informed me that you were dead."

"Very good. He believed so, I doubt not; but, at any rate, you might
have turned back, if only to give Christian burial."

"I intended to do that at some future time," said Pere Michel; "but
at that time I felt my chief duty to be to the living. How could I
have left the Countess Laborde? Motier would not have been a proper
guardian to convey her to Louisbourg, and to take her back with me
was impossible. I therefore decided to go on, as you said, and take
her first to Louisbourg, and afterwards to return."

"You showed no haste about it," said Cazeneau.

"I had to wait here," said the priest.

"May I ask what could have been the urgent business which kept you
from the sacred duty of the burial of the dead?"

"A ship is expected every day, and I waited to get the letters of my
superiors, with reference to further movements on my mission."

"You say that Motier informed you about my death. Did he tell you how
it had happened?"

"He said that you and he had fought, and that you had been killed."

"Why, then, did you not denounce him to the authorities on your
arrival here?"

"On what charge?"

"On the charge of murder."

"I did not know that when one gentleman is unfortunate enough to kill
another, in fair fight, that it can be considered murder. The duel is
as lawful in America as in France."

"This was not a duel!" cried Cazeneau. "It was an act of
assassination. Motier is no better than a murderer."

"I only knew his own account," said the priest.

"Besides," continued Cazeneau, "a duel can only take place between
two equals; and this Motier is one of the _canaille_, one not worthy
of my sword."

"Yet, monsieur," said the priest, "when you arrested him first, it
was not as one of the _canaille_, but as the son of the outlawed
Count de Montresor."

"True," said Cazeneau; "but I have reason to believe that he is
merely some impostor. He is now under a different accusation. But one
more point. How did Motier manage to escape?"

"As to that, monsieur, I always supposed that his escape was easy
enough, and that he could have effected it at once. The farm-houses
of the Acadians are not adapted to be very secure prisons. There were
no bolts and bars, and no adequate watch."

"True; but the most significant part of his escape is, that he had
external assistance. Who were those Indians who led him on my trail?
How did he, a stranger, win them over?"

"You forget, mons