Sir William Johnson, indeed, made no disguise of his manner of life,
which the complexion of the daughters who sat at his table with his most
honored guests would have rendered rather difficult; but their
mother--or mothers--were not presentable.

A very engaging episode in Mr. Parkman's narrative--we propose it to our
artists as a subject of rare and novel interest, and rich in
capacity--presents us two noble specimens of Christian zeal, in the
persons of a Jesuit and a Protestant missionary in amicable intercourse
with each other. Would that we had a more detailed account of the
interview, and of the conversation which must have given it the highest
charm of courteous sympathy, though with reserve, between two men who
represented the sharpest antagonisms of creed, while a common faith may
have proved an inner attraction for their hearts. The Colony of
Massachusetts had applied to the French at Quebec, in negotiations
looking toward a reciprocity of trade. The Jesuit missionary Druilletes
was sent in that behalf to Boston. His diplomatic character saved him
from the penalty of the halter, which Puritan law had pronounced upon
any one of his profession who should be caught in this jurisdiction. He
arrived in the autumn of 1650, and had a most hospitable and kindly
reception, though he failed in his object. The scene we have proposed to
a painter is that which finds Druilletes a welcome and honored guest in
the humble dwelling of the apostle Eliot, at Roxbury, who invited the
Jesuit to remain through the winter. We are sure they met and communed
as friends,--high-souled, respecting each other, recognizing in each
other aims and purposes, and the experience, alike in success and
failure, of the arduous nature of a work which brought into a true
communion of piety the spirits consecrated by it.

Not quite a score of years--from 1634 to 1650--suffice for the dates of
the chief events in the profoundly interesting and saddening story of
effort and failure which Mr. Parkman rehearses with such masterly
ability. Starting with the renewed occupancy of Quebec in 1634, and the
accession of the Jesuits to the abortive enterprise of the Recollet
Fathers, he traces out for us the history of the Mission to the Hurons,
giving us the characters of all its agents, an account of the
settlements established, and the methods pursued till the work was
frustrated.

It is but a sad and painful story--in some of its incidents harrowing
an