"Oh, God! not that! not that!" and she reeled as if struck with a blow.
"Then, in the name of reason, save yourself, save both! It is easily done."
The villain's words calmed her in a moment, and she responded:
"Either fate is more than I can bear; but I will not perjure my soul to
save myself from any fate it pleases God to send upon me."
"And you will not be an honorable bride, then?"
"Yours,--_never_!"
"Fire the fagots!" he commanded in a voice of rage, and the order was
instantly obeyed by the Indian who stood impatiently awaiting the word.
CHAPTER IX.
THE BURNING STAKE
The material around the stake was the most highly inflammable that could be
collected, and a mighty blaze soon spread along the pile, with its fiery
spires leaping high in air, and its forked tongues hissing like serpents!
Snapping, crackling, roaring! the devouring flames rushed to their work of
death!
The stake was in the center of the heap, the wood being piled around it at
a distance of some feet, leaving an open space on all sides, in which the
prisoner could walk, being fastened with a cord, some ten feet in length,
one end of which was lashed to the stake, a large post, driven firmly into
the ground. This vacant space was purposely left, that the sufferings of
the doomed might be prolonged, a species of cruelty common in Indian
tortures.
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