the hill by Edith’s side, and, with expressive looks and actions, inviting the pensive child to join in his gambols, when the savage approached.  Instantly he paused, and took his stand close to his young mistress, as if to guard her from some apprehended danger; and, as the red warrior passed, and bent his eye on Edith, the sagacious creature uttered a low deep growl, and seemed ready to spring at his throat, if the hand and voice of his young companion had not restrained him.  Fingal was a noble specimen of the St. Bernard breed of dogs, whose sagacity is such as frequently to appear like human reason, and his intelligence was not inferior to that of the best of his race.  In this instance it did not mislead him.

The dark warrior strode on without one sign of courtesy, and paused not until he had entered the group of elders and councilors who stood around the President, prepared to attend him to the public hall.  The white men made way for him to approach the Governor; and, as he did so, his keen eye met that of Rodolph Maitland, and instantly kindled with a deeper fire, and gleamed with an expression of almost diabolical vengeance, which was seen by Rodolph, and understood by him for he, too, could not fail to recognize in the Narragansett warrior that same Coubitant who had fought so well at ‘the first encounter,’ and who had afterwards attended the Nausett Chief, Tisquantum, when he and his people were repulsed in their attack on New Plymouth.  It was evident to Maitland that this savage entertained towards him and his race a peculiar sentiment of hatred; but the cause of this feeling was unknown to him.

The idea, however, that Henrich’s loss was in some way connected with this man—­or that he could give him some information respecting the nature of his son’s death, and the place where his remains had been deposited—­came forcibly to his mind; and, regardless of the cold malignant gaze that Coubitant fixed on him, he hastily approached him, and exclaimed in the Indian tongue—­’Surely you are the Nausett warrior whom I saw with the Sachem of that tribe.  If so, you can tell me the fate of my son—­the boy who was carried off, and, I fear, cruelly slain when Tisquantum and his people retired from these woods.  O, tell me how my boy was murdered, and where his dear remains were laid!’

Rodolph’s fine countenance was lighted up with eager animation.  A tear of fond regret and affection glistened in his eye, and he could have grasped the hand of the swarthy savage, and almost have blessed him, if he would have told him that his darling Henrich had died by a single blow, and that his body had been laid unmolested to rest.  But Coubitant drew back, and with a smile of fierce mockery and infernal triumph, replied briefly—­

’Ha! you found his bloody coat then.  May your heart’s blood soon flow forth as his did; and may my eyes see your body equally mangled and defaced!’

At the same moment, he placed the bundle that he carried on the ground before the President, saying, ’This comes from the Chief of the Narragansetts!’ and, turning away, hastily descended the hill, and was lost to view among the trees of the skirting wood, before the council had time to resolve on the course they should pursue respecting his detention, or Rodolph had recovered the shock that his cruel words had inflicted.