"But plagues shall spread, and funeral fires increase,
Till the great king, without a ransom paid,
To her own Chrysa send the black-eyed maid."
POPE.
During the time Uncas was making this disposition of his forces, the
woods were still, and, with the exception of those who had met in
council, apparently as much untenanted, as when they came fresh from the
hands of their Almighty Creator. The eye could range, in every
direction, through the long and shadowed vistas of the trees; but
nowhere was any object to be seen that did not properly belong to the
peaceful and slumbering scenery. Here and there a bird was heard
fluttering among the branches of the beeches, and occasionally a
squirrel dropped a nut, drawing the startled looks of the party, for a
moment, to the place; but the instant the casual interruption ceased,
the passing air was heard murmuring above their heads, along that
verdant and undulating surface of forest, which spread itself unbroken,
unless by stream or lake, over such a vast region of country. Across the
tract of wilderness, which lay between the Delawares and the village of
their enemies, it seemed as if the foot of man had never trodden, so
breathing and deep was the silence in which it lay. But Hawkeye, whose
duty led him foremost in the adventure, knew the character of those with
whom he was about to contend too well to trust the treacherous quiet.
When he saw his little band collected, the scout threw "Killdeer" into
the hollow of his arm, and making a silent signal that he would be
followed, he led them many rods towards the rear, into the bed of a
little brook which they had crossed in advancing. Here he halted; and
after waiting for the whole of his grave and attentive warriors to close
about him, he spoke in Delaware, demanding--
"Do any of my young men know whither this run will lead us?"
A Delaware stretched forth a hand, with the two fingers separated, and
indicating the manner in which they were joined at the root, he
answered,--
"Before the sun could go his own length, the little water will be in
the big." Then he added, pointing in the direction of the place he
mentioned, "the two make enough for the beavers."
"I thought as much," returned the scout, glancing his eye upwards at the
opening in the tree-tops, "from the course it takes, and the bearings of
the mountains. Men, we will keep within the cover of its banks till we
scent the Hurons."
His companions gave the usual brief exclamation of assent, but
perceiving that their leader was about to lead the way in person, one or
two made signs that all was not as it should be. Hawkeye, who
comprehended their meaning glances, turned, and perceived that his party
had been followed thus far by the singing-master.
"Do you know, friend," asked the scout gravely, and perhaps with a
little of the pride of conscious deserving in his manner, "that this is
a band of rangers chosen for the most desperate service, and put under
the command of one who, though another might say it with a better face,
will not be apt to leave them idle. It may not be five, it cannot be
thirty minutes before we tread on the body of a Huron, living or dead."
"Though not admonished of your intentions in words," returned David,
whose face was a little flushed, and whose ordinarily quiet and
unmeaning eyes glimmered with an expression of unusual fire, "your men
have reminded me of the children of Jacob going out to battle against
the Shechemites, for wickedly aspiring to wedlock with a woman of a race
that was favored of the Lord. Now, I have journeyed far, and sojourned
much in good and evil with the maiden ye seek; and though not a man of
war, with my loins girded and my sword sharpened, yet would I gladly
strike a blow in her behalf."
The scout hesitated, as if weighing the chances of such a strange
enlistment in his mind before he answered,--
"You know not the use of any we'pon. You carry no rifle; and believe me,
what the Mingos take they will freely give again."
"Though not a vaunting and bloodily disposed Goliath," returned David,
drawing a sling from beneath his parti-colored and uncouth attire, "I
have not forgotten the example of the Jewish boy. With this ancient
instrument of war have I practised much in my youth, and peradventure
the skill has not entirely departed from me."
"Ay!" said Hawkeye, considering the deer-skin thong and apron, with a
cold and discouraging eye; "the thing might do its work among arrows, or
even knives; but these Mengwe have been furnished by the Frenchers with
a good grooved barrel a man. However, it seems to be your gift to go
unharmed amid fire; and as you have hitherto been favored--major, you
have left your rifle at a cock; a single shot before the time would be
just twenty scalps lost to no purpose--singer, you can follow; we may
find use for you in the shoutings."
"I thank you, friend," returned David, supplying himself, like his royal
namesake, from among the pebbles of the brook; "though not given to the
desire to kill, had you sent me away my spirit would have been
troubled."
"Remember," added the scout, tapping his own head significantly on that
spot where Gamut was yet sore, "we come to fight, and not to musickate.
Until the general whoop is given, nothing speaks but the rifle."
David nodded, as much as to signify his acquiescence with the terms; and
then Hawkeye, casting another observant glance over his followers, made
the signal to proceed.
Their route lay, for the distance of a mile, along the bed of the
water-course. Though protected from any great danger of observation by
the precipitous banks, and the thick shrubbery which skirted the stream,
no precaution known to an Indian attack was neglected. A warrior rather
crawled than walked on each flank, so as to catch occasional glimpses
into the forest; and every few minutes the band came to a halt, and
listened for hostile sounds, with an acuteness of organs that would be
scarcely conceivable to a man in a less natural state. Their march was,
however, unmolested, and they reached the point where the lesser stream
was lost in the greater, without the smallest evidence that their
progress had been noted. Here the scout again halted, to consult the
signs of the forest.
"We are likely to have a good day for a fight," he said, in English,
addressing Heyward, and glancing his eye upwards at the clouds, which
began to move in broad sheets across the firmament; "a bright sun and a
glittering barrel are no friends to true sight. Everything is favorable;
they have the wind, which will bring down their noises and their smoke
too, no little matter in itself; whereas, with us it will be first a
shot, and then a clear view. But here is an end of our cover; the
beavers have had the range of this stream for hundreds of years, and
what atween their food and their dams, there is, as you see, many a
girdled stub, but few living trees."
Hawkeye had, in truth, in these few words, given no bad description of
the prospect that now lay in their front. The brook was irregular in its
width, sometimes shooting through narrow fissures in the rocks, and at
others spreading over acres of bottom land, forming little areas that
might be termed ponds. Everywhere along its banks were the mouldering
relics of dead trees, in all the stages of decay, from those that
groaned on their tottering trunks to such as had recently been robbed of
those rugged coats that so mysteriously contain their principle of life.
A few long, low, and moss-covered piles were scattered among them, like
the memorials of a former and long-departed generation.
All these minute particulars were noted by the scout, with a gravity and
interest that they probably had never before attracted. He knew that the
Huron encampment lay a short half mile up the brook; and, with the
characteristic anxiety of one who dreaded a hidden danger, he was
greatly troubled at not finding the smallest trace of the presence of
his enemy. Once or twice he felt induced to give the order for a rush,
and to attempt the village by surprise; but his experience quickly
admonished him of the danger of so useless an experiment. Then he
listened intently, and with painful uncertainty, for the sounds of
hostility in the quarter where Uncas was left; but nothing was audible
except the sighing of the wind, that began to sweep over the bosom of
the forest in gusts which threatened a tempest. At length, yielding
rather to his unusual impatience than taking counsel from his knowledge,
he determined to bring matters to an issue, by unmasking his force, and
proceeding cautiously, but steadily, up the stream.
The scout had stood, while making his observations, sheltered by a
brake, and his companions still lay in the bed of the ravine, through
which the smaller stream debouched; but on hearing his low, though
intelligible signal, the whole party stole up the bank, like so many
dark spectres, and silently arranged themselves around him. Pointing in
the direction he wished to proceed, Hawkeye advanced, the band breaking
off in single files, and following so accurately in his footsteps, as if
to leave it, if we except Heyward and David, the trail of but a single
man.
The party was, however, scarcely uncovered before a volley from a dozen
rifles was heard in their rear; and a Delaware leaping high into the
air, like a wounded deer, fell at his whole length, perfectly dead.
"Ah! I feared some deviltry like this!" exclaimed the scout, in English;
adding, with the quickness of thought, in his adopted tongue, "To cover,
men, and charge!"
The band dispersed at the word, and before Heyward had well recovered
from his surprise, he found himself standing alone with David. Luckily,
the Hurons had already fallen back, and he was safe from their fire. But
this state of things was evidently to be of short continuance; for the
scout set the example of pressing on their retreat, by discharging his
rifle, and darting from tree to tree, as his enemy slowly yielded
ground.
It would seem that the assault had been made by a very small party of
the Hurons, which, however, continued to increase in numbers, as it
retired on its friends, until the return fire was very nearly, if not
quite, equal to that maintained by the advancing Delawares. Heyward
threw himself among the combatants, and imitating the necessary caution
of his companions, he made quick discharges with his own rifle. The
contest now grew warm and stationary. Few were injured, as both parties
kept their bodies as much protected as possible by the trees; never,
indeed, exposing any part of their persons except in the act of taking
aim. But the chances were gradually growing unfavorable to Hawkeye and
his band. The quick-sighted scout perceived his danger, without knowing
how to remedy it. He saw it was more dangerous to retreat than to
maintain his ground; while he found his enemy throwing out men on his
flank, which rendered the task of keeping themselves covered so very
difficult to the Delawares, as nearly to silence their fire. At this
embarrassing moment, when they began to think the whole of the hostile
tribe was gradually encircling them, they heard the yell of combatants,
and the rattling of arms, echoing under the arches of the wood, at the
place where Uncas was posted; a bottom which, in a manner, lay beneath
the ground on which Hawkeye and his party were contending.
The effects of this attack were instantaneous, and to the scout and his
friends greatly relieving. It would seem that, while his own surprise
had been anticipated, and had consequently failed, the enemy, in their
turn, having been deceived in its object and in his numbers, had left
too small a force to resist the impetuous onset of the young Mohican.
This fact was doubly apparent, by the rapid manner in which the battle
in the forest rolled upwards towards the village, and by an instant
falling off in the number of their assailants, who rushed to assist in
maintaining the front, and, as it now proved to be, the principal point
of defence.
Animating his followers by his voice, and his own example, Hawkeye then
gave the word to bear down upon their foes. The charge, in that rude
species of warfare, consisted merely in pushing from cover to cover,
nigher to the enemy; and in this manoeuvre he was instantly and
successfully obeyed. The Hurons were compelled to withdraw, and the
scene of the contest rapidly changed from the more open ground on which
it had commenced, to a spot where the assailed found a thicket to rest
upon. Here the struggle was protracted, arduous, and seemingly of
doubtful issue; the Delawares, though none of them fell, beginning to
bleed freely, in consequence of the disadvantage at which they were
held.
In this crisis, Hawkeye found means to get behind the same tree as that
which served for a cover to Heyward; most of his own combatants being
within call, a little on his right, where they maintained rapid, though
fruitless, discharges on their sheltered enemies.
"You are a young man, major," said the scout, dropping the butt of
"Killdeer" to the earth, and leaning on the barrel, a little fatigued
with his previous industry; "and it may be your gift to lead armies at
some future day ag'in these imps the Mingos, You may here see the
philosophy of an Indian fight. It consists mainly in a ready hand, a
quick eye, and a good cover. Now, if you had a company of the Royal
Americans here, in what manner would you set them to work in this
business?"
"The bayonet would make a road."
"Ay, there is white reason in what you say; but a man must ask himself,
in this wilderness, how many lives he can spare. No--horse,"[29]
continued the scout, shaking his head, like one who mused; "horse, I am
ashamed to say, must, sooner or later, decide these scrimmages. The
brutes are better than men, and to horse must we come at last. Put a
shodden hoof on the moccasin of a redskin; and if his rifle be once
emptied, he will never stop to load it again."
"This is a subject that might better be discussed at another time,"
returned Heyward; "shall we charge?"
"I see no contradiction to the gifts of any man, in passing his
breathing spells in useful reflections," the scout replied. "As to a
rush, I little relish such a measure; for a scalp or two must be thrown
away in the attempt. And yet," he added, bending his head aside, to
catch the sounds of the distant combat, "if we are to be of use to
Uncas, these knaves in our front must be got rid of!"
Then turning, with a prompt and decided air, he called aloud to his
Indians, in their own language. His words were answered by a shout; and,
at a given signal, each warrior made a swift movement around his
particular tree. The sight of so many dark bodies, glancing before their
eyes at the same instant, drew a hasty, and consequently an ineffectual
fire from the Hurons. Without stopping to breathe, the Delawares leaped,
in long bounds, towards the wood, like so many panthers springing upon
their prey. Hawkeye was in front, brandishing his terrible rifle, and
animating his followers by his example. A few of the older and more
cunning Hurons, who had not been deceived by the artifice which had been
practised to draw their fire, now made a close and deadly discharge of
their pieces, and justified the apprehensions of the scout, by felling
three of his foremost warriors. But the shock was insufficient to repel
the impetus of the charge. The Delawares broke into the cover with the
ferocity of their natures, and swept away every trace of resistance by
the fury of the onset.
The combat endured only for an instant, hand to hand, and then the
assailed yielded ground rapidly, until they reached the opposite margin
of the thicket, where they clung to the cover, with the sort of
obstinacy that is so often witnessed in hunted brutes. At this critical
moment, when the success of the struggle was again becoming doubtful,
the crack of the rifle was heard behind the Hurons, and a bullet came
whizzing from among some beaver lodges, which were situated in the
clearing, in their rear, and was followed by the fierce and appalling
yell of the war-whoop.
"There speaks the Sagamore!" shouted Hawkeye, answering the cry with
his own stentorian voice; "we have them now in face and back!"
The effect on the Hurons was instantaneous. Discouraged by an assault
from a quarter that left them no opportunity for cover, their warriors
uttered a common yell of disappointment, and breaking off in a body,
they spread themselves across the opening, heedless of every
consideration but flight. Many fell, in making the experiment, under the
bullets and the blows of the pursuing Delawares.
We shall not pause to detail the meeting between the scout and
Chingachgook, or the more touching interview that Duncan held with
Munro. A few brief and hurried words served to explain the state of
things to both parties; and then Hawkeye pointing out the Sagamore to
his band, resigned the chief authority into the hands of the Mohican
chief. Chingachgook assumed the station to which his birth and
experience gave him so distinguished a claim, with the grave dignity
that always gives force to the mandates of a native warrior. Following
the footsteps of the scout, he led the party back through the thicket,
his men scalping the fallen Hurons, and secreting the bodies of their
own dead as they proceeded, until they gained a point where the former
was content to make a halt.
The warriors, who had breathed themselves freely in the preceding
struggle, were now posted on a bit of level ground, sprinkled with trees
in sufficient numbers to conceal them. The land fell away rather
precipitately in front, and beneath their eyes stretched, for several
miles, a narrow, dark, and wooded vale. It was through this dense and
dark forest that Uncas was still contending with the main body of the
Hurons.
The Mohican and his friends advanced to the brow of the hill, and
listened, with practised ears, to the sounds of the combat. A few birds
hovered over the leafy bosom of the valley, frightened from their
secluded nests; and here and there a light vapory cloud, which seemed
already blending with the atmosphere, arose above the trees, and
indicated some spot where the struggle had been fierce and stationary.
"The fight is coming up the ascent," said Duncan, pointing in the
direction of a new explosion of fire-arms; "we are too much in the
centre of their line to be effective."
"They will incline into the hollow, where the cover is thicker," said
the scout, "and that will leave us well on their flank. Go, Sagamore;
you will hardly be in time to give the whoop, and lead on the young men.
I will fight this scrimmage with warriors of my own color. You know me,
Mohican; not a Huron of them all shall cross the swell, into your rear,
without the notice of 'Killdeer.'"
The Indian chief paused another moment to consider the signs of the
contest, which was now rolling rapidly up the ascent, a certain evidence
that the Delawares triumphed; nor did he actually quit the place until
admonished of the proximity of his friends, as well as enemies, by the
bullets of the former, which began to patter among the dried leaves on
the ground, like the bits of falling hail which precede the bursting of
the tempest. Hawkeye and his three companions withdrew a few paces to a
shelter, and awaited the issue with calmness, that nothing but great
practice could impart in such a scene.
It was not long before the reports of the rifles began to lose the
echoes of the woods, and to sound like weapons discharged in the open
air. Then a warrior appeared, here and there, driven to the skirts of
the forest, and rallying as he entered the clearing, as at the place
where the final stand was to be made. These were soon joined by the
others, until a long line of swarthy figures was to be seen clinging to
the cover with the obstinacy of desperation. Heyward began to grow
impatient, and turned his eyes anxiously in the direction of
Chingachgook. The chief was seated on a rock, with nothing visible but
his calm visage, considering the spectacle with an eye as deliberate as
if he were posted there merely to view the struggle.
"The time is come for the Delawares to strike!" said Duncan.
"Not so, not so," returned the scout; "when he scents his friends, he
will let them know that he is here. See, see; the knaves are getting in
that clump of pines, like bees settling after their flight. By the Lord,
a squaw might put a bullet into the centre of such a knot of dark
skins!"
At that instant the whoop was given, and a dozen Hurons fell by a
discharge from Chingachgook and his band. The shout that followed was
answered by a single war-cry from the forest, and a yell passed through
the air that sounded as if a thousand throats were united in a common
effort. The Hurons staggered, deserting the centre of their line, and
Uncas issued from the forest through the opening they left, at the head
of a hundred warriors.
Waving his hands right and left, the young chief pointed out the enemy
to his followers, who separated in pursuit. The war now divided, both
wings of the broken Hurons seeking protection in the woods again, hotly
pressed by the victorious warriors of the Lenape. A minute might have
passed, but the sounds were already receding in different directions,
and gradually losing their distinctness beneath the echoing arches of
the woods. One little knot of Hurons, however, had disdained to seek a
cover, and were retiring, like lions at bay, slowly and sullenly up the
acclivity which Chingachgook and his band had just deserted, to mingle
more closely in the fray. Magua was conspicuous in this party, both by
his fierce and savage mien, and by the air of haughty authority he yet
maintained.
In his eagerness to expedite the pursuit, Uncas had left himself nearly
alone; but the moment his eyes caught the figure of Le Subtil, every
other consideration was forgotten. Raising his cry of battle, which
recalled some six or seven warriors, and reckless of the disparity of
their numbers, he rushed upon his enemy. Le Renard, who watched the
movement, paused to receive him with secret joy. But at the moment when
he thought the rashness of his impetuous young assailant had left him at
his mercy, another shout was given, and La Longue Carabine was seen
rushing to the rescue, attended by all his white associates. The Huron
instantly turned, and commenced a rapid retreat up the ascent.
There was no time for greetings or congratulations; for Uncas, though
unconscious of the presence of his friends, continued the pursuit with
the velocity of the wind. In vain Hawkeye called to him to respect the
covers; the young Mohican braved the dangerous fire of his enemies, and
soon compelled them to a flight as swift as his own headlong speed. It
was fortunate that the race was of short continuance, and that the white
men were much favored by their position, or the Delaware would soon have
outstripped all his companions, and fallen a victim to his own temerity.
But ere such a calamity could happen, the pursuers and pursued entered
the Wyandot village, within striking distance of each other.
Excited by the presence of their dwellings, and tired of the chase, the
Hurons now made a stand, and fought around their council-lodge with the
fury of despair. The onset and the issue were like the passage and
destruction of a whirlwind. The tomahawk of Uncas, the blows of
Hawkeye, and even the still nervous arm of Munro, were all busy for that
passing moment, and the ground was quickly strewed with their enemies.
Still Magua, though daring and much exposed, escaped from every effort
against his life, with that sort of fabled protection that was made to
overlook the fortunes of favored heroes in the legends of ancient
poetry. Raising a yell that spoke volumes of anger and disappointment,
the subtle chief, when he saw his comrades fallen, darted away from the
place, attended by his two only surviving friends, leaving the Delawares
engaged in stripping the dead of the bloody trophies of their victory.
But Uncas, who had vainly sought him in the _melee_ bounded forward in
pursuit; Hawkeye, Heyward, and David still pressing on his footsteps.
The utmost that the scout could effect, was to keep the muzzle of his
rifle a little in advance of his friend, to whom, however, it answered
every purpose of a charmed shield. Once Magua appeared disposed to make
another and a final effort to revenge his losses; but, abandoning his
intention as soon as demonstrated, he leaped into a thicket of bushes,
through which he was followed by his enemies, and suddenly entered the
mouth of the cave already known to the reader. Hawkeye, who had only
forborne to fire in tenderness to Uncas, raised a shout of success, and
proclaimed aloud, that now they were certain of their game. The pursuers
dashed into the long and narrow entrance, in time to catch a glimpse of
the retreating forms of the Hurons. Their passage through the natural
galleries and subterraneous apartments of the cavern was preceded by the
shrieks and cries of hundreds of women and children. The place, seen by
its dim and uncertain light, appeared like the shades of the infernal
regions, across which unhappy ghosts and savage demons were flitting in
multitudes.
Still Uncas kept his eye on Magua, as if life to him possessed but a
single object. Heyward and the scout still pressed on his rear,
actuated, though possibly in a less degree, by a common feeling. But
their way was becoming intricate, in those dark and gloomy passages, and
the glimpses of the retiring warriors less distinct and frequent; and
for a moment the trace was believed to be lost, when a white robe was
seen fluttering in the farther extremity of a passage that seemed to
lead up the mountain.
"'Tis Cora!" exclaimed Heyward, in a voice in which horror and delight
were wildly mingled.
"Cora! Cora!" echoed Uncas, bending forward like a deer.
"'Tis the maiden!" shouted the scout, "Courage, lady; we come!--we
come!"
The chase was renewed with a diligence rendered tenfold encouraging by
this glimpse of the captive. But the way was rugged, broken, and in
spots nearly impassable. Uncas abandoned his rifle, and leaped forward
with headlong precipitation. Heyward rashly imitated his example, though
both were, a moment afterwards, admonished of its madness, by hearing
the bellowing of a piece, that the Hurons found time to discharge down
the passage in the rocks, the bullet from which even gave the young
Mohican a slight wound.
"We must close!" said the scout, passing his friends by a desperate
leap; "the knaves will pick us all off at this distance; and see, they
hold the maiden so as to shield themselves!"
Though his words were unheeded, or rather unheard, his example was
followed by his companions, who, by incredible exertions, got near
enough to the fugitives to perceive that Cora was borne along between
the two warriors, while Magua prescribed the direction and manner of
their flight. At this moment the forms of all four were strongly drawn
against an opening in the sky, and they disappeared. Nearly frantic with
disappointment, Uncas and Heyward increased efforts that already seemed
super-human, and they issued from the cavern on the side of the
mountain, in time to note the route of the pursued. The course lay up
the ascent, and still continued hazardous and laborious.
Encumbered by his rifle, and, perhaps, not sustained by so deep an
interest in the captive as his companions, the scout suffered the latter
to precede him a little, Uncas, in his turn, taking the lead of Heyward.
In this manner, rocks, precipices, and difficulties were surmounted in
an incredibly short space, that at another time, and under other
circumstances, would have been deemed almost insuperable. But the
impetuous young men were rewarded, by finding that, encumbered with
Cora, the Hurons were losing ground in the race.
"Stay, dog of the Wyandots!" exclaimed Uncas, shaking his bright
tomahawk at Magua; "a Delaware girl calls stay!"
"I will go no farther," cried Cora, stepping unexpectedly on a ledge of
rocks, that overhung a deep precipice, at no great distance from the
summit of the mountain. "Kill me if thou wilt, detestable Huron; I will
go no farther."
The supporters of the maiden raised their ready tomahawks with the
impious joy that fiends are thought to take in mischief, but Magua
stayed the uplifted arms. The Huron chief, after casting the weapons he
had wrested from his companions over the rock, drew his knife, and
turned to his captive, with a look in which conflicting passions
fiercely contended.
"Woman," he said, "choose; the wigwam or the knife of Le Subtil!"
Cora regarded him not, but dropping on her knees, she raised her eyes
and stretched her arms towards heaven, saying, in a meek and yet
confiding voice,--
"I am thine! do with me as thou seest best!"
"Woman," repeated Magua, hoarsely, and endeavoring in vain to catch a
glance from her serene and beaming eye, "choose!"
But Cora neither heard nor heeded his demand. The form of the Huron
trembled in every fibre, and he raised his arm on high, but dropped it
again with a bewildered air, like one who doubted. Once more he
struggled with himself and lifted the keen weapon again; but just then a
piercing cry was heard above them, and Uncas appeared, leaping
frantically, from a fearful height, upon the ledge. Magua recoiled a
step; and one of his assistants, profiting by the chance, sheathed his
own knife in the bosom of Cora.
The Huron sprang like a tiger on his offending and already retreating
countryman, but the falling form of Uncas separated the unnatural
combatants. Diverted from his object by this interruption, and maddened
by the murder he had just witnessed, Magua buried his weapon in the back
of the prostrate Delaware, uttering an unearthly shout as he committed
the dastardly deed. But Uncas arose from the blow, as the wounded
panther turns upon his foe, and struck the murderer of Cora to his feet,
by an effort in which the last of his failing strength was expended.
Then, with a stern and steady look, he turned to Le Subtil, and
indicated by the expression of his eye, all that he would do, had not
the power deserted him. The latter seized the nerveless arm of the
unresisting Delaware, and passed his knife into his bosom three several
times, before his victim, still keeping his gaze riveted on his enemy
with a look of inextinguishable scorn, fell dead at his feet.
"Mercy! mercy! Huron," cried Heyward, from above, in tones nearly
choked by horror; "give mercy, and thou shalt receive it!"
Whirling the bloody knife up at the imploring youth, the victorious
Magua uttered a cry so fierce, so wild, and yet so joyous, that it
conveyed the sounds of savage triumph to the ears of those who fought in
the valley, a thousand feet below. He was answered by a burst from the
lips of the scout, whose tall person was just then seen moving swiftly
towards him, along those dangerous crags, with steps as bold and
reckless as if he possessed the power to move in air. But when the
hunter reached the scene of the ruthless massacre, the ledge was
tenanted only by the dead.
His keen eye took a single look at the victims, and then shot its
glances over the difficulties of the ascent in his front. A form stood
at the brow of the mountain, on the very edge of the giddy height, with
uplifted arms, in an awful attitude of menace. Without stopping to
consider his person, the rifle of Hawkeye was raised; but a rock, which
fell on the head of one of the fugitives below exposed the indignant and
glowing countenance of the honest Gamut. Then Magua issued from a
crevice, and stepping with calm indifference over the body of the last
of his associates, he leaped a wide fissure, and ascended the rocks at a
point where the arm of David could not reach him. A single bound would
carry him to the brow of the precipice, and assure his safety. Before
taking the leap, however, the Huron paused, and shaking his hand at the
scout, he shouted,--
"The pale-faces are dogs! the Delawares women! Magua leaves them on the
rocks, for the crows!"
Laughing hoarsely, he made a desperate leap, and fell short of his mark;
though his hand grasped a shrub on the verge of the height. The form of
Hawkeye had crouched like a beast about to take its spring, and his
frame trembled so violently with eagerness, that the muzzle of the
half-raised rifle played like a leaf fluttering in the wind. Without
exhausting himself with fruitless efforts, the cunning Magua suffered
his body to drop to the length of his arms, and found a fragment for his
feet to rest on. Then summoning all his powers, he renewed the attempt,
and so far succeeded, as to draw his knees on the edge of the mountain.
It was now, when the body of his enemy was most collected together, that
the agitated weapon of the scout was drawn to his shoulder. The
surrounding rocks themselves were not steadier than the piece became,
for the single instant that it poured out its contents. The arms of the
Huron relaxed, and his body fell back a little, while his knees still
kept their position. Turning a relentless look on his enemy, he shook a
hand in grim defiance. But his hold loosened, and his dark person was
seen cutting the air with its head downwards, for a fleeting instant,
until it glided past the fringe of shrubbery which clung to the
mountain, in its rapid flight to destruction.