“Nor widows’ tears, nor tender orphans’ cries
Can stop th’ invader’s force;
Nor swelling1 seas, nor threatening skies,
Prevent the pirate’s course:
Their lives to selfish ends decreed
Through blood and rapine they proceed;
No anxious thoughts of ill repute,
Suspend the impetuous and unjust pursuit;
But power and wealth obtain’d, guilty and great,
Their fellow creatures’ fears they raise, or urge their hate.”
Congreve, “Pindaric Ode,” ii.
By this time Deerslayer had been twenty minutes in the canoe, and he began to grow a little impatient for some signs of relief from his friends. The position of the boat still prevented his seeing in any direction, unless it were up or down the lake, and, though he knew that his line of sight must pass within a hundred yards of the castle, it, in fact, passed that distance to the westward3 of the buildings. The profound stillness troubled him also, for he knew not whether to ascribe it to the increasing space between him and the Indians, or to some new artifice4. At length, wearied with fruitless watchfulness5, the young man turned himself on his back, closed his eyes, and awaited the result in determined6 acquiescence7. If the savages8 could so completely control their thirst for revenge, he was resolved to be as calm as themselves, and to trust his fate to the interposition of the currents and air.
Some additional ten minutes may have passed in this quiescent11 manner, on both sides, when Deerslayer thought he heard a slight noise, like a low rubbing against the bottom of his canoe. He opened his eyes of course, in expectation of seeing the face or arm of an Indian rising from the water, and found that a canopy12 of leaves was impending13 directly over his head. Starting to his feet, the first object that met his eye was Rivenoak, who had so far aided the slow progress of the boat, as to draw it on the point, the grating on the strand14 being the sound that had first given our hero the alarm. The change in the drift of the canoe had been altogether owing to the baffling nature of the light currents of the air, aided by some eddies15 in the water.
“Come,” said the Huron with a quiet gesture of authority, to order his prisoner to land, “my young friend has sailed about till he is tired; he will forget how to run again, unless he uses his legs.”
“You’ve the best of it, Huron,” returned Deerslayer, stepping steadily16 from the canoe, and passively following his leader to the open area of the point; “Providence has helped you in an onexpected manner. I’m your prisoner ag’in, and I hope you’ll allow that I’m as good at breaking gaol18, as I am at keeping furloughs.”
“My young friend is a Moose!” exclaimed the Huron. “His legs are very long; they have given my young men trouble. But he is not a fish; he cannot find his way in the lake. We did not shoot him; fish are taken in nets, and not killed by bullets. When he turns Moose again he will be treated like a Moose.”
“Ay, have your talk, Rivenoak; make the most of your advantage. ’Tis your right, I suppose, and I know it is your gift. On that p’int there’ll be no words atween us, for all men must and ought to follow their gifts. Howsever, when your women begin to ta’nt and abuse me, as I suppose will soon happen, let ’em remember that if a pale-face struggles for life so long as it’s lawful19 and manful, he knows how to loosen his hold on it, decently, when he feels that the time has come. I’m your captyve; work your will on me.”
“My brother has had a long run on the hills, and a pleasant sail on the water,” returned Rivenoak more mildly, smiling, at the same time, in a way that his listener knew denoted pacific intentions. “He has seen the woods; he has seen the water. Which does he like best? Perhaps he has seen enough to change his mind, and make him hear reason.”
“Speak out, Huron. Something is in your thoughts, and the sooner it is said, the sooner you’ll get my answer.”
“That is straight! There is no turning in the talk of my pale-face friend, though he is a fox in running. I will speak to him; his ears are now open wider than before, and his eyes are not shut. The Sumach is poorer than ever. Once she had a brother and a husband. She had children, too. The time came and the husband started for the Happy Hunting Grounds, without saying farewell; he left her alone with his children. This he could not help, or he would not have done it; le Loup Cervier was a good husband. It was pleasant to see the venison, and wild ducks, and geese, and bear’s meat, that hung in his lodge21 in winter. It is now gone; it will not keep in warm weather. Who shall bring it back again? Some thought the brother would not forget his sister, and that, next winter, he would see that the lodge should not be empty. We thought this; but the Panther yelled, and followed the husband on the path of death. They are now trying which shall first reach the Happy Hunting Grounds. Some think the Lynx can run fastest, and some think the Panther can jump the farthest. The Sumach thinks both will travel so fast and so far that neither will ever come back. Who shall feed her and her young? The man who told her husband and her brother to quit her lodge, that there might be room for him to come into it. He is a great hunter, and we know that the woman will never want.”
“Ay, Huron this is soon settled, accordin’ to your notions, but it goes sorely ag’in the grain of a white man’s feelin’s. I’ve heard of men’s saving their lives this-a-way, and I’ve know’d them that would prefar death to such a sort of captivity22. For my part, I do not seek my end, nor do I seek matrimony.”
“The pale-face will think of this, while my people get ready for the council. He will be told what will happen. Let him remember how hard it is to lose a husband and a brother. Go; when we want him, the name of Deerslayer will be called.”
This conversation had been held with no one near but the speakers. Of all the band that had so lately thronged23 the place, Rivenoak alone was visible. The rest seemed to have totally abandoned the spot. Even the furniture, clothes, arms, and other property of the camp had entirely24 disappeared, and the place bore no other proofs of the crowd that had so lately occupied it, than the traces of their fires and resting places, and the trodden earth that still showed the marks of their feet. So sudden and unexpected a change caused Deerslayer a good deal of surprise and some uneasiness, for he had never known it to occur, in the course of his experience among the Delawares. He suspected, however, and rightly, that a change of encampment was intended, and that the mystery of the movement was resorted to in order to work on his apprehensions25.
Rivenoak walked up the vista26 of trees as soon as he ceased speaking, leaving Deerslayer by himself. The chief disappeared behind the covers of the forest, and one unpractised in such scenes might have believed the prisoner left to the dictates27 of his own judgment28. But the young man, while he felt a little amazement29 at the dramatic aspect of things, knew his enemies too well to fancy himself at liberty, or a free agent. Still, he was ignorant how far the Hurons meant to carry their artifices30, and he determined to bring the question, as soon as practicable, to the proof. Affecting an indifference31 he was far from feeling, he strolled about the area, gradually getting nearer and nearer to the spot where he had landed, when he suddenly quickened his pace, though carefully avoiding all appearance of flight, and pushing aside the bushes, he stepped upon the beach. The canoe was gone, nor could he see any traces of it, after walking to the northern and southern verges33 of the point, and examining the shores in both directions. It was evidently removed beyond his reach and knowledge, and under circumstances to show that such had been the intention of the savages.
Deerslayer now better understood his actual situation. He was a prisoner on the narrow tongue of land, vigilantly34 watched beyond a question, and with no other means of escape than that of swimming. He, again, thought of this last expedient35, but the certainty that the canoe would be sent in chase, and the desperate nature of the chances of success deterred36 him from the undertaking37. While on the strand, he came to a spot where the bushes had been cut, and thrust into a small pile. Removing a few of the upper branches, he found beneath them the dead body of the Panther. He knew that it was kept until the savages might find a place to inter10 it, where it would be beyond the reach of the scalping knife. He gazed wistfully towards the castle, but there all seemed to be silent and desolate38, and a feeling of loneliness and desertion came over him to increase the gloom of the moment.
“God’s will be done!” murmured the young man, as he walked sorrowfully away from the beach, entering again beneath the arches of the wood. “God’s will be done, on ‘arth as it is in heaven! I did hope that my days would not be numbered so soon, but it matters little a’ter all. A few more winters, and a few more summers, and ‘twould have been over, accordin’ to natur’. Ah’s! me, the young and actyve seldom think death possible, till he grins in their faces, and tells ’em the hour is come!”
While this soliloquy was being pronounced, the hunter advanced into the area, where to his surprise he saw Hetty alone, evidently awaiting his return. The girl carried the Bible under her arm, and her face, over which a shadow of gentle melancholy39 was usually thrown, now seemed sad and downcast. Moving nearer, Deerslayer spoke40.
“Poor Hetty,” he said, “times have been so troublesome, of late, that I’d altogether forgotten you; we meet, as it might be to mourn over what is to happen. I wonder what has become of Chingachgook and Wah!”
“Why did you kill the Huron, Deerslayer?—” returned the girl reproachfully. “Don’t you know your commandments, which say ‘Thou shalt not kill!’ They tell me you have now slain41 the woman’s husband and brother!”
“It’s true, my good Hetty —’tis gospel truth, and I’ll not deny what has come to pass. But, you must remember, gal42, that many things are lawful in war, which would be onlawful in peace. The husband was shot in open fight — or, open so far as I was consarned, while he had a better cover than common — and the brother brought his end on himself, by casting his tomahawk at an unarmed prisoner. Did you witness that deed, gal?”
“I saw it, and was sorry it happened, Deerslayer, for I hoped you wouldn’t have returned blow for blow, but good for evil.”
“Ah, Hetty, that may do among the Missionaries43, but ‘twould make an onsartain life in the woods! The Panther craved44 my blood, and he was foolish enough to throw arms into my hands, at the very moment he was striving a’ter it. ‘Twould have been ag’in natur’ not to raise a hand in such a trial, and ‘twould have done discredit45 to my training and gifts. No — no — I’m as willing to give every man his own as another, and so I hope you’ll testify to them that will be likely to question you as to what you’ve seen this day.”
“Deerslayer, do you mean to marry Sumach, now she has neither husband nor brother to feed her?”
“Are such your idees of matrimony, Hetty! Ought the young to wive with the old — the pale-face with the red-skin — the Christian46 with the heathen? It’s ag’in reason and natur’, and so you’ll see, if you think of it a moment.”
“I’ve always heard mother say,” returned Hetty, averting47 her face more from a feminine instinct than from any consciousness of wrong, “that people should never marry until they loved each other better than brothers and sisters, and I suppose that is what you mean. Sumach is old, and you are young!”
“Ay and she’s red, and I’m white. Beside, Hetty, suppose you was a wife, now, having married some young man of your own years, and state, and colour — Hurry Harry48, for instance —” Deerslayer selected this example simply from the circumstance that he was the only young man known to both —“and that he had fallen on a war path, would you wish to take to your bosom49, for a husband, the man that slew50 him?”
“Oh! no, no, no —” returned the girl shuddering51 —“That would be wicked as well as heartless! No Christian girl could, or would do that! I never shall be the wife of Hurry, I know, but were he my husband no man should ever be it, again, after his death!”
“I thought it would get to this, Hetty, when you come to understand sarcumstances. ’Tis a moral impossibility that I should ever marry Sumach, and, though Injin weddin’s have no priests and not much religion, a white man who knows his gifts and duties can’t profit by that, and so make his escape at the fitting time. I do think death would be more nat’ral like, and welcome, than wedlock52 with this woman.”
“Don’t say it too loud,” interrupted Hetty impatiently; “I suppose she will not like to hear it. I’m sure Hurry would rather marry even me than suffer torments54, though I am feeble minded; and I am sure it would kill me to think he’d prefer death to being my husband.”
“Ay, gal, you ain’t Sumach, but a comely55 young Christian, with a good heart, pleasant smile, and kind eye. Hurry might be proud to get you, and that, too, not in misery56 and sorrow, but in his best and happiest days. Howsever, take my advice, and never talk to Hurry about these things; he’s only a borderer, at the best.”
“I wouldn’t tell him, for the world!” exclaimed the girl, looking about her like one affrighted, and blushing, she knew not why. “Mother always said young women shouldn’t be forward, and speak their minds before they’re asked; Oh! I never forget what mother told me. Tis a pity Hurry is so handsome, Deerslayer; I do think fewer girls would like him then, and he would sooner know his own mind.”
“Poor gal, poor gal, it’s plain enough how it is, but the Lord will bear in mind one of your simple heart and kind feelin’s! We’ll talk no more of these things; if you had reason, you’d be sorrowful at having let others so much into your secret. Tell me, Hetty, what has become of all the Hurons, and why they let you roam about the p’int as if you, too, was a prisoner?”
“I’m no prisoner, Deerslayer, but a free girl, and go when and where I please. Nobody dare hurt me! If they did, God would be angry, as I can show them in the Bible. No — no — Hetty Hutter is not afraid; she’s in good hands. The Hurons are up yonder in the woods, and keep a good watch on us both, I’ll answer for it, since all the women and children are on the look-out. Some are burying the body of the poor girl who was shot, so that the enemy and the wild beasts can’t find it. I told ’em that father and mother lay in the lake, but I wouldn’t let them know in what part of it, for Judith and I don’t want any of their heathenish company in our burying ground.”
“Ahs! me; Well, it is an awful despatch57 to be standing58 here, alive and angry, and with the feelin’s up and ferocious59, one hour, and then to be carried away at the next, and put out of sight of mankind in a hole in the ‘arth! No one knows what will happen to him on a warpath, that’s sartain.”
Here the stirring of leaves and the cracking of dried twigs60 interrupted the discourse61, and apprised62 Deerslayer of the approach of his enemies. The Hurons closed around the spot that had been prepared for the coming scene, and in the centre of which the intended victim now stood, in a circle, the armed men being so distributed among the feebler members of the band, that there was no safe opening through which the prisoner could break. But the latter no longer contemplated63 flight, the recent trial having satisfied him of his inability to escape when pursued so closely by numbers. On the contrary, all his energies were aroused in order to meet his expected fate, with a calmness that should do credit to his colour and his manhood; one equally removed from recreant64 alarm, and savage9 boasting.
When Rivenoak re-appeared in the circle, he occupied his old place at the head of the area. Several of the elder warriors66 stood near him, but, now that the brother of Sumach had fallen, there was no longer any recognised chief present whose influence and authority offered a dangerous rivalry67 to his own. Nevertheless, it is well known that little which could be called monarchical68 or despotic entered into the politics of the North American tribes, although the first colonists69, bringing with them to this hemisphere the notions and opinions of their own countries, often dignified70 the chief men of those primitive71 nations with the titles of kings and princes. Hereditary72 influence did certainly exist, but there is much reason to believe it existed rather as a consequence of hereditary merit and acquired qualifications, than as a birthright. Rivenoak, however, had not even this claim, having risen to consideration purely73 by the force of talents, sagacity, and, as Bacon expresses it in relation to all distinguished74 statesmen, “by a union of great and mean qualities;” a truth of which the career of the profound Englishman himself furnishes so apt an illustration. Next to arms, eloquence75 offers the great avenue to popular favor, whether it be in civilized76 or savage life, and Rivenoak had succeeded, as so many have succeeded before him, quite as much by rendering77 fallacies acceptable to his listeners, as by any profound or learned expositions of truth, or the accuracy of his logic78. Nevertheless, he had influence; and was far from being altogether without just claims to its possession. Like most men who reason more than they feel, the Huron was not addicted79 to the indulgence of the more ferocious passions of his people: he had been commonly found on the side of mercy, in all the scenes of vindictive80 torture and revenge that had occurred in his tribe since his own attainment81 to power. On the present occasion, he was reluctant to proceed to extremities82, although the provocation83 was so great. Still it exceeded his ingenuity84 to see how that alternative could well be avoided. Sumach resented her rejection85 more than she did the deaths of her husband and brother, and there was little probability that the woman would pardon a man who had so unequivocally preferred death to her embraces. Without her forgiveness, there was scarce a hope that the tribe could be induced to overlook its loss, and even to Rivenoak, himself, much as he was disposed to pardon, the fate of our hero now appeared to be almost hopelessly sealed.
When the whole band was arrayed around the captive, a grave silence, so much the more threatening from its profound quiet, pervaded86 the place. Deerslayer perceived that the women and boys had been preparing splinters of the fat pine roots, which he well knew were to be stuck into his flesh, and set in flames, while two or three of the young men held the thongs87 of bark with which he was to be bound. The smoke of a distant fire announced that the burning brands were in preparation, and several of the elder warriors passed their fingers over the edges of their tomahawks, as if to prove their keenness and temper. Even the knives seemed loosened in their sheathes88, impatient for the bloody89 and merciless work to begin.
“Killer90 of the Deer,” recommenced Rivenoak, certainly without any signs of sympathy or pity in his manner, though with calmness and dignity, “Killer of the Deer, it is time that my people knew their minds. The sun is no longer over our heads; tired of waiting on the Hurons, he has begun to fall near the pines on this side of the valley. He is travelling fast towards the country of our French fathers; it is to warn his children that their lodges91 are empty, and that they ought to be at home. The roaming wolf has his den17, and he goes to it when he wishes to see his young. The Iroquois are not poorer than the wolves. They have villages, and wigwams, and fields of corn; the Good Spirits will be tired of watching them alone. My people must go back and see to their own business. There will be joy in the lodges when they hear our whoop92 from the forest! It will be a sorrowful whoop; when it is understood, grief will come after it. There will be one scalp-whoop, but there will be only one. We have the fur of the Muskrat93; his body is among the fishes. Deerslayer must say whether another scalp shall be on our pole. Two lodges are empty; a scalp, living or dead, is wanted at each door.”
“Then take ’em dead, Huron,” firmly, but altogether without dramatic boasting, returned the captive. “My hour is come, I do suppose, and what must be, must. If you are bent94 on the tortur’, I’ll do my indivours to bear up ag’in it, though no man can say how far his natur’ will stand pain, until he’s been tried.”
“The pale-face cur begins to put his tail between his legs!” cried a young and garrulous95 savage, who bore the appropriate title of the Corbeau Rouge96; a sobriquet97 he had gained from the French by his facility in making unseasonable noises, and an undue98 tendency to hear his own voice; “he is no warrior65; he has killed the Loup Cervier when looking behind him not to see the flash of his own rifle. He grunts99 like a hog100, already; when the Huron women begin to torment53 him, he will cry like the young of the catamount. He is a Delaware woman, dressed in the skin of a Yengeese!”
“Have your say, young man; have your say,” returned Deerslayer, unmoved; “you know no better, and I can overlook it. Talking may aggravate101 women, but can hardly make knives sharper, fire hotter, or rifles more sartain.”
Rivenoak now interposed, reproving the Red Crow for his premature102 interference, and then directing the proper persons to bind103 the captive. This expedient was adopted, not from any apprehensions that he would escape, or from any necessity that was yet apparent of his being unable to endure the torture with his limbs free, but from an ingenious design of making him feel his helplessness, and of gradually sapping his resolution by undermining it, as it might be, little by little. Deerslayer offered no resistance. He submitted his arms and legs, freely if not cheerfully, to the ligaments of bark, which were bound around them by order of the chief, in a way to produce as little pain as possible. These directions were secret, and given in the hope that the captive would finally save himself from any serious bodily suffering by consenting to take the Sumach for a wife. As soon as the body of Deerslayer was withed in bark sufficiently104 to create a lively sense of helplessness, he was literally105 carried to a young tree, and bound against it in a way that effectually prevented him from moving, as well as from falling. The hands were laid flat against the legs, and thongs were passed over all, in a way nearly to incorporate the prisoner with the tree. His cap was then removed, and he was left half-standing, half-sustained by his bonds, to face the coming scene in the best manner he could.
Previously106 to proceeding107 to any thing like extremities, it was the wish of Rivenoak to put his captive’s resolution to the proof by renewing the attempt at a compromise. This could be effected only in one manner, the acquiescence of the Sumach being indispensably necessary to a compromise of her right to be revenged. With this view, then, the woman was next desired to advance, and to look to her own interests; no agent being considered as efficient as the principal, herself, in this negotiation108. The Indian females, when girls, are usually mild and submissive, with musical tones, pleasant voices and merry laughs, but toil109 and suffering generally deprive them of most of these advantages by the time they have reached an age which the Sumach had long before passed. To render their voices harsh, it would seem to require active, malignant110, passions, though, when excited, their screams can rise to a sufficiently conspicuous111 degree of discordancy112 to assert their claim to possess this distinctive113 peculiarity114 of the sex. The Sumach was not altogether without feminine attraction, however, and had so recently been deemed handsome in her tribe, as not to have yet learned the full influence that time and exposure produce on man, as well as on woman. By an arrangement of Rivenoak’s, some of the women around her had been employing the time in endeavoring to persuade the bereaved115 widow that there was still a hope Deerslayer might be prevailed on to enter her wigwam, in preference to entering the world of spirits, and this, too, with a success that previous symptoms scarcely justified116. All this was the result of a resolution on the part of the chief to leave no proper means unemployed117, in order to get transferred to his own nation the greatest hunter that was then thought to exist in all that region, as well as a husband for a woman who he felt would be likely to be troublesome, were any of her claims to the attention and care of the tribe overlooked.
In conformity118 with this scheme, the Sumach had been secretly advised to advance into the circle, and to make her appeal to the prisoner’s sense of justice, before the band had recourse to the last experiment. The woman, nothing loth, consented, for there was some such attraction in becoming the wife of a noted20 hunter, among the females of the tribes, as is experienced by the sex, in more refined life, when they bestow119 their hands on the affluent120. As the duties of a mother were thought to be paramount121 to all other considerations, the widow felt none of that embarrassment122, in preferring her claims, to which even a female fortune hunter among ourselves might be liable. When she stood forth123 before the whole party, therefore, the children that she led by the hands fully32 justified all she did.
“You see me before you, cruel pale-face,” the woman commenced; “your spirit must tell you my errand. I have found you; I cannot find le Loup Cervier, nor the Panther; I have looked for them in the lake, in the woods, in the clouds. I cannot say where they have gone.”
“No man knows, good Sumach, no man knows,” interposed the captive. “When the spirit leaves the body, it passes into a world beyond our knowledge, and the wisest way, for them that are left behind, is to hope for the best. No doubt both your warriors have gone to the Happy Hunting Grounds, and at the proper time you will see ’em ag’in, in their improved state. The wife and sister of braves must have looked forward to some such tarmination of their ‘arthly careers.”
“Cruel pale-face, what had my warriors done that you should slay2 them! They were the best hunters, and the boldest young men of their tribe; the Great Spirit intended that they should live until they withered124 like the branches of the hemlock125, and fell of their own weight-”
“Nay126 — nay — good Sumach,” interrupted Deerslayer, whose love of truth was too indomitable to listen to such hyperbole with patience, even though it came from the torn breast of a widow —“Nay — nay, good Sumach, this is a little outdoing red-skin privileges. Young man was neither, any more than you can be called a young woman, and as to the Great Spirit’s intending that they should fall otherwise than they did, that’s a grievous mistake, inasmuch as what the Great Spirit intends is sartain to come to pass. Then, agin, it’s plain enough neither of your fri’nds did me any harm; I raised my hand ag’in ’em on account of what they were striving to do, rather than what they did. This is nat’ral law, ‘to do lest you should be done by.’”
“It is so. Sumach has but one tongue; she can tell but one story. The pale face struck the Hurons lest the Hurons should strike him. The Hurons are a just nation; they will forget it. The chiefs will shut their eyes and pretend not to have seen it; the young men will believe the Panther and the Lynx have gone to far off hunts, and the Sumach will take her children by the hand, and go into the lodge of the pale-face and say —‘See; these are your children; they are also mine — feed us, and we will live with you.’”
“The tarms are onadmissable, woman, and though I feel for your losses, which must be hard to bear, the tarms cannot be accepted. As to givin’ you ven’son, in case we lived near enough together, that would be no great expl’ite; but as for becomin’ your husband, and the father of your children, to be honest with you, I feel no callin’ that-a-way.”
“Look at this boy, cruel pale-face; he has no father to teach him to kill the deer, or to take scalps. See this girl; what young man will come to look for a wife in a lodge that has no head? There are more among my people in the Canadas, and the Killer of Deer will find as many mouths to feed as his heart can wish for.”
“I tell you, woman,” exclaimed Deerslayer, whose imagination was far from seconding the appeal of the widow, and who began to grow restive127 under the vivid pictures she was drawing, “all this is nothing to me. People and kindred must take care of their own fatherless, leaving them that have no children to their own loneliness. As for me, I have no offspring, and I want no wife. Now, go away Sumach; leave me in the hands of your chiefs, for my colour, and gifts, and natur’ itself cry out ag’in the idee of taking you for a wife.”
It is unnecessary to expatiate128 on the effect of this downright refusal of the woman’s proposals. If there was anything like tenderness in her bosom — and no woman was probably ever entirely without that feminine quality — it all disappeared at this plain announcement. Fury, rage, mortified129 pride, and a volcano of wrath130 burst out, at one explosion, converting her into a sort of maniac131, as it might beat the touch of a magician’s wand. Without deigning132 a reply in words, she made the arches of the forest ring with screams, and then flew forward at her victim, seizing him by the hair, which she appeared resolute133 to draw out by the roots. It was some time before her grasp could be loosened. Fortunately for the prisoner her rage was blind; since his total helplessness left him entirely at her mercy. Had it been better directed it might have proved fatal before any relief could have been offered. As it was, she did succeed in wrenching134 out two or three handsful of hair, before the young men could tear her away from her victim.
The insult that had been offered to the Sumach was deemed an insult to the whole tribe; not so much, however, on account of any respect that was felt for the woman, as on account of the honor of the Huron nation. Sumach, herself, was generally considered to be as acid as the berry from which she derived135 her name, and now that her great supporters, her husband and brother, were both gone, few cared about concealing136 their aversion. Nevertheless, it had become a point of honor to punish the pale-face who disdained137 a Huron woman, and more particularly one who coolly preferred death to relieving the tribe from the support of a widow and her children. The young men showed an impatience138 to begin to torture that Rivenoak understood, and, as his older associates manifested no disposition139 to permit any longer delay, he was compelled to give the signal for the infernal work to proceed.
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swelling
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slay
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| v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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artifice
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| n.妙计，高明的手段；狡诈，诡计 | |
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watchfulness
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| 警惕，留心； 警觉（性） | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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acquiescence
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| n.默许；顺从 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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inter
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| v.埋葬 | |
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quiescent
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| adj.静止的，不活动的，寂静的 | |
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12
canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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13
impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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14
strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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15
eddies
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| （水、烟等的）漩涡，涡流( eddy的名词复数 ) | |
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16
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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17
den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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18
gaol
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| n.(jail)监狱；(不加冠词)监禁；vt.使…坐牢 | |
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19
lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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20
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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21
lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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22
captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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23
thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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25
apprehensions
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| 疑惧 | |
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26
vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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27
dictates
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| n.命令，规定，要求( dictate的名词复数 )v.大声讲或读( dictate的第三人称单数 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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28
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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29
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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30
artifices
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| n.灵巧( artifice的名词复数 )；诡计；巧妙办法；虚伪行为 | |
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31
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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32
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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33
verges
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| 边，边缘，界线( verge的名词复数 ) | |
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34
vigilantly
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| adv.警觉地，警惕地 | |
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35
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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36
deterred
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| v.阻止，制止( deter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37
undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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38
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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39
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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40
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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41
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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42
gal
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| n.姑娘，少女 | |
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43
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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44
craved
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| 渴望，热望( crave的过去式 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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45
discredit
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| vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑 | |
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46
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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47
averting
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| 防止，避免( avert的现在分词 )； 转移 | |
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48
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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49
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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50
slew
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| v.（使）旋转；n.大量，许多 | |
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51
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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52
wedlock
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| n.婚姻，已婚状态 | |
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53
torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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54
torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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55
comely
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| adj.漂亮的，合宜的 | |
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56
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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57
despatch
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| n./v.(dispatch)派遣；发送；n.急件；新闻报道 | |
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58
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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59
ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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60
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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61
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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62
apprised
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| v.告知，通知( apprise的过去式和过去分词 )；评价 | |
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63
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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64
recreant
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| n.懦夫；adj.胆怯的 | |
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65
warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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66
warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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67
rivalry
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| n.竞争，竞赛，对抗 | |
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68
monarchical
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| adj. 国王的，帝王的，君主的，拥护君主制的 =monarchic | |
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69
colonists
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| n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
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70
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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71
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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72
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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73
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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74
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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75
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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76
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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77
rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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78
logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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79
addicted
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| adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的 | |
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80
vindictive
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| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
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81
attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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82
extremities
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| n.端点( extremity的名词复数 )；尽头；手和足；极窘迫的境地 | |
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83
provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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84
ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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85
rejection
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| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
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86
pervaded
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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87
thongs
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| 的东西 | |
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88
sheathes
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| v.将（刀、剑等）插入鞘( sheathe的第三人称单数 )；包，覆盖 | |
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89
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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90
killer
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| n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者 | |
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91
lodges
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| v.存放( lodge的第三人称单数 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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92
whoop
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| n.大叫，呐喊，喘息声；v.叫喊，喘息 | |
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93
muskrat
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| n.麝香鼠 | |
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94
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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95
garrulous
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| adj.唠叨的，多话的 | |
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96
rouge
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| n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红 | |
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97
sobriquet
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| n.绰号 | |
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98
undue
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| adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的 | |
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99
grunts
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的第三人称单数 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说； 石鲈 | |
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100
hog
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| n.猪；馋嘴贪吃的人；vt.把…占为己有，独占 | |
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101
aggravate
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| vt.加重(剧)，使恶化；激怒，使恼火 | |
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102
premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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103
bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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104
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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105
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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106
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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107
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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108
negotiation
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| n.谈判，协商 | |
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109
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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110
malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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111
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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112
discordancy
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| n.不一致，不和 | |
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113
distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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114
peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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115
bereaved
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| adj.刚刚丧失亲人的v.使失去（希望、生命等）( bereave的过去式和过去分词)；（尤指死亡）使丧失（亲人、朋友等）；使孤寂；抢走（财物） | |
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116
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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117
unemployed
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| adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的 | |
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118
conformity
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| n.一致，遵从，顺从 | |
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119
bestow
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| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
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120
affluent
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| adj.富裕的，富有的，丰富的，富饶的 | |
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121
paramount
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| a.最重要的，最高权力的 | |
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122
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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123
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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124
withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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125
hemlock
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| n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉 | |
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126
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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127
restive
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| adj.不安宁的，不安静的 | |
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128
expatiate
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| v.细说，详述 | |
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129
mortified
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| v.使受辱( mortify的过去式和过去分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等） | |
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130
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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131
maniac
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| n.精神癫狂的人；疯子 | |
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132
deigning
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| v.屈尊，俯就( deign的现在分词 ) | |
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133
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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134
wrenching
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| n.修截苗根，苗木铲根（铲根时苗木不起土或部分起土）v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的现在分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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135
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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136
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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137
disdained
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| 鄙视( disdain的过去式和过去分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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