The Last of the Mohicans Page #15

HAWKEYE:

A man, here, can make a run straight

through to Webb.

MUNRO:

...not enough time to get to Albany

and back with reinforcements...

A Sergeant enters, snaps to attention, says something to

Beams, exits.

HEYWARD:

Webb's not in Albany. He marched the

33rd to Fort Edward two days ago.

MUNRO:

Webb's at Edward?

HEYWARD:

Yes, sir.

MUNRO:

Only twelve miles away! He could be

here day after tomorrow.

(to Hawkeye)

Find your man, sir! Captain Beams

will give you the message.

Beams nods. Munro turns back to the map. Hawkeye has something

else to say.

HAWKEYE:

John Cameron's cabin. We come upon

it last night. Burned out. Everyone

murdered. And it was Ottawa. They're

allied to the French.

Munro looks at him.

MUNRO:

Yes, Mr. Poe? So?

HAWKEYE:

It was a war party. It means they're

on the attack up and down the

frontier.

Munro turns to look at him for a long beat. Munro doesn't

like what his response must be to this news. He turns to

Heyward and the map.

MUNRO:

(cold)

Thank you.

Hawkeye's dismissed, frozen out.

HAWKEYE:

Many men here, their homes are in

the path.

MUNRO:

That's all, sir.

Hawkeye is furious. Chingachgook gestures Hawkeye out. He

leaves Munro's quarters almost knocking over an entering

Adjutant who backs way up to let Chingachgook pass.

HEYWARD:

Things were done. Nobody was spared...

MUNRO:

Terrible feature of war in the

Americas.

(beat; a mantra)

Best to keep your sight fixed on our

duty.

Our duty is to defeat France. That hangs on a courier to

Webb.

CUT TO:

INT. MONTCALM'S MARQUEE - NIGHT

CHORAL GROUP:

of three Seneca women and five boys, led by a Jesuit, sing

the Te Deum in the Iroquois language. This is a large tent

that could sleep twenty. Montcalm's four personal guards are

at the entrance as well as COMTE DE LEVIS in dirty lace, a

facial wound and a braceful of pistols on a sash. Inside is

simple campaign furniture and a six by eight foot battle

standard and flag of France.

MONTCALM:

stands with a huge and fearsome elaborately tattooed and

robed Seneca chief in a silk turban...

SENECA CHIEF:

(low)

... and the Black Robes of

Michilimackinac left us no time to

put our cabins in order before telling

us our French father had need of our

aid. We rolled our blankets and were

the first to be here. Yet we are not

the first and closest to my father's

campfire.

The Marquis de Montcalm is forty-five, wears a large wampum

belt as a sash over his waistcoat. He has an acute intellect,

an elegant manner. He is more aristocratic than Munro, but a

consummate professional soldier. Over the Seneca's shoulder,

Montcalm sees and nods to...

MAGUA:

entering with four Huron braves. This is not the Magua we

saw on the trail. In his scalp lock, now red-stained and cut

to a Huron roach, are three blacl plumes. A match-coat blanket

drapes his left shoulder.

MONTCALM:

(to Seneca Chief)

For my children and the children of

the true faith, my friendship and

esteem is boundless... I will give

you three oxen for a feast and

tomorrow I, myself, will sing the

war song with you in the great council

house.

The Seneca Chief is satisfied and his people, plus the Jesuit,

exit. The look on Magua's face and the wry expression on

Montcalm's allows us to understand their relationship is

based on realpolitik.

MONTCALM:

Le Renard Subtil, how are things

with your English friends?

Magua exhales in derision as he brings a chair to face

Montcalm and sits, European style...

MONTCALM:

(over his shoulder)

Louis Antoine, join us.

LOUIS ANTOINE DE BOUGAINVILLE enters. He wears a functional

melange of Indian moccasins over white linen breeches and an

officer's waistcoat.

MONTCALM:

Hear what le Subtil has to tell us...

Bougainville published a book on integral calculus at twenty-

five, at twenty-six was a secretary to the French Ambassador

in London, in January 1756 at twenty-seven he was elected a

member of the British Royal Academy of Science and at age

twenty-eight he's aide de camp to the Marquis de Montcalm

with the rank of captain. Later in life, he brought

"bougainvillea" from Tahiti to Europe to America.

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