d of all men, I sat me
down far on the border. But the Shawnees came upon me, and came as men of
war, and their hands were red with the blood of my neighbours, and they
raised them against my little infants. Thee asked me in the wood, what I
would do in such case, having arms in my hand? Friend, I _had_ arms in my
hand, at that moment,--a gun that had shot me the beasts of the mountain
for food, and a knife that had pierced the throats of bears in their
dens. I gave them to the Shawnee chief, that he might know I was a
friend.--Friend! if thee asks me now for my children, I can tell
thee--With my own knife he struck down my eldest boy! with my own gun
he slew the mother of my children!--If thee should live till thee is
gray, thee will never see the sight I saw that day! When thee has
children that Injuns murder, as thee stands by,--a wife that clasps thee
legs in the writhing of death,--her blood, spouting up to thee bosom,
where she has slept,--an old mother calling thee to help her in the
death-struggle:--then, friend, _then_ thee may see--then thee
may know--then thee may feel--then thee may call theeself wretched, for
thee will be so! Here was my little boy,--does thee see? there his two
sisters--thee understands?--there--Thee may think I would have snatched a
weapon to help them _then_! Well, thee is right:--but it was too
late!--All murdered, friend!--all--all,--all cruelly murdered!"

It is impossible to convey an idea of the extraordinary vehemence, the
wild accents, the frantic looks, with which Nathan ended the horrid
story, into which he had been betrayed by his repining companion. His
struggles to subdue the passions that the dreadful recollections of a
whole family's butchery awoke in his bosom, only served to add double
distortion to his changes of countenance, which, a better index of the
convulsion within than were his broken, incoherent, half-inarticulate
words, assumed at last an appearance so wild, so hideous, so truly
terrific, that Roland was seized with horror, deeming himself confronted
with a raging maniac. He raised his hand to remove that of Nathan, which
still clutched his arm, and clutched it with painful force; but while in
the act, the fingers relaxed of themselves, and Nathan dropped suddenly
to the earth, as if struck down by a thunderbolt, his mouth foaming, his
eyes distorted, his hands clenched, his body convulsed,--in short,
exhibiting every proof of an epileptic fit, brought on by ove