1649.] CHARACTER OF BRi:BEUF. 389 



he threw his arms upward, with a shriek of suppli- 

 cation to Heaven. Next they hung around Bre- 

 beuf s neck a collar made of hatchets heated red 

 hot ; but the indomitable priest stood like a rock. 

 A Huron in the crowd, who had been a convert of 

 the mission, but was now an Iroquois by adoption, 

 called out, with the malice of a renegade, to pour 

 hot water on their heads, since they had poured so 

 much cold water on those of others. The kettle 

 was accordingly slung, and the water boiled and 

 poured slowly on the heads of the two mission 

 aries. " We baptize you," they cried, " that you 

 may be happy in Heaven; for nobody can be saved 

 without a good baptism." Brebeuf would not flinch ; 

 and, in a rage, they cut strips of flesh from his 

 limbs, and devoured them before his eyes. Other 

 renegade Hurons called out to him, " You told us, 

 that, the more one sufl'ers on earth, the happier he 

 is in Heaven. We wish to make you happy ; 

 we torment you because we love you; and you 

 ought to thank us for it." After a succession of 

 other revolting tortures, they scalped him; when, 

 seeing him nearly dead, they laid open his breast, 

 and came in a crowd to drink the blood of so 

 valiant an enemy, thinking to imbibe with it some 

 portion of his courage. A chief then tore out his 

 heart, and devoured it. 



Thus died Jean de Brebeuf, the founder of the 

 Huron mission, its truest hero, and its greatest mar- 

 tyr. He came of a noble race, — the same, it is 

 said, from which sprang the English Earls of Arun- 

 del ; but never had the mailed barons of his Ime 



3.S* 



