Then Father Drouillard spoke for France.  He made an impressive figure, wrapped in his black robe, his eyes burning like coals of fire in his thin, dead white face.  Near him on the right, his Onondaga converts were gathered, and he frequently looked at them as he told the fifty sachems that France, the greatest and strongest son of Holy Church, was their best friend, and their fitting ally.  Such was the thread of his discourse.  He struck throughout the priestly note.  He appealed not alone to their sense of right in this world, but to the deeds they must do to insure their entrance into the world to come.  France alone could lead them in the right path, she alone thought of their souls.

The priest spoke with intense fervor, using the tongue of the Indians with the greatest clearness and purity.  His sincerity was obvious.  Neither Robert nor Willet could doubt it for an instant, and they saw, too, that it was making an impression.  Deep murmurs of approval came often from the converts, and now and then the whole multitude stirred in agreement.  But the fifty sachems, all except the nine Mohawks, sat as expressionless as stones.  The Mohawks did not move, but the stern, accusing gaze they bent upon the priest never relaxed.  As Robert had foreseen, the most eloquent orator might talk a thousand years, and he could never bring them a single inch toward France.

Willet followed the priest.  He attempted no flights.  He left the future to itself and emphasized the present and the past.  He recalled the facts, so well known, that the English had always been their friends, and the French always their enemies.  The English had kept their treaties with the Hodenosaunee, the French could not be trusted.

The hunter, too, received applause, much of it, and when he finished he took his position in the audience beside Tayoga.  Then the Chevalier de St. Luc stood before the fifty sachems, as gallant and as handsome a figure as one could find in either the Old World or the New, clothed in a white uniform faced with gold, his hair powdered and tied in a knot, his small sword, gold hilted, by his side.

The chevalier knew the children of the forest, and Robert recognized at once in him an antagonist even more formidable than he had expected.  His appeal was to the lore of the woods and to valor.  The French adapted themselves to the ways of the forest.  They practiced the customs of the Indians, lived with them and often married their women.  They could grow and flourish together, while the Englishmen and the Bostonnais held themselves aloof from the red men, and pretended to be their superiors.  The French soldier and the Indian warrior had much in common, side by side they were invincible, and together they could drive the English into the sea, giving back to the red races the lands they had lost.

He was a graceful and impassioned speaker, and he, too, made his impression.  The principal point of his theme, that the French alone fraternized with the Indians, was good and all were familiar with the fact.  He returned to it continually, and when he sat down the applause was louder than it had been for either Willet or the priest.  It was evident that he had made a strong appeal, and the Onondaga and Seneca sachems regarded him with a certain degree of favor, but the nine fierce and implacable Mohawk sachems did not unbend a particle.