is here to be seen! Revenge is an Indian feeling,
and all who know me know that there is no cross in my veins; but this
much will I say--here, in the face of heaven, and with the power of the
Lord so manifest in this howling wilderness,--that should these
Frenchers ever trust themselves again within the range of a ragged
bullet, there is one rifle shall play its part, so long as flint will
fire or powder burn! I leave the tomahawk and knife to such as have a
natural gift to use them. What say you, Chingachgook," he added in
Delaware; "shall the Hurons boast of this to their women when the deep
snows come?"

A gleam of resentment flashed across the dark lineaments of the Mohican
chief: he loosened his knife in its sheath; and then turning calmly from
the sight, his countenance settled into a repose as deep as if he never
knew the instigation of passion.

"Montcalm! Montcalm!" continued the deeply resentful and less
self-restrained scout; "they say a time must come, when all the deeds
done in the flesh will be seen at a single look; and that by eyes
cleared from mortal infirmities. Woe betide the wretch who is born to
behold this plain, with the judgment hanging about his soul! Ha--as I am
a man of white blood, yonder lies a redskin, without the hair of his
head where nature rooted it! Look to him, Delaware; it may be one of
your missing people; and he should have burial like a stout warrior. I
see it in your eye, Sagamore: a Huron pays for this, afore the fall
winds have blown away the scent of the blood!"

Chingachgook approached the mutilated form, and turning it over, he
found the distinguishing marks of one of those six allied tribes, or
nations, as they were called, who, while they fought in the English
ranks, were so deadly hostile to his own people. Spurning the loathsome
object with his foot, he turned from it with the same indifference he
would have quitted a brute carcass. The scout comprehended the action,
and very deliberately pursued his own way, continuing, however, his
denunciations against the French commander in the same resentful strain.

"Nothing but vast wisdom and unlimited power should dare to sweep off
men in multitudes," he added; "for it is only the one that can know the
necessity of the judgment; and what is there, short of the other, that
can replace the creatures of the Lord? I hold it a sin to kill the
second buck afore the first is eaten, unless a march in the front, or an
ambushment, b