It will
be useful to unite with us in asking that thy passage through the
wilderness may be unharmed; that he who watcheth over the meanest of his
creatures should take thee in his especial keeping, and that the savage
heathen----"
"Dost think the savage out of his villages?" demanded the messenger, with
an indecorous rapidity, that cut short the enumeration of the particular
blessings and dangers that his host thought it meet to include in the
leave-taking prayer.
"Thou surely hast not tarried with us to aid in the defence, and yet
feel it doubtful that thy services might be useful!" observed Mark
Heathcote, drily.
"I would the Prince of Darkness had thee and all the other diabolicals of
these woods in his own good gripe!" muttered the messenger between his
teeth; and then, as if guided by a spirit that could not long be quelled,
he assumed something more of his unbridled and natural air, boldly
declining to join in the prayer on the plea of haste, and the necessity of
his looking in person to the movements of his followers. "But this need
not prevent thee, worthy Captain, from pouring out an asking in our
behalf, while we are in the saddle," he concluded, "for ourselves, there
remaineth much of thy previously-bestowed pious aliment to be digested;
though we doubt not, that should thy voice be raised in our behalf, while
journeying along the first few leagues of the forest, the tread of the
hacks would not be heavier, and, it is certainty, that we ourselves should
be none the worse for the favor.
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