“God is good; let us first of all put our trust in Him.  Then let us examine the means which He has given us to meet the evil.  Now, my plan is that I shall in the first instance affect to yield with grief to such proposals as you at first make to me.  Let there be a surrender of Monsieur Scott—­” Here she blushed so deeply that all her sweet-rounded cheek, and her neck, and her delicious little shell-like ears, became a crimson, deep as her bodice—­“and a consent to entertain as favourably as I can the suit of M. Riel.  Meanwhile we can see what is the next best step.  I do not think that we have much to dread by leaving Red River.  We can go to your brother who lives across the border, and I am certain that he will be delighted to harbour us till the tempest blows over.  I believe that this rising will rage for a brief season only, when it must yield to the arm of the Canadian authorities.  M. Riel is a fanatic, and counts not the perilousness of his undertaking.  He will succeed at the first, I doubt not.  You will hear of slaughtered whites, and others who have incurred his private vengeance.  He will lord it over all like a tyrant, till he sees the bayonets from Canada, when he will take good care to get out of the way.”  Her father saw that her views were sound, and consented to take her advice; but who was to acquaint his brother with their needs, and to learn if he could afford a harbourage?

“Paul can go.  He can take the pony and ride the distance in twelve hours.”  So it was agreed, and Marie busied herself with the linen of her brother, and sewed missing buttons upon his clothes.  In the evening, when all were seated at supper, a young half-breed who had long been an intimate friend at the house of Marie’s father, and who cast many a languishing eye upon the piquant Violette, came in.  There was much concern in his face, and it was some time before he knew how to begin to break the news which he possessed.

“Monsieur Riel was at my father’s house to-day, and he talked long there.  He is not your friend,” looking at Jean.  “He declares that you are in league with the enemies of our colony, and has asked my father to keep a strict watch on the doings of every member of your family.  I know that he talked in the same strain at every house he visited; and I think there is no threshold in our settlement that he hasn’t crossed.  About twenty-five young men have declared their willingness to follow him in any exploit.  They met upon a field this afternoon and drilled for a couple of hours.  One of them told me,”—­the speaker now turned his gaze half toward Marie—­“not an hour ago that their first business would be to settle affairs with Messieurs Mair and Scott, whom they declare are enemies of Red River, and spies of the Canadian government.  I should not wonder if these two men were secured to-night; and if this be so, and I am any judge of human malevolence, Riel will have them shot.”  The colour had gone out of Marie’s cheek, and there was a terrified gleam in her eye.