The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1931-01-29
CHAPTER Ill =

ENRI and his wife sat up late
IL with Hepsibah Adams. for this
time Hepsibah had come with set
and determined purpose to his sis
ter's home. The traders countenance
had grown stern, and GATHERINGS
cheeks were like those of pale
nun in the candlelight. In Henri
Bulain's face were still the cheer
and good humor and unruflled
equanimity of confidence and
faith that Hepsibah, with the dark
est pictures he had painted, had
been unable to disturb.
They were talking about war. AS
early as this spring of 1749, the
American wilderness had begun to
stir with whispers Of the impending
conflagration which was destined
soon to turn the eastern part of the
continent into a seething pot of
fury and death.
While George the Second of Eng
land and Louis the Fifteenth of
France were playing at friendship
after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle,
France gasping for breath with the
over of her armies buried on Eu-
ropean battlefelds, and England
with her fighting forces reduced on
land to eighteen thousand men and
to less than seventeen thousand on
the sea, the vast colonies of the
two countries, working out their
own salvatiOns, were. steadily and
surely and with deadly intent en-
croaehing upon each other.
The stage was set for the writ
ing of the bloodiest and most pic
turesque pages in American his
tory. Southwark from the Richie
lieu were the bitterest of all the
white mems enemies. the warriors
of the Six Nations, and northward.
sweeping east and west through the
Canadas, were the forty scattered
tribes who bore allegiance to New
France Behind these savage vas
sails, on one side. were eleven hYn-
dred thousand English colonists
holding the sea-coast lands from
Maine to Georgia. and on the other
less than eighty thousand souls,
counting women and children as
well as men, to defend and hold the
illimitable domains of New France,
which reached from the upper Can
adas to the Gulf of Mexico and
from the Alleghanies to the Rocky
mountains
OF this alarming disparity in
power of fighting men, and Of the
pitiless scourge which he swore
would some day sweep through all
the country of Lake Champlan and
the Richelieu, Hepsibah Adams had
spoken at length but with small
effect on Henri Bulain.
'I.et war come if it must" said
Henri. "The heart of New France
is set behind an impenetrable wall
of rock and forest, and with these
ramparts in our favor, eighty thou
sand will be match for the mil.
lion English if they come this way
AS for me, should fighting chance
to come why, shall be friend
to both sides and strike at neither
For no matter what cause should
bring about the strife, | could not
strike at the people of my Cath
crimes blood, nor would she have
me turn against my own. SO why
move from here? 1t is neutra
ground, and we, being neutral, are
fifty placed here. Oneidas and Mo
hawks have eaten under our ROOT
as well as Hurons and Algonquins
and when deadly enemies such as
these meet us on common ground
what cause have we for fear?"
A light of pride glowed in Cath
crimes eyes as she listened to hel
husbands words, and she added
Henri loves the Indians, and
have grown to love them, too. They
are all our friends"
"Friends!" shifted Hepsibah
"Henri, it is because of Catherine
and Jeems that | call you fool
Take them where this danger does
not hang day and night along thu
edges of the frontiers. Take then
to the st. Lawrence, if you will, OF
bring them south into Catherine,
country. But do one or t'other, fo
Gods sake, or the day will com,
when Christ himself cannot say,
you," and his voice shook will
earnestGess.
"There will be no war;" insisted
Henri stubbornly. England ant
France have bled themselves whit,
on Continental battlefields, and tn,
peace which was signed only las
October will surely not be broker
again while you and are living
for Hanover and Austria have hat
their fill. as well as the others, ant
are like two dead men on thei
backs"
'That is right" nodded Cath
crime, with a shudder. 81 think al
fighting is over for many years."
"Fools-innocents!" her brothe
growed. 81 tell you neither Georg
nor Louis will have anything to d,
with the running of this war unit
every mile of woods between GU
colonies and your city of Quebe
is red with fire and blood. Go,
love me, it has already begun
French and English traders ar
fighting wherever they come to
gether along the frontiers, and tn
hired Indians of one are takin
scalps for t'other. Even white mel
have Joined in that pretty game
for Massachusetts has sent GU
Lovewell and his fifty men to hun