1637-40.] BOLDNESS OF THE JESUITS. 125 



verely wounded, staggered without falling, when 

 the Indian sprang upon him with his tomahawk. 

 The bystanders arrested the blow. Francois Le 

 Mercier, in the midst of a crowd of Indians in a 

 house at the town called St. Louis, was assailed by 

 a noted chief, who rushed in, raving like a mad- 

 man, and, in a torrent of words, charged upon hini 

 all the miseries of the nation. Then, snatching a 

 brand from the fire, he shook it in the Jesuit's face, 

 and told him that he should be burned alive. Le 

 Mercier met him with looks as determined as his 

 o^vn, till, abashed at his undaunted front and bold 

 denunciations, the Indian stood confounded.^ 



The belief that their persecutions were owing 

 to the fury of the Devil, driven • to desperation 

 by the home-thrusts he had received at their 

 hands, was an unfailing consolation to the priests. 

 " Truly," writes Le Mercier, "it is an unspeakable 

 happiness for us, in the midst of this barbarism, to 

 hear the roaring of the demons, and to see Earth 

 and Hell raging against a handful of men who 

 will not even defend themselves." ^ In all the copi- 

 ous records of this dark period, not a line gives oc- 

 casion to suspect that one of this loyal band flinched 

 or hesitated. The iron Brebeuf, the gentle Garnier, 



1 The above incidents are from Le Mercier, Lalemant, Bressani, the 

 autobiography of Chaumonot, the unpubhshed writings of Garnier, and 

 the ancient manuscript volume of memoirs of the early Canadian mission- 

 aries, at St. Mary's College, Montreal. 



2 " C'est veritablement un bonheur indicible pour nous, au milieu de 

 cette barbaric, d'entendre les rugissemens des demons, *.^- de voir tout 

 I'Enfer & quasi tons les horames animez & remphs de fureur contre une 

 petite poignee de gens qui ne voudroient pas se defendre." — Relation des 

 Hurons, 1640, 31 (Cramoisy). 



11* 



