ississippi. Most of the black-robed missionaries were gone, as
had the high-born French officers, with their horses, sabers, and
banner-plumes, who once sought treasure and fame in this grand town of
the Mississippi Valley. The Bourbon lilies had fallen from old Fort
Chartres a generation ago, and the British cross had come down, and
to-day all the houses, new and old, were decked with the stars and
stripes. It was not a holiday. What did it mean?

Jasper and Waubeno entered the old French town, and gazed at the brick
buildings, the antique roofs, the high dormer windows, and the faded
houses of by-gone priest and nun. The tavern was covered with flags,
French and American, as were the grand house of William Morrison and the
beautiful Edgar mansion. The house once occupied by the French
commandant was wrapped in the national colors. It had been the first
State House of Illinois. A hundred years before--just one hundred
years--Kaskaskia Commons had received its grand name from his most
Christian Majesty Louis XV, and it then seemed likely to become the
capital of the French mid-continent empire in the New World. The Jesuits
flocked here, zealous for the conversion of the Indian races. Here came
men of rank and military glory, and Fort Chartres rose near it, grand
and powerful as if to awe the world. But there was a foe in the fort of
the French heart, and the boundless empire faded, and the old French
town went to the American pioneer, and the fort became a ruin, like
Louisburg at Cape Breton.

As Jasper and Waubeno passed along the broad streets they noticed that
the town was filled with country people, and that there were Indians
among them.

One of these Indians approached Waubeno, and said:

"She--yonder--see--Mary Panisciowa--daughter of the Great Chief--Mary
Panisciowa."

Waubeno followed with his eye the daughter of the Chief of the Six
Nations. He went forward with the crowd and came to the house that she
was making her home, and asked to meet her. Jasper had followed him.

They turned aside from the street, which was full of excited
people--excited Jasper knew not why. The door of the house where Mary
Panisciowa was visiting stood open, and they were asked to enter.

She looked a queen, yet she had the graces of the English and French
people. She was a most accomplished woman. She spoke both English and
French readily, her education having been conducted by an American agent
to whom she had been commende