"Of me?" she said, her face averted from his. "Of you, and you only. But why should I withhold further confidence? You have given me courage to speak; have I also your leave?" She made no answer to the last question, but her look was eloquent of assent. "I thought on that day," he continued, "that I was accursed by man and heaven--that I, an Indian savage, was not accounted worthy to indulge in thoughts of love that had sprung up within my heart, like a pure flower, only to be blighted by the prejudices of race; that all my adoration for the fair and excellent, must be kept down by the accident of birth; and that whilst nurturing a holy passion, I must crush it out and stifle it for ever." "But now?" Her voice was low and tremulous. "Now--all rests upon one word. Upon that word depends my happiness or misery now and for ever." "And what is it?" "Do not ask it from me. It must come from your eyes--from your lips-- from your heart!" There was an eloquence that spoke the answer without a word being uttered. It was the eloquence of love! In another instant the lips of the white maiden touched those of her Indian lover. From their rapturous embrace they were startled by a sound. It was a groan! It came from the other side of Sansuta's grave, behind which there was a clump of bushes. Wacora rushed towards the spot, while Alice kept her place, transfixed to it by a terrible presentiment. The young chief uttered an exclamation of horror, as he looked in among the bushes. His cousin was lying beneath them, stretched out--dead! a dagger, which his right hand still clutched, sheathed in his heart! With his last groan, and his heart's blood, the generous youth had yielded up his love with his life. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ L'ENVOI. The Seminole war continued for eight years. Eight years of bloodshed and horror, in which the white man and the Indian struggled for the supremacy. The whites fought for conquest, the Indians to retain possession of their own. On both sides were acts of cruelty--terrible episodes illustrating the _lex talionis_. As in all such contests, the pale-faces were the victors, and the red men were in time subdued. Such of the Seminoles as survived the war were allotted lands beyond the Mississippi; and, far distant from their native home, were commanded to be content and happy. They had no alternative but to submit to their adverse fate, and in several detachments they were transported to their new homes. In one of the migrating bands, who passed through New Orleans, bound west of the Mississippi river, was a young chief who attracted great notice by his commanding presence no less than by a companion seen constantly by his side--a white woman! She was of great beauty, and those who saw her naturally made enquiry about her name, parentage, and station, as also the name of the young chief.