PLACE DE LA CROIX. 249 
The terrible and strange incidents that had formed 
the life of Rousseau, since the defeat of his military 
associate, D’Arteguette, seemed to him, as he recalled 
them in his mind, to have occupied anage. His dreams 
were filled with scenes of torment and death. He would 
start from his sleep with the idea that an arrow was pen- 
etrating his body, or that the bloody knife was at his 
heart ; these were then changed into visions of starva- 
tion, or destruction by wild beasts. Recovering his 
senses, he would find himself in a comfortable lodge, 
reposing on a couch of soft skins; while the simple 
children of the woods, relieved of their terrors, were 
waiting to administer to his wants. The change from 
the extreme of suffering to that of comfort, he could 
hardly realize. 
The cross in the wilderness, the respect they paid to 
the one upon his breast, were alike inexplicable; and 
Rousseau, according to the spirit of his age, felt that a 
miracle had been wrought in his favor: and on his 
bended knees he renewed his ecclesiastical vows, and 
determined to devote his life to enlightening and chris- 
tianizing the people among whom Providence had placed 
him. 
The Indian girl who first discovered Rousseau, was 
the only child of a powerful chief. She was still a 
maiden, and the slavish labor of savage married life 
had, consequently, not been imposed upon her. 
bi 
