“We will hold the fort for the king as Father would,” she said bravely. “Listen well, boys, to what I say. Father says a French fort must never fall into the hands of the Iroquois, for if they capture one, they will think that they can take all; and it will make them more bold, and insolent, and daring. Now you must each take a gun, and I will take one too, and we shall be such brave soldiers that the enemy will think we are many in the garrison, instead of so few.”
“TO THE PETRIFIED GIRL, WITH THE BULLETS SINGING AROUND HER EARS, THE WAY SEEMED VERY LONG.”
“But, Madeleine, Alexandre cannot have a gun!” Louis exclaimed, all the jealousy of the elder brother aroused, “Father said, when he had La Bonté teach him to shoot, that he was quite too young to be trusted with a gun alone.”
“Listen, Louis,” Madeleine suid, so gravely that the boy's petty resentment died away, “Alexandre may be too young to use a gun for sport, but this is not sport. It is a matter of life and death, and her face paled as she remembered that neither her girlhood, nor the youth of the brave lads facing her, would protect them if they fell into the enemy’s hands. “Remember that Father has always taught you that gentlemen are born to shed their blood for the service of God and the king.”
During this time, the savages had withdrawn, One would almost have thought the sudden, sharp onset had been some evil dream; that the only reality was the clear, crisp morning with its floods of sunshine, and that all danger was over. But none of the Canadian pioneers were to be deceived by such seeming security. Too well they knew the Iroquois habits, and that such retreat was but the lull before a fiercer storm. Child though she was, Madeleine Verchères seized this respite to do what could be done to prepare for a fiercer attack.
Hurrying on with the boys to the block-house, she found women and children who had rushed thither from their cottages for safety, huddled together, some of them rocking to and fro in a silent agony of grief, but most of them crying and screaming at the top of their lungs, in a panic of fear.
“Hush, oh, hush!" she begged; “be still! Your clamor can be heard afar, and if the Iroquois should hear, they would know by your crying how frightened you are, and that would make them more bold. They are always afraid to attack a fort they think well defended, and we must