Esther had already, on one occasion, made good the log tenement of
Ishmael against an inroad of savages; and on another, she had been
left for dead by her enemies, after a defence that, with a more
civilised foe, would have entitled her to the honours of a liberal
capitulation. These facts, and sundry others of a similar nature, had
often been recapitulated with suitable exultation in the presence of
her daughters, and the bosoms of the young Amazons were now strangely
fluctuating between natural terror and the ambitious wish to do
something that might render them worthy of being the children of such
a mother. It appeared that the opportunity for distinction, of this
wild character, was no longer to be denied them.
The party of strangers was already within a hundred rods of the rock.
Either consulting their usual wary method of advancing, or admonished
by the threatening attitudes of two figures, who had thrust forth the
barrels of as many old muskets from behind the stone entrenchment, the
new comers halted, under favour of an inequality in the ground, where
a growth of grass thicker than common offered the advantage of
concealment.
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