CHAPTER XLVII.
Very different from the array of Abercrombie's army was the march ofthe Oneidas through the deep woods on the western side of LakeHoricon. Far spread out, and separate from each other, they pursued anumber of different trails in profound silence, and in single files ofnot more than twenty or thirty each; yet, with what seemed a sort ofinstinct, each party directed its course unerringly to one particularpoint. They knew the spot they were to strike--they knew the time theywere to be there; and at that spot and at that time, each little bandappeared with its most famous warrior at its head. Thus, in thesmall savannah where the poor negress, Sister Bab, had found theadvance-guard of the whole nation, nearly six hundred warriors of thechildren of the Stone assembled on the night of Saturday.
Dressed, like themselves, with tomahawk and knife in his belt, andmoccassins upon his feet, appeared Walter Prevost, distinguished fromthe rest by his fair skin and flowing hair. The sports of the field,the wild life he had led for several years, and even the hardships hehad lately suffered, had fitted him for all the fatigues of an Indianmarch, and rendered a frame naturally strong extraordinarily robustand active. Ignorant of any danger to those he best loved, rejoicingin deliverance from captivity and the peril of death, and full ofbright hopes for the future, his heart was light and gay, andhappiness added energy to vigour. The hardy warriors with whom hemarched saw, with surprise and admiration, the son of the pale-facebear difficulties and fatigues as well as themselves, and come in atthe close of day as fresh and cheerful.
The fires were lighted, the rifles piled near to each separate band,and the food, which they brought with them, cooked after their manner,and distributed amongst them; but the meal was not over ere anothersmall band joined them, and Black Eagle himself passed round thedifferent fires till he paused by that at which Walter was seated.None of his own people had taken any notice of his approach. Once ortwice one of the warriors, indeed, looked up as he went by; but nosign of reverence or even of recognition was given, till Walter, afterthe European fashion, rose and extended his hand.
"Thou art before me, my son," said the chief; "the wings of the BlackEagle have had far to fly. I have visited thy father's lodge, and havefollowed him to the new Castle at the mid-day end of Horicon."
"My father!" exclaimed Walter, in great surprise. "Was he not at hishouse?"
"Nay, he is a war-chief with the army," returned Black Eagle.
"Then, where is Edith?" inquired the young man. "Did you leave theBlossom with her?"
"I left Otaitsa at thy father's house," answered the chief; "but thysister was not there."
"Where was she, then?" asked Walter, with some alarm.
"I know not," answered Black Eagle, and was silent.
"Perhaps he has taken her to Albany," rejoined the young man. "But yousaw my father. How did he fare?"
"Well," answered Black Eagle; "quite well; and he gives thee toOtaitsa. The Blossom is thine."
"Then Edith is safe," said Walter, in a tone of relief; "and his mindmust have been relieved about me, for he could not be well, or seemwell, if either of his children were in danger."
"The red man feels as much as the white man," observed Black Eagle;"but he leaves tears and lamentations, sighs and sad looks, to womenand children. Where is the Night Hawk? and where are the warriors whowent with him?"
"They are on before," replied the youth. "We have not seen them; buttheir fires have been lighted here."
No further questions were asked by the chief; and, walking slowlyaway, he seated himself with those who had accompanied him, to partakeof the meat they were making ready.
Few words were spoken amongst the various groups assembled there, andsome twenty minutes had elapsed when one of the young men, seated atthe fire with the Black Eagle, started up, and darted away towards thenorth like a frightened deer. No one took any notice, and several soonafter composed themselves to sleep. The others sat round their fires,with their heads bent down almost to their knees; and the murmur of afew sentences, spoken here and there, was the only sound that brokethe silence for nearly an hour.
At the end of that time, two young warriors on the north side of thesavannah started up and listened, and shortly after, several of theOneidas who rested in the neighbourhood of the same spot the nightbefore, were seen coming through the long grass, and crossing the tinybrook which meandered through the midst.
Led by the young messenger who had lately departed to seek for them,they glided up to the fire of the great chief, and seated themselvesbeside him. The conversation then grew earnest and quick; and eagergestures and flashing eyes might have been seen.
The great body of the Oneidas took not the slightest notice of whatwas occurring around the council-fire of the Black Eagle; but Walterwatched every look with an indefinable feeling of interest andcuriosity; and, after much discussion, and many a long pause between,the chief beckoned him up, and made him sit in the circle.
"Thou art young to talk with warriors," said the Black Eagle, when hewas seated. "Thy hand is strong against the panther and the deer, butit has never taken the scalp of an enemy. But the daughter of thewhite man Prevost is my daughter, and she is thy sister. Know then, myson, that she is in the power of the French. The Honontkoh, whom wehave expelled,--they are wolves,--have taken her: they have run herdown as a hungry pack runs down a fawn, and have delivered her andthemselves into the hands of the enemy. The muzzles of their rifleshave fire for our bosoms: their knives are hungry for our scalps. Benot a woman, who cannot hear with a calm eye, or limbs that are still;but sit and listen, and thus prove thyself a warrior in the fight."
He then went on to repeat all that he had just heard from the chiefwho had succoured the poor negress on the preceding night, and allthat had been done since.
"The Night Hawk was right," he said, "to send word that we woulddeliver thy sister, for she is a daughter of the Oneida. The story,also, of the Dark Cloud is true; for the children of the Stone havecaused search to be made, and they have found the horses that werelost, and the body of the man they slew. They scalped him not, it istrue; for what is the scalp of a negro worth? but the print of thetomahawk was between his eyes."
"Let me have a horse," cried Walter, "and I will bring her out fromthe midst of them."
"The swallow flies faster than the eagle," returned the chief; "butwhere is his strength? Listen, boy, to the words that come forth frommany years. Thy sister must be delivered; but our brethren, theEnglish, must know of this ambush, lest they fall into it. So, too,shall she be saved more surely. Draw thou upon paper the history ofthe thing, and send it to the great chief thy friend, the FallingCataract. I will find a messenger who knows him. Then will we break inupon this ambush at the same time with the English, and the scalps ofthe Honontkoh shall hang upon the war-post, for they are not thechildren of the Stone--they spat upon their mother. One of the horses,too, shalt thou have to save thy sister out of the fight, if a thingwith four feet can run easily in this forest."
"There is the great trail from the setting sun to the Place of theSounding Waters," said the Night Hawk. "A horse can run there as wellas a deer. It passes close by the back of the hiding-place of theFrenchman."
"Let me hear," said Walter, mastering his emotion, and striving toimitate the calm manner of the Indians, "let me hear where thishiding-place is, and what it is like. The white man, though he be butyoung, knows the ways of the white man best; and he may see lightwhere the older eyes fail."
In language obscured by figures, but otherwise clear and definiteenough, the Night Hawk described the masked redoubt of the French, andits position.
Ignorant of the ground about the fortress, Walter could form but aninsufficient judgment of the spot where it was situated; but the formand nature of the work he comprehended well enough. He mused insilence a minute or two after the chief had spoken, giving the BlackEagle good hope of his acquiring in time the Indian coolness; and thenhe said,--
"It would be better for us, while the army attacks th
e redoubt infront, to take it in reverse."
"What meanest thou, my son?" asked Black Eagle; for Walter, still busywith his own thoughts, had spoken in English.
The young man explained his meaning more clearly in the Iroquoistongue, showing that, as the enemy's position was, probably, from wantof time, only closed on three sides, it would be easy for an Indianparty, by making a circuit, to come upon the rear of the French,unless some considerable body of natives was thrown out upon theirwestern flank. The Night Hawk nodded his head slowly, with a look ofapprobation, saying,--
"The Hurons are dogs, and creep close to the heels of their master.They are all within the stones or the mounds of earth, except thosewatching by the side of Horicon. The Night Hawk has skimmed over theground towards the setting sun, and there is no print of a moccassinupon the trail."
"Thou hast the cunning of a warrior when thou art calm," said BlackEagle; "and it shall be as thou hast said. We will spring upon theback of the game. But let the Falling Cataract know quickly. Hast thouthe means? He will not understand the belt of wampum, and knows notthe tongue of the Oneida."
"I can find means," said Walter, taking from the pouch he carried apencil and an old pocket-book. "But where will thy messenger find him,my father?"
"He is not far," answered the chief. "He sailed to-day from the mid-daytowards the cold wind, with the war-party of the English. I watchedthem from the Black Mountain, and they are a mighty people. Theyfloated on Horicon like a string of swans; and their number upon theblue waters was like a flight of passage-pigeons upon the sky, whenthey travel westward. They landed where the earth becomes a lizard bythe Rattlesnake Dens. But how long they may tarry, who shall say? Sendquickly, then."
Walter had been writing on his knee while the chief spoke; and thebrief note which we have already seen delivered was speedily finished.A messenger was then chosen for his swiftness of foot, and despatchedat once to the point where the English army first landed.
When he returned, all was still amongst the Oneidas; and the warriors,with but few exceptions, were sleeping in the long grass. The news hebrought, however, soon roused the drowsiest. The English flotilla hadsailed on, he said. He had found but a solitary canoe, with a fewMohawks, who told him that the battle would be on the followingmorning. All the warriors were on their feet in a moment; their lightbaggage and arms were snatched up in haste. One party was detached tothe east, to watch the movements of the army; and before half an hourhad gone by, the dusky bands were once more moving silently throughthe dark paths of the forest, only lighted from time to time byglimpses of the moon, and directed by the well-known stars which hadso often guided their fathers through the boundless wilderness.