Part 6 (1/2)
”Where the strea sun, the thunderbolt struck
Why was it not me instead of those dearer toto Ohquamehud that the land is pleasant, and the hunter only extends his hand to find so to savor his broth and to cover his feet”
”It is a land of streams, and mountains, and forests, and the deer and the bear still are plenty When the Creator ood; and there, as in your fabled hunting-grounds, ht men be blessed but for their passions”
”The red man loves his friend, and hates his ene It comes not from the Good Spirit”
Ohquamehud rose and stood before Holden It seemed to his bold and ferocious temper, that he could not, without cowardice, hear assailed and not vindicate, a principle that had been inculcated upon him from youth, and formed a sacred portion of his creed As he stood up, the blanket fell in graceful folds from his shoulders, around his person, and he stretched out a hand to solicit attention
”Listen,” he said; ”the tongue of Ohquamehud is one: it will speak the truth Because the Great Spirit loved his children, he made them to love and to hate, and both are pleasant The south wind is shen it co to tell that winter is past and the starved Indian need no longer shi+ver over the fire; and sweet are the kisses of Wullogana to Ohquamehud, and dear are the voices of his little ones when they hs of the wind of spring, or the caresses of Wullogana, or the laughter of his children, is it to strike an enethens a red heart The ill never become a lamb, and the wolf is the totem of my clan Ohquamehud has said”
It would be i eht have been the wild incidents of his youth, or whatever his wrongs and sufferings, the ti past, and he had supposed all stornation and submission He listened at first with une went on, the words beca or were converted into other sounds, and, as in a dreahts The whole conversation, and the very language in which they spoke, contributed to produce this state of mind Lost to all around, his soul was far away He saw a cabin beside a mountain torrent, overshadowed by i the branches The door of the cabin opened, and a young and beautiful white wo a child by the hand Suddenly it was night, and the cabin on fire, and he heard the yells of savages, and saw the round the flaain was still, and darkness brooded over the spot, lighted only by a flickering brand
The bosom of Holden heaved convulsively, and his brain reeled
The Indian watched his changing countenance with an eager look as if he revelled in his agony Not a hard drawn breath, not a single expression escaped his notice He saw the eyes of the Solitary flash, then settle into a drea into a dim, unfathomable distance, then shut, as if he tried to exclude so to his feet
”Accursed Shawnees,” he cried; ”they have done this deed But for every drop of blood they shed a river shall flow Dog!” and he seized the Indian with a strength to which round, ”thou art first delivered into lared at him a moment and with a wild cry rushed into the hut
The Indian, who had iarding his athered up his disordered blanket about hileam of ferocity shot over his face as he resule word ”Onontio,” pushed from the shore
CHAPTER VI
I will pursue to death this spiteful knight: Not earth's low centre, nor sea's deepest part, Nor heaven, nor hell, can shi+eld hiht: I will o'ertake him, take him, cleave his heart
FAIRFAX' TassO
The suspicions of the Indian were confirmed beyond a doubt It was, perhaps, the voice and accent of the Solitary in his native tongue that at first attracted his attention and induced him to try the experiment which resulted as we have seen He must have had or fancied that he had a cause of deadly hatred of long standing against Holden
It is ith of time can erase the recollection of an injury from thenever to be parted with, and would feel degraded in his own estie is the central sun round which his spirit revolves; and to gratify the feeling no hardshi+ps are too severe For such a purpose he will traverse, with an unerring instinct, pathless forests for hundreds of miles, side rivers, cliround, exposed to all vicissitudes of heat and cold, supporting hihout by his vindictive passion and the glory he connects with its gratification The kindness shown by Holden to his sister and her son, and the reverence hich she regarded hiht be expected would have influenced Ohquamehud; but they had no such effect To the kindness he ascribed a sinister ratitude was misplaced It was therefore with a fiendish joy unalloyed by s, that he brooded over the means to accomplish his purpose
He dared not coentle nature too well to suppose that, under any circuh she felt no sense of obligation to Holden; and, besides, he distrusted her as one who had abandoned the faith of her fathers For, although no Christian in the proper i influences of Christianity had not been wholly throay upon Peena She had e who had been attracted by her gentle te Hence, when she cae, as not unfrequently was the case, in order to sell the berries she had gathered in the fields, or pretty baskets stained with such lively colors as the simple skill of the Indians kne to extract from roots and the bark of trees, it seldo irl would strive to inforion which, to her own hest importance
Peena would listen, and never contradict, though, it is probable, she understood but little of what to Faith's apprehension was clear
It was is
None could be in the presence of Faith without being influenced by the atoodness in which she moved And, indeed, that she herself derived pleasure froentle worth of the latter
No wonder then that Ohquamehud determined to conceal his fell purpose in his own heart When, therefore, with the quiet step peculiar to his race, he glided into her hut, just before the setting of the sun, he had chased the traces of passion from his brow, and met her with a calm and satisfied uileless than the woman would have been deceived In the present case, the preoccupation of her mind in Holden's favor made it easier
”My brother,” she said, with a pleased expression, as she caught sight of his altered appearance, ”is like the sky in summer when not a cloud is to be seen”
”The cloud has left the sky of Ohquamehud”