Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 1).djvu/188

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172
THE LAST OF

add to the number of the victims of our merciless enemies?"

"Why!" repeated the scout, looking about him proudly, "because it is better for a man to die at peace with himself, than to live haunted by an evil conscience! What answer could we give to Munro, when he asked us, where and how we left his children?"

"Go to him, and say, that you left them with a message to hasten to their aid," returned Cora, advancing higher to the scout, in her generous ardour; "that the Hurons bear them into the northern wilds, but that by vigilance and speed they may yet be rescued; and if, after all, it should please heaven, that his assistance come too late, bear to him," she continued, the firm tones of her voice gradually lowering, until they seemed nearly choaked, "the love, the blessings, the final prayers of his daughters, and bid him not to mourn their early fate, but to look forward with humble confidence to the Christian's goal to meet his children."

The hard, weather-beaten features of the