der. Word had
reached Albany of dubious import; it had been rumoured some hostility
was to be put in act; and the Indian diplomatist had, thereupon, sped
into the Wilderness, even at the approach of winter, to nip that
mischief in the bud. Here, on the borders, he learned that he was come
too late; and a difficult choice was thus presented to a man (upon the
whole) not any more bold than prudent. His standing with the painted
braves may be compared to that of my Lord President Culloden among the
chiefs of our own Highlanders at the 'Forty-five; that is as much as to
say, he was, to these men, reason's only speaking-trumpet, and counsels
of peace and moderation, if they were to prevail at all, must prevail
singly through his influence. If, then, he should return, the province
must lie open to all the abominable tragedies of Indian war--the houses
blaze, the wayfarer be cut off, and the men of the woods collect their
usual disgusting spoil of human scalps. On the other side, to go farther
forth, to risk so small a party deeper in the desert, to carry words of
peace among warlike savages already rejoicing to return to war: here was
an extremity from which it was easy to perceive his mind revolted.

"I have come too late," he said more than once, and would fall into a
deep consideration, his head bowed in his hands, his foot patting the
ground.

At length he raised his face and looked upon us, that is to say, upon my
lord, Mountain, and myself, sitting close round a small fire, which had
been made for privacy in one corner of the camp.

"My lord, to be quite frank with you, I find myself in two minds," said
he. "I think it very needful I should go on, but not at all proper I
should any longer enjoy the pleasure of your company. We are here still
upon the water-side; and I think the risk to southward no great matter.
Will not yourself and Mr. Mackellar take a single boat's crew and return
to Albany?"

My lord, I should say, had listened to Mountain's narrative, regarding
him throughout with a painful intensity of gaze; and, since the tale
concluded, had sat as in a dream. There was something very daunting in
his look; something to my eyes not rightly human; the face lean, and
dark, and aged, the mouth painful, the teeth disclosed in a perpetual
rictus; the eyeball swimming clear of the lids upon a field of
blood-shot white. I could not behold him myself without a jarring
irritation, such as, I believe, is too frequently