James White Cykl Szpital kosmiczny (02) Gwiezdny chirurg
James Lee Burke Robicheaux 12 Jolie_Blon's_Bounce
James Alan Gardner [League Of Peoples 06] Trapped
James Alan Gardner [League Of Peoples 04] Hunted
James Axler Outlander 26 Sea of Plague
Fae Sutherland & Chelsea James His Every Breath (pdf)
James Axler Outlander 10 Outer Darkness
James Axler Deathlands 049 Shadow World
James Axler Deathlands 043 Dark Emblem
Curwood James Oliver Szara wilczyca
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
brow of the mountain, on the very edge of the giddy height, with uplifted
arms, in an awful attitude of menace. Without stopping to consider his person,
the rifle of Hawk-eye was raised, but a rock, which fell on the head of one of
the fugitives below, exposed the indignant and glowing countenance of the
honest Gamut. Then Magua issued from a crevice, and stepping with calm
indifference over the body of the last of his associates, he leaped a wide
fissure, and ascended the rocks at a point where the arm of David could not
reach him. A single bound would carry him to the brow of the precipice, and
assure his safety. Before taking the leap, however, the Huron paused, and
shaking his hand at the scout, he shouted--
The pale-faces are dogs! the Delawares women! Magua leaves them on the
rocks, for the crows!
Laughing hoarsely, he made a desperate leap, and fell short of his mark;
though his hands grasped a shrub on the verge of the height. The form of
Hawk-eye had crouched like a beast about to take its spring, and his frame
trembled so violently with eagerness, that the muzzle of the half raised rifle
played like a leaf fluttering in the wind. Without exhausting himself with
fruitless efforts, the cunning Magua suffered his body to drop to the length
of his arms, and found a fragment for his feet to rest upon. Then summoning
all his powers, he renewed the attempt, and so far succeeded, as to draw his
knees on the edge of the mountain. It was now, when the body of his enemy was
most collected together, that the agitated weapon of the scout was drawn to
his shoulder. The surrounding rocks, themselves, were not steadier than the
piece became for the single instant that it poured out its contents. The arms
of the Huron relaxed, and his body fell back a little, while his knees still
kept their position. Turning a relentless look on his enemy, he shook his hand
at him, in grim defiance. But his hold loosened, and his dark person was seen
cutting the air with its head downwards, for a fleeting instant, until it
glided past the fringe of shrubbery which clung to the mountain, in its rapid
flight to destruction.
CHAPTER XVI.
They fought--like brave men, long and well,
They piled that ground with Moslem slain,
They conquered--but Bozzaris fell,
Bleeding at every vein.
His few surviving comrades saw
His smile when rang their proud hurrah,
And the red field was won;
Then saw in death his eyelids close
Calmly, as to a night s repose,
Like flowers at set of sun. --Halleck.
Thesun found the Lenape, on the succeeding day, a nation of mourners. The
sounds of the battle were over, and they had fed fat their ancient grudge, and
had avenged their recent quarrel with the Mengwe, by the destruction of a
community. The black and murky atmosphere that floated around the spot where
the Hurons had encamped, sufficiently announced, of itself, the fate of that
wandering tribe; while hundreds of ravens, that struggled above the bleak
summits of the mountains, or swept, in noisy flocks, across the wide ranges of
Page 115
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
the woods, furnished a frightful direction to the scene of the fatal combat.
In short, any eye, at all practised in the signs of a frontier warfare, might
easily have traced all those unerring evidences of the ruthless results which
attend an Indian vengeance.
Still, the sun rose on the Lenape, a nation of mourners. No shouts of
success, no songs of triumph, were heard, in rejoicings for their victory. The
latest straggler had returned from his fell employment, only to strip himself
of the terrific emblems of his bloody calling, and to join in the lamentations
of his countrymen, as a stricken people. Pride and exultation were supplanted
by humility, and the fiercest of human passions was already succeeded by the
most profound and unequivocal demonstrations of grief.
The lodges were deserted; but a broad belt of earnest faces encircled a spot
in their vicinity, whither every thing possessing life had repaired, and where
all were now collected, in a deep and awful silence. Though beings of every
rank and age, of both sexes, and of all pursuits, had united to form this
breathing wall of bodies, they were influenced by a single emotion. Each eye
was riveted on the centre of that ring, which contained the objects of so
much, and of so common, an interest.
Six Delaware girls, with their long, dark, flowing, tresses, falling loosely
across their bosoms, stood apart, and only gave proofs of their existence, as
they occasionally strewed sweet scented herbs and forest flowers on a litter
of fragrant plants, that, under a pall of Indian robes, supported all that now
remained of the ardent, highsouled, and generous Cora. Her form was concealed
in many wrappers of the same simple manufacture, and her face was shut for
ever from the gaze of human eyes. At her feet was seated the desolate Munro.
His aged head was bowed nearly to the earth, in compelled submission to the
stroke of Providence; but there was a hidden anguish that struggled about his
furrowed brow, that was only partially concealed by the careless locks of gray
that had fallen, neglected, on his temples. Gamut stood at his side, with his
meek head bared to the rays of the sun, while his eyes, wandering and
concerned, seemed to be equally divided between that little volume, which
contained so many quaint but holy maxims, and the being, in whose behalf his
soul yearned to administer their consolation. Heyward was also nigh,
supporting himself against a tree, and endeavouring to keep down those sudden
risings of sorrow, that it required his utmost manhood to subdue.
But sad and melancholy as this groupe may easily be imagined, it was far less
touching than another, that occupied the opposite space of the same area.
Seated, as in life, with his form and limbs arranged in grave and decent
composure, Uncas appeared, arrayed in the most gorgeous ornaments that the
wealth of the tribe could furnish. Rich plumes nodded above his head; wampum,
gorgets, bracelets, and medals, adorned his person in profusion; though his
dull eye, and vacant lineaments, too strongly contradicted the idle tale of
pride they would convey.
Directly in front of the corpse, Chingachgook was placed, without arms,
paint, or adornment of any sort, except the bright blue blazonry of his race,
that was indelibly impressed on his naked bosom. During the long period that
the tribe had been thus collected, the Mohican warrior had kept a steady,
anxious, look on the cold and senseless countenance of his son. So riveted and
intense had been that gaze, and so changeless his attitude, that a stranger
might not have told the living from the dead, but for the occasional gleamings
of a troubled spirit, that shot athwart the dark visage of one, and the
death-like calm that had for ever settled on the lineaments of the other.
The scout was hard by, leaning, in a pensive posture, on his own fatal and
avenging weapon; while Tamenund, supported by the elders of his nation,
Page 116
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
