“Sassacus,” said the Knight, “this is no longer any place for thee.  The white men are at this moment seeking me, and will soon be also on thy track, and show no mercy.  The voices of thy tribe are shouting thy name through the forest, and calling thee home.  Here and now we part.”

“Sassacus is troubled,” replied the Sagamore, “about his little sister.  How shall he answer his mother, when she asks after Neebin?”

“Neebin is in no danger,” said the Knight; “and though she were, thy remaining could do no good.  But I will stay, and if artifice can avail—­for force we have none—­Neebin shall be restored to her mother.”

“My brother speaks well,” said the Sagamore, having thus secured another guardian for the sister whom he tenderly loved.  “He shall stay, but Sassacus will return to the river of the Pequots, and will speak a loud word in the ears of his tribe, and they shall fill their quivers with arrows, and sharpen their tomahawks, and many will come back with him to ask for Neebin.  Sassacus will go alone, and will leave Towanquattick.”

“Leave not the Paniese behind,” said the Knight.  “That were only to expose him to unnecessary danger.”

But the chief was not be diverted from his purpose.  To every objection he replied:  “A great chief takes not back the word he has spoken.  Were he to do so, what would become of the respect of his people?”

Yet, notwithstanding the peremptory tone wherewith he had announced his determination, very soft was the voice, and gentle the manner of the Sagamore, as he addressed his follower: 

“Towanquattick,” he said, “is my friend, and will watch over the little Pequot bird that has strayed into the trap of Owanux.”

“Towanquattick will watch,” was the answer.

“Stay to teach the little bird to fly away, or until I return with my warriors.  Sassacus goes now like a brook just starting from the ground; but he will come back like a mighty river when angry ’Hpoon pours its swollen waters into the salt lake.  Sassacus hath said.”

The words were pronounced with a dignity and gravity that impressed those who heard them, and seemed to communicate some of the daring of the speaker; but the wiser Knight saw the rashness of their import, and determined to convince the Sagamore of the impolicy of the course proposed.  Taking him for that purpose on one side, that the chief might speak uninfluenced by the presence of his follower, he represented to him the superior strength of the English, and the impossibility of prevailing in any contest until a complete union was established among the tribes.

“Behold!” he said:  “these strangers are as one man, and across the salt lake come in ships from time to time fresh forces.  They are clad in armor thy arrows’ cannot pierce, and wield the thunder and the lightning.  What have the Pequots to oppose, but naked bodies and uncertain arrows?”

“Owanux are few, and the Indians many,” replied the Sagamore.  “Sassacus will bury the tomahawk with the Narraghansetts, and exchange wampompeag with the Taranteens, and they unite against the strangers.  The eyes of Sassacus are opened.  There can be no peace with Owanux.”