ot a father's heart to be agonised--a
father's eye to be blasted--with a view of the mangled remains of him
to whom he has given life."

Again the savage rudely pulled the thong that bound his prisoner to his
girdle, and removing his tomahawk from his belt, and holding its
sullied point close under the eye of the former, exclaimed, as he bent
eagerly over him,--

"See you this, Captain de Haldimar? At the still hour of midnight,
while you had abandoned your guard to revel in the arms of your Indian
beauty, I stole into the fort by means of the same rope that you had
used in quitting it. Unseen by the sentinels I gained your father's
apartment. It was the first time we had met for twenty years; and I do
believe that had the very devil presented himself in my place, he would
have been received with fewer marks of horror. Oh, how that proud man's
eye twinkled beneath this glittering blade! He attempted to call out,
but my look paralysed his tongue, and cold drops of sweat stole rapidly
down his brow and cheek. Then it was that my seared heart once more
beat with the intoxication of triumph. Your father was alone and
unarmed, and throughout the fort not a sound was to be heard, save the
distant tread of the sentinels. I could have laid him dead, at my feet
at a single blow, and yet have secured my retreat. But no, that was not
my object. I came to taunt him with the promise of my revenge--to tell
him the hour of my triumph was approaching fast; and, ha!" he
concluded, laughing hideously as he passed his large rude hand through
the wavy hair of the now uncovered officer, "this is, indeed, a fair
and unexpected first earnest of the full redemption of my pledge.
No--no!" he continued, as if talking to himself, "he must not die.
Tantulus-like, he shall have death ever apparently within his grasp;
but, until all his race have perished before his eyes, he shall not
attain it."

Hitherto the Indians had preserved an attitude of calm, listening to
the interrogatories put to the prisoner with that wonder and curiosity
with which a savage people hear a language different from their own;
and marking the several emotions that were elicited in the course of
the animated colloquy of the pale faces. Gradually, however, they
became impatient under its duration; and many of them, in the
excitement produced by the fierce manner of him who was called
Wacousta, fixed their dark eyes upon the captive, while they grasped
the handles of their