Part 9 (1/2)

She was gaining every day and went out on the gallery for exercise. She was a very cheerful invalid; indeed miladi was so entertaining she was never weary when with her, and if her husband needed her, Wanamee came to sit with the child. Rose knew many words in the language, as well as that of the unfortunate Iroquois.

All they had been able to learn about Catherine Arlac was that she had come from Paris to Honfleur, a widow, with a little girl. And Paris was such a great and puzzling place for a search.

”But she is a sweet human rose with no thorns, and I must keep her,”

declared miladi.

Laurent Giffard made no demur. He was really glad for his wife to have an interest while he was away.

The party threaded their way through the narrow winding paths that were to be so famous afterward and witness the heroic struggle, when the lilies of France went down for the last time, and the heritage that had cost so much in valiant endeavor and blood and treasure was signed away.

There were flaming torches and swinging lanterns and throngs wending to the part beyond the tents. The dance was not to pa.s.s a certain radius, where guards were stationed. Already there was a central fire of logs, around which the braves sat with their knees drawn up and their chins resting upon them, looking as if they were asleep.

”A fire this warm night,” said miladi, in irony.

”We could hardly see them without it,” returned her husband.

At the summons of a rude drum that made a startling noise, the braves rose, threw down their blankets and displayed their holiday attire of paint, fringes, beads, and dressed deerskins with great headdresses of feathers. Another ring formed round them. One brave, an old man, came forward, and gesticulating wildly, went through a series of antics. One after another fell in, and the slow tread began to increase. Then shrill songs, with a kind of musical rhythm, low at first, but growing louder and louder, the two or three circles joining in, the speed increasing until they went whirling around like madmen, shouting, thrusting at each other with their brawny arms, until all seemed like a sudden frenzy.

”Oh, they will kill each other!” almost shrieked Madame.

”_Non, non_, but small loss if they did,” commented Madame Dubray.

They paused suddenly. It seemed like disentangling a chain. The confusion was heightened by the cries and the dancing feather headdresses that might have been a flock of giant birds. But presently they resolved into a circle again, and began to march to a slow chant.

One young fellow seized a brand from the fire and began a wild gyration, pointing the end to the circle, at random, it seemed. Then another and another until the lights flashed about madly and there was a scent of burning feathers. The circle stood its ground bravely, but there were shrieks and mocking laughter as they danced around, sometimes making a lunge out at the spectators, who would draw back in affright, a signal for roars of mirth.

”They will burn each other up,” cried Madame. ”Oh, let us go. The noise is more than I can bear. And if they should attack us. Do you remember what M. du Parc was telling us?”

”I think we have had enough of it,” began M. Giffard. ”They are said to be very treacherous. What is to hinder them from attacking the whites?”

”The knowledge that they have not yet received any pay, and their remaining stock would be confiscated. They are not totally devoid of self-interest, and most of them have a respect for the fighting powers of the Sieur and his punis.h.i.+ng capacity, as well.”

As they left the place the noise seemed to subside, though it was like the roar of wild animals.

”Am I to remain here all winter with these savages? Can I not return with M. de Champlain?” pleaded Madame Giffard.

”Such a time would be almost a G.o.dsend in the winter,” declared Destournier. ”But they will be hundreds of miles away, and the near Indians are sometimes too friendly, when driven by hunger to seek the fort. Oh, you will find no cause for alarm, I think.”

”And how long will they keep this up?” she asked, as they were ascending the parapet from which they could still see the moving ma.s.s and the flas.h.i.+ng lights, weird amid the surrounding darkness.

”They will sit in a ring presently and smoke the pipe of peace and enjoyment, and drop off to sleep. And for your satisfaction, not a few among those were fur-hunters and traders, white men, who have given up the customs of civilized life and enjoy the hards.h.i.+ps of the wilderness, but who will fight like tigers for their brethren when the issue comes.

They are seldom recreant to their own blood.”

”I do not want to see it again, ever,” she cried pa.s.sionately. ”I shall hardly sleep for thinking of it and some horrible things a sailor told on s.h.i.+pboard. I can believe them all true now.”

”And we have had horrible battles, cruelty to prisoners,” declared her husband. ”These poor savages have never been taught anything better, and are always at war with each other. But for us, who have a higher state of civilization, it seems incredible that we should take a delight in destroying our brethren.”

It was quiet and peaceful enough inside the fort. The Sieur was still engrossed with his papers, marking out routes and places where lakes and rivers might be found and where trading posts might be profitably set, and colonies established. It was a daring ambition to plant the lilies of France up northward, to take in the mighty lakes they had already discovered and to cross the continent and find the sure route to India.