ields, only one escaping. Because his mission was to convert the
Indians, Maisonneuve had been ever reluctant to meet the Iroquois in
open war, preferring to retreat within the fort when the dog Pilot and
her litter barked loud warning that Indians were hiding in the woods.
Any one who knows the Indian character will realize how clemency would
be mistaken for cowardice. Even Maisonneuve's soldiers began to doubt
him.

"My lord, my lord," they urged, "are the enemy never to get a sight of
you? Are we never to face the foe?"

Maisonneuve's answer was in March, 1644, when ambushed hostiles were
detected stealing on the fort.

{79} "Follow me," he ordered thirty men, leaving D'Ailleboust in
command of the fort.

Near the place now known as Place d'Armes the little band was greeted
by the eldritch scream of eighty painted Iroquois. Shots fell thick
and fast. The Iroquois dashed to rescue their wounded, and a young
chief, recognizing Maisonneuve as the leader of the white men, made a
rush for the honor of capturing the French commander alive.
Maisonneuve had put himself between his retreating men and the
advancing warriors. Firing, he would retreat a pace, then fire again,
keeping his face to the foe. His men succeeded in rushing up the
hillock, then made for the gates in a wild stampede. Maisonneuve was
backing away, a pistol in each hand. The Iroquois circled from tree to
tree, near and nearer, and like a wildwood creature of prey was
watching his chance to spring, when the Frenchman fired. The pistol
missed. Dodging, the Indian leaped. Maisonneuve discharged the other
pistol. The Iroquois fell dead, and while warriors rescued the body,
Maisonneuve gained the fort gates. This was only one of countless
frays when the dog Pilot with her puppies sounded the alarm of prowlers
in the woods.

What were the letters, what the adventures described by the Jesuits,
that aroused such zeal and inspired such heroism? It would require
many volumes to record the adventures of the Jesuits in Canada, and a
long list to include all their heroes martyred for the faith. Only a
few of the most prominent episodes in the Jesuits' adventures can be
given here.

When Pierre le Jeune reached Quebec after the victory of the Kirke
brothers, he found only the charred remains of a mission on the old
site of Cartier's winter quarters down on the St. Charles. Of houses,
only the gray-stone cottage of Madame Hebert had been left s