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D. Roberts - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: A Sister to Evangeline - Being the Story of Yvonne de Lamourie, and how she went - into exile with the villagers of Grand Pré - -Author: Charles G. D. Roberts - -Release Date: November 26, 2016 [EBook #53610] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SISTER TO EVANGELINE *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing, Larry B. Harrison and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='tnotes covernote'> - -<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber's Note:</strong></p> - -<p class='c000'>The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='ph1'> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>A Sister to Evangeline</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_map.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -<div> - <h1 class='c002'>A Sister to Evangeline<br /> <br /> <span class='large'><em>Being the Story of Yvonne de Lamourie, and how she went into exile with the villagers of Grand Pré</em></span></h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div>By</div> - <div><span class='xlarge'>Charles G. D. Roberts</span></div> - <div class='c004'>Author of <cite>The Forge in the Forest</cite>, <cite>A History of Canada</cite>, <cite>Earth’s Enigmas</cite>, <cite>New York Nocturnes</cite>, <span lang="la" xml:lang="la">&c.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id002'> -<img src='images/i_title.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='large'>Lamson, Wolffe and Company</span></div> - <div>Boston, New York, London</div> - <div><span class='small'>MDCCCXCVIII</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>Copyright, 1898</div> - <div>By Lamson, Wolffe and Company</div> - <div class='c004'><em>All rights reserved</em></div> - <div class='c003'>PRESS OF</div> - <div>Rockwell and Churchill</div> - <div>BOSTON</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div><em>To</em></div> - <div>MY MOTHER</div> - <div>EMMA WETMORE BLISS ROBERTS</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Contents</h2> -</div> - -<table class='table0' summary='Contents'> - <tr> - <th class='c006'>Chapter</th> - <th class='c007'> </th> - <th class='c008'>Page</th> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>I.</td> - <td class='c007'>Paul Grande’s Home-coming to Grand Pré</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>II.</td> - <td class='c007'>Grûl’s Warning</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_11'>11</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>III.</td> - <td class='c007'>Charms and Counter-charms</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_15'>15</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>IV.</td> - <td class='c007'>“Habet!”</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_23'>23</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>V.</td> - <td class='c007'>The Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> Defers</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VI.</td> - <td class='c007'>A New England Englishman</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VII.</td> - <td class='c007'>Guard!</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_43'>43</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VIII.</td> - <td class='c007'>The Moon in the Apple-bough</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_50'>50</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>IX.</td> - <td class='c007'>In Sleep a King; but Waking, no such Matter</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_58'>58</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>X.</td> - <td class='c007'>A Grand Pré Morning</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XI.</td> - <td class='c007'>Father Fafard</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_77'>77</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XII.</td> - <td class='c007'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le Fûret</span> at the Ferry</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_87'>87</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XIII.</td> - <td class='c007'>Unwilling to be Wise</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_94'>94</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XIV.</td> - <td class='c007'>Love Me, Love My Dog</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_100'>100</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XV.</td> - <td class='c007'>Ashes as it were Bread</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_105'>105</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XVI.</td> - <td class='c007'>The Way of a Maid</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_112'>112</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XVII.</td> - <td class='c007'>Memory is a Child</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_117'>117</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XVIII.</td> - <td class='c007'>For a Little Summer’s Sleep</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_125'>125</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XIX.</td> - <td class='c007'>The Borderland of Life</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_135'>135</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span>XX.</td> - <td class='c007'>But Mad Nor-nor-west</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_142'>142</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXI.</td> - <td class='c007'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Beauséjour</span>, and After</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_149'>149</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXII.</td> - <td class='c007'>Grûl’s Case</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_156'>156</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXIII.</td> - <td class='c007'>At Gaspereau Lower Ford</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_161'>161</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXIV.</td> - <td class='c007'>“If you love me, leave me”</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_168'>168</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXV.</td> - <td class='c007'>Over Gaspereau Ridge</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_177'>177</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXVI.</td> - <td class='c007'>The Chapel Prison</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_182'>182</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXVII.</td> - <td class='c007'>Dead Days and Withered Dreams</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_191'>191</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXVIII.</td> - <td class='c007'>The Ships of her Exile</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_200'>200</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXIX.</td> - <td class='c007'>The Hour of her Desolation</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_208'>208</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXX.</td> - <td class='c007'>A Woman’s Privilege</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_218'>218</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXXI.</td> - <td class='c007'>Young Will and Old Wisdom</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_229'>229</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXXII.</td> - <td class='c007'>Aboard the “Good Hope”</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_238'>238</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXXIII.</td> - <td class='c007'>The Divine Right of Queens</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_246'>246</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXXIV.</td> - <td class='c007'>The Soul’s Supremer Sense</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_254'>254</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXXV.</td> - <td class='c007'>The Court in the Cabin</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_260'>260</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXXVI.</td> - <td class='c007'>Sword and Silk</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_268'>268</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXXVII.</td> - <td class='c007'>Fire in Ice</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_279'>279</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXXVIII.</td> - <td class='c007'>Of Long Felicity Brief Word</td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_285'>285</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='ph1'> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>A Sister to Evangeline</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter I<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Paul Grande’s Home-coming to Grand Pré</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>“R<i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">evenant à la Belle Acadie</span></i>”—the -words sang themselves over and over in -my brain, but I could get no further than that -one line, try as I might. I felt that it was the -beginning of a song which, if only I could imprison -it in my rhyme, would stick in the hearts of our -men of Acadie, and live upon their lips, and be -sung at every camp and hearth fire, as “<cite><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">À la -Claire Fontaine</span></cite>” is sung by the <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">voyageurs</span></i> of the -St. Lawrence. At last I perceived, however, that -the poem was living itself out at that moment in -my heart, and did not then need the half-futile -expression that words at best can give. But I did -put it into words at a later day, when at last I -found myself able to set it apart and view it with -clear eyes; and you shall judge, maybe, when I -come to put my verses into print, whether I succeeded -<span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>in making the words rhyme fairly and the -volatile syllables march at measured pace. The -art of verse has never been much practised among -us Acadians, and it is a matter of some pride to -me that I, a busy soldier, now here at Grand Pré -and anon at Mackinaw or Natchez, taking in my -hand my life more often than a pen, should have -mastered even the rudiments of an art so lofty and -exacting.</p> - -<p class='c000'>So, for awhile, “Home again to Acadie the -Fair” was all that I could say.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was surely enough. I had come over from -Piziquid afoot, by the upper trail, and now, having -crossed the Gaspereau where it narrows just above -tide-water, I had come out upon the spacious -brow of the hill that overlooks Grand Pré village.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Not all my wanderings had shown me another -scene so wonderful as that wide prospect. The -vale of the Five Rivers lay spread out before me, -with Grand Pré, the quiet metropolis of the Acadian -people, nestling in her apple-bloom at my -feet. There was the one long street, thick-set with -its wide-eaved gables, and there its narrow subsidiary -lane descending from the slopes upon my -left. Near the angle rose the spire of the village -church, glittering like gold in the clear flood of -the sunset. And everywhere the dear apple-blossoms. -For it was spring in Acadie when I came -home.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>Beyond the village and its one black wharf my -eyes ranged the green, wind-ruffled marshes, safe -behind the sodded circumvallations of their dykes. -Past the dykes, on either side of “the island’s” -wooded rampart, stretched the glowing miles of -the flats; for the tides of Minas were at ebb. How -red in the sunset, molten copper threaded with -fire, those naked reaches gleamed that night! -Their color was like a blare of trumpets challenging -the peace of the Five Rivers.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Past the flats, smooth and dazzling to the eye at -such a distance, lay the waters of Minas. Well I -knew how their unsleeping eddies boiled and -seethed about the grim base of Blomidon. Such -tricks does memory serve one that even across -that wide tranquillity I seemed to hear the depredating -clamour of those tides upon the shingle.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Though it was now two years since I had seen -the gables and apple-trees of Grand Pré, I was in -no haste to descend into the village. There came -a sudden sinking at my heart, as my heart inquired, -with unseasonable pertinence, by what -right I continued to call Grand Pré “home”? -The thought was new to me; and that I might -fairly consider it I seated myself upon the broad -stump of a birch-tree, felled the preceding winter.</p> - -<p class='c000'>By far the smaller portion of my life had been -spent in the Acadian village—only my early boyhood, -before the years of schooling at Quebec; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>and afterwards the fleeting sweetness of some too -brief visits, that lay in my memory like pools of -enchanted leisure in a desert of emulous contentions. -My father, tenderest and bravest of all men -that I have known, rested in an unmarked grave -beside the northern wash of the Peribonca. My -uncle, Jean de Mer, Sieur de Briart, was on the -Ohio, fighting the endless battle of France in the -western wildernesses. His one son, my one cousin, -the taciturn but true-hearted Marc, was with his -father, spending himself in the same quarrel. I -thought with a longing tenderness of these two—the -father full of high faith in the triumph of New -France, the son fighting obstinately in what he -held a lost cause, caring mainly that his father still -had faith in it. I wished mightily that their brave -hands could clasp mine in welcome back to Grand -Pré. I thought of their two fair New England -wives, left behind at Quebec to shame by their gay -innocence the corruption of Bigot’s court. Kindred -I had none in Grand Pré, unless one green grave -in the churchyard could be called my kin—the -grave wherein my mother’s girlish form and laughing -eyes had been laid to sleep while I was yet a -child.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yes, I had no kinsfolk to greet me back to -Grand Pré; no roof of mine that I should call it -home. But friends, loyal friends, would welcome -me, I knew. There was Father Fafard, the firm -<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>and gentle old priest, to whom, of course, I should -go just as if I were of his flesh and blood. Then -there were the De Lamouries—</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yes, to be sure, the De Lamouries. And here I -took myself by the chin and laughed. I know -that, for all my verses, I am in the main a soldier, -yet I am so far a poet as to suffer myself to befool -myself at times, and get a passing satisfaction out -of it. But I always face the fact before I express -it in act. I acknowledged to myself that I had -been thinking of the De Lamouries’ pleasant farmhouse, -and of somewhat that it contained, when I -sang “Home again to Acadie the Fair.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I remembered with a pleasant warmth the tall, -bent figure, fierce eyes, and courtly air of Giles de -Lamourie, the broken gentleman, who through -much misfortune and some fault had fallen from a -high place at Versailles and been fain to hide himself -on an Acadian farm. I thought also of Madame, -his wife, a wizened little woman with nothing left, -said the villagers, to remind one of the loveliness -which had once dazzled Louis himself. To -me she seemed an amazingly interesting woman, -whose former beauty could still be guessed from -its ruins.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Both of these good people I remembered with -a depth of concern far beyond the deserts of such -casual friendlinesses as they had shown me. As -I looked down toward their spacious apple-orchard, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>on the furthest outskirts of the village, it -was borne in upon me that they had one claim to -distinction beyond all others.</p> - -<p class='c000'>They had achieved Yvonne.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Many a time had I wondered how my cousin -Marc could have had eyes for his ruddy-haired -Puritan lily when there was Yvonne de Lamourie -in the world. On my last two visits to -Grand Pré I had seen her; not many times, indeed, -nor much alone; and never word of love had -passed between us. In truth, I had not known that -I loved her in those days. I had taken a wondering -delight in her beauty and her wit, but of the -pretty trifles of compliment and the careless gallantries -that so often simulate love I had offered -her none at all. This surprised me the more -afterward, as women had ever found me somewhat -lavish in such light coin. I think I was withheld -by the great love unrealized in my heart, which -found expression then only in such white reverence -as the devotee proffers to his saint. I think, -too, I was restrained by the consciousness of a -certain girl at Trois Pistoles on the St. Lawrence, -who, if I might believe my vanity, loved me, and -to whom, if I might believe my conscience, I had -given some sort of claim upon my honor. I cared -naught for the girl. I had never intended anything -but a light and passing affair; but somehow -it had not seemed to me light when Yvonne de -<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>Lamourie’s eyes were upon me. A little afterward, -revisiting Trois Pistoles on my way to the western -lakes, I had found the maiden married to a prosperous -trader of Quebec. In the leaping joy that -seized my heart at the news I perceived how my -fetters had galled; and I knew then, though at -first but dimly, that if anywhere in the world there -awaited me such a love as I had dreamed of -sleeping, but ever doubted waking,—the love -that should be not a pastime, but a prayer, not an -episode, but an eternity,—it awaited me in Grand -Pré village.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In my heart these two years I had carried two -clear visions of my mistress. Strange to tell, they -were not bedimmed by the much handling which -they had endured. They but seemed to grow the -brighter and fresher from being continually pressed -to the kisses of my soul.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In one of these I saw her as she stood a certain -morning in the orchard, prying with insistent little -finger-tips into the heart of a young apple-flower, -while I watched and said nothing. I know not to -this day whether she were thinking of the apple-flower -or wondering at the dumbness of her cavalier; -but she feigned, at least, to concern herself -with only the blossom’s heart. Her wide white -lids downcast over her great eyes, her long -lashes almost sweeping the rondure of her cheek, -she looked a Madonna. The broad, low forehead; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>the finely chiselled nose, not too small for -strength of purpose; the full, firm chin—all added -to this sweet dignity, which was of a kind to -compel a lover’s worship. There was enough -breadth to the gracious curve below the ear to -make me feel that this girl would be a strong -man’s mate. But the mouth, a bow of tenderness, -with a wilful dimple at either delectable corner -always lurking, spoke her all woman, too laughing -and loving to spend her days in sainthood. Her -hair—very thick and of a purply-bronze, near to -black—lay in a careless fulness over her little -ears. On her head, though in all else she affected -the dress of the Grand Pré maids, she wore not -the Acadian linen cap, but a fine shawl of black -Spanish lace, which became her mightily. Her -bodice was of linen homespun, coarse, but bleached -to a creamy whiteness; and her skirt, of the same -simple stuff, was short after the Acadian fashion, -so that I could see her slim ankles, and feet of -that exceeding smallness and daintiness which -may somehow tread right heavily upon a man’s -heart.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The other vision cherished in my memory was -different from this, and even more enchanting. It -was a vision of one look cast upon me as I left -the door of her father’s house. In the radiance of -her great eyes, turned full upon me, all else -became indistinct, her other features blurred, as it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>were, with the sudden light of that look, which -meant—I knew not what. Indeed, it was ever -difficult to observe minutely the other beauties of -her face as long as the eyes were turned upon one, -so clear an illumination from her spirit shone -within their lucid deeps. Hence it was, I suppose, -that few could agree as to the colour of those eyes—the -many calling them black, others declaring -with confidence that they were brown, while some -even, who must have angered her, averred them -to be of a very cold dark grey. I, for my part, -knew that they were of a greenish hazel of indescribable -depth, with sometimes amber lights in -them, and sometimes purple shadows very mysterious -and unfathomable.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As I sat now looking down into the village I -wondered if Yvonne would have a welcome for me. -As I remembered, she had ever shown goodwill -toward me, so far as consisted with maidenly reserve. -She had seemed ever ready for tales of my -adventure, and even for my verses. As I thought -of it there dawned now upon my heart a glimmering -hope that there had been in that last unforgotten -look of hers more warmth of meaning than -maid Yvonne had been willing to confess.</p> - -<p class='c000'>This thought went to my heart and I sprang up -in a kind of sudden intoxication, to go straightway -down into the village. As I did so I caught -the flutter of a white frock among the trees of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>De Lamourie orchard. Thereupon my breath came -with a quickness that was troublesome, and to -quiet it I paused, looking out across the marshes -and the tide toward Blomidon. Then for the first -time I observed a great bank of cloud that had -arisen behind the Cape. It was black and menacing, -ragged and fiery along its advancing crest. -Its shadow lay already upon the marshes and the -tide. It crept smoothly upon the village. And -at this moment, from the skirts of a maple grove -on the summit of the hill behind me, came a great -and bell-like voice, crying:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Woe, woe to Acadie the Fair, for the hour of -her desolation cometh!”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter II<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Grûl’s Warning</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>“These ten years,” I exclaimed to myself -angrily (for I love not to have a dream -rudely broken), “has Grûl been prophesying woe; -and I see not that aught comes of it save greater -strength to his lungs.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I turned my back upon the valley and watched -the singular figure that drew near. It was a shrewd -and mysterious madman whom all Acadie had -known for the past ten years as “Grûl.” Whether -that was his real name or a pseudonym of his own -adoption no one knew. Whence he had come no -one knew. Wherefore he stayed in Acadie, and -so faithfully prophesied evil to our fair land, no -one knew. The reason of his madness—and the -method which sometimes seemed to lurk beneath -it—no one could confidently guess. At least, -such ignorance in regard to this fantastic fool -seemed general throughout the country. But -there lay here and there a suspicion that the Black -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>, the indomitable La Garne, Bigot’s tool and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>the people’s dread, knew more of Grûl’s madness -than other folk might dream. It was whispered -that La Garne, who seemingly feared no man -else, feared Grûl. It was certain that whenever -any scheme of the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>’s came to naught -Grûl’s hand would appear somewhere in the wreck -of it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Now, as he came down from the maple grove, he -looked and was dressed just as I had seen him -years before. The vicissitudes of time and of the -weather seemed to have as little effect upon the -staring black and yellow of his woollen cloak as -upon his iron frame, his piercing light-blue eyes, -the snowy tangle of his hair and beard. Only -his pointed cap betrayed that its wearer dwelt -not altogether beyond the pale of mutability. Its -adornments seemed to recognize the seasons. I -had seen it stuck with cornflowers in the summer, -with golden-rod and asters in the autumn, with -feathers and strange wisps of straw in winter; and -now it bore a spray of apple-blossom, with some -dandelions, those northern sun-worshippers, whose -closing petals now declared that even in death -they took note of the passing of their lord.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In his hand Grûl carried the same quaint wand -of white wood, with its grotesque carven head -dyed scarlet, which had caught my eye with an -uneasy fascination the first time I met its possessor. -That little stick, which Grûl wielded with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>authority as if it were a sceptre, still caused me -some superstitious qualms. I remembered how at -my first sight of it I had looked to see a living -spark leap from that scarlet head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It has been a long time coming,” said I, as -Grûl paused before me, searching my face curiously -with his gleaming eyes. “And meanwhile -I have come. I think, monsieur, I should esteem -a welcome somewhat more cordial than your words -of dolorous omen.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Whether he were displeased or not at my forwardness -in addressing him I cannot tell. He -was without doubt accustomed to choose his own -time for speech. His eyes danced with a shifting, -sharp light, and after thrusting his little wand at -me till, in spite of myself, I felt the easy smile -upon my lips grow something mechanical, he said -with withering slowness:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“To the boy and the fool how small a handful -of years may seem a lifetime! You think it is -long coming? It is even now come. The shadow -of the smoke of her burning even now lies upon -Acadie. The ships of her exile are near.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He stopped; and I had no word of mocking -wherewith to answer him. Then his eyes and his -voice softened a little, and he continued:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And <em>you</em> have come back—poor boy, poor -fool!—with joy in your heart; and your joy even -now is crumbling to ashes in your mouth.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>He turned away, leaving me still speechless; -but in an instant he was back and his wand thrust -at me with a suddenness that made me recoil in -childish apprehension. In a voice indescribably -dry and biting he cried swiftly:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But look you, boy. Whether she be yours or -another’s, there is an evil hand uplifted against her -this night. See you to it!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What do you mean?” I cried, my heart sinking -with a sudden fear. “Nay, you <em>shall</em> tell -me!” I went on fiercely, making as if to restrain -him by force as he turned away. But he bent -upon me one look of such scorn that I felt at once -convicted of folly; and striding off, with something -of a dignity in his carriage which all his -grotesquerie of garb could not conceal, he left me -to chew upon his words. As for the warning, that -was surely plain enough. I was to go to Yvonne, -and be by her in case of any need. The business -thus laid upon me was altogether to my liking. -But that pitying word—of joy that should turn to -ashes in my mouth! It filled me with black foreboding. -As I stepped down briskly toward Grand -Pré my joy was already dead, withered at a madman’s -whisper. And that great-growing cloud -from over Blomidon had swallowed up all the -village in a chill shadow.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter III<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Charms and Counter-charms</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>Never may I forget that walking down from -the Gaspereau Ridge to Grand Pré village. -The very air seemed charged with mystery. Every -sight and every sound bore the significance of an -omen, to which I lacked interpreter. The roofs -of the village itself, and the marshes, the sea, and -the far-off bulk of Blomidon, appeared like the -tissue of a dream, ready to vanish upon a turn of -thought, and leave behind I knew not what of -terrible reality.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I am not by nature superstitious at all beyond -the point of convenience. Such superstitions as -please me I have ever been wont to cherish for the -interest to be had out of them. I have often been -strengthened in a doubtful intention by omens that -looked my way, and auspicious signs have many a -time cheered me astonishingly when affairs have -seemed to be going ill. But the most menacing -of omens have ever had small weight when opposing -themselves to my set purpose. When a superstition -<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>is on my side I show it much civility: -when it is against me it seems of small account.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But that night I was more superstitious than -usual. Of the new moon, a pallid bow just sinking, -I caught first sight over my left shoulder, -and I felt vaguely troubled thereat. One crow, -croaking from a willow stump upon my right -hand, got up heavily and flew across my path. -I misliked the omen, and felt straightway well -assured of some approaching rebuff. When, a -few moments later, <em>two</em> crows upon my left hand -flew over to my right I was not greatly comforted, -for they were far ahead and I was forced to conclude -that the felicity which they prophesied was -remote.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Thus it came that presently I was in a waking -and walking dream, not knowing well the substance -from the shadow. Yet my senses did so -continue to serve me that I went not down into the -village, where I knew I should find many a handclasp, -but followed discreetly along the back of -the orchards, that I might reach the De Lamourie -place as swiftly as possible.</p> - -<p class='c000'>By this hour a sweet-smelling mist, such as, I -think, falls nowhere else as it does in the Acadian -fields, lay heavy on the grasses. I bethought me -that it was the dew of the new moon, and therefore -endowed with many virtues; and I persuaded myself -to believe that my feet, which were by now -<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>well drenched with it, must needs be set upon a -fortunate errand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As I came to this comforting conclusion I -reached a little thicket at an orchard corner, where -grew a deep tangle of early flowering herbs. There, -gathering the wet and perfumed blooms, stooped -an old woman with a red shawl wrapped over -her head and shoulders. She straightened herself -briskly as I came beside her, and I saw the haggard, -high-boned, hawk-nosed face of old Mother -Pêche, whose tales of wizardry I had often listened -to in the years long gone by. She turned upon -me her strange eyes, black points of piercing intelligence -encircled by a startling glitter of wide white, -and at once she stretched out to me a crooked -hand of greeting.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is good for these old eyes, Master Paul, to -see thee back in the village!” she exclaimed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Now, any one will tell you that it is not well to -be crossed in one’s path by an old woman, when on -an errand of moment. I hurried past, therefore; -and it shames me to say it. But then, remembering -that one had better defy any omen than leave a -kindness undone, I stopped, turned back, and -hastily grasped the old dame’s wizened hand, -slipping into it a silver piece as I did so.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was a broad piece, and full as much as I -could wisely spare; but an old woman or a small -boy is ever welcome to share my last penny. Her -<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>strange eyes gleamed for a moment, but as she -looked up to bless me her face changed. After -gazing earnestly into my eyes she muttered something -which I could not catch, and to my huge -amazement flung the silver behind her with a -violence which left no doubt of her intentions. -She flung it toward a little swampy pool; but as -luck would have it the coin struck a willow sapling -by the pool’s edge, bounded back, and fell with a -clink upon a flat stone, where I marked it as it lay -whitely glittering.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I was too amazed to protest for a moment, but -the old woman hastened to appease me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There was sorrow on it, dearie,—thy sorrow,” -she exclaimed coaxingly; “and I wouldn’t have it. -The devil take all thy bad luck, and Mary give -thee new fortune!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>To me it seemed that throwing away the silver -piece was taking superstition quite too seriously. -I laughed and said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But, mother, if there be bad luck ahead of me, -so much the more do I want your blessing, and -truly I cannot spare you another silver crown. -Faith, this one’s not gone yet, after all!” And -picking it up I handed it back to her. “Let the -devil fly away with my ill luck, if he may, but -don’t let him fly away with your little savings,” I -added.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The old dame shook her head doubtfully, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>then with a sigh of resignation, as who should say, -“The gifts of destiny are not to be thrust aside,” -slipped the silver into some deep-hidden pocket. -But her loving concern for my prosperity was not -to be balked. After a little fumbling she brought -out a small pebble, which she gave me with an air -that showed it to be, in her eyes, some very great -thing.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I took it with an answering concern, looked at it -very closely, and turned it over in my hand, waiting -for some clue to its significance before I -should begin to thank her for the gift, if gift it -were. The stone was assuredly beautiful, about -the size of a hazel-nut, and of a clouded, watery -green in color, but the curious quality of it was that -as you held it up a moving loop of light seemed -to gather at its heart, taking somewhat the semblance -of a palely luminous eye. My interest -deepened at once, and I bethought me of a stone -of rarity and price which was sometimes to be -found under Blomidon. It went by the name of -“Le Veilleur,” or “The Watcher,” among our -Acadian peasants; but the Indians called it “The -Eye of Manitou,” and many mystic virtues were -ascribed to it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why, mother,” I said presently, “this is a -thing of great price! I cannot take it. ‘Tis a -‘Watcher,’ is it not?” And I gazed intently into -its elusive loop of light.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>“I have another,” she answered eagerly, thrusting -her hands under her red cloak as if to prevent -me giving back the stone. “That is for thee, and -thou’lt need it, <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chéri</span></span></i> Master Paul.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well,” said I, staring at the beautiful jewel -with a growing affection, “I will take it with much -thanks, mother, but I must pay you what it is -worth; and that I will find out in Quebec, from -one who knows the worth of jewels.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thou shalt <em>not</em> pay me, Master Paul,” said the -old dame, with a distinct note of resentment in her -voice. “It is my gift to thee, because I have -loved thee since thou wert a little lad; and because -thou’lt need the stone. Promise me thou’lt wear it -always about thee;” and plucking it from my hand -with a swift insinuation of her long fingers she slipped -it into a tiny pouch of dressed deerskin and proceeded -to affix a leathern thong whereby I might, -as I inferred, hang the talisman about my neck.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“While this you wear,” she went on in a low, -singing voice, “what most you fear will never come -to pass.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But I am not greatly given to fear, mother,” -said I, with a little vainglorious laugh.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then thou hast not known love,” she retorted -sharply.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At these words the fear of which she had spoken -came about me—vague, formless, terrible, and I -trembled.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>“Give it to me!” I cried in haste. “Give it to -me! I will repay you, mother, with”—and here -I laughed again—“with love, which you say I -have never known.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>That</em> kind of love, Master Paul, thou hast -known since thou wert a very little lad. Thou’st -given it freely, out of a kind heart. But, dearie, -thou hast but played at the great love—or more -would’st thou know of fear.” And the old woman -looked at me with shrewd question in her startling -eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But I did know fear—and I knew that I knew -love. My face turned anxiously toward De Lamourie’s, -and I grudged every instant of further -delay.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Good-by, mother, and the saints keep you!” -I cried hastily, swinging off through the wet grass. -But the old dame called after me gently:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Stop a minute, Master Paul. She will be at -her supper by now; an’ in a little she’ll be walking -in the garden path.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I stopped, filled with wonder, and my veins -leaping in wild confusion at the sound of that -little word “she.” It was as if the old woman -had shouted “Yvonne” at the top of her voice.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What is it?” I stammered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I want to look at thy hand, dearie,” she said, -grasping it and turning it so as to catch the last -of the fading light.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>“Your heart’s desire is nigh your death of -hope,” said she presently, speaking like an oracle. -Then she dropped my hand with a little dry -chuckle, and turned away to her gathering of -herbs as if I were of no further account.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What do you mean?” I asked eagerly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But she would not answer me. I scorned to -appear too deeply concerned in such old woman’s -foolery; so I asked no more, but went my way, -carrying the word in my heart with a strange comfort—which, -had I but known it, was right soon -to turn into despair.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter IV<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>“Habet!”</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>I came upon the De Lamourie farmhouse by the -rear of the orchard; and down through the -low, blossoming arches, now humming with night -moths and honey beetles, I hastened toward the -front door. Before I reached it there arose an -angry barking from the yard, and a huge black -dog, objecting to the manner of my approach, -came charging upon me with appearance of malign -intent.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I was vexed at the notion of a possible encounter, -for I would not use my sword or my -pistols on the guardian of my friend’s domain; yet -I had small desire that the brute should tear my -clothes. I cursed my folly in not carrying a stick -wherewith to beat off such commonplace assailants. -But there was nothing for it save indifference, -so I paid no attention to the dog until he -was almost upon me. Then I turned my head and -said sharply, “Down, sir, down!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>To all domestic animals the voice of authority -<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>is the voice of right. I had forgotten that for the -moment. The dog stopped, and stood growling -doubtfully. He could not muster up resolution to -attack one who spoke with such an assurance of -privilege. Yet what could justify my highly irregular -approach? He would await developments. -In a casual, friendly manner, as I walked on, I -stretched out the back of my hand to him, as if to -signify that he might lick it if he would; but this -he was by no means ready for, so he kept his distance -obstinately.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In another moment there appeared at the head -of the path a white, slight figure, with something -black about the head and shoulders. It was -Yvonne, come out to see the cause of the loud -disturbance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is I, mademoiselle,” I exclaimed in an eager -voice, hastening to meet her,—“Paul Grande, -back from the West.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>A slight gasping cry escaped her, and she -paused irresolutely. It was but for the least part -of an instant; yet my memory took note of it -afterward, though it passed me unobserved at the -time. Then she came to meet me with outstretched -hands of welcome. Both little hands I -crushed together passionately in my grasp, and -would have dropped on my knees to kiss them -but for two hindrances: Firstly, her father appeared -at the moment close behind her—and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>things which are but natural in privacy are like to -seem theatrical when critically observed. Further, -finding perhaps a too frank eloquence in my demeanour, -Yvonne had swiftly but firmly extricated -her hands from their captivity. She had said -nothing but “I am glad to see you again, after so -long a time, monsieur;” and this so quietly that -I knew not whether it was indifference spoke, -or emotion.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the welcome of Giles de Lamourie was right -ardent for one of his courteous reserve. There -was an affection in his voice that warmed my -spirit strangely, the more that I had never suspected -it; and he kissed me on both cheeks as if -I had been his own son—“as,” said the up-leaping -heart within me, “I do most resolutely set -myself to be!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And to what good chance do we owe it, Paul, -that we see you here at Grand Pré, at a time when -the swords of New France are everywhere busy?” -he asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“To a brief season of idleness in two years of -ceaseless action,” I replied, “and to a desire that -would not be denied.” I sought furtively to catch -Yvonne’s eyes; but she was picking an apple-flower -to pieces. This little dainty depredation -of her fingers pierced me with remembrance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You have earned your idleness, Paul,” said De -Lamourie, “if the stories we hear of your exploits -<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>be the half of them true. But we had thought -down here that Quebec”—“or Trois Pistoles,” -murmured Yvonne over the remnants of the apple-flower—“would -have offered metal more attractive -for the enrichment of your holiday.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I flushed hotly. But in the deepening dusk my -confusion passed unseen. What gossip had come -this way? What magnifying and distortion of a -very little affair, so soon gone by and so lightly -forgotten?</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The swords of New France are just now -sheathed for a little,” said I, with some reserve in -my voice. “They are biding the call to new and -hotter work, or I should not be free for even this -breathing-spell. As for Quebec,”—for I would -not seem to have heard mademoiselle’s interruption,—“for -years there has been but one place -where I desired to be, and that is here; so I have -come, but it is not for long. Great schemes are -afoot.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For long or for little, my boy,” said he, dropping -his tone of banter, “your home here must be -under our roof.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Having intended staying, as of old, with Father -Fafard, I knew not for a moment what to say. I -would—and yet a voice within said I would not. -I noted that Yvonne spoke no word in support of -her father’s invitation. While I hesitated we had -entered the house, and I found myself bending -<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>over the wizened little hand of Madame de -Lamourie. My decision was postponed. Had I -guessed how my silence would by and by be misinterpreted -I would assuredly have decided on the -spot, whichever way.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is not only for the breath of gayety from -Chateau St. Louis which you bring with you, my -dear Paul, that you are welcome,” said Madame, -with that fine air of affectionate coquetry, reminiscent -of Versailles, which so delightfully became her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I kissed her hand again. We had always been -the best of friends.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But let me present to you,” she went on, “our -good friend, who must also be yours: Mr. George -Anderson;” and observing for the first time a -tall, broad-shouldered, ruddy man, who stood a -little to one side of the fireplace, I bowed to him -very courteously. Our eyes met. I felt for him -a prompt friendliness, and as if moved by one impulse -we clasped hands.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“With all my heart,” said I, being then in cordial -mood, and eager to love one loved of these -my friends.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And mine,” he said, in a quiet, grave voice, -“if it please you, monsieur.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yet,” I laughed, “if you are English, Monsieur -Anderson, we must officially be enemies. I -trust our difference may be in all love.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes,” said Madame, with a dry little biting -<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>accent which she much affected, “yes, indeed, in -all love, my dear Paul. Monsieur Anderson <em>is</em> -English—and he is the betrothed husband of our -Yvonne,” she added, watching me keenly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It seemed to me as if there had been a sudden -roaring noise and then these last dreadful words -coming coldly upon a great silence. At that -moment everything stamped itself ineffaceably on -my brain. I see myself grasp the back of a chair, -that I may stand with the more irreproachable -steadiness. I see Madame’s curious scrutiny. I -see Yvonne’s eyes, which had swiftly sought my -face as the words were spoken, change and warm -to mine for the least fraction of a second. I see -all this now, and her slim form unspeakably graceful -against the dark wainscoting of the chimney side. -Then it all seemed to swim, and I knew that it -was with great effort of will I steadied myself; -and at last I perceived that Yvonne was holding -both Anderson and her father in rapt attention by -a sort of radiance of light speech and dainty gesture. -I dimly came to understand that Yvonne -had seen in my face something which she had not -looked to see there, and, moved to compassion, -had come to my aid and covered up my hurt. In -a moment more I was master of myself, but I -knew that Madame’s eyes had never left me. She -liked me more than a little; but a certain mirthful -malice, which she had retained from the old -<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>gay days in France, made her cruel whensoever -one afforded her the spectacle of a tragedy.</p> - -<p class='c000'>All this takes long in the telling; but it was -perhaps not above a minute ere I was able to perceive -that Mademoiselle’s diversion had been upon -the theme of one’s duty to one’s enemies. What -she had said I knew not, nor know I to this day; -but I will wager it was both witty and wise. I -only know that at this point a direct appeal was -made to me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You, monsieur,” said Anderson, in his measured -tones, “will surely grant that it is always virtuous, -and often possible, to love one’s enemies.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But never prudent!” interjected De Lamourie, -whose bitter experiences in Paris colored his conclusions.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Your testimony, monsieur, as that of one who -has sent so many of them to Paradise, is much to -be desired upon this subject,” exclaimed Yvonne, -in a tone of challenge, at the same time flashing -over me a look which worked upon me like a -wizard’s spell, making me straightway strong and -ready.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well may we love them!” I cried, with an air -of sober mockery. “Our enemies are our opportunities; -and without our opportunities, where are -we?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“All our life is our opportunity, and if we be -brave and faithful to church and king we are -<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>made great by it,” exclaimed a harsh, intense -voice behind us.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I noted a look of something like consternation -on De Lamourie’s face, and a mocking defiance in -the eyes of Yvonne. We turned about hastily to -greet the new-comer. I knew at once, by hearsay, -that dark-robed figure—the high, narrow, tonsured -head—the long nose with its aggressively -bulbous tip—the thin lips with their crafty smile—the -dogged and indomitable jaw. It was La -Garne, the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>, master of the Micmac -tribes, and terror of the English in Acadie. He -was a devoted servant to the flag I served, the -lilied banner of France; but I dreaded and detested -him, for I held that he brought dishonour on -the French cause, as well as on his priestly office, -by his devious methods, his treacheries, and his -cruelties. War, I cannot but think, becomes a -gross and hideous thing whensoever it is suffered -to slip out of the control of gentlemen, who alone -know how to maintain its courtesies.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter V<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>The Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> Defers</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>“You are welcome, father,” began Monsieur -de Lamourie, advancing to meet the visitor, -“to my humble”—But the harsh voice cut -him short.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Lie not to me, Giles de Lamourie,” said the -grim priest, extending a long left hand as if in -anathema. “Well do I know my face is not welcome -in this house!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>De Lamourie drew himself up haughtily, and -Madame interrupted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Good father,” said she most sweetly, but with -an edge to her voice, “do you not take something -the advantage of your gown? Might I not be so -bold as to entreat a more courteous deliverance of -your commands?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What have I to do with forms and courtesies, -woman?” he answered—and ignored Yvonne’s -laughing acquiescence of “What, indeed, monsieur?” -“I come to admonish you back to your -duty; and to warn you, if you heed not. I learn -<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>that you are about to go to Halifax, Giles de Lamourie, -and there forswear France, bowing your -neck to the English robber. Is this true?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am about to swear allegiance to England, -Father La Garne,” said De Lamourie coldly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The priest’s pale eyes narrowed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There is yet time to change your mind,” said -he, in a voice grown suddenly smooth. “Give me -your word that you will remain faithful to France -and the bolt which even now hangs over your -recreant head shall never fall!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I looked about me in deep astonishment. -Yvonne’s face was splendid in its impatient scorn. -Madame looked solicitous, but composed. Anderson -smiled coolly. But De Lamourie was hot with -indignation.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It was not to be dictated to by every tonsured -meddler that I came to Acadie,” he cried, rashly -laying himself open.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have heard as much,” said the priest dryly. -“But enough of this talk,” he went on, his voice -again vibrating. “You, George Anderson, seducer -of these people from their king, look to yourself! -Your threshold is red. As for this house”—and -he looked around with slow and solemn menace—“as -for this house, it shall not see to-morrow’s -sun!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Hitherto I had been silent, as became a mere -new-come guest; but this was too much for me.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>“Ay, but it shall!” said I bluntly, stepping -forward.</p> - -<p class='c000'>La Garne looked at me with unaffected surprise -and contempt.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And pray, sir, who may you be to speak so -confidently?” he asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am an officer of the king, Sir <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>,” I -answered, “and a messenger of the governor of -New France, and a man of my word. Your quarrel -here I do not very well understand, but I beg -<em>you</em> to understand that this house is the house of -my friends. I know you, Sir <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>,—I have -heard rumour of your work at Beaubassin, Baie -Verte, and Gros Ile. I tell you, I will not suffer -you to lift your hand against this house!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Truly, monsieur, you speak large,” sneered -the priest. “But you may, perchance, have authority. -I seem to have seen your face before. -Your name?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Paul Grande,” said I, bowing.</p> - -<p class='c000'>La Garne’s face changed. He looked at me -curiously, and then, with a sort of bitter tolerance, -shrugged his shoulders.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You have been to Monsieur le Commandant -Vergor, at <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Beauséjour</span>?” he asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I bowed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And to Vaurin, at Piziquid?” he went on -thoughtfully.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I fancied that a shade of suspicion passed over -<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>the faces of my hosts; and Yvonne’s face paled -slightly; but I replied:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have just come from Piziquid.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Your authority is sufficient, then, monsieur,” -said he. “The messenger of the governor to -Vaurin doubtless knows his business, and it is -unnecessary for me to interfere.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I bowed my thanks, holding courtesy to be in -place, since I had gained my point.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And I pardon your abruptness, Monsieur -Grande,” continued the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>. “We are -both working for the king. We have no right to -quarrel when we have such great work to do. I -am sure I may accept your apology for your -abruptness?” And he looked at me with an air -of suggestion.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I was puzzled at his changed demeanour, but I -would not show myself at a loss. Still less would -I apologize, or suffer any pretence of friendliness -between himself and me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am sure you may,” said I pleasantly. And -I think the reply a prudent one.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne smiled—I just caught the smile; but -the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">abbé</span> turned on his heel.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I withdraw my admonition,” he said to De -Lamourie smoothly, “and leave your case in the -hands of this gentleman, your good friend. I -wish you a swift conversion—or a long repentance.” -And with a glance at me which I liked -<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>not, but could by no means interpret, he was -gone.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The room grew straightway the brighter for his -going.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter VI<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>A New England Englishman</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>I have said that the room grew brighter for -the going of the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>. To me, at -least, it seemed so. Yet, after his departure, -there fell a palpable air of constraint. Monsieur -de Lamourie regarded me with something almost -like suspicion. Madame eyed me with a curious -scrutiny, tolerant, yet as it were watchful. As for -Yvonne, her face was coldly averted. All this -troubled me. Only the New Englander came to -my rescue.</p> - -<p class='c000'>With a smile of frank satisfaction he remarked:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You dealt very effectively and expeditiously -with that black-frocked firebrand, monsieur. You -must have great influence at headquarters to be -able to treat La Garne with so little ceremony.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Now, puzzled though I was, I was marvellously -elated by my easy victory over the notorious -Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>. There was doubtless a vainglorious -ring in the would-be modest voice with which I -answered.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>“Yes,” said I, “I did not expect quite so swift -a triumph. I thought I might even be driven to -threats ill fitting the dignity of his office. But -doubtless he saw that I was rather in earnest.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He certainly seemed to regard you as one -having authority,” said De Lamourie gravely.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Or even,” murmured Madame, with that dryness -in her voice, “as in some way his confederate.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Or Vaurin’s,” came a cold suggestion from -Mademoiselle. Her eyes were gazing steadily into -the fire; but I caught the scornful curl of her lip.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At this I felt myself flush hotly, I knew not just -why. It seemed as if I lay under some obscure -but disgraceful imputation. With sudden warmth -I cried:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have no authority, save as an officer of the -king, with a clean record and a sword not unproven. -I have no confederate, nor am I like to -be engaged in such work as shall make one needful. -And as for this Vaurin,” I demanded, -turning to Yvonne, “who is he? He seems a -personage indeed; yet never had I heard of him -till the commandant of <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Beauséjour</span> gave me a -letter for his hand.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I cannot doubt you, monsieur,” interposed -Anderson heartily. “This Vaurin is a very sorry -scoundrel, a spy and an assassin, who does the -dirty work of those who employ him. I think it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>was ill done of Vergor to give to any gentleman a -commission to that foul cur.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I sprang to my feet and walked thrice up and -down the room, while all sat silent. I think my -anger was plain enough to every one, for the old -friendliness—as I afterwards remembered—came -back to the faces of Monsieur and Madame de -Lamourie, and Yvonne’s eyes shone upon me for -an instant with a wistfulness which I could not -understand. Yet this, as I said, is but what came -back to me afterwards. I felt Yvonne’s eyes but -as in a dream at that moment.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Vergor shall answer to me,” I cried bitterly. -“It is ill work serving under the public thieves -whom the intendant puts in power to-day. One -never knows what baseness may not be demanded -of him. Vergor shall clear himself, or meet me!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What hope is there for your cause,” asked -Anderson, “when they who guide New France -are so corrupt?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They are not all corrupt!” I declared with -vehemence. “The governor is honest. The general -is honour itself. But, alas, the most grievous -enemies of New France are those within her gate! -Bigot is the prince of robbers. His hands and -those of his gang are at her throat. It is he we -fear, and not you English, brave and innumerable -though you are.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And with this my indignation at Vergor, who, it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>was plain, had put upon me an errand unbecoming -to a gentleman and an officer of the king, spread -out to include the whole corrupt crew of which -the intendant Bigot was the too efficient captain. -Seating myself again by the hearth, I gave bitter -account of the wrong and infamy at Quebec, and -showed how, to the anguish of her faithful sons, -New France was being stripped and laid bare to -the enemy. My heart being as dead with my -own sudden sorrow, the story which I told of my -country’s plight was steeped in dark forebodings.</p> - -<p class='c000'>When I had finished, the conversation became -general, and I presently withdrew into my heaviness. -I remember that Madame rallied me, at -last, on my silence; but Yvonne came quickly and -sweetly to my help, recalling my long day’s journey -and insisting upon my drinking a cup of spiced -brandy—“very sound and good,” she declared, -“and but late from Louisburg, no thanks to King -George!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As I sat sipping of the fragrant brew—though it -had been wormwood it had seemed to me delicate -from her hand—I tried to gather together the -shattered fragments of my dream.</p> - -<p class='c000'>There she sat—of all women the one woman, -as I had in the long, solitary night-watches come -to know, whom my soul needed and my body -needed. My inmost thought, speaking with itself -in nakedest sincerity, declared that it was she -<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>only whom God had made for me—or for whom -God had made me. The whole truth, as I felt it, -required both statements to perfect its expression. -There she sat, so near that her voice was making -a wonder of music in my ears, so near that her -eyes from time to time flashed a palpable radiance -upon my face; yet further away than when I -lightened with dreams of her the long marches -beside the Miami or lay awake to think of her, in -the remote huts of the Natchez. So far away had -a word, a brief word, put her; yet here she sat -where I could grasp her just by stretching out my -hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As I thought of it her eyes met mine. I swear -that I made no motion. My grasp never relaxed -from the arm of the black old chair where it had -fixed itself. Yet the thought must have cried -out to her, for a look of alarm, yet not wholly of -denial, flickered for one heart-beat in her gaze. -She rose, with a little aimless movement, looked -at me, swayed her body toward me almost imperceptibly, -then sat down again in her old place -with her face averted. At once she began talking -with a whimsical gayety that engrossed all -ears and left me again in my gloom.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I scrutinized this man, the New Englander, who -sat drinking her with his eyes. For the joy that -was in his face as he watched her I cursed him—yet -ere the curse had gone forth I blessed him -<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>bitterly. How could I curse him when I saw that -his soul was on its knees to her, as mine was. I -felt myself moved toward him in a strange affection. -Yet—and yet!</p> - -<p class='c000'>He was a tall man, well over six feet in height, of -a goodly breadth of shoulder,—taller than myself -by three inches at least, and heavier in build. He -had beauty, too, which I could not boast of; -though before love taught me humility I had been -vain enough to deem my face not all ill-favored. -His abundant light hair, slightly waving; his ruddy, -somewhat square face, with its good chin and kind -mouth; his frank and cheerful blue eyes, fearless -but not aggressive; his air of directness and good -intention—all compelled my tribute of admiration, -and made me think little of my own sombre and -sallow countenance, with its straight black hair, -straight black brows, straight black moustache; -its mouth large and hard set; its eyes wherein -mirth and moroseness were at frequent strife for -mastery. Being, as I have reluctantly confessed, a -vain man without good cause for vanity, I knew the -face well—and it was with small satisfaction I remembered -it now, while looking upon the manly -fairness of George Anderson.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yet, such is the inconsistency of men, I was conscious -of a faint, inexplicable pity for him. I felt -myself stronger than he, and wiser in the knowledge -of life. But he had the promise of that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>which to me was more than life. He had, as I -kept telling myself, Yvonne’s love; yet—had -he? So obstinate is hope, I would not yield all -credence to this telling. At least I had one advantage, -if no other. I was wiser than he in this, -that I knew my love for Yvonne, and he did not -know it. Yet this was but a poor vantage, and -even upon the moment I had resolved to throw it -away. I resolved that he should be as wise as I -on this point, if telling could make him so.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter VII<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Guard!</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>I had just arrived at this significant determination -when I was roused from my reverie by -Anderson making his farewells. He was holding -out his hand to me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Your face is stern, monsieur,” he said. “Were -you fighting your old battles o’er again?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No—new ones!” I laughed, springing up and -seizing his hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“May you win them, as of old!” he exclaimed, -with great heartiness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are generous, monsieur,” I said gently, -looking him in the eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But this remark he took as quite the ordinary -reply, and with a bright glance for us all he moved -toward the door. Yvonne followed him, as it -seemed was expected of her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>Must</em> you go so early?” she asked, with a -kindness in her voice which pierced me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes,” he said, looking down at her upturned -face. “The tide is just right now, and this fair -<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>wind must not be lost. It will be a fine run under -this moon; and Pierre has the new boat over -to-night.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It <em>is</em> a good night,” she assented, peering -through the open door with a gesture of gay -inquiry; “and how sweet the apple-blossoms -smell! Have you as good air as this, Monsieur -Grande, on those western rivers of yours, or at -Trois Pistoles?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As she did not turn her head or seem to require -an answer, I made none. And, indeed, I was -spared the necessity, for Anderson intervened with -matter of his own.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come down to the gate with me, won’t you?” -I heard him beg in a low voice.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But for some reason Mademoiselle was not disposed -to be kind that night. She drew back, and -looked down pointedly at her dainty embroidered -moccasins.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh,” she cried lightly and aloud, with a tantalizing -ring in her voice, “just think how wet -the path is!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Anderson turned away with a disappointed air, -whereupon she reached out her hand imperiously -for him to kiss. Then she waved him a gay <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">bon voyage</span></i>, -and came back into the room with a quick lightness -of step which seemed like laughter in itself. -Her eyes were a dancing marvel, with some strange -excitement.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>“Monsieur,” she began, coming straight toward -me. But I just then awoke to my purpose.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A thousand pardons, mademoiselle and -madame!” I cried, springing to my feet and hastening -to the door. “I will be back in two moments; -but I have a word for Monsieur Anderson -before he goes.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>That I should interrupt her in this way, and rush -off when she was about to speak to me, fetched a -sudden little cloud of astonishment over Yvonne’s -face. But I would not be delayed. I made haste -down the path and caught Anderson before he -reached the gate. He paused with an air of genial -surprise.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Your pardon, monsieur,” said I; “but with -your permission I will accompany you a few steps, -as I have something to say to you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am glad to have your company, monsieur,” -said he, with a manner that spoke sincerity.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Are you?” said I abruptly. “Well, somehow -I take your words as something more than the -thin clink of compliment. I like you—I liked -you the moment my eyes fell upon you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>His face flashed into a rare illumination, and -without a word he held out his hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I could not but smile responsively, though I -thrust my hand behind my back and shook my head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Wait!” said I. “I want to say to you that—I -love—I love Mademoiselle de Lamourie!”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>His face clouded a little, and he withdrew his -hand, but not angrily.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We are very much of one mind in that, I assure -you,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The very ground she walks upon is sacred to -me,” I continued.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He smiled ever so little at the passion of my -speech, but answered thoughtfully:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is but natural, I suppose. I do not think -we will quarrel upon that score, monsieur.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For two years,” said I, in a low voice, speaking -coldly and evenly, “I have been moved night and -day by this love only. It has supported me in -hunger and in weariness; it has led me in the -wilderness; it has strengthened me in the fight; -it has been more to me than all ambition. Even -my love of my country has been second to it. I -came here to-day for one reason only. And I -find—you!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“None can know so well as I what you have -lost, monsieur,” said he very gravely, “as none -can know so well as I what I have gained.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>His kindness, no less than his confidence, hurt -me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Are you so sure?” I asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The discussion is unusual, monsieur,” said he, -with a sudden resentment. “I will only remind -you that Mademoiselle de Lamourie has accepted -my suit.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>No man’s sternness has ever troubled me, and -I smiled slightly in acknowledgment of his very -reasonable remark.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The situation is unusual, so you must pardon -me,” said I, “if I arrogate to myself a somewhat -unusual freedom. I tell you now frankly that by -all open and honorable means I will strive to win -the love of Mademoiselle de Lamourie. I have -hope that she has not yet clearly found the wisdom -of her heart. I believe that I, not you, am the -man whom she will love. Laugh at my vanity as -much as you will. I am not yet ready to say my -hope is dead, my life turned to nothingness.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are weak,” said he, with some severity, -“to hold your life thus, as it were, in jeopardy of a -woman’s whim.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I could hardly restrain my voice from betraying -a certain triumph which I felt at this sign of -imperfection in his love.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If you hold it a weakness,” said I, “there is a -point at last in which we differ. If it <em>be</em> a weakness, -then it is one which, up to two years ago, I -had scarce dared hope to attain. Few, indeed, are -the women, and as few men, strong enough for the -full knowledge of love.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yet the greatest love is not the whole of life,” -he averred disputatiously.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You speak but coldly,” said I, “for the lover -of Mademoiselle de Lamourie.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>He started. I had stung him. “I am of the -Society of Friends—a Quaker!” said he -harshly. “I do not fight. I lift not my hand -against my fellow-man. Yet did I believe that -you would succeed in winning her love, I think I -would kill you where you stand!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I liked the sharp lines of his face as he said it, -fronting me with eyes grown suddenly cruel. I -felt that he meant it, for the moment at least.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Say, rather,” said I, smiling, “that you would -honestly try your best to kill me. It would be an -interesting experiment. Well, now we understand -each other. <em>I</em> will honestly try my best to do you -what will be, in my eyes, the sorest injury in the -world. But I will try by fair means only, and if I -fail I will bear you no grudge. In all else, however, -believe that I do greatly desire your welfare, -and will seize with eagerness any occasion of doing -you a service. You are perhaps less unworthy -of Mademoiselle de Lamourie than I am, save -that you cannot love her so well. And <em>now</em>,” I -added with a smile, “will you take my hand?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As I held it out to him he at first drew back -and seemed disposed to repulse me. Then his -face cleared.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are honest!” he exclaimed, and wrung -my hand with great cordiality. “I rather like -you—and I am very sorry for you. I have her -promise.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>“Well,” said I, “if also you have her love you -are the most fortunate man on God’s earth!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have it!” said he blithely, and strode off -down the path between the apple-trees, his fine -shoulders held squarely, and a confidence in all -his bearing. But a wave of pity for him, and -strange tenderness, went over me in that moment, -for in that moment I felt an assurance that I -should win.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was an assurance doomed to swift ruin. It -was an assurance destined soon to be hidden under -such a vast wreckage of my hopes that even memory -marvelled when she dragged it forth to light.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter VIII<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>The Moon in the Apple-bough</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>During all our conversation we had stood in -plain view of the windows, so that our -friendly parting must have been visible to all the -house. On my return within doors I found Yvonne -walking up and down in a graceful impatience, her -black lace shawl thrown lightly about her head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If you want to,” said she, “you may come -out on the porch with me for a little while, monsieur. -I want you to talk to me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yvonne,” exclaimed her mother, in a rebuking -voice, “will not this room do as well?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, indeed, little mamma,” said she wilfully. -“<em>Nothing</em> will do as well as the porch, where the -moonlight is, and the smell of the apple-blossoms. -You know, dear, Grand Pré is not Paris!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Nor yet is it Quebec,” said I pointedly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Monsieur de Lamourie smiled. Whatever -Yvonne would was in his eyes good. But her -mother yielded only with a little gesture of -protest.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>“Yvonne is always a law unto herself,” she -murmured.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And to others, I judge,” said I, following the -light figure out upon the porch, and closing the -door behind me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I praised the saints for the freedom of Grand -Pré. At Quebec Mademoiselle would have been -the most formal of the formalists, because in Quebec -it was easy to be misjudged.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the corner of the porch, where a huge apple-bough -thrust its blossoms in beneath the roof, was -slung a stout hammock such as sailors use on shipboard. -Mademoiselle de Lamourie had seen these -during a voyage down the Gulf from Quebec, and -had so fancied them that her father had been impelled -to have one netted for her by the shad-fishers. -It was her favoured lounging-place, and -thither she betook herself now without apology. -In silence I held the tricksy netting for her. In -silence I placed the cushion beneath her head. -Then she said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You may sit there,” and she pointed, with a little -imperious motion, to a stout bench standing against -the wall.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I accepted the seat, but not its location. I -brought it and placed it as close as I dared to the -hammock. In doing so I clumsily set the hammock -swinging.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Please stop it,” said Mademoiselle; and as I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>seated myself I laid my hand on the side of the -hammock to arrest its motion. My fingers found -themselves in contact with other fingers, very slim -and warm and soft. My breath came in a quick -gasp, and I drew away my hand in a strange and -overwhelming perturbation. The hammock was -left to stop of itself—and, indeed, its swinging -was but slight. As for me, I was possessed by an -infinite amazement to find myself thus put to confusion -by a touch. I had no word to say, but sat -gazing dumbly at the white figure in the moonlight.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Her face was very pallid in that colorless light, -and her eyes greater and darker than ever, deeps -of mystery,—and now, I thought, of grave mockery -as well. She watched me for a little in silence, -and then said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I let you come out here to talk to me, monsieur!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I straightened myself upon the bench, and tried -my voice. My misgivings were justified. It trembled, -beyond a doubt. The witch had me at a -grave disadvantage. But I spoke on quietly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“From my two years in the woods of the West, -mademoiselle,” said I, “I brought home to Grand -Pré certain wonderful dreams. Of these I find -some more than realized; but one, which gave all -meaning to the rest, has been put to death this -night.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>“Even in Grand Pré dreams are no new thing,” -she said in haste. “I want to hear of deeds, of -brave and great action. Tell me what you have -done—for I know that will be brave.” And she -smiled at me such kind encouragement that my -heart began thumping with vehemence. However, -I made shift to tell her a little of my wanderings—of -a bush fight here, a night march there, of the -foiling of a foe, of the timely succour of a friend—till -I saw that I was pleasing her. Her face leaned -a little toward me. Her eyes spoke, dilating and -contracting. Her lips were slightly parted as she -listened. And into every adventure, every situation, -every movement, I contrived to weave a suggestion -of her influence, of the thought of her -guiding and upholding me. These things, touched -lightly and at once let pass, she did not rebuke. -She feigned not to understand them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At last I paused and looked at her, waiting for -a word of praise or blame.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And your poetry, monsieur?” she said gently. -“Surely that was not all the time forgotten. This -Acadian land, with its wonder and its beauty, has -found no interpreter but you, and your brave work -in the field would be a misfortune, not a benefit, if -it cost us your song.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The loss of my verses were no great loss,” -said I.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Indeed, monsieur,” she said earnestly, “I do -<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>not think you can be as modest as you pretend. -But I am sincere. Since we have known your song -of them, I think that mamma and I have watched -only through your eyes the great sweep of the -Minas tides. And only the other day I heard -papa, who cares for no poetry but his old ‘<i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Chansons -de Gestes</span></i>,’ quoting you to Father Fafard with -evident enthusiasm.” She paused—but I said -nothing. I had talked long; and I wished her to -continue. What she was saying, the manner of her -saying it, were such as I could long listen to.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“As for me,” she went on, “I never walk down -the orchard in summer time without saying over -to myself your song of the apple-leaves.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You do, really, remember my verses?” said I, -flushing with surprise and joy. I was not used to -commendation for such things, my verses being -wont to win no more approval than they merited, -which I felt to be very little.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She laughed softly, and began to quote:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O apple leaves, so cool and green</div> - <div class='line in2'>Against the summer sky,</div> - <div class='line'>You stir, although the wind is still</div> - <div class='line in2'>And not a bird goes by!</div> - <div class='line in8'>You start,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And softly move apart</div> - <div class='line in4'>In hushed expectancy.</div> - <div class='line'>Who is the gracious visitor</div> - <div class='line in4'>Whose form I cannot see?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>“O apple leaves, the mystic light</div> - <div class='line in2'>All down your dim arcade!</div> - <div class='line'>Why do your shadows tremble so,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Half glad and half afraid?</div> - <div class='line in8'>The air</div> - <div class='line in2'>Is an unspoken prayer;</div> - <div class='line in4'>Your eyes look all one way.</div> - <div class='line'>Who is the secret visitor</div> - <div class='line in4'>Your tremors would betray?”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'>It was a slight thing, which I had never thought -particularly well of; but on her lips it achieved a -music unimagined before.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Your voice,” said I, “makes it beautiful, as it -makes all words beautiful. Yes, I have written -some small bits of verse during my exile, but they -have been different from those of mine which you -honour with your praise. They have had another, -a more wonderful, theme—a theme all too high -for them, which nevertheless spurred them to their -best. They have at least one merit—they speak -the truth from my heart.” As I spoke I felt myself -leaning forward, though not of set purpose, -and my voice sank almost to a whisper.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“One of them,” I continued, begins in this way:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c010'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A moonbeam or a breath, above thine eyes I bow,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Silent, unseen,</div> - <div class='line'>But not, ah! not unknown”—</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'>“Wait!” she interrupted, in a voice that sounded -a little faint. “Wait! I want to hear them all, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>monsieur; but not to-night. You shall say them -to me to-morrow. I must not stay to listen to -them to-night. I am a little—cold, I think! -Help me out, please!” And she rashly gave me -her hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Now, it was my honest intention at that instant -to do just her bidding and no more; but when I -touched her fingers reason and judgment flowed -from me. I bowed my head over them to the -edge of the hammock, and with both my hands -crushed them to my lips. She sank back upon -her cushion, with a little catching of her breath.</p> - -<p class='c000'>After a few moments I raised my head—but -with no speech and with no set purpose—and -looked at her face. It was very grave, and curiously -troubled, but I detected no reproach in the -great eyes that met mine. A fierce impulse seized -me to gather her in my arms—but I durst not, -and my eyes dropped as I thought of it. By -chance they rested upon her feet—upon the tiny, -quill-worked, beaded white moccasins, demurely -crossed, the one over the other. Her skirt was so -closely gathered about her ankles that just an inch -or two of one arched instep was visible over the -edge of the low-cut moccasin. Before I myself -could realize what I was about to do, or half the -boldness of the act, in a passion that was all worship -I threw myself down beside her feet and -kissed them.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>It was for an instant only that my daring so -prevailed. Then she suddenly slipped away. In -a breathless confusion I sprang to my feet, and -found her standing erect at the other side of the -hammock. Her eyes blazed upon me; but one -small hand was at her throat, as if she found it -hard to speak.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How could you dare?” she panted. “What -right did I give you? What right did I ever give -you?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I leaned against the pillar that supported one -end of the hammock.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Forgive me! I could not help it. I have -loved you, worshipped you, so long!” I said in a -very low voice.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How dare you speak so?” she cried. “You -forget that”—</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, I remember!” I interrupted doggedly. -“I forget nothing. You do not love him. You -are mine.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh!” she gasped, lifting both hands sharply -to her face and dropping them at once. “I shall -never trust you again.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And in a moment she had flashed past me, with -a sob, and disappeared into the house.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter IX<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>In Sleep a King, but Waking, no such Matter</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>De Lamourie himself showed me to my -room, a low chamber under the eaves, very -plainly furnished. In the houses of the few Acadian -gentry there was little of the luxury to be -found in the seigneurial mansions of the St. Lawrence. -In the De Lamourie house, for example, -there were but two serving-maids, with one man to -work the little farm.</p> - -<p class='c000'>If De Lamourie had noted any excitement on -Yvonne’s part, or any abstraction on mine, he said -nothing of it. With simple kindness he set down -the candle on my dressing-table and wished me -good sleep. But at the door he turned.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Are you well assured that the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">abbé</span> will not -attempt to carry out his threat?” he asked, with a -tinge of anxiety in his voice.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am confident of it,” I answered boldly. -“That worthy ecclesiastic will not try issues with -me, when I hold the king’s commission.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Just why I should have been so overweeningly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>secure is not clear to me now that I look back -upon it. That I should have expected the terrible -La Garne to bow so pliantly to my command appears -to me now the most fatuous of vain follies. -In truth I was thinking only of Yvonne. But De -Lamourie seemed to take my assurance as final, -and went away in blither mood.</p> - -<p class='c000'>My room was lighted by a narrow, high-peaked -dormer window, through which I could look out -across the moonlit orchards, the level dyke lands, -the wide and winding mouth of the Gaspereau, and -the far-glimmering breast of Minas. Upon these -my eyes rested long—but the eyes of my soul -saw quite another loveliness than that of the -moon-flooded landscape. They brooded upon -Yvonne’s face—the troubled, changing, pleading -look in her eyes—her sharp and strange emotion -at the last. Over and over it all I went, reliving -each moment, each word, each look, each breath. -Then, being deeply wearied by my long day’s -tramp, but with no hint of sleep coming to my -eyes, I threw myself down upon the bed to deliciously -think it all over yet again. I had grown -sure that Yvonne loved me. Yet once more, in a -still ecstasy of reverence and love, I fell at her feet -and kissed them. Then I thought about the stone -which Mother Pêche had given me, and its mystic -virtues, which I would explain to Yvonne on the -morrow in the apple-orchard. Then I found myself -<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>fancying that it was Yvonne who had given -me the talisman, bidding me guard it well if I -would ever hope to win her from my English -rival. And then—the sunlight lay in a white -streak across my bed-foot, the morning sky was -blue over the dyke lands, and the robins were joyous -in the apple-blooms under my window. What -a marvellous air blew in upon my face, sweet with -all freshness and cleanness and wholesome strength! -I sprang up, deriding myself. I had slept all night -in my clothes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At breakfast I found myself in plain favour; -I had made good my boast and shielded the house -from the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>. Yvonne met my eager -looks with a baffling lightness. She was all gay -courtesy to me, but there was that in her face which -well dashed my hopes. Some faint encouragement, -indeed, I drew from the thought that her -pallor (which became her wonderfully) seemed -to tell the tale of a sleepless night. Had she, -then, lain awake, wearily reproaching herself, -while I slept like a clod? If so, my punishment -was not long delayed. Before the breakfast -was over I was in a fever of despairing -solicitude. At last I achieved a moment’s speech -with Yvonne while the others were out of earshot.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This morning,” said I, “in the apple-orchard, -by an old tree which I shall all my life remember, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>I am to read you those verses, am I not? That -was your decree.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She faced me with laughter in her eyes, but -the eyes dropped in spite of her, and the colour -came a little back to her cheeks.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I decree otherwise this morning,” she said, in -a voice whose lightness was not perfect. “I am -busy to-day, and shall not hear your poems at all, -unless you read them to <em>us</em> this evening.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will read them to you alone,” I muttered, -“who alone are the source of them, or I will burn -them at once!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Don’t burn them,” she said, flashing one radiant -glance at me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then when may I read them to you?” I -begged.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“When you are older, and a little wiser, and a -great deal better,” she laughed, turning away with -a finality in her air that convinced me my day -was lost.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Putting my bravest face on my defeat, I said to -Madame de Lamourie:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If you will pardon me, Madame, I shall constrain -myself and attend to certain duties in and -about Grand Pré to-day. I must see the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">curé</span>; -and I have a commission to execute for the Sieur -de Briart, which will take me perhaps as far as -Pereau. In such case I shall not be back here -before to-morrow noon.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>“If our pleasure concerns you,” said Madame -very graciously, “make your absence as brief as -you can.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I was born with a nice regard for self,” I replied. -“You may be sure I shall return as quickly -as possible.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And what if the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> should come -while you are away?” questioned Yvonne, in -mock alarm.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If that extraordinary priest makes my presence -here a long necessity I shall come to regard -him as my best friend,” said I, laughing, as I -bowed myself out to join De Lamourie in a stroll -over the farm.</p> - -<p class='c000'>During this walk I learned much of the state of -unrest and painful dread under which Acadie was -laboring. De Lamourie told me how the English -governor at Halifax was bringing a mighty pressure -to bear upon all the Acadian householders, -urging them to swear allegiance to King George. -This, he said, very many were willing to do, as -the English had governed them with justice and a -most patient indulgence. For his own part, while -he regretted to go counter to opinions which I -held well-nigh sacred, he declared that, in his -judgment, the cause of France was forever lost in -Acadie, if not in all Canada. He felt it his duty -to give in his allegiance to the English throne, -under whose protection he had prospered these -<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>many years. But strong as the English were, he -said, the prospect was not reassuring; for many -of those who had taken the oath had been brought -to swift repentance by the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>’s painted -and yelling pack, the very Christian Micmacs of -Shubenacadie; while others had been pillaged, -maltreated, and even in some cases murdered, by -the band of masquerading cut-throats who served -the will of the infamous Vaurin.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At this I grew hot within, realizing as I had -not done before the vile connection into which the -Commandant Vergor had cast me. But I said -nothing, being unwilling to interrupt De Lamourie’s -impassioned story. He told of horrid -treacheries on the part of the Micmacs, disavowed, -indeed, by La Garne, but unquestionably -winked at by him as a means of keeping the Acadians -in hand. He told of whole villages wiped -out by the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>’s order, the houses burned, -the trembling villagers removed to Ile St. Jean or -across the isthmus, that they might be beyond the -reach of English seductions. He told, too, of the -hideous massacre at Dartmouth, the infant English -settlement across the harbor from Halifax. This -had come to my ears, but he gave me the reeking -particulars.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And this, too,” I asked in horror, “is it La -Garne’s work?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He is accused of it by the English,” said -<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>he, “but for once he is accused unjustly, I do -believe. It was Vaurin who planned it; Vaurin -and his cut-throats, disguised as Indians and with -a few of La Garne’s flock to help, who carried it -out. It was too purposeless for La Garne. He -rules his savages with a rod of iron, and it is said -that his displeasure lay heavy for a time upon the -braves who had taken part in that outrage. They -went without pay or booty for many months. -But at length he forgave them—he had work for -them to do.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>When the tale was done, and it was a tale that -filled me with shame for my country’s cause, I -said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is well my word carried such weight with -the good <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">abbé</span> last night. It is well indeed, and -it is wonderful!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I cannot even yet quite understand it,” said -De Lamourie, “but the essential part is the highly -satisfactory result. I am going to Halifax next -Monday, Paul, with a half score followers who -feel as I do; and though I cannot expect you to -sympathize with my course, I dare to hope you -may be able to prolong your visit so as to keep -my wife and daughter under your effective protection.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I think I must have let the eagerness with -which I accepted this trust betray itself in voice -or face, for Monsieur de Lamourie looked at me -<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>curiously. But I really cared little what his suspicions -might be. If I could win Yvonne I thought -I might be sure of Yvonne’s father.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Having well admired the orchard, and tried to -distinguish the “pippin” trees from the “belle-fleurs,” -the “Jeannetons” from the “Pride of -Normandie;” having praised the rich and even -growth of the flax field; having talked with an -excellent assumption of wisdom on the well-bred -and well-fed cattle which were a hobby with this -courtier farmer, this Versailles Acadian, I stepped -forth into the main street of Grand Pré and turned -toward the house of Father Fafard. I was curiously -troubled by an uneasiness as to the Black -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>, and I knew no better antidote to a bad -priest than a good one.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter X<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>A Grand Pré Morning</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>When I stepped off the wide grounds of -Monsieur de Lamourie I was at the extreme -eastern end of the village. How little did I -dream that this fairest of Acadian towns was -lying even now beneath the shadow of doom! -I am never superstitious in the morning. Little -did I dream how near was the fulfilment of Grûl’s -grim prophecy, or how, in that fulfilment, Grand -Pré was presently to fade like an exhalation from -the face of this wide green Acadian land! It pleases -me, since no mortal eye shall ever again see -Grand Pré as she was, to find that now I recall with -clear-edged memory the picture which she made -that June morning. Not only do I see her, but I -hear her pleasant sounds—the shallow rushing of -the Gaspereau at ebb; the mooing of the cattle -on the uplands; the mellow tangle of small bell-music -from the bobolinks a-hover over the dyke -meadows; now and then a neighbour call from -roadside to barn or porch or window; and ever -<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>the cheery <em>cling-clank</em>, <em>cling-clank</em> from the forge -far up the street. Not only do I hear the pleasant -sounds, but the clean smells of that fragrant country -come back continually with wholesome reminiscence. -Oh, how the apple-blossoms breathed -their souls out upon that tender morning air! How -the spring wind, soft with a vital moisture, persuaded -forth the obscure essences of grass and sod -and thicket! How good was the salty sea-tang -from the uncovered flats, and the emptied channels, -and the still-dripping lines of tide-mark sedge! -There was a faint savour of tar, too, at intervals, -evasively pungent; for some three furlongs distant, -at the end of a lane which ran at right angles -to the main street, a little creek fell into the Gaspereau, -and by the wharf at the creek-mouth were -fishermen mending their boats for the shad-fishing.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Oh, that unjustly ignored member, the nose! -How subtle and indestructible are its memories! -They know the swiftest way to the sources of joy -and tears. The eye, the ear, the nice nerves of -the finger tip,—these have no such sway over the -mysteries of remembrance. They have never been -quite so intimate, for a sweet smell duly apprehended -becomes a part of the very brain and -blood. I have a little cream-yellow kerchief of -silk laid away in many folds of scentless paper. -Sometimes I untie it and look at it. How well I -remember it as once it clung about the fair hair of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>my young mother! I see myself, a thin, dark, -grave-faced little boy, leaning against her knee -and looking up with love into her face. The -memory moves me—but as a picture. “Was it -I?” I am able to wonder. “And did I, that dark -boy, have a mother like that?” But when I bury -my face in the kerchief, and inhale the faint savour -it still wonderfully holds, I know, I feel it all. -Once more I am in her arms, strained to her -breast, my small face pressed close to her smooth -neck where the tiny ripples of silken gold began; -and I smell the delicate, intimate sweetness that -seemed to be her very self; and my eyes run over -with hot tears of longing for her kiss. I have a -skirt of hers, too, laid away, and an apron; but -these do not so much move me, for as a child -I spoiled them with weeping into them, I think. -The kerchief was not then large enough to attract -the childish vehemence of my sorrow, so it was -spared, till by and by I came to know and guard -the priceless talisman of memory which it held.</p> - -<p class='c000'>For some minutes I stood at the street-foot, -looking down the river-bank to the wharf and the -boats, steeping my brain in those pleasant smells -of Grand Pré. Then I turned up the street. It -was all as I had left it two years before, save that -then the apple-trees were green like the willows -by the marsh edge; while now they were white -and pink, a foam of bee-thronged sweetness surging -<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>close about the village roofs. The cottages -on either side the street were low, and dazzling -white with lime-wash from the Piziquid quarries. -Their wide-flaring gables were presented with -great regularity to the street. The roofs of the -larger cottages were broken by narrow dormer -windows; and all, large and small alike, were -stained to a dark purplish-slate color with a wash -which is made, I understand, by mixing the lime -with a quantity of slaked hard-wood ash. The -houses stood each with a little space before it, now -neatly tilled and deeply tufted with young green, -but presently to become a mass of colour when the -scarlet lychnis, blue larkspur, lavender, marigolds, -and other summer-blooming plants should break -into flower. Far up the street, at the point where -a crossroad led out over the marshes to the low, -dark-wooded ridge of the island, stood the forge; -and as I drew nearer the warm, friendly breath of -the fire purred under the anvil’s clinking. Back of -the forge, along the brink of the open green levels, -stood a grove of rounded willow-trees. Further -on, a lane bordered with smaller cabins ran in a -careless, winding fashion up the hillside; and a -little way from the corner, dwarfing the roofs, -loftily overpeering the most venerable apple-trees, -and wearing a conscious air of benignant supervision, -rose the church of Grand Pré, somewhat -squatly capacious in the body, but with a spire -<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>that soared very graciously. Just beyond, but -hidden by the church, I could see in my mind’s -eye the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">curé</span>’s cottage. My footsteps hastened at -the thought of Father Fafard and his greeting.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The men of the village were at that hour mostly -away in the fields; but there were enough at home -about belated barnyard business to halt me many -times with their welcomes before I got to the forge. -These greetings, in the main, had the old-time -heartiness, making me feel my citizenship in Grand -Pré. But there was much eager interrogation as -to the cause of my presence, and a something of -suspicion, at times, in the acceptance of my simple -answer, which puzzled and vexed me. It was -borne in upon me that I was thought to be commissioned -with great matters, and my frankness -but a mask for grave and dubious affairs.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Outside the forge, when at last I came to it, -stood waiting two horses, while another was inside -being shod. The acrid smell of the searing iron -upon the hoof awoke in my breast a throng of -boyish memories, which, however, I had not time -to note and discriminate between; for the owners -of the two horses hailed and stopped me. They -were men of the out-settlements, whom I knew but -well enough to pass the weather with. Yet I saw -it in their eyes that they had heard something of -my arrival. Question hung upon their lips. I gave -them no time for it, but with as little patience as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>consisted with civility I hastened into the forge -and seized the hand of the smith, my old friend -and my true friend, Nicole Brun.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Master Paul!” he cried, in a voice which -meant a thousand welcomes; and stood gripping -my fingers, and searching me with his eyes, while -the iron in his other hand slowly faded from pink -to purple.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well,” I laughed presently, “there is one man -in Grand Pré, I perceive, who is merely glad to -greet me home, and not too deeply troubled over -the reasons for my coming.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Hein!</span> You’ve seen it and heard it already,” -said Nicole, releasing my fingers from his knotty -grasp, and throwing back his thick shoulders with -a significant shrug. “Mother Pêche told me last -night of your coming; and last night, too, the -Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> passed this way. The town is all of -a buzz with reasons, this way and that. And some -there be that are for you, but more that fear you, -Master Paul.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Fear me?” I asked, incredulous.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Along of the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> and Vaurin!” answered -Nicole, as if explaining everything.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That Vaurin—curse him!” I exclaimed angrily. -“But what say <em>you</em>, Nicole? I give you -my word, as I have told every one, I come to -Grand Pré on my own private business, and mix -not at all with public matters.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>“So?” said he, lifting his shaggy eyebrows in -plain surprise. “But in any case it had been all -the same to me. I’m a quiet man, and bide me -here, taking no part but to forge an honest shoe -for the beast of friend or foe; but I’m <em>your</em> man, -Master Paul, through thick and thin, as my father -was your father’s. ‘Tis a hard thing to decide, -these days, what with Halifax and the English -governor pulling one way, Quebec and the Black -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> pulling the other, and his reverence’s red -devils up to Lord knows what! But I follow you, -Master Paul, come what may! I’m ready.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I laid my hand laughingly on his shoulder, and -thanked him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I believe you, my friend,” said I. “And -there’s no man I trust more. But I’ve no lead to -set you just now. Be true to France, in all openness, -and lend no ear to treachery, is all I say. I -am the king’s man, heart and soul; but the English -are a fair foe, and to be fought with fair -weapons, say I, or not at all.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Right you are, Master Paul,” grunted Nicole in -hearty approval. There was a triumphant grin on -his square and sooty face, which I marked with -a passing wonder.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And as for this Vaurin,” I continued, “I spit -on all such sneaking fire-in-the-night, throat-slitting, -scalp-lifting rabble, who bring a good cause -to bitter shame!”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>I spoke with unwonted heat; for I was yet -wroth at the commandant for his misuse of my -ignorance, and smarting raw at the notion of being -classed in with Vaurin.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I observed that at my words Nicole’s triumphant -grin was shot across with a sort of apprehension; -and at the same moment I observed, too, a sturdy -stranger, apparently the owner of the horse now -being shod. He sat to the right of the forge fire, -far back against the wall; but as I finished he -sprang to his feet and came briskly forward.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Blood of God,” he snarled blasphemously, -“but this is carrying the joke too far! You play -your part a trifle too well, young man. Let me -counsel you to keep a respectful tongue in your -head when you speak of your betters.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Faith, and I do that!” said I pleasantly, -taking note of him with care. From his speech I -read him to be a Gascon of the lower sort; while -from his dress I judged that he played the gentleman -adventurer. But I set him down for a hardy -rogue.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But from whom do I receive in such ill language -such excellent good advice?” I went on.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“One who can enforce it!” he cried roughly, -misled by my civil air. “I’m a friend of Captain -Vaurin, whom I have the honour to serve. It -seems to suit some purpose of yours just now to -deny it, but you were with him yesterday, in counsel -<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>with him, a messenger from Colonel Vergor -to him; and you came on here at his orders.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That is a lie!” said I very gently, smiling -upon him. “The other rascal, Vergor, tricked me -with his letter; and he shall pay for it!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Thus given the lie, but so softly, the fellow -uttered a choking gurgle betwixt astonishment -and rage, and I calculated the chance of his rushing -upon me without warning. He was, as I -think I said, a very sturdy figure of a man, though -not tall; and he gave sign of courage enough in -his angry little eyes and jutting chin. A side -glance at Nicole showed me that he was pleased -with the turn of affairs, and had small love for the -stranger. I caught at the doorway the faces of -the two men from the out-settlements, with eyes -and ears all agog.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The stranger gulped down his rage and set himself -to ape my coolness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Whatever your business with my captain,” -said he, “we are here now as private gentlemen, -and you must give me satisfaction. Be good -enough to draw, monsieur.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Now, I was embarrassed and annoyed by this -encounter, for I certainly could not fight one of -Vaurin’s crew, and I was in haste to see Father -Fafard. I cursed my folly in having been led into -such an unworthy altercation. How most quickly -should I get out of it?</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>“I am a captain in the king’s service,” said I -abruptly, “and I cannot cross swords but with a -gentleman.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The fellow spluttered in a fine fury, more or less -assumed, I must believe. His oaths were of a -sort which grated me, but having delivered himself -of them he said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I too serve the king. And I too, I’d have -you know, am a gentleman. None of your Canadian -half-breed seigneurs, but a gentleman of -Gascony. Out with your sword, or I spit you!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’m very sorry,” I answered smoothly, “that -I cannot fight with one of Vaurin’s cut-throats, -for I perceive you to be a stout-hearted rascal who -might give me a good bout. But as for the gentleman -of Gascony, faith, my credulity will not -stand so great a tax. From your accents, Monsieur, -I could almost name the particular sty by -the Bordeaux waterside which must claim the -distinction of your birth.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As I had calculated, this insult brought it. -My prod had struck the raw. With a choking -curse the fellow sprang at me, naked handed, -blind in his bull strength.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I dropped one foot to the rear, met and stopped -the rush by planting my left fist in his face, then -gave him my right under his jaw, with the full -thrust of my body, from the foot up. It was a -beautiful trick, learned of an English prisoner at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>Montreal, who had trained me all one winter in -the fistic art of his countrymen. My impetuous -antagonist went backward over the anvil, and -seemed in small haste to pick himself up. The -spectators gaped at the strange tactics; and -Nicole, as I bade him good-by, chuckled:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There’ll be trouble for this somewhere, Master -Paul! Watch out sharp—and don’t go ‘round -o’ nights without taking me along. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le Fûret</span> is -not nicknamed ‘The Ferret’ for nothing!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“All right, my friend,” said I; “when I want a -guard I’ll send for you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I went off toward Father Fafard’s, pleased with -myself, pleased with the English captain who -had taught me such a useful accomplishment, and -pleased, I confess, with Vaurin’s minion for having -afforded me such a fair chance to display it.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XI<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Father Fafard</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>The incident at the forge, as it seemed to me, -was one to scatter effectually any rumours -of my connection with Vaurin, and I congratulated -myself most heartily upon it. It could not fail, I -thought, to look well in Yvonne’s eyes. It confirmed -me in my resolve to go to Canard that -afternoon, and perhaps to Pereau, getting my -uncle’s business off my hands, and not returning -to De Lamourie Place till I might be -sure that the circumstances had been heard and -well digested there. Having this course settled -in my mind, I passed the church, entered -the gate between its flowering lilac-bushes, and -hastened up the narrow path to Father Fafard’s -door. Ere I could reach it the good priest stood -upon his threshold to greet me, both hands -out, his kind grey eyes half closed by the crowding -smiles that creased his round and ruddy -face.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My boy!” he said. “I have looked for you -<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>all the morning. Why didn’t you come to me -last night?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>His voice, big, yet low and soft, had ever quaintly -reminded me of a ripe apple in its mellow firmness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Both hands in his, I answered, bantering him:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But, father, the church gave me work to do -last night. Could I neglect that? I had to see -that the Reverend Father La Garne did not turn -aside from his sacred ministrations to burn down -the houses of my friends.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The kind face grew grave and stern.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I know! I know!” he said. “This land of -Acadie is in an evil case. But come, let us eat, -and talk afterwards. I have waited for you far -past my hour.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He turned into his little dining-room, a very -plainly furnished closet off the kitchen.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I was hungry, so for a space there was no talk, -while the fried chicken and barley cakes which -the brown old housekeeper set before us made -rapid disappearance. Then came sweet curds -with thick cream, and sugar of the maple grated -over them,—a dish of which delectable memories -had clung to me from boyhood. This savory -and wholesome meal done, Father Fafard brought -out some dark-red West Indian rum which smelled -most pleasantly. As he poured it for me he tapped -the bottle and said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This comes to us by way of Boston. These -<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>English have an excellent judgment in liquor, -Paul. It is one of our small compensations.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I laughed, thinking of the scant concern it was -to Father Fafard, ever, for all his fineness of palate, -one of the most abstemious of men. As we -sat at ease and sipped the brew he said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I hear you faced down the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> last -night, and fairly drove him off the field.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I had that satisfaction,” said I, striving to look -modest over it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He gave way to you, the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> himself, -who browbeats the commandant at <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Beauséjour</span>, -and fears no man living,—unless it be that mad -heretic Grûl, perchance! And he yielded to your -authority, my boy? How do you account for the -miracle?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Now it had not hitherto seemed to me so much -of a miracle, and I was a shade nettled that it -should seem one to others. I was used to controlling -violent men, and why not meddling priests?</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I suppose he saw I meant it. Perhaps he -respected the king’s commission. I know not,” -said I with indifference.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Father Fafard smiled dryly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I grant,” said he, “that you are a hard man -to cross, Paul, for all your graciousness. But La -Garne would risk that, or anything; and he cares -for the king’s commission only when it suits him -to care for it. Oh, no! If he gave way to you he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>believed you were doing his work, and he would -not interfere. What <em>is</em> your errand to Acadie, -Paul?” he added, suddenly leaning forward and -searching my face.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I felt myself flush with indignation, and half -rose from my seat. Then I remembered that he -knew nothing of my reasons for coming, and that -his question was but natural. This cooled me. -But I looked him reproachfully in the eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Do <em>you</em> think me a conspirator and a companion -of cut-throats?” I asked. “I have no public -business to bring me here to Grand Pré, father. I -got short leave from my general, my first in two -years, and I have come to Acadie for my own -pleasure and for no reason else. My word!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He leaned back with an air of relief.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is, of course, enough, Paul,” said he heartily. -“But in these bad days one knows not what to -expect, nor whence the bolt may fall. There is -distrust on all sides. As for my unhappy people, -they are like to be ground to dust between the -upper stone of England and the lower stone of -France.” He sighed heavily, looking out upon -his dooryard lilacs as if he thought to bid them -soon farewell. Then the kindly glance came back -into his eyes, and he turned them again upon me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But why,” he inquired, “did you go first to -Monsieur de Lamourie’s, instead of coming, as of -old, at once to me?”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>I hesitated; then decided to speak frankly, so -far as might seem fitting.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Grûl warned me,” said I, “that Mademoiselle -de Lamourie was in danger. I dared not delay.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why she in especial?” he persisted, gravely -teasing, as was his right and custom. “Were not -monsieur and madame in like peril of the good -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">abbé</span>’s hand?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It was her peril that most concerned me,” I -said bluntly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He studied my face, and then, I suppose, read -my heart, which I made no effort to veil. The -smile went from his lips.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I fear you love the girl, Paul,” said he very -gently. “I am sorry for you, more sorry than I -can say. But you are too late. Were you told -about the Englishman?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I met him,” said I, with a voice less steady -than I desired it to be, for my heart was straightway -in insurrection at the topic. “Madame told -me, incidentally. But it is <em>not</em> too late, father! -I may call it so when she is dead, or I.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is your hurt that speaks in haste,” said he -rebukingly. “But you know you are wrong, and -such words idle. Indeed, my dear, dear boy, I -would you had her, not he. But her troth is -solemnly plighted, and he is a good man and fair -to look at; though I like him not over well. As -he was a Protestant, I long stood out against him; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>but Giles de Lamourie is now half English at heart, -and Yvonne is wilful. Why were you not here to -help me a half year back, my boy?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ay! why not?” I exclaimed bitterly, gripping -my pewter mug till it lost all semblance of a -mug. “And why was I a fool, a blind, blind dolt, -when I <em>was</em> here, two years back? But I am here -now. And you shall see I am not too late!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You speak rashly, Paul,” said he, with a trace -of sternness. “You may be sure, however much -I love you, I will not help you now in your wicked -purpose. Would you make her false to her -word?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Her word was false to her heart, that I know,” -said I. “Better be false for a little than for a lifetime, -and two lives made as one death for it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The round, kindly face smiled ironically at the -passion which had crept into my voice.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You speak now as a poet, I think, Paul,” said -he. “I suppose I must allow for some hyperbole -and not be too much alarmed at your passion. -Yet I must confess you seem to me too old for -this child-talk of life and death, as if they were -both compassed in a woman’s loving or not -loving.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I speak with all sobriety, father,” said I, “and -I speak of that which I know. Forgive me if I -suggest that you do less.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The priest’s eyes shaded as with sorrowful remembrance, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>and he looked out across the apple-trees -as he answered:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You think I have always been a priest,” said -he; “that I have always dwelt where the passions -and pains of earth can touch me only as reflected -from the hearts of others—the hearts into which -I look as into a mirror. How should I understand -what I see in such a mirror, if I had not myself -once known these things that make storm in man’s -life? I have loved, Paul.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How much?” I asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Enough,” said he, “to lose her for her own -good. I was a poor student with no prospects. -She was beautiful and good, and her duty to her -family required that she should marry as they -wished. I had no right to her. I could not have -her. For her love I vowed to live single—and I -have come to know that the love of a woman is -but one small part of life.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Plainly,” said I, watching him with interest, -“there was no resistless compulsion in that love. -But you are right; of most lives love is but an -accident, the plaything of propinquity. It dimly -feels its insignificance in the face of serious affairs, -and gives place, as it should. But there is a love -which is different. Few, indeed, are they who are -born to endure the light of its uncovered face; but -all have heard the dim tradition of it. I cannot -make you understand it, father, any more than I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>could teach a blind man the wonder of that -radiating blue up there. That old half-knowledge -of yours has sealed your eyes more closely -than if you had never known at all. I can only -tell you there is a love to which life and death -must serve as lackeys.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As he listened, first astonishment marked his -face; for never before had I spoken to him save -as a boy to his trusted master. Then indignation -struggled with solicitude. Then he seemed to -remember that I was not a boy, but a man well -hardened in the school of stern experience. -Therefore he seemed to decide that I must be -treated with mild banter. He lay back in his -chair, folded his well-kept hands on his ample -stomach, and chuckled indulgently before replying.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The fever is upon you, Paul,” said he. “Poet -and peasant alike must have it. In this form it is -not often more dangerous or more lasting than -measles; but unlike measles, alas, one attack -grants no immunity from another!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I loved him well, and his jibes stung me not at -all. I fell comfortably into his mood.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A frontier fighter must be his own physician,” -I said lightly. “You shall see how I will medicine -this fever.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will trust Yvonne de Lamourie’s plighted -word,” he said gravely, after a pause of some moments. -Then a wave of strong feeling went over -<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>his face, and he broke out with a passion in his -voice:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Paul, do not misjudge me. I love you as my -own son, and there is no one else in the world -whom I love as I love Yvonne de Lamourie. Not -her own father can love her as I do, a lonely old -man to whom her face is more than sunshine. Do -I not desire with all my heart that you should -have her—you whom I trust, you whom I know to -be a true son of the church? But as I must tell -you again, though it grieves me to say it, you -have come too late. The Englishman’s faithful -and unselfish devotion has won her promise. She -will keep it, and she will bring him into the -church. Moreover, she owes him more than she -can ever repay. Giles de Lamourie has long been -under the suspicion of the English government, -who accused him, unjustly, of having had a hand -in the massacre of the New Englanders here. His -estates were on the very verge of confiscation; -but Anderson saved him and made him secure. -That there is some dreadful fate even now hanging -over this fair land I feel assured. What it may -be I dare not guess; but in the hour of ruin -George Anderson will see that the house of De -Lamourie stands unscathed. For, Paul, I know -that Heaven is with the English in this quarrel. -Our iniquity in high places has not escaped unseen.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>“Grûl’s prophecy touches even you,” I remarked, -rising. “But I must go, father. I have -errands across the dyke, for my uncle; and I -would be back for the night, if possible, to ease -the fears of Monsieur de Lamourie. And as for -<em>her</em>—be assured I will use none but fair means in -the great venture of my life.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am assured of it, Paul,” said he, grasping -my outstretched hand with all affection. “And I -am assured, too, that you will utterly and irremediably -fail. Therefore I am the less troubled, -my dear boy, though my heart is sore enough for -you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I can but thank God,” I retorted cheerfully, -retreating down the path between the lilacs, “that -the offices of priest and prophet do sometimes -exist apart.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As I looked back at him, before turning down -the lane, his kind, round, ruddy face was puckered -solicitously over a problem which grew but the -harder as he pondered it.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XII<br /> <br /> <span class='large'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le Fûret</span> at the Ferry</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>From the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">curé</span>’s I cut across the fields to escape -further delay, and so, avoiding the westerly -skirts of the village, came out upon the Canard -trail. I made the utmost haste, for the afternoon -was already on the wane. For some -three miles beyond the village the road runs -through a piece of old woods, mostly of beech, -birch, and maple, whose young greenery exhaled -a most pleasant smell on the fresh June air. By -the wayside grew the flowers of later spring, -purple wake-robins, the pink and white wild -honeysuckle, the solitary painted triangle of the -trillium, and the tender pink bells of the linnæa, -revealed by their perfume. Once I frightened a -scurrying covey of young partridges. As for the -squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits, so pert were -they in their fearless curiosity that I was ready to -pretend they were the same as those which of old -in my boyish vagabondings I had taught to be -unafraid of my approach. With the one half of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>my soul I was a boy again, retraversing these -dear familiar woods; the other half of me, meanwhile, -was bowed with a presentiment of disaster. -The confidence in the priest’s tone still thrilled -me with fear. But under whatever alternations -of hope and despair, deep down in my heart where -the great resolves take form deliberately my purpose -settled into the shape which does not change. -By the time I emerged from the wood I was ready -to laugh at Father Fafard or anyone else who should -tell me that success would not be mine at the last.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“She may not know it yet herself, but she is -mine,” I declared to the open marshes, as I set -foot out upon the raised way which led over to -the Habitants Ferry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The ferry-boat which crosses the deep and turbid -tide of the Habitants is a clumsy scow propelled -by a single oar thrust out from the stern. -The river is hardly passable save for an hour on -either side of full flood. The rest of the time it -is a shrinking yet ever-turbulent stream which -roars along between precipitous banks of red -engulfing slime. When I reached the shore of -this unstable water it lacked but a few minutes of -flood. The scow was just putting off for the -opposite shore, with one passenger. I recognized -the ferryman, yellow Ba’tiste Chouan, ever a -friend to me in the dear old days. I shouted for -him to wait.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>The scow was already some half score feet from -land, but Ba’tiste, seeing the prospect of more -silver, stopped and made as if to turn back. At -once, however, his passenger interfered, with vehement -gestures, and eager speech which I could -not hear. Eying him closely, I perceived that it -was none other than that ruffian of Vaurin’s -whom I had so incontinently discomfited at the -forge. His haste I could now well understand, -and I saw him urging it with such effective silvern -argument that Ba’tiste began to yield.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ba’tiste,” I cried sharply, “don’t you know -me? Take a good look at me; my haste is -urgent.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>My voice caught him. “<i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Tiens!</span></i> It’s Master -Paul,” he cried, and straightway thrust back to -shore, calmly ignoring threats and bribes alike.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As I sprang aboard and grasped Ba’tiste’s gaunt -claw I expected nothing less than a second bout -with my adversary of the morning. But he, while -I talked with the ferryman of this and that, according -to the wont of old acquaintances long apart, -kept a discreet silence at the other end of the -scow, where, as I casually noted, he stood with -folded arms looking out over the water. A scarlet -feather stuck foppishly in his dark cap became -him very well; and I could not but account him -a proper figure of a man, though somewhat short.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Presently, at a pause in our talk, he turned and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>approached us. To my astonishment he wore a -civil smile.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I was in the wrong this morning, Monsieur -Grande,” he said, in a hearty, frank voice such as -I like, though well I know it is no certificate of an -honest heart. “I interfered in a gentleman’s -private business; and though your rebuke was -something more sharp than I could have wished, -I deserved it. Allow me to make my apologies.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Now it is one of my weaknesses that I can -scarce resist the devil himself if he speaks me -fair and seeks to make amends.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well,” said I reluctantly, “we will forget the -incident, monsieur, if it please you. I cannot but -honour a brave man always; and you could not but -speak up for your captain, he not being by to -speak for himself. My opinion of him I will keep -behind my teeth out of deference to your presence.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That’s fair, monsieur,” said he, apparently -quite content. “And I will keep my nose out of -another gentleman’s business. My way lies to -Canard. May I hope for the honour of your company -on the road—since fate, however rudely, -has thrown us together?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Another weakness of mine is to be uselessly -frank—to resent even politic concealment. Here -was one whom I knew for an enemy. I spoke -him the plain truth with a childish carelessness.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>“I have affairs both at Canard and at Pereau,” -said I. “But I know not if I shall get so far as -the latter to-night.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ah!” said he, “I might have known as much. -Father La Garne will lie at Pereau to-night, and I -am to meet Captain Vaurin there.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I turned upon him fiercely, but his face was so -devoid of malice that my resentment somehow -stuck in my throat. Seeing it in my face, however, -he made haste to apologize.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Pardon me, monsieur, if I imply too much, or -again trespass upon your private matters,” he -exclaimed courteously. “But you will surely -allow that, in view of your late visit to Piziquid, -my mistake is a not unnatural one.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I was forced to acknowledge the justice of this.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But be pleased to remember that it is none -the less a mistake,” said I with emphasis, “and -one that is peculiarly distasteful to me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Assuredly, monsieur,” he assented most civilly. -And by this we were at the landing. As -we stepped off I turned for a final word with -Ba’tiste; and he, while giving me account of a -new road to the Canard, shorter than the old trail, -managed to convey a whispered warning that my -companion was not to be trusted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le Fûret</span>,” he said, as if that explained.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That’s all right, my friend,” I laughed confidently. -“I know all about that.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>Then I turned up the new road, striding amicably -by the side of my late antagonist, and busily -wondering how I was to be rid of him without -a rudeness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But I might have spared myself this foolish -solicitude; for presently, coming to a little lane -which led up to a fair house behind some willows, -he remarked:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will call here, monsieur, while you are visiting -at Machault’s yonder; and will join you, if I -may, the other side of the pasture.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>With the word he had bowed himself off, leaving -me wondering mightily how he knew I was bound -for Simon Machault’s—as in truth I was, on matters -pertaining to my uncle’s rents. I was sure -I had made no mention of Machault, and I was -nettled that the fellow should so appear to divine -my affairs. I made up my mind to question him -sharply on the matter when he should rejoin me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But I was to see no more of him that day. -After a pleasant interview with Machault, whence -I departed with my pockets the heavier for some -rentals paid ungrudgingly to the Sieur de Briart, I -continued my way alone, my mind altogether at -ease as to the house of De Lamourie, since I had -learned that the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> and the blacker -Vaurin would lie that night at Pereau. Then -suddenly, as I was about to turn into the yard of -another farmhouse, one of those strange things -<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>happened which we puzzle over for a time and afterward -set down among the unaccountable. Some -force, within or without, turned me sharp about -and faced me back toward Grand Pré. Before I -realized at all what I was up to, I was retracing -my steps toward the ferry. But with an effort I -stopped to take counsel with myself.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XIII<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Unwilling to be Wise</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>At first I was for mocking and laughing down -so blind a propulsion, but then the thought -that it was in some sort an outward expression of -my great desire for Yvonne compelled me to take -it with sobriety. Possibly, indeed, it meant that -she was thinking of me, needing me even, at the -moment; and at this I sprang forward in fierce -haste lest I should be too late for the ferry. I -was not going to follow blindly an impulse which -I could not quite comprehend. I would not be a -plaything of whims and vapours. But I would so -far yield as to get safely upon the Grand Pré side -of the river, pay a visit or two there which I had -intended deferring to next day, and return to De -Lamourie’s about bed-time, too late to invite -another rebuff from Yvonne. This compromise -gave me peace of mind, but did not delay my -pace. I was back at the ferry in a few minutes, -in time to see old yellow Ba’tiste fastening up the -scow as a sign that ferrying was over till next tide.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>I rushed down to him with a vehemence which -left no need of words. Dashing through the waterside -strip of red and glistening mud I sprang -upon the scow, and cried:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If ever you loved me, Ba’tiste,—if ever you -loved my father before me,—one more trip! I -must be in Grand Pré to-night if I have to -swim!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>His lean, yellow, weather-tanned face wrinkled -shrewdly, and he cast off again without a moment’s -hesitation, saying heartily as he did so:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If it only depended on what <em>I</em> could do for -you, Master Paul, your will and your way would -right soon meet.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I always knew I could count on you, Ba’tiste,” -said I warmly, watching with satisfaction the -tawny breadth of water widen out between the -shore and the rear of the scow, as the ferryman -strained rhythmically upon the great oar. I -sniffed deep breaths of the cool, contenting air -which blew with a salty bitterness from the uncovering -flats; and I dimly imagined then what now -I know, that when the breath of the tide flats has -got into one’s veins at birth he must make frequent -return to them in after-life, or his strength -will languish.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“So you got wind, Master Paul, of <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le Fûret</span>’s -return, and thought well to keep on his track, -eh?” panted Ba’tiste.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>“What do you mean?” I asked, awakened -from my reverie.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Didn’t you know he came right back, as soon -as he give you the slip?” asked Ba’tiste. “I -ferried him over again not an hour gone.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why,” I cried in surprise, “I thought he was -on his way to the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Ba’tiste smiled wisely.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He lied!” said he. “You don’t know that -lot yet, Master Paul. I saw you listened careless-like, -but I thought you knew that was all lies about -the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> and Vaurin being at Pereau. If -they’d been at Pereau ‘The Ferret’ would ha’ -said they were at Piziquid.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’m an ass!” I exclaimed bitterly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Ba’tiste laughed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That’s not the name you get hereabouts, -Master Paul. But I reckon you’ve been used to -dealing with honest men.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I believe I do trust too easily, my friend,” said -I. “But one thing I know, and that is this: I -will make never a mistake in trusting you, and -some other faithful friends whom I might name.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>This seemed to Ba’tiste too obvious to need -reply, so he merely wished me good fortune as I -sprang ashore and made haste up the trail.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I made haste—but alas, not back toward Grand -Pré! In the bitter after-days I had leisure to -curse the obstinate folly which led me to carry -<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>out my plan of delay instead of hurrying straight -to Yvonne’s side. But I had made up my mind -that the best time to return to De Lamourie’s was -about the end of evening—and my dull wits -failed to see in <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le Fûret</span>’s action any sufficient -cause to change my plans. It never occurred to -me, conceited fool that I was, that the causes -which had swayed the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> to my will the -night before might in the meantime have ceased -to work. Even had this idea succeeded in penetrating -my thick apprehension, I suppose it would -have made no difference. I should have felt sure -that the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">abbé</span>’s scoundrel crew would choose none -but the dim hours after midnight for anything -their malice might intend. The fact is, I had been -yielding to inauthoritative impulses and vague -premonitions till the reaction had set in, determining -me to be at all costs coolly reasonable. -Now Fortune with her fine irony loves to emphasize -the fact that the slave of reason often proves -the most pitiable of fools. Such was I when I -turned to my right from the ferry, and strode -through the scented, leafy dusk to the open flax-fields -of the Le Marchand settlement, though the -disregarded monitor within me was urging that I -should turn to the left, through the old beech -woods, to Grand Pré—and Yvonne.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Le Marchand settlement in those days consisted -of six little farms, each with its strip of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>upland flax-field and apple-orchard, and a bit of -rich, secluded dyke held in common. All the Le -Marchands—father and five sons—still owned -their hereditary allegiance to the Sieur de Briart, -and paid him their little rents as occasion offered. -My welcome was not such as is commonly accorded -to the tax-gatherer. These retainers of my uncle’s -made me feel that I was myself their seigneur; and -their rents, paid voluntarily and upon their own -reckonings, were in effect a love-gift. I supped—chiefly -upon buckwheat cakes—at the cottage of -Le Marchand <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">père</span></i>, and then, dark having fallen -softly upon the quiet fields, I set out at a gentle -pace for Grand Pré village.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Soon after I got into the still dark of the woods -the moon rose clear of the Gaspereau hills, and -thrust long white fingers toward me through the -leafage. The silence and the pale, elusive lights -presently got a grip upon my mood, and my -anxieties doubled, and trebled, and crowded upon -each other, till I found myself walking at a breathless -pace, just the hither side of a run. I stopped -short, with a laugh of vexation, and forced myself -to go moderately.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I was perhaps half way to Grand Pré, and in the -deepest gloom of the woods,—a little dip where -scarce a moonbeam came,—when, with a suddenness -that gave even my seasoned nerves a start, a -tall figure stood noiselessly before me.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>I clapped my hand upon my sword and asked -angrily:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Who are you?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But even as I spoke I knew the apparition for -Grûl. I laughed, and exclaimed:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Pardon me, Mysterious One. And pray tell me -why you are come, for I am in some haste!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Haste?” he reëchoed, with biting scorn. -“Where was your haste two hours ago? Fool, -poor fool, staying to fill your belly and wag your -chin with the clod-hoppers! You are even now -too late.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Too late for what?” I asked blankly, shaken -with a nameless fear.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come and see!” was the curt answer; and he -led the way forward to a little knoll, whence, the -trees having fallen apart, could be had a view of -Grand Pré.</p> - -<p class='c000'>There was a red light wavering at the back of -the village, and against it the gables stood out -blackly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I think you promised to guard that house!” -said Grûl.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But I had no answer. With a cry of rage and -horror I was away, running at the top of my speed. -The <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>’s stroke had fallen; and I—with a -sickness that clutched my heart—saw that my -absence might well be set down to treachery.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XIV<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Love Me, Love my Dog</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>As I emerged from the woods I noted that the -glare was greater than before. But before -I reached the outskirts of the village it had -begun to die down. My wild running up the -main street attracted no attention—every one -able to be about was at the fire.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I have no doubt that I was not long in covering -those two miles from the western end of the -village to the De Lamourie farm—but to me they -seemed leagues of torment. At last I reached the -gate, and dashed panting up the lane.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I saw that the house was already in ruins, though -still burning with a fierce glow. I saw also, and -wondered at it, that there had been no attempt -made to quench the flames. There were no water -buckets in view; there was no confusion of household -goods as when willing hands throng to help; -and the outbuildings, which might easily have -been saved, were only now getting fairly into -blaze. Across my confusion and pain there flashed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>a sense of the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>’s power. This fire was -his doing—and none dared interfere to mitigate -the stroke lest the like should fall upon them also. -My eyes searched the mass of staring, redly lit faces, -expecting to find some one of the De Lamourie -household; but in vain. Presently I noticed that -every one made way for me with an alacrity too -prompt for mere respect; and I grew dully conscious -that I was an object of shrinking aversion -to my old fellow-villagers. My rage at the villain -priest began to turn upon these misjudging fools. -But I knew not what to say; I knew not what to do. -I pushed roughly hither and thither, demanding -information, but getting only vague and muttered -replies.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where are they?” I asked again and again, -and broke out cursing furiously; but every one I -spoke to evaded a direct answer.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Have that arch fiend and his red devils carried -them off?” I asked at last; and to this I got -hushed, astonished, terrified replies of—</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, monsieur!” and, “No indeed, monsieur! -They have escaped!” and, “Oh, but no, monsieur!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Flinging myself fiercely away from the crowd, I -rushed to look into a detached two-story outbuilding -which had but now got fairly burning. I -wondered if there were no stuff in it which I might -rescue. The smoke and flame were pouring so -<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>hotly from the door that I could not see what was -inside. But as I peered in, my face shaded with -my hand from the scorching glare, I heard a faint, -pitiful mewing just above me, and looked up.</p> - -<p class='c000'>There, on the sill of a window of the second story, -a window from which came volumes of smoke, but -of flame only a slender, darting tongue, crouched -a white kitten. With a curious gripping at my -heart I recognized it as one which I had seen playing -at Yvonne’s feet the evening before. I remembered -how it was forever pouncing with wild glee -upon the tip of her little slipper, forever being -gently rolled over and tickled into fresh ecstasies. -The scene cut itself upon my brain as I ran for a -yet undamaged ladder, which I noticed leaning -against a shed near by.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The action doubtless filled the crowd with -amazement, but no one raised a hand to help -me. The ladder was long and very awkward to -manage, but in little more than the time it takes -to tell of it I got it up beside the window and -sprang to the rescue. By this time, however, the -flames were spouting forth. The moment I came -within reach of it the little animal leapt upon me -and clung with frantic claws. A vivid sheet of -flame burst out in my very face, hurling me from -the ladder; yet I succeeded in alighting on my -feet, jarred, but whole. There was a smell of -burnt hair in my nostrils, and I saw that the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>kitten’s coat, no longer white, was finely crisped. -But what I smelt was not all kitten’s hair. Lifting -my hand to my bitterly smarting face, I found my -own locks, over my forehead, seriously diminished, -while my once fairly abundant eyebrows and eyelashes -were clean gone. My moustache, however, -had escaped—and even at that moment, when my -mind was surely well occupied with matters of -importance, I could feel a thrill of satisfaction. A -man’s vanity is liable to assert itself at almost any -crisis; and it did not occur to me that a man -lacking eyebrows and eyelashes could not hope -to be redeemed from the ridiculous by the most -luxuriant moustache that ever grew.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Half dazed, I stared about me, wondering what -was next to be done. Suddenly I thought—“Why, -of course; they have gone to Father -Fafard’s!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The kitten clung to me, mewing piteously, and -I was embarrassed by it. First I dropped it into -a large currant bush, where, as I thought, it would -not be trodden upon. Then, remembering that it -was Yvonne’s, I snatched it up, and with a grim -laugh at the folly of my solicitude over so small a -matter strode off with it toward the parsonage. I -passed in front of the swaying crowd; and some -one, out of sight, tittered. I had begun to forget -the fool rabble of villagers,—to regard them as a -painted mob in a picture, or as wooden puppets,—but -<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>their reality was borne back upon me at that -giggle. I walked on, scowling upon the faces -which shrank into gravity under my eye, till at -last I noticed a kind-looking girl. Into her arms, -without ceremony, I thrust the little animal; and -as she took it I said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It belongs to Mademoiselle de Lamourie. -Take care of it for her.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Not waiting to hear her answer, I was off across -the fields for the parsonage.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XV<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Ashes as it were Bread</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>All this had come and gone as it were in a -dream, and it seemed to me that I yet -panted from my long race. I had seen nothing, -meanwhile, of the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> or of his painted -pack. Spies, however, he had doubtless in plenty -among those gaping onlookers; and his devilish -work yet lighted me effectually on my way across -the wet fields. The glow was like great patches -of blood upon the apple-trees, where the masses -of bloom fairly fronted the light. The hedgerow -thickets took on a ruddy bronze, a sparkle -here and there as a wet leaf set the unwonted -rays rebounding. The shadows were -sharply black, and strangely misleading when they -found themselves at odds with those cast by the -moon. The scene, as I hastened over the quiet -back lots, was like the unreal phantasmagoria of a -dream. I found myself playing with the idea -that it all <em>was</em> a dream, from my meeting with old -Mother Pêche here—yes, in this very field—the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>night before to the present breathless haste and -wild surmising. Then the whole bitter reality -seemed to topple over, and fall upon me and crush -me down. Not only was Yvonne pledged to -another, but through grossest over-confidence I -had failed her in her need, and worst of all, the -thought that made my heart beat shakingly, she -believed me a traitor. It forced a groan to my -lips, but I ran on, and presently emerged upon -the lane a few paces from Father Fafard’s gate.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As I turned in the good priest came and stood -in the doorway, peering down the lane with anxious -eyes. Seeing me, he sprang forward and -began to speak, but I interrupted him, crying:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Are they here? I must see them.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They will not see you, Paul. They would -curse you and shut their ears. They believe <em>you</em> -did it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But you, father, <em>you</em>,” I pleaded, “can undeceive -them. Come with me.” And I grasped -him vehemently by the arm.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But he shook me off, with a sort of anxious -impatience.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Of course, Paul, I <em>know</em> you did not do it. -I <em>know</em> you, as <em>she</em> would, too, if she loved you,” -he cried, in a voice made high and thin by excitement. -“I will tell them you are true. But—where -is Yvonne?” And he pushed past me to -the gate, where he paused irresolutely.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>“Don’t tell me she is not with you!” I cried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“She ran out a minute ago, not telling us what -she was going to do,” he answered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But what for? What made her? She must -have had some reason! What was it?” I demanded, -becoming cold and stern as I noted how -his nerves were shaken.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He collected himself with a visible effort, and then -looked at me with a kind of slow pity.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I had but now come in,” said he, “and thoughtlessly -I told Madame a word just caught in the -crowd. You know that evil savage, Etienne <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">le -Bâtard</span>. Or you don’t, I see; but he’s the red right-hand -of La Garne, and it was he executed yonder -outrage. As he was leading his cut-throats away -in haste, plainly upon another malignant enterprise, -I heard him tell one of my parishioners what he -would do. The man is suspected of a leaning to -the English; and the savage said to him with -significance:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I go now to Kenneticook, to the yellow-haired -English Anderson. Neither he nor his house will -see another sun.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I had thought perhaps you were right, Paul, -and that Yvonne had promised herself to the -Englishman more in esteem than love; but she -cried out, with a piteous, shaken voice, that he -must be warned—that some one <em>must</em> go to him -and save him. With that she rushed from the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>house, and we have not seen her since. But stay—what -have <em>you</em> said or done to her, Paul? Now -that I see her face again, I see remorse in it. What -have you done to her?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I made no answer to this sharp question, it -being irrelevant and my haste urgent. But I -demanded:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where could she go for help?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I don’t know,” he answered, “unless, perhaps, -to the landing.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The tide is pretty low,” said I, pondering, -“but the wind serves well enough for the Piziquid -mouth. Where do you suppose the savages left -their canoes?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh,” said he positively, “well up on the -Piziquid shore, without doubt. They came over -on the upper trail, and they must be now hurrying -back the same way. They cannot get up the Kenneticook, -by that route, till a little before dawn.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have time, then!” I exclaimed, and rushed -away.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where are you going? Paul! Paul! What -will you do?” he cried after me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will save him!” I shouted as I went. “Come -you down to the landing, the Gaspereau wharf, -and get Yvonne if she’s there.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Glancing back, I saw that he followed me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>My heart was surging with gratitude to God for -this chance. I vowed to save Anderson, though it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>cost me my own life. If Yvonne loved him she -should then owe her happiness to me. If she did -not love him she would see that I was quite other -than the traitor she imagined. Strange to say, I -felt no bitterness against her for so misjudging me. -It seemed to me that my folly had been so great -that I had deserved to be misjudged. But now, -here was my opportunity. I swore under my -breath that it should not slip from my grasp.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was a good two-thirds of a mile from the -parsonage to the wharf, and I had time to scheme -as I ran. I thought at once of Nicole, the smith,—of -his boat, and his brawn, and his loyal -fidelity. His boat would assuredly be at the -wharf, but where should I find his brawn and -his fidelity?</p> - -<p class='c000'>At his cottage, beside the forge, I stopped to -ask for him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“At the fire, monsieur,” quavered his old -mother, poking a troubled face from the window -in answer to my thundering on the door. “What -would you with him? Do not lead him into harm, -Master Paul!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But I was off without answering; and the poor, -creaking, worried old voice followed in my ears:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He takes no sides. He hurts no one, Master -Paul!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Passing the De Lamourie gate I paused to shout -at the height of my lungs:</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>“Nicole! Nicole Brun! I want you! Nicole! -Nicole!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Coming, Master Paul!” was the prompt -reply, out of the heart of the crowd; and in a -moment the active, thick-set form appeared, bareheaded -as usual, for I had never known Nicole to -cover his black shock with cap or hat.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I was leaning on the fence to get my breath.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You were there, Nicole, when I was looking -for a friend?” said I, eying him with sharp -question and reproach as he came up.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You did not seem to need any one just then, -Master Paul; leastwise, no one that was thereabouts,” -he answered, with a sheepish mixture of -bantering and apology.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I ignored both. I knew him to be true.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Will you come with me, right now, Nicole -Brun?” I asked, starting off again toward the -river.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You know I will, Master Paul,” said he, close -at my side. “But where? What are we up to?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The boat!” said I. “The wind serves. I’m -going to the Kenneticook to warn Anderson that -the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> is to cut his throat this night!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I turned and looked him in the eyes as I spoke.</p> - -<p class='c000'>His long, determined upper lip drew down at -my words, but his little grey eyes flashed upon -mine a half-resigned, half-humorous acquiescence.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s risky, Master Paul. And no good, like as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>not,” he answered. “We’ll be just about in time -to get our own throats slit, I’m thinking,—to say -nothing of the hair,” he added, rubbing his crown -with rueful apprehension.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Let me have your boat, and I go alone,” said -I curtly. But I was sure of him nevertheless.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’m with you, sure, Master Paul, if you <em>will</em> -go,” he rejoined. “And maybe it’s worth while -to disturb his reverence’s plans, if it <em>be</em> only an -Englishman that we’re taking so much trouble -about.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We must and shall save him, Nicole,” I said, -as deliberately as my panting breath would permit, -“or I will die in the trying. He is betrothed to -Mademoiselle de Lamourie, you know.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>I</em> should say, rather, let him die for her, that a -better man may live for her,” he retorted shrewdly. -“But as you will, Master Paul, of course!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the privacy of my own heart I thought -extremely well of Nicole’s discrimination; but I -said nothing, for by this we were come to the -wharf; and I saw—Yvonne!</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XVI<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>The Way of a Maid</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>Almost to her side I came before she was -aware of me, so intent she was upon her -purpose. Two men of the village, fishermen whom -I knew, she had summoned to her, and was passionately -urging them to take her to Kenneticook. -But for all her beauty, her enthralling charm, they -hung back doggedly—being but dull clods, and -in a shaking terror at the very name of the Black -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>. It passed my comprehension that they -should have any power at all when those wonderful -eyes burned upon them. Never had I seen her -so beautiful as then, her face wild with entreaty, -her bewildering hair half fallen about her shoulders. -A white, soft-falling shawl, such as I had never before -seen her wear, was flung about her, and one -little hand with its live, restless fingers clutched -the fabric closely to her throat, as if she had been -disturbed at her toilet.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I was about to interrupt her, for there was no -moment to lose if I would accomplish my purpose; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>but of a sudden she seemed to realize the hopelessness -of her effort to move these stolid fishermen. -Flinging out her arms with a gesture -of bitterness and despair, she cried, pointing to -Nicole’s boat:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Push off the boat, you cowards, and I will go -alone!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And turning upon the word she found herself -face to face with me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Even in that light I could see her lips go ashen, -and for a moment I thought she would drop. I -sprang to catch her, but she recovered, and shrank -in a kind of speechless fury from my touch. Then -she found words for me, dreadful words for me to -hear:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Traitor! Assassin! Still <em>you</em> to persecute -and thwart me. It is <em>you</em> they fear. It is <em>you</em> who -plan the murder of that good and true man—<em>you</em> -who will not let me go to warn him!” Then her -voice broke into a wilder, more beseeching tone: -“Oh, if you have one spark of shame, <em>remember</em>! -Let them push off the boat; and let <em>me</em> go, that I -may try to save him!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Her reproaches hurt me not, but what seemed -her passion for him steadied me and made me -hard.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are mad, mademoiselle!” I answered -sternly. “I am going to save him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“As you have saved our house to-night!” she -<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>cried, with a laugh that went through me like a -sword.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I was outwitted by my enemies—and yours, -mademoiselle. I go now to warn him. Push down -the boat, men. Haste! Haste!” I ordered, -turning from her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But she came close in front of me, her great eyes -blazed up in my face, and she cried, “You go to -see that he does not escape your hate!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Listen, mademoiselle,” I said sharply. “I -swear to you by the mother of God that you have -utterly misjudged me! I am no traitor. I have -been a fool; or my sword would have been at -your father’s side to-night. I swear to you that I -go now to expiate my mistake by saving your lover -for you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The first wave of doubt as to my treason came -into her eyes at this; but her lips curled in bitter -unbelief. Before she could speak, I went on:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I swear to you by—by the soul of my dead -mother I will save George Anderson or die fighting -beside him! You shall have your lover,” I -added, as I stepped toward the boat, which was -now fairly afloat on the swirling current. Nicole -was hoisting the sail, while one of the fishermen -held the boat’s prow.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I think Yvonne’s heart believed me now, though -her excited brain was as yet but partially convinced, -or even, perhaps, as I have sometimes -<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>dared to think in the light of her later actions, -another motive, quite unrealized by herself, began -to work obscurely at the roots of her being as soon -as she had admitted the first doubts as to my -treachery. But not even her own self-searching -can unravel all the intricacies of a woman’s motive. -As I was about to step into the boat she passed -me lightly as a flower which the wind lifts and -blows. She seated herself beside the mast.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What folly is this, mademoiselle?” I asked -angrily, pausing with my hand upon the gunwale, -and noticing the astonishment on Nicole’s face.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Her mouth set itself obstinately as her eyes met -mine.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am going, too,” she said, “to see if you -respect your mother’s soul.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You cannot!” I cried. “You will ruin our -only chance. We must run miles through the -woods after we land, if we are to get there ahead of -La Garne’s butchers. You could not stay alone at -the boat”—</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I can!” said she doggedly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You could not keep up with us,” I went on, -unheeding her interruption. “And if we delayed -for you we should be too late. Every moment you -stay us now may be the one to cost his life.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am going!” was all she said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I set my teeth into my lips. There was no alternative. -Stepping quietly into the boat as if forced -<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>to acquiesce in her decision, with my left hand I -caught both little white wrists as they lay crossed, -still for a moment, in her lap. I held them inexorably. -At the same time I passed my right arm -about the slim body, and lifted it. There was but -the flutter of an instant’s struggle, its futility instantly -recognized; and then, stepping over the -boatside with her, I carried her to the edge of -the wharf, set her softly down, sprang back into -the boat, and pushed off as I did so.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will save him for you, mademoiselle,” I -said, “and, believe me, I have just now saved -him <em>from</em> you!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But she made no answer. She did not move -from the place where I had set her down. There -was a strange look on her face, which I could not -fathom; but I carried it with me, treasured and -uncomprehended, as the boat slipped rapidly down -the tide.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As long as I could discern the wharf at all I -could see that white form moveless at its edge. -I forgot my errand. I forgot her cruel distrust. I -strained my gaze upon her, and knew nothing save -that I loved her.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XVII<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Memory is a Child</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>When I could no longer discern even the -shore whence we had started, I in a measure -came to myself. Nicole—sagacious Nicole—had -left me to my dream. He had got up the -mainsail and jib unaided, and now sat like a statue -at the tiller. We were in the open basin, running -with a steady wind abeam. There was quite a -swell on, and the waves looked sinister, cruel as -steel, under the bare white moon. A fading glow -still marked the spot where the De Lamourie house -had stood; but save for that there was no hint of -man’s hand in all the wild, empty, hissing, wonderful -open. Far to the left lay Blomidon, a crouching -lion; and straight ahead a low, square bluff -guarded the mouth of the Piziquid. I saw that we -were nearing it rapidly, for Nicole’s boat had legs. -Once in the Piziquid mouth, we should have a hard -run up against the ebb; but the wind would then -be right aft, and I felt that we could stem the current -and make our landing in time.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>“Will this wind carry her against the Piziquid -tide?” I asked Nicole. It was the first word -spoken in perhaps an hour, and my voice sounded -strange to me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We’ll catch the first of the flood soon after we -get inside, Master Paul,” said he, in the most matter-of-fact -voice in the world.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Content with this, and knowing that for the time -there was nothing to do but wait, I lapsed back -into my reverie.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I felt exhausted, not from bodily effort, but from -emotion. My nerves and brain felt sleepy; yet -nothing was further from my eyes than sleep. -Situations and deeds, mental and physical crises, -agonies and ecstasies and dull despair, had so -trodden upon one another’s heels that I was -breathless. I caught at my brain, as it were, to -make it keep still long enough to think. Yet I -could not think to any purpose. I was aware of -nothing so keenly as the sensation that had intoxicated -me as I held Yvonne’s unconsenting body -for those few moments in my arms, while removing -her from the boat. To have touched her at -all against her will seemed a sacrilege; but when -a sacrilege has seemed a plain necessity I have -never been the one to balk at it. Now I found -myself looking with a foolish affection at the arms -which had been guilty of that sacrilege—and -straightway, coming to my wits again, I glanced at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>Nicole to see if he had divined the vast dimensions -of my folly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>From this I passed to wondering what was truly -now my hope or my despair. During all my talk -with Yvonne—from the moment, indeed, when -Father Fafard had told me of her agitation over -Anderson’s peril—I had been as one without -hope, in darkness utterly. Only a great love—<em>the</em> -great love, as I had told myself—could inspire -this desperate and daring solicitude. And against -the one great love, in such a woman as Yvonne, -I well knew that nothing earthly could prevail. -My own bold resolution had been formed on the -theory that her betrothal was but the offspring of -expediency upon respect. Now, however, either -the remembrance of her touch deluded me or something -in her attitude upon the wharf held significance, -for assuredly I began to dream that remorse -rather than love might have been the mainspring -of her agitation; remorse, and pity, and something -of that strange mother passion which a true -woman may feel toward a man who stirs within -her none of the lover passion at all. I thought, -too, of the wild sense of dishonour she must feel, -believing me a traitor and herself my dupe. -Strange comfort this, of a surety! Yet I grasped -at it. I would prove her no dupe, myself no -traitor; and stand at last where I had stood before, -with perhaps some advantage. And my rival—he, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>I swore, should owe his life to me; a kind but -cruel kind of revenge.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At last, my heart beating uncomfortably from -the too swift self-chasing of my thoughts, I stood -up, shook myself, and looked about me. We -had rounded the bluff, and were standing up the -broad Piziquid straight before the wind; and the -boat was pitching hotly in the short seas where -the wind thwarted the tide. I glanced at Nicole’s -face. It was as plaintively placid as if he dreamed -of the days when he leaned at his mother’s knee.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the expression of his countenance changed; -for now, from out the shadowed face of the bluff, -came that bell-like, boding cry—</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Woe, woe to Acadie the Fair, for the hour of -her desolation is at hand!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Nicole looked awed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He knows, that Grûl!” he muttered. “It’s -coming quick now, I’ll be bound!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, so are we, Nicole!” I rejoined cheerfully; -“and that’s what most concerns me at this -moment.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I peered eagerly ahead, but could not, in that -deluding light, discriminate the mouth of the -Kenneticook stream from its low adjacent shores. -Presently the waves and pitching lessened. The -ebb had ceased, and the near shore slipped by -more rapidly. The slack of tide lasted but a few -minutes. Then the flood set in—noisily and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>with a great front of foam, as it does in that -river of high tides; and the good boat sped on -at a pace that augured accomplishment. In what -seemed to me but a few minutes the mouth of -the Kenneticook opened, whitely glimmering, -before us.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Barely had I descried it when Nicole put the -helm up sharp and ran straight in shore.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What are you doing, man?” I cried, in astonishment. -“You’ll have us aground!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the words were not more than out of my -mouth when I understood. I saw the narrow -entrance to a small creek, emptying between high -banks.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh!” said I. “I beg your pardon, Nicole; I -see you know what you’re about all right!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He chuckled behind unsmiling lips.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>They’ll</em> go up the Kenneticook in their canoes,” -said he. “We’ll hide the boat here, where they’ll -not find it; and we’ll cut across the ridge to the -Englishman’s. Quicker, too!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The creek was narrow and winding, but deep -for the first two hundred yards of its course; and -Nicole, he knew every turn and shallow. We -beached the boat where she could not be seen -from the river, tied her to a tree on the bank -above so that she might not get away at high tide, -and then plunged into the dense young fir woods -that clothed the lower reaches of the Piziquid -<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>shore. There was no trail, but it was plain to me -that Nicole well knew the way.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You’ve gone this way before, Nicole?” said I.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, monsieur, a few times,” he answered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I considered for a moment, pushing aside the -wet, prickly branches as I went. Then—</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What is her name, Nicole?” I asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Julie, Master Paul,” said he softly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ah,” said I, “then you had reasons of your -own for coming with me to-night?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Not so!” he answered, a rebuking sobriety in -his voice. “None, save my love for you and -your house, Master Paul. <em>She</em> is in no peril. -She is far from here, safe in Isle St. Jean this -month past.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I beg your pardon, my friend,” said I, at once. -“I know your love. I said it but to banter you, -for I had not guessed that you had been led captive, -Nicole.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A man’s way, Master Paul, when a woman -wills!” said he cheerfully.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But I had no more thought of it than to be glad -it had taught Nicole Brun a short path through -the woods to Kenneticook.</p> - -<p class='c000'>What strange tricks do these our tangled makeups -play us! I know that that night, during that -swift half-hour’s run through the woods, my whole -brain, my every purpose, was concentrated upon -the rescue of George Anderson. The price I was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>prepared to pay was life, no less. Yet all the -shaping emotion of it—sharp enough, one would -think, to cut its lines forever on a man’s face, to -say nothing of his brain—has bequeathed to me -no least etching of remembrance. Of great things -all I recall is that the name “Yvonne” seemed -ever just within my lips—so that once or twice I -thought I had spoken it aloud. But my senses -were very wide awake, taking full advantage, perhaps, -of the heart’s preoccupation. My eyes, -ears, nose, touch, they busied themselves to note -a thousand trifles—and these are what come -back to me now. Such idle, idle things alone -remain, out of that race with death.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Things idle as these: I see a dew-wet fir-top -catch the moonlight for an instant and flash to -whiteness, an up-thrust lance of silver; I see the -shadow of a dead, gnarled branch cast upon a -mossy open in startling semblance of a crucifix—so -clear, I cannot but stoop and touch it reverently -as I pass; I see, at the edge of a grassy glade, a -company of tall buttercups, their stems invisible, -their petals seeming to float toward me, a -squadron of small, light wings. I hear—I hear -the rush of the tide die out as we push deeper into -the woods; I hear the smooth swish of branches -thrust apart; I hear the protesting, unresonant -creak of the green underbrush as we tread it -down, and the sharp crackle of dry twigs as we -<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>thread the aisles of older forest; I hear, from the -face of a moonlit bluff upon our left, the long, -mournful <em>Whóo-hu-hu—Hóo-oo</em> of the brown owl. -I smell the savour of juniper, of bruised snakeroot, -of old, slow-rotting wood; with once a fairy -breath of unseen <em>linnæa</em>; and once, at the -fringed brink of a rivulet, the pungent fragrance -of wild mint. I feel the frequent wet slappings of -branches on my face; I feel the strong prickles -of the fir, the cool, flat frondage of the spruce and -hemlock, the unresisting, feathery spines of the -young hackmatack trees; I feel, once, a gluey web -upon my face, and the abhorrence with which I -dash off the fat spider that clings to my chin; I -feel the noisome slump of my foot as I tread upon -a humped and swollen gathering of toad-stools.</p> - -<p class='c000'>All this is what comes back to me—and Nicole’s -form, ever silent, ever just ahead, wasting no -breath; till at last we came upon a fence, and -beyond the fence wide fields, and beyond the -fields a low white house with wings and outbuildings, -at peace in the open moonlight.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We are in time, Master Paul!” said Nicole -quietly.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XVIII<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>For a Little Summer’s Sleep</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>We vaulted the fence, jumped a well-cut ditch -(I took note that Anderson was an excellent -farmer), and ran across the fields. Presently -came a deep, baying bark, and a great, light-coloured -English mastiff came bounding toward us.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Quiet, Ban!” said Nicole; and the huge -beast, with a puppy-whine of delight, fell fawning -at his knees. We were close to the house. Nicole -stopped, and pointed to a cabin just visible at the -foot of a long slope falling away to our right.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Julie’s brother may chance to be there, Master -Paul,” said he. “He is known for his devotion -to Monsieur Anderson, whom few of us love. I -will go wake the lad, if he’s there, while you rouse -the master.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If you should fail to get back this way, my -friend,” said I, “let us meet, say, at the boat.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, at the boat,” he answered confidently.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I paused, partly to get breath, partly to follow -him with a look of grateful admiration, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>modest, still, strong, faithful retainer, of a type -nigh vanished. He ran with his black-shock -head thrust forward, and the great dog bounded -beside him like a kitten.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was the last I ever saw of Nicole Brun; nor -to this day, for all my searching, have I had word -of what befell him. Of the dog I learned something, -seeing his skin, a year later, worn upon the -shoulders of an Indian boy of the Micmac settlement. -From this I could make shrewd guess at -the fate of my Nicole; but the Indian lies astutely, -and I could prove nothing. Sleep well, Nicole, -my brave and true!</p> - -<p class='c000'>George Anderson’s wide red door carried a -brass knocker which grinned venomously in the -moonlight. My first summons brought no -answer. Then I thundered again, imperatively, -and I heard Anderson’s voice within, calling to -servants. No servants made reply, so again I -hammered, and shook fiercely at the door. Then -he came himself, looking bewildered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Monsieur Grande, pardon me! The servants”—</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The servants have fled,” I interrupted. “Come -quickly! There is not a minute to lose. The -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">abbé</span>’s savages are near. They are coming to -scalp you and burn your house. We will leave -them the house.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>There was no sign of fear on his face, merely -<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>annoyance; and I saw that his mind worked but -heavily.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come in!” he said, leading the way into a -wide room looking out upon the Kenneticook -tide. “I won’t be driven by those curs. They -dare not touch me. At the worst, with the help -of the servants we can fight them off. Sit down, -monsieur.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And he proceeded calmly to pull on his boots.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I had followed him inside, wild at his obstinacy.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I tell you,” said I, “they want your scalp. -The servants are traitors and have stolen away -while you slept. We are alone. Come, man, -come! Would you have <em>my</em> throat cut, too?” -And I shook him by the shoulder.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why have <em>you</em> come?” he asked, unmoved, -staring at me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For the sake of Yvonne de Lamourie!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh!” said he, eying me with a slow hostility.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You fool!” I exclaimed. “They have -burned De Lamourie’s. I swore to Yvonne de -Lamourie that I would save you or die with you. -If you think she loves you, stir yourself. I cannot -carry you. Look at that!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I pointed to the window. At Yvonne’s name he -had risen to his feet. He looked out. A group -of canoes was turning in to shore, not two furlongs -distant.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>“Where is she?” he inquired, alert at last.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Safe,” said I curtly, “at Father Fafard’s.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Still he wavered, brave, but undecided. I think -he wondered why I was her chosen messenger.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“She is in a frenzy at your peril,” I said, though -the words stuck in my throat. That moved him. -His face lighted with boyish pleasure.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come!” he cried, as if he had been urging -me all the time. “We’ll slip out at the back, and -keep the buildings between us and the river till -we reach the woods.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Have you no weapon?” I asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No,” said he, “but this will do,” and he -picked up a heavy oak stick from behind the door -of the room.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Great as was the haste, I told him to lock -the main door. Then as we slipped out at the -back we locked the kitchen door behind us. I -knew this would delay the chase; whereas if they -found the doors open they would realize at once -the escape of their intended victim and rush in -pursuit, leaving the little matter of the fire to be -seen to afterwards.</p> - -<p class='c000'>From the back door we darted to the garden, -a thicket of pole beans and hops and hollyhocks. -From the furthest skirt of these shelters we ran -along a ditch that fenced a field of growing buckwheat, -not yet high enough to give covert; but I -think we kept well in shadow of the house all the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>way to the woods. If afterwards our enemies -tracked us with what seemed a quite unnecessary -promptitude and ease, it must be remembered that -our trail was not obscure.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I led the flight, intending we should strike -the creek at some distance above the boat and -make our way down to it along the water’s -edge, to cover our traces. The more we could -divide our pursuers, the better would be our -chances in the struggle, if overtaken. The pace I -set was a sharp one, and soon, as I could perceive -by his breathing, began to tell upon my heavy-limbed -and unhardened companion. I slackened -gradually, that he might not think I did it on his -account.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In a very few minutes there arose behind us, -coming thinly through the trees, the screeching -war-whoop of the Micmacs, which has ever seemed -to me more demoniacal and inhuman than even -that of the Iroquois. Then, when we took time -to glance over our shoulders, we marked a red -glare climbing slowly. I judged that our escape -was by this time discovered, and the wolves hot -upon our trail.</p> - -<p class='c000'>To my companion, however, the sight brought -a different thought.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where were you,” he gasped, “when they attacked -De Lamourie’s? Did you not—promise—to -save the place?”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>“I was a fool,” said I, between my teeth. “I -thought the might of my name had saved it. I -went to the Habitants. When I got back it was -over.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ah!” was all he said, husbanding his breath.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And they think I am a traitor—that I sanctioned -it,” I went on in a bitter voice.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He gave a short laugh, impatiently.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Who?” he asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Monsieur and Madame,” said I, “and, possibly, -Mademoiselle also.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I could—have told them better than that,” -he panted; “I know a man.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Under the circumstances I did not think that -modesty required me to disclaim the compliment.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A little further on he clutched me by the arm, -and stopped, gasping.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Blown,” said he, smiling, as if the situation -were quite casual. “Must—one minute.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I chafed, but stood motionless.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Suddenly there was a heavy crash some distance -behind us.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They are so sure, they scorn the least precaution,” -I whispered, foolishly wroth at their confidence. -“But come, though your lungs should -burst for it,” I went on. “I will seize the first -hiding-place.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He rallied like a man, and we raced on with -fresh speed. Indeed, as I look back upon it, I see -<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>that he did miraculously well for one so unused -to the exercise.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Five minutes later we came to a small brook -crossing our path from left to right toward the -Kenneticook. It was a place of low, brushy -shrubs under large trees.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Keep close to me,” I whispered, “and look -sharp. We’ll stop right here.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I stepped into the middle of the brook, and he -did likewise, carefully. Setting our feet with precaution -to disturb no stones, we descended the -stream some twenty paces, then crept ashore -beneath the thick growth, and lay at full length -like logs.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You must get your breathing down to silence -absolute,” I whispered; “they will be here in two -minutes.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In half a minute he had his laboring lungs in -harness. Though within an arm’s length of him I -could hear no sound. But I could hear our pursuers -thrashing along on our trail. In a minute -they were at the brook, to find the trail cut short. -I caught snatches of their guttural comment, and -laughed in my sleeve as I realized that Anderson’s -very weakness was going to serve our ends. The -savages never dreamed that any one could be -winded from so short a run. Had their quarry -gone up the brook or down it, was all their wonder. -Unable to decide, they split into two parties, going -<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>either way. From the corner of my eye, violently -twisted, I marked seven redskins loping past down -stream.</p> - -<p class='c000'>When they were out of hearing, I touched -Anderson on the shoulder.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come,” said I, “now is our time.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That was neat, very,” he muttered, with a -quiet little chuckle, rising and throwing off the -underbrush like an ox climbing out of his August -wallow.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Straight ahead now for the creek,” I whispered, -crossing the brook; but a sound from behind -made me turn. There stood a huge savage, much -astonished at the apparition of us.</p> - -<p class='c000'>His astonishment was our salvation. It delayed -his signal yell. As his breath drew in for it and -I sprang with my sword, the Englishman was upon -him naked-handed. He forgot his stick; which -indeed was well, for his two hands at the redskin’s -throat best settled the matter of the signal. For -a Quaker, whom I have heard to be peaceful folk, -Anderson seemed to me a good deal in earnest. -Big and supple though the savage was, he was -choked in half a minute and his head knocked -against a tree. Anderson let him drop, a limp -carcass, upon the underbrush, and stood over him -panting and clenching his fingers, ready to try a -new hold.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I examined the painted mass.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>“Not dead, quite!” said I. “But he’s as good -as dead for an hour, I should say. I think perhaps -we need not finish him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Better finish him, and make sure,” urged Anderson, -to my open astonishment. “He may stir -up trouble for us later.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But I was firm. I like, positively like, to kill -my man in fair fight; but once down he’s safe -from me, though he were the devil himself.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No,” said I, “you shall not. Come on. If -the poor rascal ever gets over that mauling, he’ll -deserve to. <em>That</em> was neat, now. You are much -wasted in Quakerdom, monsieur, when your English -armies are needing good men.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He was following close at my heels, as I once -more led the race through the woods. He made -no answer. Either he was saving his wind, or he -was angry at leaving a good job unfinished. I -mocked myself in my own heart, thinking:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Paul, you fool, out of this big Quaker you -have made a fighter, and he seems to like it. You -may find your hands full with him, one of these -days.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The thought was pleasant to me on the whole, -for it is ill and dishonouring work to fight a man -who is no fair match for you. That was something -I never could stomach, and have ever avoided, -even though at the cost of deep annoyance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Now the ground began to rise, and I guessed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>we were nearing the creek at a point where the -banks were high.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Nearly there,” I whispered encouragingly, and -thrust forward with sudden elation through a dense -screen of underbrush. I was right—all too right. -The leafage parted as parts a cloud. There was -no ground beneath my feet.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Back!” I hissed wildly, and went plunging -down a dark steep, striking, rebounding, clutching -now at earth and now at air. At last it appeared -to me that I came partly to a stop and -merely rolled; but it no longer seemed worth -while to grasp at anything.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XIX<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>The Borderland of Life</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>Again I felt myself striving to grasp at something—nothing -tangible now, but a long -series of exhausting, infinitely confused dreams. -My brain strove desperately to retain them, but -the more it strove the more they slipped back into -the darkness of the further side of memory; and, -with one mighty effort to hold on to the last of -the vanishing train, I opened my eyes, oppressed -with a sense of significant things forgotten.</p> - -<p class='c000'>My eyes opened, I say; and they stared widely -at a patch of sky, of an untellable blue, sparkling -gem-like, and set very far off as if seen through -the wrong end of a telescope. As I stared, the -sense of oppression slipped from me. I sat up; -but the patch of sky reeled, and I lay back again, -whereupon it recovered its adorable stability. I -felt tired, but content. It was good to lie there, -and watch that enchanted sky, and rest from -thought and dreams.</p> - -<p class='c000'>After a while, however, I turned my head, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>noted that I was in a deep, low-vaulted, tunnel-shaped -cave—or rather bottle-shaped, for it was -enlarged about the place where I lay. I noted -that I lay on furs, on a low, couch-like ledge; and -I noted, too, that there was a wind outside, for at -intervals a branch was bowed across the cave-mouth -and withdrawn. Then I perceived that a -little jar of water and a broken cake of barley meal -stood just within reach; and straightway I was -aware of a most interested appetite. I sat up -again and began to eat and drink. The patch of -sky reeled, danced, blurred, darkened,—and again -grew clear and steady. I finished the barley -bread, finished the little jar of water, and sat -communing lucidly with my right mind.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was manifest that I had been saved that night -of my fall over the cliff (by Anderson?—I -prayed not); that I had been desperately ill—for -the hands and arms upon which I looked -down with sarcastic pity were emaciated; that -I had been tenderly cared for—for the couch -was soft, the cave well kept, and a rude screen -stood at one side to shield me when the winds -came into the cave-mouth. I raised my hands to -my head. It was bandaged; and at one side my -hair had been much cut away. But my hair—how -long the rest of it was! And then came a -stroke of wonder—my once smooth chin was -deeply bearded! How long, how long must I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>have rested here, to grow so patriarchal an adornment!</p> - -<p class='c000'>Stung to a fierce restlessness, and with a sinking -at my heart, I rose, tottered to the cave-mouth, -and looked out.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The world I had last seen was a green world on -the threshold of June. The world I looked on -now was a world of fading scarlets, the last fires -of autumn fast dying from the ragged leafage.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Below, beyond trees and a field, was outspread -the wide water of Minas, roughened to a cold and -angry indigo under the wind. To the left, purple-dim -and haze-wrapped, sat Blomidon. Grand Pré -must be around to the left. Then the cave was in -the face of the Piziquid bluff. So near to friends, -yet hidden in a cave! What had happened the -while I lay as dead? I tottered back to the couch, -and fell on my back, and thought. My apprehensions -were like a mountain of lead upon the pit -of my stomach, and I laboured for my breath.</p> - -<p class='c000'>First I thought of Nicole as having saved me—Anderson -I knew would have done his best, but -was helpless among an unfriendly people, and well -occupied to keep his own scalp. Yet Nicole would -have taken me to Father Fafard! And surely -there were houses in Grand Pré where the son of -my father would have been nursed, and not driven -to hide in a hole—till his beard grew! And -surely, after all that had happened, Yvonne would -<span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>no longer count me a traitor, Monsieur and Madame -would make amends for this dreadful misjudgment! -And surely—but if so, where were all these -friends?</p> - -<p class='c000'>Or what had befallen Grand Pré?</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If evil has befallen them (I did not say -Yvonne) I want to die! I will go out, and fight, -and die at once!” I cried, springing to my feet.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But I was still very weak, and my passion had -yet further weakened me, so that I fell to the floor -beside the couch; and in falling I knocked over -the little jar and broke it. Even then I was conscious -of a regret for the little jar; I realized that -I was thirsty; and though I wanted to die, I -wanted a drink of water first.</p> - -<p class='c000'>This inconsequent mood soon passed, and I -crawled back on to the couch, the conviction well -hammered into my brain that I was not yet fit to -die with credit. And now, having found me no -comfort in reason, and having faced the fact that -there was nothing I could do but wait, I began to -muse more temperately, and to cast about, as one -will when weak, for omens and auguries. They -kill time, and I hold them harmless.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But a truce to cant. Who am I that I should -dare to say I laugh at or deny them? I may -laugh at myself for a credulous fool. And I have -no doubt whatever that most omens are sheer -rubbish, more vain than a floating feather. But -<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>again there are things of that kindred that have -convinced me, and have blessed me; and I dare -not be irreverent to the mock mysteries, lest I be -guilty of blaspheming those which are true. We -know not—that is the most we know.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I will not agree, then, that I was a subject for -laughter if, lying there alone, sick, tormented, -loving without hope, fast bound in ignorance of -events most vital to my love, I let my mind recall -the curious prophesyings of old Mother Pêche. -Of Yvonne directly I dared not suffer myself to -think, lest my heart should break or stop.</p> - -<p class='c000'>When fate denies occasion to play the hero, -it is often well, while waiting, to play the child. -I lay quiet, looked at the patch of sky, and occupied -myself with Mother Pêche’s soothsayings.</p> - -<p class='c000'><em>Your heart’s desire is near your death of hope.</em></p> - -<p class='c000'>At first there was comfort in this, and I took it -very seriously, for the sake of the argument. But -oh, these oracles, astute from the days of Delphi -and Dodona! Already I could perceive that my -hope was not quite dead. A thousand chances -came hinting about the windows of my thought. -Why might not Yvonne be safe, well,—free? -The odds were that things had gone ill in my -absence, but there was still the chance they might -have instead gone well. Here and now, plainly, -was not my death of hope, wherefore my heart’s -desire could not be near. I turned aside the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>saying in angry contempt, and fell to feeling my -ribs, my shrunk chest, my skinny arms, wondering -how long before I could well wield sword -again.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In this far from reassuring occupation I came -upon the little leather pouch which Mother Pêche -had hung about my neck. With eagerness I drew -out the mystic stone and held it up before my -face. The eye waned and dilated in the dim light, -as if a living spirit lurked behind it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Le Veilleur,” I said to myself. “The Watcher. -Little strange is it if simple souls ascribe to you -sorcery and power.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Then I remembered the snatch of doggerel -which the old dame had muttered over it as she -gave it to me. <em>While this you wear what most you -fear will never come to pass.</em></p> - -<p class='c000'>Curious it seemed to me that it should have -stuck in my mind, though so little heeded at the -time. <em>What most you fear.</em> What was it most I -feared? Surely, that Yvonne should go to another. -Then that, at least, should not befall while I lived, -if there were force in witchcraft; for I would wear -the “Watcher” till I died.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But here again my delusive little satisfaction -had but a breath long to live. For indeed what -most I feared was something, alas! quite different. -What most I feared was calamity, evil, -anguish, for Yvonne. Then, clearly, if her happiness -<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>required her to be the wife of George Anderson, -I could not hinder it. Could not? Nay, -“<em>would</em> not!” I cried aloud; and thereupon, no -longer able to drug myself with auguries, and no -longer able to be dumb under the misery of -my own soul, I sprang upright, strained my arms -above my head, and prayed a selfish prayer:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“God, give her joy, but through me, through -me!” Then I flung myself down again, and set my -teeth, and turned my face to the wall. Thus I lay -as one dead; and so it fell that when the door of -the cave was darkened, and steps came to my bed, -I did not look up.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XX<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>But Mad Nor-nor-west</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>The steps came close to me, moved away, -and were still. A sick man’s curiosity soon -works, and here, surely, were incalculable matters -for me to find out. I turned over suddenly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was a fantastic figure that faced me, sitting on -a billet of wood not far from the door. Withered -herbs were in the high, peaked cap. The black-and-yellow -mantle was drawn forward to cover the -folded arms. The steely eyes were at my inmost -thought.</p> - -<p class='c000'>There is no doubt I was still a sick man. I was -unspeakably disappointed. Looking back upon it -now, I verily believe that I expected to see Yvonne, -as in a fairy tale.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why did you come in,” I asked peevishly, -twisting under those eyes, “without proclaiming—</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Woe, woe to Acadie the Fair, for the hour of -her desolation cometh?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It has come,” said he quietly.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>I sat up as if a spring had moved me. My -eyes alone questioned.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Beauséjour</span> has fallen. France is driven back -on Louisbourg. The men of Acadie are in -chains. The women await what fate they know -not. Their homes await the flame.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Here was no madman speaking.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And—Yvonne?” I whispered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They all are safe, under shelter of the governor—and -of Anderson,” he added icily.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I had no more words for a moment. Then I -asked—“And the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>His sane calm disappeared. His face worked; -his hands came out from under his cloak, darting -like serpents; his eyes veered like pale flame. -As suddenly he was calm again.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He is at Louisbourg,” said he, “at Isle St. -Jean—here—there—anywhere; free, busy, still -heaping and heating the fires which shall burn his -soul alive.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I like a man who is in earnest; but I could -think of nothing appropriate to say. After a -pause I changed the subject.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am thirsty,” said I, “and hungry too, I -think, though I have eaten all the barley bread. -And I’m sorry, but I’ve broken the jar.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>From a niche in the wall he at once brought me -more barley cake, with butter, and fresh milk, and -some dried beef. The wholesome, homely taste -<span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>of them comes back to me now. Having eaten, I -felt that nothing could be quite so good as -sleep; and with grateful mutterings, half spoken, -I slept.</p> - -<p class='c000'>When I woke it was the cold light of early -morning that came in at the cave-mouth; and I -was alone. I felt so much better that I got up at -once; but ere I could reach the door a dizziness -came over me, and I staggered back to my place, -feeling that my hour was not yet. As I lay fretting -my heart with a thousand hot conjectures, my -host came in. He looked at me, but said not a -word; nor could I get his tongue loosened all -through our light breakfast. At last, to my obstinate -repetition of the inquiry: “When shall I be -strong enough to go down into Grand Pré?” he -suddenly awoke and answered:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A little way to-morrow, perhaps; and the -next day, further; and within the week, if you are -fortunate, you should be strong enough for anything. -You will need to be, if you are going -down into Grand Pré!” he added grimly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Upon this direct telling I think I became in all -ways my sane self—weak, indeed, but no longer -whimsical. I felt that Grûl’s promise was much -better than I could have hoped. I knew there -would be need of all my strength. I was a man -again, no more a sick child. And I would wait.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Grûl busied himself a few minutes about the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>cave, in a practical, every-day fashion that consorted -most oddly with his guise and fame. I could -not but think of a mad king playing scullion. But -there was none of the changing light of madness -in his eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Soon he seated himself at the cave-mouth, and -said, pointing to a roughly shaped ledge with a -wolfskin upon it:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come hither, now, and take this good air. It -will medicine your thin veins.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Obeying gladly, I was soon stretched on the -wolfskin at the very brink, as it seemed, of the -open world. But it was cold. Perceiving this, -he arose without a word, fetched another skin, -and tucked it about me. His tenderness of touch -was like a woman’s.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How can I thank you?” I began. “It is to -you, I now perceive, that I owe my life. How -much besides I know not!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He waved my thanks aside something impatiently.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, I saved you,” said he. “It suited me to -do so. I foresaw you would some day repay me. -And I like you, boy. I trust you; though in some -ways you are a vain fool.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I laughed. I had such confidence in him I -began to think he would bring all my desires to -pass.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And I have been wont to imagine you a madman,” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>said I. “But I seem to have been mistaken.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Were I mad utterly as I seem,” said he, in a -voice which thrilled me to the bone, “it would not -be strange. I am mad but on one subject; and -on that I believe that God will adjudge me -sanest.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He was silent for a long time, that white fire -playing in his eyes; and I dared not break upon -his reverie. At last I ventured, for my tongue -ached with questions unasked:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How did you find me when I fell over the cliff?” -I queried. “And where was the Englishman?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>My mouth once opened, two questions instead -of one jumped out.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It was noon,” said Grûl, “and I found your -Englishman sitting by you waiting for the sky to -fall. Had the Micmacs come instead of me, your -two scalps would have risen nimbly together. He -is a good man and brave; but he lacks wits. A -woman could trust him to do anything but keep -her from yawning!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I grinned with the merest silly delight—a mean -delight. But Grûl went on:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He is worth a dozen cleverer men; but he -fatigued me. I sent him away. I told him just how -to go to reach the Piziquid settlement, whom to ask -for, and what help to bring for his sick comrade. -Then, knowing what was about to befall, and having -<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>in mind a service which you will do me at a -later day, and divining that you would rather be -sick in a madman’s cave than in an English jail, -I brought you here. I was reputed a wizard in -the old days in France, for having brought men -back from the very gape of the grave; and I knew -you would be long sick.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I looked at him, and I think my grateful love -needed no words.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And what became of the Englishman?” I -asked presently.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He appeared at last in Grand Pré,” answered -Grûl, “and told the truth of you, and dwelt awhile -within the shadow of the chapel, to be near the -guests of Father Fafard; and he got a strong -guard placed in the village close at hand, that those -who loved the English and feared the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">abbé</span> might -sleep in peace. I hear he presses for the redemption -of Mademoiselle’s pledge; but she, to the -much vexation of Monsieur and Madame, is something -dilatory in her obedience. Of course she -will obey in the end. Even Father Fafard exhorts -her to that, for obedience sums all virtues in a -maid. But she has an absurd idea that the Englishman -should present alive to her the man who -saved his life, before claiming reward at hands of -hers. I might have enabled him to do this; but -you were not in a mind to be consulted.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are the wisest man I ever knew,” said I, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>conscious of an absurd inclination to fling myself -at his feet and do penance for past supercilious -underratings.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He seemed to accept the tribute as not undue, -and again took up his monologue.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Had you died, as seemed for some weeks likely -for all my skill, I should have smoothed the way -for the stupid Englishman; but finding that you -would live, I thought to bind you to me by keeping -your way open. In a few days you will be well, -and must tread your own path, to triumph or -disaster as your own star shall decree. In either -case, I know you will stand by me when my need -comes!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You know the merest truth,” said I.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXI<br /> <br /> <span class='large'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Beauséjour</span>, and After</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>Now, while I was arranging in my mind a -fresh and voluminous series of interrogations, -my singular host arose abruptly and went -off without a word, leaving me to rebuild a new -image of him out of the shattered fragments of -the old.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I saw that he was not mad, but possessed. One -intolerably dominant purpose of revenge making -all else little in his eyes, he was mad but in relation -to a world of complex impulses; in relation -to his great aim, sane, and ultimately effective, I -could not doubt. But the mad grotesquerie of the -part he had assumed had come to cling to him as -another self, no longer to be quite sloughed off at -will. To play his part well he had resolved to be -it; and he was it, with reservation. Just now, -Acadie fallen and his enemy for the time in eclipse, -I concluded that he found his occupation gone. -Therefore, after solitary and tongue-tied years, his -speech flowed freely to me, as a stream broken -<span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>loose. That he had a purpose with me, I divined, -would excuse him in his own sight for descending -to the long unwonted relief of direct and simple -utterance. I expected to find out from him many -things of grave import during the few days of -inaction that yet lay ahead of me. Then I would -be able to act—without, perhaps, the follies of -the past. Meanwhile this tender, icy, extravagant, -colossal, all but omniscient character had bound -me to him with the irrefragable bonds of mystery, -gratitude, and trust. I was Yvonne’s first, but -next I felt myself fast in leash to the posturing -madman Grûl.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Returning soon to my couch, I dozed and mused -away the morning. At noon came no sign of my -host, so I went to the niche in the wall, found food, -and made my meal alone, feeling myself hourly -growing in strength. Toward sunset Grûl strode -in, wafted, as my convalescent nostrils averred, -upon a most savoury smell. It proved to be a -still steaming collop of roast venison, and after -that feast I know the blood ran redder and swifter -in my pulses.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“O best physician!” said I, leaning back. -“And now, I beg you, assuage a little the itching -of my ears.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He sat, his mantle and wizard wand flung by, -upon a billet of wood against the wall, and looked -not all unlike familiar mortals of the finest. Leaning -<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>his chin in his long, clutching hands, as if to -make gesture impossible, he leaped straight into -the story:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That fighting fire in your Anderson, when he -killed the savage with his hands, died out. He is -still the Quaker farmer. He went to Grand Pré, -and cleared your name, and told how you had -saved him for Mademoiselle de Lamourie. With -some inconsequence, Mademoiselle was thereupon -austere with him because he had not in turn -saved <em>you</em> for her. He went to Halifax and did -deeds with the council—for he secured further -and greater grants of land for himself and further -and greater grants of land for Giles de Lamourie, -with compensations for the burnings which English -rule should have prevented, and with, last of all, -an English guard for Grand Pré, in order that -scalps of English inclination might be secure upon -their owners’ heads. All this was wise, and indeed -plain sense—better than fighting. And he remains -at Grand Pré, and waits upon Mademoiselle -de Lamourie, patient on crumbs.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In June things happened, while you slept here. -The English came in ships, sailing up Chignecto -water and startling the slow fools at <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Beauséjour</span>. -The English landed on their own side of the Missiguash. -The black ruins of Beaubassin cried out -to them for vengeance on La Garne.” (The name, -upon his lips, snarled like a wolf.)</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>“Vergor, the public thief, called in the men of -the villages to help his garrison. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Beauséjour</span> was -a nest of beavers mending the walls—but not till -the torrent was already tearing through. The invaders, -wading the deep mud, forced the Missiguash, -and drove back the white-coat regiments. -They seized the long ridge behind the fort, and -set up their batteries. Fort guns and field guns -bowled at each other across the meadows.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Meanwhile the English governor at Halifax -sent for the heads of the villages, the householders -of Piziquid, Grand Pré, Annapolis. He said the time -was come, the final time, and they must swear -fealty to King George of England. He bade them -choose between that oath, with peace, or a fate he -did not name. A few, wise like Giles de Lamourie, -took oath. The rest feared La Garne, trusted -France, and accounted England an old woman. -They refused, and went home.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The siege went on, and many balls were wasted. -The English were all on one side of the fort, so -those of the garrison who got tired of being besieged -walked out the other side and went home. -These were the philosophers. Vergor lived in his -bomb-proof casemate, and was at ease. But one -morning while he sat at breakfast with other officers -a shell came through the roof and killed certain of -them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That ended it. If the bomb-proof was not -<span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>bomb-proof, Vergor might get hurt. He capitulated. -His officers broke their swords, but in -vain. La Garne spat upon him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Here he stopped, his eyes veered, and his face -twisted. In a strange voice he went on:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In La Garne yet flickers one spark of good—his -courage. Till that is eaten out by his sins -he lives, not being fully ripe for the final hell.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He stopped again, moistening his lips with his -tongue.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I put my hand to my head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Give me a drink of water, I pray you!” said -I to divert him, fearing lest that swift and succinct -narrative had come to an end.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He gave it to me, and in a moment began again.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“So <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Beauséjour</span> fell,” said he. “La Garne left -early, for him the English wanted to hang. The -rest marched out with honours of war. The English -found them an inconvenience as prisoners, -and sent them to Louisbourg. And <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Beauséjour</span> is -now Fort Cumberland.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“So fades the glory of France from Acadie—forever!” -I murmured, weighed down with prescience.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Just as it was fading,” continued Grûl, with a -hint of the cynic in his voice, “your cousin, -Marc de Mer, came from Quebec with despatches. -The garrison was marching out. He, being already -out, judged it unnecessary to go in. He -<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>took boat down Chignecto water, and up through -Minas to Grand Pré. Here he busied himself with -your uncle’s affairs, laying aside his uniform and -passing unmolested as a villager.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For a little there was stillness. Then the -great doom fell.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“To every settlement went English battalions. -What I saw at Grand Pré is what others saw at -Annapolis, Piziquid, Baie Verte. An English -colonel, one Winslow, smooth and round and -rosy of countenance, angry and anxious, little in -love with his enterprise, summoned the men of -Grand Pré to meet him in the chapel and hear the -last orders of the king. There had been “last -orders” before, and they had exploded harmlessly -enough. The men of Grand Pré went—and -your cousin Marc, having a restless curiosity, -went with them. Thereupon the doors were shut. -They were as rats in a trap, a ring of fire about -them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They learned the king’s decree clearly enough. -They were to be put on ships,—they, their families, -such household gear as there might be place -for,—and carried very far from their native fields, -and scattered among strangers of an alien speech -and faith.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, the mountains had fallen upon them. -Who could move? They lay in the chapel, and their -hearts sweat blood. Daily their weeping women, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>their wide-eyed children, came bringing food. -But the ships were not ready. The agony has -dragged all summer. At last two small ship-loads -are gone; the crowd is less in the chapel; some -houses stand empty in the village, waiting to -burn. The year grows old; the task is nearly -done.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>There was a dark silence.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Has my cousin Marc gone yet?” I asked -heavily.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He waits and wastes in the chapel.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And my almost-father, Father Fafard?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No,” said Grûl, “his trouble is but for others. -He has ever counselled men to keep their oaths. -He has opposed a face of steel to Quebec intrigue. -The English reverence him. He blesses -those who are taken away. He comforts those -who wait.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Of Yvonne I had no excuse for asking more. -What more I would know I must go and learn. -To go and learn I must get strong. To get strong -I must sleep. I turned my face to the wall.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXII<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Grûl’s Case</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>On the following day, being alone all day, I -walked out, shaking at first, but with a -step growing rapidly assured. Not far from the -cave I passed a clear pool, and saw my face amid -the branches leaning over it. A pretty cavalier, -I thought, to go a-wooing. A little further on I -came to a secluded cabin, where a young woman -bent over the wash-tub in the sunny doorway. I -went up and saluted her courteously. The alarm -died from her face, and compassion melted there -instead.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have been long wounded, in the woods,” I -said. “Give me, I pray you, the charity of a cup -of milk, and lend me your scissors and a glass.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>At this the compassion ran away in laughter, -and she cried merrily:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Sit here on the stoop, monsieur, till I get them -for you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Plainly,” thought I, “you have not husband or -brother in the chapel at Grand Pré!”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>On her return she answered as it were straight -to my thought.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My man’s in the woods!” she said, with pride. -“And he’s all safe. They didn’t catch <em>him</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You may well thank God for that, madame!” -said I gravely, drinking the milk with relish and -setting myself assiduously to my toilet. My hair -of course I could do little with,—I was no barber’s -apprentice. The long, straight, lustreless -black locks hung down over my collar, framing -lugubriously a face to scare hunger from a feast. -But there was enough of it to be persuaded into -covering the patches and scars.</p> - -<p class='c000'>My beard, however, proved interesting. With -infinite pains I trimmed it to a courtly point, and -decided it would pass muster. It was not unlike -my uncle’s—and the Sieur de Briart was ever, -in my eyes, an example of all that was to be -admired. The success of my efforts was attested -by the woman’s growing respect. She now recognized -me for a gentleman, and brought me a dish -of curds, and bustled with civilities till I went.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I arrived back at the cave in such good fettle -that I felt another day would see me ripe for any -venture. But I was tired, and slept so soundly -that I knew not when my host came in.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the morning he was there, getting ready a -savory breakfast. When I proposed my enterprise -for the day, he said, very wisely:</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>“If you think you’re fit to-day, perhaps you -may almost be so to-morrow. Wait. Don’t bungle -a great matter by a little haste!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>So I curbed my chafing eagerness, and waited. -He rested at home all day, and we talked much. -What was said, however, was for the most part not -pertinent to this record. Only one short reach of -the conversation lives in my memory—but that is -etched with fire.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It came in this way. One question had led to -another, till at last I asked:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why do <em>you</em> so hate La Garne?” and was -abashed at my boldness in asking.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He sprang up and left the cave; and left me -cursing my stupidity. It was an hour ere he -came back, but he was calm, and seated himself -as if nothing had happened.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I had thought,” said he, in an even voice, -“that if I were to speak of that the walls of this -cave would cry out upon me for vengeance delayed. -But I have considered, and a little I will -tell you. You must know; for the hour will -come when you will help me in my vengeance, and -you might weaken, for you do not comprehend -the mad sweetness of hate. You are born for a -great happiness or a great sorrow, and either -destiny may make one blunt to hate.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I was a poor gentleman of Blois, part fop, part -fantastical scholar, a dabbler in magic, and a lover -<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>of women. My nature pulled two ways. I was -alone in the world, save for a little sister, beautiful, -just come to womanhood, whom I loved as -daughter and sister both. She thought me the -wonderful among men. It chanced that at last I -knew another love. A woman, the wife of a -witless pantaloon of the neighbourhood, ensnared -all my wits, till I saw life only in her eyes. Her -husband came upon us in her garden—and for -his reproaches I beat him cruelly. But he, though -not a man, was not all fool. For loving his wife -he could not punish me—I being stronger and -more popular than he; but he knew that for theft -the law would hang a man. He hid a treasure of -jewels, and with a nice cunning fixed the crime upon -me. It was clear as daylight, so that almost myself -believed myself guilty. In a foul, reeking cell in -the city wall I awaited judgment and the penalty.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A confession makes the work of the judges -easier, and as I would not confess I was to be tortured—when -the Court was ready; all in good -time.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“At Blois was a young blade renowned no less -for his conquests of women than for his ill-favoured -face. His ugliness prevailed where the -beauty of other men found virtue an impregnable -wall against it. He courted my sister. She repulsed -him. It got about and shamed him. Then -(I this while in prison, and she helpless) he laid -<span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>a public wager with his fellows that he would have -her innocence.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He told her I was to be tortured. After a time -he told her he could save me from that extremity. -This thought worked for a time upon her lonely -anguish. Then he swore he <em>would</em> save me—but -at a price.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“At last the price was paid. He won his wager. -On the day that I was tortured she killed herself -before the judges. He, astonished, fled to Italy, -hid in a monastery, and dedicated himself to the -missions of the New World.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The judges were, after all, men. They said the -evidence against me was insufficient. They set -me free, as an avenger.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have not been in haste. The man has grown -more evil year by year; so I have waited. I will -not send him to his account till the score is full. -The deepest hell must be ready, and gape for him. -Meanwhile, his soul has dwelt all these years alone -with fear. He is a brave man, but he knows I -wait—he knows not for what; and he sweats -and is afraid!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He told the story simply, quietly; but there -was madness in his voice. The unspeakable thing -choked me. I got up.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is enough!” said I. “I will not fail you -when you need me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But I went out into the air for a little.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXIII<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>At Gaspereau Lower Ford</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>On the following day, being Tuesday, November -16, 1855, and my twenty-seventh birthday, -I went down to Grand Pré. I am thus precise -about the date, for I felt as I set forth that the -issues of life and death hung upon my going. -Right here, it seemed to me, was a very knife-edge -of a day, which should sever and allot to me -for all the future my part of joy or ruin. Surely, -thought I,—to justify my expectation of colossal -events,—I have not lain these long months dead, -that action, once more started, should dribble like -a spent stream.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Therefore I went, like a careful strategist, -equipped with all the knowledge Grûl could give. -I had planned how to reach Father Fafard, and -through him how to reach Yvonne. And as the -day was to be a great one, I thought well it -should be a long one. I set out upon the palest -promise of daybreak.</p> - -<p class='c000'>My strength, under one compelling purpose, had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>come back; and it seemed to me that I saw events -and their chances with radiating clearness. So up-strung -were my nerves that the long tramp seemed -over in a few minutes, and I found myself, almost -with surprise, at the lower ford of the Gaspereau, -just under the hill which backs Grand Pré. Here -was the thick wood wherein I planned to lie <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">perdu</span>, -in the event of dangerous passers. In a little while -there came in view a woman, heavy-eyed and dishevelled, -carrying a basket of new-baked barley -bread, very sweet to smell. It was clear she was -one with an interest in the prisoners at the chapel. -In such a case I could have no fear of stumbling -upon a traitor. I stepped out to her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Would that he, too,” said I significantly, -“had gone to the woods in time!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Her eyes ran over with the ready and waiting -tears; but she jerked her apron jealously over the -loaves, and looked at me with a touch of resentment, -as if to say, “Why had you such foresight, -and not he?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He went to hear the reading, and they took -him,” she moaned. “And who will keep the little -ones from starving in the winter coming on?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is where I, too, would be now—in the -chapel prison yonder,” said I gently. “But I lay -in the woods, wounded, too sick to go to the reading, -so I escaped.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The resentment faded out. She saw that I was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>not one of those who shamed her husband’s credulity. -I might have been caught too, had I been -given the same chance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For the little ones, I pray you accept this silver, -and count it a loan to your husband in his -prison,” said I, slipping two broad Spanish pieces -into her hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She looked grateful and astonished, but had no -words ready.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And do, I beg of you, a kindness to one in -bitter need of it,” I went on. “You know Father -Fafard?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Her face lightened with love.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He grieves for me, thinking me dead,” said I. -“Tell him, I beg of you, that one who loves him -waits to see him in the wood by the lower ford.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Her face clouded with suspicion.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How shall I know—how shall he know—you -are honest?” she asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I was troubled.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>You</em> must judge by your woman’s wit,” said I. -“And he will come. He fears no one. But no, -tell him Paul Grande waits at the lower ford.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The traitor!” she blazed out; and, recoiling, -hurled the money in my face. It stung strangely.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are wrong,” said I, in a low voice. “But -as you will. Tell him, if you will, that Paul -Grande, the traitor, waits for him at the lower ford. -But if you do not tell him, be sure <em>he</em> will not soon -<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>forgive you. And for the money, he shall keep it -for your children—and you will be sorry to have -unjustly accused me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She laughed with bitter mockery, and turned -away.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But I will tell him; that can do no harm,” she -said. “I’ll tell him the traitor who loves him -waits at the ford.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I withdrew into the wood, beyond all reason -pained at the injustice.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The unpleasant peasant woman was as good as -her word, however; for in little more than the -space of an hour I saw Father Fafard approaching. -Plainly he had come hot upon the instant.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My dear, dear boy! Where have you been, -and what suffered?” he cried, catching me hard -by the two arms, and looking into my eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It was Grûl saved me,” said I.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Beyond earshot, deep in the wood, where no -wind hindered the noon sun from warming a little -open glade, I told my story briefly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Paul,” said he, when I had finished, “my heart -has now the first happiness it has known through -all these dreadful months. But you must slip out -of this doomed country without an hour’s delay. -Quebec, of course! And then, when an end is -made here, I will join you. Have you money for -the journey?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I laughed softly.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>“My plans are not quite formed. I must see -Yvonne. Will you fetch her to me?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He rose in anger—a little forced, I thought.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No!” said he.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then, I beseech you, give her a message -from me, that I may see her for a little this very -day.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Paul,” he cried passionately, “it is a sin to -talk of it. She has pledged her troth. She is at -peace. I will not have her disturbed.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Does she love him?” I asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I—I suppose so. Or she will, doubtless,” he -stammered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, doubtless!” said I. “And meanwhile, -does she show readiness to carry out her promise? -Does she listen kindly to her impatient -lover—her anxious father?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Englishman has displeased her, for a -time,” said he, “but that will pass. She knows the -duty of obedience; she respects the plighted word. -There can be but one ending; though you may succeed -in making her very unhappy—for a time.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will make her very happy,” I said quietly, -“so long as time endures for her and me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He flashed round upon me with sharp scorn.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What can <em>you</em> do for her? You, hiding for -your life, the ruined upholder of a lost cause! -Here she is safe, protected, wealth and security -before her. And with you?”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>“<em>Life</em>, I think!” said I, rising too, and stretching -out my arms. “But listen, father,” I went -on more lightly. “I am not so helpless. I have -some little <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">rentes</span></i> in Montreal, you know. And -moreover, I am not planning to carry her off -to-night. By no means anything so finely irregular. -I am not ready. Only, see her I will before -I go. If you will not help me, I will stay about -this place, about your house indeed, till I meet -her. That is all. If you dote upon my going, -you know the way to speed me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>His kind, round face puckered anxiously. But -he hit upon a compromise.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will have no hand in it,” said he. “But if -you are resolved to stay, you may as well find her -without loss of time. The house we occupy is -crowded, and she affects a solitary mood. She -walks over the hill and down this way, of an evening, -to visit some unhappy ones along by the -river. You may see her, perhaps, to-night.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I grasped his hand and kissed it, but he drew it -away, vexed at himself.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We will talk of other things now,” I said softly. -“But do not be angry if I say I love you, father.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He smiled with an air of reproach; and thereafter -talk we did through hours, save for a little -time when he was absent fetching me a meal. All -that Grûl had told me of the ruin of the French -cause he told me in another colour, and more -<span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>besides of the doom of the Acadians—but upon -Yvonne’s name we touched no more by so much -as the lightest breath.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At my cousin Marc’s rashness in going to the -chapel he glanced with some severity, grieving -for the sorrow of the young wife at Quebec. But -for the English he had many good words—they -were pitiful, he said, in the act of carrying out -cruel orders. And they neither robbed nor terrorized. -Not they, said he, but a wicked priest and -the intriguers of a rotten government at Quebec, -were the scourge of Acadie.</p> - -<p class='c000'>When the sun got low over the Gaspereau Ridge -he called to mind some duties too long forgotten, -and bade me farewell with a loving wistfulness. I -think, however, it was the imminent coming of -Yvonne that drove him away. He feared lest he -should meet her, and in seeming to know of my -purpose seem to sanction it. I could not help believing -in my heart that in this matter, perhaps for -the first time in his priesthood, the kind <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">curé</span>’s -conscience was a little tremulous in its admonitions.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I watched him out of sight; and then, posting -myself in a coign of vantage behind a great willow -that overhung the stream, I waited with a thumping -heart, and with a misgiving that all other -organs within my frame had slumped away to -nothing but a meagre and contemptible jelly.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXIV<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>“If You Love Me, Leave Me”</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>Till the flames of amber and copper along the -Gaspereau Ridge had temperately diminished -to a lucidity of pale violet, I waited and -watched. Then all at once the commotion in my -bosom came to an icy stop.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A light, white form descended from the ridge to -the ford. I needed not the black lace shawl about -the head and shoulders to tell me it was she, before -a feature or a line could be distinguished. -The blood at every tingling finger-tip thrilled the -announcement of her coming.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I grasped desperately at all I had planned to -say—now slipping from me. I felt that she was -intrenched in a fixed resolve; and I felt that not my -life alone,—ready to become a very small matter,—but -hers, her true life, depended upon my -breaking that resolve. Yet how was I to conquer -her, I who at sight of her was at her feet? I knew—with -that inner knowledge by which I know God -is—that she, the whitest of women, intended unwittingly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>a sin against her body in wedding a man -unloved—that she, in my eyes the wisest, most -clear-visioned of women, contemplated a folly -beyond words. But how could I so far escape my -reverence for her as to convict her of this folly -and this sin?</p> - -<p class='c000'>But now all my thoughts, words, pleas, sprayed -into air. She came—and I stepped into her -path, whispering:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yvonne!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She was almost within reach of my hand, had I -stretched it out,—but I dared not touch her. -She gave the faintest cry. Taken at so sudden a -disadvantage, she had not time to mask herself, -and her great eyes told for one heart-beat what I -knew her lips would have denied. Her fingers -locked and unlocked where they caught the black -mantilla across her bosom. She stood for an -instant motionless; then glanced back up the hill -with a desperate fear.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They will see you!” she half sobbed. “You -will be caught and thrown into prison. Oh, hide -yourself, hide at once!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Not without you,” I interrupted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then with me!” she cried pantingly, and led -the way, almost running, back of the willow, down -a thread of a path, to a hidden place behind a bend -of the stream. Glancing back at the last moment, -I saw a squad of soldiers coming over the hill.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>As soon as she felt that I was safely out of sight -and earshot, she turned and faced me with a -sudden swift anger.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why have you done this? Why have you -forced me to this?” she cried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Because I love you,” said I slowly. “Because”—</p> - -<p class='c000'>She drew herself up.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You do not know,” said she, “what I have -promised to Monsieur Anderson. I have promised -to redeem my word to him when he can show you -to me safe and well.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I laughed with sheer joy.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He shall wait long then,” said I. “Sooner -than he should claim the guerdon I will fall upon -my sword, though my will is, rather, to live for -you, beloved.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Had the soldiers seen you and taken you,” -said she, in her eagerness forgetting her disguise, -“he would have been able to claim me to-morrow. -They may yet take you. Oh, go, go at once!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They shall not take me. Now that I know -you love me, Yvonne,—for you have betrayed -it,—my life is, next to yours, the most precious -thing to me in the world. I go at once to -Quebec to settle my affairs and prepare a home -for you. Then I will come,—it will be but in a -month or two, when this trouble is overpast,—and -I will take you away.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>Her face, all her form, drooped with a sort of -weariness, as if her will had been too long taxed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You will find me the wife of George Anderson,” -she said faintly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was as if I had been struck upon the temples. -My mouth opened, and shut again without words. -First rage, then amazement, then despair, ran -through me in hot surges.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But—your promise—not till he could show -me to you,” I managed to stammer.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I gave it in good faith,” she said simply. “I -can no longer hold him off by it, for I have seen -you safe and well.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am <em>not</em> safe, as you may soon see,” said I -fiercely, “and not long shall I be well, as you will -learn.” Then, perceiving that this was a sorry -kind of threat, and little manly, I made haste to -amend it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, no,” I cried, “forget that! But stick to -the letter of your promises, I beseech you. Why -push to go back of that? Unless,” I added, -with bitterness, “you want the excuse!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She shuddered, and forgot to resent the brutality.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Go!” she pleaded. “Save yourself—for -my sake—Paul!” And her voice broke.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That you may wed with the clearer conscience!” -I went on, merciless in my pain.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She crouched down, a drear and pitiful figure, -on the slope of sod, and wept silently, her hands -<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>over her eyes. I looked at her helplessly. I -wanted to throw myself at her feet. Then the -right thing seemed that I should gather her up into -my arms—but I dared not touch her. At last -I said, doubtfully:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But—you love me!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>No answer.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You do love me, Yvonne?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She lifted her face, and with a childish -bravery dashed off the tears, first with one hand, -then the other. She looked me straight in the -eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I do <em>not</em>,” said she, daring the lie. “But you—you -disturb me!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>This astonishing remark did not shake my confidence, -but it threw me out of my argument. I -shifted ground.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You do <em>not</em> love him!” I exclaimed, lamely -enough.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I respect him!” said she, cool now, and controlling -the situation. I felt that I had lost my -one moment of advantage—the moment when I -should have taken her into my arms. Not timidity, -but reverence, had balked me. My heart turned, -as it were, in my breast, with a hot, dumb fury—at -myself.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The respect that cannot breed love for a lover -will soon breed contempt,” said I, holding myself -hard to mere reasoning.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>She ignored this idle answer. She arose and -came close up to me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Paul,” she said, scarcely above a whisper, -“<em>will</em> you save yourself for my sake? If I say—if -I say that I do love you a little—that if it -<em>could</em> have been different—been you—I should -have been—oh, glad, glad!—then will you go, -for my sake?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, no indeed!” shouted the heart within me -at this confession. But with hope came cunning. -I temporized.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And if I go, for your sake,” I asked, “when -do you propose to become the wife of the Englishman?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Not for a long time, I will promise you,” said -she earnestly. “Not for a year—no, not for -two years, if you like. Oh,”—with a catch in her -voice,—“not till I can feel differently about you, -Paul!” And she hung her head at the admission.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Dear,” I said, “most dear and wonderful, -can you not even now see how monstrous it would -be if I should seem, for a moment, to relinquish -you to another? Soul and body must tell you -you are mine, as I am yours. But your eyes are -shut. You are a maid, and you do not realize -what it is that I would save you from. It is your -very whiteness blinds you, so that you do not see -the intolerableness of what they would thrust upon -<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>you. For you it would be a sin. You do not see -it—but you would see it, awaking to the truth -when it was too late. From the horror of that -awakening I must save you. I must”—</p> - -<p class='c000'>But she did not see; though her brain must have -comprehended, her body did not; and therefore -there could be no real comprehension of a matter -so vital. She brushed aside my passionate argument, -and came close up to me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Paul, dear,” she said, “I think I know the -beauty of sacrifice. I am sure I know what is -right. You cannot shake me. I know what must -be in the end. But if you will go and save yourself, -I promise that the end shall be far off—so -that he may grow angry, and perhaps even set me -free, as I have almost asked him to do. But now -this is good-by, dear. You shall go. You will -not disobey me. But you may say good-by to me. -And as once you kissed my feet (they have been -proud ever since), so—though it is a sin, I know—you -may kiss my lips, just once,—and go.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>How little she knew what she was doing! Even -as she spoke she was in my arms. The next -moment she was trembling violently, and then she -strove to tear herself away. But I was inexorable, -and folded her close for yet an instant longer, till -she was still. I raised my head and pushed her a -little away, holding her by both arms that I might -see her face.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>“Oh,” she gasped, “you are cruel! I did not -mean that you should kiss me so—so hard.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My—wife!” I whispered irrelevantly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Let me go, sir,” she said, with her old imperious -air, trying to remove herself from my grasp -upon her arms. But I did not think it necessary -to obey her. Then her face saddened in a way -that made me afraid.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You have done wrong, Paul,” she said -heavily. “I meant you should just touch me and -go. You took unmanly advantage. Alas! I fear -I have a bad heart. I cannot be so angry as I -ought. But I am resolved. You know, now, that -I love you; that no other can ever have my <em>love</em>. -But that knowledge is the end of all between us, -even of the friendship which might, one day, have -comforted me. Go, I command you, if you would -not have me an unhappy woman forever!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She wrenched herself free. Then, seeing me, -as she thought, hesitate for an answer, she added -firmly:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I love you! But I love honour more, and -obedience to the right, and my plighted word. Go!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will <em>not</em> go, my beloved, till you swear to tell -the Englishman to-morrow that you love me and -intend to be my wife.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Listen,” she said. “If you do not go at once, -I promise you that I will be George Anderson’s -wife to-morrow.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>I stared at her dumbly. Was it conceivable -that she should mean such madness? Her eyes -were fathomlessly sorrowful, her mouth was set. -How was I to decide?</p> - -<p class='c000'>But fortune elected to save me the decision. -A sharp voice came from the bank above—</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I arrest you, in the king’s name!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>We glanced up. There stood a squad of red-coats, -a spruce young officer at their head.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXV<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Over Gaspereau Ridge</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>“Monsieur Waldron!” cried Yvonne -faintly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You here, Mademoiselle de Lamourie!” he -exclaimed, with a surprise that his courtesy could -not quite conceal.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This, monsieur,” she said, in a brave confusion, -“is my friend, here for a moment because -of my foolish desire to see him. I beg you”—</p> - -<p class='c000'>But he interrupted, reluctantly enough:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It hurts me, mademoiselle, to have to say that -your friend is my prisoner. If I were free to -please you, he should go free.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The case was clearly beyond mending, so I -would not condescend to evasion.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I can do nothing but surrender, monsieur,” -said I civilly, “under the conclusive arbitrament -of your muskets. Here is my sword.” He took -it, and I went on:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am Captain Paul Grande, of the French army -in Canada.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>His face changed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A spy, then!” he said harshly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You insult with impunity,” I began. “An unarmed”—</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Yvonne broke in, her eyes flaming:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How dare you, sir, insult <em>me</em>? That is not to -be done with impunity, I think.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The man looked puzzled. Then his face cleared -somewhat.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I beg your pardon, mademoiselle,” he said -slowly, looking from her face to mine. “I begin -to understand a little, I think. There <em>is</em> a very -sufficient reason why a French officer might appear -in an enemy’s country without his uniform—that -country being Grand Pré—and yet be no -spy!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I give you my word of honour,” said I, “that -I am no spy, but merely your prisoner. And if -brought to trial I will prove what I say.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I beg <em>your</em> pardon also—provisionally,” -he replied, with a pleasant air. “I am the last to -believe a gentleman a spy, and I am confident -you will clear yourself of the unavoidable charge. -You are a soldier. You must see it to be unavoidable,” -he added.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I do, monsieur,” said I sorrowfully. “I have -lain for months, wounded and delirious, in a hiding-place -not far off, nursed by a faithful friend. -Having just recovered, I came here for a farewell -<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>to dear friends; and you have arrived inopportunely, -monsieur.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>There was the bitterness of final despair beneath -the lightness which I assumed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Your action seems to me very pardonable, I -assure you,” said he. “But I am not the judge. -We must go.” And he motioned his men to me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Yvonne came close to my side and laid her -hand lightly on my arm.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is my wish, Monsieur Waldron,” she said, -“that Captain Grande should escort me, with -your assistance, and that of your guard also, if -you will!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why, certainly, mademoiselle, it shall be as -you wish,” he said, with a ghost of a smile, which -set her blushing wildly. “I have Captain Grande’s -sword and his”—</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And my word,” said I, bowing.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And his parole,” he continued. “I need in -no way constrain him till we reach the—the -chapel. I will lead my men a little in the rear, -and strive not to interrupt your conversation.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I can never thank you enough for your courtesy, -monsieur,” said I.</p> - -<p class='c000'>So it came that a strange procession marched -up the Gaspereau Ridge, through the bleak twilight. -And the hilltop drew swiftly near—and my last -few minutes sped—and I was dumb. Still, she -was at my side. And perhaps my silence spoke. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>But when we crossed the ridge, and the chapel -prison appeared, and Yvonne’s house some way -apart, my tongue found speech;—but not argument, -only wild entreaties, adorations, words that -made her body tremble, though not, alas! her will.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At length she stopped.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You must go back to them now, Paul. I will -go on alone. Good-by, dear!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But we are not near the house,” I stammered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Monsieur Anderson may come out to meet -me. If he sees you now, before I change my -conditions, how shall I escape the instant fulfilment -of my promise?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But I am not safe, surely,” I argued.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“His testimony can at once make you safe,” -said she.</p> - -<p class='c000'>My heart dropped, feeling the truth of her -words. I could say nothing that I had not already -said. Feeling impotent, feeling that utter defeat -had been hurled upon me in the very moment of -triumph, my brain seemed to stop working.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What will you do?” was all that came through -my dry lips.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She had grown much older in the last hour.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will wait, Paul, as I promised you,” she said -sadly; “one year—no, two years—before I -redeem my pledge and become his wife. That is -all I can do—and that I <em>can</em> do. I choose to -believe that you would have obeyed me and gone -<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>away at once, if we had not been interrupted. -Therefore I keep my promise to you. It was not -your fault that you were not permitted to obey -me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I was quite at the end of my tether, though my -resolution rose again to full stature on learning that -I should have time—time to plan anew. She -held out her hand. “Good-by, and God keep -you, my dear friend!” said she very softly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I looked around. The squad had halted near -by. Some were looking, curse them! But that -most decent officer had his back turned, and was -intently scanning the weather. I lifted her hand -to my lips.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My—wife!” I muttered, unfalteringly obstinate.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No!” she said sadly. “Only your friend. -Oh, leave me that!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And she was gone, a Psyche glimmering away -through the dark which strove to cling to her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I stood for a moment, eyes and heart straining -after her. Then I turned as the guard came up.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“At your service, monsieur,” said I.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXVI<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>The Chapel Prison</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>Before the door of the chapel stood a bent -old figure hooded in a red shawl. Muttering, -and with bowed head, it poked in the dust -with a staff. When we were close at hand it -straightened alertly; and old Mother Pêche’s -startling eyes flashed into mine. I could have -kissed the strange hawk face, so glad was I to see it. -And I held out my hand, to be clutched eagerly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My blessings be upon thee, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chéri</span> Master -Paul!” she cried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thank you, mother!” said I. “Your love is -very dear to me; and for your blessings, I need -them all.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come, monsieur,” said Waldron, at the steps.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A word, a word,” she begged, half of him, -half of me, “before thou go in there and these old -eyes, perhaps, see thee never again.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Grant me one moment, I beg you, monsieur,” -said I earnestly to Waldron. “She is a dear old -friend and retainer of my family.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>He nodded, and turned half aside in patient indifference.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Listen,” she whispered, thrusting her face near -mine, and talking rapidly, that the guard, who -were but clumsy with our French speech, might -not understand. “Hast thou the stone safe?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Surely,” said I.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then here, take this,” she muttered, laying a -silken tress of hair in my hand. In the dusk I -could not note its colour; but I needed not light -to tell me whose it was. My blood ran hot and -cold beneath it. The pulse throbbed furiously in -my fingers as they closed upon it. “I clipped -it under the new moon, the right moon, with my -own hand, for thee, Master Paul.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Did she know it was for me?” I asked, in a -sort of ecstasy.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, no!” answered the old dame impatiently; -“but she gave it to me—laughing because I -wanted it. I said that I was going far away with -these my people,”—sweeping her hand toward -the village,—“while she, perhaps, would stay. -Strangely she regarded that <em>perhaps</em>, Master Paul. -But here it is—and I have put a spell upon it -while waiting for thee to come; and it will draw, -it will draw her; she cannot let it go very far off, -as long as she lives. It is for thee, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chéri</span>, I did -it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Now, how I loved her for it, even while deriding -<span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>the magic, I need not tell. Yet I was angry with -her for explaining. That made me seem to take -a base advantage in retaining the treasure. Sorrowfully -I said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I cannot keep it, mother. That were treason -to her. I will have naught of her but what her -own heart gives me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And I held out the precious lock to her again, -yet all the time grasped it tightly enough, no -doubt.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chéri</span>,” she laughed cunningly, “where -is the treason? <em>You</em> don’t believe an old wife’s -foolish charms!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“True, mother,” I acquiesced at once, relieved -beyond measure, “true, there can be no witchcraft -in it but that which ever resides in every hair -of that dear head. Not her, alas! but me, me it -ensnares. God bless you, mother, for this wonderful -gift.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Be of good cheer, Master Paul,” she said, hobbling -briskly off. “I will bring thee some word -often to the wicket.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am ready now for the inside of these walls, -monsieur,” said I, turning to Waldron, with a -warm elation at my heart. The hair I had coiled -and slipped into the little deerskin pouch wherein -the eye of Manitou slumbered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A moment more and I had stepped inside the -prison. The closing and locking of the door -<span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>seemed to me unnecessarily loud, blatantly conspicuous.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At once I heard greetings, my name spoken -on all sides, heartily, respectfully, familiarly, as -might be, for I had both friends and followers—many, -alas!—in that dolorous company. To -them, worn with the sameness of day upon monotonous -day, my coming was an event. But for a -little I chose to heed no one. There was time, I -thought, ahead of us, more than we should know -what to do with. As I could not possibly speak -to all at once, I spoke to none. I leaned against -a wooden pillar, looked at the windows, then the -altar-place, of the sacred building which hived for -me so many humming memories of childhood—memories -rich with sweetness, sharp with sting. -The place looked battered, begrimed, desecrated,—yet -a haunting of my mother’s gentle eyes still -hallowed it. To see them the better I covered my -own eyes with my hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It must be something of a sorer stroke than -merely to be clapped in prison, to make my -captain so downcast,” I heard a cheerful voice -declare close at my elbow.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why, and that it is, you may be sure, my -brave ferryman!” said I, looking up with a smile -and grasping the long, gaunt fingers of yellow -Ba’tiste Chouan. “I have my own reasons for -not wanting to be in Grand Pré chapel this day, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>for all that it is especially the place where I can -see most of my friends.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Straightway, my mood changing, I moved swiftly -hither and thither, calling them by name. There -was the whole clan of the Le Marchands, black, -fearless, melancholy for their flax-fields; the three -Le Boutilliers; the brave young slip, Jacques Violet, -whom I had liked as a boy; a Landry or two; -the lad Petit Joliet; several of the restless Labillois; -long Philibert Trou, the moose-hunter; and, to my -regretful astonishment, that wily fox, La Mouche.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>You</em> here, too!” I cried, shaking him by the -arm. “If they have caught you, who has -escaped!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I came in on business, my captain,” said he -grimly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A woman back of it, monsieur,” grunted -Philibert, indifferent to La Mouche’s withering -eye-stroke.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Naturally, I did not smile. I met his brooding, -deep eyes with a look which told him much. I -might, indeed, have even spoken a word of comprehension; -but just then I caught sight of my -cousin Marc coming from the sacristy. I hastened -to greet him with hand and heart.</p> - -<p class='c000'>There was so much to talk of between us two -that others, understanding, left us to ourselves. -He told me of his little Puritan’s grief, far away in -Quebec, of her long suspense, and of how, at last, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>he had got word to her. “She is a woman among -ten thousand, Paul,” said he. “These New Englanders -are the people to breed up a wife for a -French gentleman.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I assented most heartily, for I had ever liked -and admired that white-skinned Prudence of his. -Of my own affairs I told him some things fully, -some things not at all; of my accident, my illness, -my sojourning with Grûl, everything; but of my -coming to the Gaspereau ford and my capture, -nothing then.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There is too much hanging upon it, Marc,” -said I. “It touches me too deeply. I cannot talk of -it at all while we are like to be interrupted. Let -us wait for quiet—when the rest are asleep.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is cold here at night,” said Marc, “but the -women have been allowed to bring us a few quilts -and blankets. You wills hare mine—the gift of -the good <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">curé</span>. Then we can talk.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The early autumnal dark had been feebly lighted -this while by a few candles; but candles were getting -scarce in the stricken cottages of Grand Pré, -and in Grand Pré chapel prison they were a -hoarded luxury. The words “lights out” came -early; and Marc and I laid ourselves in a corner -of the sacristy by general consent reserved to -him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A cold glimmer of stars came in by the narrow -window, and I thought of them looking down on -<span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>Yvonne, awake, not sleeping, I well knew. Were -the astrologers right, I wondered. Good men and -great had believed in the jurisdiction of the stars. -I remembered a very learned astrologer in Paris, -during the year I spent there, and futilely I wished -I had consulted him. But at the time I had been -so occupied with the present as to make small -question of the future.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Soon the sound of many breathings told that the -prisoners were forgetting for a little their bars and -walls. In a whisper, slowly, I told Marc of my -coming to Grand Pré in the spring—of Yvonne’s -bond to the Englishman—of the conversation at -the hammock—of the fire, the scene at the boat, -the saving of Anderson—and of all that had just -been said and done at the ford of the Gaspereau.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He heard me through, in such silence that my -heart sank, fearing he, too, was against me; and I -passionately craved his support. I knew the lack -of it would no jot alter my purpose; but I loved -him, and hungered for the warmth of the comrade -heart.</p> - -<p class='c000'>When he spoke, however, my fears straight fell -dead.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Only let us get safe out of this coil, Paul, and -we will let my Prudence take the obstinate maid -in hand,” said he, with an air that proclaimed all -confidence in the result. “You must remember, -dear old boy, the inevitable fetish which our -<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>French maids are wont to make out of obedience -to parents—a fair and worshipful virtue, indeed, -that obedience, but not one to exact the sacrifice -of a woman’s life—and of what is yet more -sacred to her. Prudence will make her understand -some things that you could not.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I felt for his hand and gripped it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You think I will win her?” I whispered. -“And you will stand by me?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For the latter question, how can you ask it?” -he answered, with a hint of reproach in his voice. -“I fear I should stand by you in the wrong, Paul, -let alone when, as now, I count you much in the -right. I have but to think of Prudence in like -case, you see. For the former question—why, -see, you have time and her own heart on your -side. She may be obstinate in that blindness of -hers; and you may make blunders with your -ancient facility, cousin mine. But I call to mind -that trick you ever had of holding on—the trick -of the English bulldog which you used so to admire. -It is a strange streak, that, in a star-worshipping, -sonnet-writing, wonder-wise freak like -you, and makes me often doubt whether your -verses, much as I like them, can be poetry, after -all. But it is a useful characteristic to have -about you, and, to my mind, it means you’ll win.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If the English don’t hang me for a spy,” -said I.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>“Stuff!” grunted my cousin. “The maid will -look to that.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Such was my confidence in my cousin Marc’s -discernment that I went to sleep somewhat comforted.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXVII<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Dead Days and Withered Dreams</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>But to me awaking in the raw of the morning, -a prisoner, the comfort seemed less sure. -All through the weary, soul-sapping weeks that -followed, it paled and shrank, till nothing was left -of it but a hopeless sort of obstinacy, so rooted in -the central fibre-knots of my being that to the -very teeth of fate my pulses still kept beating out -the vow, “I <em>will</em> win! I <em>will</em> win!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>For cheer, all my cousin’s sober and well-considered -confidence could not keep that in my -heart. Of Yvonne, I could get not one word directly. -I saw her hand in the fact that nothing -more was heard of the charge of “spy” against -me. Yet this benefit had a bitterness in it, for I -knew she must have done it through Anderson. -Intolerably did that knowledge grate.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Mother Pêche came daily to the wicket, but -could never boast a message for my ear—and in -this reticence of Yvonne’s I saw a hardness of resolve -which made my heart sink. Father Fafard, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>too, came daily with food for me, and with many a -little loving kindness; but of Yvonne he would not -speak. Marc, one day, encountered him on the -subject, but prevailed not at all, in so much that -they two parted in some heat.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At last from Mother Pêche came word that my -dear maid was ill, obscurely ailing, pale-lipped, -and with no more of the fathomless light in her -great eyes. The reassurance that this gave me on -the score of her love was beyond measure overbalanced -by the new fear that it bred and nourished. -Would not the strain become too great for -her—so great that either her promise to wait -would break down, or else her health? Here was -a dilemma, and upon one or the other of the horns -of it I writhed hourly. It cost little to feed me, -those weeks in the Grand Pré chapel prison.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Meanwhile, it is but just to our English jailers—they -were men of New England chiefly, from -Boston, Plymouth, Salem, and that vicinage—to -record it of them that they were kind and little -loved their employment. They held the doom -of banishment to be just, but they deplored the -inescapable harshness of it. As I came to learn, -it was for New England’s sake chiefly, and at -her instance, that old England had ordained the -great expulsion. Boston would not trust the -Acadians, and vowed she could no longer endure -a wasp’s nest at her door. Thus it was that the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>decree had at last gone forth; and even I could -not quite deny the justice of it. I knew that -patient forbearance had long been tried in vain; -and I bethought me, too, of the great Louis’ -once plan, to banish and utterly purge away all -the English of New England and New York.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Of affairs and public policy in the world outside -our walls I learned from Lieutenant Waldron, who -came in often among us and made me his debtor -by many kindly courtesies. He had an interest -in me from the first—in the beginning, as I felt, -an interest merely of curiosity, for he doubtless -wondered that Mademoiselle de Lamourie should -stoop to be entangled with two lovers. But soon -he conceived a friendship for me, which I heartily -reciprocated. I have ever loved the English as -a brave and worthy enemy; and this young officer -from Plymouth town presented to my admiration -a fair epitome of the qualities I most liked in his -race. In appearance he was not unlike Anderson, -but of slimmer build, with the air of the -fighter added, and a something besides which I -felt, but could not name. This something Anderson -lacked—and the lack was subtly conspicuous -in a character which even my jealous rivalry -was forced to call worthy of love.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The reservation in my own mind I found to lie -in Waldron’s also, and with even more consequence -attached to it. Anderson having chanced -<span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>to be one day the subject of our conversation, I let -slip hint of the way it galled me to feel myself in -his debt for exemption from the charge of spying.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I can easily understand,” said he, “that you -feel it intolerable. I am surprised, more and -more daily, at Mademoiselle de Lamourie’s acceptance -of his suit. Oh, you French,—may I say -it, monsieur?—what a merchandise you make of -your young girls!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You put it unpleasantly, sir,” said I; “but -too truly for me to resent it. You surprise me, -however, in what you imply of Anderson. I liked -him heartily at first sight. I know him to be -brave, though he does not carry arms. He is -capable and clear-sighted, kind and frank; and -surely he has beauty to delight a woman’s eyes. -I am in despair when I think of him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He is all you say,” acknowledged Waldron, -with a shrewd twinkle in his sharp blue eyes; -“nevertheless there is something he is not, which -damns him for me. I don’t <em>quite</em> like him, and -that’s a fact. At the same time I know he’s a -fine fellow, and I ought to like him. I don’t mind -telling you, for your discomfort, that he has done -all that man could do to get you out of this place. -He has been to Halifax about it, and dared to -make himself very disagreeable to the governor -when he was refused. It is not his fault you are -not out and off by this time.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>“Thank God, he failed!” said I, with fervour.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“So should I say in your case, monsieur,” he -replied, with a kind of dry goodwill.</p> - -<p class='c000'>To this obliging officer—in more kindly after-years, -I am proud to say, destined to become my -close friend—I owed some flattering messages -from Madame de Lamourie. I knew she liked me—had -ever liked me, save during those days of -my ignominious eclipse when I seemed to all Grand -Pré an accomplice of the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> and Vaurin. -I had a suspicion that she would not be deeply -displeased should I, by any hook or crook, accomplish -the discomfiture of Anderson. But I well -knew her friendliness to me would not go so far as -open championship. She would obey her husband, -for peace’ sake; and take her satisfaction in a little -more delicate malice. I pictured her as making -the handsome English Quaker subtly miserable -by times.</p> - -<p class='c000'>From Giles de Lamourie, however, I received -no greeting. I took it that he regarded me as a -menace not only to his own authority, but to his -daughter’s peace. A prudent marriage,—a regular, -well-ordered, decently arranged for marriage,—in -such he fancied happiness for Yvonne. But -I concerned me not at all for opposition of his. I -thought that Yvonne, if ever she should choose, -could bring him to her feet.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At last there came a break in the monotony of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>the days—a break which, for all its bitterness, -was welcomed. Word came that another ship was -tardily ready for its freight of exiles. The weary -faces of the guard brightened, for here was evidence -that something was being done. Within the -chapel rose a hum of expectation, and all speculated -on their chances. For if exile was to be, -“Let it come quickly” was the cry of all.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But no—not of all. I feared it, with a physical -fear till then unknown to me. To me it -meant a new and appalling barrier. Here but two -wooden walls and a stone’s throw of wintry space -fenced me from her bodily presence. But after -exile, how many seas, and vicissitudes, and uncomprehending -alien faces!</p> - -<p class='c000'>But I was not to go this time; nor yet my cousin -Marc, who, having at last received from Quebec -authentic word of the health and safety of his -Puritan, was looking out upon events with his old -enviable calm.</p> - -<p class='c000'>On the day when a stir in the cottages betokened -that embarkation was to begin, the south windows -of the chapel were in demand. They afforded a -clear view of the village and a partial view of the -landing-place. Benches were piled before them, -and we took turns by the half hour in looking out, -those at the post of observation passing messages -back to the eager rows behind. It was plain at -once that the cottages at the west end of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>village were to be cleared in a block. On a sudden -there was a sharp outcry from the three Le Boutilliers, -as they saw their homely house-gear being -carried from their doorways and heaped upon a -lumbering hay-wagon. They were of a nervous -stock, and forthwith began a great lamentation, -thinking that their wives and families were to be -sent away without them. When the little procession -started down the street toward the landing—the -old grandmother and the two littlest children -perched on the wagon-load, the wives and other -children walking beside in attitudes that proclaimed -their tears—the good fellows became so excited as -to trouble our company.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Chut, men!” cried Marc, in a tone of sharp -command. “Are you become women all at once? -There will be no separation of families this time, -when there is but one ship and no room for mistakes. -The guards yonder will be calling for you -presently, never fear.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>This quieted them; for my cousin had a convincing -way with him, and they accounted his -wisdom something beyond natural.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Then there came by two more wagons, and -another sorrowful procession, appearing from the -direction of the Habitants; and the word “Le -Marchands” went muttering through the prison. -Le Marchand settlement was moving to the ship—and -even now a cloud of black smoke, with red -<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>tongues visible on the morning air, showed us -what would befall the houses of Grand Pré when -the folk of Grand Pré should be gone.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Le Marchand men made no sign, save to -glower under their brows and grip the window -sashes with tense fingers. They were of different -stuff from the Le Boutilliers, these black Le -Marchands. They set their teeth hard, and -waited.</p> - -<p class='c000'>So it went on through the morning, one man -after another seeing his family led away to the -ship—his family and some scant portion of his -goods; and thus we came to know what men -among us were like to be called forth on this -voyage.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Presently the big door was thrown open, and all -faces flashed about to the new interest. Outside -stood a double red line of English soldiers. An -officer—the round-faced Colonel Winslow himself—stepped -in, a scroll of paper curling in his -hand. In a precise and something pompous voice -he read aloud the names of those to go. The Le -Marchands were first on the roll; then the Le -Boutilliers, Ba’tiste Chouan, Jean and Tamin -Masson, and a long list that promised to thin -our crowded benches by one-third. But I was -left among the unsummoned; and my cousin -Marc, and long Philibert Trou, and the wily fox -La Mouche; and I saw Marc’s lips compress with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>a significant satisfaction when he saw these two -remaining. Vaguely I thought—“He has a -plan!” But thereafter, in my gloom, I thought -no more of it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>So these chosen ones marched off between their -guards; and that afternoon the ship went out on -the ebb tide with a wind that carried her, white-sailed, -around the dark point of Blomidon. Grand -Pré chapel prison settled apathetically back to a -deeper calm.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXVIII<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>The Ships of her Exile</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>The days dragged till December was setting -his hoar face toward death, and still delayed -the last ships. The jailers grew sour-visaged. -From Yvonne came no more word, only the -tidings that she was not well, and that her people -were troubled for her. Father Fafard’s cheery -wrinkles at mouth and eyes deepened from cheer -to care; but still his lips locked over the name of -Yvonne.</p> - -<p class='c000'>My hope sank ever lower and lower. That old -wound in my head, cured by Grûl’s searching -simples, began to harass me afresh—whether -from cold, the chapel being but barn-like, or from -the circumstance that my heart, ceaselessly gnawing -upon itself, gnawed also upon every tissue and -nerve. I came strangely close to the ranger La -Mouche in those bad days; for though I knew -not, nor cared nor dared to ask, his story, I saw -in his eyes a something which he, too, doubtless -saw in mine. So it came that we sat much -<span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>together, in a black silence. It was not that I -loved less than of old my true comrade Marc, but -the fact that he possessed where he loved, and -could with blissful confidence look forward, set -him some way apart from me. Upon La Mouche, -with the deep hurt sullen in his eyes, I could look -and mutter to myself:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Old, wily fox, is your foot, once so free, -caught in the snare of a woman?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>So tortuous a thing in its workings is this red -clot of a human heart that I got a kind of perverted -solace out of such thoughts as these.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At last the tired watchers at our south windows -announced two ship in the basin. They came up -on the flood, and dropped anchor off the Gaspereau -mouth.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This ends it,” I heard Marc say coolly. “All -that’s left of Grand Pré can go in those two ships.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>To me the words came as a knell for the burial -of my last hope.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The embarkation had now to be pushed with a -speed which wrought infinite confusion, for the -weather had turned bitter, and it was not possible -for women and children to long endure the cold of -their dismantled homes. The big wagons, watched -by us from our windows, went creaking and rattling -down the frozen roads. Wailing women, -frightened and wondering children, beds, chests, -many-colored quilts, bright red and green chairs,—to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>us it looked as if all these were tumbled into -a narrowing vortex and swept with a piteous indiscriminacy -into one ship or the other. The orderly -method with which the previous embarkings had -been managed was now all thrown to the winds by -the fierce necessity for haste. We in the chapel were -not left long to watch the scene from the windows. -While yet the main street of Grand Pré was dolorous -with the tears of the women and children, the -doors of our prison opened and names were called. -I heeded them not; but the sound of my own name -pierced my gloom; and I went out. In the tingling -air I awoke a little, to gaze up the hill at the large -house where Yvonne had lodged since the parsonage -had been taken for a guard-house. No message -came to me from those north windows. Then I -turned, to find Marc at my side.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Courage, cousin mine,” he whispered. “We -are not beaten yet. Better outside than in there. -This much means freedom—and, once free, we’ll -act.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, Marc, I’m not beaten,” I muttered. “But—it -<em>looks</em> as if I were.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Chut, man!” said he crisply. “You couldn’t -do a better thing to bring her to her senses than -you are doing now.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was but a few steps down to the lane, and there -we found ourselves in a jumble of heaped carts -and blue-skirted, weeping women. My head was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>paining me sorely—a numb ache that seemed to -rise in the core of my brain. But I remember -noting with a far-off commiseration the blubbered -faces of the women, and their poor little solicitudes -for this or that bit of household gear which, from -time to time, would fall crashing to the ground -from the hastily laden carts. I found spirit to -wonder that the tears which had exhausted themselves -over the farewell to fatherland and hearthside -should break out afresh over the cracking of -a gilded glass or the shattering of a blue and silver -jug. The women’s lamentations in a little hardened -me, so that my ears ignored them; but the wide-eyed -terrors of the children, their questions unanswered, -their whimpering at the cold that blued their -hands, all this pierced me. Tears for the children’s -sorrow gathered in my heart, till it was nigh to -bursting; and this curbed passion of pity, I think, -kept my sick body from collapse. It in some -way threw me back from my own misery on to my -old unroutable resolution.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I <em>will</em> win!” I said in my heart, as we came -down upon the wharf at the Gaspereau mouth. -“Though there seems to be no more hope, there -is life; and while there is life, I hold on.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>When we reached the wharf the ebb was well -advanced. The boats could not get near the -wharf. Women had to wade ankle-deep in freezing -slime to reach them. The slime was churned with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>the struggle of many feet. The stuff from the -carts was at times dropped in the ooze, to be recovered -or not as might chance. The soldiers -toiled faithfully, and their leggings to the knee -were a sorry sight. They were patient, these red-coats, -with the women, who often seemed to lose -their heads so that they knew not which boat they -wanted to go in. To the children every red-coat -seemed tender as a mother. For any one, indeed, -they would do anything, except endure delay. -Haste, haste, haste was all—and therefore there -was calamitous confusion. While I stood on the -wharf awaiting the order to embark, I saw a stout -girl in a dark-red stomacher and grey petticoat -throw herself screaming into the water where it -was about waist deep, and scramble desperately to -another boat near by. No effort was made to -restrain her. Dripping with tide and slime she -climbed over the gunwale; and belike found what -she sought, for her cries ceased. Again I noted—Marc -called my attention to it—a small child -being passed from one boat to the other, as the -two, bound for different ships, were about diverging. -The mother had stumbled blindly into one -boat while the child had been tossed into the -other. In the effort to remedy this oversight -the child was dropped into the water between the -boats. The screams of the mother were like a -knife in our ears. Two sailors went overboard at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>once, but there was some delay ere the little one -was recovered. Then we saw its limp body passed -in over the boatside; whether alive or dead we -could not judge; but the screams ceased and our -ear-drums blessed the respite.</p> - -<p class='c000'>With the next boat came our turn; and I found -myself wading down the slope of icy ooze. I -heard Marc, just behind me, mutter a careless -imprecation upon the needless defiling of his -boots. He was ever imperturbable, my cousin,—a -hot heart, but in steel harness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>We loaded the roomy long-boat till the gunwale -was almost awash. The big oars creaked and -thumped in the rowlocks. We moved laboriously -out to the ships, which swung on straining cable -in the tide. As we came under her black-wall -side, with the turbid red-grey current hissing past it, -men on deck caught us with grapnels, and we swung, -splashing, under the stern. Then, the tide being -very troublesome, we were drawn again alongside.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Marc was at my elbow. “Look!” he cried, pointing -to the ridge behind the village. I saw a wide-roofed -cottage on the crest break into flame. -There was a wind up there, though little as yet -down here in the valley; and the flames streamed -out to westward, the black smoke rolling low and -ragged above them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“So goes all Grand Pré in a little!” muttered -Marc.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>“It is P’tit Joliet’s house!” said I.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes,” said a steady young voice behind me; -and I turned to see Petit Joliet himself, watching -with undaunted eyes the burning of his home. -“Yes, and it was a fine house. It would have -hurt my father sorely, were he alive now, to see it -go up in smoke like that.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, you have a brave heart,” said I, liking -him well as I saw his firmness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh,” said he, “the only thing that is troubling -me is this—shall I find my mother on this ship? -They are making mistakes now, these English, in -their haste to be done with us. I’m worried.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If she is not on board,” said my kind Marc, -“we’ll try and keep a watch on the boats; and if -we see her bound for the wrong ship we’ll let the -guard know. They <em>want</em> to keep families together, -if they can.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>This was Marc, ever careful of others. But his -good purpose was like to have been frustrated soon -as formed; for scarce were our feet well on deck -when our hands were clapped in irons, and we -were marched off straight to the hold.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Sorry, sir. Can’t help it. So many of you, -you know,” said the red-coat apologetically, as I -stretched out my wrists to him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But glancing about the crowded deck I descried -my good friend, Lieutenant Waldron, busily -unravelling the snarl of things. In answer to my -<span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>hail he came at once, warm, friendly, and trying -not to see my irons.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“One last little service, sir!” I cried. “Little -to us, it may be great to others. You see we are -ironed, Captain de Mer and I. We will give our -word to neither attempt escape nor in any way -interfere with this sorry work. Let us two wait -here on deck till the ship sails. We know all these -villagers; and we want to help you avoid the -severance of families.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is little to grant for you, my friend,” said -he, in a feeling voice. “You cannot know how -my heart is aching. I will speak to the captain -of the ship, and you shall stay on deck till the -ship sails.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Marc thanked him courteously, but I with no -more than a look, for words did not at that time -seem compliant to say what I desired them to say. -They are false and treacherous spirits, these words -we make so free with and trust so rashly with -affairs of life and death. How often do they take an -honest meaning from the heart and twist it to the -semblance of a lie as it leaves the lips! How -often do they take a flame from the inmost soul, and -make it ice before it reaches the soul toward which -it thrilled forth! It has been my calling to work -with words in peace, as with swords in time of -war; and I know them. I do not trust them. -The swords are the safer.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXIX<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>The Hour of her Desolation</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>Returning from a brief word with the ship-captain,—a -very broad-bearded, broad-chested -man, in a very rough blue coat,—Lieutenant -Waldron passed us hastily, and signified -that it was all right. With this sanction we -pushed along the crowded deck in order to gain a -post of vantage at the bow. The vessel, whose -hold was now to be our new and narrow cage, was -one of those ordinarily engaged in the West Indian -trade. Our noses told us this. To the savours of -fish and tar which clung in her timbers she added -a foreign tang of molasses, rum, and coffee. As -we stumbled up the cluttered deck, lacking the -balance of free hands, these shippy smells were -crossed in curious, pathetic fashion by the homely -odours of the blankets, clothes, pillows, and other -household stuff that lay about waiting for storage. -Here a woman sat stolidly upon her own pile, with -a mortgage on the future so long as she kept her -bedding in possession; and there a youngster, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>already homesick, for his wide-hearthed cabin, -sobbed heavily, with his face buried in an old coat -of his father’s.</p> - -<p class='c000'>For hours, in the bitter cold, we held our post -in the bow of the ship and watched the boats go -back and forth. Of the old mother of Petit Joliet -we saw nothing. We judged perforce that she -had been moved early and carried to the other -ship, which swung at anchor a little up the channel. -We were able—I say we, though Marc did all, I -being, as it were, drowned in my own dejection—we -were able to be of service in divers instances. -When, for example, young Violet was brought -aboard with another boat-load from the chapel -prison, we made haste to tell the guards that we -had seen his mother and sisters taken to the other -ship. As a consequence, when the boat went back -to the wharf it carried young Violet; so he and -his were not divided in their exile.</p> - -<p class='c000'>By the very next boat there came to us a black-browed, -white-lipped woman, from whose dry eyes -the tears seemed all drained out. She carried a -babe-at-breast, while two thin little ones clung to -her homespun skirt. As soon as she reached the -deck she stared around in wild expectation, as if -she thought to find her husband waiting to receive -her. Not seeing him, she straightway fainted in a -heap. It chanced I knew the woman’s face. She -was the wife of one Caspar Besnard, of Pereau, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>whom I had seen taken, early in the day, to the -other ship. He was conspicuous by reason of -having red hair, a marvel in Acadie; and therefore -my memory had retained him, though he concerned -me not. Now, however, he did concern -me much. A few words to the officer of the guard, -and the poor woman, with her children, was transferred -to where she doubtless found her husband.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Such cases justified, in our jailers’ eyes, the -favour that had been shown us. Meanwhile our -ship had filled up. We had seen Long Philibert -and La Mouche brought aboard, but had not -spoken with them. “Time for that later,” Marc -had said. I had watched for Petit Joliet’s mother; -and I had watched eagerly for old Mother Pêche; -but in vain. While yet the boats were plying, -heavy laden, between the shore and the other -ship, we found ourselves ready for departure. -Our boats were swung aboard; and the English -<em>Yeo, heave ho!</em> arose as the sailors shoved on the -capstan. Lieutenant Waldron, after an all but -wordless farewell, went ashore in the gig with -two soldiers. The rest of the red-coats stayed -aboard. They had been reënforced by a fresh -squad who were marched down late to the landing. -These, plainly, were to be our guard during -the voyage; and I saw with a sort of vague resentment -that a tall, foppish exquisite of an officer, -known to me by sight, was to command this guard. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>He was one Lieutenant Shafto, whom we had seen -two or three times at the chapel prison; and I think -all disliked him for a certain elaborate loftiness -in his air. It came to my mind dimly that I should -well rejoice to cross swords with him, and I hinted -as much to Marc.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Who knows?” said my unruffled cousin; “we -may live to see him look less complacent.” His -smile had a meaning which I could not fathom. -I could see no ground for his sanguine satisfaction; -and I dared not question where some enemy -might overhear. I thought no more of it, therefore, -but relapsed into my apathy. As we slipped -down the tide I saw, in a boat-load just approaching -the other ship, a figure with a red shawl -wrapped round head and shoulders. This gave -me a pang, as I had hoped to have Mother Pêche -with me, to talk to me of Yvonne and help me to -build up the refuge of a credulous hope. But -since even that was denied me—well, it was -nothing, after all, and I was a child! I turned my -eyes upon the house, far up the ridge, where the -Lamouries had lodging. It was one of four, standing -well aloof from the rest of the village; and I -knew they all were occupied by those prudent -ones of the neighbourhood who had been wise in -time and now stood safe in English favour. The -doom of Grand Pré, I knew, would turn aside from -them.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>But on the emptied and desolated village it was -even now descending. Marc and I, unnoticed in -our place, were free to watch. So dire was even -yet the confusion on our deck, so busy seamen -and soldiers alike, that we were quite forgotten for -a time. The early winter dark was gathering upon -Blomidon and the farther hills; but there was to -be no dark that night by the mouth of Gaspereau.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The house of Petit Joliet, upon the hill, burned -long alone. It was perhaps a signal to the troops -at Piziquid, twenty miles away, telling them that -the work at Grand Pré was done. Not till late in -the afternoon was the torch set to the village itself. -Then smoke arose suddenly on the westernmost -outskirts, toward the Habitants dyke. The wind -being from the southeast, the fire spread but -slowly against it. As the smoke drove low the -flames started into more conspicuous brilliance, -licking lithely over and under the rolling cloud that -strove to smother them. These empty houses -burned for the most part with a clear, light flame; -but the barns, stored with hay and straw, vomited -angry red, streaked with black. Up the bleak -hillside ran the terrified cattle, with wildly tossing -horns. At times, even on shipboard, we caught -their bellowings. They had been turned loose, of -course, before the fires were started, but had -remained huddled in the familiar barnyards until -this horrible and inexplicable cataclysm drove -<span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>them forth. Far up the slope we saw them turn -and stand at gaze.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In an hour we observed that the wharf was -empty, and the other ship hoisting sail. Then -the fires sprang up in every part of the village at -once. They ran along the main street below the -chapel; but they came not very near the chapel -itself, for all the buildings in its immediate neighbourhood -had been long ago removed, and it stood -in a safe isolation, towering in white solemnity over -the red tumult of ruin.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The chapel will be a camp to-night, instead of a -prison,” said Marc at my ear, his grave eyes fixed -and wide. “It will be the last thing to go—it -and the Colony of Compromise yonder up the -hill.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But who shall blame them for the compromise?” -I protested, unwilling to hear censure -that touched the father of Yvonne.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Marc shrugged his shoulders at this. He never -was a lover of vain argument.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I wonder where the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span> is at this -moment!” was what he said, with no apparent -relevancy.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Not yet in his own place, I fear!” said I.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The implication is a pious one,” said Marc. -“Yonder is the work of him, and of no other. -He should be roasting now in the hottest of it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I really, at this moment, cared little, and was at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>loss for reply. But a bullying roar of a voice just -behind us saved me the necessity of answering.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Here, you two! What are ye doin’ here on -deck? Git, now! Git, quick!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The speaker was a big, loose-jointed man, ill-favoured -and palpably ill-humoured. I was pleased -to note that the middle two of his obtrusive front -teeth were wanting, and that his nose was so misshapen -as to suggest some past calamitous experience. -As I learned afterwards, this was our ship’s -first mate. I was too dull of mood—too sick, -in fact—to be instantly wroth at his insolence. -I looked curiously at him; but Marc answered in -a quiet voice:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Merely waiting here, sir, on parole and by -direction, till the proper authorities are ready to -take us below!” And he thrust out his manacled -hands to show how we were conditioned.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, here’s proper authority, ye’ll find out. -Git, er I’ll jog ye!” And he made a motion to -take me by the collar.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I stepped aside and faced him. I looked him -in the eyes with a sudden rage so deadly that he -must have felt it, for he hesitated. I cared nothing -then what befell me, and would have smashed -him with my iron-locked wrist had he touched me, -or else so tripped him and fallen with him that we -should have gone overboard together. But he -was a brute of some perception, and his hesitancy -<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>most likely saved us both. It gave Marc time to -shout—“Guards! Guards! Here! Prisoner -escaping!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Instantly along the red-lit deck came soldiers -running—three of them. The mate had grabbed -a belaying-pin, but stood fingering it, uncertain of -his status in relation to the soldiers.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Corporal,” said Marc ceremoniously to one -of them, discerning his rank by the stripes on his -sleeve, “pardon the false alarm. There was no -prisoner escaping. We were here on parole, by -the favour of Lieutenant Waldron—as you yourself -know, indeed, for we helped you this afternoon -in getting scattered families together. But this -man—we don’t know who he is—was brutal, and -threatening violence in spite of our defenceless -state. Please take us in charge!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Certainly, Captain de Mer,” said the man -promptly. “I was just about coming for you!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Then he turned to the mate with an air of -triumphant aversion, in which lurked, perhaps, a -consciousness of conflicting and ill-defined authorities.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No belaying-pins for the prisoners!” he -growled. “Keep them for yer poor swabs o’ -sailor lads.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As we marched down the deck under guard -the sails overhead were all aglow, the masts and -spars gleamed ruddily. The menacing radiance -<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>was by this time filling the whole heaven, and the -small, quick-running surges flashed under it with a -sinister sheen. As we reached the open hatch I -turned for a last look at Grand Pré.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The whole valley was now as it were one seething -lake of smoke and flame, the high, half-shrouded -spire of the chapel rising impregnable on the -further brink. The conflagration was fiercest now -along the eastern half of the main street, toward -the water side. Even at this distance we heard -the great-lunged roar of it. High over the chaos, -like a vaulted roof upheld by the Gaspereau Ridge, -arched an almost stationary covering of smoke-cloud, -impenetrable, and red as blood along its -under side. The smoke of the burning was carried -off toward the Habitants and Canard—where -there was nothing left to burn. Between the red -stillness above and the red turbulence below, apart -and safe on their high slope, gleamed the cottages of -the Colony of Compromise. With what eyes, I wondered, -does my beloved look out upon this horror? -Do they strain sadly after the departing ships—or -does the Englishman stand by and comfort her?</p> - -<p class='c000'>As I got clumsily down the ladder the last thing -I saw—and the picture bit its lines in strange -fashion on my memory—was the other ship, a -league behind us, black-winged against the flame.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Then the hatch closed down. By the glimmer -of a swinging lanthorn we groped our way to a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>space where we two could lie down side by side. -Marc wanted to talk, but I could not. There was -a throbbing in my head, a great numbness on my -heart. In my ears the voice of the Minas waves -assailing the ship’s timbers seemed to whisper of -the end of things. Grand Pré was gone. I was being -carried, sick and in chains, to some far-off land of -strangers. My beloved was cared for by another.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No!” said I in my heart (I thought at first I -had spoken it aloud, but Marc did not stir), -“when my foot touches land my face shall turn -back to seek her face again, though it be from the -ends of earth. It is vain, but I will not give her -up. I am not dead yet—though hope is!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As I thought the words there came humming -through my brain that foolish saying of Mother -Pêche’s. Again I saw her on that spring evening -bending over my palm and murmuring—“<em>Your -heart’s desire is near your death of hope</em>!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Here is my death of hope, mother,” said I -to myself. “But where is my heart’s desire?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And with that I laughed harshly—aloud.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was an ill sound in that place of bitterness, -and heads were raised to look at me. Marc asked, -with a trace of apprehension in his voice:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What’s the matter, Paul? Anything to laugh at?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Myself!” I muttered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The humour of the subject is not obvious,” -said he curtly.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXX<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>A Woman’s Privilege</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>I did not sleep that night—not one eye-wink—in -the hold of the New England ship. -Neither could I think, nor even greatly suffer. -Rather I lay as it were numbly weltering in my -despair. What if I had known all that was going -on meanwhile in that other ship, a league behind -us, sailing under the lurid sky!</p> - -<p class='c000'>The events which I am now about to set down -were not, as will be seen, matter of my own experience. -I tell what I have inferred and what -has been told me—but told me from such lips -and in such fashion that I may indeed be said to -have lived it all myself. It is more real to me than -if my own eyes had followed it. It is sometimes -true that we may see with the eyes of others—of -one other—more vividly than with our own.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the biggest house of that “Colony of Compromise” -on the hill—the house nearest the -chapel prison—a girl stood at a south window -watching the flames in the village below. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>flames, at least, she seemed to be watching. What -she saw was the last little column of prisoners -marching away from the chapel; and her teeth -were set hard upon her under lip.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She was not thinking; she was simply clarifying -a confused resolve.</p> - -<p class='c000'>White and thin, and with deep purple hollows -under her great eyes, she was nevertheless not less -beautiful than when, a few months before, joyous -mirth had flashed from her every look and gesture, -as colored lights from a fire-opal. She still wore -on her small feet moccasins of Indian work; but -now, in winter, they were of heavy, soft, white caribou-skin, -laced high upon the ankles, and ornamented -with quaint pattern of red and green -porcupine quills. Her skirt and bodice were of -creamy woollen cloth; and over her shoulders, -crossed upon her breast and caught in her girdle, -was spread a scarf of dark-yellow silk. The little -black lace shawl was flung back from her head, -and her hands, twisted tightly in the ends of it, -were for a wonder quite still—tensely still, with -an air of final decision. Close beside her, flung -upon the back of a high wooden settee, lay a long, -heavy, hooded cloak of grey homespun, such as -the peasant women of Acadie were wont to wear -in winter as an over-garment.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A door behind her opened, but Yvonne did not -turn her head. George Anderson came in. He -<span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>came to the window, and tried to look into her -eyes. His face was grave with anxiety, but -touched, too, with a curious mixture of impatience -and relief. He spoke at once, in a voice both -tender and tolerant.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There go the last of them, poor chaps!” he -said. “Captain Grande went some hours ago—quite -early. I pray, dear, that now he is gone—to -exile indeed, but in safety—you will recover -your peace of mind, and throw off this morbid -mood, and be just a little bit kinder to—some -people!” And he tried, with an awkward timidity, -to take her hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She turned upon him a sombre, compassionate -gaze, but far-off, almost as if she saw him in a -dream.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Don’t touch me—just now,” she said gently, -removing her hand. “I must go out into the -pastures for air, I think. All this stifles me! -No, alone, <em>alone</em>!” she added more quickly, in -answer to an entreaty in his eyes. “But, oh, I am -sorry, so sorry beyond words, that I cannot seem -kind to—some people! Good-by.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She left the room, and closed the door behind -her. The door shut smartly. It sounded like a -proclamation of her resolve. So—that was settled! -In an instant her whole demeanour changed. -A fire came back into her eyes, and she stepped -with her old, soft-swaying lightness. In the room -<span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span>which she now entered sat her father and mother. -The withered little reminiscence of Versailles -watched at a window-side, her black eyes bright -with interest, her thin lips slightly curved with an -acerb and cynical compassion. But Giles de Lamourie -sat with his back to the window, his face -heavy and grey.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This is too awful!” he said, as Yvonne came -up to him, and, bending over, kissed him on the -forehead and the lips.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is like a nightmare!” she answered. “But, -would you believe it, papa, the very shock is doing -me good? The suspense—<em>that</em> kills! But I feel -more like myself than I have for weeks. I must -go out, breathe, and walk hard in the open.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>De Lamourie’s face lightened.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thou <em>art</em> better, little one,” said he. “But -why go alone at such a time? Where’s George?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Yvonne was already at her mother’s side, -kissing her, and did not answer her father’s question; -which, indeed, needed no answer, as he had -himself seen Anderson go into the inner room and -not return.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But where will you go, child?” queried her -mother. “There are no longer any left of your sick -and your poor and your husbandless to visit.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But I will be my own sick, little mamma,” -she cried nervously, “and my own poor—and -my own husbandless. I will visit myself. Don’t -<span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>be troubled for me, dearies!” she added, in a -tender voice. “I am so much better already.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The next moment she was gone. The door -shut loudly after her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Wilful!” said her mother.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, more like she used to be. Much -better!” exclaimed Giles de Lamourie, rising -and looking out at the fires in a moment of brief -absent-mindedness. “Yes, much better, George,” -he added, as Anderson appeared from the inner -room.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the Englishman’s face was full of discomfort. -“I wish she would not go running out alone -this way,” said he.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Curious that she should prefer to be alone, -George,” said Madame de Lamourie, with deliberate -malice. She was beginning to dislike this -man who so palpably could not give her daughter -happiness.</p> - -<hr class='c011' /> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne, meanwhile, was speeding across the -open fields, in the teeth of the wind. The ground -was hard as iron, but there was little snow—only -a dry, powdery covering deep enough to keep the -stubble from hurting her feet. She ran straight -for the tiny cabin of Mother Pêche, trusting to find -her not yet gone. None of the houses at the eastern -end of the village were as yet on fire. That -of Mother Pêche stood a little apart, in a bushy -<span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>pasture-lot. Yvonne found the low door swinging -wide, the house deserted; but there were red -embers still on the hearth, whereby she knew the -old woman had not been long away.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The empty house seemed to whisper of fear and -grief from every corner. She turned away and ran -toward the landing, her heart chilled with a sudden -apprehension that she might be too late. Before -she was clear of the bushes, however, she stopped -with a cry. A man who seemed to have risen out -of the ground stood right in her path. He was of -a sturdy figure, somewhat short, and clad in dull-coloured -homespun of peasant fashion. At sight -of her beauty and her alarm his woollen cap was -snatched from his head and his cunning face took -on the utmost deference.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Have no fear of me, mademoiselle,—Mademoiselle -de Lamourie, if I may hazard a guess from -your beauty,” said he smoothly. “It is I who am -in peril, lest you should reveal me to my enemies.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Who are you, monsieur?” she asked, recovering -her self-possession and fretting to be gone.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A spy,” he whispered, “in the pay of the -King of France, who must know, to avenge them -later, the wrongs of his people here in Acadie. I -have thrown myself on your mercy, that I might ask -you if the families who have found favour with the -English will remain here after this work is done, -or be taken elsewhere. I pray you inform me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>“Believe me, I do not know their plans, monsieur,” -answered Yvonne. “And I beg you to let -me pass, for my haste is desperate.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Let me escort you to the edge of the bush, then, -mademoiselle,” said he courteously, stepping from -the path. “And not to delay you, I will question -you as we go, if you will permit. Is the Englishman, -Monsieur George Anderson, still here?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He is, monsieur. But now leave me, I entreat -you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She was wild with fear lest the stranger’s presence -should frustrate her design.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The man smiled.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I dare go no farther with you than the field -edge, mademoiselle,” said he regretfully. “To be -caught would mean”—and he put his hand to his -throat with ghastly suggestion.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Relieved from this anxiety, Yvonne paused when -she reached the open.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I must ask you a question in turn, monsieur,” -said she. “Have you chanced to learn on which -of the two ships Captain de Mer and Captain -Grande were placed?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have been so fortunate,” replied the stranger, -and the triumph in his thought found no expression -in his deferential tone or deep-set eyes. Here was -the point he had been studying to approach. Here -was a chance to worst a foe and win favour from -the still powerful, though far-distant, Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>He paused, and Yvonne had scarce breath to -cry “Which?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They are in the ship this way,” he said -calmly. “The one still at anchor.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thank you, monsieur!” she cried, with a -passion in the simple words; and was straightway -off across the red-lit snow, her cloak streaming -out behind her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The beauty!” said the man to himself, lurking -in the bushes to follow her with his eyes. “Pity -to lie to her. But she’s leaving—and that stabs -Anderson; and she’s going on the wrong ship—and -that stabs Grande. Both at a stroke. Not -bad for a day like this.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And with a look of hearty satisfaction on his -face <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le Fûret</span><a id='r1' /><a href='#f1' class='c012'><sup>[1]</sup></a> (for Vaurin’s worthy lieutenant it -was) withdrew to safer covert.</p> - -<div class='footnote' id='f1'> -<p class='c000'><span class='label'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. </span>None of Vaurin’s villains were taken by the English at the time of -the great capture, for none dared come within a league of an English -proclamation lest it should turn into a rope to throttle them.—P. G.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c000'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le Fûret</span> smiled to himself; but Yvonne almost -laughed aloud as she ran, deaf to the growing roar -at the farther end of the village and heedless of -the flaring crimson that made the air like blood. -The wharf, when she reached it, was in a final spasm -of confusion, and shouted orders, and sobbings. -Now, she grew cautious. Drawing her cloak close -about her face, she pushed through the crowd -toward the boat.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Just then a firm hand was laid upon her arm, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>and a very low voice said in her ear,—with less -surprise, to be sure, than on a former occasion by -Gaspereau lower ford,—</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>You</em> here, Mademoiselle de Lamourie?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Her heart stood still; and she turned upon him -a look of such imploring, desperate dismay that -Lieutenant Waldron without another word drew -her to one side. Then she found voice.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, if you have any mercy, any pity, do not -betray me,” she whispered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But what does this mean? It is my duty to -ask,” he persisted, still puzzled.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am trying to save my life, my soul, everything, -before it’s too late!” she said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh,” said he, comprehending suddenly. -“Well, I think you had better not tell me anything -more. I think it is <em>not</em> my duty to say anything -about this meeting. You may be doing -right. I wish you good fortune and good-by, -mademoiselle!”—and, to her wonder, he was off -among the crowd.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Still trembling from the encounter, she hastened -to the boat.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She found it already half laden; and in the -stern, to her delight, she saw Mother Pêche’s red -mantle. She was on the point of calling to her, -but checked herself just in time. The boat was -twenty paces from the wharf-edge; and those -twenty paces were deep ooze, intolerable beyond -<span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>measure to white moccasins. Absorbed in her -one purpose, which was to get on board the ship -without delay, she had not looked to one side or the -other, but had regarded women, children, soldiers, -boatmen, as so many bushes to be pushed through. -Now, however, letting her hood part a little from -her face, she glanced hither and thither with her -quick imperiousness, and then from her feet to -that breadth of slime, as if demanding an instant -bridge. The next thing she knew she was lifted by -a pair of stout arms and carried swiftly through -the mud to the boatside.</p> - -<p class='c000'>After a moment’s hot flush of indignation at -the liberty, she realized that this was by far the -best possible solution of the problem, as there -was no bridge forthcoming. She looked up gratefully, -and saw that her cavalier was a big red-coat, -with a boyish, jolly face. As he gently set her -down in the boat she gave him a radiant look -which brought the very blood to his ears.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thank you very much indeed!” she said, in -an undertone. “I don’t know how I should have -managed but for your kindness. But really it is -very wrong of you to take such trouble about <em>me</em>; -for I see these other poor things have had to wade -through the mud, and their skirts are terrible.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The big red-coat stood gazing at her in open-mouthed -adoration, speechless; but a comrade, -busy in the boat stowing baggage, answered for him.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>“That’s all right, miss,” said he. “Don’t you -worry about Eph. He’s been carryin’ children all -day long, an’ some few women because they was -sick. He’s arned the right to carry one woman -jest fer her beauty.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In some confusion Yvonne turned away, very -fearful of being recognized. She hurriedly -squeezed herself down in the stern by Mother -Pêche. The old dame’s hand sought hers, furtively, -under the cloak.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I went to look for you, mother,” she whispered -into the red shawl.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I knew you’d come, poor heart, dear heart!” -muttered the old woman, with a swift peering of her -strange eyes into the shadow of the girl’s hood.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I waited for you till they <em>dragged</em> me away. -But I knew you’d come.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How did you know that, mother?” whispered -Yvonne, delighted to find that this momentous act -of hers had seemed to some one just the expected -and inevitable thing. “Why, I didn’t know it myself -till half an hour ago.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Mother Pêche looked wise and mysterious.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I knew it,” she reiterated. “Why, dear heart, -I knew all along you loved him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And at last, strange as it may appear, this -seemed to Yvonne de Lamourie, penniless, going -into exile with the companionship of misery, an -all-sufficient and all-explicative answer.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXXI<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Young Will and Old Wisdom</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>Mother Pêche lived to do good deeds, -and loved to think she did them from an -ill motive. Her witchcraft, devoutly believed in -by herself, and by a good half of Grand Pré as -well, was never known to curse, but ever to bless; -yet its white magic she called black art. There -was no one sick, there was no one sorrowful, there -was no child in all Grand Pré, but loved her; yet -it was her whim to believe herself feared, and in -hourly peril of anathema. Even Father Fafard, -whom she affected to deride, but in truth vastly -reverenced, found it hard to maintain a proper -show of austerity toward this incomprehensible -old woman.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The boat, soon loaded, went dragging through -the flame-lit tide toward the ship. The old dame -sat clutching Yvonne’s hand under the warm privacy -of the cloak. Here was a weight off her mind. - She loved Yvonne de Lamourie and Paul Grande -better than any one else in the world; and with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>all her heart she believed that to hold them apart -would mean ruin to others in the end, as well as -to themselves. This which had now come about -(she had trembled lest Yvonne should not prove -quite strong enough at the last) seemed to her the -best exit from a bad closure. Anderson she had -ever regarded with hostile and unreasoning contempt; -and now it suited her whim to tell herself -that a part of her present satisfaction lay in the -thought of him so ignominiously thwarted. But -in very truth she believed that the thwarting was -for his good; that he would recover from his hurt -in time, and see himself well saved from the lifelong -mordancy of a loveless marriage. In a word, -what Mother Pêche wanted was the good of those -she loved, and as little ill as might be to those -she accounted enemies.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Though the boat was packed with intimates of -hers, she was absorbed in studying so much of -Yvonne’s face as could be seen through the half-drawn -hood. “She is, indeed, much better already,” -said the old dame to herself. “This <em>was</em> -the one medicine.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne, for her part, had no eyes but for the -ship she was approaching. Eagerly she scanned -the bulwarks. Women’s heads, and children’s, she -saw in plenty; but no men, save the sailors and a -few red-coats.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Are none of the—are there no <em>men</em> on this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span>ship?” she whispered to Mother Pêche, in a sudden -awful doubt.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But think, <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chérie</span></i>,” muttered the old woman, -“these men are dangerous. Would they be left -on deck like women and children? But no, indeed. -They are in the hold, surely; and in irons belike. -But they are there—or on the other ship,” she -added uneasily in her heart.</p> - -<p class='c000'>By this the boat was come to the ship-side. By -some one’s carelessness it was not rightly fended, -and was suffered to bump heavily. One gunwale -dipped; an icy flood poured in; there was imminent -peril of swamping.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Women jumped up with screams, and children -caught at them, terror-stricken by the -looming black wall of the ship’s side. The -boatmen cursed fiercely. The two soldiers in -the boat shouted: “Sit down! damn you! sit -down!” with such authority that all obeyed -at once. The shrill clamour ceased; the peril -was over; the embarkation went on. Mother -Pêche, with nerves of steel, had but gripped the -more firmly upon Yvonne’s hand. As for -Yvonne, she had apparently taken no note of -the disturbance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Driven by a consuming purpose, which had -gathered new fuel from the picture of the fettered -captives in the hold, Yvonne had no sooner -reached the deck than she started off to find the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>captain. But Mother Pêche was at her elbow on -the instant, clinging to her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I must see the captain at once!” exclaimed -Yvonne, “and make some inquiry—find out -<em>something</em>!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chérie</span></i>,” whispered the old dame, with -loving irony, “and get yourself recognized, and -be taken back next boat to Monsieur George -Anderson.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The girl’s head drooped. She saw how near -she had been to undoing herself through impatience. -She submissively followed the red shawl -to a retired place near the bow of the ship. There -the two settled themselves into a warm nest of -beds and blankets, wherefrom they could watch -the end of the embarking. But what more -engrossed their eyes was the end of Grand Pré; -for by now the sea of fire was roaring over more -than half the village, the whole world seemed -awash with ruddy air, and the throbs of scorching -heat, even at their distance and with the wind -blowing from them, made them cover their faces -from time to time and marvel if this could be a -December night.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Fascinated by the monstrous roar, the mad red -light, the rolling level canopy of cloud, the old -woman sat a long time silent, her startling eyes -very wide open, her hawk face set in rigid lines. -But the lines softened, the eyes filmed suddenly, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>at a sound close beside her. Yvonne had buried -her face in a coloured quilt, and was sobbing -tempestuously.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is well! It had to come! It was just a -pulling of herself up by the roots to leave her -father and mother, poor heart!” thought the old -woman to herself. Then after a few minutes, she -said aloud:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That is right, dear heart! Cry all you can. -Cry it all out. You have held it back too long.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, how could I leave <em>them</em> so? How could -I be so cruel?” moaned the girl, catching her -breath at every word or two. “They will die of -sorrow, I know they will!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chérie</span></i>, they will not die of sorrow,” said -the old dame softly. “They will grieve; but -they have each other. And they will see you -again; and they will know you are safe, with your—<em>husband</em>,” -she finished slowly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne was silent at the word; but it was not -repeated, though she listened for it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But how will they know I am safe?” she -asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Because,” said the old woman, rising nimbly -to her feet, “the sailors are getting up the anchor -now, and there is the last boat returning to the -land. I go to send word by them, saying where -you are. It is too late for any one to follow you -now.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>She went to the side of the ship, and called to -the boat as it rowed away:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Will you have the goodness, gentlemen, to -send word to Monsieur de Lamourie that his -daughter is safe and well, and that she has of her -own choice gone into exile for a reason which he -will understand; but that she will come back, with -love, when things are something changed?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The boat stopped, and the soldiers listened with -astonishment to this strange message. There was -a moment of indecision, and she trembled lest the -boat should put back. But there was no one -aboard with authority to thwart the will of Mademoiselle -de Lamourie, so a doubtful voice cried:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The message shall be delivered.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The oars dipped again, and the boat ran swiftly -toward the landing; and the ship sped smoothly -out with the tide.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The hawk face in the red shawl hurried back to -Yvonne. The girl, sorely overwrought, had once -more buried her head in the quilt, that she might -the more unrestrainedly give way to her tears. -Though she had no least dream of going back, -nevertheless the sending of the message, and the -realization that the ship was actually under way, had -overwhelmed her. Moreover, it had been for -weeks that she had endured the great strain dry-eyed, -her breast anguished for the relief of tears. -Now that the relief had come, however, it threatened -<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>to grow excessive, too exhausting in its -violence. Mother Pêche sat beside her, watching -for a while in silence. Then she seemed to think -the passionate outburst should be checked. But -she was far too wise to say so.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That’s right, dearie,” murmured the subtle -old dame at the girl’s ear. “Just cry as hard as -you like, if it does you good. There’s so many -women crying on this ship, poor souls, that you’re -no ways noticeable.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>So many women crying! True, they had not -the same to cry about that she had, but Yvonne -felt that her grief was suddenly cheapened. She -must try to be less weak than those others. With -an obstinate effort she strangled her sobs. Her -shoulders heaved convulsively for a minute or two, -and then, with a strong shudder, she sat up, -throwing back her deep hair and resolutely dashing -the tears from her eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What a fool I am, mother!” she cried. -“Here am I, where, after weeks of dreadful thinking, -I deliberately made up my mind to be. And -I do not repent my decision—no, not for one -instant. It <em>had to be</em>. Yet—why, I’m acting -just like a baby! But now I’m done with tears, -mother. You shall see that I am strong enough -for what I’ve undertaken.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Of course you are, dear heart!” said the old -woman softly. “The bravest of us women must -<span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>have our cry once in a while, or something is sure -to go wrong inside of us.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And now hadn’t I better find the captain, and -ask who’s on board?” cried Yvonne, springing -lightly to her feet, and no longer troubling to keep -the hood about her face.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But no, <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chérie</span></i>!” urged the old woman. “Don’t -you see how every one is still busy, and shouting, -and cursing, and unpleasant? This is not the time. -Wait just a little. And tell me, now, how you got -away.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne sat down again, and told the whole -story, vividly, with light in her eyes, and with -those revealing gestures of her small hands. The -old woman’s face darkened at the tale of the spy.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And so you see, mother,” she concluded, -“I feel very confident that he is in this ship—for -the man could have no reason to lie to me -about it. I am sure from his face that he is the -kind of man to do nothing without a reason.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Tell me what he looked like, <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chérie</span></i>!” said the -old woman, the whites of her eyes flashing nervously.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne described him—she made him stand -there on the deck before them. Mother Pêche -knew that picture well. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le Fûret</span> was one of the -few living creatures she feared. She rose to her -feet, and involuntarily cast an eager look in the -direction of the other ship, whose sails, a league -away, shone scarlet in that disastrous light.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>“What is the matter?” asked Yvonne, in swift -alarm.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My old legs need stretching. I was too long -still,” said Mother Pêche.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, you are troubled at something. Tell me -at once,” cried Yvonne, rising also, and letting her -cloak drop.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chérie</span></i>, yes!” answered the old woman, -much agitated, and not daring to deceive her. “I -<em>am</em> much troubled. That was <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le Fûret</span>, Vaurin’s -man, whom Captain Grande knocked down that -day at the forge. He would do anything. He -would lie even to you!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne grew pale to the lips.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then you think Paul is <em>not</em>”—she began, in -a strained voice.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I think he <em>may</em> not be in <em>this</em> ship,” interrupted -Mother Pêche hurriedly. “But I’ll go right now -and find out. Wait here for me.” And she went off -briskly, poking through the confusion with her staff.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She knew men, this old dame; and she quickly -found out what she wanted to find out. Trembling -with apprehension, she came back to Yvonne—and -went straight to the point.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, no, dear heart!” she began. “He is -not here. He is on the other ship yonder. I -have a plan, though”—</p> - -<p class='c000'>But there was no use going on; for Yvonne -had dropped in a faint.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXXII<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Aboard the “Good Hope”</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>Mother Pêche was not alarmed, but, like -the shrewd strategist she was, made haste -to turn the evil to good account. She summoned -a soldier—by excellent chance that same -boyish-faced, tall fellow who had so patly aided -at the embarking; and he with the best will in the -world and a fluttering in his breast carried Yvonne -straight to the captain’s cabin, where he laid her -upon the berth. Then, at Mother Pêche’s request, -he went to beg the captain’s presence for an instant -in his cabin.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The ship was now well under way, directed by a -pilot who knew the shoals and bars of Minas. The -business of stowing baggage was in the hands of -petty officers. The captain could be spared for a -little; and without doubt the soldier’s manner proclaimed -more clearly than words that here was no -affair of a weeping peasant. To such the captain -would just now have turned a deaf ear, for he had -all day been striving to harden his heart against the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>sight of sorrows which he could not mitigate. He -was an iron-grey, close-bearded man, this New -England captain, with a stern mouth and half-shut, -twinkling eyes. Rough toward men, he was -gentle toward women, children, and animals. His -name was John Stayner; and in Machias, Maine, -whence he hailed, he had a motherless daughter -of eighteen, the core of his heart, who was commonly -said to rule him as the moon rules ocean. -When John Stayner went to the cabin and saw -Yvonne in his berth, her white eyelids just stirring -to the first return of consciousness, there was small -need of Mother Pêche’s explanations. The girl’s -astonishing loveliness, her gentle breeding, the -plain signals of her distress, all moved him beyond -his wont. He straightway saw his own dark-haired -Essie in like case—and forthwith, stirred by that -fine chivalry which only a strong man far past -youth can know, he was on Yvonne’s side, though -all the world should be against her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As if their low voices were remote and speaking -in a tongue but half understood, Yvonne heard -them talking of her—the old woman explaining -swiftly, concisely, directly; the New Englander -speaking but now and then a word of comprehension. -His warmth reached Yvonne’s heart. She -opened her great eyes wide, and looked up into -the man’s face with a trustful content.</p> - -<p class='c000'>His own eyes filled in response. To him it was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>much the look of his Essie. He touched her hand -with his rough fingers, and said hastily, “This cabin -is yours, Miss—Mademoiselle de Lamourie, I -mean, so long as you are on this ship. Good-night. -I have much to do. Take care of her,” he added, -with a sudden tone of authority, turning to Mother -Pêche. “To-morrow, when we are clear of these -shoals and eddies, we’ll see what can be done.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And before Yvonne could control her voice or -wits to thank him, he was away.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She turned shining eyes upon the old woman.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What makes him so kind?” she murmured, -still half bewildered. “And what will he do?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He is a good man,” said Mother Pêche, with -decision. “I believe he will send us in a boat to -the other ship, at the very first chance.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne’s face grew radiant. She was silent with -the thought for a few minutes. Then she glanced -about the cabin.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How did I come here?” she asked, raising -herself on her elbow.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This is the captain’s own cabin, <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chérie</span></i>,” said the -old woman, with triumph in her voice. “And a -big, boy-faced red-coat carried you here, at my -request, and looked as if he’d like to keep on carrying -you forever.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I cannot sleep now, mother!” exclaimed the -girl, slipping out of the berth and drawing the -woollen cloak about her. “Let us go on deck -<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>awhile. Morning will come the more quickly -so.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, to be sure. And I would look a last look -on Grand Pré, if only on the flames of its dear -roofs,” agreed the old woman, obediently -smothering a deep yawn. In truth, now that -things bade fair to work her will, she wanted nothing -so much as a good sleep. But whatever Yvonne -wanted was the chief thing in her eyes. The two -went on deck, and huddled themselves under the -lee of the cabin, for there was a bitter wind blowing, -and the ship was too far from Grand Pré now -to feel the heat of the conflagration. The roaring -of it, too, was at this distance diminished to a huge -but soft sub-bass, upon which the creaking of -cordage, the whistling of the wind, the slapping of -the thin-crested waves, built up a sort of bitter, -singing harmony which thrilled Yvonne’s ears. -The whole village was now burning, a wide and -terrifying arc of flame from the Gaspereau banks -to the woodland lying toward Habitants. Above -it towered the chapel, a fixed serenity amid destruction. -It held Yvonne’s eyes for a while; but soon -they turned away, to follow the lit sails of the other -ship, now fleeting toward the foot of Blomidon. At -last, with a shiver, she said to her sleepy companion:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come, mother, let us go back into the cabin and -sleep, and dream what morning may bring to pass.”</p> - -<hr class='c011' /> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>That of all which morning should bring to pass -nothing might be missed, Yvonne was up and out -on deck at the earliest biting daylight. She found -the ship already well past Blomidon, the vale of -desolation quite shut from view. To west and -north the sky was clear, of a hard, steely pallor. -The wind was light, but enough to control the -dense smoke which still choked the greater half of -the heavens. It lay banked, as it were, sluggishly -and blackly revolving itself along the wooded ridge -that runs southward from Blomidon. Straight -ahead, across a wintry reach of sea, sped the other -ship, with all sail set. It seemed to Yvonne’s eyes -that she was much farther ahead than the night -before, and sailing with a dreadful swiftness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, we can never catch up!” she cried, pressing -one hand to her side and throwing back her -head with a half-despairing gesture.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Mother Pêche, who had just come on deck, -looked troubled. “We do certainly seem to be -no nearer,” she agreed reluctantly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At this moment the captain came up, smiling -kindly. He took Yvonne’s hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I hope you have slept, mademoiselle, and are -feeling better,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, monsieur, thanks to your great kindness,” -answered Yvonne, trying to smile, “but is not -the other ship getting very far ahead? She seems -to sail much faster than we do.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>“On the contrary, my dear young lady,” said -John Stayner, “the ‘Good Hope’ is much the -faster ship of the two. We shall overhaul them, -with this breeze, one hour before noon.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Will we?” cried Yvonne, with other questions -crowding into her eyes and voice.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The stern mouth smiled with understanding kindness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If we do not, I promise you I will signal them -to wait,” said he. “I find three families on this -ship whose men-folk are on the other. It was -great carelessness on some one’s part. I will -send them in the boat with you, mademoiselle,—and -gather in as many blessings as I can out of -this whole accursed business.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“As long as I live, monsieur, there will be -one woman at least ever blessing you and praying -for your happiness.” And suddenly seizing -his hand in both of hers Yvonne pressed it to her -lips.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A look of boyish embarrassment came over his -weather-beaten face.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Don’t do that, child!” he stammered. Then, -looking with a quizzical interest at the spot she had -kissed, he went on: “This old hand is something -rough and tarry for a woman’s lips. But do you -know, now, I kind of think more of it, rough as it -is, than I ever did before. If ever, child, you -should want a friend in that country of ours you’re -<span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>going to, remember that Captain John Stayner, of -Machias, Maine, is at your call.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>To escape thanks he strode off abruptly, with a -loud order on his lips.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Easy in her mind, Mother Pêche went back to -capture a little more sleep, Yvonne’s restlessness -having roused her too early. As for Yvonne, she -never knew quite how that morning, up to the -magical period of “one hour before noon,” managed -to drag its unending minutes through. It is -probable that she ate some pretence of a breakfast; -but her memory, at least, retained no record -of it. All she remembered was that she sat -huddled in her cloak, or paced up and down the -deck and talked of she knew not what to the kind -Captain John Stayner, and watched the space of -sea between the ships slowly—slowly—slowly -diminish.</p> - -<p class='c000'>For diminish it did. That marvel, as it seemed -to her, actually took place—as even the watched -pot will boil at last, if the fire be kept burning. -While it yet wanted more than an hour of noon, -the two ships came near abreast; and at an imperative -hail from the “Good Hope” her consort -hove to. A boat was quickly lowered away. -Four sailors took the oars. Two women surrounded -by children of all sizes were swung down into it; -then the gratefully ejaculating old mother of Petit -Joliet, the tear-stains of a sleepless night still salty -<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>in the wrinkles of her smiles; then Mother Pêche, -serene in the sense of an astonishing good fortune -for those she loved; last of all, Yvonne—she -went last, for self-discipline.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As Captain John Stayner moved to hand her -over the side, she turned and looked him in the -eyes. The words she wanted to say simply would -not come—or she dared not trust her voice; but -the radiance of her look he carried in his heart -through after-years. A minute more, and the -boat dropped astern; and Yvonne’s eyes were all -for the other ship. But Mother Pêche looked -back; and she saw, leaning hungrily over the -taffrail of the “Good Hope,” the long form of the -boy-faced soldier who had twice carried Yvonne -in his fortunate arms.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXXIII<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>The Divine Right of Queens</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>When Yvonne stood at last upon the deck -of the ship of her desire, her heart, without -warning, began a far too vehement gratulation. -Her cloak oppressed her. She dropped it, and -stood leaning upon Mother Pêche’s shoulder. She -grew suddenly pale, breathing with effort; and one -hand caught at her side.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The apparition made a wondrous stir on deck. -To those who had ever heard of such a being, it -appeared that the Witch of the Moon, in all the indescribable -magic of her beauty, had been translated -into flesh. Men seemed upon the instant to -find an errand to that quarter of the ship. Captain -Eliphalet Wrye, who had been watching with great -unconcern a transfer whose significance seemed -to him quite ordinary, came forward in haste, eager -to do the honours of his ship, and marvelling -beyond measure at such a guest. Captain Eliphalet -had traded much among the French of Acadie -and New France. He knew well the difference -<span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>between the seigneurial and the <em>habitant</em> classes; -and this knowledge was just what he needed to -make his bewilderment complete.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Here’s the captain of the ship coming to see -you, <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">chérie</span></i>!” whispered Mother Pêche, squeezing -the girl’s arm significantly. Yvonne steadied herself -with an effort, and turned a brilliant glance -upon this important stranger. With his rough -blue reefing-jacket, extremely broad shoulders, and -excessively broad yellow-brown beard, Captain -Eliphalet looked to her just as she thought a -merchant-captain ought to look. She therefore -approved of him, and awaited his approach with a -smile that put him instantly at ease. As he came -up, however, hat in hand and with considered -phrases on his lips, the old woman forestalled him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Let me present you, Monsieur le Capitaine,” -said she, stepping forward with a courtesy, “to my -mistress, Mademoiselle de Lamourie, of Lamourie -Place.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is but ashes, alas! monsieur,” interrupted -Yvonne, holding out her hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The ship is yours, Mademoiselle de Lamourie!” -he exclaimed, and bowed with a gesture of -relinquishing everything to her command. It was -not for nothing Captain Eliphalet had visited Montreal -and Quebec.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne dropped her lids for a second, and shook -her head rebukingly.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>“That is not English, monsieur,” she protested, -“but it is very nice of you. I should not know -what to do with a ship just now; but I like our -little pleasant French fictions.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Captain Eliphalet, however, could be French for -a moment only.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But you, mademoiselle, you—how comes such -a one as you to be sailing away into exile?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne’s long lashes drooped again, and this -time did not rise so quickly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have reason to think, monsieur,” she answered -gravely, “that dear friends and kinsfolk of mine -are on this ship, themselves going, fettered, into -exile. I could not stay behind and let them go -so. But enough of myself, monsieur, for the -present,” she went on, speaking more rapidly. -“I want to ease the anxieties of these poor souls -who have come with me. Is there among your -prisoners a young man known as ‘Petit Joliet’? -Here is his mother come to look for him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Captain Eliphalet summoned a soldier who stood -near, and put the question to him in English.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There is one by the name of Franse Joliet on -the roll, captain,” answered the red-coat, saluting.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That’s he! That’s my boy!” cried his mother, -catching the name. She had been waiting close -by with a strained, fixed face, which now went -to pieces in a medley of smiles and tears, like a -reflection on still water suddenly broken. She -<span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>clutched Yvonne’s hands, blessed and kissed them, -and then rushed off vaguely as if to find Petit -Joliet in durance behind some pile of ropes or -water-butt.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And Lenoir—Tamin Lenoir,” continued -Yvonne, her voice thrilling with joy over her task, -“and Michel Savarin. Are they, too, in the -hold?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, miss,” said the soldier, saluting again, -and never taking his eyes from her face. She -turned to the two women in their restless fringe of -clingers; and they, more sober because more -hampered in their delight, thanked her devoutly, -and moved off to learn what more they could -elsewhere.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Meanwhile another figure had drawn near—a -figure not unknown to Yvonne’s eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>When she first appeared Lieutenant Shafto, the -English officer in command of the guard, was -pacing the quarter deck, stiffly remote and inexpressibly -bored. He had two ambitions in life—the -one, altogether laudable and ordinary, to be a -good officer in the king’s service; the other, -more distinguished and uncommon, to be quoted -as an example of dress and manners to his fellow-men. -In London he had achieved in this direction -sufficient success to establish him steadfastly -in his purpose. Ordered to Halifax with his regiment, -he had there found the field for his talent -<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>sorely straitened. At Grand Pré, far worse: it was -reduced to the dimensions of a back-door plot. -Here on shipboard it seemed wholly to have -vanished. Nevertheless, for practice, and for the -preservation of a civil habit, he had clung to his -niceties. Now, when he saw Yvonne, his first -thought was to thank Heaven he had been as particular -with his toilet that morning as if about to -walk down Piccadilly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He fitted his glass to his eye.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Gad!” he said to himself, “it really is!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He removed the glass, and giving it a more -careful readjustment, stared again.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Gad!” said he, “it is none other! A devilish -fine girl! She couldn’t be beat in all London for -looks or wits. What does it mean? Given that -cad Anderson the slip, eh? Discriminating, begad!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Lieutenant Shafto had a definite contempt for -Anderson, as a man who sat by the fire when he -might have been fighting. If a man fought well -or dressed well, Shafto could respect him. Anderson -did neither. He was therefore easily placed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There’s something rich behind this,” went -on the lieutenant to himself. “But, gad! there is -a savour to this voyage, after all. There’s a pair -of bright eyes—devilish bright eyes—to dress -for!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He hitched his sword to a more gallant angle -<span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>as he stepped primly down the deck. He gave -the flow of his coat an airy curve. He would -have felt of his queue had he dared, to assure -himself it was dressed to a nicety. He glanced -with complaisance at his correct and entirely spotless -ruffles. And by this he was come to mademoiselle’s -side, where he stood, bowing low, his -cap held very precisely across his breast.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The honour, mademoiselle! Ah, the marvel -of it!” he murmured. “The ship is transfigured. -I was but now anathematizing it as a most especial -hell: I looked up, and it had become a paradise—a -paradise of one fair spirit!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne looked at him with searching eyes as -he delivered this fantasia, then a trifle imperiously -gave him her hand to kiss.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She had spoken passingly with him twice or -thrice before, at Father Fafard’s. She understood -him—read him through: a man absurd, but -never contemptible; to be quite heartily disliked, -yet wholly trusted; to be laughed at, yet discreetly; -vain, indomitable, a fighter and a fop; -living for the field and the hair-dresser. Here -was a man whom she would use, yet respect him -the while.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You do nobly, monsieur,” she said, with a -faint, enigmatic smile, “to thus keep the light of -courtly custom burning clear, even in our darknesses.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>“There can be no darkness where your face -shines, mademoiselle,” he cried, delighted not less -with himself than with her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was a little obvious, but she accepted it -graciously with a look, and he went on:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I beg that you will let me place my cabin at -your disposal during the voyage. You will find it -narrow, but roomy enough to accommodate you -and your maid.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Here Captain Eliphalet interfered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I claim the privilege, mademoiselle,” said he, -with some vexation in his tones, “of giving you the -captain’s cabin, which is by all odds the most -commodious place on the ship—the <em>only</em> place -at all suitable for you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The captain is right,” said Shafto reluctantly. -“His cabin is the more comfortable; and I beg -him to share mine.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In this way, then, the difficulty was settled, and -Yvonne found herself in quarters of unwonted -comfort for a West India trader, Captain Eliphalet -being given to luxury beyond the most of his -Puritan kin. She was contented with her accomplishment -so far as it went; and having two gallant -men to deal with she felt already secure of her -empire. She read approbation, too, in those enigmatic -eyes of Mother Pêche, with their whites ever -glancing and gleaming. Moreover, as she sat -down to luncheon, to the condiment of a bounding -<span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>heart and so much appetite as might nourish -a pee-wee bird, she had two points gained to elate -her. First, in passing the open hatchway which, -as Captain Eliphalet told her, led to the prisoners’ -quarters, she had shaken lightly from her lips -enough clear laughter to reach, as she guessed, -those ears attuned to hear it; and second, she had -the promises both of the broad-bearded captain -and the beautifully barbered lieutenant, that her -<em>cousins</em>, Monsieur de Mer and Monsieur Paul -Grande, should be brought on deck to see her -that very day.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You should be very good to them, gentlemen,” -she said demurely, picking with dubious fork at -brown strips of toasted herring on her plate. “My -cousin Marc especially. <em>He</em> is half <em>English</em>, you -know. He has the most adorable English wife, -from Boston, with red hair wherein he easily persuades -himself that the sun rises and sets.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If you would have us love them for your sake, -mademoiselle, love them not too much yourself,” -laughed the broad-bearded Captain Eliphalet, in -vast good-humour; but the admirable lieutenant -murmured:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There is no hair but black hair—black with -somehow a glint in it when the sun strikes—so.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Mother Pêche, passing behind them and -catching a flash from Yvonne’s eye, smiled many -thoughts.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXXIV<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>The Soul’s Supremer Sense</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>At this point it seems proper that I should -once more speak in my own person; for -at this point the story of my beloved once more -converges to my own.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I was awakened out of a bitter dream by Marc’s -lips moving at my ear in the stealthiest whisper. -The first pallor of dawn was sifting down amongst -us from the open hatch, opened for air. I nodded -my head to signify I was awake and listening. -There was a ringing gabble of small waves against -the ship’s side, covering up all trivial sounds; and -I knew we were tacking.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Listen now, Paul,” said Marc’s obscure whisper, -like a voice within my head. “We have -made a beginning earlier than we planned, because -the guards were sleepy, and the noise of these -light waves favoured us. You knew, or guessed, -we had a plan. That wily fox, La Mouche, -brought a file with him in his boot. It was sent -to him while he was in the chapel prison. Grûl, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>none other, sent it to him inside a loaf of bread—and, -faith, thereby came a broken tooth. Your -Grûl is wonderful, a <em>deus ex machinâ</em> every time. -Well, we muffled the file in my shirt, and I scraped -away, under cover of all this good noise, at the -spring of La Mouche’s handcuffs, till it gave. Now -he can slip them on and off in a twinkling; but to -the eye of authority they are <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">infrangible</span> as ever. -Oh, things are coming our way at last, for a change, -my poor dejected! We will rise to-night, this very -coming night, if all goes well; and the ship will be -ours, for we are five to one.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>There was a thrill in his whisper, imperturbable -Marc though he was. Under the long chafing of -restraint his imperturbability had worn thin.</p> - -<p class='c000'>My own blood flowed with a sudden warmth at -his words. Here was a near hope of freedom, -and freedom would mean to me but one thing—a -swift return to the neighbourhood where I -might achieve to see Yvonne. I felt the strong -medicine of this thought working health in every -vein.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But how to-night?” I whispered back, unwilling -to be too soon sanguine. “It takes time -to file fetters, <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">n’est-ce pas</span></i>?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, but trust La Mouche!” replied Marc. -“He understands those bracelets—as you, my -cousin, in days you doubtless choose to forget, -understood the more fragile, but scarce less fettering, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span>ones affected by fair arms in Montreal, or -Quebec, or even Trois Pistoles.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I took it ill of my cousin to gall my sore at such -a moment, but I strictly held my tongue; and -after a vexing pause he went on:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This wily La Mouche—with free hands and -the knowing how, it is but a turn and a click, and -the thing is off. It will be no mean weapon, too, -when we’re ready to wield it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I stretched fiercely.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Pray God it be to-night!” I muttered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“S-sh-sh!” whispered Marc in my ear. “Not -so loud, boy! Now, with this to dream on, go to -sleep again. There’ll be something to keep us -awake next night.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And when we’ve got the ship, what then?” I -whispered, feeling no doubt of our success.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We’ll run into the St. John mouth,” was the -answer, “and then, leaving the women and children, -with such men as will stay, at the Jemseg -settlement, we will strike overland on snow-shoes -for Quebec.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And I for Grand Pré,” said I doggedly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I heard the ghost of a laugh flit from Marc’s -lips.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Good dog! Hold fast!” said he.</p> - -<p class='c000'>There was no gainsaying it. I was better. For -perhaps an hour or two I slept like a baby, to -awake deeply refreshed. A clear light came down -<span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span>the hatch, and there was a busy tramping of sailors -overhead. It was high morning.</p> - -<p class='c000'>We were all awake, but silent. Sullen we might -have seemed, and hopelessly submissive, but there -was an alertness in the eyes flashing everywhere -toward Marc and me, such as might have been -warning to a folk less hardily indifferent than our -captors. Two red-coated guards, taxed with the -office of preventing conspiracy, paced up and -down with their heads high and heeded us little. -“What could these poor handcuffed wretches do, -anyway?” was the palpable significance of their -mien.</p> - -<p class='c000'>We desired indeed, at that time, to do nothing -save eat the breakfast of weevilly biscuits just now -served out to us, with good water still sweet from -the wells of vanished Grand Pré. When one has -hunger, there is rare relish in a weevilly biscuit; -and I could have desired more of them than I -got. With our fettered hands we ate like a colony -of squirrels.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the course of the morning it was not difficult, -the guards being so heedless, to pass whispered -word from one to another, so that soon all Marc’s -plans were duly laid down. His was the devising -and ordering head, while La Mouche, for all his -subtlety, and long Philibert Trou, for all his craft, -were but the wielded instruments. It was an -unwonted part for me to be playing, this of blindly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span>following another’s lead; but Marc had done well, -seeing my heavy preoccupation, to make no great -demand upon my wits. My arm, he knew, would -be ready enough at need. I was not jealous. I -wanted to fight the English; but I wanted to -think—well, of just one thing on earth. Looking -back now, I trust I would have been more -useful to our cause that morning had not Marc’s -capacity made wits of mine superfluous.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Throughout the morning we were all so quiet -that the ship’s rats, lean and grey, came out and -ate the few crumbs we had let drop. Nevertheless, -ere an hour before noon every man knew the -part he was to play in the venture of next night. -Long Philibert and La Mouche, with two other -Acadian woodsmen skilled in ambuscade, were to -deal with the guard silently. Marc and I, with no -stomach for aught but open warfare, were to lead -the rush up through the hatchway, to an excellent -chance of a bayonet through our gullets. I felt -justified now, however, in considering as to -whether I should be likely to find Yvonne still at -Grand Pré, casting a ray of beauty on the ruins, -or at Halifax, disturbing with her eyes the deliberations -of the governor and his council.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I said—one hour before noon. About that time -the speed of the ship sensibly slackened, and there -seemed presently a confusion, an excitement of -some sort upon deck. We heard hails and sharp -<span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span>orders. There was a sound as of people coming -on board. And then, of a sudden, a strange -trembling seized upon me. It was in every nerve -and vein, and my heart shook merely, instead of -beating. Such a feeling had come over me once -before—when Yvonne’s eyes, turned upon me -suddenly, seemed to say more than her lips would -have permitted her to acknowledge. With a faint -laugh at the very madness of it I could not but -say to Marc:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I think that is Yvonne coming!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Whereupon he looked at me solicitously, as if he -thought I was about to be taken with some sickness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I bit my tongue for having said it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Before many minutes, however, footsteps passed -near the hatchway, and again the trembling took -me. Then I caught a ripple of clear laughter—life -has never afforded to my ears other melody -so sweet as that laughter was, and is, and always -will be. I sprang straight upon my feet, but -instantly sat down again. Marc himself had heard -it and was puzzled, for who that had ever heard -the laughter of Yvonne de Lamourie could forget -it?</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It—<em>is she</em>!” I said to him, in a thick voice.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXXV<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>The Court in the Cabin</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>It is marvel to us now how the next hours of -suspense did pass. Yet pass they did, and -in a joy that was fairly certitude; for I could not -doubt the witness of my inmost soul. At length I -saw that Marc believed also. His grave, dark -face grew luminous as he said, after long balancing -of the matter:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Her eyes, my Paul, have opened at the last -instant, and she has chosen exile with thee! Even -so would Prudence have done. And seeing how -thou, my comrade, lovest her, I am ready to believe -she may be almost such another as Prudence. -Wherefore she is here, <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">quod erat demonstrandum</span></i>!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Even as he spoke, a soldier came down the -ladder and stood before us.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am bidden to say,” said he, “that Mademoiselle -de Lamourie desires to see Captain de Mer -and Captain Grande on deck; and I am ordered -by Lieutenant Shafto to fetch you at once.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>With such haste as was possible—it is not -easy when handcuffed to climb ladders—we -made our way on deck, and straight came Yvonne -running to meet us, both small hands outstretched. -Her eyes sank into mine for just one heart-beat—and -that look said, “I love you.” Then her -guarded face grew maidenly impartial.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My friends! My dear friends!” she cried; -but stopped as if she had been struck. Our hands -had not gone forth to meet hers. Her eyes fell -upon our fetters. She turned slowly toward Captain -Eliphalet and Lieutenant Shafto, who had -followed close behind her. Flame gathered in -her eyes, and a dark flush of indignation went over -her face. She pointed at our handcuffs.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This to my friends—in my presence!” she -cried. “Of a truth your courtesy is tempered, -gentlemen!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>With an angry exclamation Captain Eliphalet -sprang forward to remove the offending irons; -but the exquisite lieutenant was too quick for -him. At a sign the guard who had brought us -slipped them off, and stood holding them behind -his back, while his officer was left free to make -apologies.</p> - -<p class='c000'>These were abundant, and of such a tone as to -leave no doubt of their sincerity. Moreover, by -his manner, he included Marc and myself in his -expressions of regret, which proved sound policy -<span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span>on his part, and went far to win his pardon from -Yvonne.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Believe me, mademoiselle,” he concluded, “it -was never for one moment intended that these -gentlemen, your friends, officers in the French -army, and therefore, though my enemies, yet honoured -members of my own profession, should thus -obtrude upon your gentle eyes those chains, with -which not their fault, but the chances of our profession -have for a season embarrassed them.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>This was so apt and so elegant a conclusion that -Captain Eliphalet felt himself urged to some great -things, if he would not be quite eclipsed in his -guest’s entrancing eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Indeed, mademoiselle,” he made haste to say, -“as these gentlemen are your friends and kinsmen, -and you have dared so splendidly for their sake, -they may say good-by to the irons for the rest -of the voyage, if they will but give their word -of honour that they will in no way use their -liberty to the detriment of my duties and responsibilities, -nor to free any of the other prisoners.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He turned to us with a very hearty air. Yvonne -looked radiant with satisfaction. Lieutenant -Shafto’s face dropped—for he doubtless thought -our continued freedom would much limit his privileges -with Yvonne. But I spoke up at once, forestalling -Marc.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I need hardly assure you, Monsieur le Capitaine, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span>that we do from our hearts appreciate your -most generous courtesy. But beyond the few -hours of freedom which we dare hope you may -grant us each day, for the priceless solace of our -fair kinswoman’s company, we cannot in conscience -accept a favour that would too enviably distinguish -us from our fellows.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Captain Eliphalet looked unaffectedly astonished. -Yvonne looked hurt and disappointed for -a moment; then her face changed, and I saw that -her swift brain was drawing intricate inferences from -this strange rejection of parole—to which Marc -had assented in a word. As for the elegant Mr. -Shafto, however, he was frankly delighted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Right soldierly said, gentlemen!” he exclaimed. -“A good officer stands by his men. I -am honoured in meeting you!” and with a very -precise civility he shook hands with us in turn.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But it is very cold here, is it not?” cried -Yvonne, with a little shiver, pulling her cloak close. -“Let me invite you all to my cabin.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>This invitation she gave with a flying radiance -of look at Captain Eliphalet, wherewith he stood -a millionfold rewarded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the cabin I was not greatly astonished, though -more than greatly pleased, to find Mother Pêche. -The undisguised triumph in her eyes said, “Didn’t -I tell you?”—and in involuntary response to the -challenge I thrust my hand into my breast and felt -<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>the little deerskin pouch containing the tress of hair -and the mystic stone. She smiled at the gesture.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I pressed the dear old witch’s hand, and said in -a low voice:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In all my life to come I cannot thank you -enough. But isn’t it wonderful? I’m in fear each -moment of waking, and to find it a dream.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“She <em>is</em> a dream, Master Paul!” said the old -dame. “And see how all men dream when they -look upon her!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>With a jealous pang I realized the truth of what -she said; and thereupon I made haste to Yvonne’s -side, where I saw Marc, Shafto, and Captain Eliphalet -all hanging devoutly upon her words. I was -but a dull addition to the sprightly circle, for I -was wondering how I should manage to get a word -with her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Had I but known her better I need not have wondered. -Presently she broke off in the midst of -a sparkling tirade, laid her hand upon my arm, -and said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Will you pardon me, gentlemen, but I have a -brief word awaiting the ear of Captain Grande,” -and calmly she walked me off to the cabin -door.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I presumed, perhaps too hastily, that you still -wanted me, dear,” was what she said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I dared not look straight at her, for I knew that -if I did so my face would be a flaunting proclamation -<span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>of my worship. I could but say, in a voice -that strove for steadiness:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Beloved, beloved! have you done all this for -me?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>A happy mirth came into her voice as she -answered:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, Paul, not quite all for you! I had to -think a little of a certain good man, madly bent -on marrying a woman who would, alas! (I know it -too well) have made him a most unpleasant wife. -George Anderson will never know what I saved -him from. But <em>you</em> may, Paul! Aren’t you a -little bit afraid?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I am well aware that in this supreme moment I -betrayed no originality whatever. I could only repeat -myself, in expressions which I need not set -down. Trite as they were, however, she forgave -them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We have so much to talk about, dear,” she -said, “but not now. We must go back to the -others; and I must take your cousin Marc aside -as I have done with you, so that this won’t look -too strange. Does <em>he</em> like me—approve of me?” -she asked anxiously.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Second only to his little Puritan he loves -you,” said I. “He knows everything.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Then, just as we turned back to the others, I -whispered in her ear:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Be prepared for events to-night!”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span>She gave me a startled look, understanding at -once. Then indeed, as now, whatever is in my -mind she is apt to read as if it were an open -book.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“So soon? Oh, be careful for my sake!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I could give no answer, for by this, the cabin -being small, we were quite returned from our -privacy.</p> - -<p class='c000'>For perhaps two hours Yvonne entertained us, -not only conversing herself with a gracious wit -that struck but to illumine, never to wound, but -calling forth a responsive alertness in her cavaliers. -Captain Eliphalet began to wonder at his -own readiness of repartee and compliment. Lieutenant -Shafto forgot the perfect propriety of his -ruffles, engrossed for once in another than himself. -Even my imperturbable Marc yielded in -some measure to the resistless bewilderment, and -played the gallant with a quaint, fatherly air that -pleasured me. I, only, was the silent one. I -could but listen, intoxicated, speaking when I -could not escape it, and my ears averse to all -words but those coming from her lips.</p> - -<p class='c000'>By and by—I was vexed that his discretion -should bring the moment so soon—Marc made -his <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">adieux</span>, insisting against much protest that he -desired to keep his welcome unworn for the morrow. -I could do naught save follow his example; -but as I withdrew, Yvonne’s eyes held me so that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span>my feet in going moved like lead. The broad-bearded -captain and the impeccable lieutenant -most civilly accompanied us to the door of our -prison.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This situation, gentlemen,” said Marc, with a -smile of careless amusement, “which your courtesy -does so sweeten for us, is certainly not without -the relish of strangeness.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It shall be made as little strange as lies in -our power to make it, sir,” replied Captain -Eliphalet heartily; and we parted with all expressions -of esteem; not till their backs were turned -upon us did we extend our wrists for the irons, -which the discreet guard had kept hidden under -the flap of his great-coat.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXXVI<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Sword and Silk</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>That night the weather fell thick, and, the -wind freshening suddenly, the ship dropped -anchor. Captain Eliphalet Wrye was not so -familiar with the reefs and tides of Fundy that he -cared to navigate her waters in the dark. This -we considered very favourable to our enterprise; -for the tide running strongly, and the wind -against it, kicked up a pother that made the hold -reëcho.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The time agreed upon was toward three, when -those asleep are heaviest. I think that most of -our men slept, but with that consciousness of -events impending which would bring them wide -awake on the instant. Marc, I know, lay sleeping -like a child. But for me no sleep, no sleep indeed. -I could not spare a minute from the delight of -thinking and dreaming. Here I lay in irons, a -captive, an exile,—but my beloved had come.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“She has come, my beloved!” I kept saying -over and over to myself.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>Then I tried planning for our future; but the -morrow promised her presence, and for the time -I could not get my thoughts past that. There -was no need to discount future joy by drawing -bills of dear anticipation. But it was tonic to my -brain to look back upon the hopeless despair in -which I had lain weltering so few hours before. -Now they seemed years away—and how I -blessed their remoteness, those sick hours of -anguish! Yes, though I had not given up my -purpose, I had surely given up the hope that -kept it alive. Then Mother Pêche’s soothsaying -over the lines of my palm came back to me: -“<em>Your heart’s desire is nigh your death of hope</em>!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Wonderful old woman! How came such wisdom -to your simple heart, with no teachers but herbs, -and dews, and stillnesses of the open marsh, and -hill-whispers, and the unknown stars? Out of -some deep truth you spoke, surely; for even as -my hope died, had not my heart’s desire come? -And I said to myself, “It is but a narrow and -shallow heart that expects to understand all it -believes. Do we not walk as men blindfolded in -the citadel of mystery? What seem to us the large -things and unquestionable may, the half of them, -be vain—and small, derided things an uninterpreted -message of truth!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>My revery was broken by Marc laying free hands -upon mine.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span>“Are you awake?” he whispered. “The time -has come. See! This is the way to open them.” -And very easily, as it seemed, he slipped the iron -from my wrists.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Feel!” he went on, in the same soft whisper. -I followed his fingers in the dimness. There -was no light but the murk of a smoky lanthorn -some way off, where the guards sat dejectedly -smoking,—and I caught the method of -unlocking the spring. “Free your next neighbour, -and pass the word along,” continued Marc; and -I did so. It was all managed with noiseless -precision.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In a very few minutes—which seemed an hour—there -was a sneeze from the furthermost corner of -the hold, beyond the place where the guards sat. -It was not the most natural and easy sneeze in the -world, but it served. It was answered by another -from the opposite corner. The shrill, silly sound -was yet in the air when the ominous form of long -Philibert Trou loomed high behind the sitting -guards and fell upon one of them like fate; while -at the same moment, like a springing cat, the lithe -figure of La Mouche shot up at the other’s throat.</p> - -<p class='c000'>For such skilled hands it was but a moment’s -work, and no noise about it. Like the rising of -an army of spectres, every man came silently to -his feet. Seizing the musket of the nearest guard, -where he lay motionless, I glided to the hatch, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span>just far enough ahead of Marc to get my foot first -on the ladder.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As I reached the deck the sentry, not three -paces distant, was just turning. With a yell to -warn his comrades he sprang at me. Nimbly I -avoided his bayonet thrust, and the butt of my -musket brought him down. I had reserved my -fire for the possibility of a more dangerous encounter.</p> - -<p class='c000'>There were shouts along the deck—and shots—and -I saw sailors running up, and then more -soldiers—and I sprang to meet them. But -already Marc was at my side, and a dozen, nay, a -score, of my fellow-captives. In a breath, as it -were, the score doubled and trebled—the hold -seemed to spout them forth, so hotly they came.</p> - -<p class='c000'>There were but few shots, and a fall or two with -groans. The thing was over before it was well -begun, so perfect had been the surprise. We had -all who were on deck in irons, save for three slain -and one grievously wounded. Those who had -been asleep in their bunks when the alarm was -given now promptly gave themselves up, soldiers -and sailors alike, being not mad enough to play -out a lost game. Handcuffs were abundant, which -made our work the simpler.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As I went forward, wondering where Shafto was -this while, I was met by La Mouche and two others -leading a prisoner. It was Captain Eliphalet, with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>blood on his face, sorely dazed, but undaunted. -Indignation and reproach so struggled within him -that he could not for the moment find speech.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Pardon, I beseech you, Captain Wrye,” I made -haste to say, “the need which has compelled me -to make such rude return for your courtesy. -This,” and I tapped his irons with my finger, -“is but for an hour or two at most, till we get -things on our ship fitly ordered. Then, believe -me, you will find that this is merely a somewhat -abrupt reversal of the positions of host and -guest.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>I fear that Captain Eliphalet’s reply was going -to be a rude one, but if so it was quenched at his -lips. The door of the cabin opened, a bright light -streamed forth, and down it glided Yvonne in her -white gown, the black lace over her head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, Paul, what has happened? Are you—are -you safe?” she asked breathlessly, ‘twixt laughing -and tears. The shooting and shouting had aroused -her roughly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Quite safe, my dearest,” I whispered. “And—the -ship is ours.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>All that this meant flashed upon her, and her -face flushed, her eyes dilated. But before she -found voice to welcome the great news, her glance -fell upon Captain Eliphalet’s blood-stained countenance, -and her joy faded into compassion.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh!” she cried, “you are <em>not</em> wounded, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>surely, surely!” And she pressed her handkerchief -pitifully to the blood-spots.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is nothing, nothing, mademoiselle, but a -mere scratch, or bruise, rather,” stammered Captain -Eliphalet. Then she saw that his hands were -fettered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Paul!” she exclaimed, turning upon me a face -grown very white and grave. “And he was so -kind to me! How could you!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“As a matter of fact, I didn’t, Yvonne,” said I. -“But this is what I am going to do.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Slipping off the irons I tossed them into the sea.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Captain Wrye,” said I to him, with a bow, “I -have much yet to do, and I must not stay here -any longer. May I commit to your charge for a -little while what is more precious than all else?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne thanked me with a look, and laid her -hand on the captain’s arm.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We will dress your wound, monsieur,” said -she. “Mother Pêche has a wondrous skill in such -matters.” And she led the captain away.</p> - -<p class='c000'>By this Marc was come up, with a squad of his -men fully armed. Some half score approached -the second cabin. A window opened, a thin -stream of fire flashed out, with a sharp report of a -pistol; and a man fell, shot through the head. -Another report, with the red streak in the front of -it, and a tall Acadian threw up his arms, screamed -chokingly, and dropped across a coil of rope.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span>The precise Lieutenant Shafto had awakened to -the state of affairs.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Down with the door, men, before he can load -again!” shouted Marc, springing forward; and long -Philibert picked up a light spar which lay at hand, -very well suited to the purpose.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But there was no need of it. The door was -thrown open, and in the light from Yvonne’s cabin -was revealed the form of the English officer. He -stood in his doorway, very angry and scornful, the -point of his sword thrust passionately against the -deck in front of him. A fine and a brave figure -he was, as he stood there in his stockings, breeches, -and fairly be-ruffled shirt—for he had not just -now taken time to perfect his toilet with the customary -care. In this attitude he paused for a -second, lightly springing his sword, and scowling -upon us.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I must ask you to surrender, monsieur,” said -Marc, advancing. “The ship is in our hands. I -shall be glad to accept your parole.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will not surrender!” he answered curtly. -“If there be a gentleman among you who can use -a sword, I am willing to fight him. If not, I will -see how many more of this rabble I can take with -me.” And he jerked his head toward the two -whom he had shot down.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will cross swords with you,” I cried, getting -ahead of Marc, “and will count myself much -<span class='pageno' id='Page_275'>275</span>honoured in meeting so brave a gentleman. But -you English took my sword from me, and up -to the present have neglected to give it back.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have swords, of course, monsieur,” he replied, -his face lighting with satisfaction as he -stepped back into his cabin to get them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But some one else was not satisfied. Yvonne’s -hands were on my arm—her eyes, wide with -terror, imploring mine. “Don’t! It will kill me, -dear! Oh, what madness! Have you no pity -for me!” she gasped.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I looked at her reassuringly, not liking to say -there was no danger, lest I should seem to boast; -and so instant was her reading of my thought that -even as I looked the fear died out of her face.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is nothing, dear heart. Ask Marc,” I -whispered. She turned to him with the question -in her eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Paul is the best sword in New France,” said -Marc quietly, “not even excepting my father, the -Sieur de Briart.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Now so quickly was the confidence of my own -heart transferred into the heart of my beloved that -she was no more afraid. Indeed, what she said was:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You must not hurt him, Paul! He has been -very nice to me!” and this in a voice so clear -that Shafto himself heard it as he came out with -the swords. It ruffled him, but he bowed low to -her in acknowledgment of her interest.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_276'>276</span>“They are of the same length. Choose, monsieur!” -said he, holding them out to me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I took the nearest—and knew as soon as the -hilt was in my hand that it was an honest weapon, -of English make, something slow in action and -lacking subtlety of response, but adequate to the -present enterprise. Lanthorns were brought, and -so disposed by Marc’s orders that the light should -fall fairly for one as for the other. The Englishman -had regained his good temper,—or a civil -semblance of it,—and marked the preparations -with approval.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You have had abundant experience, I perceive, -in the arbitrament of gentlemen,” said he.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My cousin has, in particular, monsieur,” replied -Marc dryly. Whereupon Mr. Shafto turned -upon me a scrutiny of unaffected interest.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A moment more, and the swords set up that -thin and venomous whispering of theirs. Now, -what I am <em>not</em> going to do, even to please Yvonne, -is—undertake to describe that combat. She wishes -it, because under my instruction she has learned -to fence very cunningly herself. But to me the -affair was unpleasant, because I saw from the first -a brave gentleman, and a good enough swordsman -as these English go, hopelessly overmatched. I -would not do him the discredit of seeming to play -with him. He fenced very hotly, too. He wanted -blood, being bitter and humiliated. After a few -<span class='pageno' id='Page_277'>277</span>minutes of quick play I thought it best to prick -him a little sharply in the arm. The blood -spurted scarlet over his white sleeve; and I sprang -back, dropping my point.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Are you satisfied, monsieur?” I asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, never! Guard yourself, sir!” he cried -angrily, taking two quick steps after me.</p> - -<p class='c000'>During the next two minutes or so he was so -impetuous as to keep me quite occupied; and I -was about concluding to disarm him, when there -came a strange intervention. It was most irregular; -but the wisest of women seem to have small -regard for points of stringency in masculine etiquette. -At a most knowingly calculated moment -there descended between us, entangling and diverting -the points of our weapons,—what but a flutter -of black lace!</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will not have either of you defeated!” came -Yvonne’s voice, gayly imperious. “You shall <em>both</em> -of you surrender at once, to me! There is no dishonour, -gentlemen, in surrendering to a woman!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was a most gracious thought on her part, to -save a brave man from humiliation; and my worship -of her deepened, if that were possible. As -for the elegant Mr. Shafto, he was palpably taken -aback, and glowered rudely for a space of some -seconds. Then he came to himself and accepted -the diversion with good grace. With a very low -bow he presented his sword-hilt to Yvonne, saying:</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_278'>278</span>“To you, and to you only, I yield myself a -prisoner, Mademoiselle de Lamourie,”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne took the sword, examined it with gay -concern on this side and on that, tried it against -the deck as she had seen him do, and then, without -so much as a glance at Marc or me for permission, -gravely returned it to him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Keep it, monsieur,” she said. “I have no use -for it at present; and I trust to hold my prisoners -whether they be armed or defenceless.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That you will, mademoiselle, I’ll wager,” -spoke up Captain Eliphalet, just behind.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_279'>279</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXXVII<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Fire in Ice</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>Some while after, as in my passing to and fro -I went by the cabin for the fiftieth time, my -expectation came true: the door opened, and -Yvonne, close wrapped in her great cloak, stood -beside me. I drew her under the lee of the cabin, -where the bitter wind blew less witheringly. The -first of dawn was just creeping bleakly up the sky, -and the ship was under way.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are cold, dear,” exclaimed Yvonne -beneath her breath, catching my hand in her two -little warm ones; and, faith! I was, though I had -not had time to notice it till she bade me. The -next moment, careless of the eyes of La Mouche, -who stood by the rail not ten paces off, she opened -her cloak, flung the folds of it about my neck, and -drew my face down, in that enchanted darkness, to -the sweet warmth of hers.</p> - -<p class='c000'>There were no words. What could those vain -things avail in such a moment, when our pulses -beat together, and our souls met at the lips, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_280'>280</span>in silence was plighted that great troth which shall -last, it is my faith, through other lives than this? -Then she drew softly away, and, with eyes cast -down, left me, and went back into her cabin.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I lifted my head. La Mouche stood by the rail, -looking off across the faintly lightening water. As -I passed near him he turned and grasped my hand -hard.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am most glad for you, my captain!” he said -quietly. But I saw that my joy was an emphasis -to his own sorrow, and his very lips were grey for -remembrance of the woman who had stricken him.</p> - -<hr class='c011' /> - -<p class='c000'>When it was full daylight we could see the other -ship, a white speck on the horizon far ahead. -Long before noon she was out of sight. The wind -favouring us all day, before sunset we arrived off -the grim portal through which the great river of -St. John, named by Champlain, empties forth its -floods into the sea. The rocky ridges that fence -the haven were crested gloriously with rose and -gold, and toward this inviting harbourage we -steered—not without misgivings, however, for we -knew not the channel or the current. In this strait -we received unlooked-for aid. Captain Eliphalet, -excited by some error in the course which we -were shaping, and all in a tremble lest his loved -ship fall upon a reef, offered his services as pilot. -They were at once accepted. We knew he was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_281'>281</span>as incapable of a treachery as his situation was -of turning a treachery to profit. Himself he took -the wheel; and on the slack of tide he steered us -up to a windless anchorage at the very head of the -harbour, beside the ruins of an old fort. The only -sign of life was the huts of a few Acadian fishermen, -so miserable as to have been quite overlooked by -the doom that had descended on their race.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Our plan was to scatter the greater part of our -company among the small Acadian settlements up -the river—at Jemseg, Pointe Ste. Anne, and Medoctec; -while the rest of us, the trained men who -would be needed in New France, accompanied by -a half dozen women with daring and vitality for -such a journey, would make our way on sledges -and snow-shoes northward, over the Height of -Land, down into the St. Lawrence valley, and -thence to Quebec.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The two carronades on the deck of our ship -we dropped into the harbour. We helped ourselves -to all the arms and ammunition, with tools for the -building of our sledges, and such clothing as our -prisoners could well spare. Of the ship’s stores -we left enough to carry the ship safely to Boston. -Yvonne gave Lieutenant Shafto a letter for her -father and mother, which he undertook to forward -to Halifax at the earliest opportunity. Then, three -days after our arrival in the St. John, we loosed -our captives every one, bade Captain Eliphalet a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_282'>282</span>less eventful remainder to his voyage, and turned -our back upon the huts of the fishermen. We -crossed the Kennebeccasis River on the ice, where -it joins the St. John, just back of the ridge which -forms the northern rampart of the harbour. Thence -we pushed straight up the main river, keeping -close along the eastern shore.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The rough sledges which we had hastily thrown -together were piled with our stores. They carried -also such of the women and children as were not -capable of enduring the march. The sledges ran -easily on the level way afforded by the river, which -was now frozen to the depth of a foot. In spots the -ice was covered by a thin, hard-packed layer of -snow; but for the most part it had been swept -clean by the wind.</p> - -<p class='c000'>For my own part, I drew a light sledge, of which -I had myself directed the construction, that it might -be comfortable for Yvonne. It <em>was</em> comfortable, -with a back and arms, and well lined with blankets. -But she chose rather, for the most of the journey, -to walk beside me, secretly proud to show her -activity and endurance. It was Mother Pêche -who, under strenuous protest, chiefly occupied my -sledge. Her protests were vain enough; for -Yvonne told her quietly that if she would not let -herself be taken care of she would not trust her to -face the Quebec journey, but would leave her -behind at Jemseg. Though the old dame was a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_283'>283</span>witch, Yvonne had the will to have her way; -and protest ended.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As we marched, a little aside from the main body, -Yvonne now laying her mittened hand upon my -arm, and now drawing with me upon the sledge-rope, -we had exhaustless themes of converse, but -also seasons for that revealing silence when the -great things get themselves uttered between two -souls.</p> - -<p class='c000'>There were some practical matters, however, not -without importance, which silence was not competent -to discuss.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Do you know any one at the Jemseg settlement, -Paul?” she chanced to ask me, that first day of -our marching.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes,” said I, with significance, taking merciless -advantage of the question, “I know an excellent -priest, dear heart!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She reddened, and turned upon me deep eyes -of reproach. But I was not abashed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Am I too precipitate, sweet?” I asked. -“But do not think so. I know you will not. -Consider all the strangeness of the situation, most -dear, and give me the right to guard you, to keep -you, to show openly my reverence and my love.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As she did not reply, it was clear enough that -she found my reasoning cogent. I went on, with -a kind of singing elation in my brain:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Truly, in my eyes, you are my wife now, as—do -<span class='pageno' id='Page_284'>284</span>you remember?—I dared to call you that night -as we came over the ridge, I to prison, you -to—But no! I will not think of that. In deed -and in truth, dear, I believe that God joined together -us two, inalienably and forever, not months -ago, but years ago—that day in the orchard, -when our spirits met in our eyes. The material -part of us was slow in awaking to the comprehension -of that mystery, but”—</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Speak for yourself, Paul,” she interrupted, -with tantalizing suggestion.</p> - -<p class='c000'>I stopped short, forgetting all my eloquence.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And you loved me then—and knew it!” I -exclaimed, in a voice poignant with the realization -of lost years.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She came very close against my side, and held -my arm tightly, as she said, in a voice ‘twixt mocking -and caressing:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I think I <em>might</em> have known it, Paul, had you -helped me the least little bit—had the material -part of you, let us say, been the least bit quicker -of comprehension.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She forbore to hint at all that might have been -different; but the thought of it kept me long -silent.</p> - -<p class='c000'>On the next day, about sunset, we reached the -Jemseg settlement. That same day Yvonne became -my wife.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_285'>285</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Chapter XXXVIII<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Of Long Felicity, Brief Word</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_0_4 c009'>“How many years, dear heart, since we made -that winter journey, thou and I, from -Jemseg to Quebec, through the illimitable snows?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ten!” answers Yvonne; and the great eyes -which she lifts from her writing and flashes gayly -upon me grow tender with sweet remembrance. -During those ten years the destinies of thrones -have shifted strangely in the kaleidoscope of fate. -Empires have changed hands. New France has -been erased from the New World. Louisbourg -has been levelled to a sheep pasture. Quebec has -proved no more impregnable. The flag of England -flies over Canada. My uncle, the Sieur de -Briart, sleeps in a glorious grave, having fallen -with Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham. My -cousin Marc and I, having fought and bled for -France in all the last battles, and lain for months -in an English hospital, have accepted the new -masters of our country and been confirmed in -our little estates beside the Ottawa.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_286'>286</span>Redeeming my promise to Grûl, I have aided -him in his vengeance on the Black <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Abbé</span>—a -strange, dark tale which I may one day set -down, if ever time makes it less painful to my -memory.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Much, then, have I endured in these ten years. -But the remembrance of it appears to me but as a -tinted glass, through which I am enabled to contemplate -the full sun of my happiness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne in these ten years has changed but to -grow more beautiful. Bodily, there was, I think, -no room for that change; but growth is the law of -such a spirit as hers, and so into her perfect eyes, -wells of light as of old, has come a deeper and -more immeasurable wisdom. As to this perennial -potency of her beauty, I know that I am not deluded -by my passion; for I perceive the homage -it compels from all who come within its beneficent -influence. Even her mother, a laughingly malicious -critic, tells me that my eyes see true in this—(for -Giles de Lamourie, having sold his ample -acres in Nova Scotia, and forgiven ancient grudges, -has come here to live with Yvonne). Father -Fafard, when he visits us from his Bonaventure -parish, says the same; but <em>his</em> eyes are blind -with loving prejudice. When we go into Montreal -for the months of December and January, exchanging -for a little the quiet of our country -home for the glitter of rout and function, no other -<span class='pageno' id='Page_287'>287</span>court so choice, so loyal, and so revering as that -which Yvonne gathers about her. The wise, -drawn by her wit, are held fast by her beauty; -while the gay, drawn by her beauty, rise to a worship -of her wit and worth.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yvonne’s small hands are white and alive and -restless as on that day in the Grand Pré orchard -when, prying into the heart of the apple-blossom, -they pried into and set fast hold upon the strings -of my heart also. But this life of mine, given -into the keeping of their sweet restlessness, has -found the secret of rest.</p> - -<p class='c000'>One thing more of her, and I have done with -this narrative; for they who live blest have little -need or power to depict their happiness. It -seems to me, in looking back and forward, that -my wife delights particularly in setting at naught -the cheap wisdom of the maxim-mongers. How -continually are men heard to declare, with the -tongue of Sir Oracle: “We don’t woo what is -well won”!</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Yvonne, well won these ten years back, I -woo again continually, and our daily life together -is never without the spur of fresh interest and -further possibilities.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The familiar is held cheap,” say the disappointed; -and “Use dulls the edge of passion,” say -they whose passion has never known the edge -which finely tempered spirits take on.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_288'>288</span>But familiarity, the crucial intimacy of day by -day companionship, only reveals to me in Yvonne -the richer reasons for my reverence; while passion -grows but the more poignant as it realizes the -exhaustless depths of the nature which responds -to it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The mean poverty of these maxims I had half -suspected even before I knew Yvonne. But one, -more universally accepted, to the effect that -“Anticipation beggars reality,” had ever caused -me a certain fear, lest it might prove true. The -husband of my dear love has fathomed its falsehood, -and anticipation, in my case, was little -moderate in its demands. If there be any germ -of truth under that long-triumphant lie, then the -reason we two have not discovered it must be -sought in another life than this. This life cannot -be the full reality. Even so, my confident faith is -that the lying adage will but seem to lie the more -shamelessly under a fuller revelation. Many times -have I told Yvonne that to me one life seemed -not enough for love of her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As I conclude, I look across the room to where -the beautiful, dark, proud head bends over her -desk; for she has outstripped me in my own art -of letters, and only my old achievements with the -sword enable me to maintain that dominance -which the husband, even of Yvonne, ought to -have.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_289'>289</span>She will not approve these last few pages. She -will demand their erasure, declaring them extravagant -and an offence against the reticence of true -art.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But not one line will I expunge, for they are -true.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div>THE END.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c004' /> -</div> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</h2> -</div> - <ol class='ol_1 c003'> - <li>Silently corrected typographical errors. - - </li> - <li>Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed. - </li> - </ol> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's A Sister to Evangeline, by Charles G. D. 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