f he is to be tortured, his
torments shall be such as no common man can bear; if he is to be treated
as a friend, it will be the friendship of chiefs."

As the Huron uttered this extraordinary assurance of consideration, his
eye furtively glanced at the countenance of his listener, in order to
discover how he stood the compliment, though his gravity and apparent
sincerity would have prevented any man but one practised in artifices,
from detecting his motives. Deerslayer belonged to the class of the
unsuspicious, and acquainted with the Indian notions of what constitutes
respect, in matters connected with the treatment of captives, he felt
his blood chill at the announcement, even while he maintained an aspect
so steeled that his quick sighted enemy could discover in it no signs of
weakness.

"God has put me in your hands, Huron," the captive at length answered,
"and I suppose you will act your will on me. I shall not boast of what
I can do, under torment, for I've never been tried, and no man can say
till he has been; but I'll do my endivours not to disgrace the people
among whom I got my training. Howsever, I wish you now to bear witness
that I'm altogether of white blood, and, in a nat'ral way of white gifts
too; so, should I be overcome and forget myself, I hope you'll lay
the fault where it properly belongs, and in no manner put it on the
Delawares, or their allies and friends the Mohicans. We're all created
with more or less weakness, and I'm afeard it's a pale-face's to give
in under great bodily torment, when a red-skin will sing his songs, and
boast of his deeds in the very teeth of his foes."

"We shall see. Hawkeye has a good countenance, and he is tough-but why
should he be tormented, when the Hurons love him? He is not born their
enemy, and the death of one warrior will not cast a cloud between them
forever."

"So much the better, Huron; so much the better. Still I don't wish to
owe any thing to a mistake about each other's meaning. It is so much
the better that you bear no malice for the loss of a warrior who fell
in war, and yet it is ontrue that there is no inmity--lawful inmity
I mean--atween us. So far as I have red-skin feelin's at all, I've
Delaware feelin's, and I leave you to judge for yourself how far they
are likely to be fri'ndly to the Mingos--"

Deerslayer ceased, for a sort of spectre stood before him, that put a
stop to his words, and, indeed, caused him for a moment to doubt the
fideli