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Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
 "Senamee, from you, a chief of the Shawnee tribe and of the
noble Manahoac blood also, have lies issued forth to-day. Nay, start
not, but hear me; I will maintain my words with my arm later. From
you, I say, have lies issued forth; nay, worse; not only were they lies,
but you knew that they were lies and yet coldly spake them."

"I will kill you," hissed Senamee, "kill you with my own hand."

"So be it," answered the other, "if you have the power, but the
Bear is not weak." "Lies," he went on, "lies knowingly told when you
said that I opposed you and was jealous of your rule and authority.
For you know well such words can have no truth in them. In my
wigwam hang more scalps than in yours, the scalps of Cherokees
who dispute the mountains with us, of Yamasees who dwell near
unto the deep waters, of Muskogees; ay, even of the fierce Southern
Seminoles who dwell in the tents of the blood-stained poles. And in
my veins runs blood as pure as yours, while I yield not to you as my
ruler, but as my equal only, except in years. But let this pass; later on
you shall kill me or I you. Now, there is other killing to be done. For
not only has this man," pointing to Buck, who was now showing
some other tricks, truly marvellous, to the Indians, "who is by his
own word a slave, proved to you that the jugglings of the false
medicine man are no miracles, but things which slaves can do; but
also have I to add my word against him. And, oh! my people," he
said, turning round and addressing all there, "you, my kinsmen and
friends of the Shawnees, the Manahoac, and the Doeg tribes, what
will you say shall be done to the false priest, the pale-faced slave,
who has imposed on us, when I tell you all? When I tell you that, in
this white woman's house, I heard him speak of us who have
sheltered him and succoured him, as 'credulous red fools'--as
'credulous red fools,' those were his words. And more," he went on,
putting forth his arm with a gesture as though to stay the angry
murmurs that now arose, while Roderick St. Amande sat shaking with
fear in his seat, "the dark maiden here, the sister of the white
woman, denounced him to his face and before me, though he knew
not I heard. She taunted him with having had his lost ear smitten off
by his owner--the ear that he told us often his father, the Sun God,
took from him so that he should be less than he--oh! fools that we
were to believe it! And--and she called him 'thief' and 'lover of fire
waters' and 'cowardly, crawling dog'--think of it, oh! my kinsmen; the
Shawnee warriors and the Manahoacs and the Doegs to be imposed
on by such as this! A slave, a thief, a drunkard, a cowardly dog!
Think of it! Think of it! And for me, Anuza, worse, far worse than
this, for at his commands have I wrecked the house in which he who
gave me life was tended and succoured; at his commands have I
made war on and injured the child's child of her who succoured him."

He paused a moment and looked round, his eye falling on the

angry, muttering crowd of savages of the three allied tribes; upon
Roderick St. Amande trembling there, making no defence and
burying his face in his mantle, from which he sometimes withdrew it
to cast imploring glances on Senamee. Senamee, who sat scowling
on all about him while his fingers clutched the great dagger in his
wampum belt. Then Anuza went on again, while the muttering of the
crowd rose to yells, and that crowd pressed forward ominously to
where the unhappy victim sat.

"For all this, my brethren, he must die. For the inoffensive blood
he has caused us to shed, he must die--for the lies he has told us,
'the credulous red fools,' he must die--for all that he has done, he
must die. And there, upon the Cross which he himself selected as the
death to be dealt out to the white men, he shall die to-night."

With a how! that was almost like to the dreaded war cry, they all
rushed at Roderick, while high above even the noise of their fierce
threats went forth a piercing shriek from their intended victim, who
clung to Senamee's arm, crying, "Save me, save me," in the Indian
tongue.

That the chief would have dreamt of doing so--seeing that, since
he was head of all, he had been more fooled perhaps than any of
them--had it not been for the hatred and antagonism he bore to the
Bear, none of us who were present have ever been able to bring
ourselves to believe. Yet now, to the astonishment of all, both red
and white, he did actually intercede in his behalf.

As the crowd surged up to where the wretch sat, men and women
being indiscriminately mixed, braves and warriors jostling their
servants and inferiors, while their gaily-bedecked wives--for this was
to have been a feast day--pushed against almost nude serving-
women, the chief sprang to his feet, threw one arm about Roderick
St. Amande, and, brandishing his tomahawk before their eyes,
thundered forth an order to them to desist.

"Back!" he roared in his deep tones, "back, I say. What! is

Senamee dead already that others usurp his place and issue orders
to his people? Who is your chief? I, or Anuza, the rebel?" and he
struck at two or three of the foremost with his tomahawk as he
spoke.

"You are," they acknowledged, though with angry glances at him,

"yet shall not the false priest shelter himself behind your shield. We
will have his life in spite of you."

"His life you shall have when we are sure of his guilt. At present
we have nothing but the word of Anuza, who has said I lie. But what
if he has lied himself?"

"He has not lied," they called out. "He has not lied. Anuza never
lies. And his words are proved. The other slave of the white woman
can do more than he. He is no medicine priest. Give him to us that
we may slay him."

"Not yet," answered Senamee. "Not yet. For ere I give him to you
I am about to prove Anuza to be a liar in spite of your belief."

"How can you prove it?" they demanded, while Anuza himself
stood motionless, his eyes fixed on his rival.
 "My brethren and followers, you speak either like children who
know nothing or old men who have forgotten what once they knew.
Anuza has told me that I lie. To him I say the same thing. He lies. He
lies out of his spite and envy of me. And have you, oh! ye children or
dotards, forgotten how, when one of our race thinks thus of another,
they decide who is the truthful man and who the liar?"

"We have not forgotten," they all exclaimed; "we have not
forgotten. It must be by the death of one or the other. Both cannot
live."

"It is well," Senamee exclaimed, "it is well. And of Anuza, the

rebel, and of me your chief, one of us must die by the hand of the
other. As that death is dealt out so shall it be decided what the fate
of this one is," pointing to the impostor shivering by his side. "If I
defeat the Bear he shall not suffer, for then it will be known that
Anuza is the liar and has wrongly accused him; if Anuza slays me
then must you do with the medicine chief as is his will. But,"
descending from his seat and advancing towards where that warrior
stood, "that he will kill me I do not fear. Those of the house of
Senamee dread not those of the race of the crawling Bear."

And then, advancing ever nearer unto Anuza until he stood close
in front of him, he made a defiant gesture before him and exclaimed:

"Anuza, the time has come."

While Anuza, returning his glance with equally contemptuous

ones, replied:

"You have spoken well, Senamee. The time has come."

 PART III

THE NARRATIVE OF LORD ST. AMANDE CONTINUED

CHAPTER XXV

THE SHAWNEE TRAIL

He who has been stunned by a heavy blow comes to but slowly,

and so it was with me and slowly also my understanding and my
memory returned, while gradually my dazed senses began to
comprehend the meaning of all around me. I remembered at last
why the handsome saloon in which my beloved one, my sweet Joice,
took ever such pride, should now resemble the deck of a ship after a
fierce sea fight more than a gentlewoman's withdrawing-room. It
dawned upon me minute by minute why the harpsichord and spinet
should both be shattered, the bright carpet drenched and stained
with blood, the window-frame windowless, with, by it, a heap of
dead, formed of red and white men and the mastiffs, and why my
own white silk waistcoat and steinkirk should be stained with the
same fluid. Nor was I, ere long, astonished to see the fontange which
Miss Mills had worn lying on the spinet, nor to perceive O'Rourke
seated by a table near me eating some bread and meat slowly and in
a ruminative manner, while he washed the food down with a beaker
of rum and water and shook his head sadly and meditatively all the
while.

And so, in a moment, there came back to me all that happened

but a little time before, as I thought, and with a great shout I called
to him and asked him where my dear one was.

The old adventurer sprang to his feet as I did so, and came
towards me muttering that he thought for an instant that the red
devils were coming back again; and then, kneeling down by me, he
asked me how I did and if I thought I had taken any serious hurt.

"Though well I know, my lord," he said, "that 'twas nothing worse

than a severe crack o' the skull; yet, being a poor chirurgeon, I could
not tell how deep the crack was. But since you can speak and
understand, and know me, it cannot be so serious. Try, my lord, if
you can rise."

Taking his arm I made the attempt, succeeding fairly. But when on
my feet I still felt dizzy, while a great nausea came over me, so that I
was obliged to seat myself at the table and to observe O'Rourke's
counsel to partake of some of the liquor he had by him, if not some
of the bread and meat.

"'Tis fortunate," he said, "that I could induce those squealing

negroes to come forth after all the others had gone, or else----"

"Gone!" I exclaimed. "Who are gone?" And then, in an instant,

perhaps owing to the draught of liquor, I remembered that the others
were not here; that, above all, my dear one was not by my side.
"Gone!" I exclaimed again; "they are gone! Where to?"

"With the savages," he replied. "They had no other resource."

"Therefore let us follow them at once. With the savages! And they
are two defenceless women. With the savages! And I lying there like
a log unable to help them! Oh, Joice! Oh, Joice, my darling!"

"Nay," said O'Rourke, "distress not yourself so much. While you lay
senseless with that fair young thing's arms around you much
happened that you cannot dream of. Much! Much! Indeed such
marvellous things that even I, who have seen many surprising
occurrences, could not conceive----"

"In heaven's name out with them!" I exclaimed. "Man, have you
not tortured me enough already in my life and been pardoned for it,
that you must begin again. Out with your tale, I say, if you would not
drive me to distraction."

He cast a sad look towards me which, with my recollection of all

he had done last night on our behalf, made me to regret speaking so
to him even under such pressure. Then, after saying there was no
further wish in his heart, God He knew, to ever do aught to me but
make atonement, he commenced his narrative of all that had
occurred while I lay senseless and he lay apparently so.

What a narrative it was! What a story! To think of that vile

Roderick being there in command of all the others; to think of that
spiteful, crawling wretch having at last got those two innocent
creatures into his power and able to do what he would with them!
Oh! 'twas too horrible--too horrible to think upon. Nay, I dare not
think, I could only prepare for immediate action.

"We must follow them," I said. "I must follow them at once, even
if the Indians tear me to pieces as I enter their midst. And what
matter if they do? 'Twill be best so if she, my own darling, has
become their prey. O'Rourke, for heaven's sake cease eating and
drinking, and lend me your assistance."

"That will I cheerfully," he replied, "and if they have but left a

brace of nags in the stables we will be a dozen leagues on our way
ere nightfall. But as to eating and drinking, well--well! I am too old a
campaigner of all kinds not to take my rations when they fall in my
way. And you, too, my lord, a sailor, should know 'tis bad to go a-
fighting on an empty stomach. Even Corporal John, who loved better
to pouch the ducats than to provision the army, always sent his men
into battle with their stomachs full."
 "But every moment is precious--every instant. Think of the girls in
the hands of those ruthless savages, in the hands of my villainous
cousin."

"Ay, I do think on't. Yet will I wager all my hopes of future pardon-
-heaven knows I stand in need of it--that the girls are safe enough.
Have I not told you that the great Indian, the gigantic chief, heard
all. All! He heard Mistress Mills denounce your cousin, and he heard
him call all the tribe superstitious or ignorant fools, or words of a like
import. And, what's more, he knew that neither you nor I were dead,
nor like to die, and yet he left us here unharmed. My lord, I tell you,"
he continued, slapping down the bowl he had just emptied, "that no
harm is coming to those young maids, nor do I think to any of the
other prisoners. And more I tell you also, the one who will come
worst out of this fray will be your cousin Roderick."

I would have answered him and said how devoutly I trusted such
might be the case, when we heard a clatter in the courtyard behind
and the shoutings of many men, and voices all talking at once, some
exclaiming, "At least they've left this house standing." "What of the
women folk?" "What of Mistress Bamfyld?" and so forth. And then, as
we rushed to the back windows, I recognised many of the other
residents of the place whose acquaintance I possessed, with, at their
head, her cousin Gregory.

"Where is Joice?" he called out as he dismounted, seeing me.

"Where is she? Is she safe? Yet she must be since you and this other
gentleman are here alive."

It took not long to tell them all, nor to learn that which had
befallen all the other houses and manors around. Some, we learnt,
were burnt to the ground; some were spared simply because they
were so well defended that the Indians had drawn off at daybreak
without achieving any victory; at some every inhabitant had been
killed even to the women and children; at others every creature had
escaped. Many, too, were the deeds of daring that had been done on
this night of horror. Women had stoutly helped their husbands,
brothers, and sons in fighting for their homes, one woman having
killed near a score of the Indians with her own musket. Another, who
was alone in her house--her husband being away at the newly re-
constructed town of Richmond--having none about her but her babes
and some worthless negroes, also defended her house both skilfully
and valorously. She appeared at different windows dressed in her
husband's clothes, changing the wig, or the coat, or other garments
as she passed from one room to another, so that the savages were
led to think that the house was full of men. She shouted orders to
imaginary servants and friends as though they were there to assist
her, and every time she fired she brought down her man so that, by
daybreak, her little house was of those saved. And this was but one
of the many gallant actions performed that night which I cannot here
stop to narrate.

All who had now ridden into the courtyard of my dear one's house
were there with but one impulse to stir them. That impulse was
revenge and the rescue of the many prisoners whom they knew to
have been carried off. Yet, when they heard that Joice was gone--
who amongst all the girls in that part of the colony was, perhaps, the
most beloved--and, with her, Miss Mills, that impulse was stirred
more deeply still, so that when Gregory, addressing them, said:

"Gentlemen, she is my cousin, as you know, and, with Miss Mills, is

the only woman captured; therefore must I beg that the leadership
of this party is given to me," they willingly accorded him his desire.

But this I could not permit, so I, too, made a speech to them,

saying:

"Yet must I put in my claim against Mr. Haller. Mistress Bampfyld

is, indeed, his cousin, but to me she is more--she is my promised
wife. Therefore, no matter who heads this party, I alone must go as
the chief seeker after her. I would have saved her with my life last
night had it been granted me to do so; I must claim the right to
rescue her now, or to die in attempting it."
 "Your promised wife!" poor Gregory said, looking mournfully at
me. "Oh, Joice! Oh, Joice!"

But he alone was the one who did not heartily receive my
statement, all the others shouting lustily "for the future Lady St.
Amande," and saying that none was so worthy of such an honour as
she.

"Nay," I said, "nay. 'Tis she who honours me by giving me her

love, and therefore must I be the first to risk my life for her."

So it was agreed that we should set forth at once on the trail,

there being many skilful trappers and hunters in the party who could
take it up as easily as an Indian himself, while, for commander, there
should be no one, each doing his best with the knowledge he
possessed of the savages' habits. Of this knowledge I myself had
none, yet was I recognised as the one most to be considered
because I was the affianced husband of Joice, the "Virginian Rose,"
as I had heard her called ere now.

It needs not that I should set down aught that befel us on the
expedition; I know now that my love has written a description of the
journey she made. Nor is it necessary that I tell all that O'Rourke
narrated to us of the arrival of Roderick St. Amande on the scene of
slaughter after I was struck senseless, for that, too, you know. But,
as he informed us of all that had transpired at that time, and as he
told us that, had not it been for this execrable villain, there could be
little doubt that Pomfret and all the countryside round would have
been left as secure from attack by the Indians as it had been hitherto
left for many years, the rage of all in our party was supreme and
terrible.

"I hope," said one of the Pringles, uncle to the young man now a
prisoner, as I learnt, "I hope that, if the gigantic chief you speak of is
going to wreak his vengeance on the scoundrel, I may be in some
way witness of it."
 "And I! And I!" exclaimed several others. "If we could see that, or
if they would but deliver him back into our hands, we would almost
forgive them all that they have done for our houses and families."

Travelling quickly, urging the poor beasts that they lent us onwards
as much as possible, walking by their sides to relieve them, and
carrying sometimes the saddles ourselves so that they might have
greater ease, we reached the spur of hills to which the trail had led
us on the morning of the third day after the raid on Pomfret. Thus, as
we knew afterwards, by not sleeping at night, or by sleeping only for
an hour or so at a time, we had arrived at the very period when the
exposure of Roderick St. Amande took place.

That we had proceeded with caution you may be sure. One would
as soon put their head in the lion's mouth as approach an Indian
encampment without due care. Our horses had by this time been left
behind, tethered in a glade and with their heads enveloped in
blankets so that they should not neigh, and one by one the whole of
our party, which consisted of some forty persons, crept slowly round
the bluff of the mountain, leaving the encampment to what I, as a
sailor, may describe as the leeward. Our plan, suggested by an old
colonist who had been engaged in fighting and contending with
Indians and wild animals since far back into the days when William of
Orange ruled, was to creep round this bluff, to ascend it a little, and
then, from the elevation, to look down upon the Indians' town and
concoct our method of attack. And, to the surprise of those who
understood the Indian method of warfare, this we were enabled to
do without being discovered. We encountered no outposts, such as
these savage warriors invariably throw out in a circle round their
encampment. We saw no naked breast or plumed head of Indian
sentry gleaming through the pines and sassafras, laurels and
sumachs; no hideously painted face glaring at us from behind the
muscadine vines or maple trees that grew in rich profusion at the
mountain's base, ere its owner launched his poisoned arrow at us.
The reason was, as we learnt later, that none in that encampment
believed that the white avengers could travel twice as fast as they
themselves had travelled. None believed there could possibly be a
pale face within twenty miles of their town; and, more, there was
that taking place in their midst which was enough to distract even
the wary Indian from his duties of watchfulness.

What was happening we ourselves saw a few moments later.

 CHAPTER XXVI

AS FOEMEN FIGHT

It was when we had climbed the spur, or bluff, one by one,

crawling like Indians or snakes ourselves, and when we lay prone
and gazing down upon the open space in the encampment that we
saw that which astonished us so.

This it was.

In the middle of that open space there stood, or rather fought,

two men, each contending for the other's life. Each also was a
splendid example of the Indian race, great in height, muscular and
sinewy; yet the one who seemed the younger of the two was the
tallest and the best favoured, the elder having a fierce and cruel
face. Both wielded that dreadful instrument, the tomahawk, the
weapon that, while so small and harmless-looking, is, in the hands
of those accustomed to its use, so deadly; both were bare from the
waist upwards, their breasts painted with emblems or devices--a
bear on one, a panther on the other. Yet more dreadful, perhaps,
than to know that this was a combat to the death, was to see the
manner in which the struggle took place. It was no battle of blow
against blow, of one blow struck only to be warded off and another
given; it was a fight in which craft was opposed to craft and skill to
skill, such as no Italian swordsman perhaps knew better how to
exhibit. Round and round what once would have been called the
lists, or, as we now term it, the arena, those two stole after each
other, first one creeping like a tiger at his foe and then his opponent
doing the same; while, as they came within striking distance, the
tomahawk would rise in the attacker's hand only to sink again as its
wielder recognised that it must surely be skilfully parried or fall
ineffectually. It was weird, horrible--nay, devilish--to see these two
great types of humanity creeping at one another like tigers, yet
never meeting in a great shock, as one might well have looked for.

But those below who sat there caused us as much surprise and
agitation as did these combatants. There I saw my sweet Joice with,
on her fair face, the greatest agitation depicted while she watched
every movement of the contending foemen, her excitement being
intense as the one who bore the emblem of the bear advanced as
though to strike the other, and her look of disappointment extreme
when he drew back foiled. What did it mean? What did it portend?

And there, too, was Mary Mills, her hand in Kinchella's as they sat
side by side, while on both their faces was the same eager look, the
same evident desire for the victory of the younger champion; the
same look of regret when he was forced to draw back. But, more
marvellous even than this, was what we further saw, yet could not
comprehend. All in the crowd of spectators, save one who sat
huddled on a great chair or bench, his face covered with a mantle
from which he peeped furtively, seemed possessed with the same
desire as they; all their sympathy was with him who bore the
emblem of the bear. It was so with the dusky warriors who watched
every cat-like footstep that the antagonists took; so with the
humbler Indians round; so with the richly-bedizened Indian women,
whom we deemed the wives or squaws of the braves, and so with
the almost nude Indian girls, servants probably. And with all the
other white people it was equally the same. Buck and Mr. Pringle,
and Mr. Byrd, as well as the other prisoners--though none seemed
like prisoners, being unshackled and quite free--applauded and
shouted in English fashion as the younger warrior attacked the elder.
One would have thought the former was their dearest friend! They
winced when the elder attacked in his turn, and looked black and
anxious if for a moment the fight seemed to go against the Bear.
Strange! all were for him--all; Indians, white people, even my own
dear sweetheart and her friends, Mary and Kinchella--all, all,
excepting that one shrouded, unknown creature who sat apart by
himself. Who could he be? What did it mean? O'Rourke was able to
inform me.

When he had told me that the Indian who was the desired victor
of all who regarded the combat was the one who had been the chief
in command of the attack on my sweet one's house, and had heard
Roderick St. Amande not only exposed by Miss Mills but also by his
own tongue, he said:

"And, my lord, remembering this, 'tis not difficult to draw

therefrom a conclusion that shall, I think, be near the mark. He has
denounced the villain Roderick--see how he cringes in his chair."

"In his chair? Is that creature Roderick?"

"It is, indeed, and I will wager that on this conflict his life
depends. And, look, look! The Bear presses the other hard. See how
he drives him back. Ah, God! he stumbles, he is--no, no! See, see,
my lord, see! Ah, heavens! it is too dreadful!" And he placed his
hands before his eyes. Even he, who had fought so well and risked
his life a score of times three nights ago, could not witness the end
of this fray.

It was, indeed, too dreadful. The end of the combat had come.
Even as O'Rourke had been speaking, the Bear, creeping ever
forward towards the other, had prepared to make a spring at him
when, his foot catching against some unevenness in the baked
earth, he stumbled and nearly fell. And then, indeed, it looked as
though he were lost. In an instant his antagonist was at him; on
high he whirled the dreadful tomahawk, we saw its gleam as it
descended, we heard Joice and Mary scream and clasp their hands--
and we saw that it had missed its mark. It had overshot the other's
shoulder; as it descended the Panther's great forearm alone struck
on the shoulder of the Bear, the deadly axe itself cut into nothing but
empty space. So the latter had lost the one chance given him in the
fray.

But now his own doom was sealed--now at the moment that
O'Rourke called out in terror. As the Bear recovered himself from
what was in itself a terrible blow given by the muscular arm of the
other savage, so he seized that arm with his left hand,--it closed
upon that other's limb as a vice closes when tightly screwed!--he
wrenched the arm round, dragging with it its owner's body, and
then, high, swift, and sudden, his own tomahawk flashed in the air
and, descending, cleft his antagonists head in half, he falling
quivering and dead.

From us, lying up there on the rise of the bluff, there came a
gasp, a sigh of relief that the horrid combat which had caused us all
to hold our breath was finished; from the Indians below there arose
dreadful whoops and yells. They rushed into the great circle, they
shouted and they screamed; their noted impassiveness gone now,
for a time at least. They jeered at the great dead carcase lying
there, a pool of blood around it, and with the weapon still in its
sinewy hand; they even dabbled their fingers in that blood as the
cried: "Anuza is now our chief. The Bear shall rule over us. Senamee
was unworthy, and he has met his fate."

Now, as we prepared to descend into their midst, we saw Anuza,

as they termed him, turn towards the prisoners. Looking principally,
it seemed to me, towards Joice, we heard him say:

"White woman, and you, her kin, have I atoned somewhat for the
sin that I have done to you! The dead whom we slew in your houses
we cannot bring back, but one of those who urged us most to the
fray has answered for it. Now shall the other--the cheat, the false
medicine man--be punished also." And he turned towards where my
cousin had sat but a moment before.
 "What!" he exclaimed, rushing towards the bench, "what, gone!
Gone! Where is he?"

But this none could answer for, in the few moments of intense
excitement that had followed the death of him whom they called
Senamee, he had disappeared.

As they set forth to find him, as braves shouted orders to inferior

warriors to track and discover him but on no account to take his life
till it was offered up before them all, I rushed down the declivity of
where we had lain and, heedless of the excitement our appearance
caused, approached my darling and clasped her in my arms. Ah!
what joy it was to have that fair young form enfolded in them, to
hear her murmured words of love and happiness, to be with her
once again, even though our meeting took place in such a scene as
this!

But, ere we could do more than exchange hurried whispers one

with another, the victorious chief was by our side and he was
addressing me:

"Beloved of the white woman," he said, "though I know not how

you and yours came here so swiftly," pointing to all my companions
who stood around, some shaking hands with the gentlemen who
had been captured, some regarding the dead body of Senamee
which lay where it had fallen, and some talking to the bond-servants
who, with Buck for their chief spokesman, were giving an excited
description of what had happened to them. "Beloved of the white
woman, for such I know you to be, have you come here simply to
carry her back to her own dwelling house, or to demand vengeance
for the wrong done on her and all of you and your servants and
slaves? Answer, so that we shall know."

I cast my eyes down on Joice, who, poor maid, was now sobbing
on my breast, while some of the Virginian gentlemen who knew not
of our recently avowed love gazed with somewhat of an amazed
look at us; and then I replied:

"As yet I can make no answer to you. Amongst all these white
men whom you see here I am of the least standing, being but a
stranger in the land with no tie to it but this maiden's love. Yet since
you address me, and if they will have me for their spokesman at this
moment," and casting my eyes around on our friends I saw that
they were willing it Should be so, "I say that, ere we reply to you,
we must be given some time for conference between ourselves on
the wrong which you have done towards those who never harmed
you nor yours."

Here to my amazement, though I learnt the reason directly

afterwards, the great chief heaved a profound sigh, and, indeed,
groaned, while I went on.

"And also must we know in what position we are here within your
camp. Do you still regard us as at war or peace? Are all free to go as
they desire, or are those here prisoners still?"

Amidst the calls of the Indians who were seeking for Roderick to
one another from the thickets and groves, and the continued shouts
which told us that as yet their quest had been unsuccessful, the
chief answered:

"I, too, speak as the mouth of my tribe, almost all of whom can
understand my words; nay, some there are whose fathers and
fathers' fathers were of your blood. Even so," he said, hearing our
murmurs of astonishment and, in the case of some, their murmurs
of disgust. "Even so. But for all of my tribe, whether of the noble
Shawnee and Doeg races which hath spread here from the great
river to the north, or the Manahoacs, or Monacans, or Tucaroras,
Catawbas, or Cherokees, of all of which races we are composed, and
also for those of white blood who have become of us, I speak, since
he who now lies there is dead. All are free to go, nay, shall be
escorted back in safety to their homes. For the war which we have
made on you has been a sinful one, ordered by the lying false
medicine man whom we believed in. And, or atonement, this I offer,
being, though I knew it not then, myself the worst of all my tribe.
For the injuries I have done to the white woman whose people were
good to my father I offer my life, having naught else to give. Here
on this spot I offer it, now and at once."

And to my amazement, as well, indeed, as that of all around,

Anuza came forward to where Joice and I stood, and, kneeling down
before her, stretched out his arms and went on: "Take it now, either
with your own hands or by the hands of this your beloved, or the
hands of these your slaves and servants. What more can I offer than
this, unless also you desire that I shall die a death of torture? And, if
that be so, then that will I also endure."

My love had raised her head from my breast to gaze at him as he

spoke thus; around us had gathered the gentlemen of Pomfret who
had been taken prisoners; near us, looking on with strange and
curious looks, were those who but recently had been her bond-
servants. 'Twas a strange scene and one that would well have
become a painter's brush had any been there to limn it. The noble
form of the huge chief prostrate before the golden-haired girl who
clung to her lover--himself a sorry sight in his soiled and stained
finery, which he had worn from the evening that had begun so
happily and ended so horribly in her house; the dead body of the
other chief lying there close by her feet; the forms of Indian men
and women all around, some clad in gorgeous bravery and some
nearly naked; also the other white men of different degree--all
looking on. Nor would the background have been unworthy of so
strange a set of characters. The green glade dotted with its tents
and wigwams, set off in contrast the blood-smeared arena where the
dead man lay; behind began the ascent of the mountain range, clad
with the verdure of the white magnolia, the tulip tree and laurel,
with, peeping through, the darker green of the bay tree. Glinting
through their branches and many-hued leaves were seen the colours
of the blue jay and blue birds, the golden orioles and the scarlet
cardinals, with, distinct from all and horrible to see, the dusky forms
of the foul vultures who had been gathered to the spot by the warm,
sickly scent of the dead man's blood.

And now my beloved, drying her eyes, spoke softly to the man
kneeling before her, saying in her sweet, clear voice:

"Nay, nay, speak not to me of death; there has been too much
already. God He knows I seek not your life--no, not more than she
who succoured your father sought his. But, oh! if this last conflict
might end for ever the encounters between your people and mine I
would ask no more."

From the Indians around there came a murmur that seemed born
of surprise. "She forgives," they whispered to each other. "The white
woman forgives the evil the Bear has done to her." And still they
murmured, "She forgives."

"Oh, yes! oh, yes!" Joice cried, hearing their words, while she
stretched out her fair young arms so that, indeed, I thought she
looked more like unto an angel than before. "Yes, if forgiveness rests
with me, then do I indeed forgive. And you, my friends," turning to
those of our own race who stood around, "will you not forgive too;
will you not make this day one that shall end all strife between them
and us? Oh! if thus we could forget the wrongs that each has done
to the other, if the red man will forget the white man's attacks on
him and the white men forget the Indian's revenge, how happily we
might all dwell together in peace for ever."

I looked round that strange gathering as she spoke, and, doing

so, I saw that which might well give good augury of the coming to
pass of what she desired. For in the eyes both of Indian and of
colonist, of savage warrior and of almost equally savage
backwoodsman and hunter, there were tears to be seen. It was not
only from the clear young eyes of Joice that they fell.
 CHAPTER XXVII

A LONG PEACE

An hour later those who had been such deadly enemies sat at
peace together, engaged in a consultation. In a circle, side by side,
were the sachems and sagamores of the tribe, the settlers of
Pomfret who had come forth with me to rescue our friends, the late
prisoners themselves, and Joice seated by me. Apart, and taking no
share in the proceedings, were Kinchella and Mary Mills; above, and
seated in Senamee's great chair, was Anuza, now chief over all.
Farther off were the late bondsmen and many other of the Indians,
while in the centre of them was Buck, showing a variety of cheats
and delusions, and endeavouring to teach them how to perform
them themselves--though this they seemed unable to do.

And now an old paw-wah, or sachem, passed the pipe he had

been smoking to another sitting by his side, and spake as follows:

"Chiefs and braves of the tribe who are ever now allies, and you,
the pale faces who dwell to the east of us, hearken unto me. For ere
the sun sets to night it shall be, perhaps, that peace is settled
between us for ever; ay! until the sun shall rise no more and the
moon shall be darkened always."

"Speak," said one of the tribe, while others gave the peculiar
grunt of the Indian and those of our party also bade him speak.
 "It is good," he answered, "and I will speak of the far-off days
when first the pale face came amongst us, though not then as a foe,
until even now when, if the great Spirit so wills it, he shall never
more be one. For the wrongs that have been done by the one to the
other may be atoned for ever now."

He paused a moment to collect his thoughts, as it seemed, and

then again he went on: "When first the great waterhouses brought
the pale face to our land they brought not enemies but friends. This
all know. They came among us and they were welcome. We gave
them of the fish of our streams and the beasts of our forests and the
fruits of the earth, and in return they gave us the fire-weapons with
which to slay the beasts. They taught us also how to prepare them
in better ways than we knew, they showed us how to build houses
that should be more secure against the sun's heat and the winter's
cold than those we made of the red cedar's bark. All was well
between us; we were friends. Nay, as all know, we were brothers.
We lay on the white man's hearth and he cherished us; he slept in
our cabins and wigwams and he was safe. Why remained it not so?
Hear me, and I will tell you.

"The white man spake not always truth to us. He told us that our
lands were worthless, and he bought them from us for nothing,
unless it was the accursed fire-drink which made us mad, or for fire-
weapons that in our hands would slay nothing. Yet the lands thrived
in his grasp and he possessed them and we had lost them. And
when we reproached him he used fire-weapons that slew us without
failure, and our prisoners whom he took he sent away for ever
across the deep waters.[5] So he took our lands and our men, and
got all, and we had nothing. And the Indian never forgets. Thus,
while we drew away from where the pale face dwelt, some coming
to these mountains and some going even farther towards the
unknown land of the setting sun, we had naught to cherish but our
revenge, and naught to comfort us but the exercise of that
revenge."
 "Yet," interrupted young Mr. Byrd, "in the days of my grandfather
you made a peace with us, and took gifts from us, and fire-weapons
that would kill of a surety, and agreed to attack us no more. But
even that peace you did not keep, though you made no raids upon
us such as this you have now made."

"Yet were we never the aggressors," the sachem replied. "Never

was an attack made by us until evil was done to us. But the Indian
forgives not. If one of our race was slain by one of the white race
then must one of his kin be slain by us; if our women were
outraged, as has often been, or insulted, then must a white woman
or a child be carried away by us. It is the law of our gods; it must be
obeyed. For a life a life, for a hand a hand, for an Indian woman's
honour a white woman's, or the carrying off of children."

"But," said Gregory, "there was naught to inspire such desire for
revenge as to cause this last attack. None in Pomfret have harmed
you or yours for many moons. What had she," pointing to Joice,
"done; she, this innocent woman, scarce more than a girl even now,
that thus you should attack and ruin her and seek her life and that
of those by whom she was surrounded?"

The sachem was about to answer when whatever he would have

said was interrupted by Anuza, who, speaking quickly, said:

"Because we were deceived by a lying, false, medicine man it was

done. Because he told us lies, even as he has lied to us ever since
he dwelt amongst us. And for those lies he shall die. He cannot
escape us long. Yet, since it is due to the white men that they
should know how that crawling snake worked upon us, so that we
believed in him and did his bidding and attacked their houses, tell
them all--tell them all," and he motioned to the sachem as he spoke.

That all of us were eager to hear this recountal, you may be well
sure, for there was scarcely one amongst us who had not known the
wretch. The gentlemen had met him as an equal--for all believed his
tale--he had caroused with the (now freed) bondsmen, and he had
even gone a-hunting with the backwoodsmen and trappers. So we
bent our ears to the narrative and listened greedily.

"He was found," said the paw-wah, "lying in the forest by Lamimi,
the young daughter of Owalee, a chief of the Powhattans, and she,
because her heart was tender, succoured him. But because Owalee
hated the pale faces with a great hatred she kept him secret from
her father for many days, hiding him in a cave she knew of and
going to visit him often. Yet she believed him to be no pale face, but
rather a god sent from another world, so wonderful were his doings.
Food he refused at her hands, making signs to her (and knowing,
too, some words of her tongue, as she knew some of his, by which
they conversed) that meat was brought to him by some unseen
power. And of this he gave her proof, showing her bones of fishes
and of animals and birds which he had devoured. Later on she learnt
that he could marvellously snare all creatures, making them captive
to him even though he had no weapons, but this she told us not
until to-day. Nor told she until to-day--when she, who had been his
squaw and loved him, learned that she was to be cast out and the
white maiden here and her dark sister made to take her place--of all
his own deceptions and crafts. But, to-day, because she hates him
now as once she loved him, she has told all--all! She it was who
taught him the history of our braves and their deeds and the deeds
of their forefathers, which we thought the Sun God only could have
taught him so wonderful did his knowledge seem. She it was who
carried to him the news of what the tribes were deciding on doing,
either in war with other tribes, or in hunting, or in sacrificing, so
that, when he told us that he had learned all our future intentions,
again we believed that his father, the Sun, gave him the knowledge.
Fools! fools that we were! Yet we never thought of the girl, Lamimi,
though we knew she was his squaw. Nor would she have told him all
she did had he not ruled her by terror as much as by love. For he
made her believe that he could cause her to vanish for ever off the
earth, even as he made things to vanish from his hands and be no
more seen; or as he made stones to fly into the air and descend no
more. Yet now she knows, as we know, that all was but trickery, and
that many others can do the same, even as that one there," pointing
to Buck, "who says he is the child of no god, can do such things.

"So the false one worked upon us, doing that which no medicine
man had ever done before; and so, at last, he got supreme control
over us, making us obey his every word. And ever did he tell us that,
if we would please the great Sun God, then must we make war upon
and destroy all the pale faces who dwelt between these mountains
and the waters, directing more particularly our vengeance towards
the spot where you, ye white people, live. This we at first would not
do, because for many moons there had been peace between us with
neither little nor great war; yet, as moon followed moon, and leaf
was followed by barrenness and then withered and fell to the earth,
still did he press us. When the thunder rolled and the lightning
blasted our cattle, he told us the Sun was angry because we obeyed
him not; when many of our horses were killed by reptiles and
venomous insects he said ever the same; when our women bore
dead children still spake he of the Sun God's anger. And yet we
would not hearken unto him, for since the pale faces no longer came
against us we went not against them.

"But lo! one day, when all the earth was dark, yet with no cloud
beneath the sky, he stood forth here on this spot where now we sit,
and, stretching out his arms which were bare, he said that ere long
upon his hands should appear a message from the Sun telling us of
the god's anger. And soon the message came, though now we know
that it was a cheat. Upon his open palm, which had been empty ere
he clenched it, there appeared a scroll of skin with, on it, mystic
figures which none could decipher but he. And the figures said, he
told us, that never more should the heavens be light again and that
there should be darkness over all the land, if we would not make
war upon the white men and save ourselves. For they, he said, were
arming to attack us, from over the deep waters their great king, who
dwelt beyond them, was sending more fearful fire-weapons than we
had known with which to destroy us for ever, and, ere another moon
had passed, they would have come. So, at last, in the darkness of
the day, and with great fear in the hearts of all the warriors and
braves of the tribe, they said if he would cause the Sun God to show
his face again, then they would promise to make the war. And so he
stretched his hands to the Sun and spake some words, and slowly
his rays came forth again one by one and light appeared again upon
the world. Yet this we also know now was false, and that the rays
would have come and also the light even though the promise had
been withheld. I have spoken."

At first none of us uttered a word when the sachem concluded. In

truth, all were surprised that, even among these poor, ignorant
savages, such credulity could have existed. And, I think, most of us
were pondering on what they would have done to the impostor had
the promise not been forthcoming by the time that the eclipse--for it
was, naturally, of such a thing the sachem spake--had passed away.

Yet a spokesman had to be put forward on our part, and so we

drew away a little to consult. And having chosen one, which was
Kinchella, we returned and he addressed the Indians thus:

"Warriors, braves, and people of the assembled tribes. We have

thought upon all your sachem has said, and we wish that the only
true God had inspired your hearts so that you should not have
listened to the false prophet who deceived you. Yet, since you have
done so, and have made war upon those who in their generation
have never harmed you, what reparation can you offer us?"

"Ask what you will," said Anuza, "and if it is in our power it shall
be given."

"'Tis well. Listen, therefore. These are our demands. Firstly, all
those who dwell with you and have our blood, the blood of the white
men, in their veins, shall be brought here, so that we may speak
with them and implore them to return with us to their own people.
Also that I, who am a humble minister of the true God, may
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