we discoursed in Gaelic; they answered in Iroquois; and in a short
time the best _understanding_ imaginable was established between us,
(Mac and myself, be it always understood.) No harm came of it, though;
I vow there did not; the priests, it seems, thought otherwise. Our
acquaintance with the girls having come to their knowledge, we were
one day honoured with a visit from the Iroquois padre; the severe
gravity of whose countenance convinced us at a glance of the nature of
his mission. I must do him the justice to say, however, that his
address to us was mild and admonitory, rather than severe or
reproachful. I resolved from that moment to speak no more Gaelic to
the Iroquois maidens; Mac continued his visits.

We always amused ourselves in the evenings with our French
_confrères_, (whom I have mentioned as "nondescripts," from the
circumstance of their being under no regular engagement with the
Company,) playing cards or fiddling and dancing. We were on one
occasion engaged in the latter amusement _en pleine midi_--our
_Deputy_ Bourgeois being one of the party, and all of us in the
highest possible glee, when lo! in the midst of our hilarity, the hall
door flew open and the _great man_ stood sternly before us. The
hand-writing on the wall could scarcely have produced a more startling
effect on the convivial party of old, than did this unexpected
apparition upon us. We listened to the reprimand which followed in all
due humility, none more crest-fallen than our worthy Deputy. Mr.
Fisher then opened his portmanteau and drew forth a letter, which he
presented to my friend Mac, exclaiming in a voice of thunder, "Read
that, gentlemen, and hear what Mr. Thane thinks of your conduct." We
read and trembled; Mac's defiance of the authority of the priests
offended them mortally; a formal complaint was consequently preferred
against the innocent and the guilty, (although there was no guilt in