for misdeeds in the past,
and commit no more in the future.[248]

Rale now feared that his Indians would all go over to the English and
tamely do their bidding; for though most of them, when he was present,
would denounce the heretics and boast of the brave deeds they would do
against them, yet after a meeting with English officials, they would
change their minds and accuse their spiritual father of lying. It was
clear that something must be done to end these waverings, lest the lands
in dispute should be lost to France forever.

The Norridgewocks had been invited to another interview with the English
at Georgetown; and Rale resolved, in modern American phrase, to "capture
the meeting." Vaudreuil and the Jesuit La Chasse, superior of the
mission, lent their aid. Messengers were sent to the converted Indians
of Canada, whose attachment to France and the Church was past all doubt,
and who had been taught to abhor the English as children of the Devil.
The object of the message was to induce them to go to the meeting at
Georgetown armed and equipped for any contingency.

They went accordingly,--Abenakis from Becancour and St. Francis, Hurons
from Lorette, and Iroquois from Caughnawaga, besides others, all stanch
foes of heresy and England. Rale and La Chasse directed their movements
and led them first to Norridgewock, where their arrival made a
revolution. The peace party changed color like a chameleon, and was all
for war. The united bands, two hundred and fifty warriors in all,
paddled down the Kennebec along with the two Jesuits and two French
officers, Saint-Castin and Croisil. In a few days the English at
Georgetown saw them parading before the fort, well armed, displaying
French flags,--feathers dangling from their scalp-locks, and faces
fantastically patterned in vermilion, ochre, white clay, soot, and such
other pigments as they could find or buy.

They were met by Captain Penhallow and other militia officers of the
fort, to whom they gave the promised two hundred beaver-skins, and
demanded the four hostages in return; but the hostages had been given as
security, not only for the beaver-skins, but also for the future good
behavior of the Indians, and Penhallow replied that he had no authority
to surrender them. On this they gave him a letter to the governor,
written for them by Pere de la Chasse, and signed by their totems. It
summoned the English to leave the country at once, and threatened to rob
and burn the