CHAPTER XXII
More than five months had passed; months of great trouble and anxietyto many. The woods, blazing in their autumnal crimson when last we sawthem, had worn and soiled in a short fortnight the glorious vestmentsof the autumn, and cast them to the earth, and now they had put on thegreen garments of the summer, and robed themselves in the tender huesof youth.
It was under a large tree, on a high bank commanding the wholeprospect round for many and many a mile, and in the eastern part ofthe province of New York, that three redmen were seated in the earlysummer of 1758. A little distance in advance of them, and somewhatlower down the hill, was a small patch of brush, composed offantastic-looking bushes, and one small blasted tree. It formed, as itwere, a sort of screen to the Indians' resting place from all eyesbelow, and yet did not in the least impede their sight as it wanderedover the wide forest world around them. From the elevation on whichthey were placed the eye of the redman, which seems, from constantpractice, to have gained the keenness of the eagle's sight, couldplunge into every part of the woods around, where the trees were notactually contiguous. The trail, wherever it quitted the shelter of thebranches; the savanna, wherever it broke the outline of the forest;the river, where it wound along on its course to the ocean; themilitary road from the banks of the Hudson to the head of LakeHoricon; the smallest pond, the little stream, were all spread out toview as if upon a map.
Over the wide, extensive prospect the eyes of those three Indianswandered incessantly, not as if employed in searching for somedefinite object, the direction of which, if not the precise position,they knew, but rather as if they were looking for anything which mightafford them some object of pursuit or interest. They sat there nearlytwo hours in the same position, and during the whole of that time notmore than four or five words passed between them. But at length theybegan to converse, though at first in a low tone, as if the silencehad its awe, even for them. One of them pointed with his hand toward aspot to the eastward, saying: "There is something doing there."
In the direction to which he called the attention of his companionswas seen spread out in the midst of the forest and hills a small butexquisitely beautiful lake, seemingly joined on to another of muchgreater extent by a narrow channel. Of the former, the whole extentcould not be seen, for every here and there a spur of the mountainscut off the view, and broke in upon the beautiful, waving line of theshore. The latter was more distinctly visible, spread out broad andeven, with every little islet, headland, and promontory marked clearand definite against the bright, glistening surface of the waters.Near the point where the two lakes seemed to meet, the Indians coulddescry walls, and mounds of earth, and various buildings ofconsiderable size--nay, even what was probably the broad banner ofFrance, though it seemed but a mere whitish spot in the distance, wasvisible to their sight.
At the moment when the Indian spoke, coming from a distant point onthe larger lake, the extreme end of which was lost to view in a sortof blue, indistinct haze, a large boat or ship might be seen, withbroad white sails, wafted swiftly onward by a cold northeasterly wind.Some way behind it another moving object appeared, a boat likewise,but much more indistinct, and here and there, nearer inshore, two orthree black specks, probably canoes, were darting along upon the bosomof the lake like waterflies upon the surface of a still stream.
"The palefaces take the warpath against each other," said another ofthe Indians, after gazing for a moment or two.
"May they all perish!" said the third. "Why are our people so mad asto help them? Let them fight, and slay, and scalp one another, andthen the redman tomahawk the rest."
The other two uttered a bitter malediction in concert with this fiercebut not impolitic thought, and then, after one of their long pauses,the first who had spoken resumed the conversation, saying: "Yet Iwould give one of the feathers of the white bird to know what thepalefaces are doing. Their hearts are black against each other. Canyou not tell us, Apukwa? You were on the banks of the Horiconyesterday, and must have heard the news from Corlear."
"The news from Albany matters much more," answered Apukwa. "TheYengees are marching up with a cloud of fighting men, and people knownot where they will fall. Some think Oswego, some think Ticonderoga. Iam sure that it is the place of the singing waters that they goagainst."
"Will they do much in the warpath," asked the brother of the Snake,"or will the Frenchman make himself as red as he did last year at thesouth of Horicon?"
"The place of the singing waters is strong, brother," replied Apukwa,in a musing tone, "and the Frenchmen are great warriors; but theYengees are many in number, and they have called for aid from the FiveNations. I told the Huron who sold me powder, where the eagles wouldcome down, and I think he would not let the tidings slumber beneathhis tongue. The great winged canoes are coming up Corlear very quick,and I think my words must have been whispered in the French chiefs earto cause them to fly so quickly to Ticonderoga."
A faint, nearly suppressed smile came upon the lips of his twocompanions as they heard of this proceeding; but the younger of thethree inquired: "And what will Apukwa do in the battle?"
"Scalp my enemies," replied Apukwa, looking darkly round.
"Which is thine enemy?" asked the brother of the Snake.
"Both," answered the medicine man, bitterly; "and every true Honontkohshould do as I do; follow them closely, and slay every man that flies,be his nation what it may. So long as he be white it is enough for us.He is an enemy. Let us blunt our scalping knives on the skulls of thepalefaces. Then when the battle is over we can take our trophies tothe conqueror and say, 'We have been on thy side!'"
"But will he not know?" suggested the younger man. "Will he listen soeasily to the song?"
"How should he know?" asked Apukwa, coldly. "If we took him redmen'sscalps he might doubt; but all he asks is white men's scalps, and wewill take them. They are all alike, and they will have no faces underthem."
This ghastly jest was highly to the taste of the two hearers, andbending down their heads together, the three continued to converse forseveral minutes in a whisper. At length one of them said: "Could wenot take Prevost's house as we go? How many brothers did you say wouldmuster?"
"Nine," answered Apukwa, "and our three selves make twelve." Then,after pausing for a moment or two in thought, he added: "It would besweet as the strawberry, and as easy to gather; but there may bethorns near it. We may tear ourselves, my brothers."
"I fear not," answered the brother of the Snake. "So that I but set myfoot within that lodge, with my rifle in my hand and my tomahawk in mybelt, I care not what follows."
"The boy is to die," answered Apukwa. "Why seek more in his lodge atthine own risk?"
The other did not answer, but after a moment's pause he asked: "Who isit has built the lodge still farther to the morning?"
"One of the workers of iron," answered Apukwa, meaning the Dutch. "Heis a great chief, they say, and a friend of the Five Nations."
"Then no friend of ours, my brother," answered the other speaker; "forthough it be the children of the Stone who have shut the door of thelodge against us and driven us from the council fire, the Five Nationshave confirmed their saying, and made the Honontkoh a people apart.Why should we not fire that lodge, too, and then steal on to thedwelling of Prevost?"
"Thy lip is thirsty for something," said Apukwa. "Is it the maidenthou wouldst have?"
The other smiled darkly, and, after remaining silent for a shortspace, answered: "They have taken from me my captive, and my hand cannever reach the Blossom I sought to gather. The boy may die, but notby my tomahawk; and when he does die I am no better, for I lose thatwhich I sought to gain by his death. Are Apukwa's eyes misty, that hecannot see? The spirit of the Snake would have been as well satisfiedwith the blood of any other paleface, but that would not havesatisfied me."
"But making Prevost's house red will not gather for thee the Blossom,"answered Apukwa.
The third and younger of the Indians laughed, saying: "The windchanges,
Apukwa, and so does the love of our brother. The maiden inthe lodge of Prevost is more beautiful than the Blossom. We have seenher thrice since this moon grew big, and my brother calls her theFawn, because she has become the object of his chase."
"Thou knowest not my thought," said the brother of the Snake, gravely;"the maiden is fair, and she moves round her father's lodge like thesun. She shall be the light of mine, too; but the brother of the Snakeforgets not those who disappoint him; and the boy Prevost would rathersee the tomahawk falling than know that the Fawn is in my lodge."
The other two uttered that peculiar humming sound by which the Indianssometimes intimate that they are satisfied, and the conversation whichwent on between them related chiefly to the chances of making asuccessful attack upon the house of Mr. Prevost. Occasionally, indeed,they turned their eyes toward the boats upon Lake Champlain, andcommented upon the struggle that was about to be renewed betweenFrance and England. That each party had made vast preparations waswell known, and intelligence of the extent and nature of thesepreparations had spread far and wide amongst the tribes, withwonderful accuracy as to many of the details, but without any certainknowledge of where the storm was to break.
All saw, however, and comprehended, that a change had come over theBritish government; that the hesitating and doubtful policy which hadhitherto characterized their military movements in America was at anend, and that the contest was now to be waged for the gain and loss ofall the European possessions on the American continent. Already it wasknown amongst the Five Nations, although the time for the transmissionof the intelligence was incredibly small, that a large fleet andarmament had arrived at Halifax, and that several naval successes overthe French had cleared the way for some great enterprise in the north.At the same time, the neighborhood of Albany was full of the bustle ofmilitary preparation, and a large force was already collected underAbercrombie for some great attempt upon the lakes; and from the west,news had been received that a British army was marching rapidly towardthe French forts upon the Ohio and the Monongahela. The Indian nativesroused themselves at the sound of war, for though some few of themacted regularly in alliance with one or the other of the contendingEuropean powers, a greater number than is generally believed caredlittle whom they attacked, or for whom they fought, or whom they slew,and were, in reality, but as a flock of vultures, spreading theirwings at the scent of battle, and ready to take advantage of thecarnage, whatever was the result of the strife.