Of
these, Duhaut had long shown a spirit of mutiny; the base malignity of
disappointed avarice, maddened by sufferings and impatient of control,
awakened the fiercest passions of ungovernable hatred. Inviting Moranget
to take charge of the fruits of a buffalo-hunt, they quarrelled with him
and murdered him.
"Wondering at the delay of his nephew's return, La Salle, on the 20th of
March, went to seek him. At the brink of the river he observed eagles
hovering, as if over carrion, and he fired an alarm-gun. Warned by the
sound, Duhaut and L'Archeveque crossed the river; the former skulked in
the prairie grass; of the latter, La Salle asked, 'Where is my nephew?'
At the moment of the answer, Duhaut fired; and, without uttering a word,
La Salle fell dead. 'You are down now, grand bashaw! You are down now!'
shouted one of the conspirators, as they despoiled his remains, which
were left on the prairie, naked and without burial, to be devoured by
wild beasts.
"Such was the end of this daring adventurer. For force of will and vast
conceptions; for various knowledge, and quick adaptation of his genius
to untried circumstances; for a sublime magnanimity, that resigned
itself to the will of Heaven, and yet triumphed over affliction by
energy of purpose and unfaltering hope,--he had no superior among his
countrymen.
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