Some four years after, a less painful scene might be beheld at the house of Mr. Prevost. He himself sat in a great chair under the veranda, with his hair become as white as snow, and his head a good deal bowed. Seated on the ground near him was a tall Indian chief, very little changed in appearance, grave, calm, and still as ever. On the step of the veranda sat two young people, a tall, handsome, powerful man, of about one and twenty, and a beautiful girl, whose brown cheek betrayed some mixture of the Indian blood. On the green grass before them, with a black nurse sitting by, was as lovely a child of about two years of age as ever the sun shone upon. They had gathered a number of beautiful flowers, and she was sporting with them with the grace and with the happiness that only children can display or know. The eyes of all were fixed upon her, and they called her Edith.
There was one wanting to that party out of those who had assembled at the door four years before. Woodchuck was no longer there. He had gone where he longed to be. When he felt sickness coming upon him, some two years after the death of Lord H----, he had left the house of Mr. Prevost, which he had lately made his home, and gone, as he said, to wander in the mountains. There he became worse. An Indian runner came down to tell his friends that he was dying; and when Mr. Prevost went up to see him, he found him in a Seneca lodge, with but a few hours of life before him.
Woodchuck was very glad to see the friendly face near him, and as his visitor bent over him, he said: "I am very much obliged to you for coming, Prevost, for I want to ask you one thing, and that is, to have me buried in the churchyard at Albany, just beside your dear girl. I know it's all nonsense, and that the flesh sees corruption; but still I've a fancy that I shall rest quieter there than anywhere else. If ever there was an angel she was one, and I think her dust must sanctify the ground."
It was his only request, and it was not forgotten.
Footnote 1: This English officer, whom the author, through the story, thinly disguises under the title "Lord H----," will be readily recognized by the reader as that Lord Howe who met his death at Ticonderoga.
Footnote 2: This very curious fact is avouched upon authority beyond question. The order was called that of the Honontkoh, and was generally regarded with great doubt and suspicion by the Iroquois.
Footnote 3: All the principal incidents in the above remarkable scene were related to me by Judge Spencer as having occurred within his own personal knowledge.
Footnote 4: I am told that the Fort referred to did not receive the name of Crown Point till after its capture by the English; but I find it so called by contemporary English writers.