The Ladies' Garland

THE REPOSITORY.

NEW HISTORICAL NOVEL.
The following extract is taken from the manuscript of a Historical Novel, now in preparation for the press, by Mrs. Dumour, of Vevay, Indiana -
The incident is given on the authority of a gentleman who had spent twenty years of his early life a prisoner among the Shawanese Indians, and who knew the celebrated Tecumseh familiarly as a brother.-[Saturday Evening Chronicle.

"TECUMSEH was returning slowly and thoughtfully, from the chase, when a shriek, as of nature's last and most dreadful extremity, burst on the stillness of the forest. He turned, and beheld, through a vista of the trees, a party of marauding savages, loaded with the spoils of war. A female form, whose fair though faded countenance, bore a strong contrast to the swarthy and painted features of the savages that surrounded her, had just fallen to the earth, exhausted with fatigue and suffering. With one hand she clasped a lovely infant to her bosom, while the other was raised to avert the tomahawk that glittered on her closing eye.-- But vainly!--the dreaded instrument was sunk deep in her pallid temples, and the sufferer already struggled with the throes of death, while the babe, now spotted with its mother's blood, was torn from her last convulsive grasp. It shrunk with instinctive fear, as it raised its blue eyes to the dark, distorted features of the warrior: but he gave a loud whoop of unimaginable horror, and, grasping its little feet, swung it carelessly in the air, as he approached a knarled tree, to complete its destiny. One moment longer, and its unstained soul would have flown with the passing spirit of its mother; but the murderous arm, as it was drawn back for the last fearful blow, was suddenly arrested, and a calm, but impressive voice bade the savage stay his ruthless hand! And who thus dared to use the language of command to the ferocious and independent son of the forest? Was it the aged chief, whose voice resounded in the councils of his nation? or the warrior, whose proud front wore the scars of battle? No! it was a stripling, who stood before them, loaded with the spoils of the chase: his olive cheek reddened with the glow, his eye radiant with the fire of youth. But the impress of native authority sat on his polished brow: and his slender form was drawn up with the altitude of command-- The leader of the band quailed before the glance of his calm but terrible eye: and quietly yielded up the gasping babe to the extended arm of the stripling.

"I will give you this," said Tecumseh, throwing his load of furs at the feet of the subdued warrior, "and the child shall be mine." He received a ready assent to the proposed exchange; and, turning away with a look of unutterable scorn, directed his exclusive attention to the little victim he had rescued. Its face was yet purple, and its hands still clenched in its agony: but the accents of gentleness again tranquilized its features, and it soon gazed, without fear, on the bright face of its deliverer.

Tecumseh again proceeded homeward; his lovely burden but added fresh elasticity to his steps, and he advanced with rapid pace, till the moans of the hungry babe arrested his progress. He then laid it on a bed of moss: and bringing a pheasant from a neighboring bough, fed his famishing charge with its blood. Never had Tecumseh felt a purer pleasure than that which warmed his heart when the poor infant, as he bent over it with anxious care, smiled like a cherub in his face. A glow of holy feeling thrilled through his whole frame; and the angel of mercy, like the pillar of fire that guided the wandering Israelites, went before him in light, through the darkness of the forest. He reached the village, and Yonca came forth to meet him. She looked for the slaughtered victim of the chase; and, started with surprise at beholding an infant locked in living slumbers, and clothed with the tints of a pale morning sky. But alas! its golden ringlets were stained with blood, and Yonca at once conceived its melancholy history. "I have brought you a gift," said Tecumseh, laying the sleeping innocent in the ready arms of the compassionate maid. "It is an offering fit for the daughter of Otulaska.-- Look at her, Yonca! she is fresh from the hand of the Great Spirit, and pure as the snow-flake that falls from his high dwelling. Take her to your heart; and let your affections cling around her, like the vine that embraces and strengthens the tender sapling. Cherished by the daughter of the red man, and ignorant of her own nation and its vices, her soul shall retain its whiteness, like the snow on the mountain precipice, where no foot can tread. Removed beyond the breath of luxury which withers the pale daughters of her people, like the mists of the green pool, she shall grow up fleet and healthy as the antelope, and learn to imitate the proud arts and active employments of the Indian maid."

Yonca obeyed: the infant was joyfully taken to a heart whose affections gushed like the rills of spring; and boundless tenderness supplied the place of the delicacies it had lost.- Healthy, animated, and beautiful, the babe, to whom they gave the name of Egluree, grew up unconscious of misfortune, and regarding her foster family with the utmost fondness.- The prediction of Tecumseh was verified. No mark of a feebler race distinguished the blue eyed daughter of adoption. Reared in all the gloomy magnificence of nature, Egluree rose above the sickly fears and ideal wants of civilized existence. Delicate as the tenderest flower that reared its fragile head in the lap of spring, she bounded through the forest, mid the roar of winds and the howl of beasts of prey. Her fair falling shoulders, which the scorching sun of revolving summers still failed to embrown, were early practised to share the heavy burdens of the native female of the forest, Egluree wove the wampum in a thousand forms; she bent the twanging bow; and with long slender fingers, paddled the tottering canoe over the rolling wave."