The return of Lord H---- without his guide and companion, Captain
Brooks, caused some surprise in Mr. Prevost and his daughter, who had
not expected to see any of the party before a late hour of the
following evening.
Not choosing to explain, in the presence of Edith, the cause of his
parting so suddenly from the hunter, the young nobleman merely said
that circumstances had led him to conclude that it would be advisable
to send Woodchuck in the boat with Walter to Albany; and his words
were uttered in so natural and easy a tone, that Edith, unconscious
that her presence put any restraint upon his communication with her
father, remained seated in their pleasant little parlour till the hour
for the evening meal.
"Well, my lord," said Mr. Prevost, after the few first words of
explanation had passed, "did you meet with any fresh specimen of the
Indian in your short expedition?"
The question might have been a somewhat puzzling one for a man who did
not want to enter into any particulars; but Lord H---- replied with
easy readiness--
"Only one. Him we saw but for a moment, and he did not speak with us."
"They are a very curious race," observed Mr. Prevost, "and albeit not
very much given to ethnological studies, I have often puzzled myself
as to whence they sprang, and how they made their way over to this
continent."
Lord H---- smiled.
"I fear I cannot help you," he said. "My profession, you know, my dear
sir, leads one much more to look at things as they are than to inquire
how they came about. It strikes me at once, however, that in mere
corporeal characteristics the Indian is very different from any race I
ever beheld, if I may judge by the few individuals I have seen. The
features are very different from those of any European or Asiatic
people that I know of, and the frame seems formed for a combination of
grace and power almost perfect. Our friend the Black Eagle, for
instance; compare him with a Yorkshire or Somersetshire farmer, and
what a contrast you would find! Habits could not have produced the
difference, at least if they sprang from an Eastern stock, for the
tribes of the desert are as free and unrestrained, as much used to
constant exercise and activity; but I should be inclined to fancy that
climate may have something to do with the matter, for it has struck me
that many of the people I have seen in the provinces have what I may
call a tendency toward the Indian formation. There is a length and
suppleness of limb, which to my eyes has something Indian about it."
"Bating the grace and dignity," said Edith, gaily, "I do think that
what my father would call the finest specimens of the human animal are
to be found among the Indians. Look at our dear little Otaitsa, for
instance, can anything be more beautiful, more graceful, more perfect,
than her whole face and form?"
Lord H---- smiled, and slightly bowed his head, saying,--
"Now, many a fair lady, Miss Prevost, would naturally expect a very
gallant reply; and I might make another without a compliment in good
cool blood, and upon calm, mature consideration. I am very poorly
versed, however, in civil speeches, and therefore I will only say that
I think I have seen white ladies as beautiful, as graceful, and as
perfect, as your fair young friend, together with the advantage of a
better complexion. But, at the same time, I will admit that she is
exceedingly beautiful, and not only that, but very charming, and very
interesting too. Hers is not exactly the style of beauty I admire the
most; but certainly it is perfect in its kind, and my young friend
Walter seems to think so too."
A slight flush passed over Edith's cheek, and her eyes instantly
turned towards her father. But Mr. Prevost only laughed, saying,--
"If they were not so young, I should be afraid that my son would marry
the Sachem's daughter, and, perhaps, in the end, take to the tomahawk
and the scalping-knife. But, joking apart, Otaitsa is a very singular
little creature. I never can bring myself to feel that she is an
Indian--a savage, in short. When I hear her low, melodious voice, with
its peculiar song-like intonation, and see the grace and dignity
with which she moves, and the ease and propriety with which she
adapts herself to every European custom, I have to look at her
bead-embroidered petticoat, and her leggins, and her moccassins,
before I can carry it home to my mind that she is not some very
high-bred lady of the court of France or England. Then she is so fair,
too; but that is probably from care, and the lack of that exposure to
the sun which may, at first, have given and then perpetuated the
Indian tint. To use an old homely expression, she is the apple of her
father's eye, and he is as careful of her as of a jewel, after his
own particular fashion."
"She is a dear creature," said Edith, warmly; "all soul, and heart,
and feeling. Thank God, too, she is a Christian, and you cannot fancy,
my lord, what marvellous stores of information the little creature
has. She knows that England is an island in the middle of the salt
sea; and she can write and read our tongue nearly as well as she
speaks it. She has a holy hatred of the French, however; and would
not, for the world, speak a word of their language; for all her
information, and a good share of her ideas, come from our friend, Mr.
Gore, who has carried John Bull completely into the heart of the
wilderness, and kept him there perfect in a sort of crystallized
state. Had we but a few more men such as himself amongst the Indian
tribes, there would be no fear of any wavering in the friendship of
the Five Nations. There goes an Indian now past the window. We shall
have him in here in a moment, for they stand upon no ceremony--and he
is speaking to Antony, the negro boy. How curiously he peeps about
him! He must be looking for somebody he does not find."
Lord H---- rose and went to the window, and, in a minute or two after,
the Indian stalked quietly away, and disappeared in the forest.
"What could he want?" said Edith. "It is strange he did not come in. I
will ask Antony what he sought here."
And, going to the door, she called the gardener boy up, and questioned
him.
"He want Captain Woodchuck, missy," replied the lad. "He ask if he not
lodge here last night. I tell him yes; but Woodchuck go away early
this morning, and not come back since. He 'quire very much about him,
and who went with him. I tell him Massa Walter and de strange
gentleman, but both leave him soon--Massa Walter go straight to
Albany, strange gentleman come back here."
"Did he speak English?" asked Edith.
"Few word," replied the negro. "I speak few word Indian. So patch 'em
together make many, missy."
And he laughed with that peculiar unmeaning laugh with which his race
are accustomed to distinguish anything they consider witty.
The whole conversation was heard by the two gentlemen within. On Mr.
Prevost it had no effect, but to call a sort of cynical smile upon his
lips; but the case was different with Lord H----. He saw that the deed
which had been done in the forest was known to the Indians; that its
doer had been recognized, and that the hunt was up; and he rejoiced to
think that poor Woodchuck was already far beyond pursuit.
Anxious, however, to gain a fuller insight into the character and
habits of a people of whom he had as yet obtained only a glimpse, he
continued to converse with Mr. Prevost in regard to the aboriginal
races; and learned several facts which by no means tended to decrease
the uneasiness which the events of the morning; had produced.
"The Indians," said his host, in answer to a leading question, "are,
as you say, a very revengeful people; but not more so than many other
barbarous nations. Indeed, in many of their feelings and habits they
greatly resemble a people I have heard of in central Asia, called
Affghans. Both, in common with almost all barbarians, look upon
revenge as a duty imperative upon every family and every tribe. They
modify their ideas, indeed, in case of war; although it is very
difficult to bring about peace after war has commenced; but if any
individual of a tribe is killed by another in time of peace, nothing
but the blood of the murderer can satisfy the family or the tribe, if
he can be caught. They will pursue him for weeks and months, and
employ every stratagem which their fertile brains can suggest to
entrap him, till they feel quite certain that he is entirely beyond
their reach. This perseverance proceeds from a religious feeling; for
they believe that the spirit of their dead relation can never enter
the happy hunting-grounds till his blood has been atoned by that of
the slayer."
"But if they cannot catch the slayer," asked Lord H----, "what do they
do then?"
"I used a wrong expression," replied Mr. Prevost. "I should have said
the blood of some other victim. It is their duty, according to their
ideas, to sacrifice the slayer. If satisfied that he is perfectly
beyond their power, they strive to get hold of his nearest relation.
If they cannot do that, they take a man of his tribe or nation, and
sacrifice him. It is all done very formally, and with all sorts of
consideration and consultation; for in these bloody rites they are the
most deliberate people in the world, and the most persevering also."
Lord H---- mused gravely for some moments without reply, and then
turned the conversation in another direction. It certainly was not
gay; but it was, to all appearance, cheerful enough on his side; for
this world is a strange teacher of hypocrisy in all its various
shades, from that which is the meanest and most detestable of vices to
that which is dignified by its motives and its conduct almost to a
virtue. God forbid that I should ever, for a moment, support the false
and foul axiom that the end can justify the means. But it is with all
evil things as with deadly poisons. There are occasions when, in small
portions, they may, for certain diseased circumstances, become
precious antidotes. Had man remained pure, perfect, and upright, as he
came from the bands of his Creator--had he never doubted God's word,
disobeyed his commandments, tasted of that which was forbidden--had
disobedience never brought pain and death--had blood never stained the
face of earth, and pain in all its shapes followed in the footsteps of
sin--there would, indeed, have never been any occasion or any
circumstances in which it would have been needful, honourable, or kind
for man to hide one feeling of his heart from his fellow-beings. But
in this dark, corrupted world, where sickness and sorrow, care,
distress, and death surround, not only ourselves, but those who are
dearest to us, and hem us in on every side, how often is it needful to
hide from those, even, whom we love the best and trust the most, the
anxieties which imagination suggests, or to which reason and
experience give birth; to conceal, for a time, even the sad and
painful facts of which we are cognizant; to shut up our sorrow and our
dread in our own bosom, till we have armed and steeled the hearts of
those we love better than ourselves, to resist or to endure the evil
which is preying on our own.
A few days earlier, Lord H---- might plainly and openly have told all
the occurrences of the morning in the ears of Edith Prevost; but
sensations had been springing up in his breast, which made him more
tender of her feelings, more careful of creating alarm and anxiety;
and he kept his painful secret well till after the evening meal was
over, and she had retired to her chamber. Then, however, he stopped
Mr. Prevost just as that gentleman was raising a light to hand to his
guest, and said--
"I am afraid, my good friend, we cannot go to bed just yet. I have
something to tell you, which, from all I have heard since it occurred,
appears to me of much greater importance than at first. Whether
anything can be done to avert the evil consequences or not, I cannot
tell; but, at all events, it is as well that you and I should talk the
matter over."
He then related to Mr. Prevost all the events of the morning, and was
sorry to perceive that gentleman's face assuming a deeper and deeper
gloom as he proceeded.
"This is most unfortunate indeed," said Mr. Prevost at length. "I
quite acquit our poor friend Brooks of any evil intent; but to slay an
Indian at all so near our house, and especially an Oneida, was most
unlucky. That tribe, or nation, as they call themselves, has, from the
strong personal regard, I suppose, which has grown up accidentally
between their chief and myself, always shown the greatest kindness and
friendship towards myself and my family. Before this event, I should
have felt myself, in any of their villages, as much at home as by my
own fireside, and I am sure that each man felt himself as secure on
any part of the lands granted to me as if he were in his own lodge.
But now their blood has stained my very mat, as they will call it, and
the consequences no one can foresee. Woodchuck has himself escaped. He
has no relations or friends on whom they can wreak their vengeance."
"Surely," exclaimed Lord H----, "they will never visit his offence on
you or yours."
"I trust not," replied Mr. Prevost, after a moment's thought; "yet I
cannot feel exactly sure. They will take a white man for their
victim--an Englishman--one of the same nation as the offender.
Probably it may not matter much to them who it is; and the
affectionate regard which they entertain towards us may turn the evil
aside. But these Indians have a sort of fanaticism in their religion,
as well as we have in ours; the station and the dignity of the victim
which they offer up enters into their consideration--they like to make
a worthy and an honourable sacrifice, as they consider it; and, just
as this spirit moves them or not, they may think that any one will do
for their purpose, or that they are required by their god of vengeance
to immolate some one dear to themselves, in order to dignify the
sacrifice."
"This is, indeed, a very sad view of the affair, and one which had
never struck me," replied Lord H----. "It may be well to consider, my
dear sir, what is the best and safest course. I must now tell you one
of the objects which made me engage your son to carry my despatches to
Albany. It seemed to me, from all I have learned during my short
residence with you, especially during my conference with Sir William
Johnson, that the unprotected state of this part of the country left
Albany itself, and the settlements round it, unpleasantly exposed. We
know that on a late occasion it was Dieskau's intention, if he had
succeeded in defeating Sir William and capturing Fort George, to make
a dash at the capital of the province. He was defeated; but there is
reason to believe that Montcalm--a man much his superior both in
energy and skill--entertained the same views, although we know not
what induced him to retreat so hastily after his black and bloody
triumph at Fort William Henry. He may seize some other opportunity;
and I can perceive nothing whatsoever to oppose his progress, or delay
him for an hour, if he can make himself master of the few scattered
forts which lie between Carrillon or Ticonderoga. In these
circumstances, I have strongly urged that a small force should be
thrown forward to a commanding point on the river Hudson, not many
miles from this place, which I examined as I came hither--with an
advanced post or two, still nearer to your house. My own regiment I
have pointed out as better fitted for the service than any other; and
I believe that if my suggestions are adopted, as I doubt not they will
be, we can give you efficient protection. Still I think," continued
the nobleman, speaking more slowly and emphatically, "that, with two
young people so justly dear to you--with a daughter so beautiful, and
every way so charming; and so gallant and noble a lad as Walter, whose
high spirit and adventurous character will expose him continually to
any snare that may be set for him, it will be much better for you to
retire with them both to Albany; at least till such time as you know
that the spirit of Indian vengeance has been satisfied, and that the
real peril has passed."
Mr. Prevost mused for several minutes, and then replied:--
"The motives you suggest are certainly very strong, my lord; but I
have strange ways of viewing such subjects, and I must have time to
consider whether it is fair and right to my fellow-countrymen,
scattered over this district, to withdraw from my share of the peril
which all who remain would have to encounter. Do not argue with me
upon the subject to-night. I will think over it well; and doubt not
that I shall view the plan you have suggested with all the favour that
paternal love can afford. I will also keep my mind free to receive any
further reasons you may have to produce. But I must first consider
quietly and alone. There is no need of immediate decision; for these
people, according to their own code, are bound to make themselves
perfectly sure that they cannot get possession of the actual slayer
before they choose another victim. It is clear from what the Indian
said to the negro boy, that they know the hand that did the deed, and
they must search for poor Brooks first, and practise every device to
allure him back before they immolate another. Let us both think over
the matter well, and confer to-morrow."
Thus saying, he shook hands with Lord H----, and they retired to their
several chambers with very gloomy and apprehensive thoughts.