“I hear,” continued Montcalm, with a slight smile, “that you have not suffered in Captain Langlade’s village, and that you have adapted yourself well to wild life.”

“I’ve had much experience with the wilderness,” said Robert.  “Most of my years have been passed there, and it was easy for me to live as Captain Langlade lived.  I’ve no complaint to make of his treatment, though I will say that he has guarded me well.”

Montcalm laughed.

“It agrees with Captain Langlade’s own account,” he said.  “I suppose that one must be born, or at least pass his youth in it, to get the way of this vast wilderness.  We of old Europe, where everything has been ruled and measured for many centuries, can have no conception of it until we see it, and even then we do not understand it.  Although with an army about me I feel lost in so much forest.  But enough of that.  It is of yourself and not of myself that I wish to speak.  I have heard good reports of you from one of my own officers, who, though he has been opposed to you many times, nevertheless likes you.”

“The Chevalier de St. Luc!”

“Aye, the Chevalier de St. Luc.  I know, also, that you have been in the councils of some of the Colonial leaders.  You are a friend of Sir William Johnson.”

“Colonel William Johnson?”

“No, Sir William Johnson.  In reward for the affair at Lake George, in which our Dieskau was unfortunate, he has been made a baronet by the British king.”

“I am glad.”

“And doubtless Sir William is also.  You know him well, I understand, and he was still at the lake when you left on the journey that led to your capture.”

Robert was silent.

“I have not asked you to answer,” continued Montcalm, “but I assume that it is so.  His army, although it was victorious in the battle there, did not advance.  There was much disagreement among the governors of the British Colonies.  The provinces could not be induced to act together?”

Robert was still silent.

“Again I say I am not asking you to answer, but your silence confirms the truth of our reports.”

Robert flushed, and a warm reply trembled on his lips, but he restrained the words.  A swift smile passed over the dark face of Montcalm.

“You see, Mr. Lennox,” he continued, “I am not asking you to say anything, but there was great disappointment among the British Colonials because there was no advance after the battle at the lake.  It has also cooled the enthusiasm of the Iroquois, many of whom have gone home and who perhaps will take no further part in the war as the allies of the English.”

Again Robert flushed and again he bit back the hot reply.  He looked uneasily at De Levis and Bourlamaque, but their faces expressed nothing.  Then Montcalm suddenly changed the subject.

“I am going to make you a very remarkable offer,” he said, “and do not think for a moment it is going to imply any change of colors on your part, or the least suspicion of treason, which I could not ask of the gentleman you obviously are.  I request of you your parole, your word of honor that you will not take any further part in this war.”