Jasper and Waubeno entered the old French town, and gazed at the brick buildings, the antique roofs, the high dormer windows, and the faded houses of by-gone priest and nun. The tavern was covered with flags, French and American, as were the grand house of William Morrison and the beautiful Edgar mansion. The house once occupied by the French commandant was wrapped in the national colors. It had been the first State House of Illinois. A hundred years before--just one hundred years--Kaskaskia Commons had received its grand name from his most Christian Majesty Louis XV, and it then seemed likely to become the capital of the French mid-continent empire in the New World. The Jesuits flocked here, zealous for the conversion of the Indian races. Here came men of rank and military glory, and Fort Chartres rose near it, grand and powerful as if to awe the world. But there was a foe in the fort of the French heart, and the boundless empire faded, and the old French town went to the American pioneer, and the fort became a ruin, like Louisburg at Cape Breton. As Jasper and Waubeno passed along the broad streets they noticed that the town was filled with country people, and that there were Indians among them. One of these Indians approached Waubeno, and said: "She--yonder--see--Mary Panisciowa--daughter of the Great Chief--Mary Panisciowa." Waubeno followed with his eye the daughter of the Chief of the Six Nations. He went forward with the crowd and came to the house that she was making her home, and asked to meet her. Jasper had followed him. They turned aside from the street, which was full of excited people--excited Jasper knew not why. The door of the house where Mary Panisciowa was visiting stood open, and they were asked to enter. She looked a queen, yet she had the graces of the English and French people. She was a most accomplished woman. She spoke both English and French readily, her education having been conducted by an American agent to whom she had been commended by her father. "This is good news," she said. "What?" said Jasper. "Good news comes from God. Yet all events are news from heaven. The people seem greatly exercised. What has happened?" "Lafayette, the great Lafayette--have you not heard?--the marquis--he is on his way to Kaskaskia, and that is why I am here. My father fought under him, and the general sent him a letter thanking him for his services in the American cause. It was written forty years ago. I have brought it. I hope to meet him. Would you like to see it?--a letter from the great Lafayette." Mary Panisciowa took from her bosom a faded letter, and said: "My father fought for the new people, and I have taken up their religion and customs. I suppose that you have done the same," she said to Waubeno. "No; that can not be, for me." "Why? I supposed that you were a Christian, as you travel with the Tunker."