The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-28 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING,

LITERATURE.

" This 13 the arced prairie.' is misnamed. It is
the Garden of God." . .

That, we tali-. 3 it, is a noble specimen of our author's
eloquence, and one which sufficiently testifies his
capacity as the depictor of a landscare. Listen again
to his mention of

as like the bitter anger which the superior feels to-
wards his resis.ing interior—the lord to his rebellious
erf—the master to his lashed slate, who hus; turned and
struck him! It was thus the hunters kit.

" I glanced along their line. I never save fees with
such expressions as I saw there and then. Their lips were
white, and drawn tightly over their teeth, Their cheeks
were set and colourless, and their eyes, protruding for-
ward, seemed glued in their sockets! There was no
motion to be detected in the features of any, save the
twitching of angry muscles. Their right hands were
buried in the bosoms of their half-open shirts—each, I
knew, grasping a weapon—and they appeared not to sit,
but to crouch forward like panthers quivering upon the
spring!
" There was a long interval of silence upon both sides.
" It was broken by a cry from without—the scream of
the war-eagle!
" We should not have noticed this—knowing that
these birds were common in the Mircbres, and one might
have ilJwn over the ravine—but we thought, or fancied,
that it had mAde an impression on our adversaries.
They were men not apt to show any sudden emotion;
but it appeared to us that, all at once, their glai,cea grew
holLier and mo:e triumphant! Ceuld it Lave been a
signal?

-"
We liitened for a moment. The scream was re-
peated; and alihough it was exactly after the manner of
a bird well known to us—the white-headed eagle—we
sat with unsatisfied and fearful apprehensions.
" The young chief—he in the huzzir dress—was upon
his feet. lie had been the most turbulent and exactiug
of our oppouenta. He was a man of most villanous and
licentious character—so Dube had told us—tut, never-
theless, holding great power among the braves. It was
he who had spoken in refusal of Seguin'a offer; and he
was now abut to assign his reasons. We knew them
without that.

" Why,' said he, looking at Sequin as he spoke ' why
is it that the white chief is so desirous of choosing
among our captives? Is it that be wishes to get back
the yellow-haired maiden?'
" He paused a moment, as if for a reply; but. Seguin
made none.

"' If the white chief believes our Queen to be his
daughter, weuld he not wish that her sister should be
her companion, and return with her to our land?'
" Again he paused; but as before, Seguin remained
silent.

" The speaker proceeded.
" ' Why not let the yellow-haired maiden return with
us, and become my wife? Who am I, that ask this?
A chief of the Navajoes, the descendants of the great
Mocteruma— the son of their King!'
" The savage looked around him with a vaunting air,
as he uttered these words.

" • Who is she,' he continued, that lam thus begging
for a bride? The daughter of ono who is not even re-
spected among his own people! the daughter of a culatta
" I looked at Seguin. I saw his form dilating. I saw
the big veins swelling along his throat. I saw the wild
expression I had once before noticed gathering in his
eyes. I knew that the crisis was near.
" Again the eagle screamed!
" But no!' proceeded the savage, seeming to draw
now boldness from the signal; I will beg no more. I
love the white maiden. She must be mine! and this
very night she shall sleep-'
"He never finished the sentence. Seguin's bullet had
sped, piercing the centre of his forehead. I caught n
glimpse of the red round hole, with the circle of blue
powder; and the victim fell forward on his face!
" All together we sprang to our feet. As one man
rose hunters and Indians. As if from one throat pealed
the double shout of defiance; and, as if by one hand,
knives, pistols, and tomahawks were drawn together.
The next moment we closed and battled!

" Oh! it was a fearful strife, as the pistols cracked,
the long knives glittered, and the tomahawks swept the
air—a tearful, fearful strife!
"You would suppose that the first shock should have
prostrated both ranks. It was not so. The early blows
of a struggle like this are wild, and well parried; and
human late is hard to take. What were the lives of men
like these?

" A few fell. Some reeoiled from the collision,
wounded and bleeding, but still to battle again. Some
fought hand to hand; while several pairs had clutched,
and were striving to fling each other in the desperate
wrestle of death!

"Some rushed for the door, intending to fight outside.
A few got out, but the crowd pressed against it—the
door closed—dead bodies fell behind it—we fought in
darkness!

"We had light enough for our purpose. The pistols
flashed at quick intervals, displaying the horrid picture.
The light gleamed upon fiend-like faces—upon red and
waving weapons—upon prostrate forms of men—upon
others struggling in every attitude of deadly conflict !
" The yells of the Indians, and the not less savage
shouts of their whitefoemen, had continued from the first;
but the voices grew hoarser, and the shouts were
changed to groans, and oaths, and short, earnest excla-
mations. At intervals we heard the quick percussions
of blows, and the dull sodden sound of falling bodies.
" The room became filled with:smoke, and dust, and
choking sulphur; and the combatants were half stifled
as they fought!
1. At the first break of the battle I had drawn my
revolver, and fired it in the faces of the closing foemen.
I had fired shot after shot—some at random, others di-
rected upon a victim. I had not counted the reports,
until the cock " checking " on the steel nipple, told me I
had gone the round of the six cbambsrs.
"This bad occupied but as many seconds of time.
Mechanically I stuck the empty weapon behind my belt;
and guided by an impulse, made for the door. Before
I could reach it, it was closed; and I saw that to get out
was impossible!
" I turned to search for an antagonist. I was not
long in finding one. By the flash of a pistol, I saw one
of the Indians rushing upon me with an upraised
hatchet. Up to this time something had himkred me
from drawing my knife. It was now too late; and,
holding cut my arms to catch the blow, I ducked my
head towards the savage.
"I felt the keen edge cutting the flesh as it glanced
along my shoulder. I was but slightly wounded. He
had missed his aim from my stooping so suddenly; but
the impetus brought our bodies together, and the next
moment we grappled!
" We stumbled over a heap of rock, and for some mo-
ments struggled together upon the ground—neither
able to use his weapon. Again we rope, still locked in
the angry embrace—again we were falling with terrible
fusee. Something caught us in our descent. It shook.
It gave way with a crashing sound • and we fell head-

long into the broad and brilliant light!
I was dazzled and blinded. I heard behind me a
strange rumbling, like the noise made by falling timbers!
But I heeded not that. I was too busy to speculate upon
causes.

" The sudden shock had separated us; and both rose
at the same instant—again to grapple, and again to come
together to the earth. We twisted, and wriggled over
the ground, among the weeds and thorny cacti. I was
every minute growing weaker, while the sinewy savage
—uEed to such combats—seemed to be gaining fresh
nerve and breath. Thrice he had thrown me under; but
each Mlle I had clutched his right arm, and prevented
the deoending blow. I had succeeded in drawing my
knife Be we fell through the wall; but my arm was also
held fast, and I was unable to use it.
" As we came to the ground for the fourth time, my
antagonist fell under me. A cry of agony passed from
his lips,—his head toggled,' over among the weeds—
and he lay in my arms without struggling!
I felt his grasp gradually relaxing. I looked in his
face. his eyes were glassy and torted. Blood was gurg-
ling through his teeth. I saw that he was dead!
.4 To my astonishment I saw this, for I knew I had not
struck him as yet. I was just drawing my arm from
under him to do so, when I noticed that he ceased to
resist. But the knife now caught my eye. It was red—
blade and haft—and so was the hand that clasped it!
As we fell I had held it, accidentally, point upwards.
My antagonist had fallen upon the blade.
I now thought of my betrothed, and entwining my-
self from the lithe and nerveless limbs of the savage, I
rose to my feet. The ranche was in flames!
The roof had fallen in upon the brazero; and the dry
shingles had caaught the blaze. Men were crawling out
from the burning ruin; but not to run away. No! under
its licking flames, amidst the hot smoke, they still
battled—fierce, and foaming, and frenzied!"

Besides this most appalling incident of bloodshed—
an incident all the more terrible, seeing that it is
founded upon an actual occurrence—we encounter in
these three volumes a multiplicity of others no less
thrilling in their character. Such incidents, for ex-
ample, as Haller's ride upon a buffalo, as his slowly
sinking in a quicksand, as his perilous situation dur-
ing the fight at the Fandasigo, as his dangling over
the precipice in a state of delirium, as the detention
for " three days in the trap," as the buffalo " sur-
rond" a really ghastly display of adroitness on the
part of the Red-skins, as the tremendous battle in the
Canon, as the fight upon the cliff, and the last des-
perate escape of the hero from the valley of the Na-
vajoes. For ourselves, we must acknowledge, that a
book of more truly: absorbing interest has not for a
considerable time fallen in our way, and through it
for a great entertainment, therefore, we are indebted
to the recounter of these romantic adventures. They
yield promise, we conceive, of large success to Captain
Mayne Reid as a novelist.

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—His Royal Highness
the Duke of Cambridge, attended by Major the Hon. James
Macdonald, honoured the performances at her Majesty's
Theatre on Saturday evening with his presence. Amongst
the fashionable company present in the theatre were his
Grace the Duke of Wellington, the Duke and Duchess of
Cleveland and Lady Augusta Paulett, the Duchess of
Beaufort, his Excellency the Russian Minister and the
Baroness Brunnow, his Excellency the Swedish Minister,
the Marquis and Marchioness of Ailesbury, the Marquis
of Clanricarde, the Marquis of Ely, the Earl and Countess
of Chesterfield, the Earl and Countess of Jersey and
Lady Clementina Villiers, the Earl of Wilton, the Earl
and Countess of Malmesbury and the Ladies Hermione
and Ulrica St. Maur, the Earl and Countess of Glengall
and Lady Margaret Butler, the Earl of Westmoreland,
the Earl of Munster, the Earl of Bective, and the Countess
of Harbourough. The Queen's box was occupied by Lady
Bateman, the Hon. Misses Hanbury, Colonel and Mrs. Bou-
verie, and party. There were also present Viscount Cran-
bourne, Lord Seymour, the Prince Troubetskoi, the Count
and Countess de Morella, Lady Pigott, Lady Vincent, Lord
and Lady Foley, Lord George Paget, Lady Cranworth,
Count Graben, Lady Eden, Lady Emily do Burgh, Sir
Ralph and Lady Howard, General the Hon. H. Cavendish,
Mr. C. Greville, Sir Thomas and Lady Barrett Lennard,
Sir Seymour Sadler, Colonel Wildman, Mr. Montague Gore,
M.P., Colonel Freestun, M.P., and Mrs. Lockyer Freestun,
Mr. C. W. Packe, M.P., and Mrs. Packe Reading, Mr. and
Mrs. W. H. Palmer, Mr. C. Palmer, Miss Coroline Bellow,
Mr. G. Hayter, M.P., Mr. Bancroft Davis, Mr. H. Bar-
ing, M.P., Mr. Bernal Osborne, M.P., Mr. C. B. Baldwin,
Major Arthur, Mr., Biro., and Miss Ewing, &c.