Chapter: "I'll seek a readier path."

  PARNELL.


The route taken by Hawkeye lay across those sandy plains, relieved by
occasional valleys and swells of land, which had been traversed by their
party on the morning of the same day, with the baffled Magua for their
guide. The sun had now fallen low towards the distant mountains; and as
their journey lay through the interminable forest, the heat was no
longer oppressive. Their progress, in consequence, was proportionate;
and long before the twilight gathered about them, they had made good
many toilsome miles on their return.

The hunter, like the savage whose place he filled, seemed to select
among the blind signs of their wild route, with a species of instinct,
seldom abating his speed, and never pausing to deliberate. A rapid and
oblique glance at the moss on the trees, with an occasional upward gaze
towards the setting sun, or a steady but passing look at the direction
of the numerous water-courses, through which he waded, were sufficient
to determine his path, and remove his greatest difficulties. In the
meantime, the forest began to change its hues, losing that lively green
which had embellished its arches, in the graver light which is the usual
precursor of the close of day.

While the eyes of the sisters were endeavoring to catch glimpses through
the trees, of the flood of golden glory which formed a glittering halo
around the sun, tinging here and there with ruby streaks, or bordering
with narrow edgings of shining yellow, a mass of clouds that lay piled
at no great distance above the western hills, Hawkeye turned suddenly,
and, pointing upwards towards the gorgeous heavens, he spoke:--

"Yonder is the signal given to a man to seek his food and natural rest,"
he said: "better and wiser would it be, if he could understand the signs
of nature, and take a lesson from the fowls of the air and the beasts of
the fields! Our night, however, will soon be over; for, with the moon,
we must be up and moving again. I remember to have fou't the Maquas,
hereaways, in the first war in which I ever drew blood from man; and we
threw up a work of blocks, to keep the ravenous varmints from handling
our scalps. If my marks do not fail me, we shall find the place a few
rods farther to our left."

Without waiting for an assent, or, indeed, for any reply, the sturdy
hunter moved boldly into a dense thicket of young chestnuts, shoving
aside the branches of the exuberant shoots which nearly covered the
ground, like a man who expected, at each step, to discover some object
he had formerly known. The recollection of the scout did not deceive
him. After penetrating through the brush, matted as it was with briers,
for a few hundred feet he entered an open space, that surrounded a low,
green hillock, which was crowned by the decayed block-house in question.
This rude and neglected building was one of those deserted works, which,
having been thrown up on an emergency, had been abandoned with the
disappearance of danger, and was now quietly crumbling in the solitude
of the forest, neglected, and nearly forgotten, like the circumstances
which had caused it to be reared. Such memorials of the passage and
struggles of man are yet frequent throughout the broad barrier of
wilderness which once separated the hostile provinces, and form a
species of ruins that are intimately associated with the recollections
of colonial history, and which are in appropriate keeping with the
gloomy character of the surrounding scenery.[19] The roof of bark had
long since fallen, and mingled with the soil; but the huge logs of pine,
which had been hastily thrown together, still preserved their relative
positions, though one angle of the work had given way under the
pressure, and threatened a speedy downfall to the remainder of the
rustic edifice. While Heyward and his companions hesitated to approach a
building so decayed, Hawkeye and the Indians entered within the low
walls, not only without fear, but with obvious interest. While the
former surveyed the ruins, both internally and externally, with the
curiosity of one whose recollections were reviving at each moment,
Chingachgook related to his son, in the language of the Delawares, and
with the pride of a conqueror, the brief history of the skirmish which
had been fought, in his youth, in that secluded spot. A strain of
melancholy, however, blended with his triumph, rendering his voice, as
usual, soft and musical.

In the meantime, the sisters gladly dismounted, and prepared to enjoy
their halt in the coolness of the evening, and in a security which they
believed nothing but the beasts of the forest could invade.

"Would not our resting-place have been more retired, my worthy friend,"
demanded the more vigilant Duncan, perceiving that the scout had already
finished his short survey, "had we chosen a spot less known, and one
more rarely visited than this?"

"Few live who know the block-house was ever raised," was the slow and
musing answer; "'tis not often that books are made, and narratives
written, of such a scrimmage as was here fou't atween the Mohicans and
the Mohawks, in a war of their own waging. I was then a younker, and
went out with the Delawares, because I know'd they were a scandalized
and wronged race. Forty days and forty nights did the imps crave our
blood around this pile of logs, which I designed and partly reared,
being, as you'll remember, no Indian myself, but a man without a cross.
The Delawares lent themselves to the work, and we made it good, ten to
twenty, until our numbers were nearly equal, and then we sallied out
upon the hounds, and not a man of them ever got back to tell the fate of
his party. Yes, yes; I was then young, and new to the sight of blood;
and not relishing the thought that creatures who had spirits like myself
should lay on the naked ground, to be torn asunder by beasts, or to
bleach in the rains, I buried the dead with my own hands, under that
very little hillock where you have placed yourselves; and no bad seat
does it make neither, though it be raised by the bones of mortal men."

Heyward and the sisters arose, on the instant, from the grassy
sepulchre; nor could the two latter, notwithstanding the terrific scenes
they had so recently passed through, entirely suppress an emotion of
natural horror, when they found themselves in such familiar contact with
the grave of the dead Mohawks. The gray light, the gloomy little area of
dark grass, surrounded by its border of brush, beyond which the pines
rose, in breathing silence, apparently, into the very clouds, and the
death-like stillness of the vast forest, were all in unison to deepen
such a sensation.

"They are gone, and they are harmless," continued Hawkeye, waving his
hand, with a melancholy smile, at their manifest alarm: "they'll never
shout the war-whoop nor strike a blow with the tomahawk again! And of
all those who aided in placing them where they lie, Chingachgook and I
only are living! The brothers and family of the Mohican formed our
war-party; and you see before you all that are now left of his race."

The eyes of the listeners involuntarily sought the forms of the Indians,
with a compassionate interest in their desolate fortune. The dark
persons were still to be seen within the shadows of the block-house, the
son listening to the relation of his father with that sort of
intenseness which would be created by a narrative that redounded so much
to the honor of those whose names he had long revered for their courage
and savage virtues.

"I had thought the Delawares a pacific people," said Duncan, "and that
they never waged war in person; trusting the defence of their lands to
those very Mohawks that you slew!"

"'Tis true in part," returned the scout, "and yet, at the bottom, 'tis a
wicked lie. Such a treaty was made in ages gone by, through the
deviltries of the Dutchers, who wished to disarm the natives that had
the best right to the country where they had settled themselves. The
Mohicans, though a part of the same nation, having to deal with the
English, never entered into the silly bargain, but kept to their
manhood; as in truth did the Delawares, when their eyes were opened to
their folly. You see before you a chief of the great Mohican Sagamores!
Once his family could chase their deer over tracts of country wider than
that which belongs to the Albany Patteroon, without crossing brook or
hill that was not their own; but what is left to their descendant! He
may find his six feet of earth when God chooses, and keep it in peace,
perhaps, if he has a friend who will take the pains to sink his head so
low that the ploughshares cannot reach it!"

"Enough!" said Heyward, apprehensive that the subject might lead to a
discussion that would interrupt the harmony so necessary to the
preservation of his fair companions: "we have journeyed far, and few
among us are blessed with forms like that of yours, which seems to know
neither fatigue nor weakness."

"The sinews and bones of a man carry me through it all," said the
hunter, surveying his muscular limbs with a simplicity that betrayed the
honest pleasure the compliment afforded him: "there are larger and
heavier men to be found in the settlements, but you might travel many
days in a city before you could meet one able to walk fifty miles
without stopping to take breath, or who has kept the hounds within
hearing during a chase of hours. However, as flesh and blood are not
always the same, it is quite reasonable to suppose that the gentle ones
are willing to rest, after all they have seen and done this day. Uncas,
clear out the spring, while your father and I make a cover for their
tender heads of these chestnut shoots, and a bed of grass and leaves."

The dialogue ceased, while the hunter and his companions busied
themselves in preparations for the comfort and protection of those they
guided. A spring, which many long years before had induced the natives
to select the place for their temporary fortification, was soon cleared
of leaves, and a fountain of crystal gushed from the bed, diffusing its
waters over the verdant hillock. A corner of the building was then
roofed in such a manner as to exclude the heavy dew of the climate, and
piles of sweet shrubs and dried leaves were laid beneath it for the
sisters to repose on.

While the diligent woodsmen were employed in this manner, Cora and Alice
partook of that refreshment which duty required much more than
inclination prompted them to accept. They then retired within the walls,
and first offering up their thanksgivings for past mercies, and
petitioning for a continuance of the divine favor throughout the coming
night, they laid their tender forms on the fragrant couch, and in spite
of recollections and forebodings, soon sank into those slumbers which
nature so imperiously demanded, and which were sweetened by hopes for
the morrow. Duncan had prepared himself to pass the night in
watchfulness near them, just without the ruin, but the scout, perceiving
his intention, pointed towards Chingachgook, as he coolly disposed his
own person on the grass, and said--

"The eyes of a white man are too heavy and too blind for such a watch as
this! The Mohican will be our sentinel, therefore let us sleep."

"I proved myself a sluggard on my post during the past night," said
Heyward, "and have less need of repose than you, who did more credit to
the character of a soldier. Let all the party seek their rest, then,
while I hold guard."

"If we lay among the white tents of the 60th, and in front of an enemy
like the French, I could not ask for a better watchman," returned the
scout; "but in the darkness and among the signs of the wilderness your
judgment would be like the folly of a child, and your vigilance thrown
away. Do then, like Uncas and myself, sleep, and sleep in safety."

Heyward perceived, in truth, that the younger Indian had thrown his form
on the side of the hillock while they were talking, like one who sought
to make the most of the time allotted to rest, and that his example had
been followed by David, whose voice literally "clove to his jaws," with
the fever of his wound, heightened, as it was, by their toilsome march.
Unwilling to prolong a useless discussion, the young man affected to
comply, by posting his back against the logs of the block-house, in a
half-recumbent posture, though resolutely determined, in his own mind,
not to close an eye until he had delivered his precious charge into the
arms of Munro himself. Hawkeye, believing he had prevailed, soon fell
asleep, and a silence as deep as the solitude in which they had found
it, pervaded the retired spot.

For many minutes Duncan succeeded in keeping his senses on the alert,
and alive to every moaning sound that arose from the forest. His vision
became more acute as the shades of evening settled on the place; and
even after the stars were glimmering above his head, he was able to
distinguish the recumbent forms of his companions, as they lay stretched
on the grass, and to note the person of Chingachgook, who sat upright
and motionless as one of the trees which formed the dark barrier on
every side. He still heard the gentle breathings of the sisters, who lay
within a few feet of him, and not a leaf was ruffled by the passing air,
of which his ear did not detect the whispering sound. At length,
however, the mournful notes of a whippoorwill became blended with the
moanings of an owl; his heavy eyes occasionally sought the bright rays
of the stars, and then he fancied he saw them through the fallen lids.
At instants of momentary wakefulness he mistook a bush for his associate
sentinel; his head next sank upon his shoulder, which, in its turn,
sought the support of the ground; and, finally, his whole person become
relaxed and pliant, and the young man sank into a deep sleep, dreaming
that he was a knight of ancient chivalry, holding his midnight vigils
before the tent of a recaptured princess, whose favor he did not despair
of gaining, by such a proof of devotion and watchfulness.

How long the tired Duncan lay in this insensible state he never knew
himself, but his slumbering visions had been long lost in total
forgetfulness, when he was awakened by a light tap on the shoulder.
Aroused by this signal, slight as it was, he sprang upon his feet with a
confused recollection of the self-imposed duty he had assumed with the
commencement of the night.

"Who comes?" he demanded, feeling for his sword at the place where it
was usually suspended, "Speak! friend or enemy?"

"Friend," replied the low voice of Chingachgook; who, pointing upwards
at the luminary which was shedding its mild light through the opening in
the trees, directly in their bivouac, immediately added, in his rude
English, "moon comes, and white man's fort far--far off; time to move,
when sleep shuts both eyes of the Frenchman!"

"You say true! call up your friends, and bridle the horses, while I
prepare my own companions for the march!"

"We are awake, Duncan," said the soft, silvery tones of Alice within the
building, "and ready to travel very fast after so refreshing a sleep;
but you have watched through the tedious night in our behalf, after
having endured so much fatigue the live-long day!"

"Say, rather, I would have watched, but my treacherous eyes betrayed me;
twice have I proved myself unfit for the trust I bear."

"Nay, Duncan, deny it not," interrupted the smiling Alice, issuing from
the shadows of the building into the light of the moon, in all the
loveliness of her freshened beauty; "I know you to be a heedless one,
when self is the object of your care, and but too vigilant in favor of
others. Can we not tarry here a little longer, while you find the rest
you need? Cheerfully, most cheerfully, will Cora and I keep the vigils,
while you, and all these brave men, endeavor to snatch a little sleep!"

"If shame could cure me of my drowsiness, I should never close an eye
again," said the uneasy youth, gazing at the ingenuous countenance of
Alice, where, however, in its sweet solicitude, he read nothing to
confirm his half awakened suspicion. "It is but too true, that after
leading you into danger by my heedlessness, I have not even the merit of
guarding your pillows as should become a soldier."

"No one but Duncan himself should accuse Duncan of such a weakness. Go,
then, and sleep; believe me, neither of us, weak girls as we are, will
betray our watch."

The young man was relieved from the awkwardness of making any further
protestations of his own demerits, by an exclamation from Chingachgook,
and the attitude of riveted attention assumed by his son.

"The Mohicans hear an enemy!" whispered Hawkeye, who, by this time, in
common with the whole party, was awake and stirring. "They scent danger
in the wind!"

"God forbid!" exclaimed Heyward. "Surely we have had enough of
bloodshed!"

While he spoke, however, the young soldier seized his rifle, and
advancing towards the front, prepared to atone for his venial
remissness, by freely exposing his life in defence of those he attended.

"'Tis some creature of the forest prowling around us in quest of food,"
he said, in a whisper, as soon as the low, and apparently distant
sounds, which had startled the Mohicans, reached his own ears.

"Hist!" returned the attentive scout; "'tis man; even I can now tell his
tread, poor as my senses are when compared to an Indian's! That
scampering Huron has fallen in with one of Montcalm's outlying parties,
and they have struck upon our trail. I shouldn't like, myself, to spill
more human blood in this spot," he added, looking around with anxiety in
his features, at the dim objects by which he was surrounded; "but what
must be, must! Lead the horses into the block-house, Uncas; and,
friends, do you follow to the same shelter. Poor and old as it is, it
offers a cover, and has rung with the crack of a rifle afore to-night!"

He was instantly obeyed, the Mohicans leading the Narragansetts within
the ruin, whither the whole party repaired with the most guarded
silence.

The sounds of approaching footsteps were now too distinctly audible to
leave any doubts as to the nature of the interruption. They were soon
mingled with voices calling to each other in an Indian dialect, which
the hunter, in a whisper, affirmed to Heyward was the language of the
Hurons. When the party reached the point where the horses had entered
the thicket which surrounded the block-house, they were evidently at
fault, having lost those marks which, until that moment, had directed
their pursuit.

It would seem by the voices that twenty men were soon collected at that
one spot, mingling their different opinions and advice in noisy clamor.

"The knaves know our weakness," whispered Hawkeye, who stood by the side
of Heyward, in deep shade, looking through an opening in the logs, "or
they wouldn't indulge their idleness in such a squaw's march. Listen to
the reptiles! each man among them seems to have two tongues, and but a
single leg."

Duncan, brave as he was in the combat, could not, in such a moment of
painful suspense, make any reply to the cool and characteristic remark
of the scout. He only grasped his rifle more firmly, and fastened his
eyes upon the narrow opening, through which he gazed upon the moonlight
view with increasing anxiety. The deeper tones of one who spoke as
having authority were next heard, amid a silence that denoted the
respect with which his orders, or rather advice, was received. After
which, by the rustling of leaves, and cracking of dried twigs, it was
apparent the savages were separating in pursuit of the lost trail.
Fortunately for the pursued, the light of the moon, while it shed a
flood of mild lustre upon the little area around the ruin, was not
sufficiently strong to penetrate the deep arches of the forest, where
the objects still lay in deceptive shadow. The search proved fruitless;
for so short and sudden had been the passage from the faint path the
travellers had journeyed into the thicket, that every trace of their
footsteps was lost in the obscurity of the woods.

It was not long, however, before the restless savages were heard beating
the brush, and gradually approaching the inner edge of that dense border
of young chestnuts which encircled the little area.

"They are coming," muttered Heyward, endeavoring to thrust his rifle
through the chink in the logs; "let us fire on their approach."

"Keep everything in the shade," returned the scout; "the snapping of a
flint, or even the smell of a single karnel of the brimstone, would
bring the hungry varlets upon us in a body. Should it please God that we
must give battle for the scalps, trust to the experience of men who know
the ways of the savages, and who are not often backward when the
war-whoop is howled."

Duncan cast his eyes behind him, and saw that the trembling sisters were
cowering in the far corner of the building, while the Mohicans stood in
the shadow, like two upright posts, ready, and apparently willing, to
strike when the blow should be needed. Curbing his impatience, he again
looked out upon the area, and awaited the result in silence. At that
instant the thicket opened, and a tall and armed Huron advanced a few
paces into the open space. As he gazed upon the silent block-house, the
moon fell upon his swarthy countenance, and betrayed its surprise and
curiosity. He made the exclamation which usually accompanies the former
emotion in an Indian, and, calling in a low voice, soon drew a companion
to his side.

These children of the woods stood together for several moments pointing
at the crumbling edifice, and conversing in the unintelligible language
of their tribe. They then approached, though with slow and cautious
steps, pausing every instant to look at the building, like startled
deer, whose curiosity struggled powerfully with their awakened
apprehensions for the mastery. The foot of one of them suddenly rested
on the mound, and he stooped to examine its nature. At this moment,
Heyward observed that the scout loosened his knife in his sheath, and
lowered the muzzle of his rifle. Imitating these movements, the young
man prepared himself for the struggle, which now seemed inevitable.

The savages were so near, that the least motion in one of the horses, or
even a breath louder than common, would have betrayed the fugitives.
But, in discovering the character of the mound, the attention of the
Hurons appeared directed to a different object. They spoke together, and
the sounds of their voices were low and solemn, as if influenced by a
reverence that was deeply blended with awe. Then they drew warily back,
keeping their eyes riveted on the ruin, as if they expected to see the
apparitions of the dead issue from its silent walls, until having
reached the boundary of the area, they moved slowly into the thicket,
and disappeared.

Hawkeye dropped the breech of his rifle to the earth, and drawing a
long, free breath, exclaimed, in an audible whisper,--

"Ay! they respect the dead, and it has this time saved their own lives,
and, it may be, the lives of better men too."

Heyward lent his attention for a single moment to his companion, but
without replying, he again turned towards those who just then interested
him more. He heard the two Hurons leave the bushes, and it was soon
plain that all the pursuers were gathered about them, in deep attention
to their report. After a few minutes of earnest and solemn dialogue,
altogether different from the noisy clamor with which they had first
collected about the spot, the sounds grew fainter and more distant, and
finally were lost in the depths of the forest.

Hawkeye waited until a signal from the listening Chingachgook assured
him that every sound from the retiring party was completely swallowed by
the distance, when he motioned to Heyward to lead forth the horses, and
to assist the sisters into their saddles. The instant this was done,
they issued through the broken gateway, and stealing out by a direction
opposite to the one by which they had entered, they quitted the spot,
the sisters casting furtive glances at the silent grave and crumbling
ruin, as they left the soft light of the moon, to bury themselves in the
gloom of the woods.




  "_Guard._--Qui est la?

  _Puc._--Paisans, pauvres gens de France."

  _King Henry VI._


During the rapid movement from the block-house, and until the party was
deeply buried in the forest, each individual was too much interested in
the escape to hazard a word even in whispers. The scout resumed his post
in the advance, though his steps, after he had thrown a safe distance
between himself and his enemies, were more deliberate than in their
previous march, in consequence of his utter ignorance of the localities
of the surrounding woods. More than once he halted to consult with his
confederates, the Mohicans, pointing upwards at the moon, and examining
the barks of the trees with care. In these brief pauses, Heyward and the
sisters listened, with senses rendered doubly acute by the danger, to
detect any symptoms which might announce the proximity of their foes. At
such moments, it seemed as if a vast range of country lay buried in
eternal sleep; not the least sound arising from the forest, unless it
was the distant and scarcely audible rippling of a water-course. Birds,
beasts, and man, appeared to slumber alike, if, indeed, any of the
latter were to be found in that wide tract of wilderness. But the sounds
of the rivulet, feeble and murmuring as they were, relieved the guides
at once from no trifling embarrassment, and towards it they immediately
held their way.

When the banks of the little stream were gained, Hawkeye made another
halt; and, taking the moccasins from his feet, he invited Heyward and
Gamut to follow his example. He then entered the water, and for near an
hour they travelled in the bed of the brook, leaving no trail. The moon
had already sunk into an immense pile of black clouds, which lay
impending above the western horizon, when they issued from the low and
devious water-course to rise again to the light and level of the sandy
but wooded plain. Here the scout seemed to be once more at home, for he
held on his way with the certainty and diligence of a man who moved in
the security of his own knowledge. The path soon became more uneven, and
the travellers could plainly perceive that the mountains drew nigher to
them on each hand, and that they were, in truth, about entering one of
their gorges. Suddenly, Hawkeye made a pause, and waiting until he was
joined by the whole party, he spoke, though in tones so low and
cautious, that they added to the solemnity of his words, in the quiet
and darkness of the place.

"It is easy to know the pathways, and to find the licks and
water-courses of the wilderness," he said; "but who that saw this spot
could venture to say, that a mighty army was at rest among yonder silent
trees and barren mountains?"

"We are then at no great distance from William Henry?" said Heyward,
advancing nigher to the scout.

"It is yet a long and weary path, and when and where to strike it, is
now our greatest difficulty. See," he said, pointing through the trees
towards a spot where a little basin of water reflected the stars from
its placid bosom, "here is the 'bloody pond'; and I am on the ground
that I have not only often travelled, but over which I have fou't the
enemy, from the rising to the setting sun."

"Ha! that sheet of dull and dreary water, then, is the sepulchre of the
brave men who fell in the contest. I have heard it named, but never have
I stood on its banks before."

"Three battles did we make with the Dutch-Frenchman[20] in a day,"
continued Hawkeye, pursuing the train of his own thoughts, rather than
replying to the remark of Duncan. "He met us hard by, in our outward
march to ambush his advance, and scattered us, like driven deer, through
the defile, to the shores of Horican. Then we rallied behind our fallen
trees, and made head against him, under Sir William--who was made Sir
William for that very deed; and well did we pay him for the disgrace of
the morning! Hundreds of Frenchmen saw the sun that day for the last
time; and even the leader, Dieskau himself, fell into our hands so cut
and torn with the lead, that he has gone back to his own country, unfit
for further acts in war."

"'Twas a noble repulse!" exclaimed Heyward, in the heat of his youthful
ardor; "the fame of it reached us early, in our southern army."

"Ay! but it did not end there. I was sent by Major Effingham, at Sir
William's own bidding, to outflank the French, and carry the tidings of
their disaster across the portage, to the fort on the Hudson. Just
hereaway, where you see the trees rise into a mountain swell, I met a
party coming down to our aid, and I led them where the enemy were taking
their meal, little dreaming that they had not finished the bloody work
of the day."

"And you surprised them?"

"If death can be a surprise to men who are thinking only of the cravings
of their appetites. We gave them but little breathing time, for they had
borne hard upon us in the fight of the morning, and there were few in
our party who had not lost friend or relative by their hands. When all
was over, the dead, and some say the dying, were cast into that little
pond. These eyes have seen its waters colored with blood, as natural
water never yet flowed from the bowels of the 'arth."

"It was a convenient, and, I trust, will prove a peaceful grave for a
soldier. You have, then, seen much service on this frontier?"

"I!" said the scout, erecting his tall person with an air of military
pride; "there are not many echoes among these hills that haven't rung
with the crack of my rifle, nor is there the space of a square mile
atwixt Horican and the river, that 'Killdeer' hasn't dropped a living
body on, be it an enemy or be it a brute beast. As for the grave, there,
being as quiet as you mention, it is another matter. There are them in
the camp who say and think, man, to lie still, should not be buried
while the breath is in the body; and certain it is that in the hurry of
that evening, the doctors had but little time to say who was living and
who was dead. Hist! see you nothing walking on the shore of the pond?"

"'Tis not probable that any are as houseless as ourselves, in this
dreary forest."

"Such as he may care but little for house or shelter, and night dew can
never wet a body that passes its days in the water," returned the scout,
grasping the shoulder of Heyward with such convulsive strength as to
make the young soldier painfully sensible how much superstitious terror
had got the mastery of a man usually so dauntless.

"By heaven! there is a human form, and it approaches! Stand to your
arms, my friends; for we know not whom we encounter."

"Qui vive?" demanded a stern, quick voice, which sounded like a
challenge from another world, issuing out of that solitary and solemn
place.

"What says it?" whispered the scout; "it speaks neither Indian nor
English!"

"Qui vive?" repeated the same voice, which was quickly followed by the
rattling of arms, and a menacing attitude.

"France!" cried Heyward, advancing from the shadow of the trees to the
shore of the pond, within a few yards of the sentinel.

"D'ou venez-vous--ou allez-vous, d'aussi bonne heure?" demanded the
grenadier, in the language and with the accent of a man from old France.

"Je viens de la decouverte, et je vais me coucher."

"Etes-vous officier du roi?"

"Sans doute, mon camarade; me prends-tu pour un provincial! Je suis
capitaine de chasseurs (Heyward well knew that the other was of a
regiment in the line); j'ai ici, avec moi, les filles du commandant de
la fortification. Aha! tu en as entendu parler! je les ai fait
prisonnieres pres de l'autre fort, et je les conduis au general."

"Ma foi! mesdames; j'en suis fache pour vous," exclaimed the young
soldier, touching his cap with grace; "mais--fortune de guerre! vous
trouverez notre general un brave homme, et bien poli avec les dames."

"C'est le caractere des gens de guerre," said Cora, with admirable
self-possession. "Adieu, mon ami; je vous souhaiterais un devoir plus
agreable a remplir."

The soldier made a low and humble acknowledgment for her civility; and
Heyward adding a "Bonne nuit, mon camarade," they moved deliberately
forward, leaving the sentinel pacing the banks of the silent pond,
little suspecting an enemy of so much effrontery, and humming to himself
those words, which were recalled to his mind by the sight of women, and
perhaps by recollections of his own distant and beautiful France--

  "Vive le vin, l'amour," etc., etc.

"'Tis well you understood the knave!" whispered the scout, when they had
gained a little distance from the place, and letting his rifle fall into
the hollow of his arm again; "I soon saw that he was one of them uneasy
Frenchers; and well for him it was that his speech was friendly and his
wishes kind, or a place might have been found for his bones among those
of his countrymen."

He was interrupted by a long and heavy groan which arose from the little
basin, as though, in truth, the spirits of the departed lingered about
their watery sepulchre.

"Surely it was of flesh!" continued the scout; "no spirit could handle
its arms so steadily!"

"It _was_ of flesh; but whether the poor fellow still belongs to this
world may well be doubted," said Heyward, glancing his eyes around him,
and missing Chingachgook from their little band. Another groan more
faint than the former, was succeeded by a heavy and sullen plunge into
the water, and all was as still again as if the borders of the dreary
pool had never been awakened from the silence of creation. While they
yet hesitated in uncertainty, the form of the Indian was seen gliding
out of the thicket. As the chief rejoined them, with one hand he
attached the reeking scalp of the unfortunate young Frenchman to his
girdle, and with the other he replaced the knife and tomahawk that had
drunk his blood. He then took his wonted station, with the air of a man
who believed he had done a deed of merit.

The scout dropped one end of his rifle to the earth, and leaning his
hands on the other, he stood musing in profound silence. Then shaking
his head in a mournful manner, he muttered,--

"'T would have been a cruel and an unhuman act for a white-skin; but
'tis the gift and natur' of an Indian, and I suppose it should not be
denied. I could wish, though, it had befallen an accursed Mingo, rather
than that gay young boy from the old countries."

"Enough!" said Heyward, apprehensive the unconscious sisters might
comprehend the nature of the detention, and conquering his disgust by a
train of reflections very much like that of the hunter; "'tis done; and
though better it were left undone, cannot be amended. You see we are,
too obviously, within the sentinels of the enemy; what course do you
propose to follow?"

"Yes," said Hawkeye, rousing himself again, "'tis as you say, too late
to harbor further thoughts about it. Ay, the French have gathered around
the fort in good earnest, and we have a delicate needle to thread in
passing them."

"And but little time to do it in," added Heyward, glancing his eyes
upward, toward the bank of vapor that concealed the setting moon.

"And little time to do it in!" repeated the scout. "The thing may be
done in two fashions, by the help of Providence, without which it may
not be done at all."

"Name them quickly, for time presses."

"One would be to dismount the gentle ones, and let their beasts range
the plain; by sending the Mohicans in front, we might then cut a lane
through their sentries, and enter the fort over the dead bodies."

"It will not do--it will not do!" interrupted the generous Heyward; "a
soldier might force his way in this manner, but never with such a
convoy."

"'Twould be, indeed, a bloody path for tender feet to wade in," returned
the equally reluctant scout; "but I thought it befitting my manhood to
name it. We must then turn on our trail and get without the line of
their look-outs, when we will bend short to the west, and enter the
mountains; where I can hide you, so that all the devil's hounds in
Montcalm's pay would be thrown off the scent, for months to come."

"Let it be done, and that instantly."

Further words were unnecessary; for Hawkeye, merely uttering the mandate
to "follow," moved along the route by which they had just entered their
present critical and even dangerous situation. Their progress, like
their late dialogue, was guarded, and without noise; for none knew at
what moment a passing patrol, or a crouching picket of the enemy, might
rise upon their path. As they held their silent way along the margin of
the pond, again Heyward and the scout stole furtive glances at its
appalling dreariness. They looked in vain for the form they had so
recently seen stalking along its silent shores, while a low and regular
wash of the little waves, by announcing that the waters were not yet
subsided, furnished a frightful memorial of the deed of blood they had
just witnessed. Like all that passing and gloomy scene, the low basin,
however, quickly melted in the darkness, and became blended with the
mass of black objects in the rear of the travellers.

Hawkeye soon deviated from the line of their retreat, and striking off
towards the mountains which form the western boundary of the narrow
plain, he led his followers, with swift steps, deep within the shadows
that were cast from their high and broken summits. The route was now
painful; lying over ground ragged with rocks, and intersected with
ravines, and their progress proportionately slow. Bleak and black hills
lay on every side of them, compensating in some degree for the
additional toil of the march, by the sense of security they imparted. At
length the party began slowly to climb a steep and rugged ascent by a
path that curiously wound among rocks and trees, avoiding the one, and
supported by the other, in a manner that showed it had been devised by
men long practised in the arts of the wilderness. As they gradually rose
from the level of the valleys, the thick darkness which usually precedes
the approach of day began to disperse, and objects were seen in the
plain and palpable colors with which they had been gifted by nature.
When they issued from the stunted woods which clung to the barren sides
of the mountain, upon a flat and mossy rock that formed its summit, they
met the morning, as it came blushing above the green pines of a hill
that lay on the opposite side of the valley of the Horican.

The scout now told the sisters to dismount; and taking the bridles from
the mouths, and the saddles off the backs of the jaded beasts, he turned
them loose, to glean a scanty subsistence among the shrubs and meagre
herbage of that elevated region.

"Go," he said, "and seek your food where natur' gives it you; and beware
that you become not food to ravenous wolves yourselves, among these
hills."

"Have we no further need of them?" demanded Heyward.

"See, and judge with your own eyes," said the scout, advancing towards
the eastern brow of the mountain, whither he beckoned for the whole
party to follow; "if it was as easy to look into the heart of man as it
is to spy out the nakedness of Montcalm's camp from this spot,
hypocrites would grow scarce, and the cunning of a Mingo might prove a
losing game, compared to the honesty of a Delaware."

When the travellers reached the verge of the precipice, they saw, at a
glance, the truth of the scout's declaration, and the admirable
foresight with which he had led them to their commanding station.

The mountain on which they stood, elevated, perhaps, a thousand feet in
the air, was a high cone that rose a little in advance of that range
which stretches for miles along the western shores of the lake, until
meeting its sister piles, beyond the water, it ran off towards the
Canadas, in confused and broken masses of rock, thinly sprinkled with
evergreens. Immediately at the feet of the party, the southern shore of
the Horican swept in a broad semicircle, from mountain to mountain,
marking a wide strand, that soon rose into an uneven and somewhat
elevated plain. To the north stretched the limpid, and, as it appeared
from that dizzy height, the narrow sheet of the "holy lake," indented
with numberless bays, embellished by fantastic headlands, and dotted
with countless islands. At the distance of a few leagues, the bed of the
waters became lost among mountains, or was wrapped in the masses of
vapor that came slowly rolling along their bosom, before a light morning
air. But a narrow opening between the crests of the hills pointed out
the passage by which they found their way still farther north, to spread
their pure and ample sheets again, before pouring out their tribute into
the distant Champlain. To the south stretched the defile, or rather
broken plain, so often mentioned. For several miles in this direction,
the mountains appeared reluctant to yield their dominion, but within
reach of the eye they diverged, and finally melted into the level and
sandy lands, across which we have accompanied our adventurers in their
double journey. Along both ranges of hills, which bounded the opposite
sides of the lake and valley, clouds of light vapor were rising in
spiral wreaths from the uninhabited woods, looking like the smokes of
hidden cottages; or rolled lazily down the declivities, to mingle with
the fogs of the lower land. A single, solitary, snow-white cloud floated
above the valley, and marked the spot beneath which lay the silent pool
of the "bloody pond."

Directly on the shore of the lake, and nearer to its western than to its
eastern margin, lay the extensive earthen ramparts and low buildings of
William Henry. Two of the sweeping bastions appeared to rest on the
water which washed their bases, while a deep ditch and extensive
morasses guarded its other sides and angles. The land had been cleared
of wood for a reasonable distance around the work, but every other part
of the scene lay in the green livery of nature, except where the limpid
water mellowed the view, or the bold rocks thrust their black and naked
heads above the undulating outline of the mountain ranges. In its front
might be seen the scattered sentinels, who held a weary watch against
their numerous foes; and within the walls themselves, the travellers
looked down upon men still drowsy with a night of vigilance. Towards the
southeast, but in immediate contact with the fort, was an entrenched
camp, posted on a rocky eminence, that would have been far more eligible
for the work itself, in which Hawkeye pointed out the presence of those
auxiliary regiments that had so recently left the Hudson in their
company. From the woods, a little farther to the south, rose numerous
dark and lurid smokes, that were easily to be distinguished from the
purer exhalations of the springs, and which the scout also showed to
Heyward, as evidences that the enemy lay in force in that direction.

But the spectacle which most concerned the young soldier was on the
western bank of the lake, though quite near to its southern termination.
On a strip of land, which appeared, from his stand, too narrow to
contain such an army, but which, in truth, extended many hundreds of
yards from the shores of the Horican to the base of the mountain, were
to be seen the white tents and military engines of an encampment of ten
thousand men. Batteries were already thrown up in their front, and even
while the spectators above them were looking down, with such different
emotions, on a scene which lay like a map beneath their feet, the roar
of artillery rose from the valley, and passed off in thundering echoes,
along the eastern hills.

"Morning is just touching them below," said the deliberate and musing
scout, "and the watchers have a mind to wake up the sleepers by the
sound of cannon. We are a few hours too late? Montcalm has already
filled the woods with his accursed Iroquois."

"The place is, indeed, invested," returned Duncan, "but is there no
expedient by which we may enter? capture in the works would be far
preferable to falling again into the hands of roving Indians."

"See!" exclaimed the scout, unconsciously directing the attention of
Cora to the quarters of her own father, "how that shot has made the
stones fly from the side of the commandant's house! Ay! these Frenchers
will pull it to pieces faster than it was put together, solid and thick
though it be."

"Heyward, I sicken at the sight of danger that I cannot share," said the
undaunted, but anxious daughter. "Let us go to Montcalm, and demand
admission: he dare not deny a child the boon."

"You would scarce find the tent of the Frenchman with the hair on your
head," said the blunt scout. "If I had but one of the thousand boats
which lie empty along that shore, it might be done. Ha! here will soon
be an end of the firing, for yonder comes a fog that will turn day to
night, and make an Indian arrow more dangerous than a moulded cannon.
Now, if you are equal to the work, and will follow, I will make a push;
for I long to get down into that camp, if it be only to scatter some
Mingo dogs that I see lurking in the skirts of yonder thicket of birch."

"We are equal," said Cora, firmly: "on such an errand we will follow to
any danger."

The scout turned to her with a smile of honest and cordial approbation
as he answered,--

"I would I had a thousand men, of brawny limbs and quick eyes, that
feared death as little as you! I'd send them jabbering Frenchers back
into their den again, afore the week was ended, howling like so many
fettered hounds or hungry wolves. But stir," he added, turning from her
to the rest of the party, "the fog comes rolling down so fast, we shall
have but just the time to meet it on the plain, and use it as a cover.
Remember, if any accident should befall me, to keep the air blowing on
your left cheeks--or rather, follow the Mohicans; they'd scent their
way, be it in day or be it at night."

He then waved his hand for them to follow, and threw himself down the
steep declivity, with free, but careful footsteps. Heyward assisted the
sisters to descend, and in a few minutes they were all far down a
mountain whose sides they had climbed with so much toil and pain.

The direction taken by Hawkeye soon brought the travellers to the level
of the plain, nearly opposite to a sally-port in the western curtain of
the fort, which lay, itself, at the distance of about half a mile from
the point where he halted to allow Duncan to come up with his charge. In
their eagerness, and favored by the nature of the ground, they had
anticipated the fog, which was rolling heavily down the lake, and it
became necessary to pause, until the mists had wrapped the camp of the
enemy in their fleecy mantle. The Mohicans profited by the delay, to
steal out of the woods, and to make a survey of surrounding objects.
They were followed at a little distance by the scout, with a view to
profit early by their report, and to obtain some faint knowledge for
himself of the more immediate localities.

In a very few moments he returned, his face reddened with vexation,
while he muttered his disappointment in words of no very gentle import.

"Here has the cunning Frenchman been posting a picket directly in our
path," he said; "redskins and whites; and we shall be as likely to fall
into their midst as to pass them in the fog!"

"Cannot we make a circuit to avoid the danger," asked Heyward, "and come
into our path again when it is passed?"

"Who that once bends from the line of his march in a fog can tell when
or how to turn to find it again! The mists of Horican are not like the
curls from a peace-pipe, or the smoke which settles above a mosquito
fire."

He was yet speaking, when a crashing sound was heard, and a cannon-ball
entered the thicket, striking the body of a sapling, and rebounding to
the earth, its force being much expended by previous resistance. The
Indians followed instantly like busy attendants on the terrible
messenger, and Uncas commenced speaking earnestly and with much action,
in the Delaware tongue.

"It may be so, lad," muttered the scout, when he had ended; "for
desperate fevers are not to be treated like a toothache. Come, then, the
fog is shutting in."

"Stop!" cried Heyward; "first explain your expectations."

"'Tis soon done, and a small hope it is; but it is better than nothing.
This shot that you see," added the scout, kicking the harmless iron with
his foot, "has ploughed the 'arth in its road from the fort, and we
shall hunt for the furrow it has made, when all other signs may fail. No
more words, but follow, or the fog may leave us in the middle of our
path, a mark for both armies to shoot at."

Heyward perceiving that, in fact, a crisis had arrived when acts were
more required than words, placed himself between the sisters, and drew
them swiftly forward, keeping the dim figure of their leader in his eye.
It was soon apparent that Hawkeye had not magnified the power of the
fog, for before they had proceeded twenty yards, it was difficult for
the different individuals of the party to distinguish each other, in the
vapor.

They had made their little circuit to the left, and were already
inclining again towards the right, having, as Heyward thought, got over
nearly half the distance to the friendly works, when his ears were
saluted with the fierce summons, apparently within twenty feet of them,
of--

"Qui va la?"

"Push on!" whispered the scout, once more bending to the left.

"Push on!" repeated Heyward; when the summons was renewed by a dozen
voices, each of which seemed charged with menace.

"C'est moi," cried Duncan, dragging, rather than leading those he
supported, swiftly onward.

"Bete!--qui?--moi!"

"Ami de la France."

"Tu m'as plus l'air d'un _ennemi_ de la France; arrete! ou pardieu je te
ferai ami du diable. Non! feu, camarades, feu!"

The order was instantly obeyed, and the fog was stirred by the explosion
of fifty muskets. Happily, the aim was bad, and the bullets cut the air
in a direction a little different from that taken by the fugitives;
though still so nigh them, that to the unpractised ears of David and the
two females, it appeared as if they whistled within a few inches of the
organs. The outcry was renewed, and the order, not only to fire again,
but to pursue, was too plainly audible. When Heyward briefly explained
the meaning of the words they heard, Hawkeye halted, and spoke with
quick decision and great firmness.

"Let us deliver our fire," he said; "they will believe it a sortie, and
give way, or they will wait for reinforcements."

The scheme was well conceived, but failed in its effect. The instant the
French heard the pieces, it seemed as if the plain was alive with men,
muskets rattling along its whole extent, from the shores of the lake to
the farthest boundary of the woods.

"We shall draw their entire army upon us, and bring on a general
assault," said Duncan: "lead on, my friend, for your own life, and
ours."

The scout seemed willing to comply; but, in the hurry of the moment, and
in the change of position, he had lost the direction. In vain he turned
either cheek towards the light air; they felt equally cool. In this
dilemma, Uncas lighted on the furrow of the cannon-ball, where it had
cut the ground in three adjacent ant-hills.

"Give me the range!" said Hawkeye, bending to catch a glimpse of the
direction, and then instantly moving onward.

Cries, oaths, voices calling to each other, and the reports of muskets,
were now quick and incessant, and, apparently, on every side of them.
Suddenly, a strong glare of light flashed across the scene, the fog
rolled upwards in thick wreaths, and several cannon belched across the
plain, and the roar was thrown heavily back from the bellowing echoes of
the mountain.

"'Tis from the fort!" exclaimed Hawkeye, turning short on his tracks;
"and we, like stricken fools, were rushing to the woods, under the very
knives of the Maquas."

The instant their mistake was rectified, the whole party retraced the
error with the utmost diligence. Duncan willingly relinquished the
support of Cora to the arm of Uncas, and Cora as readily accepted the
welcome assistance. Men, hot and angry in pursuit, were evidently on
their footsteps, and each instant threatened their capture, if not their
destruction.

"Point de quartier aux coquins!" cried an eager pursuer, who seemed to
direct the operations of the enemy.

"Stand firm, and be ready, my gallant 60ths!" suddenly exclaimed a voice
above them; "wait to see the enemy,--fire low, and sweep the glacis."

"Father! father!" exclaimed a piercing cry from out the mist; "it is I!
Alice! thy own Elsie! spare, O! save your daughters!"

"Hold!" shouted the former speaker, in the awful tones of parental
agony, the sound reaching even to the woods, and rolling back in solemn
echo. "'Tis she! God has restored me my children! Throw open the
sally-port; to the field, 60ths, to the field; pull not a trigger, lest
ye kill my lambs! Drive off these dogs of France with your steel."

Duncan heard the grating of the rusty hinges, and darting to the spot,
directed by the sound, he met a long line of dark red warriors, passing
swiftly towards the glacis. He knew them for his own battalion of the
royal Americans, and flying to their head, soon swept every trace of his
pursuers from before the works.

For an instant, Cora and Alice had stood trembling and bewildered by
this unexpected desertion; but, before either had leisure for speech, or
even thought, an officer of gigantic frame whose locks were bleached
with years and service, but whose air of military grandeur had been
rather softened than destroyed by time, rushed out of the body of the
mist, and folded them to his bosom, while large scalding tears rolled
down his pale and wrinkled cheeks, and he exclaimed, in the peculiar
accent of Scotland,--

"For this I thank thee, Lord! Let danger come as it will, thy servant is
now prepared!"

 Now that the afternoon is shortening, Hawkeye leads the party many toilsome miles to an open space surrounding a low, green hillock crowned by a rude, decayed block-house, the scene of a victorious youthful battle for Chingachgook and the scout. Under the hillock are the long-dead Mohawks, the memory of whom makes Hawkeye once again refer to the two Mohicans as the last of their tribe. All except Chingachgook fall asleep and awaken at the rising of the moon to continue their journey. Before they can leave, they hear the steps of some twenty enemy Indians who have apparently lost their trail. While the protagonists wait in quiet suspense, two Hurons approach the mound but warily withdraw out of respect for the dead. As soon as the sounds of the hunters completely fade away, the seven fugitives silently head north again. After tactically walking barefoot in a stream for an hour, they turn again to the plain and reach the "bloody pond," where in a previous battle Frenchmen had been surprised, slain, and tossed into the water. Being now near the French outposts, they encounter a French sentinel, whom Heyward fools by answering in French and whom Chingachgook slips upon, kills, and scalps. Since they must turn back for safety, Hawkeye leads them up a mountain from which, as morning comes, they can see to the east Fort William Henry on the southern tip of Lake George. Between them and the fort are General Montcalm's ten thousand Frenchmen, while to the southeast is the camped detachment from Fort Edward. Firing has already started, but as a great fog descends, the party plans to push through it to the fort. They have strayed from their way when a cannon ball from the fort rolls to a stop near them and they decide to follow its furrow to safety. Again running into French forces, they have to flee and become lost until Uncas finds the furrow again. They are hotly pursued, but within minutes they are beneath the walls of the fort, where Munro recognizes the voice of Alice and orders his men out the sally-port. Led by Heyward, the English disperse the French as the gigantic, grey-haired Munro, large tears rolling down his cheeks, embraces his two daughters in his arms.

