he shall not attain it."

Hitherto the Indians had preserved an attitude of calm,
listening to the interrogatories put to the prisoner with
that wonder and curiosity with which a savage people hear
a language different from their own; and marking the
several emotions that were elicited in the course of the
animated colloquy of the pale faces. Gradually, however,
they became impatient under its duration; and many of
them, in the excitement produced by the fierce manner of
him who was called Wacousta, fixed their dark eyes upon
the captive, while they grasped the handles of their
tomahawks, as if they would have disputed with the former
the privilege of dying his weapon first in his blood.
When they saw the warrior hold up his menacing blade to
the eye of his victim, while he passed his hand through
the redundant hair, they at once inferred the sacrifice
was about to be completed, and rushing furiously forward,
they bounded, and leaped, and yelled, and brandished
their own weapons in the most appalling manner.

Already had the unhappy officer given himself self up
for lost; fifty bright tomahawks were playing about his
head at the same instant, and death--that death which is
never without terror to the young, however brave they
may be in the hour of generous conflict--seemed to have
arrived at last. He raised his eyes to Heaven, committing
his soul to his God in the same silent prayer that he
offered up for the preservation of his friends and
comrades; and then bending them upon the earth, summoned