Exultation took the aspect of humility, and while men were
conscious of their well-deserving, they were the more sensible of their
dependence on a power they could neither influence nor comprehend. The
characteristic opinions of the religionists became still more exalted, and
the close of the day was quite as remarkable for an exhibition of the
peculiarly exaggerated impressions of the Colonists, as its opening had
been frightful in violence and blood.
When one of the more active of the runners returned with the news that the
Indians had retired through the forest with a broad trail, a sure sign
that they meditated no further concealment near the valley, and that they
had already been traced many miles on their retreat, the villagers
returned to their usual habitations. The dead were then distributed among
those who claimed the nearest right to the performance of the last duties
of affection; and it might have been truly said, that mourning had taken
up its abode in nearly every dwelling. The ties of blood were so general
in a society thus limited, and, where they failed, the charities of life
were so intimate and so natural, that not an individual of them all
escaped, without feeling that the events of the day had robbed him, for
ever, of some one on whom he was partially dependent for comfort or
happiness.
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