me saved their own lives,
and, it may be, the lives of better men too."

Heyward lent his attention for a single moment to his companion, but
without replying, he again turned towards those who just then interested
him more. He heard the two Hurons leave the bushes, and it was soon
plain that all the pursuers were gathered about them, in deep attention
to their report. After a few minutes of earnest and solemn dialogue,
altogether different from the noisy clamor with which they had first
collected about the spot, the sounds grew fainter and more distant, and
finally were lost in the depths of the forest.

Hawkeye waited until a signal from the listening Chingachgook assured
him that every sound from the retiring party was completely swallowed by
the distance, when he motioned to Heyward to lead forth the horses, and
to assist the sisters into their saddles. The instant this was done,
they issued through the broken gateway, and stealing out by a direction
opposite to the one by which they had entered, they quitted the spot,
the sisters casting furtive glances at the silent grave and crumbling
ruin, as they left the soft light of the moon, to bury themselves in the
gloom of the woods.

CHAPTER XIV

"_Guard._--Qui est la?

_Puc._--Paisans, pauvres gens de France."

_King Henry VI._

During the rapid movement from the block-house, and until the party was
deeply buried in the forest, each individual was too much interested in
the escape to hazard a word even in whispers. The scout resumed his post
in the advance, though his steps, after he had thrown a safe distance
between himself and his enemies, were more deliberate than in their
previous march, in consequence of his utter ignorance of the localities
of the surrounding woods. More than once he halted to consult with his
confederates, the Mohicans, pointing upwards at the moon, and examining
the barks of the trees with care. In these brief pauses, Heyward and the
sisters listened, with senses rendered doubly acute by the danger, to
detect any symptoms which might announce the proximity of their foes. At
such moments, it seemed as if a vast range of country lay buried in
eternal sleep; not the least sound arising from the forest, unless it
was the distant and scarcely audible rippling of a water-course. Birds,
beasts, and man, appeared to slumber alike, if, indeed, any of the
latter were to be found in that wide tract of wilderness. But the sounds
of