Though the words of the
speaker were evidently unintelligible to him for whose ears they were
intended, their import was conveyed in the kindness of the accents. The
eyes of the boy turned slowly from the view of the woods, and he looked
his captor long and steadily in the face. Content now indeed discovered
that he had spoken in a language that was unknown to his captive, and he
endeavored by gestures of kindness to invite the lad to follow. He was
silently and quietly obeyed. On reaching the court, however, the prudence
of a border proprietor in some degree overcame his feelings of compassion.
"Bring hither yon tether," he said to Whittal Ring, who at the moment was
passing towards the stables; "here is one wild as the most untamed of thy
colts. Man is of our nature and of our spirit, let him be of what color
it may have pleased Providence to stamp his features; but he who would
have a young savage in his keeping on the morrow, must look sharply to
his limbs to-day."
The lad submitted quietly, until a turn of the rope was passed around one
of his arms; but when Content was fain to complete the work by bringing
the other limb into the same state of subjection, the boy glided from his
grasp, and cast the fetter from him in disdain.
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