bold chief. Already some stakes were torn up, and the Iroquois were
about to rush like an avalanche through this breach, when a new Horatius
Cocles, as brave as the Roman, made his body a shield for his brothers,
and soon the axe which he held in his hand dripped with blood. He fell,
and was at once replaced. The French succumbed one by one; they were
seen brandishing their weapons up to the moment of their last breath,
and, riddled with wounds, they resisted to the last sigh. Drunk with
vengeance, the wild conquerors turned over the bodies to find some still
palpitating, that they might bind them to a stake of torture; three were
in their mortal agony, but they died before being cast on the pyre. A
single one was saved for the stake; he heroically resisted the
refinements of the most barbarous cruelty; he showed no weakness, and
did not cease to pray for his executioners. Everything in this glorious
deed of arms must compel the admiration of the most remote posterity.

The wretched Hurons suffered the fate which they had deserved; they were
burned in the different villages. Five escaped, and it was by their
reports that men learned the details of an exploit which saved the
colony. The Iroquois, in fact, considering what a handful of brave men
had accomplished, took it for granted that a frontal attack on such men
could only result in failure; they changed their tactics, and had
recourse anew to their warfare of surprises and ambuscades, with the
purpose of gradually destroying the little colony.

The dangers which might be risked by attacking so fierce a nation were,
as may be seen, by no means imaginary. Many would have retreated, and
awaited a favourable occasion to try and plant for the third time the
cross in the Iroquois village. The sons of Loyola did not hesitate;
encouraged by Mgr. de Laval, they retraced their steps to the Five
Nations. This time Heaven condescended to reward in a large measure