390 THE MARTYRS. [1649. 



confronted a fate so appalling, with so prodigious a 

 constancy. To the last he refused to flinch, and 

 " his death was the astonishment of his murderers."^ 

 In him an enthusiastic devotion was grafted on an 

 heroic nature. His bodily endowments were as 

 remarkable as the temper of his mind. His manly 

 proportions, his strength, and his endurance, which 

 incessant fasts and penances could not undermine, 

 had always won for him the respect of the Indians, 

 no less than a courage unconscious of fear, and yet 

 redeemed from rashness by a cool and vigorous judg- 

 ment ; for, extravagant as were the chimeras which 

 fed the fires of his zeal, they were consistent with the 

 soberest good sense on matters of practical bearing. 

 Lalemant, physically weak from childhood, and 

 slender almost to emaciation, was constitutionally 

 unequal to a display of fortitude like that of his 

 colleague. When Brebeuf died, he was led back 

 to the house whence he had been taken, and tor- 

 tured there all night, until, in the morning, one 

 of the Iroquois, growing tired of the protracted 

 entertainment, killed him with a hatchet.^ It was 

 said, that, at times, he seemed beside himself; 

 then, rallying, with hands uplifted, he ofi'ered his 



1 Charlevoix, I. 294. Alegambe uses a similar expression. 



2 " We saw no part of his body," says Ragueneau, " from head to 

 foot, which was not burned, even to liis eyes, in the sockets of which 

 tht'se wretches had placed live coals." — Relation des Hurons, 1649, 15. 



Lalemant was a Parisian, and his family belonged to the class of gens 

 de robe, or hereditary practitioners of the law. He was thirty-nine years 

 of age. His physical weakness is spoken of by several of those who knew 

 him. Marie de i'lncarnation says, " C'etait Thomnie le plus faible et le plus 

 delicat qu'on eut pu voir." Both Bressani and Ragueneau are equally 

 emphatic on tliis point. 



