THE FLORIDA POCAHONTAS. Ill 



from his wounded arm in the council ring, she sorrowed only that 

 she had not made the wound from which it flowed. Had the 

 council acquitted the prisoner she would have tracked him like a 

 hound ; and now her wild delight made her fevered step carry her 

 to and fro, like the panther that sweeps his tail while watching to 

 leap. Down by the fort she went, and away on the point, wading 

 into the watergrass, until she seemed like the Naiad that lives 

 under the sea. Then she walked back again with a long, elastic 

 step, eyeing the palisades and the sentinels, her kirtle draggled by 

 the dew, the long plumes in her hair broken on her shoulders, and 

 her symmetrical limbs cut by. the sword grass. Another turn 

 would take her to the lagoon, where she had watched her hus- 

 band's trysting, and then again she flitted through the plum-trees, 

 where still a dark stain lay on the grass. So back and forth stalks 

 a tiger-cat, when the spring water intrudes on the island where she 

 has dropped her young. 



" The night gradually passed away. The big wave that the 

 Southern tribe declares comes landward when the god of night 

 turns to go back in the sea, had broken along the shore with a 

 hollow roar, and the marsh rosemary had turned its petals to the 

 east to await the rising sun. 



" Yahchilane noted these tokens of the hours. She had taught 

 them all to Ortez, and they had heeded them many a night when 

 fishing in the lagoons. He had narrated for her the legends of 

 Spain, and the wild Moorish pranks that haunted the old towers of 

 his native town, when the chimes told midnight. She had plumed 

 for him his arrows, and softened his tongue to the liquid accents 

 of her language ; and he in exchange had sung her fairy tales, and 

 drawn on the sand the outlines of great houses and sailing ships. 

 He was a handsome man. How his moustache curled over his 

 chain mail ! How he took the arrows and gave the blows in 

 battle ! How proud she had been at village galas ! How sad at 

 distant forays ! How her heart had yearned to him in that second 

 love, when his child had tugged at her breast, and they three had 

 laughed together ! 



" Sad thoughts these to the bitter woman, and she stopped in 

 her walk, and leaned against the palm-trees. 



