girls as we are, will
betray our watch."
The young man was relieved from the awkwardness of making any further
protestations of his own demerits, by an exclamation from Chingachgook,
and the attitude of riveted attention assumed by his son.
"The Mohicans hear an enemy!" whispered Hawkeye, who, by this time, in
common with the whole party, was awake and stirring. "They scent danger
in the wind!"
"God forbid!" exclaimed Heyward. "Surely we have had enough of
bloodshed!"
While he spoke, however, the young soldier seized his rifle, and
advancing toward the front, prepared to atone for his venial remissness,
by freely exposing his life in defense of those he attended.
"'Tis some creature of the forest prowling around us in quest of food,"
he said, in a whisper, as soon as the low, and apparently distant
sounds, which had startled the Mohicans, reached his own ears.
"Hist!" returned the attentive scout; "'tis man; even I can now tell
his tread, poor as my senses are when compared to an Indian's! That
Scampering Huron has fallen in with one of Montcalm's outlying parties,
and they have struck upon our trail. I shouldn't like, myself, to spill
more human blood in this spot," he added, looking around with anxiety in
his features, at the dim objects by which he was surrounded; "but what
must be, must! Lead the horses into the blockhouse, Uncas; and, friends,
do you follow to the same shelter. Poor and old as it is, it offers a
cover, and has rung with the crack of a rifle afore to-night!"
He was instantly obeyed, the Mohicans leading the Narrangansetts
within the ruin, whither the whole party repaired with the most guarded
silence.
The sound of approaching footsteps were now too distinctly audible to
leave any doubts as to the nature of the interruption. They were soon
mingled with voices calling to each other in an Indian dialect, which
the hunter, in a whisper, affirmed to Heyward was the language of the
Hurons. When the party reached the point where the horses had entered
the thicket which surrounded the blockhouse, they were evidently at
fault, having lost those marks which, until that moment, had directed
their pursuit.
It would seem by the voices that twenty men were soon collected at that
one spot, mingling their different opinions and advice in noisy clamor.
"The knaves know our weakness," whispered Hawkeye, who stood by the side
of Heyward, in deep shade, looking through an opening in the logs, "or
they wouldn't indulge their idleness in such a squaw's march. Listen to
the reptiles! each man among them seems to have two tongues, and but a
single leg."
Duncan, brave as he was in the combat, could not, in such a moment of
painful suspense, make any reply to the cool and characteristic remark
of the scout. He only grasped his rifle more firmly, and fastened his
eyes upon the narrow opening, through which he gazed upon the moonlight
view with increasing anxiety. The deeper tones of one who spoke as
having authority were next heard, amid a silence that denoted the
respect with which his orders, or rather advice, was received. After
which, by the rustling of leaves, and crackling of dried twigs, it
was apparent the savages were separating in pursuit of the lost trail.
Fortunately for the pursued, the light of the moon, while it shed a
flood of mild luster upon the little area around the ruin, was not
sufficiently strong to penetrate the deep arches of the forest, where
the objects still lay in deceptive shadow. The search proved fruitless;
for so short and sudden had been the passage from the faint path the
travelers had journeyed into the thicket, that every trace of their
footsteps was lost in the obscurity of the woods.
It was not long, however, before the restless savages were heard beating
the brush, and gradually approaching the inner edge of that dense border
of young chestnuts which encircled the little area.
"They are coming," muttered Heyward, endeavoring to thrust his rifle
through the *** in the logs; "let us fire on their approach."
"Keep everything in the shade," returned the scout; "the snapping of
a flint, or even the smell of a single karnel of the brimstone, would
bring the hungry varlets upon us in a body. Should it please God that we
must give battle for the scalps, trust to the experience of men who
know the ways of the savages, and who are not often backward when the
war-whoop is howled."
Duncan cast his eyes behind him, and saw that the trembling sisters were
cowering in the far corner of the building, while the Mohicans stood in
the shadow, like two upright posts, ready, and apparently willing, to
strike when the blow should be needed. Curbing his impatience, he again
looked out upon the area, and awaited the result in silence. At that
instant the thicket opened, and a tall and armed Huron advanced a few
paces into the open space. As he gazed upon the silent blockhouse, the
moon fell upon his swarthy countenance, and betrayed its surprise and
curiosity. He made the exclamation which usually accompanies the former
emotion in an Indian, and, calling in a low voice, soon drew a companion
to his side.
These children of the woods stood together for several moments pointing
at the crumbling edifice, and conversing in the unintelligible language
of their tribe. They then approached, though with slow and cautious
steps, pausing every instant to look at the building, like startled deer
whose curiosity struggled powerfully with their awakened apprehensions
for the mastery. The foot of one of them suddenly rested on the mound,
and he stopped to examine its nature. At this moment, Heyward observed
that the scout loosened his knife in its sheath, and lowered the muzzle
of his rifle. Imitating these movements, the young man prepared himself
for the struggle which now seemed inevitable.
The savages were so near, that the least motion in one of the horses, or
even a breath louder than common, would have betrayed the fugitives. But
in discovering the character of the mound, the attention of the Hurons
appeared directed to a different object. They spoke together, and
the sounds of their voices were low and solemn, as if influenced by a
reverence that was deeply blended with awe. Then they drew warily back,
keeping their eyes riveted on the ruin, as if they expected to see
the apparitions of the dead issue from its silent walls, until, having
reached the boundary of the area, they moved slowly into the thicket and
disappeared.
Hawkeye dropped the breech of his rifle to the earth, and drawing a
long, free breath, exclaimed, in an audible whisper:
"Ay! they respect the dead, and it has this time saved their own lives,
and, it may be, the lives of better men too."
Heyward lent his attention for a single moment to his companion, but
without replying, he again turned toward those who just then interested
him more. He heard the two Hurons leave the bushes, and it was soon
plain that all the pursuers were gathered about them, in deep attention
to their report. After a few minutes of earnest and solemn dialogue,
altogether different from the noisy clamor with which they had first
collected about the spot, the sounds grew fainter and more distant, and
finally were lost in the depths of the forest.
Hawkeye waited until a signal from the listening Chingachgook assured
him that every sound from the retiring party was completely swallowed by
the distance, when he motioned to Heyward to lead forth the horses, and
to assist the sisters into their saddles. The instant this was done
they issued through the broken gateway, and stealing out by a direction
opposite to the one by which they entered, they quitted the spot, the
sisters casting furtive glances at the silent, grave and crumbling ruin,
as they left the soft light of the moon, to bury themselves in the gloom
of the woods.
End of Chapter 13 �