s entirely opposed to such a sacrifice of life
as would most probably follow any attempt to assault an enemy entrenched
as effectually as the Delaware. Instead of following the Ark, therefore,
these three warriors inclined towards the eastern shore, keeping at
a safe distance from the rifles of Chingachgook. But this manoeuvre
rendered the position of the girls exceedingly critical. It threatened
to place them if not between two fires, at least between two dangers, or
what they conceived to be dangers, and instead of permitting the Hurons
to enclose her, in what she fancied a sort of net, Judith immediately
commenced her retreat in a southern direction, at no very great distance
from the shore. She did not dare to land; if such an expedient were
to be resorted to at all, she could only venture on it in the last
extremity. At first the Indians paid little or no attention to the other
canoe, for, fully apprised of its contents, they deemed its capture
of comparatively little moment, while the Ark, with its imaginary
treasures, the persons of the Delaware and of Hurry, and its means of
movement on a large scale, was before them. But this Ark had its
dangers as well as its temptations, and after wasting near an hour in
vacillating evolutions, always at a safe distance from the rifle, the
Hurons seemed suddenly to take their resolution, and began to display it
by giving eager chase to the girls.

When this last design was adopted, the circumstances of all parties, as
connected with their relative positions, were materially changed.
The Ark had sailed and drifted quite half a mile, and was nearly that
distance due north of the castle. As soon as the Delaware perceived that
the girls avoided him, unable to manage his unwieldy craft, and knowing
that flight from a bark canoe, in the event of pursuit, would be a
useless expedient if attempted, he had lowered his sail, in the hope it
might induce the sisters to change their plan and to seek refuge in the
scow. This demonstration produced no other effect than to keep the Ark
nearer to the scene of action, and to enable those in her to become
witnesses of the chase. The canoe of Judith was about a quarter of a
mile south of that of the Hurons, a little nearer to the east shore, and
about the same distance to the southward of the castle as it was from
the hostile canoe, a circumstance which necessarily put the last nearly
abreast of Hutter's fortress. With the several parties thus si