"I cannot lead you," I said in Algonquin, and I knew my voice was blank. "Outchipouac is wrong. I am no manitou, but a man so weak he does not know the truth even for himself. How can he lead others? When I brought you here the sun shone brightly, and I thought I saw the way ahead. Now I am in darkness and mist. Go. Leave me. Find a leader whose sight is not clouded." I turned my back and stood with my head down.
A murmur rose. I had broken the illusion. We had all been riding the clouds of fancy, and I had dashed us to earth again. The chiefs had come to me with their hands out, and I had thrown water in their faces. They had reason for their anger. Cadillac saw the pantomime and lumbered from his seat. He seized my arm.
"Montlivet, you are insane! You are insane!"
I pointed him to the woods. "Monsieur, I have dropped my sword. I shall go into the forest for a time."
He shook me as if I were in a torpor. "Your wife"——
"I shall search for her. I am going out now with Indian trailers. I shall not leave this country till all hope is past,—then I shall go west."
For a moment suspicion clutched him. "Oh, you would form your union without me! You are planning a dictatorship."
I took him by the arm and begged him to understand. "I have dropped my sword," I reiterated. "I am going on alone. I have skins and provisions cached at Sturgeon Cove—enough for barter. I am not insane. I shall go prudently. There are lands and peoples to be explored in the west."
The clamor grew. Dubisson and others of the French came nearer.
"Speak to the chiefs now. Speak to them now," they begged. "You can save the situation yet."