Chapter 14

"Guard.--Qui est la? Puc.--Paisans, pauvres gens de

France."--King Henry VI

During the rapid movement from the blockhouse, and until the

party was deeply buried in the forest, each individual was

too much interested in the escape to hazard a word even in

whispers. The scout resumed his post in advance, though his

steps, after he had thrown a safe distance between himself

and his enemies, were more deliberate than in their previous

march, in consequence of his utter ignorance of the

localities of the surrounding woods. More than once he

halted to consult with his confederates, the Mohicans,

pointing upward at the moon, and examining the barks of the

trees with care. In these brief pauses, Heyward and the

sisters listened, with senses rendered doubly acute by the

danger, to detect any symptoms which might announce the

proximity of their foes. At such moments, it seemed as if a

vast range of country lay buried in eternal sleep; not the

least sound arising from the forest, unless it was the

distant and scarcely audible rippling of a water-course.

Birds, beasts, and man, appeared to slumber alike, if,

indeed, any of the latter were to be found in that wide

tract of wilderness. But the sounds of the rivulet, feeble

and murmuring as they were, relieved the guides at once from

no trifling embarrassment, and toward it they immediately

held their way.

When the banks of the little stream were gained, Hawkeye

made another halt; and taking the moccasins from his feet,

he invited Heyward and Gamut to follow his example. He then

entered the water, and for near an hour they traveled in the

bed of the brook, leaving no trail. The moon had already

sunk into an immense pile of black clouds, which lay

impending above the western horizon, when they issued from

the low and devious water-course to rise again to the light

and level of the sandy but wooded plain. Here the scout

seemed to be once more at home, for he held on this way with

the certainty and diligence of a man who moved in the

security of his own knowledge. The path soon became more

uneven, and the travelers could plainly perceive that the

mountains drew nigher to them on each hand, and that they

were, in truth, about entering one of their gorges.

Suddenly, Hawkeye made a pause, and, waiting until he was

joined by the whole party, he spoke, though in tones so low

and cautious, that they added to the solemnity of his words,

in the quiet and darkness of the place.

"It is easy to know the pathways, and to find the licks and

water-courses of the wilderness," he said; "but who that saw

this spot could venture to say, that a mighty army was at

rest among yonder silent trees and barren mountains?"

"We are, then, at no great distance from William Henry?"

said Heyward, advancing nigher to the scout.

"It is yet a long and weary path, and when and where to

strike it is now our greatest difficulty. See," he said,

pointing through the trees toward a spot where a little

basin of water reflected the stars from its placid bosom,

"here is the 'bloody pond'; and I am on ground that I have

not only often traveled, but over which I have fou't the

enemy, from the rising to the setting sun."

"Ha! that sheet of dull and dreary water, then, is the

sepulcher of the brave men who fell in the contest. I have

heard it named, but never have I stood on its banks before."

"Three battles did we make with the Dutch-Frenchman* in a

day," continued Hawkeye, pursuing the train of his own

thoughts, rather than replying to the remark of Duncan. "He

met us hard by, in our outward march to ambush his advance,

and scattered us, like driven deer, through the defile, to

the shores of Horican. Then we rallied behind our fallen

trees, and made head against him, under Sir William--who

was made Sir William for that very deed; and well did we pay

him for the disgrace of the morning! Hundreds of Frenchmen

saw the sun that day for the last time; and even their

leader, Dieskau himself, fell into our hands, so cut and

torn with the lead, that he has gone back to his own

country, unfit for further acts in war."

* Baron Dieskau, a German, in the service of France.

A few years previously to the period of the tale, this

officer was defeated by Sir William Johnson, of Johnstown,

New York, on the shores of Lake George.

"'Twas a noble repulse!" exclaimed Heyward, in the heat of

his youthful ardor; "the fame of it reached us early, in our

southern army."

"Ay! but it did not end there. I was sent by Major

Effingham, at Sir William's own bidding, to outflank the

French, and carry the tidings of their disaster across the

portage, to the fort on the Hudson. Just hereaway, where

you see the trees rise into a mountain swell, I met a party

coming down to our aid, and I led them where the enemy were

taking their meal, little dreaming that they had not

finished the bloody work of the day."

"And you surprised them?"

"If death can be a surprise to men who are thinking only of

the cravings of their appetites. We gave them but little

breathing time, for they had borne hard upon us in the fight

of the morning, and there were few in our party who had not

lost friend or relative by their hands."

"When all was over, the dead, and some say the dying, were

cast into that little pond. These eyes have seen its waters

colored with blood, as natural water never yet flowed from

the bowels of the 'arth."

"It was a convenient, and, I trust, will prove a peaceful

grave for a soldier. You have then seen much service on

this frontier?"

"Ay!" said the scout, erecting his tall person with an air

of military pride; "there are not many echoes among these

hills that haven't rung with the crack of my rifle, nor is

there the space of a square mile atwixt Horican and the

river, that 'killdeer' hasn't dropped a living body on, be

it an enemy or be it a brute beast. As for the grave there

being as quiet as you mention, it is another matter. There

are them in the camp who say and think, man, to lie still,

should not be buried while the breath is in the body; and

certain it is that in the hurry of that evening, the doctors

had but little time to say who was living and who was dead.

Hist! see you nothing walking on the shore of the pond?"

"'Tis not probable that any are as houseless as ourselves in

this dreary forest."

"Such as he may care but little for house or shelter, and

night dew can never wet a body that passes its days in the

water," returned the scout, grasping the shoulder of Heyward

with such convulsive strength as to make the young soldier

painfully sensible how much superstitious terror had got the

mastery of a man usually so dauntless.

"By heaven, there is a human form, and it approaches! Stand

to your arms, my friends; for we know not whom we

encounter."

"Qui vive?" demanded a stern, quick voice, which sounded

like a challenge from another world, issuing out of that

solitary and solemn place.

"What says it?" whispered the scout; "it speaks neither

Indian nor English."

"Qui vive?" repeated the same voice, which was quickly

followed by the rattling of arms, and a menacing attitude.

"France!" cried Heyward, advancing from the shadow of the

trees to the shore of the pond, within a few yards of the

sentinel.

"D'ou venez-vous--ou allez-vous, d'aussi bonne heure?"

demanded the grenadier, in the language and with the accent

of a man from old France.

"Je viens de la decouverte, et je vais me coucher."

"Etes-vous officier du roi?"

"Sans doute, mon camarade; me prends-tu pour un provincial!

Je suis capitaine de chasseurs (Heyward well knew that the

other was of a regiment in the line); j'ai ici, avec moi,

les filles du commandant de la fortification. Aha! tu en as

entendu parler! je les ai fait prisonnieres pres de l'autre

fort, et je les conduis au general."

"Ma foi! mesdames; j'en suis fƒche pour vous," exclaimed the

young soldier, touching his cap with grace; "mais--fortune

de guerre! vous trouverez notre general un brave homme, et

bien poli avec les dames."

"C'est le caractere des gens de guerre," said Cora, with

admirable self-possession. "Adieu, mon ami; je vous

souhaiterais un devoir plus agreable a remplir."

The soldier made a low and humble acknowledgment for her

civility; and Heyward adding a "Bonne nuit, mon camarade,"

they moved deliberately forward, leaving the sentinel pacing

the banks of the silent pond, little suspecting an enemy of

so much effrontery, and humming to himself those words which

were recalled to his mind by the sight of women, and,

perhaps, by recollections of his own distant and beautiful

France: "Vive le vin, vive l'amour," etc., etc.

"'Tis well you understood the knave!" whispered the scout,

when they had gained a little distance from the place, and

letting his rifle fall into the hollow of his arm again; "I

soon saw that he was one of them uneasy Frenchers; and well

for him it was that his speech was friendly and his wishes

kind, or a place might have been found for his bones among

those of his countrymen."

He was interrupted by a long and heavy groan which arose

from the little basin, as though, in truth, the spirits of

the departed lingered about their watery sepulcher.

"Surely it was of flesh," continued the scout; "no spirit

could handle its arms so steadily."

"It was of flesh; but whether the poor fellow still belongs

to this world may well be doubted," said Heyward, glancing

his eyes around him, and missing Chingachgook from their

little band. Another groan more faint than the former was

succeeded by a heavy and sullen plunge into the water, and

all was still again as if the borders of the dreary pool had

never been awakened from the silence of creation. While

they yet hesitated in uncertainty, the form of the Indian

was seen gliding out of the thicket. As the chief rejoined

them, with one hand he attached the reeking scalp of the

unfortunate young Frenchman to his girdle, and with the

other he replaced the knife and tomahawk that had drunk his

blood. He then took his wonted station, with the air of a

man who believed he had done a deed of merit.

The scout dropped one end of his rifle to the earth, and

leaning his hands on the other, he stood musing in profound

silence. Then, shaking his head in a mournful manner, he

muttered:

"'Twould have been a cruel and an unhuman act for a white-

skin; but 'tis the gift and natur' of an Indian, and I

suppose it should not be denied. I could wish, though it

had befallen an accursed Mingo, rather than that gay young

boy from the old countries."

"Enough!" said Heyward, apprehensive the unconscious sisters

might comprehend the nature of the detention, and conquering

his disgust by a train of reflections very much like that of

the hunter; "'tis done; and though better it were left

undone, cannot be amended. You see, we are, too obviously

within the sentinels of the enemy; what course do you

propose to follow?"

"Yes," said Hawkeye, rousing himself again; "'tis as you

say, too late to harbor further thoughts about it. Ay, the

French have gathered around the fort in good earnest and we

have a delicate needle to thread in passing them."

"And but little time to do it in," added Heyward, glancing

his eyes upwards, toward the bank of vapor that concealed

the setting moon.

"And little time to do it in!" repeated the scout. "The

thing may be done in two fashions, by the help of

Providence, without which it may not be done at all."

"Name them quickly for time presses."

"One would be to dismount the gentle ones, and let their

beasts range the plain, by sending the Mohicans in front, we

might then cut a lane through their sentries, and enter the

fort over the dead bodies."

"It will not do--it will not do!" interrupted the generous

Heyward; "a soldier might force his way in this manner, but

never with such a convoy."

"'Twould be, indeed, a bloody path for such tender feet to

wade in," returned the equally reluctant scout; "but I

thought it befitting my manhood to name it. We must, then,

turn in our trail and get without the line of their

lookouts, when we will bend short to the west, and enter the

mountains; where I can hide you, so that all the devil's

hounds in Montcalm's pay would be thrown off the scent for

months to come."

"Let it be done, and that instantly."

Further words were unnecessary; for Hawkeye, merely uttering

the mandate to "follow," moved along the route by which they

had just entered their present critical and even dangerous

situation. Their progress, like their late dialogue, was

guarded, and without noise; for none knew at what moment a

passing patrol, or a crouching picket of the enemy, might

rise upon their path. As they held their silent way along

the margin of the pond, again Heyward and the scout stole

furtive glances at its appalling dreariness. They looked in

vain for the form they had so recently seen stalking along

in silent shores, while a low and regular wash of the little

waves, by announcing that the waters were not yet subsided,

furnished a frightful memorial of the deed of blood they had

just witnessed. Like all that passing and gloomy scene, the

low basin, however, quickly melted in the darkness, and

became blended with the mass of black objects in the rear of

the travelers.

Hawkeye soon deviated from the line of their retreat, and

striking off towards the mountains which form the western

boundary of the narrow plain, he led his followers, with

swift steps, deep within the shadows that were cast from

their high and broken summits. The route was now painful;

lying over ground ragged with rocks, and intersected with

ravines, and their progress proportionately slow. Bleak and

black hills lay on every side of them, compensating in some

degree for the additional toil of the march by the sense of

security they imparted. At length the party began slowly to

rise a steep and rugged ascent, by a path that curiously

wound among rocks and trees, avoiding the one and supported

by the other, in a manner that showed it had been devised by

men long practised in the arts of the wilderness. As they

gradually rose from the level of the valleys, the thick

darkness which usually precedes the approach of day began to

disperse, and objects were seen in the plain and palpable

colors with which they had been gifted by nature. When they

issued from the stunted woods which clung to the barren

sides of the mountain, upon a flat and mossy rock that

formed its summit, they met the morning, as it came blushing

above the green pines of a hill that lay on the opposite

side of the valley of the Horican.

The scout now told the sisters to dismount; and taking the

bridles from the mouths, and the saddles off the backs of

the jaded beasts, he turned them loose, to glean a scanty

subsistence among the shrubs and meager herbage of that

elevated region.

"Go," he said, "and seek your food where natur' gives it to

you; and beware that you become not food to ravenous wolves

yourselves, among these hills."

"Have we no further need of them?" demanded Heyward.

"See, and judge with your own eyes," said the scout,

advancing toward the eastern brow of the mountain, whither

he beckoned for the whole party to follow; "if it was as

easy to look into the heart of man as it is to spy out the

nakedness of Montcalm's camp from this spot, hypocrites

would grow scarce, and the cunning of a Mingo might prove a

losing game, compared to the honesty of a Delaware."

When the travelers reached the verge of the precipices they

saw, at a glance, the truth of the scout's declaration, and

the admirable foresight with which he had led them to their

commanding station.

The mountain on which they stood, elevated perhaps a

thousand feet in the air, was a high cone that rose a little

in advance of that range which stretches for miles along the

western shores of the lake, until meeting its sisters miles

beyond the water, it ran off toward the Canadas, in confused

and broken masses of rock, thinly sprinkled with evergreens.

Immediately at the feet of the party, the southern shore of

the Horican swept in a broad semicircle from mountain to

mountain, marking a wide strand, that soon rose into an

uneven and somewhat elevated plain. To the north stretched

the limpid, and, as it appeared from that dizzy height, the

narrow sheet of the "holy lake," indented with numberless

bays, embellished by fantastic headlands, and dotted with

countless islands. At the distance of a few leagues, the

bed of the water became lost among mountains, or was wrapped

in the masses of vapor that came slowly rolling along their

bosom, before a light morning air. But a narrow opening

between the crests of the hills pointed out the passage by

which they found their way still further north, to spread

their pure and ample sheets again, before pouring out their

tribute into the distant Champlain. To the shout stretched

the defile, or rather broken plain, so often mentioned. For

several miles in this direction, the mountains appeared

reluctant to yield their dominion, but within reach of the

eye they diverged, and finally melted into the level and

sandy lands, across which we have accompanied our

adventurers in their double journey. Along both ranges of

hills, which bounded the opposite sides of the lake and

valley, clouds of light vapor were rising in spiral wreaths

from the uninhabited woods, looking like the smoke of hidden

cottages; or rolled lazily down the declivities, to mingle

with the fogs of the lower land. A single, solitary, snow-

white cloud floated above the valley, and marked the spot

beneath which lay the silent pool of the "bloody pond."

Directly on the shore of the lake, and nearer to its western

than to its eastern margin, lay the extensive earthen

ramparts and low buildings of William Henry. Two of the

sweeping bastions appeared to rest on the water which washed

their bases, while a deep ditch and extensive morasses

guarded its other sides and angles. The land had been

cleared of wood for a reasonable distance around the work,

but every other part of the scene lay in the green livery of

nature, except where the limpid water mellowed the view, or

the bold rocks thrust their black and naked heads above the

undulating outline of the mountain ranges. In its front

might be seen the scattered sentinels, who held a weary

watch against their numerous foes; and within the walls

themselves, the travelers looked down upon men still drowsy

with a night of vigilance. Toward the southeast, but in

immediate contact with the fort, was an entrenched camp,

posted on a rocky eminence, that would have been far more

eligible for the work itself, in which Hawkeye pointed out

the presence of those auxiliary regiments that had so

recently left the Hudson in their company. From the woods,

a little further to the south, rose numerous dark and lurid

smokes, that were easily to be distinguished from the purer

exhalations of the springs, and which the scout also showed

to Heyward, as evidences that the enemy lay in force in that

direction.

But the spectacle which most concerned the young soldier was

on the western bank of the lake, though quite near to its

southern termination. On a strip of land, which appeared

from his stand too narrow to contain such an army, but

which, in truth, extended many hundreds of yards from the

shores of the Horican to the base of the mountain, were to

be seen the white tents and military engines of an

encampment of ten thousand men. Batteries were already

thrown up in their front, and even while the spectators

above them were looking down, with such different emotions,

on a scene which lay like a map beneath their feet, the roar

of artillery rose from the valley, and passed off in

thundering echoes along the eastern hills.

"Morning is just touching them below," said the deliberate

and musing scout, "and the watchers have a mind to wake up

the sleepers by the sound of cannon. We are a few hours too

late! Montcalm has already filled the woods with his

accursed Iroquois."

"The place is, indeed, invested," returned Duncan; "but is

there no expedient by which we may enter? capture in the

works would be far preferable to falling again into the

hands of roving Indians."

"See!" exclaimed the scout, unconsciously directing the

attention of Cora to the quarters of her own father, "how

that shot has made the stones fly from the side of the

commandant's house! Ay! these Frenchers will pull it to

pieces faster than it was put together, solid and thick

though it be!"

"Heyward, I sicken at the sight of danger that I cannot

share," said the undaunted but anxious daughter. "Let us go

to Montcalm, and demand admission: he dare not deny a child

the boon."

"You would scarce find the tent of the Frenchman with the

hair on your head"; said the blunt scout. "If I had but one

of the thousand boats which lie empty along that shore, it

might be done! Ha! here will soon be an end of the firing,

for yonder comes a fog that will turn day to night, and make

an Indian arrow more dangerous than a molded cannon. Now,

if you are equal to the work, and will follow, I will make a

push; for I long to get down into that camp, if it be only

to scatter some Mingo dogs that I see lurking in the skirts

of yonder thicket of birch."

"We are equal," said Cora, firmly; "on such an errand we

will follow to any danger."

The scout turned to her with a smile of honest and cordial

approbation, as he answered:

"I would I had a thousand men, of brawny limbs and quick

eyes, that feared death as little as you! I'd send them

jabbering Frenchers back into their den again, afore the

week was ended, howling like so many fettered hounds or

hungry wolves. But, sir," he added, turning from her to the

rest of the party, "the fog comes rolling down so fast, we

shall have but just the time to meet it on the plain, and

use it as a cover. Remember, if any accident should befall

me, to keep the air blowing on your left cheeks--or,

rather, follow the Mohicans; they'd scent their way, be it

in day or be it at night."

He then waved his hand for them to follow, and threw himself

down the steep declivity, with free, but careful footsteps.

Heyward assisted the sisters to descend, and in a few

minutes they were all far down a mountain whose sides they

had climbed with so much toil and pain.

The direction taken by Hawkeye soon brought the travelers to

the level of the plain, nearly opposite to a sally-port in

the western curtain of the fort, which lay itself at the

distance of about half a mile from the point where he halted

to allow Duncan to come up with his charge. In their

eagerness, and favored by the nature of the ground, they had

anticipated the fog, which was rolling heavily down the

lake, and it became necessary to pause, until the mists had

wrapped the camp of the enemy in their fleecy mantle. The

Mohicans profited by the delay, to steal out of the woods,

and to make a survey of surrounding objects. They were

followed at a little distance by the scout, with a view to

profit early by their report, and to obtain some faint

knowledge for himself of the more immediate localities.

In a very few moments he returned, his face reddened with

vexation, while he muttered his disappointment in words of

no very gentle import.

"Here has the cunning Frenchman been posting a picket

directly in our path," he said; "red-skins and whites; and

we shall be as likely to fall into their midst as to pass

them in the fog!"

"Cannot we make a circuit to avoid the danger," asked

Heyward, "and come into our path again when it is passed?"

"Who that once bends from the line of his march in a fog can

tell when or how to find it again! The mists of Horican are

not like the curls from a peace-pipe, or the smoke which

settles above a mosquito fire."

He was yet speaking, when a crashing sound was heard, and a

cannon-ball entered the thicket, striking the body of a

sapling, and rebounding to the earth, its force being much

expended by previous resistance. The Indians followed

instantly like busy attendants on the terrible messenger,

and Uncas commenced speaking earnestly and with much action,

in the Delaware tongue.

"It may be so, lad," muttered the scout, when he had ended;

"for desperate fevers are not to be treated like a

toothache. Come, then, the fog is shutting in."

"Stop!" cried Heyward; "first explain your expectations."

"'Tis soon done, and a small hope it is; but it is better

than nothing. This shot that you see," added the scout,

kicking the harmless iron with his foot, "has plowed the

'arth in its road from the fort, and we shall hunt for the

furrow it has made, when all other signs may fail. No more

words, but follow, or the fog may leave us in the middle of

our path, a mark for both armies to shoot at."

Heyward perceiving that, in fact, a crisis had arrived, when

acts were more required than words, placed himself between

the sisters, and drew them swiftly forward, keeping the dim

figure of their leader in his eye. It was soon apparent

that Hawkeye had not magnified the power of the fog, for

before they had proceeded twenty yards, it was difficult for

the different individuals of the party to distinguish each

other in the vapor.

They had made their little circuit to the left, and were

already inclining again toward the right, having, as Heyward

thought, got over nearly half the distance to the friendly

works, when his ears were saluted with the fierce summons,

apparently within twenty feet of them, of:

"Qui va la?"

"Push on!" whispered the scout, once more bending to the

left.

"Push on!" repeated Heyward; when the summons was renewed by

a dozen voices, each of which seemed charged with menace.

"C'est moi," cried Duncan, dragging rather than leading

those he supported swiftly onward.

"Bete!--qui?--moi!"

"Ami de la France."

"Tu m'as plus l'air d'un ennemi de la France; arrete ou

pardieu je te ferai ami du diable. Non! feu, camarades,

feu!"

The order was instantly obeyed, and the fog was stirred by

the explosion of fifty muskets. Happily, the aim was bad,

and the bullets cut the air in a direction a little

different from that taken by the fugitives; though still so

nigh them, that to the unpractised ears of David and the two

females, it appeared as if they whistled within a few inches

of the organs. The outcry was renewed, and the order, not

only to fire again, but to pursue, was too plainly audible.

When Heyward briefly explained the meaning of the words they

heard, Hawkeye halted and spoke with quick decision and

great firmness.

"Let us deliver our fire," he said; "they will believe it a

sortie, and give way, or they will wait for reinforcements."

The scheme was well conceived, but failed in its effects.

The instant the French heard the pieces, it seemed as if the

plain was alive with men, muskets rattling along its whole

extent, from the shores of the lake to the furthest boundary

of the woods.

"We shall draw their entire army upon us, and bring on a

general assault," said Duncan: "lead on, my friend, for your

own life and ours."

The scout seemed willing to comply; but, in the hurry of the

moment, and in the change of position, he had lost the

direction. In vain he turned either cheek toward the light

air; they felt equally cool. In this dilemma, Uncas lighted

on the furrow of the cannon ball, where it had cut the

ground in three adjacent ant-hills.

"Give me the range!" said Hawkeye, bending to catch a

glimpse of the direction, and then instantly moving onward.

Cries, oaths, voices calling to each other, and the reports

of muskets, were now quick and incessant, and, apparently,

on every side of them. Suddenly a strong glare of light

flashed across the scene, the fog rolled upward in thick

wreaths, and several cannons belched across the plain, and

the roar was thrown heavily back from the bellowing echoes

of the mountain.

"'Tis from the fort!" exclaimed Hawkeye, turning short on

his tracks; "and we, like stricken fools, were rushing to

the woods, under the very knives of the Maquas."

The instant their mistake was rectified, the whole party

retraced the error with the utmost diligence. Duncan

willingly relinquished the support of Cora to the arm of

Uncas and Cora as readily accepted the welcome assistance.

Men, hot and angry in pursuit, were evidently on their

footsteps, and each instant threatened their capture, if not

their destruction.

"Point de quartier aux coquins!" cried an eager pursuer, who

seemed to direct the operations of the enemy.

"Stand firm, and be ready, my gallant Sixtieths!" suddenly

exclaimed a voice above them; "wait to see the enemy, fire

low and sweep the glacis."

"Father! father!" exclaimed a piercing cry from out the

mist: "it is I! Alice! thy own Elsie! Spare, oh! save

your daughters!"

"Hold!" shouted the former speaker, in the awful tones of

parental agony, the sound reaching even to the woods, and

rolling back in solemn echo. "'Tis she! God has restored

me to my children! Throw open the sally-port; to the field,

Sixtieths, to the field; pull not a trigger, lest ye kill my

lambs! Drive off these dogs of France with your steel."

Duncan heard the grating of the rusty hinges, and darting to

the spot, directed by the sound, he met a long line of dark

red warriors, passing swiftly toward the glacis. He knew

them for his own battalion of the Royal Americans, and

flying to their head, soon swept every trace of his pursuers

from before the works.

For an instant, Cora and Alice had stood trembling and

bewildered by this unexpected desertion; but before either

had leisure for speech, or even thought, an officer of

gigantic frame, whose locks were bleached with years and

service, but whose air of military grandeur had been rather

softened than destroyed by time, rushed out of the body of

mist, and folded them to his bosom, while large scalding

tears rolled down his pale and wrinkled cheeks, and he

exclaimed, in the peculiar accent of Scotland:

"For this I thank thee, Lord! Let danger come as it will,

thy servant is now prepared!"

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