His eye flashed, and Julian said thoughtfully:

"Ay, truly has she stained her laurels with blood; and she is even
now staining her annals with dark crimes, when she stirs up the
savage Indian to bring death and desolation to those peaceful
settlers with whom they have so long lived as friends. God will
require their blood at the hands of France. Let her beware! for the
hour of her destruction will not be prolonged if she sells herself
to sin."

There was a long silence then between the three men; it was at
length broken by Humphrey, who looked from one to the other, and
said:

"You have not yet told me of yourselves. Who are you, and whence do
you come? I have heard of vast plains and mighty rivers in the
south and west, but I know nothing beyond these forest tracks which
lie about our desolated home."

Fritz signed to Julian to be the speaker, and he leaned his back
against the wall, clasping his hands behind his head. The firelight
gleamed upon his earnest face and shone in his brilliant eyes.
Humphrey regarded him with a species of fascination. He had never
seen a man quite of this type before.

"Have you ever heard," asked Julian, "of that great explorer La
Salle, who first made the voyage of the great river Mississippi,
and founded the infant colony of Louisiana, albeit he himself
perished by the hand of an assassin in the wilderness, before he