Even the women were
now seen moving through its grassy street with greater seeming confidence,
and there was a regularity in the air of the armed men, which denoted a
determination that was calculated to impose on their wild and
undisciplined assailants.
But the dwelling, the out-buildings, and all the implements of domestic
comfort, which had so lately contributed to the ease of the Heathcotes,
were completely in the possession of the Indians. The open shutters and
doors, the scattered and half-destroyed furniture, the air of devastation
and waste, and the general abandonment of all interest in the protection
of the property, proclaimed the licentious disorder of a successful
assault. Still the work of destruction and plunder did not go on.
Although here and there might be seen some warrior, decorated, according
to the humors of his savage taste, with the personal effects of the
former inmates of the building, every hand had been checked, and the
furious tempers of the conquerors had been quieted, seemingly by the
agency of some unseen and extraordinary authority.
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