The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 eBook
James Fenimore Cooper
Nothing could surpass the reverence and affection
with which this unexpected visit from one who belongs
rather to another world than to this, was received
by his people. After a suitable and decent pause,
the principal chiefs arose, and, approaching the patriarch,
they placed his hands reverently on their heads, seeming
to entreat a blessing. The younger men were content
with touching his robe, or even drawing nigh his person,
in order to breathe in the atmosphere of one so aged,
so just, and so valiant. None but the most distinguished
among the youthful warriors even presumed so far as
to perform the latter ceremony, the great mass of
the multitude deeming it a sufficient happiness to
look upon a form so deeply venerated, and so well
beloved. When these acts of affection and respect
were performed, the chiefs drew back again to their
several places, and silence reigned in the whole encampment.
After a short delay, a few of the young men, to whom
instructions had been whispered by one of the aged
attendants of Tamenund, arose, left the crowd, and
entered the lodge which has already been noted as the
object of so much attention throughout that morning.
In a few minutes they reappeared, escorting the individuals
who had caused all these solemn preparations toward
the seat of judgment. The crowd opened in a lane;
and when the party had re-entered, it closed in again,
forming a large and dense belt of human bodies, arranged
in an open circle.
CHAPTER 29
“The assembly
seated, rising o’er the rest,
Achilles thus the king
of men addressed.”
—Pope’s
Illiad
Cora stood foremost among the prisoners, entwining
her arms in those of Alice, in the tenderness of sisterly
love. Notwithstanding the fearful and menacing
array of savages on every side of her, no apprehension
on her own account could prevent the nobler-minded
maiden from keeping her eyes fastened on the pale
and anxious features of the trembling Alice.
Close at their side stood Heyward, with an interest
in both, that, at such a moment of intense uncertainty,
scarcely knew a preponderance in favor of her whom
he most loved. Hawkeye had placed himself a little
in the rear, with a deference to the superior rank
of his companions, that no similarity in the state
of their present fortunes could induce him to forget.
Uncas was not there.
When perfect silence was again restored, and after
the usual long, impressive pause, one of the two aged
chiefs who sat at the side of the patriarch arose,
and demanded aloud, in very intelligible English:
