“Thank the Holy Virgin that we came,” Madelon exclaimed; for they found not one, but half a dozen of the logs gone at different places, and had this been discovered by the Indians, there would have been little chance for the small band to have escaped being slain.
“Help, Louis; push, Alexander! We can get this log into place while the soldiers set up those that have wholly fallen down.” As she spoke, the brave girl and the two little brothers tugged with might and main, and got the heavy log in place, and held it while the soldiers drove it into the ground, so that no opening was left in the palisades. All the other weak spots were mended under her direction, the two men working as she ordered, since they seemed incapable of taking charge themselves. When the palisades were well repaired, and Madelon thought there was no further danger to be feared from that direction, she said,
“Now must we make the cowardly Iroquois believe that there is a strong garrison within, and never let them think that my father is from home. So let each one in turn fire from the loopholes, and see to it, boys, that there is no shot wasted.”
Finding that the firing was scattering but continuous, the Indians, ever averse to making an attack on a fortified place, withdrew to the woods.
Shortly, however, they discovered some of the settlers who had escaped the morning assault, creeping back to the fort, and with horrid yells the savages pursued and killed them. The women and children in the fort cried and screamed without ceasing, knowing that their loved ones were being killed without mercy. At last Madelon, fearing that they would be heard by the Indians, and their distress taken as a sign of weakness, ordered them to stop, and tried to busy them about the defence.
“Load and fire the cannon, Laviolette; it will serve as a warning to any of the settlers that may have escaped, and I have heard my father say that Indians ever fear a cannon.”
So the cannon was fired, and Madelon from her loophole saw the tall, painted forms of the enemy take refuge in the forest. But this was not the last duty of the little commander that night. From her place on the bastions of the fort she saw a canoe with a settler whom she knew well, named Fontaine, coming towards the landing. He was not alone, but had his wife and family with him.
“I must save them if it be the will of God. Laviolette, dost thou see any of the Indians lurking at the woods’ edge?”
“There be none very near at hand, Mademoiselle. Perhaps the cannon affrighted them.”
“I pray that it may be so, since there is none but thou and I to save our friends, I fear.”