Lord H---- was full not only of the love but of the sense of music, and he drew closer and closer to Edith as she sang, and at length hung over her with his face turned away from the other guests in the room, and bearing written on it feelings which he hardly yet knew were in his heart. Sir William Johnson was standing on the other side of the beautiful girl's chair, and as she concluded the stanza before the last he raised his eyes suddenly to the face of Lord H---- with a look of great satisfaction. What he saw there made him start and then smile, for the characters written on the young nobleman's countenance were too plain to be mistaken; and Sir William Johnson, who was not without his share of worldly wisdom, at once divined that Edith Prevost was likely to be a peeress of England.
"What a fine musician she is," said the older general to the young nobleman, after he had conducted Edith to her former seat, but before the enthusiasm had subsided. "One would hardly expect to find such music in the wild woods of America."
"She is all music," said Lord H----, in an absent tone, and then added, rousing himself, "but you must not attribute such powers and such perfections altogether to your own land of America, Sir William, for I find that Miss Prevost was educated in Europe."
"Only till she was fourteen," replied the other; "but they are altogether a most remarkable family. If ever girl was perfect, it is herself. Her father, though somewhat too much given to dream, is a man of singular powers of mind; and her brother, Walter, whom I look upon almost as a son, is full of high and noble qualities and energies which, if he lives, will certainly lead him on to greatness."
"I think so," said Lord H----, and there the conversation dropped for the time. The rest of the evening passed on without any incident of note, and by daybreak on the following morning the whole household were on foot. An early breakfast was ready for the travelers, and nothing betrayed much anxiety on the part of their host till the very moment of their departure. As they were about to set forth, however, and just when Edith appeared in her riding habit (or Amazon, as it was then called), and the hat, with large, floating ostrich plumes usually worn at that time by ladies when on horseback, looking lovely enough, it is true, to justify any compliment, Sir William took her by the hand, saying, with a gay and courteous air: "I am going to give you a commission, my fair Hypolita, which is neither more nor less than the command of half a dozen dragoons, whom I wish to go with you for a portion of the way, partly to exercise their horses on a road which is marvellously cleared of stumps and stones for this part of the country, partly to examine what is going on a little to the northeast, and partly to bring me the pleasant intelligence that you have gone at least half way to your home in safety."
Lord H---- looked in his face in silence, and Edith turned a little pale, but said nothing. Mr. Prevost, however, went directly to the point, saying: "You know of some danger, my good friend. You had better inform us of all the particulars, that we may be upon our guard."
"None whatever, Prevost," answered Sir William, "except the general perils of inhabiting an advanced spot on the frontiers of a savage people, especially when anything has occurred to offend them. You know what we talked about yesterday morning. The Oneidas do not easily forgive, and in this case they will not forgive. But I have every reason to believe that they have taken their way homeward for the present. My people traced them a good way to the west, and it is only from some chance stragglers that there is any danger."
Mr. Prevost mused, without moving to the door, which was open for them to depart, and then said, in a meditating kind of tone: "I do not think they will attack any large party, Sir William, even when satisfied that they cannot get hold of the man who has incensed them. These Indians are a very cunning people, and they often satisfy even their notions of honor by an artifice, especially when two duties, as they consider them, are in opposition to one another. Depend upon it, after what passed yesterday, they will commit no act of national hostility against England. They are pledged to us, and will not break their pledge. They will attack no large party, nor slay any Englishman in open strife, though they may kidnap some solitary individual, and, according to their curious notions of atonement, make him a formal sacrifice in expiation of the blood shed by another."
"You know the Indians well, Prevost," said Sir William, gravely, "marvellously well, considering the short time you have been amongst them."
"I have had little else to do than to study them," said the other, "and the subject is one of great interest. But do you think I am wrong in the view I take, my good friend?"