fe, harder still is that of the
white captive. 'Tis hers to endure all the ills enumerated, with still
another--the hostility of the squaw herself. The white captive is truly
the slave of a slave, the victim of a treble antipathy--of race, of
colour, of jealousy. Ofttimes is she beaten, abused, mutilated; and
rarely does the apathetic lord interfere to protect her from this
feminine but fiend-like persecution.

These were not imaginings; they were not fancies begot in my own brain.
Would they had been so! Too well did I know they were facts--horrid
realities.

Can you wonder that sleep was shaken from my eyelids?--that I could not
think of rest or stay, till I had delivered my loved one--my betrothed--
from the danger of such a destiny?

All thought of sleep was banished--even weariness forsook me. I felt
fresh as if I had slept; my nerves were strung for emprise. It was but
the excitement renewed by what I had read--the impatience of a new and
keen apprehension.

I would have mounted and gone forward, spurning rest and sleep;
regardless of danger, would I have followed; but what could I do alone?

Ay, and what with my few followers?

Ha! I had not thought of this; up to that moment, I had not put this
important question, and I had need to reflect upon the answer. What if
we should overtake this band of brigands? Booty-laden as they were, and
cumbered with captives, surely we could come up with them, by night or
by day; but what then? Ay, what then?

There were nine of us, and we were in pursuit of a war-party of at least
one hundred in number!--one hundred braves armed and equipped for
battle--the choice warriors of their tribe--flushed with late success,
and vengeful against ourselves on account of former defeat. If
conquered, we need look for no mercy at their hands; _if_ conquered--how
could it be otherwise? Nine against a hundred! How could _we_ conquer?

Up to this moment, I say, I had not thought of the result I was borne
along by only one impulse--the idea of overtaking the steed, and
rescuing his rider from her perilous situation. It was only within the
hour that her peril had assumed a new phase; only an hour since we had
learned that she had escaped from one danger to be brought within the
influence of another.

At first had I felt joy, but the feeling was of short existence, for I
now recognised in the new situation a greater peril than that she had
outlived. She had been rescued fr