The journey before them seemed as nothing to the pair who had traversed so many thousands of miles of wood and water.  And the settlers had friends at the other end who would remember them, and have tears of sympathy to shed at hearing their terrible tale.

The brothers stood looking their last upon the clearing which had for so long been their home.  In Humphrey’s eyes there was an unwonted moisture; but Charles’s face was set and stern, and his lips twitched with the excess of restrained emotion.  His eyes were fixed upon the mound which hid from his view the corpses of wife and children.  Suddenly he lifted his clinched hand towards heaven.

“Strengthen, O Lord, this right hand of mine, that it may be strong against the nation whose crimes bring desolation upon Thy children.  Be with us in the hour of vengeance and victory.  Help us to render unto them even as they have rendered to us.”

Julian and Fritz had withdrawn themselves a little, respecting the inevitable emotion which must come to men at such a moment.  Humphrey turned away, and took a few uncertain steps, half blinded by the unwonted smart of tears in his eyes.  He had come almost to hate this place of terrible associations; and yet it wrung his heart for a moment to leave those nameless graves, and that little lonely spot where so many peaceful and happy hours had been spent.

Julian’s hand was on his arm, and his voice spoke in his ear.

“I know what it feels like; I have been through it.  The smart is keen.  But it helps us to remember that we are but strangers and pilgrims.  It is perhaps those who have no abiding city here who most readily seek that which is theirs above.”

Humphrey pressed Julian’s hand, feeling vaguely comforted by his words, although he could not enter fully into their significance.

To Charles Julian said: 

“’We must remember, even in our righteous wrath, that God has said He is the avenger.  We can trust our wrongs in His hands.  He will use us as His instruments if He thinks good.  But let us beware of private acts of vengeance of our own planning.  We must not forget the reverse of the picture—­the mercy as well as the anger of God.  We must not take things out of His hands into our own, lest we stumble and fall.  We have a commandment to love our enemies, and to do good to those that hate us.”

Charles looked fixedly at him.

“I have not forgotten,” he said, in his strange, slow way; “I was brought up amongst those who refuse the sword, calling themselves servants of the Prince of Peace.  We shall see which the Lord will have—­peace or war.  Do you think He desires to see a repetition of such scenes as that?”

Charles pointed sternly to the ruined homestead—­the grave beside it, and his gloomy eyes looked straight into those of Julian; but he did not even wait for an answer, but plunged along the forest track in an easterly direction.