th
fish. There was a stir and bustle about the square within the stone
bastions; orderlies hurried from quarters to barracks, bugles sounded,
and groups of ragged soldiers sat about, polishing muskets and belts,
and setting new flints. Men of the commissary department were carrying
boxes and bales from the fort to a cleared space on the beach.

Menard walked across the square and knocked at the door of Major
d'Orvilliers's little house. Many an eye had followed him as he
hurried by, aroused to curiosity by his tattered uniform, rusted
musket, and boot-tops rudely stitched to deerskin moccasins.

"Major d'Orvilliers is busy," said the orderly at the door.

"Tell him it is Captain Menard."

In a moment the Major himself appeared in the doorway.

"Come in, Menard. I am to start in an hour or so to meet Governor
Denonville, but there is always time for you. I'll start a little
late, if necessary."

"The Governor comes from Niagara?"

"Yes. He is two or three days' journey up the lake. I am to escort him
back."

They had reached the office in the rear of the house, and the Major
brushed a heap of documents and drawings from a chair.

"Sit down, Menard. You have a long story, I take it. You look as if
you'd been to the Illinois and back."

"You knew of my capture?"

"Yes. We had about given you up. And the girl,--Mademoiselle St.
Denis--"

"She is here."

"Here--at Frontenac?"

"Yes; in Father de Casson's care."

"Thank God! But how did you do it? How did you get her here, and
yourself?"

Menard rose and paced up and down the room. As he walked, he told the
story of the capture at La Gallette, of the days in the Onondaga
village, of the council and the escape. When he had finished, there
was a long silence, while the Major sat with contracted brows.

"You've done a big thing, Menard," he said at last, "one of the
biggest things that has been done in New France. But have you thought
of the Governor--of how he will take it?"

"Yes."

"It may not be easy. Denonville doesn't know the Iroquois as you and I
do. He is elated now about his victory,--he thinks he has settled the
question of white supremacy. If I were to tell him to-morrow that he
has only made a bitter enemy of the Senecas, and that they will not
rest until they wipe out this defeat, do you suppose he would believe
it? You have given a pledge to the Iroquois that is entirely outside
of the Governor's view of military precedent. To tell the t