The Romance of Dollard

"The Romance of Dollard '' by Mary Hartwell Catherwood is a historical novel set in New France, in 1660. The dreaded Six Nations, the Iroquois, are marching on the settlements: there are two bands of them, and if these can be kept from teaming up, New France may be saved. Adam Dollard has sworn, along with sixteen others, to go out there and inspect them, providing and getting no quarter. Dollard begins without telling Claire, absolutely devastated at the pain he must cause her and packed with remorse for having so selfishly married her and disrupted her harmony when he knew what was in store for him. He then comes back, ashamed of his timidity. She carries the news gallantly, as befits a Montmorency daughter, and begs to accompany him. He is unable to grant her prayer and abandons her with the nuns of Montreal's Hôtel-Dieu. Claire escapes the monastery in the middle of the night with Massawippa, an Indian girl whose father, a Huron, had decided to join Dollard's expedition. They cut their way through the wilderness to the small fort that Dollard is defending with great bravery.