University of Virginia Library

12. CHAPTER XII.

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, Hawk-eye,
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 centre 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
these unexpected and audacious movements, an
image, armed in the emblematic panoply of death,

stole, with the imaginary glidings of a spectre, 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
exclamation 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 expecting Chingachgook.
It was the signal for a general combat. Neither
party had fire-arms, and the contest was to be decided
in the deadliest manner; hand to hand, with
weapons of offence, and none of defence.

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
towards 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.
Hawk-eye soon got another enemy within reach of his
arm, and with one sweep of his formidable weapon,
he beat down the slight and inartificial defences of
his antagonist, crushing him to the earth with the
weight of his 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 sufficient to assure him of the rashness of the
measure, for he immediately found himself fully engaged,
with all his activity and courage, in endeavouring
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 Hawk-eye's
rifle fell on the naked head of his adversary, whose
muscles appeared to wither under the shock, as he
sunk 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 had sprung towards the defenceless Cora, sending

his keen axe, as the dreadful precursor of his approach,
The tomahawk grazed her shoulder, and cutting the
withes which bound her to the tree, left the maiden
at liberty to fly. She eluded the grasp of the savage,
and reckless of her own safety, threw herself on the
bosom of Alice, striving, with convulsed and ill-directed
fingers, to tear asunder the twigs which confined
the person of her sister. Any other than a
monster would have relented at such an act of generous
devotion to the best and purest affection; but the
breast of the Huron was a stranger to any sympathy
in the moments of his fury. Seizing Cora by the rich
tresses which fell in glossy 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 moulded 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 for 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 Hawk-eye,
descending 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 several
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 centre of the
little plain towards 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 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 Hawk-eye
was raised and suspended in vain; while Duncan
endeavoured 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
and subtle 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 nor when to plant their succouring
blows. 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 hated countenances and 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 centre 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 his shout of triumph.

“Well done for the Delawares! victory to the
Mohican!” cried Hawk-eye, 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
honour, 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 centre 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 clamour, 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 laid 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 either rifle or
bow, many a long mile from his French commerades;
and, like a rattler that has lost his fangs, he can do
no farther 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 flying 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
any 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, accomnied
by Heyward to the assistance of the sisters, and

quickly releasing Alice, placed her in the open
arms of Cora. We shall not attempt to describe the
gratitude to the Almighty Disposer of events which
glowed in the bosoms of the lovely maidens, 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 arose from her knees, where she had sunken, by
the side of Cora, she threw herself on the bosom of
her sister, and sobbed aloud the name of their aged
father, while her soft, dove-like eyes, sparkled with
the rays of revived hope, the intelligence with which
they beamed partaking more of the ethereal than of
any expression which might belong to human infirmity.

“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 purity and innocence, “even our own brave
and noble Duncan has escaped without a hurt!”

To these ardent and nearly incoherent 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 practices of his nation.

During this display of emotions so natural in their
situation, Hawk-eye, 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 offence, 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 useful 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 Hawk-eye, 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 comfortable, and 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 skilful 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 in his feelings toward the man of
song, by this unequivocal expression of his gratitude.
“I have got back my old companion, `kill-deer,' ”
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 all their fire-arms 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; you lopeing

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
his 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 have I 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 the
excited 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 endeavouring 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 Hawk-eye, with singular and
ill-concealed disdain; “do you take me for a whimpering
boy, at the apron string 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 of
yesterday's 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 settlements,
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 were 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 sung 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 Hawk-eye
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 gifted
rhymes he had selected were to be found, and
applied the pitch-pipe to his lips, with the customary
and 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.

Hawk-eye 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 most due. The scout soon 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, openly,
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 such very different auspices, and whose summit
had so nearly proved the scene of their horrible
massacre. At the foot, they found their Narragansets
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. Their journey was, however,
short. Hawk-eye, 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
to the maidens 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 rifles 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 towards him the desired
gourd, which the spleen of Hawk-eye had hitherto
prevented him from observing, suspended, with sufficient
care, 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 every thing is raw, for them
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
maidens 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 then were 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 behaviour
was more like that of a curious woman, than of a
warrior on his scent!”

Uncas permitted his penetrating eyes to turn for
an instant on the sturdy countenance of the speaker,
but he neither spoke, nor gave any indication of
repentance for his error. 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 took not the wrong path, for
the Hurons divided, and each band of them had its
horses!”

“Ay! there we were thrown off the scent, and
might, indeed, have lost the trail, had it not been for
Uncas,” returned the scout, with the tone and manner
of a man who recalled all the embarrassment of the
past moment; “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 gayly ornamented buskin he wore.

“Ay! '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 Hawk-eye,
glancing his eyes, not without curious interest on the
sorrel 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 Narraganset 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 Hawk-eye, 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 burthen. Major Effingham has many
noble chargers, but I have never seen one travel after
such a sideling gait!”

“True, for he would value the animals for very
different properties. Still, is this a breed highly esteemed,
and as you witness, much honoured with the
burthens 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 curious glance at the horses, before he continued—

“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 sideling, 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 violent grimaces
of discontent. The scout laughed in his
silent, but heartfelt manner, and shook his head with
vast satisfaction, as he continued—

“Ah! you want the flavour 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.”

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 such throngs,
in pursuit of health and pleasure. Then Hawk-eye
announced his determination to proceed. The sisters
resumed their saddles; Duncan and David

grasped their rifles, and followed on their footsteps;
the scout leading the advance, and the Mohicans
bringing up the rear. The whole party moved
swiftly through the narrow path, towards the north,
leaving the healing waters to mingle unheeded with
the adjacent brook, and the bodies of the dead to fester
on the neighbouring mount, without the rites of
sepulture; a fate but too common to the warriors of the
woods, to excite either commiseration or comment.