"Now, Jean, wherefore do you seek this interview with the girl?"
Stephens asked, with a slight curl of contempt upon his lip.
"I want to tell her that I love her; and to arrange to have further
meetings with la petite."
"Why, Jean, I had been under the impression that once before you
told this girl that you loved her, and that she turned up her pretty
nose in disdain. But whether this be true or not, there is another
fact which forms an insuperable barrier to your object. Julie loves
another." The eyes of the half-breed snapped and flamed with jealous
rage.
"Some worthless vagabond, I suppose?" he said, fairly spitting the
words out of him.
"O, no," Stephens replied, with exasperating composure; "but a brave
and illustrious Indian chief. A nobler looking man I have never laid
my eyes upon. You could walk under his legs."
"O, do you think so?" the little Metis replied, with a very ugly
glance. "Now, monsieur, you have refused my offer, and listen to what
you gain by doing so. By some means or other these two traitorous
jades will be captured. Then le grand chef takes yours away up the
dismal valley to Jubal's hut. I take your fine Indian chief's down to
ma mere's ready cottage. As for you, if the maiden retain her reputed
preferences she will be able, when the spring arrives, to come out
upon the prairie and plant daisies, or any other blossom to her
liking, above you."
Stephens had been prepared for malignity, but of such devilish
brutality as this he had not deemed any man living capable. He was so
overwhelmed with horror and disgust that he simply waved his bridle
hand, imposing peace. Thereat Jean pushed forward and gave some
instructions to a savage, who immediately put the bonds again upon
Phillips, tying the thongs so tight that the wounded man groaned with
pain. Then the cavalcade resumed a brisk trot, slacking not until the
prisoners found themselves before the stronghold of the rebel chief.
It is necessary to pause a moment here and point out that M. Riel
had actually formed a provisional government, and succeeded by his
passionate eloquence in deluding the Metis and Indians into the
belief that he was exercising a lawful authority, inasmuch as the
territories had not, within the interpretation of the law, passed
from the Hudson Bay Company under the jurisdiction of Canada. Subject
to this doctrine he laid down the right to establish tribunals of
law, to try, and punish offenders against his authority, and do all
other things that made for the stability and peace of the new regime.
A prominent white settler named Toltbon, had raised a company of
volunteers and gone against the forces of the Metis leader; but his
men were captured like a flock of sheep, and he himself locked up in
the strongest room in the guard house.