And laughed when his fingers were burned
in the hot, boiling pot of the giant.
"The Blackrobe" they called the poor priest,
from the hue of his robe and his girdle;
And never a game or a feast
but the father must grace with his presence.
His prayer book the hunters revered,
--they deemed it a marvelous spirit;
It spoke and the white father heard,
--it interpreted visions and omens.
And often they bade him
to pray this marvelous spirit to answer,
And tell where the sly Chippeway might be ambushed
and slain in his forests.
For Menard was the first in the land,
proclaiming, like John in the desert--
"The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand;
repent ye, and turn from your idols."--
The first of the brave brotherhood that,
threading the fens and the forest,
Stood afar by the turbulent flood
at the falls of the Father of Waters.

[a] It is wonderful.
[b] The morning.

In the lodge of the Stranger [a]
he sat awaiting the crown of a martyr;
His sad face compassion begat
in the heart of the dark eyed Winona.