ture."

And so it was at last agreed, and Adele, still protesting, was consigned
to the care of the lady of Sainte Marie, while De Catinat swore that
without a pause he would return from Poitou to fetch her. The old
nobleman and his son would fain have joined them in their adventure, but
they had their own charge to watch and the lives of many in their
keeping, while a small party were safer in the woods than a larger one
would be. The seigneur provided them with a letter for De Lannes, the
governor of the Poitou blockhouse, and so in the early dawn the four of
them crept like shadows from the stockade-gate, amid the muttered good
wishes of the guard within, and were lost in an instant in the blackness
of the vast forest.

From La Noue to Poitou was but twelve miles down the river, but by the
woodland route where creeks were to be crossed, reed-girt lakes to be
avoided, and paths to be picked among swamps where the wild rice grew
higher than their heads, and the alder bushes lay in dense clumps before
them, the distance was more than doubled. They walked in single file,
Du Lhut leading, with the swift silent tread of some wild creature, his
body bent forward, his gun ready in the bend of his arm, and his keen
dark eyes shooting little glances to right and left, observing
everything from the tiniest mark upon the ground or tree trunk to the
motion of every beast and bird of the brushwood. De Catinat walked
behind, then Ephraim Savage, and then Amos, all with their weapons ready
and with every sense upon the alert. By midday they were more than
half-way, and halted in a thicket for a scanty meal of bread and cheese,
for De Lhut would not permit them to light a fire.

"They have not come as far as this," he whispered, "and yet I am sure
that they have crossed the river. Ah, Governor de la Barre did not know
what he did when he stirred these men up, and this good dragoon whom the
king has sent us now knows even less."

"I have seen them in peace," remarked Amos. "I have traded to Onondaga
and to the country of the Senecas. I know them as fine hunters and
brave men."

"They are fine hunters, but the game that they hunt best are their
fellow-men. I have myself led their scalping parties, and I have fought
against them, and I tell you that when a general comes out from France
who hardly knows enough to get the sun behind him in a fight, he will
find that there is little credit to be gained from them. They talk o