dev.csv

bid,is_aggregate,source,chapter_path,summary_path,book_id,summary_id,content,summary,chapter,summary_name,summary_url,summary_text,summary_analysis,chapter_length,summary_length,analysis_length
27681,True,cliffnotes,all_chapterized_books/27681-chapters/chapters_1_to_2.txt,finished_summaries/cliffnotes/The Last of the Mohicans/section_1_part_0.txt,The Last of the Mohicans.chapters 1-2,chapters 1-2,,"{""name"": ""Chapters 1-2"", ""url"": ""https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapters-12"", ""summary"": ""Before any characters appear, the time and geography are made clear. Though it is the last war that England and France waged for a country that neither would retain, the wilderness between the forces still has to be overcome first. Thus it is in 1757, in the New York area between the head waters of the Hudson River and Lake George to the north. Because only two years earlier General Braddock was disgracefully routed by a handful of French and Indians, the frontier is now exposed to real and imaginary savage disasters as well as to the horrors of warfare. Fear has replaced reason. Near dusk of a day in July, an Indian runner named Magua arrives at Fort Edward on the upper Hudson. He has come from Fort William Henry at the southern tip of Lake George with the news that the French General Montcalm is moving south with a very large army and that Munro, commander of Fort William Henry, is in urgent need of plentiful reinforcements from General Webb. Early the next morning, a limited detachment of fifteen hundred regulars and colonists departs as if swallowed by the forest. Shortly afterwards, Major Duncan Heyward and Alice and Cora Munro, guided by Magua on foot, take by horseback a secret route toward William Henry for the girls to join their father. Blonde Alice is doubtful about Magua, covered with war paint and showing a sullen fierceness; but dark-haired Cora is stoically common sense about him, even though Heyward mentions that their father had once had to deal rigidly with the Indian. As the small party pushes on, they are overtaken by David Gamut, a tall, ungainly psalmodist ridiculously dressed and carrying a pitch pipe while riding a mare followed by its young colt. He desires to join them, and after some banter between him and Alice, he pulls out the twenty-sixth edition of The Bay Psalm Book, sounds his pipe, and renders a song \""in full, sweet, and melodious tones.\"" At a muttered comment from Magua, Heyward insists upon silence for safety. Then he glances about them and, satisfied that he has seen only shining berries, smiles to himself as they move on. But he is wrong. The branches move and a man peers exultingly after them as they disappear among the dark lines of trees."", ""analysis"": ""These two chapters introduce the reader to the historical and natural settings and are indicative of the extent to which this book, as a historical novel, relates its fictional characters to real history. Only here at the beginning and later at mid-novel will the action coincide in detail with actual events, though the historic war is always somewhere in the near distance. These chapters also present four of the main fictional characters and one secondary one, all of whom will merit our concern henceforth. Major Heyward is the gallant romantic hero, but unlike most sentimental romances where for each hero there is one heroine, here there are two, Alice and Cora, blonde and brunette. And it is immediately apparent that the old tradition of weak-blonde-strong-brunette contrast is at work, stereotyping the fair Alice and dark Cora. These three are rather predictable types which both simplify and stultify the writer's efforts with them. Magua's stealthy eyes and abrupt, furtive actions mark him as a potential villain, while the exaggerated presentation of the simple, single-minded Gamut paints him as the comic and perhaps pitiable adult innocent. At this point, both are something less than realistic and fully vitalized characters, but in comparison to the other three they seem to breathe real air. The stature of originality and verisimilitude that they do show is doubtless due to the fact that they are native characters. One may note, for instance, that Heyward's comment about Munro's once dealing rigidly with Magua not only lends suspense to the situation and points to the theme of revenge but also suggests some depth of motivation for the Indian. What we call plot -- the complications of a situation and the subsequent events and actions that further entangle things before they are finally resolved in some fashion -- starts an early ferment in terms of danger and suspense. Four likable and somewhat innocent characters strike into the unknown forest wilderness with a doubtful guide. It is a time of urgency, and movement is swift. Cooper hardly gives the reader time to question seriously why Munro's daughters would push forward their visit at this worst of times and would feel themselves safer almost alone on a dim path in savage-infested territory than in the company of fifteen hundred trained fighting men. This represents a lack in character motivation, but Cooper knows that he must get his people into jeopardy, and he at least partly succeeds in hiding this lack under suspenseful action and a sense of urgency. But in spite of the pace, Cooper also manages a good instance of dramatic irony, a fictional presentation in which the reader is allowed to see or deduce predicaments unknown or only partly known by the characters. It is thus that the first part of the pattern of action -- that of pursuit -- has begun.""}","
  ""Mine ear is open, and my heart prepared:
  The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold:
  Say, is my kingdom lost?""

  SHAKESPEARE.


It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America, that
the toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered before
the adverse hosts could meet. A wide and apparently an impervious
boundary of forests severed the possessions of the hostile provinces of
France and England. The hardy colonist, and the trained European who
fought at his side, frequently expended months in struggling against the
rapids of the streams, or in effecting the rugged passes of the
mountains, in quest of an opportunity to exhibit their courage in a more
martial conflict. But, emulating the patience and self-denial of the
practised native warriors, they learned to overcome every difficulty;
and it would seem that, in time, there was no recess of the woods so
dark, nor any secret place so lovely, that it might claim exemption from
the inroads of those who had pledged their blood to satiate their
vengeance, or to uphold the cold and selfish policy of the distant
monarchs of Europe.

Perhaps no district throughout the wide extent of the intermediate
frontiers can furnish a livelier picture of the cruelty and fierceness
of the savage warfare of those periods than the country which lies
between the head waters of the Hudson and the adjacent lakes.

The facilities which nature had there offered to the march of the
combatants were too obvious to be neglected. The lengthened sheet of the
Champlain stretched from the frontiers of Canada, deep within the
borders of the neighboring province of New York, forming a natural
passage across half the distance that the French were compelled to
master in order to strike their enemies. Near its southern termination,
it received the contributions of another lake, whose waters were so
limpid as to have been exclusively selected by the Jesuit missionaries
to perform the typical purification of baptism, and to obtain for it the
title of lake ""du Saint Sacrement."" The less zealous English thought
they conferred a sufficient honor on its unsullied fountains, when they
bestowed the name of their reigning prince, the second of the house of
Hanover. The two united to rob the untutored possessors of its wooded
scenery of their native right to perpetuate its original appellation of
""Horican.""[1]

Winding its way among countless islands, and imbedded in mountains, the
""holy lake"" extended a dozen leagues still farther to the south. With
the high plain that there interposed itself to the further passage of
the water, commenced a portage of as many miles, which conducted the
adventurer to the banks of the Hudson, at a point where, with the usual
obstructions of the rapids, or rifts, as they were then termed in the
language of the country, the river became navigable to the tide.

While, in the pursuit of their daring plans of annoyance, the restless
enterprise of the French even attempted the distant and difficult gorges
of the Alleghany, it may easily be imagined that their proverbial
acuteness would not overlook the natural advantages of the district we
have just described. It became, emphatically, the bloody arena, in which
most of the battles for the mastery of the colonies were contested.
Forts were erected at the different points that commanded the facilities
of the route, and were taken and retaken, razed and rebuilt, as victory
alighted on the hostile banners. While the husbandman shrank back from
the dangerous passes, within the safer boundaries of the more ancient
settlements, armies larger than those that had often disposed of the
sceptres of the mother countries, were seen to bury themselves in these
forests, whence they rarely returned but in skeleton bands, that were
haggard with care, or dejected by defeat. Though the arts of peace were
unknown to this fatal region, its forests were alive with men; its
shades and glens rang with the sounds of martial music, and the echoes
of its mountains threw back the laugh, or repeated the wanton cry, of
many a gallant and reckless youth, as he hurried by them, in the
noontide of his spirits, to slumber in a long night of forgetfulness.

It was in this scene of strife and bloodshed that the incidents we shall
attempt to relate occurred, during the third year of the war which
England and France last waged for the possession of a country that
neither was destined to retain.

The imbecility of her military leaders abroad, and the fatal want of
energy in her councils at home, had lowered the character of Great
Britain from the proud elevation on which it had been placed, by the
talents and enterprise of her former warriors and statesmen. No longer
dreaded by her enemies, her servants were fast losing the confidence of
self-respect. In this mortifying abasement, the colonists, though
innocent of her imbecility, and too humble to be the agents of her
blunders, were but the natural participators.

They had recently seen a chosen army from that country, which,
reverencing as a mother, they had blindly believed invincible--an army
led by a chief who had been selected from a crowd of trained warriors,
for his rare military endowments, disgracefully routed by a handful of
French and Indians, and only saved from annihilation by the coolness and
spirit of a Virginian boy, whose riper fame has since diffused itself,
with the steady influence of moral truth, to the uttermost confines of
Christendom.[2] A wide frontier had been laid naked by this unexpected
disaster, and more substantial evils were preceded by a thousand
fanciful and imaginary dangers. The alarmed colonists believed that the
yells of the savages mingled with every fitful gust of wind that issued
from the interminable forests of the west. The terrific character of
their merciless enemies increased immeasurably the natural horrors of
warfare. Numberless recent massacres were still vivid in their
recollections; nor was there any ear in the provinces so deaf as not to
have drunk in with avidity the narrative of some fearful tale of
midnight murder, in which the natives of the forests were the principal
and barbarous actors. As the credulous and excited traveller related the
hazardous chances of the wilderness, the blood of the timid curdled
with terror, and mothers cast anxious glances even at those children
which slumbered within the security of the largest towns. In short, the
magnifying influence of fear began to set at naught the calculations of
reason, and to render those who should have remembered their manhood,
the slaves of the basest of passions. Even the most confident and the
stoutest hearts began to think the issue of the contest was becoming
doubtful; and that abject class was hourly increasing in numbers, who
thought they foresaw all the possessions of the English crown in America
subdued by their Christian foes, or laid waste by the inroads of their
relentless allies.

When, therefore, intelligence was received at the fort, which covered
the southern termination of the portage between the Hudson and the
lakes, that Montcalm had been seen moving up the Champlain, with an army
""numerous as the leaves on the trees,"" its truth was admitted with more
of the craven reluctance of fear than with the stern joy that a warrior
should feel, in finding an enemy within reach of his blow. The news had
been brought, towards the decline of a day in midsummer, by an Indian
runner, who also bore an urgent request from Munro, the commander of a
work on the shore of the ""holy lake,"" for a speedy and powerful
reinforcement. It has already been mentioned that the distance between
these two posts was less than five leagues. The rude path, which
originally formed their line of communication, had been widened for the
passage of wagons; so that the distance which had been travelled by the
son of the forest in two hours, might easily be effected by a detachment
of troops, with their necessary baggage, between the rising and setting
of a summer sun. The loyal servants of the British crown had given to
one of these forest fastnesses the name of William Henry, and to the
other that of Fort Edward; calling each after a favorite prince of the
reigning family. The veteran Scotchman just named held the first, with a
regiment of regulars and a few provincials; a force really by far too
small to make head against the formidable power that Montcalm was
leading to the foot of his earthen mounds. At the latter, however, lay
General Webb, who commanded the armies of the king in the northern
provinces, with a body of more than five thousand men. By uniting the
several detachments of his command, this officer might have arrayed
nearly double that number of combatants against the enterprising
Frenchman, who had ventured so far from his reinforcements, with an army
but little superior in numbers.

But under the influence of their degraded fortunes, both officers and
men appeared better disposed to await the approach of their formidable
antagonists, within their works, than to resist the progress of their
march, by emulating the successful example of the French at Fort du
Quesne, and striking a blow on their advance.

After the first surprise of the intelligence had a little abated, a
rumor was spread through the entrenched camp, which stretched along the
margin of the Hudson, forming a chain of outworks to the body of the
fort itself, that a chosen detachment of fifteen hundred men was to
depart, with the dawn, for William Henry, the post at the northern
extremity of the portage. That which at first was only rumor, soon
became certainty, as orders passed from the quarters of the
commander-in-chief to the several corps he had selected for this
service, to prepare for their speedy departure. All doubt as to the
intention of Webb now vanished, and an hour or two of hurried footsteps
and anxious faces succeeded. The novice in the military art flew from
point to point, retarding his own preparations by the excess of his
violent and somewhat distempered zeal; while the more practised veteran
made his arrangements with a deliberation that scorned every appearance
of haste; though his sober lineaments and anxious eye sufficiently
betrayed that he had no very strong professional relish for the as yet
untried and dreaded warfare of the wilderness. At length the sun set in
a flood of glory, behind the distant western hills, and as darkness drew
its veil around the secluded spot the sounds of preparation diminished;
the last light finally disappeared from the log cabin of some officer;
the trees cast their deeper shadows over the mounds and the rippling
stream, and a silence soon pervaded the camp, as deep as that which
reigned in the vast forest by which it was environed.

According to the orders of the preceding night, the heavy sleep of the
army was broken by the rolling of the warning drums, whose rattling
echoes were heard issuing, on the damp morning air, out of every vista
of the woods, just as day began to draw the shaggy outlines of some tall
pines of the vicinity, on the opening brightness of a soft and cloudless
eastern sky. In an instant the whole camp was in motion; the meanest
soldier arousing from his lair to witness the departure of his
comrades, and to share in the excitement and incidents of the hour. The
simple array of the chosen band was soon completed. While the regular
and trained hirelings of the king marched with haughtiness to the right
of the line, the less pretending colonists took their humbler position
on its left, with a docility that long practice had rendered easy. The
scouts departed; strong guards preceded and followed the lumbering
vehicles that bore the baggage; and before the gray light of the morning
was mellowed by the rays of the sun, the main body of the combatants
wheeled into column, and left the encampment with a show of high
military bearing, that served to drown the slumbering apprehensions of
many a novice, who was now about to make his first essay in arms. While
in view of their admiring comrades, the same proud front and ordered
array was observed, until the notes of their fifes growing fainter in
distance, the forest at length appeared to swallow up the living mass
which had slowly entered its bosom.

The deepest sounds of the retiring and invisible column had ceased to be
borne on the breeze to the listeners, and the latest straggler had
already disappeared in pursuit; but there still remained the signs of
another departure, before a log cabin of unusual size and
accommodations, in front of which those sentinels paced their rounds,
who were known to guard the person of the English general. At this spot
were gathered some half dozen horses, caparisoned in a manner which
showed that two, at least, were destined to bear the persons of females,
of a rank that it was not usual to meet so far in the wilds of the
country. A third wore the trappings and arms of an officer of the staff;
while the rest, from the plainness of the housings, and the travelling
mails with which they were encumbered, were evidently fitted for the
reception of as many menials, who were, seemingly, already awaiting the
pleasure of those they served. At a respectful distance from this
unusual show were gathered divers groups of curious idlers; some
admiring the blood and bone of the high-mettled military charger, and
others gazing at the preparations, with dull wonder of vulgar curiosity.
There was one man, however, who, by his countenance and actions, formed
a marked exception to those who composed the latter class of spectators,
being neither idle, nor seemingly very ignorant.

The person of this individual was to the last degree ungainly, without
being in any particular manner deformed. He had all the bones and joints
of other men, without any of their proportions. Erect, his stature
surpassed that of his fellows; seated, he appeared reduced within the
ordinary limits of the race. The same contrariety in his members seemed
to exist throughout the whole man. His head was large; his shoulders
narrow; his arms long and dangling; while his hands were small, if not
delicate. His legs and thighs were thin, nearly to emaciation, but of
extraordinary length; and his knees would have been considered
tremendous, had they not been outdone by the broader foundations on
which this false superstructure of the blended human orders was so
profanely reared. The ill-assorted and injudicious attire of the
individual only served to render his awkwardness more conspicuous. A
sky-blue coat, with short and broad skirts and low cape, exposed a long
thin neck, and longer and thinner legs, to the worst animadversions of
the evil disposed. His nether garment was of yellow nankeen, closely
fitted to the shape, and tied at his bunches of knees by large knots of
white ribbon, a good deal sullied by use. Clouded cotton stockings, and
shoes, on one of the latter of which was a plated spur, completed the
costume of the lower extremity of this figure, no curve or angle of
which was concealed, but, on the other hand, studiously exhibited,
through the vanity or simplicity of its owner. From beneath the flap of
an enormous pocket of a soiled vest of embossed silk, heavily ornamented
with tarnished silver lace, projected an instrument, which, from being
seen in such martial company, might have been easily mistaken for some
mischievous and unknown implement of war. Small as it was, this uncommon
engine had excited the curiosity of most of the Europeans in the camp,
though several of the provincials were seen to handle it, not only
without fear, but with the utmost familiarity. A large, civil cocked
hat, like those worn by clergymen within the last thirty years,
surmounted the whole, furnishing dignity to a good-natured and somewhat
vacant countenance, that apparently needed such artificial aid, to
support the gravity of some high and extraordinary trust.

While the common herd stood aloof, in deference to the quarters of Webb,
the figure we have described stalked in the centre of the domestics,
freely expressing his censures or commendations on the merits of the
horses, as by chance they displeased or satisfied his judgment.

""This beast, I rather conclude, friend, is not of home raising, but is
from foreign lands, or perhaps from the little island itself over the
blue water?"" he said, in a voice as remarkable for the softness and
sweetness of its tones, as was his person for its rare proportions: ""I
may speak of these things, and be no braggart; for I have been down at
both havens; that which is situate at the mouth of Thames, and is named
after the capital of Old England, and that which is called 'Haven,' with
the addition of the word 'New'; and have seen the snows and brigantines
collecting their droves, like the gathering to the ark, being outward
bound to the Island of Jamaica, for the purpose of barter and traffic in
four-footed animals; but never before have I beheld a beast which
verified the true Scripture war-horse like this: 'He paweth in the
valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed
men. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle
afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.' It would seem
that the stock of the horse of Israel has descended to our own time;
would it not, friend?""

Receiving no reply to this extraordinary appeal, which in truth, as it
was delivered with the vigor of full and sonorous tones, merited some
sort of notice, he who had thus sung forth the language of the Holy Book
turned to the silent figure to whom he had unwittingly addressed
himself, and found a new and more powerful subject of admiration in the
object that encountered his gaze. His eyes fell on the still, upright,
and rigid form of the ""Indian runner,"" who had borne to the camp the
unwelcome tidings of the preceding evening. Although in a state of
perfect repose, and apparently disregarding, with characteristic
stoicism, the excitement and bustle around him, there was a sullen
fierceness mingled with the quiet of the savage, that was likely to
arrest the attention of much more experienced eyes than those which now
scanned him, in unconcealed amazement. The native bore both the tomahawk
and knife of his tribe; and yet his appearance was not altogether that
of a warrior. On the contrary, there was an air of neglect about his
person, like that which might have proceeded from great and recent
exertion, which he had not yet found leisure to repair. The colors of
the war-paint had blended in dark confusion about his fierce
countenance, and rendered his swarthy lineaments still more savage and
repulsive than if art had attempted an effect which had been thus
produced by chance. His eye, alone, which glistened like a fiery star
amid lowering clouds, was to be seen in its state of native wildness.
For a single instant, his searching and yet wary glance met the
wondering look of the other, and then changing its direction, partly in
cunning, and partly in disdain, it remained fixed, as if penetrating the
distant air.

It is impossible to say what unlooked-for remark this short and silent
communication, between two such singular men, might have elicited from
the white man, had not his active curiosity been again drawn to other
objects. A general movement among the domestics, and a low sound of
gentle voices, announced the approach of those whose presence alone was
wanted to enable the cavalcade to move. The simple admirer of the
war-horse instantly fell back to a low, gaunt, switch-tailed mare, that
was unconsciously gleaning the faded herbage of the camp nigh by; where,
leaning with one elbow on the blanket that concealed an apology for a
saddle, he became a spectator of the departure, while a foal was quietly
making its morning repast, on the opposite side of the same animal.

A young man, in the dress of an officer, conducted to their steeds two
females, who, as it was apparent by their dresses, were prepared to
encounter the fatigues of a journey in the woods. One, and she was the
most juvenile in her appearance, though both were young, permitted
glimpses of her dazzling complexion, fair golden hair, and bright blue
eyes, to be caught, as she artlessly suffered the morning air to blow
aside the green veil which descended low from her beaver. The flush
which still lingered above the pines in the western sky was not more
bright nor delicate than the bloom on her cheek; nor was the opening day
more cheering than the animated smile which she bestowed on the youth,
as he assisted her into the saddle. The other, who appeared to share
equally in the attentions of the young officer, concealed her charms
from the gaze of the soldiery, with a care that seemed better fitted to
the experience of four or five additional years. It could be seen,
however, that her person, though moulded with the same exquisite
proportions, of which none of the graces were lost by the travelling
dress she wore, was rather fuller and more mature than that of her
companion.

No sooner were these females seated, than their attendant sprang lightly
into the saddle of the war-horse, when the whole three bowed to Webb,
who, in courtesy, awaited their parting on the threshold of his cabin,
and turning their horses' heads, they proceeded at a slow amble,
followed by their train, towards the northern entrance of the
encampment. As they traversed that short distance, not a voice was
heard amongst them; but a slight exclamation proceeded from the younger
of the females, as the Indian runner glided by her, unexpectedly, and
led the way along the military road in her front. Though this sudden and
startling movement of the Indian produced no sound from the other, in
the surprise her veil also was allowed to open its folds, and betrayed
an indescribable look of pity, admiration, and horror, as her dark eye
followed the easy motions of the savage. The tresses of this lady were
shining and black, like the plumage of the raven. Her complexion was not
brown, but it rather appeared charged with the color of the rich blood,
that seemed ready to burst its bounds. And yet there was neither
coarseness nor want of shadowing in a countenance that was exquisitely
regular and dignified, and surpassingly beautiful. She smiled, as if in
pity at her own momentary forgetfulness, discovering by the act a row of
teeth that would have shamed the purest ivory; when, replacing the veil,
she bowed her face, and rode in silence, like one whose thoughts were
abstracted from the scene around her.




  ""Sola, sola, wo, ha, ho, sola!""

  SHAKESPEARE.


While one of the lovely beings we have so cursorily presented to the
reader was thus lost in thought, the other quickly recovered from the
alarm which induced the exclamation, and, laughing at her own weakness,
she inquired of the youth who rode by her side,--

""Are such spectres frequent in the woods, Heyward; or is this sight an
especial entertainment on our behalf? If the latter, gratitude must
close our mouths; but if the former, both Cora and I shall have need to
draw largely on that stock of hereditary courage which we boast, even
before we are made to encounter the redoubtable Montcalm.""

""Yon Indian is a 'runner' of the army; and, after the fashion of his
people, he may be accounted a hero,"" returned the officer. ""He has
volunteered to guide us to the lake, by a path but little known, sooner
than if we followed the tardy movements of the column: and, by
consequence, more agreeably.""

""I like him not,"" said the lady, shuddering, partly in assumed, yet more
in real terror. ""You know him, Duncan, or you would not trust yourself
so freely to his keeping?""

""Say, rather, Alice, that I would not trust you. I do know him, or he
would not have my confidence, and least of all at this moment. He is
said to be a Canadian, too; and yet he served with our friends the
Mohawks, who, as you know, are one of the six allied nations.[3] He was
brought among us, as I have heard, by some strange accident in which
your father was interested, and in which the savage was rigidly dealt
by--but I forget the idle tale; it is enough, that he is now our
friend.""

""If he has been my father's enemy, I like him still less!"" exclaimed the
now really anxious girl. ""Will you not speak to him, Major Heyward, that
I may hear his tones? Foolish though it may be, you have often heard me
avow my faith in the tones of the human voice!""

""It would be in vain; and answered, most probably, by an ejaculation.
Though he may understand it, he affects, like most of his people, to be
ignorant of the English; and least of all will he condescend to speak
it, now that war demands the utmost exercise of his dignity. But he
stops; the private path by which we are to journey is, doubtless, at
hand.""

The conjecture of Major Heyward was true. When they reached the spot
where the Indian stood, pointing into the thicket that fringed the
military road, a narrow and blind path, which might, with some little
inconvenience, receive one person at a time, became visible.

""Here, then, lies our way,"" said the young man, in a low voice.
""Manifest no distrust, or you may invite the danger you appear to
apprehend.""

""Cora, what think you?"" asked the reluctant fair one. ""If we journey
with the troops, though we may find their presence irksome, shall we not
feel better assurance of our safety?""

""Being little accustomed to the practices of the savages, Alice, you
mistake the place of real danger,"" said Heyward. ""If enemies have
reached the portage at all, a thing by no means probable, as our scouts
are abroad, they will surely be found skirting the column where scalps
abound the most. The route of the detachment is known, while ours,
having been determined within the hour, must still be secret.""

""Should we distrust the man because his manners are not our manners, and
that his skin is dark?"" coldly asked Cora.

Alice hesitated no longer; but giving her Narragansett[4] a smart cut
of the whip, she was the first to dash aside the slight branches of the
bushes, and to follow the runner along the dark and tangled pathway. The
young man regarded the last speaker in open admiration, and even
permitted her fairer though certainly not more beautiful companion to
proceed unattended, while he sedulously opened the way himself for the
passage of her who has been called Cora. It would seem that the
domestics had been previously instructed; for, instead of penetrating
the thicket, they followed the route of the column; a measure which
Heyward stated had been dictated by the sagacity of their guide, in
order to diminish the marks of their trail, if, haply, the Canadian
savages should be lurking so far in advance of their army. For many
minutes the intricacy of the route admitted of no further dialogue;
after which they emerged from the broad border of underbrush which grew
along the line of the highway, and entered under the high but dark
arches of the forest. Here their progress was less interrupted, and the
instant the guide perceived that the females could command their steeds,
he moved on, at a pace between a trot and a walk, and at a rate which
kept the sure-footed and peculiar animals they rode, at a fast yet easy
amble. The youth had turned to speak to the dark-eyed Cora, when the
distant sound of horses' hoofs, clattering over the roots of the broken
way in his rear, caused him to check his charger; and, as his companions
drew their reins at the same instant, the whole party came to a halt, in
order to obtain an explanation of the unlooked-for interruption.

In a few moments a colt was seen gliding, like a fallow-deer, among the
straight trunks of the pines; and, in another instant, the person of the
ungainly man described in the preceding chapter, came into view, with as
much rapidity as he could excite his meagre beast to endure without
coming to an open rupture. Until now this personage had escaped the
observation of the travellers. If he possessed the power to arrest any
wandering eye when exhibiting the glories of his altitude on foot, his
equestrian graces were still more likely to attract attention.
Notwithstanding a constant application of his one armed heel to the
flanks of the mare, the most confirmed gait that he could establish was
a Canterbury gallop with the hind legs, in which those more forward
assisted for doubtful moments, though generally content to maintain a
loping trot. Perhaps the rapidity of the changes from one of these paces
to the other created an optical illusion, which might thus magnify the
powers of the beast; for it is certain that Heyward, who possessed a
true eye for the merits of a horse, was unable, with his utmost
ingenuity, to decide by what sort of movement his pursuer worked his
sinuous way on his footsteps with such persevering hardihood.

The industry and movements of the rider were not less remarkable than
those of the ridden. At each change in the evolutions of the latter, the
former raised his tall person in the stirrups; producing, in this
manner, by the undue elongation of his legs, such sudden growths and
diminishings of the stature, as baffled every conjecture that might be
made as to his dimensions. If to this be added the fact that, in
consequence of the ex parte application of the spur, one side of the
mare appeared to journey faster than the other; and that the aggrieved
flank was resolutely indicated by unremitted flourishes of a bushy tail,
we finish the picture of both horse and man.

The frown which had gathered around the handsome, open, and manly brow
of Heyward, gradually relaxed, and his lips curled into a slight smile,
as he regarded the stranger. Alice made no very powerful effort to
control her merriment; and even the dark, thoughtful eye of Cora lighted
with a humor that, it would seem, the habit, rather than the nature of
its mistress repressed.

""Seek you any here?"" demanded Heyward, when the other had arrived
sufficiently nigh to abate his speed; ""I trust you are no messenger of
evil tidings?""

""Even so,"" replied the stranger, making diligent use of his triangular
castor, to produce a circulation in the close air of the woods, and
leaving his hearers in doubt to which of the young man's questions he
responded; when, however, he had cooled his face, and recovered his
breath, he continued, ""I hear you are riding to William Henry; as I am
journeying thitherward myself, I concluded good company would seem
consistent to the wishes of both parties.""

""You appear to possess the privilege of a casting vote,"" returned
Heyward; ""we are three, whilst you have consulted no one but yourself.""

""Even so. The first point to be obtained is to know one's own mind. Once
sure of that, and where women are concerned, it is not easy, the next
is, to act up to the decision. I have endeavored to do both, and here I
am.""

""If you journey to the lake, you have mistaken your route,"" said
Heyward, haughtily; ""the highway thither is at least half a mile behind
you.""

""Even so,"" returned the stranger, nothing daunted by this cold
reception; ""I have tarried at 'Edward' a week, and I should be dumb not
to have inquired the road I was to journey; and if dumb there would be
an end to my calling."" After simpering in a small way, like one whose
modesty prohibited a more open expression of his admiration of a
witticism that was perfectly unintelligible to his hearers, he
continued: ""It is not prudent for any one of my profession to be too
familiar with those he is to instruct; for which reason I follow not the
line of the army; besides which, I conclude that a gentleman of your
character has the best judgment in matters of wayfaring; I have
therefore decided to join company, in order that the ride may be made
agreeable, and partake of social communion.""

""A most arbitrary, if not a hasty decision!"" exclaimed Heyward,
undecided whether to give vent to his growing anger, or to laugh in the
other's face. ""But you speak of instruction, and of a profession; are
you an adjunct to the provincial corps, as a master of the noble science
of defence and offence; or, perhaps, you are one who draws lines and
angles, under the pretence of expounding the mathematics?""

The stranger regarded his interrogator a moment, in wonder; and then,
losing every mark of self-satisfaction in an expression of solemn
humility, he answered:--

""Of offence, I hope there is none, to either party: of defence, I make
none--by God's good mercy, having committed no palpable sin since last
entreating his pardoning grace. I understand not your allusions about
lines and angles; and I leave expounding to those who have been called
and set apart for that holy office. I lay claim to no higher gift than a
small insight into the glorious art of petitioning and thanksgiving, as
practised in psalmody.""

""The man is, most manifestly, a disciple of Apollo,"" cried the amused
Alice, ""and I take him under my own especial protection. Nay, throw
aside that frown, Heyward, and in pity to my longing ears, suffer him to
journey in our train. Besides,"" she added, in a low and hurried voice,
casting a glance at the distant Cora, who slowly followed the footsteps
of their silent but sullen guide, ""it may be a friend added to our
strength, in time of need.""

""Think you, Alice, that I would trust those I love by this secret path,
did I imagine such need could happen?""

""Nay, nay, I think not of it now; but this strange man amuses me; and if
he 'hath music in his soul,' let us not churlishly reject his company.""
She pointed persuasively along the path with her riding-whip, while
their eyes met in a look which the young man lingered a moment to
prolong; then yielding to her gentle influence, he clapped his spurs
into his charger, and in a few bounds was again at the side of Cora.

""I am glad to encounter thee, friend,"" continued the maiden, waving her
hand to the stranger to proceed, as she urged her Narragansett to renew
its amble. ""Partial relatives have almost persuaded me that I am not
entirely worthless in a duet myself; and we may enliven our wayfaring by
indulging in our favorite pursuit. It might be of signal advantage to
one, ignorant as I, to hear the opinions and experience of a master in
the art.""

""It is refreshing both to the spirits and to the body to indulge in
psalmody, in befitting seasons,"" returned the master of song,
unhesitatingly complying with her intimation to follow; ""and nothing
would relieve the mind more than such a consoling communion. But four
parts are altogether necessary to the perfection of melody. You have all
the manifestations of a soft and rich treble; I can, by especial aid,
carry a full tenor to the highest letter; but we lack counter and bass!
Yon officer of the king, who hesitated to admit me to his company, might
fill the latter, if one may judge from the intonations of his voice in
common dialogue.""

""Judge not too rashly from hasty and deceptive appearances,"" said the
lady, smiling; ""though Major Heyward can assume such deep notes on
occasion, believe me, his natural tones are better fitted for a mellow
tenor than the bass you heard.""

""Is he, then, much practised in the art of psalmody?"" demanded her
simple companion.

Alice felt disposed to laugh, though she succeeded in suppressing her
merriment, ere she answered,--

""I apprehend that he is rather addicted to profane song. The chances of
a soldier's life are but little fitted for the encouragement of more
sober inclinations.""

""Man's voice is given to him, like his other talents, to be used, and
not to be abused. None can say they have ever known me neglect my gifts!
I am thankful that, though my boyhood may be said to have been set
apart, like the youth of the royal David, for the purposes of music, no
syllable of rude verse has ever profaned my lips.""

""You have, then, limited your efforts to sacred song?""

""Even so. As the psalms of David exceed all other language, so does the
psalmody that has been fitted to them by the divines and sages of the
land, surpass all vain poetry. Happily, I may say that I utter nothing
but the thoughts and the wishes of the King of Israel himself; for
though the times may call for some slight changes, yet does this version
which we use in the colonies of New England, so much exceed all other
versions, that, by its richness, its exactness, and its spiritual
simplicity, it approacheth, as near as may be, to the great work of the
inspired writer. I never abide in any place, sleeping or waking, without
an example of this gifted work. 'Tis the six-and-twentieth edition,
promulgated at Boston, Anno Domini 1744; and is entitled, _The Psalms,
Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Old and New Testaments; faithfully
translated into English Metre, for the Use, Edification, and Comfort of
the Saints, in Public and Private, especially in New England_.""

During this eulogium on the rare production of his native poets, the
stranger had drawn the book from his pocket, and, fitting a pair of
iron-rimmed spectacles to his nose, opened the volume with a care and
veneration suited to its sacred purposes. Then, without circumlocution
or apology, first pronouncing the word ""Standish,"" and placing the
unknown engine, already described, to his mouth, from which he drew a
high, shrill sound, that was followed by an octave below, from his own
voice, he commenced singing the following words, in full, sweet, and
melodious tones, that set the music, the poetry, and even the uneasy
motion of his ill-trained beast at defiance:--

  ""How good it is, O see,
    And how it pleaseth well,
  Together, e'en in unity,
    For brethren so to dwell.
  It's like the choice ointment,
    From the head to the beard did go:
  Down Aaron's beard, that downward went,
    His garment's skirts unto.""

The delivery of these skilful rhymes was accompanied, on the part of the
stranger, by a regular rise and fall of his right hand, which
terminated at the descent, by suffering the fingers to dwell a moment on
the leaves of the little volume; and on the ascent, by such a flourish
of the member as none but the initiated may ever hope to imitate. It
would seem that long practice had rendered this manual accompaniment
necessary; for it did not cease until the preposition which the poet had
selected for the close of his verse, had been duly delivered like a word
of two syllables.

Such an innovation on the silence and retirement of the forest could not
fail to enlist the ears of those who journeyed at so short a distance in
advance. The Indian muttered a few words in broken English to Heyward,
who, in his turn, spoke to the stranger; at once interrupting, and, for
the time, closing his musical efforts.

""Though we are not in danger, common prudence would teach us to journey
through this wilderness in as quiet a manner as possible. You will,
then, pardon me, Alice, should I diminish your enjoyments, by requesting
this gentleman to postpone his chant until a safer opportunity.""

""You will diminish them, indeed,"" returned the arch girl, ""for never did
I hear a more unworthy conjunction of execution and language, than that
to which I have been listening; and I was far gone in a learned inquiry
into the causes of such an unfitness between sound and sense, when you
broke the charm of my musings by that bass of yours, Duncan!""

""I know not what you call my bass,"" said Heyward, piqued at her remark,
""but I know that your safety, and that of Cora, is far dearer to me than
could be any orchestra of Handel's music."" He paused and turned his head
quickly towards a thicket, and then bent his eyes suspiciously on their
guide, who continued his steady pace, in undisturbed gravity. The young
man smiled to himself, for he believed he had mistaken some shining
berry of the woods for the glistening eyeballs of a prowling savage, and
he rode forward, continuing the conversation which had been interrupted
by the passing thought.

Major Heyward was mistaken only in suffering his youthful and generous
pride to suppress his active watchfulness. The cavalcade had not long
passed, before the branches of the bushes that formed the thicket were
cautiously moved asunder, and a human visage, as fiercely wild as savage
art and unbridled passions could make it, peered out on the retiring
footsteps of the travellers. A gleam of exultation shot across the
darkly painted lineaments of the inhabitant of the forest, as he traced
the route of his intended victims, who rode unconsciously onward; the
light and graceful forms of the females waving among the trees, in the
curvatures of their path, followed at each bend by the manly figure of
Heyward, until, finally, the shapeless person of the singing-master was
concealed behind the numberless trunks of trees, that rose, in dark
lines, in the intermediate space.



",Chapters 1-2,https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapters-12,"Before any characters appear, the time and geography are made clear. Though it is the last war that England and France waged for a country that neither would retain, the wilderness between the forces still has to be overcome first. Thus it is in 1757, in the New York area between the head waters of the Hudson River and Lake George to the north. Because only two years earlier General Braddock was disgracefully routed by a handful of French and Indians, the frontier is now exposed to real and imaginary savage disasters as well as to the horrors of warfare. Fear has replaced reason. Near dusk of a day in July, an Indian runner named Magua arrives at Fort Edward on the upper Hudson. He has come from Fort William Henry at the southern tip of Lake George with the news that the French General Montcalm is moving south with a very large army and that Munro, commander of Fort William Henry, is in urgent need of plentiful reinforcements from General Webb. Early the next morning, a limited detachment of fifteen hundred regulars and colonists departs as if swallowed by the forest. Shortly afterwards, Major Duncan Heyward and Alice and Cora Munro, guided by Magua on foot, take by horseback a secret route toward William Henry for the girls to join their father. Blonde Alice is doubtful about Magua, covered with war paint and showing a sullen fierceness; but dark-haired Cora is stoically common sense about him, even though Heyward mentions that their father had once had to deal rigidly with the Indian. As the small party pushes on, they are overtaken by David Gamut, a tall, ungainly psalmodist ridiculously dressed and carrying a pitch pipe while riding a mare followed by its young colt. He desires to join them, and after some banter between him and Alice, he pulls out the twenty-sixth edition of The Bay Psalm Book, sounds his pipe, and renders a song ""in full, sweet, and melodious tones."" At a muttered comment from Magua, Heyward insists upon silence for safety. Then he glances about them and, satisfied that he has seen only shining berries, smiles to himself as they move on. But he is wrong. The branches move and a man peers exultingly after them as they disappear among the dark lines of trees.","These two chapters introduce the reader to the historical and natural settings and are indicative of the extent to which this book, as a historical novel, relates its fictional characters to real history. Only here at the beginning and later at mid-novel will the action coincide in detail with actual events, though the historic war is always somewhere in the near distance. These chapters also present four of the main fictional characters and one secondary one, all of whom will merit our concern henceforth. Major Heyward is the gallant romantic hero, but unlike most sentimental romances where for each hero there is one heroine, here there are two, Alice and Cora, blonde and brunette. And it is immediately apparent that the old tradition of weak-blonde-strong-brunette contrast is at work, stereotyping the fair Alice and dark Cora. These three are rather predictable types which both simplify and stultify the writer's efforts with them. Magua's stealthy eyes and abrupt, furtive actions mark him as a potential villain, while the exaggerated presentation of the simple, single-minded Gamut paints him as the comic and perhaps pitiable adult innocent. At this point, both are something less than realistic and fully vitalized characters, but in comparison to the other three they seem to breathe real air. The stature of originality and verisimilitude that they do show is doubtless due to the fact that they are native characters. One may note, for instance, that Heyward's comment about Munro's once dealing rigidly with Magua not only lends suspense to the situation and points to the theme of revenge but also suggests some depth of motivation for the Indian. What we call plot -- the complications of a situation and the subsequent events and actions that further entangle things before they are finally resolved in some fashion -- starts an early ferment in terms of danger and suspense. Four likable and somewhat innocent characters strike into the unknown forest wilderness with a doubtful guide. It is a time of urgency, and movement is swift. Cooper hardly gives the reader time to question seriously why Munro's daughters would push forward their visit at this worst of times and would feel themselves safer almost alone on a dim path in savage-infested territory than in the company of fifteen hundred trained fighting men. This represents a lack in character motivation, but Cooper knows that he must get his people into jeopardy, and he at least partly succeeds in hiding this lack under suspenseful action and a sense of urgency. But in spite of the pace, Cooper also manages a good instance of dramatic irony, a fictional presentation in which the reader is allowed to see or deduce predicaments unknown or only partly known by the characters. It is thus that the first part of the pattern of action -- that of pursuit -- has begun.",6471.0,388.0,473.0
27681,False,cliffnotes,all_chapterized_books/27681-chapters/03.txt,finished_summaries/cliffnotes/The Last of the Mohicans/section_2_part_0.txt,The Last of the Mohicans.chapter 3,chapter 3,,"{""name"": ""Chapter 3"", ""url"": ""https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapter-3"", ""summary"": ""In another part of the forest by the river a few miles to the west, Hawkeye and Chingachgook appear to be waiting for someone as they talk with low voices. It is now afternoon. The Indian and the scout are attired according to their forest habits: Chingachgook with his semi-nude, war-painted body and scalping tuft of hair, his tomahawk, scalping knife, and short rifle; Hawkeye with his hunting shirt, skin cap, buckskin leggings, knife, pouch and horn, and long rifle. They discuss their respective forefathers, and Chingachgook relates the slow demise of his tribe of Mohicans so that only he and his son Uncas now remain. At the mention of his name, Uncas, a youthful warrior dressed much like Hawkeye, appears and says that he has been on the trail of the Maquas, another name for the Mengwe or Iroquois, their natural enemies. The antlers of a deer are seen in the distance, and Hawkeye is about to shoot the animal for food when the warrior warns him that a shot will warn the enemy. Just as Uncas kills it with an arrow, they hear the sounds of feet which Chingachgook recognizes as the horses of white men."", ""analysis"": ""This chapter introduces the other three main actors in the story. Through the talk of the scout and the senior Indian, the rightness of racial \""gifts\"" is established. Their discussion of differences between currents and tides, between the large salt ocean and the smaller fresh lakes, reflects the novel's central motif of relativity as Hawkeye concludes that \""'everything depends on what scale you look at things.\"" Hawkeye's precipitant movement to shoot the deer at first makes his awareness of the forest dangers questionable, but the need for action is natural to this kind of man after idleness, and the incident shows his pride in handling his rifle. Such an incident makes this ideal frontiersman also human. By the end of this chapter, all the principal characters are introduced, with each one's general qualities established. They are about to be brought together to participate in the first long chase sequence.""}","
  ""Before these fields were shorn and tilled,
    Full to the brim our rivers flowed;
  The melody of waters filled
    The fresh and boundless wood;
  And torrents dashed, and rivulets played,
    And fountains spouted in the shade.""

  BRYANT.


Leaving the unsuspecting Heyward and his confiding companions to
penetrate still deeper into a forest that contained such treacherous
inmates, we must use an author's privilege, and shift the scene a few
miles to the westward of the place where we have last seen them.

On that day, two men were lingering on the banks of a small but rapid
stream, within an hour's journey of the encampment of Webb, like those
who awaited the appearance of an absent person, or the approach of some
expected event. The vast canopy of woods spread itself to the margin of
the river overhanging the water, and shadowing its dark current with a
deeper hue. The rays of the sun were beginning to grow less fierce, and
the intense heat of the day was lessened, as the cooler vapors of the
springs and fountains rose above their leafy beds, and rested in the
atmosphere. Still that breathing silence, which marks the drowsy
sultriness of an American landscape in July, pervaded the secluded spot,
interrupted only by the low voices of the men, the occasional and lazy
tap of a woodpecker, the discordant cry of some gaudy jay, or a swelling
on the ear, from the dull roar of a distant waterfall.

These feeble and broken sounds were, however, too familiar to the
foresters, to draw their attention from the more interesting matter of
their dialogue. While one of these loiterers showed the red skin and
wild accoutrements of a native of the woods, the other exhibited,
through the mask of his rude and nearly savage equipments, the brighter,
though sunburnt and long-faded complexion of one who might claim descent
from a European parentage. The former was seated on the end of a mossy
log, in a posture that permitted him to heighten the effect of his
earnest language, by the calm but expressive gestures of an Indian
engaged in debate. His body, which was nearly naked, presented a
terrific emblem of death, drawn in intermingled colors of white and
black. His closely shaved head, on which no other hair than the well
known and chivalrous scalping tuft[5] was preserved, was without
ornament of any kind, with the exception of a solitary eagle's plume,
that crossed his crown, and depended over the left shoulder. A tomahawk
and scalping-knife, of English manufacture, were in his girdle; while a
short military rifle, of that sort with which the policy of the whites
armed their savage allies, lay carelessly across his bare and sinewy
knee. The expanded chest, full formed limbs, and grave countenance of
this warrior, would denote that he had reached the vigor of his days,
though no symptoms of decay appeared to have yet weakened his manhood.

The frame of the white man, judging by such parts as were not concealed
by his clothes, was like that of one who had known hardships and
exertion from his earliest youth. His person, though muscular, was
rather attenuated than full; but every nerve and muscle appeared strung
and indurated by unremitted exposure and toil. He wore a hunting-shirt
of forest green, fringed with faded yellow[6], and a summer cap of skins
which had been shorn of their fur. He also bore a knife in a girdle of
wampum, like that which confined the scanty garments of the Indian, but
no tomahawk. His moccasins were ornamented after the gay fashion of the
natives, while the only part of his under-dress which appeared below the
hunting-frock, was a pair of buckskin leggings, that laced at the sides,
and which were gartered above the knees with the sinews of a deer. A
pouch and horn completed his personal accoutrements, though a rifle of
great length[7], which the theory of the more ingenious whites had
taught them was the most dangerous of all fire-arms, leaned against a
neighboring sapling. The eye of the hunter, or scout, whichever he might
be, was small, quick, keen, and restless, roving while he spoke, on
every side of him, as if in quest of game, or distrusting the sudden
approach of some lurking enemy. Notwithstanding the symptoms of habitual
suspicion, his countenance was not only without guile, but at the moment
at which he is introduced, it was charged with an expression of sturdy
honesty.

""Even your traditions make the case in my favor, Chingachgook,"" he said,
speaking in the tongue which was known to all the natives who formerly
inhabited the country between the Hudson and the Potomac, and of which
we shall give a free translation for the benefit of the reader;
endeavoring, at the same time, to preserve some of the peculiarities,
both of the individual and of the language. ""Your fathers came from the
setting sun, crossed the big river,[8] fought the people of the country,
and took the land; and mine came from the red sky of the morning, over
the salt lake, and did their work much after the fashion that had been
set them by yours; then let God judge the matter between us, and friends
spare their words!""

""My fathers fought with the naked redmen!"" returned the Indian sternly,
in the same language. ""Is there no difference, Hawkeye, between the
stone-headed arrow of the warrior, and the leaden bullet with which you
kill?""

""There is reason in an Indian, though nature has made him with a red
skin!"" said the white man, shaking his head like one on whom such an
appeal to his justice was not thrown away. For a moment he appeared to
be conscious of having the worst of the argument, then, rallying again,
he answered the objection of his antagonist in the best manner his
limited information would allow: ""I am no scholar, and I care not who
knows it; but judging from what I have seen, at deer chases and squirrel
hunts, of the sparks below, I should think a rifle in the hands of their
grandfathers was not so dangerous as a hickory bow and a good flint-head
might be, if drawn with Indian judgment, and sent by an Indian eye.""

""You have the story told by your fathers,"" returned the other, coldly
waving his hand. ""What say your old men? do they tell the young
warriors, that the pale-faces met the redmen, painted for war and armed
with the stone hatchet and wooden gun?""

""I am not a prejudiced man, nor one who vaunts himself on his natural
privileges, though the worst enemy I have on earth, and he is an
Iroquois, daren't deny that I am genuine white,"" the scout replied,
surveying, with secret satisfaction, the faded color of his bony and
sinewy hand; ""and I am willing to own that my people have many ways, of
which, as an honest man, I can't approve. It is one of their customs to
write in books what they have done and seen, instead of telling them in
their villages, where the lie can be given to the face of a cowardly
boaster, and the brave soldier can call on his comrades to witness for
the truth of his words. In consequence of this bad fashion, a man who is
too conscientious to misspend his days among the women, in learning the
names of black marks, may never hear of the deeds of his fathers, nor
feel a pride in striving to outdo them. For myself, I conclude the
Bumppos could shoot, for I have a natural turn with a rifle, which must
have been handed down from generation to generation, as, our holy
commandments tell us, all good and evil gifts are bestowed; though I
should be loth to answer for other people in such a matter. But every
story has its two sides; so I ask you, Chingachgook, what passed,
according to the traditions of the redmen, when our fathers first met?""

A silence of a minute succeeded, during which the Indian sat mute; then,
full of the dignity of his office, he commenced his brief tale, with a
solemnity that served to heighten its appearance of truth.

""Listen, Hawkeye, and your ear shall drink no lie. 'Tis what my fathers
have said, and what the Mohicans have done."" He hesitated a single
instant, and bending a cautious glance toward his companion, he
continued, in a manner that was divided between interrogation and
assertion, ""Does not this stream at our feet run towards the summer,
until its waters grow salt, and the current flows upward?""

""It can't be denied that your traditions tell you true in both these
matters,"" said the white man; ""for I have been there, and have seen
them; though, why water, which is so sweet in the shade, should become
bitter in the sun, is an alteration for which I have never been able to
account.""

""And the current!"" demanded the Indian, who expected his reply with that
sort of interest that a man feels in the confirmation of testimony, at
which he marvels even while he respects it; ""the fathers of Chingachgook
have not lied!""

""The Holy Bible is not more true, and that is the truest thing in
nature. They call this up-stream current the tide, which is a thing soon
explained, and clear enough. Six hours the waters run in, and six hours
they run out, and the reason is this: when there is higher water in the
sea than in the river, they run in, until the river gets to be highest,
and then it runs out again.""

""The waters in the woods, and on the great lakes, run downward until
they lie like my hand,"" said the Indian, stretching the limb
horizontally before him, ""and then they run no more.""

""No honest man will deny it,"" said the scout, a little nettled at the
implied distrust of his explanation of the mystery of the tides; ""and I
grant that it is true on the small scale, and where the land is level.
But everything depends on what scale you look at things. Now, on the
small scale, the 'arth is level; but on the large scale it is round. In
this manner, pools and ponds, and even the great fresh-water lake, may
be stagnant, as you and I both know they are, having seen them; but when
you come to spread water over a great tract, like the sea, where the
earth is round, how in reason can the water be quiet? You might as well
expect the river to lie still on the brink of those black rocks a mile
above us, though your own ears tell you that it is tumbling over them at
this very moment!""

If unsatisfied by the philosophy of his companion, the Indian was far
too dignified to betray his unbelief. He listened like one who was
convinced, and resumed his narrative in his former solemn manner.

""We came from the place where the sun is hid at night, over great plains
where the buffaloes live, until we reached the big river. There we
fought the Alligewi, till the ground was red with their blood. From the
banks of the big river to the shores of the salt lake, there was none to
meet us. The Maquas followed at a distance. We said the country should
be ours from the place where the water runs up no longer on this stream,
to a river twenty suns' journey toward the summer. The land we had taken
like warriors, we kept like men. We drove the Maquas into the woods with
the bears. They only tasted salt at the licks; they drew no fish from
the great lake; we threw them the bones.""

""All this I have heard and believe,"" said the white man, observing that
the Indian paused: ""but it was long before the English came into the
country.""

""A pine grew then where this chestnut now stands. The first pale-faces
who came among us spoke no English. They came in a large canoe, when my
fathers had buried the tomahawk with the redmen around them. Then,
Hawkeye,"" he continued, betraying his deep emotion only by permitting
his voice to fall to those low, guttural tones, which rendered his
language, as spoken at times, so very musical; ""then, Hawkeye, we were
one people, and we were happy. The salt lake gave us its fish, the wood
its deer, and the air its birds. We took wives who bore us children; we
worshipped the Great Spirit; and we kept the Maquas beyond the sound of
our songs of triumph!""

""Know you anything of your own family at that time?"" demanded the white.
""But you are a just man, for an Indian! and, as I suppose you hold their
gifts, your fathers must have been brave warriors, and wise men at the
council fire.""

""My tribe is the grandfather of nations, but I am an unmixed man. The
blood of chiefs is in my veins, where it must stay forever. The Dutch
landed, and gave my people the fire-water; they drank until the heavens
and the earth seemed to meet, and they foolishly thought they had found
the Great Spirit. Then they parted with their land. Foot by foot, they
were driven back from the shores, until I, that am a chief and a
sagamore, have never seen the sun shine but through the trees, and have
never visited the graves of, my fathers!""

""Graves bring solemn feelings over the mind,"" returned the scout, a good
deal touched at the calm suffering of his companion; ""and they often aid
a man in his good intentions; though, for myself, I expect to leave my
own bones unburied, to bleach in the woods, or to be torn asunder by the
wolves. But where are to be found those of your race who came to their
kin in the Delaware country, so many summers since?""

""Where are the blossoms of those summers!--fallen, one by one: so all of
my family departed, each in his turn, to the land of spirits. I am on
the hill-top, and must go down into the valley; and when Uncas follows
in my footsteps, there will no longer be any of the blood of the
sagamores, for my boy is the last of the Mohicans.""

""Uncas is here!"" said another voice, in the same soft, guttural tones,
near his elbow; ""who speaks to Uncas?""

The white man loosened his knife in his leathern sheath, and made an
involuntary movement of the hand towards his rifle, at this sudden
interruption; but the Indian sat composed, and without turning his head
at the unexpected sounds.

At the next instant, a youthful warrior passed between them, with a
noiseless step, and seated himself on the bank of the rapid stream. No
exclamation of surprise escaped the father, nor was any question asked,
or reply given, for several minutes; each appearing to await the moment
when he might speak, without betraying womanish curiosity or childish
impatience. The white man seemed to take counsel from their customs,
and, relinquishing his grasp of the rifle, he also remained silent and
reserved. At length Chingachgook turned his eyes slowly towards his son,
and demanded,--

""Do the Maquas dare to leave the print of their moccasins in these
woods?""

""I have been on their trail,"" replied the young Indian, ""and know that
they number as many as the fingers of my two hands; but they lie hid,
like cowards.""

""The thieves are outlying for scalps and plunder!"" said the white man,
whom we shall call Hawkeye, after the manner of his companions. ""That
bushy Frenchman, Montcalm, will send his spies into our very camp, but
he will know what road we travel!""

""Tis enough!"" returned the father, glancing his eye towards the setting
sun; ""they shall be driven like deer from their bushes. Hawkeye, let us
eat to-night, and show the Maquas that we are men to-morrow.""

""I am as ready to do the one as the other; but to fight the Iroquois
'tis necessary to find the skulkers; and to eat, 'tis necessary to get
the game--talk of the devil and he will come; there is a pair of the
biggest antlers I have seen this season, moving the bushes below the
hill! Now, Uncas,"" he continued in a half whisper, and laughing with a
kind of inward sound, like one who had learnt to be watchful, ""I will
bet my charger three times full of powder, against a foot of wampum,
that I take him atwixt the eyes, and nearer to the right than to the
left.""

""It cannot be!"" said the young Indian, springing to his feet with
youthful eagerness; ""all but the tips of his horns are hid!""

""He's a boy!"" said the white man, shaking his head while he spoke, and
addressing the father. ""Does he think when a hunter sees a part of the
creatur', he can't tell where the rest of him should be!""

[Illustration: _Copyright by Charles Scribner's Sons_

UNCAS SLAYS A DEER

_Avoiding the horns of the infuriated animal, Uncas darted to his side,
and passed his knife across the throat_]

Adjusting his rifle, he was about to make an exhibition of that skill,
on which he so much valued himself, when the warrior struck up the piece
with his hand, saying--

""Hawkeye! will you fight the Maquas?""

""These Indians know the nature of the woods, as it might be by
instinct!"" returned the scout, dropping his rifle, and turning away like
a man who was convinced of his error. ""I must leave the buck to your
arrow, Uncas, or we may kill a deer for them thieves, the Iroquois, to
eat.""

The instant the father seconded this intimation by an expressive gesture
of the hand, Uncas threw himself on the ground, and approached the
animal with wary movements. When within a few yards of the cover, he
fitted an arrow to his bow with the utmost care, while the antlers
moved, as if their owner snuffed an enemy in the tainted air. In another
moment the twang of the cord was heard, a white streak was seen glancing
into the bushes, and the wounded buck plunged from the cover, to the
very feet of his hidden enemy. Avoiding the horns of the infuriated
animal, Uncas darted to his side, and passed his knife across the
throat, when bounding to the edge of the river it fell, dyeing the
waters with its blood.

""'Twas done with Indian skill,"" said the scout, laughing inwardly, but
with vast satisfaction; ""and 'twas a pretty sight to behold! Though an
arrow is a near shot, and needs a knife to finish the work.""

""Hugh!"" ejaculated his companion, turning quickly, like a hound who
scented game.

""By the Lord, there is a drove of them!"" exclaimed the scout, whose eyes
began to glisten with the ardor of his usual occupation; ""if they come
within range of a bullet I will drop one, though the whole Six Nations
should be lurking within sound! What do you hear, Chingachgook? for to
my ears the woods are dumb.""

""There is but one deer, and he is dead,"" said the Indian, bending his
body till his ear nearly touched the earth. ""I hear the sounds of feet!""

""Perhaps the wolves have driven the buck to shelter, and are following
on his trail.""

""No. The horses of white men are coming!"" returned the other, raising
himself with dignity, and resuming his seat on the log with his former
composure. ""Hawkeye, they are your brothers; speak to them.""

""That will I, and in English that the king needn't be ashamed to
answer,"" returned the hunter, speaking in the language of which he
boasted; ""but I see nothing, nor do I hear the sounds of man or beast;
'tis strange that an Indian should understand white sounds better than a
man who, his very enemies will own, has no cross in his blood, although
he may have lived with the redskins long enough to be suspected! Ha!
there goes something like the cracking of a dry stick, too--now I hear
the bushes move--yes, yes, there is a trampling that I mistook for the
falls--and--but here they come themselves; God keep them from the
Iroquois!""



",Chapter 3,https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapter-3,"In another part of the forest by the river a few miles to the west, Hawkeye and Chingachgook appear to be waiting for someone as they talk with low voices. It is now afternoon. The Indian and the scout are attired according to their forest habits: Chingachgook with his semi-nude, war-painted body and scalping tuft of hair, his tomahawk, scalping knife, and short rifle; Hawkeye with his hunting shirt, skin cap, buckskin leggings, knife, pouch and horn, and long rifle. They discuss their respective forefathers, and Chingachgook relates the slow demise of his tribe of Mohicans so that only he and his son Uncas now remain. At the mention of his name, Uncas, a youthful warrior dressed much like Hawkeye, appears and says that he has been on the trail of the Maquas, another name for the Mengwe or Iroquois, their natural enemies. The antlers of a deer are seen in the distance, and Hawkeye is about to shoot the animal for food when the warrior warns him that a shot will warn the enemy. Just as Uncas kills it with an arrow, they hear the sounds of feet which Chingachgook recognizes as the horses of white men.","This chapter introduces the other three main actors in the story. Through the talk of the scout and the senior Indian, the rightness of racial ""gifts"" is established. Their discussion of differences between currents and tides, between the large salt ocean and the smaller fresh lakes, reflects the novel's central motif of relativity as Hawkeye concludes that ""'everything depends on what scale you look at things."" Hawkeye's precipitant movement to shoot the deer at first makes his awareness of the forest dangers questionable, but the need for action is natural to this kind of man after idleness, and the incident shows his pride in handling his rifle. Such an incident makes this ideal frontiersman also human. By the end of this chapter, all the principal characters are introduced, with each one's general qualities established. They are about to be brought together to participate in the first long chase sequence.",3132.0,198.0,149.0
27681,False,cliffnotes,all_chapterized_books/27681-chapters/04.txt,finished_summaries/cliffnotes/The Last of the Mohicans/section_3_part_0.txt,The Last of the Mohicans.chapter 4,chapter 4,,"{""name"": ""Chapter 4"", ""url"": ""https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapter-4"", ""summary"": ""When the mounted party from Fort Howard approaches the three men of the woods, Hawkeye addresses first Gamut and then Heyward only to learn that they are lost because their Indian guide has taken them west instead of north toward Fort William Henry. Doubtful, especially when he learns that the guide is a Huron who has been adopted by the Mohawks, Hawkeye makes an a priori judgment of the still-unseen guide and uses the contemptuous term Mingo: \""he who is born a Mingo will die a Mingo.\"" His two Indian companions concur with his thinking. Still doubting and cautious, be baits Heyward by bantering away about Indians until Heyward reveals that he is the major of the 60th regiment of the king at William Henry. Walking to the rear of the party for a look at Magua, Hawkeye returns and says that he could guide them back to Fort Edward, which is only an hour's journey away, but that it would be impossible because of the ladies and the dangers of coming night, particularly with the Mohawk as a companion. He suggests his shooting and disabling Magua from where he stands, but the major will not hear of it. Consequently, as the sun goes down, he sends the two Mohicans through the thickets on opposite sides of the path and tells the major to engage Magua in talk while he himself converses with Gamut. Magua proudly refers to himself as Le Renard Subtil , the name his Canada fathers have given him. He is cautiously quiet but allows Heyward to convince him to sit and eat. As slight sounds in the thicket make Le Renard alert, Heyward dismounts, determined to seize the treacherous guide, but the latter strikes up the major's arm, gives a piercing cry, and darts away into the thicket. Immediately Chingachgook and Uncas appear and give swift pursuit just as a flash comes from Hawkeye's rifle."", ""analysis"": ""Since this chapter is mostly one of surface action, little comment is needed except to point out Hawkeye's respect for the military and the fact that all Iroquois tribes are to be looked upon as treacherous enemies. The alertness and swift action of Magua, who is more of a threat when they do not know his whereabouts, mark him as a worthy opponent for the stalwart protagonists. His escape heightens the suspense of the story.""}","
  ""Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove
  Till I torment thee for this injury.""

  _Midsummer Night's Dream._


The words were still in the mouth of the scout, when the leader of the
party, whose approaching footsteps had caught the vigilant ear of the
Indian, came openly into view. A beaten path, such as those made by the
periodical passage of the deer, wound through a little glen at no great
distance, and struck the river at the point where the white man and his
red companions had posted themselves. Along this track the travellers,
who had produced a surprise so unusual in the depths of the forest,
advanced slowly towards the hunter, who was in front of his associates,
in readiness to receive them.

""Who comes?"" demanded the scout, throwing his rifle carelessly across
his left arm, and keeping the forefinger of his right hand on the
trigger, though he avoided all appearance of menace in the act, ""Who
comes hither, among the beasts and dangers of the wilderness?""

""Believers in religion, and friends to the law and to the king,""
returned he who rode foremost. ""Men who have journeyed since the rising
sun, in the shades of this forest, without nourishment, and are sadly
tired of their wayfaring.""

""You are, then, lost,"" interrupted the hunter, ""and have found how
helpless 'tis not to know whether to take the right hand or the left?""

""Even so; sucking babes are not more dependent on those who guide them
than we who are of larger growth, and who may now be said to possess the
stature without the knowledge of men. Know you the distance to a post of
the crown called William Henry?""

""Hoot!"" shouted the scout, who did not spare his open laughter, though,
instantly checking the dangerous sounds, he indulged his merriment at
less risk of being overheard by any lurking enemies. ""You are as much
off the scent as a hound would be, with Horican atwixt him and the deer!
William Henry, man! if you are friends to the king, and have business
with the army, your better way would be to follow the river down to
Edward, and lay the matter before Webb; who tarries there, instead of
pushing into the defiles, and driving this saucy Frenchman back across
Champlain, into his den again.""

Before the stranger could make any reply to this unexpected proposition,
another horseman dashed the bushes aside, and leaped his charger into
the pathway, in front of his companion.

""What, then, may be our distance from Fort Edward?"" demanded a new
speaker; ""the place you advise us to seek we left this morning, and our
destination is the head of the lake.""

""Then you must have lost your eyesight afore losing your way, for the
road across the portage is cut to a good two rods, and is as grand a
path, I calculate, as any that runs into London, or even before the
palace of the king himself.""

""We will not dispute concerning the excellence of the passage,"" returned
Heyward, smiling; for, as the reader has anticipated, it was he. ""It is
enough, for the present, that we trusted to an Indian guide to take us
by a nearer, though blinder path, and that we are deceived in his
knowledge. In plain words, we know not where we are.""

""An Indian lost in the woods!"" said the scout, shaking his head
doubtingly; ""when the sun is scorching the tree-tops, and the
water-courses are full; when the moss on every beech he sees, will tell
him in which quarter the north star will shine at night! The woods are
full of deer paths which run to the streams and licks, places well known
to everybody; nor have the geese done their flight to the Canada waters
altogether! 'Tis strange that an Indian should be lost atwixt Horican
and the bend in the river. Is he a Mohawk?""

""Not by birth, though adopted in that tribe; I think his birthplace was
farther north, and he is one of those you call a Huron.""

""Hugh!"" exclaimed the two companions of the scout, who had continued,
until this part of the dialogue, seated immovable, and apparently
indifferent to what passed, but who now sprang to their feet with an
activity and interest that had evidently got the better of their
reserve, by surprise.

""A Huron!"" repeated the sturdy scout, once more shaking his head in open
distrust; ""they are a thievish race, nor do I care by whom they are
adopted; you can never make anything of them but skulks and vagabonds.
Since you trusted yourself to the care of one of that nation, I only
wonder that you have not fallen in with more.""

""Of that there is little danger, since William Henry is so many miles in
our front. You forget that I have told you our guide is now a Mohawk,
and that he serves with our forces as a friend.""

""And I tell you that he who is born a Mingo will die a Mingo,"" returned
the other, positively. ""A Mohawk! No, give me a Delaware or a Mohican
for honesty; and when they will fight, which they won't all do, having
suffered their cunning enemies, the Maquas, to make them women--but when
they will fight at all, look to a Delaware, or a Mohican, for a
warrior!""

""Enough of this,"" said Heyward, impatiently; ""I wish not to inquire into
the character of a man that I know, and to whom you must be a stranger.
You have not yet answered my question: what is our distance from the
main army at Edward?""

""It seems that may depend on who is your guide. One would think such a
horse as that might get over a good deal of ground atwixt sun-up and
sun-down.""

""I wish no contention of idle words with you, friend,"" said Heyward,
curbing his dissatisfied manner, and speaking in a more gentle voice;
""if you will tell me the distance to Fort Edward, and conduct me
thither, your labor shall not go without its reward.""

""And in so doing, how know I that I don't guide an enemy, and a spy of
Montcalm, to the works of the army? It is not every man who can speak
the English tongue that is an honest subject.""

""If you serve with the troops, of whom I judge you to be a scout, you
should know of such a regiment of the king as the 60th.""

""The 60th! you can tell me little of the Royal Americans that I don't
know, though I do wear a hunting-shirt instead of a scarlet jacket.""

""Well, then, among the other things, you may know the name of its
major?""

""Its major!"" interrupted the hunter, elevating his body like one who was
proud of his trust. ""If there is a man in the country who knows Major
Effingham, he stands before you.""

""It is a corps which has many majors; the gentleman you name is the
senior, but I speak of the junior of them all; he who commands the
companies in garrison at William Henry.""

""Yes, yes, I have heard that a young gentleman of vast riches, from one
of the provinces far south, has got the place. He is over young, too, to
hold such rank, and to be put above men whose heads are beginning to
bleach; and yet they say he is a soldier in his knowledge, and a gallant
gentleman!""

""Whatever he may be, or however he may be qualified for his rank, he now
speaks to you, and of course can be no enemy to dread.""

The scout regarded Heyward in surprise, and then lifting his cap, he
answered, in a tone less confident than before, though still expressing
doubt,--

""I have heard a party was to leave the encampment this morning, for the
lake shore.""

""You have heard the truth; but I preferred a nearer route, trusting to
the knowledge of the Indian I mentioned.""

""And he deceived you, and then deserted?""

""Neither, as I believe; certainly not the latter, for he is to be found
in the rear.""

""I should like to look at the creatur'; if it is a true Iroquois I can
tell him by his knavish look, and by his paint,"" said the scout,
stepping past the charger of Heyward, and entering the path behind the
mare of the singing-master, whose foal had taken advantage of the halt
to exact the maternal contribution. After shoving aside the bushes, and
proceeding a few paces, he encountered the females, who awaited the
result of the conference with anxiety, and not entirely without
apprehension. Behind these, the runner leaned against a tree, where he
stood the close examination of the scout with an air unmoved, though
with a look so dark and savage, that it might in itself excite fear.
Satisfied with his scrutiny, the hunter soon left him. As he repassed
the females, he paused a moment to gaze upon their beauty, answering to
the smile and nod of Alice with a look of open pleasure. Thence he went
to the side of the motherly animal, and spending a minute in a fruitless
inquiry into the character of her rider, he shook his head and returned
to Heyward.

""A Mingo is a Mingo, and God having made him so, neither the Mohawks nor
any other tribe can alter him,"" he said, when he had regained his former
position. ""If we were alone, and you would leave that noble horse at the
mercy of the wolves to-night, I could show you the way to Edward,
myself, within an hour, for it lies only about an hour's journey hence;
but with such ladies in your company 'tis impossible!""

""And why? they are fatigued, but they are quite equal to a ride of a few
more miles.""

""'Tis a natural impossibility!"" repeated the scout; ""I wouldn't walk a
mile in these woods after night gets into them, in company with that
runner, for the best rifle in the colonies. They are full of outlying
Iroquois, and your mongrel Mohawk knows where to find them too well, to
be my companion.""

""Think you so?"" said Heyward, leaning forward in the saddle, and
dropping his voice nearly to a whisper; ""I confess I have not been
without my own suspicions, though I have endeavored to conceal them, and
affected a confidence I have not always felt, on account of my
companions. It was because I suspected him that I would follow no
longer; making him, as you see, follow me.""

""I knew he was one of the cheats as soon as I laid eyes on him!""
returned the scout, placing a finger on his nose, in sign of caution.
""The thief is leaning against the foot of the sugar sapling, that you
can see over them bushes; his right leg is in a line with the bark of
the tree, and,"" tapping his rifle, ""I can take him from where I stand,
between the ankle and the knee, with a single shot, putting an end to
his tramping through the woods, for at least a month to come. If I
should go back to him, the cunning varmint would suspect something, and
be dodging through the trees like a frightened deer.""

""It will not do. He may be innocent, and I dislike the act. Though, if I
felt confident of his treachery--""

""'Tis a safe thing to calculate on the knavery of an Iroquois,"" said the
scout, throwing his rifle forward, by a sort of instinctive movement.

""Hold!"" interrupted Heyward, ""it will not do--we must think of some
other scheme; and yet, I have much reason to believe the rascal has
deceived me.""

The hunter, who had already abandoned his intention of maiming the
runner, mused a moment, and then made a gesture, which instantly brought
his two red companions to his side. They spoke together earnestly in the
Delaware language, though in an undertone; and by the gestures of the
white man, which were frequently directed towards the top of the
sapling, it was evident he pointed out the situation of their hidden
enemy. His companions were not long in comprehending his wishes, and
laying aside their fire-arms, they parted, taking opposite sides of the
path, and burying themselves in the thicket, with such cautious
movements, that their steps were inaudible.

""Now, go you back,"" said the hunter, speaking again to Heyward, ""and
hold the imp in talk; these Mohicans here will take him without breaking
his paint.""

""Nay,"" said Heyward, proudly, ""I will seize him myself.""

""Hist! what could you do, mounted, against an Indian in the bushes?""

""I will dismount.""

""And, think you, when he saw one of your feet out of the stirrup, he
would wait for the other to be free? Whoever comes into the woods to
deal with the natives, must use Indian fashions, if he would wish to
prosper in his undertakings. Go, then, talk openly to the miscreant, and
seem to believe him the truest friend you have on 'arth.""

Heyward prepared to comply, though with strong disgust at the nature of
the office he was compelled to execute. Each moment, however, pressed
upon him a conviction of the critical situation in which he had suffered
his invaluable trust to be involved through his own confidence. The sun
had already disappeared, and the woods, suddenly deprived of his
light,[9] were assuming a dusky hue, which keenly reminded him that the
hour the savage usually chose for his most barbarous and remorseless
acts of vengeance or hostility, was speedily drawing near. Stimulated by
apprehension, he left the scout, who immediately entered into a loud
conversation with the stranger that had so unceremoniously enlisted
himself in the party of travellers that morning. In passing his gentler
companions Heyward uttered a few words of encouragement, and was pleased
to find that, though fatigued with the exercise of the day, they
appeared to entertain no suspicion that their present embarrassment was
other than the result of accident. Giving them reason to believe he was
merely employed in a consultation concerning the future route, he
spurred his charger, and drew the reins again, when the animal had
carried him within a few yards of the place where the sullen runner
still stood, leaning against the tree.

""You may see, Magua,"" he said, endeavoring to assume an air of freedom
and confidence, ""that the night is closing around us, and yet we are no
nearer to William Henry than when we left the encampment of Webb with
the rising sun. You have missed the way, nor have I been more fortunate.
But, happily we have fallen in with a hunter, he whom you hear talking
to the singer, that is acquainted with the deer-paths and by-ways of the
woods, and who promises to lead us to a place where we may rest securely
till the morning.""

The Indian riveted his glowing eyes on Heyward as he asked, in his
imperfect English, ""Is he alone?""

""Alone!"" hesitatingly answered Heyward to whom deception was too new to
be assumed without embarrassment. ""O! not alone, surely, Magua, for you
know that we are with him.""

""Then Le Renard Subtil will go,"" returned the runner, coolly raising his
little wallet from the place where it had lain at his feet; ""and the
pale-faces will see none but their own color.""

""Go! Whom call you Le Renard?""

""'Tis the name his Canada fathers have given to Magua,"" returned the
runner, with an air that manifested his pride at the distinction. ""Night
is the same as day to Le Subtil, when Munro waits for him.""

""And what account will Le Renard give the chief of William Henry
concerning his daughters? Will he dare to tell the hot-blooded Scotsman
that his children are left without a guide, though Magua promised to be
one?""

""Though the gray head has a loud voice, and a long arm, Le Renard will
not hear him, or feel him, in the woods.""

""But what will the Mohawks say? They will make him petticoats, and bid
him stay in the wigwam with the women, for he is no longer to be trusted
with the business of a man.""

""Le Subtil knows the path to the great lakes, and he can find the bones
of his fathers,"" was the answer of the unmoved runner.

""Enough, Magua,"" said Heyward; ""are we not friends? Why should there be
bitter words between us? Munro has promised you a gift for your services
when performed, and I shall be your debtor for another. Rest your weary
limbs, then, and open your wallet to eat. We have a few moments to
spare; let us not waste them in talk like wrangling women. When the
ladies are refreshed we will proceed.""

""The pale-faces make themselves dogs to their women,"" muttered the
Indian, in his native language, ""and when they want to eat, their
warriors must lay aside the tomahawk to feed their laziness.""

""What say you, Renard?""

""Le Subtil says it is good.""

The Indian then fastened his eyes keenly on the open countenance of
Heyward, but meeting his glance, he turned them quickly away, and
seating himself deliberately on the ground, he drew forth the remnant of
some former repast, and began to eat, though not without first bending
his looks slowly and cautiously around him.

""This is well,"" continued Heyward; ""and Le Renard will have strength and
sight to find the path in the morning;"" he paused, for sounds like the
snapping of a dried stick, and the rustling of leaves, rose from the
adjacent bushes, but recollecting himself instantly, he continued,--""we
must be moving before the sun is seen, or Montcalm may lie in our path,
and shut us out from the fortress.""

The hand of Magua dropped from his mouth to his side, and though his
eyes were fastened on the ground, his head was turned aside, his
nostrils expanded, and his ears seemed even to stand more erect than
usual, giving to him the appearance of a statue that was made to
represent intense attention.

Heyward, who watched his movements with a vigilant eye, carelessly
extricated one of his feet from the stirrup, while he passed a hand
towards the bear-skin covering of his holsters. Every effort to detect
the point most regarded by the runner was completely frustrated by the
tremulous glances of his organs, which seemed not to rest a single
instant on any particular object, and which, at the same time, could be
hardly said to move. While he hesitated how to proceed, Le Subtil
cautiously raised himself to his feet, though with a motion so slow and
guarded, that not the slightest noise was produced by the change.
Heyward felt it had now become incumbent on him to act. Throwing his leg
over the saddle, he dismounted, with a determination to advance and
seize his treacherous companion, trusting the result to his own manhood.
In order, however, to prevent unnecessary alarm, he still preserved an
air of calmness and friendship.

""Le Renard Subtil does not eat,"" he said, using the appellation he had
found most flattering to the vanity of the Indian. ""His corn is not well
parched, and it seems dry. Let me examine; perhaps something may be
found among my own provisions that will help his appetite.""

Magua held out the wallet to the proffer of the other. He even suffered
their hands to meet, without betraying the least emotion, or varying his
riveted attitude of attention. But when he felt the fingers of Heyward
moving gently along his own naked arm, he struck up the limb of the
young man, and uttering a piercing cry as he darted beneath it, plunged,
at a single bound, into the opposite thicket. At the next instant the
form of Chingachgook appeared from the bushes, looking like a spectre in
its paint, and glided across the path in swift pursuit. Next followed
the shout of Uncas, when the woods were lighted by a sudden flash, that
was accompanied by the sharp report of the hunter's rifle.



",Chapter 4,https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapter-4,"When the mounted party from Fort Howard approaches the three men of the woods, Hawkeye addresses first Gamut and then Heyward only to learn that they are lost because their Indian guide has taken them west instead of north toward Fort William Henry. Doubtful, especially when he learns that the guide is a Huron who has been adopted by the Mohawks, Hawkeye makes an a priori judgment of the still-unseen guide and uses the contemptuous term Mingo: ""he who is born a Mingo will die a Mingo."" His two Indian companions concur with his thinking. Still doubting and cautious, be baits Heyward by bantering away about Indians until Heyward reveals that he is the major of the 60th regiment of the king at William Henry. Walking to the rear of the party for a look at Magua, Hawkeye returns and says that he could guide them back to Fort Edward, which is only an hour's journey away, but that it would be impossible because of the ladies and the dangers of coming night, particularly with the Mohawk as a companion. He suggests his shooting and disabling Magua from where he stands, but the major will not hear of it. Consequently, as the sun goes down, he sends the two Mohicans through the thickets on opposite sides of the path and tells the major to engage Magua in talk while he himself converses with Gamut. Magua proudly refers to himself as Le Renard Subtil , the name his Canada fathers have given him. He is cautiously quiet but allows Heyward to convince him to sit and eat. As slight sounds in the thicket make Le Renard alert, Heyward dismounts, determined to seize the treacherous guide, but the latter strikes up the major's arm, gives a piercing cry, and darts away into the thicket. Immediately Chingachgook and Uncas appear and give swift pursuit just as a flash comes from Hawkeye's rifle.","Since this chapter is mostly one of surface action, little comment is needed except to point out Hawkeye's respect for the military and the fact that all Iroquois tribes are to be looked upon as treacherous enemies. The alertness and swift action of Magua, who is more of a threat when they do not know his whereabouts, mark him as a worthy opponent for the stalwart protagonists. His escape heightens the suspense of the story.",3075.0,319.0,75.0
27681,False,cliffnotes,all_chapterized_books/27681-chapters/05.txt,finished_summaries/cliffnotes/The Last of the Mohicans/section_4_part_0.txt,The Last of the Mohicans.chapter 5,chapter 5,,"{""name"": ""Chapter 5"", ""url"": ""https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapter-5"", ""summary"": ""The pursuit of Magua is unsuccessful, but Hawkeye feels that he has wounded him slightly and is certain of it when they find bloodstains on the sumach leaves. Heyward wants to continue the chase, but the scout fears an ambush, particularly since he has fired his rifle, an action for which he upbraids himself. With night almost upon them, the three woodsmen confer and, at the urging of Uncas, decide to take the group to their \""harboring place\"" after Heyward promises to keep the place a secret. The horses are a problem, but rather than give them their bridles, the men agree to mislead the foe into thinking that the group is on horseback. When the colt makes a noise in the bush, the scout determines that of necessity it must die so that it cannot betray them. Uncas shoots it with an arrow and Chingachgook quickly and mercifully slits its throat and dashes it into the river to float away. While the Indians lead the horses into the river, Hawkeye and Heyward place the females in a bark canoe and, trailed by the dejected Gamut, wade in to bear it upstream toward the waterfall, passing the dark overhang of the bank where the horses are now hidden. At the falls, the scout seats all the whites in the canoe and poles it into the center of the turbulent stream, where it is whirled about until he brings it to rest beside a flat rock. \""You are at the foot of Glenn's,\"" he says and takes the canoe to fetch the Mohicans and the venison. When they are all together, he worriedly tells that the horses had cowered as if they scented wolves that would hover near Indian kills. He is interrupted by a sad song from Gamut, whom he tries to console for the death of the colt. Then he and the two Mohicans disappear in succession, \""seeming to vanish against the dark face of a perpendicular rock.\"""", ""analysis"": ""Here the reader encounters the first bloodshed born of war. The wounding of Magua and the killing of the innocent colt stand in contrast to the preceding shooting of the deer for food. Now that the two parties have become one by virtue of survival necessities, Hawkeye shows his skill as a woodsman who also knows his enemies' ways. He stands forth as a decisive character. Gamut too grows in characterization. While the two girls give simple female reactions to the killing of the colt, Gamut grieves in such a way that he commands the solace and respect of Hawkeye, who says that \""it's a good sign to see a man account upon his dumb friends.\"" In being thus cruelly initiated into the expediencies of savage warfare, the singing master temporarily loses his comic character to become the sad civilian, the inexperienced outsider on whom the magnitude of these actions can fall with full personal force.""}","
                      ""In such a night
  Did Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dew;
  And saw the lion's shadow ere himself.""

  _Merchant of Venice._


The suddenness of the flight of his guide, and the wild cries of the
pursuers, caused Heyward to remain fixed, for a few moments, in inactive
surprise. Then recollecting the importance of securing the fugitive, he
dashed aside the surrounding bushes, and pressed eagerly forward to lend
his aid in the chase. Before he had, however, proceeded a hundred yards,
he met the three foresters already returning from their unsuccessful
pursuit.

""Why so soon disheartened!"" he exclaimed; ""the scoundrel must be
concealed behind some of these trees, and may yet be secured. We are not
safe while he goes at large.""

""Would you set a cloud to chase the wind?"" returned the disappointed
scout; ""I heard the imp, brushing over the dry leaves, like a black
snake, and blinking a glimpse of him, just over ag'in yon big pine, I
pulled as it might be on the scent; but 'twouldn't do! and yet for a
reasoning aim, if anybody but myself had touched the trigger, I should
call it a quick sight; and I may be accounted to have experience in
these matters, and one who ought to know. Look at this sumach; its
leaves are red, though everybody knows the fruit is in the yellow
blossom, in the month of July!""

""'Tis the blood of Le Subtil! he is hurt, and may yet fall!""

""No, no,"" returned the scout, in decided disapprobation of this opinion,
""I rubbed the bark off a limb, perhaps, but the creature leaped the
longer for it. A rifle-bullet acts on a running animal, when it barks
him, much the same as one of your spurs on a horse; that is, it quickens
motion, and puts life into the flesh, instead of taking it away. But
when it cuts the ragged hole, after a bound or two, there is, commonly,
a stagnation of further leaping, be it Indian or be it deer!""

""We are four able bodies, to one wounded man!""

""Is life grievous to you?"" interrupted the scout. ""Yonder red devils
would draw you within swing of the tomahawks of his comrades, before you
were heated in the chase. It was an unthoughtful act in a man who has so
often slept with the war-whoop ringing in the air, to let off his piece
within sound of an ambushment! But then it was a natural temptation!
'twas very natural! Come, friends, let us move our station, and in such
a fashion, too, as will throw the cunning of a Mingo on a wrong scent,
or our scalps will be drying in the wind in front of Montcalm's marquee,
ag'in this hour to-morrow.""

This appalling declaration, which the scout uttered with the cool
assurance of a man who fully comprehended, while he did not fear to face
the danger, served to remind Heyward of the importance of the charge
with which he himself had been intrusted. Glancing his eyes around, with
a vain effort to pierce the gloom that was thickening beneath the leafy
arches of the forest, he felt as if, cut off from human aid, his
unresisting companions would soon lie at the entire mercy of those
barbarous enemies, who, like beasts of prey, only waited till the
gathering darkness might render their blows more fatally certain. His
awakened imagination, deluded by the deceptive light, converted each
waving bush, or the fragment of some fallen tree, into human forms, and
twenty times he fancied he could distinguish the horrid visages of his
lurking foes, peering from their hiding-places, in never-ceasing
watchfulness of the movements of his party. Looking upward, he found
that the thin fleecy clouds, which evening had painted on the blue sky,
were already losing their faintest tints of rose-color, while the
imbedded stream, which glided past the spot where he stood, was to be
traced only by the dark boundary of its wooded banks.

""What is to be done?"" he said, feeling the utter helplessness of doubt
in such a pressing strait; ""desert me not, for God's sake! remain to
defend those I escort, and freely name your own reward!""

His companions, who conversed apart in the language of their tribe,
heeded not this sudden and earnest appeal. Though their dialogue was
maintained in low and cautious sounds, but little above a whisper,
Heyward, who now approached, could easily distinguish the earnest tones
of the younger warrior from the more deliberate speeches of his seniors.
It was evident that they debated on the propriety of some measure that
nearly concerned the welfare of the travellers. Yielding to his
powerful interest in the subject, and impatient of a delay that seemed
fraught with so much additional danger, Heyward drew still nigher to the
dusky group, with an intention of making his offers of compensation more
definite, when the white man, motioning, with his hand, as if he
conceded the disputed point, turned away, saying in a sort of soliloquy,
and in the English tongue,--

""Uncas is right! it would not be the act of men to leave such harmless
things to their fate, even though it breaks up the harboring place
forever. If you would save these tender blossoms from the fangs of the
worst of serpents, gentleman, you have neither time to lose nor
resolution to throw away!""

""How can such a wish be doubted! have I not already offered--""

""Offer your prayers to Him who can give us wisdom to circumvent the
cunning of the devils who fill these woods,"" calmly interrupted the
scout, ""but spare your offers of money, which neither you may live to
realize, nor I to profit by. These Mohicans and I will do what man's
thoughts can invent, to keep such flowers, which, though so sweet, were
never made for the wilderness, from harm, and that without hope of any
other recompense but such as God always gives to upright dealings.
First, you must promise two things, both in your own name and for your
friends, or without serving you, we shall only injure ourselves!""

""Name them.""

""The one is, to be still as these sleeping woods, let what will happen;
and the other is, to keep the place where we shall take you, forever a
secret from all mortal men.""

""I will do my utmost to see both these conditions fulfilled.""

""Then follow, for we are losing moments that are as precious as the
heart's blood to a stricken deer!""

Heyward could distinguish the impatient gesture of the scout, through
the increasing shadows of the evening, and he moved in his footsteps,
swiftly, towards the place where he had left the remainder of his party.
When they rejoined the expecting and anxious females, he briefly
acquainted them with the conditions of their new guide, and with the
necessity that existed for their hushing every apprehension, in instant
and serious exertions. Although his alarming communication was not
received without much secret terror by the listeners, his earnest and
impressive manner, aided perhaps by the nature of the danger, succeeded
in bracing their nerves to undergo some unlooked-for and unusual trial.
Silently, and without a moment's delay, they permitted him to assist
them from their saddles, when they descended quickly to the water's
edge, where the scout had collected the rest of the party, more by the
agency of expressive gestures than by any use of words.

""What to do with these dumb creatures!"" muttered the white man, on whom
the sole control of their future movements appeared to devolve; ""it
would be time lost to cut their throats, and cast them into the river;
and to leave them here, would be to tell the Mingos that they have not
far to seek to find their owners!""

""Then give them their bridles, and let them range the woods,"" Heyward
ventured to suggest.

""No; it would be better to mislead the imps, and make them believe they
must equal a horse's speed to run down their chase. Ay, ay, that will
blind their fire-balls of eyes! Chingach--Hist? what stirs the bush?""

""The colt.""

""That colt, at least, must die,"" muttered the scout, grasping the mane
of the nimble beast, which easily eluded his hand; ""Uncas, your arrows!""

""Hold!"" exclaimed the proprietor of the condemned animal, aloud, without
regard to the whispering tones used by the others; ""spare the foal of
Miriam! it is the comely offspring of a faithful dam, and would
willingly injure naught.""

""When men struggle for the single life God has given them,"" said the
scout sternly, ""even their own kind seem no more than the beasts of the
wood. If you speak again, I shall leave you to the mercy of the Maquas!
Draw to your arrow's head, Uncas; we have no time for second blows.""

The low, muttering sounds of his threatening voice were still audible,
when the wounded foal, first rearing on its hinder legs, plunged forward
to its knees. It was met by Chingachgook, whose knife passed across its
throat quicker than thought, and then precipitating the motions of the
struggling victim, he dashed it into the river, down whose stream it
glided away, gasping audibly for breath with its ebbing life. This deed
of apparent cruelty, but of real necessity, fell upon the spirits of the
travellers like a terrific warning of the peril in which they stood,
heightened as it was by the calm though steady resolution of the actors
in the scene. The sisters shuddered and clung closer to each other,
while Heyward instinctively laid his hand on one of the pistols he had
just drawn from their holsters, as he placed himself between his charge
and those dense shadows that seemed to draw an impenetrable veil before
the bosom of the forest.

The Indians, however, hesitated not a moment, but taking the bridles,
they led the frightened and reluctant horses into the bed of the river.

At a short distance from the shore they turned, and were soon concealed
by the projection of the bank, under the brow of which they moved, in a
direction opposite to the course of the waters. In the meantime, the
scout drew a canoe of bark from its place of concealment beneath some
low bushes, whose branches were waving with the eddies of the current,
into which he silently motioned for the females to enter. They complied
without hesitation, though many a fearful and anxious glance was thrown
behind them towards the thickening gloom which now lay like a dark
barrier along the margin of the stream.

So soon as Cora and Alice were seated, the scout, without regarding the
element, directed Heyward to support one side of the frail vessel, and
posting himself at the other, they bore it up against the stream,
followed by the dejected owner of the dead foal. In this manner they
proceeded, for many rods, in a silence that was only interrupted by the
rippling of the water, as its eddies played around them, or the low dash
made by their own cautious footsteps. Heyward yielded the guidance of
the canoe implicitly to the scout, who approached or receded from the
shore, to avoid the fragments of rocks, or deeper parts of the river,
with a readiness that showed his knowledge of the route they held.
Occasionally he would stop; and in the midst of a breathing stillness,
that the dull but increasing roar of the waterfall only served to render
more impressive, he would listen with painful intenseness, to catch any
sounds that might arise from the slumbering forest. When assured that
all was still, and unable to detect, even by the aid of his practised
senses, any sign of his approaching foes, he would deliberately resume
his slow and unguarded progress. At length they reached a point in the
river, where the roving eye of Heyward became riveted on a cluster of
black objects, collected at a spot where the high bank threw a deeper
shadow than usual on the dark waters. Hesitating to advance, he pointed
out the place to the attention of his companion.

""Ay,"" returned the composed scout, ""the Indians have hid the beasts
with the judgment of natives! Water leaves no trail, and an owl's eyes
would be blinded by the darkness of such a hole.""

The whole party was soon reunited, and another consultation was held
between the scout and his new comrades, during which, they whose fates
depended on the faith and ingenuity of these unknown foresters, had a
little leisure to observe their situation more minutely.

The river was confined between high and cragged rocks, one of which
impended above the spot where the canoe rested. As these, again, were
surmounted by tall trees, which appeared to totter on the brows of the
precipice, it gave the stream the appearance of running through a deep
and narrow dell. All beneath the fantastic limbs and ragged tree-tops,
which were, here and there, dimly painted against the starry zenith, lay
alike in shadowed obscurity. Behind them, the curvature of the banks
soon bounded the view, by the same dark and wooded outline; but in
front, and apparently at no great distance, the water seemed piled
against the heavens, whence it tumbled into caverns, out of which issued
those sullen sounds that had loaded the evening atmosphere. It seemed,
in truth, to be a spot devoted to seclusion, and the sisters imbibed a
soothing impression of security, as they gazed upon its romantic, though
not unappalling beauties. A general movement among their conductors,
however, soon recalled them from a contemplation of the wild charms that
night had assisted to lend the place, to a painful sense of their real
peril.

The horses had been secured to some scattered shrubs that grew in the
fissures of the rocks, where, standing in the water, they were left to
pass the night. The scout directed Heyward and his disconsolate
fellow-travellers to seat themselves in the forward end of the canoe,
and took possession of the other himself, as erect and steady as if he
floated in a vessel of much firmer materials. The Indians warily
retraced their steps towards the place they had left, when the scout,
placing his pole against a rock, by a powerful shove, sent his frail
bark directly into the centre of the turbulent stream. For many minutes
the struggle between the light bubble in which they floated, and the
swift current, was severe and doubtful. Forbidden to stir even a hand,
and almost afraid to breathe, lest they should expose the frail fabric
to the fury of the stream, the passengers watched the glancing waters in
feverish suspense. Twenty times they thought the whirling eddies were
sweeping them to destruction, when the master-hand of their pilot would
bring the bows of the canoe to stem the rapid. A long, a vigorous, and,
as it appeared to the females, a desperate effort, closed the struggle.
Just as Alice veiled her eyes in horror, under the impression that they
were about to be swept within the vortex at the foot of the cataract,
the canoe floated, stationary, at the side of a flat rock, that lay on a
level with the water.

""Where are we? and what is next to be done?"" demanded Heyward,
perceiving that the exertions of the scout had ceased.

""You are at the foot of Glenn's,"" returned the other, speaking aloud,
without fear of consequences, within the roar of the cataract; ""and the
next thing is to make a steady landing, lest the canoe upset, and you
should go down again the hard road we have travelled, faster than you
came up; 'tis a hard rift to stem, when the river is a little swelled;
and five is an unnatural number to keep dry, in the hurry-skurry, with a
little birchen bark and gum. There, go you all on the rock, and I will
bring up the Mohicans with the venison. A man had better sleep without
his scalp, than famish in the midst of plenty.""

His passengers gladly complied with these directions. As the last foot
touched the rock, the canoe whirled from its station, when the tall form
of the scout was seen, for an instant, gliding above the waters, before
it disappeared in the impenetrable darkness that rested on the bed of
the river. Left by their guide, the travellers remained a few minutes in
helpless ignorance, afraid even to move along the broken rocks, lest a
false step should precipitate them down some one of the many deep and
roaring caverns, into which the water seemed to tumble, on every side of
them. Their suspense, however, was soon relieved; for aided by the skill
of the natives, the canoe shot back into the eddy, and floated again at
the side of the low rock before they thought the scout had even time to
rejoin his companions.

""We are now fortified, garrisoned, and provisioned,"" cried Heyward,
cheerfully, ""and may set Montcalm and his allies at defiance. How, now,
my vigilant sentinel, can you see anything of those you call the
Iroquois, on the mainland?""

""I call them Iroquois, because to me every native, who speaks a foreign
tongue, is accounted an enemy, though he may pretend to serve the king!
If Webb wants faith and honesty in an Indian, let him bring out the
tribes of the Delawares, and send these greedy and lying Mohawks and
Oneidas, with their six nations of varlets, where in nature they belong,
among the French!""

""We should then exchange a warlike for a useless friend! I have heard
that the Delawares have laid aside the hatchet, and are content to be
called women!""

""Ay, shame on the Hollanders[10] and Iroquois, who circumvented them by
their deviltries, into such a treaty! But I have known them for twenty
years, and I call him liar, that says cowardly blood runs in the veins
of a Delaware. You have driven their tribes from the sea-shore, and
would now believe what their enemies say, that you may sleep at night
upon an easy pillow. No, no; to me, every Indian who speaks a foreign
tongue is an Iroquois, whether the castle[11] of his tribe be in Canada,
or be in New York.""

Heyward, perceiving that the stubborn adherence of the scout to the
cause of his friends the Delawares or Mohicans, for they were branches
of the same numerous people, was likely to prolong a useless discussion,
changed the subject.

""Treaty or no treaty, I know full well, that your two companions are
brave and cautious warriors! have they heard or seen anything of our
enemies?""

""An Indian is a mortal to be felt afore he is seen,"" returned the scout,
ascending the rock, and throwing the deer carelessly down. ""I trust to
other signs than such as come in at the eye, when I am outlying on the
trail of the Mingos.""

""Do your ears tell you that they have traced our retreat?""

""I should be sorry to think they had, though this is a spot that stout
courage might hold for a smart skrimmage. I will not deny, however, but
the horses cowered when I passed them, as though they scented the
wolves; and a wolf is a beast that is apt to hover about an Indian
ambushment, craving the offals of the deer the savages kill.""

""You forget the buck at your feet! or, may we not owe their visit to the
dead colt? Ha! what noise is that?""

""Poor Miriam!"" murmured the stranger; ""thy foal was foreordained to
become a prey to ravenous beasts!"" Then, suddenly lifting up his voice,
amid the eternal din of the waters, he sang aloud,--

  ""First born of Egypt, smite did He,
  Of mankind, and of beast also;
  O, Egypt! wonders sent 'midst thee,
  On Pharaoh and his servants too!""

""The death of the colt sits heavy on the heart of its owner,"" said the
scout; ""but it's a good sign to see a man account upon his dumb friends.
He has the religion of the matter, in believing what is to happen will
happen; and with such a consolation, it won't be long afore he submits
to the rationality of killing a four-footed beast, to save the lives of
human men. It may be as you say,"" he continued, reverting to the purport
of Heyward's last remark; ""and the greater the reason why we should cut
our steaks, and let the carcase drive down the stream, or we shall have
the pack howling along the cliffs, begrudging every mouthful we swallow.
Besides, though the Delaware tongue is the same as a book to the
Iroquois, the cunning varlets are quick enough at understanding the
reason of a wolf's howl.""

The scout, whilst making his remarks, was busied in collecting certain
necessary implements; as he concluded, he moved silently by the group of
travellers, accompanied by the Mohicans, who seemed to comprehend his
intentions with instinctive readiness, when the whole three disappeared
in succession, seeming to vanish against the dark face of a
perpendicular rock, that rose to the height of a few yards within as
many feet of the water's edge.



",Chapter 5,https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapter-5,"The pursuit of Magua is unsuccessful, but Hawkeye feels that he has wounded him slightly and is certain of it when they find bloodstains on the sumach leaves. Heyward wants to continue the chase, but the scout fears an ambush, particularly since he has fired his rifle, an action for which he upbraids himself. With night almost upon them, the three woodsmen confer and, at the urging of Uncas, decide to take the group to their ""harboring place"" after Heyward promises to keep the place a secret. The horses are a problem, but rather than give them their bridles, the men agree to mislead the foe into thinking that the group is on horseback. When the colt makes a noise in the bush, the scout determines that of necessity it must die so that it cannot betray them. Uncas shoots it with an arrow and Chingachgook quickly and mercifully slits its throat and dashes it into the river to float away. While the Indians lead the horses into the river, Hawkeye and Heyward place the females in a bark canoe and, trailed by the dejected Gamut, wade in to bear it upstream toward the waterfall, passing the dark overhang of the bank where the horses are now hidden. At the falls, the scout seats all the whites in the canoe and poles it into the center of the turbulent stream, where it is whirled about until he brings it to rest beside a flat rock. ""You are at the foot of Glenn's,"" he says and takes the canoe to fetch the Mohicans and the venison. When they are all together, he worriedly tells that the horses had cowered as if they scented wolves that would hover near Indian kills. He is interrupted by a sad song from Gamut, whom he tries to console for the death of the colt. Then he and the two Mohicans disappear in succession, ""seeming to vanish against the dark face of a perpendicular rock.""","Here the reader encounters the first bloodshed born of war. The wounding of Magua and the killing of the innocent colt stand in contrast to the preceding shooting of the deer for food. Now that the two parties have become one by virtue of survival necessities, Hawkeye shows his skill as a woodsman who also knows his enemies' ways. He stands forth as a decisive character. Gamut too grows in characterization. While the two girls give simple female reactions to the killing of the colt, Gamut grieves in such a way that he commands the solace and respect of Hawkeye, who says that ""it's a good sign to see a man account upon his dumb friends."" In being thus cruelly initiated into the expediencies of savage warfare, the singing master temporarily loses his comic character to become the sad civilian, the inexperienced outsider on whom the magnitude of these actions can fall with full personal force.",3268.0,329.0,156.0
27681,False,cliffnotes,all_chapterized_books/27681-chapters/06.txt,finished_summaries/cliffnotes/The Last of the Mohicans/section_5_part_0.txt,The Last of the Mohicans.chapter 6,chapter 6,,"{""name"": ""Chapter 6"", ""url"": ""https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapter-6"", ""summary"": ""Heyward and the girls are uneasy and Gamut is still struggling in spirit when a light flashes upon them and they see that the others have entered a cavern hidden by a blanket. Hawkeye is holding a blazing knot of pine which silhouettes Uncas, the first clear sight of whose carriage and almost Grecian features relieves the lingering doubts of those from Fort Edward. When the latter also enter the cavern, they learn that at the other entrance is a narrow, open chasm running at right angles and that just beyond it is another cave. They are essentially on an island of rock with the falls and turbulent water on both sides. As they take their meal of venison, Uncas makes an innovation on his Indian customs by attending the females, betraying a bit more interest in Cora than in Alice. In spite of his continuous vigilance, Hawkeye draws out a keg and invites Gamut to \""try a little spruce.\"" After they discuss Gamut's name and profession, the psalmodist and the girls render a sacred number that is safely muffled by the noise of the falls. The memory of his boyhood in the settlements brings tears to the scout's eyes just as the song is interrupted by a sudden, unearthly cry. In the ensuing stillness, Uncas cautiously steps outside but can see nothing to identify the unknown sound. Heyward takes the girls into the inner cave for sleep and inspects the far entrance to find directly beneath his feet an impenetrable barrier of roiling water. Though yet stoical, Cora seems for the first time to feel it rash to be trying to visit their father during this crisis. Heyward is reassuring the girls about Munro's feelings for them when the horrid cry fills the air again. Within a moment, the blanket-entrance is raised and the scout stands there, his face reflecting everyone's fearful sense of mystery and his own growing dismay."", ""analysis"": ""This chapter shows Cooper in his most inventive, dramatic, and descriptive form. His sympathy and admiration for the good Indians ring through his own delineations and the appreciative words of Heyward, Alice, and Cora. By putting the poetic description of the island and falls into the mouth of Hawkeye, he reveals his deep respect for and clear knowledge of nature and at the same time deepens the characterization of the scout, whose sense of justice, relativity, and \""place\"" is again highlighted when he admits that Gamut's \""strange calling\"" is his \""gift\"" and must not be denied. Completing and technically sustaining these developments are the plot elements of suspense and exploration of locale. Preparation for future thematic plot complications is smooth and unobtrusive in Uncas' brief attention to Cora.""}","
  ""Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide;
  He wales a portion with judicious care;
  And 'Let us worship God,' he says, with solemn air.""

  BURNS.


Heyward, and his female companions, witnessed this mysterious movement
with secret uneasiness; for, though the conduct of the white man had
hitherto been above reproach, his rude equipments, blunt address, and
strong antipathies, together with the character of his silent
associates, were all causes for exciting distrust in minds that had been
so recently alarmed by Indian treachery.

The stranger alone disregarded the passing incidents. He seated himself
on a projection of the rocks, whence he gave no other signs of
consciousness than by the struggles of his spirit, as manifested in
frequent and heavy sighs. Smothered voices were next heard, as though
men called to each other in the bowels of the earth, when a sudden light
flashed upon those without, and laid bare the much-prized secret of the
place.

At the farther extremity of a narrow, deep cavern in the rock, whose
length appeared much extended by the perspective and the nature of the
light by which it was seen, was seated the scout, holding a blazing knot
of pine. The strong glare of the fire fell full upon his sturdy,
weather-beaten countenance and forest attire, lending an air of romantic
wildness to the aspect of an individual, who, seen by the sober light of
day, would have exhibited the peculiarities of a man remarkable for the
strangeness of his dress, the iron-like inflexibility of his frame, and
the singular compound of quick, vigilant sagacity, and of exquisite
simplicity, that by turns usurped the possession of his muscular
features. At a little distance in advance stood Uncas, his whole person
thrown powerfully into view. The travellers anxiously regarded the
upright, flexible figure of the young Mohican, graceful and unrestrained
in the attitudes and movements of nature. Though his person was more
than usually screened by a green and fringed hunting-shirt, like that of
the white man, there was no concealment to his dark, glancing, fearless
eye, alike terrible and calm; the bold outline of his high, haughty
features, pure in their native red; or to the dignified elevation of his
receding forehead, together with all the finest proportions of a noble
head, bared to the generous scalping tuft. It was the first opportunity
possessed by Duncan and his companions, to view the marked lineaments of
either of their Indian attendants, and each individual of the party felt
relieved from a burden of doubt, as the proud and determined, though
wild expression of the features of the young warrior forced itself on
their notice. They felt it might be a being partially benighted in the
vale of ignorance, but it could not be one who would willingly devote
his rich natural gifts to the purposes of wanton treachery. The
ingenuous Alice gazed at his free air and proud carriage, as she would
have looked upon some precious relic of the Grecian chisel, to which
life had been imparted by the intervention of a miracle; while Heyward,
though accustomed to see the perfection of form which abounds among the
uncorrupted natives, openly expressed his admiration at such an
unblemished specimen of the noblest proportions of man.

""I could sleep in peace,"" whispered Alice, in reply, ""with such a
fearless and generous looking youth for my sentinel. Surely, Duncan,
those cruel murders, those terrific scenes of torture, of which we read
and hear so much, are never acted in the presence of such as he!""

""This, certainly, is a rare and brilliant instance of those natural
qualities, in which these peculiar people are said to excel,"" he
answered. ""I agree with you, Alice, in thinking that such a front and
eye were formed rather to intimidate than to deceive; but let us not
practise a deception upon ourselves, by expecting any other exhibition
of what we esteem virtue than according to the fashion of a savage. As
bright examples of great qualities are but too uncommon among
Christians, so are they singular and solitary with the Indians; though,
for the honor of our common nature, neither are incapable of producing
them. Let us then hope that this Mohican may not disappoint our wishes,
but prove, what his looks assert him to be, a brave and constant
friend.""

""Now Major Heyward speaks as Major Heyward should,"" said Cora; ""who,
that looks at this creature of nature, remembers the shade of his skin!""

A short, and apparently an embarrassed silence succeeded this remark,
which was interrupted by the scout calling to them, aloud, to enter.

""This fire begins to show too bright a flame,"" he continued, as they
complied, ""and might light the Mingos to our undoing. Uncas, drop the
blanket, and show the knaves its dark side. This is not such a supper as
a major of the Royal Americans has a right to expect, but I've known
stout detachments of the corps glad to eat their venison raw, and
without a relish too.[12] Here, you see, we have plenty of salt, and can
make a quick broil. There's fresh sassafras boughs for the ladies to sit
on, which may not be as proud as their my-hog-guinea chairs, but which
sends up a sweeter flavor than the skin of any hog can do, be it of
Guinea, or be it of any other land. Come, friend, don't be mournful for
the colt; 'twas an innocent thing, and had not seen much hardship. Its
death will save the creature many a sore back and weary foot!""

Uncas did as the other had directed, and when the voice of Hawkeye
ceased, the roar of the cataract sounded like the rumbling of distant
thunder.

""Are we quite safe in this cavern?"" demanded Heyward. ""Is there no
danger of surprise? A single armed man, at its entrance, would hold us
at his mercy.""

A spectral-looking figure stalked from out the darkness behind the
scout, and seizing a blazing brand, held it towards the farther
extremity of their place of retreat. Alice uttered a faint shriek, and
even Cora rose to her feet, as this appalling object moved into the
light; but a single word from Heyward calmed them, with the assurance it
was only their attendant, Chingachgook, who, lifting another blanket,
discovered that the cavern had two outlets. Then, holding the brand, he
crossed a deep, narrow chasm in the rocks, which ran at right angles
with the passage they were in, but which, unlike that, was open to the
heavens, and entered another cave, answering to the description of the
first, in every essential particular.

""Such old foxes as Chingachgook and myself are not often caught in a
burrow with one hole,"" said Hawkeye, laughing; ""you can easily see the
cunning of the place--the rock is black limestone, which everybody knows
is soft; it makes no uncomfortable pillow, where brush and pine wood is
scarce; well, the fall was once a few yards below us, and I dare to say
was, in its time, as regular and as handsome a sheet of water as any
along the Hudson. But old age is a great injury to good looks, as these
sweet young ladies have yet to l'arn! The place is sadly changed! These
rocks are full of cracks, and in some places they are softer than at
othersome, and the water has worked out deep hollows for itself, until
it has fallen back, ay, some hundred feet, breaking here and wearing
there, until the falls have neither shape nor consistency.""

""In what part of them are we?"" asked Heyward.

""Why, we are nigh the spot that Providence first placed them at, but
where, it seems, they were too rebellious to stay. The rock proved
softer on each side of us, and so they left the centre of the river bare
and dry, first working out these two little holes for us to hide in.""

""We are then on an island?""

""Ay! there are the falls on two sides of us, and the river above and
below. If you had daylight, it would be worth the trouble to step up on
the height of this rock, and look at the perversity of the water. It
falls by no rule at all; sometimes it leaps, sometimes it tumbles;
there, it skips; here, it shoots; in one place 'tis white as snow, and
in another 'tis green as grass; hereabouts, it pitches into deep
hollows, that rumble and quake the 'arth; and hereaway, it ripples and
sings like a brook, fashioning whirlpools and gulleys in the old stone,
as it 'twas no harder than trodden clay. The whole design of the river
seems disconcerted. First it runs smoothly, as if meaning to go down the
descent as things were ordered; then it angles about and faces the
shores; nor are there places wanting where it looks backward, as if
unwilling to leave the wilderness, to mingle with the salt! Ay, lady,
the fine cobweb-looking cloth you wear at your throat, is coarse, and
like a fish-net, to little spots I can show you, where the river
fabricates all sorts of images, as if, having broke loose from order, it
would try its hand at everything. And yet what does it amount to! After
the water has been suffered to have its will, for a time, like a
headstrong man, it is gathered together by the hand that made it, and a
few rods below you may see it all, flowing on steadily towards the sea,
as was foreordained from the first foundation of the 'arth!""

While his auditors received a cheering assurance of the security of
their place of concealment, from this untutored description of
Glenn's,[13] they were much inclined to judge differently from Hawkeye,
of its wild beauties. But they were not in a situation to suffer their
thoughts to dwell on the charms of natural objects; and, as the scout
had not found it necessary to cease his culinary labors while he spoke,
unless to point out, with a broken fork, the direction of some
particularly obnoxious point in the rebellious stream, they now suffered
their attention to be drawn to the necessary, though more vulgar
consideration of their supper.

The repast, which was greatly aided by the addition of a few delicacies
that Heyward had the precaution to bring with him when they left their
horses, was exceedingly refreshing to the wearied party. Uncas acted as
attendant to the females, performing all the little offices within his
power, with a mixture of dignity and anxious grace, that served to amuse
Heyward, who well knew that it was an utter innovation on the Indian
customs, which forbid their warriors to descend to any menial
employment, especially in favor of their women. As the rites of
hospitality were, however, considered sacred among them, this little
departure from the dignity of manhood excited no audible comment. Had
there been one there sufficiently disengaged to become a close observer,
he might have fancied that the services of the young chief were not
entirely impartial. That while he tendered to Alice the gourd of sweet
water and the venison in a trencher, neatly carved from the knot of the
pepperidge, with sufficient courtesy, in performing the same offices to
her sister, his dark eye lingered on her rich, speaking countenance.
Once or twice he was compelled to speak, to command the attention of
those he served. In such cases, he made use of English, broken and
imperfect, but sufficiently intelligible, and which he rendered so mild
and musical, by his deep,[14] guttural voice, that it never failed to
cause both ladies to look up in admiration and astonishment. In the
course of these civilities, a few sentences were exchanged, that served
to establish the appearance of an amicable intercourse between the
parties.

In the meanwhile, the gravity of Chingachgook remained immovable. He had
seated himself more within the circle of light, where the frequent
uneasy glances of his guests were better enabled to separate the natural
expression of his face from the artificial terrors of the war-paint.
They found a strong resemblance between father and son, with the
difference that might be expected from age and hardships. The fierceness
of his countenance now seemed to slumber, and in its place was to be
seen the quiet, vacant composure, which distinguishes an Indian warrior,
when his faculties are not required for any of the greater purposes of
his existence. It was, however, easy to be seen, by the occasional
gleams that shot across his swarthy visage, that it was only necessary
to arouse his passions, in order to give full effect to the terrific
device which he had adopted to intimidate his enemies. On the other
hand, the quick, roving eye of the scout seldom rested. He ate and drank
with an appetite that no sense of danger could disturb, but his
vigilance seemed never to desert him. Twenty times the gourd or the
venison was suspended before his lips, while his head was turned aside,
as though he listened to some distant and distrusted sounds--a movement
that never failed to recall his guests from regarding the novelties of
their situation, to a recollection of the alarming reasons that had
driven them to seek it. As these frequent pauses were never followed by
any remark, the momentary uneasiness they created quickly passed away,
and for a time was forgotten.

""Come, friend,"" said Hawkeye, drawing out a keg from beneath a cover of
leaves, towards the close of the repast, and addressing the stranger who
sat at his elbow, doing great justice to his culinary skill, ""try a
little spruce; 'twill wash away all thoughts of the colt, and quicken
the life in your bosom. I drink to our better friendship, hoping that a
little horse-flesh may leave no heartburnings atween us. How do you name
yourself?""

""Gamut--David Gamut,"" returned the singing-master, preparing to wash
down his sorrows in a powerful draught of the woodman's high-flavored
and well-laced compound.

""A very good name, and, I dare say, handed down from honest
forefathers. I'm an admirator of names, though the Christian fashions
fall far below savage customs in this particular. The biggest coward I
ever knew was called Lyon; and his wife, Patience, would scold you out
of hearing in less time than a hunted deer would run a rod. With an
Indian 'tis a matter of conscience; what he calls himself, he generally
is--not that Chingachgook, which signifies Big Sarpent, is really a
snake, big or little; but that he understands the windings and turnings
of human natur', and is silent, and strikes his enemies when they least
expect him. What may be your calling?""

""I am an unworthy instructor in the art of psalmody.""

""Anan!""

""I teach singing to the youths, of the Connecticut levy.""

""You might be better employed. The young hounds go laughing and singing
too much already through the woods, when they ought not to breathe
louder than a fox in his cover. Can you use the smooth bore, or handle
the rifle?""

""Praised be God, I have never had occasion to meddle with murderous
implements!""

""Perhaps you understand the compass, and lay down the water-courses and
mountains of the wilderness on paper, in order that they who follow may
find places by their given names?""

""I practise no such employment.""

""You have a pair of legs that might make a long path seem short! you
journey sometimes, I fancy, with tidings for the general.""

""Never; I follow no other than my own high vocation, which is
instruction in sacred music!""

""'Tis a strange calling!"" muttered Hawkeye, with an inward laugh, ""to go
through life, like a catbird, mocking all the ups and downs that may
happen to come out of other men's throats. Well, friend, I suppose it is
your gift, and mustn't be denied any more than if 'twas shooting, or
some other better inclination. Let us hear what you can do in that way;
'twill be a friendly manner of saying good-night, for 'tis time that
these ladies should be getting strength for a hard and a long push, in
the pride of the morning, afore the Maquas are stirring!""

""With joyful pleasure do I consent,"" said David, adjusting his
iron-rimmed spectacles, and producing his beloved little volume, which
he immediately tendered to Alice. ""What can be more fitting and
consolatory, than to offer up evening praise, after a day of such
exceeding jeopardy!""

Alice smiled; but regarding Heyward, she blushed and hesitated.

""Indulge yourself,"" he whispered: ""ought not the suggestion of the
worthy namesake of the Psalmist to have its weight at such a moment?""

Encouraged by his opinion, Alice did what her pious inclinations and her
keen relish for gentle sounds, had before so strongly urged. The book
was open at a hymn not ill adapted to their situation, and in which the
poet, no longer goaded by his desire to excel the inspired king of
Israel, had discovered some chastened and respectable powers. Cora
betrayed a disposition to support her sister, and the sacred song
proceeded, after the indispensable preliminaries of the pitch-pipe and
the tune had been duly attended to by the methodical David.

The air was solemn and slow. At times it rose to the fullest compass of
the rich voices of the females, who hung over their little book in holy
excitement, and again it sank so low, that the rushing of the waters ran
through their melody, like a hollow accompaniment. The natural taste and
true ear of David governed and modified the sounds to suit the confined
cavern, every crevice, and cranny of which was filled with the thrilling
notes of their flexible voices. The Indians riveted their eyes on the
rocks, and listened with an attention that seemed to turn them into
stone. But the scout, who had placed his chin in his hand, with an
expression of cold indifference, gradually suffered his rigid features
to relax, until, as verse succeeded verse, he felt his iron nature
subdued, while his recollection was carried back to boyhood, when his
ears had been accustomed to listen to similar sounds of praise, in the
settlements of the colony. His roving eyes began to moisten, and before
the hymn was ended, scalding tears rolled out of fountains that had long
seemed dry, and followed each other down those cheeks, that had oftener
felt the storms of heaven than any testimonials of weakness. The singers
were dwelling on one of those low, dying chords, which the ear devours
with such greedy rapture, as if conscious that it is about to lose them,
when a cry, that seemed neither human nor earthly, rose in the outward
air, penetrating not only the recesses of the cavern, but to the inmost
hearts of all who heard it. It was followed by a stillness apparently as
deep as if the waters had been checked in their furious progress, at
such a horrid and unusual interruption.

""What is it?"" murmured Alice, after a few moments of terrible suspense.

""What is it?"" repeated Heyward aloud.

Neither Hawkeye nor the Indians made any reply. They listened, as if
expecting the sound would be repeated, with a manner that expressed
their own astonishment. At length they spoke together earnestly, in the
Delaware language, when Uncas, passing by the inner and most concealed
aperture, cautiously left the cavern. When he had gone, the scout first
spoke in English.

""What it is, or what it is not, none here can tell; though two of us
have ranged the woods for more than thirty years! I did believe there
was no cry that Indians or beast could make, that my ears had not heard;
but this has proved that I was only a vain and conceited mortal!""

""Was it not, then, the shout the warriors make when they wish to
intimidate their enemies?"" asked Cora, who stood drawing her veil about
her person, with a calmness to which her agitated sister was a stranger.

""No, no; this was bad, and shocking, and had a sort of unhuman sound;
but when you once hear the war-whoop, you will never mistake it for
anything else! Well, Uncas!"" speaking in Delaware to the young chief as
he re-entered, ""what see you? do our lights shine through the blankets?""

The answer was short, and apparently decided, being given in the same
tongue.

""There is nothing to be seen without,"" continued Hawkeye, shaking his
head in discontent; ""and our hiding-place is still in darkness! Pass
into the other cave, you that need it, and seek for sleep; we must be
afoot long before the sun, and make the most of our time to get to
Edward, while the Mingos are taking their morning nap.""

Cora set the example of compliance, with a steadiness that taught the
more timid Alice the necessity of obedience. Before leaving the place,
however, she whispered a request to Duncan that he would follow. Uncas
raised the blanket for their passage, and as the sisters turned to thank
him for this act of attention, they saw the scout seated again before
the dying embers, with his face resting on his hands, in a manner which
showed how deeply he brooded on the unaccountable interruption which
had broken up their evening devotions.

Heyward took with him a blazing knot, which threw a dim light through
the narrow vista of their new apartment. Placing it in a favorable
position, he joined the females, who now found themselves alone with him
for the first time since they had left the friendly ramparts of Fort
Edward.

""Leave us not, Duncan,"" said Alice; ""we cannot sleep in such a place as
this, with that horrid cry still ringing in our ears!""

""First let us examine into the security of your fortress,"" he answered,
""and then we will speak of rest.""

He approached the farther end of the cavern, to an outlet, which, like
the others, was concealed by blankets, and removing the thick screen,
breathed the fresh and reviving air from the cataract. One arm of the
river flowed through a deep, narrow ravine, which its current had worn
in the soft rock, directly beneath his feet, forming an effectual
defence, as he believed, against any danger from that quarter; the
water, a few rods above them, plunging, glancing, and sweeping along, in
its most violent and broken manner.

""Nature has made an impenetrable barrier on this side,"" he continued,
pointing down the perpendicular declivity into the dark current, before
he dropped the blanket; ""and as you know that good men and true are on
guard in front, I see no reason why the advice of our honest host should
be disregarded. I am certain Cora will join me in saying that sleep is
necessary to you both.""

""Cora may submit to the justice of your opinion, though she cannot put
it in practise,"" returned the elder sister, who had placed herself by
the side of Alice, on a couch of sassafras; ""there would be other causes
to chase away sleep, though we had been spared the shock of this
mysterious noise. Ask yourself, Heyward, can daughters forget the
anxiety a father must endure, whose children lodge, he knows not where
or how, in such a wilderness, and in the midst of so many perils?""

""He is a soldier, and knows how to estimate the chances of the woods.""

""He is a father, and cannot deny his nature.""

""How kind has he ever been to all my follies! how tender and indulgent
to all my wishes!"" sobbed Alice. ""We have been selfish, sister, in
urging our visit at such hazard!""

""I may have been rash in pressing his consent in a moment of much
embarrassment, but I would have proved to him, that however others might
neglect him in his strait, his children at least were faithful!""

""When he heard of your arrival at Edward,"" said Heyward, kindly, ""there
was a powerful struggle in his bosom between fear and love; though the
latter, heightened, if possible, by so long a separation, quickly
prevailed. 'It is the spirit of my noble-minded Cora that leads them,
Duncan,' he said, 'and I will not balk it. Would to God, that he who
holds the honor of our royal master in his guardianship, would show but
half her firmness!'""

""And did he not speak of me, Heyward?"" demanded Alice, with jealous
affection. ""Surely, he forgot not altogether his little Elsie?""

""That was impossible,"" returned the young man; ""he called you by a
thousand endearing epithets, that I may not presume to use, but to the
justice of which I can warmly testify. Once, indeed, he said--""

Duncan ceased speaking; for while his eyes were riveted on those of
Alice, who had turned towards him with the eagerness of filial
affection, to catch his words, the same strong horrid cry, as before,
filled the air, and rendered him mute. A long, breathless silence
succeeded, during which each looked at the others in fearful expectation
of hearing the sound repeated. At length the blanket was slowly raised,
and the scout stood in the aperture with a countenance whose firmness
evidently began to give way, before a mystery that seemed to threaten
some danger, against which all his cunning and experience might prove of
no avail.



",Chapter 6,https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapter-6,"Heyward and the girls are uneasy and Gamut is still struggling in spirit when a light flashes upon them and they see that the others have entered a cavern hidden by a blanket. Hawkeye is holding a blazing knot of pine which silhouettes Uncas, the first clear sight of whose carriage and almost Grecian features relieves the lingering doubts of those from Fort Edward. When the latter also enter the cavern, they learn that at the other entrance is a narrow, open chasm running at right angles and that just beyond it is another cave. They are essentially on an island of rock with the falls and turbulent water on both sides. As they take their meal of venison, Uncas makes an innovation on his Indian customs by attending the females, betraying a bit more interest in Cora than in Alice. In spite of his continuous vigilance, Hawkeye draws out a keg and invites Gamut to ""try a little spruce."" After they discuss Gamut's name and profession, the psalmodist and the girls render a sacred number that is safely muffled by the noise of the falls. The memory of his boyhood in the settlements brings tears to the scout's eyes just as the song is interrupted by a sudden, unearthly cry. In the ensuing stillness, Uncas cautiously steps outside but can see nothing to identify the unknown sound. Heyward takes the girls into the inner cave for sleep and inspects the far entrance to find directly beneath his feet an impenetrable barrier of roiling water. Though yet stoical, Cora seems for the first time to feel it rash to be trying to visit their father during this crisis. Heyward is reassuring the girls about Munro's feelings for them when the horrid cry fills the air again. Within a moment, the blanket-entrance is raised and the scout stands there, his face reflecting everyone's fearful sense of mystery and his own growing dismay.","This chapter shows Cooper in his most inventive, dramatic, and descriptive form. His sympathy and admiration for the good Indians ring through his own delineations and the appreciative words of Heyward, Alice, and Cora. By putting the poetic description of the island and falls into the mouth of Hawkeye, he reveals his deep respect for and clear knowledge of nature and at the same time deepens the characterization of the scout, whose sense of justice, relativity, and ""place"" is again highlighted when he admits that Gamut's ""strange calling"" is his ""gift"" and must not be denied. Completing and technically sustaining these developments are the plot elements of suspense and exploration of locale. Preparation for future thematic plot complications is smooth and unobtrusive in Uncas' brief attention to Cora.",3873.0,321.0,128.0
27681,True,cliffnotes,all_chapterized_books/27681-chapters/chapters_7_to_8.txt,finished_summaries/cliffnotes/The Last of the Mohicans/section_6_part_0.txt,The Last of the Mohicans.chapters 7-8,chapters 7-8,,"{""name"": ""Chapters 7-8"", ""url"": ""https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapters-78"", ""summary"": ""Feeling that the cry is some kind of warning, whether intended or not, Hawkeye leads the entire party from the caves. As Heyward remarks upon the loveliness of the scene, the horrifying sound comes again as if from the bed of the river, and Heyward now recognizes it as the shriek of a horse in terror. The scout's reckoning that the horses are frightened by hovering wolves is immediately confirmed by a long howl that swiftly recedes into the depths of the forest, an abandonment that indicates enemy Indians are near. Once again secure in his knowledge of things, Hawkeye directs everyone to hide in moon shadows where they have a full view of both shores. Hours pass, and all fall asleep except the ever watchful scout and the Mohicans. The moon sets, and as pale dawn begins, the Iroquois attack with hellish yells and rifle reports. Gamut exposes himself, is wounded, and falls unconscious, while Hawkeye slips below and shoots one enemy, afterwards saying that their only hope is to hold the rock until Munro sends a party to help them. Heyward takes the girls into the outer cave where the reviving Gamut has been taken. As Cora reminds him how much his safety means to them, the major glances at Alice, reassures them, and rejoins the others outside. He and the scout deploy themselves in a little thicket of pines below the rock that splits the falls. Dawn comes. Then a long, anxious, and quiet watch succeeds until Hawkeye detects that four Indians have swum dangerously down to the rock above the defenders. As they wait, a fifth one, struggling to reach the rock, is thrown into the air and over the falls with a single, despairing shriek. After whistling Uncas to them, Hawkeye and the warrior shoot two Indians as the four charge them. When Heyward's pistols misfire, he and the scout grapple hand-to-hand with the two remaining enemies until Hawkeye dispatches his foe with a knife. Heyward is about to be dragged over the precipice with the other when Uncas severs the tendons of the Iroquois' wrist and grabs Heyward as the wounded savage falls to his destruction. As the survivors take cover, the Indians on shore yell and fire, and a give-and-take battle begins. One Iroquois, who has climbed an oak tree near shore, fires down upon the protagonists and slightly wounds Heyward. Setting up a crossfire with Chingachgook, Hawkeye fires his rifle \""Killdeer\"" and wounds the savage, who is left swinging in the wind with a desperate grasp on a branch. To save powder, the scout refuses to show mercy and finish the kill, but he weakens and discharges his last powder and bullet as the man falls toward the rocks and water. Uncas goes for munitions in the canoe only to find an Indian swimming away with it. Now essentially bereft of defensive means, the Mohicans scoff at their enemies and prepare for death. Hawkeye is quietly and stoically preparing himself also when Cora, who has been brave all along, entreats the men to escape downstream and effect a rescue. Convinced of her reason, Chingachgook slips under the water and away. After telling her to leave a marked trail if they are captured, Hawkeye carefully lays \""Killdeer\"" aside and disappears into the water. Uncas remains until Cora, lowering her eyes, asks him to go to her father as her \""most confidential\"" messenger; then he also drops into the water. When Heyward refuses to leave on the grounds that his presence may keep the girls from evils worse than death, Cora draws \""the nearly insensible Alice after her into the deepest recess of the inner cavern.\"""", ""analysis"": ""While outwardly these two chapters are concerned chiefly with fright and action for entertaining the reader and multiplying difficulties for the characters, it also portrays the bloody cross-purposes of frontier strife: seven Iroquois are killed and two white men are wounded, while the male protagonists are finally confronted with a moral dilemma. Are they to face danger and probable death with calm, frontal bravery, or are they to turn to subterfuge and escape, hoping to effect a rescue but running the risk of being deserters? It is a bigger problem than that found in most sentimental novels, where woman's greatest threat is usually to her virtue or reputation. Here it involves the age-old physical responsibility of the male for the female and -- greater yet -- of the strong for the weak, the typical assumption in the myth of the American frontiersman. The decision and resultant escape of Hawkeye, whose Christian reasoning is notably different from that of the Mohicans, is of a piece with the American self-ideal about necessity and the ingenuity of \""finding a way out.\"" The fortitude of Cora at this point is also consistent with the accredited strength of American pioneer womanhood; it is she who sees beyond the immediate grave situation to a possible desperate solution for which she femininely entreats rather than insists. Further, though Cooper's females only seldom do so, in this instance Cora takes on the three-dimensional qualities of a real woman character when, revealing a bit of her personal feelings and utilizing Uncas', she urges the subtle distinction about messengers which leads the young Mohican to escape also. At his best, Cooper is not a novelist who presses his thematic elements very hard upon his reader. But the preceding elements are in these two chapters, and so are others such as the rifle lore that Hawkeye voices during the battles. The two white men from Fort Edward are significantly wounded in this raw frontier condition that is new to them. Although as yet unaware of it, Gamut is already confronting what Hawkeye knows and, after the psalmodist is unconscious, voices: that \""singing won't do any good with the Iroquois.\"" Thus in the singing master, religious idealism and reality are meeting head-on. Also, Cooper is very slowly and carefully developing the attraction between Uncas and Cora. The surplus sentimental heroine is gradually being paired with a hero, but it is an original pairing that involves the conservative idea of racial \""place\"" and is to result in tragic complications. While the story moves along at a brisk pace with action and Indian customs such as the preparation for dying, Cooper is touching upon and getting ready to develop further more crucial aspects of the frontier situation in the New World.""}","
                  ""They do not sleep.
  On yonder cliffs, a grisly band,
  I see them sit.""

  GRAY.


""'Twould be neglecting a warning that is given for our good, to lie hid
any longer,"" said Hawkeye, ""when such sounds are raised in the forest!
The gentle ones may keep close, but the Mohicans and I will watch upon
the rock, where I suppose a major of the 60th would wish to keep us
company.""

""Is then our danger so pressing?"" asked Cora.

""He who makes strange sounds, and gives them out for man's information,
alone knows our danger. I should think myself wicked, unto rebellion
against his will, was I to burrow with such warnings in the air! Even
the weak soul who passes his days in singing, is stirred by the cry,
and, as he says, is 'ready to go forth to the battle.' If 'twere only a
battle, it would be a thing understood by us all, and easily managed;
but I have heard that when such shrieks are atween heaven and 'arth, it
betokens another sort of warfare!""

""If all our reasons for fear, my friend, are confined to such as proceed
from supernatural causes, we have but little occasion to be alarmed,""
continued the undisturbed Cora; ""are you certain that our enemies have
not invented some new and ingenious method to strike us with terror,
that their conquest may become more easy?""

""Lady,"" returned the scout, solemnly, ""I have listened to all the sounds
of the woods for thirty years, as a man will listen, whose life and
death depend on the quickness of his ears. There is no whine of the
panther, no whistle of the catbird, nor any invention of the devilish
Mingos, that can cheat me! I have heard the forest moan like mortal men
in their affliction; often, and again, have I listened to the wind
playing its music in the branches of the girdled trees; and I have heard
the lightning cracking in the air, like the snapping of blazing brush,
as it spitted forth sparks and forked flames; but never have I thought
that I heard more than the pleasure of Him who sported with the things
of his hand. But neither the Mohicans, nor I, who am a white man without
a cross, can explain the cry just heard. We, therefore, believe it a
sign given for our good.""

""It is extraordinary!"" said Heyward, taking his pistols from the place
where he had laid them on entering; ""be it a sign of peace or a signal
of war, it must be looked to. Lead the way, my friend; I follow.""

On issuing from their place of confinement, the whole party instantly
experienced a grateful renovation of spirits, by exchanging the pent air
of the hiding-place for the cool and invigorating atmosphere, which
played around the whirlpools and pitches of the cataract. A heavy
evening breeze swept along the surface of the river, and seemed to drive
the roar of the falls into the recesses of their own caverns, whence it
issued heavily and constant, like thunder rumbling beyond the distant
hills. The moon had risen, and its light was already glancing here and
there on the waters above them; but the extremity of the rock where they
stood still lay in shadow. With the exception of the sounds produced by
the rushing waters, and an occasional breathing of the air, as it
murmured past them in fitful currents, the scene was as still as night
and solitude could make it. In vain were the eyes of each individual
bent along the opposite shores, in quest of some signs of life, that
might explain the nature of the interruption they had heard. Their
anxious and eager looks were baffled by the deceptive light, or rested
only on naked rocks, and straight and immovable trees.

""There is nothing to be seen but the gloom and quiet of a lovely
evening,"" whispered Duncan: ""how much should we prize such a scene, and
all this breathing solitude, at any other moment, Cora! Fancy yourselves
in security and what now, perhaps, increases your terror, may be made
conducive to enjoyment--""

""Listen!"" interrupted Alice.

The caution was unnecessary. Once more the same sound arose, as if from
the bed of the river, and having broken out of the narrow bounds of the
cliffs, was heard undulating through the forest, in distant and dying
cadences.

""Can any here give a name to such a cry?"" demanded Hawkeye, when the
last echo was lost in the woods; ""if so, let him speak; for myself, I
judge it not to belong to 'arth!""

""Here, then, is one who can undeceive you,"" said Duncan; ""I know the
sound full well, for often have I heard it on the field of battle, and
in situations which are frequent in a soldier's life. 'Tis the horrid
shriek that a horse will give in his agony; oftener drawn from him in
pain, though sometimes in terror. My charger is either a prey to the
beasts of the forest, or he sees his danger, without the power to avoid
it. The sound might deceive me in the cavern, but in the open air I know
it too well to be wrong.""

The scout and his companions listened to this simple explanation with
the interest of men who imbibe new ideas, at the same time that they get
rid of old ones, which had proved disagreeable inmates. The two latter
uttered their usual and expressive exclamation, ""Hugh!"" as the truth
first glanced upon their minds, while the former, after a short musing
pause, took upon himself to reply.

""I cannot deny your words,"" he said; ""for I am little skilled in horses,
though born where they abound. The wolves must be hovering above their
heads on the bank, and the timorsome creatures are calling on man for
help, in the best manner they are able. Uncas,""--he spoke in
Delaware--""Uncas, drop down in the canoe, and whirl a brand among the
pack; or fear may do what the wolves can't get at to perform, and leave
us without horses in the morning, when we shall have so much need to
journey swiftly!""

The young native had already descended to the water, to comply, when a
long howl was raised on the edge of the river, and was borne swiftly off
into the depths of the forest, as though the beasts, of their own
accord, were abandoning their prey in sudden terror. Uncas, with
instinctive quickness, receded, and the three foresters held another of
their low, earnest conferences.

""We have been like hunters who have lost the points of the heavens, and
from whom the sun has been hid for days,"" said Hawkeye, turning away
from his companions; ""now we begin again to know the signs of our
course, and the paths are cleared from briers! Seat yourselves in the
shade which the moon throws from yonder beech--'tis thicker than that of
the pines--and let us wait for that which the Lord may choose to send
next. Let all your conversation be in whispers; though it would be
better, and perhaps, in the end, wiser, if each one held discourse with
his own thoughts, for a time.""

The manner of the scout was seriously impressive, though no longer
distinguished by any signs of unmanly apprehension. It was evident that
his momentary weakness had vanished with the explanation of a mystery
which his own experience had not served to fathom; and though he now
felt all the realities of their actual condition, that he was prepared
to meet them with the energy of his hardy nature. This feeling seemed
also common to the natives, who placed themselves in positions which
commanded a full view of both shores, while their own persons were
effectually concealed from observation. In such circumstances, common
prudence dictated that Heyward and his companions should imitate a
caution that proceeded from so intelligent a source. The young man drew
a pile of the sassafras from the cave, and placing it in the chasm which
separated the two caverns, it was occupied by the sisters, who were thus
protected by the rocks from any missiles, while their anxiety was
relieved by the assurance that no danger could approach without a
warning. Heyward himself was posted at hand, so near that he might
communicate with his companions without raising his voice to a dangerous
elevation, while David, in imitation of the woodsmen, bestowed his
person in such a manner among the fissures of the rocks, that his
ungainly limbs were no longer offensive to the eye.

In this manner, hours passed by without further interruption. The moon
reached the zenith, and shed its mild light perpendicularly on the
lovely sight of the sisters slumbering peacefully in each other's arms.
Duncan cast the wide shawl of Cora before a spectacle he so much loved
to contemplate, and then suffered his own head to seek a pillow on the
rock. David began to utter sounds that would have shocked his delicate
organs in more wakeful moments; in short, all but Hawkeye and the
Mohicans lost every idea of consciousness, in uncontrollable drowsiness.
But the watchfulness of these vigilant protectors neither tired nor
slumbered. Immovable as that rock, of which each appeared to form a
part, they lay, with their eyes roving, without intermission, along the
dark margin of trees that bounded the adjacent shores of the narrow
stream. Not a sound escaped them; the most subtle examination could not
have told they breathed. It was evident that this excess of caution
proceeded from an experience that no subtlety on the part of their
enemies could deceive. It was, however, continued without any apparent
consequences, until the moon had set, and a pale streak above the
tree-tops, at the bend of the river a little below, announced the
approach of day.

Then, for the first time, Hawkeye was seen to stir. He crawled along
the rock, and shook Duncan from his heavy slumbers.

""Now is the time to journey,"" he whispered; ""awake the gentle ones, and
be ready to get into the canoe when I bring it to the landing-place.""

""Have you had a quiet night?"" said Heyward; ""for myself, I believe sleep
has got the better of my vigilance.""

""All is yet still as midnight. Be silent, but be quick.""

By this time Duncan was thoroughly awake, and he immediately lifted the
shawl from the sleeping females. The motion caused Cora to raise her
hand as if to repulse him, while Alice murmured, in her soft, gentle
voice, ""No, no, dear father, we were not deserted; Duncan was with us!""

""Yes, sweet innocence,"" whispered the youth; ""Duncan is here, and while
life continues or danger remains, he will never quit thee. Cora! Alice!
awake! The hour has come to move!""

A loud shriek from the younger of the sisters, and the form of the other
standing upright before him, in bewildered horror, was the unexpected
answer he received. While the words were still on the lips of Heyward,
there had arisen such a tumult of yells and cries as served to drive the
swift currents of his own blood back from its bounding course into the
fountains of his heart. It seemed, for near a minute, as if demons of
hell had possessed themselves of the air about them, and were venting
their savage humors in barbarous sounds. The cries came from no
particular direction, though it was evident they filled the woods, and
as the appalled listeners easily imagined, the caverns of the falls, the
rocks, the bed of the river, and the upper air. David raised his tall
person in the midst of the infernal din, with a hand on either ear,
exclaiming--

""Whence comes this discord! Has hell broke loose, that man should utter
sounds like these!""

The bright flashes and the quick reports of a dozen rifles, from the
opposite banks of the stream, followed this incautious exposure of his
person, and left the unfortunate singing-master senseless on that rock
where he had been so long slumbering. The Mohicans boldly sent back the
intimidating yell of their enemies, who raised a shout of savage triumph
at the fall of Gamut. The flash of rifles was then quick and close
between them, but either party was too well skilled to leave even a limb
exposed to the hostile aim. Duncan listened with intense anxiety for
the strokes of the paddle, believing that flight was now their only
refuge. The river glanced by with its ordinary velocity, but the canoe
was nowhere to be seen on its dark waters. He had just fancied they were
cruelly deserted by the scout, as a stream of flame issued from the rock
beneath him, and a fierce yell, blended with a shriek of agony,
announced that the messenger of death, sent from the fatal weapon of
Hawkeye, had found a victim. At this slight repulse the assailants
instantly withdrew, and gradually the place became as still as before
the sudden tumult.

Duncan seized the favorable moment to spring to the body of Gamut, which
he bore within the shelter of the narrow chasm that protected the
sisters. In another minute the whole party was collected in this spot of
comparative safety.

""The poor fellow has saved his scalp,"" said Hawkeye, coolly passing his
hand over the head of David; ""but he is a proof that a man may be born
with too long a tongue! 'Twas downright madness to show six feet of
flesh and blood, on a naked rock, to the raging savages. I only wonder
he has escaped with life.""

""Is he not dead!"" demanded Cora, in a voice whose husky tones showed how
powerfully natural horror struggled with her assumed firmness. ""Can we
do aught to assist the wretched man?""

""No, no! the life is in his heart yet, and after he has slept awhile he
will come to himself, and be a wiser man for it, till the hour of his
real time shall come,"" returned Hawkeye, casting another oblique glance
at the insensible body, while he filled his charger with admirable
nicety. ""Carry him in, Uncas, and lay him on the sassafras. The longer
his nap lasts the better it will be for him, as I doubt whether he can
find a proper cover for such a shape on these rocks; and singing won't
do any good with the Iroquois.""

""You believe, then, the attack will be renewed?"" asked Heyward.

""Do I expect a hungry wolf will satisfy his craving with a mouthful!
They have lost a man, and 'tis their fashion, when they meet a loss, and
fail in the surprise, to fall back; but we shall have them on again,
with new expedients to circumvent us, and master our scalps. Our main
hope,"" he continued, raising his rugged countenance, across which a
shade of anxiety just then passed like a darkening cloud, ""will be to
keep the rock until Munro can send a party to our help! God send it may
be soon, and under a leader that knows the Indian customs!""

""You hear our probable fortunes, Cora,"" said Duncan, ""and you know we
have everything to hope from the anxiety and experience of your father.
Come, then, with Alice, into this cavern, where you, at least, will be
safe from the murderous rifles of our enemies and where you may bestow a
care suited to your gentle natures on our unfortunate comrade.""

The sisters followed him into the outer cave, where David was beginning,
by his sighs, to give symptoms of returning consciousness; and then
commending the wounded man to their attention, he immediately prepared
to leave them.

""Duncan!"" said the tremulous voice of Cora, when he had reached the
mouth of the cavern. He turned, and beheld the speaker, whose color had
changed to a deadly paleness, and whose lip quivered, gazing after him,
with an expression of interest which immediately recalled him to her
side. ""Remember, Duncan, how necessary your safety is to our own--how
you bear a father's sacred trust--how much depends on your discretion
and care--in short,"" she added, while the tell-tale blood stole over her
features, crimsoning her very temples, ""how very deservedly dear you are
to all of the name of Munro.""

""If anything could add to my own base love of life,"" said Heyward,
suffering his unconscious eyes to wander to the youthful form of the
silent Alice, ""it would be so kind an assurance. As major of the 60th,
our honest host will tell you I must take my share of the fray; but our
task will be easy; it is merely to keep these blood-hounds at bay for a
few hours.""

Without waiting for reply, he tore himself from the presence of the
sisters, and joined the scout and his companions, who still lay within
the protection of the little chasm between the two caves.

""I tell you, Uncas,"" said the former, as Heyward joined them, ""you are
wasteful of your powder, and the kick of the rifle disconcerts your aim!
Little powder, light lead, and a long arm, seldom fail of bringing the
death screech from a Mingo! At least, such has been my experience with
the creatur's. Come, friends; let us to our covers, for no man can tell
when or where a Maqua[15] will strike his blow.""

The Indians silently repaired to their appointed stations, which were
fissures in the rocks, whence they could command the approaches to the
foot of the falls. In the centre of the little island, a few short and
stunted pines had found root, forming a thicket, into which Hawkeye
darted with the swiftness of a deer, followed by the active Duncan. Here
they secured themselves, as well as circumstances would permit, among
the shrubs and fragments of stone that were scattered about the place.
Above them was a bare, rounded rock, on each side of which the water
played its gambols, and plunged into the abysses beneath, in the manner
already described. As the day had now dawned, the opposite shores no
longer presented a confused outline, but they were able to look into the
woods, and distinguish objects beneath the canopy of gloomy pines.

A long and anxious watch succeeded, but without any further evidences of
a renewed attack; and Duncan began to hope that their fire had proved
more fatal than was supposed, and that their enemies had been
effectually repulsed. When he ventured to utter this impression to his
companion, it was met by Hawkeye with an incredulous shake of the head.

""You know not the nature of a Maqua, if you think he is so easily beaten
back without a scalp!"" he answered. ""If there was one of the imps
yelling this morning, there were forty! and they know our number and
quality too well to give up the chase so soon. Hist! look into the water
above, just where it breaks over the rocks. I am no mortal, if the risky
devils haven't swam down upon the very pitch, and, as bad luck would
have it, they have hit the head of the island. Hist! man, keep close! or
the hair will be off your crown in the turning of a knife!""

Heyward lifted his head from the cover, and beheld what he justly
considered a prodigy of rashness and skill. The river had worn away the
edge of the soft rock in such a manner, as to render its first pitch
less abrupt and perpendicular than is usual at waterfalls. With no other
guide than the ripple of the stream where it met the head of the island,
a party of their insatiable foes had ventured into the current, and swam
down upon this point, knowing the ready access it would give, if
successful, to their intended victims. As Hawkeye ceased speaking, four
human heads could be seen peering above a few logs of drift-wood that
had lodged on these naked rocks, and which had probably suggested the
idea of the practicability of the hazardous undertaking. At the next
moment, a fifth form was seen floating over the green edge of the fall,
a little from the line of the island. The savage struggled powerfully to
gain the point of safety, and, favored by the glancing water, he was
already stretching forth an arm to meet the grasp of his companions,
when he shot away again with the whirling current, appeared to rise into
the air, with uplifted arms and starting eyeballs, and fell, with a
sullen plunge, into that deep and yawning abyss over which he hovered. A
single, wild, despairing shriek rose from the cavern, and all was hushed
again, as the grave.

The first generous impulse of Duncan was to rush to the rescue of the
hapless wretch; but he felt himself bound to the spot by the iron grasp
of the immovable scout.

""Would ye bring certain death upon us, by telling the Mingos where we
lie?"" demanded Hawkeye, sternly; ""'tis a charge of powder saved, and
ammunition is as precious now as breath to a worried deer! Freshen the
priming of your pistols--the mist of the falls is apt to dampen the
brimstone--and stand firm for a close struggle, while I fire on their
rush.""

He placed his finger in his mouth, and drew a long, shrill whistle,
which was answered from the rocks that were guarded by the Mohicans.
Duncan caught glimpses of heads above the scattered drift-wood, as this
signal rose on the air, but they disappeared again as suddenly as they
had glanced upon his sight. A low, rustling sound next drew his
attention behind him, and turning his head, he beheld Uncas within a few
feet, creeping to his side. Hawkeye spoke to him in Delaware, when the
young chief took his position with singular caution and undisturbed
coolness. To Heyward this was a moment of feverish and impatient
suspense; though the scout saw fit to select it as a fit occasion to
read a lecture to his more youthful associates on the art of using
fire-arms with discretion.

""Of all we'pons,"" he commenced, ""the long-barrelled, true-grooved,
soft-metalled rifle is the most dangerous in skilful hands, though it
wants a strong arm, a quick eye, and great judgment in charging, to put
forth all its beauties. The gunsmiths can have but little insight into
their trade, when they make their fowling-pieces and short horsemen's--""

He was interrupted by the low but expressive ""Hugh!"" of Uncas.

[Illustration: _Copyright by Charles Scribner's Sons_

THE BATTLE AT GLENS FALLS

_Each of the combatants threw all his energies into that effort, and the
result was, that both tottered on the brink of the precipice_]

""I see them, boy, I see them!"" continued Hawkeye; ""they are gathering
for the rush, or they would keep their dingy backs below the logs. Well,
let them,"" he added, examining his flint; ""the leading man certainly
comes on to his death, though it should be Montcalm himself!""

At that moment the woods were filled with another burst of cries, and at
the signal four savages sprang from the cover of the drift-wood. Heyward
felt a burning desire to rush forward to meet them, so intense was the
delirious anxiety of the moment; but he was restrained by the deliberate
examples of the scout and Uncas. When their foes who leaped over the
black rock that divided them, with long bounds, uttering the wildest
yells, were within a few rods, the rifle of Hawkeye slowly rose among
the shrubs, and poured out its fatal contents. The foremost Indian
bounded like a stricken deer, and fell headlong among the clefts of the
island.

""Now, Uncas!"" cried the scout, drawing his long knife, while his quick
eyes began to flash with ardor, ""take the last of the screeching imps;
of the other two we are sartain!""

He was obeyed; and but two enemies remained to be overcome. Heyward had
given one of his pistols to Hawkeye, and together they rushed down a
little declivity towards their foes; they discharged their weapons at
the same instant, and equally without success.

""I know'd it! and I said it!"" muttered the scout, whirling the despised
little implement over the falls with bitter disdain. ""Come on, ye bloody
minded hell-hounds! ye meet a man without a cross!""

The words were barely uttered, when he encountered a savage of gigantic
stature, and of the fiercest mien. At the same moment, Duncan found
himself engaged with the other, in a similar contest of hand to hand.
With ready skill, Hawkeye and his antagonist each grasped that uplifted
arm of the other which held the dangerous knife. For near a minute they
stood looking one another in the eye, and gradually exerting the power
of their muscles for the mastery. At length, the toughened sinews of the
white man prevailed over the less practised limbs of the native. The arm
of the latter slowly gave way before the increasing force of the scout,
who suddenly wresting his armed hand from the grasp of the foe, drove
the sharp weapon through his naked bosom to the heart. In the meantime
Heyward had been pressed in a more deadly struggle. His slight sword was
snapped in the first encounter. As he was destitute of any other means
of defence, his safety now depended entirely on bodily strength and
resolution. Though deficient in neither of these qualities, he had met
an enemy every way his equal. Happily, he soon succeeded in disarming
his adversary, whose knife fell on the rock at their feet; and from this
moment it became a fierce struggle, who should cast the other over the
dizzy height into a neighboring cavern of the falls. Every successive
struggle brought them nearer to the verge, where Duncan perceived the
final and conquering effort must be made. Each of the combatants threw
all his energies into that effort, and the result was, that both
tottered on the brink of the precipice. Heyward felt the grasp of the
other at his throat, and saw the grim smile the savage gave, under the
revengeful hope that he hurried his enemy to a fate similar to his own,
as he felt his body slowly yielding to a resistless power, and the young
man experienced the passing agony of such a moment in all its horrors.
At that instant of extreme danger, a dark hand and glancing knife
appeared before him; the Indian released his hold, as the blood flowed
freely from around the several tendons of the wrist; and while Duncan
was drawn backward by the saving arm of Uncas, his charmed eyes were
still riveted on the fierce and disappointed countenance of his foe, who
fell sullenly and disappointed down the irrecoverable precipice.

""To cover! to cover!"" cried Hawkeye, who just then had despatched the
enemy; ""to cover, for your lives! the work is but half ended!""

The young Mohican gave a shout of triumph, and, followed by Duncan, he
glided up the acclivity they had descended to the combat, and sought the
friendly shelter of the rocks and shrubs.




      ""They linger yet,
  Avengers of their native land.""

  GRAY.


The warning call of the scout was not uttered without occasion. During
the occurrence of the deadly encounter just related, the roar of the
falls was unbroken by any human sound whatever. It would seem that
interest in the result had kept the natives on the opposite shores in
breathless suspense, while the quick evolutions and swift changes in the
position of the combatants, effectually prevented a fire that might
prove dangerous alike to friend and enemy. But the moment the struggle
was decided, a yell arose as fierce and savage as wild and revengful
passions could throw into the air. It was followed by the swift flashes
of the rifles, which sent their leaden messengers across the rock in
volleys, as though the assailants would pour out their impotent fury on
the insensible scene of the fatal contest.

A steady, though deliberate return was made from the rifle of
Chingachgook, who had maintained his post throughout the fray with
unmoved resolution. When the triumphant shout of Uncas was borne to his
ears, the gratified father raised his voice in a single responsive cry,
after which his busy piece alone proved that he still guarded his pass
with unwearied diligence. In this manner many minutes flew by with the
swiftness of thought: the rifles of the assailants speaking, at times,
in rattling volleys, and at others, in occasional, scattering shots.
Though the rock, the trees, and the shrubs, were cut and torn in a
hundred places around the besieged, their cover was so close, and so
rigidly maintained, that, as yet, David had been the only sufferer in
their little band.

""Let them burn their powder,"" said the deliberate scout, while bullet
after bullet whizzed by the place where he securely lay; ""there will be
a fine gathering of lead when it is over, and I fancy the imps will tire
of the sport, afore these old stones cry out for mercy! Uncas, boy, you
waste the kernels by overcharging: and a kicking rifle never carries a
true bullet. I told you to take that loping miscreant under the line of
white paint; now, if your bullet went a hair's breadth, it went two
inches above it. The life lies low in a Mingo, and humanity teaches us
to make a quick end of the sarpents.""

A quiet smile lighted the haughty features of the young Mohican,
betraying his knowledge of the English language, as well as of the
other's meaning; but he suffered it to pass away without vindication or
reply.

""I cannot permit you to accuse Uncas of want of judgment or of skill,""
said Duncan; ""he saved my life in the coolest and readiest manner, and
he has made a friend who never will require to be reminded of the debt
he owes.""

Uncas partly raised his body, and offered his hand to the grasp of
Heyward. During this act of friendship, the two young men exchanged
looks of intelligence which caused Duncan to forget the character and
condition of his wild associate. In the meanwhile, Hawkeye, who looked
on this burst of youthful feeling with a cool but kind regard, made the
following reply:--

""Life is an obligation which friends often owe each other in the
wilderness. I dare say I may have served Uncas some such turn myself
before now; and I very well remember that he has stood between me and
death five different times: three times from the Mingos, once in
crossing Horican, and--""

""That bullet was better aimed than common!"" exclaimed Duncan,
involuntarily shrinking from a shot which struck the rock at his side
with a smart rebound.

Hawkeye laid his hand on the shapeless metal, and shook his head, as he
examined it, saying, ""Falling lead is never flattened! had it come from
the clouds this might have happened!""

But the rifle of Uncas was deliberately raised towards the heavens,
directing his companions to a point, where the mystery was immediately
explained. A ragged oak grew on the right bank of the river, nearly
opposite to their position, which, seeking the freedom of the open
space, had inclined so far forward, that its upper branches overhung
that arm of the stream which flowed nearest to its own shore. Among the
topmost leaves, which scantily concealed the gnarled and stunted limbs,
a savage was nestled, partly concealed by the trunk of the tree, and
partly exposed, as though looking down upon them to ascertain the effect
produced by his treacherous aim.

""These devils will scale heaven to circumvent us to our ruin,"" said
Hawkeye; ""keep him in play, boy, until I can bring 'Killdeer' to bear,
when we will try his metal on each side of the tree at once.""

Uncas delayed his fire until the scout uttered the word. The rifles
flashed, the leaves and the bark of the oak flew into the air, and were
scattered by the wind, but the Indian answered their assault by a
taunting laugh, sending down upon them another bullet in return, that
struck the cap of Hawkeye from his head. Once more the savage yells
burst out of the woods, and the leaden hail whistled above the heads of
the besieged, as if to confine them to a place where they might become
easy victims to the enterprise of the warrior who had mounted the tree.

""This must be looked to!"" said the scout, glancing about him with an
anxious eye. ""Uncas, call up your father; we have need of all our
we'pons to bring the cunning varmint from his roost.""

The signal was instantly given; and, before Hawkeye had reloaded his
rifle, they were joined by Chingachgook. When his son pointed out to the
experienced warrior the situation of their dangerous enemy, the usual
exclamatory ""Hugh!"" burst from his lips; after which, no further
expression of surprise or alarm was suffered to escape him. Hawkeye and
the Mohicans conversed earnestly together in Delaware for a few moments,
when each quietly took his post, in order to execute the plan they had
speedily devised.

The warrior in the oak had maintained a quick, though ineffectual fire,
from the moment of his discovery. But his aim was interrupted by the
vigilance of his enemies, whose rifles instantaneously bore on any part
of his person that was left exposed. Still his bullets fell in the
centre of the crouching party. The clothes of Heyward, which rendered
him peculiarly conspicuous, were repeatedly cut, and once blood was
drawn from a slight wound in his arm.

At length, emboldened by the long and patient watchfulness of his
enemies, the Huron attempted a better and more fatal aim. The quick eye
of the Mohicans caught the dark line of his lower limbs incautiously
exposed through the thin foliage, a few inches from the trunk of the
tree. Their rifles made a common report, when, sinking on his wounded
limb, part of the body of the savage came into view. Swift as thought,
Hawkeye seized the advantage and discharged his fatal weapon into the
top of the oak. The leaves were unusually agitated; the dangerous rifle
fell from its commanding elevation, and after a few moments of vain
struggling, the form of the savage was seen swinging in the wind, while
he still grasped a ragged and naked branch of the tree, with hands
clenched in desperation.

""Give him, in pity give him--the contents of another rifle!"" cried
Duncan, turning away his eyes in horror from the spectacle of a
fellow-creature in such awful jeopardy.

""Not a karnel!"" exclaimed the obdurate Hawkeye; ""his death is certain,
and we have no powder to spare, for Indian fights sometimes last for
days; 'tis their scalps or ours!--and God, who made us, has put into our
natures the craving to keep the skin on the head!""

Against this stern and unyielding morality, supported as it was by such
visible policy, there was no appeal. From that moment the yells in the
forest once more ceased, the fire was suffered to decline, and all eyes,
those of friends as well as enemies, became fixed on the hopeless
condition of the wretch who was dangling between heaven and earth. The
body yielded to the currents of air, and though no murmur or groan
escaped the victim, there were instants when he grimly faced his foes,
and the anguish of cold despair might be traced, through the intervening
distance, in possession of his swarthy lineaments. Three several times
the scout raised his piece in mercy, and as often prudence getting the
better of his intention, it was again silently lowered. At length one
hand of the Huron lost its hold, and dropped exhausted to his side. A
desperate and fruitless struggle to recover the branch succeeded, and
then the savage was seen for a fleeting instant, grasping wildly at the
empty air. The lightning is not quicker than was the flame from the
rifle of Hawkeye; the limbs of the victim trembled and contracted, the
head fell to the bosom, and the body parted the foaming waters like
lead, when the element closed above it, in its ceaseless velocity, and
every vestige of the unhappy Huron was lost forever.

No shout of triumph succeeded this important advantage, but even the
Mohicans gazed at each other in silent horror. A single yell burst from
the woods, and all was again still. Hawkeye, who alone appeared to
reason on the occasion, shook his head at his own momentary weakness,
even uttering his self-disapprobation aloud.

""'Twas the last charge in my horn, and the last bullet in my pouch, and
'twas the act of a boy!"" he said; ""what mattered it whether he struck
the rock living or dead: feeling would soon be over. Uncas, lad, go down
to the canoe, and bring up the big horn; it is all the powder we have
left, and we shall need it to the last grain, or I am ignorant of the
Mingo nature.""

The young Mohican complied, leaving the scout turning over the useless
contents of his pouch, and shaking the empty horn with renewed
discontent. From this unsatisfactory examination, however, he was soon
called by a loud and piercing exclamation from Uncas, that sounded, even
to the unpractised ears of Duncan, as the signal of some new and
unexpected calamity. Every thought filled with apprehension for the
precious treasure he had concealed in the cavern, the young man started
to his feet, totally regardless of the hazard he incurred by such an
exposure. As if actuated by a common impulse, his movement was imitated
by his companions, and, together, they rushed down the pass to the
friendly chasm, with a rapidity that rendered the scattering fire of
their enemies perfectly harmless. The unwonted cry had brought the
sisters, together with the wounded David, from their place of refuge;
and the whole party, at a single glance, was made acquainted with the
nature of the disaster that had disturbed even the practised stoicism of
their youthful Indian protector.

At a short distance from the rock, their little bark was to be seen
floating across the eddy, towards the swift current of the river, in a
manner which proved that its course was directed by some hidden agent.
The instant this unwelcome sight caught the eye of the scout, his rifle
was levelled as by instinct, but the barrel gave no answer to the bright
sparks of the flint.

""'Tis too late, 'tis too late!"" Hawkeye exclaimed, dropping the useless
piece in bitter disappointment; ""the miscreant has struck the rapid; and
had we powder, it could hardly send the lead swifter than he now goes!""

The adventurous Huron raised his head above the shelter of the canoe,
and while it glided swiftly down the stream, he waved his hand, and gave
forth the shout, which was the known signal of success. His cry was
answered by a yell and a laugh from the woods, as tauntingly exulting as
if fifty demons were uttering their blasphemies at the fall of some
Christian soul.

""Well may you laugh, ye children of the devil!"" said the scout, seating
himself on a projection of the rock, and suffering his gun to fall
neglected at his feet, ""for the three quickest and surest rifles in
these woods are no better than so many stalks of mullein, or the last
year's horns of a buck!""

""What is to be done?"" demanded Duncan, losing the first feeling of
disappointment in a more manly desire for exertion; ""what will become of
us?""

Hawkeye made no other reply than by passing his finger around the crown
of his head, in a manner so significant, that none who witnessed the
action could mistake its meaning.

""Surely, surely, our case is not so desperate!"" exclaimed the youth;
""the Hurons are not here; we may make good the caverns; we may oppose
their landing.""

""With what?"" coolly demanded the scout. ""The arrows of Uncas, or such
tears as women shed! No, no; you are young, and rich, and have friends,
and at such an age I know it is hard to die! But,"" glancing his eyes at
the Mohicans, ""let us remember we are men without a cross, and let us
teach these natives of the forest that white blood can run as freely as
red, when the appointed hour is come.""

Duncan turned quickly in the direction indicated by the other's eyes,
and read a confirmation of his worst apprehensions in the conduct of the
Indians. Chingachgook, placing himself in a dignified posture on another
fragment of the rock, had already laid aside his knife and tomahawk, and
was in the act of taking the eagle's plume from his head, and smoothing
the solitary tuft of hair in readiness to perform its last and revolting
office. His countenance was composed, though thoughtful, while his dark
gleaming eyes were gradually losing the fierceness of the combat in an
expression better suited to the change he expected momentarily to
undergo.

""Our case is not, cannot be so hopeless!"" said Duncan; ""even at this
moment succor may be at hand. I see no enemies! they have sickened of a
struggle in which they risk so much with so little prospect of gain!""

""It may be a minute, or it may be an hour, afore the wily sarpents steal
upon us, and it is quite in natur' for them to be lying within hearing
at this very moment,"" said Hawkeye; ""but come they will, and in such a
fashion as will leave us nothing to hope! Chingachgook""--he spoke in
Delaware--""my brother, we have fought our last battle together, and the
Maquas will triumph in the death of the sage man of the Mohicans, and of
the pale-face, whose eyes can make night as day, and level the clouds
to the mists of the springs!""

""Let the Mingo women go weep over their slain!"" returned the Indian,
with characteristic pride and unmoved firmness; ""the Great Snake of the
Mohicans has coiled himself in their wigwams, and has poisoned their
triumph with the wailings of children whose fathers have not returned!
Eleven warriors lie hid from the graves of their tribes since the snows
have melted, and none will tell where to find them when the tongue of
Chingachgook shall be silent! Let them draw the sharpest knife, and
whirl the swiftest tomahawk, for their bitterest enemy is in their
hands. Uncas, topmost branch of a noble trunk, call on the cowards to
hasten or their hearts will soften, and they will change to women!""

""They look among the fishes for their dead!"" returned the low, soft
voice of the youthful chieftain; ""the Hurons float with the slimy eels!
They drop from the oaks like fruit that is ready to be eaten! and the
Delawares laugh!""

""Ay, ay,"" muttered the scout, who had listened to this peculiar burst of
the natives with deep attention; ""they have warmed their Indian
feelings, and they'll soon provoke the Maquas to give them a speedy end.
As for me, who am of the whole blood of the whites, it is befitting that
I should die as becomes my color, with no words of scoffing in my mouth,
and without bitterness at the heart!""

""Why die at all!"" said Cora, advancing from the place where natural
horror had, until this moment, held her riveted to the rock; ""the path
is open on every side; fly, then, to the woods, and call on God for
succor. Go, brave men, we owe you too much already; let us no longer
involve you in our hapless fortunes!""

""You but little know the craft of the Iroquois, lady, if you judge they
have left the path open to the woods!"" returned Hawkeye, who, however,
immediately added in his simplicity, ""the down stream current, it is
certain, might soon sweep us beyond the reach of their rifles or the
sounds of their voices.""

""Then try the river. Why linger to add to the number of the victims of
our merciless enemies?""

""Why,"" repeated the scout, looking about him proudly, ""because it is
better for a man to die at peace with himself than to live haunted by an
evil conscience! What answer could we give Munro, when he asked us where
and how we left his children?""

""Go to him, and say, that you left them with a message to hasten to
their aid,"" returned Cora, advancing nigher to the scout, in her
generous ardor; ""that the Hurons bear them into the northern wilds, but
that by vigilance and speed they may yet be rescued; and if, after all,
it should please heaven that his assistance come too late, bear to him,""
she continued, her voice gradually lowering, until it seemed nearly
choked, ""the love, the blessings, the final prayers of his daughters,
and bid him not mourn their early fate, but to look forward with humble
confidence to the Christian's goal to meet his children.""

The hard, weather-beaten features of the scout began to work, and when
she had ended, he dropped his chin to his hand, like a man musing
profoundly on the nature of the proposal.

""There is reason in her words!"" at length broke from his compressed and
trembling lips; ""ay, and they bear the spirit of Christianity; what
might be right and proper in a redskin, may be sinful in a man who has
not even a cross in blood to plead for his ignorance. Chingachgook!
Uncas! hear you the talk of the dark-eyed woman!""

He now spoke in Delaware to his companions, and his address, though calm
and deliberate, seemed very decided. The elder Mohican heard him with
deep gravity, and appeared to ponder on his words, as though he felt the
importance of their import. After a moment of hesitation, he waved his
hand in assent, and uttered the English word ""Good!"" with the peculiar
emphasis of his people. Then, replacing his knife and tomahawk in his
girdle, the warrior moved silently to the edge of the rock which was
most concealed from the banks of the river. Here he paused a moment,
pointed significantly to the woods below, and saying a few words in his
own language, as if indicating his intended route, he dropped into the
water, and sank from before the eyes of the witnesses of his movements.

The scout delayed his departure to speak to the generous girl, whose
breathing became lighter as she saw the success of her remonstrance.

""Wisdom is sometimes given to the young, as well as to the old,"" he
said; ""and what you have spoken is wise, not to call it by a better
word. If you are led into the woods, that is such of you as may be
spared for a while, break the twigs on the bushes as you pass, and make
the marks of your trail as broad as you can, when, if mortal eyes can
see them, depend on having a friend who will follow to the ends of 'arth
afore he desarts you.""

He gave Cora an affectionate shake of the hand, lifted his rifle, and
after regarding it a moment with melancholy solicitude, laid it
carefully aside, and descended to the place where Chingachgook had just
disappeared. For an instant he hung suspended by the rock; and looking
about him, with a countenance of peculiar care, he added, bitterly, ""Had
the powder held out, this disgrace could never have befallen!"" then,
loosening his hold, the water closed above his head, and he also became
lost to view.

All eyes were now turned on Uncas, who stood leaning against the ragged
rock, in immovable composure. After waiting a short time, Cora pointed
down the river, and said:--

""Your friends have not been seen, and are now, most probably, in safety;
is it not time for you to follow?""

""Uncas will stay,"" the young Mohican calmly answered in English.

""To increase the horror of our capture, and to diminish the chances of
our release! Go, generous young man,"" Cora continued, lowering her eyes
under the gaze of the Mohican, and, perhaps, with an intuitive
consciousness of her power; ""go to my father, as I have said, and be the
most confidential of my messengers. Tell him to trust you with the means
to buy the freedom of his daughters. Go! 'tis my wish, 'tis my prayer,
that you will go!""

The settled, calm look of the young chief changed to an expression of
gloom, but he no longer hesitated. With a noiseless step he crossed the
rock, and dropped into the troubled stream. Hardly a breath was drawn by
those he left behind, until they caught a glimpse of his head emerging
for air, far down the current, when he again sank, and was seen no more.

These sudden and apparently successful experiments had all taken place
in a few minutes of that time which had now become so precious. After
the last look at Uncas, Cora turned, and, with a quivering lip,
addressed herself to Heyward:--

""I have heard of your boasted skill in the water, too, Duncan,"" she
said; ""follow, then, the wise example set you by these simple and
faithful beings.""

""Is such the faith that Cora Munro would exact from her protector?"" said
the young man, smiling mournfully, but with bitterness.

""This is not a time for idle subtleties and false opinions,"" she
answered; ""but a moment when every duty should be equally considered.
To us you can be of no further service here, but your precious life may
be saved for other and nearer friends.""

He made no reply, though his eyes fell wistfully on the beautiful form
of Alice, who was clinging to his arm with the dependency of an infant.

""Consider,"" continued Cora, after a pause, during which she seemed to
struggle with a pang even more acute than any that her fears had
excited, ""that the worst to us can be but death; a tribute that all must
pay at the good time of God's appointment.""

""There are evils worse than death,"" said Duncan, speaking hoarsely, and
as if fretful at her importunity, ""but which the presence of one who
would die in your behalf may avert.""

Cora ceased her entreaties; and, veiling her face in her shawl, drew the
nearly insensible Alice after her into the deepest recess of the inner
cavern.



",Chapters 7-8,https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapters-78,"Feeling that the cry is some kind of warning, whether intended or not, Hawkeye leads the entire party from the caves. As Heyward remarks upon the loveliness of the scene, the horrifying sound comes again as if from the bed of the river, and Heyward now recognizes it as the shriek of a horse in terror. The scout's reckoning that the horses are frightened by hovering wolves is immediately confirmed by a long howl that swiftly recedes into the depths of the forest, an abandonment that indicates enemy Indians are near. Once again secure in his knowledge of things, Hawkeye directs everyone to hide in moon shadows where they have a full view of both shores. Hours pass, and all fall asleep except the ever watchful scout and the Mohicans. The moon sets, and as pale dawn begins, the Iroquois attack with hellish yells and rifle reports. Gamut exposes himself, is wounded, and falls unconscious, while Hawkeye slips below and shoots one enemy, afterwards saying that their only hope is to hold the rock until Munro sends a party to help them. Heyward takes the girls into the outer cave where the reviving Gamut has been taken. As Cora reminds him how much his safety means to them, the major glances at Alice, reassures them, and rejoins the others outside. He and the scout deploy themselves in a little thicket of pines below the rock that splits the falls. Dawn comes. Then a long, anxious, and quiet watch succeeds until Hawkeye detects that four Indians have swum dangerously down to the rock above the defenders. As they wait, a fifth one, struggling to reach the rock, is thrown into the air and over the falls with a single, despairing shriek. After whistling Uncas to them, Hawkeye and the warrior shoot two Indians as the four charge them. When Heyward's pistols misfire, he and the scout grapple hand-to-hand with the two remaining enemies until Hawkeye dispatches his foe with a knife. Heyward is about to be dragged over the precipice with the other when Uncas severs the tendons of the Iroquois' wrist and grabs Heyward as the wounded savage falls to his destruction. As the survivors take cover, the Indians on shore yell and fire, and a give-and-take battle begins. One Iroquois, who has climbed an oak tree near shore, fires down upon the protagonists and slightly wounds Heyward. Setting up a crossfire with Chingachgook, Hawkeye fires his rifle ""Killdeer"" and wounds the savage, who is left swinging in the wind with a desperate grasp on a branch. To save powder, the scout refuses to show mercy and finish the kill, but he weakens and discharges his last powder and bullet as the man falls toward the rocks and water. Uncas goes for munitions in the canoe only to find an Indian swimming away with it. Now essentially bereft of defensive means, the Mohicans scoff at their enemies and prepare for death. Hawkeye is quietly and stoically preparing himself also when Cora, who has been brave all along, entreats the men to escape downstream and effect a rescue. Convinced of her reason, Chingachgook slips under the water and away. After telling her to leave a marked trail if they are captured, Hawkeye carefully lays ""Killdeer"" aside and disappears into the water. Uncas remains until Cora, lowering her eyes, asks him to go to her father as her ""most confidential"" messenger; then he also drops into the water. When Heyward refuses to leave on the grounds that his presence may keep the girls from evils worse than death, Cora draws ""the nearly insensible Alice after her into the deepest recess of the inner cavern.""","While outwardly these two chapters are concerned chiefly with fright and action for entertaining the reader and multiplying difficulties for the characters, it also portrays the bloody cross-purposes of frontier strife: seven Iroquois are killed and two white men are wounded, while the male protagonists are finally confronted with a moral dilemma. Are they to face danger and probable death with calm, frontal bravery, or are they to turn to subterfuge and escape, hoping to effect a rescue but running the risk of being deserters? It is a bigger problem than that found in most sentimental novels, where woman's greatest threat is usually to her virtue or reputation. Here it involves the age-old physical responsibility of the male for the female and -- greater yet -- of the strong for the weak, the typical assumption in the myth of the American frontiersman. The decision and resultant escape of Hawkeye, whose Christian reasoning is notably different from that of the Mohicans, is of a piece with the American self-ideal about necessity and the ingenuity of ""finding a way out."" The fortitude of Cora at this point is also consistent with the accredited strength of American pioneer womanhood; it is she who sees beyond the immediate grave situation to a possible desperate solution for which she femininely entreats rather than insists. Further, though Cooper's females only seldom do so, in this instance Cora takes on the three-dimensional qualities of a real woman character when, revealing a bit of her personal feelings and utilizing Uncas', she urges the subtle distinction about messengers which leads the young Mohican to escape also. At his best, Cooper is not a novelist who presses his thematic elements very hard upon his reader. But the preceding elements are in these two chapters, and so are others such as the rifle lore that Hawkeye voices during the battles. The two white men from Fort Edward are significantly wounded in this raw frontier condition that is new to them. Although as yet unaware of it, Gamut is already confronting what Hawkeye knows and, after the psalmodist is unconscious, voices: that ""singing won't do any good with the Iroquois."" Thus in the singing master, religious idealism and reality are meeting head-on. Also, Cooper is very slowly and carefully developing the attraction between Uncas and Cora. The surplus sentimental heroine is gradually being paired with a hero, but it is an original pairing that involves the conservative idea of racial ""place"" and is to result in tragic complications. While the story moves along at a brisk pace with action and Indian customs such as the preparation for dying, Cooper is touching upon and getting ready to develop further more crucial aspects of the frontier situation in the New World.",7748.0,612.0,457.0
27681,False,cliffnotes,all_chapterized_books/27681-chapters/09.txt,finished_summaries/cliffnotes/The Last of the Mohicans/section_7_part_0.txt,The Last of the Mohicans.chapter 9,chapter 9,,"{""name"": ""Chapter 9"", ""url"": ""https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapter-9"", ""summary"": ""In the stillness that follows, Heyward finds it hard to believe what has happened, especially as nature seems to reassert itself with the song of birds. Nonetheless, they all hide in the cave, Gamut still addled and Alice trembling and weeping against Cora's breast. The major closes the inner entrance with the blanket and a pile of sassafras, then seats himself with a pistol clenched convulsively in his hand. Gamut sings \""Isle of Wight,\"" which is interrupted by savage yells from the center of the island as a rush of voices pours down the island. When a triumphant cry is followed by the shout, \""La Longue Carabine!\"" Heyward for the first time realizes that his late companion was the celebrated hunter and scout of the English camp, and he feels certain that their friends have escaped. As the Indians enter the neighboring cavern, the major peers out of his sassafras entrance, sees the gigantic chief, and watches as exultant warriors bring blood-stained brush from the other cave and unwittingly pile it against his entrance. Though the Indians' shouts indicate anger in seeing their own dead and disappointment at finding no prisoners or dead enemies, Heyward feels that perhaps now they are safe. However, just as Alice begins to offer thanks, the features of Le Renard Subtil appear at the other entrance and the major fires his pistol without success. There is only a moment of surprise before a clamorous rush captures the four whites, who are dragged outside and surrounded by the triumphant Hurons."", ""analysis"": ""With the woodsmen off the scene of action, this chapter presents the relative ineffectiveness of the \""outsiders.\"" As before, Alice is the sentimental heroine, trembling and ready to swoon so that she demands the attention of others. Gamut is still too much under the influence of his wound to learn anything from his situation yet; he mechanically follows his interest in song. It is notable that while Cooper continues to present him as a weak personage -- a weakness consistent with his naivete as a comic Yankee character -- he again credits the psalmodist with a singing voice so good that it can cast a spell even through a travesty of song. Heyward, still solicitous of the girls and especially of Alice, is seen as the determined but unsuccessful hero who is too much out of his element. Little is seen of Cora in the present action, but she remains a strong character in contrast to Alice. By the end of this chapter, the first segment of the plot pattern that Cooper works so well is completed: the pursuit, which was instigated earlier, has now reached the point of capture. What the reader can expect now are the possibility and difficulty of escape. Actually Cooper has already varied his pattern by letting three of the party escape before the capture. Plot thus adds hopeful suspense to the brutal threat of the obviously savage captors, made more threatening by the presence of the subtle Magua.""}","
                            ""Be gay securely;
  Dispel, my fair, with smiles, the tim'rous clouds,
  That hang on thy clear brow.""

  _Death of Agrippina._


The sudden and almost magical change, from the stirring incidents of the
combat to the stillness that now reigned around him, acted on the heated
imagination of Heyward like some exciting dream. While all the images
and events he had witnessed remained deeply impressed on his memory, he
felt a difficulty in persuading himself of their truth. Still ignorant
of the fate of those who had trusted to the aid of the swift current, he
at first listened intently to any signal, or sounds of alarm, which
might announce the good or evil fortune of their hazardous undertaking.
His attention was, however, bestowed in vain; for, with the
disappearance of Uncas, every sign of the adventurers had been lost,
leaving him in total uncertainty of their fate.

In a moment of such painful doubt, Duncan did not hesitate to look about
him, without consulting that protection from the rocks which just before
had been so necessary to his safety. Every effort, however, to detect
the least evidence of the approach of their hidden enemies, was as
fruitless as the inquiry after his late companions. The wooded banks of
the rivers seemed again deserted by everything possessing animal life.
The uproar which had so lately echoed through the vaults of the forest
was gone, leaving the rush of the waters to swell and sink on the
currents of the air, in the unmingled sweetness of nature. A fish-hawk,
which, secure on the topmost branches of a dead pine, had been a distant
spectator of the fray, now stooped from his high and ragged perch, and
soared, in wide sweeps, above his prey; while a jay, whose noisy voice
had been stilled by the hoarser cries of the savages, ventured again to
open his discordant throat, as though once more in undisturbed
possession of his wild domains. Duncan caught from these natural
accompaniments of the solitary scene a glimmering of hope; and he began
to rally his faculties to renewed exertions, with something like a
reviving confidence of success.

""The Hurons are not to be seen,"" he said, addressing David, who had by
no means recovered from the effects of the stunning blow he had
received; ""let us conceal ourselves in the cavern, and trust the rest to
Providence.""

""I remember to have united with two comely maidens, in lifting up our
voices in praise and thanksgiving,"" returned the bewildered
singing-master; ""since which time I have been visited by a heavy
judgment for my sins. I have been mocked with the likeness of sleep,
while sounds of discord have rent my ears, such as might manifest the
fulness of time, and that nature had forgotten her harmony.""

""Poor fellow! thine own period was, in truth, near its accomplishment!
But arouse, and come with me; I will lead you where all other sounds but
those of your own psalmody shall be excluded.""

""There is melody in the fall of the cataract, and the rushing of many
waters is sweet to the senses!"" said David, pressing his hand confusedly
on his brow. ""Is not the air yet filled with shrieks and cries, as
though the departed spirits of the damned--""

""Not now, not now,"" interrupted the impatient Heyward, ""they have
ceased, and they who raised them, I trust in God, they are gone too!
everything but the water is still and at peace; in, then, where you may
create those sounds you love so well to hear.""

David smiled sadly, though not without a momentary gleam of pleasure, at
this allusion to his beloved vocation. He no longer hesitated to be led
to a spot which promised such unalloyed gratification to his wearied
senses; and, leaning on the arm of his companion, he entered the narrow
mouth of the cave. Duncan seized a pile of the sassafras, which he drew
before the passage, studiously concealing every appearance of an
aperture. Within this fragile barrier he arranged the blankets abandoned
by the foresters, darkening the inner extremity of the cavern, while its
outer received a chastened light from the narrow ravine, through which
one arm of the river rushed, to form the junction with its sister
branch, a few rods below.

""I like not that principle of the natives, which teaches them to submit
without a struggle, in emergencies that appear desperate,"" he said,
while busied in this employment; ""our own maxim, which says, 'while life
remains there is hope,' is more consoling, and better suited to a
soldier's temperament. To you, Cora, I will urge no words of idle
encouragement; your own fortitude and undisturbed reason will teach you
all that may become your sex; but cannot we dry the tears of that
trembling weeper on your bosom?""

""I am calmer, Duncan,"" said Alice, raising herself from the arms of her
sister, and forcing an appearance of composure through her tears; ""much
calmer, now. Surely, in this hidden spot we are safe, we are secret,
free from injury; we will hope everything from those generous men who
have risked so much already in our behalf.""

""Now does our gentle Alice speak like a daughter of Munro!"" said
Heyward, pausing to press her hand as he passed towards the outer
entrance of the cavern. ""With two such examples of courage before him, a
man would be ashamed to prove other than a hero."" He then seated himself
in the centre of the cavern, grasping his remaining pistol with a hand
convulsively clenched, while his contracted and frowning eye announced
the sullen desperation of his purpose. ""The Hurons, if they come, may
not gain our position so easily as they think,"" he lowly muttered; and
dropping his head back against the rock, he seemed to await the result
in patience, though his gaze was unceasingly bent on the open avenue to
their place of retreat.

With the last sound of his voice, a deep, a long, and almost breathless
silence succeeded. The fresh air of the morning had penetrated the
recess, and its influence was gradually felt on the spirits of its
inmates. As minute after minute passed by, leaving them in undisturbed
security, the insinuating feeling of hope was gradually gaining
possession of every bosom, though each one felt reluctant to give
utterance to expectations that the next moment might so fearfully
destroy.

David alone formed an exception to these varying emotions. A gleam of
light from the opening crossed his wan countenance, and fell upon the
pages of the little volume, whose leaves he was again occupied in
turning, as if searching for some song more fitted to their condition
than any that had yet met his eye. He was, most probably, acting all
this time under a confused recollection of the promised consolation of
Duncan. At length, it would seem, his patient industry found its reward;
for, without explanation or apology, he pronounced aloud the words ""Isle
of Wight,"" drew a long, sweet sound from his pitch-pipe, and then ran
through the preliminary modulations of the air, whose name he had just
mentioned with the sweeter tones of his own musical voice.

""May not this prove dangerous?"" asked Cora, glancing her dark eye at
Major Heyward.

""Poor fellow! his voice is too feeble to be heard amid the din of the
falls,"" was the answer; ""besides, the cavern will prove his friend. Let
him indulge his passion, since it may be done without hazard.""

""Isle of Wight!"" repeated David, looking about him with that dignity
with which he had long been wont to silence the whispering echoes of his
school; ""'tis a brave tune, and set to solemn words; let it be sung with
meet respect!""

After allowing a moment of stillness, to enforce his discipline, the
voice of the singer was heard, in low, murmuring syllables, gradually
stealing on the ear, until it filled the narrow vault with sounds
rendered trebly thrilling by the feeble and tremulous utterance produced
by his debility. The melody, which no weakness could destroy, gradually
wrought its sweet influence on the senses of those who heard it. It even
prevailed over the miserable travesty of the song of David which the
singer had selected from a volume of similar effusions, and caused the
sense to be forgotten in the insinuating harmony of the sounds. Alice
unconsciously dried her tears, and bent her melting eyes on the pallid
features of Gamut with an expression of chastened delight that she
neither affected nor wished to conceal. Cora bestowed an approving smile
on the pious efforts of the namesake of the Jewish prince, and Heyward
soon turned his steady, stern look from the outlet of the cavern, to
fasten it, with a milder character, on the face of David, or to meet the
wandering beams which at moments strayed from the humid eyes of Alice.
The open sympathy of the listeners stirred the spirit of the votary of
music, whose voice regained its richness and volume, without losing that
touching softness which proved its secret charm. Exerting his renovated
powers to their utmost, he was yet filling the arches of the cave with
long and full tones, when a yell burst into the air without, that
instantly stilled his pious strains, choking his voice suddenly, as
though his heart had literally bounded into the passage of his throat.

""We are lost!"" exclaimed Alice, throwing herself into the arms of Cora.

""Not yet, not yet,"" returned the agitated but undaunted Heyward; ""the
sound came from the centre of the island, and it has been produced by
the sight of their dead companions. We are not yet discovered, and there
is still hope.""

Faint and almost despairing as was the prospect of escape, the words of
Duncan were not thrown away, for it awakened the powers of the sisters
in such a manner that they awaited the result in silence. A second yell
soon followed the first, when a rush of voices was heard pouring down
the island, from its upper to its lower extremity, until they reached
the naked rock above the caverns, where, after a shout of savage
triumph, the air continued full of horrible cries and screams, such as
man alone can utter, and he only when in a state of the fiercest
barbarity.

The sounds quickly spread around them in every direction. Some called to
their fellows from the water's edge, and were answered from the heights
above. Cries were heard in the startling vicinity of the chasm between
the two caves, which mingled with hoarser yells that arose out of the
abyss of the deep ravine. In short, so rapidly had the savage sounds
diffused themselves over the barren rock, that it was not difficult for
the anxious listeners to imagine they could be heard beneath, as in
truth they were above and on every side of them.

In the midst of this tumult, a triumphant yell was raised within a few
yards of the hidden entrance to the cave. Heyward abandoned every hope,
with the belief it was the signal that they were discovered. Again the
impression passed away, as he heard the voices collect near the spot
where the white man had so reluctantly abandoned his rifle. Amid the
jargon of the Indian dialects that he now plainly heard, it was easy to
distinguish not only words, but sentences, in the _patois_ of the
Canadas. A burst of voices had shouted simultaneously, ""La Longue
Carabine!"" causing the opposite woods to re-echo with a name which,
Heyward well remembered, had been given by his enemies to a celebrated
hunter and scout of the English camp, and who, he now learnt for the
first time, had been his late companion.

""La Longue Carabine! La Longue Carabine!"" passed from mouth to mouth,
until the whole band appeared to be collected around a trophy which
would seem to announce the death of its formidable owner. After a
vociferous consultation, which was, at times, deafened by bursts of
savage joy, they again separated, filling the air with the name of a
foe, whose body, Heyward could collect from their expressions, they
hoped to find concealed in some crevice of the island.

""Now,"" he whispered to the trembling sisters, ""now is the moment of
uncertainty! if our place of retreat escape this scrutiny, we are still
safe! In every event, we are assured, by what has fallen from our
enemies, that our friends have escaped, and in two short hours we may
look for succor from Webb.""

There were now a few minutes of fearful stillness, during which Heyward
well knew that the savages conducted their search with greater vigilance
and method. More than once he could distinguish their footsteps, as they
brushed the sassafras, causing the faded leaves to rustle, and the
branches to snap. At length, the pile yielded a little, a corner of the
blanket fell, and a faint ray of light gleamed into the inner part of
the cave. Cora folded Alice to her bosom in agony, and Duncan sprang to
his feet. A shout was at that moment heard, as if issuing from the
centre of the rock, announcing that the neighboring cavern had at length
been entered. In a minute, the number and loudness of the voices
indicated that the whole party was collected in and around that secret
place.

As the inner passages to the two caves were so close to each other,
Duncan, believing that escape was no longer possible, passed David and
the sisters, to place himself between the latter and the first onset of
the terrible meeting. Grown desperate by his situation, he drew nigh the
slight barrier which separated him only by a few feet from his
relentless pursuers, and placing his face to the casual opening, he even
looked out, with a sort of desperate indifference, on their movements.

Within reach of his arm was the brawny shoulder of a gigantic Indian,
whose deep and authoritative voice appeared to give directions to the
proceedings of his fellows. Beyond him again, Duncan could look into the
vault opposite, which was filled with savages, upturning and rifling the
humble furniture of the scout. The wound of David had dyed the leaves of
sassafras with a color that the natives well knew was anticipating the
season. Over this sign of their success, they set up a howl, like an
opening from so many hounds who had recovered a lost trail. After this
yell of victory, they tore up the fragrant bed of the cavern, and bore
the branches into the chasm, scattering the boughs, as if they suspected
them of concealing the person of the man they had so long hated and
feared. One fierce and wild-looking warrior approached the chief
bearing a load of the brush, and pointing, exultingly, to the deep red
stains with which it was sprinkled, uttered his joy in Indian yells,
whose meaning Heyward was only enabled to comprehend by the frequent
repetition of the name of ""La Longue Carabine!"" When his triumph had
ceased, he cast the brush on the slight heap that Duncan had made before
the entrance of the second cavern, and closed the view. His example was
followed by others, who, as they drew the branches from the cave of the
scout, threw them into one pile, adding, unconsciously, to the security
of those they sought. The very slightness of the defence was its chief
merit, for no one thought of disturbing a mass of brush, which all of
them believed, in that moment of hurry and confusion, had been
accidentally raised by the hands of their own party.

As the blankets yielded before the outward pressure, and the branches
settled in the fissure of the rock by their own weight, forming a
compact body, Duncan once more breathed freely. With a light step, and
lighter heart, he returned to the centre of the cave, and took the place
he had left, where he could command a view of the opening next the
river. While he was in the act of making this movement, the Indians, as
if changing their purpose by a common impulse, broke away from the
cavern in a body, and were heard rushing up the island again, towards
the point whence they had originally descended. Here another wailing cry
betrayed that they were again collected around the bodies of their dead
comrades.

Duncan now ventured to look at his companions; for, during the most
critical moments of their danger, he had been apprehensive that the
anxiety of his countenance might communicate some additional alarm to
those who were so little able to sustain it.

""They are gone, Cora!"" he whispered; ""Alice, they are returned whence
they came, and we are saved! To Heaven, that has alone delivered us from
the grasp of so merciless an enemy, be all the praise!""

""Then to Heaven will I return my thanks!"" exclaimed the younger sister,
rising from the encircling arms of Cora, and casting herself with
enthusiastic gratitude on the naked rock; ""to that Heaven who has spared
the tears of a gray-headed father; has saved the lives of those I so
much love--""

Both Heyward, and the more tempered Cora, witnessed the act of
involuntary emotion with powerful sympathy, the former secretly
believing that piety had never worn a form so lovely as it had now
assumed in the youthful person of Alice. Her eyes radiant with the glow
of grateful feelings; the flush of her beauty was again seated on her
cheeks, and her whole soul seemed ready and anxious to pour out its
thanksgivings, through the medium of her eloquent features. But when her
lips moved, the words they should have uttered appeared frozen by some
new and sudden chill. Her bloom gave place to the paleness of death; her
soft and melting eyes grew hard, and seemed contracting with horror;
while those hands which she had raised, clasped in each other, towards
heaven, dropped in horizontal lines before her, the fingers pointed
forward in convulsed motion. Heyward turned, the instant she gave a
direction to his suspicions, and, peering just above the ledge which
formed the threshold of the open outlet of the cavern, he beheld the
malignant, fierce, and savage features of Le Renard Subtil.

In that moment of surprise, the self-possession of Heyward did not
desert him. He observed by the vacant expression of the Indian's
countenance, that his eye, accustomed to the open air, had not yet been
able to penetrate the dusky light which pervaded the depth of the
cavern. He had even thought of retreating beyond a curvature in the
natural wall, which might still conceal him and his companions, when, by
the sudden gleam of intelligence that shot across the features of the
savage, he saw it was too late, and that they were betrayed.

The look of exultation and brutal triumph which announced this terrible
truth was irresistibly irritating. Forgetful of everything but the
impulses of his hot blood, Duncan levelled his pistol and fired. The
report of the weapon made the cavern bellow like an eruption from a
volcano; and when the smoke it vomited had been driven away before the
current of air which issued from the ravine, the place so lately
occupied by the features of his treacherous guide was vacant. Rushing to
the outlet, Heyward caught a glimpse of his dark figure, stealing around
a low and narrow ledge, which soon hid him entirely from sight.

Among the savages, a frightful stillness succeeded the explosion, which
had just been heard bursting from the bowels of the rock. But when Le
Renard raised his voice in a long and intelligible whoop, it was
answered by a spontaneous yell from the mouth of every Indian within
hearing of the sound. The clamorous noises again rushed down the
island; and before Duncan had time to recover from the shock, his feeble
barrier of brush was scattered to the winds, the cavern was entered at
both its extremities, and he and his companions were dragged from their
shelter and borne into the day, where they stood surrounded by the whole
band of the triumphant Hurons.



",Chapter 9,https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapter-9,"In the stillness that follows, Heyward finds it hard to believe what has happened, especially as nature seems to reassert itself with the song of birds. Nonetheless, they all hide in the cave, Gamut still addled and Alice trembling and weeping against Cora's breast. The major closes the inner entrance with the blanket and a pile of sassafras, then seats himself with a pistol clenched convulsively in his hand. Gamut sings ""Isle of Wight,"" which is interrupted by savage yells from the center of the island as a rush of voices pours down the island. When a triumphant cry is followed by the shout, ""La Longue Carabine!"" Heyward for the first time realizes that his late companion was the celebrated hunter and scout of the English camp, and he feels certain that their friends have escaped. As the Indians enter the neighboring cavern, the major peers out of his sassafras entrance, sees the gigantic chief, and watches as exultant warriors bring blood-stained brush from the other cave and unwittingly pile it against his entrance. Though the Indians' shouts indicate anger in seeing their own dead and disappointment at finding no prisoners or dead enemies, Heyward feels that perhaps now they are safe. However, just as Alice begins to offer thanks, the features of Le Renard Subtil appear at the other entrance and the major fires his pistol without success. There is only a moment of surprise before a clamorous rush captures the four whites, who are dragged outside and surrounded by the triumphant Hurons.","With the woodsmen off the scene of action, this chapter presents the relative ineffectiveness of the ""outsiders."" As before, Alice is the sentimental heroine, trembling and ready to swoon so that she demands the attention of others. Gamut is still too much under the influence of his wound to learn anything from his situation yet; he mechanically follows his interest in song. It is notable that while Cooper continues to present him as a weak personage -- a weakness consistent with his naivete as a comic Yankee character -- he again credits the psalmodist with a singing voice so good that it can cast a spell even through a travesty of song. Heyward, still solicitous of the girls and especially of Alice, is seen as the determined but unsuccessful hero who is too much out of his element. Little is seen of Cora in the present action, but she remains a strong character in contrast to Alice. By the end of this chapter, the first segment of the plot pattern that Cooper works so well is completed: the pursuit, which was instigated earlier, has now reached the point of capture. What the reader can expect now are the possibility and difficulty of escape. Actually Cooper has already varied his pattern by letting three of the party escape before the capture. Plot thus adds hopeful suspense to the brutal threat of the obviously savage captors, made more threatening by the presence of the subtle Magua.",3114.0,254.0,244.0
27681,True,cliffnotes,all_chapterized_books/27681-chapters/chapters_10_to_11.txt,finished_summaries/cliffnotes/The Last of the Mohicans/section_8_part_0.txt,The Last of the Mohicans.chapters 10-11,chapters 10-11,,"{""name"": ""Chapters 10-11"", ""url"": ""https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapters-1011"", ""summary"": ""Though at first menaced by the Hurons, Heyward is held for questioning, but he has to turn for interpretation to Magua, whom he sees Hawkeye had wounded on the shoulder. When he finally convinces them that the three woodsmen have escaped, they are furious, and one savage grabs Alice by the hair in a mock scalping. Before real violence can occur, the chief calls a brief council and the entire party crosses to the south bank of the river where the horses are. Mounted on Heyward's charger, the chief leads most of his people away across river, leaving the prisoners in charge of six Indians headed by Magua. The major tries to secure Magua's help by privately implying that he and the redskin have been in collusion to fool the Hurons all along and by offering rewards. Although Heyward adopts the sententious speech of the Indians, Magua is noncommittal as the group heads south, the sisters mounted and the others afoot. Flanked by the Indians, Cora finds it difficult to leave signs on the trail; once when she drops a glove, she is detected and severely warned by one of their conductors. Never speaking, Magua steadily leads the way through the forests and hills until they finally reach a steep, pyramidal hill with a level summit and few trees -- a perfect place for defense and for avoiding surprise. While the warriors eat the raw meat of a fawn, Heyward again engages Magua in talk. Heyward's expression of Munro's love for his daughters brings a gleam of malignant joy to the Indian's face, and the latter insists upon a private talk with Cora. He proudly tells her that he was born a chief but that, after the Canadians taught him to drink firewater, he was driven from his tribe. Once when working for Munro, he came into Munro's cabin drunk and the latter had him tied up and whipped like a dog before the soldiers. He demands, is it \""justice to make evil, and then punish for it?\"" Wanting injury for injury, he says he will let Alice go if Cora will come with him as his wife: \""The body of the gray-head would sleep among his cannon, but his heart would lie within reach of the knife of Le Subtil.\"" Cora is indignant and returns to her fellow captives. Magua goes to the lolling savages and begins a skillful harangue, building their emotions to the point of rage and vengeance. As they rush upon their prisoners with drawn knives and uplifted tomahawks, Magua villainously invites them to prolong the victims' misery. Heyward and Gamut struggle to no avail, and all four are tied to saplings while splinters and fire are prepared for the torture. Magua again makes his proposal, and Cora leaves the decision to Alice, who hesitates in her weakness but finally says no. Gnashing his teeth, the Huron hurls his tomahawk just above Alice's head, cutting some of her ringlets. Maddened, Heyward snaps his bonds and rushes upon another Indian who is about to throw his weapon. In the struggle, Heyward goes down and the Indian raises his knife fatally. But the crack of a rifle is heard, and the Indian's look changes to vacant wildness as he falls dead on the faded leaves beside Heyward."", ""analysis"": ""These chapters are important for certain revelations and one presentation of status quo ante . The latter comes in Magua's explaining his past; his noble birth and his deserved but ignoble treatment by Munro do not justify his present actions, but they do make him and his conduct believable. They also raise the questions of justice and the big context of shared responsibility. The revelations begin with Heyward's learning of the fame of his two former Indian companions, Chingachgook as \""Le Gros Serpent\""  and Uncas as \""Le Cerf Agile\"" . Magua makes clear not only his motives but also the alternative routes that he will let his vengeance take. Perhaps the most important is Gamut's self-revelation when he struggles hand-to-hand with his captors: \""David had contended, and the novelty of the circumstance held him silent.\"" The realities of frontier strife are beginning to impinge upon him. Two influences on Cooper's fiction are also apparent. Indian lore comes forth in the figurative language of the natives, in the masterful and persuasive oratory of Magua, in the Hurons' contrasting silent patience and loud bloodthirstiness, and in methods of torture such as tying a man's arms to the tops of two bent saplings that will recoil in different directions. Sentimental qualities appear in the reactions of the fragile Alice, in the extreme testing of Cora's virtue and familial emotions, and in Heyward's over-vocalized sense of duty and honor. Holding together all of these fictional elements is the plot device of the chase, through which a reversal of fortunes has occurred. Some of the pursued and some of the pursuers have exchanged their roles, while some have had relative security usurped by imminent danger and vice versa.""}","
  ""I fear we shall outsleep the coming morn
  As much as we this night have overwatched!""

  _Midsummer Night's Dream._


The instant the shock of this sudden misfortune had abated, Duncan began
to make his observations on the appearance and proceedings of their
captors. Contrary to the usages of the natives in the wantonness of
their success, they had respected, not only the persons of the trembling
sisters, but his own. The rich ornaments of his military attire had
indeed been repeatedly handled by different individuals of the tribe
with eyes expressing a savage longing to possess the baubles; but before
the customary violence could be resorted to, a mandate in the
authoritative voice of the large warrior already mentioned, stayed the
uplifted hand, and convinced Heyward that they were to be reserved for
some object of particular moment.

While, however, these manifestations of weakness were exhibited by the
young and vain of the party, the more experienced warriors continued
their search throughout both caverns, with an activity that denoted they
were far from being satisfied with those fruits of their conquest which
had already been brought to light. Unable to discover any new victim,
these diligent workers of vengeance soon approached their male
prisoners, pronouncing the name of ""La Longue Carabine,"" with a
fierceness that could not easily be mistaken. Duncan affected not to
comprehend the meaning of their repeated and violent interrogatories,
while his companion was spared the effort of a similar deception by his
ignorance of French. Wearied, at length, by their importunities, and
apprehensive of irritating his captors by too stubborn a silence, the
former looked about him in quest of Magua; who might interpret his
answers to questions which were at each moment becoming more earnest and
threatening.

The conduct of this savage had formed a solitary exception to that of
all his fellows. While the others were busily occupied in seeking to
gratify their childish passion for finery, by plundering even the
miserable effects of the scout, or had been searching, with such
bloodthirsty vengeance in their looks, for their absent owner, Le Renard
had stood at a little distance from the prisoners, with a demeanor so
quiet and satisfied, as to betray that he had already effected the grand
purpose of this treachery. When the eyes of Heyward first met those of
his recent guide, he turned them away in horror at the sinister though
calm look he encountered. Conquering his disgust, however, he was able,
with an averted face, to address his successful enemy.

""Le Renard Subtil is too much of a warrior,"" said the reluctant Heyward,
""to refuse telling an unarmed man what his conquerors say.""

""They ask for the hunter who knows the paths through the woods,""
returned Magua, in his broken English, laying his hand, at the same
time, with a ferocious smile, on the bundle of leaves with which a wound
on his own shoulder was bandaged. ""La Longue Carabine! his rifle is
good, and his eye never shut; but, like the short gun of the white
chief, it is nothing against the life of Le Subtil!""

""Le Renard is too brave to remember the hurts received in war, or the
hands that gave them!""

""Was it war, when the tired Indian rested at the sugar-tree to taste his
corn! who filled the bushes with creeping enemies! who drew the knife!
whose tongue was peace, while his heart was colored with blood! Did
Magua say that the hatchet was out of the ground, and that his hand had
dug it up?""

As Duncan dared not retort upon his accuser by reminding him of his own
premeditated treachery, and disdained to deprecate his resentment by any
words of apology, he remained silent. Magua seemed also content to rest
the controversy as well as all further communication there, for he
resumed the leaning attitude against the rock, from which, in momentary
energy, he had arisen. But the cry of ""La Longue Carabine"" was renewed
the instant the impatient savages perceived that the short dialogue was
ended.

""You hear,"" said Magua, with stubborn indifference; ""the red Hurons call
for the life of 'The Long Rifle,' or they will have the blood of them
that keep him hid!""

""He is gone--escaped; he is far beyond their reach.""

Renard smiled with cold contempt, as he answered,--

""When the white man dies, he thinks he is at peace; but the redmen know
how to torture even the ghosts of their enemies. Where is his body? Let
the Hurons see his scalp!""

""He is not dead, but escaped.""

Magua shook his head incredulously.

""Is he a bird, to spread his wings; or is he a fish, to swim without
air! The white chief reads in his books, and he believes the Hurons are
fools!""

""Though no fish, The Long Rifle can swim. He floated down the stream
when the powder was all burnt, and when the eyes of the Hurons were
behind a cloud.""

""And why did the white chief stay?"" demanded the still incredulous
Indian. ""Is he a stone that goes to the bottom, or does the scalp burn
his head?""

""That I am not a stone, your dead comrade, who fell into the falls,
might answer, were the life still in him,"" said the provoked young man,
using, in his anger, that boastful language which was most likely to
excite the admiration of an Indian. ""The white man thinks none but
cowards desert their women.""

Magua muttered a few words, inaudibly, between his teeth, before he
continued, aloud,--

""Can the Delawares swim, too, as well as crawl in the bushes? Where is
Le Gros Serpent?""

Duncan, who perceived by the use of these Canadian appellations, that
his late companions were much better known to his enemies than to
himself, answered, reluctantly, ""He also is gone down with the water.""

""Le Cerf Agile is not here?""

""I know not whom you call 'The Nimble Deer,'"" said Duncan, gladly
profiting by any excuse to create delay.

""Uncas,"" returned Magua, pronouncing the Delaware name with even greater
difficulty than he spoke his English words. ""'Bounding Elk' is what the
white man says, when he calls to the young Mohican.""

""Here is some confusion in names between us, Le Renard,"" said Duncan,
hoping to provoke a discussion. ""_Daim_ is the French for deer, and
_cerf_ for stag; _elan_ is the true term, when one would speak of an
elk.""

""Yes,"" muttered the Indian, in his native tongue; ""the pale-faces are
prattling women! they have two words for each thing, while a redskin
will make the sound of his voice speak for him."" Then changing his
language, he continued, adhering to the imperfect nomenclature of his
provincial instructors, ""The deer is swift, but weak; the elk is swift,
but strong; and the son of Le Serpent is Le Cerf Agile. Has he leaped
the river to the woods?""

""If you mean the younger Delaware, he too is gone down with the water.""

As there was nothing improbable to an Indian in the manner of the
escape, Magua admitted the truth of what he had heard, with a readiness
that afforded additional evidence how little he would prize such
worthless captives. With his companions, however, the feeling was
manifestly different.

The Hurons had awaited the result of this short dialogue with
characteristic patience, and with a silence that increased until there
was a general stillness in the band. When Heyward ceased to speak, they
turned their eyes, as one man, on Magua, demanding, in this expressive
manner, an explanation of what had been said. Their interpreter pointed
to the river, and made them acquainted with the result, as much by the
action as by the few words he uttered. When the fact was generally
understood, the savages raised a frightful yell, which declared the
extent of their disappointment. Some ran furiously to the water's edge,
beating the air with frantic gestures, while others spat upon the
element, to resent the supposed treason it had committed against their
acknowledged rights as conquerors. A few, and they not the least
powerful and terrific of the band, threw lowering looks, in which the
fiercest passion was only tempered by habitual self-command, at those
captives who still remained in their power; while one or two even gave
vent to their malignant feelings by the most menacing gestures, against
which neither the sex nor the beauty of the sisters was any protection.
The young soldier made a desperate, but fruitless effort, to spring to
the side of Alice, when he saw the dark hand of a savage twisted in the
rich tresses which were flowing in volumes over her shoulders, while a
knife was passed around the head from which they fell, as if to denote
the horrid manner in which it was about to be robbed of its beautiful
ornament. But his hands were bound; and at the first movement he made,
he felt the grasp of the powerful Indian who directed the band, pressing
his shoulder like a vise. Immediately conscious how unavailing any
struggle against such an overwhelming force must prove, he submitted to
his fate, encouraging his gentle companions by a few low and tender
assurances that the natives seldom failed to threaten more than they
performed.

But, while Duncan resorted to these words of consolation to quiet the
apprehensions of the sisters, he was not so weak as to deceive himself.
He well knew that the authority of an Indian chief was so little
conventional, that it was oftener maintained by physical superiority
than by any moral supremacy he might possess. The danger was, therefore,
magnified exactly in proportion to the number of the savage spirits by
which they were surrounded. The most positive mandate from him who
seemed the acknowledged leader, was liable to be violated at each
moment, by any rash hand that might choose to sacrifice a victim to the
_manes_ of some dead friend or relative. While, therefore, he sustained
an outward appearance of calmness and fortitude, his heart leaped into
his throat, whenever any of their fierce captors drew nearer than common
to the helpless sisters, or fastened one of their sullen wandering looks
on those fragile forms which were so little able to resist the slightest
assault.

His apprehensions were, however, greatly relieved, when he saw that the
leader had summoned his warriors to himself in council. Their
deliberations were short, and it would seem, by the silence of most of
the party, the decision unanimous. By the frequency with which the few
speakers pointed in the direction of the encampment of Webb, it was
apparent they dreaded the approach of danger from that quarter. This
consideration probably hastened their determination, and quickened the
subsequent movements.

During this short conference, Heyward, finding a respite from his
greatest fears, had leisure to admire the cautious manner in which the
Hurons had made their approaches, even after hostilities had ceased.

It has already been stated, that the upper half of the island was a
naked rock, and destitute of any other defences than a few scattered
logs of drift-wood. They had selected this point to make their descent,
having borne the canoe through the wood around the cataract for that
purpose. Placing their arms in the little vessel, a dozen men clinging
to its sides had trusted themselves to the direction of the canoe, which
was controlled by two of the most skilful warriors, in attitudes that
enabled them to command a view of the dangerous passage. Favored by this
arrangement, they touched the head of the island at that point which had
proved so fatal to their first adventures, but with the advantages of
superior numbers, and the possession of fire-arms. That such had been
the manner of their descent was rendered quite apparent to Duncan; for
they now bore the light bark from the upper end of the rock, and placed
it in the water, near the mouth of the outer cavern. As soon as this
change was made, the leader made signs to the prisoners to descend and
enter.

As resistance was impossible, and remonstrance useless, Heyward set the
example of submission, by leading the way into the canoe, where he was
soon seated with the sisters, and the still wondering David.
Notwithstanding the Hurons were necessarily ignorant of the little
channels among the eddies and rapids of the stream, they knew the common
signs of such a navigation too well to commit any material blunder. When
the pilot chosen for the task of guiding the canoe had taken his
station, the whole band plunged again into the river, the vessel glided
down the current, and in a few moments the captives found themselves on
the south bank of the stream, nearly opposite to the point where they
had struck it the preceding evening.

Here was held another short but earnest consultation, during which the
horses, to whose panic their owners ascribed their heaviest misfortune,
were led from the cover of the woods, and brought to the sheltered spot.
The band now divided. The great chief so often mentioned, mounting the
charger of Heyward, led the way directly across the river, followed by
most of his people, and disappeared in the woods, leaving the prisoners
in charge of six savages, at whose head was Le Renard Subtil. Duncan
witnessed all their movements with renewed uneasiness.

He had been fond of believing, from the uncommon forbearance of the
savages, that he was reserved as a prisoner to be delivered to Montcalm.
As the thoughts of those who are in misery seldom slumber, and the
invention is never more lively than when it is stimulated by hope,
however feeble and remote, he had even imagined that the parental
feelings of Munro were to be made instrumental in seducing him from his
duty to the king. For though the French commander bore a high character
for courage and enterprise, he was also thought to be expert in those
political practices, which do not always respect the nicer obligations
of morality, and which so generally disgraced the European diplomacy of
that period.

All those busy and ingenious speculations were now annihilated by the
conduct of his captors. That portion of the band who had followed the
huge warrior took the route towards the foot of the Horican, and no
other expectation was left for himself and companions, than that they
were to be retained as hopeless captives by their savage conquerors.
Anxious to know the worst, and willing, in such an emergency, to try the
potency of gold, he overcame his reluctance to speak to Magua.
Addressing himself to his former guide, who had now assumed the
authority and manner of one who was to direct the future movements of
the party, he said, in tones as friendly and confiding as he could
assume,--

""I would speak to Magua, what is fit only for so great a chief to hear.""

The Indian turned his eyes on the young soldier scornfully, as he
answered,--

""Speak; trees have no ears!""

""But the red Hurons are not deaf; and counsel that is fit for the great
men of a nation would make the young warriors drunk. If Magua will not
listen, the officer of the king knows how to be silent.""

The savage spoke carelessly to his comrades, who were busied, after
their awkward manner, in preparing the horses for the reception of the
sisters, and moved a little to one side, whither, by a cautious gesture,
he induced Heyward to follow.

""Now speak,"" he said; ""if the words are such as Magua should hear.""

""Le Renard Subtil has proved himself worthy of the honorable name given
to him by his Canada fathers,"" commenced Heyward; ""I see his wisdom, and
all that he has done for us, and shall remember it, when the hour to
reward him arrives. Yes! Renard has proved that he is not only a great
chief in council, but one who knows how to deceive his enemies!""

""What has Renard done?"" coldly demanded the Indian.

""What! has he not seen that the woods were filled with outlying parties
of the enemies, and that the Serpent could not steal through them
without being seen? Then, did he not lose his path to blind the eyes of
the Hurons? Did he not pretend to go back to his tribe, who had treated
him ill, and driven him from their wigwams like a dog? And, when we saw
what he wished to do, did we not aid him, by making a false face, that
the Hurons might think the white man believed that his friend was his
enemy? Is not all this true? And when Le Subtil had shut the eyes and
stopped the ears of his nation by his wisdom, did they not forget that
they had once done him wrong, and forced him to flee to the Mohawks? And
did they not leave him on the south side of the river, with their
prisoners, while they have gone foolishly on the north? Does not Renard
mean to turn like a fox on his footsteps, and to carry to the rich and
gray-headed Scotchman his daughters? Yes, Magua, I see it all, and I
have already been thinking how so much wisdom and honesty should be
repaid. First, the chief of William Henry will give as a great chief
should for such a service. The medal[16] of Magua will no longer be of
tin, but of beaten gold; his horn will run over with powder; dollars
will be as plenty in his pouch as pebbles on the shore of Horican; and
the deer will lick his hand, for they will know it to be vain to fly
from the rifle he will carry! As for myself, I know not how to exceed
the gratitude of the Scotchman, but I--yes, I will--""

""What will the young chief who comes from towards the sun, give?""
demanded the Huron, observing that Heyward hesitated in his desire to
end the enumeration of benefits with that which might form the climax of
an Indian's wishes.

""He will make the fire-water from the Islands in the salt lake flow
before the wigwam of Magua, until the heart of the Indian shall be
lighter than the feathers of the humming-bird, and his breath sweeter
than the wild honeysuckle.""

Le Renard had listened gravely as Heyward slowly proceeded in his subtle
speech. When the young man mentioned the artifice he supposed the Indian
to have practised on his own nation, the countenance of the listener was
veiled in an expression of cautious gravity. At the allusion to the
injury which Duncan affected to believe had driven the Huron from his
native tribe, a gleam of such ungovernable ferocity flashed from the
other's eyes, as induced the adventurous speaker to believe he had
struck the proper chord. And by the time he reached the part where he so
artfully blended the thirst of vengeance with the desire of gain, he
had, at least, obtained a command of the deepest attention of the
savage. The question put by Le Renard had been calm, and with all the
dignity of an Indian; but it was quite apparent, by the thoughtful
expression of the listener's countenance, that the answer was most
cunningly devised. The Huron mused a few moments, and then laying his
hand on the rude bandages of his wounded shoulder, he said, with some
energy,--

""Do friends make such remarks?""

""Would La Longue Carabine cut one so light on an enemy?""

""Do the Delawares crawl upon those they love, like snakes, twisting
themselves to strike?""

""Would Le Gros Serpent have been heard by the ears of one he wished to
be deaf?""

""Does the white chief burn his powder in the faces of his brothers?""

""Does he ever miss his aim, when seriously bent to kill?"" returned
Duncan, smiling with well acted sincerity.

Another long and deliberate pause succeeded these sententious questions
and ready replies. Duncan saw that the Indian hesitated. In order to
complete his victory, he was in the act of recommencing the enumeration
of the rewards, when Magua made an expressive gesture and said--

""Enough; Le Renard is a wise chief, and what he does will be seen. Go,
and keep the mouth shut. When Magua speaks, it will be the time to
answer.""

Heyward, perceiving that the eyes of his companion were warily fastened
on the rest of the band, fell back immediately, in order to avoid the
appearance of any suspicious confederacy with their leader. Magua
approached the horses, and affected to be well pleased with the
diligence and ingenuity of his comrades. He then signed to Heyward to
assist the sisters into the saddles, for he seldom deigned to use the
English tongue, unless urged by some motive of more than usual moment.

There was no longer any plausible pretext for delay; and Duncan was
obliged, however reluctantly, to comply. As he performed this office, he
whispered his reviving hopes in the ears of the trembling females, who,
through dread of encountering the savage countenances of their captors,
seldom raised their eyes from the ground. The mare of David had been
taken with the followers of the large chief; in consequence, its owner,
as well as Duncan, was compelled to journey on foot. The latter did not,
however, so much regret this circumstance, as it might enable him to
retard the speed of the party; for he still turned his longing looks in
the direction of Fort Edward, in the vain expectation of catching some
sound from that quarter of the forest, which might denote the approach
of succor.

When all were prepared, Magua made the signal to proceed, advancing in
front to lead the party in person. Next followed David, who was
gradually coming to a true sense of his condition, as the effects of the
wound became less and less apparent. The sisters rode in his rear, with
Heyward at their side, while the Indians flanked the party, and brought
up the close of the march, with a caution that seemed never to tire.

In this manner they proceeded in uninterrupted silence, except when
Heyward addressed some solitary word of comfort to the females, or David
gave vent to the moanings of his spirit in piteous exclamations, which
he intended should express the humility of resignation. Their direction
lay towards the south, and in a course nearly opposite to the road to
William Henry. Notwithstanding this apparent adherence in Magua to the
original determination of his conquerors, Heyward could not believe his
tempting bait was so soon forgotten; and he knew the windings of an
Indian path too well, to suppose that its apparent course led directly
to its object, when artifice was at all necessary. Mile after mile was,
however, passed through the boundless woods, in this painful manner,
without any prospect of a termination to their journey. Heyward watched
the sun, as he darted his meridian rays through the branches of the
trees, and pined for the moment when the policy of Magua should change
their route to one more favorable to his hopes. Sometimes he fancied the
wary savage, despairing of passing the arm of Montcalm in safety, was
holding his way towards a well-known border settlement, where a
distinguished officer of the crown, and a favored friend of the Six
Nations, held his large possessions, as well as his usual residence. To
be delivered into the hands of Sir William Johnson was far preferable to
being led into the wilds of Canada; but in order to effect even the
former, it would be necessary to traverse the forest for many weary
leagues, each step of which was carrying him farther from the scene of
the war, and, consequently, from the post, not only of honor, but of
duty.

Cora alone remembered the parting injunctions of the scout, and whenever
an opportunity offered, she stretched forth her arm to bend aside the
twigs that met her hands. But the vigilance of the Indians rendered this
act of precaution both difficult and dangerous. She was often defeated
in her purpose, by encountering their watchful eyes, when it became
necessary to feign an alarm she did not feel, and occupy the limb by
some gesture of feminine apprehension. Once, and once only, was she
completely successful; when she broke down the bough of a large sumach,
and, by a sudden thought, let her glove fall at the same instant. This
sign, intended for those that might follow, was observed by one of her
conductors, who restored the glove, broke the remaining branches of the
bush in such a manner that it appeared to proceed from the struggling of
some beast in its branches, and then laid his hand on his tomahawk, with
a look so significant, that it put an effectual end to these stolen
memorials of their passage.

As there were horses, to leave the prints of their footsteps, in both
bands of the Indians, this interruption cut off any probable hopes of
assistance being conveyed through the means of their trail.

Heyward would have ventured a remonstrance, had there been anything
encouraging in the gloomy reserve of Magua. But the savage, during all
this time, seldom turned to look at his followers, and never spoke. With
the sun for his only guide, or aided by such blind marks as are only
known to the sagacity of a native, he held his way along the barrens of
pine, through occasional little fertile vales, across brooks and
rivulets, and over undulating hills, with the accuracy of instinct, and
nearly with the directness of a bird. He never seemed to hesitate.
Whether the path was hardly distinguishable, whether it disappeared, or
whether it lay beaten and plain before him, made no sensible difference
in his speed or certainty. It seemed as if fatigue could not affect him.
Whenever the eyes of the wearied travellers rose from the decayed leaves
over which they trod, his dark form was to be seen glancing among the
stems of the trees in front, his head immovably fastened in a forward
position, with the light plume on his crest fluttering in a current of
air, made solely by the swiftness of his own motion.

But all this diligence and speed were not without an object. After
crossing a low vale, through which a gushing brook meandered, he
suddenly ascended a hill, so steep and difficult of ascent, that the
sisters were compelled to alight, in order to follow. When the summit
was gained, they found themselves on a level spot, but thinly covered
with trees, under one of which Magua had thrown his dark form, as if
willing and ready to seek that rest which was so much needed by the
whole party.




            ""Cursed by my tribe
  If I forgive him.""

  _Shylock._


The Indian had selected, for this desirable purpose, one of those steep,
pyramidal hills, which bear a strong resemblance to artificial mounds,
and which so frequently occur in the valleys of America. The one in
question was high and precipitous; its top flattened, as usual; but with
one of its sides more than ordinarily irregular. It possessed no other
apparent advantage for a resting-place than in its elevation and form,
which might render defence easy, and surprise nearly impossible. As
Heyward, however, no longer expected that rescue which time and distance
now rendered so improbable, he regarded these little peculiarities with
an eye devoid of interest, devoting himself entirely to the comfort and
condolence of his feebler companions. The Narragansetts were suffered to
browse on the branches of the trees and shrubs that were thinly
scattered over the summit of the hill, while the remains of their
provisions were spread under the shade of a beech, that stretched its
horizontal limbs like a canopy above them.

Notwithstanding the swiftness of their flight, one of the Indians had
found an opportunity to strike a straggling fawn with an arrow, and had
borne the more preferable fragments of the victim patiently on his
shoulders, to the stopping-place. Without any aid from the science of
cookery, he was immediately employed, in common with his fellows, in
gorging himself with this digestible sustenance. Magua alone sat apart,
without participation in the revolting meal, and apparently buried in
the deepest thought.

This abstinence, so remarkable in an Indian, when he possessed the means
of satisfying hunger, at length attracted the notice of Heyward. The
young man willingly believed that the Huron deliberated on the most
eligible manner of eluding the vigilance of his associates. With a view
to assist his plans, by any suggestion of his own, and to strengthen the
temptation, he left the beech, and straggled as if without an object, to
the spot where Le Renard was seated.

""Has not Magua kept the sun in his face long enough to escape all danger
from the Canadians?"" he asked, as though no longer doubtful of the good
intelligence established between them; ""and will not the chief of
William Henry be better pleased to see his daughters before another
night may have hardened his heart to their loss, to make him less
liberal in his reward?""

""Do the pale-faces love their children less in the morning than at
night?"" asked the Indian, coldly.

""By no means,"" returned Heyward, anxious to recall his error, if he had
made one; ""the white man may, and does often, forget the burial-place of
his fathers; he sometimes ceases to remember those he should love and
has promised to cherish; but the affection of a parent for his child is
never permitted to die.""

""And is the heart of the white-headed chief soft, and will he think of
the babes that his squaws have given him? He is hard to his warriors,
and his eyes are made of stone!""

""He is severe to the idle and wicked, but to the sober and deserving he
is a leader, but just and humane. I have known many fond and tender
parents, but never have I seen a man whose heart was softer towards his
child. You have seen the gray-head in front of his warriors, Magua; but
I have seen his eyes swimming in water, when he spoke of those children
who are now in your power!""

Heyward paused, for he knew not how to construe the remarkable
expression that gleamed across the swarthy features of the attentive
Indian. At first it seemed as if the remembrance of the promised reward
grew vivid in his mind, while he listened to the sources of parental
feeling which were to assure its possession; but as Duncan proceeded,
the expression of joy became so fiercely malignant, that it was
impossible not to apprehend it proceeded from some passion more sinister
than avarice.

""Go,"" said the Huron, suppressing the alarming exhibition in an instant,
in a death-like calmness of countenance; ""go to the dark-haired
daughter, and say, Magua waits to speak. The father will remember what
the child promises.""

Duncan, who interpreted this speech to express a wish for some
additional pledge that the promised gifts should not be withheld,
slowly and reluctantly repaired to the place where the sisters were now
resting from their fatigue, to communicate its purport to Cora.

""You understand the nature of an Indian's wishes,"" he concluded, as he
led her towards the place where she was expected, ""and must be prodigal
of your offers of powder and blankets. Ardent spirits are, however, the
most prized by such as he; nor would it be amiss to add some boon from
your own hand, with that grace you so well know how to practise.
Remember, Cora, that on your presence of mind and ingenuity even your
life, as well as that of Alice, may in some measure depend.""

""Heyward, and yours!""

""Mine is of little moment; it is already sold to my king, and is a prize
to be seized by any enemy who may possess the power. I have no father to
expect me, and but few friends to lament a fate which I have courted
with the insatiable longings of youth after distinction. But hush! we
approach the Indian. Magua, the lady with whom you wish to speak is
here.""

The Indian rose slowly from his seat, and stood for near a minute silent
and motionless. He then signed with his hand for Heyward to retire,
saying coldly,--

""When the Huron talks to the women, his tribe shut their ears.""

Duncan, still lingering, as if refusing to comply, Cora said, with a
calm smile--

""You hear, Heyward, and delicacy at least should urge you to retire. Go
to Alice, and comfort her with our reviving prospects.""

She waited until he had departed, and then turning to the native, with
the dignity of her sex in her voice and manner, she added, ""What would
Le Renard say to the daughter of Munro?""

""Listen,"" said the Indian, laying his hand firmly upon her arm, as if
willing to draw her utmost attention to his words; a movement that Cora
as firmly but quietly repulsed, by extricating the limb from his grasp:
""Magua was born a chief and a warrior among the red Hurons of the lakes;
he saw the suns of twenty summers make the snows of twenty winters run
off in the streams, before he saw a pale-face; and he was happy! Then
his Canada fathers came into the woods, and taught him to drink the
fire-water, and he became a rascal. The Hurons drove him from the graves
of his fathers, as they would chase the hunted buffalo. He ran down the
shores of the lakes, and followed their outlet to the 'city of cannon.'
There he hunted and fished, till the people chased him again through the
woods into the arms of his enemies. The chief, who was born a Huron, was
at last a warrior among the Mohawks!""

""Something like this I had heard before,"" said Cora, observing that he
paused to suppress those passions which began to burn with too bright a
flame, as he recalled the recollection of his supposed injuries.

""Was it the fault of Le Renard that his head was not made of rock? Who
gave him the fire-water? who made him a villain? 'Twas the pale-faces,
the people of your own color.""

""And am I answerable that thoughtless and unprincipled men exist, whose
shades of countenance may resemble mine?"" Cora calmly demanded of the
excited savage.

""No; Magua is a man, and not a fool; such as you never open their lips
to the burning stream: the Great Spirit has given you wisdom!""

""What then have I to do, or say, in the matter of your misfortunes, not
to say of your errors?""

""Listen,"" repeated the Indian, resuming his earnest attitude; ""when his
English and French fathers dug up the hatchet, Le Renard struck the
war-post of the Mohawks, and went out against his own nation. The
pale-faces have driven the redskins from their hunting-grounds, and now
when they fight, a white man leads the way. The old chief at Horican,
your father, was the great captain of our war-party. He said to the
Mohawks do this, and do that, and he was minded. He made a law, that if
an Indian swallowed the fire-water, and came into the cloth wigwams of
his warriors, it should not be forgotten. Magua foolishly opened his
mouth, and the hot liquor led him into the cabin of Munro. What did the
gray-head? let his daughter say.""

""He forgot not his words, and did justice by punishing the offender,""
said the undaunted daughter.

""Justice!"" repeated the Indian, casting an oblique glance of the most
ferocious expression at her unyielding countenance; ""is it justice to
make evil, and then punish for it? Magua was not himself; it was the
fire-water that spoke and acted for him! but Munro did not believe it.
The Huron chief was tied up before all the pale-faced warriors, and
whipped like a dog.""

Cora remained silent, for she knew not how to palliate this imprudent
severity on the part of her father, in a manner to suit the
comprehension of an Indian.

""See!"" continued Magua, tearing aside the slight calico that very
imperfectly concealed his painted breast; ""here are scars given by
knives and bullets--of these a warrior may boast before his nation; but
the gray-head has left marks on the back of the Huron chief, that he
must hide, like a squaw, under this painted cloth of the whites.""

""I had thought,"" resumed Cora, ""that an Indian warrior was patient, and
that his spirit felt not, and knew not, the pain his body suffered.""

""When the Chippewas tied Magua to the stake, and cut this gash,"" said
the other, laying his finger on a deep scar, ""the Huron laughed in their
faces, and told them, Women struck so light! His spirit was then in the
clouds! But when he felt the blows of Munro, his spirit lay under the
birch. The spirit of a Huron is never drunk; it remembers forever!""

""But it may be appeased. If my father has done you this injustice, show
him how an Indian can forgive an injury, and take back his daughters.
You have heard from Major Heyward--""

Magua shook his head, forbidding the repetition of offers he so much
despised.

""What would you have?"" continued Cora, after a most painful pause, while
the conviction forced itself on her mind that the too sanguine and
generous Duncan had been cruelly deceived by the cunning of the savage.

""What a Huron loves--good for good; bad for bad!""

""You would then revenge the injury inflicted by Munro on his helpless
daughters. Would it not be more like a man to go before his face, and
take the satisfaction of a warrior?""

""The arms of the pale-faces are long, and their knives sharp!"" returned
the savage, with a malignant laugh: ""why should Le Renard go among the
muskets of his warriors, when he holds the spirit of the gray-head in
his hand?""

""Name your intention, Magua,"" said Cora, struggling with herself to
speak with steady calmness. ""Is it to lead us prisoners to the woods, or
do you contemplate even some greater evil? Is there no reward, no means
of palliating the injury, and of softening your heart? At least, release
my gentle sister, and pour out all your malice on me. Purchase wealth by
her safety, and satisfy your revenge with a single victim. The loss of
both of his daughters might bring the aged man to his grave, and where
would then be the satisfaction of Le Renard?""

""Listen,"" said the Indian again. ""The light eyes can go back to the
Horican, and tell the old chief what has been done, if the dark-haired
woman will swear by the Great Spirit of her fathers to tell no lie.""

""What must I promise?"" demanded Cora, still maintaining a secret
ascendency over the fierce native, by the collected and feminine dignity
of her presence.

""When Magua left his people, his wife was given to another chief; he has
now made friends with the Hurons, and will go back to the graves of his
tribe, on the shores of the great lake. Let the daughter of the English
chief follow, and live in his wigwam forever.""

However revolting a proposal of such a character might prove to Cora,
she retained, notwithstanding her powerful disgust, sufficient
self-command to reply, without betraying the weakness.

""And what pleasure would Magua find in sharing his cabin with a wife he
did not love; one who would be of a nation and color different from his
own? It would be better to take the gold of Munro, and buy the heart of
some Huron maid with his gifts.""

The Indian made no reply for near a minute, but bent his fierce looks on
the countenance of Cora, in such wavering glances, that her eyes sank
with shame, under an impression that, for the first time, they had
encountered an expression that no chaste female might endure. While she
was shrinking within herself, in dread of having her ears wounded by
some proposal still more shocking than the last, the voice of Magua
answered, in its tones of deepest malignancy--

""When the blows scorched the back of the Huron, he would know where to
find a woman to feel the smart. The daughter of Munro would draw his
water, hoe his corn, and cook his venison. The body of the gray-head
would sleep among his cannon, but his heart would lie within reach of
the knife of Le Subtil.""

""Monster! well dost thou deserve thy treacherous name!"" cried Cora, in
an ungovernable burst of filial indignation. ""None but a fiend could
meditate such a vengeance! But thou overratest thy power! You shall find
it is, in truth, the heart of Munro you hold, and that it will defy your
utmost malice!""

The Indian answered this bold defiance by a ghastly smile, that showed
an unaltered purpose, while he motioned her away, as if to close the
conference forever. Cora, already regretting her precipitation, was
obliged to comply, for Magua instantly left the spot, and approached his
gluttonous comrades. Heyward flew to the side of the agitated female,
and demanded the result of a dialogue that he had watched at a distance
with so much interest. But unwilling to alarm the fears of Alice, she
evaded a direct reply, betraying only by her countenance her utter want
of success, and keeping her anxious looks fastened on the slightest
movements of their captors. To the reiterated and earnest questions of
her sister, concerning their probable destination, she made no other
answer than by pointing towards the dark group, with an agitation she
could not control, and murmuring, as she folded Alice to her bosom--

""There, there; read our fortunes in their faces; we shall see; we shall
see!""

The action, and the choked utterance of Cora, spoke more impressively
than any words, and quickly drew the attention of her companions on that
spot where her own was riveted with an intenseness that nothing but the
importance of the stake could create.

When Magua reached the cluster of lolling savages, who, gorged with
their disgusting meal, lay stretched on the earth in brutal indulgence,
he commenced speaking with the dignity of an Indian chief. The first
syllables he uttered had the effect to cause his listeners to raise
themselves in attitudes of respectful attention. As the Huron used his
native language, the prisoners, notwithstanding the caution of the
natives had kept them within the swing of their tomahawks, could only
conjecture the substance of his harrangue, from the nature of those
significant gestures with which an Indian always illustrates his
eloquence.

At first, the language, as well as the action of Magua, appeared calm
and deliberate. When he had succeeded in sufficiently awakening the
attention of his comrades, Heyward fancied, by his pointing so
frequently towards the direction of the great lakes, that he spoke of
the land of their fathers, and of their distant tribe. Frequent
indications of applause escaped the listeners, who, as they uttered the
expressive ""Hugh!"" looked at each other in commendation of the speaker.
Le Renard was too skilful to neglect his advantage. He now spoke of the
long and painful route by which they had left those spacious grounds and
happy villages, to come and battle against the enemies of their
Canadian fathers. He enumerated the warriors of the party; their
several merits; their frequent services to the nation; their wounds, and
the number of the scalps they had taken. Whenever he alluded to any
present (and the subtle Indian neglected none), the dark countenance of
the flattered individual gleamed with exultation, nor did he even
hesitate to assert the truth of the words, by gestures of applause and
confirmation. Then the voice of the speaker fell, and lost the loud,
animated tones of triumph with which he had enumerated their deeds of
success and victory. He described the cataract of Glenn's; the
impregnable position of its rocky island, with its caverns, and its
numerous rapids and whirlpools; he named the name of La Longue Carabine,
and paused until the forest beneath them had sent up the last echo of a
loud and long yell, with which the hated appellation was received. He
pointed towards the youthful military captive, and described the death
of a favorite warrior, who had been precipitated into the deep ravine by
his hand. He not only mentioned the fate of him who, hanging between
heaven and earth, had presented such a spectacle of horror to the whole
band, but he acted anew the terrors of his situation, his resolution and
his death, on the branches of a sapling; and, finally, he rapidly
recounted the manner in which each of their friends had fallen, never
failing to touch upon their courage, and their most acknowledged
virtues. When this recital of events was ended, his voice once more
changed, and became plaintive, and even musical, in its low guttural
sounds. He now spoke of the wives and children of the slain; their
destitution; their misery, both physical and moral; their distance; and,
at last, of their unavenged wrongs. Then suddenly lifting his voice to a
pitch of terrific energy, he concluded, by demanding,--

""Are the Hurons dogs to bear this? Who shall say to the wife of Menowgua
that the fishes have his scalp, and that his nation have not taken
revenge! Who will dare meet the mother of Wassawattimie, that scornful
woman, with his hands clean! What shall be said to the old men when they
ask us for scalps, and we have not a hair from a white head to give
them! The women will point their fingers at us. There is a dark spot on
the names of the Hurons, and it must be hid in blood!""

His voice was no longer audible in the burst of rage which now broke
into the air, as if the wood, instead of containing so small a band, was
filled with the nation. During the foregoing address the progress of the
speaker was too plainly read by those most interested in his success,
through the medium of the countenances of the men he addressed. They had
answered his melancholy and mourning by sympathy and sorrow; his
assertions, by gestures of confirmation; and his boastings, with the
exultation of savages. When he spoke of courage, their looks were firm
and responsive; when he alluded to their injuries, their eyes kindled
with fury; when he mentioned the taunts of the women, they dropped their
heads in shame; but when he pointed out their means of vengeance, he
struck a chord which never failed to thrill in the breast of an Indian.
With the first intimation that it was within their reach, the whole band
sprang upon their feet as one man; giving utterance to their rage in the
most frantic cries, they rushed upon their prisoners in a body with
drawn knives and uplifted tomahawks. Heyward threw himself between the
sisters and the foremost, whom he grappled with a desperate strength
that for a moment checked his violence. This unexpected resistance gave
Magua time to interpose, and with rapid enunciation and animated
gesture, he drew the attention of the band again to himself. In that
language he knew so well how to assume, he diverted his comrades from
their instant purpose, and invited them to prolong the misery of their
victims. His proposal was received with acclamations, and executed with
the swiftness of thought.

Two powerful warriors cast themselves on Heyward, while another was
occupied in securing the less active singing-master. Neither of the
captives, however, submitted without a desperate though fruitless
struggle. Even David hurled his assailant to the earth; nor was Heyward
secured until the victory over his companion enabled the Indians to
direct their united force to that object. He was then bound and fastened
to the body of the sapling, on whose branches Magua had acted the
pantomime of the falling Huron. When the young soldier regained his
recollection, he had the painful certainty before his eyes that a common
fate was intended for the whole party. On his right was Cora, in a
durance similar to his own, pale and agitated, but with an eye, whose
steady look still read the proceedings of their enemies. On his left,
the withes which bound her to a pine, performed that office for Alice
which her trembling limbs refused, and alone kept her fragile form from
sinking. Her hands were clasped before her in prayer, but instead of
looking upwards towards that power which alone could rescue them, her
unconscious looks wandered to the countenance of Duncan with infantile
dependency. David had contended, and the novelty of the circumstance
held him silent, in deliberation on the propriety of the unusual
occurrence.

The vengeance of the Hurons had now taken a new direction, and they
prepared to execute it with that barbarous ingenuity with which they
were familiarized by the practice of centuries. Some sought knots, to
raise the blazing pile; one was riving the splinters of pine, in order
to pierce the flesh of their captives with the burning fragments; and
others bent the tops of two saplings to the earth, in order to suspend
Heyward by the arms between the recoiling branches. But the vengeance of
Magua sought a deeper and a more malignant enjoyment.

While the less refined monsters of the band prepared, before the eyes of
those who were to suffer, these well known and vulgar means of torture,
he approached Cora, and pointed out, with the most malign expression of
countenance, the speedy fate that awaited her:--

""Ha!"" he added, ""what says the daughter of Munro? Her head is too good
to find a pillow in the wigwam of Le Renard; will she like it better
when it rolls about this hill a plaything for the wolves? Her bosom
cannot nurse the children of a Huron; she will see it spit upon by
Indians!""

""What means the monster!"" demanded the astonished Heyward.

""Nothing!"" was the firm reply. ""He is a savage, a barbarous and ignorant
savage, and knows not what he does. Let us find leisure, with our dying
breath, to ask for him penitence and pardon.""

""Pardon!"" echoed the fierce Huron, mistaking, in his anger, the meaning
of her words; ""the memory of an Indian is longer than the arm of the
pale-faces; his mercy shorter than their justice! Say; shall I send the
yellow hair to her father, and will you follow Magua to the great lakes,
to carry his water, and feed him with corn?""

Cora beckoned him away, with an emotion of disgust she could not
control.

""Leave me,"" she said, with a solemnity that for a moment checked the
barbarity of the Indian; ""you mingle bitterness in my prayers; you stand
between me and my God!""

The slight impression produced on the savage was, however, soon
forgotten, and he continued pointing, with taunting irony, towards
Alice.

""Look! the child weeps! She is young to die! Send her to Munro, to comb
his gray hairs, and keep life in the heart of the old man.""

Cora could not resist the desire to look upon her youthful sister, in
whose eyes she met an imploring glance, that betrayed the longings of
nature.

""What says he, dearest Cora?"" asked the trembling voice of Alice. ""Did
he speak of sending me to our father?""

For many moments the elder sister looked upon the younger, with a
countenance that wavered with powerful and contending emotions. At
length she spoke, though her tones had lost their rich and calm fulness,
in an expression of tenderness that seemed maternal.

""Alice,"" she said, ""the Huron offers us both life, nay, more than both;
he offers to restore Duncan, our invaluable Duncan, as well as you, to
our friends--to our father--to our heart-stricken, childless father, if
I will bow down this rebellious, stubborn pride of mine, and consent--""

Her voice became choked, and clasping her hands, she looked upward, as
if seeking, in her agony, intelligence from a wisdom that was infinite.

""Say on,"" cried Alice; ""to what, dearest Cora? O, that the proffer were
made to me! to save you, to cheer our aged father, to restore Duncan,
how cheerfully could I die!""

""Die!"" repeated Cora, with a calmer and a firmer voice, ""that were easy!
Perhaps the alternative may not be less so. He would have me,"" she
continued, her accents sinking under a deep consciousness of the
degradation of the proposal, ""follow him to the wilderness; go to the
habitations of the Hurons; to remain there: in short to become his wife!
Speak, then, Alice; child of my affections! sister of my love! And you,
too, Major Heyward, aid my weak reason with your counsel. Is life to be
purchased by such a sacrifice? Will you, Alice, receive it at my hands
at such a price? And _you_, Duncan, guide me; control me between you;
for I am wholly yours.""

""Would I!"" echoed the indignant and astonished youth. ""Cora! Cora! you
jest with our misery! Name not the horrid alternative again; the thought
itself is worse than a thousand deaths.""

""That such would be _your_ answer, I well knew!"" exclaimed Cora, her
cheeks flushing, and her dark eyes once more sparkling with the
lingering emotions of a woman. ""What says my Alice? for her will I
submit without another murmur.""

Although both Heyward and Cora listened with painful suspense and the
deepest attention, no sounds were heard in reply. It appeared as if the
delicate and sensitive form of Alice would shrink into itself, as she
listened to this proposal. Her arms had fallen lengthwise before her,
the fingers moving in slight convulsions; her head dropped upon her
bosom, and her whole person seemed suspended against the tree, looking
like some beautiful emblem of the wounded delicacy of her sex, devoid of
animation, and yet keenly conscious. In a few moments, however, her head
began to move slowly, in a sign of deep, unconquerable disapprobation.

""No, no, no; better that we die as we have lived, together!""

""Then die!"" shouted Magua, hurling his tomahawk with violence at the
unresisting speaker, and gnashing his teeth with a rage that could no
longer be bridled, at this sudden exhibition of firmness in the one he
believed the weakest of the party. The axe cleaved the air in front of
Heyward, and cutting some of the flowing ringlets of Alice, quivered in
the tree above her head. The sight maddened Duncan to desperation.
Collecting all his energies in one effort, he snapped the twigs which
bound him and rushed upon another savage who was preparing with loud
yells, and a more deliberate aim, to repeat the blow. They encountered,
grappled, and fell to the earth together. The naked body of his
antagonist afforded Heyward no means of holding his adversary, who
glided from his grasp, and rose again with one knee on his chest,
pressing him down with the weight of a giant. Duncan already saw the
knife gleaming in the air, when a whistling sound swept past him, and
was rather accompanied, than followed, by the sharp crack of a rifle. He
felt his breast relieved from the load it had endured; he saw the savage
expression of his adversary's countenance change to a look of vacant
wildness, when the Indian fell dead on the faded leaves by his side.



",Chapters 10-11,https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapters-1011,"Though at first menaced by the Hurons, Heyward is held for questioning, but he has to turn for interpretation to Magua, whom he sees Hawkeye had wounded on the shoulder. When he finally convinces them that the three woodsmen have escaped, they are furious, and one savage grabs Alice by the hair in a mock scalping. Before real violence can occur, the chief calls a brief council and the entire party crosses to the south bank of the river where the horses are. Mounted on Heyward's charger, the chief leads most of his people away across river, leaving the prisoners in charge of six Indians headed by Magua. The major tries to secure Magua's help by privately implying that he and the redskin have been in collusion to fool the Hurons all along and by offering rewards. Although Heyward adopts the sententious speech of the Indians, Magua is noncommittal as the group heads south, the sisters mounted and the others afoot. Flanked by the Indians, Cora finds it difficult to leave signs on the trail; once when she drops a glove, she is detected and severely warned by one of their conductors. Never speaking, Magua steadily leads the way through the forests and hills until they finally reach a steep, pyramidal hill with a level summit and few trees -- a perfect place for defense and for avoiding surprise. While the warriors eat the raw meat of a fawn, Heyward again engages Magua in talk. Heyward's expression of Munro's love for his daughters brings a gleam of malignant joy to the Indian's face, and the latter insists upon a private talk with Cora. He proudly tells her that he was born a chief but that, after the Canadians taught him to drink firewater, he was driven from his tribe. Once when working for Munro, he came into Munro's cabin drunk and the latter had him tied up and whipped like a dog before the soldiers. He demands, is it ""justice to make evil, and then punish for it?"" Wanting injury for injury, he says he will let Alice go if Cora will come with him as his wife: ""The body of the gray-head would sleep among his cannon, but his heart would lie within reach of the knife of Le Subtil."" Cora is indignant and returns to her fellow captives. Magua goes to the lolling savages and begins a skillful harangue, building their emotions to the point of rage and vengeance. As they rush upon their prisoners with drawn knives and uplifted tomahawks, Magua villainously invites them to prolong the victims' misery. Heyward and Gamut struggle to no avail, and all four are tied to saplings while splinters and fire are prepared for the torture. Magua again makes his proposal, and Cora leaves the decision to Alice, who hesitates in her weakness but finally says no. Gnashing his teeth, the Huron hurls his tomahawk just above Alice's head, cutting some of her ringlets. Maddened, Heyward snaps his bonds and rushes upon another Indian who is about to throw his weapon. In the struggle, Heyward goes down and the Indian raises his knife fatally. But the crack of a rifle is heard, and the Indian's look changes to vacant wildness as he falls dead on the faded leaves beside Heyward.","These chapters are important for certain revelations and one presentation of status quo ante . The latter comes in Magua's explaining his past; his noble birth and his deserved but ignoble treatment by Munro do not justify his present actions, but they do make him and his conduct believable. They also raise the questions of justice and the big context of shared responsibility. The revelations begin with Heyward's learning of the fame of his two former Indian companions, Chingachgook as ""Le Gros Serpent""  and Uncas as ""Le Cerf Agile"" . Magua makes clear not only his motives but also the alternative routes that he will let his vengeance take. Perhaps the most important is Gamut's self-revelation when he struggles hand-to-hand with his captors: ""David had contended, and the novelty of the circumstance held him silent."" The realities of frontier strife are beginning to impinge upon him. Two influences on Cooper's fiction are also apparent. Indian lore comes forth in the figurative language of the natives, in the masterful and persuasive oratory of Magua, in the Hurons' contrasting silent patience and loud bloodthirstiness, and in methods of torture such as tying a man's arms to the tops of two bent saplings that will recoil in different directions. Sentimental qualities appear in the reactions of the fragile Alice, in the extreme testing of Cora's virtue and familial emotions, and in Heyward's over-vocalized sense of duty and honor. Holding together all of these fictional elements is the plot device of the chase, through which a reversal of fortunes has occurred. Some of the pursued and some of the pursuers have exchanged their roles, while some have had relative security usurped by imminent danger and vice versa.",8481.0,549.0,284.0
27681,False,cliffnotes,all_chapterized_books/27681-chapters/12.txt,finished_summaries/cliffnotes/The Last of the Mohicans/section_9_part_0.txt,The Last of the Mohicans.chapter 12,chapter 12,,"{""name"": ""Chapter 12"", ""url"": ""https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapter-12"", ""summary"": ""Since the Indians' rifles have been placed to the side, Hawkeye has found his, loaded it, and fired it. He and the Mohicans advance to hand-to-hand combat, Uncas jumping protectively in front of Cora and saving her a moment later by killing an Indian whose tomahawk has cut her bonds. Soon all the Hurons are dead except Magua, who is fighting with Chingachgook. The villain feigns death and escapes before Hawkeye can brain him with the butt of his rifle. Chingachgook scalps the dead while Uncas and Heyward assist the females and Hawkeye releases Gamut. The scout advises the singing master to give up his \""little tooting instrument\"" for a useful weapon, and Gamut counters by arguing the fatality of Calvinistic doctrine found in books. Completely the practical man, Hawkeye disdainfully says that the only book worth reading is nature. Gamut's response is to sing a song, but Hawkeye common-sensically reloads his rifle and sees that everyone is armed. Then they start their journey with the girls riding the Narragansets. They very shortly stop and clear the leaves and clay from a hidden mineral spring, and Hawkeye tells how the three of them, sagaciously aided by Uncas, had tracked the Hurons for twenty miles. After a simple cooked meal, they proceed towards the north where Fort William Henry lies."", ""analysis"": ""This is another bloody chapter, but its thematic significance is in the views of Gamut and Hawkeye. At first the psalmodist seems to have learned nothing from his recent experiences, yet it is notable that, whereas before he has done little more than sing and mouth religious platitudes, he now turns to doctrine and argument as if he must go deeper into his beliefs to convince Hawkeye and perhaps himself. Although in this instance the Yankee's singing is a retreat as the scout gets the better of the discussion, Cooper gives Gamut his due as a folklore figure, \""a minstrel of the western continent . . . after the spirit of his own age and country.\"" Hawkeye says that the recent action \""was all foreordered, and for the best.\"" But he will admit such only after events have actually occurred, not beforehand as Gamut's Calvinistic predestination insists upon. As something of a deist, he reads God in nature: \""I know not but man may so deform his works in the settlement, as to leave that which is so clear in the wilderness a matter of doubt among traders and priests.\"" A few minutes later talking about the unusual way the Narragansets have been trained to walk, he comments that \""natur' is sadly abused by man, when he once gets the mastery.\"" His point is that people should not seek absolute mastery and try to rival God. Highly pragmatic, he finds that the greatest lesson taught by nature is humility. He is the noble, self-outcast frontiersman who has turned his back on the settlement to seek, as a thinking man, the freedom and simplicity of natural morality; and he prefers this even though  it entails danger and killing. Since Cooper is developing some interest between Uncas and Cora, just before mid-chapter he carefully presents Uncas as showing \""a sympathy that elevated him far above the intelligence, and advanced him probably centuries before the practices of his nation.\"" Though he will not fully allow it later, Cooper is presently trying to make their mutual interest acceptable and believable.""}","
  ""_Clo._--I am gone, sir,
      And anon, sir,
  I'll be with you again.""

  _Twelfth Night._


The Hurons stood aghast at this sudden visitation of death on one of
their band. But, as they regarded the fatal accuracy of an aim which had
dared to immolate an enemy at so much hazard to a friend, the name of
""La Longue Carabine"" burst simultaneously from every lip, and was
succeeded by a wild and a sort of plaintive howl. The cry was answered
by a loud shout from a little thicket, where the incautious party had
piled their arms; and at the next moment, Hawkeye, too eager to load the
rifle he had regained, was seen advancing upon them, brandishing the
clubbed weapon, and cutting the air with wide and powerful sweeps. Bold
and rapid as was the progress of the scout, it was exceeded by that of a
light and vigorous form which, bounding past him, leaped, with
incredible activity and daring, into the very centre of the Hurons,
where it stood, whirling a tomahawk, and flourishing a glittering knife,
with fearful menaces, in front of Cora. Quicker than the thoughts could
follow these unexpected and audacious movements, an image, armed in the
emblematic panoply of death, glided before their eyes, and assumed a
threatening attitude at the other's side. The savage tormentors recoiled
before these warlike intruders, and uttered as they appeared in such
quick succession, the often repeated and peculiar exclamation of
surprise, followed by the well known and dreaded appellations of--

""Le Cerf Agile! Le Gros Serpent!""

But the wary and vigilant leader of the Hurons was not so easily
disconcerted. Casting his keen eyes around the little plain, he
comprehended the nature of the assault at a glance, and encouraging his
followers by his voice as well as by his example, he unsheathed his long
and dangerous knife, and rushed with a loud whoop upon the expecting
Chingachgook. It was the signal for a general combat. Neither party had
fire-arms, and the contest was to be decided in the deadliest manner;
hand to hand, with weapons of offence, and none of defence.

Uncas answered the whoop, and leaping on an enemy, with a single, well
directed blow of his tomahawk, cleft him to the brain. Heyward tore the
weapon of Magua from the sapling, and rushed eagerly towards the fray.
As the combatants were now equal in number, each singled an opponent
from the adverse band. The rush and blows passed with the fury of a
whirlwind, and the swiftness of lightning. Hawkeye soon got another
enemy within reach of his arm, and with one sweep of his formidable
weapon he beat down the slight and inartificial defences of his
antagonist, crushing him to the earth with the blow. Heyward ventured to
hurl the tomahawk he had seized, too ardent to await the moment of
closing. It struck the Indian he had selected on the forehead, and
checked for an instant his onward rush. Encouraged by this slight
advantage, the impetuous young man continued his onset, and sprang upon
his enemy with naked hands. A single instant was enough to assure him of
the rashness of the measure, for he immediately found himself fully
engaged, with all his activity and courage, in endeavoring to ward the
desperate thrusts made with the knife of the Huron. Unable longer to
foil an enemy so alert and vigilant, he threw his arms about him, and
succeeded in pinning the limbs of the other to his side, with an iron
grasp, but one that was far too exhausting to himself to continue long.
In this extremity he heard a voice near him, shouting--

""Extarminate the varlets! no quarter to an accursed Mingo!""

At the next moment, the breech of Hawkeye's rifle fell on the naked head
of his adversary, whose muscles appeared to wither under the shock, as
he sank from the arms of Duncan, flexible and motionless.

When Uncas had brained his first antagonist, he turned, like a hungry
lion, to seek another. The fifth and only Huron disengaged at the first
onset had paused a moment, and then seeing that all around him were
employed in the deadly strife, he sought, with hellish vengeance, to
complete the baffled work of revenge. Raising a shout of triumph, he
sprang towards the defenceless Cora, sending his keen axe, as the
dreadful precursor of his approach. The tomahawk grazed her shoulder,
and cutting the withes which bound her to the tree, left the maiden at
liberty to fly. She eluded the grasp of the savage, and reckless of her
own safety, threw herself on the bosom of Alice, striving with
convulsed and ill-directed fingers, to tear asunder the twigs which
confined the person of her sister. Any other than a monster would have
relented at such an act of generous devotion to the best and purest
affection; but the breast of the Huron was a stranger to sympathy.
Seizing Cora by the rich tresses which fell in confusion about her form,
he tore her from her frantic hold, and bowed her down with brutal
violence to her knees. The savage drew the flowing curls through his
hand, and raising them on high with an outstretched arm, he passed the
knife around the exquisitely moulded head of his victim, with a taunting
and exulting laugh. But he purchased this moment of fierce gratification
with the loss of the fatal opportunity. It was just then the sight
caught the eye of Uncas. Bounding from his footsteps he appeared for an
instant darting through the air, and descending in a ball he fell on the
chest of his enemy, driving him many yards from the spot, headlong and
prostrate. The violence of the exertion cast the young Mohican at his
side. They arose together, fought, and bled, each in his turn. But the
conflict was soon decided; the tomahawk of Heyward and the rifle of
Hawkeye descended on the skull of the Huron, at the same moment that the
knife of Uncas reached his heart.

The battle was now entirely terminated, with the exception of the
protracted struggle between Le Renard Subtil and Le Gros Serpent. Well
did these barbarous warriors prove that they deserved those significant
names which had been bestowed for deeds in former wars. When they
engaged, some little time was lost in eluding the quick and vigorous
thrusts which had been aimed at their lives. Suddenly darting on each
other, they closed, and came to the earth, twisted together like twining
serpents, in pliant and subtle folds. At the moment when the victors
found themselves unoccupied, the spot where these experienced and
desperate combatants lay, could only be distinguished by a cloud of dust
and leaves which moved from the centre of the little plain towards its
boundary, as if raised by the passage of a whirlwind. Urged by the
different motives of filial affection, friendship, and gratitude,
Heyward and his companions rushed with one accord to the place,
encircling the little canopy of dust which hung above the warriors. In
vain did Uncas dart around the cloud, with a wish to strike his knife
into the heart of his father's foe; the threatening rifle of Hawkeye was
raised and suspended in vain, while Duncan endeavored to seize the
limbs of the Huron with hands that appeared to have lost their power.
Covered, as they were, with dust and blood, the swift evolutions of the
combatants seemed to incorporate their bodies into one. The death-like
looking figure of the Mohican, and the dark form of the Huron, gleamed
before their eyes in such quick and confused succession, that the
friends of the former knew not where nor when to plant the succoring
blow. It is true there were short and fleeting moments, when the fiery
eyes of Magua were seen glittering, like the fabled organs of the
basilisk, through the dusty wreath by which he was enveloped, and he
read by those short and deadly glances the fate of the combat in the
presence of his enemies; ere, however, any hostile hand could descend on
his devoted head, its place was filled by the scowling visage of
Chingachgook. In this manner the scene of the combat was removed from
the centre of the little plain to its verge. The Mohican now found an
opportunity to make a powerful thrust with his knife; Magua suddenly
relinquished his grasp, and fell backward without motion, and seemingly
without life. His adversary leaped on his feet, making the arches of the
forest ring with the sounds of triumph.

""Well done for the Delawares! victory to the Mohican!"" cried Hawkeye,
once more elevating the butt of the long and fatal rifle; ""a finishing
blow from a man without a cross will never tell against his honor, nor
rob him of his right to the scalp.""

But, at the very moment when the dangerous weapon was in the act of
descending, the subtle Huron rolled swiftly from beneath the danger,
over the edge of the precipice, and falling on his feet, was seen
leaping, with a single bound, into the centre of a thicket of low
bushes, which clung along its sides. The Delawares, who had believed
their enemy dead, uttered their exclamation of surprise, and were
following with speed and clamor, like hounds in open view of the deer,
when a shrill and peculiar cry from the scout instantly changed their
purpose, and recalled them to the summit of the hill.

""'Twas like himself,"" cried the inveterate forester, whose prejudices
contributed so largely to veil his natural sense of justice in all
matters which concerned the Mingos; ""a lying and deceitful varlet as he
is. An honest Delaware now, being fairly vanquished, would have lain
still, and been knocked on the head, but these knavish Maquas cling to
life like so many cats-o'-the-mountain. Let him go--let him go; 'tis but
one man, and he without rifle or bow, many a long mile from his French
commerades; and, like a rattler that has lost his fangs, he can do no
further mischief, until such time as he, and we too, may leave the
prints of our moccasins over a long reach of sandy plain. See, Uncas,""
he added, in Delaware, ""your father is flaying the scalps already. It
may be well to go round and feel the vagabonds that are left, or we may
have another of them loping through the woods, and screeching like a jay
that has been winged.""

[Illustration: _Copyright by Charles Scribner's Sons_

THE FIGHT IN THE FOREST

_The battle was now entirely terminated, with the exception of the
protracted struggle between Le Renard Subtil and Le Gros Serpent_]

So saying, the honest, but implacable scout, made the circuit of the
dead, into whose senseless bosoms he thrust his long knife, with as much
coolness as though they had been so many brute carcasses. He had,
however, been anticipated by the elder Mohican, who had already torn the
emblems of victory from the unresisting heads of the slain.

But Uncas, denying his habits, we had almost said his nature, flew with
instinctive delicacy, accompanied by Heyward, to the assistance of the
females, and quickly releasing Alice, placed her in the arms of Cora. We
shall not attempt to describe the gratitude to the Almighty Disposer of
events which glowed in the bosoms of the sisters, who were thus
unexpectedly restored to life and to each other. Their thanksgivings
were deep and silent; the offerings of their gentle spirits, burning
brightest and purest on the secret altars of their hearts; and their
renovated and more earthly feelings exhibiting themselves in long and
fervent, though speechless caresses. As Alice rose from her knees, where
she had sunk by the side of Cora, she threw herself on the bosom of the
latter; and sobbed aloud the name of their aged father, while her soft,
dove-like eyes sparkled with the rays of hope.

""We are saved! we are saved!"" she murmured; ""to return to the arms of
our dear, dear father, and his heart will not be broken with grief. And
you too, Cora, my sister; my more than sister, my mother; you too are
spared. And Duncan,"" she added, looking round upon the youth with a
smile of ineffable innocence, ""even our own brave and noble Duncan has
escaped without a hurt.""

To these ardent and nearly incoherent words Cora made no other answer
than by straining the youthful speaker to her heart, as she bent over
her, in melting tenderness. The manhood of Heyward felt no shame in
dropping tears over this spectacle of affectionate rapture; and Uncas
stood, fresh and blood-stained from the combat, a calm, and, apparently,
an unmoved looker-on, it is true, but with eyes that had already lost
their fierceness, and were beaming with a sympathy that elevated him far
above the intelligence, and advanced him probably centuries before the
practices of his nation.

During this display of emotions so natural in their situation, Hawkeye,
whose vigilant distrust had satisfied itself that the Hurons, who
disfigured the heavenly scene, no longer possessed the power to
interrupt its harmony, approached David, and liberated him from the
bonds he had, until that moment, endured with the most exemplary
patience.

""There,"" exclaimed the scout, casting the last withe behind him, ""you
are once more master of your own limbs, though you seem not to use them
with greater judgment than that in which they were first fashioned. If
advice from one who is not older than yourself, but who having lived
most of his time in the wilderness, may be said to have experience
beyond his years, will give no offence, you are welcome to my thoughts;
and these are, to part with the little tooting instrument in your jacket
to the first fool you meet with, and buy some useful we'pon with the
money, if it be only the barrel of a horseman's pistol. By industry and
care, you might thus come to some prefarment; for by this time, I should
think, your eyes would plainly tell you that a carrion crow is a better
bird than a mocking thresher. The one will, at least, remove foul sights
from before the face of man, while the other is only good to brew
disturbances in the woods, by cheating the ears of all that hear them.""

""Arms and the clarion for the battle, but the song of thanksgiving to
the victory!"" answered the liberated David. ""Friend,"" he added,
thrusting forth his lean, delicate hand towards Hawkeye, in kindness,
while his eyes twinkled and grew moist, ""I thank thee that the hairs of
my head still grow where they were first rooted by Providence; for,
though those of other men may be more glossy and curling, I have ever
found mine own well suited to the brain they shelter. That I did not
join myself to the battle, was less owing to disinclination, than to the
bonds of the heathen. Valiant and skilful hast thou proved thyself in
the conflict, and I hereby thank thee, before proceeding to discharge
other and more important duties, because thou hast proved thyself well
worthy of a Christian's praise.""

""The thing is but a trifle, and what you may often see, if you tarry
long among us,"" returned the scout, a good deal softened towards the
man of song, by this unequivocal expression of gratitude. ""I have got
back my old companion, 'Killdeer,'"" he added, striking his hand on the
breech of his rifle; ""and that in itself is a victory. These Iroquois
are cunning, but they outwitted themselves when they placed their
fire-arms out of reach; and had Uncas or his father been gifted with
only their common Indian patience, we should have come in upon the
knaves with three bullets instead of one, and that would have made a
finish of the whole pack; yon loping varlet, as well as his commerades.
But 'twas all foreordered, and for the best.""

""Thou sayest well,"" returned David, ""and hast caught the true spirit of
Christianity. He that is to be saved will be saved, and he that is
predestined to be damned will be damned. This is the doctrine of truth,
and most consoling and refreshing it is to the true believer.""

The scout, who by this time was seated, examining into the state of his
rifle with a species of parental assiduity, now looked up at the other
in a displeasure that he did not affect to conceal, roughly interrupting
further speech.

""Doctrine, or no doctrine,"" said the sturdy woodsman, ""'tis the belief
of knaves, and the curse of an honest man. I can credit that yonder
Huron was to fall by my hand, for with my own eyes I have seen it; but
nothing short of being a witness will cause me to think he had met with
any reward, or that Chingachgook, there, will be condemned at the final
day.""

""You have no warranty for such an audacious doctrine, nor any covenant
to support it,"" cried David, who was deeply tinctured with the subtle
distinctions which, in his time, and more especially in his province,
had been drawn around the beautiful simplicity of revelation, by
endeavoring to penetrate the awful mystery of the divine nature,
supplying faith by self-sufficiency, and by consequence, involving those
who reasoned from such human dogmas in absurdities and doubt; ""your
temple is reared on the sands, and the first tempest will wash away its
foundation. I demand your authorities for such an uncharitable assertion
(like other advocates of a system, David was not always accurate in his
use of terms). Name chapter and verse; in which of the holy books do you
find language to support you?""

""Book!"" repeated Hawkeye, with singular and ill-concealed disdain; ""do
you take me for a whimpering boy at the apron-string of one of your old
gals; and this good rifle on my knee for the feather of a goose's wing,
my ox's horn for a bottle of ink, and my leathern pouch for a
cross-barred handkercher to carry my dinner? Book! what have such as I,
who am a warrior of the wilderness, though a man without a cross, to do
with books? I never read but in one, and the words that are written
there are too simple and too plain to need much schooling; though I may
boast that of forty long and hard-working years.""

""What call you the volume?"" said David, misconceiving the other's
meaning.

""Tis open before your eyes,"" returned the scout; ""and he who owns it is
not a niggard of its use. I have heard it said that there are men who
read in books to convince themselves there is a God. I know not but man
may so deform his works in the settlement, as to leave that which is so
clear in the wilderness a matter of doubt among traders and priests. If
any such there be, and he will follow me from sun to sun, through the
windings of the forest, he shall see enough to teach him that he is a
fool, and that the greatest of his folly lies in striving to rise to the
level of One he can never equal, be it in goodness, or be it in power.""

The instant David discovered that he battled with a disputant who
imbibed his faith from the lights of nature, eschewing all subtleties of
doctrine, he willingly abandoned a controversy from which he believed
neither profit nor credit was to be derived. While the scout was
speaking, he had also seated himself, and producing the ready little
volume and the iron-rimmed spectacles, he prepared to discharge a duty,
which nothing but the unexpected assault he had received in his
orthodoxy could have so long suspended. He was, in truth, a minstrel of
the western continent--of a much later day, certainly, than those gifted
bards, who formerly sang the profane renown of baron and prince, but
after the spirit of his own age and country; and he was now prepared to
exercise the cunning of his craft, in celebration of, or rather in
thanksgiving for, the recent victory. He waited patiently for Hawkeye to
cease, then lifting his eyes, together with his voice, he said, aloud,--

""I invite you, friends, to join in praise for this signal deliverance
from the hands of barbarians and infidels, to the comfortable and solemn
tones of the tune, called 'Northampton.'""

He next named the page and verse where the rhymes selected were to be
found, and applied the pitch-pipe to his lips, with the decent gravity
that he had been wont to use in the temple. This time he was, however,
without any accompaniment, for the sisters were just then pouring out
those tender effusions of affection which have been already alluded to.
Nothing deterred by the smallness of his audience, which, in truth,
consisted only of the discontented scout, he raised his voice,
commencing and ending the sacred song without accident or interruption
of any kind.

Hawkeye listened, while he coolly adjusted his flint and reloaded his
rifle; but the sounds, wanting the extraneous assistance of scene and
sympathy, failed to awaken his slumbering emotions. Never minstrel, or
by whatever more suitable name David should be known, drew upon his
talents in the presence of more insensible auditors; though considering
the singleness and sincerity of his motive, it is probable that no bard
of profane song ever uttered notes that ascended so near to that throne
where all homage and praise is due. The scout shook his head, and
muttering some unintelligible words, among which ""throat"" and
""Iroquois,"" were alone audible, he walked away, to collect, and to
examine into, the state of the captured arsenal of the Hurons. In this
office he was now joined by Chingachgook, who found his own, as well as
the rifle of his son, among the arms. Even Heyward and David were
furnished with weapons; nor was ammunition wanting to render them all
effectual.

When the foresters had made their selection, and distributed their
prizes, the scout announced that the hour had arrived when it was
necessary to move. By this time the song of Gamut had ceased, and the
sisters had learned to still the exhibition of their emotions. Aided by
Duncan and the younger Mohican, the two latter descended the precipitous
sides of that hill which they had so lately ascended under so very
different auspices, and whose summit had so nearly proved the scene of
their massacre. At the foot, they found the Narragansetts browsing the
herbage of the bushes; and having mounted, they followed the movements
of a guide, who, in the most deadly straits, had so often proved himself
their friend. The journey was, however, short. Hawkeye, leaving the
blind path that the Hurons had followed, turned short to his right, and
entering the thicket, he crossed a babbling brook, and halted in a
narrow dell, under the shade of a few water elms. Their distance from
the base of the fatal hill was but a few rods, and the steeds had been
serviceable only in crossing the shallow stream.

The scout and the Indians appeared to be familiar with the sequestered
place where they now were; for, leaning their rifles against the trees,
they commenced throwing aside the dried leaves, and opening the blue
clay, out of which a clear and sparkling spring of bright, glancing
water, quickly bubbled. The white man then looked about him, as though
seeking for some object, which was not to be found as readily as he
expected:--

""Them careless imps, the Mohawks, with their Tuscarora and Onondaga
brethren, have been here slaking their thirst,"" he muttered, ""and the
vagabonds have thrown away the gourd! This is the way with benefits,
when they are bestowed on such disremembering hounds! Here has the Lord
laid his hand, in the midst of the howling wilderness, for their good,
and raised a fountain of water from the bowels of the 'arth, that might
laugh at the richest shop of apothecary's ware in all the colonies; and
see! the knaves have trodden in the clay, and deformed the cleanliness
of the place, as though they were brute beasts, instead of human men.""

Uncas silently extended towards him the desired gourd, which the spleen
of Hawkeye had hitherto prevented him from observing, on a branch of an
elm. Filling it with water, he retired a short distance, to a place
where the ground was more firm and dry; here he coolly seated himself,
and after taking a long, and, apparently, a grateful draught, he
commenced a very strict examination of the fragments of food left by the
Hurons, which had hung in a wallet on his arm.

""Thank you, lad!"" he continued, returning the empty gourd to Uncas; ""now
we will see how these rampaging Hurons lived, when outlying in
ambushments. Look at this! The varlets know the better pieces of the
deer; and one would think they might carve and roast a saddle, equal to
the best cook in the land! But everything is raw, for the Iroquois are
thorough savages. Uncas, take my steel, and kindle a fire; a mouthful of
a tender broil will give natur' a helping hand, after so long a trail.""

Heyward, perceiving that their guides now set about their repast in
sober earnest, assisted the ladies to alight, and placed himself at
their side, not unwilling to enjoy a few moments of grateful rest, after
the bloody scene he had just gone through. While the culinary process
was in hand, curiosity induced him to inquire into the circumstances
which had led to their timely and unexpected rescue:--

""How is it that we see you so soon, my generous friend,"" he asked, ""and
without aid from the garrison of Edward?""

""Had we gone to the bend in the river, we might have been in time to
rake the leaves over your bodies, but too late to have saved your
scalps,"" coolly answered the scout. ""No, no; instead of throwing away
strength and opportunity by crossing to the fort, we lay by, under the
bank of the Hudson, waiting to watch the movements of the Hurons.""

""You were, then, witnesses of all that passed?""

""Not of all; for Indian sight is too keen to be easily cheated, and we
kept close. A difficult matter it was, too, to keep this Mohican boy
snug in the ambushment. Ah! Uncas, Uncas, your behavior was more like
that of a curious woman than of a warrior on his scent.""

Uncas permitted his eyes to turn for an instant on the sturdy
countenance of the speaker, but he neither spoke nor gave any indication
of repentance. On the contrary, Heyward thought the manner of the young
Mohican was disdainful, if not a little fierce, and that he suppressed
passions that were ready to explode, as much in compliment to the
listeners, as from the deference he usually paid to his white associate.

""You saw our capture?"" Heyward next demanded.

""We heard it,"" was the significant answer. ""An Indian yell is plain
language to men who have passed their days in the woods. But when you
landed, we were driven to crawl, like sarpents, beneath the leaves; and
then we lost sight of you entirely, until we placed eyes on you again,
trussed to the trees, and ready bound for an Indian massacre.""

""Our rescue was the deed of Providence. It was nearly a miracle that you
did not mistake the path, for the Hurons divided, and each band had its
horses.""

""Ay! there we were thrown off the scent, and might, indeed, have lost
the trail, had it not been for Uncas; we took the path, however, that
led into the wilderness; for we judged, and judged rightly, that the
savages would hold that course with their prisoners. But when we had
followed it for many miles, without finding a single twig broken, as I
had advised, my mind misgave me; especially as all the footsteps had the
prints of moccasins.""

""Our captors had the precaution to see us shod like themselves,"" said
Duncan, raising a foot, and exhibiting the buckskin he wore.

""Ay, 'twas judgmatical, and like themselves; though we were too expart
to be thrown from a trail by so common an invention.""

""To what, then, are we indebted for our safety?""

""To what, as a white man who has no taint of Indian blood, I should be
ashamed to own; to the judgment of the young Mohican, in matters which I
should know better than he, but which I can now hardly believe to be
true, though my own eyes tell me it is so.""

""'Tis extraordinary! will you not name the reason?""

""Uncas was bold enough to say, that the beasts ridden by the gentle
ones,"" continued Hawkeye, glancing his eyes, not without curious
interest, on the fillies of the ladies, ""planted the legs of one side on
the ground at the same time, which is contrary to the movements of all
trotting four-footed animals of my knowledge, except the bear. And yet
here are horses that always journey in this manner, as my own eyes have
seen, and as their trail has shown for twenty long miles.""

""'Tis the merit of the animal! They come from the shores of
Narragansett Bay, in the small province of Providence Plantations, and
are celebrated for their hardihood, and the ease of this peculiar
movement; though other horses are not unfrequently trained to the same.""

""It may be--it may be,"" said Hawkeye, who had listened with singular
attention to this explanation; ""though I am a man who has the full blood
of the whites, my judgment in deer and beaver is greater than in beasts
of burden. Major Effingham has many noble chargers, but I have never
seen one travel after such a sideling gait.""

""True; for he would value the animals for very different properties.
Still is this a breed highly esteemed, and as you witness, much honored
with the burdens it is often destined to bear.""

The Mohicans had suspended their operations about the glimmering fire,
to listen; and when Duncan had done, they looked at each other
significantly, the father uttering the never-failing exclamation of
surprise. The scout ruminated, like a man digesting his newly acquired
knowledge, and once more stole a curious glance at the horses.

""I dare to say there are even stranger sights to be seen in the
settlements!"" he said, at length; ""natur' is sadly abused by man, when
he once gets the mastery. But, go sideling or go straight, Uncas had
seen the movement, and their trail led us on to the broken bush. The
outer branch, near the prints of one of the horses, was bent upward, as
a lady breaks a flower from its stem, but all the rest were ragged and
broken down, as if the strong hand of a man had been tearing them! So I
concluded that the cunning varmints had seen the twig bent, and had torn
the rest, to make us believe a buck had been feeling the boughs with his
antlers.""

""I do believe your sagacity did not deceive you; for some such thing
occurred!""

""That was easy to see,"" added the scout, in no degree conscious of
having exhibited any extraordinary sagacity; ""and a very different
matter it was from a waddling horse! It then struck me the Mingos would
push for this spring, for the knaves well know the vartue of its
waters!""

""Is it, then, so famous?"" demanded Heyward, examining, with a more
curious eye, the secluded dell, with its bubbling fountain, surrounded,
as it was, by earth of a deep dingy brown.

""Few redskins, who travel south and east of the great lakes, but have
heard of its qualities. Will you taste for yourself?""

Heyward took the gourd, and after swallowing a little of the water,
threw it aside with grimaces of discontent. The scout laughed in his
silent, but heartfelt manner, and shook his head with vast satisfaction.

""Ah! you want the flavor that one gets by habit; the time was when I
liked it as little as yourself; but I have come to my taste, and I now
crave it, as a deer does the licks.[17] Your high spiced wines are not
better liked than a redskin relishes this water; especially when his
natur' is ailing. But Uncas has made his fire, and it is time we think
of eating, for our journey is long, and all before us.""

Interrupting the dialogue by this abrupt transition, the scout had
instant recourse to the fragments of food which had escaped the voracity
of the Hurons. A very summary process completed the simple cookery, when
he and the Mohicans commenced their humble meal, with the silence and
characteristic diligence of men who ate in order to enable themselves
to endure great and unremitting toil.

When this necessary, and, happily, grateful duty had been performed,
each of the foresters stooped and took a long and parting draught at
that solitary and silent spring,[18] around which and its sister
fountains, within fifty years, the wealth, beauty, and talents of a
hemisphere were to assemble in throngs, in pursuit of health and
pleasure. Then Hawkeye announced his determination to proceed. The
sisters resumed their saddles; Duncan and David grasped their rifles,
and followed on their footsteps; the scout leading the advance, and the
Mohicans bringing up the rear. The whole party moved swiftly through the
narrow path, towards the north, leaving the healing waters to mingle
unheeded with the adjacent brook, and the bodies of the dead to fester
on the neighboring mount, without the rites of sepulture; a fate but too
common to the warriors of the woods to excite either commiseration or
comment.



",Chapter 12,https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapter-12,"Since the Indians' rifles have been placed to the side, Hawkeye has found his, loaded it, and fired it. He and the Mohicans advance to hand-to-hand combat, Uncas jumping protectively in front of Cora and saving her a moment later by killing an Indian whose tomahawk has cut her bonds. Soon all the Hurons are dead except Magua, who is fighting with Chingachgook. The villain feigns death and escapes before Hawkeye can brain him with the butt of his rifle. Chingachgook scalps the dead while Uncas and Heyward assist the females and Hawkeye releases Gamut. The scout advises the singing master to give up his ""little tooting instrument"" for a useful weapon, and Gamut counters by arguing the fatality of Calvinistic doctrine found in books. Completely the practical man, Hawkeye disdainfully says that the only book worth reading is nature. Gamut's response is to sing a song, but Hawkeye common-sensically reloads his rifle and sees that everyone is armed. Then they start their journey with the girls riding the Narragansets. They very shortly stop and clear the leaves and clay from a hidden mineral spring, and Hawkeye tells how the three of them, sagaciously aided by Uncas, had tracked the Hurons for twenty miles. After a simple cooked meal, they proceed towards the north where Fort William Henry lies.","This is another bloody chapter, but its thematic significance is in the views of Gamut and Hawkeye. At first the psalmodist seems to have learned nothing from his recent experiences, yet it is notable that, whereas before he has done little more than sing and mouth religious platitudes, he now turns to doctrine and argument as if he must go deeper into his beliefs to convince Hawkeye and perhaps himself. Although in this instance the Yankee's singing is a retreat as the scout gets the better of the discussion, Cooper gives Gamut his due as a folklore figure, ""a minstrel of the western continent . . . after the spirit of his own age and country."" Hawkeye says that the recent action ""was all foreordered, and for the best."" But he will admit such only after events have actually occurred, not beforehand as Gamut's Calvinistic predestination insists upon. As something of a deist, he reads God in nature: ""I know not but man may so deform his works in the settlement, as to leave that which is so clear in the wilderness a matter of doubt among traders and priests."" A few minutes later talking about the unusual way the Narragansets have been trained to walk, he comments that ""natur' is sadly abused by man, when he once gets the mastery."" His point is that people should not seek absolute mastery and try to rival God. Highly pragmatic, he finds that the greatest lesson taught by nature is humility. He is the noble, self-outcast frontiersman who has turned his back on the settlement to seek, as a thinking man, the freedom and simplicity of natural morality; and he prefers this even though  it entails danger and killing. Since Cooper is developing some interest between Uncas and Cora, just before mid-chapter he carefully presents Uncas as showing ""a sympathy that elevated him far above the intelligence, and advanced him probably centuries before the practices of his nation."" Though he will not fully allow it later, Cooper is presently trying to make their mutual interest acceptable and believable.",5182.0,219.0,347.0
27681,True,cliffnotes,all_chapterized_books/27681-chapters/chapters_13_to_14.txt,finished_summaries/cliffnotes/The Last of the Mohicans/section_10_part_0.txt,The Last of the Mohicans.chapters 13-14,chapters 13-14,,"{""name"": ""Chapters 13-14"", ""url"": ""https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapters-1314"", ""summary"": ""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."", ""analysis"": ""The story has now reached the end of the first long chase, during which one pattern of pursuit-capture-escape-and-pursuit is completed. But Cooper has made sure that the present safety for the main characters is only relative. He has made the reader aware that the defending English are far outnumbered and contained by the ten thousand French and their Indian allies; even the sentimental reader who may feel relief and a gush of emotional release at the reunion of the father and daughters knows that the protagonists now face the double danger of foes and can no longer maneuver as they did in the forests. If any lull is to come, it will be in terms of action, not suspense. The action here is so intense that little individual characterization is presented. Gamut is barely present, and Uncas apparently has no chance to show his interest in Cora. At one point Hawkeye relates some of the history of the tribe of Mohicans, and his reference to his two companions keeps alive the background theme of tribal demise. But rather than its setting him apart as an individual, Chingachgook's taking of scalps merely shows how much he still has in common with all other Indians, though his actions do stand in contrast to Uncas' behavior in the preceding chapter. Hawkeye, who sees Chingachgook's actions as part of his Indian \""gift,\"" evinces one new character element with his superstition at the \""bloody pond.\"" However, since Cooper is busy rounding out his action, he does not dwell on theme or characterization in these moments.""}","
  ""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!""



",Chapters 13-14,https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapters-1314,"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.","The story has now reached the end of the first long chase, during which one pattern of pursuit-capture-escape-and-pursuit is completed. But Cooper has made sure that the present safety for the main characters is only relative. He has made the reader aware that the defending English are far outnumbered and contained by the ten thousand French and their Indian allies; even the sentimental reader who may feel relief and a gush of emotional release at the reunion of the father and daughters knows that the protagonists now face the double danger of foes and can no longer maneuver as they did in the forests. If any lull is to come, it will be in terms of action, not suspense. The action here is so intense that little individual characterization is presented. Gamut is barely present, and Uncas apparently has no chance to show his interest in Cora. At one point Hawkeye relates some of the history of the tribe of Mohicans, and his reference to his two companions keeps alive the background theme of tribal demise. But rather than its setting him apart as an individual, Chingachgook's taking of scalps merely shows how much he still has in common with all other Indians, though his actions do stand in contrast to Uncas' behavior in the preceding chapter. Hawkeye, who sees Chingachgook's actions as part of his Indian ""gift,"" evinces one new character element with his superstition at the ""bloody pond."" However, since Cooper is busy rounding out his action, he does not dwell on theme or characterization in these moments.",8710.0,380.0,260.0
27681,False,cliffnotes,all_chapterized_books/27681-chapters/15.txt,finished_summaries/cliffnotes/The Last of the Mohicans/section_11_part_0.txt,The Last of the Mohicans.chapter 15,chapter 15,,"{""name"": ""Chapter 15"", ""url"": ""https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapter-15"", ""summary"": ""The siege is now almost five days old, and when in the afternoon Major Heyward repairs to the ramparts of one of the water bastions, nature seems to have resumed \""her mildest and most captivating form.\"" Two white flags indicate that a truce has been made. The musing Heyward sees Hawkeye, bound and haggard, advancing toward the fort in the custody of a French officer. About to descend from the bastion, the major meets the two sisters, and Alice teases him for neglecting them. Cora says little and seems to be in anguish. Heyward leaves to find Munro, who is now bitter and ironical because General Webb apparently is sending no help. While on message duty, Hawkeye has been captured and graciously returned, but the letter he carried from Webb has been kept by Montcalm, who has requested a parley with Munro. Instead, Munro sends the major. Montcalm is courteous and urbane, surrounded by officers and Indians, among whom is Magua, sullen and malignant. The French general reminds Heyward of the superior French forces and suggests a surrender, indicating that the Indians are hard to restrain. Heyward fails to learn anything about the letter and leaves carrying another request that Munro arrange to talk with Montcalm."", ""analysis"": ""Since this is a kind of interlude chapter, Cooper primarily develops the contrasts of the situation. Quiet nature now stands opposite to the human battles that have occurred and are still potential. Munro and Montcalm are shown with their differences of temperament as well as of nationality. In the French camp, savagery and civilization, though temporarily united, face each other as opposites. And the blonde-brunette contrast is seen in quieter circumstances than before. More than ever, Alice is the attractive flirt and Cora is the grave young woman bearing her unexplained anguish with fortitude. The usually resourceful Hawkeye, too, is in contrast with his former endurance and freedom, and his capture strongly objectifies the dire condition of the forces at Fort William Henry.""}","
  ""Then go we in, to know his embassy;
  Which I could, with ready guess, declare,
  Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.""

  _King Henry V._


A few succeeding days were passed amid the privations, the uproar, and
the dangers of the siege, which was vigorously pressed by a power
against whose approaches Munro possessed no competent means of
resistance. It appeared as if Webb, with his army, which lay slumbering
on the banks of the Hudson, had utterly forgotten the strait to which
his countrymen were reduced. Montcalm had filled the woods of the
portage with his savages, every yell and whoop from whom rang through
the British encampment, chilling the hearts of men who were already but
too much disposed to magnify the danger.

Not so, however, with the besieged. Animated by the words, and
stimulated by the examples, of their leaders, they had found their
courage, and maintained their ancient reputation, with zeal that did
justice to the stern character of their commander. As if satisfied with
the toil of marching through the wilderness to encounter his enemy, the
French general, though of approved skill, had neglected to seize the
adjacent mountains; whence the besieged might have been exterminated
with impunity, and which, in the more modern warfare of the country,
would not have been neglected for a single hour. This sort of contempt
for eminences, or rather dread of the labor of ascending them, might
have been termed the besetting weakness of the warfare of the period. It
originated in the simplicity of the Indian contests, in which, from the
nature of the combats, and the density of the forests, fortresses were
rare, and artillery next to useless. The carelessness engendered by
these usages descended even to the war of the Revolution, and lost the
States the important fortress of Ticonderoga, opening a way for the army
of Burgoyne into what was then the bosom of the country. We look back at
this ignorance, or infatuation, whichever it may be called, with wonder,
knowing that the neglect of an eminence, whose difficulties, like those
of Mount Defiance, have been so greatly exaggerated, would, at the
present time, prove fatal to the reputation of the engineer who had
planned the works at their base, or to that of the general whose lot it
was to defend them.

The tourist, the valetudinarian, or the amateur of the beauties of
nature, who, in the train of his four-in-hand, now rolls through the
scenes we have attempted to describe, in quest of information, health,
or pleasure, or floats steadily towards his object on those artificial
waters which have sprung up under the administration of a statesman[21]
who has dared to stake his political character on the hazardous issue,
is not to suppose that his ancestors traversed those hills, or struggled
with the same currents with equal facility. The transportation of a
single heavy gun was often considered equal to a victory gained; if,
happily, the difficulties of the passage had not so far separated it
from its necessary concomitant, the ammunition, as to render it no more
than an useless tube of unwieldy iron.

The evils of this state of things pressed heavily on the fortunes of the
resolute Scotsman who now defended William Henry. Though his adversary
neglected the hills, he had planted his batteries with judgment on the
plain, and caused them to be served with vigor and skill. Against this
assault, the besieged could only oppose the imperfect and hasty
preparations of a fortress in the wilderness.

It was in the afternoon of the fifth day of the siege, and the fourth of
his own service in it, that Major Heyward profited by a parley that had
just been beaten, by repairing to the ramparts of one of the water
bastions, to breathe the cool air from the lake, and to take a survey of
the progress of the siege. He was alone, if the solitary sentinel who
paced the mound be excepted; for the artillerists had hastened also to
profit by the temporary suspension of their arduous duties. The evening
was delightfully calm, and the light air from the limpid water fresh and
soothing. It seemed as if, with the termination to the roar of artillery
and the plunging of shot, nature had also seized the moment to assume
her mildest and most captivating form. The sun poured down his parting
glory on the scene, without the oppression of those fierce rays that
belong to the climate and the season. The mountains looked green and
fresh and lovely; tempered with the milder light, or softened in shadow,
as thin vapors floated between them and the sun. The numerous islands
rested on the bosom of the Horican, some low and sunken, as if imbedded
in the waters, and others appearing to hover above the element, in
little hillocks of green velvet; among which the fishermen of the
beleaguering army peacefully rowed their skiffs, or floated at rest on
the glassy mirror, in quiet pursuit of their employment.

The scene was at once animated and still. All that pertained to nature
was sweet, or simply grand; while those parts which depended on the
temper and movements of man were lively and playful.

Two little spotless flags were abroad, the one on a salient angle of the
fort, and the other on the advanced battery of the besiegers; emblems of
the truce which existed, not only to the acts, but it would seem, also,
to the enmity of the combatants.

Behind these, again, swung, heavily opening and closing in silken folds,
the rival standards of England and France.

A hundred gay and thoughtless young Frenchmen were drawing a net to the
pebbly beach, within dangerous proximity to the sullen but silent cannon
of the fort, while the eastern mountain was sending back the loud shouts
and gay merriment that attended their sport. Some were rushing eagerly
to enjoy the aquatic games of the lake, and others were already toiling
their way up the neighboring hills, with the restless curiosity of their
nation. To all these sports and pursuits, those of the enemy who watched
the besieged, and the besieged themselves, were, however, merely the
idle, though sympathizing spectators. Here and there a picket had,
indeed, raised a song, or mingled in a dance, which had drawn the dusky
savages around them, from their lairs in the forest. In short,
everything wore rather the appearance of a day of pleasure, than of an
hour stolen from the dangers and toil of a bloody and vindictive
warfare.

Duncan had stood in a musing attitude, contemplating this scene a few
minutes, when his eyes were directed to the glacis in front of the
sally-port already mentioned, by the sounds of approaching footsteps. He
walked to an angle of the bastion, and beheld the scout advancing, under
the custody of a French officer, to the body of the fort. The
countenance of Hawkeye was haggard and careworn, and his air dejected,
as though he felt the deepest degradation at having fallen into the
power of his enemies. He was without his favorite weapon, and his arms
were even bound behind him with thongs, made of the skin of a deer. The
arrival of flags, to cover the messengers of summons, had occurred so
often of late, that when Heyward first threw his careless glance on this
group, he expected to see another of the officers of the enemy, charged
with a similar office; but the instant he recognized the tall person,
and still sturdy, though downcast features of his friend the woodsman,
he started with surprise, and turned to descend from the bastion into
the bosom of the work.

The sounds of other voices, however, caught his attention, and for a
moment caused him to forget his purpose. At the inner angle of the mound
he met the sisters, walking along the parapet in search, like himself,
of air and relief from confinement. They had not met from that painful
moment when he deserted them on the plain, only to assure their safety.
He had parted from them worn with care, and jaded with fatigue; he now
saw them refreshed and blooming, though timid and anxious. Under such an
inducement, it will cause no surprise that the young man lost sight, for
a time, of other objects in order to address them. He was, however,
anticipated by the voice of the ingenuous and youthful Alice.

""Ah! thou truant! thou recreant knight! he who abandons his damsels in
the very lists!"" she cried; ""here have we been days, nay, ages,
expecting you at our feet, imploring mercy and forgetfulness of your
craven backsliding, or, I should rather say, back-running--for verily
you fled in a manner that no stricken deer, as our worthy friend the
scout would say, could equal!""

""You know that Alice means our thanks and our blessings,"" added the
graver and more thoughtful Cora. ""In truth, we have a little wondered
why you should so rigidly absent yourself from a place where the
gratitude of the daughters might receive the support of a parent's
thanks.""

""Your father himself could tell you, that though absent from your
presence, I have not been altogether forgetful of your safety,"" returned
the young man; ""the mastery of yonder village of huts,"" pointing to the
neighboring entrenched camp, ""has been keenly disputed; and he who holds
it is sure to be possessed of this fort, and that which it contains. My
days and my nights have all been passed there since we separated,
because I thought that duty called me thither. But,"" he added with an
air of chagrin, which he endeavored, though unsuccessfully, to conceal,
""had I been aware that what I then believed a soldier's conduct could so
be construed, shame would have been added to the list of reasons.""

""Heyward!--Duncan!"" exclaimed Alice, bending forward to read his
half-averted countenance, until a lock of her golden hair rested on her
flushed cheek, and nearly concealed the tear that had started to her
eye; ""did I think this idle tongue of mine had pained you, I would
silence it forever, Cora can say, if Cora would, how justly we have
prized your services, and how deep--I had almost said, how fervent--is
our gratitude.""

""And will Cora attest the truth of this?"" cried Duncan, suffering the
cloud to be chased from his countenance by a smile of open pleasure.
""What says our graver sister? Will she find an excuse for the neglect of
the knight in the duty of a soldier?""

Cora made no immediate answer, but turned her face towards the water, as
if looking on the sheet of the Horican. When she did bend her dark eyes
on the young man, they were yet filled with an expression of anguish
that at once drove every thought but that of kind solicitude from his
mind.

""You are not well, dearest Miss Munro!"" he exclaimed; ""we have trifled
while you are in suffering.""

""'Tis nothing,"" she answered, refusing his offered support with feminine
reserve. ""That I cannot see the sunny side of the picture of life, like
this artless but ardent enthusiast,"" she added, laying her hand lightly,
but affectionately, on the arm of her sister, ""is the penalty of
experience, and, perhaps, the misfortune of my nature. See,"" she
continued, as if determined to shake off infirmity, in a sense of duty;
""look around you, Major Heyward, and tell me what a prospect is this for
the daughter of a soldier whose greatest happiness is his honor and his
military renown.""

""Neither ought nor shall be tarnished by circumstances over which he has
had no control,"" Duncan warmly replied. ""But your words recall me to my
own duty. I go now to your gallant father, to hear his determination in
matters of the last moment to the defence. God bless you in every
fortune, noble--Cora--I may and must call you."" She frankly gave him her
hand, though her lip quivered, and her cheeks gradually became of an
ashy paleness. ""In every fortune, I know you will be an ornament and
honor to your sex. Alice, adieu""--his tone changed from admiration to
tenderness--""adieu, Alice; we shall soon meet again; as conquerors, I
trust, and amid rejoicings!""

Without waiting for an answer from either, the young man threw himself
down the grassy steps of the bastion, and moving rapidly across the
parade, he was quickly in the presence of their father. Munro was
pacing his narrow apartment with a disturbed air and gigantic strides as
Duncan entered.

""You have anticipated my wishes, Major Heyward,"" he said; ""I was about
to request this favor.""

""I am sorry to see, sir, that the messenger I so warmly recommended has
returned in custody of the French! I hope there is no reason to distrust
his fidelity?""

""The fidelity of 'The Long Rifle' is well known to me,"" returned Munro,
""and is above suspicion; though his usual good fortune seems, at last,
to have failed. Montcalm has got him, and with the accursed politeness
of his nation, he has sent him in with a doleful tale, of 'knowing how I
valued the fellow, he could not think of retaining him.' A Jesuitical
way, that, Major Duncan Heyward, of telling a man of his misfortunes!""

""But the general and his succor?""

""Did ye look to the south as ye entered, and could ye not see them?""
said the old soldier, laughing bitterly. ""Hoot! hoot! you're an
impatient boy, sir, and cannot give the gentlemen leisure for their
march!""

""They are coming, then? The scout has said as much?""

""When? and by what path? for the dunce has omitted to tell me this.
There is a letter, it would seem, too; and that is the only agreeable
part of the matter. For the customary attentions of your Marquis of
Montcalm--I warrant me, Duncan, that he of Lothian would buy a dozen
such marquisates--but, if the news of the letter were bad, the gentility
of this French monsieur would certainly compel him to let us know it.""

""He keeps the letter, then, while he releases the messenger!""

""Ay, that does he, and all for the sake of what you call your
'_bonhommie_,' I would venture, if the truth was known, the fellow's
grandfather taught the noble science of dancing.""

""But what says the scout? he has eyes and ears, and a tongue: what
verbal report does he make?""

""O! sir, he is not wanting in natural organs, and he is free to tell all
that he has seen and heard. The whole amount is this: there is a fort of
his majesty's on the banks of the Hudson, called Edward, in honor of his
gracious highness of York, you'll know; and it is well filled with armed
men, as such a work should be.""

""But was there no movement, no signs of any intention to advance to our
relief?""

""There were the morning and evening parades; and when one of the
provincial loons--you'll know, Duncan, you're half a Scotsman
yourself--when one of them dropped his powder over his porretch, if it
touched the coals, it just burnt!"" Then suddenly changing his bitter,
ironical manner, to one more grave and thoughtful, he continued; ""and
yet there might, and must be, something in that letter which it would be
well to know!""

""Our decision should be speedy,"" said Duncan, gladly availing himself of
this change of humor, to press the more important objects of their
interview; ""I cannot conceal from you, sir, that the camp will not be
much longer tenable; and I am sorry to add, that things appear no better
in the fort; more than half the guns are bursted.""

""And how should it be otherwise? Some were fished from the bottom of the
lake; some have been rusting in the woods since the discovery of the
country; and some were never guns at all--mere privateersmen's
playthings! Do you think, sir, you can have Woolwich Warren in the midst
of a wilderness, three thousand miles from Great Britain!""

""The walls are crumbling about our ears, and provisions begin to fail
us,"" continued Heyward, without regarding this new burst of indignation;
""even the men show signs of discontent and alarm.""

""Major Heyward,"" said Munro, turning to his youthful associate with the
dignity of his years and superior rank; ""I should have served his
majesty for half a century, and earned these gray hairs, in vain, were I
ignorant of all you say, and of the pressing nature of our
circumstances; still, there is everything due to the honor of the king's
arms and something to ourselves. While there is hope of succor, this
fortress will I defend, though it be to be done with pebbles gathered on
the lake shore. It is a sight of the letter, therefore, that we want,
that we may know the intentions of the man the Earl of Loudon has left
among us as his substitute.""

""And can I be of service in the matter?""

""Sir, you can; the Marquis of Montcalm has, in addition to his other
civilities, invited me to a personal interview between the works and his
own camp; in order, as he says, to impart some additional information.
Now, I think it would not be wise to show any undue solicitude to meet
him, and I would employ you, an officer of rank, as my substitute; for
it would but ill comport with the honor of Scotland to let it be said
one of her gentlemen was outdone in civility by a native of any other
country on earth.""

Without assuming the supererogatory task of entering into a discussion
of the comparative merits of national courtesy, Duncan cheerfully
assented to supply the place of the veteran in the approaching
interview. A long and confidential communication now succeeded, during
which the young man received some additional insight into his duty, from
the experience and native acuteness of his commander, and then the
former took his leave.

As Duncan could only act as the representative of the commandant of the
fort, the ceremonies which should have accompanied a meeting between the
heads of the adverse forces were of course dispensed with. The truce
still existed, and with a roll and beat of the drum, and covered by a
little white flag, Duncan left the sally-port, within ten minutes after
his instructions were ended. He was received by the French officer in
advance with the usual formalities, and immediately accompanied to a
distant marquee of the renowned soldier who led the forces of France.

The general of the enemy received the youthful messenger, surrounded by
his principal officers, and by a swarthy band of the native chiefs, who
had followed him to the field, with the warriors of their several
tribes. Heyward paused short, when, in glancing his eyes rapidly over
the dark group of the latter, he beheld the malignant countenance of
Magua, regarding him with the calm but sullen attention which marked the
expression of that subtle savage. A slight exclamation of surprise even
burst from the lips of the young man; but instantly recollecting his
errand, and the presence in which he stood, he suppressed every
appearance of emotion, and turned to the hostile leader, who had already
advanced a step to receive him.

The Marquis of Montcalm was, at the period of which we write, in the
flower of his age, and, it may be added, in the zenith of his fortunes.
But, even in that enviable situation, he was affable, and distinguished
as much for his attention to the forms of courtesy, as for that
chivalrous courage which, only two short years afterwards, induced him
to throw away his life on the plains of Abraham. Duncan, in turning his
eyes from the malign expression of Magua, suffered them to rest with
pleasure on the smiling and polished features, and the noble military
air, of the French general.

""Monsieur,"" said the latter, ""j'ai beaucoup de plaisir a--bah!--ou est
cet interprete?""

""Je crois, monsieur, qu'il ne sera pas necessaire,"" Heyward modestly
replied; ""je parle un peu Francais.""

""Ah! j'en suis bien aise,"" said Montcalm, taking Duncan familiarly by
the arm, and leading him deep into the marquee, a little out of
ear-shot; ""je deteste ces fripons-la; on ne sait jamais sur quel pie on
est avec eux. Eh, bien! monsieur,"" he continued, still speaking in
French; ""though I should have been proud of receiving your commandant, I
am very happy that he has seen proper to employ an officer so
distinguished, and who, I am sure, is so amiable, as yourself.""

Duncan bowed low, pleased with the compliment, in spite of a most heroic
determination to suffer no artifice to allure him into forgetfulness of
the interest of his prince; and Montcalm, after a pause of a moment, as
if to recollect his thoughts, proceeded,--

""Your commandant is a brave man, and well qualified to repel my assault.
Mais, monsieur, is it not time to begin to take more counsel of
humanity, and less of your courage? The one as strongly characterizes
the hero as the other.""

""We consider the qualities as inseparable,"" returned Duncan, smiling;
""but while we find in the vigor of your excellency every motive to
stimulate the one, we can, as yet, see no particular call for the
exercise of the other.""

Montcalm, in his turn, slightly bowed, but it was with the air of a man
too practised to remember the language of flattery. After musing a
moment, he added,--

""It is possible my glasses have deceived me, and that your works resist
our cannon better than I had supposed. You know our force?""

""Our accounts vary,"" said Duncan, carelessly; ""the highest, however, has
not exceeded twenty thousand men.""

The Frenchman bit his lip, and fastened his eyes keenly on the other as
if to read his thoughts; then, with a readiness peculiar to himself, he
continued, as if assenting to the truth of an enumeration which quite
doubled his army,--

""It is a poor compliment to the vigilance of us soldiers, monsieur,
that, do what we will, we never can conceal our numbers. If it were to
be done at all, one would believe it might succeed in these woods.
Though you think it too soon to listen to the calls of humanity,"" he
added, smiling archly, ""I may be permitted to believe that gallantry is
not forgotten by one so young as yourself. The daughters of the
commandant, I learn, have passed into the fort since it was invested?""

""It is true, monsieur; but, so far from weakening our efforts, they set
us an example of courage in their own fortitude. Were nothing but
resolution necessary to repel so accomplished a soldier as M. de
Montcalm, I would gladly trust the defence of William Henry to the elder
of those ladies.""

""We have a wise ordinance in our Salique laws, which says, 'The crown of
France shall never degrade the lance to the distaff,'"" said Montcalm,
dryly, and with a little hauteur; but instantly adding, with his former
frank and easy air, ""as all the nobler qualities are hereditary, I can
easily credit you; though, as I said before, courage has its limits, and
humanity must not be forgotten. I trust, monsieur, you come authorized
to treat for the surrender of the place?""

""Has your excellency found our defence so feeble as to believe the
measure necessary?""

""I should be sorry to have the defence protracted in such a manner as to
irritate my red friends there,"" continued Montcalm, glancing his eyes at
the group of grave and attentive Indians, without attending to the
other's question; ""I find it difficult, even now, to limit them to the
usages of war.""

Heyward was silent; for a painful recollection of the dangers he had so
recently escaped came over his mind, and recalled the images of those
defenceless beings who had shared in all his sufferings.

""Ces messieurs-la,"" said Montcalm, following up the advantage which he
conceived he had gained, ""are most formidable when baffled: and it is
unnecessary to tell you with what difficulty they are restrained in
their anger. Eh bien, monsieur! shall we speak of the terms?""

""I fear your excellency has been deceived as to the strength of William
Henry, and the resources of its garrison!""

""I have not sat down before Quebec, but an earthen work, that is
defended by twenty-three hundred gallant men,"" was the laconic reply.

""Our mounds are earthen, certainly--nor are they seated on the rocks of
Cape Diamond; but they stand on that shore which proved so destructive
to Dieskau and his army. There is also a powerful force within a few
hours' march of us, which we account upon as part of our means.""

""Some six or eight thousand men,"" returned Montcalm, with much apparent
indifference, ""whom their leader wisely judges to be safer in their
works than in the field.""

It was now Heyward's turn to bite his lip with vexation, as the other so
coolly alluded to a force which the young man knew to be overrated. Both
mused a little while in silence, when Montcalm renewed the conversation,
in a way that showed he believed the visit of his guest was solely to
propose terms of capitulation. On the other hand, Heyward began to throw
sundry inducements in the way of the French general, to betray the
discoveries he had made through the intercepted letter. The artifice of
neither, however, succeeded; and after a protracted and fruitless
interview, Duncan took his leave, favorably impressed with an opinion of
the courtesy and talents of the enemy's captain, but as ignorant of what
he came to learn as when he arrived. Montcalm followed him as far as the
entrance of the marquee, renewing his invitations to the commandant of
the fort to give him an immediate meeting in the open ground, between
the two armies.

There they separated, and Duncan returned to the advanced post of the
French, accompanied as before; whence he instantly proceeded to the
fort, and to the quarters of his own commander.



",Chapter 15,https://web.archive.org/web/20201101053205/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/the-last-of-the-mohicans/summary-and-analysis/chapter-15,"The siege is now almost five days old, and when in the afternoon Major Heyward repairs to the ramparts of one of the water bastions, nature seems to have resumed ""her mildest and most captivating form."" Two white flags indicate that a truce has been made. The musing Heyward sees Hawkeye, bound and haggard, advancing toward the fort in the custody of a French officer. About to descend from the bastion, the major meets the two sisters, and Alice teases him for neglecting them. Cora says little and seems to be in anguish. Heyward leaves to find Munro, who is now bitter and ironical because General Webb apparently is sending no help. While on message duty, Hawkeye has been captured and graciously returned, but the letter he carried from Webb has been kept by Montcalm, who has requested a parley with Munro. Instead, Munro sends the major. Montcalm is courteous and urbane, surrounded by officers and Indians, among whom is Magua, sullen and malignant. The French general reminds Heyward of the superior French forces and suggests a surrender, indicating that the Indians are hard to restrain. Heyward fails to learn anything about the letter and leaves carrying another request that Munro arrange to talk with Montcalm.","Since this is a kind of interlude chapter, Cooper primarily develops the contrasts of the situation. Quiet nature now stands opposite to the human battles that have occurred and are still potential. Munro and Montcalm are shown with their differences of temperament as well as of nationality. In the French camp, savagery and civilization, though temporarily united, face each other as opposites. And the blonde-brunette contrast is seen in quieter circumstances than before. More than ever, Alice is the attractive flirt and Cora is the grave young woman bearing her unexplained anguish with fortitude. The usually resourceful Hawkeye, too, is in contrast with his former endurance and freedom, and his capture strongly objectifies the dire condition of the forces at Fort William Henry.",3983.0,206.0,123.0