held the next day in the grove devoted to that
purpose, the entire ceremony being Greek in its simplicity and dignity,
and in its surroundings. The fifty sachems, arrayed in their finest
robes, sat once more in a half circle, save that Tododaho, the Onondaga,
was slightly in front of the others, with Tonessaah at his elbow. The
nine Mohawk chiefs, fierce and implacable, sat close together, and long
before the appeals of England and France were begun Robert knew how they
would vote.

The effort that he would make had already taken definite shape in his
mind. He would be moderate, he would not ask the Hodenosaunee to fight
for the English and Americans, he would merely ask the great nations to
refuse the alliance of the French, and if they could not find it in
their hearts to take up the tomahawk for their old friends then to
remain at peace in their villages, while English and French fought for
the continent.

Spring was now far advanced. Robert had never seen the forest in deeper
green and he had never looked up to a bluer sky than the one that bent
over them, as they walked toward the council grove. His heart was
beating hard, but it was with excitement, not with fear. He knew that a
great test was before him, but his mind responded to it, in truth sprang
forward to meet it. The breeze that came down from the hills seemed to
whisper encouragement in his ears, and the words that he would speak
were already leaping to his lips.

A great crowd, men, women and children, was gathered about the grove,
and like the sachems they were clothed in their best. Brilliant red,
blue or yellow blankets gleamed in the sun's rays, and the beads on
leggings and moccasins of the softest tanned deerskin, flashed and
glittered. Robert, with his memories of the Albany school still fresh,
thought once more of the great Greek and Roman assemblies, where all the
people came to hear their orators discuss the causes that meant most.
And then his pulse leaped again and his confidence grew.

Tododaho spoke first, and when he rose there was a respectful silence
broken only by the murmurs of the wind or the heavy breathing of the
multitude. In a spirit of love and exhortation he addressed his people,
all of the six great nations. He told them that the mighty powers beyond
the sea, England and France, who with their children divided nearly the
whole world between them, were about to begin war with each other. The
lands occupied by both bordered up