ibe are shouting thy
name through the forest, and calling thee home. Here and now we part."

"Sassacus is troubled," replied the Sagamore, "about his little
sister. How shall he answer his mother, when she asks after Neebin?"

"Neebin is in no danger," said the Knight; "and though she were, thy
remaining could do no good. But I will stay, and if artifice can
avail--for force we have none--Neebin shall be restored to her
mother."

"My brother speaks well," said the Sagamore, having thus secured
another guardian for the sister whom he tenderly loved. "He shall
stay, but Sassacus will return to the river of the Pequots, and will
speak a loud word in the ears of his tribe, and they shall fill their
quivers with arrows, and sharpen their tomahawks, and many will come
back with him to ask for Neebin. Sassacus will go alone, and will
leave Towanquattick."

"Leave not the Paniese behind," said the Knight. "That were only to
expose him to unnecessary danger."

But the chief was not be diverted from his purpose. To every objection
he replied: "A great chief takes not back the word he has spoken. Were
he to do so, what would become of the respect of his people?"

Yet, notwithstanding the peremptory tone wherewith he had announced
his determination, very soft was the voice, and gentle the manner of
the Sagamore, as he addressed his follower:

"Towanquattick," he said, "is my friend, and will watch over the
little Pequot bird that has strayed into the trap of Owanux."

"Towanquattick will watch," was the answer.

"Stay to teach the little bird to fly away, or until I return with my
warriors. Sassacus goes now like a brook just starting from the
ground; but he will come back like a mighty river when angry 'Hpoon
pours its swollen waters into the salt lake. Sassacus hath said."

The words were pronounced with a dignity and gravity that impressed
those who heard them, and seemed to communicate some of the daring of
the speaker; but the wiser Knight saw the rashness of their import,
and determined to convince the Sagamore of the impolicy of the course
proposed. Taking him for that purpose on one side, that the chief
might speak uninfluenced by the presence of his follower, he
represented to him the superior strength of the English, and the
impossibility of prevailing in any contest until a complete union was
established among the tribes.

"Behold!" he said: "these strangers are as one man, and across the
salt lake come in