she coldly said; and
immediately turning to Hawkeye, added: "Generous hunter! from my soul I
thank you. Your offer is vain, neither could it be accepted; but still
you may serve me, even more than in your own noble intention. Look at
that drooping humbled child! Abandon her not until you leave her in the
habitations of civilized men. I will not say," wringing the hard hand of
the scout, "that her father will reward you--for such as you are above
the rewards of men--but he will thank you and bless you. And, believe
me, the blessing of a just and aged man has virtue in the sight of
Heaven. Would to God I could hear one word from his lips at this awful
moment!" Her voice became choked, and, for an instant, she was silent;
then, advancing a step nigher to Duncan, who was supporting her
unconscious sister, she continued, in more subdued tones, but in which
feeling and the habits of her sex maintained a fearful struggle: "I need
not tell you to cherish the treasure you will possess. You love her,
Heyward; that would conceal a thousand faults, though she had them. She
is kind, gentle, sweet, good, as mortal may be. There is not a blemish
in mind or person at which the proudest of you all would sicken. She
is fair--oh! how surpassingly fair!" laying her own beautiful, but less
brilliant, hand in melancholy affection on the alabaster forehead of
Alice, and parting the golden hair which clustered about her brows; "and
yet her soul is pure and spotless as her skin! I could say much--more,
perhaps, than cooler reason would approve; but I will spare you and
myself--" Her voice became inaudible, and her face was bent over the
form of her sister. After a long and burning kiss, she arose, and with
features of the hue of death, but without even a tear in her feverish
eye, she turned away, and added, to the savage, with all her former
elevation of manner: "Now, sir, if it be your pleasure, I will follow."

"Ay, go," cried Duncan, placing Alice in the arms of an Indian girl;
"go, Magua, go. These Delawares have their laws, which forbid them to
detain you; but I--I have no such obligation. Go, malignant monster--why
do you delay?"

It would be difficult to describe the expression with which Magua
listened to this threat to follow. There was at first a fierce and
manifest display of joy, and then it was instantly subdued in a look of
cunning coldness.

"The words are open," he was content with answering, "'The Open Hand'
can come."

"H