very difficult
offices to fill, so thought her parents in leaving, as there had been no
attacks for some time, and we can picture Madeleine, tall and slender,
with a wealth of golden-brown hair falling over her low brow, her eyes
dancing with merriment as she received her list of household duties from
her mother, and her commands concerning the fort from her father, sure
that the hours and days of the golden autumn would bring her no graver
responsibilities than she had carried before.

Her morning duties in the home despatched, she sauntered down to the
river boat-landing, taking with her a hired man named Laviolette. She
was expecting some friends from Montreal and for a long time she stood
on the bank of the sparkling river, shading her eyes from the glare of
the sun, watching eagerly in hopes of seeing the boatload coming. It was
not in sight, and she chatted with Laviolette and watched the movements
of some near-by fishing craft for a moment. Suddenly she turned, stood
still, and held up a silencing finger to the garrulous Laviolette, who
was spinning a sea yarn of his boyhood. She had heard an ominous sound
in the direction of the field where the settlers were at work.

"Run, Laviolette, to the top of the hill and see what it is," she said,
without serious apprehension. The man, quick to do her bidding, ran to a
point of vantage, stood beside her again, and what was it he said?

"Shots! Run, Mademoiselle, _run_!" he cried, "here come the Iroquois!"

The warning was too late. As Madeleine turned she found herself within
gun range of forty or fifty of the dreaded Indians! Like a bit of
thistle-down blown by the wind, she ran toward the fort, her brown hair
flying in the breeze, commending herself as she ran, so she herself
afterwards told, to the Holy Virgin, the Iroquois in hot pursuit, but
not one of them fleet-footed enough to catch the fleeing maiden.
Disconcerted, they stood still, seeing that pursuit was fruitless, and,
standing, fired at her, the bullets whistling about her ears, while her
heart beat so fast with fright that it seemed she could not take another
step. But still she was fleeing, fleeing. She was at the gate at last,
she cried loudly, "To arms! To arms!" praying that someone within would
hear her and come to the rescue, but she prayed in vain. The two
soldiers who were in the fort were so terror stricken that they ran to
the blockhouse and hid, and only one answered Madeleine's call. To add
t