Chapter 24 - Page 2

degradation. The
only other being present, of European origin, was Whittal Ring. The
innocent stalked slowly among the prisoners, sometimes permitting ancient
recollections and sympathies to come over his dull intellect, but oftener
taunting the unfortunate with the injustice of their race, and with the
wrongs of his adopted people.

The chiefs of the successful party stood in the centre, apparently engaged
in some grave deliberation. As they were few in number, it was evident
that the council only included men of the highest importance. Chiefs of
inferior rank, but of great names in the limited renown of those simple
tribes, conversed in knots among the trees, or paced the court at a
respectful distance from the consultation of their superiors.

The least practised eye could not mistake the person of him on whom the
greatest weight of authority had fallen. The turbaned warrior, already
introduced in these pages, occupied the centre of the group, in the calm
and dignified attitude of an Indian who hearkens to or who utters advice.
His musket was borne by one who stood in waiting, while the knife and axe
were returned to his girdle He had thrown a light blanket, or it might be
better termed a robe of scarlet cloth, over his left shoulder, whence it
gracefully fell in folds, leaving the whole of the right arm free, and
most of his ample chest exposed to view. From beneath this mantle, blood
fell slowly in drops, dying the floor on which he stood. The countenance
of this warrior was grave, though there was a quickness in the movements
of an ever-restless eye, that denoted great mental activity, no less than
the disquiet of suspicion. One skilled in physiognomy might too have
thought, that a shade of suppressed discontent was struggling with the
self-command of habits that had become part of the nature of the
individual.

The two companions nearest this chief were, like himself, men past the
middle age, and of mien and expression that were similar, though less
strikingly marked; neither showing those signs of displeasure, which
occasionally shot from organs that, in spite of a mind so trained and so
despotic, could not always restrain their glittering brightness. One was
speaking, and by his glance, it was evident that the subject of his
discourse was the fourth and last of their number, who had placed himself
in a position that prevented his being an auditor of what was said.

In the person of the latter chief, the reader will recognise the youth who
had confronted Mark, and whose rapid movement on the flank of Dudley had
first driven the Colonists from the meadows. The eloquent expression of
limb, the tension of sinews, and the compression of muscles, as last
exhibited, were now gone. They had given