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"Thanks, Mademoiselle Roy! It is just for sake of the fair internes of the Convent that Drouillon and I have taken up the vocation of statesmen, warriors, philosophers, and friends. We are quite ready to guide your innocent footsteps through the streets of this perilous city, if you are ready to go." "We had better hasten too!" ejaculated Louise Roy, looking archly through her eye-glass.
He turned away, and apparently dismissed the matter from his mind, but that it troubled him long afterward I am quite certain, though in the whole affair no particle of blame attached to him. The French made a great outcry about it, but I have never heard that any of them ever answered the questions which were put to M. Drouillon.
Washington had treated them with great courtesy; had furnished Drouillon and La Force with clothing from his own scanty stock, and, at their request, given them letters to the governor, bespeaking for them "the respect and favor due to their character and personal merit." A sense of duty, however, obliged him, in his general despatch, to put the governor on his guard against La Force.
"I can see Bonhomme Michel peeping round the corner of the Cote de Lery! He is looking after us stray lambs of the flock, Sieur Drouillon!" Bonhomme Michel was the old watchman and factotum of the monastery. He had a general commission to keep a sharp eye upon the young ladies who were allowed to go out into the city.
He sent a flag of truce, however, offering to return the officer Drouillon, and the two cadets, in exchange for Captains Stobo and Van Braam, whom the French held as hostages; but his offer was treated with merited disregard. Washington felt deeply mortified by this obtuseness of the governor on a point of military punctilio and honorable faith, but his remonstrances were unavailing.
"What does he say?" asked Washington, seeing that Peyronie hesitated. "He says, sir," answered Peyronie, with evident reluctance, "that M. de Jumonville came in the character of an ambassador and has been assassinated." Washington flushed hotly and his eyes grew dark. "Ask M. Drouillon," he said, "why an ambassador thought it necessary to bring with him a guard of thirty men?"
"Come here a moment, Lieutenant Peyronie," he called. "You understand French. What is this fellow saying?" Peyronie exchanged a few words with the prisoner, who stooped, drew a paper from the inner pocket of the dead officer's coat, and held it toward us. Peyronie took it, glanced over it with grave countenance, and turned to Colonel Washington. "This man is Ensign Marie Drouillon, sir," he said.
"The party was in command of Ensign Coulon de Jumonville, whom you see lying dead there. M. Drouillon claims that the party did not come against us as spies, or for the purpose of fighting, but simply to bring a message to you from M. de Contrecoeur, who is in command of the fort at the forks of the Ohio, which, it seems, has been named Fort Duquesne.
Peyronie put the question, but Drouillon did not reply. "Ask him also," continued Washington, "why he remained concealed near my troops for three days, instead of coming directly to me as an ambassador should have done?" Again Peyronie put the question, and again there was no answer. "Tell him," said Washington sternly, "that I see through his trick, that I comprehend it thoroughly.
He was a young officer of merit, and his fate was made the subject of lamentation in prose and verse chiefly through political motives. Of the twenty-one prisoners the two most important were an officer of some consequence named Drouillon, and the subtle and redoubtable La Force. As Washington considered the latter an arch mischief-maker, he was rejoiced to have him in his power.
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