children had borne before him.

"Ay, dog, thee dies at last! at last I have caught thee!"

With these words, Nathan, leaving the shattered skull, dashed the
tomahawk into the Indian's chest, snatched the scalping-knife from the
belt, and with one grinding sweep of the blade, and one fierce jerk of
his arm, the gray scalp-lock of the warrior was torn from the dishonoured
head. The last proof of the slayer's ferocity was not given until he had
twice, with his utmost strength, drawn the knife over the dead man's
breast, dividing skin, cartilage, and even bone, before it, so sharp was
the blade and so powerful the hand that urged it.

Then, leaping to his feet, and snatching from the post the bundle
of withered scalps--the locks and ringlets of his own murdered
family,--which he spread a moment before his eyes with one hand, while
the other extended, as if to contrast the two prizes together, the
reeking scalp-lock of the murderer, he sprang through the door of the
lodge, and fled from the village; but not until he had, in the insane
fury of the moment, given forth a wild, ear-piercing yell, that spoke the
triumph, the exulting transport, of long-baffled but never-dying revenge.
The wild whoop, thus rising in the depth and stillness of the night,
startled many a wakeful warrior and timorous mother from their repose.
But such sounds in a disorderly hamlet of barbarians were too common to
create alarm or uneasiness; and the wary and the timid again betook
themselves to their dreams, leaving the corse of their chief to stiffen
on the floor of his own wigwam.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

From an uneasy slumber, into which, notwithstanding his sufferings of
mind and body, he had at last fallen, Roland was roused at the break of
day by a horrible clamour, that suddenly arose in the village. A shrill
scream, that seemed to come from a female voice, was first heard; then a
wild yell from the lungs of a warrior, which was caught up and repeated
by other voices; and, in a few moments, the whole town resounded with
shrieks dismal and thrilling, and expressing astonishment mingled with
fear and horror.

The prisoner, incapable of comprehending the cause of such a commotion,
looked to his guards, who had started up at the first cry, grasped their
arms, and stood gazing upon one another with perturbed looks of inquiry.
The shriek was repeated, by one,--twenty,--a hundred throats; and the two
warriors, with hurried exclamations of alarm