292 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



ically. His great anxiety now that the rebel aspira- 

 tions had been satisfied by the Manitoba Bill was 

 that he himself should have an amnesty for the 

 crimes he had been guilty of. The Government 

 would have willingly given him an amnesty for all 

 his political offences, but such woiild not have pro- 

 tected him from the charge of having wilfully and 

 in cold blood murdered a loyal subject. Therein lay 

 the difficulty ; for, anxious as the Cartier party might 

 be to secure him from all punishment, it was known 

 that the English-speaking people of Canada would 

 not tolerate his being protected from legal proceed- 

 ings in that matter. The rebellion had obtained for 

 Bishop Tache" and his party all that even the most 

 sanguine had expected from it ; and he was naturally 

 afraid lest Kiel, from personal motives and fear of 

 punishment, might upset the whole arrangement by 

 attempting to resist. He was wise enough to know 

 that nothing was to be gained, whilst everything 

 already gained was to be lost, by an appeal to arms. 

 He therefore strained every nerve at this juncture to 

 keep Kiel quiet. He had left for Canada with the 

 especial object of procuring an amnesty by which 

 he should be held entirely blameless ; and this wily 

 priest had impressed upon him the certainty of his 

 being able to obtain it, his influence being so power- 

 ful at Ottawa. Biel knew not what to do : at one 

 moment he talked of resistance ; then, when the word 

 amnesty was whispered in his ear, and visions of 



