sociates. With a view
to assist his plans, by any suggestion of his own, and to strengthen the
temptation, he left the beech, and straggled as if without an object, to
the spot where Le Renard was seated.

"Has not Magua kept the sun in his face long enough to escape all danger
from the Canadians?" he asked, as though no longer doubtful of the good
intelligence established between them; "and will not the chief of
William Henry be better pleased to see his daughters before another
night may have hardened his heart to their loss, to make him less
liberal in his reward?"

"Do the pale-faces love their children less in the morning than at
night?" asked the Indian, coldly.

"By no means," returned Heyward, anxious to recall his error, if he had
made one; "the white man may, and does often, forget the burial-place of
his fathers; he sometimes ceases to remember those he should love and
has promised to cherish; but the affection of a parent for his child is
never permitted to die."

"And is the heart of the white-headed chief soft, and will he think of
the babes that his squaws have given him? He is hard to his warriors,
and his eyes are made of stone!"

"He is severe to the idle and wicked, but to the sober and deserving he
is a leader, but just and humane. I have known many fond and tender
parents, but never have I seen a man whose heart was softer towards his
child. You have seen the gray-head in front of his warriors, Magua; but
I have seen his eyes swimming in water, when he spoke of those children
who are now in your power!"

Heyward paused, for he knew not how to construe the remarkable
expression that gleamed across the swarthy features of the attentive
Indian. At first it seemed as if the remembrance of the promised reward
grew vivid in his mind, while he listened to the sources of parental
feeling which were to assure its possession; but as Duncan proceeded,
the expression of joy became so fiercely malignant, that it was
impossible not to apprehend it proceeded from some passion more sinister
than avarice.

"Go," said the Huron, suppressing the alarming exhibition in an instant,
in a death-like calmness of countenance; "go to the dark-haired
daughter, and say, Magua waits to speak. The father will remember what
the child promises."

Duncan, who interpreted this speech to express a wish for some
additional pledge that the promised gifts should not be withheld,
slowly and reluctantly repaired to the place wh