CHAPTER XXVIII. 



'^ 1649. 

 THE MARTYRS. 



The Ruins of St. Ignace, — The Relics found. — Brebeuf at 

 THE Stake. — His unconquerable Fortitude. — Lalemant. — 

 Renegade Hurons. — Iroquois Atrocities. — Death of Bre- 

 beuf. — His Character. — Death of Lalemant. 



On the morning of the twentieth, the Jesuits 

 at Sainte Marie received full confii-mation of the 

 reported retreat of the invaders ; and one of them, 

 with seven armed Frenchmen, set out for the scene 

 of havoc. They passed St. Louis, where the bloody 

 ground was strown thick with corpses, and, two 

 or three miles farther on, reached St. Ignace. 

 Here they saw a spectacle of horror; for among 

 the ashes of the burnt town were scattered in pro- 

 fusion the half-consumed bodies of those who had 

 perished in the flames. Apart from the rest, they 

 saw a sight that banished all else from their 

 thoughts ; for they found what they had come to 

 seek, — the scorched and mangled relics of Bre- 

 beuf and Lalemant.^ 



1 "lis J trouuerent vn spectacle d'horreur, les restes de la cruaut^ 

 mesme, ou plus tost les restes de Taniour de Dieu, qui seul triomphe dans 

 la mort des Martyrs." — Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1649, 13. 



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