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want any of their heathenish company in our burying-ground.
Ah s! me;--Well, itis an awful despatch to be standing here, alive and
angry, and with the feelin s up and furious, one hour, and then to be carried
away at the next, and put out of sight of mankind in a hole in the arth! No
one knows what will happen to him on a war-path, that s sartain.
Here the stirring of leaves and the cracking of dried twigs interrupted the
discourse, and apprised Deerslayer of the approach of his enemies. The Hurons
closed around the spot that had been prepared for the coming scene, and in the
centre of which the intended victim now stood, in a circle--the armed men
being so distributed among the feebler members of the band, that there was no
safe opening through which the prisoner could break. But the latter no longer
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contemplated flight; the recent trial having satisfied him of his inability to
escape, when pursued so closely by numbers. On the contrary, all his energies
were aroused, in order to meet his expected fate, with a calmness that should
do credit to his colour and his manhood; one equally removed from recreant
alarm and savage boasting.
When Rivenoak reappeared in the circle, he occupied his old place at the head
of the area. Several of the elder warriors stood near him; but, now that the
brother of Sumach had fallen, there was no longer any recognised chief
present, whose influence and authority offered a dangerous rivalry to his own.
Nevertheless, it is well known that little which could be called monarchical,
or despotic, entered into the politics of the North American tribes, although
the first colonists, bringing with them to this hemisphere the notions and
opinions of their own countries, often dignified the chief men of those
primitive nations with the titles of kings and princes. Hereditary influence
did certainly exist; but there is much reason to believe it existed rather as
a consequence of hereditary merit and acquired qualifications, than as a
birth-right. Rivenoak, however, had not even this claim--having risen to
consideration purely by the force of talents, sagacity, and, as Bacon
expresses it, in relation to all distinguished statesmen, by a union of great
and mean qualities; a truth of which the career of the profound Englishman
himself furnishes so apt an illustration.
Next to arms, eloquence offers the great avenue to popular favour, whether it
be in civilized or savage life; and Rivenoak had succeeded, as so many have
succeeded before him, quite as much by rendering fallacies acceptable to his
listeners, as by any profound or learned expositions of truth, or the accuracy
of his logic. Nevertheless, he had influence; and was far from being
altogether without just claims to its possession. Like most men who reason
more than they feel, the Huron was not addicted to the indulgence of the mere
ferocious passions of his people: he had been commonly found on the side of
mercy, in all the scenes of vindictive torture and revenge that had occurred
in his tribe, since his own attainment to power. On the present occasion, he
was reluctant to proceed to extremities, although the provocation was so
great; still it exceeded his ingenuity to see how that alternative could well
be avoided. Sumach resented her rejection more than she did the deaths of her
husband and brother, and there was little probability that the woman would
pardon a man who had so unequivocally preferred death to her embraces. Without
her forgiveness, there was scarce a hope that the tribe could be induced to
overlook its loss; and even to Rivenoak, himself, much as he was disposed to
pardon, the fate of our hero now appeared to be almost hopelessly sealed.
When the whole band was arrayed around the captive, a grave silence, so much
the more threatening from its profound quiet, pervaded the place. Deerslayer
perceived that the women and boys had been preparing splinters of the fat pine
roots, which he well knew were to be stuck into his flesh, and set in flames,
while two or three of the young men held the thongs of bark with which he was
to be bound. The smoke of a distant fire announced that the burning brands
were in preparation, and several of the elder warriors passed their fingers
over the edges of their tomahawks, as if to prove their keenness and temper.
Even the knives seemed loosened in their sheathes, impatient for the bloody
and merciless work to begin.
Killer of the Deer, recommenced Rivenoak, certainly without any signs of
sympathy or pity in his manner, though with calmness and dignity; Killer of
the Deer, it is time that my people knew their minds. The sun is no longer
over our heads; tired of waiting on the Hurons, he has begun to fall near the
pines on this side of the valley. He is travelling fast towards the country of
our French fathers; it is to warn his children that their lodges are empty,
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