Part 23 (1/2)
”She lies yonder against the wall at my left, and remains unhurt, I think I will make effort to turn over, and have speech with her”
So securely had I been bound with coarse grass rope, I found it no se the position ofrock, and clearly perceiveposture ithin the darker shadow, bound as were the rest of us
”You reently, and it heartened lanced up at sound of my voice
”No blow has touchedthe stains of blood disfiguring both you and my husband Are the wounds serious ones?”
”Nay, mere scratches of the flesh, to heal in a week Why did you waste your last shot on that savage ould have struck me? It was not the will of De Noyan that it be expended thus”
”You must have formed a poor conception of me, Geoffrey Benteen,” she answered, as if hly than your own But for my solicitation you would never have been in such stress, and, whatever else may be true, Eloise de Noyan is not one accusto her friends”
”Yet there are fates possible to a woman more to be dreaded than death”
”Ay, and frontier bred, I knoell, yet none so bad as would have been the knowledge that I was guilty of ingratitude My life, my honor, are in the care of God, Geoffrey, and if I reht this day, it is thatyou from that blow Tell me, was it not a woman at whose command the combat ceased?”
”It was; a white woman at that, unless my eyes deceiveda veritable queen in the sunshi+ne”
”So I thought, a fair face enough, yet not devoid of savage cruelty
Her presence bringsme feel I may have less to fear in the future than you If a woes, she will not be altogether without heart to the supplications of a woman”
I felt less assured of this, yet it was better she be buoyed up by all possible hope, so ventured upon no answer There was that in the Queen's face as she gazed down upon us that made me doubt her womanliness; doubt if behind that countenance of wild beauty there did not lurk a soul as savage and unta her barbarous followers What but a spirit of insatiate cruelty could anie? Thinking of this,our captors quickly challenging my attention Fresh shouts and cries evidenced new arrivals These caan crawling noisily about us, chattering with our surly captors, or scowling into our faces with savage eyes boding no good It would be unjust were I to write that these felloere a brutal lot, as such words would be void of that truth I seek to convey I lived to learn thatthem had the stuff of which true es, scarcely touched by the virtues or vices of civilization, a people nursing within their , and infla about on the stiffening forms of their stricken warriors, all alike exhibited in eyes and gestures how eagerly they longed for the hour of vengeance, when iony of their victi a finalwas at hand; yet some authority, either of chief or tribal custoer,
But the wild thirst for blood wasdown into mine, and echoed in the shrill cries hich they enuity to practise upon at leisure
Even as I observed this, realizing froe of Indian nature that our ultimate fate would be infinitely worse than merciful death in battle, I could not remain blind to the wide difference between these naked warriors and those other savages ho border life had made me familiar My awakened memory dwelt upon the peculiar tribal characteristics of the Mingoes north of the Ohio, the Kaskaskias in the Illinois country, the Shawnees, the Cherokees, even the Creeks, in whose villages I had dwelt as a friend, and beside whose young men I had hunted as a brother Yet here was surely a distinct race, one less clearly marked with those features peculiarly Indian,--the cheek-bones not prohter, the heads better shapen, and the figures e had little of the guttural so universal a sound; so, although the faces peering into h to leave no doubt as to their barbarous nature, or our probable fate, yet these peculiarities, with the total absence of paint, such as disfigures and renders grotesquely hideous other Indians upon the war-path, were sufficient to staes as members of a distinct race
”Natchez?” I ventured to inquire of the burly brute who stood over ely ”_Francais, Francais_”
I shookthat these tords e, and so was obliged to be content with silently conte on the hill
Fortunately, it was not long ere doorass The old chief who had led the assault gave his order, and, in ied forth, the bonds about our lower liuards, despatched up the canyon, the entire party pro with them their wounded and dead De Noyan and I, thus released from our cramped, painful position on the rocks, were jerked rudely upon our feet, and, in obedience to threatening gestures, driven rapidly forward like dumb beasts; but Madaained consciousness, were swung aloft in hammocks of coarsely woven cloth, and thus borne upon the shoulders of four stout carriers In this e advanced northward, notfro weakened by loss of blood Yet there was no hope of escape, no evidence of uard proorous application of spear-points, so we soon learned the necessity of keeping fully abreast of our assigned position in the colureat cataract which had effectually daress up the valley, the leaders swerved toward the left, passing so closely beside the leaping, foa flood as to be enveloped in the spray as if in a cloud ofon the rocks within reach of an outstretched hand, we coully co bushes, as if we traversed a tunnel dug by the hands of eway had been constructed by artificial ht frohs overhead, I caught a glie, crooked and intricate, at ti of steps in the solid rock, wound in and out along the side of the cliff, then ran back into the very face of the precipice, for ed, fifty yards back fro the crater of a burned-out volcano, having great ragged points of rock, blackened as if incased with lava, jutting up upon every side, and for as desolate and barren a picture as ever eyes looked upon
I was co a heavy one, and I noticed De Noyan was ghastly of face, his body tre like that of a palsiedto recruit strength The Chevalier was evidently in greater distress than I, so froht to draw near, the ely, and there was such shaking of spears and fierce uproar on the part of our escort, we could do naught else than set our teeth to it, and go staggering on
The slight path, if itthe black lava cones in such labyrinthine fashi+on that no man could hope to retain ular stone, the passing feet left no trail for future guidance We travelled blindly, and reckless through suffering and exhaustion, some distance, until, perhaps a mile above the spot where we had surht, our co a great tree-trunk on one side and a huge black bowlder on the other We ca the insecure bark of a rude tree-bridge spanning the current Once safe on the other bank, our path merely a narrow shelf of stone, orreater height than in the gorge below A densecedars was partially pressed aside, partially crawled under, and fro, I i vast towering precipices of black frowning rock on every side, with no outlet apparent, save to one blessed ings
Saint Andreas an awesoreen beloith thoseout all the rest of the world, and shadowing the little valley with irandeur
I had but a moment in which to view the impressive scene Scarcely had the head of our colureeted ild shouts of triumph, immediately succeeded by shrieks of distress, while there streae proportion of omen and children The children were absolutely nude and peculiarly white of skin, while the former wore rude skirts of coarsely woven cloth fastened about the waist, their long hair inthem a wildness of aspect beyond description; yet withal they were not uncoed about us with scowling faces, and, when sternly forced back by the lowered weapons of the guard, either joined the procession, or else trooped alongside, yelling and jeering
Pressed forward, although by now so utterly spent I could barely stagger rapidly enough to escape those pitiless thrusts, I s to understand that we traversed ground which had been cultivated; that low fences, here and there encountered, divided the land into sions farmers protect their fields What their crops may have been I could not deteruished what I supposedalso a considerable ditch, certainly four feet in width, filled with clear running water, which seeetation ainst the farther rock wall
The view directly in advance was at first obscured by the leaping figures of the exultant savages leading the hooping with excite their war-clubs These at length fell back along either side, our guards hurrying us across the ditch, spanned by the great trunk of a tree, and thus on into the village