Alice, she said, the Huron offers us both life, nay, more than both; he offers to restore Duncan, our invaluable
Duncan, as well as you, to our friends - to our father - to our heart-stricken, childless father, if I will bow
down this rebellious, stubborn pride of mine, and consent - -
Her voice became choked, and clasping her hands, she looked upward, as if seeking, in her agony,
intelligence from a wisdom that was infinite.
Say on, cried Alice; to what, dearest Cora? Oh! that the proffer were made to me! to save you, to cheer
our aged father, to restore Duncan, how cheerfully could I die!
Die! repeated Cora, with a calmer and firmer voice that were easy! Perhaps the alternative may not
be less so. He would have me, she continued, her accents sinking under a deep consciousness of the
degradation of the proposal, follow him to the wilderness; go to the habitations of the Hurons; to remain
there; in short, to become his wife! Speak, then, Alice; child of my affections! sister of my love! And you,
too, Major Heyward, aid my weak reason with your counsel. Is life to be purchased by such a sacrifice?
Will you, Alice, receive it at my hands at such a price? And you, Duncan, guide me; control me between
you; for I am wholly yours!
Would I! echoed the indignant and astonished youth. Cora! Cora! you jest with our misery! Name not
the horrid alternative again; the thought itself is worse than a thousand deaths.
That such would be your answer, I well knew! exclaimed Cora, her cheeks flushing, and her dark eyes
once more sparkling with the lingering emotions of a woman. What says my Alice? for her will I submit
without another murmur.
Although both Heyward and Cora listened with painful suspense and the deepest attention, no sounds
were heard in reply. It appeared as if the delicate and sensitive form of Alice would shrink into itself,
as she listened to this proposal. Her arms had fallen lengthwise before her, the fingers moving in slight
convulsions; her head dropped upon her bosom, and her whole person seemed suspended against the
tree, looking like some beautiful emblem of the wounded delicacy of her sex, devoid of animation and
yet keenly conscious. In a few moments, however, her head began to move slowly, in a sign of deep,
unconquerable disapprobation.
No, no, no; better that we die as we have lived, together!
Then die! shouted Magua, hurling his tomahawk with violence at the unresisting speaker, and gnashing
his teeth with a rage that could no longer be bridled at this sudden exhibition of firmness in the one
he believed the weakest of the party. The axe cleaved the air in front of Heyward, and cutting some
of the flowing ringlets of Alice, quivered in the tree above her head. The sight maddened Duncan to
desperation. Collecting all his energies in one effort he snapped the twigs which bound him and rushed
upon another savage, who was preparing, with loud yells and a more deliberate aim, to repeat the blow.
They encountered, grappled, and fell to the earth together. The naked body of his antagonist afforded
Heyward no means of holding his adversary, who glided from his grasp, and rose again with one knee
on his chest, pressing him down with the weight of a giant. Duncan already saw the knife gleaming in
the air, when a whistling sound swept past him, and was rather accompanied than followed by the sharp
crack of a rifle. He felt his breast relieved from the load it had endured; he saw the savage expression
of his adversary's countenance change to a look of vacant wildness, when the Indian fell dead on the
faded leaves by his side.