“Poundmaker, it is not for mercy, but for your protection that we sue.  If you have gone upon the war-path with the metis against the white people, let not those who are innocent of wrong suffer for those whose unwise doings may have stirred you up to the giving of battle after your own fashion.  Thus will it be that the warriors of the Great White Queen, who will surely swarm over all this land in numbers as the white moths ere the roses on the prairie are in bloom, when they hear from our lips that you have been mindful of us, will be mindful of you.  Douglas and his daughter you know; they have ever been the friends of the Red man.  You remember the evil days when there was nought to eat in the land, how they shared all they had with us, and called us brothers and sisters?  Ill would it become Poundmaker and his Stonies to forget that.  As for the others, they but serve their masters as these your braves serve you, and is that a crime?

“As for myself, Poundmaker, I have not gone on the war-path, because I believe this man, Louis Riel, to be one who hearkens to a false Manitou.  For him no friendly knife or bullet awaits, but the gallows-tree, by which no good Indian can ever hope to pass to the Happy Hunting Grounds.

“If it is that one of us must suffer to show that you have the power of life and death over us, let it be me.  I am ready, O Poundmaker!  Do with me as you will, but spare these who have done no wrong.  This is the only thing that I ask of you, and I ask it because of those days when we were as brothers, riding side by side after the buffalo together, and fighting the Sarcees and the Sioux.  You have told me of old that you believed in the Manitou—­show your belief now.  I have spoken, O chief!”

It has been the fashion with those who have seen only one or two contaminated specimens of the Red man to sneer at that phrase, “the noble savage.”  This they do out of the fullness of their ignorance.  Child-of-Light was indeed a noble savage, and looked it, every inch of him, as he drew himself up to his full height and gazed fearlessly into the face of his enemy.

A chorus of “Ough! ough!” was heard from every side, showing that not only had Child-of-Light himself considerable personal influence, but that the fairness of his speech had gone home.

Then the wily Poundmaker spoke.  He was an imposing figure with his great head-dress of eagles’ feathers, and clad in a suit of red flannel on which was wrought a rich mosaic of coloured beadwork.  White ermine tails dangled from his shoulders, arms, and breast.  He was in reality cruel and vindictive, but his cunning and worldly wisdom made him a master in expediency.  He had intelligence above the average, but lacked the good qualities of such as the loyal Crowfoot, the Chief of the Blackfoot nation, who also had the benefit of Pere Lacombe, that great missionary’s, sound counsel.