Page:Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since.djvu/170

 offspring are unfledg'd, and helpless? And should not man be more merciful than the beasts of the field, and wiser than the fowls of heaven?"

"You are not willing then," she replied, "that your tribe should separate from the home of their Fathers."

"Lady!" said the chieftain sternly, "that man hath stood before me, day after day, urging, like the prophet of Israel, let this people go. Like him of Egypt with the harden'd heart, I long answered, I will not let them go, But a decree was made plain to my soul. The terrible blackness of prophecy unfolded itself. I saw written, the dispersion of all our race. I was dumb. I opened not my mouth for many days. Then in my bitterness I said—let them go forth! Such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; or to the pestilence; or to the wild beast of the forest. Each, his own way to the grave—let him go!"

There was a pause of some emotion, and the Chief added mournfully—

"Long ere our doom was revealed to us, it began to be accomplished. Where are the Pequots, once numerous as the stars, whose strong holds ruled the waves of the sea-coast? Where are the Narragansetts, the natural enemies of our tribe? They vanished before our nation, as we now sink beneath yours. All are gone. All—save a little chaff for the winds to sweep away. I would have prevented this division of my perishing people. I would have lifted my voice against it. The words of their Chief