elow; among the tribe of the Illini, in the valley of the
Messasebe."

"You tell me so! I had thought no white man left in that valley for this
season. And madame--this child--surely 'twas the first white infant born
in the great valley."

"And the most unfortunate."

"Nay, how can you say that, since you have come more than half a
thousand miles and are all safe and sound to-day? Glad enough we shall
be to have you and madame with us for the winter, if, indeed, it be not
for longer dwelling. I can not take you now to the English settlements,
since I must back to the governor with the news. Yet dull enough you
would find these Dutch of the Hudson, and worse yet the blue-nosed
psalmodists of New England. Much better for you and your good lady are
the gayer capitals of New France, or _la belle France_ itself, that
older France. Monsieur, how infinitely more fit for a gentleman of
spirit is France than your dull England and its Dutch king! Either New
France or Old France, let me advise you; and as to that new West, let
me counsel that you wait until after the Big Peace. And, in speaking,
your friend, Du Mesne, your lieutenant, the _coureur_--his fate, I
suppose, one need not ask. He was killed--where?"

Law recounted the division of his party just previous to the Iroquois
attack, and added his concern lest Du Mesne should return to the former
station during the spring and find but its ruins, with no news of the
fate of his friends.

"Oh, as to that--'twould be but the old story of the _voyageurs_," said
Joncaire. "They are used enough to journeying a thousand miles or so, to
find the trail end in a heap of ashes, and to the tune of a scalp dance.
Fear not for your lieutenant, for, believe me, he has fended for himself
if there has been need. Yet I would warrant you, now that this word for
the peace has gone out, we shall see your friend Du Mesne as big as life
at the Mountain next summer, knowing as much of your history as you
yourself do, and quite counting upon meeting you with us on the St.
Lawrence, and madame as well. As to that, methinks madame will be better
with us on the St. Lawrence than on the savage Messasebe. We have none
too many dames among us, and I need not state, what monsieur's eyes have
told him every morning--that a fairer never set foot from ship from
over seas. Witness my lieutenant yonder, Raoul de Ligny! He is thus soon
all devotion! Mother of God! but we are well met here, in this
wilderness