Erect and tall, with fiercely flashing eyes,
The while he pressed the hatchet in its band;
"Brother, there's war!" "With whom?" our Founder said;
"Have I not friends among my brothers red?"
VIII.
"Haup's valiant Sachem is my brother's friend,"
Red Waban answered; "and I come before
Him, and the train of Keenomps who attend
Him, coming here—our mightiest Sagamore—
To ask my brother that his aid he lend
'Gainst Narraganset's hatchet stained with gore;
Miantonomi lifts it o'er his head,
Gives the loud whoop, and names our valiant dead."
IX.
No time there was for Williams to reply
Ere near the lodge there rose a trampling sound,
And warriors entered, stained with every dye,
Crested and plumed, with—to their girdles bound—
The knife and hatchet; whilst the battle cry
Burst from the crowds that flocked the lodge around,
And lighted up, in every Keenomp's eye
That stared within, a dreadful sympathy.
X.
Amid the train came Massasoit old,
But not too old for direst battle fray;
Strong was his arm as was his spirit bold;
His judgment, bettered by experience gray,
The wildest passions of his tribe controlled,
And checked their fury in its headlong way;
Still with the whites his peace he had maintained,
The terror of whose aid his foes restrained.
