o more upon the subject. At this time the party could
hear the noise of heavy footsteps above them. They were those of the Red
Man, and sounded with slow and measured tread. They listened for a
quarter of an hour longer, in expectation that they would cease. There
was no pause: the steps continued, and seemed to indicate that the
person was amusing himself by walking up and down the room. It would be
impossible to describe the multiplicity of feelings which agitated the
minds of the company. Fear, surprise, anger, and curiosity, ruled them
by turns and kept them incessantly upon the rack. There was something
mysterious in the visiter who had just left them--something which they
could not fathom--something unaccountable. 'Who could he be?' This was
the question that each put to the other, but no one could give any thing
like a rational answer. Meanwhile the evening wore on apace, and though
the bell of the parish church hard by sounded the tenth hour, no one
seemed inclined to take the hint to depart. Even the parson heard it
without regard, to such a pitch was his curiosity excited. About this
time also the sky, which had hitherto been tolerably clear, began to be
overclouded. Distant peals of thunder were heard; and thick sultry drops
of rain pattered at intervals against the casement of the inn: every
thing seemed to indicate a tempestuous evening. But the storm which
threatened to rage without was unnoticed.--Though the drops fell
heavily; though gleams of lightning flashed by, followed by the report
of distant thunder, and the winds began to hiss and whistle among the
trees of the neighbouring cemetery, yet all these external signs of
elementary tumult were as nothing to the deep, solemn footsteps of the
Red Man. There seemed to be no end to his walking. An hour had he paced
up and down the chamber without the least interval of repose, and he was
still engaged in this occupation as at first. In this there was
something incredibly mysterious; and the party below, notwithstanding
their numbers, felt a vague and indescribable dread beginning to creep
over them. The more they reflected upon the character of the stranger,
the more unnatural did it appear. The redness of his hair and
complexion, and, still more the fiery hue of his garment, struck them
with astonishment. But this was little to the freezing and benumbing
glance of his eye, the strange tones of his voice, and his miraculous
birth on the borders of the Red Sea