it seemed, out of the earth, and rushing with
wild yells against the ruin. The suddenness and fury of the attack struck
dismay to the bosom of the soldier, who, discharging his rifle, and
snatching up his pistols, already in imagination beheld the bloody
fingers of a barbarian grasped among the bright locks of his Edith; when
Nathan, crying, "Blood upon my hands, but not upon my head!--give it to
them, murdering dogs!" let fly his own piece upon the throng; the effect
of which, together with the discharge of Roland's pistols immediately
after, was such as to stagger the assailants, of whom but a single one
preserved resolution enough to advance upon the defenders, whooping to
his companions in vain to follow. "Thee will remember I fight to save the
lives of thee helpless women!" muttered Nathan, in Roland's ear; and then
as if the first act of warfare had released him for ever from all
peaceful obligations, awakened a courage and appetite for blood superior
even to the soldier's, and, in other words, set him entirely beside
himself, he rushed against the advancing Shawnee, dealing him a blow with
the butt of his heavy stocked rifle that crushed through skull and brain
as through a gourd, killing the man on the spot. Then leaping like a buck
to avoid the shot of the others, he rushed back to the ruin, and grasping
the hand of the admiring soldier, and wringing it with all his might, he
cried, "Thee sees what thee has brought me to! Friend, thee has seen me
shed a man's blood!--But, nevertheless, friend, the villains shall not
kill thee poor women, nor harm a hair of their heads."

The valour of the man of peace was fortunately seconded on this occasion
by Dodge and the negro, the former from his hiding place in the ravine,
the latter from among the ruins; and the enemy, thus seriously warned of
the danger of approaching too nigh a fortress manned by what very
naturally appeared to them eight different persons,--for such, including
the pistols, was the number of fire-arms,--retired precipitately to the
woods, where they expressed their hostility only by occasional whoops,
and now and then by a shot fired impotently against the ruins.

The success of this second defence, the spirited behaviour of Dodge and
Emperor, but more than all the happy change in the principles and
practice of Nathan, who seemed as if about to prove that he could deserve
the nickname of Tiger so long bestowed upon him in derision, greatly
relieved t