Wacousta : a tale of the Pontiac conspiracy — Volume 2Richardson, Major (John)
General
Wacousta : a tale of the Pontiac conspiracy — Volume 2
Richardson, Major (John)
Pontiac's Conspiracy, 1763-1765 -- Fiction
impress on the Indian the deep sense of obligation under which he
laboured; explaining at the same time the very natural error into which
the sailor had fallen, and concluding with a declaration that he was
free to quit the vessel in the canoe in which he himself was about to
take his departure for the shore, in search of her whom his sister had
pledged herself, at all hazards, to save.
The address of the officer, touching and impressive as language ever is
that comes from the heart, was not altogether without effect on the
Indian. Several times he interrupted him with a short, quick, approving
"Ugh!" and when he at length received the assurance that he was no
longer a prisoner, he raised his eyes rapidly, although without moving
his head, to the countenance of his deliverer. Already were his lips
opening to speak for the first time, when the attention of the group
around him was arrested by his giving a sudden start of surprise. At
the same moment he raised his head, stretched his neck, threw forward
his right ear, and, uttering a loud and emphatic "Waugh!" pointed with
his finger over the bows of the vessel.
All listened for upwards of a minute in mute suspense; and then a faint
and scarcely distinguishable sound was heard in the direction in which
he pointed. Scarcely had it floated on the air, when a shrill, loud,
and prolonged cry, of peculiar tendency, burst hurriedly and eagerly
from the lips of the captive; and, spreading over the broad expanse of
water, seemed to be re-echoed back from every point of the surrounding
shore.
Great was the confusion that followed this startling yell on the decks
of the schooner. "Cut the hell-fiend down!"--"Chuck him
overboard!"--"We are betrayed!"--"Every man to his gun!"--"Put the
craft about!" were among the numerous exclamations that now rose
simultaneously from at least twenty lips, and almost drowned the loud
shriek that burst again from the wretched Clara de Haldimar.
"Stop, Mullins!--Stop, men!" shouted Captain de Haldimar, firmly, as
the excited boatswain, with two or three of his companions,--now
advanced with the intention of laying violent hands on the Indian. "I
will answer for his fidelity with my life. If he be false, it will be
time enough to punish him afterwards; but let us calmly await the issue
like men. Hear me," he proceeded, as he remarked their incredulous,
uncertain, and still threatening air;--"this Indian saved me from the
tomahawks of his tribe not a week ago; and, even now, he has become our
captive in the act of taking a note from me to the garrison, to warn
them of their danger. But for that slumbering fool," he added,
bitterly, pointing to Fuller, who slept when he should have watched,
"your fort would not now have been what it is,--a mass of smoking
ruins. He has an ocean of blood upon his soul, that all the waters of
the Huron can never wash out!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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