Part 10 (1/2)

ADELA. Pray, sir, may I ask how came you to fancy that disguise?

PENDRAGON. Oh, it's not my fancy, 'pon honour, though I am one of the fancy; a mere _russe de guerre_. We on the other side of the water, have a kind of floating idea that you North Americans are half savages, and we must fight you after your own fas.h.i.+on.

ADELA. And have you discovered that any difference exists in the last affair in which you have been engaged?

PENDRAGON. Why, 'pon my soul, ma'am, this Yankee kind of warfare is inexpressibly inelegant, without flattery--no order--no military arrangement--no _deploying_ in solid columns--but a kind of helter-skelter warfare, like a reel or a country-dance at a village inn, while the house is on fire.

ADELA. Indeed?

PENDRAGON. All true, I a.s.sure you. Why, do you know, ma'am, that one of your common soldiers was amusing himself with shooting at me for several minutes, although he saw from my air, and my dodging, that I was a man of fas.h.i.+on? Monstrous a.s.surance! wasn't it?

ADELA. Why ay, it was rather impertinent for a common soldier to attempt to bring down a man of fas.h.i.+on.

LAROLE. Oui--it is dam impertinent, mai par example, de littel bullet of von common soldat, he sometime kill von great general.

PENDRAGON. Pray, ma'am, will you permit me to ask, when you arrived from England, and what family has the honour to boast of so beautiful a representative?

ADELA. Sir, I am not of England, I stand on my native soil.

PENDRAGON. Oh.

ADELA. And much as I esteem English women for their many amiable qualities, I hope that worth and virtue are not wholly centered in that country.

PENDRAGON. Why, 'pon my soul, ma'am, though it is not fas.h.i.+onable this year to be prejudiced, yet were I to admit that I saw any beauty or elegance in America, my Bond-Street friends would cut me--split me!

ADELA. I cannot admire their candour. Merit is the exclusive property of no country, and to form a just estimate of our own advantages, we should be ever prepared to admit the advantages possessed by others.

_Enter a SOLDIER._

SOLDIER. We have surprised and made captive the celebrated Indian chief, who fought so desperately against us.

GENERAL. Bring him before us. [_Exit SOLDIER._] He has long been the terror of the neighbourhood, and the crafty foe of our country.

_Enter SOLDIERS with the INDIAN CHIEF._

INDIAN. Who among you is the chief of these pale-faced enemies of our race?

GENERAL. I am he.

INDIAN. 'Tis well, sir; behold in me your captive, who has fallen into your power after a resistance becoming a warrior. I am ready to meet that death which I know awaits me.

GENERAL. Chief, your fears are groundless; we intend you no harm, but by our example, teach you the blessings of valour and mercy united.

INDIAN. Wherefore show me mercy? I ask it not of you.--Think you that I cannot bear the flames? that a warrior shrinks from the uplifted tomahawk? Try me--try how a great soul can smile on death. Or do you hope that I will meanly beg a life, which fate and evil fortune has thrown into your hands?

GENERAL. We ask no concessions of you, warrior; we wish to see you sensible of the delusions into which foreign nations have plunged you.

We wish to see you our friend.

INDIAN. Your friend? Call back the times which we pa.s.sed in liberty and happiness, when in the tranquil enjoyment of unrestrained freedom we roved through our forests, and only knew the bears as our enemy; call back our council fires, our fathers and pious priests; call back our brothers, wives and children, which cruel white men have destroyed.--Your friend? You came with the silver smile of peace, and we received you into our cabins; we hunted for you, toiled for you; our wives and daughters cherished and protected you; but when your numbers increased, you rose like wolves upon us, fired our dwellings, drove off our cattle, sent us in tribes to the wilderness, to seek for shelter; and now you ask me, while naked and a prisoner, to be your friend!