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Show 38 THE LILY AND THE TOTEM. failed tQ effect. He wllll tho best fisherman and hunt4Jr-was as brave as he was light,..hearted-was, altogether, so perfect a character, in the estimation of the little band of Albert, that he found no enemy among his equals, and could always choose l1is companion for himself. His successes were not confined t<1 his own countrymen. lle found equal favor in the sight of the Indians. Among his other accomplishments, he possessed the most wonderful agility-had belonged, at one time, to a compnny of strolling players, and l1is skill on tight and slack rope-if we nrc to credit old stories-would put to the blush the modem performances of the Ravels and II err Cline. It was through his means, and partly by his ingenuity, tl1at the Indian hunter wtls entrapped and brought into the fort,-through whose agency the intimacy hnd been effected with the people of Audustn and the other chiefs; and, during this intimacy, Gucrnachc had proved, in various ways, one of the principal instrument.~ for confirming the f:worablc impressions which the Indian bad received in his intercourse with the :Frenchmen. He was everywhere popular with the red men. Nothing, indeed, could be done without him. Ignorant of his inferior social position among the whites, the simple savages sent for him to their fcn.st.s nod frolics, without caring for the claims of any other person. He had but to carry his violin-for, among his other accomplishments, that of fiddling was not the smallest--to secure the smiles of the men n.nd the favors of the women; nod it wns not long before he had formed, among the savages, a class for dancing, after the European fashion, upon the bunks of the Edisto. '£hink of the red men of Apalachin., figuring under a. Parisian teacher, by night, by torch. light, beneath the great ooks of the original forest! Such uncouth antics might well offend, with never-lessening • TilE LEGEND OF' CUERNACJIE. 39 W<·Il(ler, the courtly nymphs of tlJC Seine and the Loire. But t!IC lnJians suffci·cd from no com·cntional apprcbcnsions. 'l'hey were not maJe to feel their deficiencies under the indulgent trai11ing of Guernache, and footed it away as merrily, as if each of their damsels sported on a toe us light and cxfJ_uisitc as tbat of Ellslcr or Taglioui. King Audusta, himself, though well stricken in years, was yet seduced into the capricious mt~zcs which he beheld with so much pleasure, and, for a season, the trium]Jh of Gucrnache among the palms and pines of Gra-nde Ri~:iere, was sufficiently complete, to make him wonder at times how l1is countrymen ever suffered his departure from the shores of J,a. Belle J?rance! At first, and when it was doubtful to what extent the favor of tlJC rcd.mcn might be secured for the colony, Captain Albert readily countenanced the growing popularity of his fiddler among them. Jlis permission was frequently gi\·en to Guernachc, when king Audusta solicited his presence. His policy prompted him to regt~rd i~ as l1ighly fot·ttnwtc that s? excellent an agent for his purposes was to be found flnJ011g his followers ; and, for oomc months, it needed ouly a. suggestion of Gucrnachc, }Jimself, to procure for him leave of absence. The worthy fellow never abused his pri\'ilcgcs-ncver was unfaithful to his trust--never grew insolent upon indulgence. But Captnin Albert, though claiming to be the cadet of a noble house, was yet a person of a mean and ignoble nature. Small and unimposing of person, effeminate of habit, and accustomed to low indulgences, he was not ouly deficient in tho higher resources of intellect, but he was exceedingly querulous and tyrannical of temper. His aristocratica. l connexions alone had secured him the charge of tho colony, for which nature and education had equally unfitted him. |