as those which had attended their opening careers, on
this lovely lake. At a later day, they returned to the place, where the Indian
found a grave.
    Time and circumstances have drawn an impenetrable mystery around all else
connected with the Hutters. They lived, erred, died, and are forgotten. None
connected have felt sufficient interest in the disgraced and disgracing to
withdraw the veil, and a century is about to erase even the recollection of
their names. The history of crime is ever revolting, and it is fortunate that
few love to dwell on its incidents. The sins of the family have long since been
arraigned at the judgment seat of God, or are registered for the terrible
settlement of the last great day.
    The same fate attended Judith. When Hawkeye reached the garrison on the
Mohawk he enquired anxiously after that lovely but misguided creature. None knew
her - even her person was no longer remembered. Other officers had, again and
again, succeeded the Warleys and Craigs and Grahams, though an old sergeant of
the garrison, who had lately come from England, was enabled to tell our hero,
that Sir Robert Warley lived on his paternal estates, and that there was a lady
of rare beauty in the Lodge, who had great influence over him, though she did
not bear his name. Whether this was Judith relapsed into her early failing, or
some other victim of the soldier's, Hawkeye never knew, nor would it be pleasant
or profitable to inquire. We live in a world of transgressions and selfishness,
and no pictures that represent us otherwise can be true, though, happily, for
human nature, gleamings of that pure spirit in whose likeness man has been
fashioned, are to be seen relieving its deformities, and mitigating if not
excusing its crimes.
 

                                     Notes

1 It is no more than justice to say that the Greenbush Van Rensselaers claim to
be the oldest branch of that ancient and respectable family.
 
2 Lest the similarity of the names should produce confusion, it may be well to
say that the Uncas here mentioned is the grandfather of him who plays so
conspicuous a part in the Last of the Mohicans.
 
3 It is singular there should be any question concerning the origin of the well
known sobriquet of Yankees. Nearly all the old writers, who speak of the Indians
first known to the Colonists, make them pronounce the word English, as Yengeese.
Even at this day, it is a provincialism of New England to say English instead of
Inglish and there is a close conformity of sound between English and Yengeese,
more especially if the latter word, as was probably