"The ugly bear now minded not the stake,
Nor how the cruel mastiffs do him tear,
The stag lay still unroused from the brake,
The foamy boar feared not the hunter's spear:
All thing was still in desert, bush, and briar:"Thomas Sackville; "The Complaint of Henry Duke of Buckingham,"
lxxxi.
Twas one of the common expedients of the savages, on such occasions,
to put the nerves of their victims to the severest proofs. On the
other hand, it was a matter of Indian pride to betray no yielding
to terror, or pain, but for the prisoner to provoke his enemies
to such acts of violence as would soonest produce death. Many a
warrior had been known to bring his own sufferings to a more speedy
termination, by taunting reproaches and reviling language, when he
found that his physical system was giving way under the agony of
sufferings produced by a hellish ingenuity that might well eclipse
all that has been said of the infernal devices of religious
persecution. This happy expedient of taking refuge from the ferocity
of his foes, in their passions, was denied Deerslayer however, by
his peculiar notions of the duty of a white man, and he had stoutly
made up his mind to endure everything, in preference to disgracing
his colour.
No sooner did the young men understand that they were at liberty
to commence, than some of the boldest and most forward among them
sprang into the arena, tomahawk in hand. Here they prepared to
throw that dangerous weapon, the object being to strike the tree as
near as possible to the victim's head, without absolutely hitting
him. This was so hazardous an experiment that none but those who
were known to be exceedingly expert with the weapon were allowed
to enter the lists at all, lest an early death might interfere with
the expected entertainment. In the truest hands it was seldom that
the captive escaped injury in these trials, and it often happened
that death followed, even when the blow was not premeditated. In
the particular case of our hero, Rivenoak and the older warriors
were apprehensive that the example of the Panther's fate might
prove a motive with some fiery spirit suddenly to sacrifice his
conqueror, when the temptation of effecting it in precisely the
same manner, and possibly with the identical weapon with which the
warrior had fallen, offered. This circumstance of itself rendered
the ordeal of the tomahawk doubly critical for the Deerslayer. It
would seem, however, that all who now entered what we shall call
the lists, were more disposed to exhibit their own dexterity, than
to resent the deaths of their comrades. Each prepared himself
for the trial with the feelings of rivalry, rather than with the
desire for vengeance, and, for the first few minutes, the prisoner
had little more connection with the result, than grew out of the
interest that necessarily attached itself to a living target. The
young men were eager, instead of being fierce, and Rivenoak thought
he still saw signs of being able to save the life of the captive
when the vanity of the young men had been gratified; always admitting
that it was not sacrificed to the delicate experiments that were
about to be made. The first youth who presented himself for the
trial was called The Raven, having as yet had no opportunity of
obtaining a more warlike sobriquet. He was remarkable for high
pretension, rather than for skill or exploits, and those who knew
his character thought the captive in imminent danger when he took
his stand, and poised the tomahawk. Nevertheless, the young man
was good natured, and no thought was uppermost in his mind other
than the desire to make a better cast than any of his fellows.
Deerslayer got an inkling of this warrior's want of reputation by
the injunctions that he had received from the seniors, who, indeed,
would have objected to his appearing in the arena, at all, but
for an influence derived from his father; an aged warrior of great
merit, who was then in the lodges of the tribe. Still, our hero
maintained an appearance of self-possession. He had made up his
mind that his hour was come, and it would have been a mercy, instead
of a calamity, to fall by the unsteadiness of the first hand that
was raised against him. After a suitable number of flourishes and
gesticulations that promised much more than he could perform, the
Raven let the tomahawk quit his hand. The weapon whirled through
the air with the usual evolutions, cut a chip from the sapling to
which the prisoner was bound within a few inches of his cheek, and
stuck in a large oak that grew several yards behind him. This was
decidedly a bad effort, and a common sneer proclaimed as much, to
the great mortification of the young man. On the other hand, there
was a general but suppressed murmur of admiration at the steadiness
with which the captive stood the trial. The head was the only
part he could move, and this had been purposely left free, that
the tormentors might have the amusement, and the tormented endure
the shame, of his dodging, and otherwise attempting to avoid the
blows. Deerslayer disappointed these hopes by a command of nerve
that rendered his whole body as immovable as the tree to which he
was bound. Nor did he even adopt the natural and usual expedient
of shutting his eyes, the firmest and oldest warrior of the red-men
never having more disdainfully denied himself this advantage under
similar circumstances.
The Raven had no sooner made his unsuccessful and puerile effort,
than he was succeeded by le Daim-Mose, or the Moose; a middle aged
warrior who was particularly skilful in the use of the tomahawk,
and from whose attempt the spectators confidently looked for
gratification. This man had none of the good nature of the Raven,
but he would gladly have sacrificed the captive to his hatred
of the pale-faces generally, were it not for the greater interest
he felt in his own success as one particularly skilled in the use
of this weapon. He took his stand quietly, but with an air of
confidence, poised his little axe but a single instant, advanced
a foot with a quick motion, and threw. Deerslayer saw the keen
instrument whirling towards him, and believed all was over; still,
he was not touched. The tomahawk had actually bound the head of
the captive to the tree, by carrying before it some of his hair,
having buried itself deep beneath the soft bark. A general yell
expressed the delight of the spectators, and the Moose felt his
heart soften a little towards the prisoner, whose steadiness of
nerve alone enabled him to give this evidence of his consummate
skill.
Le Daim-Mose was succeeded by the Bounding Boy, or le Garcon qui
Bondi who came leaping into the circle, like a hound or a goat at
play. This was one of those elastic youths whose muscles seemed
always in motion, and who either affected, or who from habit was
actually unable, to move in any other manner than by showing the
antics just mentioned. Nevertheless, he was both brave and skilful,
and had gained the respect of his people by deeds in war, as well
as success in the hunts. A far nobler name would long since have
fallen to his share, had not a French-man of rank inadvertently
given him this sobriquet, which he religiously preserved as coming
from his Great Father who lived beyond the Wide Salt Lake. The
Bounding Boy skipped about in front of the captive, menacing him
with his tomahawk, now on one side and now on another, and then
again in front, in the vain hope of being able to extort some sign
of fear by this parade of danger. At length Deerslayer's patience
became exhausted by all this mummery, and he spoke for the first
time since the trial had actually commenced.
"Throw away, Huron," he cried, "or your tomahawk will forget its
ar'n'd. Why do you keep loping about like a fa'a'n that's showing
its dam how well it can skip, when you're a warrior grown, yourself,
and a warrior grown defies you and all your silly antiks. Throw,
or the Huron gals will laugh in your face."
Although not intended to produce such an effect, the last words
aroused the "Bounding" warrior to fury. The same nervous excitability
which rendered him so active in his person, made it difficult to
repress his feelings, and the words were scarcely past the lips
of the speaker than the tomahawk left the hand of the Indian. Nor
was it cast without ill-will, and a fierce determination to slay.
Had the intention been less deadly, the danger might have been
greater. The aim was uncertain, and the weapon glanced near the
cheek of the captive, slightly cutting the shoulder in its evolutions.
This was the first instance in which any other object than that of
terrifying the prisoner, and of displaying skill had been manifested,
and the Bounding Boy was immediately led from the arena, and
was warmly rebuked for his intemperate haste, which had come so
near defeating all the hopes of the band. To this irritable person
succeeded several other young warriors, who not only hurled the
tomahawk, but who cast the knife, a far more dangerous experiment,
with reckless indifference; yet they always manifested a skill that
prevented any injury to the captive. Several times Deerslayer was
grazed, but in no instance did he receive what might be termed a
wound. The unflinching firmness with which he faced his assailants,
more especially in the sort of rally with which this trial terminated,
excited a profound respect in the spectators, and when the chiefs
announced that the prisoner had well withstood the trials of the
knife and the tomahawk, there was not a single individual in the
band who really felt any hostility towards him, with the exception
of Sumach and the Bounding Boy. These two discontented spirits got
together, it is true, feeding each other's ire, but as yet their
malignant feelings were confined very much to themselves, though
there existed the danger that the others, ere long, could not fail
to be excited by their own efforts into that demoniacal state which
usually accompanied all similar scenes among the red men.
Rivenoak now told his people that the pale-face had proved himself
to be a man. He might live with the Delawares, but he had not been
made woman with that tribe. He wished to know whether it was the
desire of the Hurons to proceed any further. Even the gentlest
of the females, however, had received too much satisfaction in the
late trials to forego their expectations of a gratifying exhibition,
and there was but one voice in the request to proceed. The
politic chief, who had some such desire to receive so celebrated a
hunter into his tribe, as a European Minister has to devise a new
and available means of taxation, sought every plausible means of
arresting the trial in season, for he well knew, if permitted to go
far enough to arouse the more ferocious passions of the tormentors,
it would be as easy to dam the waters of the great lakes of his
own region, as to attempt to arrest them in their bloody career.
He therefore called four or five of the best marksmen to him, and
bid them put the captive to the proof of the rifle, while at the same
time he cautioned them touching the necessity of their maintaining
their own credit, by the closest attention to the manner of exhibiting
their skill.
When Deerslayer saw the chosen warriors step into the circle, with
their arms prepared for service, he felt some such relief as the
miserable sufferer, who has long endured the agonies of disease,
feels at the certain approach of death. Any trifling variance in
the aim of this formidable weapon would prove fatal; since, the
head being the target, or rather the point it was desired to graze
without injuring, an inch or two of difference in the line of
projection must at once determine the question of life or death.
In the torture by the rifle there was none of the latitude permitted
that appeared in the case of even Gessler's apple, a hair's breadth
being, in fact, the utmost limits that an expert marksman would
allow himself on an occasion like this. Victims were frequently
shot through the head by too eager or unskilful hands, and it
often occurred that, exasperated by the fortitude and taunts of the
prisoner, death was dealt intentionally in a moment of ungovernable
irritation. All this Deerslayer well knew, for it was in relating
the traditions of such scenes, as well as of the battles and victories
of their people, that the old men beguiled the long winter evenings
in their cabins. He now fully expected the end of his career,
and experienced a sort of melancholy pleasure in the idea that he
was to fall by a weapon as much beloved as the rifle. A slight
interruption, however, took place before the business was allowed
to proceed.
Hetty Hutter witnessed all that passed, and the scene at first
had pressed upon her feeble mind in a way to paralyze it entirely;
but, by this time she had rallied, and was growing indignant at
the unmerited suffering the Indians were inflicting on her friend.
Though timid, and shy as the young of the deer on so many occasions,
this right-feeling girl was always intrepid in the cause of
humanity; the lessons of her mother, and the impulses of her own
heart - perhaps we might say the promptings of that unseen and
pure spirit that seemed ever to watch over and direct her actions
- uniting to keep down the apprehensions of woman, and to impel her
to be bold and resolute. She now appeared in the circle, gentle,
feminine, even bashful in mien, as usual, but earnest in her words
and countenance, speaking like one who knew herself to be sustained
by the high authority of God.
"Why do you torment Deerslayer, redmen?" she asked "What has he
done that you trifle with his life; who has given you the right to
be his judges? Suppose one of your knives or tomahawks had hit
him; what Indian among you all could cure the wound you would make.
Besides, in harming Deerslayer, you injure your own friend; when
father and Hurry Harry came after your scalps, he refused to be of
the party, and staid in the canoe by himself. You are tormenting
a good friend, in tormenting this young man!"
The Hurons listened with grave attention, and one among them, who
understood English, translated what had been said into their native
tongue. As soon as Rivenoak was made acquainted with the purport
of her address he answered it in his own dialect; the interpreter
conveying it to the girl in English.
"My daughter is very welcome to speak," said the stern old orator,
using gentle intonations and smiling as kindly as if addressing a
child - "The Hurons are glad to hear her voice; they listen to what
she says. The Great Spirit often speaks to men with such tongues.
This time, her eyes have not been open wide enough to see all that
has happened. Deerslayer did not come for our scalps, that is
true; why did he not come? Here they are on our heads; the war
locks are ready to be taken hold of; a bold enemy ought to stretch
out his hand to seize them. The Iroquois are too great a nation
to punish men that take scalps. What they do themselves, they
like to see others do. Let my daughter look around her and count
my warriors. Had I as many hands as four warriors, their fingers
would be fewer than my people, when they came into your hunting
grounds. Now, a whole hand is missing. Where are the fingers?
Two have been cut off by this pale-face; my Hurons wish to see if
he did this by means of a stout heart, or by treachery. Like a
skulking fox, or like a leaping panther."
"You know yourself, Huron, how one of them fell. I saw it, and
you all saw it, too. 'Twas too bloody to look at; but it was not
Deerslayer's fault. Your warrior sought his life, and he defended
himself. I don't know whether this good book says that it was
right, but all men will do that. Come, if you want to know which
of you can shoot best, give Deerslayer a rifle, and then you will
find how much more expert he is than any of your warriors; yes,
than all of them together!"
Could one have looked upon such a scene with indifference, he would
have been amused at the gravity with which the savages listened
to the translation of this unusual request. No taunt, no smile
mingled with their surprise, for Hetty had a character and a manner
too saintly to subject her infirmity to the mockings of the rude
and ferocious. On the contrary, she was answered with respectful
attention.
"My daughter does not always talk like a chief at a Council Fire,"
returned Rivenoak, "or she would not have said this. Two of my
warriors have fallen by the blows of our prisoner; their grave is
too small to hold a third. The Hurons do not like to crowd their
dead. If there is another spirit about to set out for the far off
world, it must not be the spirit of a Huron; it must be the spirit
of a pale-face. Go, daughter, and sit by Sumach, who is in grief;
let the Huron warriors show how well they can shoot; let the
pale-face show how little he cares for their bullets."
Hetty's mind was unequal to a sustained discussion, and accustomed
to defer to the directions of her seniors she did as told, seating
herself passively on a log by the side of the Sumach, and averting
her face from the painful scene that was occurring within the
circle.
The warriors, as soon as this interruption had ceased, resumed
their places, and again prepared to exhibit their skill. As there
was a double object in view, that of putting the constancy of the
captive to the proof, and that of showing how steady were the hands
of the marksmen under circumstances of excitement, the distance was
small, and, in one sense, safe. But in diminishing the distance
taken by the tormentors, the trial to the nerves of the captive was
essentially increased. The face of Deerslayer, indeed, was just
removed sufficiently from the ends of the guns to escape the effects
of the flash, and his steady eye was enabled to look directly
into their muzzles, as it might be, in anticipation of the fatal
messenger that was to issue from each. The cunning Hurons well
knew this fact, and scarce one levelled his piece without first
causing it to point as near as possible at the forehead of the
prisoner, in the hope that his fortitude would fail him, and that
the band would enjoy the triumph of seeing a victim quail under
their ingenious cruelty. Nevertheless each of the competitors was
still careful not to injure, the disgrace of striking prematurely
being second only to that of failing altogether in attaining the
object. Shot after shot was made; all the bullets coming in close
proximity to the Deerslayer's head, without touching it. Still
no one could detect even the twitching of a muscle on the part of
the captive, or the slightest winking of an eye. This indomitable
resolution, which so much exceeded everything of its kind that any
present had before witnessed, might be referred to three distinct
causes. The first was resignation to his fate, blended with natural
steadiness of deportment; for our hero had calmly made up his mind
that he must die, and preferred this mode to any other; the second
was his great familiarity with this particular weapon, which deprived
it of all the terror that is usually connected with the mere form
of the danger; and the third was this familiarity carried out
in practice, to a degree so nice as to enable the intended victim
to tell, within an inch, the precise spot where each bullet must
strike, for he calculated its range by looking in at the bore of the
piece. So exact was Deerslayer's estimation of the line of fire,
that his pride of feeling finally got the better of his resignation,
and when five or six had discharged their bullets into the tree,
he could not refrain from expressing his contempt at their want of
hand and eye.
"You may call this shooting, Mingos!" he exclaimed, "but we've squaws
among the Delawares, and I have known Dutch gals on the Mohawk,
that could outdo your greatest indivours. Ondo these arms of mine,
put a rifle into my hands, and I'll pin the thinnest warlock in
your party to any tree you can show me, and this at a hundred yards
- ay, or at two hundred if the objects can be seen, nineteen shots
in twenty; or, for that matter twenty in twenty, if the piece is
creditable and trusty!"
A low menacing murmur followed this cool taunt. The ire of the
warriors kindled at listening to such a reproach from one who so
far disdained their efforts as to refuse even to wink when a rifle
was discharged as near his face as could be done without burning
it. Rivenoak perceived that the moment was critical, and, still
retaining his hope of adopting so noted a hunter into his tribe,
the politic old chief interposed in time, probably to prevent
an immediate resort to that portion of the torture which must
necessarily have produced death through extreme bodily suffering,
if in no other manner. Moving into the centre of the irritated
group, he addressed them with his usual wily logic and plausible
manner, at once suppressing the fierce movement that had commenced.
"I see how it is," he said. "We have been like the pale-faces
when they fasten their doors at night, out of fear of the red men.
They use so many bars that the fire comes and burns them before they
can get out. We have bound the Deerslayer too tight: the thongs
keep his limbs from shaking and his eyes from shutting. Loosen
him; let us see what his own body is really made of."
It is often the case when we are thwarted in a cherished scheme,
that any expedient, however unlikely to succeed, is gladly resorted
to in preference to a total abandonment of the project. So it was
with the Hurons. The proposal of the chief found instant favor,
and several hands were immediately at work, cutting and tearing
the ropes of bark from the body of our hero. In half a minute
Deerslayer stood as free from bonds as when an hour before he had
commenced his flight on the side of the mountain. Some little
time was necessary that he should recover the use of his limbs,
the circulation of the blood having been checked by the tightness
of the ligatures, and this was accorded to him by the politic
Rivenoak, under the pretence that his body would be more likely
to submit to apprehension if its true tone were restored; though
really with a view to give time to the fierce passions which had
been awakened in the bosoms of his young men to subside. This
ruse succeeded, and Deerslayer by rubbing his limbs, stamping his
feet, and moving about, soon regained the circulation, recovering
all his physical powers as effectually as if nothing had occurred
to disturb them.
It is seldom men think of death in the pride of their health and
strength. So it was with Deerslayer. Having been helplessly bound
and, as he had every reason to suppose, so lately on the very verge
of the other world, to find himself so unexpectedly liberated, in
possession of his strength and with a full command of limb, acted
on him like a sudden restoration to life, reanimating hopes that
he had once absolutely abandoned. From that instant all his plans
changed. In this, he simply obeyed a law of nature; for while we
have wished to represent our hero as being resigned to his fate,
it has been far from our intention to represent him as anxious to
die. From the instant that his buoyancy of feeling revived, his
thoughts were keenly bent on the various projects that presented
themselves as modes of evading the designs of his enemies, and he
again became the quick witted, ingenious and determined woodsman,
alive to all his own powers and resources. The change was so great
that his mind resumed its elasticity, and no longer thinking of
submission, it dwelt only on the devices of the sort of warfare in
which he was engaged.
As soon as Deerslayer was released, the band divided itself in
a circle around him, in order to hedge him in, and the desire to
break down his spirit grew in them, precisely as they saw proofs
of the difficulty there would be in subduing it. The honor of the
band was now involved in the issue, and even the fair sex lost all
its sympathy with suffering in the desire to save the reputation of
the tribe. The voices of the girls, soft and melodious as nature
had made them, were heard mingling with the menaces of the men,
and the wrongs of Sumach suddenly assumed the character of injuries
inflicted on every Huron female. Yielding to this rising tumult,
the men drew back a little, signifying to the females that they
left the captive, for a time, in their hands, it being a common
practice on such occasions for the women to endeavor to throw the
victim into a rage by their taunts and revilings, and then to turn
him suddenly over to the men in a state of mind that was little
favorable to resisting the agony of bodily suffering. Nor was this
party without the proper instruments for effecting such a purpose.
Sumach had a notoriety as a scold, and one or two crones,
like the She Bear, had come out with the party, most probably as
the conservators of its decency and moral discipline; such things
occurring in savage as well as in civilized life. It is unnecessary
to repeat all that ferocity and ignorance could invent for such a
purpose, the only difference between this outbreaking of feminine
anger, and a similar scene among ourselves, consisting in the
figures of speech and the epithets, the Huron women calling their
prisoner by the names of the lower and least respected animals that
were known to themselves.
But Deerslayer's mind was too much occupied to permit him to be
disturbed by the abuse of excited hags, and their rage necessarily
increasing with his indifference, as his indifference increased
with their rage, the furies soon rendered themselves impotent by
their own excesses. Perceiving that the attempt was a complete
failure, the warriors interfered to put a stop to this scene, and
this so much the more because preparations were now seriously making
for the commencement of the real tortures, or that which would put
the fortitude of the sufferer to the test of severe bodily pain. A
sudden and unlooked for announcement, that proceeded from one of the
look-outs, a boy ten or twelve years old, however, put a momentary
check to the whole proceedings. As this interruption has a close
connection with the dénouemnent of our story, it shall be given in
a separate chapter.