HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF LOUISIANA.
75
Two other Frenchmen, Postilion and Lonette, were not both as fortunate. They set out in the morning together for Terre Blanche ; but on reaching a height which overlooked the concession, they beheld at a distance the Indians massacring the French. At this sight they stopped, and not daring either to go on or to return to the fort in broad day, they hid themselves in the woods till night. Then they started, not by the ordinary route, but across the woods and meadows. In this way they reached the company's old storehouse, where they saw a light. Postilion, looking through the keyhole, took those inside for Frenchmen ; he knocked ; the door was opened, but when he got in he found them to be Indians, dressed in the clothes of his butchered countrymen. As soon as they saw him among them they gave him a glass of brandy and talked a moment with him; then, giving him a second glass, they knocked him down, laid his head on a block and severed it from the body with a blow of an axe. Louette saw from without the reception given his comrade, and deeming it inexpedient to put up with such pleasant hosts, started off for the river, in hopes of finding some craft there to get in. Passing by a cabin he thought he heard people talking French, and went in ; they wore French women, taken by the Indians, and assembled there under the guard of one of their tribe. As soon as the women saw him, they cried : " What brings you here, poor Louette? Run! the French are all killed." He took the advice and escaped.
One Canterelle, seeing what was going on, shut his house during the massacre, and lay hid all day in his garret with his wife, no Indian daring to enter. When night came, they both took Avhat was most valuable, and started out across the woods ; but on the way Canterelle remembered that he had left behind some important article, and telling his wife to wait for