Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 3).djvu/185

 circling crowd to open. But Cora, instead of obeying the impulse he had expected, rushed to the feet of the patriarch, and raising her voice exclaimed aloud—

"Just and venerable Delaware, on thy wisdom and power we lean for mercy! Be deaf to yonder artful and remorseless monster, who poisons thy ears with falsehoods, to feed his thirst for blood. Thou, that hast lived long, and that hast seen the evil of the world, should know how to temper its calamities to the miserable."

The eyes of the old man opened heavily, and he once more looked upward at the multitude. As the full piercing tones of the supplicant swelled on his ears, they moved slowly in the direction of her person, and finally settled there, in a steady, riveted gaze. Cora had cast herself to her knees, and with hands clenched in each other and pressed upon her bosom, she remained like a beauteous and breathing model of her sex, looking up in his faded but majestic countenance with a species of holy reverence. Gradually, the expression of Tamenund's features changed, and losing