nd as he traced the fine outline of his admirably
proportioned and active frame, he endeavored to persuade himself that
if the powers of man, seconded by such noble resolution, could bear
one harmless through so severe a trial, the youthful captive before
him might hope for success in the hazardous race he was about to run.
Insensibly the young man drew nigher to the swarthy lines of the
Hurons, and scarcely breathed, so intense became his interest in the
spectacle. Just then the signal yell was given, and the momentary
quiet which had preceded it was broken by a burst of cries that far
exceeded any before heard. The most abject of the two victims
continued motionless; but the other bounded from the place at the cry,
with the activity and the swiftness of a deer. Instead of rushing
through the hostile lines as had been expected, he just entered the
dangerous defile, and before time was given for a single blow, turned
short, and leaping the heads of a row of children, he gained at once
the exterior and safer side of the formidable array. The artifice was
answered by a hundred voices raised in imprecations, and the whole of
the excited multitude broke from their order and spread themselves
about the place in wild confusion.

A dozen blazing piles now shed their lurid brightness on the place,
which resembled some unhallowed and supernatural arena in which
malicious demons had assembled to act their bloody and lawless rites.
The forms in the background looked like unearthly beings gliding
before the eye and cleaving the air with frantic and unmeaning
gestures; while the savage passions of such as passed the flames were
rendered fearfully distinct by the gleams that shot athwart their
inflamed visages.

It will easily be understood that amid such a concourse of vindictive
enemies no breathing-time was allowed the fugitive. There was a single
moment when it seemed as if he would have reached the forest; but the
whole body of his captors threw themselves before him, and drove him
back into the center of his relentless persecutors. Turning like a
headed deer, he shot with the swiftness of an arrow through a pillar
of forked flame, and passing the whole multitude harmless he appeared
on the opposite side of the clearing. Here, too, he was met and turned
by a few of the older and more subtle of the Hurons. Once more he
tried the throng, as if seeking safety in its blindness; and then
several moments succeeded, during which Dunc