It seemed a wolf’s, but Waban’s practised ear Could well the language of the forest tell; Again he paused, till from the distance drear, A faint response in dying cadence fell; Then spake in haste;--“Does not my sachem hear The voice of vengeance in the breezes swell? Come! Let us hasten to some friendly town, For murder tracks us through the forest brown! XVI. “Comrade to comrade calls!--the demon’s priest Is on our trail!”--No more the red man spoke; And this in Narraganset’s tongue exprest, To Mary nothing told, save as the look And earnest gesture may have stirred her breast With vague alarm.--But these she soon mistook As native to him in his wonted mood, And seemed confirmed as she our Founder viewed. XVII. He, in like speech, thus to his faithful guide:-- “Waban, be calm! wake not in bosoms frail A groundless fear; the tokens may have lied; Some other wolf may be upon our trail.” “Waban was hunted,” quickly he replied, “Far tow’rd the white man’s town through yonder vale; When there, the priest oft in his pathway stept, And watched the wigwam where the white hand slept.” XVIII. Sire Williams shuddered thus to realize What he had hoped was but his fancy’s fear; But yet he quelled each symptom of surprise, And thus to Waban: “Brother, be your ear Quick as the beaver’s, and your searching eyes Like to the eagle’s, and, the foeman near, Be your heart bolder than the panther’s, when He slays the growling bear and drags him to his den.” XIX. They left the steep, and, o’er the woodland plain, Passed with all speed the tender group could make; They ford the rivers, and their course maintain Through ancient groves, where, bare of broom and brake, The lurking foe might scant concealment gain; Waban still moved before, and nothing spake; His rapid glance scanned every thicket near, And when he paused he bent the listening ear. XX. Hour after hour the hunter thus did go, His eyes still roving and his ears still spread; His was a spectre’s glide;--but toiling slow, The lagging group pursued with faltering tread. At last he paused beneath a birchen bough, Where the dense alders formed a barricade, And there awaited them.--With anxious breast Williams approached, and thus his guide addrest: XXI. “Sees not my brother that the shadows grow Fast tow’rd the east, and that the forest brown Soon hides the sun?--then whither does he go To rest in safety till the morrow’s dawn.” Waban replied, “O’er yonder distant brow, Smokes in the vale Neponset’s peopled town; Thy red friends there will thee in safety keep, There may the white hand and the children sleep.” XXII.