What had the Eternall Maker need of thee, The world in his continuall course to keepe, That doest all things deface? ne lettest see The beautie of his worke? Indeede in sleepe, The slouth full body that doth love to steepe His lustlesse limbs, and drowne his baser mind, Doth praise thee oft, and oft from Stygian deepe, Calles thee his goddesse, in his errour blind, And great dame Nature's hand-maide, chearing every kinde.
_Faerie Queene._
The tranquillity of the previous night was not contra-dicted by the movements of the day.Although Mabel and June went to every loophole, not a sign of the pres-ence of a living being on the island was at first to be seen, themselves excepted.There was a smothered fire on the spot where M'Nab and his comrades had cooked, as if the smoke which curled upwards from it was intended as a lure to the absent; and all around the huts had been re-stored to former order and arrangement.Mabel started involuntarily when her eye at length fell on a group of three men, dressed in the scarlet of the 55th, seated on the grass in lounging attitudes, as if they chatted in listless security; and her blood curdled as, on a second look, she traced the bloodless faces and glassy eyes of the dead.
They were very near the blockhouse, so near indeed as to have been overlooked at the first eager inquiry, and there was a mocking levity in their postures and gestures, for their limbs were stiffening in different attitudes, intended to resemble life, at which the soul revolted.Still, horri-ble as these objects were to those near enough to discover the frightful discrepancy between their assumed and their real characters, the arrangement had been made with so much art that it would have deceived a negligent observer at the distance of a hundred yards.After carefully ex-amining the shores of the island, June pointed out to her companion the fourth soldier, seated, with his feet hang-ing over the water, his back fastened to a sapling, and holding a fishing-rod in his hand.The scalpless heads were covered with the caps, and all appearance of blood had been carefufly washed from each countenance.
Mabel sickened at this sight, which not only did so much violence to all her notions of propriety, but which was in itself so revolting and so opposed to natural feeling.
She withdrew to a seat, and hid her face in her apron for several minutes, until a low call from June again drew her to a loophole.The latter then pointed out the body of Jen-nie seemingly standing in the door of a hut, leaning for-ward as if to look at the group of men, her cap fluttering in the wind, and her hand grasping a broom.The dis-tance was too great to distinguish the features very accu-rately; but Mabel fancied that the jaw had been depressed, as if to distort the mouth into a sort of horrible laugh.
"June! June!" she exclaimed; "this exceeds all I have ever heard, or imagined as possible, in the treachery and artifices of your people.""Tuscarora very cunning," said June, in a way to show that she rather approved of than condemned the uses to which the dead bodies had been applied."Do soldier no harm now; do Iroquois good; got the scalp first; now make bodies work.By and by, burn 'em.
This speech told Mabel how far she was separated from her friend in character; and it was several minutes before she could again address her.But this temporary aversion was lost on June, who set about preparing their simple breakfast, in a way to show how insensible she was to feel-ings in others which her own habits taught her to discard.
Mabel ate sparingly, and her companion as if nothing had happened.Then they had leisure again for their thoughts, and for further surveys of the island.Our heroine, though devoured with a feverish desire to be always at the loops, seldom went that she did not immediately quit them in disgust, though compelled by her apprehensions to re-turn again in a few minutes, called by the rustling of leaves, or the sighing of the wind.It was, indeed, a solemn thing to look out upon that deserted spot, peopled by the dead in the panoply of the living, and thrown into the attitudes and acts of careless merriment and rude en-joyment.The effect on our heroine was much as if she had found herself an observer of the revelries of demons.
Throughout the livelong day not an Indian nor a Frenchman was to be seen, and night closed over the frightful but silent masquerade, with the steady and unal-terable progress with which the earth obeys her laws, in-different to the petty actors and petty scenes that are in daily bustle and daily occurrence on her bosom.The night was far more quiet than that which had preceded it, and Mabel slept with an increasing confidence; for she now felt satisfied that her own fate would not be decided until the return of her father.The following day he was expected, however, and when our heroine awoke, she ran eagerly to the loops in order to ascertain the state of the weather and the aspect of the skies, as well as the condi-tion of the island.There lounged the fearful group on the grass; the fisherman still hung over the water, seem-ingly intent on his sport; and the distorted countenance of Jennie glared from out the hut in horrible contortions.
But the weather had changed; the wind blew fresh from the southward, and though the air was bland, it was filled with the elements of storm.
"This grows more and more difficult to bear, June,"Mabel said, when she left the window."I could even prefer to see the enemy than to look any longer on this fearful array of the dead.""Hush! here they come.June thought hear a cry like a warrior's shout when he take a scalp.""What mean you? There is no more butchery! -- there can be no more.""Saltwater!" exclaimed June, laughing, as she stood peeping through a loophole.
