The scene that succeeded was one of those of which so
many have occurred in our own times, in which neither age nor sex
forms an exemption to the lot of a savage warfare.
Chapter XXXI.
"The flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow dies;
All that we wish to stay,
Tempts and then flies:
What is this world's delight?
Lightning that mocks the night,
Brief even as bright."
Shelley, "Mutability," 11. i-v.
The picture next presented, by the point of land that the unfortunate
Hurons had selected for their last place of encampment, need
scarcely be laid before the eyes of the reader. Happily for the
more tender-minded and the more timid, the trunks of the trees,
the leaves, and the smoke had concealed much of that which passed,
and night shortly after drew its veil over the lake, and the whole
of that seemingly interminable wilderness; which may be said to
have then stretched, with few and immaterial interruptions, from
the banks of the Hudson to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Our
business carries us into the following day, when light returned
upon the earth, as sunny and as smiling as if nothing extraordinary
had occurred.
When the sun rose on the following morning, every sign of hostility
and alarm had vanished from the basin of the Glimmerglass.
Pages:
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898