of tinder if I
stray a league from Quebec without a guard." He looked down at the
daisy on his coat. "But the maid will be safe, Father. She will be
safe."

"I do not believe that they would harm her, even as it is."

"No, I trust not--I trust not. But we are here, and she is here; and
not until I know that her journey is over will my eyes close easily at
night."

"But your plan, M'sieu,--you have not told me."

"Ah, I thought you understood. Did you know about the capture at
Frontenac when it happened? No? It was like this. The Governor sent
word, with the orders that came up to the fort in May, that at the
first sign of trouble or disturbance with the Indians there,
d'Orvilliers should seize a few score of them and send them down
the river in chains. It would be an example, he said. I was
awaiting orders,--I had just returned from the Huron Country and
Michillimackinac,--and d'Orvilliers called me to his rooms and
showed me the order. 'Now,' he said, 'who in the devil is meddling
at Quebec?' I did not know; I do not know yet. But there was the
order. He turned it over to La Grange, with instructions to wait until
some offence should give him an excuse."

"I know the rest, M'sieu."

"Yes, yes. You have heard a dozen times,--how La Grange was drinking,
and how he lied to a peaceful hunting party, and drugged them, and
brained one poor devil with his own sword. And what could we do,
Father? Right or wrong, the capture was made. It was too late to
release them, for the harm was done. If d'Orvilliers had refused to
carry out his orders and send them to Quebec, it would have cost him
his commission."

"And you, M'sieu?"

"I was the only officer on detached service at the Fort. D'Orvilliers
could not look me in the face when he ordered me to take them."

"You will tell them this?"

"This? Yes, and more. I will pledge the honour of New France that La
Grange shall suffer. The man who has betrayed the Onondagas must be
punished before we can have their good faith. Don't you understand?"

Father Claude walked away a few steps, and then back, his hands
clasped before him.

"Don't you understand, Father? If a wrong has been done an Iroquois,
it is revenge that will appease him. Very well. Captain la Grange has
wronged them; let them have their revenge."

"Is that the right view, M'sieu?"

"Not for us, Father,--for you and me. To us it is simple justice. But
justice,--that is not the word with which to reach an