Perhaps it would not have been possible, in the whole range of human
feelings, to find two men under influences more widely opposed to
each other than were the missionary and the corporal, in this, their
last scene on earth. The manner of Parson Amen's death has been
described. He died in humble imitation of his Divine Master, asking
for blessings on those who were about to destroy him, with a heart
softened by Christian graces, and a meekness that had its origin in
the consciousness of his own demerits. On the other hand, the
corporal thought only of vengeance. Escape he knew to be impossible,
and he would fain take his departure like a soldier, or as he
conceived a soldier should die, in the midst of fallen foes.
Corporal Flint had a salutary love of life, and would very gladly
escape, did the means offer; but, failing of these, all his thoughts
turned toward revenge. Some small impulses of ambition, or what it
is usual to dignify with that term, showed themselves even at that
serious moment. He had heard around the camp-fires, and in the
garrisons, so many tales of heroism and of fortitude manifested by
soldiers who had fallen into the hands of the Indians, that a faint
desire to enroll his own name on the list of these worthies was
beginning to arise in his breast.
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