and repeating the same words a hundred times. They are never done with
telling us about their _Oki_, and what he demands and what he forbids,
and Paradise and Hell." [ The above account of the council is drawn from
Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1638, Chap. II. See also Bressani,
Relation Abregee, 163. ]

"Here was the end of this miserable council," writes Le Mercier; . . .
"and if less evil came of it than was designed, we owe it, after God,
to the Most Holy Virgin, to whom we had made a vow of nine masses in
honor of her immaculate conception."

The Fathers had escaped for the time; but they were still in deadly
peril. They had taken pains to secure friends in private, and there were
those who were attached to their interests; yet none dared openly take
their part. The few converts they had lately made came to them in secret,
and warned them that their death was determined upon. Their house was
set on fire; in public, every face was averted from them; and a new
council was called to pronounce the decree of death. They appeared
before it with a front of such unflinching assurance, that their judges,
Indian-like, postponed the sentence. Yet it seemed impossible that they
should much longer escape. Brebeuf, therefore, wrote a letter of
farewell to his Superior, Le Jeune, at Quebec, and confided it to some
converts whom he could trust, to be carried by them to its destination.

"We are perhaps," he says, "about to give our blood and our lives in the
cause of our Master, Jesus Christ. It seems that His goodness will
accept this sacrifice, as regards me, in expiation of my great and
numberless sins, and that He will thus crown the past services and ardent
desires of all our Fathers here. . . . Blessed be His name forever,
that He has chosen us, among so many better than we, to aid him to bear