indignant at their treachery against their
venerable and beloved Sachem, and their scarcely less respected white
Chieftain.

The voice of Tisquantum broke the ominous silence.

'Coubitant,' he solemnly began, 'you have deceived your Chief. You have
spoken to him words of peace, when death was in your heart. Is it not
so?'

'I would be Chief myself,' replied the savage, in a deep, undaunted
voice. 'I was taught to believe that I should succeed you; and a pale-
faced stranger has taken my place. I have lived but to obtain
vengeance--vengeance that you, Tisquantum, who were bound to wreak it
on the slayer of your son, refused to take. A mighty vengeance was in
my soul; and to possess it, I would have sacrificed the whole tribe.
Now do to me as I would have done to Henrich.' And he glared on his
hated rival with the eye of a beast of prey. Tisquantum regarded him
calmly, and gravely continued his examination.

'And you have also drawn some of my people into rebel lion, and
persuaded them to consent to the murder of their Chief. One of them has
already shed his life-blood in punishment of his sin; and the rest will
bear the marks of shame to their graves. All this is your work.'

'If more of your people had the courage to join me in resisting the
pretensions of the proud stranger, you and Henrich would now have been
lying dead at my feet. You would never again have been obeyed as
Sachems by the Nausetts. But they loved their slavery--and let them
keep it. My soul is free. You may send it forth in agony, if you will:
for I am in your power, and I ask no mercy from those to whom I would
have shown none. Do your worst. Coubitant's heart is strong; and I
shall soon be with the spirits of my fathers, where no white men can
enter.

The wrath of Tisquantum was stirred by the taunts and the bold defiance
of his prisoner; and he resolved to execute on him a sentence that
should strike terror into any others of the tribe who might have
harbored thoughts of rebellion.

'The death that you intended should be my portion, and that of all my
family, shall be your own!' he exclaimed. The torments of fire shall
put a stop to your boasting. My children,' he added--turning to the
warriors who stood around him--' I call on you to do justice on this
villain. Form a pile of wood here on the river's brink; end when his
body is consumed, his ashes shall he cast on the stream, and go to
tell, in other lands, how Tisquantum punishes tre