Explore "The Prairie Flower" by Gustave Aimard on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The Count de Beaulieu was far from suspecting, as he carelessly prepared to light a cigar, that the lucifer match he employed would at once render him so important in the sight of the Indians. But, so soon as he recognized the power of the weapon chance placed in his hands, he resolved to employ it, and turn to his own profit the superstitious ignorance of the Redskins. Enjoying, in his heart, the triumph he had obtained, the Count frowned, and employing the language and emphatic gestures of the Indians, when he saw they were sufficiently recovered to listen to him, he addressed them with that commanding tone which always imposes on the masses.
"Let my brothers open their ears; the words my lips utter must be heard and understood by all. My brothers are simple men, prone to error; truth must enter their hearts like an iron wedge. My goodness is great, because I am powerful; instead of chastising them when they dared to lay hands on me, I am satisfied with displaying my power before their eyes. I am a great physician of the pale faces; I possess all the secrets of the most famous medicines. If I pleased, the birds of the air and the fish of the river would come to do me homage, because the Master of Life is within me, and has given me his medicine rod. Listen to this, Redskins, and remember it: when the first man was born, he walked on the banks of the Mecha-Chebe; there he met the Master of Life: the Master of Life saluted him, and said to him, 'Thou art my son.'