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Three of their brotherhood Charles Lalemant, Enemond Masse, and Jean de Brebeuf accordingly embarked; and, fourteen years after Biard and Masse had landed in Acadia, Canada beheld for the first time those whose names stand so prominent in her annals, the mysterious followers of Loyola. Their reception was most inauspicious. Champlain was absent.
It had not the natural strength of St. Ignace; but, like it, was surrounded by palisades. Here were the two Jesuits, Brebeuf and Lalemant. Brebeuf's converts entreated him to escape with them; but the Norman zealot, bold scion of a warlike stock, had no thought of flight. His post was in the teeth of danger, to cheer on those who fought, and open Heaven to those who fell.
The English, who came to this country to plunder and not to build up, not only burned a greater part of the detached buildings which Father Charles Lalemant had erected, but also all of that poor settlement of which nothing is now to be seen but the ruins of its stone walls.
"My companion," said the fearless Marquette, when exploring the prairies of the Western wilderness, "is an envoy of France to discover new countries, and I am an ambassador of God to enlighten them with the Gospel." Lalemant, when pierced with the arrows of the Iroquois, rejoiced that his martyrdom would induce others to follow his example.
On similar errands, he would sometimes pass the night alone in the forest in the depth of winter. He was anxious to fall into the hands of the Iroquois, that he might preach the Faith to them even out of the midst of the fire. After the death of Brebeuf and Lalemant, he writes to his brother "Helas!
She could not understand their desire to prolong a life which she deemed useless, but her director, Father Lalemant, comprehending her value to the community far better than she did herself, and compassionating the affliction of her children, commanded her to join in their prayers for her restoration.
Lalemant, while lacking Brebeuf's dominating enthusiasm, was a more practical man, with great organizing ability. After viewing the wide and dangerous field to be administered, the new superior decided to concentrate the separate missions into one stronghold of the faith. The site he chose was remote from any of the centres of Indian population.
The months of October and November passed away, and still no sign of improvement appeared. Champlain, therefore, made his will, which he was able to sign plainly, in the presence of some witnesses. Father Charles Lalemant, the friend and confessor of Champlain, administered to him the last rites of the church, and on the night of December 25th, 1635, he passed away at Fort St. Louis.
Father Francois Pu Peron came up the Ottawa in a Huron canoe in September, 1638, and was well treated by the Indian owner of the vessel. Lalemant and Le Moyne, who had set out from Three Rivers before him, did not fare so well.
Lalemant was a Parisian, and his family belonged to the class of gens de robe, or hereditary practitioners of the law. He was thirty-nine years of age. His physical weakness is spoken of by several of those who knew him. Marie de l'Incarnation says, "C'etait l'homme le plus faible et le plus delicat qu'on eut pu voir."
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