Round their necks were suspended their knives in

scabbards of wampum, Two-edged, trenchant knives, with points as sharp as

a needle. Other arms had they none, for they were cunning and

crafty. “Welcome, English !” they said, — these words they

,
had learned from the traders

760 Touching at times on the coast, to barter and chaffer

for peltries. Then in their native tongue they began to parley with

Standish, Through his guide and interpreter, Hobomok, friend

of the white man, Begging for blankets and knives, but mostly for mus

kets and powder, Kept by the white man, they said, concealed, with the plague, in his cellars,

765 Ready to be let loose, and destroy his brother the red

770

But when Standish refused, and said he would give

them the Bible, Suddenly changing their tone, they began to boast and

to bluster. Then Wattawamat advanced with a stride in front of

the other, And, with a lofty demeanor, thus vauntingly spake to

the Captain : “ Now Wattawamat can see, by the fiery eyes of the

Captain, Angry is he in his heart; but the heart of the brave

Wattawamat Is not afraid at the sight. He was not born of a

woman, But on a mountain, at night, froin an oak-tree riven

by lightning, Forth he sprang at a bound, with all his weapons about him,

775 Shouting, 'Who is there here to fight with the brave

Wattawamat?'" Then he unsheathed his knife, and, whetting the blade

on his left hand, Held it aloft and displayed a woman's face on the

handle, Saying, with bitter expression and look of sinister

meaning:

6

66

“I have another at home, with the face of a man on the handle;

780 By and by they shall marry; and there will be plenty

of children !”

Then stood Pecksuot forth, self-vaunting, insulting

Miles Standish; While with his fingers he patted the knife that hung

at his bosom, Drawing it half from its sheath, and plunging it back,

as he muttered, “By and by it shall see; it shall eat; ah, ha! but shall speak not!

785 This is the mighty Captain the white men have sent

to destroy us! He is a little man; let him go and work with the

women !”

Meanwhile Standish had noted the faces and figures Peeping and creeping about from bush to tree in the

forest, Feigning to look for game, with arrows set on their bow-strings,

790 Drawing about him still closer and closer the net of

their ambush. But undaunted he stood, and dissembled and treated

them smoothly; So the old chronicles say, that were writ in the days

of the fathers. But when he heard their defiance, the boast, the taunt

and the insult, All the hot blood of his race, of Sir Hugh and of Thurston de Standish,

795 Boiled and beat in his heart, and swelled in the veins

of his temples. Headlong he leaped on the boaster, and, snatching his

knife from its scabbard, Plunged it into his heart, and, reeling backward, the

savage Fell with his face to the sky, and a fiendlike fierceness

a

upon it.

Straight there arose from the forest the awful sound of the war-whoop,

800 And, like a flurry of snow on the whistling wird of

December,

Swift and sudden and keen came a flight of feathery

arrows. Then came a cloud of smoke, and out of the cloud

came the lightning, Out of the lightning thunder; and death unseen ran

before it. Frightened the savages fled for shelter in swamp and in thicket,

805 Hotly pursued and beset; but their sachem, the brave

Wattawamat, Fled not; he was dead. Unswerving and swift had

a bullet Passed through his brain, and he fell with both hands

clutching the greensward, Seeming in death to hold back from his foe the land

of his fathers.

There on the flowers of the meadow the warriors lay, and above them,

810 Silent, with folded arms, stood Hobomok, friend of