The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757

by James Fenimore Cooper

  CHAPTER IX.

  "Be gay securely; Dispel, my fair, with smiles, the tim'rous clouds, That hang on thy clear brow."

  _Death of Agrippina._

  The sudden and almost magical change, from the stirring incidents of thecombat to the stillness that now reigned around him, acted on the heatedimagination of Heyward like some exciting dream. While all the imagesand events he had witnessed remained deeply impressed on his memory, hefelt a difficulty in persuading himself of their truth. Still ignorantof the fate of those who had trusted to the aid of the swift current, heat first listened intently to any signal, or sounds of alarm, whichmight announce the good or evil fortune of their hazardous undertaking.His attention was, however, bestowed in vain; for, with thedisappearance of Uncas, every sign of the adventurers had been lost,leaving him in total uncertainty of their fate.

  In a moment of such painful doubt, Duncan did not hesitate to look abouthim, without consulting that protection from the rocks which just beforehad been so necessary to his safety. Every effort, however, to detectthe least evidence of the approach of their hidden enemies, was asfruitless as the inquiry after his late companions. The wooded banks ofthe rivers seemed again deserted by everything possessing animal life.The uproar which had so lately echoed through the vaults of the forestwas gone, leaving the rush of the waters to swell and sink on thecurrents of the air, in the unmingled sweetness of nature. A fish-hawk,which, secure on the topmost branches of a dead pine, had been a distantspectator of the fray, now stooped from his high and ragged perch, andsoared, in wide sweeps, above his prey; while a jay, whose noisy voicehad been stilled by the hoarser cries of the savages, ventured again toopen his discordant throat, as though once more in undisturbedpossession of his wild domains. Duncan caught from these naturalaccompaniments of the solitary scene a glimmering of hope; and he beganto rally his faculties to renewed exertions, with something like areviving confidence of success.

  "The Hurons are not to be seen," he said, addressing David, who had byno means recovered from the effects of the stunning blow he hadreceived; "let us conceal ourselves in the cavern, and trust the rest toProvidence."

  "I remember to have united with two comely maidens, in lifting up ourvoices in praise and thanksgiving," returned the bewilderedsinging-master; "since which time I have been visited by a heavyjudgment for my sins. I have been mocked with the likeness of sleep,while sounds of discord have rent my ears, such as might manifest thefulness of time, and that nature had forgotten her harmony."

  "Poor fellow! thine own period was, in truth, near its accomplishment!But arouse, and come with me; I will lead you where all other sounds butthose of your own psalmody shall be excluded."

  "There is melody in the fall of the cataract, and the rushing of manywaters is sweet to the senses!" said David, pressing his hand confusedlyon his brow. "Is not the air yet filled with shrieks and cries, asthough the departed spirits of the damned--"

  "Not now, not now," interrupted the impatient Heyward, "they haveceased, and they who raised them, I trust in God, they are gone too!everything but the water is still and at peace; in, then, where you maycreate those sounds you love so well to hear."

  David smiled sadly, though not without a momentary gleam of pleasure, atthis allusion to his beloved vocation. He no longer hesitated to be ledto a spot which promised such unalloyed gratification to his weariedsenses; and, leaning on the arm of his companion, he entered the narrowmouth of the cave. Duncan seized a pile of the sassafras, which he drewbefore the passage, studiously concealing every appearance of anaperture. Within this fragile barrier he arranged the blankets abandonedby the foresters, darkening the inner extremity of the cavern, while itsouter received a chastened light from the narrow ravine, through whichone arm of the river rushed, to form the junction with its sisterbranch, a few rods below.

  "I like not that principle of the natives, which teaches them to submitwithout a struggle, in emergencies that appear desperate," he said,while busied in this employment; "our own maxim, which says, 'while liferemains there is hope,' is more consoling, and better suited to asoldier's temperament. To you, Cora, I will urge no words of idleencouragement; your own fortitude and undisturbed reason will teach youall that may become your sex; but cannot we dry the tears of thattrembling weeper on your bosom?"

  "I am calmer, Duncan," said Alice, raising herself from the arms of hersister, and forcing an appearance of composure through her tears; "muchcalmer, now. Surely, in this hidden spot we are safe, we are secret,free from injury; we will hope everything from those generous men whohave risked so much already in our behalf."

  "Now does our gentle Alice speak like a daughter of Munro!" saidHeyward, pausing to press her hand as he passed towards the outerentrance of the cavern. "With two such examples of courage before him, aman would be ashamed to prove other than a hero." He then seated himselfin the centre of the cavern, grasping his remaining pistol with a handconvulsively clenched, while his contracted and frowning eye announcedthe sullen desperation of his purpose. "The Hurons, if they come, maynot gain our position so easily as they think," he lowly muttered; anddropping his head back against the rock, he seemed to await the resultin patience, though his gaze was unceasingly bent on the open avenue totheir place of retreat.

  With the last sound of his voice, a deep, a long, and almost breathlesssilence succeeded. The fresh air of the morning had penetrated therecess, and its influence was gradually felt on the spirits of itsinmates. As minute after minute passed by, leaving them in undisturbedsecurity, the insinuating feeling of hope was gradually gainingpossession of every bosom, though each one felt reluctant to giveutterance to expectations that the next moment might so fearfullydestroy.

  David alone formed an exception to these varying emotions. A gleam oflight from the opening crossed his wan countenance, and fell upon thepages of the little volume, whose leaves he was again occupied inturning, as if searching for some song more fitted to their conditionthan any that had yet met his eye. He was, most probably, acting allthis time under a confused recollection of the promised consolation ofDuncan. At length, it would seem, his patient industry found its reward;for, without explanation or apology, he pronounced aloud the words "Isleof Wight," drew a long, sweet sound from his pitch-pipe, and then ranthrough the preliminary modulations of the air, whose name he had justmentioned with the sweeter tones of his own musical voice.

  "May not this prove dangerous?" asked Cora, glancing her dark eye atMajor Heyward.

  "Poor fellow! his voice is too feeble to be heard amid the din of thefalls," was the answer; "besides, the cavern will prove his friend. Lethim indulge his passion, since it may be done without hazard."

  "Isle of Wight!" repeated David, looking about him with that dignitywith which he had long been wont to silence the whispering echoes of hisschool; "'tis a brave tune, and set to solemn words; let it be sung withmeet respect!"

  After allowing a moment of stillness, to enforce his discipline, thevoice of the singer was heard, in low, murmuring syllables, graduallystealing on the ear, until it filled the narrow vault with soundsrendered trebly thrilling by the feeble and tremulous utterance producedby his debility. The melody, which no weakness could destroy, graduallywrought its sweet influence on the senses of those who heard it. It evenprevailed over the miserable travesty of the song of David which thesinger had selected from a volume of similar effusions, and caused thesense to be forgotten in the insinuating harmony of the sounds. Aliceunconsciously dried her tears, and bent her melting eyes on the pallidfeatures of Gamut with an expression of chastened delight that sheneither affected nor wished to conceal. Cora bestowed an approving smileon the pious efforts of the namesake of the Jewish prince, and Heywardsoon turned his steady, stern look from the outlet of the cavern, tofasten it, with a milder character, on the face of David, or to meet thewandering beams which at moments strayed from the humid eyes of Alice.The open sympathy of the listeners stirred the spirit of the votary ofmusic, whose voice
regained its richness and volume, without losing thattouching softness which proved its secret charm. Exerting his renovatedpowers to their utmost, he was yet filling the arches of the cave withlong and full tones, when a yell burst into the air without, thatinstantly stilled his pious strains, choking his voice suddenly, asthough his heart had literally bounded into the passage of his throat.

  "We are lost!" exclaimed Alice, throwing herself into the arms of Cora.

  "Not yet, not yet," returned the agitated but undaunted Heyward; "thesound came from the centre of the island, and it has been produced bythe sight of their dead companions. We are not yet discovered, and thereis still hope."

  Faint and almost despairing as was the prospect of escape, the words ofDuncan were not thrown away, for it awakened the powers of the sistersin such a manner that they awaited the result in silence. A second yellsoon followed the first, when a rush of voices was heard pouring downthe island, from its upper to its lower extremity, until they reachedthe naked rock above the caverns, where, after a shout of savagetriumph, the air continued full of horrible cries and screams, such asman alone can utter, and he only when in a state of the fiercestbarbarity.

  The sounds quickly spread around them in every direction. Some called totheir fellows from the water's edge, and were answered from the heightsabove. Cries were heard in the startling vicinity of the chasm betweenthe two caves, which mingled with hoarser yells that arose out of theabyss of the deep ravine. In short, so rapidly had the savage soundsdiffused themselves over the barren rock, that it was not difficult forthe anxious listeners to imagine they could be heard beneath, as intruth they were above and on every side of them.

  In the midst of this tumult, a triumphant yell was raised within a fewyards of the hidden entrance to the cave. Heyward abandoned every hope,with the belief it was the signal that they were discovered. Again theimpression passed away, as he heard the voices collect near the spotwhere the white man had so reluctantly abandoned his rifle. Amid thejargon of the Indian dialects that he now plainly heard, it was easy todistinguish not only words, but sentences, in the _patois_ of theCanadas. A burst of voices had shouted simultaneously, "La LongueCarabine!" causing the opposite woods to re-echo with a name which,Heyward well remembered, had been given by his enemies to a celebratedhunter and scout of the English camp, and who, he now learnt for thefirst time, had been his late companion.

  "La Longue Carabine! La Longue Carabine!" passed from mouth to mouth,until the whole band appeared to be collected around a trophy whichwould seem to announce the death of its formidable owner. After avociferous consultation, which was, at times, deafened by bursts ofsavage joy, they again separated, filling the air with the name of afoe, whose body, Heyward could collect from their expressions, theyhoped to find concealed in some crevice of the island.

  "Now," he whispered to the trembling sisters, "now is the moment ofuncertainty! if our place of retreat escape this scrutiny, we are stillsafe! In every event, we are assured, by what has fallen from ourenemies, that our friends have escaped, and in two short hours we maylook for succor from Webb."

  There were now a few minutes of fearful stillness, during which Heywardwell knew that the savages conducted their search with greater vigilanceand method. More than once he could distinguish their footsteps, as theybrushed the sassafras, causing the faded leaves to rustle, and thebranches to snap. At length, the pile yielded a little, a corner of theblanket fell, and a faint ray of light gleamed into the inner part ofthe cave. Cora folded Alice to her bosom in agony, and Duncan sprang tohis feet. A shout was at that moment heard, as if issuing from thecentre of the rock, announcing that the neighboring cavern had at lengthbeen entered. In a minute, the number and loudness of the voicesindicated that the whole party was collected in and around that secretplace.

  As the inner passages to the two caves were so close to each other,Duncan, believing that escape was no longer possible, passed David andthe sisters, to place himself between the latter and the first onset ofthe terrible meeting. Grown desperate by his situation, he drew nigh theslight barrier which separated him only by a few feet from hisrelentless pursuers, and placing his face to the casual opening, he evenlooked out, with a sort of desperate indifference, on their movements.

  Within reach of his arm was the brawny shoulder of a gigantic Indian,whose deep and authoritative voice appeared to give directions to theproceedings of his fellows. Beyond him again, Duncan could look into thevault opposite, which was filled with savages, upturning and rifling thehumble furniture of the scout. The wound of David had dyed the leaves ofsassafras with a color that the natives well knew was anticipating theseason. Over this sign of their success, they set up a howl, like anopening from so many hounds who had recovered a lost trail. After thisyell of victory, they tore up the fragrant bed of the cavern, and borethe branches into the chasm, scattering the boughs, as if they suspectedthem of concealing the person of the man they had so long hated andfeared. One fierce and wild-looking warrior approached the chiefbearing a load of the brush, and pointing, exultingly, to the deep redstains with which it was sprinkled, uttered his joy in Indian yells,whose meaning Heyward was only enabled to comprehend by the frequentrepetition of the name of "La Longue Carabine!" When his triumph hadceased, he cast the brush on the slight heap that Duncan had made beforethe entrance of the second cavern, and closed the view. His example wasfollowed by others, who, as they drew the branches from the cave of thescout, threw them into one pile, adding, unconsciously, to the securityof those they sought. The very slightness of the defence was its chiefmerit, for no one thought of disturbing a mass of brush, which all ofthem believed, in that moment of hurry and confusion, had beenaccidentally raised by the hands of their own party.

  As the blankets yielded before the outward pressure, and the branchessettled in the fissure of the rock by their own weight, forming acompact body, Duncan once more breathed freely. With a light step, andlighter heart, he returned to the centre of the cave, and took the placehe had left, where he could command a view of the opening next theriver. While he was in the act of making this movement, the Indians, asif changing their purpose by a common impulse, broke away from thecavern in a body, and were heard rushing up the island again, towardsthe point whence they had originally descended. Here another wailing crybetrayed that they were again collected around the bodies of their deadcomrades.

  Duncan now ventured to look at his companions; for, during the mostcritical moments of their danger, he had been apprehensive that theanxiety of his countenance might communicate some additional alarm tothose who were so little able to sustain it.

  "They are gone, Cora!" he whispered; "Alice, they are returned whencethey came, and we are saved! To Heaven, that has alone delivered us fromthe grasp of so merciless an enemy, be all the praise!"

  "Then to Heaven will I return my thanks!" exclaimed the younger sister,rising from the encircling arms of Cora, and casting herself withenthusiastic gratitude on the naked rock; "to that Heaven who has sparedthe tears of a gray-headed father; has saved the lives of those I somuch love--"

  Both Heyward, and the more tempered Cora, witnessed the act ofinvoluntary emotion with powerful sympathy, the former secretlybelieving that piety had never worn a form so lovely as it had nowassumed in the youthful person of Alice. Her eyes radiant with the glowof grateful feelings; the flush of her beauty was again seated on hercheeks, and her whole soul seemed ready and anxious to pour out itsthanksgivings, through the medium of her eloquent features. But when herlips moved, the words they should have uttered appeared frozen by somenew and sudden chill. Her bloom gave place to the paleness of death; hersoft and melting eyes grew hard, and seemed contracting with horror;while those hands which she had raised, clasped in each other, towardsheaven, dropped in horizontal lines before her, the fingers pointedforward in convulsed motion. Heyward turned, the instant she gave adirection to his suspicions, and, peering just above the ledge whichformed the threshold of the open outlet of the cavern, he beheld themalignant, f
ierce, and savage features of Le Renard Subtil.

  In that moment of surprise, the self-possession of Heyward did notdesert him. He observed by the vacant expression of the Indian'scountenance, that his eye, accustomed to the open air, had not yet beenable to penetrate the dusky light which pervaded the depth of thecavern. He had even thought of retreating beyond a curvature in thenatural wall, which might still conceal him and his companions, when, bythe sudden gleam of intelligence that shot across the features of thesavage, he saw it was too late, and that they were betrayed.

  The look of exultation and brutal triumph which announced this terribletruth was irresistibly irritating. Forgetful of everything but theimpulses of his hot blood, Duncan levelled his pistol and fired. Thereport of the weapon made the cavern bellow like an eruption from avolcano; and when the smoke it vomited had been driven away before thecurrent of air which issued from the ravine, the place so latelyoccupied by the features of his treacherous guide was vacant. Rushing tothe outlet, Heyward caught a glimpse of his dark figure, stealing arounda low and narrow ledge, which soon hid him entirely from sight.

  Among the savages, a frightful stillness succeeded the explosion, whichhad just been heard bursting from the bowels of the rock. But when LeRenard raised his voice in a long and intelligible whoop, it wasanswered by a spontaneous yell from the mouth of every Indian withinhearing of the sound. The clamorous noises again rushed down theisland; and before Duncan had time to recover from the shock, his feeblebarrier of brush was scattered to the winds, the cavern was entered atboth its extremities, and he and his companions were dragged from theirshelter and borne into the day, where they stood surrounded by the wholeband of the triumphant Hurons.