I want just such a skin, to cover the pillion that I am making for cousin Bess.«

»I thank you, sir, for your liberality, and, I trust, am also thankful for my escape,« returned the stranger; »but you reserve the very part of the animal that I wish for my own use. I must have the saddle myself.«

»Must!« echoed Richard; »must is harder to be swallowed than the horns of the buck.«

»Yes, must,« repeated the youth; when, turning his head proudly around him, as if to see who would dare to controvert his rights, he met the astonished gaze of Elizabeth, and proceeded more mildly – »that is, if a man is allowed the possession of that which his hand hath killed, and the law will protect him in the enjoyment of his own.«

»The law will do so,« said Judge Temple, with an air of mortification, mingled with surprise. »Benjamin, see that the whole deer is placed in the sleigh; and have this youth conveyed to the hut of Leather-stocking. But, young man, thou hast a name, and I shall see you again, in order to compensate thee for the wrong I have done thee?«

»I am called Edwards,« returned the hunter, »Oliver Edwards. I am easily to be seen, sir, for I live nigh by, and am not afraid to show my face, having never injured any man.«

»It is we, who have injured you, sir,« said Elizabeth; »and the knowledge, that you decline our assistance, would give my father great pain. He would gladly see you in the morning.«

The young hunter gazed at the fair speaker, until his earnest look brought the blood to her temples; when, recollecting himself, he bent his head, dropping his eyes to the carpet, and replied –

»In the morning, then, will I return, and see Judge Temple; and I will accept his offer of the sleigh, in token of amity.«

»Amity!« repeated Marmaduke; »there was no malice in the act that injured thee, young man; there should be none in the feelings which it may engender.«

»Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,« observed Mr. Grant, »is the language used by our Divine Master himself, and it should be the golden rule of us, his humble followers.«

The stranger stood a moment, lost in thought, and then, glancing his dark eyes, rather wildly, around the hall, he bowed low to the divine, and moved from the apartment, with an air that would not admit of detention.

»'Tis strange, that one so young should harbour such feelings of resentment,« said Marmaduke, when the door closed behind the stranger; »but while the pain is recent, and the sense of the injury so fresh, he must feel more strongly than in cooler moments. I doubt not, we shall see him, in the morning, more tractable.«

Elizabeth, to whom this speech was addressed, did not reply, but moved slowly up the hall, by herself, fixing her eyes on the little figure of the English ingrained carpet, that covered the floor; while, on the other hand, Richard gave a loud crack with his whip, as the stranger disappeared, and cried –

»Well, 'duke, you are your own master, but I would have tried law for the saddle, before I would have given it to the fellow. Do you not own the mountains, as well as the valleys? are not the woods your own? what right has this chap, or the Leather-stocking, to shoot in your woods, without your permission? Now, I have known a farmer, in Pennsylvania, order a sportsman off his farm, with as little ceremony as I would order Benjamin to put a log in the stove. By-the-by, Benjamin, see how the thermometer stands. Now, if a man has a right to do this, on a farm of a hundred acres, what power must a landlord have, who owns sixty thousand – ay! for the matter of that, including the late purchases, a hundred thousand? There is Mohegan, to-be-sure, he may have some right, being a native; but it's little the poor fellow can do now with his rifle. How is this managed in France, Monsieur Le Quoi? do you let every body run over your land, in that country, helter-skelter, as they do here, shooting the game, so that a gentleman has but little or no chance with his gun?«

»Bah! diable, no, Meester Deeck,« replied the Frenchman; »we give, in France, no liberty, except to de ladi.«

»Yes, yes, to the women, I know,« said Richard; »that is your Sallick law. I read, sir, all kinds of books; of France, as well as England; of Greece, as well as Rome. But if I were in 'duke's place, I would stick up advertisements, to-morrow morning, forbidding all persons to shoot, or trespass, in any manner, on my woods. I could write such an advertisement myself, in an hour, as would put a stop to the thing at once.«

»Richart,« said Major Hartmann, very coolly knocking the ashes from his pipe into the spitting-box by his side, »now listen: I have livet seventy-five years on ter Mohawk, and in ter woots. – You hat petter mettle as mit ter deyvel, as mit ter hunters. Tey live mit ter gun, and a rifle is petter as ter law.«

»A'nt Marmaduke a Judge?« said Richard, indignantly; »where is the use of being a Judge or having a Judge, if there is no law? Damn the fellow, I have a great mind to sue him in the morning myself, before Squire Doolittle, for meddling with my leaders. I am not afraid of his rifle. I can shoot too. I have hit a dollar, many a time, at fifty rods.«

»Thou hast missed more dollars than ever thou hast hit, Dickon,« exclaimed the cheerful voice of the Judge. – »But we will now take our evening's repast, which, I perceive by Remarkable's physiognomy, is ready. Monsieur Le Quoi, Miss Temple has a hand at your service. Will you lead the way, my child?«

»Ah! ma chère Mam'selle, comme je suis enchanté!« said the Frenchman. »Il ne manque que les dames de faire un paradis de Templeton.«

Mr. Grant and Mohegan, continued in the hall, while the remainder of the party withdrew to an eating parlour, if we except Benjamin, who civilly remained, to close the rear after the clergyman, and to open the front door, for the exit of the Indian.

»John,« said the divine, when the figure of Judge Temple disappeared, the last of the group, »to-morrow is the festival of the nativity of our blessed Redeemer, when the church has appointed prayers and thanksgivings, to be offered up by her children, and when all are invited to partake of the mystical elements. As you have taken up the cross, and become a follower of good, and an eschewer of evil, I trust I shall see you before the altar, with a contrite heart, and a meek spirit.«

»John will come,« said the Indian, betraying no surprise, though he did not understand all the terms used by the other.

»Yes,« continued Mr. Grant, laying his hand gently on the tawny shoulder of the aged chief, »but it is not enough to be there in the body; you must come in the spirit, and in truth. The Redeemer died for all, for the poor Indian, as well as for the white man. Heaven knows no difference in colour; nor must earth witness a separation of the church. It is good and profitable, John, to freshen the understanding, and support the wavering, by the observance of our holy festivals; but all form is but stench, in the nostrils of the Holy One, unless it be accompanied by a devout and humble spirit.«

The Indian stepped back a little, and, raising his body to its utmost powers of erection, he stretched his right arm on high, and dropped his fore-finger downward, as if pointing from the heavens, then striking his other hand on his naked breast, he said, with energy –

»The eye of the Great Spirit can see from the clouds; – the bosom of Mohegan is bare.«

»It is well, John, and I hope you will receive profit and consolation, from the performance of this duty.