"Tu as le cœur à rire,
Moi je l'ai-t à pleurer;
J'ai perdu ma maîtresse
Sans pouvoir la trouver.
—Lui y a longtemps que je t'aime,
Jamais je ne t'oublierai."
"Tu as le cœur à rire,
Moi je l'ai-t à pleurer;
J'ai perdu ma maîtresse
Sans pouvoir la trouver.
—Lui y a longtemps que je t'aime,
Jamais je ne t'oublierai."
He listened. A low call sounded from the trees on his right, and he brought the canoe under the bank.
"Is that you, Bateese?"
"Monsieur, forgive me! I said as little as I could, but the Reverend Father and Dominique were too clever for me. And how was I to have known?… . Take the canoe and travel fast, my friends; they will be searching again at dawn."
"Did mademoiselle send the canoe?"
"Yes; and she charged you to answer one question. It was her brother—M. Armand—whom the Iroquois slew in the Wilderness. Ah, that cry! Can one ever forget?"
"Her brother!" John's hand went to his breast in the darkness.
"Monsieur did not know, then? I was sure that monsieur could not have known! For myself I did not know until four days ago. The Iroquois had not seen us, and we escaped back to the Richelieu— to Sorel—to Montreal, where I left my wounded man. Ah, monsieur, but we suffered on the way! And from Montreal I made for Boisveyrac, and there my tongue ran loose—but in all innocence. And there I heard that M. Armand had been crossing the Wilderness… but monsieur did not know it was her brother?"
"That, at least, I never knew nor guessed, Bateese. Was this the question Mademoiselle Diane desired you to ask me?"