Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
At this moment a bright light, as of burning ax, amed up from the cli before
them, threw a momentary ash over the water, and then disappeared. Oneco rose:
“I like not this light,” he said; “we must be gone; we have redeemed our promise;”
and he took Hope’s cloak from the ground, and gave it to her as a signal that the
moment of separation had arrived.
“Oh, stay one moment longer,” cried Hope. Oneco pointed to the heavens, over
which black and threatening clouds were rapidly gathering, and Magawisca said,
“Do not ask us to delay; my father has waited long enough.” Hope now, for the rst
time, observed there was an Indian in the canoe, wrapped in skins, and listlessly
awaiting, in a recumbent position, the termination of the scene.
“ Is that Mononotto?” she said, shuddering at the thought of the bloody scenes
with which he was associated in her mind; but, before her inquiry was answered, the
subject of it sprang to his feet, and uttering an exclamation of surprise, stretched his
hand towards the town. All at once perceived the object towards which he pointed.
A bright strong light streamed upward from the highest point pf land, and sent a
ruddy glow over the bay. Every eye turned inquiringly to Hope. “It is nothing,” she
said to Magawisca, “but the light that is often kindled on Beacon Hill to guide the
ships into the harbour. The night is becoming dark, and some vessel
is expected in; that is all, believe me.”
Whatever trust her visiters might have reposed in Hope’s good faith, they were
evidently alarmed by an appearance which they did not think suciently accounted
for; and Oneco hearing, or imagining he heard, approaching oars, said, in his own
language, to Magawisca, “We have no time to lose; I will not permit my white bird
to remain any longer within reach of the net.”
Magawisca assented: “We must go,” she said, “we must no longer hazard our
father’s life.” Oneco sprang into the canoe, and called to Mary to follow him.
“Oh, spare her one single moment!” said Hope, imploringly, to Magawisca; and
she drew, her a few paces from the shore, and knelt down with her, and, in a half
articulate prayer, expressed the tenderness and sorrow of her soul, and committed
her sister to God. Mary understood her action, and feeling that their separation was
forever, nature for a moment asserted her rights; she returned Hope’s embrace,
and wept on her bosom.
While the sisters were thus folded in one another’s arms, a loud yell burst from
the savages; Magawisca caught Mary by the arms, and Hope, turning, perceived that
a boat lled with armed men had passed the projecting point of land, and, borne
in by the tide, it instantly touched the beach, and in another instant Magawisca
and Mary were prisoners. Hope saw the men were in the uniform of the governor’s
guard. One moment before she would have given worlds to have had her sister in
her power; but now, the rst impulse of her generous spirit was an abhorrence of
her seeming treachery to her friends. “Oh! Oneco,” she cried, springing towards
the canoe, “I did not—indeed I did not know of it.” She had scarcely uttered the
words, which fell from her neither understood nor heeded, when Oneco caught
her in his arms, and shouting to Magawisca to tell the English that, as they dealt
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