, for curiosity sake, let us hear the proposals; I
am certain that they are foul. Yet, as I say, I am anxious
to hear them."

"Monsieur must be reasonable. There is no good purpose
to be served by railing at me."

"That is true. You are too infamous a miscreant to be
shamed or made better by reproaches."

"Nevertheless, I shall proceed to business, Monsieur.
Do you know where old Jean and his daughter have taken
up their abode?"

"I do."

"So I suspected. If you will let me know their place of
abode, that I may give them my guarantee for their personal
safety if they return to their home--as I understand that
through some unfounded fear of me they fled, and I am anxious
to stand well in the affections of all my people--I shall
permit you forthwith to leave this Fort."

"Contemptible villain, liar and tyrant, I will _not_
reveal to you. Begone. By heaven! if you stand there I
shall bury my hands in your foul, craven throat."

"Take care, Monsieur," was all M. Riel said, as he left
Scott's presence. But his eye burned like a fiend's.
The agitator, with a spirit of the most devilish rage
consuming him, nevertheless went on to forward the general
movement. His first great step was against the followers
of Colonel Dennis, who had banded together and posted
themselves in the house of Dr. Schultz, a very prominent
settler. They had gathered here with arms in their hands,
but they seemed like a lot of little children, without
any purpose. There was no moral cohesion among them, and
there was no force either to lead or to drive them. They
were not long thus ridiculously impounded, when they
began to look at one another, as if to ask:

"_Quis furores o cives?_"

They were not alone unprepared and undetermined to go up
to Fort Garry, and fight the greasy Rebel and his followers,
but they were by no means certain as to what they should
do were the enemy to come against them. And this is just
the very thing that the enterprising Monsieur Riel proposed
to do. It is said that about this time he was often found
reading books describing the sudden and unexpected military
movements of Napoleon. And I have not the remotest doubt
that the diseased vanity of the presumptuous crank enabled
him to see a likeness in himself to the Scourge of Nations.
So he said to his men:

"We shall go down and capture this Dennis' geese-pound.
Better turn out in good force, with your arms, though I
am quite certain that you can capture th