It was past midnight before the visitors were ready to depart, and then Rene and Has-se bade each other farewell with swelling hearts; for they had learned to love each other more dearly than brothers, and they feared they might never meet again.

One by one the canoes of the Alachuas glided away from the water gate noiselessly as so many thistle-downs, and were instantly lost to view in the night mist that hung like a soft gray curtain over the whole river.  Rene watched the last one depart, and then going to his own room, he flung himself on a couch and was almost instantly buried in a profound slumber, so thoroughly exhausted was he by the exciting labors of the previous day.

The morning was well advanced when he awoke.  For some moments he stared about him in bewilderment, unable to account for the absence of the open-air surroundings of his late life.  As soon as he realized where he was, he sprang up, dressed, ate a hurried breakfast, and went to his uncle’s room.

He found the commandant feeling so much stronger and better that he was sitting up for the first time in weeks, and, in a large easy-chair by the window, was impatiently awaiting his nephew.  A look of great joy lighted up the old soldier’s face as Rene entered the room, and he blessed Him who had once more restored to him this son of his old age.  Then they talked, and several hours had slipped away before Rene had related all the details of his remarkable journey through the unknown wilderness of the interior, and Laudonniere had in turn given all the particulars of the mutiny, and made clear the present state of affairs in Fort Caroline.

At the conclusion of Rene’s story his uncle said, “Thou hast carried thyself like a man, my lad, and like a true son of our noble house.  The successful issue of thy undertaking also insures thee a pardon for the manner in which thou didst set about it.  I must warn thee, however, that unless thou choose to be considered a mutineer or a rebel, never again take upon thyself the ordering of such a matter when under command of a superior officer.”

Rene hung his head at this mild rebuke, and promised his uncle that his future actions should be entirely guided by him, so long as they sustained each other the relations they now bore.

He was amazed and troubled to learn of the plans of the mutineers in regard to abandoning the fort, and begged his uncle’s permission to remonstrate against such a proceeding with Simon, the armorer.  It being granted, he held a long and serious conversation with the old soldier, but to no avail.