among the Hurons.  Some of the older and most influential Hurons joined with the sorcerer in his denunciation of the priests, and soon the inhabitants of the whole village turned against them.  Squaws shut the doors of the cabins at their approach, young braves threatened them with death, children followed them about hooting and pelting them with sticks and stones.  At last the priests were summoned to a public council and openly accused of being the cause of the misfortunes that had recently visited the Huron people.  Brebeuf replied to the accusations with unflinching courage, denying the charges, and showing their absurdity.  He then boldly addressed his audience on the truths of Christianity, held before them the awful future that awaited those who refused to obey the words of Christ, and declared that the pest was a punishment for their evil lives.  The council was deeply impressed by his courage and evident sincerity, and for the time being the lives of the missionaries were in no danger.  But they knew that at any moment the blow might fall, and none ever went abroad without the feeling that a tomahawk might descend on his unguarded head.

On October 28, 1637, Brebeuf prepared, as he thought, a farewell letter to his friends at Quebec.  He and the four other missionaries at Ossossane signed it and sent it to the superior-general Le Jeune.  It opens with the words:  ’We are perhaps on the point of shedding our blood and sacrificing our lives in the service of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.’  There is no note of fear in this letter.  ‘If,’ it runs, ’you should hear that God has crowned our labours, or rather our desires, with martyrdom, return thanks to Him, for it is for Him we wish to live and die.’  Such was the spirit of these bearers of the Cross.  Their humility, courage, and disinterestedness kept them for the present from ‘the crown of martyrdom.’  But the hunch-backed sorcerer continued his agitation and the storm once more broke over their heads.  To show the Indians that he knew their hearts, and that he could meet death with the stoical courage of one of their own chiefs, Brebeuf summoned them to a festin d’adieua farewell feast—­and while his guests, in ominous silence, ate the portions set before them he addressed them in burning words.  He was about to die, but before he departed this life he would warn them of the life to come.  Their resistance to Christ’s message, their abuse and persecution of Christ’s messengers, would have to be atoned for in eternity.  His actions and words took effect.

Though the sorcerer still schemed, the Jesuits went about their labours unscathed, preaching to the unregenerate, visiting and caring for the sick, and baptizing the dying.