CHAPTER XVII.
The Hermit's Cell.
"I know not," returned the hermit; "I never saw your gallant deliverer before yesterday morning.

Broken from my matins by a sudden noise, I beheld a deer rush down the precipice, and fall headlong.

As he lay struggling amongst the stones at the entrance of my cave, I had just observed an arrow in his side, when a shout issued from the rocks above, and looking up, I beheld a young chieftain, with a bow in his hand, leaping from cliff to cliff, till springing from a high projection on the right, he alighted at once at the head of the wounded deer.
"I emerged from the recess that concealed me, and addressed him with the benediction of the morning.

His plaided followers immediately appeared, and with a stroke of their ready weapons slew the animal.
The chief left them to dress it for their own refreshment; and on my invitation, entered the cell to share a hermit's fare.
"I told him who I was, and what had driven me to this seclusion.

In return, he informed me of a design he had conceived, to stimulate the surrounding chiefs to some exertions for their country; but as he never mentioned his name, I concluded he wished it to remain unrevealed, and therefore I forbore to inquire it.