t time my mother ever saw Captain Saucier. Your uncle
Francois in Kaskaskia, he was also afterward Captain Saucier. I was
not born until they had been married fifteen years. I was the last
of their children. So Celeste Barbeau was kidnaped the day before my
mother met my father.

Glad as the Cahokians were to see them, the troops were no longer
needed, for the Puants had gone. They were frightened out of the
country. Oh, yes, all those Indians wanted was a good whipping, and
they got it. Alexis Barbeau had come along with the soldiers from
Prairie du Pont, and he was not the only man who had made use of
military escort. Basil Le Page had come up from New Orleans in the
last fleet of pirogues to Kaskaskia. There he heard so much about the
Puants that he bought a swift horse and armed himself for the ride
northward, and was glad when he reached Fort Chartres to ride into
Cahokia with Captain Saucier.

You might say Basil Le Page came in at one end of Cahokia and Claudis
Beauvois went out at the other. For they knew one another directly,
and it was noised in a minute that Basil said to his cousins Paul and
Jacques:--

"What is that notorious swindler and gambler doing here? He left New
Orleans suddenly, or he would be in prison now, and you will see if he
stops here long after recognizing me."

Claudis Beauvois did not turn around in the street to look at any
woman, rich or poor, when he left Cahokia, though how he left was not
certainly known. Alexis Barbeau and his other associates knew better
how their pockets were left.

Oh, yes, Alexis Barbeau was very willing for Celeste to marry Gabriel
after that. He provided for them handsomely, and gave presents to each
of the young men who had helped to take his daughter from the Puants;
and he was so ashamed of the son-in-law he had wanted, that he never
could endure to hear the man's name mentioned afterward. Alexis
and the tavern-keeper used--when they were taking a social cup
together--to hug each other without a word. The fine guest who had
lived so long at the auberge and drank so much good wine, which was as
fine as any in New Orleans, without expense, was as sore a memory
to the poor landlord as to the rich landowner. But Celeste and
Gabriel--my mother said when they were married the dancing and
fiddling and feasting were kept up an entire week in Caho'.

[Footnote 1: To Cahokia.]

[Footnote 2: To Peoria.]

[Footnote 3: To Kaskaskia.]

[Footnote 4: Cahokia