While he yet paused with indecision, at one moment fancying
the time for starting was not yet arrived, and at the
next that he had suffered it to pass away, the powerful
and threatening voice of Wacousta was heard proclaiming
the escape of his captive. Low but expressive exclamations
from the warriors marked their sense of the importance
of the intelligence; and many of them hastily dispersed
themselves in pursuit. This was the critical moment for
action: for, as the anxious officer had rather wished
than expected, those Indians who had been immediately in
front, and whose proximity he most dreaded, were among
the number of those who dashed into the heart of the
forest--Captain de Haldimar now stood alone, and full
twenty paces in front of the nearest of the savages. For
a moment he played with his mocassined foot to satisfy
himself, of the power and flexibility of its muscles,
and then committing himself to his God, dashed the blanket
suddenly from his shoulders, and, with eye and heart
fixed on the distant soldiery, darted down the declivity
with a speed of which he had never yet believed himself
capable.
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