The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757

by James Fenimore Cooper

"Mine ear is open, and my heart prepared: The worst is wordly loss thou canst unfold:— Say, is my kingdom lost?"—Shakespeare

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.

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.

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 passions.

The tresses of this lady were shining and black, like the plumage of the raven. Her complexion was not brown, but it rather appeared charged with the color of the rich blood, that seemed ready to burst its bounds. And yet there was neither coarseness nor want of shadowing in a countenance that was exquisitely regular, and dignified and surpassingly beautiful.

"Should we distrust the man because his manners are not our manners, and that his skin is dark?" coldly asked Cora.

"Man's voice is given to him, like his other talents, to be used, and not to be abused.

"There is reason in an Indian, though nature has made him with a red skin!"

It is one of their customs to write in books what they have done and seen, instead of telling them in their villages, where the lie can be given to the face of a cowardly boaster, and the brave soldier can call on his comrades to witness for the truth of his words.

"Where are the blossoms of those summers!—fallen, one by one; so all of my family departed, each in his turn, to the land of spirits. I am on the hilltop and must go down into the valley; and when Uncas follows in my footsteps there will no longer be any of the blood of the Sagamores, for my boy is the last of the Mohicans."

"Well go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove Till I torment thee for this injury."—Midsummer Night's Dream.

In such a night Did This be fearfully o'ertrip the dew; And saw the lion's shadow ere himself."—Merchant of Venice

"Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide; He wales a portion with judicious care; And 'Let us worship God', he says, with solemn air."—Burns

"Now Major Heyward speaks as Major Heyward should," said Cora; "who that looks at this creature of nature, remembers the shade of his skin?"

"Be gay securely; Dispel, my fair, with smiles, the tim'rous clouds, That hang on thy clear brow."—Death of Agrippina

"Cursed be my tribe If I forgive him." —Shylock

"Guard.—Qui est la?

"Then go we in, to know his embassy; Which I could, with ready guess, declare, Before the Frenchmen speak a word of it." —King Henry V

"Why, anything; An honorable murderer, if you will; For naught I did in hate, but all in honor." —Othello

"Salar.—Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh; what's that good for? Shy.—To bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge." —Merchant of Venice

"Land of Albania! let me bend mine eyes On thee; thou rugged nurse of savage men!" —Childe Harold

"If you find a man there, he shall die a flea's death." —Merry Wives of Windsor.

"But though the beast of game The privilege of chase may claim; Though space and law the stag we lend Ere hound we slip, or bow we bend; Whoever recked, where, how, or when The prowling fox was trapped or slain?" —Lady of the Lake.

"Thus spoke the sage: the kings without delay Dissolve the council, and their chief obey." —Pope's Iliad

"Snug.—Have you the lion's part written? Pray you, if it be, give it to me, for I am slow of study. Quince.—You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring." —Midsummer Night's Dream.

"Bot.—Let me play the lion too." —Midsummer Night's Dream

"Ant. I shall remember: When C'sar says Do this, it is performed." —Julius Caesar

"Brief, I pray for you; for you see, 'tis a busy time with me." —Much Ado About Nothing.

"The assembly seated, rising o'er the rest, Achilles thus the king of men addressed." —Pope's Illiad

"If you deny me, fie upon your law! There is no force in the decrees of Venice: I stand for judgment: answer, shall I have it?" —Merchant of Venice

"Flue.—Kill the poys and the luggage! 'Tis expressly against the law of arms; 'tis as arrant a piece of knavery, mark you now, as can be offered in the 'orld." —King Henry V.

"But plagues shall spread, and funeral fires increase, Till the great king, without a ransom paid, To her own Chrysa send the black-eyed maid." —Pope.

"They fought, like brave men, long and well, They piled that ground with Moslem slain, They conquered—but Bozzaris fell, Bleeding at every vein. His few surviving comrades saw His smile when rang their loud hurrah, And the red field was won; Then saw in death his eyelids close Calmly, as to a night's repose, Like flowers at set of sun." —Halleck.

"no, Sagamore, not alone. The gifts of our colors may be different, but God has so placed us as to journey in the same path. I have no kin, and I may also say, like you, no people. He was your son, and a red-skin by nature; and it may be that your blood was nearer—but, if ever I forget the lad who has so often fou't at my side in war, and slept at my side in peace, may He who made us all, whatever may be our color or our gifts, forget me! The boy has left us for a time; but, Sagamore, you are not alone."

"Go, children of the Lenape, the anger of the Manitou is not done. Why should Tamenund stay? The pale faces are masters of the earth, and the time of the red men has not yet come again. My day has been too long. In the morning I saw the sons of Unamis happy and strong; and yet, before the night has come, have I lived to see the last warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans."