The next day, he took the depositions of the pardoned men, carefully reducing them to writing. He then departed for Tadoussac, taking the four conspirators with him. On consultation, he decided to leave them there, where they could be more safely guarded until Pont Gravé and the principal men of the expedition could return with them to Quebec, where he proposed to give them a more public and formal trial. This was accordingly done. The prisoners were duly confronted with the witnesses. They denied nothing, but freely admitted their guilt. With the advice and concurrence of Pont Gravé, the pilot, surgeon, mate, boatswain, and others, Champlain condemned the four conspirators to be hung; three of them, however, to be sent home for a confirmation or revision of their sentence by the authorities in France, while the sentence of Jean Du Val, the arch-plotter of the malicious scheme, was duly executed in their presence, with all the solemn forms and ceremonies usual on such occasions. Agreeably to a custom of that period, the ghastly head of Du Val was elevated on the highest pinnacle of the fort at Quebec, looking down and uttering its silent warning to the busy colonists below; the grim signal to all beholders, that "the way of the transgressor is hard." The catastrophe, had not the plot been nipped in the bud, would have been sure to take place. The final purpose of the conspirators might not have been realized; it must have been defeated at a later stage; but the hand of Du Val, prompted by a malignant nature, was nerved to strike a fatal blow, and the life of Champlain would have been sacrificed at the opening of the tragic scene. The punishment of Du Val, in its character and degree, was not only agreeable to the civil policy of the age, but was necessary for the protection of life and the maintenance of order and discipline in the colony. A conspiracy on land, under the present circumstances, was as dangerous as a mutiny at sea; and the calm, careful, and dignified procedure of Champlain in firmly visiting upon the criminal a severe though merited punishment, reveals the wisdom, prudence, and humanity which were prominent elements in his mental and moral constitution. ENDNOTES: 56. _Membertou_. See Pierre Biard's account of his death in 1611. _Relations des Jésuites_. Quebec ed, Vol. I. p. 32.