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diff --git a/41273.txt b/41273.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a8b02c4..0000000 --- a/41273.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4812 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Story of Tonty, by Mary Hartwell Catherwood - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Story of Tonty - -Author: Mary Hartwell Catherwood - -Release Date: November 2, 2012 [EBook #41273] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF TONTY *** - - - - -Produced by David Edwards, KD Weeks and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - -Transcriber's Note - -The text is given here as printed with the exception of several -punctuation errors, which have been corrected and are noted in the -End Notes. French titles are generally printed without accents, and are -retained as such. - -Text in italics is rendered here as '_italic_. The 'oe' ligature is -printed as separate characters. - - - - - THE STORY OF TONTY - - - - - THE STORY OF TONTY - - BY - - MARY HARTWELL CATHERWOOD - - Illustrated - - [Illustration] - - CHICAGO - A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY - 1890 - - COPYRIGHT, - BY A. C. MCCLURG AND CO. - - A.D. 1889. - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - - INTRODUCTION 7 - - - Book I. - - A MONTREAL BEAVER FAIR. - - I. FRONTENAC 11 - - II. HAND-OF-IRON 20 - - III. FATHER HENNEPIN 28 - - IV. A COUNCIL 39 - - V. SAINTE JEANNE 48 - - VI. THE PROPHECY OF JOLYCOEUR 57 - - - Book II. - - FORT FRONTENAC. - - I. RIVAL MASTERS 71 - - II. A TRAVELLED FRIAR 81 - - III. HEAVEN AND EARTH 87 - - IV. A CANOE FROM THE ILLINOIS 96 - - V. FATHER HENNEPIN'S CHAPEL 109 - - VI. LA SALLE AND TONTY 118 - - VII. AN ADOPTION 128 - - VIII. TEGAHKOUITA 136 - - IX. AN ORDEAL 146 - - X. HEMLOCK 155 - - - Book III. - - FORT ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS. - - I. IN AN EAGLE'S NEST 167 - - II. THE FRIEND AND BROTHER 176 - - III. HALF-SILENCE 188 - - IV. A FETE ON THE ROCK 200 - - V. THE UNDESPAIRING NORMAN 210 - - VI. TO-DAY 224 - - - - - INTRODUCTION. - - -No man can see all of a mountain at once. He sees its differing sides. -Moreover, it has rainy and bright day aspects, and summer and winter -faces. - -[Illustration] - -The romancer is covered with the dust of old books, modern books, great -books, and out of them all brings in a condensing hand these pictures of -two men whose lives were as large as this continent. - -La Salle is a definite figure in the popular mind. But La Salle's -greater friend is known only to historians and students. To me the -finest fact in the Norman explorer's career is the devotion he -commanded in Henri de Tonty. No stupid dreamer, no ruffian at heart, no -betrayer of friendship, no mere blundering woodsman--as La Salle has -been outlined by his enemies--could have bound to himself a man like -Tonty. The love of this friend and the words this friend has left on -record thus honor La Salle. And we who like courage and steadfastness -and gentle courtesy in men owe much honor which has never been paid to -Henri de Tonty. - - - - - Book I. - - A MONTREAL BEAVER FAIR. - - 1678 A. D. - - - - - THE STORY OF TONTY. - - - - - I. - - FRONTENAC. - - -Along the entire river front of Montreal camp-fires faded as the -amphitheatre of night gradually dissolved around them. - -Canoes lay beached in one long row as if a shoal of huge fish had come -to land. The lodges made a new street along Montreal wharf. Oblong -figures of Indian women moved from shadow to shine, and children stole -out to caper beside kettles where they could see their breakfasts -steaming. Here and there light fell upon a tranquil mummy less than a -metre in length, standing propped against a lodge side, and blinking -stoical eyes in its brown flat face as only a bark-encased Indian baby -could blink; or it slept undisturbed by the noise of the awakening camp, -looking a mummy indeed. - -The savage of the New World carried his family with him on every -peaceable journey; sometimes to starve for weeks when the winter hunting -proved bad. It was only when he went to war that he denied himself all -squaw service. - -The annual beaver fair was usually held in midsummer, but this year the -tribes of the upper lakes had not descended with their furs to Montreal -until September. These precious skins, taken out of the canoes, were -stored within the lodges. - -Every male of the camp was already greasing, painting, and feathering -himself for the grand council, which always preceded a beaver fair. -Hurons, Ottawas, Crees, Nipissings, Ojibwas, Pottawatamies, each jealous -for his tribe, completed a process begun the night before, and put on -what might be called his court dress. In some cases this was no dress at -all, except a suit of tattooing, or a fine coat of ochre streaked with -white clay or soot. The juice of berries heightened nature in their -faces. But there were grand barbarians who laid out robes of beaver -skin, ample, and marked inside with strange figures or porcupine quill -embroidery. The heads swarming in this vast and dusky dressing-room were -some of them shaven bare except the scalp lock, some bristling in a -ridge across the top, while others carried the natural coarse growth -tightly braided down one side, with the opposite half flowing loose. - -Montreal behind its palisades made a dim background to all this early -illumination,--few domestic candles shining through windows or glancing -about the Hotel Dieu as the nuns began their morning devotions. Mount -Royal now flickered a high shadow, and now massed inertly against stars; -but the river, breathing forever like some colossal creature, reflected -all the camp-fires in its moving scales. - -The guns of the fort had fired a salute to Indian guests on their -arrival the evening before. But at sunrise repeated cannonading, a -prolonged roll of drums, and rounds of musketry announced that the -governor-general's fleet was in sight. - -Montreal flocked to the wharf where already the savages were arrayed in -solemn ranks. Marching out of the fortress with martial music, past the -Hotel Dieu to the landing-place where Frontenac must step from his boat, -came the remnant of the Carignan regiment. Even the Sulpitian -brotherhood, whose rights as seigniors of Montreal island this governor -had at one time slighted, appeared to do him honor. And gentle nuns of -St. Joseph were seen in the general outpour of inhabitants. - -This governor-general, with all his faults, had a large and manly way of -meeting colonial dangers, and was always a prop under the fainting heart -of New France. - -His boats made that display upon the St. Lawrence which it was his -policy and inclination to make before Indians. Officers in white and -gold, and young nobles of France, powdered, and flashing in the colors -of Louis' magnificent reign, crowded his own vessel,--young men who had -ventured out to Quebec because it was the fashion at court to be skilled -in colonial matters, and now followed Frontenac as far as Montreal to -amuse themselves with the annual beaver fair. The flag of France, set -with its lily-like symbol, waved over their heads its white reply to -its twin signal on the fort. - -Frontenac stood at the boat's prow, his rich cloak thrown back, and his -head bared to the morning river breath and the people's shouts. Being -colonial king pleased this soldier, tired of European camps and the full -blaze of royalty, where his poverty put him to the disadvantage of a -singed moth. - -He came blandly gliding to the wharf, Louis de Buade, Count of -Frontenac, and Baron of Palluau, and the only governor of New France who -ever handled the arrogant Five Nations of the Iroquois like a strong -father,[1]--a man who would champion the rights of his meanest colonist, -and at the same time quarrel with his lieutenant in power to his last -breath. - -Merchants of Quebec followed him with boat-loads of Indian supplies. -Even Acadia had sent men to this voyage, for the Baron de Saint-Castin -appeared in the fleet, with his young Indian Baroness. It is told of -Saint-Castin that he had kept a harem in his sylvan principality of -Pentegoet; but being a man of conscience, he confessed and reformed. It -is also told of him that he never kept a harem or otherwise lapsed into -the barbarisms of the Penobscots, among whom he carried missionaries and -over whom he was a great lord. Type of the Frenchman of his day, he came -to New France a lad in the Carignan regiment, amassed fortunes in the -fur trade, and holding his own important place in the colony, goaded -like a thorn the rival colony of New England along his borders. - -But most conspicuous to the eyes of Montreal were two men standing at -Frontenac's right hand, a Norman and an Italian. Both were tall, the -Italian being of deeper colors and more generous materials. His large -features were clothed in warm brown skin. Rings of black hair thick as a -fleece were cut short above his military collar. His fearless, kindly -eyes received impressions from every aspect of the New World. There -dwelt in Henri de Tonty the power to make men love him at -sight,--savages as well as Europeans. He wore the dress of a French -lieutenant of infantry, and looked less than thirty years old, having -entered the service of France in his early youth. - -The other man, Robert Cavelier,--called La Salle from an estate he had -once owned in France,--explorer, and seignior of Fort Frontenac and -adjacent grants on the north shore of Lake Ontario, was at that time in -the prime of his power. He was returning from France, with the king's -permission to work out all his gigantic enterprises, with funds for the -purpose, and one of the most promising young military men in Europe as -his lieutenant. - -Montreal merchants on the wharf singled out La Salle with jealous eye, -which saw in the drooping point and flaring base of his nose an endless -smile of scorn. He was a man who had only to use his monopolies to -become enormously rich, cutting off the trade of the lakes from -Montreal. That he was above gain, except as he could use it for hewing -his ambitious road into the wilderness, they did not believe. The -merchants of Montreal readily translated the shyness and self-restraint -of his solitary nature into the arrogance of a recently ennobled and -successful man. - -La Salle had a spare face, with long oval cheeks, curving well inward -beside the round of his sensitive prominent chin. Gray and olive tones -still further cooled the natural pallor of his skin and made ashen brown -the hair which he wore flowing. - -The plainness of an explorer and the elegance of a man exact in all his -habits distinguished La Salle's dress against that background of -brilliant courtiers. - -He moved ashore with Frontenac, who saluted benignly both the array of -red allies and the inhabitants of this second town in the province. - -The sub-governor stepped out to escort the governor-general to the fort, -bells rang, cannon still boomed, martial music pierced the heart with -its thrill, and the Carignan squad wheeled in behind Frontenac's moving -train. - -"Sieur de la Salle! Sieur de la Salle!" a little girl called, breaking -away from the Sisters of St. Joseph, whose convent robes had enclosed -her like palisades, "take me also in the procession!" - -This demand granted itself, so nimbly did she escape a nun's ineffectual -grasp and spring between Tonty and La Salle. - -Frontenac himself had turned at the shrill outcry. He laughed when he -saw the wilful young creature taking the explorer by the wrist and -falling into step so close to his own person. - -A pursuing nun, unwilling to interrupt the governors train, hovered -along its progress, making anxious signs to her charge, until she -received an assuring gesture from La Salle. She then went back -dissatisfied but relieved of responsibility; and the child, with a proud -fling of her person, marched on toward the fort. - - -FOOTNOTES: - - [1] Frontenac was the only man the Iroquois would ever allow to - call himself their father. All other governors, English or - French, were simply brothers. - - - - - II. - - HAND-OF-IRON. - - -"Mademoiselle the tiger-cat," said La Salle to Tonty, making himself -heard with some effort above the din of martial sound. - -The young soldier lifted his hat with his left hand and made the child a -bow, which she regarded with critical eyes. - -"I am the niece of Monsieur de la Salle," she explained to Tonty as she -marched; "so he calls me tiger-cat." - -"Mademoiselle Barbe Cavelier is the tiger-cat's human name," the -explorer added, laughing. "It is flattering to have this nimble animal -spring affectionately on one from ambush; but I should soon have -inquired after you at the convent, mademoiselle." - -"I did not spring affectionately on you," said Barbe; "I wanted to be in -the procession." - -"Hast thou then lost all regard for thy uncle La Salle during his year -of absence?" - -Barbe's high childish voice distinctly and sincerely stated, "No, -monsieur; I have fought all the girls at the convent on your account. -Jeanne le Ber said nothing against you; but she is a Le Ber. I am glad -you came back in such grandeur. I was determined to be in the grandeur -myself. But it is not a time to give you my cheek for a kiss." - -La Salle smiled over her head at Tonty. The Italian noted her marked -resemblance to the explorer. She had the same features in delicate -tints, the darkness of her eyelashes and curls only emphasizing the -type. Already her small nose drooped at the point and flared at the -base. As La Salle and his young kinswoman stepped together, Tonty gauged -them alike,--two self-restraining natures with unmeasured endurance and -individual force like the electric current. - -Montreal's square bastioned fort, by the mouth of a small creek flowing -into the St. Lawrence, was soon reached from the wharf. It stood at the -south end of the town. - -"My dear child," said La Salle, stating his case to Barbe, "it is -necessary for me to go into the fort with Count Frontenac, and equally -necessary you should go back at once to the Sisters. I will bring you -out of the convent to-morrow to look at the beaver fair. This is -Monsieur de Tonty, my lieutenant; let him take you back to the nuns. I -shall be blamed if I carry you into the fort." - -Barbe heard him without raising objections. She looked at Tonty, who -gave her his left hand and drew her out of the train. - -It swept past them into the fortress gates,--gallant music, faces -returning her eager gaze with smiles, plumes, powdered curls, and laces, -gold and white uniforms, soldiers with the sun flashing from their -gun-barrels. - -Barbe watched the last man in. To express her satisfaction she then -rose to the tip of one foot and hopped three steps. She was lightly and -delicately made, and as full of restless grace as a bird. Her face and -curls bloomed above and strongly contrasted with the raiment her convent -guardians planned for a child dependent, not on their charity, but on -their maternal care. - -The September morning enveloped the world in a haze of brightness, like -that perfecting blue breath which we call the bloom upon the grape. A -great landscape with a scarf of melting azure resting around its -horizon, or ravelling to shreds against the mountain's breast, or -pretending to be wood-smoke across the river, drew Tonty's eye from the -disappearing pageant. - -That fair land was a fit spot whereon the most luxurious of -civilizations should touch and affiliate with savages of the wilderness. -Up the limpid green river the Lachine Rapids showed their teeth with -audible roar. From that point Mount Royal could be seen rising out of -mists and stretching its hind-quarters westward like some vast mastodon. -But to Tonty only its front appeared, a globe dipped in autumn colors -and wearing plumes of vapor. The sky of this new hemisphere rose in -unmeasured heights which the eye followed in vain; there seemed no -zenith to the swimming blinding azure. - -A row of booths for merchants had been built all along the outside of -Montreal's palisades, and traders were thus early setting their goods in -array. - -At the north extremity of the town that huge stone windmill built by the -seigniors for defence, cast a long dewy shadow toward the west. Its -loopholes showed like dark specks on the body of masonry. - -Sun-sparkles on the river were no more buoyant and changeable than the -child at Tonty's side. Dimples came and went in her cheeks. Her blood -was stirred by the swarming life around her. - -"Monsieur," she confided to her uncle's lieutenant, "I am meditating -something very wicked." - -"Certainly that is impossible, mademoiselle," said Tonty, accommodating -his step to her reluctant gait. - -"I am meditating on not going back to the convent." - -"Where would you go, mademoiselle?" - -"Everywhere, to see things." - -"But my orders are to escort you to the nuns. You would disgrace me as a -soldier." - -Barbe lifted her gaze to his face and was diverted from rebellion. Tonty -put out his arm to guard her, but a tall stalking brave was pushed -against her in passing and immediately startled by the thud of her -prompt fist upon his back. The Indian turned, unsheathing his knife. - -"Get out of my way, thou ugly big warrior," said Barbe, meeting his eye, -which softened from fierceness to laughter, and holding her fist ready -for further encounter. - -[Illustration] - -The Indian made some mocking gestures and menaced her playfully with -his thumb. Tonty threw his arm across her shoulder and moved her on -toward the convent. Barbe escaped from this touch, an entirely new -matter filling her mind. - -"Monsieur, even old Jonaneaux in our Hotel Dieu hath not such a heavy -hand as thou hast. Many a time hath he pulled me down off the palisade -when I looked over to see the coureurs de bois go roaring by. But thou -hast a hand like iron!" - -Tonty flushed, being not yet hardened to his misfortune. - -"It is a hand of iron. I am called Main-de-fer."[2] - -Barbe took hold of it in its glove. Of all the people she had ever met -Tonty was the only person whose touch she did not resent. - -"The other hand is not like unto it, monsieur?" - -He gave her the other also, and she compared their weight. With a -roguish lifting of her nostrils she inquired,-- - -"Will every bit of you turn to metal like this heavy hand?" - -"Alas, no, mademoiselle; there is no hope of that." - -Tonty stripped his gauntlet off. With half afraid fingers she examined -the artificial member. It was of copper. - -"Where is the old one, monsieur?" - -"It was blown off by a grenade at Messina last year." - -"Does it hurt?" - -"Not now. Except when I think of the service of Monsieur de la Salle, -and of my being thus pieced out as a man." - -Barbe measured his height and breadth and warm-toned face with satisfied -eyes. She consoled him. - -"There is so much of you, monsieur, you can easily do without a hand." - -FOOTNOTES: - - [2] "Henri de Tonty, surnomme Main-de-fer." Notes Sur Nouvelle - France. - - - - - III. - - FATHER HENNEPIN. - - -"Thou art a comfort to a soldier, mademoiselle," said Tonty, heartily. - -"But not to a priest," observed Barbe. "For last birthday when I was -eleven my uncle Abbe stuck out his lip and said I was eleven years bad. -But my uncle La Salle kissed my cheek. There goeth Francois le Moyne." -Her face became suddenly distorted with grimaces of derision beside -which Tonty could scarcely keep his gravity. A boy of about her own age -ran past, dropping her a sneer for her pains. - -"Monsieur, these Le Moynes and Sorels and Bouchers and Varennes and -Joliets and Le Bers, they are all against my uncle La Salle. The girls -talk about it in the convent. But he hath the governor on his side, so -what can they do? I have pinched Jeanne le Ber at school, but she will -never pinch back and it only makes her feel holier. So I pinch her no -more. Do you know Jeanne le Ber?" - -"No," said Tonty, "I have not that pleasure." - -"Oh, monsieur, it is no pleasure. She says so many prayers. When I have -prayers for penances they make me so tired I have to get up and hop -between them. But Jeanne le Ber would pray all the time if her father -did not pull her off her knees. My father and mother died in France. If -they were alive they would not have to pull me off my knees." - -"But a woman should learn to pray, even as a man should learn to fight," -observed Tonty. "He stands between her and danger, and she should stand -linking him to heaven." - -"I can fight for myself," said Barbe. "And everybody ought to say his -own prayers; but it makes one disagreeable to say more than his share. I -wish to grow up an agreeable person." - -They had reached the palisade entrance which fronted the river, Barbe's -feet still lagging amid the lively scenes outside. She allowed Tonty to -lead her with his left hand, thus sheltering her next the booths from -streams of passing Indians and traders. - -Beside this open gate she would have lingered indefinitely, chattering -to a guardian who felt her hatred of convent restraint, and gazing at -preparations for the council: at prunes and chopped pieces of oxen being -put to boil for an Indian feast; at the governor's chair from the -fortress, where the sub-governor lived, borne by men to the middle of -that space yearly occupied as the council ring. But a watchful Sister -was hovering ready inside the palisade gate, and reaching forth her arm -she drew her charge away from Tonty, giving him brief and scandalized -thanks for his service. - -Barbe looked back. It was worth Tonty's while to catch sight of that -regretful face smeared about its warm neck by curls, its lips parted to -repeat and still repeat, "Adieu, monsieur. Adieu, monsieur." - -But two men had come between the disappearing child and him, one man, -dressed partly like an officer and partly like a coureur de bois, -throwing both arms around Tonty in the eager Latin manner. - -"My cousin Henri de Tonty, welcome to the New World. I waited with my -gouty leg at the fortress for you; but when you came not, like a good -woodsman, I tracked you down." - -"My cousin Greysolon du Lhut! Glad am I to find you so speedily. This -cold and heavy hand belies me." - -"I heard of this hand. But the other was well lost, my cousin. Take -courage in beholding me; I had nearly lost a leg, and not by good powder -and shot either, but with gout which disgracefully loads up a man with -his own dead members. But the Iroquois virgin, Catharine Tegahkouita, -hath interceded for me." - -"Monsieur de Tonty will observe we have saints among the savages in New -France," said the other man. - -He was a Recollet friar with sandalled feet, wearing a gray capote of -coarse texture which was girt with the cord of Saint Francis. His -peaked hood hung behind his shoulders leaving his shaven crown to -glisten with rosy enjoyment of the sunlight. A crucifix hung at his -side; but no man ever devoted his life to prayer who was so manifestly -created to enjoy the world. He had a nose of Flemish amplitude depressed -in the centre, fat lips, a terraced chin, and twinkling good-humored -eyes. The gray capote could not conceal a pompous swell of the stomach -and the strut of his sandalled feet. - -"My cousin Tonty," said Du Lhut, "this is Father Louis Hennepin from -Fort Frontenac. He hath come down to Montreal[3] to meet Monsieur de la -Salle and engage himself in the new western venture." - -"Venture!" exclaimed a keen-visaged man in the garb of a -merchant-colonist who was carrying a bale of goods to one of the -booths,--for no man in Montreal was ashamed to get profit out of the -beaver fair. "Where your Monsieur de la Salle is concerned there will be -venture enough, but no results for any man but La Salle." - -He set his bale down as if it were a challenge. - -Points of light sprung into Tonty's eyes and the blood in his face -showed its quickening. - -"Monsieur," he spoke, "if you are a gentleman you shall answer to me for -slandering Monsieur de la Salle." - -"Jacques le Ber is a noble of the colony," declared Du Lhut, with the -derisive freedom this great ranger and leader of coureurs de bois -assumed toward any one; "for hath he not purchased his patent of King -Louis for six thousand livres? But look you, my cousin Tonty, if the -king allowed not us colonial nobles to engage in trade he would lose us -all by starvation; for scarce a miserable censitaire on our lands can -pay us his capon and pint of wheat at the end of the year." - -[Illustration: "Monsieur," spoke Tonty, "if you are a gentleman you -shall answer to me for slandering Monsieur de la Salle."--_Page 32._] - -"I will answer to you, monsieur," said Jacques le Ber to the soldier, -"that La Salle is the enemy of the colony, and the betrayer of them that -have been his friends." - -Father Hennepin and Du Lhut caught Tonty's arms. Du Lhut then dragged -him with expostulations inside the palisade gate, repeating Frontenac's -strict orders that all quarrels should be suppressed during the beaver -fair, and as the young man's furious looks still sought the merchant, -reminding him of the harm he might do La Salle by an open quarrel with -Montreal traders. - -"I, who am not bound to La Salle as close as thou art,--I tell you it -will not do," declared Du Lhut. - -"Let the man keep his distance, then!" - -"Why, you hot-blooded fellow! why do you take these Frenchmen so -seriously?" - -"Sieur de la Salle is my friend. I will strike any man who denounces -him." - -"Oh, come out toward the mountain. Let us make a little pilgrimage," -laughed Du Lhut. "We must cool thee, Tonty, we must cool thee; or La -Salle's enemies will lie in one heap the length of Montreal, mowed by -this iron hand!" - -As Jacques le Ber carried forward his bale, Father Hennepin walked -beside him dealing forth good-natured remonstrance with fat hands and -out-turned lips. - -"My son, God save me from the man who doth nurse a grievance. Your case -is simply this: our governor built a fort at Cataraqui, and it is now -called Fort Frontenac. He put you and associates of yours in charge, and -you had profit of that fort. Afterward, by his recommendation to the -king, Sieur de la Salle was made seignior of Fort Frontenac and lands -thereabout. This hast thou ever since bitterly chewed to the poisoning -of thy immortal soul." - -"You churchmen all,--Jesuits, Sulpitians, or Recollets,--are over -zealous to domineer in this colony," spoke Jacques le Ber, through the -effort of carrying his bale. - -"My son," said Father Hennepin, swelling his stomach and inflating his -throat, "why should I enter the mendicant order of Saint Francis and -live according to the rules of a pure and severe virtue, if I felt no -zeal for saving souls?" - -"I spoke of domineering," repeated the angry merchant. - -"And touching Monsieur de la Salle," said Father Hennepin, "I exhort -thee not to love him; for who could love him,--but to rid thyself of -hatred of any one." - -"Father Hennepin has not then attached himself to La Salle's new -enterprise?" - -"I have a grand plan of discovery of my own," said the friar, deeply, -rolling his shaven head, "an enterprise which would terrify anybody but -me. The Sieur de la Salle merely opens my path. I will confess to thee, -my son, that in youth I often hid myself behind the doors of -taverns,--which were no fit haunts for men of holy life,--to hearken -unto sailors' tales of strange lands. And thus would I willingly do -without eating or drinking, such burning desire I had to explore new -countries." - -The Father did not observe that Jacques le Ber had reached his own booth -and was there arranging his goods regardless of explorations in strange -lands, but walked on, talking to the air, his out-thrust lips rounding -every word, until some derisive savage pointed out this solo. - -Jacques le Ber made ready to take his place in the governor's council, -thinking wrathfully of his encounter with Tonty. He dwelt, as we all do, -upon the affronts and hindrances of the present, rather than on his -prospect of founding a strong and worthy family in the colony. - -FOOTNOTES: - - [3] The romancer here differs from the historian, who says Father - Hennepin met La Salle at Quebec. - - - - - IV. - - A COUNCIL. - - -The North American savage, with an unerring instinct which republics -might well study, sent his wisest men to the front to represent him. - -A great circle of Indians, ranged according to their tribes, sat around -Frontenac when the stone windmill trod its noon shadow underfoot. Te -Deum had been sung in the chapel, and thanks offered for his safe -arrival. The principal men of Montreal, with the governor's white and -gold officers, sat now within the circle behind his chair. - -But Frontenac faced every individual of his Indian children, moving -before them, their natural leader, as he made his address of greeting, -admonition, and approval, through Du Lhut as interpreter. The old -courtier loved Indians. They appealed to that same element in him which -the coureurs de bois knew how to reach. The Frenchman has a wild strain -of blood. He takes kindly and easily to the woods. He makes himself an -appropriate and even graceful figure against any wilderness background, -and goes straight to Nature's heart, carrying all the refinements of -civilization with him. - -The smoke of the peace pipe went up hour after hour. By strictest rules -of precedence each red orator rose in his turn and spoke his tribe's -reply to Onontio.[4] An Indian never hurried eloquence. The sun might -tip toward Mount Royal, and the steam of his own deferred feast reach -his nose in delicious suggestion. He had to raise the breeze of -prosperity, to clear the sun, to wipe away tears for friends slain -during past misunderstandings with Onontio's other children, and to open -the path of peace between their lodges and the lodges of his tribe. -Ottawa, Huron, Cree, Nipissing, Ojibwa, or Pottawatamie, it was -necessary for him to bury the hatchet in pantomime, to build a great -council-fire whose smoke should rise to heaven in view of all the -nations, and gather the tribes of the lakes in one family council with -the French around this fire forever. - -[Illustration: "Each red orator rose in his turn and spoke his tribe's -reply."--_Page 40._] - -Children played along the river's brink, and squaws kept fire under the -kettles. A few men guarded the booths along the palisades from -pilferers, though scarce a possible pilferer roamed from the centre of -interest. - -Crowds of spectators pressed around the great circle; traders who had -brought packs of skins skilfully intercepted by them at some station -above Montreal; interpreters, hired by merchants to serve them during -the fair; coureurs de bois stretching up their neck sinews until these -knotted with intense and prolonged effort. In this standing wall the -habitant was crowded by converted Iroquois from the Mountain mission, -who, having learned their rights as Christians, yielded no inch of room. - -The sun descended out of sight behind Mount Royal, though his presence -lingered with sky and river in abundant crimsons. Still the smoke of the -peace pipe rose above the council ring, and eloquence rolled its periods -on. That misty scarf around the horizon, which high noon drove out of -sight, floated into view again, becoming denser and denser. The pipings -of out-door insects came sharpened through twilight, and all the -camp-fires were deepening their hue, before a solemn uprising of -Frenchmen and Indians proclaimed the council over. - -La Salle had sat through it at the governor's right hand, watching those -bronze faces and restless eyes with sympathy as great as Frontenac's. -He, also, was a lord of the wilderness. He could more easily open his -shy nature to such red brethren and eloquently command, denounce, or -persuade them, than stand before dames and speak one word,--which he was -forced to attempt when candles were lighted in the candelabra of the -fort. - -There was not such pageantry at Montreal as in the more courtly society -of Quebec. The appearance of the governor with his train of young nobles -drew out those gentler inhabitants who took no part in the bartering of -the beaver fair. - -Perrot, the sub-governor, had known his period of bitter disagreement -with Frontenac. Having made peace with a superior he once defied, he was -anxious to pay Frontenac every honor, and the two governors were united -in their policy of amusing and keeping busy so varied an assemblage as -that which thronged the beaver fair. Festivity as grand as colonial -circumstances permitted was therefore held in the governor's apartments. -The guarded fortress gates stood open; torches burned within the walls, -and blanketed savages stalked in and out. - -Yet that colonial drawing-room lacked the rude elements which go to -making most pioneer societies. Human intercourse in frontier towns -exposed to danger and hardship, though it may be hearty and innocent, is -rarely graceful. - -But here was a small Versailles transplanted to the wilderness. -Fragments of a great court met Indian-wedded nobles and women with -generations of good ancestors behind them. Here were even the fashions -of the times in gowns, and the youths of Louis' salon bowed and paid -compliments to powdered locks. These French colonial nobles were poor; -but with pioneer instinct they decorated themselves with the best -garments their scanty money would buy. Here thronged Dumays, Le Moynes, -Mousniers, Desroches, Fleurys, Baudrys, Migeons, Vigers, Gautiers, all -chattering and animated. Here stood the Baroness de Saint-Castin like a -statue of bronze. Here were those illustrious Le Moynes, father and -sons, whose deeds may be traced in our day from the St. Lawrence to the -Gulf of Mexico. Here Frontenac, with the graciously winning manner which -belonged to his pleasant hours, drew to himself and soothed disaffected -magnates of his colonial kingdom. - -All these figures, and the spectacles swarming around the beaver fair, -like combinations in a kaleidoscope to be seen once and seen no more, -gave Tonty such condensed knowledge of the New World as no ordinary days -could offer. - -La Salle alone, though fresh from audiences at court and distinguished -by royal favor, stood abashed and annoyed by the part he must play -toward civilized people. - -"Look at the Sieur de la Salle," observed Du Lhut to Tonty. "There is a -man who stands and fights off the approach of every other creature." - -"There never was a man better formed for friendship," retorted Tonty. -"Touching his reserve, I call that no blemish, though he has said of it -himself, it is a defect he can never be rid of as long as he lives, and -often it spites him against himself." - -La Salle turned his shoulder on these associates, uneasily conscious -that his weakness was observed, and put many moving figures between -himself and them. He had the free gait of a woodsman tempered by the air -of a courtier. More than one Montreal girl accusing gold-embroidered -young soldiers of finding the Quebec women charming, turned her eyes to -follow La Salle. Possible lord of the vast and unknown west, in the -flower of his years, he was next to Frontenac the most considerable -figure in the colony. - -Severe study in early youth and ambition in early manhood had crowded -the lover out of La Salle. His practical gaze was oppressed by so many -dames. It dwelt upon the floor, until, travelling accidentally to a -corner, it rose and encountered Jacques le Ber's daughter sitting beside -her mother. - -FOOTNOTES: - - [4] "This name was in Huron and Iroquois the translation of the - name of M. de Montmagny (Mons maguns, great mountain). The - savages continued calling the successors of Governor - Montmagny by the same name, and even to the French king they - applied the title 'Great Ononthio.'" Translated from note on - page 138, tome 1, Garneau's Histoire du Canada. - - - - - V. - - SAINTE JEANNE. - - -When La Salle was seignior of Lachine, before the king and Frontenac -helped his ambition to its present foothold, he had been in the habit of -stopping at Jacques le Ber's house when he came to Montreal. - -The first day of the beaver fair greatly tasked Madame le Ber. She sat -drowsily beside the eldest child of her large absent flock, and was not -displeased to have her husband's distinguished enemy approach Jeanne. - -The wife of Le Ber had been called madame since her husband bought his -patent of nobility; but she held no strict right to the title, even -wives of the lesser nobles being then addressed as demoiselles. In that -simple colonial life Jacques le Ber, or his wife in his absence, served -goods to customers over his own counter. Madame le Ber was an excellent -woman, who said her prayers and approached the sacraments at proper -seasons. She had abundant flesh covered with dark red skin, and she -often pondered why a spirit of a daughter with passionate longings after -heaven had been sent to her. If Sieur de la Salle could draw the -child's mind from extreme devotion, her husband must feel indebted to -him. - -La Salle's face relaxed and softened as he sat down beside this -sixteen-year-old maid in her colonial gown. She held her crucifix in her -hands, and waited for him to talk. Jeanne made melody of his silences. -As a child she had never rubbed against him for caresses, but looked -into his eyes with sincere meditation. Having no idea of the explorer's -aim, Jeanne le Ber was yet in harmony with him across their separating -years. She also could stake her life on one supreme idea. La Salle was -formed to subdue the wilderness; she was dimly and ignorantly, but with -her childish might, undertaking that stranger region, the human soul. -She looked younger than other girls of her age; yet La Salle was moved -to say, using the name he had given her,-- - -"You have changed much since last year, Sainte Jeanne." - -"Am I worse, Sieur de la Salle?" she anxiously inquired. - -"No. Better. Except I fear you have prayed yourself to a greater -distance from me." - -"I name you in my prayers, Sieur de la Salle. Ever since my father -ceased to be your friend I have asked to have your haughty spirit -humbled." - -La Salle laughed. - -"If you name me at all, Sainte Jeanne, pray rather for the humbling of -my enemies." - -"No, Sieur de la Salle. You need your enemies. I could ill do without -mine." - -"Who could be an enemy to thee?" - -"There are many enemies of my soul. One is my great, my very great -love." - -La Salle's face whitened and flushed. He cast a quick glance upon the -dozing matron, the backs of people whose conversation buzzed about his -ears, and returned to Jeanne's childlike white eyelids and -crucifix-folding hands. - -"Whom do you love, Sainte Jeanne?" - -"I love my father so much, and my mother; and the children are too dear -to me. Sometimes when I rise in the night to pray, and think of living -apart from my dear father, the cold sweat stands on my forehead. Too -many dear people throng between the soul and heaven. Even you, Sieur de -la Salle,--I have to pray against thoughts of you." - -[Illustration] - -"Do not pray against me, Sainte Jeanne," said the explorer, with a -wistful tremor of the lower lip. "Consider how few there be that love me -well." - -Her eyes rested on him with divining gaze. Jeanne le Ber's eyes had the -singular function of sending innumerable points of light swimming -through the iris, as if the soul were in motion and shaking off -sparkles. - -"If you lack love and suffer thereby," she instructed him, "it will -profit your soul." - -La Salle interlaced his fingers, resting his hands upon his knees, and -gave her a look which was both amused and tender. - -"And what other enemies has Sainte Jeanne?" - -"Sieur de la Salle, have I not often told you what a sinner I am? It -ridicules me to call me saint." - -"Since you have grown to be a young demoiselle I ought to call you -Mademoiselle le Ber." - -"Call me Sainte Jeanne rather than that. I do not want to be a young -demoiselle, or in this glittering company. It is my father who insists." - -"Nor do I want to be in this glittering company, Sainte Jeanne." - -"The worst of all the other enemies, Sieur de la Salle, are vanity and a -dread of enduring pain. I am very fond of dress." The young creature -drew a deep regretful breath. - -"But you mortify this fondness?" said La Salle, accompanying with -whimsical sympathy every confession of Jeanne le Ber's. - -"Indeed I have to humiliate myself often--often. When this evil desire -takes strong hold, I put on the meanest rag I can find. But my father -and mother will never let me go thus humbled to Mass." - -"Therein do I commend your father and mother," said La Salle; "though -the outside we bear toward men is of little account. But tell me how do -you school yourself to pain, Sainte Jeanne? I have not learned to bear -pain well in all my years." - -Jeanne again met his face with swarming lights in her eyes. Seeing that -no one observed them she bent her head toward La Salle and parted the -hair over her crown. The straight fine growth was very thick and of a -brown color. It reminded him of midwinter swamp grasses springing out of -a bed of snow. A mat of burrs was pressed to this white scalp. Some of -the hair roots showed red stains. - -"These hurt me all the time," said Jeanne. "And it is excellent torture -to comb them out." - -She covered the burrs with a swift pressure, tightly closing her mouth -and eyes with the spasm of pain this caused, and once more took and -folded the crucifix within her hands. - -The explorer made no remonstrance against such self-torture, though his -practical gaze remained on her youthful brier-crowned head. He heard a -girl in front of him laugh to a courtier who was flattering her. - -"He, monsieur, I have myself seen Quebec women who dressed with odious -taste." - -But Jeanne, wrapped in her own relation, continued with a tone which -slighted mere physical pain,-- - -"There is a better way to suffer, Sieur de la Salle, and that is from -ill-treatment. Such anguish can be dealt out by the hands we love; but I -have no friend willing to discipline me thus. My father's servant -Jolycoeur is the only person who makes me as wretched as I ought to -be." - -"Discipline through Jolycoeur," said La Salle, laughing, "is what my -proud stomach could never endure." - -"Perhaps you have not such need, Sieur de la Salle. My father has many -times turned him off, but I plead until he is brought back. He hath this -whole year been a means of grace to me by his great impudence. If I say -to him, 'Jolycoeur, do this or that,' he never fails to reply, 'Do it -yourself, Mademoiselle Jeanne,' and adds profanity to make Heaven blush. -Whenever he can approach near enough, he whispers contemptuous names at -me, so that I cannot keep back the tears. Yet how little I endure, when -Saint Lawrence perished on a gridiron, and all the other holy martyrs -shame me!" - -"Your father does not suffer these things to be done to you?" - -"No, Sieur de la Salle. My father knows naught of it except my pity. He -did once kick Jolycoeur, who left our house three days, so that I was -in danger of sinking in slothful comfort. But I got him brought back, -and he lay drunk in our garden with his mouth open, so that my soul -shuddered to look at him. It was excellent discipline,"[5] said Jeanne, -with a long breath. - -"Jolycoeur will better adorn the woods and risk his worthless neck on -water for my uses, than longer chafe your tender nature," said La Salle. -"He has been in my service before, and craved to-day that I would enlist -him again." - -"Had my father turned him off?" asked Jeanne, with consternation. - -"He said Jacques le Ber had lifted a hand against him for innocently -neglecting to carry bales of merchandise to a booth." - -"I did miss the smell of rum downstairs before we came away," said the -girl, sadly. "And will you take my scourge from me, Sieur de la Salle?" - -"I will give him a turn at suffering himself," answered La Salle. "The -fellow shall be whipped on some pretext when I get him within Fort -Frontenac, for every pang he hath laid upon you. He is no stupid. He -knew what he was doing." - -"Oh, Sieur de la Salle, Jolycoeur was only the instrument of Heaven. -He is not to blame." - -"If I punish him not, it will be on your promise to seek no more -torments, Sainte Jeanne." - -"There are no more for me to seek; for who in our house will now be -unkind to me? But, Sieur de la Salle, I feel sure that during my -lifetime I shall be permitted to suffer as much as Heaven could -require." - -Man and child, each surrounded by his peculiar world, sat awhile longer -together in silence, and then La Salle joined the governor. - -FOOTNOTES: - - [5] The asceticism here attributed to Mademoiselle Jeanne le Ber - was really practised by the wife of an early colonial noble. - See Parkman's Old Regime, p. 355. - - - - - VI. - - THE PROPHECY OF JOLYCOEUR. - - -By next mid-day the beaver fair was at its height, and humming above the -monotone of the St. Lawrence. - -Montreal, founded by religious enthusiasts and having the Sulpitian -priests for its seigniors, was a quiet town when left to itself,--when -the factions of Quebec did not meet its own factions in the street with -clubs; or coureurs de bois roar along the house sides in drunken joy; or -sudden glares on the night landscape with attendant screeching proclaim -an Iroquois raid; or this annual dissipation in beaver skins crowd it -for two days with strangers. - -Among colonists who had thronged out to meet the bearers of colonial -riches as soon as the first Indian canoe was beached, were the coureurs -de bois. They still swarmed about, making or renewing acquaintances, -here acting as interpreters and there trading on their own account. - -Before some booths Indians pressed in rows, demanding as much as the -English gave for their furs, though the price was set by law. French -merchants poked their fingers into the satin pliancy of skins to search -for flaws. Dealers who had no booths pressed with their interpreters -from tribe to tribe,--small merchants picking the crumbs of profit from -under their brethren's tables. There was greedy demand for the first -quality of skins; for beaver came to market in three grades: "Castor -gras, castor demi-gras, et castor sec." - -The booths were hung with finery, upon which squaws stood gazing with a -stoical eye to be envied by civilized woman. - -The cassocks of Sulpitians and gray capotes of Recollet -Fathers--favorites of Frontenac who hated Jesuits--penetrated in -constant supervision every recess of the beaver fair. Yet in spite of -this religious care rum was sold, its effects increasing as the day -moved on. - -A hazy rosy atmosphere had shorn the sun so that he hung a large red -globe in the sky. The land basked in melting tints. Scarcely any wind -flowed on the river. Ste. Helen's Island and even Mount Royal, the -seminary and stone windmill, the row of wooden houses and palisade tips, -all had their edges blurred by hazy light. - -Amusement could hardly be lacking in any gathering of French people not -assembled for ceremonies of religion. In Quebec the governor's court -were inclined to entertain themselves with their own performance of -spectacles. But Montreal had beheld too many spectacles of a tragic -sort, had grasped too much the gun and spade, to have any facility in -mimic play. - -Still the beaver fair was enlivened by music and tricksy gambols. -Through all the ever opening and closing avenues a pageant went up and -down, at which no colonist of New France could restrain his shouts of -laughter,--a Dutchman with enormous stomach, long pipe, and short -breeches, walking beside a lank and solemn Bostonnais. The two youths -who had attired themselves for this masking were of Saint-Castin's -train. That one who acted Puritan had drawn austere seams in his face -with charcoal. His plain collar was severely turned down over a black -doublet, which, with the sombre breeches and hose, had perhaps been -stripped from some enemy that troubled Saint-Castin's border. The -Bostonnais sung high shrill airs from a book he carried in one hand, -only looking up to shake his head with cadaverous warning at his roaring -spectators. One arm was linked in the Dutchman's, who took his pipe out -of his mouth to say good-humoredly, "Ya-ya, ya-ya," to every sort of -taunt. - -These types of rival colonies were such an exhilaration to the traders -of New France that they pointed out the show to each other and pelted it -with epithets all day. - -La Salle came out of the palisade gate of the town, leading by the hand -a frisking little girl. He restrained her from farther progress into the -moving swarm, although she dragged his arm. - -"Thou canst here see all there is of it, Barbe. The nuns did well to -oppose your looking on this roaring commerce. You should be housed -within the Hotel Dieu all this day, had I not spoken a careless word -yesterday. You saw the governor's procession. To-morrow he will start on -his return. And I with my men go to Fort Frontenac." - -[Illustration: "The beaver fair was enlivened by music and tricksy -gambols."--_Page 59._] - -"And at day dawn naught of the Indians can be found," added Barbe, -"except their ashes and litter and the broken flasks they leave. The -trader's booths will also be empty and dirty." - -"Come then, tiger-cat, return to thy cage." - -"My uncle La Salle, let me look a moment longer. See that fat man and -his lean brother the people are pointing at! Even the Indians jump and -jeer. I would strike them for such insolence! There, my uncle La Salle, -there is Monsieur Iron-hand talking to the ugly servant of Jeanne le -Ber's father." - -La Salle easily found Tonty. He was instructing and giving orders to -several men collected for the explorer's service. Jolycoeur,[6] his -cap set on sidewise, was yet abashed in his impudence by the mastery of -Tonty. He wore a new suit of buckskin, with the coureur de bois' red -sash knotted around his waist. - -"My uncle La Salle," inquired Barbe, turning over a disturbance in her -mind, "must I live in the convent until I wed a man?" - -"The convent is held a necessary discipline for young maids." - -"I will then choose Monsieur Iron-hand directly. He would make a good -husband." - -"I think you are right," agreed La Salle. - -"Because he would have but one hand to catch me with when I wished to -run away," explained Barbe. "If he had also lost his feet it would be -more convenient." - -"The marriage between Monsieur de Tonty and Mademoiselle Barbe Cavelier -may then be arranged?" - -She looked at her uncle, answering his smile of amusement. But curving -her neck from side to side, she still examined the Italian soldier. - -"I can outrun most people," suggested Barbe; "but Monsieur de Tonty -looks very tall and strong." - -"Your intention is to take to the woods as soon as marriage sets you -free?" - -"My uncle La Salle, I do have such a desire to be free in the woods!" - -"Have you, my child? If the wilderness thus draws you, you will sometime -embrace it. Cavelier blood is wild juice." - -"And could I take my fortune with me? If it cumbered I would leave it -behind with Monsieur de Tonty or my brother." - -"You will need all your fortune for ventures in the wilderness." - -"And the fortunes of all your relatives and of as many as will give you -credit besides," said a priest wearing the Sulpitian dress. He stopped -before them and looked sternly at Barbe. - -The Abbe Jean Cavelier had not such robust manhood as his brother. In -him the Cavelier round lower lip and chin protruded, and the eyebrows -hung forward. - -La Salle had often felt that he stooped in conciliating Jean, when Jean -held the family purse and doled out loans to an explorer always kept -needy by great plans. - -Jean had strongly the instinct of accumulation. He gauged the discovery -and settlement of a continent by its promise of wealth to himself. His -adherence to La Salle was therefore delicately adjusted by La Salle's -varying fortunes; though at all times he gratified himself by handling -with tyranny this younger and distinguished brother. Generous admiration -of another's genius flowering from his stock with the perfect expression -denied him, was scarcely possible in Jean Cavelier. - -"The Sisters said I might come hither with my uncle La Salle," replied -Barbe, to his unspoken rebuke. - -"Into whose charge were your brother and yourself put when your parents -died?" - -"Into the charge of my uncle the Abbe Cavelier." - -"Who brought your brother and you to this colony that he might watch -over your nurture?" - -"My uncle the Abbe Cavelier." - -"It is therefore your uncle the Abbe Cavelier who will decide when to -turn you out among Indians and traders." - -"You carry too bitter a tongue, my brother Jean," observed La Salle. -"The child has caught no harm. My own youth was cramped within religious -walls." - -"You carry too arrogant a mind now, my brother La Salle. I heard it -noted of you to-day that you last night sat apart and deigned no word -to them that have been of use to you in Montreal." - -La Salle's face owned the sting. Shy natures have always been made to -pay a tax on pride. But next to the slanderer we detest the bearer of -his slander to our ears. - -"It is too much for any man to expect in this world,--a brother who will -defend him against his enemies." - -As soon as this regret had burst from the explorer, he rested his look -again on Tonty. - -"I do defend you," asserted Abbe Cavelier; "and more than that I -impoverish myself for you. But now that you come riding back from France -on a high tide of the king's favor, I may not lay a correcting word on -your haughty spirit. Neither yesterday nor to-day could I bring you to -any reasonable state of humility. And all New France in full cry against -you!" - -Extreme impatience darkened La Salle's face; but without further reply -he drew Barbe's hand and turned back with her toward the Hotel Dieu. She -had watched her uncle the Abbe wrathfully during his attack upon La -Salle, but as he dropped his eyes no more to her level she was obliged -to carry away her undischarged anger. This she did with a haughty -bearing so like La Salle's that the Abbe grinned at it through his -fretfulness. - -He grew conscious of alien hair bristling against his neck as a voice -mocked in undertone directly below his ear,-- - -"Yonder struts a great Bashaw that will sometime be laid low!" - -The Abbe turned severely upon a person who presumed to tickle a priest's -neck with his coarse mustache and astound a priest's ear with threats. - -He recognized the man known as Jolycoeur, who had been pushed against -him in the throng. Jolycoeur, by having his eyes fixed on the -disappearing figure of La Salle, had missed the ear of the person he -intended to reach. He recoiled from encountering the Abbe, whose wrath -with sudden ebb ran back from a brother upon a brother's foes. - -"You are the fellow I saw whining yesterday at Sieur de la Salle's -heels. What hath the Sieur de la Salle done to any of you worthless -woods-rangers, except give you labor and wages, when the bread you eat -is a waste of his substance?" - -Jolycoeur, not daring to reply to a priest, slunk away in the crowd. - -FOOTNOTES: - - [6] Several historians identify Jolycoeur with the noted - coureur de bois and writer, Nicolas Perrot. But considering - the deed he attempted, the romancer has seen fit to portray - him as a very different person. - - - - - Book II. - - FORT FRONTENAC. - - 1683 A. D. - - - - - I. - - RIVAL MASTERS. - - -The gate of Fort Frontenac opened to admit several persons headed by a -man who had a closely wrapped girl by his side. Before wooden palisades -and walls of stone enclosed her, she turned her face to look across the -mouth of Cataraqui River and at Lake Ontario rippling full of submerged -moonlight. A magnified moon was rising. Farther than eye could reach it -softened that northern landscape and provoked mystery in the shadows of -the Thousand Islands. - -South of the fort were some huts set along the margin of Ontario -according to early French custom, which demanded a canoe highway in -front of every man's door. West of these, half hid by forest, was an -Indian village; and distinct between the two rose the huge white cross -planted by Father Hennepin when he was first sent as missionary to Fort -Frontenac. - -An officer appeared beside the sentinel at the gate, and took off his -hat before the muffled shape led first into his fortress. She bent her -head for this civility and held her father's arm in silence. Canoemen -and followers with full knowledge of the place moved on toward barracks -or bakery. But the officer stopped their master, saying,-- - -"Monsieur le Ber, I have news for you." - -[Illustration] - -"I have none for you," responded the merchant. "It is ever the same -story,--men lost in the rapids and voyagers drenched to the skin. -However, we had but one man drowned this time, and are only half dead of -fatigue ourselves. Let us have some supper at once. What are your -reports?" - -"Monsieur, the Sieur de la Salle arrived here a few hours ago from the -fort on the Illinois." - -"The Sieur de la Salle?" - -"Yes, monsieur." - -"Why did you let him in?" demanded Le Ber, fiercely. "He hath no rights -in this fortress now." - -"His men were much exhausted, monsieur." - -"He could have camped at the settlement." - -"Monsieur, I wish to tell you at once that the last families have left -the settlement." - -"The Indians are yet there?" - -"Yes, monsieur. But our settlers were afraid our Indians would join the -other Iroquois." - -"How many men had La Salle with him?" - -"No more than half your party, monsieur. There was Jolycoeur--" - -"I tell you La Salle has no rights in this fort," interrupted Le Ber. -"If he meddles with his merchandise stored here which the government has -seized upon, I will arrest him." - -"Yes, monsieur. The Father Louis Hennepin has also arrived from the -wilderness after great peril and captivity." - -"Tell me that La Salle's man Tonty is here! Tell me that there is a full -muster of all the vagabonds from Michillimackinac! Tell me that Fort St. -Louis of the Illinois hath moved on Fort Frontenac!" - -The merchant's voice ascended a pyramid of vexation. - -"No, monsieur. Monsieur de Tonty is not here. And the Father Louis -Hennepin[7] only rests a few days before the fatigue of descending the -rapids to Montreal. It was a grief to him to find his mission and the -settlement so decayed after only five years' absence." - -"Why do you fret me with the decay of the mission and breaking up of the -settlement? If I were here as commandant of this fort I might then be -blamed for its ruin. Perhaps my associates made a mistake in retaining -an officer who had served under La Salle." - -The commandant made no retort, but said,-- - -"Monsieur, I had almost forgotten to tell you we have another fair -demoiselle within our walls to the honor of Fort Frontenac. The Abbe -Cavelier with men from Lachine, arrived this morning, his young niece -being with him. There are brave women in Montreal." - -"That is right,--that is right!" exclaimed the irritable merchant. "Call -all the Cavelier family hither and give up the fortress. I heard the -Abbe had ventured ahead of me." - -"Monsieur le Ber, what can they do against the king and the governor? -Both king and governor have dispossessed La Salle. I admitted him as any -wayfarer. The Abbe Cavelier came with a grievance against his brother. -He hath lost money by him the same as others." - -"Thou shalt not be kept longer in the night air," said Le Ber, with -sudden tenderness to his daughter. "There is dampness within these walls -to remind us of our drenchings in the rapids." - -"We have fire in both upper and lower rooms of the officers' quarters," -said the commandant. - -They walked toward the long dwelling, their shadows stretching and -blending over the ground. - -"Where have you lodged these men?" inquired Le Ber. - -The officer pointed to the barrack end of the structure made of hewed -timbers. The wider portion intended for commandant's headquarters was -built of stone, with Norman eaves and windows. Near the barracks stood -a guardhouse. The bakery was at the opposite side of the gateway, and -beyond it was the mill. La Salle had founded well this stronghold in the -wilderness. Walls of hewed stone enclosed three sides, nine small cannon -being mounted thereon.[8] Palisades were the defence on the water side. -Fort Frontenac was built with four bastions. In two of these bastions -were vaulted towers which served as magazines for ammunition.[9] A well -was dug within the walls. - -"Have you no empty rooms in the officers' quarters?" - -The moon threw silhouette palisades on the ground, and made all these -buildings cut blocks of shadow. There was a stir of evening wind in the -forest all around. - -"The men are in the barracks. But Sieur de la Salle is in the officers' -house." - -"May I ask you, Commandant," demanded Le Ber, "where you propose to -lodge my daughter whom I have brought through the perils of the rapids, -and cannot now return with?" - -"Mademoiselle le Ber is most welcome to my own apartment, monsieur, and -I will myself come downstairs." - -"One near mine for yourself, monsieur. But with the Abbe and his niece -and the boy and La Salle and Father Hennepin, to say no more, can we -have many empty rooms? Father Hennepin is lodged downstairs, but La -Salle hath his old room overlooking the river." - -"How does he appear, Commandant?" - -"Worn in his garb and very thin visaged, but unmoved by his misfortunes -as a man of rock. Any one else would be prostrate and hopeless." - -"A madman," pronounced Le Ber. - -Careless laughter resounded from the barracks. Some water creature made -so distinct a splash and struggle in Cataraqui River that imagination -followed the widening circles spreading from its body until an island -broke their huge circumference. - -"See that something be sent us from the bakehouse," said Le Ber to the -commandant, before leading his daughter into the quarters. "My men have -brought provisions from Montreal." - -"We can give you a good supper, monsieur. Two young deer were brought -in to-day. As for Monsieur de la Salle," the commandant added, turning -back from the door of the barracks, "you will perhaps not meet him at -all in the officers' quarters. He ate and threw himself down at once to -sleep, and he is in haste to set forward to Quebec." - -The bakehouse was illuminated by its oven fire which shone with a dull -crimson through the open door, but failed to find out dusky corners -where bales, barrels, and cook's tools were stored. The oven was built -in the wall, of stone and cement. The cook, a skipping little fellow -smocked in white and wearing a cap, said to himself as he raked out -coals and threw them in the fireplace,-- - -"What a waste of good material is this, when they glow and breathe with -such ardor to roast some worthy martyr!" - -"The beginning of a martyr is a saint," observed a soldier of the -garrison, putting his fur-covered head between door and door-post in the -little space he opened. "We have a saint just landed at Fort Frontenac." - -He stepped in and shut the door, to lounge with the cook while the order -he brought was obeyed. - -"Some of the best you have, with a tender cut of venison, for Jacques le -Ber and his daughter. And some salt meat for his men in the barracks." - -The cook made light skips across the floor and returned with venison. - -"Well-timed, my child; for the coals are ready, and so are my cakes for -the oven. Le Ber is soon served. Get upon your knees by the hearth and -watch this cut broil, while I slice the larding for the sore sides of -these fellows that labored through the rapids." - -When you are housed in a garrison the cook becomes a potentate; the -soldier went willingly down as assistant. - -"Are all the demoiselles of Montreal coming to Fort Frontenac?" inquired -the cook, skipping around a great block on which lay a slab of cured -meat, and nicely poising his knife-tip over it. - -"That I cannot tell you," replied the soldier, beginning to perspire -before the coals. "Le Ber's men have been talking in the barracks about -this daughter of his. He brought her almost by force out of his house, -where she has taken to shutting herself in her own room." - -"I have heard of this demoiselle," said the cook. "May the saints -incline more women to shut themselves up at home!" - -"She is his favorite child. He brought her on this dangerous voyage to -wean her from too much praying." - -"Too much praying!" exclaimed the cook. - -"He desires to have her look more on the world, lest she should die of -holiness," explained the soldier. - -"Turn that venison," shouted the cook. "Was there ever a saint who liked -burnt meat? I could lift this Jacques le Ber on a hot fork for dragging -out a woman who inclined to stay praying in the house. Some men are -stone blind to the blessings of Heaven!" - - -FOOTNOTES: - - [7] Historians return Father Hennepin to France in 1681. - - [8] Parkman. - - [9] Manuscript relating to early history of Canada. - - - - - II. - - A TRAVELLED FRIAR. - - -The lower room of the officers' lodging was filled with the light of a -fire. To the hearth was drawn a half-circle of men, their central figure -being a Recollet friar, so ragged and weather-stained that he seemed -some ecclesiastical scarecrow placed there to excite laughter and tears -in his beholders. - -This group arose as Jacques le Ber entered with his daughter, and were -eager to be of service to her. - -"There is a fire lighted in the hall upstairs by which mademoiselle can -sit," said the sergeant of the fort. - -Le Ber conducted her to the top of a staircase which ascended the side -of the room before he formally greeted any one present. He returned, -unwinding his saturated wool wrappings and pulling off his cap of beaver -skin. He was a swarthy man with anxious and calculating wrinkles between -his eyebrows. - -"Do I see Father Hennepin?" exclaimed Le Ber, squaring his mouth, "or is -this a false image of him set before me?" - -"You see Father Hennepin," the friar responded with dignity,--"explorer, -missionary among the Sioux, and sufferer in the cause of religion." - -"How about that hunger for adventure,--hast thou appeased it?" inquired -Le Ber with freedom of manner he never assumed toward any other priest. - -The merchant stood upon the hearth steaming in front of the tattered -Recollet, who from his seat regarded his half-enemy with a rebuking eye -impressive to the other men. - -"Jacques le Ber, my son, while your greedy hands have been gathering -money, the poor Franciscan has baptized heathen, discovered and explored -rivers; he has lived the famished life of a captive, and come nigh death -in many ways. I have seen a great waterfall five hundred feet high, -whereunder four carriages might pass abreast without being wet. I have -depended for food on what Heaven sent. Vast fish are to be found in the -waters of that western land, and there also you may see beasts having -manes and hoofs and horns, to frighten a Christian." - -"And what profit doth La Salle get out of all this?" inquired Le Ber, -spreading his legs before the fire as he looked down at Father Hennepin. - -"What I have accomplished has been done for the spread of the faith, and -not for the glory of Monsieur de la Salle, who has treated me badly." - -"Does he ever treat any one well?" exclaimed Le Ber. "Does not every man -in his service want to shoot him?" - -"He has an over-haughty spirit, which breaks out into envy of men like -me," admitted the good Fleming, whose weather-seamed face and plump -lips glowed with conscious greatness before the fire. "I have decided to -avoid further encounter with Monsieur de la Salle while we both remain -at Fort Frontenac, for my mind is set on peace, and it is true where -Monsieur de la Salle appears there can be no peace." - -Jacques le Ber turned himself to face the chimney. - -"Thou hast no doubt accomplished a great work, Father Hennepin," he -said, with the immediate benevolence a man feels toward one who has -reached his point of view. "When I have had supper with my daughter I -will sit down here and beg you to tell me all that befell your -wanderings, and what savages they were who received the faith at your -hands, and how the Sieur de la Salle hath turned even a Recollet Father -against himself." - -"Perhaps Father Hennepin will tell about his buffalo hunt," suggested -the sergeant of the fortress, "and how he headed a wounded buffalo from -flight and drove it back to be shot."[10] - -Father Hennepin looked down at patches of buffalo hide which covered -holes in his habit. He remembered the trampling of a furious beast's -hoofs and the twitch of its short sharp horn in his folds of flesh as it -lifted him. He remembered his wounds and the soreness of his bones which -lasted for months, yet his lips parted over happy teeth and he roared -with laughter. - -[Illustration] - - -FOOTNOTES: - - [10] In reality this was Father Membre's adventure. - - - - - III. - - HEAVEN AND EARTH. - - -Jeanne le Ber sat down upon a high-backed bench before the fire in the -upper room. This apartment was furnished and decorated only by abundant -firelight, which danced on stone walls and hard dark rafters, on rough -floor and high enclosure, of the stairway. At opposite sides of the room -were doors which Jeanne did not know opened into chambers scarcely -larger than the sleepers who might lodge therein. - -She sat in strained thought, without unwrapping herself, though shudders -were sent through her by damp raiment. When her father came up with the -sergeant who carried their supper, he took off her cloak, smoothed her -hair, and tenderly reproved her. He set the dishes on the bench between -them, and persuaded Jeanne to eat what he carved for her,--a swarthy -nurse whose solicitude astounded the soldier. - -Another man came up and opened the door nearest the chimney, on that -side which overlooked the fortress enclosure. He paused in descending, -loaded with the commandant's possessions, to say that this bedroom was -designed for mademoiselle, and was now ready. - -"And thou must get to it as soon as the river's chill is warmed out of -thy bones," said Le Ber. "I will sit and hear the worthy friar -downstairs tell his strange adventures. The sound of your voice can -reach me with no effort whatever. My bedroom will be next yours, or near -by, and no harm can befall you in Fort Frontenac." - -Jeanne kissed his cheek before he returned to the lower room, and when -the supper was removed she sat drying herself by the fire. - -The eager piety of her early girlhood, which was almost fantastic in its -expression, had yet worked out a nobly spiritual face. She was a -beautiful saint. - -For several years Jeanne le Ber had refused the ordinary clothing of -women. Her visible garment was made of a soft fine blanket of white -wool, with long sleeves falling nearly to her feet. It was girded to her -waist by a cord from which hung her rosary. Her neck stood slim and -white above the top of this robe, without ornament except the peaked -monk's hood which hung behind it. - -This creature like a flame of living white fire stood up and turned her -back to the ruddier logs, and clasped her hands across the top of her -head. Her eyes wasted scintillations on rafters while she waited for -heavenly peace to calm the strong excitement driving her. - -The door of Jeanne's chamber stood open as the soldier had left it. At -the opposite side of the room a similar door opened, and La Salle came -out. He moved a step, toward the hearth, but stopped, and the pallor of -a swoon filled his face. - -"Sieur de la Salle," said Jeanne in a whisper. She let her arms slip -down by her sides. The eccentric robe with its background of firelight -cast her up tall and white before his eyes. - -In the explorer's most successful moments he had never appeared so -majestic. Though his dress was tarnished by the wilderness, he had it -carefully arranged; for he liked to feel it fitting him with an -exactness which would not annoy his thoughts. - -No formal greeting preluded the crash of this encounter between La Salle -and Jeanne le Ber. What had lain repressed by prayer and penance, or had -been trodden down league by league in the wilds, leaped out with -strength made mighty by such repression. - -Voices in loud and merry conversation below and occasional laughter came -up the open stairway and made accompaniment to this half-hushed duet. - -"Jeanne," stammered La Salle. - -"Sieur de la Salle, I was just going to my room." - -She moved away from him to the side of the hearth, as he advanced and -sat down upon the bench. Unconscious that she stood while he was -sitting, as if overcome by sudden blindness he reached toward her with a -groping gesture. - -"Take hold of my hand, Sainte Jeanne." - -"And if I take hold of your hand, Sieur de la Salle," murmured the girl, -bending toward him though she held her arms at her sides, "what profit -will it be to either of us?" - -"I beg that you will take hold of my hand." - -Her hand, quivering to each finger tip, moved out and met and was -clasped in his. La Salle's head dropped on his breast. - -Jeanne turned away her face. Voices and laughter jangled in the room -below. In this silent room pulse answered pulse, and with slow encounter -eyes answered the adoration of eyes. In terror of herself Jeanne uttered -the whispered cry,-- - -"I am afraid!" - -She veiled herself with the long sleeve of her robe. - -"And of what should you be afraid when we are thus near together?" said -La Salle. "The thing to be afraid of is losing this. Such gladness has -been long coming; for I was a man when you were born, Sainte Jeanne." - -"Let go my hand, Sieur de la Salle." - -"Do you want me to let it go, Sainte Jeanne?" - -"No, Sieur de la Salle." - -Dropping her sleeve Jeanne faced heaven through the rafters. Tears -stormed down her face, and her white throat swelled with strong -repressed sobs. Like some angel caught in a snare, she whispered her -up-directed wail,-- - -"All my enormity must now be confessed! Whenever Sieur de la Salle has -been assailed my soul rose up in arms for him. Oh, my poor father! So -dear has Sieur de la Salle been to me that I hated the hatred of my -father. What shall I do to tear out this awful love? I have fought it -through midnights and solitary days of ceaseless prayer. Oh, Sieur de la -Salle, why art thou such a man? Pray to God and invoke the saints for -me, and help me to go free from this love!" - -"Jeanne," said La Salle, "you are so holy I dare touch no more than this -sweet hand. It fills me with life. Ask me not to pray to God that he -will take the life from me. Oh, Jeanne, if you could reach out of your -eternity of devotion and hold me always by the hand, what a man I might -be!" - -She dropped her eyes to his face, saying like a soothing mother,-- - -"Thou greatest and dearest, there is a gulf between us which we cannot -pass. I am vowed to Heaven. Thou art vowed to great enterprises. The -life of the family is not for us. If God showed me my way by thy side I -would go through any wilderness. But Jeanne was made to listen in prayer -and silence and secrecy and anguish for the word of Heaven. The worst -is,"--her stormy sob again shook her from head to foot,--"you will be at -court, and beautiful women will love the great explorer. And one will -shine; she will be set like a star as high as the height of being your -wife. And Jeanne,--oh, Jeanne! here in this rough, new world,--she must -eternally learn to be nothing!" - -"My wife!" said La Salle, turning her hand in his clasp, and laying his -cheek in her palm. "You are my wife. There is no court. There is no -world to discover. There is only the sweet, the rose-tender palm of my -wife where I can lay my tired cheek and rest." - -Jeanne's fingers moved with involuntary caressing along the lowest curve -of his face. - -An ember fell on the hearth beside them, and Father Hennepin emphasized -some point in his relation with a stamp of his foot. - -"You left a glove at my father's house, Sieur de la Salle, and I hid it; -I put my face to it. And when I burned it, my own blood seemed to ooze -out of that crisping glove." - -La Salle trembled. The dumb and solitary man was dumb and solitary in -his love. - -"Now we must part," breathed Jeanne. "Heaven is strangely merciful to -sinners. I never could name you to my confessor or show him this -formless anguish; but now that it has been owned and cast out, my heart -is glad." - -La Salle rose up and stood by the hearth. As she drew her hand from his -continued hold he opened his arms. Jeanne stepped backward, her eyes -swarming with motes of light. She turned and reached her chamber door; -but as the saint receded from temptation the woman rose in strength. She -ran to La Salle, and with a tremor and a sob in his arms, met his mouth -with the one kiss of her life. As suddenly she ran from him and left -him. - -La Salle had had his sublime moment of standing at the centre of the -universe and seeing all things swing around him, which comes to every -one successful in embodying a vast idea. But from this height he looked -down at that experience. - -He stood still after Jeanne's door closed until he felt his own -intrusion. This drove him downstairs and out of the house, regardless of -Jacques le Ber, Father Hennepin, and the officers of the fortress, who -turned to gaze at his transit. - -Proud satisfaction, strange in a ruined man, appeared on the explorer's -face. He felt his reverses as cobwebs to be brushed away. He was loved. -The king had been turned against him. His enemies had procured Count -Frontenac's removal, and La Barre the new governor, conspiring to seize -his estate, had ruined his credit. But he was loved. Even on this -homeward journey an officer had passed him with authority to take -possession of his new post on the Illinois River. His discoveries were -doubted and sneered at, as well as half claimed by boasting -subordinates, who knew nothing about his greater views. Yet the only -softener of this man of noble granite was a spirit-like girl, who -regarded the love of her womanhood as sin. - -La Salle stood in the midst of enemies. He stood considering merely how -his will should break down the religious walls Jeanne built around -herself, and how Jacques le Ber might be conciliated by shares in the -profits of the West. Behind stretched his shadowed life, full of -misfortune; good was held out to him to be withdrawn at the touch of his -fingers. But this good he determined to have; and thinking of her, La -Salle walked the stiffened frost-crisp ground of the fortress half the -night. - - - - - IV. - - A CANOE FROM THE ILLINOIS. - - -When Barbe Cavelier awoke next morning and saw around her the stone -walls of Fort Frontenac instead of a familiar convent enclosure, she sat -up in her bed and laughed aloud. The tiny cell echoed. Never before had -laughter of young girl been heard there. And when she placed her feet -upon the floor perhaps their neat and exact pressure was a surprise to -battered planks used to the smiting tread of men. - -Barbe proceeded to dress herself, with those many curvings of neck and -figure, which, in any age, seem necessary to the fit sitting of a young -maid in her garments. Her aquiline face glowed, full of ardent life. - -Some raindrops struck the roof-window and ran down its panes like tears. -When Barbe had considered her astounding position as the only woman in -Fort Frontenac, and felt well compacted for farther adventures, she -sprung upon the bunk, and stood with her head near the roof, looking out -into the fortress and its adjacent world. Among moving figures she -could not discern her uncle La Salle, or her uncle the Abbe, or even her -brother. These three must be yet in the officers' house. Dull clouds -were scudding. As Barbe opened the sash and put her head out the morning -air met her with a chill. Fort Frontenac's great walls half hid an -autumn forest, crowding the lake's distant border in measureless expanse -of sad foliage. Eastward, she caught ghostly hints of islands on misty -water. The day was full of depression. Ontario stood up against the sky, -a pale greenish fleece, raked at intervals by long wires of rain. - -But such influences had no effect on a healthy warm young creature, -freed unaccountably from her convent, and brought on a perilous, -delightful journey to so strange a part of her world. - -She noticed a parley going forward at the gate. Some outsider demanded -entrance, for the sentry disappeared between the towers and returned -for orders. He approached the commandant who stood talking with Jacques -le Ber, the merchant of Montreal. Barbe could see Le Ber's face darken. -With shrugs and negative gestures he decided against the newcomer, and -the sentinel again disappeared to refuse admission. She wondered if a -band of Iroquois waited outside. Among Abbe Cavelier's complaints of La -Salle was Governor la Barre's accusation that La Salle stirred enmity in -the Iroquois by protecting the Illinois tribe they wished to -exterminate. - -"Even these Indians on the lake shore," meditated Barbe, "who settled -there out of friendship to my uncle La Salle, may turn against him and -try to harm him as every one does now that his fortunes are low. I would -be a man faithful to my friend, if I were a man at all." - -She watched for a sight of the withdrawing party on the lake, and -presently a large canoe holding three men shot out beyond the walls. -One stood erect, gazing back at the fort with evident anxiety. Neither -the smearing medium of damp weather nor increasing distance could rob -Barbe of that man's identity. His large presence, his singular carriage -of the right arm, even his features sinking back to space, stamped him -Henri de Tonty. - -"He has come here to see my uncle La Salle, and they have refused to let -him enter," she exclaimed aloud. - -Stripping a coverlet from her berth she whipped the outside air with it -until the crackle brought up a challenge from below. - -[Illustration] - -Fort Frontenac was a seignorial rather than a military post, and its -discipline had been lax since the governor's Associates seized it, yet a -sentinel paced this morning before the officers' quarters. When he saw -the signal withdrawn and a lovely face with dark eyelashes and a topknot -of curls looking down at him, he could do nothing but salute it, and -Barbe shut her window. - -Dropping in excitement from the bunk, she ran across the upper room to -knock at La Salle's door. - -A boy stood basking in solitude by the chimney. - -Her uncle La Salle's apartment seemed filled with one strong indignant -voice, leaking through crevices and betraying its matter to the common -hall. - -"You may knock there until you faint of hunger," remarked the lad at the -hearth. "I also want my breakfast, but these precious Associates will -let us starve in the fort they have stolen before they dole us out any -food. I would not mind going into the barracks and messing, but I have -you also to consider." - -"It is not anything to eat, Colin--it is pressing need of my uncle La -Salle!" - -"The Abbe has pressing need of our uncle La Salle. It was great relief -to catch him here at Frontenac. I have heard every bit of the lecture: -what amounts our uncle the Abbe has ventured in western explorations; -and what a fruitless journey he has made here to rescue for himself some -of the stores of this fortress; and what danger all we Caveliers stand -in of being poisoned on account of my uncle La Salle, so that the Abbe -can scarce trust us out of his sight, even with nuns guarding you." - -To Barbe's continued knocking her guardian made the curtest reply. He -opened the door, looked at her sternly, saying, "Go away, mademoiselle," -and shut it tightly again. - -She ran back to her lookout and was able to discern the same canoe -moving off on the lake. - -"Colin," demanded Barbe, wrapping herself, "You must run with me." - -"Certainly, mademoiselle, and I trust you are making haste toward a -table." - -"We must run outside the fortress." - -Though the boy felt it a grievance that he should follow instead of lead -to any adventure, he dashed heartily out with her, intending to take his -place when he understood the action. Rain charged full in their faces. -The sentry was inclined to hold them at the fortress gate until he had -orders, and Barbe's impatience darted from her eyes. - -"You will get me into trouble," he said. "This gate has been swinging -over-much lately." - -"Let us out," persuaded Colin. "The Associates will not care what -becomes of a couple of Caveliers." - -"Where are you going?" - -"My sister wishes to run to the Iroquois village," responded Colin, "and -beg there for a little sagamite. We get nothing to eat in Fort -Frontenac." - -The soldier laughed. - -"If you are going to the Iroquois village why don't you say your errand -is to Catharine Tegahkouita? It is no sin to ask an Indian saint's -prayers." - -Barbe formed her lips to inquire, "Has Tegahkouita come to Fort -Frontenac?" But this impulse passed into discreet silence, and the man -let them out. - -They ran along the palisades southward, Barbe keeping abreast of Colin -though she made skimming dips as the swallow flies, and with a detour -quite to the lake's verge, avoided the foundation of an outwork. - -Father Hennepin's cross stood up, a huge white landmark between habitant -settlement on the lake, and Indian village farther west but visible -through the clearing. Ontario seemed to rise higher and top the world, -its green curves breaking at their extremities into white spatter, the -one boat in sight making deep obeisance to heaving water. - -"Do you see a canoe riding yonder?" exclaimed Barbe to Colin, as they -ran along wet sand. - -"Any one may see a canoe riding yonder. Was it to race with that canoe -we came out, mademoiselle?" - -"Wave your arms and make signals to the men in it, Colin. They must be -stopped. I am sure that one is Monsieur de Tonty, and they were turned -away from the fortress gate. They have business with our uncle La Salle, -and see how far they have gone before we could get out ourselves!" - -"Why, then, did you follow?" demanded her brother, waving his arms and -flinging his cap in the rain. "They may have business with our uncle La -Salle, but they have no business with a girl. This was quite my affair, -Mademoiselle Cavelier." - -A maid whose feet were heavy with the mud of a once ploughed clearing -could say little in praise of such floundering. She paid no attention to -Colin's rebuke, but watched for the canoe to turn landward. Satisfied -that it was heading toward them, Barbe withdrew from the border of the -lake. She would not shelter herself in any deserted hut of the habitant -village. Colin followed her in vexation to Father Hennepin's mission -house, remonstrating as he skipped, and turning to watch the canoe with -rain beating his face. - -They found the door open. The floor was covered with sand blown there, -and small stones cast by the hands of irreverent passing Indian boys. -The chapel stood a few yards away, but this whole small settlement was -dominated by its cross.[11] - -Barbe and Colin were scarcely under this roof shelter before Tonty -strode up to the door. He took off his hat with the left hand, his dark -face bearing the rain like a hardy flower. Dangers, perpetual immersion -in Nature, and the stimulus of vast undertakings had so matured Tonty -that Barbe felt more awe of his buckskin presence than her memory of the -fine young soldier in Montreal could warrant. She wanted to look at him -and say nothing. Colin, who knew this soldier only by reputation, was -eager to meet and urge him into Father Hennepin's house. - -Tonty's reluctant step crunched sand on the boards. He kept his gaze -upon Barbe and inquired,-- - -"Have I the honor, mademoiselle, to address the niece of Monsieur de la -Salle?" - -"The niece and nephew of Monsieur de la Salle," put forth Colin. - -"Yes, monsieur. You may remember me as the young tiger-cat who sprung -upon my uncle La Salle when you arrived with him from France." - -"I never forgot you, mademoiselle. You so much resemble Monsieur de la -Salle." - -"It is on his account we have run out of the fort to stop you. He does -not know you are here. I saw the sentinel close the gate against some -one, and afterward your boat pushed out." - -"And did you shake a signal from an upper window in the fort?" - -"Monsieur, I could not be sure that you saw it, though I could see your -boat." - -"She made it very much her affair," observed Colin, with the merciless -disapproval of a lad. "Monsieur de Tonty, there was no use in her -trampling through sand and rain like a Huron witch going to some herb -gathering. It was my business to do the errand of my uncle La Salle. -When she goes back she will get a lecture and a penance, for all her -sixteen years." - -"Mademoiselle," said Tonty, "I am distressed if my withdrawal from Fort -Frontenac causes you trouble. I meant to camp here. I was determined to -see Monsieur de la Salle." - -"Monsieur," courageously replied Barbe, "you cause me no trouble at all. -I thought you were returning to your fort on the Illinois. I did not -stop to tell my brother, but made him run with me. It is a shame that -the enemies of my uncle La Salle hold you out of Fort Frontenac." - -"But very little would you get to eat there," consoled young Cavelier. -"We have had nothing to break our fast on this morning." - -"Then let us get ready some breakfast for you," proposed Tonty, as his -men entered with the lading of the canoe. They had stopped at the -doorstep, but Father Hennepin's hewed log house contained two rooms, and -he pointed them to the inner one. There they let down their loads, one -man, a surgeon, remaining, and the other, a canoeman, going out again in -search of fuel. - -"Monsieur, it would be better for us to hurry back to the fortress and -call my uncle La Salle." - -"Nothing will satisfy you, mademoiselle," denounced Colin. "Out you must -come to stop Monsieur de Tonty. Now back you must go through weather -which is not fitting for any demoiselle to face." - -"Mademoiselle," said Tonty, "if you return now it will be my duty to -escort you as far as the fortress gate." - -Barbe drew her wrappings over her face, as he had seen a wild sensitive -plant fold its leaves and close its cups. - -"I will retire to the chapel and wait there until my uncle La Salle -comes," she decided, "and my brother must run to call him." - -"You may take to sanctuary as soon as you please," responded Colin, "and -I will attend to my uncle La Salle's business. But the first call I make -shall be upon the cook in this camp." - - -FOOTNOTES: - - [11] "He (La Salle) gave us a piece of ground 15 arpents in front - by 20 deep, the donation being accepted by Monsieur de - Frontenac, syndic of our mission." From Le Clerc. - - - - - V. - - FATHER HENNEPIN'S CHAPEL. - - -Tonty held a buffalo robe over Barbe during her quick transit from cabin -to church. Its tanned side was toward the weather, and its woolly side -continued to comfort her after she was under shelter. Tonty bestowed it -around her and closed the door again, leaving her in the dim place. - -Father Hennepin's deserted chapel was of hewed logs like his dwelling. A -rude altar remained, but without any ornaments, for the Recollet had -carried these away to his western mission. Some unpainted benches stood -in a row. The roof could be seen through rafters, and drops of rain with -reiterating taps fell along the centre of the floor. A chimney of stones -and cement was built outside the chapel, of such a size that its top -yawned like an open cell for rain, snow, or summer sunshine. Within, it -spread a generous hearth and an expanse of grayish fire-wall little -marked by the blue incense which rises from burning wood. - -Barbe looked briefly around the chapel. She laid the buffalo hide before -the altar and knelt upon it. - -Tonty returned with a load of fuel and busied himself at the fireplace. -The boom of the lake, and his careful stirring and adjusting in ancient -ashes, made a background to her silence. Yet she heard through her -devotions every movement he made, and the low whoop peculiar to flame -when it leaps to existence and seizes its prey. - -A torrent of fire soon poured up the flue. Tonty grasped a brush made of -wood shavings, remnant of Father Hennepin's housekeeping, and whirled -dust and litter in the masculine fashion. When he left the chapel it -glowed with the resurrected welcome it had given many a primitive -congregation of Indians and French settlers, when the lake beat up icy -winter foam. - -Beside the fireplace was a window so high that its log sill met Barbe's -chin as she looked out. Jutting roof and outer chimney wall made a snug -spot like a sentry-box without. She dried her feet, holding them one at -a time to the red hot glow, and glanced through this window at the -mission house's sodden logs and crumbled chinking. The excitement of her -sally out of Fort Frontenac died away. She felt distressed because she -had come, and faint for her early convent breakfast. - -[Illustration] - -She saw Tonty through the window carrying a dish carefully covered. He -approached the broken pane, and Barbe eagerly helped him to unfasten the -sash and swing it out. In doing this, Tonty held her platter braced by -his iron-handed arm. - -The fare was passed in to her without apology, and she received it with -sincere gratitude, afterward drawing a bench near the fire and sitting -down in great privacy and comfort. - -The moccasins of a frontiersman could make no sound above flap of wind -and pat of water. Tonty paced from window to chapel front, believing -that he kept out of Barbe's sight. But after an interval he was amused -to see, rising over the sill within, a topknot of curls, and eyes filled -with the alert, shy spirit of the deer whose flesh she had just eaten. - -For some reason this scrutiny of Barbe's made him regret that he had -lain aside the gold and white uniform of France, and the extreme uses to -which his gauntlets had been put. Entrenched behind logs she -unconsciously poured the fires of her youth upon Tonty. - -Not only was one pane in the sash gone, but all were shattered, giving -easy access to his voice as he stood still and explained. - -"Frontenac is a lonely post, mademoiselle. It is necessary for you to -have a sentinel." - -"Yes, monsieur; you are very good." Barbe accepted the fact with lowered -eyelids. "Has my brother yet gone to call my uncle La Salle?" - -"Yes, mademoiselle. As soon as we could give him some breakfast he set -out." - -"Colin is a gourmand. All very young people gormandize more or less," -remarked Barbe, with a sense of emancipation from the class she -condemned. - -"I hope you could eat what I brought you?" - -"It was quite delicious, monsieur. I ate every bit of it." - -The boom of the lake intruded between their voices. Barbe's black -eyelashes flickered sensitively upon her cheeks, and Tonty, feeling that -he looked too steadily at her, dropped his eyes to his folded arms. - -"Monsieur de Tonty," inquired Barbe, appealing to experience, "do you -think sixteen years very young?" - -"It is the most charming age in the world, mademoiselle." - -"Monsieur, I mean young for maturing one's plan of life." - -"That depends upon the person," replied Tonty. "At sixteen I was -revolting against the tyranny which choked Italy. And I was an exile -from my country before the age of twenty, mademoiselle." - -Barbe gazed straight at Tonty, her gray eyes firing like opals with -enthusiasm. - -"And my uncle La Salle at sixteen was already planning his discoveries. -Monsieur, I also have my plans. Many missionaries must be needed among -the Indians." - -"You do not propose going as a missionary among the Indians, -mademoiselle?" - -Barbe critically examined his smile. She evaded his query. - -"Are the Indian women beautiful, Monsieur de Tonty?" - -"They do not appear so to me, mademoiselle, though the Illinois are a -straight and well-made race." - -"You must find it a grand thing to range that western country." - -"But in the midst of our grandeur the Iroquois threaten us even there. -How would mademoiselle like to mediate between these invaders and the -timid Illinois, suspected by one tribe and threatened by the other; to -carry the wampum belt of peace on the open field between two armies, and -for your pains get your scalp-lock around the fingers of a Seneca chief -and his dagger into your side?" - -"Oh, monsieur!" whispered Barbe, flushing with the wild pinkness of -roses on the plains, "what amusements you do have in the great west! And -is it a castle on a mountain, that Fort St. Louis of the Illinois?" - -"A stockade on a cliff, mademoiselle." - -Tonty felt impelled to put himself nearer this delicate head set with -fine small ears and quartered by the angles of the window-frame. When -she meditated, her lashes and brows and aquiline curves and gray tones -flushing to rose were delightful to a wilderness-saturated man. But he -held to his strict position as sentinel. - -"Monsieur," said Barbe, "there is something on my mind which I will tell -you. I was thinking of the new world my uncle La Salle discovered, even -before you came to Montreal. Now I think constantly of Fort St. Louis of -the Illinois. Monsieur, I dream of it,--I go in long journeys and never -arrive; I see it through clouds, and wide rivers flow between it and me; -and I am homesick. Yes, monsieur, that is the strangest thing,--I have -cried of homesickness for Fort St. Louis of the Illinois!" - -"Mademoiselle," said Tonty, his voice vibrating, "there is a stranger -thing. It is this,--that a man with a wretched hand of iron should -suddenly find within himself a heart of fire!" - -When this confession had burst from him he turned his back without -apology, and Barbe's forehead sunk upon the window-sill. - -Within the chapel, drops from the cracked roof still fell in succession, -like invisible fingers playing scales along the boards. Outside was the -roar of the landlocked sea, and the higher music of falling rain. Barbe -let her furtive eyes creep up the sill and find Tonty's large back on -which she looked with abashed but gratified smiles. - -"Mademoiselle," he begged without turning, "forgive what I have said." - -"Certainly, monsieur," she responded. "What was it that you said?" - -"Nothing, mademoiselle, nothing." - -"Then, monsieur, I forgive you for saying nothing." - -Tonty, in his larger perplexity at having made such a confession without -La Salle's leave, missed her sting. - -Nothing more was said through the window. Barbe moved back, and the -stalwart soldier kept his stern posture; until La Salle, whose approach -had been hidden by chimney and mission house, burst abruptly into view. -As he came up, both he and Tonty opened their arms. Strong breast to -strong breast, cheek touching cheek, spare olive-hued man and dark -rich-blooded man hugged each other. - -Barbe's convent lessons of embroidery and pious lore had included no -heathen tales of gods or heroes. Yet to her this sight was like a vision -of two great cloudy figures stalking across the world and meeting with -an embrace. - - - - - VI. - - LA SALLE AND TONTY. - - -When one of the men had been called from the mission house to stand -guard, they came directly into the chapel, preferring to talk there in -the presence of Barbe. - -La Salle kissed her hand and her cheek, and she sat down before the -fire, spreading the buffalo skin under her feet. - -As embers sunk and the talk of the two men went on, she crept as low as -this shaggy carpet, resting arms and head upon the bench. The dying fire -made exquisite color in this dismal chapel. - -"The governor's man, when he arrived to seize Fort St. Louis, gave you -my letter of instructions, Tonty?" - -"Yes, Monsieur de la Salle." - -"Then, my lad, why have you abandoned the post and followed me? You -should have stayed to be my representative. They have Frontenac. -Crevecoeur was ruined for us. If they get St. Louis of the Illinois -entirely into their hands they will claim the whole of Louisiana, these -precious Associates." - -Tonty, laying his sound arm across his commandant's shoulder, exclaimed, -"Monsieur, I have followed you five hundred leagues to drag that rascal -Jolycoeur back with me. He told at Fort St. Louis that this should be -your last journey." - -La Salle laughed. - -"Let me tie Jolycoeur and fling him into my canoe, and I turn back at -once. I can hold your claims on the Illinois against any number of -governor's agents. Take the surgeon Liotot in Jolycoeur's place. -Liotot came with me, anxious to return to France." - -"Jolycoeur is no worse than the others, my Tonty, and he has had many -opportunities. How often has my life been threatened!" - -"He intends mischief, monsieur. If I had heard it before you set out, -this journey need not have been made." - -"Tonty," declared the explorer, "I think sometimes I carry my own -destruction within myself. I will not chop nice phrases for these hounds -who continually ruin my undertakings by their faithlessness. If a man -must keep patting the populace, he can do little else. But I am glad you -overtook me here. My Tonty, if I had a hundred men like you I could -spread out the unknown wilderness and possess it as that child possesses -that hide of buffalo." - -Though their undertakings were united, and the Italian had staked his -fortune in the Norman's ventures, La Salle always assumed, and Tonty -from the first granted him, entire mastery of the West. Both looked with -occupied eyes at Barbe, who felt her life enlarged by witnessing this -conference. - -"Monsieur, what aspect have affairs taken since you reached Fort -Frontenac?" - -"Worse, Tonty, than I dreaded when I left the Illinois. You know how -this new governor stripped Fort Frontenac of men and made its -unprotected state an excuse for seizing it, saying I had not obeyed the -king's order to maintain a garrison. And you know how he and the -merchants of Montreal have possessed themselves of my seigniory here. -They have sold and are still busy selling my goods from this post, -putting the money into their pockets. I spent nearly thirty-five -thousand francs improving this grant of Frontenac. But worse than that, -Tonty, they have ruined my credit both here and in France. Even my -brother will no more lift a finger for me. The king is turned against -me. The fortunes of my family--even the fortune of that child--are -sucked down in my ruin." - -Barbe noted her own bankruptcy with the unconcern of youth. Monsieur de -Tonty's face, when you looked up at it from a rug beside the hearth, -showed well its full rounded chin, square jaws, and high temples, the -richness of its Italian coloring against the blackness of its Italian -hair. - -"They call me a dreamer and a madman, these fellows now in power, and -have persuaded the king that my discoveries are of no account." - -"Monsieur," exclaimed Tonty, "do you remember the mouth of the great -river?"[12] - -Face glowed opposite face as they felt the log walls roll away from -environing their vision. It was no longer the wash of the Ontario they -heard, but the voice of the Mexican gulf. The yellow flood of -Mississippi poured out between marsh borders. Again discharges of -musketry seemed to shake the morasses beside a naked water world, the -Te Deum to arise, and the explorer to be heard proclaiming,-- - -"In the name of the most high, mighty, invincible, and victorious -Prince, Louis the Great, by the grace of God king of France and of -Navarre, Fourteenth of that name, I, this ninth day of April, one -thousand and six hundred and eighty-two, in virtue of the commission of -his Majesty, which I hold in my hand and which may be seen by all whom -it may concern, have taken and do now take, in the name of his Majesty -and of his successors to the crown, possession of this country of -Louisiana, the seas, harbors, ports, bays, adjacent straits, and all the -nations, people, provinces, cities, towns, villages, mines, minerals, -fisheries, streams, and rivers within the extent of the said Louisiana, -from the mouth of the great river St. Louis, otherwise called the Ohio, -as also along the river Colbert or Mississippi, and the rivers which -discharge themselves thereinto, from its source beyond the country of -the Nadouessioux, as far as its mouth at the sea, or Gulf of -Mexico."[13] - -"Monsieur," exclaimed Tonty, "the plunderers of your fortune cannot take -away that discovery or blot out the world you then opened. And what is -Europe compared to this vast country? At the height of his magnificence -Louis cannot picture to himself the grandeur of this western empire. -France is but the palm of his hand beside it. It stretches from endless -snow to endless heat; its breadth no man may guess. Nearly all the -native tribes affiliate readily with the French. We have to dispute us -only the English who hold a little strip by the ocean, the Dutch with -smaller holding inland, and a few Spaniards along the Gulf." - -"And all may be driven out before the arms of France," exclaimed La -Salle. "These crawling merchants and La Barre,--soldier, he calls -himself!--see nothing of this. Every man for his own purse among them. -But thou seest it, Tonty. I see it. And we are no knights on a crusade. -Nor are we unpractised courtiers shredding our finery away on the briers -of the wilderness. This western enterprise is based on geographical -facts. No mind can follow all the development of that rich land. It is -an empire," declared La Salle, striding between hearth and -chancel-rail, unconscious that he lifted his voice to the rafters of a -sanctuary, "which Louis might drop France itself to grasp!" - -"The king will be convinced of this, Monsieur de la Salle, when you -again have his ear. When you have showed him what streams of commerce -must flow out through a post stationed at the mouth of the Mississippi. -France will then have a cord drawn half around this country." - -"Tonty, if you could be commandant of every fort I build, navigator of -every ship I set afloat, if you could live in every man who labors for -me, if you could stand forever between those Iroquois wolves and the -tribes we try to band for mutual protection, and at the same time, if -you could always be at my side to ward off gun, knife, and poison,--you -would make me the most successful man on earth." - -"I have travelled five hundred leagues to ward poison away from you, -monsieur. And you laugh at me." - -[Illustration: "Tonty, if you could be commandant of every fort I -build," etc.--_Page 124._] - -"For your pains, I will dismiss Jolycoeur to-day, and take Liotot with -me." - -"And will you come here as soon as you dismiss him and let my men -prepare your food?" - -"Willingly. Fort Frontenac, with my rights in it denied, is no halting -place for me. To-morrow I set out again to France, and you to the fort -on the Illinois. But, Tonty--" - -La Salle's face relaxed into tenderness as he laid his hands upon his -friend's shoulders. The Italian's ardent temperament was the only agent -which ever fused and made facile of tongue and easy of confidence that -man of cold reserve known as La Salle. The Italian guessed what he had -to say. They both glanced at Barbe and flushed. But the nebulous thought -surrounding the name of Jeanne le Ber was never condensed to spoken -word. - -Tonty's sentinel opened the chapel door and broke up this council. He -said an Indian stood there with him demanding to be admitted. - -FOOTNOTES: - - [12] Relation of Henri de Tonty (cited in Margry, I). "Comme cette - riviere se divise en trois chenaux, M. de la Salle fut - descouvrer celuy de la droite, je fus a celuy du mileu et le - Sieur d'Autray a celuy de la gauche." - - [13] Abridged from Francis Parkman's version of La Salle's - proclamation. The Proces Verbal is a long document. - - - - - VII. - - AN ADOPTION. - - -"What does he want?" inquired Tonty. - -"He is determined to speak with you, Monsieur de Tonty, from what I can -gather out of his words." - -"Let him wait in the mission house, then," said Tonty, "until Monsieur -de la Salle has ended his business." - -"I have ended," said La Salle. "It is time I ordered my men and baggage -and canoes out of Fort Frontenac." - -"Monsieur, remain, and let an order from you be taken to the gate." - -"Some of those sulky fellows need my hand over them, Tonty. Besides, -there are matters which must be definitely settled before I leave the -fort. I have need to go myself, besides the obligation to deliver this -runaway girl, on whom her uncle La Salle is always bringing penances." - -Barbe sprung up and put herself in the attitude of accompanying him. - -"Mademoiselle," said Tonty, "the rain is still falling. If Monsieur de -la Salle can carry this hide over you, it will be some protection." - -He took up the buffalo skin, and shook it to loosen any dust which -might be clinging to the shag. - -"Monsieur, you are very good," she answered. "But it is not necessary -for me." - -"Mademoiselle cares very little about a wetting," said La Salle. "She -was born to be a princess of the backwoods. Call in your Indian before -we go, Tonty. He may have some news for us." - -Tonty spoke to the sentinel, whose fingers visibly held the door, and he -let pass a tall Iroquois brave carrying such a bundle of rich furs as -one of that race above the condition of squaw rarely deigned to lift. -His errand was evidently peaceable. He paused and stood like a prince. -Neither La Salle nor Tonty remembered his face, though both felt sure he -came from the mission village of friendly Iroquois near Fort Frontenac. - -"What does my brother want?" inquired La Salle, with sympathy he never -showed to his French subordinates. - -"He waits to speak to his white brother with the iron hand," answered -the Iroquois. - -"Have you brought us bad news?" again inquired La Salle. - -"Good news." - -"What is it?" - -"It is only to my brother with the iron hand." - -"Can you not speak in the presence of Monsieur de la Salle?" demanded -Tonty. - -With exquisite reserve the Indian stood silent, waiting the conditions -he needed for the delivery of his message. - -"It is nothing which concerns me," said La Salle to Tonty. He prepared -to stalk into the weather with Barbe. - -Tonty spoke a few words to the waiting savage, who heard without -returning any sign, and then followed Barbe, stretching the buffalo hide -above her head. When La Salle observed this he failed to ridicule his -lieutenant, but took one side of the shaggy canopy in his own hold. It -was impossible for the girl to go dry-shod, but Tonty directed her way -over the best and firmest ground. They made a solemn procession, for not -a word was spoken. When they came to the fortress gate, Tonty again -bestowed the robe around her as he had done when she entered the chapel, -and stood bareheaded while Barbe--whispering "Adieu, monsieur"--passed -out of his sight. - -"I have thought of this, Tonty," said La Salle as he entered; "when she -is a few years older she shall come to the fort on the Illinois, if I -again reap success." - -"Monsieur de la Salle, I am bound to tell you it will be dangerous for -me ever to see mademoiselle again." - -"Monsieur de Tonty," responded the explorer with his close smile, "I am -bound to tell you I think it will be the safest imaginable arrangement -for her." - -The gate closed behind him, and Tonty carried back an exhilarated face -to the waiting Iroquois. - -He entered Father Hennepin's chapel again, and the Indian followed him -to the hearth. - -They stood there, ready for conference, the small black savage eye -examining Tonty's face with open approval. - -"Now let me have your message," said the Italian. "Have I ever seen you -before? What is your name?" - -"Sanomp," answered the Iroquois. "My white brother with the iron hand -has not seen me before." - -[Illustration] - -He spread open on the bench Barbe had occupied a present of fine furs -and dried meat. - -"Why does my brother bring me these things?" inquired Tonty, realizing -as he looked at the gift how much of this barbarian's wealth was -bestowed in such an offering. - -"Listen," said Sanomp.[14] He had a face of benevolent gravity,--the -unhurried, sincere face of man living close to Nature. "It is a chief of -the Seneca tribe who speaks to my white brother." - -"I have met a chief of the Seneca tribe before," remarked Tonty, -smiling. "It was in the country of the Illinois, and he wrapped my -scalp-lock around his fingers." - -Sanomp smiled, too, without haste, and continued his story. - -"I left my people to live near the fort of my French brothers because it -was told me the man with a hand of iron was here. When I came here the -man with a hand of iron was gone. So I waited for him. Our lives are -consumed in waiting for the best things. Five years have I stood by the -mouth of Cataraqui. And this morning the man with a hand of iron passed -before my face." - -He spoke a mixture of French and Iroquois which enabled Tonty to catch -his entire meaning. - -"But this hand could not betray me from the lake, to eyes that had never -seen me before," objected the Italian. - -Advancing one foot and folding his arms in the attitude of a narrator, -the Indian said,-- - -"Listen. At that time of life when a young Iroquois retires from his -tribe to hide in the woods and fast until his okie[15] is revealed to -him, four days and four nights the boy Sanomp lay on the ground, rain -and dew, moonlight and sunlight passing over him. The boy Sanomp looked -up, for an eagle dropped before his eyes. He then knew that the eagle -was his okie, and that he was to be a warrior, not a hunter or -medicine-man. But the eagle dropped before the feet of a soldier the -image of my white brother, and the soldier held up a hand of yellow -metal. The boy heard a voice coming from the vision that said to him, -'Warrior, this is thy friend and brother. Be to him a friend and -brother. After thou hast seven times followed the war path go and wait -by the mouth of Cataraqui until he comes.' So when I had seven times -followed the war path I came, and my brother being passed by, I waited." - -Tonty's square brown Italian face was no more sincere than the redder -aquiline visage fronting him and telling its vision. - -"My brother Sanomp comes in a good time," he remarked. - -The Iroquois next took out his peace pipe and pouch of tobacco. While he -filled the bowl and stooped for an ember, Tonty stripped the copper hand -of its glove. He held it up before Sanomp as he received the calumet in -the other. An aboriginal grunt of strong satisfaction echoed in the -chapel. - -"Hand of yellow metal," said Sanomp. - -Tonty gravely smoked the pipe and handed it back to Sanomp. Sanomp -smoked it, shook the ashes out and put it away. - -Thus was the ceremony of adoption finished. Without more talk, the red -friend and brother turned from his white friend and brother and went -back to his own world. - -FOOTNOTES: - - [14] Sanomp was suggested to the romancer by La Salle's faithful - Shawanoe follower, Nika, and an Indian friend and brother in - "Pontiac." - - [15] Guardian Manitou. See Introduction to "Jesuits in North America." - - - - - VIII. - - TEGAHKOUITA. - - -Barbe ran breathless up the stairway, glad to catch sight of her uncle -the Abbe so occupied at the lower hearth that he took no heed of her -return. - -She had counted herself the only woman in Fort Frontenac, yet she found -a covered figure standing in front of the chamber door next her own. - -Though Barbe had never seen Catharine Tegahkouita[16] she knew this must -be the Iroquois virgin who lived a hermit life of devotion in a cabin at -Lachine, revered by French and Indians alike. How this saint had reached -Fort Frontenac or in whose behalf she was exerting herself Barbe could -not conjecture. Tegahkouita had interceded for many afflicted people and -her prayers were much sought after. - -The Indian girl kept her face entirely covered. No man knew that it was -comely or even what its features were like. The chronicler tells us when -she was a young orphan beside her uncle's lodge-fire her eyes were too -weak to bear the light of the sun, and in this darkness began the -devotion which distinguished her life. What was first a necessity, -became finally her choice, and she shut herself from the world. - -To Barbe, Tegahkouita was an object of religious awe tempered by that -criticism in which all young creatures secretly indulge. She sat on the -bench as if in meditation, but her eyes crept up and down that straight -and motionless and blanket-eclipsed presence. She knew that Tegahkouita -was good; was it not told of the Indian girl that she rolled three days -in a bed of thorns, and that she often walked barefooted in ice and -snow, to discipline her body? She was not afraid of Tegahkouita. But she -wished somebody else would come into the room who could break the -saint's death-like silence. Sainthood was a very safe condition, but -Barbe found it impossible to admire the outward appearance of a living -saint. - -La Salle had stopped at the barracks to order out his men, and Colin who -had taken to that part of the fort for amusement, watched their transfer -with much interest. - -Wind was conquering rain. It blew keenly from the southwest, and sung at -the corners of Frontenac, whirling dead leaves like fugitive birds into -the area of the fort. La Salle's men turned out of their quarters with -reluctance to exchange safety and comfort for exposure and a leaky camp. -The explorer stood and saw them pass before him bearing their various -burdens, excepting one man who slouched by the door of the bakehouse as -if he had stationed himself there to see that they passed in order out -of the gate. - -"Come here, you Jolycoeur," called La Salle, lifting his finger. - -Jolycoeur, savagely hairy, approached with that look of sulky menace -La Salle never appeared to see in his servants. - -"Where is your load of goods?" inquired the explorer. - -[Illustration: "'Come here, you Jolycoeur,' called La Salle."--_Page -138._] - -Jolycoeur lifted a quick look, and dropping it again, replied, "Sieur -de la Salle, I was waiting for the cook to hand me out the dishes you -ordered against you came back." - -La Salle examined him through half-shut eyes. It was this man's constant -duty to prepare his food. Tonty and his brother Jean had so occupied his -morning that he had found no time for eating. A man inured to hardships -can fast with very little thought about the matter, but he decided if -Jolycoeur had not yet handled this meal he might hazard some last -service from a man who had missed so many opportunities. - -"Did you cook my breakfast?" he inquired. - -"Sieur de la Salle, I dared not put my nose in the bakehouse. This cook -is the worst man in Fort Frontenac." - -The cook appearing with full hands in his door, La Salle said to -Jolycoeur, "Carry those platters into the lodge," and he watched the -minutest action of the man's elbows, walking behind him into the lower -apartment of the dwelling. A table stood there on which Jolycoeur -began to arrange the dishes with surly carelessness. - -The explorer forgot him the moment they entered, for two people occupied -this room in close talk. Challenging whatever ill Jacques le Ber and the -Abbe Cavelier had prepared, La Salle advanced beyond the table with the -chill and defiant bearing natural to him. - -"Monsieur le Ber and I have been discussing this alliance you are so -anxious to make with his family," spoke the Abbe. - -The explorer met Le Ber's face full of that triumphant contempt which -men strangely feel for other men who have fallen and become -stepping-stones of fortune to themselves. He turned away without answer, -and began to eat indifferently from the dishes Jolycoeur had left -ready, standing beside the table while he ate. - -"If Jacques le Ber were as anxious for the marriage as yourself,--but I -told you this morning, my brother La Salle, what madness it must seem to -all sane men,--it could not be arranged. His daughter hath refused to -see you." - -"My thanks are due to my brother the Abbe for his nice management of all -my affairs," sneered La Salle. "I comprehend there is nothing which he -will not endeavor to mar for me. It surely is madness which induces a -man against all experience to confide in his brother." - -Jean Cavelier replied with a shrug and a spread of the hands which said, -"In such coin of gratitude am I always paid." - -"Sieur de la Salle," volunteered Le Ber, rising and coming forward with -natural candor, "it is not so long ago that your proposal would have -made me proud, and the Abbe hath not ill managed it now. Monsieur, I -wish my girl to marry. I have been ready for any marriage she would -accept. She has indeed shown more liking for you than for any other man -in New France. Monsieur, I would far rather have her married than bound -to the life she leads. But if you were in a position to marry, Jeanne -refuses your hand." - -"Has she said this to you?" inquired La Salle. - -"I have not seen her to-day," replied Le Ber. "She has the Iroquois -virgin Tegahkouita with her. I brought Tegahkouita here because she was -besought for some healing in our Iroquois lodges near the fort." - -Jacques le Ber stopped. But La Salle calmly heard him thus claim -everything pertaining to Fort Frontenac. - -"We must do what we can to hold these unstable Indians," continued Le -Ber. "Monsieur, before I could carry your proposal to Jeanne, she sends -me Tegahkouita, as if they had some holy contrivance for reading -people's minds. Your brother will confirm to you the words Tegahkouita -brought." - -"Mademoiselle le Ber will pray for you always, my brother La Salle. But -she refuses even to see you." - -"It is easy enough for Jeanne to put you in her prayers," remarked the -discontented father, "she hath room enough there for all New France." - -The man who had more than once sprung into the midst of hostile savages -and carried their admiration by a word, now stood silent and musing. But -his face expressed nothing except determination. - -"You shall see her yourself," Jacques le Ber exclaimed, with the -shrewdness of a man holding present advantage, yet gauging fully his -antagonist's force. "You and I were once friends, Sieur de la Salle. I -might obtain a worse match for my girl." - -"I will see her," said La Salle, more in the manner of affirming his own -wish than of accepting a concession. - -He mounted the stairs, with Le Ber behind him, the Abbe Cavelier -following Le Ber. - -As the father expected, Tegahkouita stood as a bar in front of Jeanne's -chamber door. Slightly spreading her blanketed arms this Indian girl of -peculiar gifts said slowly and melodiously in a voice tuned by much -low-spoken prayer, "Mademoiselle Jeanne le Ber says, 'Tell Sieur de la -Salle I will pray for him always, but I must never see his face -again.'" - -FOOTNOTES: - - [16] The romancer differs from the historian--Charlevoix, tome 2--who - records that Catharine Tegahkouita died in 1678. - - - - - IX. - - AN ORDEAL. - - -"When I have seen Mademoiselle le Ber," La Salle replied to the blanket -of Tegahkouita, "I shall understand from herself what her wishes are in -this matter." - -"Sieur de la Salle cannot see her," spoke Tegahkouita. "She hath no word -but this, and she will not see Sieur de la Salle again." - -"I say he shall see her!" exclaimed the Montreal merchant, with asperity -created by so many influences working upon his daughter. "He may look -upon her this minute!" - -Jeanne le Ber's presence in Fort Frontenac scarcely surprised Barbe, so -great was her amazement at the attitude of her uncle La Salle. That he -should be suing to Le Ber's daughter seemed as impossible as any -rejection of his suit. She felt toward the saint she had pinched at -convent that jealous resentment peculiar to women who desire to have the -men of their families married, yet are never satisfied with the choice -those men make. Even Barbe, however, considered it a sacrilegious act -when Le Ber shook his daughter's door and demanded admittance. - -Jeanne's complete silence, like a challenge, drew out his imperative -force. He broke through every fastening and threw the door wide open. - -The small, bare room, scarcely wider than its entrance, afforded no -hiding-places. There was little to catch the eye, from rude berth to -hooks in the ruder wall, from which the commandant's clothing had so -lately been removed. - -Jeanne, the focus of this small cell, had flown to its extremity. As the -door burst from its fastenings, everybody in the outer room could see -her standing against the wall with noble instinct, facing the breakers -of her privacy, but without looking at them. Her eyes rested on her -beads, which she told with rapid lips and fingers. A dormer window -spread its background of light around her head. - -The recoil of inaction which followed Le Ber's violence was not felt by -Tegahkouita. With the swift silence of an Indian and the intuition of a -devotee, she at once put herself in the sleeping cell, and kneeled -holding up a crucifix before Jeanne. As this symbol of religion was -lifted, Jeanne fell upon her knees. - -Le Ber had not intended to enter, but indignation drove him on after -Tegahkouita. He stood aside and did not approach his child,--a jealous, -remorseful, anxious, irritated man. - -La Salle could see Jeanne, though with giddy and indistinct vision. Her -wool gown lay around her in carven folds, as she knelt like a victim -ready for the headsman's axe. - -One of the proudest and most reticent men who ever trod the soil of the -New World was thus reduced to woo before his enemy and his kindred; to -argue against those unseen forces represented by the Indian girl, and to -fight death in his own body with every pleading respiration. For -blindness was growing over his eyes. His lungs were tightened. When his -back was turned in the room below, Jolycoeur had mixed a dish for him. - -La Salle's hardihood was the marvel of his followers. A body and will of -electric strength carried him thousands of miles through ways called -impassable. Defeat could not defeat him. But this struggle with Jeanne -le Ber was harder than any struggle with an estranged king, harder than -again bringing up fortune from the depths of ruin, harder than tearing -his breath of life from the reluctant air. He reared himself against the -chimney-side, pressing with palms and stretched fingers for support, yet -maintaining a roused erectness. - -"Jeanne!" he spoke; and eyes less blind than his could detect a sinking -of her figure at the sound, "I have this to say." - -With a plunging gait which terrified Barbe by its unnaturalness, La -Salle attempted to place himself nearer the silent object he was to -move. As he passed through the doorway he caught at the sides, and then -stretched out and braced one palm against the wall. Thus propped he -proceeded, articulating thickly but with careful exactness. - -"Jeanne, when I have again brought success out of failure, I shall -demand you in marriage. Your father permits it." - -Her trembling lips prayed on, and she gave no token of having heard him, -except the tremor which shook even the folds of her gown. - -Too proud to confess his peril and make its appeal to her, and -suppressing before so many witnesses her tender name of Sainte, he -labored on as La Salle the explorer with the statement of his case. - -"Perhaps I cannot see you again for some years. I do not ask words--of -acceptance now. It is enough--if you look at me." - -La Salle leaned forward. His eyeballs appeared to swell and protrude as -he strained sight for the slightest lifting of the veil before that -self-restraining spirit. - -Barbe's wailing suddenly broke all bounds in the outer room. "My uncle -the Abbe! Look at my uncle La Salle! He cannot breathe--he is going to -die! Somebody has poisoned or stabbed my uncle La Salle!" - -Jean Cavelier with lower outcry ran to help the explorer. But even a -brother and a priest has his limitations. La Salle pushed him off. - -When Barbe saw this, she threw herself to the floor and hid her face -upon the bench. Her kinsman and the hero of her childhood was held over -the abyss of death in the hand of Jeanne le Ber, while those who loved -him must set their teeth in silence. - -But neither this childish judge, nor the father watching for any slight -motion of eyelids which might direct all his future hopes and plans, -knew what sickening moisture started from every pore of Jeanne le Ber. -Still she lifted her fainting eyes only as high as the crucifix -Tegahkouita held before her. Compared to her duty as she saw it, she -must count as nothing the life of the man she loved. - -The Indian girl's weak sight had no plummet for the face of this greater -devotee. Passionately white, its lips praying fast, it stared at the -crucifix. Cold drops ran down from the dew which beaded temples and -upper lip. Sieur de la Salle--Sieur de la Salle was dying, and asking -her for a look! The lifting of her eyelids, the least wavering of her -sight, would sweep away the vows she had made to Heaven, and loosen her -soul for its swift rush to his breast. To be the wife of La Salle! Her -mutter became almost audible as she slid the beads between her fingers. -God would keep her from this deadly sin. - -The gigantic will of La Salle, become almost material and visible, fell -upon her with a cry which must have broken any other endurance. - -"Jeanne! look at me now--you _shall_ look at me now!" - -Hoarse shouts of battle never tingled through blood as did the voice of -this isolated man. - -Jeanne's lips twitched on; she twisted her hands in tense knots against -her neck, and her eyes maintained the level of the cross. - -Silence--that fragment of eternity--then filled up the room, submerging -strained ears. There were remote sounds, like the scream of wind cut by -the angles of Fort Frontenac; but no sound which pierced the silence -between La Salle and Jeanne le Ber. - -He turned around and cast himself through the doorway with a lofty tread -as if he were trying to mount skyward. The Abbe Cavelier extended both -arms and kept him from stumbling over the settle which Barbe was -baptizing with her anguish. She looked up with the distorted visage of -one who weeps terribly, and saw the groping explorer led to the -staircase. His feet plunged in the descent. - -To this noise was added a distinct thud from Jeanne le Ber's room as her -head struck the floor. She lay relaxed and prostrate, and her father -lifted her up. Before rising to his feet with her he passed his hand -piteously across her bruised forehead. - -[Illustration: "She twisted her hands in tense knots against her -neck."--_Page 152._] - - - - - X. - - HEMLOCK. - -[Illustration] - - -Jolycoeur, lounging with his shoulders against the barrack wall, gave -furtive attention to La Salle as the explorer appeared within the fort. -Even his eye was deceived by his master's bearing in giving him the -signal to approach. - -The wind was helpful to La Salle, but he only half met daylight and saw -Jolycoeur taking strange shapes. - -"Go to Father Hennepin's old mission house," he slowly commanded, "and -send Monsieur de Tonty directly to me." - -The man, not daring to disobey until he could take refuge in Fort -Frontenac with the gates closed behind the explorer, went on this -errand. - -"What ails Sieur de la Salle?" inquired the cook, coming out of his -bakehouse to get this news of a sentinel. - -They both watched the Abbe Cavelier making vain efforts to get hold of -his misdirected brother. - -"Gone mad with pride," suggested the sentinel. "The less he prospers -the loftier I have always heard he bears himself. Would the governor of -New France climb the wind with a tread like that?" - -Outside the gate La Salle's limbs failed. The laboring Abbe then dragged -him along, and it seemed an immense detour he was obliged to make to -pass the extended foundation. - -"Now you will believe my words which I spoke this morning concerning the -peril we all stand in," panted this sorely taxed brother. "The Cavelier -family is destroyed. My brother La Salle--Robert--my child! Shall I give -you absolution?" - -"Not yet," gasped La Salle. - -"If you had ever taken my advice, this miserable end had not come upon -you." - -"I am not ended," gasped La Salle. - -"Oh, my brother," lamented Jean Cavelier, tucking up his cassock as he -bent to the strain, "I have but one consolation in my wretchedness. This -is better for you than the marriage you would have made. What business -have you to ally yourself with Le Ber? What business have you with -marriage at all? For my part, I would object to any marriage you had in -view, but Le Ber's daughter was the worst marriage for you in New -France." - -"Tonty!" gasped La Salle. With the swiftness of an Indian, Tonty was -flying across the clearing. The explorer's unwary messenger Jolycoeur -he had left behind him bound with hide thongs and lying in Father -Hennepin's inner room. - -"Yes, yonder comes your Monsieur de Tonty who so easily gave up your -post on the Illinois," panted the Abbe Cavelier. "Like all your -worthless followers he hath no attachment to your person." - -"There is more love in his iron hand," La Salle's paralyzing mouth flung -out, "than in any other living heart!" - -Needing no explanation from the Abbe, the commandant from Fort St. Louis -took strong hold of La Salle and hurried him to the mission house. They -faced the wind, and Tonty's cap blew off, his rings of black hair -flaring to a fierce uprightness. - -The surgeon ran out of the dwelling and met and helped them in, and thus -tardily resistance to the poison was begun, but it had found its -hardiest victim since the day of Socrates. - -Tonty's iron hand brought out of Jolycoeur immediate confession of the -poison he had used. - -In an age when most cunning and deadly drugs were freely handled, and -men who would not shed blood thought it no sin to take enemies neatly -off the scene by the magic of a dish, Jolycoeur was not without -knowledge of a plant called hemlock, growing ready to the hand of a good -poisoner in the New World. - -Noon stood in the sky, half shredding vapors, and lighting cool sparkles -upon the lake. Afternoon dragged its mute and heavy hours westward. - -Men left the mission house and entered it again, carrying wood or water. - -The sun set in the lake, parting clouds before his sinking visage and -stretching his rays like long arms of fire to smite the heaving water. - -[Illustration: "His rings of black hair flaring to a fierce -uprightness."--_Page 158._] - -Twilight rose out of the earth and crept skyward, blotting all visible -shore. Fort Frontenac stood an indistinct mass beside the Cataraqui, as -beside another lake. Stars seemed to run and meet and dive in long -ripples. The wash of water up the sand subsided in force as the wind -sunk, leaving air space for that ceaseless tune breathed by a great -forest. - -Overhead, from a port of cloud, the moon's sail pushed out suddenly, -less round than it had been the night before, and owning by such -depression that she had begun tacking toward her third quarter. Fort and -settlements again found their proportions, and Father Hennepin's cross -stood clear and fair, throwing its shadow across the mission house. - -Within the silent mission house warmth and redness were diffused from -logs piled in the chimney. - -The Abbe Cavelier's cassock rose and fell with that sleep which follows -great anxiety and exhaustion. He reclined against the lowest step of a -broken ladder-way which once ascended from corner to loft. The men, -except one who stood guard outside in the shadow of the house, were -asleep in the next room. - -La Salle rested before the hearth on some of the skins Tonty had -received from his Indian friend and brother. Whenever the explorer -opened his eyes he saw Tonty sitting awake on the floor beside him. - -"Sleep," urged La Salle. - -"I shall not sleep again," said Tonty, "until I see you safely on your -way toward France." - -"This has been worse than the dose of verdigris I once got." - -"Jolycoeur says he used hemlock," responded Tonty. "He accused -everybody in New France of setting him on to the deed, but I silenced -that." - -"I had not yet dismissed him, Tonty. The scoundrel hath claims on me for -two years' wages." - -"He should have got his wages of me," exclaimed Tonty, "if this proved -your death. He should have as many bullets as his body could hold." - -"Tonty, untie the fellow and turn him out and discharge his wages for me -with some of the skins you have put under me." La Salle rose on his -elbow and then sat up. His face was very haggard, but the practical -clear eye dominated it. "These fellows cannot balk me. I have lost all -that makes life, except my friend. But I shall come back and take the -great west yet! A man with a purpose cannot be killed, Tonty. He goes -on. He must go on." - - - - - Book III. - - FORT ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS. - - 1687 A. D. - - - - - I. - - IN AN EAGLE'S NEST. - -[Illustration] - - -"Fort Lewis is in the country of the Illinois and seated on a steep Rock -about two hundred Foot high, the River running at the Bottom of it. It -is only fortified with Stakes and Palisades, and some Houses advancing -to the Edge of the Rock. It has a very spacious Esplanade, or Place of -Arms. The Place is naturally strong, and might be made so by Art, with -little expence. Several of the Natives live in it, in their Huts. I -cannot give an Account of the Latitude it stands in, for want of proper -Instruments to take an Observation, but Nothing can be pleasanter; and -it may be truly affirmed that the Country of the Illinois enjoys all -that can make it accomplished, not only as to Ornament, but also for its -plentiful Production of all Things requisite for the Support of human -Life. - -"The Plain, which is watered by the River, is beautified by two small -Hills about half a League distant from the Fort, and those Hills are -cover'd with groves of Oaks, Walnut-Trees, and other Sorts I have named -elsewhere. The Fields are full of Grass, growing up very high. On the -Sides of the Hills is found a gravelly Sort of Stone, very fit to make -Lime for Building. There are also many Clay Pits, fit for making of -Earthen Ware, Bricks, and Tiles, and along the River there are Coal -Pits, the Coal whereof has been try'd and found very good."[17] - -The young man lifted his pen from the paper and stood up beside a box in -the storehouse which had served him as table, at the demand of a -priestly voice. - -"Joutel, what are you writing there?" - -"Monsieur the Abbe, I was merely setting down a few words about this -Fort St. Louis of the Illinois in which we are sheltered. But my candle -is so nearly burned out I will put the leaves aside." - -"You were writing nothing else?" insisted La Salle's brother, setting -his shoulders against the storehouse door. - -"Not a word, monsieur." - -The Abbe's ragged cassock scarcely showed such wear as his face, which -the years that had handled him could by no means have cut into such deep -grooves or moulded into such ghastly hillocks of features. - -"I cannot sleep to-night, Joutel," said the Abbe Cavelier. - -"I thought you were made very comfortable in the house," remarked -Joutel. - -"What can make me comfortable now?" - -They stood still, saying nothing, while a candle waved its feeble plume -with uncertainty over its marsh of tallow, making their huge shadows -stagger over log-wall or floor or across piled merchandise. One side of -the room was filled with stacked buffalo hides, on which Joutel, -nightly, took the complete rest he had earned by long tramping in -southern woods. - -He rested his knuckles on the box and looked down. A Norman follower of -the Caveliers, he had done La Salle good service, but between the Abbe -and him lay a reason for silence. - -"Tonty may reach the Rock at any time,"[18] complained the Abbe to the -floor, though his voice must reach Joutel's ears. "There is nothing I -dread more than meeting Tonty." - -"We can leave the Rock before Monsieur de Tonty arrives," said Joutel, -repeating a suggestion he had made many times. - -"Certainly, without the goods my brother would have him deliver to me, -without a canoe or any provision whatever for our journey!" - -"They say here that Monsieur de Tonty led only two hundred Indians and -fifty Frenchmen to aid the new governor in his war against the -Iroquois," observed Joutel. "He may not come back at all." - -[Illustration: "Joutel, what are you writing there?"--_Page 169._] - -"I have thought of that," the Abbe mused. "If Tonty be dead we are -indeed wasting our time here, when we ought to be well on our way to -Quebec, to say naught of the voyage to France. But this fellow in charge -of the Rock refuses to honor my demands without more authority." - -"He received us most kindly, and we have been his guests a month," said -Joutel. - -"I would be his guest no longer than this passing night if my -difficulties were solved," said the Abbe. "For there is even Colin's -sister to torment me. I know not where she is,--whether in Montreal or -in the wilderness between Montreal and this fort. If I had taken her -back with Colin to France, she would now be safe with my mother. There -was another evidence of my poor brother's madness! He was determined -Mademoiselle Cavelier should be sent out to Fort St. Louis. When he -sailed on that last great voyage, he sat in one of the ships the king -furnished him and in the last lines he wrote his mother refused to tell -her his destination! And at the same time he wrote instructions to the -nuns of St. Joseph concerning the niece whose guardian he never was. She -must be sent to Fort St. Louis at the first safe opportunity! She was to -have a grant in this country to replace her fortune which he had used. -And this he only told me during his fever at St. Domingo on the voyage." - -Joutel folded and put away his notes. The Abbe's often repeated -complaints seldom stirred a reply from him. Though on this occasion he -thought of saying,-- - -"Monsieur de Tonty may bring news of her from Montreal." - -"You understand, Joutel," exclaimed the Abbe, approaching the candle, -"that it is best,--that it is necessary not to tell Tonty what we know?" - -"I have understood what you said, Monsieur the Abbe." - -"You are the only man who gives me anxiety. All the rest are willing to -keep silence. Is it not my affair? I wish you would cease writing your -scraps. It irritates me to come into this storehouse and find you -writing your scraps." He looked severely at the young man, who leaned -against the box making no further promise or reply. Then seizing the -candle, the Abbe stepped to a bed made of bales, where, wrapped in skins -and blankets, young Colin Cavelier lay uttering the acknowledgement of -peaceful sleep. Another boy lay similarly wrapped on the floor beside -him. - -The priest's look at these two was brief. He went on to the remaining -man in the room, a hairy fellow, lying coiled among hides and pressed -quite into a corner. The man appeared unconscious, emitting his breath -in short puffs. - -Abbe Cavelier gazed upon him with shudders. - -The over-taxed candle flame stooped and expired, the scent of its -funeral pile rising from a small red point in darkness. - -FOOTNOTES: - - [17] Joutel. English Translation "from the edition just published at - Paris, 1714 A. D." - - [18] "Le Rocher," this natural fortress was commonly called by the - French. See Charlevoix. - - - - - II. - - THE FRIEND AND BROTHER - - -While Abbe Cavelier stood in the storehouse, Tonty, a few miles away, -was setting his camp around a spring of sulphur water well known to the -hunters of St. Louis. The spring boiled its white sand from unmeasured -depths at the root of an oak, and spread a pool which slipped over its -barrier in a thin stream to the Illinois. - -Though so near his fortress, Tonty and Greysolon du Lhut, fresh from -their victorious campaign with the governor of New France against the -Iroquois, thought it not best to expose their long array of canoes in -darkness on the river. They had with them[19] women and -children,--fragments of families, going under their escort to join the -colony at Fort St. Louis. - -Du Lhut's army of Indians from the upper lakes had returned directly to -their own villages to celebrate the victory; but that unwearied rover -himself, with a few followers, had dragged his gouty limbs across -portages to the Illinois, to sojourn longer with Tonty. - -Their camp was some distance from the river, up an alluvial slope of -the north shore. Opposite, a line of cliffs, against which the Illinois -washes for miles, caught the eye through darkness by its sandy glint; -and not far away, on the north side of the river, that long ridge known -as Buffalo Rock made a mass of gloom. - -Dependent and unarmed colonists were placed in the centre of the camp. -Tonty himself, with his usual care on this journey, had helped to pitch -a tent of blankets and freshly cut poles for Mademoiselle Barbe Cavelier -and the officer's wife, who clung to her in the character of guardian. -The other immigrants understood and took pleasure in this small -temporary home, built nightly for a girl whose proud silence among them -they forgave as the caprice of beauty. The wife of the officer -Bellefontaine, on her part, rewarded Tonty by attaching her ceaseless -presence to Barbe. She was a timid woman, very small-eyed and silent, -who took refuge in Barbe's larger shadow, and found it convenient for an -under-sized duenna whose husband was so far in the wilds. - -Mademoiselle Cavelier was going to Fort St. Louis at the first -opportunity since her uncle La Salle's request, made three years before. - -At this time it was not known whether La Salle had succeeded or failed -in his last enterprise. He had again convinced the king. His seigniories -and forts were restored to him, and governor's agents and associates -driven out of his possessions. He had sailed from France with a fleet of -ships, carrying a large colony to plant at the Mississippi's mouth. His -brother the Abbe Cavelier, two nephews, priests, artisans, young men, -and families were in his company, which altogether numbered over four -hundred people. - -Fogs or storms, or dogged navigators disagreeing with and disobeying -him, had robbed him of his destination; for news came back to France, by -a returning ship, of loss and disaster and a colony dropped like -castaways on some inlet of the Gulf. - -The evening meal was eaten and sentinels were posted. Even petulant -children had ceased to fret within the various enclosures. Indians and -Frenchmen lay asleep under their canoes which they had carried from the -river, and by propping with stones or stakes at one side, converted into -low-roofed shelters. - -Barbe's tent was beside the spring near the camp-fire. She could, by -parting overlapped blanket edges, look out of her cloth house into those -living depths of bubbling white sand, so like the thoughts of young -maids. Two or three fallen leaves, curled into quaint craft, slid across -the pool's surface, hung at its barrier, and one after the other slipped -over and disappeared along the thread of water. A hollow of light was -scooped above the camp-fire, outside of which darkness stood an -impenetrable rind, for the sky had all day been thickened by clouds. - -The Demoiselle Bellefontaine, tucked neatly as a mole under her ridge, -rested from her fears in sleep; and Barbe made ready to lie down also, -sweeping once more the visible world with a lingering eye. She saw an -Indian creeping on hands and knees toward Tonty's lodge. He entered -darkness the moment she saw him. The girl arose trembling and put on her -clothes. She had caught no impression of his tribe; but if he were a -warrior of the camp, his crawling so secretly must threaten harm to -Tonty. She did not distinctly know what she ought to do, except warn -Monsieur de Tonty. - -[Illustration] - -But on a sudden the iron-handed commandant ran past her tent, shouting -to his men. There was a sound like the rushing of bees through the air, -and horrible faces smeared with paint, tattooed bodies, and hands -brandishing weapons closed in from darkness; the men of the camp rose up -with answering yells, and the flash and roar of muskets surrounded Barbe -as if she were standing in some nightmare world of lightning and -thunder. She heard the screams of children and frightened mothers. She -saw Tonty in meteor rushes rallying men, and striking down, with nothing -but his iron hand, a foe who had come to quarters too close for -fire-arms. Indian after Indian fell under that sledge, and a cry of -terror in Iroquois French, which she could understand, rose through the -whoop of invasion,-- - -"The Great-Medicine-Hand! The Great-Medicine-Hand!" - -Brands were caught from the fire and thrown like bolts, sparks hissing -as they flew. Her tent was overturned and she fell under it with the -Demoiselle Bellefontaine, who uttered muffled squeals. - -When Barbe dragged her companion out of the midst of poles, all the -hurricane of action had passed by. Its rush could be heard down the -slope, then the splashing of bodies and tumultuous paddling in the -river. Guns yet flashed. She heard Frenchmen and Illinois running with -their canoes down to the water to give chase. Farther and farther away -sounded the retreat, and though women and children continued to make -outcry, Barbe could hear no groans. - -The brands of the fire were still scattered, but hands were busy -collecting and bringing them back,--processions of gigantic glow-worms -meeting by dumb appointment in a nest of hot ashes and trodden logs. All -faces were drowned in the dark until these re-united embers fitfully -brought them out. A crowd of frightened immigrants drew around the -blaze, calling each other by name, and demanding to know who was -scalped. - -Barbe saw nothing better to do than to stand beside her wrecked tent, -and the Demoiselle Bellefontaine burrowed closely to her, uttering -distressed noises. - -The pursuers presently returned and quieted the camp. Tonty had not lost -a man, though a few were wounded. The attacking party carried off with -them every trace of their repulse. - -Overturned lodges were now set straight, and as soon as Bellefontaine's -wife found hers inhabitable she hid herself within it. But Barbe waited -to ask the busy commandant,-- - -"Monsieur de Tonty, have you any wound?" - -"No, mademoiselle," he answered, pausing to breathe himself, and seize -upon an interview so unusual. "I hope you have not been greatly -disturbed. The Iroquois are now entirely driven off, and they will not -venture to attack us again." - -With excited voice Barbe assured him she had remained tranquil through -the battle. - -"We do not call this a battle," laughed Tonty. "These were a party of -Senecas, who rallied after defeat and have followed us to our own -country. They tried to take the camp by surprise, and nearly did it; but -Sanomp crept between sentinels and waked me." - -"Who is Sanomp, monsieur?" - -"Do you remember the Iroquois Indian who came to Father Hennepin's -chapel at Fort Frontenac?" - -"Yes, monsieur; was he among these Senecas?" - -"The Senecas are his tribe of the Iroquois, mademoiselle. He was among -them; but he has left his people for my sake. These Indians have visions -and obey them. He said the time had come for him to follow me." - -"Sanomp was then the Indian I saw creeping toward your tent. Did he -fight against his own people?" - -"No, mademoiselle. While Du Lhut and I flew to rouse the camp, he sat -doggedly down where he found me. This was a last chance for the Senecas. -We are so near Fort St. Louis, and almost within shouting distance of -our Miamis on Buffalo Rock. Such security makes sentinels careless. -Sanomp crept ahead of the others and whispered in my ear, taking his -chance of being brained before I understood him. He has proved himself -my friend and brother, mademoiselle, to do this for me, and moreover to -bear the shame of sitting crouched like a squaw through a fray." - -"Everybody loves and fears Monsieur de Tonty,"[20] observed Barbe, with -sedate accent. - -Tonty breathed deeply. - -"Am I an object of fear to you, mademoiselle? Doubtless I have grown -like a buffalo," he ruminated. "Perhaps you feel a natural aversion -toward a man bearing a hand of iron." - -"On the contrary, it seemed a great convenience among the Indians," -murmured Barbe, and Tonty laughed and stood silent. - -The camp was again settling to rest, and fewer swarming figures peopled -the darkness. Winding and aspiring through new fuel the camp-fire once -more began to lift its impalpable pavilion, and groups sat around it -beneath that canopy of tremulous light, with rapid talk and gesture -repeating to each other their impressions of the Senecas' attack. - -"Mademoiselle," said Tonty, lifting his left hand to his bare head, for -he had rushed hatless into action, "good-night. The guards are -doubled. You are more secure than when you lay down before." - -"Good-night, monsieur," replied Barbe, and he opened her tent for her, -when she turned back. - -"Monsieur de Tonty," she whispered swiftly, "I have had no chance during -this long journey,--for with you alone would I speak of it,--to demand -if you believe that saying against yourself which they are wickedly -charging to my uncle La Salle?" - -"Mademoiselle, how could I believe that Monsieur de la Salle said in -France he wished to be rid of me? One laughs at a rumor like that." - -"The tales lately told about his madness are more than I can bear." - -"Mademoiselle, Monsieur de la Salle's enemies always called his great -enterprises madness." - -"Can you imagine where he now is, Monsieur de Tonty?" - -"Oh, heavens!" Tonty groaned. "Often have I said to myself,--Has -Monsieur de la Salle been two years in America, and I have not joined -him, or even spoken with him? It is not my fault! As soon as I believed -he had reached the Gulf of Mexico I descended the Mississippi. I -searched all those countries, every cape and every shore. I demanded of -all the natives where he was, and not one could tell me a word. Judge of -my pain and my dolor."[21] - -They stood in such silence as could result from two people's ceasing to -murmur in the midst of high-pitched voices. - -"Monsieur de Tonty," resumed Barbe, "do you remember Jeanne le Ber?" - -"Mademoiselle, I never saw her." - -"She refused my uncle La Salle at Fort Frontenac, and I detested her for -it. In the new church at Montreal she has had a cell made behind the -altar. There she prays day and night. She wears only a blanket, but the -nun who feeds her says her face is like an angel's. Monsieur, Jeanne le -Ber fell with her head bumping the floor,--and I understood her. She had -a spirit fit to match with my uncle La Salle's. She thought she was -right. I forgave her then, for I know, monsieur, she loved my uncle La -Salle." - -When Barbe had spoken such daring words she stepped inside her tent and -dropped its curtain. - -FOOTNOTES: - - [19] "On his return he brought back with him the families of a number - of French immigrants, soldiers, and traders. This arrival of the - wives, sisters, children, and sweethearts of some of the - colonists, after years of separation, was the occasion of great - rejoicing."--John Moses' History of Illinois. - - [20] "He was loved and feared by all," says St. Cosme. - - [21] Tonty's words in "Dernieres Decouvertes dans L'Amerique - Septentrional." - - - - - III. - - HALF-SILENCE. - - -The October of the Mississippi valley--full of mild nights and mellow -days and the shine of ripened corn--next morning floated all the region -around Fort St. Louis in silver vapor. The two small cannon on the Rock -began to roar salutes as soon as Tonty's line of canoes appeared moving -down the river. - -To Barbe this was an enchanted land. She sat by the Demoiselle -Bellefontaine and watched its populous beauty unfold. Blue lodge-smoke -arose everywhere. Tonty pointed out the Shawnee settlement eastward, and -the great town of the Illinois northwest of the Rock,--a city of high -lodges shaped like the top of a modern emigrant wagon. He told where -Piankishaws and Weas might be distinguished, how many Shawanoes were -settled beyond the ravine back of the Rock, and how many thousand -people, altogether, were collected in this principality of Monsieur de -la Salle. - -A castellated cliff with turrets of glittering sandstone towered above -the boats, but beyond that,--round, bold, and isolated, its rugged -breasts decked with green, its base washed by the river,--the Rock[22] -of St. Louis waited whatever might be coming in its eternal leisure. -Frenchmen and Indians leaped upon earthworks at its top and waved a -welcome side by side, the flag of France flying above their heads. - -At Barbe's right hand lay an alluvial valley bordered by a ridge of -hills a mile away. Along this ancient river-bed Indian women left off -gathering maize from standing stalks, and ran joyfully crying out to -receive their victorious warriors. Inmates poured from the settlement of -French cabins opposite and around the Rock. With cannon booming -overhead, Tonty passed its base followed by the people who were to -ascend with him, and landed west of it, on a sandy strip where the -voyager could lay his hand on that rugged fern-tufted foundation. Barbe -and the Demoiselle Bellefontaine followed him along a path cut through -thickets, around moss-softened irregular heights of sandstone, girdled -in below and bulging out above, so that no man could obtain foothold to -scale them. Gnarled tree-roots, like folds of snakes caught between -closing strata, hung, writhed in and out. The path, under pine needles -and fallen leaves, was cushioned with sand white as powdered snow. -Behind the Rock, stretching toward a ravine, were expanses of this lily -sand which looked fresh from the hands of the Maker, as if even a -raindrop had never indented its whiteness. - -Three or four foot-holes were cut in the southeast flank of rock wall. -An Indian ran down from above and flung a rope over to Tonty. He mounted -these rocky stirrups first, helped by the rope, and knelt to reach back -for Barbe and the Demoiselle Bellefontaine. The next ascent was up -water-terraced rock to an angle as high as their waists. Here two more -stirrups were cut in the rock. Ferns brushed their faces, and shrubs -stooped over them. The heights were studded thick with gigantic trees -half-stripped of leaves. Rust-colored lichens and lichens hoary like -blanched old men, spread their great seals on stone and soil. - -Wide water-terraced steps, looking as if cut for a temple, ascended at -last to the gate. Through this Tonty led his charge upon a dimpled -sward, for care had been taken to keep turf alive in Fort St. Louis. - -Recognition and joy were the first sensations of many immigrants -entering, as the people they loved received them. But Barbe felt only -delicious freedom in such a crag castle. There was a sound of the sea in -pine trees all around. The top of the Rock was nearly an acre in extent. -It was fortified by earthworks, except the cliff above the river, which -was set with palisades and the principal dwellings of the fort. There -were besides, a storehouse, a block-house, and several Indian lodges. -But the whole space--so shaded yet so sunny, reared high in air yet -sheltered as a nest--was itself such a temple of security that any -buildings within it seemed an impertinence. The centre, bearing its -flagstaff, was left open. - -Two priests, a Recollet and a Sulpitian, met Tonty and the girl he led -in, the Sulpitian receiving her in his arms and bestowing a kiss on her -forehead. - -"Oh, my uncle Abbe!" Barbe gasped with surprise. "Is Colin with you? Is -my uncle La Salle here?" - -But Tonty, swifter than the Abbe's reply, laid hold of the Recollet -Father and drew him beside Abbe Cavelier, demanding without greeting or -pause for courteous compliment,-- - -"Is Monsieur de la Salle safe and well? You both come from Monsieur de -la Salle!" - -"He was well when we parted from him," replied the Abbe Cavelier, -looking at a bunch of maiden-hair fern which Barbe had caught from a -ledge and tucked in the bosom of her gown. "We left him on the north -branch of the Trinity River, Monsieur de Tonty." - -The Recollet said nothing, but kept his eyes fixed on his folded hands. -Tonty, too eager to mark well both bearers of such news, demanded again -impartially,-- - -"And he was well?" - -"He left us in excellent health, monsieur." - -"How glad I am to find you in Fort St. Louis!" exclaimed Tonty. "This is -the first direct message I have had from Monsieur de la Salle since he -sailed from France. How many men are in your party? Have you been made -comfortable?" - -"Only six, monsieur. We have been made quite comfortable by your officer -Bellefontaine." - -[Illustration: "And he was well?"--_Page 192._] - -"Monsieur the Abbe, where did Monsieur de la Salle land his colony?" - -"On a western coast of the Gulf, monsieur. It was most unfortunate. Ever -since he has been searching for the Mississippi." - -"While I searched for him. Oh, Fathers!" Tonty's voice deepened and his -swarthy joyful face set its contrast opposite two downcast churchmen, -"nothing in Fort St. Louis is good enough for messengers from Monsieur -de la Salle. What can I do for you? Did he send me no orders?" - -"He did commit a paper to my hand, naming skins and merchandise that he -would have delivered to me, as well as a canoe and provisions for our -journey to New France." - -"Come, let me see this paper," demanded Tonty. "Whatever Monsieur de la -Salle orders shall be done at once; but the season is now so advanced -you will not push on to New France until spring." - -"That is the very reason, Monsieur de Tonty, why we should push on at -once. We have waited a month for your return. I leave Fort St. Louis -with my party to-morrow, if you will so forward my wishes." - -"Monsieur the Abbe, it is impossible! You have yet told me nothing of -all it is necessary for me to know touching Monsieur de la Salle." - -"To-morrow," repeated the Abbe Cavelier, "I must set out at dawn, if you -can honor my brother's paper." - -Tonty, with a gesture of his left hand, led the way to his quarters -across the esplanade. As Barbe walked behind the Recollet Father, she -wondered why he had given no answer to any of Tonty's questions. - -Her brother advanced to meet her, and she ran and gave him her hands and -her cheek to kiss. They had been apart four years, and looked at each -other with scrutinizing gaze. He overtopped her by a head. Barbe -expected to find him tall and rudely masculine, but there was change in -him for which she was not prepared. - -"My sister has grown charming," pronounced Colin. "Not as large as the -Caveliers usually are, but like a bird exquisite in make and graceful -motion." - -"Oh, Colin, what is the matter?" demanded Barbe, with direct dart. "I -see concealment in your face!" - -"What do you see concealed? Perhaps you will tell me that." He became -mottled with those red and white spots which are the blood's protest -against the will. - -"The Recollet Father did not answer a word to Monsieur de Tonty's -questions, Colin; and the voice of my uncle the Abbe sounded unnatural. -Is there wicked power in those countries you have visited to make you -all come back like men half asleep from some drug?" - -"Yes, there is!" exclaimed the boy; "I hate that wilderness. When we are -once in France I will never venture into such wilds again. They dull me -until my tongue seems dead." - -"And, Colin, you did leave my uncle La Salle quite well?" - -"It was he who left us. He was in excellent health the last time we saw -him." The boy spoke these words with precision, and Barbe sighed her -relief. - -"For myself," she said, "I love this wild world. I shall stay here until -my uncle La Salle arrives." - -"Our uncle the Abbe will decide that," replied Colin. "It is unfortunate -that you left Montreal. Your only hope of staying here rests on the hard -journey before us, and the risks we run of meeting winter on the way. I -wish you had been sent to France. I wish we were all in France now." -Colin's face relaxed wistfully. - -Two crows were scolding in the trees below them. Barbe felt ready to -weep; as if the tender spirit of autumn had stolen through her, as mists -steal along the hills. She sat down on the grassy earthwork, and Colin -picked some pine needles from a branch and stood silent beside her, -chewing them. - -But those vague moods which haunt girlhood held always short dominion -over Barbe. She was in close kinship with the world around, and the life -of the fort began to occupy her. - -The Rock was like a small fair with its additional inhabitants, who were -still running about in a confusion of joyful noises. Children, delighted -to be freed from canoes at so bright a time of day, raced across the -centre, or hid behind wigwam or tree, calling to each other. An Indian -stalked across to the front of the Rock, and Barbe watched him reach out -through an opening in the low log palisade. A platform was there built -on the trunks of two leaning cedars. The Indian unwound a windlass and -let down a bucket to the river below. She heard its distant splash and -some of its resounding drips on the way up. Living in Fort St. Louis was -certainly like living on a cloud. - -"I will go into the officers' house," suggested Colin, "and see how the -Abbe's demands are met by Monsieur de Tonty. We shall then know if we -are to set out for Quebec to-morrow." - -FOOTNOTES: - - [22] Parkman states its actual height to be only a hundred and - twenty-five feet. - - - - - IV. - - A FETE ON THE ROCK.[23] - - -Barbe did not object or assent. Youth shoves off any evil day by -ignoring it, and Colin left her in lazy enjoyment of the populous place. - -The Demoiselle Bellefontaine approached to ask if she desired to come to -the apartment the commandant reserved for her; but Barbe replied that -she wished to sit there and amuse herself awhile longer with the novelty -of Fort St. Louis. - -A child she had noticed on the journey brought her, as great treasure, a -handful of flints and crumble-dust from the sandstone. They sorted the -stuff on her knee,--fat-faced dark French child and young girl fine -enough to be the sylvan spirit of the Rock. - -Mademoiselle Cavelier's wardrobe was by no means equal to that gorgeous -period in which she lived, being planned by her uncle the Abbe and -executed by the frugal and exact hands of a self-denying sisterhood. But -who can hide a girl's supple slimness in a gown plain as a nun's, or -take the blossom-burnish off her face with colonial caps? Dark curls -showed around her temples. Barbe's aquiline face had received scarcely a -mark since Tonty saw it at Fort Frontenac. The gentle monotonous -restraint of convent life had calmed her wild impulses, and she was in -that trance of expecting great things to come, which is the beautiful -birthright of youth. - -While she was sorting arrow-head chips, her uncle came out of Tonty's -quarters and cast his eye about the open space in search of her. At his -approach Barbe's playmate slipped away, and the Abbe placed himself in -front of her with his hands behind him. - -Barbe gave him a scanty look, feeling sure he came to announce the next -day's journey. This man, having many excellences, yet roused constant -antagonism in his brother and the niece most like that brother. When he -protruded his lower lip and looked determined, Barbe thought if the sin -could be set aside a plunge in the river would be better than this -journey. - -"I have a proposal for you, my child," said the Abbe. "It comes from -Monsieur de Tonty. He tells me my brother La Salle encouraged him to -hope for this alliance, and I must declare I see no other object my -brother La Salle had in view when he sent you to Fort St. Louis. -Monsieur de Tonty understands the state of your fortune. On his part, he -holds this seigniory jointly with my brother, and the traffic he is able -to control brings no mean revenue. It is true he lacks a hand. But it -hath been well replaced by the artificer, and he comes of an Italian -family of rank." - -Barbe's head was turned so entirely away that the mere back of a scarlet -ear was left to the Abbe. One hand clutched her lap and the other pulled -grass with destructive fingers. - -"Having stated Monsieur de Tonty's case I will now state mine," -proceeded her uncle. "I leave this fort before to-morrow dawn. I must -take you with me or leave you here a bride. The journey is perilous for -a small party and we may not reach France until next year. And an -alliance like this will hardly be found in France for a girl of -uncertain fortune. Therefore I have betrothed you to Monsieur de Tonty, -and you will be married this evening at vespers." - -[Illustration] - -"You have stated Monsieur de Tonty's case, and you have stated yours," -said Barbe. "I will now state mine. I will not be married to any man at -a day's notice." - -"May I ask what it is you demand, mademoiselle?" inquired the Abbe, with -irony, "if you propose to re-arrange any marriage your relatives make -for you." - -"I demand a week between the betrothal and the marriage." - -"A week, mademoiselle!" her uncle laughed. "We who set out must give -winter a week's start of us for such a whim! You will be married -to-night or you will return with me to France. I will now send Monsieur -de Tonty to you to be received as your future husband." - -"I will scratch him!" exclaimed Barbe, with a flash of perverseness, at -which her uncle's cassocked shoulders shook until he disappeared within -doors. - -She left the earthwork and went to the entrance side of the fort. There -she stood, whispering with a frown,--"Oh, if you please, monsieur, keep -your distance! Do not come here as any future husband of mine!" - -She had, however, much time in which to prepare her mind before Tonty -appeared. - -All eyes on the Rock followed him. He shone through the trees, a -splendid figure in the gold and white uniform of France, laid aside for -years but resumed on this great occasion. - -When he came up to Barbe he stopped and folded his arms, saying -whimsically,-- - -"Mademoiselle, I have not the experience to know how one should approach -his betrothed. I never was married before." - -"It is my case, also, monsieur," replied Barbe. - -"How do you like Fort St. Louis?" proceeded Tonty. - -"I am enchanted with it." - -"You delight me when you say that. During the last four years I have not -made an improvement about the land or in any way strengthened this -position without thinking, Mademoiselle Cavelier may sometime approve of -this. We are finding a new way of heating our houses with underground -flues made of stone and mortar." - -"That must be agreeable, monsieur." - -"We often have hunting parties from the Rock. This country is full of -game." - -"It is pleasant to amuse one's self, monsieur." - -Tonty had many a time seen the silent courtship of the Illinois. He -thought now of those motionless figures sitting side by side under a -shelter of rushes or bark from morning till night without exchanging a -word. - -"Mademoiselle, I hope this marriage is agreeable to you?" - -"Monsieur de Tonty," exclaimed Barbe, "I have simply been flung at your -head to suit the convenience of my relatives." - -"Was that distasteful to you?" he wistfully inquired. - -"I am not fit for a bride. No preparation has been made for me." - -"I thought of making some preparation myself," confessed Tonty. "I got a -web of brocaded silk from France several years ago." - -"To be clothed like a princess by one's bridegroom," said Barbe, -wringing her gown skirt and twisting folds of it in her fingers. "That -might be submitted to. But I could not wear the web of brocade around me -like a blanket." - -"There are fifty needlewomen on the Rock who can make it in a day, -mademoiselle." - -"And in short, monsieur, to be betrothed in the morning and married the -same day is what no girl will submit to!" - -Tonty, in the prime of his manhood and his might as a lover was too -imposing a figure for her to face; she missed seeing his swarthy pallor -as he answered,-- - -"I understand from all this, mademoiselle, that you care nothing for me. -I have felt betrothed to you ever since I declared myself to Monsieur de -la Salle at Fort Frontenac. How your pretty dreaming of the Rock of St. -Louis and your homesick cry for this place did pierce me! I said, 'She -shall be my wife, and I will bring home everything that can be obtained -for her. That small face shall be heart's treasure to me. Its eyes will -watch for me over the Rock.' On our journey here, many a night I took my -blanket and lay beside your tent, thanking the saints for the sweet -privilege of bringing home my bride. Mademoiselle," said Tonty, -trembling, "I will kill any other man who dares approach you. Yet, -mademoiselle, I could not annoy you by the least grief! Oh, teach a -frontiersman what to say to please a woman!" - -"Monsieur de Tonty," panted Barbe. "You please me too well, indeed! It -was necessary to come to an understanding. You should not make me -say,--for I am ashamed to tell,--how long I have adored you!" - -As Tonty's quick Italian blood mounted from extreme anguish to extreme -rapture, he laughed with a sob. - -Fifty needlewomen on the Rock made in a day a gown of the web of -brocaded silk. The fortress was full of preparation for evening -festivity. Hunters went out and brought in game, and Indians carried up -fish, new corn, and honey from wild bee trees. All the tables which the -dwellings afforded were ranged in two rows at opposite sides of the -place of arms, and decorated with festoons of ferns and cedar, and such -late flowers as exploring children could find. - -Some urchins ascended the Rock with an offering of thick-lobed prickly -cactus which grew plentifully in the sand. The Demoiselle Bellefontaine -labored from place to place, helping her husband to make this the most -celebrated fete ever attempted in Fort St. Louis. - -As twilight settled--and it slowly settled--on the summit, roast -venison, buffalo steaks, and the odor of innumerable dishes scented the -air. Many candles pinned to the branches of trees like vast candelabra, -glittered through the dusk. Crows sat on the rocks below and gabbled of -the corn they had that day stolen from lazy Indian women. - -There was no need of chapel or bell in a temple fortress. All the -inhabitants of the Rock stood as witnesses. Colin brought Barbe from the -dwelling with the greater part of the web of brocaded silk dragged in -grandeur behind her. Tonty kissed her hand and led her before the -priests. When the ceremony ended a salute was fired. - -The Illinois town could hear singing on the Rock and see that stronghold -glittering as if it had been carried by torches. Music of violin and -horn, laughter, dancing, and gay voices in repartee sounded on there -through half the hours of the night. - -FOOTNOTES: - - [23] "The joyous French held balls, gay suppers, and wine parties on - the Rock."--Old History of Illinois. - - - - - V. - - THE UNDESPAIRING NORMAN. - - -The morning star yet shone and the river valley was drenched with half -frosty dew, and filled with silver mist when the Abbe Cavelier and his -party descended to their canoes and set off up the river. They had made -their farewells the night before, but Tonty and Greysolon du Lhut -appeared, Tonty accompanying them down the descent. He came up with a -bound before the boat was off, thundered at Bellefontaine's door, and -pulled that sleepy officer into the open air, calling at his ear,-- - -"What fellow is this in the Abbe's party who kept out of my sight until -he carried his load but now to the canoe?" - -"You must mean Teissier, Monsieur de Tonty. He has lain ailing in the -storehouse." - -"Look,--yonder he goes." - -Tonty made Bellefontaine lean over the eastern earthwork, but even the -boat was blurred upon the river. - -"That was Jolycoeur," declared Tonty, "whom Monsieur de la Salle -promised me he would never take into his service again. That fellow -tried to poison Monsieur de la Salle at Fort Frontenac." - -"Monsieur de Tonty," remonstrated the subordinate, "I know him well. He -was here a month. He told me he was enlisted at St. Domingo, while -Monsieur de la Salle lay in a fever, to replace men who deserted. He is -a pilot and his name is Teissier." - -"Whatever his real name may be we had him here on the Rock before you -came, and he was called Jolycoeur." - -"At any rate," said Du Lhut, "his being of Abbe Cavelier's company -argues that he hath done La Salle no late harm." - -Tonty thought about the matter while light grew in the sky, but -dismissed it when the priest of Fort St. Louis summoned his great family -to matins. On such pleasant mornings they were chanted in the open air. - -The sun rose, drawing filaments from the mass of vapor like a spinner, -and every shred disappeared while the eye watched it. Preparations went -forward for breakfast, while children's and birds' voices already -chirped above and below the steep ascent. - -One urchin brought Tonty a paper, saying it was Monsieur Joutel's, the -young man who slept in the storehouse and was that morning gone from the -fort. - -"Did he tell you to give it to me?" inquired Tonty. - -"Monsieur," complained the lad, "he pinned it in the cap of my large -brother and left order it was to be given to you after two days. But my -large brother hath this morning pinned it in my cap, and it may work me -harm. Besides, I desire to amuse myself by the river, and if I lost -Monsieur Joutel's paper I should get whipped." - -"I commend you," laughed Tonty, as he took the packet. "You must have no -secrets from your commandant." - -The child leaped, relieved, toward the gate, and this heavy -communication shook between the iron and the natural hand. Tonty spread -it open on his right gauntlet. - -He read a few moments with darkening countenance. Then the busy people -on the Rock were startled by a cry of awful anguish. Tonty rushed to the -centre of the esplanade, flinging the paper from him, and shouted, "Du -Lhut--men of Fort St. Louis! Monsieur de la Salle has been murdered in -that southern wilderness! We have had one of the assassins hiding here -in our storehouse! Get out the boats!" - -[Illustration] - -Men and women paused in their various business, and children, like -frightened sheep, gathered closely around their mothers. The clamorous -cry which disaster wrings from excitable Latins burst out in every part -of the fortress. Du Lhut grasped the paper and read it while he limped -after Tonty. - -With up-spread arms the Italian raved across the open space, this -far-reaching calamity widening like an eternally expanding circle around -him. His rage at the assassins of La Salle--among whom he had himself -placed a man whom he thought fit to be trusted--and his sorrow broke -bounds in such sobs as men utter. - -"Oh, that I might brain them with this hand! Oh, wretched people on -these plains! What hope remains to us? What will become of all these -families, whose resource he was, whose sole consolation! It is despair -for us! Thou wert one of the greatest men of this age,--so useful to -France by thy great discoveries, so strong in thy virtues, so respected, -so cherished by people even the most barbarous. That such a man should -be massacred by wretches, and the earth did not engulf them or the -lightning strike them dead!"[24] - -Tonty's blood boiled in his face. - -"Why do you all stand here like rocks instead of getting out the boats? -Get out the boats! They stripped my master; they left his naked body to -wolves and crows on Trinity River. Get ready the canoes. I will hunt -those assassins, down to the last man, through every forest on this -continent!" - -"You did not finish this relation,"[25] shouted Du Lhut at his ear. "Can -you get revenge on dead men? The men who actually put their hands in the -blood of La Salle are all dead. Those who killed not each other the -Indians killed." - -Tonty turned with a furious push at Du Lhut which sent him staggering -backward. - -"Is Jolycoeur dead? I will run down this forgiving priest of a brother -of Monsieur de la Salle's, and the assassin he harbored here under his -protection he shall give up to justice!" - -"Thou mad-blooded loyal-hearted Italian!" exclaimed Du Lhut, dragging -him out of the throng and holding him against a tree, "dost thou think -nobody can feel this wrong except thee? I would go with thee anywhere if -it could be revenged. But hearken to me, Henri de Tonty; if you go after -the Abbe it will appear that you wish to strip him of the goods he bore -away." - -"He brought an order from Monsieur de la Salle," retorted Tonty. "On -that order I would give him the last skin in the storehouse. What I will -strip him of is the wretch he carries in his forgiving bosom!" - -"And you will put a scandal upon this young girl your bride, who has -this sorrow also to bear. Are you determined to denounce her uncle and -her brother before this fortress as unworthy to be the kinsmen of La -Salle? She has now no consolation left except in you. Will you burn the -wound of her sorrow with the brand of shame?" - -Tonty leaned against the tree, pallor succeeding the pulsing of blood in -his face. He looked at Du Lhut with piteous black eyes, like a stag -brought down in full career. - -"The Abbe Cavelier," Bellefontaine was whispering to one of the -immigrants, "carried from this fortress above four thousand livres worth -of furs, besides other goods!" - -"And left mademoiselle married without fortune," muttered back the -other. "He did well for himself by concealing the death of Sieur de la -Salle." - -Men and women looked mournfully at each other as Tonty walked across the -fort and shut himself in his house. They wondered at hearing no crying -within it such as a woman might utter upon the first shock of her grief. -With La Salle's own instinct Barbe locked herself within her room. It -was not known to the people of Fort St. Louis, it was not known even to -Tonty, how she lay on the floor with her teeth set and faced this fact. - -Tonty sat in his door overlooking the cliff all day. - -Clouds sailed over the Rock. The lingering robins quarrelled with crows. -That glittering pinnacled cliff across the ravine shone like white -castle turrets. Smoke went up from the lodges on the plains as it had -done during the six months La Salle's bones were bleaching on Trinity -River; but now a whisper like the whisper of wind in September -corn-leaves was rushing from lodge to lodge. Tonty heard tribe after -tribe take up the lament for the dead. - -Not only was it a lament for La Salle; but it was also for their own -homes. He and Tonty had brought them back from exile, had banded them -for strength and helped them ward off the Iroquois. His unstinted -success meant their greatest prosperity. The undespairing Norman's death -foreshadowed theirs, with all that silence and desolation which must -fall on the Rock of St. Louis before another civilization possessed it. - -Night came, and the leaves sifted down in its light breeze as if only -half inclined to their descent. The children had been quieted all day. -To them the revelry of the night before seemed a far remote occasion, so -instantly are joy and trouble set asunder. - -The rich valley of the Illinois grew dimmer and dimmer under the -starlight. Tonty could no longer see the river's brown surface, but he -could distinguish the little trail of foam down its centre churned by -rapids above. Twisted pines, which had tangled their roots in -everlasting rock, hung below him, children of the air. Some man of the -garrison approached the windlass and let down the bucket with creak and -rattle. He waited with the ear of custom for its clanking cry as it -plunged, its gurgle and struggle in the water, and the many splashes -with which it ascended. - -His face showed as a pale spot in the dusk when he rose from the -doorstep and came into the room to light a candle. Barbe must be brought -out from her silent ordeal and comforted and fed. - -Tonty set his lighted candle on a table and considered how he should -approach her door. The furniture of the room had been hastily carried in -that morning from its uses in the fete. The apartment was a rude -frontier drawing-room, having furs, deer antlers, and shining canoe -paddles for its ornaments. - -While Tonty hesitated, the door on the fortress side opened, and La -Salle stepped into the room. - -[Illustration] - -Tonty's voice died in his throat. The joy and terror of this sight held -him without power to move. - -It was La Salle; a mere shred of his former person, girt like some -skeleton apostle with a buffalo hide which left his arm bones naked as -well as his journey roughened feet. Beard had started through his pallid -skin, and this and his wild hair the wilderness had dressed with dead -leaves. A piece of buffalo leather banded his forehead like a coarse -crown, yet blood had escaped its pressure, for a dried track showed -darkly down the side of his neck. Tonty gave no thought to the manitou -of a waterfall from whose shrine La Salle had probably stripped that -Indian offering of a buffalo robe. It did not seem to him incredible -that Robert Cavelier should survive what other men called a death wound, -and naked, bleeding, and starving, should make his way for six months -through jungles of forest, to his friend. - -Hoarse and strong from the depths of his breast Tonty brought out the -cry,-- - -"O my master, my master!" - -"Tonty," spoke La Salle, standing still, with the rapture of achievement -in his eyes, "I have found the lost river!" - -He moved across the room and went out of the cliff door. His gaunt limbs -and shaggy robe were seen one instant against the palisades, as if his -eye were passing that starlit valley in review, the picture in miniature -of the great west. He was gone while Tonty looked at him. - -The whisper of water at the base of the rock, and of the sea's sweet -song in pines, took the place of the voice which had spoken. - -A lad began to carol within the fortress, but hushed himself with sudden -remembrance. That brooding body of darkness, which so overlies us all -that its daily removal by sunlight is a continued miracle, pressed -around this silent room resisted only by one feeble candle. And Tonty -stood motionless in the room, blanched and exalted by what he had seen. - -Barbe's opening her chamber door startled him and set in motion the -arrested machinery of life. - -"What has been here, monsieur?" she asked under her breath. - -Tonty, without replying, moved to receive her, crushing under his foot a -beech-nut which one of the children of the fortress had dropped upon the -floor. Barbe's arms girded his great chest. - -"Oh, monsieur," she said with a sob, "I thought I heard a voice in this -room, and I know I would myself break through death to come back to -you!" - -FOOTNOTES: - - [24] Translated from Tonty's lament over La Salle in "Dernieres - Decouvertes dans L'Amerique Septentrional." - - [25] Joutel's Journal gives a long and exact account of La Salle's - assassination and the fate of all who were concerned in it. - The murder, by the conspirators, of his nephew Moranget, his - servant Saget, and his Indian hunter Nika--which preceded and - led to his death--is not mentioned in this romance. - - To this day it is not certainly known what became of La Salle's - body. Father Anastase Douay, the Recollect priest who - witnessed his death, told Joutel at the time that the - conspirators stripped it and threw it in the bushes. But - afterward he declared La Salle lived an hour, and he himself - confessed the dying man, buried him when dead, and planted a - cross on his grave. So excellent a historian as Garneau gives - credit to this story. - - In reality the Abbe Cavelier and his party treated Tonty with - greater cruelty than the romancer describes. They lived over - winter on his hospitality, departed loaded with his favors, - and told him not a word of the tragedy. - - Joutel's account of it, much condensed from the old English - translation, reads thus:-- - - "The conspirators hearing the shot (fired by La Salle - to attract their attention) concluded it was Monsieur - de la Sale who was come to seek them. They made ready - their arms and Duhaut passed the river with - Larcheveque. The first of them spying Monsieur de la - Sale at a Distance, as he was coming towards them, - advanced and hid himself among the high weeds, to wait - his passing by, so that Monsieur de la Sale suspected - nothing, and having not so much as charged his Piece - again, saw the aforesaid Larcheveque at a good distance - from him, and immediately asked for his nephew - Moranget, to which Larcheveque answered, That he was - along the river. At the same time the Traitor Duhaut - fired his Piece and shot Monsieur de la Sale thro' the - head, so that he dropped down dead on the Spot, without - speaking one word. - - "Father Anastase, who was then by his side, stood stock - still in a Fright, expecting the same fate,... but the - murderer Duhaut put him out of that Dread, bidding him - not to fear, for no hurt was intended him; that it was - Dispair that had prevailed with them to do what he - saw.... - - "The shot which had killed Monsieur de la Sale was a - signal ... for the assassins to draw near. They all - repaired to the place where the wretched corpse lay, - which they barbarously stripped to the shirt, and vented - their malice in opprobrious language. The surgeon Liotot - said several times in scorn and derision, There thou - liest, Great Bassa, there thou liest. In conclusion they - dragged it naked among the bushes and left it exposed to - the ravenous wild Beasts. - - "When they came to our camp ... Monsieur Cavelier the - priest could not forbear telling them that if they would - do the same by him he would forgive them his" (La - Salle's) "murder.... They answered they had Nothing to - say to him. - - ... "We were all obliged to stifle our Resentment that - it might not appear, for our Lives depended upon it.... - We dissembled so well that they were not suspicious of - us, and that Temptation we were under of making them - away in revenge for those they had murdered, would have - easily prevailed and been put in execution, had not - Monsieur - - Cavelier, the Priest, always positively opposed it, - alleging that we ought to leave vengeance to God." - - The Recollet priest, who had seen La Salle's death, answered - no questions at Fort St. Louis. Teissier, one of the - conspirators, had obtained the Abbe's pardon. The others - could truly say La Salle was well when they last saw him. - - - - - VI. - - TO-DAY. - - -It is recorded that the Abbe Cavelier and his party arrived safely in -France, and that he then concealed the death of La Salle for awhile that -he might get possession of property which would have been seized by La -Salle's creditors. He died "rich and very old" says the historian,[26] -though he was unsuccessful in a petition which he made with his nephew -to the king, to have all the explorer's seigniorial propriety in America -put in his possession. Like Father Hennepin--who returned to France and -wrote his entertaining book to prove himself a greater man than La -Salle--the Abbe Cavelier was skilful in turning loss to profit. - -It is also recorded that Henri de Tonty, at his own expense, made a long -search with men, canoes, and provisions, for La Salle's Texan -colony--left by the king to perish at the hands of Indians; that he was -deserted by every follower except his Indian and one Frenchman, and -nearly died in swamps and canebrakes before he again reached the fort on -the Illinois. - - * * * * * - -To-day you may climb the Rock of St. Louis,--called now Starved Rock -from the last stand which the Illinois made as a tribe on that fortress, -a hundred years ago, when the Iroquois surrounded and starved them,--and -you may look over the valley from which Tonty heard the death lament -arise. - -A later civilization has cleared it of Indian lodges and set it with -villages and homesteads. A low ridge of the old earthwork yet remains on -the east verge. Behind the Rock, slopes of milk-white sand still stretch -toward a shallow ravine. Beyond that stands a farmhouse full of the -relics of French days. The iron-handed commandant of the Rock has left -some hint of his strong spirit thereabouts, for even the farmer's boy -will speak his name with the respect boys have for heroic men. - -Crosses, beads, old iron implements, and countless remains of La Salle's -time, turn up everywhere in the valley soil. - -Ferns spring, lush and vivid, from the lichened lips of that great -sandstone body. The stunted cedars lean over its edge still singing the -music of the sea. Sunshine and shade and nearness to the sky are yet -there. You see depressions in the soil like grass-healed wounds, made by -the tearing out of huge trees; but local tradition tells you these are -the remains of pits dug down to the rock by Frenchmen searching for -Tonty's money. At the same time, local tradition is positive that Tonty -came back, poor, to the Rock to die, in 1718. - -Death had stripped him of every tie. He had helped to build that city -near the Mississippi's mouth which was La Salle's object, and had also -helped found Mobile. The great west owes more to him than to any other -man who labored to open it to the world. Yet historians say the date of -his death is unknown, and tradition around the Rock says he crept up the -stony path an old and broken man, helped by his Indian and a priest, -died gazing from its summit, and was buried at its west side. The -tribes, while they held the land, continued to cover his grave with wild -roses. But men may tread over him now, for he lies lost in the earth as -La Salle was lost in the wilderness of the south. - -No justice ever was done to this man who gave to his friends with both -hand of flesh and hand of iron, caring nothing for recompense; and whom -historians, priests, tradition, savages, and his own deeds unite in -praising. But as long as the friendship of man for man is beautiful, as -long as the multitude with one impulse lift above themselves those men -who best express the race, Henri de Tonty's memory must stand like the -Rock of St. Louis.[27] - -FOOTNOTES: - - [26] Parkman. - - [27] "In 1690 the proprietorship of Fort St. Louis was granted to - Tonty jointly with La Forest.... In 1702 the governor of - Canada, claiming that the charter of the fort had been - violated, decided to discontinue it. Although thus officially - abandoned it seems to have been occupied as a trading post - until 1718. Deprived of his command and property, Tonty - engaged with Le Moyne d'Iberville in various successful - expeditions."--John Moses' History of Illinois. - - - THE END. - - - - -Transcriber's Note - -The following errors are noted. The page numbers in this table refer to -those of the original. The French 'Recollet' is spelled twice as -'Recollect'. The instance appearing in a footnote is left as is, but -that in the text itself was changed to match all other occurrences. - - 56 | He is no stupid | _sic._ - | | - 73 | No more than half your party, monsieur[.] | Added period. - | | - 190 | flank of rock wall | _sic._ - | | - 197 | The Recolle[c]t Father did not answer | Removed 'c' for - | | consistency. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of Tonty, by Mary Hartwell Catherwood - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF TONTY *** - -***** This file should be named 41273.txt or 41273.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/1/2/7/41273/ - -Produced by David Edwards, KD Weeks and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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