le Tamenund,
supported by the elders of his nation, occupied a high place at hand,
whence he might look down on the mute and sorrowful assemblage of his
people.

Just within the inner edge of the circle stood a soldier, in the
military attire of a strange nation; and without it was his warhorse, in
the center of a collection of mounted domestics, seemingly in readiness
to undertake some distant journey. The vestments of the stranger
announced him to be one who held a responsible situation near the person
of the captain of the Canadas; and who, as it would now seem, finding
his errand of peace frustrated by the fierce impetuosity of his allies,
was content to become a silent and sad spectator of the fruits of a
contest that he had arrived too late to anticipate.

The day was drawing to the close of its first quarter, and yet had the
multitude maintained its breathing stillness since its dawn.

No sound louder than a stifled sob had been heard among them, nor had
even a limb been moved throughout that long and painful period, except
to perform the simple and touching offerings that were made, from time
to time, in commemoration of the dead. The patience and forbearance of
Indian fortitude could alone support such an appearance of abstraction,
as seemed now to have turned each dark and motionless figure into stone.

At length, the sage of the Delawares stretched forth an arm, and leaning
on the shoulders of his attendants, he arose with an air as feeble as
if another age had already intervened between the man who had met his
nation the preceding day, and him who now tottered on his elevated
stand.

"Men of the Lenape!" he said, in low, hollow tones, that sounded like a
voice charged with some prophetic mission: "the face of the Manitou
is behind a cloud! His eye is turned from you; His ears are shut; His
tongue gives no answer. You see him not; yet His judgments are before
you. Let your hearts be open and your spirits tell no lie. Men of the
Lenape! the face of the Manitou is behind a cloud."

As this simple and yet terrible annunciation stole on the ears of the
multitude, a stillness as deep and awful succeeded as if the venerated
spirit they worshiped had uttered the words without the aid of human
organs; and even the inanimate Uncas appeared a being of life, compared
with the humbled and submissive throng by whom he was surrounded. As the
immediate effect, however, gradually passed away, a low murmur of voices
co