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He was reared in the family of my grandfather; served him for many years
during their campaigns at the west, where he became attached to the woods; and
he was left here as a kind of locum tenens on the lands that old Mohegan
(whose life my grandfather once saved) induced the Delawares to grant to him,
when they admitted him as an honorary member of their tribe.
This, then, is thy Indian blood?
I have no other, said Edwards, smiling;-- Major Effingham was adopted as
the son of Mohegan, who at that time was the greatest man in his nation; and
my father, who visited those people when a boy, received the name of the Eagle
from them, on account of the shape of his face, as I understand. They have
extended his title to me. I have no other Indian blood; though I have seen the
hour, Judge Temple, when I could wish that such had been my lineage and
education.
Proceed with thy tale, said Marmaduke.
I have but little more to say, sir. I followed to the lake where I had so
often been told that Natty dwelt, and found him maintaining his old master in
secret; for even he could not bear to exhibit to the world, in his poverty and
dotage, a man whom a whole people once looked up to with respect.
And what did you?
What did I! I spent my last money in purchasing a rifle, clad myself in a
coarse garb, and learned to be a hunter by the side of Leather-stocking. You
know the rest, Judge Temple.
Ant vere vast olt Fritz Hartmann! said the German, reproachfully; didst
never hear a name as of olt Fritz Hartmann from ter mout of ter fader, lat?
I may have been mistaken, gentlemen, returned the youth; but I had pride,
and could not submit to such an exposure as this day even has reluctantly
brought to light. I had plans that might have been visionary; but, should my
parent survive till autumn, I purposed taking him with me to the city, where
we have distant relatives, who must have learnt to forget the Tory by this
time. He decays rapidly, he continued, mournfully, and must soon lie by the
side of old Mohegan.
The air being pure, and the day fine, the party continued conversing on the
rock, until the wheels of Judge Temple s carriage were heard clattering up the
side of the mountain, during which time the conversation was maintained with
deep interest, each moment clearing up some doubtful action, and lessening the
antipathy of the youth to Marmaduke. He no longer objected to the removal of
his grandfather, who displayed a childish pleasure when he found himself
seated once more in a carriage. When placed in the ample hall of the
Mansion-house, the eyes of the aged veteran turned slowly to the objects in
the apartment, and a look like the dawn of intellect would, for moments, flit
across his features, when he invariably offered some useless courtesies to
those near him, wandering, painfully, in his subjects. The exercise and the
change soon produced an exhaustion, that caused them to remove him to his bed,
where he lay for hours, evidently sensible of the change in his comforts, and
exhibiting that mortifying picture of human nature, which too plainly shows
that the propensities of the animal continue, even after the nobler part of
the creature appears to have vanished.
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Until his parent was placed comfortably in bed, with Natty seated at his
side, Effingham did not quit him. He then obeyed a summons to the library of
the Judge, where he found the latter, with Major Hartmann, waiting for him.
Read this paper, Oliver, said Marmaduke to him, as he entered, and thou
wilt find that, so far from intending thy family wrong during life, it has
been my care to provide that justice should be done at even a later day.
The youth took the paper, which his first glance told him was the will of the
Judge. Hurried and agitated as he was, he discovered that the date
corresponded with the time of the unusual depression of Marmaduke. As he
proceeded, his eyes began to moisten, and the hand which held the instrument
shook violently.
The will commenced with the usual forms, spun out by the ingenuity of Mr. Van
der School; but after this subject was fairly exhausted, the pen of Marmaduke
became plainly visible. In clear, distinct, manly, and even eloquent language,
he recounted his obligations to Colonel Effingham, the nature of their
connexion, and the circumstances in which they separated. He then proceeded to
relate the motives for his long silence, mentioning, however, large sums that
he had forwarded to his friend, which had been returned, with the letters
unopened. After this, he spoke of his search for the grandfather, who had
unaccountably disappeared, and his fears that the direct heir of the trust was
buried in the ocean with his father.
After, in short, recounting in a clear narrative, the events which our
readers must now be able to connect, he proceeded to make a fair and exact
statement of the sums left in his care by Col. Effingham. A devise of his
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