-thou art come, but wherefore? To curse, like
the father--to curse, like the Manneyto?" mournfully said the captive.

"No, no, no! Not to curse, not to curse. When did mother curse the
child she bore? Not to curse, but to bless thee. To bless thee and
forgive."

"Tear her away," cried the prophet; "let Opitchi-Manneyto have his
slave."

"Tear her away, Malatchie," cried the crowd, now impatient for the
execution. Malatchie approached.

"Not yet, not yet," appealed the woman. "Shall not the mother say
farewell to the child she shall see no more?" and she waved Malatchie
back, and in the next instant drew hastily from the drapery of her
dress a small hatchet, which she had there carefully concealed.

"What wouldst thou do, Matiwan?" asked Occonestoga, as his eye caught
the glare of the weapon.

"Save thee, my boy--save thee for thy mother, Occonestoga--save thee
for the happy valley."

"Wouldst thou slay me, mother, wouldst strike the heart of thy son?"
he asked, with a something of reluctance to receive death from the
hands of a parent.

"I strike thee but to save thee, my son; since they cannot take the
totem from thee after the life is gone. Turn away from me thy
head--let me not look upon thine eyes as I strike, lest my hands grow
weak and tremble. Turn thine eyes away; I will not lose thee."

His eyes closed, and the fatal instrument, lifted above her head, was
now visible in the sight of all. The executioner rushed forward to
interpose, but he came too late. The tomahawk was driven deep into the
skull, and but a single sentence from his lips preceded the final
insensibility of the victim.

"It is good, Matiwan, it is good; thou hast saved me; the death is in
my heart." And back he sank as he spoke, while a shriek of mingled joy
and horror from the lips of the mother announced the success of her
effort to defeat the doom, the most dreadful in the imagination of the
Yemassee.

"He is not lost, he is not lost. They may not take the child from his
mother. They may not keep him from the valley of Manneyto. He is
free--he is free." And she fell back in a deep swoon into the arms of
Sanutee, who by this time had approached. She had defrauded
Opitchi-Manneyto of his victim, for they may not remove the badge of
the nation from any but the living victim.

MARION.

"_The Swamp Fox._"

(_From the Partisan._)

I.

We follow where the Swamp Fox guides,
His friends and merry men are we;