Bonté and Gachet, guard well that place, and oh, do not give it up, even if I am taken before your eyes.”
“Heaven forbid, M’m’selle!” cricd Fontaine, fervently; but Laviolette nodded gravely.
“M’m’selle has the mind of a general. She has well planned,” he said.
They parted, Fontaine and the two soldiers going to the block-house, while the old man, the little maid, and the two lads took their places in the bastions on the stockade; and at frequent and regular intervals the call, “All ’s well,” sounded from point to point. Pierre Fontaine had a clever trick of throwing his voice from one place to another, and such variety did this lend to their signals that Madeleine joyfully said to herself, “The place seems full of soldiers.”
The wind increased in fierceness as night drew on; an icy rain fell, changing later to snow, which soon whitened the ground. This was an advantage, for it made it possible to see, in what would otherwise have been impenetrable darkness, a black mass of moving creatures approaching the fort. Madeleine was straining her eyes to see if this was some new scheme of the Indians to approach the fort unchallenged, when a comfortable, every-day “Moo-o-o” sounding from the mass made her laugh aloud, so great was the relief from the tension.
At the same moment, she heard a low whistle from Laviolette, the signal agreed upon to call the four to any given point, When she reached his bastion, he said in a low tone:
“M’m’selle, here come our poor cattle which escaped from the savages this afternoon. The Iroquois have feasted well on some of the beasts this night. Shall I open the gate, and let our poor creatures in?”
“Oh, I am afraid?” she cried; “the savages may he there.”
“Oh, nonsense, Madeleine,” interposed her brother Louis, “I know that was our Barbe mooing.”
“Even so, Louis,” returned Madeleine, fearfully, “but thou knowest not all the tricks of the savages, They may be crowding in among the cattle to slip within our walls.”
“I think we may safely venture, M’m’selle,” said the cautious Laviolctte. “The savages have had a great feast to-night. They have held some kind of a council, too, I think, from the shouts and songs I have heard, and I can still sec gleams of their council-fire afar off among those trees, I think, as their wont is at such times, they have gorged until they can eat no more, and must sleep awhile.”
So, most cautiously, while the two boys held their guns cocked, Madeleine opened the gate just enough to allow one cow at a time to slip through. When the last of the animals had entered, and the gate was again barred, they went back, each to his bastion, leaving the cows to find such shelter as they could under the rude sheds built here and there within the inclosure,
This incident broke the monotony of the long vigil for the boys, and brought some comfort to Madeleine, for she knew that now there would be plenty of milk for the little children crowded within the block-house, and even fresh meat for the older ones, should the siege be prolonged enough to make it necessary
When morning dawned, all the terrors of the night seemed to flee away. There are few things in the world that look quite as black in morning sunshine as in midnight gloom. A great sorrow or a great shame may seem perchance to cast a deeper shadow when the sun shines, but not the physical terrors which walk in darkness.
Madeleine sent the two little hoys to bed after the weary watch they had kept so faithfully; but she herself, borne up by a nervous excitement, seemed to feel no fatigue, and was here, there, and everywhere, her laugh and smile so contagious that even the sad-faced women took courage, all save Madame Fontaine, who threw herself into her husband's arms, begging him to take her away, back to France, to another fort, anywhere, to leave this horrible place.
“Never!” Picrre Fontaine replied. “Never will I desert this fort unless Mademoiselle Madeleine surrenders it.”
“That will I never do!” she cried, “for my father says that one French fort surrendered is one broken link in the glorious chain that holds this country for our beloved king.”
So the days passed on, no hour without its need for constant watchfulness, no night without its weary vigil; many the alarms and attempted attacks, the scattered shots from fort and forest, yet through it all, this brave little maid of New France bore herself most courageously, and never for one moment did those who seemed dependent upon her and who had learncd to lean upon her, see anything but a brave smile, or hear anything but words of cheer, But discouraged moments came to her, nevertheless. A siege of moderate length she knew they were prepared to stand; most of the winter provisions were stored in the block-house, and a fair supply of ammunition, although the boat which had: carried her mother to Montreal was expected to bring back more powder, as well as cloth for the winter's use.
But gradually, as day followed day, Madeleine's heart sank within her. Had the hunting party of soldiers been wholly destroyed? Had not even one