Having thus effected a landing, and being joined by a large body of Indians, who had joyfully hailed him as a deliverer from Spanish cruelties, he had marched to the attack of Fort San Mateo, by which name Fort Caroline was now called.

Through a series of blunders on the part of its Spanish commandant he had been able to capture this fort with comparative ease.  By the aid of powder and fire the walls of all these forts had been levelled with the ground, and their total destruction effected.

Having thus accomplished the main objects of his expedition, De Gourges had regained his ships, and sailed still farther northward, to the deep harbor in which Rene had discovered him, and in which he was now preparing for the homeward voyage.

“This,” he said, in conclusion, “brings my narrative to the present date, and my expedition to the place in which I am granted the great blessing of a meeting with thee, my noble countryman, who art become at the same time a noble savage.”

Then in his turn Rene gave an account of his experiences at the overthrow of Fort Caroline, his capture by the Seminoles, his rescue from them, and his subsequent life and rise to power among the Alachuas.  To all of this De Gourges listened with breathless attention; and when Rene had finished, he exclaimed,

“No knight of olden time had ever adventures more thrilling than these of thine, and greatly do I envy thee thy brave record.”

After this exchange of experiences the two emerged from the admiral’s cabin, where they had been so long closeted as to excite the liveliest curiosity of those on deck.  When Rene was made known to the officers of De Gourges’ command, he was most joyfully welcomed by them, as one of whom they had heard brave things, and who was most worthy to command their respect and esteem.

CHAPTER XIX

THE OLD WORLD ONCE MORE

The moment in which the Chevalier Dominique de Gourges embraced the long-lost Rene de Veaux, and welcomed him as one who had been dead, but had again come to life, was one of as sincere pleasure as he had ever experienced.  In his destruction of the Spaniards he had been filled with a fierce joy; for, according to his view, he was performing an act of solemn justice, and rendering the world a service in thus ridding it of those whom he regarded only as murderers and pirates.

It was, however, with far different feelings from these that he welcomed his young countryman, and he felt that to bear him back to France and restore him to the loving old man who had so long mourned him as dead, would indeed be a triumph worth all the other results of his expedition.  He was not certain that Rene was disposed to give up the honors of his present position and return with him to France and civilization.  Therefore, after he had introduced him to his officers, it was with a tone of anxiety that he inquired what the young chief purposed to do, now that the fighting was all over, and the services of himself and his warriors were not needed.