As he drew near the hut, he heard a low voice, broken by sobs; he paused
for a moment, and then cautiously and softly advanced, till he came so
near as to hear distinctly what was said, and to see enough, through a
small aperture where the clay had fallen away from the logs, to prevent
his proceeding farther, and to excite his curiosity to its highest
pitch. An old Indian woman was sitting on the hearth-stone, her arms
folded, and her blanket wrapped close around her. It appeared that she
had seated herself there for the purpose of watching an Indian cake that
was baking on a shovel before the fire; but her attention had been so
abstracted, that the cake was burnt to a cinder. Her face and person
were withered by age; but her eye, as if lit up by an undying spark,
retained a wild brightness, and was steadfastly fixed on two young
persons who stood before her, apparently too much occupied with their
own emotion to notice her observation of them. The one was a young girl,
dressed in a riding habit and Leghorn travelling bonnet. Edward was
not very well situated for accurate observation; but though he was
at the first glance deceived by the brilliancy of the girl's colour,
heightened as it was by the excitement of the moment, his unpracticed
eye soon detected unequivocal marks of the Indian race, accompanied
and softened by traits of fairer blood. A young Indian stood beside
her, who, as Edward fancied, had a certain air of dignity and heroism,
that characterised a warrior chief;--still there was something in his
attitude and motions, that bespoke the habits of civilized life. His
dress, too, was a singular mixture of the European and Indian costumes.
He wore a jacket with long sleeves made of deer skin, and closely fitted
to his arms and breast. He had a mantle of blue broad cloth, lined with
crimson, made long and full, hanging over one shoulder, and confined at
the waist by a wampum belt. On a table beside him was lying a cap, like
the military undress cap of a British officer, with a plume of black
feathers tinged with crimson, and attached to the cap by a silver arrow.

The conversation between him and the girl was in French, and made up of
ejaculations and vehement protestations, from which Edward could not at
first gather any thing intelligible to him. The girl wept excessively;
the Indian's passion seemed too powerful for such an expression.

"You promise," he said, "Felice; but our old men say the winds are not