Before
the sun has travelled far in the meridian you die; and
the tomahawk of your father's deadly foe--of--of--of
Wacousta, as I am called, shall be the first to drink
your blood."
The officer made a final effort at mercy. "Who or what
you are, or whence your hatred of my family, I know not,"
he said; "but surely I have never injured you: wherefore,
then, this insatiable thirst for my blood? If you are,
indeed, a Christian and a soldier, let your heart be
touched with humanity, and procure my restoration to my
friends. You once attempted my life in honourable combat,
why not wait, then, until a fitting opportunity shall
give not a bound and defenceless victim to your steel,
but one whose resistance may render him a conquest worthy
of your arm?"
"What! and be balked of the chance of my just revenge?
Hear me, Captain de Haldimar," he pursued, in that low,
quick, deep tone that told all the strong excitement of
his heart:--"I have, it is true, no particular enmity to
yourself, further than that you are a De Haldimar; but
hell does not supply a feeling half so bitter as my enmity
to your proud father; and months, nay years, have I passed
in the hope of such an hour as this.
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