“He reminds me,” continued the trumpeter, “of a face that I have seen and know, Monsieur; but, I cannot say. If that turban were off now, and the paint. This is the first time I have ever heard the name. But the boy, Pierre, may know him.”
Gourgues whispered the boy:
“Who is this chief? Have you ever seen him before? Do you know him?”
“No, Monsieur; I have never seen him. I have heard of him. He is the adopted son of the Great Chief, adopted from another tribe, I hear. But he is as white as I am, almost, and looks a little like a Frenchman. I can’t say, Monsieur, but I could swear I knew the face. I have seen one very much like it, I think, among our own people.”
“Who?”
“I can’t say, Monsieur, I can’t; and the more I look, the more I am uncertain.”
Something more was said in an equally unsatisfactory manner, and, in the meantime, the stranger took his seat in the assembly without seeming concern. He betrayed no curiosity when his eye rested upon the Frenchmen. When it was agreed that two persons should be sent, one of the French and one of the red chiefs to make a reconnaissance of the Spanish fortress, he rose quietly, looked towards Satouriova, and, striking his breast slightly, with his right hand, simply repeated his own name,—
“Holata Cara!”
“It is well,” said the chief, with an approving smile; and Holata Cara, on the part of the Indians, and Monsieur d’Estampes, a gentleman of Comminges, on the part of the Frenchmen, were sent to explore the country under the control of the Spanish usurpers. Holata Cara immediately disappeared from the assembly. A few moments after he was buried in the deepest of the neighboring thickets, while a beautiful young savage—a female—who might have been a princess, and wore, like one, a fillet about her brow, and carried herself loftily as became a queen, stood beside him, with her hand resting upon his shoulder, and her eye looking tenderly up into his; while she said, in her own language:
“I will follow you, but not to be seen; and our people shall be nigh to watch, lest there be danger from the Spaniard.”