The Last of the Mohicans: Chapter 17 Summary & Analysis

The chapter begins with Montcalm walking through the woods between the French encampment and Fort William Henry. Montcalm, in the stillness of the early morning, is taking in the fact that he and the French have finally subdued the English and overpowered their fort. On his walk, Montcalm encounters Magua, who has also walked in the night from his own encampment—that of the Hurons—toward the English fort.

Magua pulls out his rifle and takes aim at a form he sees on the ramparts of the British fort—a tall frame, which the narrator does not describe, but which Magua assumes to be that of Hawkeye. But just as Magua is about to fire his rifle, Montcalm stops him, saying that there is now a truce between the English and the French, and that, therefore, the Hurons also have a truce with the English. But Magua states that, if an Englishman is an enemy of Magua’s beforehand, he does not cease to be his enemy now. Montcalm asks Magua to walk back to his Huron encampment, and Magua does, but Montcalm is not sure whether the Hurons accept the truce brokered between the English and French.

Montcalm returns to the French lines, and the narrator shifts the scene to inside Fort William Henry, where Heyward meets with Cora and Alice, telling them they must prepare for their own “safe conveyance” from the fort, along with the other English soldiers and their families. Heyward sees David, singing psalms to himself as comfort in this frightening time, and Heyward asks David to marshal his courage and guard Alice and Cora as they walk out of the fort with the other English families. David promises Heyward he will do this, and Heyward continues making preparations among the soldiers for the retreat.

Alice, Cora, and David, along with other English families, begin walking out of the fort, and observe the French armies, arranged in orderly fashion outside and allowing the English a peaceful departure. As the English are walking out, however, the Hurons emerge from the woods; one Huron soldier grabs the shawl and then the infant child from a mother, and when the mother protests, begging for the child to be returned, the Hurons “dashes the child’s brain out” on a rock, then kills the mother with a tomahawk to the brain.

At this, the Huron war cry is raised—directed by Magua, who has also emerged from the woods—and Hurons begin massacring the English families as they retreat outside the fort. Soldiers from both the English and French armies attempt to intercede and protect the families, but the Hurons manage to kill a great many unarmed men, women, and children. David, the singer, finds Alice and Cora, who have abandoned all hope and are calling, in vain, for their father. David stands next to them and begins singing hymns, loudly, causing the natives to become confused by his song, and, surprisingly, protecting Alice and Cora from harm.

But Magua hears David’s hymns, too, and comes running over to Alice and Cora. Magua repeats his demand that Cora become his wife, and come live with him; when Cora again says no, Magua picks up Alice, who has fainted in the heat of battle, and begins running with her back to the Huron camp. Cora, wanting only to protect her sister, runs after Alice and Magua, and David, remembering his promise to Heyward, also follows. Deep in the woods, Magua places the still-unconscious Alice on the back of a horse (the same horses abandoned by the band earlier, before their arrival at the fort); Cora willingly gets on the horse with Magua and Alice, to protect her sister, and David gets on another horse, following behind.

Magua leads his horse back up to the top of the mountain, south of Lake George, from which the band, under Hawkeye’s leadership, had previously observed Fort William Henry. Magua instead shows Alice (who has now woken up), Cora, and David the terrible destruction wrought by the Hurons on the innocent English, below. Cora and Alice are devastated when they realize the extent of the destruction the Hurons have caused in the massacre.