sent from France to aid in
converting the prisoners. Lest the minister should counteract the
efforts of the friar, the priests had him sent back to Chateau Richer;
"but," he observes, "God showed his dislike of such a persecuting
spirit; for the very next day the Seminary, a very famous building, was
most of it burnt down, by a joiner letting a coal of fire drop among the
shavings."[68]

The heaviest of all his tribulations now fell upon him. His son Samuel,
about sixteen years old, had been kept at Montreal under the tutelage of
Father Meriel, a priest of St. Sulpice. The boy afterwards declared that
he was promised great rewards if he would make the sign of the cross,
and severe punishment if he would not. Proving obstinate, he was whipped
till at last he made the sign; after which he was told to go to mass,
and on his refusal, four stout boys of the school were ordered to drag
him in. Williams presently received a letter in Samuel's handwriting,
though dictated, as the father believed, by his priestly tutors. In this
was recounted, with many edifying particulars, the deathbed conversion
of two New England women; and to the minister's unspeakable grief and
horror, the messenger who brought the letter told him that the boy
himself had turned Catholic. "I have heard the news," he wrote to his
recreant son, "with the most distressing, afflicting, sorrowful spirit.
Oh, I pity you, I mourn over you day and night. Oh, I pity your weakness
that, through the craftiness of man, you are turned from the simplicity
of the gospel." Though his correspondence was strictly watched, he
managed to convey to the boy a long exposition, from his own pen, of the
infallible truth of Calvinistic orthodoxy, and the damnable errors of
Rome. This, or something else, had its effect. Samuel returned to the
creed of his fathers; and being at last exchanged, went home to
Deerfield, where he was chosen town-clerk in 1713, and where he soon
after died.[69]

Williams gives many particulars of the efforts of the priests to convert
the prisoners, and his account, like the rest of his story, bears the
marks of truth. There was a treble motive for conversion: it recruited
the Church, weakened the enemy, and strengthened Canada, since few of
the converts would peril their souls by returning to their heretic
relatives. The means of conversion varied. They were gentle when
gentleness seemed likely to answer the purpose. Little girls and young
women were p