"He doesn't know the strength of the Five Nations. He thinks they would all flee before our regulars just as the Senecas did. Worse than that, he doesn't know the Indian temperament. I'm afraid you can't make him understand that to satisfy their hunger for revenge will serve better than a score of orations and treaties." "You think he won't touch La Grange?" "I am almost certain of it." "Then it rests with me." "What do you mean?" "I gave another pledge, d'Orvilliers. If the Governor won't do this--I shall have to do it myself." Save for a moment's hesitation Menard's voice was cool and even; but he had stopped walking and was looking closely at the commandant. D'Orvilliers was gazing at the floor. "What do you mean by that?" he said slowly, and then suddenly he got up. "My God, Menard, you don't mean that you would--" "Yes." "That can't be! I can't allow it." "It may not be necessary. I hope you are mistaken about the Governor." "I hope I am--but no; he won't help you. He's not in the mood for paying debts to a weakened enemy. And--Menard, sit down. I must talk plainly to you. I can't go on covering things up now. I don't believe you see the matter clearly. If it were a plain question of your mission to the Onondagas--if it were--Well, I want you to tell me in what relation you stand to Mademoiselle St. Denis." The Captain was standing by the chair. He rested his arms on the high back, and looked over them at d'Orvilliers. "She is to be my wife," he said. D'Orvilliers leaned back and slowly shook his head. "My dear fellow," he said, "when your story goes to Quebec, when the Chateau learns that you have promised the punishment of La Grange in the name of France, and then of this,--of Mademoiselle and her relations to yourself and to La Grange,--do you know what they will do?" Menard was silent. "They will laugh--first, and then--" "I know," said the Captain, "I have thought of all that." "You have told all this in your report?" "Yes." "So you would go on with it?" "Yes; I am going on with it. There is nothing else I can do. I couldn't have offered to give myself up; they already had me. The fault was La Grange's. What I did was the only thing that could have been done to save the column; if you will think it over, you will see that. I know what I did,--I know I was right; and if my superiors, when I have given my report, choose to see it in another way, I have nothing to say. If they give me my liberty, in the army or out of it, I will find La Grange. If not, I will wait." "Why not give that up, at least, Menard?" "If I give that up, we shall have a war with the Iroquois that will shake New France as she has never been shaken before." D'Orvilliers started to speak, but checked the words. Menard slung his musket behind his shoulders.