nectady. March rains had set in. Through the leafless forests in
driving sleet and rain retreated the French. Sixty had perished from
exposure and disease before Courcelle led his men back to the Richelieu.
The Mohawk warriors showed their contempt for this kind of white-man
warfare by raiding some French hunters on Lake Champlain and killing a
young nephew of De Tracy.

Nevertheless, on second thought, twenty-four Indian deputies proceeded to
Quebec with the surviving captives to sue for peace. De Tracy was ready
for them. Solemnly the peace pipe had been puffed and solemnly the peace
powwow held. The Mohawk chief was received in pompous state at the
Governor's table. Heated with wine and mistaking French courtesy for
fear, the warrior grew boastful at the white chief's table.

"This is the hand," he exclaimed, proudly stretching out his right arm,
"this is the hand that split the head of your young man, O Onontio!"

"Then by the power of Heaven," thundered the Marquis de Tracy, springing
to his feet ablaze with indignation, "it is the hand that shall never
split another head!"

{126} Forthwith the body of the great Mohawk chief dangled a scarecrow to
the fowls of the air; and the other terrified deputies tore breathlessly
back for the Iroquois land with such a story as one may guess.

With thirteen hundred men and three hundred boats the Marquis de Tracy
and Courcelle set out from the St. Lawrence in October for the Iroquois
cantons. Charles Le Moyne, the Montreal bushrover, led six hundred
wild-wood followers in their buckskin coats and beaded moccasins, with
hair flying to the wind like Indians; and one hundred Huron braves were
also in line with the Canadians. The rest of the forces were of the
Carignan Regiment. Dollier de Casson, the Sulpician priest, powerful of
frame as De Tracy himself, marched as chaplain.

[Illustration: A MAP IN THE RELATION OF 1662-1663 (This map includes
Lake Ontario and the Iroquois Country. It shows the relative positions
of the Five Nations and Fort d'Orange (Albany). It also gives plans of
the forts on the Richelieu and shows their location)]

Never had such an expedition been seen before on the St. Lawrence. Drums
beat reveille at peep of dawn. Fifes outshrilled the roar of rapids, and
stately figures in gold braid {127} and plumed hats glided over the
waters of the Richelieu among the painted forests of the frost-tinted
maples. Indians have a way of conveying