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- Джеймс Купер
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- Последний из Могикан
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- Стр. 2/257
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It
was
in
this
scene
of
strife
and
bloodshed
that
the
incidents
we
shall
attempt
to
relate
occurred
,
during
the
third
year
of
the
war
which
England
and
France
last
waged
for
the
possession
of
a
country
that
neither
was
destined
to
retain
.
The
imbecility
of
her
military
leaders
abroad
,
and
the
fatal
want
of
energy
in
her
councils
at
home
,
had
lowered
the
character
of
Great
Britain
from
the
proud
elevation
on
which
it
had
been
placed
,
by
the
talents
and
enterprise
of
her
former
warriors
and
statesmen
.
No
longer
dreaded
by
her
enemies
,
her
servants
were
fast
losing
the
confidence
of
self-respect
.
In
this
mortifying
abasement
,
the
colonists
,
though
innocent
of
her
imbecility
,
and
too
humble
to
be
the
agents
of
her
blunders
,
were
but
the
natural
participators
.
They
had
recently
seen
a
chosen
army
from
that
country
,
which
,
reverencing
as
a
mother
,
they
had
blindly
believed
invincible
--
an
army
led
by
a
chief
who
had
been
selected
from
a
crowd
of
trained
warriors
,
for
his
rare
military
endowments
,
disgracefully
routed
by
a
handful
of
French
and
Indians
,
and
only
saved
from
annihilation
by
the
coolness
and
spirit
of
a
Virginian
boy
,
whose
riper
fame
has
since
diffused
itself
,
with
the
steady
influence
of
moral
truth
,
to
the
uttermost
confines
of
Christendom
.
A
wide
frontier
had
been
laid
naked
by
this
unexpected
disaster
,
and
more
substantial
evils
were
preceded
by
a
thousand
fanciful
and
imaginary
dangers
.
The
alarmed
colonists
believed
that
the
yells
of
the
savages
mingled
with
every
fitful
gust
of
wind
that
issued
from
the
interminable
forests
of
the
west
.
The
terrific
character
of
their
merciless
enemies
increased
immeasurably
the
natural
horrors
of
warfare
.
Numberless
recent
massacres
were
still
vivid
in
their
recollections
;
nor
was
there
any
ear
in
the
provinces
so
deaf
as
not
to
have
drunk
in
with
avidity
the
narrative
of
some
fearful
tale
of
midnight
murder
,
in
which
the
natives
of
the
forests
were
the
principal
and
barbarous
actors
.
As
the
credulous
and
excited
traveller
related
the
hazardous
chances
of
the
wilderness
,
the
blood
of
the
timid
curdled
with
terror
,
and
mothers
cast
anxious
glances
even
at
those
children
which
slumbered
within
the
security
of
the
largest
towns
.
In
short
,
the
magnifying
influence
of
fear
began
to
set
at
naught
the
calculations
of
reason
,
and
to
render
those
who
should
have
remembered
their
manhood
,
the
slaves
of
the
basest
of
passions
.
Even
the
most
confident
and
the
stoutest
hearts
began
to
think
the
issue
of
the
contest
was
becoming
doubtful
;
and
that
abject
class
was
hourly
increasing
in
numbers
,
who
thought
they
foresaw
all
the
possessions
of
the
English
crown
in
America
subdued
by
their
Christian
foes
,
or
laid
waste
by
the
inroads
of
their
relentless
allies
.
When
,
therefore
,
intelligence
was
received
at
the
fort
,
which
covered
the
southern
termination
of
the
portage
between
the
Hudson
and
the
lakes
,
that
Montcalm
had
been
seen
moving
up
the
Champlain
,
with
an
army
"
numerous
as
the
leaves
on
the
trees
,
"
its
truth
was
admitted
with
more
of
the
craven
reluctance
of
fear
than
with
the
stern
joy
that
a
warrior
should
feel
,
in
finding
an
enemy
within
reach
of
his
blow
.
The
news
had
been
brought
,
towards
the
decline
of
a
day
in
midsummer
,
by
an
Indian
runner
,
who
also
bore
an
urgent
request
from
Munro
,
the
commander
of
a
work
on
the
shore
of
the
"
holy
lake
,
"
for
a
speedy
and
powerful
reinforcement
.
It
has
already
been
mentioned
that
the
distance
between
these
two
posts
was
less
than
five
leagues
.
The
rude
path
,
which
originally
formed
their
line
of
communication
,
had
been
widened
for
the
passage
of
wagons
;
so
that
the
distance
which
had
been
travelled
by
the
son
of
the
forest
in
two
hours
,
might
easily
be
effected
by
a
detachment
of
troops
,
with
their
necessary
baggage
,
between
the
rising
and
setting
of
a
summer
sun
.
The
loyal
servants
of
the
British
crown
had
given
to
one
of
these
forest
fastnesses
the
name
of
William
Henry
,
and
to
the
other
that
of
Fort
Edward
;
calling
each
after
a
favorite
prince
of
the
reigning
family
.
The
veteran
Scotchman
just
named
held
the
first
,
with
a
regiment
of
regulars
and
a
few
provincials
;
a
force
really
by
far
too
small
to
make
head
against
the
formidable
power
that
Montcalm
was
leading
to
the
foot
of
his
earthen
mounds
.
At
the
latter
,
however
,
lay
General
Webb
,
who
commanded
the
armies
of
the
king
in
the
northern
provinces
,
with
a
body
of
more
than
five
thousand
men
.
By
uniting
the
several
detachments
of
his
command
,
this
officer
might
have
arrayed
nearly
double
that
number
of
combatants
against
the
enterprising
Frenchman
,
who
had
ventured
so
far
from
his
reinforcements
,
with
an
army
but
little
superior
in
numbers
.
But
under
the
influence
of
their
degraded
fortunes
,
both
officers
and
men
appeared
better
disposed
to
await
the
approach
of
their
formidable
antagonists
,
within
their
works
,
than
to
resist
the
progress
of
their
march
,
by
emulating
the
successful
example
of
the
French
at
Fort
du
Quesne
,
and
striking
a
blow
on
their
advance
.
After
the
first
surprise
of
the
intelligence
had
a
little
abated
,
a
rumor
was
spread
through
the
entrenched
camp
,
which
stretched
along
the
margin
of
the
Hudson
,
forming
a
chain
of
outworks
to
the
body
of
the
fort
itself
,
that
a
chosen
detachment
of
fifteen
hundred
men
was
to
depart
,
with
the
dawn
,
for
William
Henry
,
the
post
at
the
northern
extremity
of
the
portage
.
That
which
at
first
was
only
rumor
,
soon
became
certainty
,
as
orders
passed
from
the
quarters
of
the
commander-in-chief
to
the
several
corps
he
had
selected
for
this
service
,
to
prepare
for
their
speedy
departure
.
All
doubt
as
to
the
intention
of
Webb
now
vanished
,
and
an
hour
or
two
of
hurried
footsteps
and
anxious
faces
succeeded
.
The
novice
in
the
military
art
flew
from
point
to
point
,
retarding
his
own
preparations
by
the
excess
of
his
violent
and
somewhat
distempered
zeal
;
while
the
more
practised
veteran
made
his
arrangements
with
a
deliberation
that
scorned
every
appearance
of
haste
;
though
his
sober
lineaments
and
anxious
eye
sufficiently
betrayed
that
he
had
no
very
strong
professional
relish
for
the
as
yet
untried
and
dreaded
warfare
of
the
wilderness
.
At
length
the
sun
set
in
a
flood
of
glory
,
behind
the
distant
western
hills
,
and
as
darkness
drew
its
veil
around
the
secluded
spot
the
sounds
of
preparation
diminished
;
the
last
light
finally
disappeared
from
the
log
cabin
of
some
officer
;
the
trees
cast
their
deeper
shadows
over
the
mounds
and
the
rippling
stream
,
and
a
silence
soon
pervaded
the
camp
,
as
deep
as
that
which
reigned
in
the
vast
forest
by
which
it
was
environed
.
According
to
the
orders
of
the
preceding
night
,
the
heavy
sleep
of
the
army
was
broken
by
the
rolling
of
the
warning
drums
,
whose
rattling
echoes
were
heard
issuing
,
on
the
damp
morning
air
,
out
of
every
vista
of
the
woods
,
just
as
day
began
to
draw
the
shaggy
outlines
of
some
tall
pines
of
the
vicinity
,
on
the
opening
brightness
of
a
soft
and
cloudless
eastern
sky
.
In
an
instant
the
whole
camp
was
in
motion
;
the
meanest
soldier
arousing
from
his
lair
to
witness
the
departure
of
his
comrades
,
and
to
share
in
the
excitement
and
incidents
of
the
hour
.
The
simple
array
of
the
chosen
band
was
soon
completed
.
While
the
regular
and
trained
hirelings
of
the
king
marched
with
haughtiness
to
the
right
of
the
line
,
the
less
pretending
colonists
took
their
humbler
position
on
its
left
,
with
a
docility
that
long
practice
had
rendered
easy
.
