"It is the voice of the Great Spirit--it is the voice of the Great Spirit!" exclaimed each of the chiefs. And Black Eagle, casting from him the tomahawk, took Walter in his arms, saying, in a low voice,--
"My son, my son!"
Otaitsa advanced a step towards them; but, before she reached her father, her sight grew dim, and she fell fainting at his feet.
[CHAPTER XLI.]
The din of preparation was heard in the great castle of the Oneidas. With the first light of morning numerous small bands began to pour in, summoned secretly long before, to hold a war-council, and to march against the enemy. Before noon, larger bands began to appear, led by several of the noted warriors of the nation; and one very numerous body, coming across the lake in a little fleet of canoes, brought with them a great quantity of baggage, in the shape of tents and provisions, with women and even children.
The scene which took place when all were assembled, in number more than a thousand, is perfectly indescribable. Nor shall I attempt to give a picture of it. A long period of peace seemed only to have given the western warriors a sort of thirst for war; and their joy at the unburying of the hatchet and the march against an enemy brought forth demonstrations which, to any civilized eye, would have appeared perfectly frantic. Screaming, shouting, singing, dancing, striking the war-posts with their tomahawks, and shaking their rifles in the air, they seemed like beings possessed by some evil spirit; the quiet and grave demeanour was altogether cast aside; and the calmest and most moderate boasted outrageously of deeds done in the past, and which ought to be performed in the coming war.
About an hour after noon, however, a sudden and complete change came over the scene. In an open space before the great lodge, all the chieftains of the different Totems or tribes assembled; and the usual circle was formed around the great war-post of the Black Eagle. The younger warriors gathered in other rows, without the first; and the youths, the women, and the children, beyond them again.
One exception to the usual order took place. The great chief had, on either side of him, one of those both of whom he now called his children. Otaitsa, in her most brilliant apparel, stood upon his left; and Walter Prevost, armed and dressed like the Oneidas, with the sole difference that his head was not shaved like theirs, remained standing throughout the ceremony on his right.
As soon as all movement had ceased, and the stillness of death fell over the whole multitude, Black Eagle, in a speech of powerful eloquence, related all that had occurred on the preceding night, and justified the act of himself and the other chiefs in the eyes of the people. He said that he, himself, and five of his brethren, had been prepared to sacrifice the son of Prevost to atone for the blood of the Snake, and to satisfy the customs of the Oneidas, although each would rather have slain his own son; but that the Great Spirit had spoken by the tongue of his sister, and they had forborne.
When he had done, the Old Cedar rose, but uttered only a few words.