and the Sheriff, who gave a signal to his officers, and in a very few minutes the silence that prevailed there was interrupted by a general movement in the outer crowd; when presently the Leather-stocking made his appearance, ushered into the criminal's bar under the custody of two constables. The hum ceased, the people closed into the open space again, and the silence soon became so deep that the hard breathing of the prisoner was audible.
Natty was dressed in his buck-skin garments, without his coat, in place of which he wore only a shirt of coarse linen-check, fastened at his throat by the sinew of a deer, leaving his red neck and weather-beaten face exposed and bare. It was the first time that he had ever crossed the threshold of a court of justice, and curiosity seemed to be strongly blended with his personal feelings. He raised his eyes to the bench, thence to the jury-boxes, the bar, and the crowd without, meeting every where looks that were fastened on himself. After surveying his own person, as if in search of the cause of this unusual attraction, he once more turned his face around the assemblage, and then opened his mouth in one of his silent and remarkable laughs.
"Prisoner, remove your cap," said Judge Temple.
The order was either unheard or unheeded.
"Nathaniel Bumppo, be uncovered," repeated the Judge.
Natty started at the sound of his name, and raising his face earnestly towards the bench, he said—
"Anan!"
Mr. Lippet arose from his seat at the table, and whispered in the ear of the prisoner, when
