This was
nervous work, but it was the wisest of all the expedients that
offered, and the young man was encouraged to persevere in it by
the circumstance that he felt his face fanned by the air, a proof
that there was a little more wind.
Chapter XXVIII.
"Nor widows' tears, nor tender orphans' cries
Can stop th' invader's force;
Nor swelling seas, nor threatening skies,
Prevent the pirate's course:
Their lives to selfish ends decreed
Through blood and rapine they proceed;
No anxious thoughts of ill repute,
Suspend the impetuous and unjust pursuit;
But power and wealth obtain'd, guilty and great,
Their fellow creatures' fears they raise, or urge their hate."
Congreve, "Pindaric Ode," ii.
By this time Deerslayer had been twenty minutes in the canoe, and
he began to grow a little impatient for some signs of relief from
his friends. The position of the boat still prevented his seeing
in any direction, unless it were up or down the lake, and, though
he knew that his line of sight must pass within a hundred yards of
the castle, it, in fact, passed that distance to the westward of
the buildings. The profound stillness troubled him also, for he
knew not whether to ascribe it to the increasing space between him
and the Indians, or to some new artifice.
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