orstall'd my message by these braves,
And come unbidden to your wedding-place.

_Iena._ Uncle! you know my heart is far away--

_Prophet._ But still your hand is here! this little hand!
[_Pulling her forward._

_Iena._ Dare you enforce a weak and helpless girl,
Who thought to move you by her misery?
Stand back! I have a message for you too.
What means the war-like song, the dance of braves,
And bustle in our town?

_Prophet._ It means that we
Attack the foe to-night.

_Iena._ And risk our all?
O that Tecumseh knew! his soul would rush
In arms to intercept you. What! break faith,
And on the hazard of a doubtful strife,
Stake his great enterprise and all our lives!
The dying curses of a ruin'd race
Will wither up your wicked heart for this!

_Prophet._ False girl! your heart is with our foes;
Your hand I mean to turn to better use.

_Iena._ Oh, could it turn you from your mad intent
How freely would I give it! Drop this scheme,
Dismiss your frenzied warriors to their beds;
And, if contented with my hand, Tarhay
Can have it here.

_Tarhay._ I love you, Iena!

_Iena._ Then must you love what I do! Love our race!
'Tis this love nerves Tecumseh to unite
Its scatter'd tribes--his fruit of noble toil,
Which you would snatch unripen'd from his hand,
And feed to sour ambition. Touch it not--
Oh, touch it not, Tarhay! and though my heart
Breaks for it, I am yours.

_Prophet._ His anyway,
Or I am not the Prophet!

_Tarhay._ For my part
I have no leaning to this rash attempt,
Since Iena consents to be my wife.

_Prophet._ Shall I be thwarted by a yearning fool! [_Aside._
This soft, sleek girl, to outward seeming good,
I know to be a very fiend beneath--
Whose sly affections centre on herself,
And feed the gliding snake within her heart.

_Tarhay._ I cannot think her so--

_Mamatee._ She is not so!
There is the snake that creeps among our race;
Whose venom'd fangs would bile into our lives,
And poison all our hopes.

_Prophet._ She is the head--
The very neck of danger to me here,
Which I must break at once! [_Aside._] Tarhay--attend!
I can see dreadful visions in the air;
I can dream awful dreams of life and fate;
I can bring darkness on the heavy earth;
I can fetch shadows from our fathers' graves,
And spectres from the sepulchres of hell.
Who dares di