He moreover
obstinately refused the pressing request of Wacousta, in
regard to some present enterprise which the latter had
just suggested, the precise nature of which, however,
Captain de Haldimar could not learn. Meanwhile, the rapid
flitting of numerous forms to and from the encampment,
arrayed in all the fierce panoply of savage warfare,
while low exclamations of excitement occasionally caught
his ear, led the officer to infer, strange and unusual
as such an occurrence was, that either the detachment
already engaged, or a second, was advancing on their
position. Still, this offered little chance of security
for himself; for more than once, during his long conference
with Ponteac, had the fierce Wacousta bent his eye in
ferocious triumph on his victim, as if he would have
said,--"Come what will--whatever be the result--you, at
least, shall not escape me." Indeed, so confident did
the latter feel that the instant of attack would be the
signal of his own death, that, after the first momentary
and instinctive cheering of his spirit, he rather regretted
the circumstance of their approach; or, if he rejoiced
at all, it was only because it afforded him the prospect
of immediate death, instead of being exposed to all the
horror of a lingering and agonising suffering from the
torture.
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