Ella Ree's Revenge.

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Beside Saluda's silver stream,
Where flowers nod and poets dream,
A cabin stood, in days gone by,
Whose history should never die.

Here lived and led a blameless life,
Brave Hayward and his peerless wife,
With three sweet pledges of that love,
Cradled on earth, but born above.

Surrounding them, on every hand,
Was the Red man's native land.
No paleface, save themselves, ever dared
To live in wild these Indians shared.

Treacherous alike in peace and war,
The Seminole obeyed no law
Save one he spake with bated breath:
"Traitors shall die a coward's death!"

The haughty chief who led this tribe,
Fear could not daunt nor favor bribe;
And this lone settler, living here,
Knew white man never dared come near.

He Caucanoe's heart had won
By a kindness nobly done,
In rescuing from a watery grave
The favorite child of this fierce brave.

A frail canoe—swamped in mid stream:
A father's cry—a maiden's scream;
A hunter bearing a maid ashore,
A volume writ would tell no more.

"The land beside this murmuring stream
Thy future home, brave paleface, deem,
And on Caucanoe's word depend,
No Indian dares molest my friend!"

"Yours 'twas to save Caucanoe's pride,
Mine be it to protect your bride;
If here a future you would seek,
I listen: Let my brother speak."

"Great Chief! your words, so kind and true,
Fall on my ears like evening dew;
Ere the buds begin to swell
Your brother 'mid your tribe shall dwell."

So Hayward built, with eager haste,
As best befits a woman's taste,
A cabin palace, reared by art,
Each room as secret as your heart.

Here they lived and tilled the ground,
The happiest pair for miles around;
The Indians swarmed around their door
With useful gifts to swell their store.

Caucanoe often sought their door
And played with the children, o'er and o'er.
He brought them many a curious toy,
Their happy childhood to employ.

The winsome sprite, who sat on his knee,
Pleased him most of the guileless three;
Her limped eyes and golden hair
Caucanoe thought divinely fair.

As the happy years flew swiftly by,
Beneath Caucanoe's watchful eye,
Paralee grew, with rapid pace,
Into a maid of faultless grace.

Caucanoe loved this lovely child
With a passion fierce, and deep, and wild,
Yet hopeless, he feared, that love would be,
Since naught could bridge the raging sea

Of racial and tribal pride,
That lay between them, deep and wide;
And well he knew another's soul
Brooked naught on earth save his control.

King Ulca's daughter, the proud Ella Ree,
Graceful and lithe as a willow tree,
With eyes and hair like the raven's wing,
And voice as soft as the babbling spring,

Had sought him for her wigwam brave,
Weeping o'er his late wife's grave;
And well he knew the tears she shed,
By tribal law their bodies wed.

True love for her he could not feel,
Yet such a fact dared not reveal;
His squaw she was alone in name
And never to his wigwam came.

Another love, oh, fateful thought!
With direful misery doubly fraught,
Surged and tossed within his soul
Until it spurned his late control.

At last he sought her much loved side
And begged her to become his bride.
The maiden heard and laughed outright,
And thus let loose the fiends of night

That of late had lain at rest
Within Caucanoe's savage breast.
Now, naught could stay this rising ire
Save to light the Council Fire.

At last among his braves he stood,
Like some monarch of the wood;
While burning words flowed from his tongue,
That showed how deep his heart was wrung.

The Council heard and thus decreed:
"Our land from paleface dogs be freed.
Tomorrow night the proud paleface
Shall rue Caucanoe's late disgrace!"

"'Tis well," the haughty chief replied;
"Who scorns to be Caucanoe's bride
Shall feel a living flame of fire
Quench the last spark of life's desire!"

But, ere the morrow's sun had set,
Awakening love brought deep regret.
Love fought the savage till he fell,
And Pity's tears began to well.

He crept the cabin light within,
And there confessed his double sin.
"'Tis done," he cried, "you shall not die;
The boat is ready; up, and fly!

"Saluda's stream shall guide you right,
Caucanoe lays to die tonight!
Once you are free, I die content.
Nor deem the blow untimely sent."

The boat has left the silent shore,
And Hayward tugs at the muffled oar;
The craft sweeps on, like a thing of life,
Impelled by the prayers of a weeping wife.

Caucanoe stood on the bank hard by,
With heaving breast and tear-dimmed eye,
That proved a hero's soul could rest
In the natural dome of a savage breast.

The flashing oars in the moonlight pale
Give forth no sound and leave no trail;
Naught is heard save the breath
Of the fleeing ones in their race with death.

Hark! What means that frightful yell?
'Tis a cry of triumph, born of hell;
Their savage foe, long under way,
At last have seen their wanted prey.

They see the foe and wildly fly
The flashing oars, till they almost fly;
"We'll yet be saved," brave Hayward spoke,
But his oars shivered beneath his stroke.

He sprang to his feet, with ashen face,
And his trusty rifle flew to its place;
A maddening yell from the savage crew
Proved the ball to the mark had straightway flew.

Six times his trusty rifle spoke;
Each time an Indian skull it broke.
His gallant sons stood near their sire
And reinforced his deadly fire!

Their doom was sealed. The savage horde
Soon reached their bark and sprang aboard;
Yet scorned they even then to yield,
While strength was left a knife to wield.

Each one dared a hero's part;
Each knife it sought a savage heart,
Nor did they cease to bathe in gore
Till they sank beneath to rise no more.

Paralee and her mother lay
To savage hands an early prey;
For neither knew, nor felt they ought,
Of what they did or what they sought,

Since terror and alarm, too deep,
Had locked their senses all in sleep.
Alas! that they should ever wake:
Returning senses meant the stake.

Soon homeward with the living dead
The savage horde in triumph sped;
And bore to haunts of Ella Ree
The paleface foe she longed to see.

Better for Paralee had she died
Amid the battle's raging tide.
"Not wounded tigress in her lair
More dangerous than a jealous fair!"

Assembled around the Council Fire,
With haughty mien and rising ire,
Each chief was ready to relate
His own exploit or vent his hate.

Safely bound by cruel thong,
In the center of the throng,
The captives sat in silent dread,
Envying none except the dead.

"Brothers! the paleface Ella Ree,
Whose words from guile are always free,
Will tell you all you need to know.
Who scorns her words must brave my blow!"

Thus Ulca spake, then glared around
With a mighty monarch's haughty frown,
"That held his hearers more in awe
Of his dread prowess than his law."

"Chief! Warriors! Braves in battle tried,
Your blood Saluda's stream has dyed;
Your brothers sleep no more to wake!
Will you sit by nor vengeance take?"

"A traitor warned the doomed paleface;
Shall he yet live to brave our race?
How the white lily wrought the spell,
Caucanoe, and not I, must tell!"

"Caucanoe does not fear to die!
'Twas he that bade the paleface fly;
Let these women now be set free;
Vent your hate alone on me."

"Paralee I loved, and her alone;
Mine was the fault—let me atone.
Ella Ree, herself, shall light the fire
And chant around my funeral pyre."

"Loose the captive! Raise the stake!
It shall be thus," brave Ulca spake.
"If love shall brave the cruel flame,
Yon captives go from whence they came."

In haste they reared the ready stake,
And bade the Chief his place to take.
He lightly stepped in proper place,
A conquering smile upon his face.

The signal given—a lighted brand—
Ella Ree raised with trembling hand,
Yet begged Caucanoe not to die,
But to her willing arms to fly.

Pardon was his, both full and free,
As the proud brave of Ella Ree;
The hated captives should atone
For all blood spilt, and they alone!

Caucanoe frowned and thus replied:
"If Ella Ree would be my bride,
Let her light the fire and stand
Here beside me, hand in hand."

Forward she sprang—the torch applied,
Even in death a happy bride!
Saluda's stream is never free
From the dying chant of Ella Ree!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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