nces so extreme! But here there is a strange thing to be noted.
He had only once before referred to the lady with whom he was
contracted. That was when we came in view of the town of New York, when
he had told me, if all had their rights, he was now in sight of his own
property, for Miss Graeme enjoyed a large estate in the province. And
this was certainly a natural occasion; but now here she was named a
second time; and what is surely fit to be observed, in this very month,
which was November, 'Forty-seven, and _I believe upon that very day as
we sat among these barbarous mountains_, his brother and Miss Graeme
were married. I am the least superstitious of men; but the hand of
Providence is here displayed too openly not to be remarked.[5]

The next day, and the next, were passed in similar labours; Ballantrae
often deciding on our course by the spinning of a coin; and once, when I
expostulated on this childishness, he had an odd remark that I never
have forgotten. "I know no better way," said he, "to express my scorn of
human reason." I think it was the third day that we found the body of a
Christian, scalped and most abominably mangled, and lying in a pudder of
his blood; the birds of the desert screaming over him, as thick as
flies. I cannot describe how dreadfully this sight affected us; but it
robbed me of all strength and all hope for this world. The same day, and
only a little after, we were scrambling over a part of the forest that
had been burned, when Ballantrae, who was a little ahead, ducked
suddenly behind a fallen trunk. I joined him in this shelter, whence we
could look abroad without being seen ourselves; and in the bottom of the
next vale beheld a large war-party of the savages going by across our
line. There might be the value of a weak battalion present; all naked to
the waist, blacked with grease and soot, and painted with white lead and
vermilion, according to their beastly habits. They went one behind
another like a string of geese, and at a quickish trot; so that they
took but a little while to rattle by, and disappear again among the
woods. Yet I suppose we endured a greater agony of hesitation and
suspense in these few minutes than goes usually to a man's whole life.
Whether they were French or English Indians, whether they desired scalps
or prisoners, whether we should declare ourselves upon the chance, or
lie quiet and continue the heart-breaking business of our journey: sure,
I think these wer