Robert saw that Willet, despite his years and experience, was deeply
stirred also, and the dark eyes of Tayoga glittered, as well they might,
since the people who were the greatest in all the world to him were
about to deliberate on their fate and that of others.
The three, side by side, their hearts beating hard, advanced slowly and
with dignity through the groves. From many points came the sound of
singing and down the aisles of the trees they saw young girls in
festival attire. All the foliage was in deepest green and the sky was
the soft but brilliant blue of early spring. The air seemed to be
charged with electricity, because all had a tense and expectant feeling.
For Robert, so highly imaginative, the luminous glow deepened. He had
studied much in the classics, after the fashion of the time, in the
school at Albany, and his head was filled with the old Greek and Roman
learning. Now he saw the ancient symbolism reproduced in the great
forests of North America by the nations of the Hodenosaunee, who had
never heard of Greece or Rome, nor, to him, were the religion and poetry
of the Iroquois inferior in power and beauty, being much closer kin than
the gods of Greece and Rome to his own Christian beliefs.
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