"
"I trust there is no wish to harm him," said Content, glancing an eye
uneasily around at his companions. "Strife hath done enough in our
settlement this day. The Sergeant hath a right to claim the scalp-bounty,
for the man that is slain; but for him that liveth, let there be mercy!"
"Mercy is a quality of heavenly origin," replied Meek Wolfe, "and it
should not be perverted to defeat the purposes of heavenly wisdom. Azazel
must not triumph, though the tribe of the Narragansetts should be swept
with the besom of destruction. Truly, we are an erring and a fallible
race, Captain Heathcote; and the greater, therefore, the necessity that we
submit, without rebellion, to the inward monitors that are implanted, by
grace, to teach us the road of our duty----"
"I cannot consent to shed blood, now that the strife hath ceased," hastily
interrupted Content. "Praised be Providence! we are victors; and it is
time to lean to councils of charity."
"Such are the deceptions of a short-sighted wisdom!" returned the divine,
his dim, sunken eye shining with the promptings of an exaggerated and
subtle spirit.
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