Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 1).djvu/206

 but sentences, in the patois of the Canadas. A burst of voices had shouted, simultaneously, "la Longue Carabine!" causing the opposite woods to re-echo with a name which Heyward well remembered to have heard, had been given by his enemies to a celebrated hunter and scout of the English camp, and who he now learnt for the first time had been his late companion.

"La Longue Carabine! la Longue Carabine!" passed from mouth to mouth, until the whole band appeared to be collected around a trophy, which would seem to announce the death of its formidable owner. After a vociferous consultation, which was, at times, deafened by bursts of savage joy, they again separated, filling the air with the name of a foe, whose body Heyward could collect from their expressions, they hoped to find concealed in some crevice of the island.

"Now," he whispered to the trembling sisters, "now is the moment of uncertainty! if our place of retreat escape this scrutiny, we are still safe! In every event, we are assured, by what has fallen from