A bold and adventuresome man was DuLuth,
          and a dauntless in danger,
And straight to Kathaga he ran,
          and boldly advanced to the warriors,
Now gathering, a cloud on the strand,
          and gazing amazed on the strangers;
And straightway he offered his hand
          unto Wazi-kute, the Itancan.[X]
To the Lodge of the Stranger were led
          DuLuth and his hardy companions;
Robes of beaver and bison were spread,
          and the Peace-pipe[23] was smoked with the Frenchman.

[X] Head-chief

There was dancing and feasting at night,
          and joy at the presents he lavished. 
All the maidens were wild with delight
          with the flaming red robes and the ribbons,
With the beads and the trinkets untold,
          and the fair, bearded face of the giver;
And glad were they all to behold
          the friends from the Land of the Sunrise. 
But one stood apart from the rest—­
          the queenly and silent Winona,
Intently regarding the guest—­
          hardly heeding the robes and the ribbons,
Whom the White Chief beholding admired,
          and straightway he spread on her shoulders
A lily-red robe and attired
          with necklet and ribbons the maiden. 
The red lilies bloomed in her face,
          and her glad eyes gave thanks to the giver,
And forth from her teepee apace
          she brought him the robe and the missal
Of the father—­poor Rene Menard;
          and related the tale of the “Black Robe.” 
She spoke of the sacred regard
          he inspired in the hearts of Dakotas;
That she buried his bones with her kin,
          in the mound by the Cave of the Council;
That she treasured and wrapt in the skin
          of the red-deer his robe and his prayer book—­
“Till his brothers should come from the East—­
          from the land of the far Hochelaga,
To smoke with the braves at the feast,
          on the shores of the Loud-laughing Waters. [16]
For the ‘Black Robe’ spake much of his youth
          and his friends in the Land of the Sunrise;
It was then as a dream; now in truth
          I behold them, and not in a vision.” 
But more spake her blushes, I ween,
          and her eyes full of language unspoken,
As she turned with the grace of a queen
          and carried her gifts to the teepee.

Far away from his beautiful France—­
          from his home in the city of Lyons,
A noble youth full of romance,
          with a Norman heart big with adventure,
In the new world a wanderer, by chance
          DuLuth sought the wild Huron forests. 
But afar by the vale of the Rhone,
          the winding and musical river,
And the vine-covered hills of the Saone,
          the heart of the wanderer lingered,—­