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Show 202 THE Lll.Y ANO THE TOTEM. Roquette. To them, at times, came La Croix, wl1om Lnudonnicrc still trusted, and whom even you did not suspect. They came to me with new pbns. They were to contrive pretexts for sending you off to a distance, with the bes~ men of the garrison. Oolcnoc was n. ready agent at once of Potanou, Satouriova, and the conspirators. In your absence, they were to get possession of the garrison and secure the person of Laudonnicrc." "You mean not to say, Lc GcnrC, that they have succeeded in this?" "Ay, do 1-thc g:mi....on is in their hands-the shipping i and Laudonnicre is himself a close prisoner on board the unfinished brignntine. 11 "God of heaven ! and I am here !" " When the conspirators found that I no longer agreed to second them in their machinations, and when I threatened to expose them to Laudonnicrc, they employed Oolcnoe to secure my person. Fi\·e of his people beset me at the same moment, and held me fast in one of their wigwams until their scheme bad . been carried into execution. With Laudonnicre in their hands, I was abandoned by my keepers, and sulfured to go forth. From them J learned the history of all that had t.aken place in the colony. I saw the danger, and felt that the only hope for Laudonnicrc lay in you. Fortunately, I had only to follow those who had held me captive, in order to find the route that you had taken. The people of Oolenoc were soon upon his tracks. I compassed theirs. It is one proGt in the outlawed life which I have been doomed to endure, that it has taught me the arts of the savagetaught me the instincts of the beast,-his stealth, his endurance, his far-sight, and his eager and appreciating scent. Hark! dcst T il E ADVENTURE OF D1EftLACit. 203 hear! Put thy men in order. The subtle savage i.s about to gird thee in." Scarcely had he spoken, when the forest was alive with cries of warfare. Wild whoops rang through the great avenues of wood, and sudden glimpses of the red-men, followed by flights of arrows, warned the Frenchmen stilt more emphatically to prepare against the danger. Dut the arrows, though discharged with akill and muscle, were sent from far ;-the dread of the European firearms prompting a decent caution, which, in a great degree, lessoned the superiority which the sav11.gcs possessed in numbers. Tho woods were now (illed with enemies. Tribe after tribe had colle~ted, along their route, as the Frenchmen had advanced, and every forward step bad served only to increase the great impediments in the way of their return. H was duo wholly to the excellence of the watch nightly kept by D'Erlach, that they had not been butchered while they slept. 1t was in consequence of his admirable caution, and provision against attack while they marched, that they had not fallen into frequent ambush, as they moved by noonday. Nightly had the subtle chief, Oolenoe, ~:~tolen away to his comrades, arraying his numbers, and counselling their pursuit nod progress. I lis schemes detected, the mask was thrown aside ns no longer of use, and open warfare was the cry tl1rough the forests. The necessity was before our Frenchmen of fighting their way back. 'l'he effort of tho red-men was to cut them off in detail, by frequent surprises, by incessant assaults and annoyances, and by straitening them in the seo.rch after water aml provisions. It would he a weary task to pursue, day by day, aml hour by hour, the thousand details, by wbich each party endeavored to attain its object. The events of such a conflict must necessarily |
