“‘But I will be a Christian,’ I cried.  ’Only come with me, Atala, and I will be baptised by the first priest that we meet.  There are several missionaries among the Natchez.’

“To my utter astonishment, instead of this comforting Atala, it only made her weep more passionately.  Her body shook with sobs as I took her up in my arms and carried her away from the town into the great forest.  At last she grew calmer, and asked me to set her down, and, striking a narrow track between the dark trees, we marched along silently and quickly, stopping now and then to listen if we were being followed.  We heard nothing but the crackling tread of some nocturnal beast of prey, or the cry of some animal in the agony of death.  On coming to an opening in the forest I made a shelter for the night.  Atala then threw herself at my feet, and clasped my knees, and again begged me to leave her.  But I swore that, if she returned to the camp, I would follow her, and give myself up.  As we were talking, the cry of death rang through the forest, and four warriors fell upon me and bound me.  Our flight had been discovered, and Simaghan had set out in pursuit with all his band.

“In vain did Atala plead for me; I was condemned to be burnt.  Happily, the Feast of Souls was being held, and no tribe dares to kill a captive during the days consecrated to this solemn ceremony.  But after the feast I was bound down on the ground before the sacred totem pillars, and all the maidens and warriors of the Creek nation danced around me, chanting songs of triumph.  Again I sang my song of death.

“’I do not fear your torments!  For I am brave!  I defy you, for you are all weaker than women.  My father, Outalissi, has drunk from the skulls of your bravest warriors.  Burn me!  Torture me!  But you will not make me groan; you will not make me sigh.’

“Angered by my song, a Creek warrior stabbed me in the arm.  ‘Thank you,’ I said.

“To make sure that I should not again escape, they bound cords around my neck and feet and arms; the ends of these cords were fastened in the earth by means of pegs, and a band of warriors set to watch over me laid down on the cords, so that I could not make a single movement of which they were not aware.  The songs and dances gradually ceased as night came on, and the camp fires burnt low and red, and, in spite of my pain, I, too, fell asleep.  I dreamt that someone was setting me free, and I seemed to feel that sharp anguish which shoots along the nerves when ropes, which are bound so tightly as to stop the flow of blood, are suddenly cut from the numbed limbs.  The pain became so keen that it made me open my eyes.  A tall, white figure was bending over me, silently cutting my cords.  It was Atala.  I rose up and followed her through the sleeping camp.

“When we were out of ear-shot she told me that she had bribed the medicine man of her tribe, and brought some barrels of fire-water into the camp and made all the warriors drunk with it.  Drunkenness, no doubt, prevented the Creeks from following us for a day or two.  And if afterwards they pursued us, they probably turned to the west, thinking that we had set out in the direction of the country of Natchez.  But we had gone north, tracking our way by the moss growing on the trunks of the trees.”