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+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Seats Of The Mighty, by G. Parker, v5
+#55 in our series by Gilbert Parker
+
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+Title: The Seats Of The Mighty, Volume 5.
+
+Author: Gilbert Parker
+
+Release Date: August, 2004  [EBook #6228]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 4, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEATS OF THE MIGHTY, PARKER, V5 ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Andrew Sly
+
+
+
+
+THE SEATS OF THE MIGHTY
+
+BEING THE MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN ROBERT MORAY,
+SOMETIME AN OFFICER IN THE VIRGINIA REGIMENT,
+AND AFTERWARDS OF AMHERST'S REGIMENT
+
+By Gilbert Parker
+
+
+
+Volume 5.
+
+    XXV   In the cathedral
+   XXVI   The secret of the tapestry
+  XXVII   A side-wind of revenge
+ XXVIII   "To cheat the Devil yet"
+   XXIX   "Master Devil" Doltaire
+    XXX   "Where all the lovers can hide"
+          Appendix--Excerpt from 'The Scot in New France'
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+IN THE CATHEDRAL
+
+
+I awoke with the dawn, and, dressing, looked out of the window,
+seeing the brindled light spread over the battered roofs and ruins
+of the Lower Town. A bell was calling to prayers in the Jesuit
+College not far away, and bugle-calls told of the stirring
+garrison. Soldiers and stragglers passed down the street near by,
+and a few starved peasants crept about the cathedral with downcast
+eyes, eager for crumbs that a well-fed soldier might cast aside.
+Yet I knew that in the Intendant's Palace and among the officers
+of the army there was abundance, with revelry and dissipation.
+
+Presently I drew to the trap-door of my loft, and, raising it
+gently, came down the ladder to the little hallway, and softly
+opened the door of the room where Labrouk's body lay. Candles
+were burning at his head and his feet, and two peasants sat dozing
+in chairs near by. I could see Labrouk's face plainly in the
+flickering light: a rough, wholesome face it was, refined by death,
+yet unshaven and unkempt, too. Here was work for Voban's shears and
+razor. Presently there was a footstep behind me, and, turning, I
+saw in the half-light the widowed wife.
+
+"Madame," said I in a whisper, "I too weep with you. I pray for
+as true an end for myself."
+
+"He was of the true faith, thank the good God," she said
+sincerely. She passed into the room, and the two watchers, after
+taking refreshment, left the house. Suddenly she hastened to the
+door, called one back, and, pointing to the body, whispered
+something. The peasant nodded and turned away. She came back into
+the room, stood looking at the face of the dead man for a moment,
+and bent over and kissed the crucifix clasped in the cold hands.
+Then she stepped about the room, moving a chair and sweeping up a
+speck of dust in a mechanical way. Presently, as if she again
+remembered me, she asked me to enter the room. Then she bolted the
+outer door of the house. I stood looking at the body of her husband,
+and said, "Were it not well to have Voban the barber?"
+
+"I have sent for him and for Gabord," she replied. "Gabord was
+Jean's good friend. He is with General Montcalm. The Governor put
+him in prison because of the marriage of Mademoiselle Duvarney, but
+Monsieur Doltaire set him free, and now he serves General Montcalm.
+
+"I have work in the cathedral," continued the poor woman, "and I
+shall go to it this morning as I have always gone. There is a
+little unused closet in a gallery where you may hide, and still see
+all that happens. It is your last look at the lady, and I will give
+it to you, as you gave me to know of my Jean."
+
+"My last look?" I asked eagerly.
+
+"She goes into the nunnery to-morrow, they say," was the reply.
+"Her marriage is to be set aside by the bishop to-day--in the
+cathedral. This is her last night to live as such as I--but no,
+she will be happier so."
+
+"Madame," said I, "I am a heretic, but I listened when your
+husband said, 'Mon grand homme de Calvaire, bon soir!' Was the
+cross less a cross because a heretic put it to his lips? Is a
+marriage less a marriage because a heretic is the husband? Madame,
+you loved your Jean; if he were living now, what would you do to
+keep him. Think, madame, is not love more than all?"
+
+She turned to the dead body. "Mon petit Jean!" she
+murmured, but made no reply to me, and for many minutes the room
+was silent. At last she turned, and said, "You must come at once,
+for soon the priests will be at the church. A little later I will
+bring you some breakfast, and you must not stir from there till I
+come to fetch you--no."
+
+"I wish to see Voban," said I.
+
+She thought a moment. "I will try to fetch him to you by-and-bye,"
+she said. She did not speak further, but finished the sentence by
+pointing to the body.
+
+Presently, hearing footsteps, she drew me into another little
+room. "It is the grandfather," she said. "He has forgotten you
+already, and he must not see you again."
+
+We saw the old man hobble into the room we had left, carrying in
+one arm Jean's coat and hat. He stood still, and nodded at the body
+and mumbled to himself; then he went over and touched the hands and
+forehead, nodding wisely; after which he came to his armchair, and,
+sitting down, spread the coat over his knees, put the cap on it,
+and gossiped with himself:
+
+  "In eild our idle fancies all return,
+  The mind's eye cradled by the open grave."
+
+A moment later, the woman passed from the rear of the house to
+the vestry door of the cathedral. After a minute, seeing no one
+near, I followed, came to the front door, entered, and passed up a
+side aisle towards the choir. There was no one to be seen, but soon
+the woman came out of the vestry and beckoned to me nervously. I
+followed her quick movements, and was soon in a narrow stairway,
+coming, after fifty steps or so, to a sort of cloister, from which
+we went into a little cubiculum, or cell, with a wooden lattice
+door which opened on a small gallery. Through the lattices the
+nave amid choir could be viewed distinctly.
+
+Without a word the woman turned and left me, and I sat down on a
+little stone bench and waited. I saw the acolytes come and go,
+and priests move back and forth before the altar; I smelt the
+grateful incense as it rose when mass was said; I watched the people
+gather in little clusters at the different shrines, or seek the
+confessional, or kneel to receive the blessed sacrament. Many who
+came were familiar--among them Mademoiselle Lucie Lotbiniere. Lucie
+prayed long before a shrine of the Virgin, and when she rose at last
+her face bore signs of weeping. Also I noticed her suddenly start as
+she moved down the aisle, for a figure came forward from seclusion
+and touched her arm. As he half turned I saw that it was Juste
+Duvarney. The girl drew back from him, raising her hand as if in
+protest, and it struck me that her grief and her repulse of him had
+to do with putting Alixe away into a nunnery.
+
+I sat hungry and thirsty for quite three hours, and then the
+church became empty, and only an old verger kept a seat by the
+door, half asleep, though the artillery of both armies was at work,
+and the air was laden with the smell of powder. (Until this time
+our batteries had avoided firing on the churches.) At last I heard
+footsteps near me in the dark stairway, and I felt for my pistols,
+for the feet were not those of Labrouk's wife. I waited anxiously,
+and was overjoyed to see Voban enter my hiding-place, bearing some
+food. I greeted him warmly, but he made little demonstration. He
+was like one who, occupied with some great matter, passed through
+the usual affairs of life with a distant eye. Immediately he
+handed me a letter, saying:
+
+"M'sieu', I give my word to hand you this--in a day or a year,
+as I am able. I get your message to me this morning, and then I
+come to care for Jean Labrouk, and so I find you here, and I
+give the letter. It come to me last night."
+
+The letter was from Alixe. I opened it with haste, and, in the
+dim light, read:
+
+MY BELOVED HUSBAND: Oh, was there no power in earth or heaven to
+bring me to your arms to-day?
+
+To-morow they come to see my marriage annulled by the Church.
+And every one will say it is annulled--every one but me. I, in
+God's name, will say no, though it break my heart to oppose
+myself to them all.
+
+Why did my brother come back? He has been hard--O, Robert, he
+has been hard upon me, and yet I was ever kind to him! My father,
+too, he listens to the Church, and, though he likes not Monsieur
+Doltaire, he works for him in a hundred ways without seeing it.
+I, alas! see it too well, and my brother is as wax in monsieur's
+hands. Juste loves Lucie Lotbiniere--that should make him kind.
+She, sweet friend, does not desert me, but is kept from me. She
+says she will not yield to Juste's suit until he yields to me.
+If--oh, if Madame Jamond had not gone to Montreal!
+
+...As I was writing the foregoing sentence, my father asked to
+see me, and we have had a talk--ah, a most bitter talk!
+
+"Alixe," said he, "this is our last evening together, and I
+would have it peaceful."
+
+"My father," said I, "it is not my will that this evening be our
+last; and for peace, I long for it with all my heart."
+
+He frowned, and answered, "You have brought me trouble and
+sorrow. Mother of God! was it not possible for you to be as
+your sister Georgette? I gave her less love, yet she honours
+me more."
+
+"She honours you, my father, by a sweet, good life, and by marriage
+into an honourable family, and at your word she gives her hand to
+Monsieur Auguste de la Darante. She marries to your pleasure,
+therefore she has peace and your love. I marry a man of my own
+choosing, a bitterly wronged gentleman, and you treat me as some
+wicked thing. Is that like a father who loves his child?"
+
+"The wronged gentleman, as you call him, invaded that which is
+the pride of every honest gentleman," he said.
+
+"And what is that?" asked I quietly, though I felt the blood
+beating at my temples.
+
+"My family honour, the good name and virtue of my daughter."
+
+I got to my feet, and looked my father in the eyes with an anger
+and a coldness that hurts me now when I think of it, and I said, "I
+will not let you speak so to me. Friendless though I be, you shall
+not. You have the power to oppress me, but you shall not slander me
+to my face. Can not you leave insults to my enemies?"
+
+"I will never leave you to the insults of this mock marriage,"
+answered he, angrily also. "Two days hence I take command of five
+thousand burghers, and your brother Juste serves with General
+Montcalm. There is to be last fighting soon between us and the
+English. I do not doubt of the result, but I may fall, and your
+brother also, and, should the English win, I will not leave you to
+him you call your husband. Therefore you shall be kept safe where
+no alien hands may reach you. The Church will hold you close."
+
+I calmed myself again while listening to him, and I asked, "Is
+there no other way?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Is there no Monsieur Doltaire?" said I. "He has a king's blood
+in his veins!"
+
+He looked sharply at me. "You are mocking," he replied. "No, no,
+that is no way, either. Monsieur Doltaire must never mate with
+daughter of mine. I will take care of that; the Church is a perfect
+if gentle jailer."
+
+I could bear it no longer. I knelt to him. I begged him to have
+pity on me. I pleaded with him; I recalled the days when, as a
+child, I sat upon his knee and listened to the wonderful tales he
+told; I begged him, by the memory of all the years when he and I
+were such true friends to be kind to me now, to be merciful--even
+though he thought I had done wrong--to be merciful. I asked him to
+remember that I was a motherless girl, and that if I had missed the
+way to happiness he ought not to make my path bitter to the end. I
+begged him to give me back his love and confidence, and, if I must
+for evermore be parted from you, to let me be with him, not to put
+me away into a convent.
+
+Oh, how my heart leaped when I saw his face soften! "Well,
+well," he said, "if I live, you shall be taken from the convent;
+but for the present, till this fighting is over, it is the only
+safe place. There, too, you shall be safe from Monsieur
+Doltaire."
+
+It was poor comfort. "But should you be killed, and the English
+take Quebec?" said I.
+
+"When I am dead," he answered, "when I am dead, then there is
+your brother."
+
+"And if he speaks for Monsieur Doltaire?" asked I.
+
+"There is the Church and God always," he answered.
+
+"And my own husband, the man who saved your life, my father," I
+urged gently; and when he would have spoken I threw myself into his
+arms--the first time in such long, long weeks!--and, stopping his
+lips with my fingers, burst into tears on his breast. I think much
+of his anger against me passed, yet before he left he said he could
+not now prevent the annulment of the marriage, even if he would,
+for other powers were at work; which powers I supposed to be the
+Governor, for certain reasons of enmity to my father and me--alas!
+how changed is he, the vain old man!--and Monsieur Doltaire, whose
+ends I knew so well. So they will unwed us to-morrow, Robert; but
+be sure that I shall never be unwed in my own eyes, and that I will
+wait till I die, hoping you will come and take me--oh, Robert, my
+husband--take me home.
+
+If I had one hundred men, I would fight my way out of this city,
+and to you; but, dear, I have none, not even Gabord, who is not let
+come near me. There is but Voban. Yet he will bear you this, if it
+be possible, for he comes to-night to adorn my fashionable brother.
+The poor Mathilde I have not seen of late. She has vanished. When
+they began to keep me close, and carried me off at last into the
+country, where we were captured by the English, I could not see
+her, and my heart aches for her.
+
+God bless you, Robert, and farewell. How we shall smile, when
+all this misery is done! Oh, say we shall, say we shall smile, and
+all this misery cease. Will you not take me home? Do you still
+love thy wife, thy
+
+ALIXE?
+
+I bade Voban come to me at the little house behind the church
+that night at ten o'clock, and by then I should have arranged some
+plan of action. I knew not whether to trust Gabord or no. I was
+sorry now that I had not tried to bring Clark with me. He was
+fearless, and he knew the town well; but he lacked discretion,
+and that was vital.
+
+Two hours of waiting, then came a scene which is burned into my
+brain. I looked down upon a mass of people, soldiers, couriers of
+the woods, beggars, priests, camp followers, and anxious gentlefolk,
+come from seclusion, or hiding, or vigils of war, to see a host of
+powers torture a young girl who by suffering had been made a woman
+long before her time. Out in the streets was the tramping of armed
+men, together with the call of bugles and the sharp rattle of drums.
+Presently I heard the hoofs of many horses, and soon afterwards
+there entered the door, and way was made for him up the nave,
+the Marquis de Vaudreuil and his suite, with the Chevalier de la
+Darante, the Intendant, and--to my indignation--Juste Duvarney.
+
+They had no sooner taken their places than, from a little side
+door near the vestry, there entered the Seigneur Duvarney and
+Alixe, who, coming down slowly, took places very near the chancel
+steps. The Seigneur was pale and stern, and carried himself with
+great dignity. His glance never shifted from the choir, where the
+priests slowly entered and took their places, the aged and feeble
+bishop going falteringly to his throne. Alixe's face was pale and
+sorrowful, and yet it had a dignity and self-reliance that gave
+it a kind of grandeur. A buzz passed through the building, yet I
+noted, too, with gladness that there were tears on many faces.
+
+A figure stole in beside Alixe. It was Mademoiselle Lotbiniere, who
+immediately was followed by her mother. I leaned forward, perfectly
+hidden, and listened to the singsong voices of the priests, the
+musical note of the responses, heard the Kyrie Eleison, the
+clanging of the belfry bell as the host was raised by the trembling
+bishop. The silence which followed the mournful voluntary played by
+the organ was most painful to me.
+
+At that moment a figure stepped from behind a pillar, and gave
+Alixe a deep, scrutinizing look. It was Doltaire. He was graver
+than I had ever seen him, and was dressed scrupulously in black,
+with a little white lace showing at the wrists and neck. A
+handsomer figure it would be hard to see; and I hated him for it,
+and wondered what new devilry was in his mind. He seemed to sweep
+the church with a glance. Nothing could have escaped that swift,
+searching look. His eyes were even raised to where I was, so that
+I involuntarily drew back, though I knew he could not see me.
+
+I was arrested suddenly by a curious disdainful, even sneering
+smile which played upon his face as he looked at Vaudreuil and
+Bigot. There was in it more scorn than malice, more triumph than
+active hatred. All at once I remembered what he had said to me
+the day before: that he had commission from the King through La
+Pompadour to take over the reins of government from the two
+confederates, and send them to France to answer the charges made
+against them.
+
+At last the bishop came forward, and read from a paper as follows:
+
+"Forasmuch as a well-beloved child of our Holy Church, Mademoiselle
+Alixe Duvarney, of the parish of Beauport and of this cathedral
+parish, in this province of New France, forgetting her manifest duty
+and our sacred teaching, did illegally and in sinful error make
+feigned contract of marriage with one Robert Moray, captain in a
+Virginian regiment, a heretic, a spy, and an enemy to our country;
+and forasmuch as this was done in violence of all nice habit and
+commendable obedience to Mother Church and our national uses, we
+do hereby declare and make void this alliance until such time as
+the Holy Father at Rome shall finally approve our action and
+proclaiming. And it is enjoined upon Mademoiselle Alixe Duvarney,
+on peril of her soul's salvation, to obey us in this matter, and
+neither by word or deed or thought have commerce more with this
+notorious and evil heretic and foe of our Church and of our country.
+It is also the plain duty of the faithful children of our Holy
+Church to regard this Captain Moray with a pious hatred, and to
+destroy him without pity; and any good cunning or enticement which
+should lure him to the punishment he so much deserves shall be
+approved. Furthermore, Mademoiselle Alixe Duvarney shall, until
+such times as there shall be peace in this land, and the molesting
+English are driven back with slaughter--and for all time, if the
+heart of our sister incline to penitence and love of Christ--be
+confined within the Convent of the Ursulines, and cared for with
+great tenderness."
+
+He left off reading, and began to address himself to Alixe
+directly; but she rose in her place, and while surprise and awe
+seized the congregation, she said:
+
+"Monseigneur, I must needs, at my father's bidding, hear the
+annulment of my marriage, but I will not hear this public
+exhortation. I am but a poor girl, unlearned in the law, and I must
+needs submit to your power, for I have no one here to speak for me.
+But my soul and my conscience I carry to my Saviour, and I have no
+fear to answer Him. I am sorry that I have offended against my
+people and my country and Holy Church, but I repent not that I love
+and hold to my husband. You must do with me as you will, but in
+this I shall never willingly yield."
+
+She turned to her father, and all the people breathed hard; for
+it passed their understanding, and seemed most scandalous that a
+girl could thus defy the Church, and answer the bishop in his own
+cathedral. Her father rose, and then I saw her sway with faintness.
+I know not what might have occurred, for the bishop stood with hand
+upraised and a great indignation in his face, about to speak, when
+out of the desultory firing from our batteries there came a shell,
+which burst even at the cathedral entrance, tore away a portion of
+the wall, and killed and wounded a number of people.
+
+Then followed a panic which the priests in vain tried to quell.
+The people swarmed into the choir and through the vestry. I saw
+Doltaire with Juste Duvarney spring swiftly to the side of Alixe,
+and, with her father, put her and Mademoiselle Lotbiniere into
+the pulpit, forming a ring round it, and preventing the crowd
+from trampling on them, as, suddenly gone mad, they swarmed past.
+The Governor, the Intendant, and the Chevalier de la Darante did
+as much also for Madame Lotbiniere; and as soon as the crush had
+in a little subsided, a number of soldiers cleared the way, and
+I saw my wife led from the church. I longed to leap down there
+among them and claim her, but that thought was madness, for I
+should have been food for worms in a trice, so I kept my place.
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+THE SECRET OF THE TAPESTRY
+
+
+That evening, at eight o'clock, Jean Labrouk was buried. A
+shell had burst not a dozen paces from his own door, within the
+consecrated ground of the cathedral, and in a hole it had made he
+was laid, the only mourners his wife and his grandfather, and two
+soldiers of his company sent by General Bougainville to bury him.
+I watched the ceremony from my loft, which had one small dormer
+window. It was dark, but burning buildings in the Lower Town made
+all light about the place. I could hear the grandfather mumbling
+and talking to the body as it was lowered into the ground. While
+yet the priest was hastily reading prayers, a dusty horseman came
+riding to the grave, and dismounted.
+
+"Jean," he said, looking at the grave, "Jean Labrouk, a man dies
+well that dies with his gaiters on, aho! ... What have you said
+for Jean Labrouk, m'sieu'?" he added to the priest.
+
+The priest stared at him, as though he had presumed.
+
+"Well?" said Gabord. "Well?"
+
+The priest answered nothing, but prepared to go, whispering a
+word of comfort to the poor wife. Gabord looked at the soldiers,
+looked at the wife, at the priest, then spread out his legs and
+stuck his hands down into his pockets, while his horse rubbed its
+nose against his shoulder. He fixed his eyes on the grave, and
+nodded once or twice musingly.
+
+"Well," he said at last, as if he had found a perfect virtue,
+and the one or only thing that could be said, "well, he never
+eat his words, that Jean."
+
+A moment afterwards he came into the house with Babette, leaving
+one of the soldiers holding his horse. After the old man had gone,
+I heard him say, "Were you at mass to-day? And did you see all?"
+
+And when she had answered yes, he continued: "It was a mating as
+birds mate, but mating was it, and holy fathers and Master Devil
+Doltaire can't change it till cock-pheasant Moray come rocketing to
+'s grave. They would have hanged me for my part in it, but I repent
+not, for they have wickedly hunted this little lady."
+
+"I weep with her," said Jean's wife.
+
+"Ay, ay, weep on, Babette," he answered.
+
+"Has she asked help of you?" said the wife.
+
+"Truly; but I know not what says she, for I read not, but I know
+her pecking. Here it is. But you must be secret."
+
+Looking through a crack in the floor, I could plainly see them.
+She took the letter from him and read aloud:
+
+"If Gabord the soldier have a good heart still, as ever
+he had in the past, he will again help a poor
+friendless woman. She needs him, for all are against her. Will he
+leave her alone among her enemies? Will he not aid her to fly? At
+eight o'clock to-morrow night she will be taken to the Convent of
+the Ursulines, to be there shut in. Will he not come to her
+before that time?"
+
+For a moment after the reading there was silence, and I could see
+the woman looking at him curiously. "What will you do?" she asked.
+
+"My faith, there's nut to crack, for I have little time. This
+letter but reached me with the news of Jean, two hours ago, and I
+know not what to do, but, scratching my head, here comes word from
+General Montcalm that I must ride to Master Devil Doltaire with a
+letter, and I must find him wherever he may be, and give it
+straight. So forth I come; and I must be at my post again by morn,
+said the General."
+
+"It is now nine o'clock, and she will be in the convent," said
+the woman tentatively.
+
+"Aho!" he answered, "and none can enter there but Governor, if
+holy Mother say no. So now goes Master Devil there? 'Gabord,' quoth
+he, 'you shall come with me to the convent at ten o'clock, bringing
+three stout soldiers of the garrison. Here's an order on Monsieur
+Ramesay, the Commandant. Choose you the men, and fail me not, or
+you shall swing aloft, dear Gabord.' Sweet lovers of hell, but
+Master Devil shall have swinging too one day." He put his thumb to
+his nose, and spread his fingers out.
+
+Presently he seemed to note something in the woman's eyes, for
+he spoke almost sharply to her: "Jean Labrouk was honest man, and
+kept faith with comrades."
+
+"And I keep faith too, comrade," was the answer.
+
+"Gabord's a brute to doubt you," he rejoined quickly, and he
+drew from his pocket a piece of gold, and made her take it,
+though she much resisted.
+
+Meanwhile my mind was made up. I saw, I thought, through "Master
+Devil's" plan, and I felt, too, that Gabord would not betray me. In
+any case, Gabord and I could fight it out. If he opposed me, it was
+his life or mine, for too much was at stake, and all my plans were
+now changed by his astounding news. At that moment Voban entered
+the room without knocking. Here was my cue, and so, to prevent
+explanations, I crept quickly down, opened the door, came in on
+them.
+
+They wheeled at my footsteps; the woman gave a little cry, and
+Gabord's hand went to his pistol. There was a wild sort of look in
+his face, as though he could not trust his eyes. I took no notice of
+the menacing pistol, but went straight to him and held out my hand.
+
+"Gabord," said I, "you are not my jailer now."
+
+"I'll be your guard to citadel," said he, after a moment's dumb
+surprise, refusing my outstretched hand.
+
+"Neither guard nor jailer any more, Gabord," said I seriously.
+"We've had enough of that, my friend."
+
+The soldier and the jailer had been working in him, and his
+fingers trifled with the trigger. In all things he was the foeman
+first. But now something else was working in him. I saw this, and
+added pointedly, "No more cage, Gabord, not even for reward of
+twenty thousand livres and at command of Holy Church."
+
+He smiled grimly, too grimly, I thought, and turned inquiringly
+to Babette. In a few words she told him all, tears dropping from
+her eyes.
+
+"If you take him, you betray me," she said; "and what would Jean
+say, if he knew?"
+
+"Gabord," said I, "I come not as a spy; I come to seek my wife,
+and she counts you as her friend. Do harm to me, and you do harm to
+her. Serve me, and you serve her. Gabord, you said to her once that
+I was an honourable man."
+
+He put up his pistol. "Aho, you've put your head in the trap.
+Stir, and click goes the spring."
+
+"I must have my wife," I continued. "Shall the nest you helped
+to make go empty?"
+
+I worked upon him to such purpose that, all bristling with war
+at first, he was shortly won over to my scheme, which I disclosed
+to him while the wife made us a cup of coffee. Through all our talk
+Voban had sat eying us with a covert interest, yet showing no
+excitement. He had been unable to reach Alixe. She had been taken
+to the convent, and immediately afterwards her father and brother
+had gone their ways--Juste to General Montcalm, and the Seigneur
+to the French camp. Thus Alixe did not know that I was in Quebec.
+
+An hour after this I was marching, with two other men and Gabord,
+to the Convent of the Ursulines, dressed in the ordinary costume
+of a French soldier, got from the wife of Jean Labrouk. In manner
+and speech though I was somewhat dull, my fellows thought, I was
+enough like a peasant soldier to deceive them, and my French was
+more fluent than their own. I was playing a desperate game; yet
+I liked it, for it had a fine spice of adventure apart from the
+great matter at stake. If I could but carry it off, I should have
+sufficient compensation for all my miseries, in spite of their
+twenty thousand livres and Holy Church.
+
+In a few minutes we came to the convent, and halted outside,
+waiting for Doltaire. Presently he came, and, looking sharply at us
+all, he ordered two to wait outside, and Gabord and myself to come
+with him. Then he stood looking at the building curiously for a
+moment. A shell had broken one wing of it, and this portion had
+been abandoned; but the faithful Sisters clung still to their home,
+though urged constantly by the Governor to retire to the Hotel Dieu,
+which was outside the reach of shot and shell. This it was their
+intention soon to do, for within the past day or so our batteries
+had not sought to spare the convent. As Doltaire looked he laughed
+to himself, and then said, "Too quiet for gay spirits, this hearse.
+Come, Gabord, and fetch this slouching fellow," nodding towards me.
+
+Then he knocked loudly. No one came, and he knocked again and
+again. At last the door was opened by the Mother Superior, who was
+attended by two others. She started at seeing Doltaire.
+
+"What do you wish, monsieur?" she asked.
+
+"I come on business of the King, good Mother," he replied
+seriously, and stepped inside.
+
+"It is a strange hour for business," she said severely.
+
+"The King may come at all hours," he answered soothingly: "is it
+not so? By the law he may enter when he wills."
+
+"You are not the King, monsieur," she objected, with her head
+held up sedately.
+
+"Or the Governor may come, good Mother?"
+
+"You are not the Governor, Monsieur Doltaire," she said, more
+sharply still.
+
+"But a Governor may demand admittance to this convent, and by
+the order of his Most Christian Majesty he may not be refused:
+is it not so?"
+
+"Must I answer the catechism of Monsieur Doltaire?"
+
+"But is it not so?" he asked again urbanely.
+
+"It is so, yet how does that concern you, monsieur?"
+
+"In every way," and he smiled.
+
+"This is unseemly, monsieur. What is your business?"
+
+"The Governor's business, good Mother."
+
+"Then let the Governor's messenger give his message and depart
+in peace," she answered, her hand upon the door.
+
+"Not the Governor's messenger, but the Governor himself," he
+rejoined gravely.
+
+He turned and was about to shut the door, but she stopped him.
+"This is no house for jesting, monsieur," she said. "I will arouse
+the town if you persist.--Sister," she added to one standing near,
+"the bell!"
+
+"You fill your office with great dignity and merit, Mere St.
+George," he said, as he put out his hand and stayed the Sister.
+"I commend you for your discretion. Read this," he continued,
+handing her a paper.
+
+A Sister held a light, and the Mother read it. As she did so
+Doltaire made a motion to Gabord, and he shut the door quickly
+on us. Mere St. George looked up from the paper, startled and
+frightened too.
+
+"Your Excellency!" she exclaimed.
+
+"You are the first to call me so," he replied. "I thought to
+leave untouched this good gift of the King, and to let the Marquis
+de Vaudreuil and the admirable Bigot untwist the coil they have
+made. But no. After some too generous misgivings, I now claim my
+own. I could not enter here, to speak with a certain lady, save
+as the Governor, but as the Governor I now ask speech with
+Mademoiselle Duvarney. Do you hesitate?" he added. "Do you doubt
+that signature of his Majesty? Then see this. Here is a line from
+the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the late Governor. It is not dignified,
+one might say it is craven, but it is genuine."
+
+Again the distressed lady read, and again she said, "Your
+Excellency!" Then, "You wish to see her in my presence,
+your Excellency?"
+
+"Alone, good Mother," he softly answered.
+
+"Your Excellency, will you, the first officer in the land, defy
+our holy rules, and rob us of our privilege to protect and comfort
+and save?"
+
+"I defy nothing," he replied. "The lady is here against her will,
+a prisoner. She desires not your governance and care. In any case,
+I must speak with her; and be assured, I honour you the more for
+your solicitude, and will ask your counsel when I have finished
+talk with her."
+
+Was ever man so crafty? After a moment's thought she turned,
+dismissed the others, and led the way, and Gabord and I followed.
+We were bidden to wait outside a room, well lighted but bare, as I
+could see through the open door. Doltaire entered, smiling, and
+then bowed the nun on her way to summon Alixe. Gabord and I stood
+there, not speaking, for both were thinking of the dangerous game
+now playing. In a few minutes the Mother returned, bringing Alixe.
+The light from the open door shone upon her face. My heart leaped,
+for there was in her look such a deep sorrow. She was calm, save
+for those shining yet steady eyes; they were like furnaces, burning
+up the colour of her cheeks. She wore a soft black gown, with no
+sign of ornament, and her gold-brown hair was bound with a piece of
+black velvet ribbon. Her beauty was deeper than I had ever seen it;
+a peculiar gravity seemed to have added years to her life. As she
+passed me her sleeve brushed my arm, as it did that day I was
+arrested in her father's house. She started, as though I had
+touched her fingers, but only half turned toward me, for her mind
+was wholly occupied with the room where Doltaire was.
+
+At that moment Gabord coughed slightly, and she turned quickly
+to him. Her eyes flashed intelligence, and presently, as she passed
+in, a sort of hope seemed to have come on her face to lighten its
+painful pensiveness. The Mother Superior entered with her, the door
+closed, and then, after a little, the Mother came out again. As
+she did so I saw a look of immediate purpose in her face, and her
+hurrying step persuaded me she was bent on some project of espial.
+So I made a sign to Gabord and followed her. As she turned the
+corner of the hallway just beyond, I stepped forward silently and
+watched her enter a room that would, I knew, be next to this we
+guarded.
+
+Listening at the door for a moment, I suddenly and softly turned
+the handle and entered, to see the good Mother with a panel drawn
+in the wall before her, and her face set to it. She stepped back as
+I shut the door and turned the key in the lock. I put my finger to
+my lips, for she seemed about to cry out.
+
+"Hush!" said I. "I watch for those who love her. I am here to
+serve her--and you."
+
+"You are a servant of the Seigneur's?" she said, the alarm
+passing out of her face.
+
+"I served the Seigneur, good Mother," I answered, "and I would
+lay down my life for ma'm'selle."
+
+"You would hear?" she asked, pointing to the panel.
+
+I nodded.
+
+"You speak French not like a Breton or Norman," she added. "What
+is your province?"
+
+"I am an Auvergnian."
+
+She said no more, but motioned to me, enjoining silence also by
+a sign, and I stood with her beside the panel. Before it was a
+piece of tapestry which was mere gauze in one place, and I could
+see through and hear perfectly. The room we were in was at least
+four feet higher than the other, and we looked down on its
+occupants.
+
+"Presently, holy Mother," said I, "all shall be told true to
+you, if you wish it. It is not your will to watch and hear; it
+is because you love the lady. But I love her, too, and I am to
+be trusted. It is not business for such as you."
+
+She saw my implied rebuke, and said, as I thought a little abashed,
+"You will tell me all? And if he would take her forth, give me alarm
+in the room opposite yonder door, and stay them, and--"
+
+"Stay them, holy Mother, at the price of my life. I have the
+honour of her family in my hands."
+
+She looked at me gravely, and I assumed a peasant openness of
+look and honesty. She was deceived completely, and, without further
+speech, she stepped to the door like a ghost and was gone. I never
+saw a human being so noiseless, so uncanny. Our talk had been
+carried on silently, and I had closed the panel quietly, so that we
+could not be heard by Alixe or Doltaire. Now I was alone, to see
+and hear my wife in speech with my enemy, the man who had made a
+strong, and was yet to make a stronger fight to unseat me in her
+affections.
+
+There was a moment's compunction, in which I hesitated to see
+this meeting; but there was Alixe's safety to be thought on, and
+what might he not here disclose of his intentions!--knowing which,
+I should act with judgment, and not in the dark. I trusted Alixe,
+though I knew well that this hour would see the great struggle in
+her between this scoundrel and myself. I knew that he had ever had
+a sort of power over her, even while she loathed his character;
+that he had a hundred graces I had not, place which I had not, an
+intellect that ever delighted me, and a will like iron when it was
+called into action. I thought for one moment longer ere I moved
+the panel. My lips closed tight, and I felt a pang at my heart.
+
+Suppose, in this conflict, this singular man, acting on a nature
+already tried beyond reason, should bend it to his will, to which
+it was, in some radical ways, inclined? Well, if that should be,
+then I would go forth and never see her more. She must make her
+choice out of her own heart and spirit, and fight this fight alone,
+and having fought, and lost or won, the result should be final,
+should stand, though she was my wife, and I was bound in honour to
+protect her from all that might invade her loyalty, to cherish her
+through all temptation and distress. But our case was a strange one,
+and it must be dealt with according to its strangeness--our only
+guides our consciences. There were no precedents to meet our needs;
+our way had to be hewn out of a noisome, pathless wood. I made up my
+mind: I would hear and see all. So I slid the panel softly, and put
+my eyes to the tapestry. How many times did I see, in the next hour,
+my wife's eyes upraised to this very tapestry, as if appealing to
+the Madonna upon it! How many times did her eyes look into mine
+without knowing it! And more than once Doltaire followed her
+glance, and a faint smile passed over his face, as if he saw and
+was interested in the struggle in her, apart from his own passion
+and desires.
+
+When first I looked in, she was standing near a tall high-backed
+chair, in almost the same position as on the day when Doltaire told
+me of Braddock's death, accused me of being a spy, and arrested me.
+It gave me, too, a thrill to see her raise her handkerchief to her
+mouth as if to stop a cry, as she had done then, the black sleeve
+falling away from her perfect rounded arm, now looking almost like
+marble against the lace. She held her handkerchief to her lips for
+quite a minute; and indeed it covered more than a little of her
+face, so that the features most showing were her eyes, gazing at
+Doltaire with a look hard to interpret, for there seemed in it
+trouble, entreaty, wonder, resistance, and a great sorrow--no fear,
+trepidation, or indirectness.
+
+His disturbing words were these: "To-night I am the Governor of
+this country. You once doubted my power--that was when you would
+save your lover from death. I proved it in that small thing--I saved
+him. Well, when you saw me carried off to the Bastile--it looked
+like that--my power seemed to vanish: is it not so? We have talked
+of this before, but now is a time to review all things again. And
+once more I say I am the Governor of New France. I have had the
+commission in my hands ever since I came back. But I have spoken of
+it to no one--except your lover."
+
+"My husband!" she said steadily, crushing the handkerchief in
+her hand, which now rested upon the chair-arm.
+
+"Well, well, your husband--after a fashion. I did not care to
+use this as an argument. I chose to win you by personal means
+alone, to have you give yourself to Tinoir Doltaire because you
+set him before any other man. I am vain, you see; but then vanity
+is no sin when one has fine aspirations, and I aspire to you!"
+
+She made a motion with her hand. "Oh, can you not spare me this
+to-day of all days in my life--your Excellency?"
+
+"Let it be plain 'monsieur,'" he answered. "I can not spare you,
+for this day decides all. As I said, I desired you. At first my
+wish was to possess you at any cost: I was your hunter only. I am
+still your hunter, but in a different way. I would rather have you
+in my arms than save New France; and with Montcalm I could save it.
+Vaudreuil is a blunderer and a fool; he has sold the country. But
+what ambition is that? New France may come and go, and be forgotten,
+and you and I be none the worse. There are other provinces to
+conquer. But for me there is only one province, and I will lift my
+standard there, and build a grand chateau of my happiness there.
+That is my hope, and that is why I come to conquer it, and not the
+English. Let the English go--all save one, and he must die. Already
+he is dead; he died to-day at the altar of the cathedral--"
+
+"No, no, no!" broke in Alixe, her voice low and firm.
+
+"But yes," he said; "but yes, he is dead to you forever. The
+Church has said so; the state says so; your people say so; race and
+all manner of good custom say so; and I, who love you better--yes,
+a hundred times better than he--say so."
+
+She made a hasty, deprecating gesture with her hand. "Oh, carry
+this old song elsewhere," she said, "for I am sick of it." There
+were now both scorn and weariness in her tone.
+
+He had a singular patience, and he resented nothing. "I understand,"
+he went on, "what it was sent your heart his way. He came to you
+when you were yet a child, before you had learnt the first secret
+of life. He was a captive, a prisoner, he had a wound got in fair
+fighting, and I will do him the credit to say he was an honest man;
+he was no spy."
+
+She looked up at him with a slight flush, almost of gratitude.
+"I know that well," she returned. "I knew there was other cause
+than spying at the base of all ill treatment of him. I know that
+you, you alone, kept him prisoner here five long years."
+
+"Not I; the Grande Marquise--for weighty reasons. You should not
+fret at those five years, since it gave you what you have cherished
+so much, a husband--after a fashion. But yet we will do him
+justice: he is an honourable fighter, he has parts and graces of a
+rude order. But he will never go far in life; he has no instincts
+and habits common with you; it has been, so far, a compromise,
+founded upon the old-fashioned romance of ill-used captive and
+soft-hearted maid; the compassion, too, of the superior for the
+low, the free for the caged."
+
+"Compassion such as your Excellency feels for me, no doubt," she
+said, with a slow pride.
+
+"You are caged, but you may be free," he rejoined meaningly.
+
+"Yes, in the same market open to him, and at the same price of
+honour," she replied, with dignity.
+
+"Will you not sit down?" he now said, motioning her to a chair
+politely, and taking one himself, thus pausing before he answered
+her.
+
+I was prepared to see him keep a decorous distance from her. I
+felt he was acting upon deliberation; that he was trusting to the
+power of his insinuating address, his sophistry, to break down
+barriers. It was as if he felt himself at greater advantage, making
+no emotional demonstrations, so allaying her fears, giving her time
+to think; for it was clear he hoped to master her intelligence, so
+strong a part of her.
+
+She sat down in the high-backed chair, and I noted that our
+batteries began to play upon the town--an unusual thing at night.
+It gave me a strange feeling--the perfect stillness of the holy
+place, the quiet movement of this tragedy before me, on which
+broke, with no modifying noises or turmoil, the shouting cannonade.
+Nature, too, it would have seemed, had forged a mood in keeping
+with the time, for there was no air stirring when we came in, and a
+strange stillness had come upon the landscape. In the pause, too, I
+heard a long, soft shuffling of feet in the corridor--the evening
+procession from the chapel--and a slow chant:
+
+"I am set down in a wilderness, O Lord, I am alone. If a strange
+voice call, O teach me what to say; if I languish, O give me
+Thy cup to drink; O strengthen Thou my soul. Lord, I am like a
+sparrow far from home; O bring me to Thine honourable house.
+Preserve my heart, encourage me, according to Thy truth."
+
+The words came to us distinctly yet distantly, swelled softly,
+and died away, leaving Alixe and Doltaire seated and looking at
+each other. Alixe's hands were clasped in her lap.
+
+"Your honour is above all price," he said at last in reply to
+her. "But what is honour in this case of yours, in which I throw
+the whole interest of my life, stake all? For I am convinced that,
+losing, the book of fate will close for me. Winning, I shall begin
+again, and play a part in France which men shall speak of when I
+am done with all. I never had ambition for myself; for you, Alixe
+Duvarney, a new spirit lives in me.... I will be honest with you.
+At first I swore to cool my hot face in your bosom; and I would
+have done that at any price, and yet I would have stood by that
+same dishonour honourably to the end. Never in my whole life did I
+put my whole heart in any--episode--of admiration: I own it, for
+you to think what you will. There never was a woman whom, loving
+to-day,"--he smiled--"I could not leave to-morrow with no more than
+a pleasing kind of regret. Names that I ought to have recalled I
+forgot; incidents were cloudy, like childish remembrances. I was
+not proud of it; the peasant in me spoke against it sometimes. I
+even have wished that I, half peasant, had been--"
+
+"If only you had been all peasant, this war, this misery of
+mine, had never been," she interrupted.
+
+He nodded with an almost boyish candour. "Yes, yes, but I was half
+prince also; I had been brought up, one foot in a cottage and
+another in a palace. But for your misery: is it, then, misery? Need
+it be so? But lift your finger and all will be well. Do you wish to
+save your country? Would that be compensation? Then I will show you
+the way. We have three times as many soldiers as the English, though
+of poorer stuff. We could hold this place, could defeat them, if we
+were united and had but two thousand men. We have fifteen thousand.
+As it is now, Vaudreuil balks Montcalm, and that will ruin us in the
+end unless you make it otherwise. You would be a patriot? Then shut
+out forever this English captain from your heart, and open its doors
+to me. To-morrow I will take Vaudreuil's place, put your father
+in Bigot's, your brother in Ramesay's--they are both perfect and
+capable; I will strengthen the excellent Montcalm's hands in every
+way, will inspire the people, and cause the English to raise this
+siege. You and I will do this: the Church will bless us, the State
+will thank us; your home and country will be safe and happy, your
+father and brother honoured. This, and far, far greater things I
+will do for your sake."
+
+He paused. He had spoken with a deep power, such as I knew he
+could use, and I did not wonder that she paled a little, even
+trembled before it.
+
+"Will you not do it for France?" she said.
+
+"I will not do it for France," he answered. "I will do it for
+you alone. Will you not be your country's friend? It is no virtue
+in me to plead patriotism--it is a mere argument, a weapon that I
+use; but my heart is behind it, and it is a means to that which
+you will thank me for one day. I would not force you to anything,
+but I would persuade your reason, question your foolish loyalty
+to a girl's mistake. Can you think that you are right? You have no
+friend that commends your cause; the whole country has upbraided
+you, the Church has cut you off from the man. All is against
+reunion with him, and most of all your own honour. Come with me,
+and be commended and blessed here, while over in France homage
+shall be done you. For you I would take from his Majesty a dukedom
+which he has offered me more than once."
+
+Suddenly, with a passionate tone, he continued: "Your own heart is
+speaking for me. Have I not seen you tremble when I come near you?"
+
+He rose and came forward a step or two. "You thought it was fear
+of me. It was fear, but fear of that in you which was pleading for
+me, while you had sworn yourself away to him who knows not and can
+never know how to love you, who has nothing kin with you in mind or
+heart--an alien of poor fortune, and poorer birth and prospects."
+
+He fixed his eyes upon her, and went on, speaking with forceful
+quietness: "Had there been cut away that mistaken sense of duty to
+him, which I admire unspeakably--yes, though it is misplaced--you
+and I would have come to each other's arms long ago. Here in your
+atmosphere I feel myself possessed, endowed. I come close to you,
+and something new in me cries out simply, 'I love you, Alixe, I
+love you!' See, all the damnable part of me is burned up by the
+clear fire of your eyes; I stand upon the ashes, and swear that
+I can not live without you. Come--come--"
+
+He stepped nearer still, and she rose like one who moves under
+some fascination, and I almost cried out, for in that moment she
+was his, his--I felt it; he possessed her like some spirit; and I
+understood it, for the devilish golden beauty of his voice was
+like music, and he had spoken with great skill.
+
+"Come," he said, "and know where all along your love has lain.
+That other way is only darkness--the convent, which will keep you
+buried, while you will never have heart for the piteous seclusion,
+till your life is broken all to pieces; till you have no hope, no
+desire, no love, and at last, under a cowl, you look out upon the
+world, and, with a dead heart, see it as in a pale dream, and die
+at last: you, born to be a wife, without a husband; endowed to be
+the perfect mother, without a child; to be the admired of princes,
+a moving, powerful figure to influence great men, with no salon but
+the little bare cell where you pray. With me all that you should be
+you will be. You have had a bad, dark dream; wake, and come into the
+sun with me. Once I wished for you as the lover only; now, by every
+hope I ever might have had, I want you for my wife."
+
+He held out his arms to her and smiled, and spoke one or two low
+words which I could not hear. I had stood waiting death against
+the citadel wall, with the chance of a reprieve hanging between
+uplifted muskets and my breast; but that suspense was less than
+this, for I saw him, not moving, but standing there waiting for
+her, the warmth of his devilish eloquence about him, and she
+moving toward him.
+
+"My darling," I heard him say, "come, till death...us do part,
+and let no man put asunder."
+
+She paused, and, waking from the dream, drew herself together,
+as though something at her breast hurt her, and she repeated his
+words like one dazed--"Let no man put asunder!"
+
+With a look that told of her great struggle, she moved to a shrine
+of the Virgin in the corner, and, clasping her hands before her
+breast for a moment, said something I could not hear, before she
+turned to Doltaire, who had now taken another step towards her.
+By his look I knew that he felt his spell was broken; that his
+auspicious moment had passed; that now, if he won her, it must
+be by harsh means.
+
+For she said: "Monsieur Doltaire, you have defeated yourself.
+'Let no man put asunder' was my response to my husband's 'Whom God
+hath joined,' when last I met him face to face. Nothing can alter
+that while he lives, nor yet when he dies, for I have had such a
+sorrowful happiness in him that if I were sure he were dead I would
+never leave this holy place--never. But he lives, and I will keep my
+vow. Holy Church has parted us, but yet we are not parted. You say
+that to think of him now is wrong, reflects upon me. I tell you,
+monsieur, that if it were a wrong a thousand times greater I would
+do it. To me there can be no shame in following till I die the man
+who took me honourably for his wife."
+
+He made an impatient gesture and smiled ironically.
+
+"Oh, I care not what you say or think," she went on. "I know not
+of things canonical and legal; the way that I was married to him
+is valid in his country and for his people. Bad Catholic you call
+me, alas! But I am a true wife, who, if she sinned, sinned not
+knowingly, and deserves not this tyranny and shame."
+
+"You are possessed with a sad infatuation," he replied
+persuasively. "You are not the first who has suffered so. It will
+pass, and leave you sane--leave you to me. For you are mine; what
+you felt a moment ago you will feel again, when this romantic
+martyrdom of yours has wearied you."
+
+"Monsieur Doltaire," she said, with a successful effort at
+calmness, though I could see her trembling too, "it is you who are
+mistaken, and I will show you how. But first: You have said often
+that I have unusual intelligence. You have flattered me in that, I
+doubt not, but still here is a chance to prove yourself sincere. I
+shall pass by every wicked means that you took first to ruin me, to
+divert me to a dishonest love (though I knew not what you meant at
+the time), and, failing, to make me your wife. I shall not refer to
+this base means to reach me in this sacred place, using the King's
+commission for such a purpose."
+
+"I would use it again and do more, for the same ends," he rejoined,
+with shameless candour.
+
+She waved her hand impatiently. "I pass all that by. You shall
+listen to me as I have listened to you, remembering that what I say
+is honest, if it has not your grace and eloquence. You say that I
+will yet come to you, that I care for you and have cared for you
+always, and that--that this other--is a sad infatuation. Monsieur,
+in part you are right."
+
+He came another step forward, for he thought he saw a foothold
+again; but she drew back to the chair, and said, lifting her hand
+against him, "No, no, wait till I have done. I say that you are
+right in part. I will not deny that, against my will, you have
+always influenced me; that, try as I would, your presence moved me,
+and I could never put you out of my mind, out of my life. At first
+I did not understand it, for I knew how bad you were. I was sure
+you did evil because you loved it; that to gratify yourself you
+would spare no one: a man without pity--"
+
+"On the contrary," he interrupted, with a sour sort of smile,
+"pity is almost a foible with me."
+
+"Not real pity," she answered. "Monsieur, I have lived long enough
+to know what pity moves you. It is the moment's careless whim; a
+pensive pleasure, a dramatic tenderness. Wholesome pity would make
+you hesitate to harm others. You have no principles--"
+
+"Pardon me, many," he urged politely, as he eyed her with
+admiration.
+
+"Ah no, monsieur; habits, not principles. Your life has been one
+long irresponsibility. In the very maturity of your powers, you use
+them to win to yourself, to your empty heart, a girl who has tried
+to live according to the teachings of her soul and conscience. Were
+there not women elsewhere to whom it didn't matter--your abandoned
+purposes? Why did you throw your shadow on my path? You are not,
+never were, worthy of a good woman's love."
+
+He laughed with a sort of bitterness. "Your sinner stands between
+two fires--" he said. She looked at him inquiringly, and he added,
+"the punishment he deserves and the punishment he does not deserve.
+But it is interesting to be thus picked out upon the stone, however
+harsh the picture. You said I influenced you--well?"
+
+"Monsieur," she went on, "there were times when, listening to
+you, I needed all my strength to resist. I have felt myself weak
+and shaking when you came into the room. There was something in you
+that appealed to me, I know not what; but I do know that it was not
+the best of me, that it was emotional, some strange power of your
+personality--ah yes, I can acknowledge all now. You had great
+cleverness, gifts that startled and delighted; but yet I felt
+always, and that feeling grew and grew, that there was nothing in
+you wholly honest, that by artifice you had frittered away what
+once may have been good in you. Now all goodness in you was an
+accident of sense and caprice, not true morality."
+
+"What has true morality to do with love of you?" he said.
+
+"You ask me hard questions," she replied. "This it has to do
+with it: We go from morality to higher things, not from higher
+things to morality. Pure love is a high thing; yours was not high.
+To have put my life in your hands--ah no, no! And so I fought you.
+There was no question of yourself and Robert Moray--none. Him I
+knew to possess fewer gifts, but I knew him also to be what you
+could never be. I never measured him against you. What was his was
+all of me worth the having, and was given always; there was no
+change. What was yours was given only when in your presence, and
+then with hatred of myself and you--given to some baleful
+fascination in you. For a time, the more I struggled against it
+the more it grew, for there was nothing that could influence
+a woman which you did not do. Monsieur, if you had had Robert
+Moray's character and your own gifts, I could--monsieur, I could
+have worshiped you!"
+
+Doltaire was in a kind of dream. He was sitting now in the
+high-backed chair, his mouth and chin in his hand, his elbow resting
+on the chair-arm. His left hand grasped the other arm, and he leaned
+forward with brows bent and his eyes fixed on her intently. It was a
+figure singularly absorbed, lost in study of some deep theme. Once
+his sword clanged against the chair as it slipped a little from its
+position, and he started almost violently, though the dull booming
+of a cannon in no wise seemed to break the quietness of the scene.
+He was dressed, as in the morning, in plain black, but now the star
+of Louis shone on his breast. His face was pale, but his eyes, with
+their swift-shifting lights, lived upon Alixe, devoured her.
+
+She paused for an instant.
+
+"Thou shalt not commit--idolatry," he remarked in a low, cynical
+tone, which the repressed feeling in his face and the terrible new
+earnestness of his look belied.
+
+She flushed a little, and continued: "Yet all the time I was
+true to him, and what I felt concerning you he knew--I told him
+enough."
+
+Suddenly there came into Doltaire's looks and manner an astounding
+change. Both hands caught the chair-arm, his lips parted with a sort
+of snarl, and his white teeth showed maliciously. It seemed as if,
+all at once, the courtier, the flaneur, the man of breeding, had
+gone, and you had before you the peasant, in a moment's palsy from
+the intensity of his fury.
+
+"A thousand hells for him!" he burst out in the rough patois of
+Poictiers, and got to his feet. "You told him all, you confessed
+your fluttering fears and desires to him, while you let me play upon
+those ardent strings of feelings, that you might save him! You used
+me, Tinoir Doltaire, son of a king, to further your amour with a
+bourgeois Englishman! And he laughed in his sleeve, and soothed away
+those dangerous influences of the magician. By the God of heaven,
+Robert Moray and I have work to do! And you--you, with all the gifts
+of the perfect courtesan--"
+
+"Oh, shame! shame!" she said, breaking in.
+
+"But I speak the truth. You berate me, but you used incomparable
+gifts to hold me near you, and the same gifts to let me have no
+more of you than would keep me. I thought you the most honest, the
+most heavenly of women, and now--"
+
+"Alas!" she interrupted, "what else could I have done? To draw
+the line between your constant attention and my own necessity!
+Ah, I was but a young girl; I had no friend to help me; he was
+condemned to die; I loved him; I did not believe in you, not in
+ever so little. If I had said, 'You must not speak to me again,'
+you would have guessed my secret, and all my purposes would have
+been defeated. So I had to go on; nor did I think that it ever
+would cause you aught but a shock to your vanity."
+
+He laughed hatefully. "My faith, but it has, shocked my vanity,"
+he answered. "And now take this for thinking on: Up to this point I
+have pleaded with you, used persuasion, courted you with a humility
+astonishing to myself. Now I will have you in spite of all. I will
+break you, and soothe your hurt afterwards. I will, by the face of
+the Madonna, I will feed where this Moray would pasture, I will
+gather this ripe fruit!"
+
+With a devilish swiftness he caught her about the waist, and
+kissed her again and again upon the mouth.
+
+The blood was pounding in my veins, and I would have rushed in
+then and there, have ended the long strife, and have dug revenge
+for this outrage from his heart, but that I saw Alixe did not move,
+nor make the least resistance. This struck me with horror, till,
+all at once, he let her go, and I saw her face. It was very white
+and still, smooth and cold as marble. She seemed five years older
+in the minute.
+
+"Have you quite done, monsieur?" she said, with infinite quiet
+scorn. "Do you, the son of a king, find joy in kissing lips that
+answer nothing, a cheek from which the blood flows in affright and
+shame? Is it an achievement to feed as cattle feed? Listen to me,
+Monsieur Doltaire. No, do not try to speak till I have done, if
+your morality--of manners--is not all dead. Through this cowardly
+act of yours, the last vestige of your power over me is gone. I
+sometimes think that, with you, in the past, I have remained true
+and virtuous at the expense of the best of me; but now all that is
+over, and there is no temptation--I feel beyond it: by this hour
+here, this hour of sore peril, you have freed me. I was
+tempted--Heaven knows, a few minutes ago I was tempted, for
+everything was with you; but God has been with me, and you and I
+are no nearer than the poles."
+
+"You doubt that I love you?" he said in an altered voice.
+
+"I doubt that any man will so shame the woman he loves," she
+answered.
+
+"What is insult to-day may be a pride to-morrow," was his quick
+reply. "I do not repent of it, I never will, for you and I shall
+go to-night from here, and you shall be my wife; and one day, when
+this man is dead, when you have forgotten your bad dream, you will
+love me as you can not love him. I have that in me to make you love
+me. To you I can be loyal, never drifting, never wavering. I tell
+you, I will not let you go. First my wife you shall be, and after
+that I will win your love; in spite of all, mine now, though it is
+shifted for the moment. Come, come, Alixe"--he made as if to take
+her hand--"you and I will learn the splendid secret--"
+
+She drew back to the shrine of the Virgin.
+
+"Mother of God! Mother of God!" I heard her whisper, and then she
+raised her hand against him. "No, no, no," she said, with sharp
+anguish, "do not try to force me to your wishes--do not; for I, at
+least, will never live to see it. I have suffered more than I can
+bear I will end this shame, I will--"
+
+I had heard enough. I stepped back quickly, closed the panel,
+and went softly to the door and into the hall, determined to bring
+her out against Doltaire, trusting to Gabord not to oppose me.
+
+
+
+XXVII
+
+A SIDE-WIND OF REVENGE
+
+
+I knew it was Doltaire's life or mine, and I shrank from desecrating
+this holy place; but our bitter case would warrant this, and more.
+As I came quickly through the hall, and round the corner where stood
+Gabord, I saw a soldier talking with the Mother Superior.
+
+"He is not dead?" I heard her say.
+
+"No, holy Mother," was the answer, "but sorely wounded. He was
+testing the fire-organs for the rafts, and one exploded too soon."
+
+At that moment the Mother turned to me, and seemed startled by
+my look. "What is it?" she whispered.
+
+"He would carry her off," I replied.
+
+"He shall never do so," was her quick answer. "Her father, the
+good Seigneur, has been wounded, and she must go to him."
+
+"I will take her," said I at once, and I moved to open the door.
+At that moment I caught Gabord's eye. There I read what caused me
+to pause. If I declared myself now, Gabord's life would pay for his
+friendship to me--even if I killed Doltaire; for the matter would
+be open to all then just the same. That I could not do, for the man
+had done me kindnesses dangerous to himself. Besides, he was a true
+soldier, and disgrace itself would be to him as bad as the drum-head
+court-martial. I made up my mind to another course even as the
+perturbed "aho" which followed our glance fell from his puffing lips.
+
+"But no, holy Mother," said I, and I whispered in her ear. She
+opened the door and went in, leaving it ajar. I could hear only
+a confused murmur of voices, through which ran twice, "No, no,
+monsieur," in Alixe's soft, clear voice. I could scarcely restrain
+myself, and I am sure I should have gone in, in spite of all, had
+it not been for Gabord, who withstood me.
+
+He was right, and as I turned away I heard Alixe cry, "My father,
+my poor father!"
+
+Then came Doltaire's voice, cold and angry: "Good Mother, this
+is a trick."
+
+"Your Excellency should be a better judge of trickery," she
+replied quietly. "Will not your Excellency leave an unhappy lady
+to her trouble and the Church's care?"
+
+"If the Seigneur is hurt, I will take mademoiselle to him," was
+his instant reply.
+
+"It may not be, your Excellency," she said. "I will furnish her
+with other escort."
+
+"And I, as Governor of this province, as commander-in-chief of
+the army, say that only with my escort shall the lady reach her
+father."
+
+At this Alixe spoke: "Dear Mere St. George, do not fear
+for me; God will protect me--"
+
+"And I also, mademoiselle, with my life," interposed
+Doltaire.
+
+"God will protect me," Alixe repeated; "I have no fear."
+
+"I will send two of our Sisters with mademoiselle to nurse the
+poor Seigneur," said Mere St. George.
+
+I am sure Doltaire saw the move. "A great kindness, holy Mother,"
+he said politely, "and I will see they are well cared for. We will
+set forth at once. The Seigneur shall be brought to the Intendance,
+and he and his daughter shall have quarters there."
+
+He stepped towards the door where we were. I fell back into
+position as he came. "Gabord," said he, "send your trusted fellow
+here to the General's camp, and have him fetch to the Intendance
+the Seigneur Duvarney, who has been wounded. Alive or dead, he must
+be brought," he added in a lower voice.
+
+Then he turned back into the room. As he did so, Gabord looked
+at me inquiringly.
+
+"If you go, you put your neck into the gin," said he; "some one
+in camp will know you."
+
+"I will not leave my wife," I answered in a whisper. Thus were
+all plans altered on the instant. Gabord went to the outer door and
+called another soldier, to whom he gave this commission.
+
+A few moments afterwards, Alixe, Doltaire, and the Sisters of
+Mercy were at the door ready to start. Doltaire turned and bowed
+with a well-assumed reverence to the Mother Superior. "To-night's
+affairs here are sacred to ourselves, Mere St. George," he said.
+
+She bowed, but made no reply. Alixe turned and kissed her hand.
+But as we stepped forth, the Mother said suddenly, pointing to me,
+"Let the soldier come back in an hour, and mademoiselle's luggage
+shall go to her, your Excellency."
+
+Doltaire nodded, glancing at me. "Surely he shall attend you, Mere
+St. George," he said, and then stepped on with Alixe, Gabord and
+the other soldier ahead, the two Sisters behind, and myself beside
+these. Going quietly through the disordered Upper Town, we came down
+Palace Street to the Intendance. Here Doltaire had kept his quarters
+despite his growing quarrel with Bigot. As we entered he inquired of
+the servant where Bigot was, and was told he was gone to the Chateau
+St. Louis. Doltaire shrugged a shoulder and smiled--he knew that
+Bigot had had news of his deposition through the Governor. He
+gave orders for rooms to be prepared for the Seigneur and for the
+Sisters; mademoiselle meanwhile to be taken to hers, which had, it
+appeared, been made ready. Then I heard him ask in an undertone if
+the bishop had come, and he was answered that Monseigneur was at
+Charlesbourg, and could not be expected till the morning. I was
+in a most dangerous position, for, though I had escaped notice,
+any moment might betray me; Doltaire himself might see through
+my disguise.
+
+We all accompanied Alixe to the door of her apartments, and there
+Doltaire with courtesy took leave of her, saying that he would
+return in a little time to see if she was comfortable, and to
+bring her any fresh news of her father. The Sisters were given
+apartments next her own, and they entered her room with her, at
+her own request.
+
+When the door closed, Doltaire turned to Gabord, and said, "You
+shall come with me to bear letters to General Montcalm, and you
+shall send one of these fellows also for me to General Bougainville
+at Cap Rouge." Then he spoke directly to me, and said, "You shall
+guard this passage till morning. No one but myself may pass into
+this room or out of it, save the Sisters of Mercy, on pain of
+death."
+
+I saluted, but spoke no word.
+
+"You understand me?" he repeated.
+
+"Absolutely, monsieur," I answered in a rough peasantlike voice.
+
+He turned and walked in a leisurely way through the passage, and
+disappeared, telling Gabord to join him in a moment. As he left,
+Gabord said to me in a low voice, "Get back to General Wolfe, or
+wife and life will both be lost."
+
+I caught his hand and pressed it, and a minute afterwards I was
+alone before Alixe's door.
+
+An hour later, knowing Alixe to be alone, I tapped on her door
+and entered. As I did so she rose from a priedieu where she had
+been kneeling. Two candles were burning on the mantel, but the room
+was much in shadow.
+
+"What is't you wish?" she asked, approaching.
+
+I had off my hat; I looked her direct in the eyes and put my fingers
+on my lips. She stared painfully for a moment.
+
+"Alixe," said I.
+
+She gave a gasp, and stood transfixed, as though she had seen a
+ghost, and then in an instant she was in my arms, sobs shaking her.
+"Oh, Robert! oh my dear, dear husband!" she cried again and again.
+I calmed her, and presently she broke into a whirl of questions.
+I told her of all I had seen at the cathedral and at the convent,
+what my plans had been, and then I waited for her answer. A new
+feeling took possession of her. She knew that there was one
+question at my lips which I dared not utter. She became very quiet,
+and a sweet, settled firmness came into her face.
+
+"Robert," she said, "you must go back to your army without me. I
+can not leave my father now. Save yourself alone, and if--and if
+you take the city, and I am alive, then we shall be reunited. If
+you do not take the city, then, whether father lives or dies, I
+will come to you. Of this be sure, that I shall never live to be
+the wife of any other man--wife or aught else. You know me. You
+know all, you trust me, and, my dear husband, my own love, we
+must part once more. Go, go, and save yourself, keep your life
+safe for my sake, and may God in heaven, may God--"
+
+Here she broke off and started back from my embrace, staring hard
+a moment over my shoulder; then her face became deadly pale, and
+she fell back unconscious. Supporting her, I turned round, and
+there, inside the door, with his back to it, was Doltaire. There
+was a devilish smile on his face, as wicked a look as I ever saw on
+any man. I laid Alixe down on a sofa without a word, and faced him
+again.
+
+"As many coats as Joseph's coat had colours," he said. "And for
+once disguised as an honest man--well, well!"
+
+"Beast" I hissed, and I whipped out my short sword.
+
+"Not here," he said, with a malicious laugh. "You forget your
+manners: familiarity"--he glanced towards the couch--"has bred--"
+
+"Coward!" I cried. "I will kill you at her feet."
+
+"Come, then," he answered, and stepped away from the door,
+drawing his sword, "since you will have it here. But if I kill you,
+as I intend--"
+
+He smiled detestably, and motioned towards the couch, then
+turned to the door again as if to lock it. I stepped between, my
+sword at guard. At that the door opened. A woman came in quickly,
+and closed it behind her. She passed me, and faced Doltaire.
+
+It was Madame Cournal. She was most pale, and there was a peculiar
+wildness in her eyes.
+
+"You have deposed Francois Bigot," she said.
+
+"Stand back, madame; I have business with this fellow," said
+Doltaire, waving his hand.
+
+"My business comes first," she replied. "You--you dare to depose
+Francois Bigot!"
+
+"It needs no daring," he said nonchalantly.
+
+"You shall put him back in his place."
+
+"Come to me to-morrow morning, dear madame."
+
+"I tell you he must be put back, Monsieur Doltaire."
+
+"Once you called me Tinoir," he said meaningly.
+
+Without a word she caught from her cloak a dagger and struck him
+in the breast, though he threw up his hand and partly diverted the
+blow. Without a cry he half swung round, and sank, face forward,
+against the couch where Alixe lay.
+
+Raising himself feebly, blindly, he caught her hand and kissed
+it; then he fell back.
+
+Stooping beside him, I felt his heart. He was alive. Madame
+Cournal now knelt beside him, staring at him as in a kind of dream.
+I left the room quickly, and met the Sisters of Mercy in the hall.
+They had heard the noise, and were coming to Alixe. I bade them
+care for her. Passing rapidly through the corridors, I told a
+servant of the household what had occurred, bade him send for
+Bigot, and then made for my own safety. Alixe was safe for a time,
+at least--perhaps forever, thank God!--from the approaches of
+Monsieur Doltaire. As I sped through the streets, I could not help
+but think of how he had kissed her hand as he fell, and I knew by
+this act, at such a time, that in very truth he loved her after his
+fashion.
+
+I came soon to the St. John's Gate, for I had the countersign
+from Gabord, and, dressed as I was, I had no difficulty in passing.
+Outside I saw a small cavalcade arriving from Beauport way. I drew
+back and let it pass me, and then I saw that it was soldiers
+bearing the Seigneur Duvarney to the Intendance.
+
+An hour afterwards, having passed the sentries, I stood on a
+lonely point of the shore of Lower Town, and, seeing no one near,
+I slid into the water. As I did so I heard a challenge behind me,
+and when I made no answer there came a shot, another, and another;
+for it was thought, I doubt not, that I was a deserter. I was
+wounded in the shoulder, and had to swim with one arm; but though
+boats were put out, I managed to evade them and to get within hail
+of our fleet. Challenged there, I answered with my name. A boat shot
+out from among the ships, and soon I was hauled into it by Clark
+himself; and that night I rested safe upon the Terror of France.
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+"TO CHEAT THE DEVIL YET."
+
+
+My hurt proved more serious than I had looked for, and the day
+after my escape I was in a high fever. General Wolfe himself,
+having heard of my return, sent to inquire after me. He also was
+ill, and our forces were depressed in consequence; for he had a
+power to inspire them not given to any other of our accomplished
+and admirable generals. He forbore to question me concerning the
+state of the town and what I had seen; for which I was glad. My
+adventure had been of a private nature, and such I wished it to
+remain. The general desired me to come to him as soon as I was
+able, that I might proceed with him above the town to reconnoitre.
+But for many a day this was impossible, for my wound gave me much
+pain and I was confined to my bed.
+
+Yet we on the Terror of France served our good general, too; for
+one dark night, when the wind was fair, we piloted the remaining
+ships of Admiral Holmes's division above the town. This move was
+made on my constant assertion that there was a way by which Quebec
+might be taken from above; and when General Wolfe made known my
+representations to his general officers, they accepted it as a
+last resort; for otherwise what hope had they? At Montmorenci our
+troops had been repulsed, the mud flats of the Beauport shore and
+the St. Charles River were as good as an army against us; the
+Upper Town and citadel were practically impregnable; and for
+eight miles west of the town to the cove and river at Cap Rouge
+there was one long precipice, broken in but one spot; but just
+there, I was sure, men could come up with stiff climbing as I
+had done. Bougainville came to Cap Rouge now with three thousand
+men, for he thought that this was to be our point of attack.
+Along the shore from Cap Rouge to Cape Diamond small batteries
+were posted, such as that of Lancy's at Anse du Foulon; but they
+were careless, for no conjectures might seem so wild as that of
+bringing an army up where I had climbed.
+
+"Tut, tut," said General Murray, when he came to me on the
+Terror of France, after having, at my suggestion, gone to the
+south shore opposite Anse du Foulon, and scanned the faint line
+that marked the narrow cleft on the cliff side--"tut, tut, man,"
+said he, "'tis the dream of a cat or a damned mathematician."
+
+Once, after all was done, he said to me that cats and
+mathematicians were the only generals.
+
+With a belligerent pride Clark showed the way up the river one
+evening, the batteries of the town giving us plunging shots as we
+went, and ours at Point Levis answering gallantly. To me it was a
+good if most anxious time: good, in that I was having some sort of
+compensation for my own sufferings in the town; anxious, because no
+single word came to me of Alixe or her father, and all the time we
+were pouring death into the place.
+
+But this we knew from deserters, that Vaudreuil was Governor
+and Bigot Intendant still; by which it would seem that, on the
+momentous night when Doltaire was wounded by Madame Cournal, he
+gave back the governorship to Vaudreuil and reinstated Bigot.
+Presently, from an officer who had been captured as he was setting
+free a fire-raft upon the river to run among the boats of our
+fleet, I heard that Doltaire had been confined in the Intendance
+from a wound given by a stupid sentry. Thus the true story had been
+kept from the public. From him, too, I learned that nothing was
+known of the Seigneur Duvarney and his daughter; that they had
+suddenly disappeared from the Intendance, as if the earth had
+swallowed them; and that even Juste Duvarney knew nothing of them,
+and was, in consequence, much distressed.
+
+This officer also said that now, when it might seem as if both
+the Seigneur and his daughter were dead, opinion had turned in
+Alixe's favour, and the feeling had crept about, first among the
+common folk and afterwards among the people of the garrison, that
+she had been used harshly. This was due largely, he thought, to the
+constant advocacy of the Chevalier de la Darante, whose nephew had
+married Mademoiselle Georgette Duvarney. This piece of news, in
+spite of the uncertainty of Alixe's fate, touched me, for the
+Chevalier had indeed kept his word to me.
+
+At last all of Admiral Holmes's division was got above the town,
+with very little damage, and I never saw a man so elated, so
+profoundly elated as Clark over his share in the business. He was
+a daredevil, too; for the day that the last of the division was
+taken up the river, without my permission or the permission of the
+admiral or any one else, he took the Terror of France almost up to
+Bougainville's earthworks in the cove at Cap Rouge and insolently
+emptied his six swivels into them, and then came out and stood
+down the river. When I asked what he was doing--for I was now well
+enough to come on deck--he said he was going to see how monkeys
+could throw nuts; when I pressed him, he said he had a will to
+hear the cats in the eaves; and when I became severe, he added
+that he would bring the Terror of France up past the batteries of
+the town in broad daylight, swearing that they could no more hit
+him than a woman could a bird on a flagstaff. I did not relish this
+foolish bravado, and I forbade it; but presently I consented, on
+condition that he take me to General Wolfe's camp at Montmorenci
+first; for now I felt strong enough to be again on active service.
+
+Clark took the Terror of France up the river in midday, running
+perilously close to the batteries; and though they pounded at him
+petulantly, foolishly angry at his contemptuous defiance, he ran
+the gauntlet safely, and coming to the flagship, the Sutherland,
+saluted with his six swivels, to the laughter of the whole fleet
+and his own profane joy.
+
+"Mr. Moray," said General Wolfe, when I saw him, racked with
+pain, studying a chart of the river and town which his chief
+engineer had just brought him, "show me here this passage in the
+hillside."
+
+I did so, tracing the plains of Maitre Abraham, which I
+assured him would be good ground for a pitched battle. He nodded;
+then rose, and walked up and down for a time, thinking. Suddenly
+he stopped, and fixed his eyes upon me.
+
+"Mr. Moray," said he, "it would seem that you, angering La
+Pompadour, brought down this war upon us." He paused, smiling in a
+dry way, as if the thought amused him, as if indeed he doubted it;
+but for that I cared not, it was an honour I could easily live
+without.
+
+I bowed to his words, and said, "Mine was the last straw, sir."
+
+Again he nodded, and replied, "Well, well, you got us into trouble;
+you must show us the way out," and he looked at the passage I had
+traced upon the chart. "You will remain with me until we meet our
+enemy on these heights." He pointed to the plains of Maitre Abraham.
+Then he turned away, and began walking up and down again. "It is
+the last chance!" he said to himself in a tone despairing and yet
+heroic. "Please God, please God!" he added.
+
+"You will speak nothing of these plans," he said to me at last,
+half mechanically. "We must make feints of landing at Cap
+Rouge--feints of landing everywhere save at the one possible place;
+confuse both Bougainville and Montcalm; tire out their armies with
+watchings and want of sleep; and then, on the auspicious night,
+make the great trial."
+
+I had remained respectfully standing at a little distance from
+him. Now he suddenly came to me, and, pressing my hand, said
+quickly, "You have trouble, Mr. Moray. I am sorry for you. But
+maybe it is for better things to come."
+
+I thanked him stumblingly, and a moment later left him, to serve
+him on the morrow, and so on through many days, till, in divers
+perils, the camp at Montmorenci was abandoned, the troops were got
+aboard the ships, and the general took up his quarters on the
+Sutherland; from which, one notable day, I sallied forth with him
+to a point at the south shore opposite the Anse du Foulon, where he
+saw the thin crack in the cliff side. From that moment instant and
+final attack was his purpose.
+
+The great night came, starlit and serene. The camp-fires of two
+armies spotted the shores of the wide river, and the ships lay like
+wild fowl in convoys above the town from where the arrow of fate
+should be sped. Darkness upon the river, and fireflies upon the
+shore. At Beauport, an untiring general, who for a hundred days had
+snatched sleep, booted and spurred, and in the ebb of a losing game,
+longed for his adored Candiac, grieved for a beloved daughter's
+death, sent cheerful messages to his aged mother and to his wife,
+and by the deeper protests of his love foreshadowed his own doom.
+At Cap Rouge, a dying commander, unperturbed and valiant, reached
+out a finger to trace the last movements in a desperate campaign of
+life that opened in Flanders at sixteen; of which the end began
+when he took from his bosom the portrait of his affianced wife,
+and said to his old schoolfellow, "Give this to her, Jervis, for
+we shall meet no more."
+
+Then, passing to the deck, silent and steady, no signs of pain
+upon his face, so had the calm come to him, as to Nature and this
+beleaguered city, before the whirlwind, he looked out upon the
+clustered groups of boats filled with the flower of his army,
+settled in a menacing tranquillity. There lay the Light Infantry,
+Bragg's, Kennedy's, Lascelles's, Anstruther's Regiment, Fraser's
+Highlanders, and the much-loved, much-blamed, and impetuous
+Louisburg Grenadiers. Steady, indomitable, silent as cats, precise
+as mathematicians, he could trust them, as they loved his awkward
+pain-twisted body and ugly red hair. "Damme, Jack, didst thee ever
+take hell in tow before?" said a sailor from the Terror of France
+to his fellow once, as the marines grappled with a flotilla of
+French fire-ships, and dragged them, spitting destruction, clear
+of the fleet, to the shore. "Nay, but I've been in tow of Jimmy
+Wolfe's red head; that's hell-fire, lad!" was the reply.
+
+From boat to boat the General's eye passed, then shifted to the
+ships--the Squirrel, the Leostaff, the Seahorse, and the rest--and
+lastly to where the army of Bougainville lay. Then there came
+towards him an officer, who said quietly, "The tide has turned,
+sir." For reply the general made a swift motion towards the
+maintop shrouds, and almost instantly lanterns showed in them. In
+response the crowded boats began to cast away, and, immediately
+descending, the General passed into his own boat, drew to the
+front, and drifted in the current ahead of his gallant men, the
+ships following after.
+
+It was two by the clock when the boats began to move, and slowly
+we ranged down the stream, silently steered, carried by the
+current. No paddle, no creaking oarlock, broke the stillness. I was
+in the next boat to the General's, for, with Clark and twenty-two
+other volunteers to the forlorn hope, I was to show the way up the
+heights, and we were near to his person for over two hours that
+night. No moon was shining, but I could see the General plainly;
+and once, when our boats almost touched, he saw me, and said
+graciously, "If they get up, Mr. Moray, you are free to serve
+yourself."
+
+My heart was full of love of country then, and I answered, "I
+hope, sir, to serve you till your flag is hoisted in the citadel."
+
+He turned to a young midshipman beside him, and said, "How old
+are you, sir?"
+
+"Seventeen, sir," was the reply.
+
+"It is the most lasting passion," he said, musing.
+
+It seemed to me then, and I still think it, that the passion he
+meant was love of country. A moment afterwards I heard him recite
+to the officers about him, in a low clear tone, some verses by Mr.
+Gray, the poet, which I had never then read, though I have prized
+them since. Under those frowning heights, and the smell from our
+roaring thirty-two-pounders in the air, I heard him say:
+
+  "The curfew tolls, the knell of parting day;
+    The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea;
+  The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
+    And leaves the world to darkness and to me."
+
+I have heard finer voices than his--it was as tin beside
+Doltaire's--but something in it pierced me that night, and I
+felt the man, the perfect hero, when he said:
+
+  "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
+    And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
+  Await alike the inevitable hour--
+    The paths of glory lead but to the grave."
+
+Soon afterwards we neared the end of our quest, the tide carrying
+us in to shore; and down from the dark heights there came a
+challenge, satisfied by an officer who said in French that we were
+provision-boats for Montcalm: these, we knew, had been expected!
+Then came the batteries of Samos. Again we passed with the same
+excuse, and we rounded a headland, and the great work was begun.
+
+The boats of the Light Infantry swung in to shore. No sentry
+challenged, but I knew that at the top Lancy's tents were set. When
+the Light Infantry had landed, we twenty-four volunteers stood
+still for a moment, and I pointed out the way. Before we started,
+we stooped beside a brook that leaped lightly down the ravine, and
+drank a little rum and water. Then I led the way, Clark at one side
+of me, and a soldier of the Light Infantry at the other. It was
+hard climbing, but, following in our careful steps as silently as
+they might, the good fellows came eagerly after. Once a rock broke
+loose and came tumbling down, but plunged into a thicket, where it
+stayed; else it might have done for us entirely. I breathed freely
+when it stopped. Once, too, a branch cracked loudly, and we lay
+still; but hearing nothing above, we pushed on, and, sweating
+greatly, came close to the top.
+
+Here I drew back with Clark, for such honour as there might be
+in gaining the heights first I wished to go to these soldiers who
+had trusted their lives to my guidance. I let six go by and reach
+the heights, and then I drew myself up. We did not stir till all
+twenty-four were safe; then we made a dash for the tents of Lancy,
+which now showed in the first gray light of morning. We made a dash
+for them, were discovered, and shots greeted us; but we were on
+them instantly, and in a moment I had the pleasure of putting a
+bullet in Lancy's heel, and brought him down. Our cheers told the
+general the news, and soon hundreds of soldiers were climbing the
+hard way that we had come.
+
+And now while an army climbed to the heights of Maitre Abraham,
+Admiral Saunders in the gray dawn was bombarding Montcalm's
+encampment, and boats filled with marines and soldiers drew to the
+Beauport flats, as if to land there; while shots, bombs, shells,
+and carcasses were hurled from Levis upon the town, deceiving
+Montcalm. At last, however, suspecting, he rode towards the town
+at six o'clock, and saw our scarlet ranks spread across the plains
+between him and Bougainville, and on the crest, nearer to him,
+eying us in amazement, the white-coated battalion of Guienne,
+which should the day before have occupied the very ground held by
+Lancy. A slight rain falling added to their gloom, but cheered us.
+It gave us a better light to fight by, for in the clear September
+air, the bright sun shining in our faces, they would have had us
+at advantage.
+
+In another hour the gates of St. John and St. Louis emptied out
+upon this battlefield a warring flood of our foes. It was a
+handsome sight: the white uniforms of the brave regiments,
+Roussillon, La Sarre, Guienne, Languedoc, Bearn, mixed with
+the dark, excitable militia, the sturdy burghers of the town, a
+band of coureurs de bois in their rough hunter's costume, and
+whooping Indians, painted and furious, ready to eat us. At last
+here was to be a test of fighting in open field, though the
+French had in their whole army twice the number of our men, a
+walled and provisioned city behind them, and field-pieces in
+great number to bring against us.
+
+But there was bungling with them. Vaudreuil hung back or came
+tardily from Beauport; Bougainville had not yet arrived; and when
+they might have pitted twice our number against us, they had not
+many more than we. With Bougainville behind us and Montcalm in
+front, we might have been checked, though there was no man in all
+our army but believed that we should win the day. I could plainly
+see Montcalm, mounted on a dark horse, riding along the lines as
+they formed against us, waving his sword, a truly gallant figure.
+He was answered by a roar of applause and greeting. On the left
+their Indians and burghers overlapped our second line, where
+Townsend with Amherst's and the Light Infantry, and Colonel Burton
+with the Royal Americans and Light Infantry, guarded our flank,
+prepared to meet Bougainville. In vain our foes tried to get
+between our right flank and the river; Otway's Regiment, thrown
+out, defeated that.
+
+It was my hope that Doltaire was with Montcalm, and that we
+might meet and end our quarrel. I came to know afterwards that it
+was he who had induced Montcalm to send the battalion of Guienne
+to the heights above the Anse du Foulon. The battalion had not
+been moved till twenty-four hours after the order was given, or
+we should never have gained those heights; stones rolled from the
+cliff would have destroyed an army.
+
+We waited, Clark and I, with the Louisburg Grenadiers while
+they formed. We made no noise, but stood steady and still, the
+bagpipes of the Highlanders shrilly challenging. At eight o'clock
+sharpshooters began firing on us from the left, and skirmishers
+were thrown out to hold them in check, or dislodge them and drive
+them from the houses where they sheltered and galled Townsend's
+men. Their field-pieces opened on us, too, and yet we did nothing,
+but at nine o'clock, being ordered, lay down and waited still.
+There was no restlessness, no anxiety, no show of doubt, for
+these men of ours were old fighters, and they trusted their
+leaders. From bushes, trees, coverts, and fields of grain there
+came that constant hail of fire, and there fell upon our ranks a
+doggedness, a quiet anger, which grew into a grisly patience. The
+only pleasure we had in two long hours was in watching our two
+brass six-pounders play upon the irregular ranks of our foes,
+making confusion, and Townsend drive back a detachment of cavalry
+from Cap Rouge, which sought to break our left flank and reach
+Montcalm.
+
+We had seen the stars go down, the cold, mottled light of dawn
+break over the battered city and the heights of Charlesbourg;
+we had watched the sun come up, and then steal away behind
+slow-travelling clouds and hanging mist; we had looked across over
+unreaped cornfields and the dull, slovenly St. Charles, knowing
+that endless leagues of country, north and south, east and west,
+lay in the balance for the last time. I believed that this day
+would see the last of the strife between England and France for
+dominion here; of La Pompadour's spite which I had roused to action
+against my country; of the struggle between Doltaire and myself.
+
+The public stake was worthy of our army--worthy of the dauntless
+soldier, who had begged his physicians to patch him up long enough
+to fight this fight, whereon he staked reputation, life, all that a
+man loves in the world; the private stake was more than worthy of
+my long sufferings. I thought that Montcalm would have waited for
+Vaudreuil, but no. At ten o'clock his three columns moved down upon
+us briskly, making a wild rattle; two columns moving upon our right
+and one upon our left, firing obliquely and constantly as they
+marched. Then came the command to rise, and we stood up and waited,
+our muskets loaded with an extra ball. I could feel the stern
+malice in our ranks, as we stood there and took, without returning
+a shot, that damnable fire. Minute after minute passed; then came
+the sharp command to advance. We did so, and again halted, and yet
+no shot came from us. We stood there, a long palisade of red.
+
+At last I saw our general raise his sword, a command rang down
+the long line of battle, and, like one terrible cannon-shot, our
+muskets sang together with as perfect a precision as on a private
+field of exercise. Then, waiting for the smoke to clear a little,
+another volley came with almost the same precision; after which the
+firing came in choppy waves of sound, and again in a persistent
+clattering. Then a light breeze lifted the smoke and mist well
+away, and a wayward sunlight showed us our foe, like a long white
+wave retreating from a rocky shore, bending, crumpling, breaking,
+and, in a hundred little billows, fleeing seaward.
+
+Thus checked, confounded, the French army trembled and fell back.
+Then I heard the order to charge, and from near four thousand
+throats there came for the first time our exultant British cheer,
+and high over all rang the slogan of Fraser's Highlanders. To my
+left I saw the flashing broadswords of the clansmen, ahead of all
+the rest. Those sickles of death clove through and broke the
+battalions of La Sarre, and Lascelles scattered the good soldiers
+of Languedoc into flying columns. We on the right, led by Wolfe,
+charged the desperate and valiant men of Roussillon and Guienne
+and the impetuous sharpshooters of the militia. As we came on, I
+observed the general sway and push forward again, and then I lost
+sight of him, for I saw what gave the battle a new interest to me:
+Doltaire, cool and deliberate, animating and encouraging the
+French troops.
+
+I moved in a shaking hedge of bayonets, keeping my eye on him;
+and presently there was a hand-to-hand melee, out of which I fought
+to reach him. I was making for him, where he now sought to rally
+the retreating columns, when I noticed, not far away, Gabord,
+mounted, and attacked by three grenadiers. Looking back now, I see
+him, with his sabre cutting right and left, as he drove his horse
+at one grenadier, who slipped and fell on the slippery ground,
+while the horse rode on him, battering him. Obliquely down swept
+the sabre, and drove through the cheek and chin of one foe;
+another sweep, and the bayonet of the other was struck aside;
+and another, which was turned aside as Gabord's horse came down,
+bayoneted by the fallen grenadier. But Gabord was on his feet
+again, roaring like a bull, with a wild grin on his face, as
+he partly struck aside the bayonet of the last grenadier. It caught
+him in the flesh of the left side. He grasped the musket-barrel,
+and swung his sabre with fierce precision. The man's head dropped
+back like the lid of a pot, and he tumbled into a heap of the faded
+golden-rod flower which spattered the field.
+
+It was at this moment I saw Juste Duvarney making towards me,
+hatred and deadly purpose in his eyes. I had will enough to meet
+him, and to kill him too, yet I could not help but think of Alixe.
+Gabord saw him, also, and, being nearer, made for me as well.
+For that act I cherish his memory. The thought was worthy of a
+gentleman of breeding; he had the true thing in his heart. He
+would save us--two brothers--from fighting, by fighting me himself.
+
+He reached me first, and with an "Au diable!" made a stroke at
+me. It was a matter of sword and sabre now. Clark met Juste
+Duvarney's rush; and there we were, at as fine a game of
+cross-purposes as you can think: Clark hungering for Gabord's life
+(Gabord had once been his jailer, too), and Juste Duvarney for
+mine; the battle faring on ahead of us. Soon the two were clean
+cut off from the French army, and must fight to the death or
+surrender.
+
+Juste Duvarney spoke only once, and then it was but the
+rancorous word "Renegade!" nor did I speak at all; but Clark
+was blasphemous, and Gabord, bleeding, fought with a sputtering
+relish.
+
+"Fair fight and fowl for spitting," he cried. "Go home to heaven,
+dickey-bird."
+
+Between phrases of this kind we cut and thrust for life, an odd
+sort of fighting. I fought with a desperate alertness, and
+presently my sword passed through his body, drew out, and he
+shivered--fell--where he stood, collapsing suddenly like a bag. I
+knelt beside him, and lifted up his head. His eyes were glazing
+fast.
+
+"Gabord! Gabord!" I called, grief-stricken, for that work was
+the worst I ever did in this world.
+
+He started, stared, and fumbled at his waistcoat. I quickly put
+my hand in, and drew out--one of Mathilde's wooden crosses.
+
+"To cheat--the devil--yet--aho!" he whispered, kissed the cross,
+and so was done with life.
+
+When I turned from him, Clark stood beside me. Dazed as I was, I
+did not at first grasp the significance of that fact. I looked
+towards the town, and saw the French army hustling into the St.
+Louis Gate; saw the Highlanders charging the bushes at the
+Cote Ste. Genevieve, where the brave Canadians made their last
+stand; saw, not fifty feet away, the noblest soldier of our time,
+even General Wolfe, dead in the arms of Mr. Henderson, a volunteer
+in the Twenty-Second; and then, almost at my feet, stretched out
+as I had seen him lie in the Palace courtyard two years before,
+Juste Duvarney.
+
+But now he was beyond all friendship or
+reconciliation--forever.
+
+
+
+XXIX
+
+"MASTER DEVIL" DOLTAIRE
+
+
+The bells of some shattered church were calling to vespers, the
+sun was sinking behind the flaming autumn woods, as once more I
+entered the St. Louis Gate, with the grenadiers and a detachment of
+artillery, the British colours hoisted on a gun-carriage. Till this
+hour I had ever entered and left this town a captive, a price set
+on my head, and in the very street where now I walked I had gone
+with a rope round my neck, abused and maltreated. I saw our flag
+replace the golden lilies of France on the citadel where Doltaire
+had baited me, and at the top of Mountain Street, near to the
+bishop's palace, our colours also flew.
+
+Every step I took was familiar, yet unfamiliar too. It was a
+disfigured town, where a hungry, distracted people huddled among
+ruins, and begged for mercy and for food, nor found time in the
+general overwhelming to think of the gallant Montcalm, lying in his
+shell-made grave at the chapel of the Ursulines, not fifty steps
+from where I had looked through the tapestry on Alixe and Doltaire.
+The convent was almost deserted now, and as I passed it, on my way
+to the cathedral, I took off my hat; for how knew I but that she
+I loved best lay there, too, as truly a heroine as the admirable
+Montcalm was hero! A solitary bell was clanging on the chapel as
+I went by, and I saw three nuns steal past me with bowed heads.
+I longed to stop them and ask them of Alixe, for I felt sure that
+the Church knew where she was, living or dead, though none of all
+I asked knew aught of her, not even the Chevalier de la Darante,
+who had come to our camp the night before, accompanied by Monsieur
+Joannes, the town major, with terms of surrender.
+
+I came to the church of the Recollets as I wandered; for now,
+for a little time, I seemed bewildered and incapable, lost in a
+maze of dreadful imaginings. I entered the door of the church,
+and stumbled upon a body. Hearing footsteps ahead in the dusk,
+I passed up the aisle, and came upon a pile of debris. Looking
+up, I could see the stars shining through a hole in the roof,
+Hearing a noise beyond, I went on, and there, seated on the high
+altar, was the dwarf who had snatched the cup of rum out of
+the fire the night that Mathilde had given the crosses to the
+revellers. He gave a low, wild laugh, and hugged a bottle to his
+breast. Almost at his feet, half naked, with her face on the lowest
+step of the altar, her feet touching the altar itself, was the
+girl--his sister--who had kept her drunken lover from assaulting
+him. The girl was dead--there was a knife-wound in her breast. Sick
+at the sight I left the place, and went on, almost mechanically,
+to Voban's house. It was level with the ground, a crumpled heap of
+ruins. I passed Lancy's house, in front of which I had fought with
+Gabord; it too was broken to pieces.
+
+As I turned away I heard a loud noise, as of an explosion, and I
+supposed it to be some magazine. I thought of it no more at the
+time. Voban must be found; that was more important. I must know
+of Alixe first, and I felt sure that if any one guessed her
+whereabouts it would be he: she would have told him where she was
+going, if she had fled; if she were dead, who so likely to know,
+this secret, elusive, vengeful watcher? Of Doltaire I had heard
+nothing; I would seek him out when I knew of Alixe. He could not
+escape me in this walled town. I passed on for a time without
+direction, for I seemed not to know where I might find the barber.
+Our sentries already patrolled the streets, and our bugles were
+calling on the heights, with answering calls from the fleet in
+the basin. Night came down quickly, the stars shone out in the
+perfect blue, and, as I walked along, broken walls, shattered
+houses, solitary pillars, looked mystically strange. It was
+painfully quiet, as if a beaten people had crawled away into the
+holes our shot and shell had made, to hide their misery. Now and
+again a gaunt face looked out from a hiding-place, and drew back
+again in fear at sight of me. Once a drunken woman spat at me and
+cursed me; once I was fired at; and many times from dark corners
+I heard voices crying, "Sauvez-moi--ah, sauvez-moi, bon Dieu!"
+Once I stood for many minutes and watched our soldiers giving
+biscuits and their own share of rum to homeless French peasants
+hovering round the smouldering ruins of a house which carcasses had
+destroyed.
+
+And now my wits came back to me, my purposes, the power to act,
+which for a couple of hours had seemed to be in abeyance. I
+hurried through narrow streets to the cathedral. There it stood,
+a shattered mass, its sides all broken, its roof gone, its tall
+octagonal tower alone substantial and unchanged. Coming to its
+rear, I found Babette's little house, with open door, and I went
+in. The old grandfather sat in his corner, with a lighted candle
+on the table near him, across his knees Jean's coat that I had
+worn. He only babbled nonsense to my questioning, and, after
+calling aloud to Babette and getting no reply, I started for
+the Intendance.
+
+I had scarcely left the house when I saw some French peasants
+coming towards me with a litter. A woman, walking behind the
+litter, carried a lantern, and one of our soldiers of artillery
+attended and directed. I ran forward, and discovered Voban,
+mortally hurt. The woman gave a cry, and spoke my name in a kind
+of surprise and relief; and the soldier, recognizing me, saluted.
+I sent him for a surgeon, and came on with the hurt man to the
+little house. Soon I was alone with him save for Babette, and her
+I sent for a priest. As soon as I had seen Voban I guessed what
+had happened: he had tried for his revenge at last. After a little
+time he knew me, but at first he could not speak.
+
+"What has happened--the Palace?" said I.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"You blew it up--with Bigot?" I asked.
+
+His reply was a whisper, and his face twitched with pain:
+"Not--with Bigot."
+
+I gave him some cordial, which he was inclined to refuse. It
+revived him, but I saw he could live only a few hours. Presently
+he made an effort. "I will tell you," he whispered.
+
+"Tell me first of my wife," said I. "Is she alive?--is she alive?"
+
+If a smile could have been upon his lips then, I saw one
+there--good Voban! I put my ear down, and my heart almost stopped
+beating, until I heard him say, "Find Mathilde."
+
+"Where?" asked I.
+
+"In the Valdoche Hills," he answered, "where the Gray Monk
+lives--by the Tall Calvary."
+
+He gasped with pain. I let him rest awhile, and eased the
+bandages on him, and at last he told his story:
+
+
+"I am to be gone soon. For two years I have wait for the good
+time to kill him--Bigot--to send him and his palace to hell. I can
+not tell you how I work to do it. It is no matter--no. From an old
+cellar I mine, and at last I get the powder lay beneath him--his
+palace. So. But he does not come to the Palace much this many
+months, and Madame Cournal is always with him, and it is hard to
+do the thing in other ways. But I laugh when the English come in
+the town, and when I see Bigot fly to his palace alone to get his
+treasure-chest I think it is my time. So I ask the valet, and he
+say he is in the private room that lead to the treasure-place.
+Then I come back quick to the secret spot and fire my mine. In ten
+minutes all will be done. I go at once to his room again, alone. I
+pass through the one room, and come to the other. It is a room with
+one small barred window. If he is there, I will say a word to him
+that I have wait long to say, then shut the door on us both--for I
+am sick of life--and watch him and laugh at him till the end comes.
+If he is in the other room, then I have another way as sure--"
+
+He paused, exhausted, and I waited till he could again go on. At
+last he made a great effort, and continued: "I go back to the first
+room, and he is not there. I pass soft, to the treasure-room, and I
+see him kneel beside a chest, looking in. His back is to me. I hear
+him laugh to himself. I shut the door, turn the key, go to the
+window and throw it out, and look at him again. But now he stand
+and turn to me, and then I see--I see it is not Bigot, but M'sieu'
+Doltaire!
+
+"I am sick when I see that, and at first I can not speak, my
+tongue stick in my mouth so dry. 'Has Voban turn robber?' m'sieu'
+say. I put out my hand and try to speak again--but no. 'What did
+you throw from the window?' he ask. 'And what's the matter, my
+Voban?' 'My God,' I say at him now, 'I thought you are Bigot!'
+I point to the floor. 'Powder!' I whisper.
+
+"His eyes go like fire so terrible; he look to the window, take
+a quick angry step to me, but stand still. Then he point to the
+window. 'The key, Voban?' he say; and I answer, 'Yes.' He get
+pale; then he go and try the door, look close at the walls, try
+them--quick, quick, stop, feel for a panel, then try again, stand
+still, and lean against the table. It is no use to call; no one
+can hear, for it is all roar outside, and these walls are solid
+and very thick.
+
+"'How long?' he say, and take out his watch. 'Five minutes--maybe,'
+I answer. He put his watch on the table, and sit down on a bench by
+it, and for a little minute he do not speak, but look at me close,
+and not angry, as you would think. 'Voban,' he say in a low voice,
+'Bigot was a thief.' He point to the chest. 'He stole from the
+King--my father. He stole your Mathilde from you! He should have
+died. We have both been blunderers, Voban, blunderers,' he say;
+'things have gone wrong with us. We have lost all.' There is little
+time. 'Tell me one thing,' he go on: 'Is Mademoiselle Duvarney
+safe--do you know?' I tell him yes, and he smile, and take from
+his pocket something, and lay it against his lips, and then put
+it back in his breast.
+
+"'You are not afraid to die, Voban?' he ask. I answer no. 'Shake
+hands with me, my friend,' he speak, and I do so that. 'Ah, pardon,
+pardon, m'sieu',' I say. 'No, no, Voban; it was to be,' he answer.
+'We shall meet again, comrade--eh, if we can?' he speak on, and he
+turn away from me and look to the sky through the window. Then he
+look at his watch, and get to his feet, and stand there still. I
+kiss my crucifix. He reach out and touch it, and bring his fingers
+to his lips. 'Who can tell--perhaps--perhaps!' he say. For a little
+minute--ah, it seem like a year, and it is so still, so still he
+stand there, and then he put his hand over the watch, lift it up,
+and shut his eyes, as if time is all done. While you can count ten
+it is so, and then the great crash come."
+
+For a long time Voban lay silent again. I gave him more cordial,
+and he revived and ended his tale. "I am a blunderer, as m'sieu'
+say," he went on, "for he is killed, not Bigot and me, and only a
+little part of the palace go to pieces. And so they fetch me here,
+and I wish--my God in Heaven, I wish I go with M'sieu' Doltaire."
+But he followed him a little later.
+
+Two hours afterwards I went to the Intendance, and there I found
+that the body of my enemy had been placed in the room where I had
+last seen him with Alixe. He lay on the same couch where she had
+lain. The flag of France covered his broken body, but his face was
+untouched--as it had been in life, haunting, fascinating, though
+the shifting lights were gone, the fine eyes closed. A noble peace
+hid all that was sardonic; not even Gabord would now have called
+him "Master Devil." I covered up his face and left him there--
+peasant and prince--candles burning at his head and feet, and the
+star of Louis on his shattered breast; and I saw him no more.
+
+All that night I walked the ramparts, thinking, remembering,
+hoping, waiting for the morning; and when I saw the light break
+over those far eastern parishes, wasted by fire and sword, I set
+out on a journey to the Valdoche Hills.
+
+
+
+XXX
+
+"WHERE ALL THE LOVERS CAN HIDE"
+
+
+It was in the saffron light of early morning that I saw it, the
+Tall Calvary of the Valdoche Hills.
+
+The night before I had come up through a long valley, overhung
+with pines on one side and crimsoning maples on the other, and,
+travelling till nearly midnight, had lain down in the hollow of a
+bank, and listened to a little river leap over cascades, and, far
+below, go prattling on to the greater river in the south. My eyes
+closed, but for long I did not sleep. I heard a night-hawk go by on
+a lonely mission, a beaver slide from a log into the water, and the
+delicate humming of the pine needles was a drowsy music, through
+which broke by-and-bye the strange crying of a loon from the water
+below. I was neither asleep nor awake, but steeped in this wide
+awe of night, the sweet smell of earth and running water in my
+nostrils. Once, too, in a slight breeze, the scent of some wild
+animal's nest near by came past, and I found it good. I lifted up
+a handful of loose earth and powdered leaves, and held it to my
+nose--a good, brave smell--all in a sort of drowsing.
+
+While I mused, Doltaire's face passed before me as it was in
+life, and I heard him say again of the peasants, "These shall save
+the earth some day, for they are of it, and live close to it, and
+are kin to it."
+
+Suddenly there rushed before me that scene in the convent, when
+all the devil in him broke loose upon the woman I loved. But,
+turning on my homely bed, I looked up and saw the deep quiet of the
+skies, the stable peace of the stars, and I was a son of the good
+Earth again, a sojourner in the tents of Home. I did not doubt that
+Alixe was alive or that I should find her. There was assurance in
+this benignant night. In that thought, dreaming that her cheek lay
+close to mine, her arm around my neck, I fell asleep. I waked to
+bear the squirrels stirring in the trees, the whir of the partridge,
+and the first unvarying note of the oriole. Turning on my dry,
+leafy bed, I looked down, and saw in the dark haze of dawn the
+beavers at their house-building.
+
+I was at the beginning of a deep gorge or valley, on one side of
+which was a steep sloping hill of grass and trees, and on the other
+a huge escarpment of mossed and jagged rocks. Then, farther up, the
+valley seemed to end in a huge promontory. On this great wedge grim
+shapes loomed in the mist, uncouth and shadowy and unnatural--a
+lonely, mysterious Brocken, impossible to human tenantry. Yet as
+I watched the mist slowly rise, there grew in me the feeling that
+there lay the end of my quest. I came down to the brook, bathed
+my face and hands, ate my frugal breakfast of bread, with berries
+picked from the hillside, and, as the yellow light of the rising
+sun broke over the promontory, I saw the Tall Calvary upon a knoll,
+strange comrade to the huge rocks and monoliths--as it were vast
+playthings of the Mighty Men, the fabled ancestors of the Indian
+races of the land.
+
+I started up the valley, and presently all the earth grew
+blithe, and the birds filled the woods and valleys with jocund
+noise.
+
+It was near noon before I knew that my pilgrimage was over.
+
+Coming round a point of rock, I saw the Gray Monk, of whom
+strange legends had lately travelled to the city. I took off my hat
+to him reverently; but all at once he threw back his cowl, and I
+saw--no monk, but, much altered, the good chaplain who had married
+me to Alixe in the Chateau St. Louis. He had been hurt when he was
+fired upon in the water; had escaped, however, got to shore, and
+made his way into the woods. There he had met Mathilde, who led
+him to her lonely home in this hill. Seeing the Tall Calvary, he
+had conceived the idea of this disguise, and Mathilde had brought
+him the robe for the purpose.
+
+In a secluded cave I found Alixe with her father, caring for
+him, for he was not yet wholly recovered from his injuries.
+There was no waiting now. The ban of Church did not hold my
+dear girl back, nor did her father do aught but smile when she
+came laughing and weeping into my arms.
+
+"Robert, O Robert, Robert!" she cried, and at first that was all
+she could say.
+
+The good Seigneur put out his hand to me beseechingly. I took
+it, clasped it.
+
+"The city?" he asked.
+
+"Is ours," I answered.
+
+"And my son--my son?"
+
+I told him how, the night that the city was taken, the Chevalier
+de la Darante and I had gone a sad journey in a boat to the Isle
+of Orleans, and there, in the chapel yard, near to his father's
+chateau, we had laid a brave and honest gentleman who died
+fighting for his country.
+
+By-and-bye, when their grief had a little abated, I took them
+out into the sunshine. A pleasant green valley lay to the north,
+and to the south, far off, was the wall of rosy hills that hid
+the captured town. Peace was upon it all, and upon us.
+
+As we stood there, a scarlet figure came winding in and out among
+the giant stones, crosses hanging at her girdle. She approached
+us, and, seeing me, she said: "Hush! I know a place where all the
+lovers can hide."
+
+And she put a little wooden cross into my hands.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+The following is an excerpt from 'The Scot in New France' (1880)
+by J.M. Lemoine. It is an account of Robert Stobo, the man whose
+life this text is loosely based upon.
+
+
+Five years previous to the battle of the Plains of Abraham, one
+comes across three genuine Scots in the streets of Quebec--all
+however prisoners of war, taken in the border raids--as such
+under close surveillance. One, a youthful and handsome officer of
+Virginia riflemen, aged 27 years, a friend of Governor Dinwiddie,
+had been allowed the range of the fortress, on parole. His good
+looks, education, smartness (we use the word advisedly) and
+misfortunes seem to have created much sympathy for the captive,
+but canny Scot. He has a warm welcome in many houses--the French
+ladies even plead his cause; le beau capitaine is asked out; no
+entertainment at last is considered complete, without Captain--later
+on Major Robert Stobo. The other two are: Lieutenant Stevenson of
+Rogers' Rangers, another Virginia corps, and a Leith carpenter of
+the name of Clarke. Stobo, after more attempts than one, eluded the
+French sentries, and still more dangerous foes to the peace of mind
+of a handsome bachelor--the ladies of Quebec. He will re-appear on
+the scene, the advisor of General Wolfe, as to the best landing
+place round Quebec. Doubtless you wish to hear more about the
+adventurous Scot.
+
+A plan of escape between him, Stevenson and Clarke, was carried out
+on 1st May, 1759. Major Stobo met the fugitives under a wind-mill,
+probably the old wind-mill on the grounds of the General Hospital
+Convent. Having stolen a birch canoe, the party paddled it all
+night, and, after incredible fatigue and danger, they passed
+Isle-aux-Coudres, Kamouraska, and landed below this spot, shooting
+two Indians in self-defence, whom Clarke buried after having scalped
+them, saying to the Major: "Good sir, by your permission, these same
+two scalps, when I come to New York, will sell for twenty-four good
+pounds: with this I'll be right merry, and my wife right beau." They
+then murdered the Indians' faithful dog, because he howled, and
+buried him with his masters. It was shortly after this that they met
+the laird of the Kamouraska Isles, le Chevalier de la Durantaye,
+who said that the best Canadian blood ran in his veins, and that he
+was of kin with the mighty Duc de Mirapoix. Had the mighty Duke,
+however, at that moment seen his Canadian cousin steering the
+four-oared boat, loaded with wheat, he might have felt but a very
+qualified admiration for the majesty of his stately demeanor and
+his nautical savoir faire. Stobo took possession of the Chevalier's
+pinnace, and made the haughty laird, nolens volens, row him with the
+rest of the crew, telling him to row away, and that, had the Great
+Louis himself been in the boat at that moment, it would be his fate
+to row a British subject thus. "At these last mighty words," says
+the Memoirs, "a stern resolution sat upon his countenance, which the
+Canadian beheld and with reluctance temporized." After a series of
+adventures, and dangers of every kind, the fugitives succeeded in
+capturing a French boat. Next, they surprised a French sloop, and,
+after a most hazardous voyage, they finally, in their prize, landed
+at Louisbourg, to the general amazement. Stobo missed the English
+fleet; but took passage two days after in a vessel leaving for
+Quebec, where he safely arrived to tender his services to the
+immortal Wolfe, who gladly availed himself of them. According to the
+Memoirs, Stobo used daily to set out to reconnoitre with Wolfe on
+the deck of a frigate, opposite the Falls of Montmorency, some French
+shots were nigh carrying away his "decorated" and gartered legs.
+
+We next find the Major, on the 21st July, 1759, piloting the
+expedition sent to Deschambault to seize, as prisoners, the Quebec
+ladies who had taken refuge there during the bombardment--"Mesdames
+Duchesnay and Decharnay; Mlle. Couillard; the Joly, Malhiot and
+Magnan families." "Next day, in the afternoon, les belles captives,
+who had been treated with every species of respect, were put on
+shore and released at Diamond Harbour. The English admiral, full of
+gallantry, ordered the bombardment of the city to be suspended, in
+order to afford the Quebec ladies time to seek places of safety."
+The incident is thus referred to in a letter communicated to the
+Literary and Historical Society by Capt. Colin McKenzie.
+
+Stobo next points out the spot, at Sillery, where Wolfe landed,
+and soon after was sent with despatches, via the St. Lawrence, to
+General Amherst; but, during the trip, the vessel was overhauled and
+taken by a French privateer, the despatches having been previously
+consigned to the deep. Stobo might have swung at the yard-arm in
+this new predicament, had his French valet divulged his identity
+with the spy of Fort du Quesne; but fortune again stepped in to
+preserve the adventurous Scot. There were already too many prisoners
+on board of the French privateer. A day's provision is allowed the
+English vessel, which soon landed Stobo at Halifax, from whence
+he joined General Amherst, "many a league across the country." He
+served under Amherst on his Lake Champlain expedition, and there he
+finished the campaign; which ended, he begs to go to Williamsburg,
+the then capital of Virginia.
+
+It seems singular that no command of any importance appears to have
+been given to the brave Scot; but, possibly, the part played by
+the Major when under parole at Fort du Quesne, was weighed by the
+Imperial authorities. There certainly seems to be a dash of the
+Benedict Arnold in this transaction. However, Stobo was publicly
+thanked by a committee of the Assembly of Virginia, and was allowed
+his arrears of pay for the time of his captivity. On the 30th April,
+1756, he had also been presented by the Assembly of Virginia with
+300 pounds, in consideration of his services to the country and his
+sufferings in his confinement as a hostage in Quebec. On the 19th
+November, 1759, he was presented with 1,000 pounds as "a reward for
+his zeal to his country and the recompense for the great hardships
+he has suffered during his confinement in the enemy's country."
+On the 18th February, 1760, Major Stobo embarked from New York for
+England, on board the packet with Colonel West and several other
+gentlemen. One would imagine that he had exhausted the vicissitudes
+of fortune. But no. A French privateer boards them in the midst of
+the English channel. The Major again consigns to the deep all his
+letters, all except one which he forgot, in the pocket of his coat,
+under the arm pit. This escaped the general catastrophe; and will
+again restore him to notoriety; it is from General A. Monckton to
+Mr. Pitt. The passengers of the packet were assessed 2,500 pounds to
+be allowed their liberty, and Stobo had to pay 125 pounds towards
+the relief fund. The despatch forgotten in his coat on delivery to
+the great Pitt brought back a letter from Pitt to Amherst. With this
+testimonial, Stobo sailed for New York, 24th April, 1760, to rejoin
+the army engaged in the invasion of Canada; here end the Memoirs.
+
+Though Stobo's conduct at Fort du Quesne and at Quebec can never be
+defended or palliated, all will agree that he exhibited, during his
+eventful career, most indomitable fortitude, a boundless ingenuity,
+and great devotion to his country--the whole crowned with final
+success.
+
+
+
+
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