“Ay, go,” cried Duncan, placing Alice
in the arms of an Indian girl; “go, Magua, go.
These Delawares have their laws, which forbid them
to detain you; but I—I have no such obligation.
Go, malignant monster—why do you delay?”
It would be difficult to describe the expression with
which Magua listened to this threat to follow.
There was at first a fierce and manifest display of
joy, and then it was instantly subdued in a look of
cunning coldness.
“The words are open,” he was content with
answering, “‘The Open Hand’ can
come.”
“Hold,” cried Hawkeye, seizing Duncan
by the arm, and detaining him by violence; “you
know not the craft of the imp. He would lead you
to an ambushment, and your death—”
“Huron,” interrupted Uncas, who submissive
to the stern customs of his people, had been an attentive
and grave listener to all that passed; “Huron,
the justice of the Delawares comes from the Manitou.
Look at the sun. He is now in the upper branches
of the hemlock. Your path is short and open.
When he is seen above the trees, there will be men
on your trail.”
“I hear a crow!” exclaimed Magua, with
a taunting laugh. “Go!” he added,
shaking his hand at the crowd, which had slowly opened
to admit his passage. “Where are the petticoats
of the Delawares! Let them send their arrows
and their guns to the Wyandots; they shall have venison
to eat, and corn to hoe. Dogs, rabbits, thieves—I
spit on you!”
His parting gibes were listened to in a dead, boding
silence, and, with these biting words in his mouth,
the triumphant Magua passed unmolested into the forest,
followed by his passive captive, and protected by the
inviolable laws of Indian hospitality.
“Flue.—Kill the poys
and the luggage! ’Tis expressly against
the law of arms; ’tis as arrant a piece of knavery,
mark you now, as can be offered in the ’orld.”
—King Henry V.
So long as their enemy and his victim continued in
sight, the multitude remained motionless as beings
charmed to the place by some power that was friendly
to the Huron; but, the instant he disappeared, it became
tossed and agitated by fierce and powerful passion.
Uncas maintained his elevated stand, keeping his eyes
on the form of Cora, until the colors of her dress
were blended with the foliage of the forest; when he
descended, and, moving silently through the throng,
he disappeared in that lodge from which he had so
recently issued. A few of the graver and more
attentive warriors, who caught the gleams of anger
that shot from the eyes of the young chief in passing,
followed him to the place he had selected for his
meditations. After which, Tamenund and Alice were
removed, and the women and children were ordered to
disperse. During the momentous hour that succeeded,
the encampment resembled a hive of troubled bees,
who only awaited the appearance and example of their
leader to take some distant and momentous flight.
