CHAPTER XXIV.

"They bind him, will they slay him? That old man,
His father, will he look upon and see

The danger of his child, nor lift his voice,

Nor lend his arm to save him?"

WITH a mind deeply taken up with the concerns of state, Sanutee threw himself upon the bearskin which formed a sort of carpet in the middle of the lodge, and failed utterly to remark the discomposure of Matiwan, which, otherwise, to the keen glance of the Indian, would not have remained very long concealed. She took her seat at his head, and croned low and musingly some familiar chant of forest song, unobtrusively, yet meant to sooth his ear. He heard for this had long been a practice with her and a domestic indulgence with him-he heard, but did not seem to listen. His mind was away-busied in the events of the wild storm it had invoked, and the period of which was rapidly approaching. But there were other matters less important, that called for present attention; and turning at length to his wife, and pointing at the same time to the pile of skins that lay confusedly huddled up over the crouching form of Occonestoga, he gently remarked upon their loose and disordered appearance. The well-bred housewife of a city might have discovered something of rebuke to her domestic management in what he said on this subject; but the mind of Matiwan lost all sight of the reproach, in the apprehensions which such a reference had excited. saw not her disorder, however, but proceeded to enumerate to himself their numbers, sorts, and qualities, with a simple air of business; until, suddenly labouring, as it appeared, under some deficiency of memory, he instructed her to go and ascertain the number of bearskins in the collection.

He

"The Spanish trader will buy from Sanutee with the next sun. Go, Matiwan."

To hear was to obey; and half dead with fear, yet rejoiced that he had not gone himself, she proceeded to tumble about the skins, with ready compliance, and an air of industry, the most praiseworthy in an Indian woman. Her labour was lengthened, so Sanutee seemed to think, somewhat beyond the time necessary to enumerate a lot of skins not exceeding fifteen or twenty in number, and with some little sternness at last he demanded of her the cause of the delay. Apprehensive that he would yet rise, and seek for himself a solution of the difficulty, she determined, as she had not yet ascertained, to guess at the fact, and immediately replied in a representation which did not at all accord with the calculation of the chief's own memory on the subject. The impatience of Occonestoga, in the meantime, was not less than that of Sanutee. He worried his mother not a little in his restlessness while she moved about him; and once as she bent over him, removing this, and replacing that, he seized upon her hand, and would have spoken, but that so dangerous an experiment she would not permit. But she saw by his glance, and the settled firmness with which he grasped his hatchet, that his thought was that of defiance to his father and a desire to throw aside his restraining cover and assert his manhood. She drew away from him rapidly, with a finger uplifted as if in entreaty, while with one hand she threw over him a huge bearskin, which nearly suffocated him, and which he immediately, in part, threw aside. Sanutee in the meantime seemed very imperfectly satisfied with the representation which she had made, and manifesting some doubt as to the correctness of her estimate, he was about to rise and look for himself into the matter. But, in some trepidation, the wary Matiwan prevented him.

"Wherefore should the chief toil at the task of a woman? Battle for the chief-wisdom in council for the chief; and the seat under the big tree, at the

head of the lodge, when the great chiefs come to eat meat from his hands. Sit, well-beloved-wherefore should not Matiwan look for thee? The toil of the lodge is for Matiwan."

"Sanutee will look, Matiwan-the bearskin is heavy on thy hands," was the considerate reply.

"Go not, look not-" impatiently, rather too impatiently earnest, was the response of the woman; sufficiently so to awaken surprise, if not suspicion, in the mind of the old chief. She saw her error in the next instant, and, proceeding to correct it, without at the same time yielding up the point, she said:

“Thou art weary, chief—all day long thou hast been upon the track of toil, and thy feet need rest. Rest thee.-Matiwan is here-why shouldst thou not repose? Will she not look to the skins? She goes."

"Thou art good, Matiwan, but Sanutee will look with the eye that is true. He is not weary as thou say'st. Cha!" he exclaimed, as she still endeavoured to prevent him-" Cha !—Cha!” impatiently putting her aside with the exclamation, and turning to the very spot of Occonestoga's concealment. Hopeless of escape, Matiwan clasped her hands together, and the beatings of her heart grew more frequent and painful. Already his hands were upon the skins, already had Occonestoga determined upon throwing aside his covering and grappling with his fate like a warrior, when a sudden yell of many voices, and the exciting bloodcry of Yemassee battle, "Sangarrah-me, Sangarrahme,"-rung through the little apartment. Lights flared all around the lodge, and a confused, wild, and approaching clamour, as of many voices, from without, drew the attention of all within, and diverted Sanutee from a further search at that time, which must have resulted in a denouement severely trying if not dangerous to all parties.

"Sangarrah-me-he is here-the slave of OpitchiManneyto is here."

And a general howl, with a direct appeal to Sanutee, brought the old chief to the door of the lodge. Before

he could propose an inquiry into their business and desire, they poured that information upon him which shook and startled him. The indiscretion of Occonestoga when speaking in the ear of the Indian maiden Hiwassee, had brought about its legitimate consequences. In her surprise, and accounting for the shriek she gave, she had revealed the circumstance to her lover, and it was not long before he had again related it to another. The story flew, the crowd increased, and, gathering excitement from numbers, they rushed forward to the lodge of Matiwan, where, from his known love to his mother, they thought it probable he would be found, to claim the doomed slave of Opitchi-Manneyto. The old chief heard them with a stern and motionless calm of countenance; then, without an instant of reflection, throwing open the door of the lodge, he bade them enter upon the search for their victim.

The clamour and its occasion, in the meantime, had been made sufficiently and fearfully intelligible to those within. Matiwan sunk down hopelessly and sad in a corner of the apartment, while Occonestoga, with a rapid recovery of all his energies, throwing aside his covering of skins, and rising from his place of concealment, stood once again an upright and fearless Indian warrior. He freed the knife from its sheath, tightened the belt about his waist, grasped the tomahawk in his right hand, and placing himself conspicuously in the centre of the apartment, prepared manfully for the worst.

Such was his position, when, leading the way for the pursuers of the fugitive, Sanutee re-entered the cabin. A moment's glance sufficed to show him the truth of the statement made him, and at the same time accounted for the uneasiness of Matiwan, and her desire to prevent his examination of the skins. He darted a severe look upon her where she lay in the corner, and as the glance met her own, she crept silently towards him and would have clasped his knees; but the ire of Sanutee was too deeply awakened, and regarding his profligate son, not merely in that character, but as the

chief enemy and betrayer of his country to the English, he threw her aside, then approached and stretched forth his arm as if to secure him. But Occonestoga stood on the defensive, and with a skill and power, which, at one time, had procured for him a high reputation for warrior-like conduct, in a field where the competitors were numerous, he hurled backward the old chief upon the crowd that followed him. Doubly incensed with the resistance thus offered, Sanutee readvanced with a degree of anger which excluded the cautious consideration of the true warrior,-and as the approach was narrow, he re-advanced unsupported. The recollection of the terrible doom impending over his head—the knowledge of Sanutee's own share in its decree-the stern denunciations of his father in his own ears, the fierce feeling of degraded pride consequent upon his recent and present mode of life, and the desperate mood induced by his complete isolation from all the sympathies of his people, evinced by their vindictive pursuit of him,-all conspired to make him the wreckless wretch who would rather seek than shrink from the contemplated parricide. His determination was thick in the glance of his eye; and while he threw back the tomahawk, so that the sharp pick on the opposite end rested upon his right shoulder, and its edge lay alongside his cheek, he muttered between his firmly set teeth, fragments of the fearful scalp-song which he had sung in his mother's ear before.

"Sangarrah-me-Sangarrah-me,

I hear him groan, I see him gasp,
I tear his throat, I drink his blood-
Sangarrah-me-Sangarrah-me."

This did not discourage the old chief, though the son, with a desperate strength, while singing the fierce anthem, grappled his father by his throat, and cried aloud to him, as he shook the hatchet in his eyes

"I hear thee groan-I see thee gasp-I tear thy throat-I drink thy blood; for I know thee as mine enemy. Thou art not Sanutee-thou art not the father of Occonestoga-but a black dog, sent on his