Menard was silent.
“They will laugh––first, and then––”
“I know,” said the Captain, “I have thought of all that.”
“You have told all this in your report?”
“Yes.”
“So you would go on with it?” 388
“Yes; I am going on with it. There is nothing else I can do. I couldn’t have offered to give myself up; they already had me. The fault was La Grange’s. What I did was the only thing that could have been done to save the column; if you will think it over, you will see that. I know what I did,––I know I was right; and if my superiors, when I have given my report, choose to see it in another way, I have nothing to say. If they give me my liberty, in the army or out of it, I will find La Grange. If not, I will wait.”
“Why not give that up, at least, Menard?”
“If I give that up, we shall have a war with the Iroquois that will shake New France as she has never been shaken before.”
D’Orvilliers started to speak, but checked the words. Menard slung his musket behind his shoulders.