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entered the dangerous defile, and before time was given for a single blow,
turned short, and leaping the heads of a row of children, he gained at once
the exterior and safer side of the formidable array. The artifice was answered
by a hundred voices raised in imprecations, and the whole of the excited
multitude broke from their order, and spread themselves about the place in
wild confusion.
A dozen blazing piles now shed their lurid brightness on the place, which
resembled some unhallowed and supernatural arena, in which malicious demons
had assembled to act their bloody and lawless rites. Those forms in the back
ground, looked like unearthly beings, gliding before the eye, and cleaving the
air with frantic and unmeaning gestures; while the savage passions of such as
passed the flames, were rendered fearfully distinct, by the gleams that shot
athwart their dusky but inflamed visages.
It will easily be understood, that amid such a concourse of vindictive
enemies, no breathing time was permitted to the fugitive. There was a single
moment, when it seemed as if he would have reached the forest, but the whole
body of his captors threw themselves before him, and drove him back into the
centre of his relentless persecutors. Turning like a headed deer, he shot,
with the swiftness of an arrow, through a pillar of forked flame, and passing
the whole multitude harmless, he appeared on the opposite side of the
clearing. Here, too, he was met and turned by a few of the older and more
subtle of the Hurons. Once more he tried the throng, as if seeking safety in
its blindness, and then several moments succeeded, during which Duncan
believed the active and courageous young stranger was irretrievably lost.
Nothing could be distinguished but a dark mass of human forms, tossed and
involved in inexplicable confusion. Arms, gleaming knives, and formidable
clubs, appeared above them, but the blows were evidently given at random. The
awful effect was heightened by the piercing shrieks of the women, and the
fierce yells of the warriors. Now and then, Duncan caught a glimpse of a light
form cleaving the air in some desperate bound, and he rather hoped than
believed, that the captive yet retained the command of his astonishing powers
of activity. Suddenly, the multitude rolled backward, and approached the spot
where he himself stood. The heavy body in the rear pressed upon the women and
children in front, and bore them to the earth. The stranger re-appeared in the
confusion. Human power could not, however, much longer endure so severe a
trial. Of this the captive seemed conscious. Profiting by the momentary
opening, he darted from among the warriors, and made a desperate, and what
seemed to Duncan, a final effort to gain the wood. As if aware that no danger
was to be apprehended from the young soldier, the fugitive nearly brushed his
person in his flight. A tall and powerful Huron, who had husbanded his forces,
pressed close upon his heels, and with an uplifted arm, menaced a fatal blow.
Duncan thrust forth a foot, and the shock precipitated the eager savage,
headlong, many feet in advance of his intended victim. Thought itself is not
quicker than was the motion with which the latter profited by the advantage;
he turned, gleamed like a meteor again before the eyes of Duncan, and at the
next moment, when the latter recovered his recollection, and gazed around in
quest of the captive, he saw him quietly leaning against a small painted post,
which stood before the door of the principal lodge.
Apprehensive that the part he had taken in the escape might prove fatal to
himself, Duncan left the place without delay. He followed the crowd, which
drew nigh the lodges, gloomy and sullen, like any other multitude that had
been disappointed in an execution. Curiosity, or, perhaps, a better feeling,
induced him to approach the stranger. He found him, standing, with one arm
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cast about the protecting post, and breathing thick and hard, after his
incredible exertions, but still disdaining to permit a single sign of
suffering to escape. His person was now protected, by immemorial and sacred
usage, until the tribe in council had deliberated and determined on his fate.
It was not difficult, however, to foretel the result, if any presage could be
drawn from the feelings of those who crowded the place.
There was no term of abuse known to the Huron vocabulary, that the
disappointed women did not lavishly expend on the successful stranger. They
flouted at his efforts, and told him, with many and bitter scoffs, that his
feet were better than his hands, and that he merited wings, while he knew not
the use of an arrow, or a knife. To all this, the captive made no reply; but
was content to preserve an attitude, in which dignity was singularly blended
with disdain. Exasperated as much by his composure as by his good fortune,
their words became unintelligible, and were succeeded by shrill, piercing
yells. Just then, the crafty squaw, who had taken the necessary precaution to
fire the piles, made her way through the throng, and cleared a place for
herself in front of the captive. The squalid and withered person of this hag,
might well have obtained for her the character of possessing more than human
cunning. Throwing back her light vestment, she stretched forth her long,
skinny, arm in derision, and using the language of the Lenape, as more
intelligible to the subject of her gibes, she commenced aloud.
Look you, Delaware! she said, snapping her fingers in his face; your
nation is a race of women, and the hoe is better fitted to your hands than the
gun! Your squaws are the mothers of deer; but if a bear, or a wild cat, or a
serpent, were born among you, ye would flee! The Huron girls shall make you
petticoats, and we will find you a husband.
A loud burst of savage and taunting laughter succeeded this attack, during
which the soft and musical merriment of the younger females, strangely chimed
with the cracked voice of their older and more malignant companion. But the
stranger was superior to all their efforts. His head was immovable; nor did he
betray the slightest consciousness that any were present, except when his
haughty eye rolled proudly towards the dusky forms of the warriors, who
stalked in the back ground, silent and sullen observers of the scene.
Infuriated at the self-command of the captive, the woman placed her arms
akimbo, and throwing herself into a posture of defiance, she broke out anew,
in a torrent of words, that no art of ours could commit, successfully, to
paper. Her breath was, however, expended in vain; for, although distinguished
in her nation as a proficient in the art of abuse, she was permitted to work
herself into such a fury, as actually to foam at the mouth, without causing a
muscle to vibrate in the motionless figure of the stranger. The effect of his
indifference began to extend itself to the other spectators; and a youngster,
who was just quitting the condition of a boy, to enter the state of manhood,
attempted to assist the termagant, by flourishing his tomahawk before their
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