"Would it not be better to escape at once? We could leave the cottage, now, without danger; but during the attack, it seems to me it will be impossible to do so."
"We should then certainly abandon the cottage to destruction, and encounter dangers that now are only possible and not certain. No, I am willing to trust to the plan suggested by Ichabod and Eagle's-Wing. Although they have not given us the full details of it, I think I understand it. We have, thus far, been signally successful, and let us rely upon our good fortune a little farther."
"Say, rather, Ralph, upon God. It is His power, only, that supports and protects us."
Ralph at once admitted the propriety of the correction. "In affairs of the world, we use worldly terms. We speak of the protection we receive from our good fortune, without intending to imply any doubt of the protection which we receive from Heaven."
"Would it not be better, Ralph, at all times to acknowledge, by a proper use of words, our dependence upon Him from whom good or bad fortune proceeds, than only to acknowledge the results of circumstances?"
"I do not doubt it. Let us rely upon His assistance, then," said Ralph. "We shall certainly need it, to-night."
The sun was already sinking behind the western hills, into a rich mass of crimson clouds. The night approached with a melancholy step, and every heart in the cottage beat with anxiety for the first sound that should indicate the presence of the enemy. The aspect of nature was calm and lovely. The setting sun wore the look of yesterday; familiar objects gazed brightly in the golden garments which were woven around them; the long shadows pointed eastward, towards the coming to-morrow. But who can foretell, from the look of this day, what shall be the appearance of the next?
CHAPTER XIX.
"Ah! whence yon glare,
That fires the arch of heaven?—that dark-red smoke,
Blotting the silver moon?"
SHELLEY.