For my children are the children of the true faith.
My friendship and esteem is boundless.
I will give you three oxen for a feast.
And tomorrow, I will sing the war song with you...
at the great council fire.
Magua, how are things with your English friends?
We're at one. Join us.
Hear what he has to tell us.
The English war chief, Webb,
goes to Fort Edward with 60th Regiment.
He does not know that my father's army attacks Fort William Henry.
Magua was successful?
The other two couriers died in the forest.
By now, Munro would know his dispatch did not get through.
- He'll send another. - Grey Hair will try.
Four or five, including two women, entered the fort.
The Grey Hair's children were under Magua's knife.
They escaped.
They will be under it again.
Why do you hate the Grey Hair, Magua?
When the Grey Hair is dead, Magua will eat his heart.
Before he dies,
Magua will put his children under the knife...
so the Grey Hair will know...
his seed is wiped out forever.
Miss Cora.
Gentleman lookin' for you. Miss Munro.
Hello.
May I?
- It will seep, and then it's going to draw. - Thank you, miss.
'Bout done holdin' hands with Miss Munro?
We got some work to do.
What are you looking at, sir?
I'm looking at you, miss.
Munro refused to believe what happened.
He does not even want to hear it.
Well, he's gonna have to.
Get together by the west bastion.
Lan, Sharitarish, Ongewasgone and William.
Tight weave?
Silk. Another 40 yards.
Fire!
Aim! And Fire!
Wheel to the right! On center! March!
Halt!
Ready!
Set! Fire!
Aah!
And how am I to know it wasn't a raid by common thieves?
The cabin was attacked by a war party fighting with the French.
They're sweeping south down the frontier attacking farms and Mohawk villages.
- All the men are stuck here. - I need proof more convincing than this man's opinion...
before I weaken the fort's defenses by releasing the militia.
Chingachgook's of the same opinion about the raid.
Taken together, that's gospel.
Your fort will stand or fall depending on Webb's reinforcements,
not the presence of the colonials.
I judge military matters here, not you.
Your judgment is not more important than their right...
under agreement with Webb to defend their farms and families.
Major Heyward was there. He was at John Cameron's. He saw what it was.
What exactly did you see, Major?
I saw nothing that would lead me to the conclusion it was other than a raid...
by savages bent on thievery.
- You're a liar! - Major!
Montcalm is a soldier and a gentleman, not a butcher.
Easy for you to suppose. It's their women and children alone on the farms, not yours!
- You forget yourself, sir! - We're not forgettin' Webb's promise.
British promises are honored, and the militia will not be released,
because I need more definite proof than this man's word!
Nathaniel's word's been good on this frontier a long time before you got here.
This meeting is over! The militia stays.
Does the rule of English law no longer govern?
Has it been replaced by absolutism?
If English law cannot be trusted, people would do better making peace with the French.
- That is sedition! - That is the truth!
I'll have you beaten from this fort.
Anyone fomenting on advocating the leaving of Fort William Henry will be hung for sedition.
Anyone actually caught leaving will be shot for desertion.
My decision is final! Get out.
Cora?
Shh.
I wanted to talk to you.
Talk with Duncan, Cora. I must manage.
I cannot be an invalid schoolgirl.
- Alice. - I'll see if Mr. Phelps needs anything.
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...
Cora, when we come together back in England and are married and away from this place,
what had to be done and said here will matter not at all.
- I'm certain of that. - Duncan, I promised you an answer.
You've complimented me with your persistence and patience.
But the decision I have come to is that I'd rather make the gravest of mistakes...
than to surrender my own judgment.
Please take this as my final answer.
It must be no.
I see.
Yeah, Nathaniel, but you weren't ever for being here.
That's right. I saw it that way then and I see it that way now.
Lan, if I had kin in the settlements, hell be damn sure I'd be long gone.
What do we do about bein' under Crown law?
I believe if they set aside their law as and when they wish,
their law no longer has rightful authority over us.
All they have over us then is tyranny.
And I will not live under that yoke. So I will stay here no longer.
Anyone caught leavin' the fort could be shot, so each man make your own decision.
Those who are goin'. Be back in an hour.
Out the northern sally-port.
Strike for the east side of the swamp till you clear the French picket line.
Head north over the ridge, then come about southeast.
Fork left in Little Meadow and you're free of the outpost and skirmishes.
Should've skun out of this long ago.
Got no families, Captain. Figured we'd stay and give a hand.
- I'll cover you from the top of the bastion. - You're not comin' with us?
I got a reason to stay.
That reason wear a striped skirt and work in the surgery?
It does. No offense, but it's a better looking reason than you, Jack Winthrop.
Push hard, 'cause you gotta clear the French outpost by dawn. Good luck, Jack.
- Ongewasgone, are you stayin'? - Yes.
- There's too many French. - And so few of us to fight.
Not too many to die. But we've given our word to our English fathers.
You, sir! As you were!
Stand off.
Take him.
As you were.
He saved us. We're alive only because of him.
The man encouraged the colonials to desert, in this very room, and in my presence.
- Sir. - He is guilty of sedition.
He must be tried and hanged like any other criminal, regardless of what he did for my children.
But he knew the consequences and he stayed.
Are those the actions of a criminal?
- Duncan, do something. - He knew the penalty for his actions.
He ought to pay without sending you to beg.
You know he wouldn't send me. You falsely spoke of what you saw.
What happened at the farm was as Nathaniel said.
But not with enough certainty to outweigh British interests in this fort.
And who empowered these colonials to pass judgment...
on England's policies in her own possessions,
and to come and go without so much as a by your leave?
They do not live their lives by your leave!
They hack it out of wilderness with their own two hands, bearing children along the way.
You are defending him because you've become infatuated with him!
Duncan, you are a man with a few admirable qualities.
But taken as a whole, I was wrong to have thought so highly of you.
Cora!
Cora, I would do anything I could to keep you from being hurt.
But this man is guilty of sedition and subject to military justice and beyond pardon.
Justice? If that's justice, then the sooner French guns...
blow the English army out of America, the better it will be for the people here.
- You do not know what you're saying! - I know exactly what I'm saying!
And if it is sedition, then I am guilty of sedition too.
They're going to hang you.
Why didn't you leave when you had the chance?
Because what I'm interested in is right here.
What can I do?
Webb's reinforcements will arrive or not.
If they do not arrive, the fort will fall to the French.
If that happens, stay close to your father.
Stay close to him.
The French officers will try to protect the officers among the English.
- No. I will find you. - Do not.
Promise me.
The whole world's on fire, isn't it?
Who is it?
Remember what I told you.
Stay close to your father and the officers.
Colonel Munro,
I have known you as a gallant antagonist.
I am happy to make your acquaintance as a friend.
And I yours, Monsieur Le Marquis.
Please accept my compliments...
for the strong and skillful defense of your fortress.
Under the command of a lesser man, it would have fallen long ago,
given the superior numbers and materials.
Chance has allowed me to array against you.
Monsieur Le Marquis, I am a soldier, not a diplomat.
You called this parlay for a better reason than an exchange of compliments.
You have already done everything which is necessary for the honor of your prince.
But now I beg you to listen to the admonishments of humanity.
I beg you to consider my terms for your surrender.
Perhaps the general's glass can reach as far as the Hudson...
and seize the size and eminence of the army of Webb?
My scouts intercepted this dispatch intended for you.
Capitan de Bougainville.
"To Colonel Munro. Sir, I regret to inform you...
that I have no men available to send to your rescue.
It is quite impossible.
I advise you to seek terms for surrender.
I remain. Jerome Webb at Fort Edward. "
This is the signature of Webb. And I know the temper of our men.
Rather than spend the war in a French prison hulk in Hudson Bay, they'd fight to the end.
- You've had your answer, Monsieur Le Marquis. - Sir,
I beg you not to sign the death warrant of so many...
until you have listened to what I have to say.
- Go on. - None of your men will see the inside of a prison barge.
They are free, so long as they return to England...
and fight no more on this continent,
and the civilian militia return to their farms.
- Their arms? - They may leave the fortress fully armed.
My colors?
Carry them to England with pride.
Allow me to consult with my officers.
Webb can burn in hell.
And we'll go back and dig our graves behind those ramparts.
Death and honor are thought to be the same,
but today I have learned that sometimes they are not.
Sir...
Monsieur Le Marquis, I am deeply touched by such unusual and unexpected generosity.
My fort is yours under the condition...
that I be given till dawn to bury my dead,
to prepare my men and women for the long journey ahead...
and to hand my wounded over to your surgeons.
Granted, monsieur.
Is the hatchet buried between the English and my French father?
- Yes. - Not a warrior has a scalp...
and the white men become friends.
My master owns these lands...
and I have been ordered to drive off the English squatters.
They have consented to go,
so now I call them enemies no longer.
Magua took the hatchet to color with blood.
It's still bright.
Only when it's red, then it will be buried.
So many suns have set since Magua struck the war post.
And where is that sun?
Le Subtil is the son of his people and he has come to lead many of them.
But Le Subtil has power with his Huron people and others here,
I know well.
Magua's village and lodges were burnt.
Magua's children were killed by the English.
I was taken as slave by the Mohawk...
who fought for Grey Hair.
Magua's wife believed he was dead...
and became the wife of another.
The Grey Hair was the father of all that.
In time,
Magua became blood brother to the Mohawk to become free.
But always in his heart he is Huron.
And his heart will be whole again on the day...
the Grey Hair and all his seed are dead.
My son Magua's pain...
is my pain.
Does the chief of the Canadas believe the English will keep the terms?
Colonel Munro would,
but General Webb will not honor the agreement...
and send their soldiers away.
I fear having let them go, which I must,
I will only fight the same men again...
when I drive towards Albany.
But I cannot break the term of the surrender...
and sully the lilies of France.
Monsieur, the fort is yours.
Left three ranks, make ready!
Aim, set.
Fire!
Present fire!
Fire! Fire!
Full company...
Grey Hair, before you die, know that I will put under the knife your children...
so I will wipe your seed from the Earth forever.
Lever her alone!