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bayonet saved the surgeon much trouble. Rivenoak had escaped with life and
limb; but was injured and a prisoner. As Captain Warley and his ensign went
into the ark, they passed him, seated, in dignified silence, in one end of the
scow, his head and leg bound, but betraying no visible signs of despondency or
despair. That he mourned the loss of his tribe, is certain; still, he did it
in the manner that best became a warrior and a chief.
The two soldiers found their surgeon, in the principal room of the ark. He
was just quitting the pallet of Hetty, with an expression of sorrowful regret,
on his hard, pock-marked, Scottish features, that it was not usual to see
there. All his assiduity had been useless, and he was compelled reluctantly to
abandon the expectation of seeing the girl survive many hours. Dr. Graham was
accustomed to death-bed scenes, and ordinarily they produced but little
impression on him. In all that relates to religion, his was one of those minds
which, in consequence of reasoning much on material things, logically and
consecutively, and overlooking the total want of premises which such a theory
must ever possess, through its want of a primary agent, had become sceptical;
leaving a vague opinion, concerning the origin of things, that with high
pretensions to philosophy, failed in the first of all philosophical
principles, a cause. To him religious dependence appeared a weakness; but when
he found one gentle and young like Hetty, with a mind beneath the level of her
race, sustained at such a moment by these pious sentiments, and that too, in a
way that many a sturdy warrior, and reputed hero, might have looked upon with
envy, he found himself affected by the sight, to a degree that he would have
been ashamed to confess. Edinburgh and Aberdeen, then as now, supplied no
small portion of the medical men of the British service; and Dr. Graham, as
indeed his name and countenance equally indicated, was, by birth, a North
Briton.
Here is an extraordinary exhibition for a forest, and one but half-gifted
with reason, he observed, with a decided Scotch accent, as Warley and the
ensign entered; I just hope, gentlemen, that when we three shall be called on
to quit the twenty--th, we may be found as resigned to go on the half-pay of
another existence, as this poor demented chiel!
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Is there no hope that she can survive the hurt? demanded Warley, turning
his eyes towards the pallid Judith, on whose cheeks, however, two large spots
of red had settled, as soon as he came into the cabin.
No more than there is for Charlie Stuart! Approach and judge for yourselves,
gentlemen; ye ll see faith exemplified in an exceeding and wonderful manner.
There is a sort ofarbitrium between life and death, in actual conflict in the
poor girl s mind, that renders her an interesting study to a philosopher. Mr.
Thornton, I m at your service, now; we can just look at the arm, in the next
room, while we speculate as much as we please, on the operations and
sinuosities of the human mind.
The surgeon and ensign retired, and Warley had an opportunity of looking
about him, more at leisure, and with a better understanding of the nature and
feelings of the group collected in the cabin. Poor Hetty had been placed on
her own simple bed, and was reclining in a half-seated attitude, with the
approaches of death on her countenance, though they were singularly dimmed by
the lustre of an expression, in which all the intelligence of her entire being
appeared to be concentrated. Judith and Hist were near her; the former seated
in deep grief; the latter standing, in readiness to offer any of the gentle
attentions of feminine care. Deerslayer stood at the end of the pallet,
leaning on Killdeer, unharmed in person; all the fine martial ardour that had
so lately glowed in his countenance, having given place to the usual look of
honesty and benevolence; qualities of which the expression was now softened by
manly regret and pity. The Serpent was in the back-ground of the picture,
erect and motionless as a statue; but so observant, that not a look of the eye
escaped his own keen glance. Hurry completed the group; being seated on a
stool near the door, like one who felt himself out of place in such a scene;
but who was ashamed to quit it, unbidden.
Who is that in scarlet? asked Hetty, as soon as the captain s uniform
caught her eye. Tell me, Judith, is it the friend of Hurry?
T is the officer who commands the troops, that have rescued us all from
the hands of the Hurons, was the low answer of the sister.
Am I rescued, too?--I thought they said I was shot, and about to die. Mother
is dead, and so is father; but you are living, Judith, and so is Hurry. I was
afraid Hurry would be killed, when I heard him shouting among the soldiers.
Never mind--never mind, dear Hetty --interrupted Judith, sensitively alive
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