out
distinction of sex, or rank, or color."

The scout listened to the tremulous voice in which the veteran delivered
these words, and shook his head slowly when they were ended, as one who
doubted their efficacy.

"To tell them this," he said, "would be to tell them that the snows come
not in the winter, or that the sun shines fiercest when the trees are
stripped of their leaves."

Then turning to the women, he made such a communication of the other's
gratitude as he deemed most suited to the capacities of his listeners.
The head of Munro had already sunk upon his chest, and he was again
fast relapsing into melancholy, when the young Frenchman before named
ventured to touch him lightly on the elbow. As soon as he had gained the
attention of the mourning old man, he pointed toward a group of young
Indians, who approached with a light but closely covered litter, and
then pointed upward toward the sun.

"I understand you, sir," returned Munro, with a voice of forced
firmness; "I understand you. It is the will of Heaven, and I submit.
Cora, my child! if the prayers of a heart-broken father could avail thee
now, how blessed shouldst thou be! Come, gentlemen," he added, looking
about him with an air of lofty composure, though the anguish that
quivered in his faded countenance was far too powerful to be concealed,
"our duty here is ended; let us depart."

Heyward gladly obeyed a summons that took them from a spot where, each
instant, he felt his self-control was about to desert him. While his
companions were mounting, however, he found time to press the hand of
the scout, and to repeat the terms of an engagement they had made to
meet again within the posts of the British army. Then, gladly throwing
himself into the saddle, he spurred his charger to the side of the
litter, whence low and stifled sobs alone announced the presence of
Alice. In this manner, the head of Munro again drooping on his bosom,
with Heyward and David following in sorrowing silence, and attended
by the aide of Montcalm with his guard, all the white men, with the
exception of Hawkeye, passed from before the eyes of the Delawares, and
were buried in the vast forests of that region.

But the tie which, through their common calamity, had united the
feelings of these simple dwellers in the woods with the strangers who
had thus transiently visited them, was not so easily broken. Years
passed away before the traditionary tale of the white maiden, and of