" Then, turning to Montcalm: "We are even more glad
than you, my father, who have crossed the great water, not for your own
sake, but to obey the great King and defend his children. He has bound
us all together by the most solemn of ties. Let us take care that
nothing shall separate us."
The various interpreters, each in turn, having explained this speech to
the Assembly, it was received with ejaculations of applause; and when
they had ceased, Montcalm spoke as follows: "Children, I am delighted to
see you all joined in this good work. So long as you remain one, the
English cannot resist you. The great King has sent me to protect and
defend you; but above all he has charged me to make you happy and
unconquerable, by establishing among you the union which ought to
prevail among brothers, children of one father, the great Onontio." Then
he held out a prodigious wampum belt of six thousand beads: "Take this
sacred pledge of his word. The union of the beads of which it is made is
the sign of your united strength. By it I bind you all together, so that
none of you can separate from the rest till the English are defeated and
their fort destroyed."
Pennahouel took up the belt and said: "Behold, brothers, a circle drawn
around us by the great Onontio. Let none of us go out from it; for so
long as we keep in it, the Master of Life will help all our
undertakings." Other chiefs spoke to the same effect, and the council
closed in perfect harmony.
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