The Best Maj. Duncan Heyward Quotes

Cora: Yes! Go ahead!
Duncan: What the bloody hell plan is this?
Cora: I want you to go!
Hawkeye: If we go, there's a chance there won't be a fight. There's no powder. If we don't go in that, there's no chance. None! Do you understand?
Duncan: Coward!

Colonel: l have lived to see something which l never expected. A British officer afraid to support another.
Duncan: Webb can burn in hell. And we'll go back and dig our graves behind those ramparts.

Alice: l shan't sleep tonight. What an adventure. Have you seen the red men?
Duncan: A few.

Duncan: And who empowered these colonials to pass judgement on England's policies, and to come and go without so much as a "by your leave"?
Cora: They do not live their lives "by your leave"! They hack it out of the wilderness with their own two hands, bearing their children along the way!

Maj. Duncan Heyward: I thought all our colonial scouts were in the militia. The militia is fighting the French in the north.
Hawkeye: I ain't your scout. And we sure ain't no damn militia.

[Duncan aims a pistol at Hawkeye]
Hawkeye: Haven't you got anything better to do on the lake today, Major?
Duncan: [puts away his pistol] When you fall back into English hands I'll have you hanged!

Maj. Duncan Heyward: Might I inquire after the situation sir, given that I've seen the French engineering from the ridge above.
Colonel: The situation is that his guns are bigger than mine and he has more of them. We keep our heads down while his troops dig 30 yards of trench a day. When those trenches are 200 yards from the fort and within range, he'll bring in his 15-inch mortars, lob explosive rounds over our walls, and pound us to dust.

Duncan: Where are we going?
Hawkeye: Nowhere.

Duncan: You there, Scout! We must rest soon, the women are tired.
Magua: No, two leagues, better water. We stop there.
Duncan: No, we'll stop in the glade just ahead. When the ladies are rested, we will proceed. Do you understand?
Magua: [speaking Huron] Magua understands that the white man is a dog to his women. When they are tired, he puts down his tomahawk to feed their laziness.
Duncan: Excuse me, what did you say?
Magua: Magua say... he understand the English very well.

Duncan: [after Uncas spooks the horses to chase them off] Why is he loosing the horses?
Hawkeye: Why don't you ask him?
Uncas: Too easy to track; they'd be heard for miles. Find yourself a musket.

Colonel: And how am I to know it wasn't a raid by thieves?
Hawkeye: The cabin was attacked by a war party fighting with the French. They're sweeping south along the frontier attacking farms and Mohawk villages, all the men are stuck here.
Colonel: I need proof more convincing than this man's opinion before I weaken the fort's defenses by releasing the militia.
Jack: Chingachgook had 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.
Colonel: I judge military matters here, not you.
Hawkeye: Your judgment is not more important than their right under agreement with Webb to defend their farms and families. Major Hayward was there, he was at John Cameron's, he saw what it was.
Colonel: What exactly did you see Major?
Duncan: [glancing at Cora] I saw nothing that would lead me to the conclusion that it was other than a raid by savages bent on thievery.
Hawkeye: You're a liar.
Colonel: [as Duncan lunges for Hawkeye] Major!
[to Hawkeye]
Colonel: Montcalm is a soldier and a gentleman, not a butcher.
Hawkeye: Easy for you to suppose, it's their women and children on the farms, not yours!
Colonel: You forget yourself, sir.
Jack: We're not forgetting Webb's promise.
Colonel: British promises are honored. And the militia will not be released, because I need more definite proof than this man's word.
Jack: Nathaniel's word's been good on the frontier a long time before you got here.
Colonel: This meeting is over, the militia stays.
Jack: Does the rule of English law no longer govern? Has it been replaced by absolutism?
Hawkeye: If English law cannot be trusted maybe these people would do better making their own peace with the French.
Duncan: That is sedition!
Hawkeye: That is the truth.
Duncan: I'll have you beaten from this fort!
Hawkeye: Someday, I think you and I are going to have a serious disagreement.
Colonel: Anyone fomenting or advocating the leaving of Fort William Henry will be hung for sedition. Anyone actually CAUGHT leaving will be shot for desertion. Now my decision is final. Get out!

Hawkeye: Take me!
Duncan: [as he is being forced away] My compliments, sir! Take her and get out!
Cora: Duncan! What are they doing to Duncan?

Duncan: Might l inquire after the situation, sir, given that l've seen the French engineering from the ridge above?
Colonel: The situation is, his guns are bigger than mine and he has more of them. We keep our heads down while his troops dig 30 yards of trench a day. When those trenches are 200 yards from the fort and within range, he'll bring in his 15-inch mortars, lob explosive rounds over our walls and pound us to dust.
Duncan: They look to be 300 yards out. lf they're digging 30 yards a day, you have three days.
Colonel: Damn. Damn.

Duncan: You are defending him because you've become infatuated with him!
Cora: 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.

Duncan: There is a war on. How is it you are headed west?
Hawkeye: Well, we kinda face to the north and real sudden-like turn left.