END OF CANTO SIXTH.
CANTO SEVENTH.
I.
Still far along the winding James
War’s muttering thunders ran,
And dark and gloomy clouds hung round
The hills of Powhatan;
And, as the storm more threatening seem’d,
The savage fiercer grew,
And thick around the settlements
His hurtling arrows flew.
As Powhatan in council sat
Among his warriors brave,
And for the coming night’s campaign
His bloody orders gave,
Old Japazaws, who came not there
For many months before,
With hurrying step and haggard look
Came tottering to the door.
Each voice was hush’d, and every eye
Look’d anxiously about,
For well they knew no light affair
Had brought the old chief out.
II.
‘Speak, Japazaws,’ with sadden’d tone,
The anxious monarch said;
‘Another cloud of blackness now
‘Is settling o’er my head—
‘Soon as I saw thy steps approach,
‘I felt it in the air,
‘I felt it in my aching heart,
‘I felt it every where.
‘I see it now in thy speaking eye,
‘So sorrowful and wild—
‘Speak out thy thoughts, and tell what blight
‘Has come upon my child.’
III.
‘Oh, sad the tale I have to tell,’
The trembling chief replied,
‘And gladly to have saved thy child,
‘Would Japazaws have died.
‘Like a beam of light fair Metoka
‘Went dancing through our grove,
‘Her voice was like the nightingale,
‘Her spirit like the dove,
‘And every thing was happier,
‘On which her brightness shone;
‘Such innocence and love were hers,
‘We loved her as our own.
‘But, oh, the cruel pale-face came,
‘In his shallop dark and tall,
‘And he seized her on the river bank—
‘We heard her feeble call,
‘And ran to rescue, but in vain;
‘They bore her from the shore,
‘Away, away, and much I fear
‘Thou’lt never see her more.’{[26]}