The fires of the Indians were nearly now extinct; but the faint light
of the fast dawning day threw a ghastly, sickly, hue over the
countenances of the savages, which rendered them even more terrific in
their war paint. The chiefs grouped themselves immediately around their
prisoner, while the inferior warriors, forming an outer circle, stood
leaning their dark forms upon their rifles, and following, with keen
and watchful eye, every movement of their captive. Hitherto the
unfortunate officer had been too much engrossed by his despair to pay
any immediate attention to the individual who had first discovered and
seized him. It was sufficient for him to know all hope of the safety of
the garrison had perished with his captivity: and, with that
recklessness of life which often springs from the very consciousness of
inability to preserve it, he now sullenly awaited the death which he
expected at each moment would be inflicted. Suddenly his ear was
startled by an interrogatory, in English, from one who stood behind him.
With a movement of surprise, Captain de Haldimar turned to examine his
questioner. It was the dark and ferocious warrior who had exhibited the
scalp of his ill-fated servant. For a moment the officer fixed his eyes
firmly and unshrinkingly on those of the savage, seeking to reconcile
the contradiction that existed between his dress and features and the
purity of the English he had just spoken. The other saw his drift, and,
impatient of the scrutiny, again repeated, as he fiercely pulled the
strong leathern thong by which the prisoner now found himself secured
to his girdle,--
"Who and what are you?--whence come you?--and for what purpose are you
here?" Then, as if struck by some sudden recollection, he laid his hand
upon the shoulder of his victim; and, while his eye grew upon his
features, he pursued, in a tone of vehemence,--"Ha! by Heaven, I should
know that face!--the cursed lines of the blood of De Haldimar are
stamped upon that brow! But stay, one proof and I am satisfied." While
he yet spoke he dashed the menial hat of his captive to the earth, put
aside his hair, and then, with fiendish exultation, pursued,--"It is
even so. Do you recollect the battle of the plains of Abraham, Captain
de Haldimar?--Recollect you the French officer who aimed so desperately
at your life, and whose object was defeated by a soldier of your
regiment? I am that officer: my victim escaped me then, but not for
ever. The hour of vengeance is nearly now arrived, and your capture is
the pledge of my success. Hark, how the death-cry of all his hated race
will ring in madness on your father's ear!"
Amazement, stupefaction, and horror, filled the mind of the wretched
officer at this extraordinary declaration. He perfectly recollected
that the individual who had evinced so much personal hostility on the
occasion alluded to, was indeed a man wearing the French uniform,
although at the head of a band of savages, and of a stature and
strength similar to those of him who now so fiercely avowed himself the
bitter and deadly foe of all his race. If this were so, and his tone
and language left little room for doubt, the doom of the ill-fated
garrison was indeed irrevocably sealed. This mysterious enemy evidently
possessed great influence in the councils of the Indians; and while the
hot breath of his hatred continued to fan the flame of fierce hostility
that had been kindled in the bosom of Ponteac, whose particular friend
he appeared to be, there would be no end to the atrocities that must
follow. Great, however, as was the dismay of Captain de Haldimar, who,
exhausted with the adventures of the night, presented a ghastly image
of anxiety and fatigue, it was impossible for him to repress the
feelings of indignation with which the language of this fierce man had
inspired him.
"If you are in reality a French officer," he said, "and not an
Englishman, as your accent would denote, the sentiments you have now
avowed may well justify the belief, that you have been driven with
ignominy from a service which your presence must eternally have
disgraced. There is no country in Europe that would willingly claim you
for its subject. Nay, even the savage race, with whom you are now
connected, would, if apprised of your true nature, spurn you as a thing
unworthy to herd even with their wolf-dogs."
A fierce sardonic laugh burst from the lips of the warrior, but this
was so mingled with rage as to give an almost devilish expression to
his features.
"Ignominy--ignominy!" he repeated, while his right hand played
convulsively with the handle of his tomahawk; "is it for a De Haldimar
to taunt me with ignominy? Fool!" he pursued, after a momentary pause,
"you have sealed your doom." Then abruptly quitting the handle of his
weapon, he thrust his hand into his bosom, and again drawing forth the
reeking scalp of Donellan, he dashed it furiously in the face of his
prisoner. "Not two hours since," he exclaimed, "I cheered myself with
the thought that the scalp of a De Haldimar was in my pouch. Now,
indeed, do I glory in my mistake. The torture will be a more fitting
death for you."
Had an arm of the insulted soldier been at liberty, the offence would
not have gone unavenged even there; for such was the desperation of his
heart, that he felt he could have hugged the death struggle with his
insolent captor, notwithstanding the fearful odds, nor quitted him
until one or both should have paid the debt of fierce enmity with life.
As it was he could only betray, by his flashing eye, excited look, and
the impatient play of his foot upon the ground, the deep indignation
that consumed his heart.
The tall savage exulted in the mortification he had awakened, and as
his eye glanced insolently from head to foot along his enemy, its
expression told how much he laughed at the impotence of his anger.
Suddenly, however, a change passed over his features. The mocassin of
the officer had evidently attracted his attention, and he now demanded,
in a more serious and imperative tone,--
"Ha! what means this disguise? Who is the wretch whom I have slain,
mistaking him for a nobler victim; and how comes it that an officer of
the English garrison appears here in the garb of a servant? By heaven,
it is so! you are come as a spy into the camp of the Indians to steal
away the councils of the chiefs. Speak, what have you heard?"
With these questions returned the calm and self-possession of the
officer. He at once saw the importance of his answer, on which hung not
merely his own last faint chance of safety, but that also of his
generous deliverer. Struggling to subdue the disgust which he felt at
holding converse with this atrocious monster, he asked in turn,--
"Am I then the only one whom the warriors have overtaken in their
pursuit?"
"There was a woman, the sister of that boy," and he pointed
contemptuously to the young chief who had so recently assailed him, and
who now, in common with his followers, stood impatiently listening to a
colloquy that was unintelligible to all. "Speak truly, was SHE not the
traitress who conducted you here?"
"Had you found me here," returned the officer, with difficulty
repressing his feelings, "there might have been some ground for the
assertion; but surely the councils of the chiefs could not be overheard
at the distant point at which you discovered me."
"Why then were you there in this disguise?--and who is he," again
holding up the bloody scalp, "whom I have despoiled of this?"
"There are few of the Ottawa Indians," returned Captain de Haldimar,
"who are ignorant I once saved that young woman's life. Is it then so
very extraordinary an attachment should have been the consequence? The
man whom you slew was my servant. I had brought him out with me for
protection during my interview with the woman, and I exchanged my
uniform with him for the same purpose. There is nothing in this,
however, to warrant the supposition of my being a spy."
During the delivery of these more than equivocal sentences, which,
however, he felt were fully justified by circumstances, the young
officer had struggled to appear calm and confident; but, despite of his
exertions, his consciousness caused his cheek to colour, and his eye to
twinkle, beneath the searching glance of his ferocious enemy. The
latter thrust his hand into his chest, and slowly drew forth the rope
he had previously exhibited to Ponteac.
"Do you think me a fool, Captain de Haldimar," he observed, sneeringly,
"that you expect so paltry a tale to be palmed successfully on my
understanding? An English officer is not very likely to run the risk of
breaking his neck by having recourse to such a means of exit from a
besieged garrison, merely to intrigue with an Indian woman, when there
are plenty of soldiers' wives within, and that too at an hour when he
knows the scouts of his enemies are prowling in the neighbourhood.
Captain de Haldimar," he concluded, slowly and deliberately, "you have
lied."
Despite of the last insult, his prisoner remained calm. The very
observation that had just been made afforded him a final hope of
exculpation, which, if it benefited not himself, might still be of
service to the generous Oucanasta.
"The onus of such language," he observed coolly and with dignity,
"falls not on him to whom it is addressed, but on him who utters it.
Yet one who professes to have been himself a soldier, must see in this
very circumstance a proof of my innocence. Had I been sent out as a spy
to reconnoitre the movements, and to overhear the councils of our
enemies, the gate would have been open for my egress; but that rope is
in itself an evidence I must have stolen forth unknown to the garrison."
Whether it was that the warrior had his own particular reasons for
attaching truth to this statement, or that he merely pretended to do
so, Captain de Haldimar saw with secret satisfaction his last argument
was conclusive.
"Well, be it so," retorted the savage, while a ferocious smile passed
over his swarthy features; "but, whether you have been here as a spy,
or have merely ventured out in prosecution of an intrigue, it matters
not. Before the sun has travelled far in the meridian you die; and the
tomahawk of your father's deadly foe--of--of--of Wacousta, as I am
called, shall be the first to drink your blood."
The officer made a final effort at mercy. "Who or what you are, or
whence your hatred of my family, I know not," he said; "but surely I
have never injured you: wherefore, then, this insatiable thirst for my
blood? If you are, indeed, a Christian and a soldier, let your heart be
touched with humanity, and procure my restoration to my friends. You
once attempted my life in honourable combat, why not wait, then, until
a fitting opportunity shall give not a bound and defenceless victim to
your steel, but one whose resistance may render him a conquest worthy
of your arm?"
"What! and be balked of the chance of my just revenge? Hear me, Captain
de Haldimar," he pursued, in that low, quick, deep tone that told all
the strong excitement of his heart:--"I have, it is true, no particular
enmity to yourself, further than that you are a De Haldimar; but hell
does not supply a feeling half so bitter as my enmity to your proud
father; and months, nay years, have I passed in the hope of such an
hour as this. For this have I forsworn my race, and become--what you
now behold me--a savage both in garb and character. But this matters
not," he continued, fiercely and impatiently, "your doom is sealed; and
before another sun has risen, your stern father's gaze shall be blasted
with the sight of the mangled carcase of his first born. Ha! ha! ha!"
and he laughed low and exultingly; "even now I think I see him
withering, if heart so hard can wither, beneath this proof of my
undying hate."
"Fiend!--monster!--devil!" exclaimed the excited officer, now losing
sight of all considerations of prudence in the deep horror inspired by
his captor:--"Kill me--torture me--commit any cruelty on me, if such be
your savage will; but outrage not humanity by the fulfilment of your
last disgusting threat. Suffer not a father's heart to be agonised--a
father's eye to be blasted--with a view of the mangled remains of him
to whom he has given life."
Again the savage rudely pulled the thong that bound his prisoner to his
girdle, and removing his tomahawk from his belt, and holding its
sullied point close under the eye of the former, exclaimed, as he bent
eagerly over him,--
"See you this, Captain de Haldimar? At the still hour of midnight,
while you had abandoned your guard to revel in the arms of your Indian
beauty, I stole into the fort by means of the same rope that you had
used in quitting it. Unseen by the sentinels I gained your father's
apartment. It was the first time we had met for twenty years; and I do
believe that had the very devil presented himself in my place, he would
have been received with fewer marks of horror. Oh, how that proud man's
eye twinkled beneath this glittering blade! He attempted to call out,
but my look paralysed his tongue, and cold drops of sweat stole rapidly
down his brow and cheek. Then it was that my seared heart once more
beat with the intoxication of triumph. Your father was alone and
unarmed, and throughout the fort not a sound was to be heard, save the
distant tread of the sentinels. I could have laid him dead, at my feet
at a single blow, and yet have secured my retreat. But no, that was not
my object. I came to taunt him with the promise of my revenge--to tell
him the hour of my triumph was approaching fast; and, ha!" he
concluded, laughing hideously as he passed his large rude hand through
the wavy hair of the now uncovered officer, "this is, indeed, a fair
and unexpected first earnest of the full redemption of my pledge.
No--no!" he continued, as if talking to himself, "he must not die.
Tantulus-like, he shall have death ever apparently within his grasp;
but, until all his race have perished before his eyes, he shall not
attain it."
Hitherto the Indians had preserved an attitude of calm, listening to
the interrogatories put to the prisoner with that wonder and curiosity
with which a savage people hear a language different from their own;
and marking the several emotions that were elicited in the course of
the animated colloquy of the pale faces. Gradually, however, they
became impatient under its duration; and many of them, in the
excitement produced by the fierce manner of him who was called
Wacousta, fixed their dark eyes upon the captive, while they grasped
the handles of their tomahawks, as if they would have disputed with the
former the privilege of dying his weapon first in his blood. When they
saw the warrior hold up his menacing blade to the eye of his victim,
while he passed his hand through the redundant hair, they at once
inferred the sacrifice was about to be completed, and rushing furiously
forward, they bounded, and leaped, and yelled, and brandished their own
weapons in the most appalling manner.
Already had the unhappy officer given himself self up for lost; fifty
bright tomahawks were playing about his head at the same instant, and
death--that death which is never without terror to the young, however
brave they may be in the hour of generous conflict--seemed to have
arrived at last. He raised his eyes to Heaven, committing his soul to
his God in the same silent prayer that he offered up for the
preservation of his friends and comrades; and then bending them upon
the earth, summoned all his collectedness and courage to sustain him
through the trial. At the very moment, however when he expected to feel
the crashing steel within his brain, he felt himself again violently
pulled by the thong that secured his hands. In the next instant he was
pressed close to the chest of his vast enemy, who, with one arm
encircling his prisoner, and the other brandishing his fierce blade in
rapid evolutions round his head, kept the yelling band at bay, with the
evident unshaken determination to maintain his sole and acknowledged
right to the disposal of his captive.
For several moments the event appeared doubtful; but, notwithstanding
his extreme agility in the use of a weapon, in the management of which
he evinced all the dexterity of the most practised native, the odds
were fearfully against Wacousta; and while his flashing eye and
swelling chest betrayed his purpose rather to perish himself than
suffer the infringement of his claim, it was evident that numbers must,
in the end, prevail against him. On an appeal to Ponteac, however, of
which he now suddenly bethought himself, the authority of the latter
was successfully exerted, and he was again left in the full and
undisturbed possession of his prisoner.
A low and earnest conversation now ensued among the chiefs, in which,
as before, Wacousta bore a principal part. When this was terminated,
several Indians approached the unhappy officer, and unfastening the
thong with which his hands were firmly and even painfully girt,
deprived him both of coat, waistcoat, and shirt. He was then bound a
second time in the same manner, his body besmeared with paint, and his
head so disguised as to give him the caricature semblance of an Indian
warrior. When these preparations were completed, he was led to the tree
in which he had been previously concealed, and there firmly secured.
Meanwhile Wacousta, at the head of a numerous band of warriors, had
departed once more in the direction of the fort.
With the rising of the sun now vanished all traces of the mist that had
fallen since the early hours of morning, leaving the unfortunate
officer ample leisure to survey the difficulties of his position. He
had fancied, from the course taken by his guide the previous night,
that the plain or oasis, as we have elsewhere termed it, lay in the
very heart of the forest; but that route now proved to have been
circuitous. The tree to which he was bound was one of a slight belt,
separating the encampment from the open grounds which extended towards
the river, and which was so thin and scattered on that side as to leave
the clear silver waters of the Detroit visible at intervals. Oh, what
would he not have given, at that cheering sight, to have had his limbs
free, and his chance of life staked on the swiftness of his flight!
While he had imagined himself begirt by interminable forest, he felt as
one whose very thought to elude those who were, in some degree, the
deities of that wild scene, must be paralysed in its first conception.
But here was the vivifying, picture of civilised nature. Corn fields,
although trodden down and destroyed--dwelling houses, although burnt or
dilapidated--told of the existence of those who were of the same race
with himself; and notwithstanding these had perished even as he must
perish, still there was something in the aspect of the very ruins of
their habitations which, contrasted with the solemn gloom of the
forest, carried a momentary and indefinable consolation to his spirit.
Then there was the ripe and teeming orchard, and the low whitewashed
cabin of the Canadian peasant, to whom the offices of charity, and the
duties of humanity, were no strangers; and who, although the secret
enemies of his country, had no motive for personal hostility towards
himself. Then, on the river itself, even at that early hour, was to be
seen, fastened to the long stake driven into its bed, or secured by the
rude anchor of stone appended to a cable of twisted bark, the light
canoe or clumsy periagua of the peasant fisherman, who, ever and anon,
drew up from its deep bosom the shoal-loving pickerel or pike, or white
or black bass, or whatever other tenant of these waters might chance to
affix itself to the traitorous hook. It is true that his view of these
objects was only occasional and indistinct; but his intimate
acquaintance with the localities beyond brought every thing before
Captain de Haldimar's eye; and even while he sighed to think they were
for ever cut off from his reach, he already, in idea, followed the
course of flight he should pursue were the power but afforded him.
From this train of painful and exciting thought the wretched captive
was aroused, by a faint but continued yelling in a distant part of the
forest, and in the direction that had been taken by Wacousta and his
warriors. Then, after a short interval, came the loud booming of the
cannon of the fort, carried on with a spirit and promptitude that told
of some pressing and dangerous emergency, and fainter afterwards the
sharp shrill reports of the rifles, bearing evidence the savages were
already in close collision with the garrison. Various were the
conjectures that passed rapidly through the mind of the young officer,
during a firing that had called almost every Indian in the encampment
away to the scene of action, save the two or three young Ottawas who
had been left to guard his own person, and who lay upon the sward near
him, with head erect and ear sharply set, listening to the startling
sounds of conflict. What the motive of the hurried departure of the
Indians was he knew not; but he had conjectured the object of the
fierce Wacousta was to possess himself of the uniform in which his
wretched servant was clothed, that no mistake might occur in his
identity, when its true owner should be exhibited in it, within view of
the fort, mangled and disfigured, in the manner that fierce and
mysterious man had already threatened. It was exceedingly probable the
body of Donellan had been mistaken for his own, and that in the anxiety
of his father to prevent the Indians from carrying it off, the cannon
had been directed to open upon them. But if this were the case, how
were the reports of the rifles, and the fierce yellings that continued,
save at intervals, to ring throughout the forest to be accounted for?
The bullets of the Indians evidently could not reach the fort, and they
were too wily, and attached too much value to their ammunition, to risk
a shot that was not certain of carrying a wound with it. For a moment
the fact itself flashed across his mind, and he attributed the fire of
small arms to the attack and defence of a party that had been sent out
for the purpose of securing the body, supposed to be his own; yet, if
so, again how was he to account for his not hearing the report of a
single musket? His ear was too well practised not to know the sharp
crack of the rifle from the heavy dull discharge of the musket, and as
yet the former only had been distinguishable, amid the intervals that
ensued between each sullen booming of the cannon. While this impression
continued on the mind of the anxious officer, he caught, with the
avidity of desperation, at the faint and improbable idea that his
companions might be able to penetrate to his place of concealment, and
procure his liberation; but when he found the firing, instead of
drawing nearer, was confined to the same spot, and even more fiercely
kept up by the Indians towards the close, he again gave way to his
despair, and resigning himself to his fate, no longer sought comfort in
vain speculation as to its cause. His ear now caught the report of the
last shell as it exploded, and then all was still and hushed, as if
what he had so recently heard was but a dream.
The first intimation given him of the return of the savages was the
death howl, set up by the women within the encampment. Captain de
Haldimar turned his eyes, instinct with terror, towards the scene, and
beheld the warriors slowly issuing from the opposite side of the forest
into the plain, and bearing in silence the dead and stiffened forms of
those who had been cut down by the destructive fire from the fort.
Their mien was sullen and revengeful, and more than one dark and
gleaming eye did he encounter turned upon him, with an expression that
seemed to say a separate torture should avenge the death of each of
their fallen comrades.
The early part of the morning wore away in preparation for the
interment of the slain. These were placed in rows under the council
shed, where they were attended by their female relatives, who composed
the features and confined the limbs, while the gloomy warriors dug,
within the limit of the encampment, rude graves, of a depth just
sufficient to receive the body. When these were completed, the dead
were deposited, with the usual superstitious ceremonies of these
people, in their several receptacles, after which a mound of earth was
thrown up over each, and the whole covered with round logs, so disposed
as to form a tomb of semicircular shape: at the head of each grave was
finally planted a pole, bearing various devices in paint, intended to
illustrate the warlike achievements of the defunct parties.
Captain de Haldimar had followed the course of these proceedings with a
beating heart; for too plainly had he read in the dark and threatening
manner both of men and women, that the retribution about to be wreaked
upon himself would be terrible indeed. Much as he clung to life, and
bitterly as he mourned his early cutting off from the affections
hitherto identified with his existence, his wretchedness would have
been less, had he not been overwhelmed by the conviction that, with
him, must perish every chance of the safety of those, the bare
recollection of whom made the bitterness of death even more bitter.
Harrowing as were these reflections, he felt that immediate
destruction, since it could not be avoided, would be rather a blessing
than otherwise. But such, evidently, was not the purpose of his
relentless enemy. Every species of torment which his cruel invention
could supply would, he felt convinced, be exercised upon his frame; and
with this impression on his mind, it would have required sterner nerves
than his, not to have shrunk from the very anticipation of so dreadful
an ordeal.
It was now noon, and yet no visible preparation was making for the
consummation of the sacrifice. This, Captain de Haldimar imputed to the
absence of the fierce Wacousta, whom he had not seen since the return
of the warriors from their skirmish. The momentary disappearance of
this extraordinary and ferocious man was, however, fraught with no
consolation to his unfortunate prisoner, who felt he was only engaged
in taking such measures as would render not only his destruction more
certain, but his preliminary sufferings more complicated and
protracted. While he was thus indulging in fruitless speculation as to
the motive for his absence, he fancied he heard the report of a rifle,
succeeded immediately afterwards by the war-whoop, at a considerable
distance, and in the direction of the river. In this impression he was
confirmed, by the sudden upstarting to their feet of the young Indians
to whose custody he had been committed, who now advanced to the outer
edge of the belt of forest, with the apparent object of obtaining a
more unconfined view of the open ground that lay beyond. The rapid
gliding of spectral forms from the interior of the encampment in the
same direction, denoted, moreover, that the Indians generally had
heard, and were attracted by the same sound.
Presently afterwards, repeated "waughs!" and "Wacousta!--Wacousta!"
from those who had reached the extreme skirt of the forest, fell on the
dismayed ear of the young officer. It was evident, from the peculiar
tones in which these words were pronounced, that they beheld that
warrior approaching them with some communication of interest; and, sick
at heart, and filled with irrepressible dismay, Captain de Haldimar
felt his pulse to throb more violently as each moment brought his enemy
nearer to him.
A startling interest was now created among the Indians; for, as the
savage warrior neared the forest, his lips pealed forth that peculiar
cry which is meant to announce some intelligence of alarm. Scarcely had
its echoes died away in the forest, when the whole of the warriors
rushed from the encampment towards the clearing. Directed by the sound,
Captain de Haldimar bent his eyes upon the thin skirt of wood that lay
immediately before him, and at intervals could see the towering form of
that vast warrior bounding, with incredible speed, up the sloping
ground that led from the town towards the forest. A ravine lay before
him; but this he cleared, with a prodigious effort, at a single leap;
and then, continuing his way up the slope, amid the low guttural
acclamations of the warriors at his extraordinary dexterity and
strength, finally gained the side of Ponteac, then leaning carelessly
against a tree at a short distance from the prisoner.
A low and animated conversation now ensued between these two important
personages, which at moments assumed the character of violent
discussion. From what Captain de Haldimar could collect, the Ottawa
chief was severely reproving his friend for the inconsiderate ardour
which had led him that morning into collision with those whom it was
their object to lull into security by a careful avoidance of hostility,
and urging the possibility of their plan being defeated in consequence.
He moreover obstinately refused the pressing request of Wacousta, in
regard to some present enterprise which the latter had just suggested,
the precise nature of which, however, Captain de Haldimar could not
learn. Meanwhile, the rapid flitting of numerous forms to and from the
encampment, arrayed in all the fierce panoply of savage warfare, while
low exclamations of excitement occasionally caught his ear, led the
officer to infer, strange and unusual as such an occurrence was, that
either the detachment already engaged, or a second, was advancing on
their position. Still, this offered little chance of security for
himself; for more than once, during his long conference with Ponteac,
had the fierce Wacousta bent his eye in ferocious triumph on his
victim, as if he would have said,--"Come what will--whatever be the
result--you, at least, shall not escape me." Indeed, so confident did
the latter feel that the instant of attack would be the signal of his
own death, that, after the first momentary and instinctive cheering of
his spirit, he rather regretted the circumstance of their approach; or,
if he rejoiced at all, it was only because it afforded him the prospect
of immediate death, instead of being exposed to all the horror of a
lingering and agonising suffering from the torture.
While the chiefs were yet earnestly conversing, the alarm cry,
previously uttered by Wacousta, was repeated, although in a low and
subdued tone, by several of the Indians who stood on the brow of the
eminence. Ponteac started suddenly to the same point; but Wacousta
continued for a moment or two rooted to the spot on which he stood,
with the air of one in doubt as to what course he should pursue. He
then abruptly raised his head, fixed his dark and menacing eye on his
captive, and was already in the act of approaching him, when the
earnest and repeated demands for his presence, by the Ottawa chief,
drew him once more to the outskirt of the wood.
Again Captain de Haldimar breathed freely. The presence of that fierce
man had been a clog upon the vital functions of his heart; and, to be
relieved from it, even at a moment like the present, when far more
important interests might be supposed to occupy his mind, was a
gratification, of which not even the consciousness of impending death
could wholly deprive him. From the continued pressing of the Indians
towards one particular point in the clearing, he now conjectured, that,
from that point, the advance of the troops was visible. Anxious to
obtain even a momentary view of those whom he deemed himself fated
never more to mingle with in this life, he raised himself upon his
feet, and stretched his neck and bent his eager glance in the direction
by which Wacousta had approached; but, so closely were the dark
warriors grouped among the trees, he found it impossible. Once or
twice, however, he thought he could distinguish the gleaming of the
English bayonets in the bright sunshine, as they seemed to file off in
a parallel line with the ravine. Oh, how his generous heart throbbed at
that moment; and how ardently did he wish that he could have stood in
the position of the meanest soldier in those gallant ranks! Perhaps his
own brave and devoted grenadiers were of the number, burning with
enthusiasm to be led against the captors or destroyers of their
officer; and this thought added to his wretchedness still more.
While the unfortunate prisoner, thus strongly excited, bent his whole
soul on the scene before him, he fancied he heard the approach of a
cautious footstep. He turned his head as well as his confined position
would admit, and beheld, close behind him, a dark Indian, whose eyes
alone were visible above the blanket in which his person was completely
enveloped. His right arm was uplifted, and the blade of a scalping
knife glittered in his hand. A cold shudder ran through the veins of
the young officer, and he closed his eyes, that he might not see the
blow which he felt was about to be directed at his heart. The Indian
glanced hurriedly yet cautiously around, to see if he was observed; and
then, with the rapidity of thought, divided, first the thongs that
secured the legs, and then those which confined the arms of the
defenceless captive. When Captain de Haldimar, full of astonishment at
finding himself once more at liberty, again unclosed his eyes, they
fell on the not unhandsome features of the young chief, the brother of
Oucanasta.
"The Saganaw is the prisoner of Wacousta," said the Indian hastily;
"and Wacousta is the enemy of the young Ottawa chief. The warriors of
the pale faces are there" (and he pointed directly before him). "If the
Saganaw has a bold heart and a swift foot, he may save his life:" and,
with this intimation, he hurried away in the same cautious manner, and
was in the next instant seen making a circuit to arrive at the point at
which the principal strength of the Indians was collected.
The position of Captain de Haldimar had now attained its acme of
interest; for on his own exertions alone depended every thing that
remained to be accomplished. With wonderful presence of mind he
surveyed all the difficulties of his course, while he availed himself
at the same moment of whatever advantages were within his grasp. On the
approach of Wacousta, the young Indians, to whose custody he had been
committed, had returned to their post; but no sooner had that warrior,
obeying the call of Ponteac, again departed, than they once more flew
to the extreme skirt of the forest, after first satisfying themselves
the ligatures which confined their prisoner were secure. Either with a
view of avoiding unnecessary encumbrance in their course, or through
hurry and inadvertence, they had left their blankets near the foot of
the tree. The first thought of the officer was to seize one of these;
for, in order to gain the point whence his final effort to join the
detachment must be made, it was necessary he should pass through the
body of scattered Indians who stood immediately in his way; and the
disguise of the blanket could alone afford him a reasonable chance of
moving unnoticed among them. Secretly congratulating himself on the
insulting mockery that had inducted his upper form in the disguising
warpaint of his enemies, he now drew the protecting blanket close up to
his eyes; and then, with every nerve braced up, every faculty of mind
and body called into action, commenced his dangerous enterprise.
He had not, however, taken more than two or three steps in advance,
when, to his great discomfiture and alarm, he beheld the formidable
Wacousta approaching from a distance, evidently in search of his
prisoner. With the quickness of thought he determined on his course. To
appear to avoid him would be to excite the suspicion of the fierce
warrior; and, desperate as the alternative was, he resolved to move
undeviatingly forward. At each step that drew him nearer to his enemy,
the beating of his heart became more violent; and had it not been for
the thick coat of paint in which he was invested, the involuntary
contraction of the muscles of his face must inevitably have betrayed
him. Nay, even as it was, had the keen eye of the warrior fallen on
him, such was the agitation of the officer, he felt he must have been
discovered. Happily, however, Wacousta, who evidently took him for some
inferior warrior hastening to the point where his fellows were already
assembled, passed without deigning to look at him, and so close, their
forms almost touched. Captain de Haldimar now quickened his pace. It
was evident there was no time to be lost; for Wacousta, on finding him
gone, would at once give the alarm, when a hundred warriors would be
ready on the instant to intercept his flight. Taking the precaution to
disguise his walk by turning in his toes after the Indian manner, he
reached, with a beating heart, the first of the numerous warriors who
were collected within the belt of forest, anxiously watching the
movements of the detachment in the plain below. To his infinite joy he
found that each was too much intent on what was passing in the
distance, to heed any thing going on near themselves; and when he at
length gained the extreme opening, and stood in a line with those who
were the farthest advanced, without having excited a single suspicion
in his course, he could scarcely believe the evidence of his senses.
Still the most difficult part of the enterprise remained to be
completed. Hitherto he had moved under the friendly cover of the
underwood, the advantage of which had been to conceal that part of his
regimental trousers which the blanket left exposed; and if he moved
forward into the clearing, the quick glance of an Indian would not be
slow in detecting the difference between these and his own ruder
leggings. There was no alternative now but to commence his flight from
the spot on which he stood; and for this he prepared himself. At one
rapid and comprehensive view he embraced the immediate localities
before him. On the other side of the ravine he could now distinctly see
the English troops, either planning, as he conceived, their own attack,
or waiting in the hope of drawing the Indians from their cover. It was
evident that to reach them the ravine must be crossed, unless the more
circuitous route by the bridge, which was hid from his view by an
intervening hillock, should be preferred; but as the former had been
cleared by Wacousta in his ascent, and was the nearest point by which
the detachment could be approached, to this did he now direct his
undivided attention.
While he yet paused with indecision, at one moment fancying the time
for starting was not yet arrived, and at the next that he had suffered
it to pass away, the powerful and threatening voice of Wacousta was
heard proclaiming the escape of his captive. Low but expressive
exclamations from the warriors marked their sense of the importance of
the intelligence; and many of them hastily dispersed themselves in
pursuit. This was the critical moment for action: for, as the anxious
officer had rather wished than expected, those Indians who had been
immediately in front, and whose proximity he most dreaded, were among
the number of those who dashed into the heart of the forest--Captain de
Haldimar now stood alone, and full twenty paces in front of the nearest
of the savages. For a moment he played with his mocassined foot to
satisfy himself, of the power and flexibility of its muscles, and then
committing himself to his God, dashed the blanket suddenly from his
shoulders, and, with eye and heart fixed on the distant soldiery,
darted down the declivity with a speed of which he had never yet
believed himself capable. Scarcely, however, had his fleeing form
appeared in the opening, when a tremendous and deafening yell rent the
air, and a dozen wild and naked warriors followed instantly in pursuit.
Attracted by that yell, the terrible Wacousta, who had been seeking his
victim in a different quarter, bounded forward to the front with an eye
flashing fire, and a brow compressed into the fiercest hate; and so
stupendous were his efforts, so extraordinary was his speed, that had
it not been for the young Ottawa chief, who was one of the pursuing
party, and who, under the pretence of assisting in the recapture of the
prisoner, sought every opportunity of throwing himself before, and
embarrassing the movements of his enemy, it is highly probable the
latter would have succeeded. Despite of these obstacles, however, the
fierce Wacousta, who had been the last to follow, soon left the
foremost of his companions far behind him; and but for his sudden fall,
while in the very act of seizing the arm of his prisoner, his gigantic
efforts must have been crowned with the fullest success. But the reader
has already seen how miraculously Captain de Haldimar, reduced to the
last stage of debility, as much from inanition as from the unnatural
efforts of his flight, finally accomplished his return to the
detachment.