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 hebegan to grow a little impatient for some signs of relief from hisfriends. The position of the boat still prevented his seeing in anydirection, unless it were up or down the lake, and, though he knew thathis line of sight must pass within a hundred yards of the castle, it,in fact, passed that distance to the westward of the buildings. Theprofound stillness troubled him also, for he knew not whether to ascribeit to the increasing space between him and the Indians, or to some newartifice. At length, wearied with fruitless watchfulness, the young manturned himself on his back, closed his eyes, and awaited the resultin determined acquiescence. If the savages could so completely controltheir thirst for revenge, he was resolved to be as calm as themselves,and to trust his fate to the interposition of the currents and air.
Some additional ten minutes may have passed in this quiescent manner, onboth sides, when Deerslayer thought he heard a slight noise, like a lowrubbing against the bottom of his canoe. He opened his eyes of course,in expectation of seeing the face or arm of an Indian rising from thewater, and found that a canopy of leaves was impending directly overhis head. Starting to his feet, the first object that met his eye wasRivenoak, who had so far aided the slow progress of the boat, as todraw it on the point, the grating on the strand being the sound that hadfirst given our hero the alarm. The change in the drift of the canoe hadbeen altogether owing to the baffling nature of the light currents ofthe air, aided by some eddies in the water.
"Come," said the Huron with a quiet gesture of authority, to order hisprisoner to land, "my young friend has sailed about till he is tired; hewill forget how to run again, unless he uses his legs."
"You've the best of it, Huron," returned Deerslayer, stepping steadilyfrom the canoe, and passively following his leader to the open area ofthe point; "Providence has helped you in an onexpected manner. I'm yourprisoner ag'in, and I hope you'll allow that I'm as good at breakinggaol, as I am at keeping furloughs."
"My young friend is a Moose!" exclaimed the Huron. "His legs are verylong; they have given my young men trouble. But he is not a fish; hecannot find his way in the lake. We did not shoot him; fish are takenin nets, and not killed by bullets. When he turns Moose again he will betreated like a Moose."
"Ay, have your talk, Rivenoak; make the most of your advantage. 'Tisyour right, I suppose, and I know it is your gift. On that p'intthere'll be no words atween us, for all men must and ought to followtheir gifts. Howsever, when your women begin to ta'nt and abuse me, as Isuppose will soon happen, let 'em remember that if a pale-face strugglesfor life so long as it's lawful and manful, he knows how to loosen hishold on it, decently, when he feels that the time has come. I'm yourcaptyve; work your will on me."
"My brother has had a long run on the hills, and a pleasant sail on thewater," returned Rivenoak more mildly, smiling, at the same time, in away that his listener knew denoted pacific intentions. "He has seen thewoods; he has seen the water. Which does he like best? Perhaps he hasseen enough to change his mind, and make him hear reason."
"Speak out, Huron. Something is in your thoughts, and the sooner it issaid, the sooner you'll get my answer."
"That is straight! There is no turning in the talk of my pale-facefriend, though he is a fox in running. I will speak to him; his earsare now open wider than before, and his eyes are not shut. The Sumachis poorer than ever. Once she had a brother and a husband. She hadchildren, too. The time came and the husband started for the HappyHunting Grounds, without saying farewell; he left her alone with hischildren. This he could not help, or he would not have done it; le LoupCervier was a good husband. It was pleasant to see the venison, and wildducks, and geese, and bear's meat, that hung in his lodge in winter. Itis now gone; it will not keep in warm weather. Who shall bring it backagain? Some thought the brother would not forget his sister, and that,next winter, he would see that the lodge should not be empty. We thoughtthis; but the Panther yelled, and followed the husband on the path ofdeath. They are now trying which shall first reach the Happy HuntingGrounds. Some think the Lynx can run fastest, and some think the Panthercan jump the farthest. The Sumach thinks both will travel so fast and sofar that neither will ever come back. Who shall feed her and her young?The man who told her husband and her brother to quit her lodge, thatthere might be room for him to come into it. He is a great hunter, andwe know that the woman will never want."
"Ay, Huron this is soon settled, accordin' to your notions, but it goessorely ag'in the grain of a white man's feelin's. I've heard of men'ssaving their lives this-a-way, and I've know'd them that would prefardeath to such a sort of captivity. For my part, I do not seek my end,nor do I seek matrimony."
"The pale-face will think of this, while my people get ready for thecouncil. He will be told what will happen. Let him remember how hard itis to lose a husband and a brother. Go; when we want him, the name ofDeerslayer will be called."
This conversation had been held with no one near but the speakers. Ofall the band that had so lately thronged the place, Rivenoak alone wasvisible. The rest seemed to have totally abandoned the spot. Even thefurniture, clothes, arms, and other property of the camp had entirelydisappeared, and the place bore no other proofs of the crowd that had solately occupied it, than the traces of their fires and resting places,and the trodden earth that still showed the marks of their feet. Sosudden and unexpected a change caused Deerslayer a good deal of surpriseand some uneasiness, for he had never known it to occur, in the courseof his experience among the Delawares. He suspected, however, andrightly, that a change of encampment was intended, and that the mysteryof the movement was resorted to in order to work on his apprehensions.
Rivenoak walked up the vista of trees as soon as he ceased speaking,leaving Deerslayer by himself. The chief disappeared behind the coversof the forest, and one unpractised in such scenes might have believedthe prisoner left to the dictates of his own judgment. But the youngman, while he felt a little amazement at the dramatic aspect of things,knew his enemies too well to fancy himself at liberty, or a freeagent. Still, he was ignorant how far the Hurons meant to carrytheir artifices, and he determined to bring the question, as soon aspracticable, to the proof. Affecting an indifference he was far fromfeeling, he strolled about the area, gradually getting nearer and nearerto the spot where he had landed, when he suddenly quickened his pace,though carefully avoiding all appearance of flight, and pushing asidethe bushes, he stepped upon the beach. The canoe was gone, nor could hesee any traces of it, after walking to the northern and southern vergesof the point, and examining the shores in both directions. Itwas evidently removed beyond his reach and knowledge, and undercircumstances to show that such had been the intention of the savages.
Deerslayer now better understood his actual situation. He was a prisoneron the narrow tongue of land, vigilantly watched beyond a question, andwith no other means of escape than that of swimming. He, again, thoughtof this last expedient, but the certainty that the canoe would be sentin chase, and the desperate nature of the chances of success deterredhim from the undertaking. While on the strand, he came to a spot wherethe bushes had been cut, and thrust into a small pile. Removing a few ofthe upper branches, he found beneath them the dead body of the Panther.He knew that it was kept until the savages might find a place to interit, where it would be beyond the reach of the scalping knife. He gazedwistfully towards the castle, but there all seemed to be silent anddesolate, and a feeling of loneliness and desertion came over him toincrease the gloom of the moment.
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"God's will be done!" murmured the young man, as he walked sorrowfullyaway from the beach, entering again beneath the arches of the wood."God's will be done, on 'arth as it is in heaven! I did hope that mydays would not be numbered so soon, but it matters little a'ter all. Afew more winters, and a few more summers, and 'twould have been over,accordin' to natur'. Ah's! me, the young and actyve seldom think deathpossible, till he grins in their faces, and tells 'em the hour is come!"
While this soliloquy was being pronounced, the hunter advanced into thearea, where to his surprise he saw Hetty alone, evidently awaiting hisreturn. The girl carried the Bible under her arm, and her face, overwhich a shadow of gentle melancholy was usually thrown, now seemed sadand downcast. Moving nearer, Deerslayer spoke.
"Poor Hetty," he said, "times have been so troublesome, of late, thatI'd altogether forgotten you; we meet, as it might be to mourn over whatis to happen. I wonder what has become of Chingachgook and Wah!"
"Why did you kill the Huron, Deerslayer?--" returned the girlreproachfully. "Don't you know your commandments, which say 'Thou shaltnot kill!' They tell me you have now slain the woman's husband andbrother!"
"It's true, my good Hetty--'tis gospel truth, and I'll not deny what hascome to pass. But, you must remember, gal, that many things are lawfulin war, which would be onlawful in peace. The husband was shot in openfight--or, open so far as I was consarned, while he had a better coverthan common--and the brother brought his end on himself, by casting histomahawk at an unarmed prisoner. Did you witness that deed, gal?"
"I saw it, and was sorry it happened, Deerslayer, for I hoped youwouldn't have returned blow for blow, but good for evil."
"Ah, Hetty, that may do among the Missionaries, but 'twould make anonsartain life in the woods! The Panther craved my blood, and he wasfoolish enough to throw arms into my hands, at the very moment he wasstriving a'ter it. 'Twould have been ag'in natur' not to raise a hand insuch a trial, and 'twould have done discredit to my training and gifts.No--no--I'm as willing to give every man his own as another, and so Ihope you'll testify to them that will be likely to question you as towhat you've seen this day."
"Deerslayer, do you mean to marry Sumach, now she has neither husbandnor brother to feed her?"
"Are such your idees of matrimony, Hetty! Ought the young to wivewith the old--the pale-face with the red-skin--the Christian with theheathen? It's ag'in reason and natur', and so you'll see, if you thinkof it a moment."
"I've always heard mother say," returned Hetty, averting her face morefrom a feminine instinct than from any consciousness of wrong, "thatpeople should never marry until they loved each other better thanbrothers and sisters, and I suppose that is what you mean. Sumach isold, and you are young!"
"Ay and she's red, and I'm white. Beside, Hetty, suppose you was a wife,now, having married some young man of your own years, and state, andcolour--Hurry Harry, for instance--" Deerslayer selected this examplesimply from the circumstance that he was the only young man known toboth--"and that he had fallen on a war path, would you wish to take toyour bosom, for a husband, the man that slew him?"
"Oh! no, no, no--" returned the girl shuddering--"That would be wickedas well as heartless! No Christian girl could, or would do that! I nevershall be the wife of Hurry, I know, but were he my husband no man shouldever be it, again, after his death!"
"I thought it would get to this, Hetty, when you come to understandsarcumstances. 'Tis a moral impossibility that I should ever marrySumach, and, though Injin weddin's have no priests and not muchreligion, a white man who knows his gifts and duties can't profit bythat, and so make his escape at the fitting time. I do think death wouldbe more nat'ral like, and welcome, than wedlock with this woman."
"Don't say it too loud," interrupted Hetty impatiently; "I suppose shewill not like to hear it. I'm sure Hurry would rather marry even me thansuffer torments, though I am feeble minded; and I am sure it would killme to think he'd prefer death to being my husband."
"Ay, gal, you ain't Sumach, but a comely young Christian, with a goodheart, pleasant smile, and kind eye. Hurry might be proud to get you,and that, too, not in misery and sorrow, but in his best and happiestdays. Howsever, take my advice, and never talk to Hurry about thesethings; he's only a borderer, at the best."
"I wouldn't tell him, for the world!" exclaimed the girl, looking abouther like one affrighted, and blushing, she knew not why. "Mother alwayssaid young women shouldn't be forward, and speak their minds beforethey're asked; Oh! I never forget what mother told me. 'Tis a pity Hurryis so handsome, Deerslayer; I do think fewer girls would like him then,and he would sooner know his own mind."
"Poor gal, poor gal, it's plain enough how it is, but the Lord will bearin mind one of your simple heart and kind feelin's! We'll talk no moreof these things; if you had reason, you'd be sorrowful at having letothers so much into your secret. Tell me, Hetty, what has become of allthe Hurons, and why they let you roam about the p'int as if you, too,was a prisoner?"
"I'm no prisoner, Deerslayer, but a free girl, and go when and where Iplease. Nobody dare hurt me! If they did, God would be angry, as I canshow them in the Bible. No--no--Hetty Hutter is not afraid; she's ingood hands. The Hurons are up yonder in the woods, and keep a good watchon us both, I'll answer for it, since all the women and children are onthe look-out. Some are burying the body of the poor girl who was shot,so that the enemy and the wild beasts can't find it. I told 'em thatfather and mother lay in the lake, but I wouldn't let them know in whatpart of it, for Judith and I don't want any of their heathenish companyin our burying ground."
"Ahs! me; Well, it is an awful despatch to be standing here, alive andangry, and with the feelin's up and ferocious, one hour, and then to becarried away at the next, and put out of sight of mankind in a hole inthe 'arth! No one knows what will happen to him on a warpath, that'ssartain."
Here the stirring of leaves and the cracking of dried twigs interruptedthe discourse, and apprised Deerslayer of the approach of his enemies.The Hurons closed around the spot that had been prepared for the comingscene, and in the centre of which the intended victim now stood, in acircle, the armed men being so distributed among the feebler membersof the band, that there was no safe opening through which the prisonercould break. But the latter no longer contemplated flight, the recenttrial having satisfied him of his inability to escape when pursued soclosely by numbers. On the contrary, all his energies were aroused inorder to meet his expected fate, with a calmness that should do creditto his colour and his manhood; one equally removed from recreant alarm,and savage boasting.
When Rivenoak re-appeared in the circle, he occupied his old place atthe head of the area. Several of the elder warriors stood near him,but, now that the brother of Sumach had fallen, there was no longerany recognised chief present whose influence and authority offered adangerous rivalry to his own. Nevertheless, it is well known that littlewhich could be called monarchical or despotic entered into the politicsof the North American tribes, although the first colonists, bringingwith them to this hemisphere the notions and opinions of their owncountries, often dignified the chief men of those primitive nationswith the titles of kings and princes. Hereditary influence did certainlyexist, but there is much reason to believe it existed rather as aconsequence of hereditary merit and acquired qualifications, than as abirthright. Rivenoak, however, had not even this claim, having risen toconsideration purely by the force of talents, sagacity, and, as Baconexpresses it in relation to all distinguished statesmen, "by a union ofgreat and mean qualities;" a truth of which the career of the profoundEnglishman himself furnishes so apt an illustration. Next to arms,eloquence offers the great avenue to popular favor, whether it be incivilized or savage life, and Rivenoak had succeeded, as so many havesucceeded before him, quite as much by rendering fallacies acceptableto his listeners, as by any profound or learned expositions of truth, orthe accuracy of his logic. Nevertheless, he had influence; and was farfrom being altogether without just claims to its possession. Like
mostmen who reason more than they feel, the Huron was not addicted to theindulgence of the more ferocious passions of his people: he had beencommonly found on the side of mercy, in all the scenes of vindictivetorture and revenge that had occurred in his tribe since his ownattainment to power. On the present occasion, he was reluctant toproceed to extremities, although the provocation was so great. Stillit exceeded his ingenuity to see how that alternative could well beavoided. Sumach resented her rejection more than she did the deaths ofher husband and brother, and there was little probability that thewoman would pardon a man who had so unequivocally preferred death toher embraces. Without her forgiveness, there was scarce a hope thatthe tribe could be induced to overlook its loss, and even to Rivenoak,himself, much as he was disposed to pardon, the fate of our hero nowappeared to be almost hopelessly sealed.
When the whole band was arrayed around the captive, a grave silence, somuch the more threatening from its profound quiet, pervaded theplace. Deerslayer perceived that the women and boys had been preparingsplinters of the fat pine roots, which he well knew were to be stuckinto his flesh, and set in flames, while two or three of the young menheld the thongs of bark with which he was to be bound. The smoke of adistant fire announced that the burning brands were in preparation, andseveral of the elder warriors passed their fingers over the edges oftheir tomahawks, as if to prove their keenness and temper. Even theknives seemed loosened in their sheathes, impatient for the bloody andmerciless work to begin.
"Killer of the Deer," recommenced Rivenoak, certainly without any signsof sympathy or pity in his manner, though with calmness and dignity,"Killer of the Deer, it is time that my people knew their minds. Thesun is no longer over our heads; tired of waiting on the Hurons, hehas begun to fall near the pines on this side of the valley. He istravelling fast towards the country of our French fathers; it is to warnhis children that their lodges are empty, and that they ought to be athome. The roaming wolf has his den, and he goes to it when he wishes tosee his young. The Iroquois are not poorer than the wolves. They havevillages, and wigwams, and fields of corn; the Good Spirits will betired of watching them alone. My people must go back and see to theirown business. There will be joy in the lodges when they hear our whoopfrom the forest! It will be a sorrowful whoop; when it is understood,grief will come after it. There will be one scalp-whoop, but therewill be only one. We have the fur of the Muskrat; his body is among thefishes. Deerslayer must say whether another scalp shall be on our pole.Two lodges are empty; a scalp, living or dead, is wanted at each door."
"Then take 'em dead, Huron," firmly, but altogether without dramaticboasting, returned the captive. "My hour is come, I do suppose, and whatmust be, must. If you are bent on the tortur', I'll do my indivours tobear up ag'in it, though no man can say how far his natur' will standpain, until he's been tried."
"The pale-face cur begins to put his tail between his legs!" crieda young and garrulous savage, who bore the appropriate title of theCorbeau Rouge; a sobriquet he had gained from the French by his facilityin making unseasonable noises, and an undue tendency to hear his ownvoice; "he is no warrior; he has killed the Loup Cervier when lookingbehind him not to see the flash of his own rifle. He grunts like a hog,already; when the Huron women begin to torment him, he will cry like theyoung of the catamount. He is a Delaware woman, dressed in the skin of aYengeese!"
"Have your say, young man; have your say," returned Deerslayer, unmoved;"you know no better, and I can overlook it. Talking may aggravatewomen, but can hardly make knives sharper, fire hotter, or rifles moresartain."
Rivenoak now interposed, reproving the Red Crow for his prematureinterference, and then directing the proper persons to bind the captive.This expedient was adopted, not from any apprehensions that he wouldescape, or from any necessity that was yet apparent of his being unableto endure the torture with his limbs free, but from an ingenious designof making him feel his helplessness, and of gradually sapping hisresolution by undermining it, as it might be, little by little.Deerslayer offered no resistance. He submitted his arms and legs, freelyif not cheerfully, to the ligaments of bark, which were bound aroundthem by order of the chief, in a way to produce as little pain aspossible. These directions were secret, and given in the hope that thecaptive would finally save himself from any serious bodily sufferingby consenting to take the Sumach for a wife. As soon as the body ofDeerslayer was withed in bark sufficiently to create a lively senseof helplessness, he was literally carried to a young tree, and boundagainst it in a way that effectually prevented him from moving, as wellas from falling. The hands were laid flat against the legs, and thongswere passed over all, in a way nearly to incorporate the prisoner withthe tree. His cap was then removed, and he was left half-standing,half-sustained by his bonds, to face the coming scene in the best mannerhe could.
Previously to proceeding to any thing like extremities, it was the wishof Rivenoak to put his captive's resolution to the proof by renewing theattempt at a compromise. This could be effected only in one manner, theacquiescence of the Sumach being indispensably necessary to a compromiseof her right to be revenged. With this view, then, the woman was nextdesired to advance, and to look to her own interests; no agent beingconsidered as efficient as the principal, herself, in this negotiation.The Indian females, when girls, are usually mild and submissive, withmusical tones, pleasant voices and merry laughs, but toil and sufferinggenerally deprive them of most of these advantages by the time they havereached an age which the Sumach had long before passed. To render theirvoices harsh, it would seem to require active, malignant, passions,though, when excited, their screams can rise to a sufficientlyconspicuous degree of discordancy to assert their claim to possessthis distinctive peculiarity of the sex. The Sumach was not altogetherwithout feminine attraction, however, and had so recently been deemedhandsome in her tribe, as not to have yet learned the full influencethat time and exposure produce on man, as well as on woman. By anarrangement of Rivenoak's, some of the women around her had beenemploying the time in endeavoring to persuade the bereaved widow thatthere was still a hope Deerslayer might be prevailed on to enter herwigwam, in preference to entering the world of spirits, and this, too,with a success that previous symptoms scarcely justified. All this wasthe result of a resolution on the part of the chief to leave no propermeans unemployed, in order to get transferred to his own nation thegreatest hunter that was then thought to exist in all that region,as well as a husband for a woman who he felt would be likely to betroublesome, were any of her claims to the attention and care of thetribe overlooked.
In conformity with this scheme, the Sumach had been secretly advised toadvance into the circle, and to make her appeal to the prisoner's senseof justice, before the band had recourse to the last experiment. Thewoman, nothing loth, consented, for there was some such attraction inbecoming the wife of a noted hunter, among the females of the tribes, asis experienced by the sex, in more refined life, when they bestow theirhands on the affluent. As the duties of a mother were thought to beparamount to all other considerations, the widow felt none of thatembarrassment, in preferring her claims, to which even a female fortunehunter among ourselves might be liable. When she stood forth before thewhole party, therefore, the children that she led by the hands fullyjustified all she did.
"You see me before you, cruel pale-face," the woman commenced; "yourspirit must tell you my errand. I have found you; I cannot find le LoupCervier, nor the Panther; I have looked for them in the lake, in thewoods, in the clouds. I cannot say where they have gone."
"No man knows, good Sumach, no man knows," interposed the captive. "Whenthe spirit leaves the body, it passes into a world beyond our knowledge,and the wisest way, for them that are left behind, is to hope forthe best. No doubt both your warriors have gone to the Happy HuntingGrounds, and at the proper time you will see 'em ag'in, in theirimproved state. The wife and sister of braves must have looked forwardto some such tarmination of their 'arthly careers."
"Cruel pale-face, what had my warriors done that
you should slay them!They were the best hunters, and the boldest young men of their tribe;the Great Spirit intended that they should live until they withered likethe branches of the hemlock, and fell of their own weight--"
"Nay--nay--good Sumach," interrupted Deerslayer, whose love of truth wastoo indomitable to listen to such hyperbole with patience, even thoughit came from the torn breast of a widow--"Nay--nay, good Sumach, this isa little outdoing red-skin privileges. Young man was neither, any morethan you can be called a young woman, and as to the Great Spirit'sintending that they should fall otherwise than they did, that's agrievous mistake, inasmuch as what the Great Spirit intends is sartainto come to pass. Then, agin, it's plain enough neither of your fri'ndsdid me any harm; I raised my hand ag'in 'em on account of what they werestriving to do, rather than what they did. This is nat'ral law, 'to dolest you should be done by.'"
"It is so. Sumach has but one tongue; she can tell but one story. Thepale face struck the Hurons lest the Hurons should strike him. TheHurons are a just nation; they will forget it. The chiefs will shuttheir eyes and pretend not to have seen it; the young men will believethe Panther and the Lynx have gone to far off hunts, and the Sumach willtake her children by the hand, and go into the lodge of the pale-faceand say--'See; these are your children; they are also mine--feed us, andwe will live with you.'"
"The tarms are onadmissable, woman, and though I feel for your losses,which must be hard to bear, the tarms cannot be accepted. As to givin'you ven'son, in case we lived near enough together, that would be nogreat expl'ite; but as for becomin' your husband, and the father of yourchildren, to be honest with you, I feel no callin' that-a-way."
"Look at this boy, cruel pale-face; he has no father to teach him tokill the deer, or to take scalps. See this girl; what young man willcome to look for a wife in a lodge that has no head? There are moreamong my people in the Canadas, and the Killer of Deer will find as manymouths to feed as his heart can wish for."
"I tell you, woman," exclaimed Deerslayer, whose imagination was farfrom seconding the appeal of the widow, and who began to grow restiveunder the vivid pictures she was drawing, "all this is nothing to me.People and kindred must take care of their own fatherless, leaving themthat have no children to their own loneliness. As for me, I have nooffspring, and I want no wife. Now, go away Sumach; leave me in thehands of your chiefs, for my colour, and gifts, and natur' itself cryout ag'in the idee of taking you for a wife."
It is unnecessary to expatiate on the effect of this downright refusalof the woman's proposals. If there was anything like tenderness in herbosom--and no woman was probably ever entirely without that femininequality--it all disappeared at this plain announcement. Fury, rage,mortified pride, and a volcano of wrath burst out, at one explosion,converting her into a sort of maniac, as it might beat the touch of amagician's wand. Without deigning a reply in words, she made the archesof the forest ring with screams, and then flew forward at her victim,seizing him by the hair, which she appeared resolute to draw out by theroots. It was some time before her grasp could be loosened. Fortunatelyfor the prisoner her rage was blind; since his total helplessness lefthim entirely at her mercy. Had it been better directed it might haveproved fatal before any relief could have been offered. As it was, shedid succeed in wrenching out two or three handsful of hair, before theyoung men could tear her away from her victim.
The insult that had been offered to the Sumach was deemed an insult tothe whole tribe; not so much, however, on account of any respect thatwas felt for the woman, as on account of the honor of the Huron nation.Sumach, herself, was generally considered to be as acid as the berryfrom which she derived her name, and now that her great supporters, herhusband and brother, were both gone, few cared about concealing theiraversion. Nevertheless, it had become a point of honor to punish thepale-face who disdained a Huron woman, and more particularly one whocoolly preferred death to relieving the tribe from the support of awidow and her children. The young men showed an impatience to beginto torture that Rivenoak understood, and, as his older associatesmanifested no disposition to permit any longer delay, he was compelledto give the signal for the infernal work to proceed.