“What do you with that fuse?”
“Light the powder and blow us all up,” cried the soldier, while his companion, huddling in the corner, only moaned.
“Miserable coward, go from this place at once!” and Madelon’s voice rang with such determination and command that the man obeyed.
“See, since none of you dare, I myself will defend this fort, for my father would have shame if his daughter could not keep it, when there are arms and powder and those that can use them.”
“Sister,” said Alexander, “give me a gun, for I too can load and fire one.”
“Truly thou shalt have one, little brother. We shall fight to the death. Remember what our father hath taught us, that men are born to shed their lives for their country and their king. Though I be but a girl, I shall do as he would wish, since neither of you is old enough to take command here.”
Even the craven soldiers, inspired with some small degree of courage, agreed to follow their intrepid commander, whose first order was that they should make a round of the palisades, that high fence of great logs with pointed ends that surrounded the forts and blockhouses planted in the wilderness, and to which many owed their safety, since they were wellnigh impossible to climb, and the garrison within had those that climbed at their mercy. As they hurried to the palisades, Madelon put on her head one of the soldier caps which she saw in the blockhouse.
“Why do you put that cap on, sister?” asked Louis, with a curiosity which he could not repress even at that critical time.
“So that the Iroquois shall not think that it is a girl making the rounds. You put one on also, and give one to Alexander.”
The feeble band hurried to go around the inside of the palisades to see that all was secure, for on this defence of heavy logs their very lives depended.