United States or Afghanistan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The wind, what there was, was from the south, and, if there was any firing at the fort, no sound of it reached us. Once we imagined we saw a skulking figure on the opposite bank an Indian Barbeau insisted but it disappeared so suddenly as to make us doubt our own eyes.
A savage hand slashed at him with a gleaming knife, but I struck the red arm with my pistol butt, and the Indian fell flat, leaving the way open. We dashed through, but Barbeau grasped me, and thrust me ahead of him, and whirled about, with uplifted rifle to aid De Artigny who faced two warriors, naked knife in hand. "Run, Madame, for the fort," he shouted above the uproar. "To my help, Barbeau!"
Alexis Barbeau had come along with the soldiers from Prairie du Pont, and he was not the only man who had made use of military escort. There he heard so much about the Puants that he bought a swift horse and armed himself for the ride northward, and was glad when he reached Fort Chartres to ride into Cahokia with Captain Saucier.
"French women have always done their part, and I shall not fail. Explain to us your plan." His eyes brightened, and his hand sought mine. "The spirit of the old days; the words of a soldier's daughter, hey, Barbeau?" "A La Chesnayne could make no other choice," he answered loyally. "But we have no time to waste here in compliment. You know a safe passage, you say?"
But do not credit such things. It was half a dozen years before Pontiac's death that Celeste Barbeau was kidnaped on her wedding day. She lived at Prairie du Pont; and though Prairie du Pont is but a mile and a half south of Cahokia, the road was not as safe then as it now is. My mother was one of the bridesmaids; she has told it over to me a score of times.
Fifteen years ago Perrotte had drifted down from the woods, beating his way on a lumber train, having left his winter's pay behind him at the verge of civilisation, with old Joe Barbeau and Joe's "chucker out." It was the "chucker out" that dragged him out of the "snake room" and, all unwitting, had given him a flying start toward a better life.
"You the daughter of Captain la Chesnayne," he exclaimed, the words bursting forth uncontrolled, "and married to Cassion! how can this be?" "You knew him then my father?" "Ay, Madame; I was with him at the Richelieu, at the village of the Mohawks; and at Bois le Blanc, where he died. I am Jacques Barbeau, a soldier for twenty years; did he not speak to you of me?"
He doubled the point of the Isle of Notre Dame, and made for the landing-place of the Port an Foin. "Ah!" said Gringoire, "yonder is the Barbeau mansion. Stay, master, look: that group of black roofs which make such singular angles yonder, above that heap of black, fibrous grimy, dirty clouds, where the moon is completely crushed and spread out like the yolk of an egg whose shell is broken.
We dare not be found without the fort at daybreak. Keep within thirty paces of me, and guard the lady well." It was a dense woods we entered, and how Barbeau kept to the trail will ever be to me a mystery. No doubt the instinct of a woodsman guided him somewhat, and then, with his moccasined feet, he could feel the slight depression in the earth, and thus cling to the narrow path.
The people were sleeping with one eye open. All day, stragglers from the wedding procession had been coming in, and a company was organized for defense and pursuit. They had heard that the whole Pottawattamie nation had risen. And since Celeste Barbeau was kidnaped, anything might be expected.
Word Of The Day