t away to be slaves to
the Chief-Across-the-Water. There is a chief at the stone house whom
you have seen fighting bravely in many a battle. He is a bold warrior;
none is so quick or so tireless as Captain la Grange. But he has a
devil in his heart. The bad medicine of white man and redman, the
fire-water, is always close to him, ready to whisper to him and guide
him. It was not the father at Quebec that broke the faith with the
Onondagas. It was not the Big Buffalo. If the Big Buffalo could so
forget his brothers of the Onondaga lodges, he would not have come
back to the Long House to tell them of the sorrow of the Great
Mountain. My brothers have seen the Big Buffalo in war and peace--they
know that he would not do this.

"The devil was in Captain la Grange's heart. He captured my brothers.
He told the Great Mountain that it was a war party, that he had taken
them prisoners fairly. He lied to the Great Mountain. When the Great
Mountain asked the Big Buffalo to bring the prisoners to his great
village on the river, the Big Buffalo could not say, 'No, I am no
longer your son!' When the Great Mountain commands, the Big Buffalo
obeys. With sorrow in his heart he did as his father told him."

Menard was struggling to put the maid out of his thoughts, to keep in
view only the safety of the column and the welfare of New France. And
as the words came rapidly to his lips and fell upon the ears of that
silent audience, he began to feel that they believed him.

"My brothers," he said, with more feeling than they knew, "it is five
seasons since I left your village for the land of the white man. In
that time you have had no thought that I was not indeed your brother,
the son of your chief. You have known other Frenchmen. Father Claude,
who sits by my side; Father Jean de Lamberville, who has given his
many years to save you for the great white man's Manitou; Major
d'Orvilliers, who has never failed to give food and shelter to the
starving hunter at his great stone house,--I could name a hundred
others. You know that these are honest, that what they promise will be
done. But in every village is a fool, in every family is one who is
weak and cannot earn a name on the hunt. You have a warrior in this
house who to-day raised his hand against a visitor in the great
council. My brothers,--it is with sadness that I say it,--not all the
white men are true warriors. You are wise chiefs and brave warriors;
you know that because one man i