Charles Mair

“ CANNON AND GUNNERS AT THE GATE. Enter TECUMSEH, STAYETA, and other Chiefs and Warriors.
TECUMSEH. There is the Long-Knive's fort, within whose
walls
We lose our lives, or find our lands to-day.
Fight for that little space—'tis wide domain!
That small enclosure shuts us from our homes.
There are the victors in the Prophet's strife—
Within that fort they lie—those bloody men
Who burnt your town, to light their triumph up,
And drove your women to the withered woods
To shudder through the cold slow-creeping night,
And help their infants to out-howl the wolf. ”

“ Losing its grain of rashness, takes its rise
In clearest judgment, whose effect will nerve
All Canada to perish, ere she yield.
BROCK. My very thoughts! What says Tecumseh now?
TECUMSEH. I say attack the fort! This very night I'll cross my braves, if you decide on this.
BROCK. Then say no more! Glegg, take a flag of truce,
And bear to Hull this summons to surrender.
Tell him Tecumseh and his force are here—
A host of warriors brooding on their wrongs,
Who, should resistance flush them to revenge,
Would burst from my control like wind-borne fire,
And match on earth the miseries of hell. ”

“ And stagger in the Long-Knife's villages;
And some are dead, and some have fled away,
And some are lurking in the forest here,
Sneaking, like dogs, until resentment cools.
KICKAPOO CHIEF. We all disclaim their treaties. Should
they come,
Forced from their lairs by hunger, to our doors,
Swift punishment will light upon their heads.
TECUMSEH. Put yokes upon them! let their mouths be
bound!
For they are swine who root with champing jaws
Their fathers' fields, and swallow their own offspring.
Enter the PROPHET in his robe—his face discoloured.
The Prophet! ”

“ BARRON. Yes, all. I have commands
To bear your answer back without delay.
PROPHET. This is our answer, then, to Harrison:
Go tell that bearded liar we shall come,
With forces which will pledge our own return!
TECUMSEH. What shall my answer be?
PROPHET. Why, like my own—There is no answer save that we shall go.
TECUMSEH. (To BARRON.) I fear that our complaint
lies all too deep For your Chief's curing. The Great
Spirit gave
The red men this wide continent as theirs,
And in the east another to the white ”

“ KICKAPOO CHIEF. The Deaf-Chief, too,
With head awry, who cannot hear us speak
Though thunder shouted for us from the skies,
Yet hears the Long-Knives whisper at Vincennes;
And, when they jest upon our miseries,
Grips his old leathern sides, and coughs with laughter.
DELAWARE CHIEF. And old Kanaukwa—famed when we were
young—
Has hid his axe, and washed his honours off.
TECUMSEH. 'Tis honor he has parted with, not honors;
Good deeds are ne'er forespent, nor wiped away.
I know these men ”

“ By times, and turn about, follow each other.
They count for nought—but Winnemac is true,
Though over-politic; he will not leave us.
PROPHET. Those wizened snakes must be destroyed at once!
TECUMSEH. Have mercy, brother—those poor men are old.
PROPHET. Nay, I shall teaze them till they sting
themselves;
Their rusty fangs are doubly dangerous.
TECUMSEH. What warriors are ready for Vincennes?
WARRIORS. All! All are ready. Tecumseh leads us on—we follow him.
TECUMSEH. Four hundred warriors will go with me,
All armed, yet only for security
Against the deep designs of Harrison. ”

“ DELAWARE CHIEF. 'Tis wise to draw the distant nations
on.
This scheme will so extend the Long-Knife force,
In lines defensive stretching to the sea,
Their bands will be but morsels for our braves.
PROPHET. How long must this bold project take to ripen?
Time marches with the foe, and his surveyors
Already smudge our forests with their fires.
It frets my blood and makes my bowels turn
To see those devils blaze our ancient oaks,
Cry "right!" and drive their rascal pickets down.
Why not make war on them at once?
TECUMSEH. Not now! Time will make room for weightier
affairs. ”

“ You have forestalled my message by these braves, And come unbidden to your wedding place.
IENA. Uncle! you know my heart is far away—
PROPHET. But still your hand is here! this little hand! (Pulling her forward)
IENA. Dare you enforce a weak and helpless girl,
Who thought to move you by her misery?
Stand back! I have a message for you too.
What means the war-like song, the dance of braves,
And bustle in our town?
PROPHET. It means that we
Attack the foe to-night.
IENA. And risk our all? ”

“ Not one is left to do us hurt.
TECUMSEH. 'Tis well! My brother has the eyeball of the
horse,
And swerves from danger. (Aside.) Bid our
warriors come! I wait them here.
[Exit BRAVE.]
The Prophet soon will follow.
LEFROY. Now opportunity attend my heart
Which waits for Iena! True love's behest,
Outrunning war's, will bring her to my arms
Ere cease the braves from gasping wonderment.
TECUMSEH. First look on service ere you look on love;
You shall not see her here.
LEFROY. My promises
Are sureties of my service—
TECUMSEH. But your deeds,
Accomplishments; our people count on deeds. ”

“ TECUMSEH. My brother meant to wed her to Tarhay—
The chief who led his warriors to ruin;
But, in the gloom and tumult of the night,
She fled into the forest all alone.
LEFROY. Alone! In the wide forest all alone!
Angels are with her now, for she is dead.
TECUMSEH. You know her to be skilful with the bow.
'Tis certain she would strike for some great Lake—
Erie or Michigan. At the Detroit
Are people of our nation, and perchance
She fled for shelter there. I go at once
To join the British force. ”

“ Tarhay to claim his bride, (calls) Tarhay!
Tarhay!
[Enter TARHAY with several braves.]
TARHAY. Tarhay is here!
PROPHET. The Long-Knives die to-night.
The spirits which do minister to me
Have breathed this utterance within my ear.
You know my sacred office cuts me off
From the immediate leadership in fight.
My nobler work is in the spirit-world,
And thence come promises which make us strong.
Near to the foe I'll keep the Magic Bowl,
Whilst you, Tarhay, shall lead our warriors on.
TARHAY. I'll lead them; they are wild with eagerness. ”

“ The Long-Knife's camp fires gleam among the oaks
Which dot yon western hill. A thousand men
Are sleeping there cajoled to fatal dreams
By promises the Prophet breaks to-night. Hark! 'tis the
war-song.
IENA. Dares the Prophet now
Betray Tecumseh's trust, and break his faith?
MAMATEE. He dares do anything will feed ambition.
His dancing braves are frenzied by his tongue,
Which prophesies revenge and victory.
Before the break of day he will surprise
The Long-Knife's camp, and hang our people's fate
Upon a single onset.
IENA. Should he fail? ”

“ KICKAPOO CHIEF. (Rising.) Not I! I disavow them!
They were made By village chiefs whose vanity o'ercame
Their judgment, and their duty to our race.
DELAWARE CHIEF. (Rising.) And I reject the
treaties in the name
Of all our noted braves and warriors.
They have no weight save with the palsied heads
Which dote on friendly compacts in the past.
MIAMI CHIEF. (Rising.) And I renounce them also.
They were signed By sottish braves—the Long-Knife's
tavern-chiefs—
Who sell their honor like a pack of fur,
Make favour with the pale-face for his fee,
And caper with the hatchet for his sport. ”

“ So, here, retort not on a vanquished foe,
But teach him lessons in humanity.
Now let the big heart, swelling in each breast,
Strain every rib for lodgment! Warriors!
Bend to your sacred task, and follow me.
STAYETA. Lead on! We follow you!
KICKAPOO CHIEF. Advance ye braves!
TECUMSEH. Stay! make a circuit in the open woods—
Cross, and recross, and double on the path—
So shall the Long-Knives overcount our strength. ”

“ One blow and you are doomed!
[TECUMSEH grasps the PROPHET'S uplifted axe.]
END OF FIRST ACT. ACT II. SCENE FIRST:—BEFORE THE PROPHET'S TOWN. Enter TECUMSEH and LEFROY.
TECUMSEH. No guard or outlook—here! This is most
strange.
Chance reigns where prudence sleeps!
Enter a BRAVE.
Here comes a brave
With frenzy in his face
Where is the Prophet?
BRAVE. He fasts alone within the medicine-lodge,
And talks to our Great Spirit. All our braves,
Huddling in fear, stand motionless without,
Thrilled by strange sounds, and voices not of earth. ”

“ ORDERLY. Tecumseh and his braves have reached the landing!
[Excitement. All rise hastily.]
HARRISON. This room is smaller than our audience:
Take seats and benches to the portico—
There we shall treat with him.
[Exeunt all but GENERAL HARRISON.]
Could I but strain
My charge this chief might be our trusty friend.
Yet I am but my nation's servitor;
Gold is the king who overrides the right,
And turns our people from the simple ways,
And fair ideal of our fathers' lives. ”

“ Like petty hailstones, from our naked breasts;
And, in the misty morns of our attack,
Strange lights will shine on them to guide our aim,
Whilst clouds of gloom will screen us from their sight.
TECUMSEH. The Prophet is a wise interpreter,
And all his words, by valour backed, will stand;
For valour is the weapon of the soul,
More dreaded by our vaunting enemies
Than the plumed arrow, or the screaming ball.
What wizardry and witchcraft has he found
Conspiring 'gainst our people's good? ”

“ Amongst our tribes, nor jealousy distrain
The large effects of valour. We must now
Pack all our energies. Our eyes and ears
No more must idle with the hour, but work
As carriers to the brain, where we shall store,
As in an arsenal, deep schemes of war!
[A noise and shouting without.]
But who is this?
[Enter BARRON accompanied and half-dragged by warriors. The PROPHET goes forward to meet him.]
BARRON. I crave protection as a messenger
And agent sent by General Harrison.
Your rude, unruly braves, against my wish,
Have dragged me here as if I were a spy.
PROPHET. What else! ”

“ PROPHET. These counsels were your own!
Good in themselves, they are too weak to sway
Our fickle race. I've much improved on them
Since the Great Spirit took me by the hand.
TECUMSEH. Improved! and how? Your mission was to lead
Our erring people back to ancient ways—
Too long o'ergrown—not bloody sacrifice.
They tell me that the prisoners you have ta'en—
Not captives in fair fight, but wanderers
Bewildered in our woods, or such as till
Outlying fields, caught from the peaceful plough—
You cruelly have tortured at the stake. ”

“ Red shall not marry white—such is our law.
But graver matters are upon the wing,
Which I must open to you. Know you, then,
The nation that has doomed our Council-Fires—
Splashed with our blood—will on its Father turn,
Once more, whose lion-paws, stretched o'er the sea,
Will sheathe their nails in its unnatural tides,
Till blood will flow, as free as pitch in spring,
To gum the chafed seams of our sinking bark. ”

“ Might break in broils of quarrel with his braves;
But, sir, it was in vain—so be prepared!
Your Council records may be writ in blood.
HARRISON. Will he attack us, think you?
BARRON. No, not now. His present thought is to
intimidate.
But, lest some rash and foulmouthed citizen
Should spur his passion to the run, fore-arm!
HARRISON. Tut! Arms are scarce as soldiers in our town,
And I am sick of requisitioning.
Nay, we must trust to something else than arms. ”

“ BARRON. They trusted in the Prophet's rites and spells,
Which promised them immunity from death.
All night he sat on yon safe eminence,
Howling his songs of war and mystery,
Then fled, at dawn, in fear of his own braves.
[Enter an AIDE]
HARRISON. What tidings bring you from the Prophet's
Town?
AIDE. The wretched women with their children fly
To distant forests for concealment. In
Their village is no living thing save mice
Which scampered as we oped each cabin door. ”

“ HARRISON. Absurd! The treaties of Fort Wayne must
stand.
Your village chiefs are heads of civil rule,
Whose powers you seek to centre in yourself,
Or vest in warriors whose trade is blood.
We bought from those, and from your peaceful men—
Your wiser brothers—who had faith in us.
TECUMSEH. Poor, ruined brothers, weaned from honest lives!
HARRISON. They knew our wisdom, and preferred to sell
Their cabins, fields, and wilds of unused lands
For rich reserves and ripe annuities. ”

“ LEFROY. I tell you, Brock,
The world is wiser than its wisest men,
And shall outlive the wisdom of its gods
Made after man's own liking. The crippled throne
No longer shelters the uneasy king,
And outworn sceptres and imperial crowns
Now grow fantastic as an idiot's dream.
These perish with the kingly pastime, war,
And war's blind tool, the monster, Ignorance!
Both hateful in themselves, but this the worst.
One tyrant will remain—one impious fiend.
Whose name is Gold—our earliest, latest foe! ”

“ Our braves abhor, yet stand in awe of me,
Who ferret witchcraft out, commune with Heaven,
And ope or shut the gloomy doors of death.
All feelings and all seasons suit ambition!
Yet my vindictive nature hath a craft,
In action slow, which matches mother-earth's:
First seed-time—then the harvest of revenge.
Who works for power, and not the good of men,
Would rather win by fear than lose by love. ”

“ Go bring the braves to view the
Mystic Torch
And belt of Sacred Beans grown from my flesh
One touch of it makes them invulnerable
Then creep, like stealthy panthers, on the foe!
SCENE SIXTH.—MORNING. THE FIELD OF TIPPECANOE AFTER THE BATTLE. THE GROUND STREWN WITH DEAD SOLDIERS AND WARRIORS. Enter HARRISON, officers and soldiers and BARRON.
HARRISON. A costly triumph reckoned by our slain!
Look how some lie still clenched with savages
In all-embracing death, their bloody hands
Glued in each other's hair! ”

“ Even in self-defence, are marked as wrongs
Heaped on your blameless heads.
But to the point! Just as our brother's Seventeen
Council Fires
Unite for self-protection so do we.
How can you blame us, since your own example
Is but our model and fair precedent?
The Long-Knife's craft has kept our tribes apart,
Nourished dissensions, raised distinctions up,
Forced us to injuries which, soon as done,
Are made your vile pretexts for bloody war. ”