anga, or, to call her by her baptismal name,
Marguerite, was bound by a threefold cord--her love to her husband, to
her son, and to her religion. Mecumeh, finding persuasion ineffectual,
had recourse to stratagem. The commandant was in the habit of going down
the river often on fishing excursions, and when he returned, he would
fire his signal gun, and Marguerite and her boy would hasten to the
shore to greet him.

"On one occasion he had been gone longer than usual. Marguerite was
filled with apprehensions natural enough at a time when imminent dangers
and hairbreadth escapes were of every day occurrence. She had sat in the
tower and watched for the returning canoe till the last beam of day had
faded from the waters;--the deepening shadows of twilight played tricks
with her imagination. Once she was startled by the water-fowl, which, as
it skimmed along the surface of the water, imaged to her fancy the light
canoe impelled by her husband's vigorous arm--again she heard the leap
of the heavy muskalongi, and the splashing waters sounded to her fancy
like the first dash of the oar. That passed away, and disappointment and
tears followed. Her boy was beside her; the young Louis, who, though
scarcely twelve years old, already had his imagination filled with
daring deeds. Born and bred in a fort, he was an adept in the use of the
bow and the musket; courage seemed to be his instinct, and danger his
element, and battles and wounds were 'household words' with him. He
laughed at his mother's fears; but, in spite of his boyish ridicule,
they strengthened, till apprehension seemed reality. Suddenly the sound
of the signal gun broke on the stillness of the night. Both mother and
son sprang on their feet with a cry of joy, and were pressing hand in
hand towards the outer gate, when a sentinel stopped them to remind
Marguerite it was her husband's order that no one should venture without
the walls after sunset. She, however, insisted on passing, and telling
the soldier that she would answer to the commandant for his breach of
orders--she passed the outer barrier. Young Louis held up his bow and
arrow before the sentinel, saying gaily, "I am my mother's body-guard
you know." Tradition has preserved these trifling circumstances, as the
events that followed rendered them memorable.

"The distance," continued the stranger, "from the fort to the place
where the commandant moored his canoe was trifling, and quickly passed.
Marguerite and