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01 - The Last Of The Mohicans - James Cooper · Adventure Books Collection

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Chapter one, quote mine ear is open, and my heart prepared. The
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worst is worldly lost. Thou canst unfold say is my kingdom lost? Unquote
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Shakespeare. It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America that
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the toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered before the adverse host
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could meet. A wide and apparently and impervious boundary of forests severed the possessions
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of the hostile provinces of France and England. The hearty colonist and the trained
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European who fought at his side frequently expended months in struggling against the rapids of
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the streams, or in effecting the rugged passes of the mountains, in quest
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of an opportunity to exhibit their courage in a more martial conflict. But emulating
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thenations and self denial of the practiced native warriors, they learned to overcome every
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difficulty, and it would seem that in time there was no recess of the
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woods so dark, nor any secret place so lovely that it might claim exemption
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from the inroads of those who had pledged their blood to satiate their vengeance or
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uphold the cold and selfish policy of the distant monarchs of Europe. Perhaps no
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district throughout the wide extent of the intermediate frontiers can furnish a livelier picture of
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the cruelty and fierceness of the savage warfare of those periods. Then the country
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which lies between the headwaters of the Hudson and the adjacent lakes. The facilities
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which nature had there offered to the march of the combatants were too obvious to
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be neglected. The lengthened sheet of the Champlain stretched from the frontiers of Canada
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within the borders of the neighbouring province of New York, forming a natural passage
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across half the distance that the French were compelled to master in order to strike
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their enemies. Near its southern termination, it received the contributions of another lake,
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whose waters were so limpid as to be exclusively selected by the Jesuit missionaries
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to perform the typical purification of baptism, and to obtain for it the title
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of Lake du Saint Sacrament. The less zealous English thought they conferred a sufficient
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honour on its unsullied fountains when they bestowed the name of their reigning prince the
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second of the House of Hanover. The two united to rob the untutored possessors
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of its wooded scenery of their native right to perpetuate its original appellation of Horican
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footnote. As each nation of the Indians had its language or its dialect,
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they usually gave different names to the same places, though nearly all of their
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appellations were descriptive of the object. Thus, a literal translation of the name
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of this beautiful sheet of water used by the tribe that dwelt on its banks
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would be the tail of the lake. Lake George, as it is vulgarly
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and now indeed legally called, forms a sort of tail to Lake Champlain when
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viewed on the map, hence the name and a footnote. Winding its way
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among countless islands and embedded in mountains, the Holy Lake extended a dozen leagues
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still further to the south, with the high Plain that there interposed itself to
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the further passage of water commenced a portage of as many miles, which conducted
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the adventure to the banks of the Hudson, at a point where the usual
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obstructions of the rapids or riffs as they were termed in the language of the
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country. The river became navigable to the tide. While in the pursuit of
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their daring plans of annoyance, the restless enterprise of the French even attempted the
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distant and difficult gorges of the Allegheny. It may easily be imagined that their
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proverbial acuteness would not overlook the natural advantages of the district we have just described.
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It became emphatically the bloody arena in which most of the battles for the
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mastery of the colonies were contested. Forts were erected at the different points that
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commanded the facilities of the route, and were taken and retaken, raised and
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rebuilt as victory alighted on the hostile batters. While the husbandmen shrank back from
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the dangerous passes within the safer boundaries of the more ancient settlements. Armies larger
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than those that had it often deposed of the scepters of the mother countries were
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seen to bury themselves in these forests. Whence they rarely returned, but in
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skeleton bands that were haggard with care or dejected by defeat. Though the arts
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of peace were unknown to this fatal region, its forest were alive with men,
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Its shades and glens rang with the sounds of martial music, and the
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echoes of its mountains threw back the laugh or repeated the wanton cry of many
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a gallant and reckless youth, as he hurried by them in the noontide of
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his spirits to slumber in a long night of forgetfulness. It was in this
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scene of strife and bloodshed that the incidents we shall attempt to relate occurred during
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the third year of the war which England and France last waged for the possession
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of a country that neither was destined to retain. The imbecility of her military
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life leads abroad, and the fatal one of energy in her councils at home,
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had lowered the character of Great Britain from the proud elevation on which it
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had been placed by the talents and enterprise of her former warriors and statesmen.
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No longer dreaded by her enemies, her servants were fast losing the confidence of
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self respect in this mortifying abasement. The colonists, the innocent of her imbecility
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and too humble to be the agents of her blunders, were but the natural
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participators. They had recently seen a chosen army from that country, which,
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reverencing as a mother, they had blindly believed invincible, an army led by
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a chief who had been selected from a crowd of trained warriors for his rare
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military endowments, disgracefully routed by a handful of French and Indians, and only
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saved from annihilation by the coolness and spirit of a Virginia boy whose ripe or
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fame has since diffused itself with the steady influence of moral truth to the uttermost
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confines of Christendom. Footnote Washington, who, after uselessly admonishing the European general
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of the danger into which he was heedlessly running, saved the remnants of the
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British army on this occasion by his decision and courage. The reputation earned by
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Washington in this battle was the principal cause of his being selected to command the
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American armies at a later day. It is a circumstance worthy of observation that,
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while all America rang with his well merited reputation, his name does not
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occur in any European account of the battle. At least the author is searched
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for it without success. In this manner does the mother country absorb even the
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fame under that system of rule and footnote. A wide frontier had been laid
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naked by this unexpected disaster, and more substantial evils were preceded by a thousand
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fanciful and imaginary dangers. The alarmed colonists believed that the yells of the savages
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mingled with every fitful gust of wind that issued from the interminable forest of the
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west, the terrific character of their merciless enemies increased immeasurably. The natural horrors
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of warfare numberless. Recent massacres were still vivid in their recollections. Nor was
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there any ear in the provinces so deaf as not to have drunk in with
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avidity the narrative of some fearful tale of midnight murder, in which the natives
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of the forest were the principal and barbarous actors. As the credulous and excited
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traveler related the hazardous chances of the wilderness, the blood of the timid curdled
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with terror, and mothers cast anxious glances even at those children which slumbered within
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the security of the largest towns. In short, the magnifying influence of fear
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began to set it not the calculations of reason, and to render those who
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should have remembered their manhood the slaves of the basest passions. Even the most
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confident and stoutest hearts began to think the issue of the contest was becoming doubtful,
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and that abject class was hourly increasing in numbers, who thought they foresaw
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all the possessions of the English crown in America subdued by their Christian foes,
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or laid waste by the inroads of their relentless allies. When therefore, intelligence
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was received at the fort which covered the southern termination of the portage between the
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Hudson and the Lakes, that Montcalm had been seen moving up the Champlain with
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an army numerous as the leaves on the trees. Its truth was admitted with
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more of the craven reluctance of fear than with the stern joy that a warrior
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should feel in finding an enemy within reach of his blow. The news had
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been brought toward the decline of a day in midsummer by an Indian runner,
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who also bore an urgent request from Monroe, the commander of a work on
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the shore of the Holy Lake, for a speedy and powerful reinforcement. It
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has already been mentioned that the distance between these two posts was less than five
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leagues. The rude path which originally formed their line of communication, had been
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widened for the passage of wagons, so that the distance which had been t
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traveled by the Son of the Forest in two hours, might easily be effected
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by a detachment of troops with their necessary baggage between the rising and setting of
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a summer sun. The loyal servants of the British Crown had given to one
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of these forest fastnesses the name of William Henry, and to the other that
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of Fort Edward, calling each after a favorite prince of the reigning family.
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The veteran scotchman just named held the first with a regiment of regulars and a
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few provincials, a force really by far too small to make head against the
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formidable power that Montcalm was leading to the foot of his earthen mounds. At
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the latter, however, lay General Webb, who commanded the armies of the
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King in the northern provinces, with a body of more than five thousand men.
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By uniting the several detachments of his command, this officer might have arrayed
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nearly double that number of combatants against the enterprising Frenchmen, who had ventured so
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far from his reinforcements, with an army but little superior in number. But
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under the influence of their degraded fortunes, both officers and men appeared better disposed
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to weight the approach of their formidable antagonists within their works than to resist the
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progress of their march by emulating the successful example of the French at Fort Ducaine
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and striking a blow on their advance. After the first surprise of the intelligence
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had a little abated, a rumour was spread through the entrenched camp, which
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stretched along the margin of the Hudson, forming a chain of outworks to the
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body of the fort itself, that a chosen detachment of fifteen hundred men was
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to depart with the dawn for William Henry, the post at the northern extremity
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of the portage. That which at first was only a rus humour soon became
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certainty as orders passed from the quarters of the commander in chief to the several
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corps he had selected for his service. To prepare for their speedy departure all
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doubts, as the intention of Webb now vanished, and an hour or two
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of hurried footsteps and anxious faces succeeded. The novice in the military art flew
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from point to point, retarding his own preparations by the excess of his violent
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and somewhat distempered zeal, while the more practiced veteran made his arrangements with the
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deliberation that scorned every appearance of haste, though his sober lineaments and anxious eye
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sufficiently betrayed that he had no very strong professional relish for the yet untried and
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dreaded warfare of the wilderness. At length, the sun set in a flood
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of glory behind the distant western hills, and as darkness drew its veil around
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the secluded spot, the sounds of preparation diminished. The last light finally disappeared
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from the log cabin of some officer. The trees cast their deeper shadows over
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the mounds and the rippling stream, and a silence soon pervaded the camp,
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as deep as that which rained in the vast forest by which it was environed.
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According to the orders of the preceding night. The heavy sleep of the
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army was broken by the rolling of the warning drums, whose rattling echoes were
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heard issuing on the damp morning air out of every vista of the woods,
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just as day began to draw the shaggy outlines of some tall pines of the
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vicinity on the opening brightness of a soft and cloudless eastern sky. In an
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instant, the whole camp was in motion, the meanest soldier rising from his
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lair to witness the departure of his comrades and to share the excitement and incidents
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of the hour. The simple array of the chosen band was soon completed.
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While the regular and trained hirelings of the king marched with haughtiness to the right
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of the line, the less pretending colonists took their humbler position on its left,
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with the docility that long practice had rendered easy. The scouts departed.
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Strong guards preceded and followed the lumbering vehicles that bore the baggage, and before
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the great light of morning was mellowed by the rays of the sun, the
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main body of the combatants wheeled into column and left the encampment with a show
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of high military bearing that served to drown the slumbering apprehensions of many of Novice,
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who was now about to make his first essay in arms, while in
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view of their admiring comrades the same proud front, an ordered array was observed
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until the notes of their fifes growing fainter in distance, the forest at length
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appeared to swallow up the living mass which had slowly entered its bosom. The
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deepest sounds of the retiring and invisible column had ceased to be borne in the
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breeze of the listeners, and the latest straggler had already disappeared in pursuit.
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But there still remained the signs of another departure before a log cabin of unusual
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size and accommodations, in front of which those sentinels placed their rounds who were
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known to guard the person of the English General. At this spot were gathered
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some half dozen horses, comparisoned in a manner which showed that two at least
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were destined to bear the persons of females of a rank that was not usual
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to meet so far in the wilds of the country. A third were trapping
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in arms of an officer of the staff, while the rest from the plainness
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of the housing and the traveling males with which they were encumbered were evidently fitted
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for the reception of his many menials, who were seemingly already waiting the pleasure
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of those they served. At a respectful distance from this unusual show were gathered
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diverse groups of curious idlers, some admiring the blood and bone of the high
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metaled military charger, and others gazing at the preparations with a dull wonder of
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vulgar curiosity. There was one man, however, who, by his countenance
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and actions, formed a marked exception to those who composed the latter class of
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spectators, Being neither idle nor seemingly very ignorant, The person of this individual
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was to the last degree ungainly, without being in any particular manner deformed.
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He had all the bones and joints of other men, without any of their
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proportions erect. His stature s are passed that of his fellows. Though seated,
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he appeared reduced within the ordinary limits of the race. The same contrarity
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of his members seemed to exist throughout the whole man. His head was large,
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his shoulders narrow, his arms long and dangling, While his hands were
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small, if not delicate, his legs and thighs were thin, nearly to
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emaciation, but of extraordinary length, and his knees would have been considered tremendous
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had they not been outdone by the broader foundation on which this false superstructure of
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blended human orders was so profanely reared. The ill assorted and injudicious attire of
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the individual only served to render his awkwardness more conspicuous. A sky blue coat
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with short and broad skirts and a low cape exposed a long, thin neck
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and longer in thinner legs to the worst anima versions of the evil disposed.
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His nether garment was a yellow nankeen, closely fitted to the shape, and
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tied at his bunches of knees by large knots of white ribbon, A good
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deal sullied by use clouded cotton stockings and shoes on one of the latter of
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which was a plaited spur, completed the costume of the lower extremity of this
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figure, no curve or angle of which was concealed, but on the other
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hand, studiously exhibited through the vanity or simplicity of its owner. From Beneath
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the flap of an enormous pocket of a soiled vest of embossed silk, heavily
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ornamented with tarnished silver lace, projected an instrument which, from being seen in
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such martial company, might have been easily mistaken for some mischievous and unknown implement
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of war. Small as it was, this uncommon engine had excited the curiosity
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of most of the Europeans in the camp, though several of the provincials were
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seen to handle it not only without fear, but with the utmost familiarity.
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A large civil cocked hat, like those worn by clergymen within the last thirty
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years, surmounted the whole, furnishing dignity to a good natured and somewhat vacant
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countenance that apparently needed such artificial aid to support the gravity of some high and
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extraordinary trust. While the common herd stood aloof in deference to the quarters of
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Webb, the figure we described stalked into the center of the domestics, freely
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expressing his censures and commendations on the merits of the horses, as by chance
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they displeased or satisfied his judgment. This beast, I rather conclude friend,
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is not of home, raising, buts from foreign lands, or perhaps from
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the little island itself over the blue water, he said, in a voice
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as remarkable for the softness and sweetness of its tones as was his person,
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for its rare proportions. I may speak of these things and be no braggart,
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For I have been down at both havens, that which is situate at
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the mouth of Thames, and is named after the capital of Old England,
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and that which is called Haven with the addition of the word new, and
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have seen the scowls and bricotines collecting their droves like the gathering to the ark
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being outward bound to the island of Jamaica for the purpose of barter and traffic
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in four footed animals. But never before have I beheld a beast which verified
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the true scripture. War horse like this, he pathe in the valley and
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rejoiceth in his strength. He goeth on to meet the armed men. He
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saith among the trumpets, ha ha, and he smelleth the battle afar off,
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the thunder of the captains and the shouting. It would seem that the
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stock of the horse of Israel had to descended to our time, would it
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not friend. Receiving no reply to this extraordinary appeal, which, in truth,
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as it was delivered with the vigor of full and sonorous tones, merited
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some sort of notice. He who had thus sung forth the language of the
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Holy Book, turned to the silent figure to whom he had unwittingly addressed himself,
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and found a new and more powerful subject of admiration in the object that
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encountered his gaze. His eyes fell on the still upright and rigid form of
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the Indian runner who had borne to the camp the unwelcome tidings of the preceding
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evening, Although in a state of perfect repose and apparently disregarding with characteristic stoicism
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the excitement and bustle around him, there was a sullen fierceness mingled with the
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quiet of the savage, that was likely to arrest the attention of much more
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experienced eyes than those which now scanned him in unconcealed amazement. The native Borboa
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the tomahawk and knife of his tribe, And yet his appearance was not altogether
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that of a warrior. On the contrary, there was an air of neglect
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about this person, like that which might have proceeded from great and recent exertion,
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which he had not yet found leisure to repair. The colors of the
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war pain had blended in dark confusion about his fierce countenance, and rendered his
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swarthy lineaments still more savage and repulsive than if Art had attempted an effect which
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had been thus produced by chance. His eye alone, which glistened like a
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fiery starmid lowering clouds, was to be seen in its state of native wildness.
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For a single instant, his searching and yet wary glance met the wondering
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look of the other, and then changing its direction, partly in cunning and
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partly in disdain, it remained fixed, as if penetrating the distant air.
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It is impossible to say what unlooked for remark this short and silent communication between
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two such singular men might have elicited from the white Man, had not his
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active curiosity been again drawn to other objects. A general movement among the domestics,
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and a low sound of gentle voices announced the approach of those whose presence
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alone was wanted to enable the cavalcade to move. The simple admirer of the
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war horse instantly fell back to a low, gaunt, switch tailed mare,
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which was unconsciously gleaning the faded herbage of the camp nigh by, where,
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leaning with one elbow on the blanket that concealed an apology for a saddle,
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he became a spectator of the departure. While a foal was quietly making its
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morning repast. On the opposite side of the same animal, a young man
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in the dress of an officer conducted to their steeds. Two females, who,
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as it was apparent by their dresses, were prepared to encounter the fatigues
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of a journey in the woods. One and she was the more juvenile in
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her appearance, though both were young, permitted glimpses of her dazzling complexion,
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fair golden hair, and bright blue eyes to be caught as she artlessly suffered
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the morning air to blow aside the green veil which descended low from her beaver.
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The flush, which still lingered above the pines of the western sky,
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was not more bright nor delicate than the bloom of her cheek, nor was
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the opening day more cheering than the animated smile which she bestowed on the youth
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as he assisted her into the saddle. The other, who appeared to share
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equally in the attention of the young officer, concealed her charms from the gaze
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of the soldiery with a care that seemed better fitted to the experience of four
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or five additional years. It could be seen, however, that her person,
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though molded with the same exquisite proportions, of which none of the graces
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were lost by the traveling dress she wore, was rather fuller and more mature
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than that of her companion. No sooner were these females seated than their attendants
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sprang lightly into the saddle of the war horse. When the whole three bowed
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to Webb, who in courtesy, awaited their parting on the threshold of his
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cabin, and turning their horses heads, they proceeded at a slow amble,
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followed by their train, toward the northern entrance of the encampment. As they
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traversed that short distance, not a voice was heard among them, but a
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slight exclamation proceeded from the younger of the females as the Indian runner glided by
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her unexpectedly and led the way along the military road in her front. Though
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this sudden and startling movement of the Indian produced no sound from the other in
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the surprise, Her veil also was allowed to open its folds and betrayed an
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indescribable look of pity, admiration, and horror as her dark eye followed the
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easy motions of the savage. The tresses of this lady were shining and black,
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like the plumage of a raven. Her complexion was not brown, but
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it rather appeared charged with the color of the rich blood that seemed ready to
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burst its bounds. And yet there was neither coarseness nor one of shadowing,
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in a countenance that was exquisitely regular and dignified and surpassingly beautiful. She smiled,
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as if in pity at her own momentary forgetfulness, discovering by the act
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a row of teeth that would have shamed the purest ivory. When replacing the
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veil, she bowed her face and rode in silence, like one whose thoughts
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were abstracted from the scene around her. End of chapter one,