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Главная
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- Джеймс Купер
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- Последний из Могикан
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- Стр. 1/257
The Last of the Mohicans
Mine
ear
is
open
,
and
my
heart
prepared
:
The
worst
is
worldly
loss
thou
canst
unfold
:
Say
,
is
my
kingdom
lost
?
"
Shakespeare
.
It
was
a
feature
peculiar
to
the
colonial
wars
of
North
America
,
that
the
toils
and
dangers
of
the
wilderness
were
to
be
encountered
before
the
adverse
hosts
could
meet
.
A
wide
and
apparently
an
impervious
boundary
of
forests
severed
the
possessions
of
the
hostile
provinces
of
France
and
England
.
The
hardy
colonist
,
and
the
trained
European
who
fought
at
his
side
,
frequently
expended
months
in
struggling
against
the
rapids
of
the
streams
,
or
in
effecting
the
rugged
passes
of
the
mountains
,
in
quest
of
an
opportunity
to
exhibit
their
courage
in
a
more
martial
conflict
.
But
,
emulating
the
patience
and
self-denial
of
the
practised
native
warriors
,
they
learned
to
overcome
every
difficulty
;
and
it
would
seem
that
,
in
time
,
there
was
no
recess
of
the
woods
so
dark
,
nor
any
secret
place
so
lovely
,
that
it
might
claim
exemption
from
the
inroads
of
those
who
had
pledged
their
blood
to
satiate
their
vengeance
,
or
to
uphold
the
cold
and
selfish
policy
of
the
distant
monarchs
of
Europe
.
Perhaps
no
district
throughout
the
wide
extent
of
the
intermediate
frontiers
can
furnish
a
livelier
picture
of
the
cruelty
and
fierceness
of
the
savage
warfare
of
those
periods
than
the
country
which
lies
between
the
head
waters
of
the
Hudson
and
the
adjacent
lakes
.
The
facilities
which
nature
had
there
offered
to
the
march
of
the
combatants
were
too
obvious
to
be
neglected
.
The
lengthened
sheet
of
the
Champlain
stretched
from
the
frontiers
of
Canada
,
deep
within
the
borders
of
the
neighboring
province
of
New
York
,
forming
a
natural
passage
across
half
the
distance
that
the
French
were
compelled
to
master
in
order
to
strike
their
enemies
.
Near
its
southern
termination
,
it
received
the
contributions
of
another
lake
,
whose
waters
were
so
limpid
as
to
have
been
exclusively
selected
by
the
Jesuit
missionaries
to
perform
the
typical
purification
of
baptism
,
and
to
obtain
for
it
the
title
of
lake
"
du
Saint
Sacrement
.
"
The
less
zealous
English
thought
they
conferred
a
sufficient
honor
on
its
unsullied
fountains
,
when
they
bestowed
the
name
of
their
reigning
prince
,
the
second
of
the
house
of
Hanover
.
The
two
united
to
rob
the
untutored
possessors
of
its
wooded
scenery
of
their
native
right
to
perpetuate
its
original
appellation
of
"
Horican
.
"
Winding
its
way
among
countless
islands
,
and
imbedded
in
mountains
,
the
"
holy
lake
"
extended
a
dozen
leagues
still
farther
to
the
south
.
With
the
high
plain
that
there
interposed
itself
to
the
further
passage
of
the
water
,
commenced
a
portage
of
as
many
miles
,
which
conducted
the
adventurer
to
the
banks
of
the
Hudson
,
at
a
point
where
,
with
the
usual
obstructions
of
the
rapids
,
or
rifts
,
as
they
were
then
termed
in
the
language
of
the
country
,
the
river
became
navigable
to
the
tide
.
While
,
in
the
pursuit
of
their
daring
plans
of
annoyance
,
the
restless
enterprise
of
the
French
even
attempted
the
distant
and
difficult
gorges
of
the
Alleghany
,
it
may
easily
be
imagined
that
their
proverbial
acuteness
would
not
overlook
the
natural
advantages
of
the
district
we
have
just
described
.
It
became
,
emphatically
,
the
bloody
arena
,
in
which
most
of
the
battles
for
the
mastery
of
the
colonies
were
contested
.
Forts
were
erected
at
the
different
points
that
commanded
the
facilities
of
the
route
,
and
were
taken
and
retaken
,
razed
and
rebuilt
,
as
victory
alighted
on
the
hostile
banners
.
While
the
husbandman
shrank
back
from
the
dangerous
passes
,
within
the
safer
boundaries
of
the
more
ancient
settlements
,
armies
larger
than
those
that
had
often
disposed
of
the
sceptres
of
the
mother
countries
,
were
seen
to
bury
themselves
in
these
forests
,
whence
they
rarely
returned
but
in
skeleton
bands
,
that
were
haggard
with
care
,
or
dejected
by
defeat
.
Though
the
arts
of
peace
were
unknown
to
this
fatal
region
,
its
forests
were
alive
with
men
;
its
shades
and
glens
rang
with
the
sounds
of
martial
music
,
and
the
echoes
of
its
mountains
threw
back
the
laugh
,
or
repeated
the
wanton
cry
,
of
many
a
gallant
and
reckless
youth
,
as
he
hurried
by
them
,
in
the
noontide
of
his
spirits
,
to
slumber
in
a
long
night
of
forgetfulness
.
