They pointed as they spoke to the fetters which embraced the legs and arms of the hostages, who sat in one corner of the council-house. "Our red brothers have but to speak, and these chains fall from the limbs of their well beloved chiefs." "Heh!--We speak!--Let them fall!" "Speak to your people that these piles be complete," pointing to the grain. "They have heard. See you not they come?" "But very slowly;--and hearken to us now, brothers of the red-men, while we ask,--do the skies that pavilion the territories of the Paracoussi Utina rain down such things as these." Here D'Erlach showed them a bunch of the arrows which they had found planted by the wayside as they came. The thin lips of the savages parted into slight smiles as they beheld them. "These grow not by nature," continued D'Erlach; "they fall not from heaven in the heavy showers. They are sown by the red-men along the path which the white man travels. What is the fruit which is to grow from such seed as this?" The chiefs were silent. The youth proceeded: "Brothers, we are calm;--we are not angry, though we well know what these arrows mean. We are patient, for we know our own strength. The Paracoussi has promised us supplies of grain, and hither we have come. Four days shall we remain in waiting for it. Till that time, these well-beloved men shall remain in our keeping. When we receive the supplies which have been promised us, they shall be yours. We have spoken." Thus ended the first conference. That night the French lieutenants found their way to the presence of the Paracoussi. He was kept concealed in a small wigwam, deeply embowered in the woods, but in near and convenient neighborhood to the village. He himself had sent for them, and one of his sons had shown the way. They found the old monarch still maintaining the state of a prince, but he was evidently humbled. His captivity had lessened his authority; and his anxiety to comply with the engagements made with the French had in some degree impaired his influence over his people. They had resolved to destroy the pale-faces, as insolent invaders of their territory, consumers of its substance and enemies of its peace. It was this hostility and this determination that had interposed all the obstacles in the way of procuring the supplies promised.