The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1904-10-26
THE MISSISSIPPI
!, BUBBLE .
by EMERSON HoUGH
Author of "The Story of the Cowboy"
The Girl at the Halfway House. Etc.
Copyright. 1909, by Emerson Houeh.l
CHAPTER XXI.
THE GREAT PEACE.


OF the long and bitter journey from
the lroquois towns to Lake st. George,
down the Richelieu and thence through
the deep SHOWS of the Canadian win
ter, it boots little to make mention;
neither to tell of that devotion of Raoul
de Ligny to the newly-rescued lady,
already reputed in camp rumor to be
of noble English family.
/, THAT sous-lieutenant; he is tete
montee regarding madame" said Pierre
Noir one evening to Jean Breboeuf.
las to that-well, you know Monsieur
Las. Pouf! So much for yon mon
key. par comparison"
He is great capitaine, Monsieur
las said Jean Breboeuf. Never a
better went beyond the straits"
"But very sad of late"
ooh, oui, since the death of his
friend. Monsieur lie Capitaine Penn
broke-may Mary aid his spirit!"
Monsieur Las goes not on the trail
again. said Pierre Noir. cat least not
while this look is in his eye."
"The more the loss, Pierre Noir; but
yome day the woods will call to him
again. l know not how long it may
be, yet some day Mother Messasebe
will raise her finger and beckon to
Monsieur Las. and say: Come, my
son!' 'Tis thus, as you know, Pierre
Noir.'
Yet at length the struggling settle
ments at Montreal were reached, and
here, after the fashion of the frontier,
some sort of menage was inaugurated
for Law and his party. Here they lived
through the rest of the winter and
through the long, slow spring.
And then set on again the heats of
summer and there came apace the time
agreed upon, in the month of August,
Or the. widely heralded assembling of
the tribes for the Great Peace; one cf
the most picturesque and significant
meetings of widely diverse human be-
lngs, that ever took place within the
ken of history.
They came, these savages, now first
owning the strength of the invading
white men, from all the far and un-
known corners of the western wilder
ness. They came afoot, and with little
trains of dogs, in single canoes, in little
groups and growing flotillas and vast
fleets of canoes, pushing on and on,
down stream, following the tide OF the
fu.s down this pathway of more than a
thousand miles. The Iroquois, for once
mindful of promise, came in a COM
pact fleet, hundred canoes strong,
and they stalked about the island for
days, naked, stark, gigantic, contemp-
tuous of white and red men, of friend
and foe alike. The scattered Algon-
Quins, whose villages had been RACED
by these same savage warriors, came
down by scores out of the northern
woods, along little, unknown streams,
and over paths with which none but
themselves were acquainted. From the
north, group Joined group, and village
added itself to village, until a vast
body of people had assembled, whose
numbers would have been hard to esti-
mate, and who proved difficult enough
to accommodate. Yet farther west, adj
ding their numbers to those already
gathered, came the fleets Of tho driven
Hurons, and the Ojibways, and tho
OAldillS, anu lue OuldSdmleS, ana tlG
CttaWas, the MenominieS and the Mas
coutins even the Illini, late objects
Of the wrath of the five nations. The
whole western wilderness poured forth
its savage population, till all the shores
OF the st. Lawrence seemed one vast
aboriginal encampment. These massed
ct the rendezvous about the puny set
Element of Montreal in such numbers
that. IN comparison. the white popr-
-lation seemed insignificant. Then, had
there been a Pontiac or Tecumseh.
had there been one leader of the tribes
able to teach the strength of unity,
the white settlements of upper America
had indeed been utterly destroyed