some of them set up, of
"Long-knives! Long-knives!" as if the savages supposed themselves
suddenly beset by a whole army of charging Kentuckians.

It was at this moment of dismay and confusion, that Nathan rose from the
earth, and, all other paths being now cut off, darted across a corner of
the square towards the river, which was in a quarter opposite to that
whence the sounds came, in hopes to reach the alder-thicket on its banks,
before being observed. And this, perhaps, he would have succeeded in
reaching, had not Fortune, which seemed this night to give a loose to all
her fickleness, prepared a new and greater difficulty.

As he rose from the bushes, some savage, possessed of greater presence of
mind than his fellows, cast a decaying brand from the fire into the heap
of dried grass and maize-husks, designed for their couches, which,
bursting immediately into a furious flame, illuminated the whole square
and village, and revealed, as it was designed to do, the cause of the
wondrous uproar. A dozen or more horses were instantly seen galloping
into the square, followed by a larger and denser herd behind, all
agitated by terror, all plunging, rearing, prancing, and kicking, as if
possessed by a legion of evil spirits, though driven, as was made
apparent by the yells which the Indians set up on seeing him, by nothing
more than the agency of a human being.

At the first flash of the flames seizing upon the huge bed of straw, and
whirling up in the gust in a prodigious volume, Nathan gave up all for
lost, not doubting that he would be instantly seen and assailed. But the
spectacle of their horses dashing madly into the square, with the cause
of the tumult seen struggling among them, in the apparition of a white
man, sitting aloft, entangled inextricably in the thickest of the herd,
and evidently borne forward with no consent of his own, was metal more
attractive for Indian eyes; and Nathan perceived that he was not only
neglected in the confusion by all, but was likely to remain so, long
enough to enable him to put the thicket betwixt him and the danger of
discovery.

"The knave has endangered us, and to the value of the scalp on his own
foolish head;" muttered Nathan, his indignation speaking in a voice
louder than a whisper: "but, truly, he will pay the price: and, truly,
his loss is the maiden's redeeming!"

He darted forwards as he spoke; but his words had reached the ears of
one, who, cowering like himself amon