Chapter 9

Be gay securely;
Dispel, my fair, with smiles, the tim'rous clouds,
That hang on thy clear brow.

DEATH OF AGRIPPINA

In a moment of such painful doubt, Duncan did not hesitate to look around him, without consulting that protection from the rocks which just before had been so necessary to his safety. Every effort, however, to detect the least evidence of the approach of their hidden enemies was as fruitless as the inquiry after his late companions. The wooded banks of the river seemed again deserted by everything possessing animal life. The uproar which had so lately echoed through the vaults of the forest was gone, leaving the rush of the waters to swell and sink on the currents of the air, in the unmingled sweetness of nature. A fish-hawk, which, secure on the topmost branches of a dead pine, had been a distant spectator of the fray, now swooped form his high and ragged perch, and soared, in wide sweeps, above his prey; while a jay, whose noisy voice had been stilled by the hoarser cries of the savages, ventured again to open his discordant throat, as though once more in undisturbed possession of his wild domains. Duncan caught from these natural accompaniments of the solitary scene a glimmering of hope; and he began to rally his faculties to renewed exertions, with something like a reviving confidence of success.

The Hurons are not to be seen, he said, addressing David, who had by no means recovered from the effects of the stunning blow he had received; let us conceal ourselves in the cavern, and trust the rest to Providence.

I remember to have united with two comely maidens, in lifting up our voices in praise and thanksgiving, returned the bewildered singing-master; since which time I have been visited by a heavy judgment for my sins. I have been mocked with the likensss of sleep, while sounds of discord have rent my ears, such as might manifest the fullness of time, and that nature had forgotten her harmony.

Poor fellow! thine own period was, in truth, near its accomplishment! But arouse, and come with me; I will lead you where all other sounds but those of your own psalmody shall be excluded.

There is melody in the fall of the cataract, and the rushing of many waters is sweet to the senses! said David, pressing his hand confusedly on his brow. Is not the air yet filled with shrieks and cries, as though the departed spirits of the damned - -

Not now, not now, interrupted the impatient Heyward, they have ceased, and they who raised them, I trust in God, they are gone, too! everything but the water is still and at peace; in, then, where you may create those sounds you love so well to hear.

David smiled sadly, though not without a momentary gleam of pleasure, at this allusion to his beloved vocation. He no longer hesitated to be led to a spot which promised such unalloyed gratification to his wearied senses; and leaning on the arm of his companion, he entered the narrow mouth of the cave. Duncan seized a pile of the sassafras, which he drew before the passage, studiously concealing every appearance of an aperture. Within this fragile barrier he arranged the blankets abandoned by the foresters, darkening the inner extremity of the cavern, while its outer received a chastened light from the narrow ravine, through which one arm of the river rushed to form the junction with its sister branch a few rods below.

I like not the principle of the natives, which teaches them to submit without a struggle, in emergencies that appear desperate, he said, while busied in this employment; our own maxim, which says, while life