This wretch hath the subtlety of one of the French of
the Canadas in his eye."
"Away! away!" cried Faith, forcing herself in front of the speaker, and,
by placing her two hands on the shaven crown of the prisoner, forming a
sort of shade to his features. "Away with all folly, about the Frenchers
and wicked leagues! This is no plotting miscreant, but a stricken
innocent! Whittal--my brother Whittal, dost know me?"
The tears rolled down the cheeks of the wayward woman, as she gazed into
the face of her witless relative, whose eye lighted with one of its
occasional gleamings of intelligence, and who indulged in a low, vacant
laugh, ere he answered her earnest interrogatory.
"Some speak like men from over sea," he said, "and some speak like men of
the woods. Is there such a thing as bear's meat, or a mouthful of hommony,
in the wigwam?"
Had the voice of one, long known to be in the grave, broken on the ears
of the family, it would scarcely have produced a deeper sensation, or
have quickened the blood more violently about their hearts, than this
sudden and utterly unexpected discovery of the character of their
captive.
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