he Ottawa
river by fur-traders from the frozen North.

It was indeed a time of warfare in Canada--that latter part of the
seventeenth century, when Frontenac was governor of the French
possessions, and two nations were striving so bitterly for supremacy. At
that time the river Ottawa, as Parkman, the historian, tells us, "was
the main artery of Canada, and to stop it was--to stop the flow of her
life blood."

The Iroquois, a powerful and cunning tribe of Indians who were a menace
to all foreigners, knew this, and their constant effort was to close it
so completely that the annual supply of beaver skins would be prevented
from passing, and the French colony thus be obliged to live on credit.
It was the habit of the Iroquois to spend the latter part of the winter,
hunting in the forests between the Ottawa and the upper St. Lawrence,
and when the ice broke up to move in large bands to the banks of the
Ottawa and lie in ambush to waylay the canoes of the fur-traders with
their cargoes of skins. On the other hand, it was the constant effort of
Frontenac and his men to keep the river open, an almost impossible task.
Many conflicts great and small took place, with various results, but in
spite of every effort on the part of the French, the Iroquois blockade
was maintained for more than two years.

[Illustration: MADELEINE DE VERCHERES]

The brunt of the war was felt in the country above Montreal, which was
easily accessible to the Indians, but it was a time of grave menace also
to all the colonists, and the children of the Seignieur de Vercheres
had been taught from their earliest childhood to handle firearms easily
and skilfully, and had been told so many blood-curdling tales of the
treachery and cruelty of the Iroquois, and of the heroic deeds done by
their countrymen in defending forts and homes, that each young heart
thrilled with the hope that they too might some day perform a deed of
valour. And their chance was nearer than they dreamed on that October
morning when the little settlement lay serene in its quiet security,
giving no heed to invasion or to foe, when everyone in the settlement
was at work in the fields except two soldiers, the two young sons of the
Seignieur, an old man of eighty, and a number of women and children.

The Seignieur was at that time on duty at Quebec, his wife was also away
on a visit to Montreal, and their daughter, Madeleine, a girl of
fourteen, was in command of both fort and home--not