Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 13, 2025
He gave La Hontan the sign to move before him out of the lodge, and no choice but to obey it, crowding the reluctant and comfortable man into undignified attitudes. La Hontan saw that he had taken offense. There was no accounting for the humors of those disbanded soldiers of the Carignan-Salières, though Saint-Castin was usually a gentle fellow.
Madockawando's daughter dipped her pail full of the clear water. The appreciative motion of her eyelashes and the placid lines of her face told how she enjoyed the limpid plaything. But Saint-Castin understood well that she had not come out to boil sap entirely for the love of it. Father Petit believed the time was ripe for her ministry to the Abenaqui women.
She set her sap pail down by the trough, and Saint-Castin shifted silently to watch her while she dipped the juice. Her eyelids were lowered. She had well-marked brows, and the high cheek-bones were lost in a general acquiline rosiness. It was a girl's face, modest and sweet, that he saw; reflecting the society of holier beings than the one behind the tree.
"Mademoiselle," said Baron La Hontan in very French Abenaqui, rising to one knee, and sweeping the twigs with the brim of his hat as he pulled it off, "the Baron de Saint-Castin of Pentegoet, the friend of your chief Madockawando, is at your lodge door, tired and chilled from a long hunt. Can you not permit him to warm at your fire?" The Abenaqui girl bowed her covered head.
There was a difference between the chatter of civilized men and the deliberations of barbarians. With La Hontan, the Baron de Saint-Castin would have led up to his business by a long prelude on other subjects. With Madockawando, he waited until the tobacco had mellowed both their spirits, and then said,
Phips's capture of Port Royal had alarmed some of the Abnakis, but most of them held fast to the French connection and were amenable to presents. It soon proved that all they needed was leadership, which was amply furnished by the Baron de Saint-Castin and Father Thury.
He had seen many good women in his life, with the patronizing tolerance which men bestow on unpiquant things that are harmless; and he did not understand why her hiding should stab him like a reproach. She hid from all common eyes. But his were not common eyes. Saint-Castin felt impatient at getting no recognition from a girl, saint though she might be, whose tribe he had actually adopted.
"Before the sun goes down," vowed Saint-Castin, "there shall be nobody in my house but the two Etchemin slave men that your father gave me." The girl heard of his promised reformation without any kindling of the spirit. "I am not for a wife," she answered him, and walked on with the pail. Again Saint-Castin followed her, and took the sap pail from her hand.
Madockawando's daughter seized him by the wrist. "Is there any way out of the fort except through the gate?" "None," answered Saint-Castin. "Is there no way of getting over the wall?" "The ladder can be used." "Run, then, to the ladder! Be quick." "What is the matter?" demanded Saint-Castin. The Abenaqui girl dragged on him with all her strength as he reached for the iron door-latch.
"Is it that you do not like me?" "No," she answered sincerely, probing her mind for the truth. "You yourself are different from our Abenaqui men." "Then why do you make me unhappy?" "I do not make you unhappy. I do not even think of you." Again she took to her hurried course, forgetting the pail of sap. Saint-Castin seized it, and once more followed her.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking