1647.J ADVENTURES OF MARIE. 311 



possessed her that she would soon share his fate, 

 and she resolved to fly. The ground was still cov- 

 ered with snow, and her footprints would infalli- 

 bly have betrayed her, if she had not, instead of 

 tui'ning towards home, followed the beaten Indian 

 path westward. She journeyed on, confused and 

 irresolute, and tortured between terror and hunger. 

 At length she approached Onondaga, a few miles 

 from the present city of Syracuse, and hid herself 

 in a dense thicket of spruce or cedar, whence she 

 crept forth at night, to grope in the half-melted 

 snow for a few ears of corn, left from the last year's 

 harvest. She saw many Indians from her lurking- 

 place, and once a tall savage, with an axe on his 

 shoulder, advanced directly towards the spot where 

 she lay : but, in the extremity of her fright, she 

 murmured a prayer, on which he turned and 

 changed his course. The fate that awaited her, if 

 she remained, — for a fugitive coidd not hope for 

 mercy, — and the scarcely less terrible dangers of 

 the pitiless wilderness between her and Canada, 

 filled her with despair, for she was half dead 

 akeady with hunger and cold. She tied her girdle 

 to the bough of a tree, and hung herself from it 

 by the neck. The cord broke. She repeated the 

 attempt with the same result, and then the thought 

 came to her that God meant to save her life. The 

 snow by this time had melted in the forests, and 

 she began her journey for home, with a few hand- 

 fuls of corn as her only provision. She dhected 

 her course by the sun, and for food dug roots, 

 peeled the soft inner bark of trees, and sometimes 



