

 »Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide;
 He wales a portion with judicious care;
 And let us worship God, he says, with solemn air.«
                              Burns, »The Cotter's Saturday Night,« ll. 106-108.
 
Heyward, and his female companions, witnessed this mysterious movement with
secret uneasiness; for, though the conduct of the white man had hitherto been
above reproach, his rude equipments, blunt address, and strong antipathies,
together with the character of his silent associates, were all causes for
exciting distrust in minds that had been so recently alarmed by Indian
treachery. The stranger alone disregarded the passing incidents. He seated
himself on a projection of the rocks, whence he gave no other signs of
consciousness, than by the struggles of his spirit, as manifested in frequent
and heavy sighs. Smothered voices were next heard, as though men called to each
other in the bowels of the earth, when a sudden light flashed upon those
without, and laid bare the much prized secret of the place.
    At the farther extremity of a narrow, deep, cavern in the rock, whose length
appeared much extended by the perspective and the nature of the light by which
it was seen, was seated the scout, holding a blazing knot of pine. The strong
glare of the fire fell full upon his sturdy, weather-beaten countenance and
forest attire, lending an air of romantic wildness to the aspect of an
individual, who, seen by the sober light of day, would have exhibited the
peculiarities of a man remarkable for the strangeness of his dress, the
iron-like inflexibility of his frame, and the singular compound of quick,
vigilant sagacity, and of exquisite simplicity, that by turns usurped the
possession of his muscular features. At a little distance in advance stood
Uncas, his whole person thrown powerfully into view. The travellers anxiously
regarded the upright, flexible figure of the young Mohican, graceful and
unrestrained in the attitudes and movements of nature. Though his person was
more than usually skreened by a green and fringed hunting shirt, like that of
the white man, there was no concealment to his dark, glancing, fearless eye,
alike terrible and calm; the bold outline of his high, haughty features, pure in
their native red; or to the dignified elevation of his receding forehead,
together with all the finest proportions of a noble head, bared to the generous
scalping tuft. It was the first opportunity possessed by Duncan and his
companions, to view the marked lineaments of either of their Indian attendants,
and each individual of the party felt
