 or the politician, who can produce such a state of things, is
commonly popular with his contemporaries, however he may be treated by
posterity. All perceived that more was meant than was uttered, and each one
believed that the hidden meaning was precisely such as his own faculties enabled
him to understand, or his own wishes led him to anticipate.
    In this happy state of things, it is not surprising that the management of
Magua prevailed. The tribe consented to act with deliberation, and with one
voice they committed the direction of the whole affair to the government of the
chief, who had suggested such wise and intelligible expedients.
    Magua had now attained one great object of all his cunning and enterprise.
The ground he had lost in the favour of his people was completely regained, and
he found himself even placed at the head of affairs. He was, in truth, their
ruler; and so long as he could maintain his popularity, no monarch could be more
despotic, especially while the tribe continued in a hostile country. Throwing
off, therefore, the appearance of consultation, he assumed the grave air of
authority, necessary to support the dignity of his office.
    Runners were despatched for intelligence, in different directions; spies
were ordered to approach and feel the encampment of the Delawares; the warriors
were dismissed to their lodges, with an intimation that their services would
soon be needed; and the women and children were ordered to retire, with a
warning, that it was their province to be silent. When these several
arrangements were made, Magua passed through the village, stopping here and
there, to pay a visit where he thought his presence might be flattering to the
individual. He confirmed his friends in their confidence; fixed the wavering;
and gratified all. Then he sought his own lodge. The wife the Huron chief had
abandoned, when he was chased from among his people, was dead. Children he had
none; and he now occupied a hut, without companion of any sort. It was, in fact,
the dilapidated and solitary structure in which David had been discovered, and
whom he had tolerated in his presence, on those few occasions when they met,
with the contemptuous indifference of a haughty superiority.
    Hither, then, Magua retired, when his labours of policy were ended. While
others slept, however, he neither knew nor sought repose. Had there been one
sufficiently curious to have watched the movements of the newly elected chief,
he would have seen him seated in a corner of his lodge, musing on the subject of
his future plans, from the hour of
