, when the Taranteen
stopped.

"Alas!" replied Sir Christopher, "no representations which I can make
are sufficient to soothe their exasperation or allay their
suspicions."

"Ask them," said Dudley, "after their other companions."

A howl of rage, and a few rapid words, were the return to the inquiry.

"What means that?" said the Deputy Governor.

"They say that they suppose they are following the footsteps of
Pieskaret."

"If such be their belief, then farewell to any treaty or relations of
amity with them. They will soon turn their backs upon both our
hospitality and friendship."

The words of the Deputy Governor were indeed prophetic, for the
Taranteens, now stooping down, raised their friends' corpse from the
ground, and bearing it in their arms, proceeded to their canoes, which
were lying at a little distance on the beach. In one of them (not
without efforts on the part of the whites to induce them to change
their determination) they deposited the body, and covering it with
skins, took their paddles into their hands and pushed from the shore.

"They are gone," said Dudley, as they receded from view; "and many a
weeping wife and mother may rue this miserable day. Better that the
tawny heathen had remained in their trackless forests, listening to
the deluding lies of the French emissaries, than come hither as spies
upon our condition, and to take advantage of our supposed weakness."

"Is it possible," inquired the Knight, "that thou believest not in the
sincerity of the professions of peace made by these poor savages?"

"I trust them not," answered the suspicious Dudley. They are of the
seed of the serpent; and as well might one expect light from the
caverns of the earth, as fidelity and truth from Indians."

"I pray thee, be not so harsh of judgment," said Sir Christopher. "I
have some knowledge of the tribes, and have observed that they are
ever mindful of favor, however studious of revenge; nor is it their
wont, without provocation, to break their word. Canst thou say that
the Taranteens have departed without seeming justification?"

"I suspect that these savages know more of the fate of their
companions, and of the cause of the death of this Pieskaret than they
choose to disclose. The longer my mind broods over the subject, the
more am I convinced that, without fault on their part, they would not
have drawn upon themselves destruction."

But this was a view of the case which seemed to find no favo