it of a trapper. He quickly learned the language both of
the Crees and Sioux, and other tribes among whom he wandered. He gained
their confidence and friendship;--he believed, indeed, that he could
lead them to any purpose he might entertain, and all sorts of wild plans
passed through his mind. One enterprise he was, unfortunately, able to
carry out. One of his daughters had married a gentleman of some
property who had been a firm adherent of the Government, and Moggs had,
in consequence, conceived a bitter hatred against him, which time in no
way had lessened. Several years passed by, when he heard that his
daughter had a son, then about four years of age; and he formed the
barbarous idea of carrying off the child. He had little difficulty in
obtaining the assistance of a band of Indians; and, disguising himself
as one of them, he led an attack on the place, and succeeded too well in
his nefarious project. As the country was in a disturbed state at the
time, the attack was supposed to have been instigated by American
sympathisers, and the real culprit was not suspected. Making good his
retreat, he did not stop till he had got many hundred miles away from
the borders of Canada; and believing that he might still be traced, he
placed the child under charge of an old squaw belonging to a tribe of
Sioux, with whom he had formed a friendship. Strangely inconsistent as
it would seem, an affection for the boy grew up in his hard heart; and
in time, oppressed with the solitary life he had doomed himself to lead,
he determined to make him his companion in his trapping expeditions.

"Has no remorse ever visited you?" asked Mr Martin, when the old man
had finished his narrative.

"Yes, sometimes my thoughts have been terrible," groaned Michael.

"Then pray God that it may be a repentance to salvation not to be
repented of. With regard, however, to your temporal affairs, my friend,
I can assure you that, through the clemency of the Queen of England, all
the rebels in Canada at the time you speak of have been forgiven."

"Ah, sir," exclaimed Michael Moggs, "the Queen may have forgiven some,
but she cannot have forgiven me. You must, I am sure, be mistaken."

"But, my friend, if I can show you her proclamation, in which she
declares that she overlooks and pardons all those rebellious subjects
who rose against her authority, and allows those who have fled the
country to return under her rule, would you then believe me?"