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+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Seats Of The Mighty, by G. Parker, v2
+#52 in our series by Gilbert Parker
+
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+Title: The Seats Of The Mighty, Volume 2.
+
+Author: Gilbert Parker
+
+Release Date: August, 2004  [EBook #6225]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 4, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEATS OF THE MIGHTY, PARKER, V2 ***
+
+
+
+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 2.
+
+    VII   "Quoth little Garaine"
+   VIII   As vain as Absalom
+     IX   A little concerning the Chevalier de la Darante
+      X   An officer of marines
+     XI   The coming of Doltaire
+    XII   "The point envenomed too!"
+   XIII   A little boast
+
+
+
+VII
+
+"QUOTH LITTLE GARAINE"
+
+
+I have given the whole story here as though it had been thought
+out and written that Sunday afternoon which brought me good news of
+Juste Duvarney. But it was not so. I did not choose to break the
+run of the tale to tell of other things and of the passing of time.
+The making took me many, many weeks, and in all that time I had
+seen no face but Gabord's, and heard no voice but his, when he
+came twice a day to bring me bread and water. He would answer no
+questions concerning Juste Duvarney, or Voban, or Monsieur Doltaire,
+nor tell me anything of what was forward in the town. He had had
+his orders precise enough, he said. At the end of my hints and
+turnings and approaches, stretching himself up, and turning the
+corn about with his foot (but not crushing it, for he saw that I
+prized the poor little comrades), he would say:
+
+"Snug, snug, quiet and warm! The cosiest nest in the world--aho!"
+
+There was no coaxing him, and at last I desisted. I had no
+light. With resolution I set my mind to see in spite of the dark,
+and at the end of a month I was able to note the outlines of my
+dungeon; nay, more, I was able to see my field of corn; and at last
+what joy I had when, hearing a little rustle near me, I looked
+closely and beheld a mouse running across the floor! I straightway
+began to scatter crumbs of bread, that it might, perhaps, come near
+me--as at last it did.
+
+I have not spoken at all of my wounds, though they gave me many
+painful hours, and I had no attendance but my own and Gabord's. The
+wound in my side was long healing, for it was more easily disturbed
+as I turned in my sleep, while I could ease my arm at all times,
+and it came on slowly. My sufferings drew on my flesh, my blood,
+and my spirits, and to this was added that disease inaction, the
+corrosion of solitude, and the fever of suspense and uncertainty as
+to Alixe and Juste Duvarney. Every hour, every moment that I had
+ever passed in Alixe's presence, with many little incidents and
+scenes in which we shared, passed before me--vivid and cherished
+pictures of the mind. One of those incidents I will set down here.
+
+A year or so before, soon after Juste Duvarney came from Montreal,
+he brought in one day from hunting a young live hawk, and put it
+in a cage. When I came the next morning, Alixe met me, and asked
+me to see what he had brought. There, beside the kitchen door,
+overhung with morning-glories and flanked by hollyhocks, was a
+large green cage, and in it the gray-brown hawk. "Poor thing,
+poor prisoned thing!" she said. "Look how strange and hunted it
+seems! See how its feathers stir! And those flashing, watchful
+eyes, they seem to read through you, and to say, 'Who are you? What
+do you want with me? Your world is not my world; your air is not my
+air; your homes are holes, and mine hangs high up between you and
+God. Who are you? Why do you pen me? You have shut me in that I may
+not travel, not even die out in the open world. All the world is
+mine; yours is only a stolen field. Who are you? What do you want
+with me? There is a fire within my head, it eats to my eyes, and I
+burn away. What do you want with me?'"
+
+She did not speak these words all at once as I have written them
+here, but little by little, as we stood there beside the cage. Yet,
+as she talked with me, her mind was on the bird, her fingers running
+up and down the cage bars soothingly, her voice now and again
+interjecting soft reflections and exclamations.
+
+"Shall I set it free?" I asked her.
+
+She turned upon me and replied, "Ah, monsieur, I hoped you
+would--without my asking. You are a prisoner too," she added; "one
+captive should feel for another."
+
+"And the freeman for both," I answered meaningly, as I softly
+opened the cage.
+
+She did not drop her eyes, but raised them shining honestly and
+frankly to mine, and said, "I wished you to think that."
+
+Opening the cage door wide, I called the little captive to
+freedom. But while we stood close by it would not stir, and the
+look in its eyes became wilder. I moved away, and Alixe followed
+me. Standing beside an old well we waited and watched. Presently
+the hawk dropped from the perch, hopped to the door, then with a
+wild spring was gone, up, up, up, and was away over the maple woods
+beyond, lost in the sun and the good air.
+
+I know not quite why I dwell on this scene, save that it throws
+some little light upon her nature, and shows how simple and yet
+deep she was in soul, and what was the fashion of our friendship.
+But I can perhaps give a deeper insight of her character if I here
+set down the substance of a letter written about that time, which
+came into my possession long afterwards. It was her custom to
+write her letters first in a book, and afterwards to copy them
+for posting. This she did that they might be an impulse to her
+friendships and a record of her feelings.
+
+
+ALIXE DUVARNEY TO LUCIE LOTBINIERE.
+
+QUEBEC CITY, the 10th of May, 1756.
+
+MY DEAR LUCIE: I wish I knew how to tell you all I have been
+thinking since we parted at the door of the Ursulines a year ago.
+Then we were going to meet again in a few weeks, and now twelve
+months have gone! How have I spent them? Not wickedly, I hope,
+and yet sometimes I wonder if Mere St. George would quite approve
+of me; for I have such wild spirits now and then, and I shout and
+sing in the woods and along the river as if I were a mad youngster
+home from school. But indeed, that is the way I feel at times,
+though again I am so quiet that I am frightened of myself. I am a
+hawk to-day and a mouse to-morrow, and fond of pleasure all the
+time. Ah, what good days I have had with Juste! You remember him
+before he went to Montreal? He is gay, full of fancies, as brave
+as can be, and plays and sings well, but he is very hot-headed,
+and likes to play the tyrant. We have some bad encounters now and
+then. But we love each other better for it; he respects me, and
+he does not become spoiled, as you will see when you come to us.
+
+I have had no society yet. My mother thinks seventeen years too
+few to warrant my going into the gay world. I wonder will my wings
+be any stronger, will there be less danger of scorching them at
+twenty-six? Years do not make us wise; one may be as wise at twenty
+as at fifty. And they do not save us from the scorching. I know
+more than they guess how cruel the world may be to the innocent as
+to--the other. One can not live within sight of the Intendant's
+palace and the Chateau St. Louis without learning many things; and,
+for myself, though I hunger for all the joys of life, I do not
+fret because my mother holds me back from the gay doings in the
+town. I have my long walks, my fishing and rowing, and sometimes
+hunting, with Juste and my sweet sister Georgette, my drawing,
+painting, music, and needlework, and my housework.
+
+Yet I am not entirely happy, I do not know quite why. Do you
+ever feel as if there were some sorrow far back in you, which now
+and then rushed in and flooded your spirits, and then drew back,
+and you could not give it a name? Well, that is the way with me.
+Yesterday, as I stood in the kitchen beside our old cook Jovin,
+she said a kind word to me, and my eyes filled, and I ran up to
+my room, and burst into tears as I lay upon my bed. I could not
+help it. I thought at first it was because of the poor hawk that
+Captain Moray and I set free yesterday morning; but it could not
+have been that, for it was FREE when I cried, you see. You know,
+of course, that he saved my father's life, some years ago? That is
+one reason why he has been used so well in Quebec, for otherwise
+no one would have lessened the rigours of his captivity. But there
+are tales that he is too curious about our government and state,
+and so he may be kept close jailed, though he only came here as a
+hostage. He is much at our home, and sometimes walks with Juste
+and me and Georgette, and accompanies my mother in the streets.
+This is not to the liking of the Intendant, who loves not my
+father because he is such a friend of our cousin the Governor.
+If their lives and characters be anything to the point the
+Governor must be in the right.
+
+In truth, things are in a sad way here, for there is robbery on
+every hand, and who can tell what the end may be? Perhaps that we
+go to the English after all. Monsieur Doltaire--you do not know
+him, I think--says, "If the English eat us, as they swear they
+will, they'll die of megrims, our affairs are so indigestible." At
+another time he said, "Better to be English than to be damned." And
+when some one asked him what he meant, he said, "Is it not read
+from the altar, 'Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man'? The
+English trust nobody, and we trust the English." That was aimed at
+Captain Moray, who was present, and I felt it a cruel thing for him
+to say; but Captain Moray, smiling at the ladies, said, "Better
+to be French and damned than not to be French at all." And this
+pleased Monsieur Doltaire, who does not love him. I know not
+why, but there are vague whispers that he is acting against the
+Englishman for causes best known at Versailles, which have nothing
+to do with our affairs here. I do believe that Monsieur Doltaire
+would rather hear a clever thing than get ten thousand francs. At
+such times his face lights up, he is at once on his mettle, his
+eyes look almost fiendishly beautiful. He is a handsome man, but
+he is wicked, and I do not think he has one little sense of morals.
+I do not suppose he would stab a man in the back, or remove his
+neighbour's landmark in the night, though he'd rob him of it in
+open daylight, and call it "enterprise"--a usual word with him.
+
+He is a favourite with Madame Cournal, who influences Bigot most,
+and one day we may see the boon companions at each other's throats;
+and if either falls, I hope it maybe Bigot, for Monsieur Doltaire
+is, at least, no robber. Indeed, he is kind to the poor in a
+disdainful sort of way. He gives to them and scoffs at them at the
+same moment; a bad man, with just enough natural kindness to make
+him dangerous. I have not seen much of the world, but some things
+we know by instinct; we feel them; and I often wonder if that is
+not the way we know everything in the end. Sometimes when I take my
+long walks, or go and sit beside the Falls of Montmorenci, looking
+out to the great city on the Heights, to dear Isle Orleans,
+where we have our pretty villa (we are to go there next week for
+three months--happy summer months), up at the blue sky and into
+the deep woods, I have strange feelings, which afterwards become
+thoughts; and sometimes they fly away like butterflies, but oftener
+they stay with me, and I give them a little garden to roam in--you
+can guess where. Now and then I call them out of the garden and
+make them speak, and then I set down what they say in my journal;
+but I think they like their garden best. You remember the song we
+used to sing at school?
+
+  "'Where do the stars grow, little Garaine?
+    The garden of moons, is it far away?
+  The orchard of suns, my little Garaine,
+    Will you take us there some day?'
+
+  "'If you shut your eyes,' quoth little Garaine,
+    'I will show you the way to go
+  To the orchard of suns, and the garden of moons,
+    And the field where the stars do grow.
+
+  "'But you must speak soft,' quoth little Garaine,
+    'And still must your footsteps be,
+  For a great bear prowls in the field of the stars,
+    And the moons they have men to see.
+
+  "'And the suns have the Children of Signs to guard,
+    And they have no pity at all--
+  You must not stumble, you must not speak,
+    When you come to the orchard wall.
+
+  "'The gates are locked,' quoth little Garaine,
+    'But the way I am going to tell?
+  The key of your heart it will open them all:
+    And there's where the darlings dwell!'"
+
+You may not care to read these lines again, but it helps to show
+what I mean: that everything is in the heart, and that nothing
+is at all if we do not feel it. Sometimes I have spoken of these
+things to my mother, but she does not see as I do. I dare not tell
+my father all I think, and Juste is so much a creature of moods
+that I am never sure whether he will be sensible and kind, or
+scoff. One can not bear to be laughed at. And as for my sister, she
+never thinks; she only lives; and she looks it--looks beautiful.
+But there, dear Lucie, I must not tire you with my childish
+philosophy, though I feel no longer a child. You would not know
+your friend. I can not tell what has come over me. Voila!
+
+To-morrow we go to visit General Montcalm, who has just arrived
+in the colony. Bigot and his gay set are not likely to be there.
+My mother insists that I shall never darken the doors of the
+Intendant's palace.
+
+Do you still hold to your former purpose of keeping a daily
+journal? If so, I beg you to copy into it this epistle and your
+answer; and when I go up to your dear manor house at Beauce next
+summer, we will read over our letters and other things set down,
+and gossip of the changes come since we met last. Do sketch the
+old place for me (as will I our new villa on dear Isle Orleans),
+and make interest with the good cure to bring it to me with your
+letter, since there are no posts, no postmen, yet between here
+and Beauce. The cure most kindly bears this to you, and says he
+will gladly be our messenger. Yesterday he said to me, shaking
+his head in a whimsical way, "But no treason, mademoiselle, and
+no heresy or schism." I am not quite sure what he meant. I dare
+hardly think he had Captain Moray in his mind. I would not for
+the world so lessen my good opinion of him as to think him
+suspicious of me when no other dare; and so I put his words
+down to chance hitting, to a humorous fancy.
+
+Be sure, dear Lucie, I shall not love you less for giving me a
+prompt answer. Tell me of what you are thinking and what doing. If
+Juste can be spared from the Governor's establishment, may I bring
+him with me next summer? He is a difficult, sparkling sort of
+fellow, but you are so steady-tempered, so full of tact, getting
+your own way so quietly and cleverly, that I am sure I should find
+plenty of straw for the bricks of my house of hope, my castle in
+Spain!
+
+Do not give too much of my share of thy heart elsewhere, and
+continue to think me, my dear Lucie, thy friend, loyal and
+loving,
+
+ALIXE DUVARNEY.
+
+P.S.--Since the above was written we have visited the General.
+Both Monsieur Doltaire and Captain Moray were there, but neither
+took much note of me--Monsieur Doltaire not at all. Those two
+either hate each other lovingly, or love hatefully, I know not
+which, they are so biting, yet so friendly to each other's
+cleverness, though their style of word-play is so different:
+Monsieur Doltaire's like a bodkin-point, Captain Moray's like a
+musket-stock a-clubbing. Be not surprised to see the British at
+our gates any day. Though we shall beat them back, I shall feel no
+less easy because I have a friend in the enemy's camp. You may
+guess who. Do not smile. He is old enough to be my father. He said
+so himself six months ago.
+
+ALIXE.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+AS VAIN AS ABSALOM
+
+
+Gabord, coming in to me one day after I had lain down to sleep,
+said, "See, m'sieu' the dormouse, 'tis holiday-eve; the King's
+sport comes to-morrow."
+
+I sat up in bed with a start, for I knew not but that my death
+had been decided on without trial; and yet on second thought I was
+sure this could not be, for every rule of military conduct was
+against it.
+
+"Whose holiday?" asked I after a moment; "and what is King's
+sport?"
+
+"You're to play bear in the streets to-morrow--which is sport for
+the King," he retorted; "we lead you by a rope, and you dance
+the quickstep to please our ladies all the way to the Chateau,
+where they bring the bear to drum-head."
+
+"Who sits behind the drum?" I questioned.
+
+"The Marquis de Vaudreuil," he replied, "the Intendant, Master
+Devil Doltaire, and the little men." By these last he meant
+officers of the colonial soldiery.
+
+So then, at last I was to be tried, to be dealt with definitely
+on the abominable charge. I should at least again see light and
+breathe fresh air, and feel about me the stir of the world. For a
+long year I had heard no voice but my own and Gabord's, had had no
+friends but my pale blades of corn and a timid mouse, day after day
+no light at all; and now winter was at hand again, and without fire
+and with poor food my body was chilled and starved. I had had no
+news of the world, nor of her who was dear to me, nor of Juste
+Duvarney save that he lived, nor of our cause. But succeeding the
+thrill of delight I had at thought of seeing the open world again
+there came a feeling of lassitude, of indifference; I shrank from
+the jar of activity. But presently I got upon my feet, and with a
+little air of drollery straightened out my clothes and flicked a
+handkerchief across my gaiters. Then I twisted my head over my
+shoulder as if I were noting the shape of my back and the set of
+my clothes in a mirror, and thrust a leg out in the manner of an
+exquisite. I had need to do some mocking thing at the moment, or I
+should have given way to tears like a woman, so suddenly weak had
+I become.
+
+Gabord burst out laughing.
+
+An idea came to me. "I must be fine to-morrow," said I. "I must
+not shame my jailer." I rubbed my beard--I had none when I came
+into this dungeon first.
+
+"Aho!" said he, his eyes wheeling.
+
+I knew he understood me. I did not speak, but went on running my
+fingers through my beard.
+
+"As vain as Absalom," he added. "Do you think they'll hang you
+by the hair?"
+
+"I'd have it off," said I, "to be clean for the sacrifice."
+
+"You had Voban before," he rejoined; "we know what happened--a
+dainty bit of a letter all rose-lily scented, and comfits for
+the soldier. The pretty wren perches now in the Governor's
+house--a-cousining, a-cousining. Think you it is that she may get
+a glimpse of m'sieu' the dormouse as he comes to trial? But 'tis
+no business o' mine; and if I bring my prisoner up when called
+for, there's duty done!"
+
+I saw the friendly spirit in the words.
+
+"Voban," urged I, "Voban may come to me?"
+
+"The Intendant said no, but the Governor yes," was the reply;
+"and that M'sieu' Doltaire is not yet come back from Montreal,
+so he had no voice. They look for him here to-morrow."
+
+"Voban may come?" I asked again.
+
+"At daybreak Voban--aho!" he continued. "There's milk and honey
+to-morrow," he added, and then, without a word, he drew forth from
+his coat, and hurriedly thrust into my hands, a piece of meat and a
+small flask of wine, and, swinging round like a schoolboy afraid of
+being caught in a misdemeanor, he passed through the door and the
+bolts clanged after him. He left the torch behind him, stuck in the
+cleft of the wall.
+
+I sat down on my couch, and for a moment gazed almost vacantly
+at the meat and wine in my hands. I had not touched either for a
+year, and now I could see that my fingers, as they closed on the
+food nervously, were thin and bloodless, and I realized that my
+clothes hung loose upon my person. Here were light, meat, and wine,
+and there was a piece of bread on the board covering my water-jar.
+Luxury was spread before me, but although I had eaten little all
+day I was not hungry. Presently, however, I took the knife which I
+had hidden a year before, and cut pieces of the meat and laid them
+by the bread. Then I drew the cork from the bottle of wine, and,
+lifting it towards that face which was always visible to my soul,
+I drank--drank--drank!
+
+The rich liquor swam through my veins like glorious fire. It
+wakened my brain and nerved my body. The old spring of life
+came back. This wine had come from the hands of Alixe--from the
+Governor's store, maybe; for never could Gabord have got such
+stuff. I ate heartily of the rich beef and bread with a new-made
+appetite, and drank the rest of the wine. When I had eaten and
+drunk the last, I sat and looked at the glowing torch, and felt
+a sort of comfort creep through me. Then there came a delightful
+thought. Months ago I had put away one last pipeful of tobacco, to
+save it till some day when I should need it most. I got it, and
+no man can guess how lovingly I held it to a flying flame of the
+torch, saw it light, and blew out the first whiff of smoke into the
+sombre air; for November was again piercing this underground house
+of mine, another winter was at hand. I sat and smoked, and--can you
+not guess my thoughts? For have you all not the same hearts, being
+British born and bred? When I had taken the last whiff, I wrapped
+myself in my cloak and went to sleep. But twice or thrice during
+the night I waked to see the torch still shining, and caught the
+fragrance of consuming pine, and minded not at all the smoke the
+burning made.
+
+
+
+IX
+
+A LITTLE CONCERNING THE CHEVALIER DE LA DARANTE
+
+
+I was wakened completely by the shooting of bolts. With the opening
+of the door I saw the figures of Gabord and Voban. My little friend
+the mouse saw them also, and scampered from the bread it had been
+eating, away among the corn, through which my footsteps had now made
+two rectangular paths, not disregarded by Gabord, who solicitously
+pulled Voban into the narrow track, that he should not trespass on
+my harvest.
+
+I rose, showed no particular delight at seeing Voban, but greeted
+him easily--though my heart was bursting to ask him of Alixe--and
+arranged my clothes. Presently Gabord said, "Stools for barber,"
+and, wheeling, he left the dungeon. He was gone only an instant,
+but long enough for Voban to thrust a letter into my hand, which
+I ran into the lining of my waistcoat as I whispered, "Her
+brother--he is well?"
+
+"Well, and he have go to France," he answered. "She make me say,
+look to the round window in the Chateau front."
+
+We spoke in English--which, as I have said, Voban understood
+imperfectly. There was nothing more said, and if Gabord, when he
+returned, suspected, he showed no sign, but put down two stools,
+seating himself on one, as I seated myself on the other for Voban's
+handiwork. Presently a soldier appeared with a bowl of coffee.
+Gabord rose, took it from him, waved him away, and handed it to me.
+Never did coffee taste so sweet, and I sipped and sipped till Voban
+had ended his work with me. Then I drained the last drop and stood
+up. He handed me a mirror, and Gabord, fetching a fine white
+handkerchief from his pocket, said, "Here's for your tears, when
+they drum you to heaven, dickey-bird."
+
+But when I saw my face in the mirror, I confess I was startled.
+My hair, which had been black, was plentifully sprinkled with
+white, my face was intensely pale and thin, and the eyes were sunk
+in dark hollows. I should not have recognized myself. But I laughed
+as I handed back the glass, and said, "All flesh is grass, but a
+dungeon's no good meadow."
+
+"'Tis for the dry chaff," Gabord answered, "not for young
+grass--aho!"
+
+He rose and made ready to leave, Voban with him. "The commissariat
+camps here in an hour or so," he said, with a ripe chuckle.
+
+It was clear the new state of affairs was more to his mind than
+the long year's rigour and silence. It seemed to me strange then,
+and it has seemed so ever since, that during all that time I never
+was visited by Doltaire but once, and of that event I am going to
+write briefly here.
+
+It was about two months before this particular morning that he
+came, greeting me courteously enough.
+
+"Close quarters here," said he, looking round as if the place
+were new to him and smiling to himself.
+
+"Not so close as we all come to one day," said I.
+
+"Dismal comparison!" he rejoined; "you've lost your
+spirits."
+
+"Not so," I retorted; "nothing but my liberty."
+
+"You know the way to find it quickly," he suggested.
+
+"The letters for La Pompadour?" I asked.
+
+"A dead man's waste papers," responded he; "of no use to him or
+you, or any one save the Grande Marquise."
+
+"Valuable to me," said I.
+
+"None but the Grande Marquise and the writer would give you a
+penny for them!"
+
+"Why should I not be my own merchant?"
+
+"You can--to me. If not to me, to no one. You had your chance long
+ago, and you refused it. You must admit I dealt fairly with you.
+I did not move till you had set your own trap and fallen into it.
+Now, if you do not give me the letters--well, you will give them to
+none else in this world. It has been a fair game, and I am winning
+now. I've only used means which one gentleman might use with
+another. Had you been a lesser man I should have had you spitted
+long ago. You understand?"
+
+"Perfectly. But since we have played so long, do you think I'll
+give you the stakes now--before the end?"
+
+"It would be wiser," he answered thoughtfully.
+
+"I have a nation behind me," urged I.
+
+"It has left you in a hole here to rot."
+
+"It will take over your citadel and dig me out some day," I
+retorted hotly.
+
+"What good that? Your life is more to you than Quebec to England."
+
+"No, no," said I quickly; "I would give my life a hundred times
+to see your flag hauled down!"
+
+"A freakish ambition," he replied; "mere infatuation!"
+
+"You do not understand it, Monsieur Doltaire," I remarked
+ironically.
+
+"I love not endless puzzles. There is no sport in following a maze
+that leads to nowhere save the grave." He yawned. "This air is
+heavy," he added; "you must find it trying."
+
+"Never as trying as at this moment," I retorted.
+
+"Come, am I so malarious?"
+
+"You are a trickster," I answered coldly.
+
+"Ah, you mean that night at Bigot's?" He smiled. "No, no, you
+were to blame--so green. You might have known we were for having
+you between the stones."
+
+"But it did not come out as you wished?" hinted I.
+
+"It served my turn," he responded; and he gave me such a smiling,
+malicious look that I knew sought to convey he had his way with
+Alixe; and though I felt that she was true to me, his cool
+presumption so stirred me I could have struck him in the face.
+I got angrily to my feet, but as I did so I shrank a little, for
+at times the wound in my side, not yet entirely healed, hurt me.
+
+"You are not well," he said, with instant show of curiosity;
+"your wounds still trouble you? They should be healed. Gabord was
+ordered to see you cared for."
+
+"Gabord has done well enough," answered I. "I have had wounds
+before, monsieur."
+
+He leaned against the wall and laughed. "What braggarts you
+English are!" he said. "A race of swashbucklers--even on bread and
+water!"
+
+He had me at advantage, and I knew it, for he had kept his
+temper. I made an effort. "Both excellent," rejoined I, "and
+English too."
+
+He laughed again. "Come, that is better. That's in your old
+vein. I love to see you so. But how knew you our baker was
+English?--which he is, a prisoner like yourself."
+
+"As easily as I could tell the water was not made by Frenchmen."
+
+"Now I have hope of you," he broke out gaily; "you will yet
+redeem your nation."
+
+At that moment Gabord came with a message from the Governor to
+Doltaire, and he prepared to go.
+
+"You are set on sacrifice?" he asked. "Think--dangling from Cape
+Diamond!"
+
+"I will meditate on your fate instead," I replied.
+
+"Think!" he said again, waving off my answer with his hand.
+"The letters I shall no more ask for; and you will not escape
+death?"
+
+"Never by that way," rejoined I.
+
+"So. Very good. Au plaisir, my captain. I go to dine at
+the Seigneur Duvarney's."
+
+With that last thrust he was gone, and left me wondering if the
+Seigneur had ever made an effort to see me, if he had forgiven the
+duel with his son.
+
+That was the incident.
+
+ *   *   *   *   *
+
+When Gabord and Voban were gone, leaving the light behind, I
+went over to where the torch stuck in the wall, and drew Alixe's
+letter from my pocket with eager fingers. It told the whole story
+of her heart.
+
+CHATEAU ST. LOUIS, 27th November, 1757.
+
+Though I write you these few words, dear Robert, I do not know
+that they will reach you, for as yet it is not certain they will
+let Voban visit you. A year, dear friend, and not a word from you!
+I should have broken my heart if I had not heard of you one way and
+another. They say you are much worn in body, though you have always
+a cheerful air. There are stories of a visit Monsieur Doltaire paid
+you, and how you jested. He hates you, and yet he admires you too.
+
+And now listen, Robert, and I beg you not to be angry--oh, do not
+be angry, for I am all yours; but I want to tell you that I have
+not repulsed Monsieur Doltaire when he has spoken flatteries to me.
+I have not believed them, and I have kept my spirits strong against
+the evil in him. I want to get you free of prison, and to that end
+I have to work through him with the Intendant, that he will not set
+the Governor more against you. With the Intendant himself I will
+not deal at all. So I use the lesser villain, and in truth the more
+powerful, for he stands higher at Versailles than any here. With
+the Governor I have influence, for he is, as you know, a kinsman of
+my mother's, and of late he has shown a fondness for me. Yet you
+can see that I must act most warily, that I must not seem to care
+for you, for that would be your complete undoing. I rather seem
+to scoff. (Oh, how it hurts me! how my cheeks tingle when I think
+of it alone! and how I clench my hands, hating them all for
+oppressing you!)
+
+I do not believe their slanders--that you are a spy. It is I,
+Robert, who have at last induced the Governor to bring you to
+trial. They would have put it off till next year, but I feared you
+would die in that awful dungeon, and I was sure that if your trial
+came on there would be a change, as there is to be for a time, at
+least. You are to be lodged in the common jail during the sitting
+of the court; and so that is one step gained. Yet I had to use all
+manner of device with the Governor.
+
+He is sometimes so playful with me that I can pretend to
+sulkiness; and so one day I said that he showed no regard for our
+family or for me in not bringing you, who had nearly killed my
+brother, to justice. So he consented, and being of a stubborn
+nature, too, when Monsieur Doltaire and the Intendant opposed
+the trial, he said it should come off at once. But one thing
+grieves me: they are to have you marched through the streets of
+the town like any common criminal, and I dare show no distress
+nor plead, nor can my father, though he wishes to move for you in
+this; and I dare not urge him, for then it would seem strange the
+daughter asked your punishment, and the father sought to lessen it.
+
+When you are in the common jail it will be much easier to help
+you. I have seen Gabord, but he is not to be bent to any purpose,
+though he is kind to me. I shall try once more to have him take
+some wine and meat to you to-night. If I fail, then I shall only
+pray that you may be given strength in body for your time of
+trouble equal to your courage.
+
+It may be I can fix upon a point where you may look to see me as
+you pass to-morrow to the Chateau. There must be a sign. If you
+will put your hand to your forehead-- But no, they may bind you,
+and your hands may not be free. When you see me, pause in your
+step for an instant, and I shall know. I will tell Voban where
+you shall send your glance, if he is to be let in to you, and I
+hope that what I plan may not fail.
+
+And so, Robert, adieu. Time can not change me, and your misfortunes
+draw me closer to you. Only the dishonourable thing could make me
+close the doors of my heart, and I will not think you, whate'er
+they say, unworthy of my constant faith. Some day, maybe, we shall
+smile at, and even cherish, these sad times. In this gay house I
+must be flippant, for I am now of the foolish world! But under all
+the trivial sparkle a serious heart beats. It belongs to thee, if
+thou wilt have it, Robert, the heart of thy
+
+ALIXE.
+
+An hour after getting this good letter Gabord came again, and
+with him breakfast--a word which I had almost dropped from my
+language. True, it was only in a dungeon, on a pair of stools, by
+the light of a torch, but how I relished it!--a bottle of good
+wine, a piece of broiled fish, the half of a fowl, and some tender
+vegetables.
+
+When Gabord came for me with two soldiers, an hour later--I say
+an hour, but I only guess so, for I had no way of noting time--I
+was ready for new cares, and to see the world again. Before the
+others Gabord was the rough, almost brutal soldier, and soon I
+knew that I was to be driven out upon the St. Foye Road and on
+into the town. My arms were well fastened down, and I was tied
+about till I must have looked like a bale of living goods of no
+great value. Indeed, my clothes were by no means handsome, and
+save for my well-shaven face and clean handkerchief I was an
+ill-favoured spectacle; but I tried to bear my shoulders up as
+we marched through dark reeking corridors, and presently came
+suddenly into well-lighted passages.
+
+I had to pause, for the light blinded my eyes, and they hurt me
+horribly, so delicate were the nerves. For some minutes I stood
+there, my guards stolidly waiting, Gabord muttering a little and
+stamping upon the floor as if in anger, though I knew he was
+merely playing a small part to deceive his comrades. The pain in
+my eyes grew less, and, though they kept filling with moisture
+from the violence of the light, I soon could see without distress.
+
+I was led into the yard of the citadel, where was drawn up a
+company of soldiers. Gabord bade me stand still, and advanced
+towards the officers' quarters. I asked him if I might not walk to
+the ramparts and view the scene. He gruffly assented, bidding the
+men watch me closely, and I walked over to a point where, standing
+three hundred feet above the noble river, I could look out upon its
+sweet expanse, across to the Levis shore, with its serried legions
+of trees behind, and its bold settlement in front upon the Heights.
+There, eastward lay the well-wooded Island of Orleans, and over all
+the clear sun and sky, enlivened by a crisp and cheering air. Snow
+had fallen, but none now lay upon the ground, and I saw a rare and
+winning earth. I stood absorbed. I was recalling that first day
+that I remember in my life, when at Balmore my grandfather made
+prophecies upon me, and for the first time I was conscious of the
+world.
+
+As I stood lost to everything about me, I heard Doltaire's voice
+behind, and presently he said over my shoulder, "To wish Captain
+Moray a good-morning were superfluous!"
+
+I smiled at him: the pleasure of that scene had given me an
+impulse towards good nature even with my enemies.
+
+"The best I ever had," I answered quietly.
+
+"Contrasts are life's delights," he said. "You should thank us.
+You have your best day because of our worst dungeon."
+
+"But my thanks shall not be in words; you shall have the same
+courtesy at our hands one day."
+
+"I had the Bastile for a year," he rejoined, calling up a squad
+of men with his finger as he spoke. "I have had my best day. Two
+would be monotony. You think your English will take this some
+time?" he asked, waving a finger towards the citadel. "It will need
+good play to pluck that ribbon from its place." He glanced up, as
+he spoke, at the white flag with its golden lilies.
+
+"So much the better sport," I answered. "We will have the ribbon
+and its heritage."
+
+"You yourself shall furnish evidence to-day. Gabord here will
+see you temptingly disposed--the wild bull led peaceably by the
+nose!"
+
+"But one day I will twist your nose, Monsieur Doltaire."
+
+"That is fair enough, if rude," he responded. "When your turn
+comes, you twist and I endure. You shall be nourished well like me,
+and I shall look a battered hulk like you. But I shall never be the
+fool that you are. If I had a way to slip the leash, I'd slip it.
+You are a dolt." He was touching upon the letters again.
+
+"I weigh it all," said I. "I am no fool--anything else you will."
+
+"You'll be nothing soon, I fear--which is a pity."
+
+What more he might have said I do not know, but there now
+appeared in the yard a tall, reverend old gentleman, in the costume
+of the coureur de bois, though his belt was richly chased, and he
+wore an order on his breast. There was something more refined than
+powerful in his appearance, but he had a keen, kindly eye, and a
+manner unmistakably superior. His dress was a little barbarous,
+unlike Doltaire's splendid white uniform, set off with violet and
+gold, the lace of a fine handkerchief sticking from his belt, and
+a gold-handled sword at his side; but the manner of both was
+distinguished.
+
+Seeing Doltaire, he came forward and they embraced. Then he turned
+towards me, and as they walked off a little distance I could see
+that he was curious concerning me. Presently he raised his hand,
+and, as if something had excited him, said, "No, no, no; hang him
+and have done with it, but I'll have nothing to do with it--not a
+thing. 'Tis enough for me to rule at--"
+
+I could hear no further, but I was now sure that he was some one
+of note who had retired from any share in state affairs. He and
+Doltaire then moved on to the doors of the citadel, and, pausing
+there, Doltaire turned round and made a motion of his hand to
+Gabord. I was at once surrounded by the squad of men, and the
+order to march was given. A drum in front of me began to play a
+well-known derisive air of the French army, The Fox and the Wolf.
+
+We came out on the St. Foye Road and down towards the Chateau St.
+Louis, between crowds of shouting people who beat drums, kettles,
+pans, and made all manner of mocking noises. It was meant not only
+against myself, but against the British people. The women were not
+behind the men in violence; from them at first came handfuls of
+gravel and dust which struck me in the face; but Gabord put a
+stop to that.
+
+It was a shameful ordeal, which might have vexed me sorely if I
+had not had greater trials and expected worse. Now and again
+appeared a face I knew--some lady who turned her head away, or
+some gentleman who watched me curiously, but made no sign.
+
+When we came to the Chateau, I looked up as if casually, and there
+in the little round window I saw Alixe's face--for an instant only.
+I stopped in my tracks, was prodded by a soldier from behind, and
+I then stepped on. Entering, we were taken to the rear of the
+building, where, in an open courtyard, were a company of soldiers,
+some seats, and a table. On my right was the St. Lawrence swelling
+on its course, hundreds of feet beneath, little boats passing
+hither and thither on its flood.
+
+We were waiting about half an hour, the noises of the clamoring
+crowd coming to us, as they carried me aloft in effigy, and,
+burning me at the cliff edge, fired guns and threw stones at me,
+till, rags, ashes, and flame, I was tumbled into the river far
+below. At last, from the Chateau came the Marquis de Vaudreuil,
+Bigot, and a number of officers. The Governor looked gravely at
+me, but did not bow; Bigot gave me a sneering smile, eying me
+curiously the while, and (I could feel) remarking on my poor
+appearance to Cournal beside him--Cournal, who winked at his
+wife's dishonour for the favour of her lover, who gave him means
+for public robbery.
+
+Presently the Governor was seated, and he said, looking round,
+"Monsieur Doltaire--he is not here?"
+
+Bigot shook his head, and answered, "No doubt he is detained at
+the citadel."
+
+"And the Seigneur Duvarney?" the Governor added.
+
+At that moment the Governor's secretary handed him a letter. The
+Governor opened it. "Listen," said he. He read to the effect that
+the Seigneur Duvarney felt he was hardly fitted to be a just judge
+in this case, remembering the conflict between his son and the
+notorious Captain Moray. And from another standpoint, though the
+prisoner merited any fate reserved for him, if guilty of spying,
+he could not forget that his life had been saved by this British
+captain--an obligation which, unfortunately, he could neither repay
+nor wipe out. After much thought, he must disobey the Governor's
+summons, and he prayed that his Excellency would grant his
+consideration thereupon.
+
+I saw the Governor frown, but he made no remark, while Bigot
+said something in his ear which did not improve his humour, for
+he replied curtly, and turned to his secretary. "We must have
+two gentlemen more," he said.
+
+At that moment Doltaire entered with the old gentleman of whom
+I have written. The Governor instantly brightened, and gave the
+stranger a warm greeting, calling him his "dear Chevalier;" and,
+after a deal of urging, the Chevalier de la Darante was seated as
+one of my judges: which did not at all displease me, for I liked
+his face.
+
+I do not need to dwell upon the trial here. I have set down the
+facts before. I had no counsel and no witnesses. There seemed no
+reason why the trial should have dragged on all day, for I soon saw
+it was intended to find me guilty. Yet I was surprised to see how
+Doltaire brought up a point here and a question there in my favour,
+which served to lengthen out the trial; and all the time he sat
+near the Chevalier de la Darante, now and again talking with him.
+
+It was late evening before the trial came to a close. The one
+point to be established was that the letters taken from General
+Braddock were mine, and that I had made the plans while a hostage.
+I acknowledged nothing, and would not do so unless I was allowed
+to speak freely. This was not permitted until just before I was
+sentenced.
+
+Then Doltaire's look was fixed on me, and I knew he waited to
+see if I would divulge the matter private between us. However, I
+stood by my compact with him. Besides, it could not serve me to
+speak of it here, or use it as an argument, and it would only
+hasten an end which I felt he could prevent if he chose.
+
+So when I was asked if I had aught to say, I pleaded only that
+they had not kept the Articles of War signed at Fort Necessity,
+which provided I should be free within two months and a half--that
+is, when prisoners in our hands should be delivered up to them,
+as they were. They had broken their bond, though we had fulfilled
+ours, and I held myself justified in doing what I had done for
+our cause and for my own life.
+
+I was not heard patiently, though I could see that the Governor
+and the Chevalier were impressed; but Bigot instantly urged the
+case hotly against me, and the end came very soon. It was now dark;
+a single light had been brought and placed beside the Governor,
+while a soldier held a torch at a distance. Suddenly there was a
+silence; then, in response to a signal, the sharp ringing of a
+hundred bayonets as they were drawn and fastened to the muskets,
+and I could see them gleaming in the feeble torchlight. Presently,
+out of the stillness, the Governor's voice was heard condemning me
+to death by hanging, thirty days hence, at sunrise. Silence fell
+again instantly, and then a thing occurred which sent a thrill
+through us all. From the dark balcony above us came a voice, weird,
+high, and wailing:
+
+"Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! He is guilty, and shall die! Francois
+Bigot shall die!"
+
+The voice was Mathilde's, and I saw Doltaire shrug a shoulder
+and look with malicious amusement at the Intendant. Bigot himself
+sat pale and furious. "Discover the intruder," he said to Gabord,
+who was standing near, "and have--him--jailed."
+
+But the Governor interfered. "It is some drunken creature," he
+urged quietly. "Take no account of it."
+
+
+
+X
+
+AN OFFICER OF MARINES
+
+
+What was my dismay to know that I was to be taken back again to
+my dungeon, and not lodged in the common jail, as I had hoped and
+Alixe had hinted! When I saw whither my footsteps were directed I
+said nothing, nor did Gabord speak at all. We marched back through
+a railing crowd as we had come, all silent and gloomy. I felt a
+chill at my heart when the citadel loomed up again out of the
+November shadow, and I half paused as I entered the gates.
+"Forward!" said Gabord mechanically, and I moved on into the yard,
+into the prison, through the dull corridors, the soldiers' heels
+clanking and resounding behind, down into the bowels of the earth,
+where the air was moist and warm, and then into my dungeon home! I
+stepped inside, and Gabord ordered the ropes off my person somewhat
+roughly, watched the soldiers till they were well away, and then
+leaned against the wall, waiting for me to speak. I had no impulse
+to smile, but I knew how I could most touch him, and so I said
+lightly, "You've got dickey-bird home again."
+
+He answered nothing and turned towards the door, leaving the torch
+stuck in the wall. But he suddenly stopped short, and suddenly
+thrust out to me a tiny piece of paper.
+
+"A hand touched mine as I went through the Chateau," said he, "and
+when out I came, look you, this here! I can't see to read. What does
+it say?" he added, with a shrewd attempt at innocence.
+
+I opened the little paper, held it towards the torch, and read:
+
+"Because of the storm there is no sleeping. Is there not the
+watcher aloft? Shall the sparrow fall unheeded? The wicked
+shall be confounded."
+
+It was Alixe's writing. She had hazarded this in the hands of my
+jailer as her only hope, and, knowing that he might not serve her,
+had put her message in vague sentences which I readily interpreted.
+I read the words aloud to him, and he laughed, and remarked, "'Tis
+a foolish thing that--The Scarlet Woman, mast like."
+
+"Most like," I answered quietly; "yet what should she be doing
+there at the Chateau?"
+
+"The mad go everywhere," he answered, "even to the intendance!"
+
+With that he left me, going, as he said, "to fetch crumbs and
+wine." Exhausted with the day's business, I threw myself upon
+my couch, drew my cloak over me, composed myself, and in a few
+minutes was sound asleep. I waked to find Gabord in the dungeon,
+setting out food upon a board supported by two stools.
+
+"'Tis custom to feed your dickey-bird ere you fetch him to the
+pot." he said, and drew the cork from a bottle of wine.
+
+He watched me as I ate and talked, but he spoke little. When I
+had finished, he fetched a packet of tobacco from his pocket. I
+offered him money, but he refused it, and I did not press him, for
+he said the food and wine were not of his buying. Presently he
+left, and came back with pens, ink, paper, and candles, which be
+laid out on my couch without words.
+
+After a little he came again, and laid a book on the improvised
+table before me. It was an English Bible. Opening it, I found
+inscribed on the fly-leaf, Charles Wainfleet, Chaplain to the
+British Army. Gabord explained that this chaplain had been in
+the citadel for some weeks; that he had often inquired about me;
+that he had been brought from the Ohio; and had known of me, having
+tended the lieutenant of my Virginian infantry in his last hours.
+Gabord thought I should now begin to make my peace with Heaven,
+and so had asked for the chaplain's Bible, which was freely given.
+I bade him thank the chaplain for me, and opening the book, I found
+a leaf turned down at the words,
+
+"In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these
+calamities be overpast."
+
+When I was left alone, I sat down to write diligently that history
+of myself which I had composed and fixed in my memory during the
+year of my housing in this dungeon. The words came from my pen
+freely, and hour after hour through many days, while no single word
+reached me from the outside world, I wrote on; carefully revising,
+but changing little from that which I had taken so long to record
+in my mind. I would not even yet think that they would hang me; and
+if they did, what good could brooding do? When the last word of the
+memoirs (I may call them so), addressed to Alixe, had been written,
+I turned my thoughts to other friends.
+
+The day preceding that fixed for my execution came, yet there
+was no sign from friend or enemy without. At ten o'clock of that
+day Chaplain Wainfleet was admitted to me in the presence of Gabord
+and a soldier. I found great pleasure in his company, brief as his
+visit was; and after I had given him messages to bear for me to old
+friends, if we never met again and he were set free, he left me,
+benignly commending me to Heaven. There was the question of my
+other letters. I had but one desire--Voban again, unless at my
+request the Seigneur Duvarney would come, and they would let him
+come. If it were certain that I was to go to the scaffold, then I
+should not hesitate to tell him my relations with his daughter,
+that he might comfort her when, being gone from the world myself,
+my love could do her no harm. I could not think that he would hold
+against me the duel with his son, and I felt sure he would come to
+me if he could.
+
+But why should I not try for both Voban and the Seigneur? So I
+spoke to Gabord.
+
+"Voban! Voban!" said he. "Does dickey-bird play at peacock still?
+Well, thou shalt see Voban. Thou shalt go trimmed to heaven--aho!"
+
+Presently I asked him if he would bear a message to the Governor,
+asking permission for the Seigneur Duvarney to visit me, if he were
+so inclined. At his request I wrote my petition out, and he carried
+it away with him, saying that I should have Voban that evening.
+
+I waited hour after hour, but no one came. As near as I could
+judge it was now evening. It seemed strange to think that, twenty
+feet above me, the world was all white with snow; the sound of
+sleigh-bells and church-bells, and the cries of snowshoers ringing
+on the clear, sharp air. I pictured the streets of Quebec alive
+with people: the young seigneur set off with furs and silken sash
+and sword or pistols; the long-haired, black-eyed woodsman in his
+embroidered moccasins and leggings with flying thrums; the peasant
+farmer slapping his hands cheerfully in the lighted market-place;
+the petty noble, with his demoiselle, hovering in the precincts of
+the Chateau St. Louis and the intendance. Up there were light,
+freedom, and the inspiriting frost; down here in my dungeon, the
+blades of corn, which, dying, yet never died, told the story of a
+choking air, wherein the body and soul of a man droop and take long
+to die. This was the night before Christmas Eve, when in England
+and Virginia they would be preparing for feasting and thanksgiving.
+
+The memories of past years crowded on me. I thought of feastings
+and spendthrift rejoicings in Glasgow and Virginia. All at once
+the carnal man in me rose up and damned these lying foes of mine.
+Resignation went whistling down the wind. Hang me! Hang me! No, by
+the God that gave me breath! I sat back and laughed--laughed at
+my own insipid virtue, by which, to keep faith with the fanatical
+follower of Prince Charlie, I had refused my liberty; cut myself off
+from the useful services of my King; wasted good years of my life,
+trusting to pressure and help to come from England, which never
+came; twisted the rope for my own neck to keep honour with the
+dishonourable Doltaire, who himself had set the noose swinging; and,
+inexpressible misery! involved in my shame and peril a young blithe
+spirit, breathing a miasma upon the health of a tender life. Every
+rebellious atom in my blood sprang to indignant action. I swore
+that if they fetched me to the gallows to celebrate their Noel,
+other lives than mine should go to keep me company on the dark trail.
+To die like a rat in a trap, oiled for the burning, and lighted by
+the torch of hatred! No, I would die fighting, if I must die.
+
+I drew from its hiding-place the knife I had secreted the day I
+was brought into that dungeon--a little weapon, but it would serve
+for the first blow. At whom? Gabord? It all flashed through my mind
+how I might do it when he came in again: bury this blade in his neck
+or heart--it was long enough for the work; then, when he was dead,
+change my clothes for his, take his weapons, and run my chances to
+get free of the citadel. Free? Where should I go in the dead of
+winter? Who would hide me, shelter me? I could not make my way to
+an English settlement. Ill clad, exposed to the merciless climate,
+and the end death. But that was freedom--freedom! I could feel my
+body dilating with the thought, as I paced my dungeon like an
+ill-tempered beast. But kill Gabord, who had put himself in danger
+to serve me, who himself had kept the chains from off my ankles and
+body, whose own life depended upon my security--"Come, come, Robert
+Moray," said I, "what relish have you for that? That's an ill game
+for a gentleman. Alixe Duvarney would rather see you dead than get
+your freedom over the body of this man."
+
+That was an hour of storm. I am glad that I conquered the baser
+part of me; for, almost before I had grown calm again, the bolts of
+the dungeon doors shot back, and presently Gabord stepped inside,
+followed by a muffled figure.
+
+"Voban the barber," said Gabord in a strange voice, and stepping
+again outside, he closed the door, but did not shoot the bolts.
+
+I stood as one in a dream. Voban the barber? In spite of cap and
+great fur coat, I saw the outline of a figure that no barber ever
+had in this world. I saw two eyes shining like lights set in a rosy
+sky. A moment of doubt, of impossible speculation, of delicious
+suspense, and then the coat of Voban the barber opened, dropped
+away from the lithe, graceful figure of a young officer of marines,
+the cap flew off, and in an instant the dear head, the blushing,
+shining face of Alixe was on my breast.
+
+In that moment, stolen from the calendar of hate, I ran into the
+haven where true hearts cast anchor and bless God that they have
+seen upon the heights, to guide them, the lights of home. The
+moment flashed by and was gone, but the light it made went not
+with it.
+
+When I drew her blushing face up, and stood her off from me that
+I might look at her again, the colour flew back and forth on her
+cheek, as you may see the fire flutter in an uncut ruby when you
+turn it in the sun. Modestly drawing the cloak she wore more
+closely about her, she hastened to tell me how it was she came in
+such a guise; but I made her pause for a moment while I gave her a
+seat and sat down beside her. Then by the light of the flickering
+torch and flaring candles I watched her feelings play upon her
+face as the warm light of autumn shifts upon the glories of ripe
+fruits. Her happiness was tempered by the sadness of our position,
+and my heart smote me that I had made her suffer, had brought care
+to her young life. I could see that in the year she had grown
+older, yet her beauty seemed enhanced by that and by the trouble
+she had endured. I shall let her tell her story here unbroken by
+my questions and those interruptions which Gabord made, bidding
+her to make haste. She spoke without faltering, save here and
+there; but even then I could see her brave spirit quelling the riot
+of her emotions, shutting down the sluice-gate of tears.
+
+"I knew," she said, her hand clasped in mine, "that Gabord was
+the only person like to be admitted to you, and so for days, living
+in fear lest the worst should happen, I have prepared for this
+chance. I have grown so in height that I knew an old uniform of my
+brothers would fit me, and I had it ready--small sword and all,"
+she added, with a sad sort of humour, touching the weapon at her
+side. "You must know that we have for the winter a house here upon
+the ramparts near the Chateau. It was my mother's doings, that my
+sister Georgette and I might have no great journeyings in the cold
+to the festivities hereabouts. So I, being a favourite with the
+Governor, ran in and out of the Chateau at my will; of which my
+mother was proud, and she allowed me much liberty, for to be a
+favourite of the Governor is an honour. I knew how things were
+going, and what the chances were of the sentence being carried out
+on you. Sometimes I thought my heart would burst with the anxiety of
+it all, but I would not let that show to the world. If you could but
+have seen me smile at the Governor and Monsieur Doltaire--nay, do
+not press my hand so, Robert; you know well you have no need to
+fear monsieur--while I learned secrets of state, among them news of
+you. Three nights ago Monsieur Doltaire was talking with me at a
+ball--ah, those feastings while you were lying in a dungeon, and I
+shutting up my love and your danger close in my heart, even from
+those who loved me best! Well, suddenly he said, 'I think I will
+not have our English captain shifted to a better world.'
+
+"My heart stood still; I felt an ache across my breast so that I
+could hardly breathe. 'Why will you not?' said I; 'was not the
+sentence just?' He paused a minute, and then replied, 'All
+sentences are just when an enemy is dangerous.' Then said I as in
+surprise, 'Why, was he no spy, after all?' He sat back, and laughed
+a little. 'A spy according to the letter of the law, but you have
+heard of secret history--eh?' I tried to seem puzzled, for I had a
+thought there was something private between you and him which has
+to do with your fate. So I said, as if bewildered, 'You mean there
+is evidence which was not shown at the trial?' He answered slowly,
+'Evidence that would bear upon the morals, not the law of the
+case.' Then said I, 'Has it to do with you, monsieur?' 'It has to
+do with France,' he replied. 'And so you will not have his death?'
+I asked. 'Bigot wishes it,' he replied, 'for no other reason than
+that Madame Cournal has spoken nice words for the good-looking
+captain, and because that unsuccessful duel gave Vaudreuil an
+advantage over himself. Vaudreuil wishes it because he thinks it
+will sound well in France, and also because he really believes the
+man a spy. The Council do not care much; they follow the Governor
+and Bigot, and both being agreed, their verdict is unanimous.'
+He paused, then added, 'And the Seigneur Duvarney--and his
+daughter--wish it because of a notable injury to one of their
+name.' At that I cautiously replied, 'No, my father does not wish
+it, for my brother gave the offense, and Captain Moray saved his
+life, as you know. I do not wish it, Monsieur Doltaire, because
+hanging is a shameful death, and he is a gentle man, not a ruffian.
+Let him be shot like a gentleman. How will it sound at the Court of
+France that, on insufficient evidence, as you admit, an English
+gentleman was hanged for a spy? Would not the King say (for he is a
+gentleman), Why was not this shown me before the man's death? Is it
+not a matter upon which a country would feel as gentlemen feel?'
+
+"I knew it the right thing to say at the moment, and it seemed
+the only way to aid you, though I intended, if the worst came to
+the worst, to go myself to the Governor at the last and plead for
+your life, at least for a reprieve. But it had suddenly flashed
+upon me that a reference to France was the thing, since the
+Articles of War which you are accused of dishonouring were signed
+by officers from France and England.
+
+"Presently he turned to me with a look of curiosity, and another
+sort of look also that made me tremble, and said, 'Now, there you
+have put your finger on the point--my point, the choice weapon I
+had reserved to prick the little bubble of Bigot's hate and the
+Governor's conceit, if I so chose, even at the last. And here is a
+girl, a young girl just freed from pinafores, who teaches them the
+law of nations! If it pleased me I should not speak, for Vaudreuil's
+and Bigot's affairs are none of mine; but, in truth, why should you
+kill your enemy? It is the sport to keep him living; you can get no
+change for your money from a dead man. He has had one cheerful year;
+why not another, and another, and another? And so watch him fretting
+to the slow-coming end, while now and again you give him a taste of
+hope, to drop him back again into the pit which has no sides for
+climbing.' He paused a minute, and then added, 'A year ago I thought
+he had touched you, this Britisher, with his raw humour and manners;
+but, my faith, how swiftly does a woman's fancy veer!' At that I
+said calmly to him, 'You must remember that then he was not thought
+so base.' 'Yes, yes,' he replied; 'and a woman loves to pity the
+captive, whatever his fault, if he be presentable and of some notice
+or talent. And Moray has gifts,' he went on. I appeared all at once
+to be offended. 'Veering, indeed! a woman's fancy! I think you might
+judge women better. You come from high places, Monsieur Doltaire,
+and they say this and that of your great talents and of your power
+at Versailles, but what proof have we had of it? You set a girl
+down with a fine patronage, and you hint at weapons to cut off my
+cousin the Governor and the Intendant from their purposes; but how
+do we know you can use them, that you have power with either the
+unnoticeable woman or the great men?' I knew very well it was a bold
+move. He suddenly turned to me, in his cruel eyes a glittering kind
+of light, and said, 'I suggest no more than I can do with those
+"great men"; and as for the woman, the slave can not be patron--I am
+the slave. I thought not of power before; but now that I do, I will
+live up to my thinking. I seem idle, I am not; purposeless, I am
+not; a gamester, I am none. I am a sportsman, and I will not leave
+the field till all the hunt be over. I seem a trifler, yet I have
+persistency. I am no romanticist, I have no great admiration for
+myself, and yet when I set out to hunt a woman honestly, be sure
+I shall never back to kennel till she is mine or I am done for
+utterly. Not by worth nor by deserving, but by unending patience and
+diligence--that shall be my motto. I shall devote to the chase every
+art that I have learned or known by nature. So there you have me,
+mademoiselle. Since you have brought me to the point, I will unfurl
+my flag.... I am--your--hunter,' he went on, speaking with slow,
+painful emphasis, 'and I shall make you mine. You fight against me,
+but it is no use.' I got to my feet, and said with coolness, though
+I was sick at heart and trembling, 'You are frank. You have made two
+resolves. I shall give weight to one as you fulfill the other'; and,
+smiling at him, I moved away towards my mother.
+
+"Masterful as he is, I felt that this would touch his vanity.
+There lay my great chance with him. If he had guessed the truth
+of what's between us, be sure, Robert, your life were not worth
+one hour beyond to-morrow's sunrise. You must know how I loathe
+deceitfulness, but when one weak girl is matched against powerful
+and evil men, what can she do? My conscience does not chide me, for
+I know my cause is just. Robert, look me in the eyes.... There,
+like that.... Now tell me. You are innocent of the dishonourable
+thing, are you not? I believe with all my soul, but that I may say
+from your own lips that you are no spy, tell me so."
+
+When I had said as she had wished, assuring her she should know
+all, carrying proofs away with her, and that hidden evidence of
+which Doltaire had spoken, she went on:
+
+"'You put me to the test,' said monsieur. 'Doing one, it will be
+proof that I shall do the other.' He fixed his eyes upon me with
+such a look that my whole nature shrank from him, as if the next
+instant his hateful hands were to be placed on me. Oh, Robert, I
+know how perilous was the part I played, but I dared it for your
+sake. For a whole year I have dissembled to every one save to that
+poor mad soul Mathilde, who reads my heart in her wild way, to
+Voban, and to the rough soldier outside your dungeon. But they will
+not betray me. God has given us these rough but honest friends.
+
+"Well, monsieur left me that night, and I have not seen him since,
+nor can I tell where he is, for no one knows, and I dare not ask
+too much. I did believe he would achieve his boast as to saving
+your life, and so, all yesterday and to-day, I have waited with most
+anxious heart; but not one word! Yet there was that in all he said
+which made me sure he meant to save you, and I believe he will. Yet
+think: if anything happened to him! You know what wild doings go on
+at Bigot's chateau out at Charlesbourg; or, again, in the storm of
+yesterday he may have been lost. You see, there are the hundred
+chances; so I determined not to trust wholly to him. There was
+one other way--to seek the Governor myself, open my heart to him,
+and beg for a reprieve. To-night at nine o'clock--it is now six,
+Robert--we go to the Chateau St. Louis, my mother and my father and
+I, to sup with the Governor. Oh, think what I must endure, to face
+them with this awful shadow on me! If no word come of the reprieve
+before that hour, I shall make my own appeal to the Governor. It may
+ruin me, but it may save you; and that done, what should I care for
+the rest? Your life is more to me than all the world beside." Here
+she put both hands upon my shoulders and looked me in the eyes.
+
+I did not answer yet, but took her hands in mine, and she
+continued: "An hour past, I told my mother I should go to see
+my dear friend Lucie Lotbiniere. Then I stole up to my room,
+put on my brother's uniform, and came down to meet Voban near the
+citadel, as we had arranged. I knew he was to have an order from
+the Governor to visit you. He was waiting, and to my great joy he
+put the order in my hands. I took his coat and wig and cap, a poor
+disguise, and came straight to the citadel, handing the order to
+the soldiers at the gate. They gave it back without a word, and
+passed me on. I thought this strange, and looked at the paper by
+the light of the torches. What was my surprise to see that Voban's
+name had been left out! It but gave permission to the bearer. That
+would serve with the common soldier, but I knew well it would not
+with Gabord or with the commandant of the citadel. All at once I saw
+the great risk I was running, the danger to us both. Still I would
+not turn back. But how good fortune serves us when we least look for
+it! At the commandant's very door was Gabord. I did not think to
+deceive him. It was my purpose from the first to throw myself upon
+his mercy. So there, that moment, I thrust the order into his hand.
+He read it, looked a moment, half fiercely and half kindly, at me,
+then turned and took the order to the commandant. Presently he came
+out, and said to me, 'Come, m'sieu', and see you clip the gentleman
+dainty fine for his sunrise travel. He'll get no care 'twixt
+posting-house and end of journey, m'sieu'.' This he said before two
+soldiers, speaking with harshness and a brutal humour. But inside
+the citadel he changed at once, and, taking from my head this cap
+and wig, he said quite gently, yet I could see he was angry, too,
+'This is a mad doing, young lady.' He said no more, and led me
+straight to you. If I had told him I was coming, I know he would
+have stayed me. But at the dangerous moment he had not heart to
+drive me back.... And that is all my story, Robert."
+
+As I have said, this tale was broken often by little questionings
+and exclamations, and was not told in one long narrative as I have
+written it here. When she had done I sat silent and overcome for a
+moment. There was one thing now troubling me sorely, even in the
+painful joy of having her here close by me. She had risked all to
+save my life--reputation, friends, even myself, the one solace in
+her possible misery. Was it not my duty to agree to Doltaire's
+terms, for her sake, if there was yet a chance to do so? I had made
+a solemn promise to Sir John Godric that those letters, if they ever
+left my hands, should go to the lady who had written them; and to
+save my own life I would not have broken faith with my benefactor.
+But had I the right to add to the misery of this sweet, brave
+spirit? Suppose it was but for a year or two: had I the right to
+give her sorrow for that time, if I could prevent it, even at the
+cost of honour with the dead? Was it not my duty to act, and at
+once? Time was short.
+
+While in a swift moment I was debating, Gabord opened the door,
+and said, "Come, end it, end it. Gabord has a head to save!" I
+begged him for one minute more, and then giving Alixe the packet
+which held my story, I told her hastily the matter between Doltaire
+and myself, and said that now, rather than give her sorrow, I was
+prepared to break my word with Sir John Godric. She heard me through
+with flashing eyes, and I could see her bosom heave. When I had
+done, she looked me straight in the eyes.
+
+"Is all that here?" she said, holding up the packet.
+
+"All," I answered.
+
+"And you would not break your word to save your own life?"
+
+I shook my head in negation.
+
+"Now I know that you are truly honourable," she answered, "and
+you shall not break your promise for me. No, no, you shall not; you
+shall not stir. Tell me that you will not send word to Monsieur
+Doltaire--tell me!"
+
+When, after some struggle, I had consented, she said, "But I may
+act. I am not bound to secrecy. I have given no word or bond. I
+will go to the Governor with my love, and I do not fear the end.
+They will put me in a convent, and I shall see you no more, but I
+shall have saved you."
+
+In vain I begged her not to do so; her purpose was strong, and I
+could only get her promise that she would not act till midnight.
+This was hardly achieved when Gabord entered quickly, saying,
+"The Seigneur Duvarney! On with your coat, wig, and cap! Quick,
+mademoiselle!"
+
+Swiftly the disguise was put on, and I clasped her to my breast with
+a joyful agony, while Gabord hastily put out the candles and torch,
+and drew Alixe behind the dungeon door. Then standing himself in
+the doorway, he loudly commended me to sleep sound and be ready
+for travel in the morning. Taking the hint, I threw myself upon
+my couch, and composed myself. An instant afterwards the Seigneur
+appeared with a soldier, and Gabord met him cheerfully, looked at
+the order from the Governor, and motioned the Seigneur in and the
+soldier away. As Duvarney stepped inside, Gabord followed, holding
+up a torch. I rose to meet my visitor, and as I took his hand I saw
+Gabord catch Alixe by the sleeve and hurry her out with a whispered
+word, swinging the door behind her as she passed. Then he stuck the
+torch in the wall, went out, shut and bolted the dungeon door, and
+left us two alone.
+
+I was glad that Alixe's safety had been assured, and my greeting
+of her father was cordial. But he was more reserved than I had
+ever known him. The duel with his son, which had sent the youth to
+France and left him with a wound which would trouble him for many a
+day, weighed heavily against me. Again, I think that he guessed my
+love for Alixe, and resented it with all his might. What Frenchman
+would care to have his daughter lose her heart to one accused of a
+wretched crime, condemned to death, an enemy of his country, and a
+Protestant? I was sure that should he guess at the exact relations
+between us, Alixe would be sent behind the tall doors of a convent,
+where I should knock in vain.
+
+"You must not think, Moray," said he, "that I have been indifferent
+to your fate, but you can not guess how strong the feeling is
+against you, how obdurate is the Governor, who, if he should appear
+lax in dealing with you, would give a weapon into Bigot's hands
+which might ruin him in France one day. I have but this moment come
+from the Governor, and there seems no way to move him."
+
+I saw that he was troubled greatly, and I felt his helplessness.
+He went on: "There is but one man who could bend the Governor, but
+he, alas! is no friend of yours. And what way there is to move him
+I know not; he has no wish, I fancy, but that you shall go to your
+fate."
+
+"You mean Monsieur Doltaire?" said I quietly.
+
+"Doltaire," he answered. "I have tried to find him, for he is
+the secret agent of La Pompadour, and if I had one plausible reason
+to weigh with him--- But I have none, unless you can give it. There
+are vague hints of things between you and him, and I have come to
+ask if you can put any fact, any argument, in my hands that would
+aid me with him. I would go far to serve you."
+
+"Think not, I pray you," returned I, "that there is any debt
+unsatisfied between us."
+
+He waved his hand in a melancholy way. "Indeed, I wish to serve
+you for the sake of past friendship between us, not only for that
+debt's sake."
+
+"In spite of my quarrel with your son?" asked I.
+
+"In spite of that, indeed," he said slowly, "though a great
+wedge was driven between us there."
+
+"I am truly sorry for it," said I, with some pride. "The blame
+was in no sense mine. I was struck across the face; I humbled
+myself, remembering you, but he would have me out yes or no."
+
+"Upon a wager!" he urged, somewhat coldly.
+
+"With the Intendant, monsieur," I replied, "not with your son."
+
+"I can not understand the matter," was his gloomy answer.
+
+"I beg you not to try," I rejoined; "it is too late for
+explanations, and I have nothing to tell you of myself and Monsieur
+Doltaire. Only, whatever comes, remember I have begged nothing of
+you, have desired nothing but justice--that only. I shall make no
+further move; the axe shall fall if it must. I have nothing now to
+do but set my house in order, and live the hours between this and
+sunrise with what quiet I may. I am ready for either freedom or
+death. Life is not so incomparable a thing that I can not give it
+up without pother."
+
+He looked at me a moment steadily. "You and I are standing far
+off from each other," he remarked. "I will say one last thing to
+you, though you seem to wish me gone and your own grave closing
+in. I was asked by the Governor to tell you that if you would put
+him in the way of knowing the affairs of your provinces from the
+letters you have received, together with estimate of forces and
+plans of your forts, as you have known them, he will spare you.
+I only tell you this because you close all other ways to me."
+
+"I carry," said I, with a sharp burst of anger, "the scars of
+wounds an insolent youth gave me. I wish now that I had killed
+the son of the man who dares bring me such a message."
+
+For a moment I had forgotten Alixe, everything, in the wildness
+of my anger. I choked with rage; I could have struck him.
+
+"I mean nothing against you," he urged, with great ruefulness. "I
+suggest nothing. I bring the Governor's message, that is all. And
+let me say," he added, "that I have not thought you a spy, nor
+ever shall think so."
+
+I was trembling with anger still, and I was glad that at the
+moment Gabord opened the door, and stood waiting.
+
+"You will not part with me in peace, then?" asked the Seigneur
+slowly.
+
+"I will remember the gentleman who gave a captive hospitality,"
+I answered. "I am too near death to let a late injury outweigh an
+old friendship. I am ashamed, but not only for myself. Let us part
+in peace--ay, let us part in peace," I added with feeling, for the
+thought of Alixe came rushing over me, and this was her father!
+
+"Good-by, Moray," he responded gravely. "You are a soldier, and
+brave; if the worst comes, I know how you will meet it. Let us
+waive all bitter thoughts between us. Good-by."
+
+We shook hands then, without a word, and in a moment the dungeon
+door closed behind him, and I was alone; and for a moment my heart
+was heavy beyond telling, and a terrible darkness settled on my
+spirit. I sat on my couch and buried my head in my hands.
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE COMING OF DOLTAIRE
+
+
+At last I was roused by Gabord's voice.
+
+He sat down, and drew the leaves of faded corn between his
+fingers. "'Tis a poor life, this in a cage, after all--eh,
+dickey-bird? If a soldier can't stand in the field fighting, if
+a man can't rub shoulders with man, and pitch a tent of his own
+somewhere, why not go travelling with the Beast--aho? To have all
+the life sucked out like these--eh? To see the flesh melt and the
+hair go white, the eye to be one hour bright like a fire in a kiln,
+and the next like mother on working vinegar--that's not living at
+all--no."
+
+The speech had evidently cost him much thinking, and when he ended,
+his cheeks puffed out and a soundless laugh seemed to gather,
+but it burst in a sort of sigh. I would have taken his hand that
+moment, if I had not remembered when once he drew back from such
+demonstrations. I did not speak, but nodded assent, and took to
+drawing the leaves of corn between my fingers as he was doing.
+
+After a moment, cocking his head at me as might a surly
+schoolmaster in a pause of leniency, he added, "As quiet, as quiet,
+and never did he fly at door of cage, nor peck at jailer--aho!"
+
+I looked at him a minute seriously, and then, feeling in my
+coat, handed to him the knife which I had secreted, with the words,
+"Enough for pecking with, eh?"
+
+He looked at me so strangely, as he weighed the knife up and
+down in his hand, that I could not at first guess his thought;
+but presently I understood it, and I almost could have told what
+he would say. He opened the knife, felt the blade, measured it
+along his fingers, and then said, with a little bursting of the
+lips, "Poom! But what would ma'm'selle have thought if Gabord
+was found dead with a hole in his neck--behind? Eh?"
+
+He had struck the very note that had sung in me when the temptation
+came; but he was gay at once again, and I said to him, "What is the
+hour fixed?"
+
+"Seven o'clock," he answered, "and I will bring your breakfast
+first."
+
+"Good-night, then," said I. "Coffee and a little tobacco will be
+enough."
+
+When he was gone, I lay down on my bag of straw, which, never
+having been renewed, was now only full of worn chaff, and,
+gathering myself in my cloak, was soon in a dreamless sleep.
+
+I waked to the opening of the dungeon door, to see Gabord entering
+with a torch and a tray that held my frugal breakfast. He had added
+some brandy, also, of which I was glad, for it was bitter cold
+outside, as I discovered later. He was quiet, seeming often to
+wish to speak, but pausing before the act, never getting beyond a
+stumbling aho! I greeted him cheerfully enough. After making a
+little toilette, I drank my coffee with relish. At last I asked
+Gabord if no word had come to the citadel for me; and he said, none
+at all, nothing save a message from the Governor, before midnight,
+ordering certain matters. No more was said, until, turning to the
+door, he told me he would return to fetch me forth in a few minutes.
+But when halfway out he suddenly wheeled, came back, and blurted
+out, "If you and I could only fight it out, m'sieu'! 'Tis ill for a
+gentleman and a soldier to die without thrust or parry."
+
+"Gabord," said I, smiling at him, "you preach good sermons always,
+and I never saw a man I'd rather fight and be killed by than you!"
+Then, with an attempt at rough humour, I added, "But as I told you
+once, the knot is'nt at my throat, and I'll tie another one yet
+elsewhere, if God loves honest men."
+
+I had no hope at all, yet I felt I must say it. He nodded, but
+said nothing, and presently I was alone.
+
+I sat down on my straw couch and composed myself to think; not
+upon my end, for my mind was made up as to that, but upon the girl
+who was so dear to me, whose life had crept into mine and filled
+it, making it of value in the world. It must not be thought that I
+no longer had care for our cause, for I would willingly have spent
+my life a hundred times for my country, as my best friends will
+bear witness; but there comes a time when a man has a right to set
+all else aside but his own personal love and welfare, and to me the
+world was now bounded by just so much space as my dear Alixe might
+move in. I fastened my thought upon her face as I had last seen it.
+My eyes seemed to search for it also, and to find it in the torch
+which stuck out, softly sputtering, from the wall. I do not
+pretend, even at this distance of time, after having thought much
+over the thing, to give any good reason for so sudden a change as
+took place in me there. All at once a voice appeared to say to me,
+"When you are gone, she will be Doltaire's. Remember what she said.
+She fears him. He has a power over her."
+
+Now, some will set it down to a low, unmanly jealousy and suspicion;
+it is hard to name it, but I know that I was seized with a misery so
+deep that all my past sufferings and disappointments, and even this
+present horror were shadowy beside it. I pictured to myself Alixe in
+Doltaire's arms, after I had gone beyond human call. It is strange
+how an idea will seize us and master us, and an inconspicuous
+possibility suddenly stand out with huge distinctness. All at once I
+felt in my head "the ring of fire" of which Mathilde had warned me,
+a maddening heat filled my veins, and that hateful picture grew more
+vivid. Things Alixe had said the night before flashed to my mind,
+and I fancied that, unknown to herself even, he already had a
+substantial power over her.
+
+He had deep determination, the gracious subtlety which charms
+a woman, and she, hemmed in by his devices, overcome by his
+pleadings, attracted by his enviable personality, would come at
+last to his will. The evening before I had seen strong signs of the
+dramatic qualities of her nature. She had the gift of imagination,
+the epic spirit. Even three years previous I felt how she had seen
+every little incident of her daily life in a way which gave it
+vividness and distinction. All things touched her with delicate
+emphasis--were etched upon her brain--or did not touch her at all.
+She would love the picturesque in life, though her own tastes were
+so simple and fine. Imagination would beset her path with dangers;
+it would be to her, with her beauty, a fatal gift, a danger to
+herself and others. She would have power, and feeling it, womanlike,
+would use it, dissipating her emotions, paying out the sweetness
+of her soul, till one day a dramatic move, a strong picturesque
+personality like Doltaire's, would catch her from the moorings of
+her truth, and the end must be tragedy to her. Doltaire! Doltaire!
+The name burnt into my brain. Some prescient quality in me awaked,
+and I saw her the sacrifice of her imagination, of the dramatic
+beauty of her nature, my enemy her tyrant and destroyer. He would
+leave nothing undone to achieve his end, and do nothing that would
+not in the end poison her soul and turn her very glories into
+miseries. How could she withstand the charm of his keen knowledge
+of the world, the fascination of his temperament, the alluring
+eloquence of his frank wickedness? And I should rather a million
+times see her in her grave than passed through the atmosphere of
+his life.
+
+This may seem madness, selfish and small; but after-events went
+far to justify my fears and imaginings, for behind there was a
+love, an aching, absorbing solicitude. I can not think that my
+anxiety was all vulgar smallness then.
+
+I called him by coarse names, as I tramped up and down my
+dungeon; I cursed him; impotent contempt was poured out on him;
+in imagination I held him there before me, and choked him till
+his eyes burst out and his body grew limp in my arms. The ring of
+fire in my head scorched and narrowed till I could have shrieked
+in agony. My breath came short and labored, and my heart felt as
+though it were in a vise and being clamped to nothing. For an
+instant, also, I broke out in wild bitterness against Alixe. She
+had said she would save me, and yet in an hour or less I should
+be dead. She had come to me last night ah--true; but that was in
+keeping with her dramatic temperament; it was the drama of it that
+had appealed to her; and to-morrow she would forget me, and sink
+her fresh spirit in the malarial shadows of Doltaire's.
+
+In my passion I thrust my hand into my waistcoat and unconsciously
+drew out something. At first my only feeling was that my hand could
+clench it, but slowly a knowledge of it travelled to my brain, as
+if through clouds and vapours. Now I am no Catholic, I do not know
+that I am superstitious, yet when I became conscious that the thing
+I held was the wooden cross that Mathilde had given me, a weird
+feeling passed through me, and there was an arrest of the passions
+of mind and body; a coolness passed over all my nerves, and my brain
+got clear again, the ring of fire loosing, melting away. It was a
+happy, diverting influence, which gave the mind rest for a moment,
+till the better spirit, the wiser feeling, had a chance to reassert
+itself; but then it seemed to me almost supernatural.
+
+One can laugh when misery and danger are over, and it would be
+easy to turn this matter into ridicule, but from that hour to this
+the wooden cross which turned the flood of my feelings then into a
+saving channel has never left me. I keep it, not indeed for what it
+was, but for what it did.
+
+As I stood musing, there came to my mind suddenly the words of a
+song which I had heard some voyageurs sing on the St. Lawrence,
+as I sat on the cliff a hundred feet above them and watched them
+drift down in the twilight:
+
+  "Brothers, we go to the Scarlet Hills:
+    (Little gold sun, come out of the dawn!)
+  There we will meet in the cedar groves;
+    (Shining white dew, come down!)
+  There is a bed where you sleep so sound,
+  The little good folk of the hills will guard,
+  Till the morning wakes and your love comes home.
+    (Fly away, heart, to the Scarlet Hills!)"
+
+Something in the half-mystical, half-Arcadian spirit of the
+words soothed me, lightened my thoughts, so that when, presently,
+Gabord opened the door, and entered with four soldiers, I was calm
+enough for the great shift. Gabord did not speak, but set about
+pinioning me himself. I asked him if he could not let me go
+unpinioned, for it was ignoble to go to ones death tied like a
+beast. At first he shook his head, but as if with a sudden impulse
+lie cast the ropes aside, and, helping me on with my cloak, threw
+again over it a heavier cloak he had brought, gave me a fur cap to
+wear, and at last himself put on me a pair of woollen leggings,
+which, if they were no ornament, and to be of but transitory use
+(it seemed strange to me then that one should be caring for a body
+so soon to be cut off from all feeling), were most comforting when
+we came into the bitter, steely air. Gabord might easily have given
+these last tasks to the soldiers, but he was solicitous to perform
+them himself. Yet with surly brow and a rough accent he gave the
+word to go forward, and in a moment we were marching through the
+passages, up frosty steps, in the stone corridors, and on out of
+the citadel into the yard.
+
+I remember that as we passed into the open air I heard the voice
+of a soldier singing a gay air of love and war. Presently he came
+in sight. He saw me, stood still for a moment looking curiously,
+and then, taking up the song again at the very line where he had
+broken off, passed round an angle of the building and was gone. To
+him I was no more than a moth fluttering in the candle, to drop
+dead a moment later.
+
+It was just on the verge of sunrise. There was the grayish-blue
+light in the west, the top of a long range of forest was sharply
+outlined against it, and a timorous darkness was hurrying out of
+the zenith. In the east a sad golden radiance was stealing up and
+driving back the mystery of the night, and that weird loneliness of
+an arctic world. The city was hardly waking as yet, but straight
+silver columns of smoke rolled up out of many chimneys, and the
+golden cross on the cathedral caught the first rays of the sun. I
+was not interested in the city; I had now, as I thought, done with
+men. Besides the four soldiers who had brought me out, another squad
+surrounded me, commanded by a young officer whom I recognized as
+Captain Lancy, the rough roysterer who had insulted me at Bigot's
+palace over a year ago. I looked with a spirit absorbed upon the
+world about me, and a hundred thoughts which had to do with man's
+life passed through my mind. But the young officer, speaking sharply
+to me, ordered me on, and changed the current of my thoughts. The
+coarseness of the man and his insulting words were hard to bear,
+so that I was constrained to ask him if it were not customary to
+protect a condemned man from insult rather than to expose him to it.
+I said that I should be glad of my last moments in peace. At that he
+asked Gabord why I was unbound, and my jailer answered that binding
+was for criminals who were to be HANGED!
+
+I could scarcely believe my ears. I was to be shot, not hanged.
+I had a thrill of gratitude which I can not describe. It may seem
+a nice distinction, but to me there were whole seas between the
+two modes of death. I need not blush in advance for being shot--my
+friends could bear that without humiliation; but hanging would have
+always tainted their memory of me, try as they would against it.
+
+"The gallows is ready, and my orders were to see him hanged,"
+Mr. Lancy said.
+
+"An order came at midnight that he should be shot," was Gabord's
+reply, producing the order, and handing it over.
+
+The officer contemptuously tossed it back, and now, a little
+more courteous, ordered me against the wall, and I let my cloak
+fall to the ground. I was placed where, looking east, I could see
+the Island of Orleans, on which was the summer-house of the Seigneur
+Duvarney. Gabord came to me and said, "M'sieu', you are a brave
+man"--then, all at once breaking off, he added in a low, hurried
+voice, "'Tis not a long flight to heaven, m'sieu'!" I could see his
+face twitching as he stood looking at me. He hardly dared to turn
+round to his comrades, lest his emotion should be seen. But the
+officer roughly ordered him back. Gabord coolly drew out his watch,
+and made a motion to me not to take off my cloak yet.
+
+"'Tis not the time by six minutes," he said. "The gentleman is
+to be shot to the stroke--aho!" His voice and manner were dogged.
+The officer stepped forward threateningly; but Gabord said
+something angrily in an undertone, and the other turned on his
+heel and began walking up and down. This continued for a moment,
+in which we all were very still and bitter cold--the air cut like
+steel--and then my heart gave a great leap, for suddenly there
+stepped into the yard Doltaire. Action seemed suspended in me, but
+I know I listened with singular curiosity to the shrill creaking of
+his boots on the frosty earth, and I noticed that the fur collar
+of the coat he wore was all white with the frozen moisture of his
+breath, also that tiny icicles hung from his eyelashes. He came
+down the yard slowly, and presently paused and looked at Gabord
+and the young officer, his head laid a little to one side in a
+quizzical fashion, his eyelids drooping.
+
+"What time was monsieur to be shot?" he asked of Captain Lancy.
+
+"At seven o'clock, monsieur," was the reply.
+
+Doltaire took out his watch. "It wants three minutes of seven,"
+said he. "What the devil means this business before the stroke o'
+the hour?" waving a hand towards me.
+
+"We were waiting for the minute, monsieur," was the officer's
+reply.
+
+A cynical, cutting smile crossed Doltaire's face. "A charitable
+trick, upon my soul, to fetch a gentleman from a warm dungeon and
+stand him against an icy wall on a deadly morning to cool his heels
+as he waits for his hour to die! You'd skin your lion and shoot him
+afterwards--voila!" All this time he held the watch in his hand.
+
+"You, Gabord," he went on, "you are a man to obey orders--eh?"
+
+Gabord hesitated a moment as if waiting for Lancy to speak, and
+then said, "I was not in command. When I was called upon I brought
+him forth."
+
+"Excuses! excuses! You sweated to be rid of your charge."
+
+Gabord's face lowered. "M'sieu' would have been in heaven by
+this if I had'nt stopped it," he broke out angrily.
+
+Doltaire turned sharply on Lancy. "I thought as much," said he,
+"and you would have let Gabord share your misdemeanor. Yet your
+father was a gentleman! If you had shot monsieur before seven, you
+would have taken the dungeon he left. You must learn, my young
+provincial, that you are not to supersede France and the King. It
+is now seven o'clock; you will march your men back into quarters."
+
+Then turning to me, he raised his cap. "You will find your cloak
+more comfortable, Captain Moray," said he, and he motioned Gabord
+to hand it to me, as he came forward. "May I breakfast with you?"
+he added courteously. He yawned a little. "I have not risen so
+early in years, and I am chilled to the bone. Gabord insists that
+it is warm in your dungeon; I have a fancy to breakfast there. It
+will recall my year in the Bastile."
+
+He smiled in a quaint, elusive sort of fashion, and as I drew
+the cloak about me, I said through chattering teeth, for I had
+suffered with the brutal cold, "I am glad to have the chance to
+offer breakfast."
+
+"To me or any one?" he dryly suggested. "Think! by now, had I
+not come, you might have been in a warmer world than this--indeed,
+much warmer," he suddenly said, as he stooped, picked up some snow
+in his bare hand, and clapped it to my cheek, rubbing it with force
+and swiftness. The cold had nipped it, and this was the way to
+draw out the frost. His solicitude at the moment was so natural
+and earnest that it was hard to think he was my enemy.
+
+When he had rubbed awhile, he gave me his own handkerchief to
+dry my face; and so perfect was his courtesy, it was impossible to
+do otherwise than meet him as he meant and showed for the moment.
+He had stepped between me and death, and even an enemy who does
+that, no matter what the motive, deserves something at your hands.
+
+"Gabord," he said, as we stepped inside the citadel, "we will
+breakfast at eight o'clock. Meanwhile, I have some duties with our
+officers here. Till we meet in your dining-hall, then, monsieur,"
+he added to me, and raised his cap.
+
+"You must put up with frugal fare," I answered, bowing.
+
+"If you but furnish locusts," he said gaily, "I will bring the
+wild honey.... What wonderful hives of bees they have at the
+Seigneur Duvarney's!" he continued musingly, as if with second
+thought; "a beautiful manor--a place for pretty birds and
+honey-bees!"
+
+His eyelids drooped languidly, as was their way when he had said
+something a little carbolic, as this was to me, because of its
+hateful suggestion. His words drew nothing from me, not even a look
+of understanding, and, again bowing, we went our ways.
+
+At the door of the dungeon Gabord held the torch up to my face. His
+own had a look which came as near to being gentle as was possible
+to him. Yet he was so ugly that it looked almost ludicrous in him.
+"Poom!" said he. "A friend at court. More comfits."
+
+"You think Monsieur Doltaire gets comfits, too?" asked I.
+
+He rubbed his cheek with a key. "Aho!" mused he--"aho! M'sieu'
+Doltaire rises not early for naught."
+
+
+
+XII
+
+"THE POINT ENVENOMED TOO!"
+
+
+I was roused by the opening of the door. Doltaire entered. He
+advanced towards me with the manner of an admired comrade, and,
+with no trace of what would mark him as my foe, said, as he
+sniffed the air:
+
+"Monsieur, I have been selfish. I asked myself to breakfast with
+you, yet, while I love the new experience, I will deny myself in
+this. You shall breakfast with me, as you pass to your new lodgings.
+You must not say no," he added, as though we were in some salon. "I
+have a sleigh here at the door, and a fellow has already gone to fan
+my kitchen fires and forage for the table. Come," he went on, "let
+me help you with your cloak."
+
+He threw my cloak around me, and turned towards the door. I had not
+spoken a word, for what with weakness, the announcement that I was
+to have new lodgings, and the sudden change in my affairs, I was
+like a child walking in its sleep. I could do no more than bow to
+him and force a smile, which must have told more than aught else of
+my state, for he stepped to my side and offered me his arm. I drew
+back from that with thanks, for I felt a quick hatred of myself that
+I should take favours of the man who had moved for my destruction,
+and to steal from me my promised wife. Yet it was my duty to live if
+I could, to escape if that were possible, to use every means to foil
+my enemies. It was all a game; why should I not accept advances at
+my enemy's hands, and match dissimulation with dissimulation?
+
+When I refused his arm, he smiled comically, and raised his
+shoulders in deprecation.
+
+"You forget your dignity, monsieur," I said presently as we
+walked on, Gabord meeting us and lighting us through the passages;
+"you voted me a villain, a spy, at my trial!"
+
+"Technically and publicly, you are a spy, a vulgar criminal," he
+replied; "privately, you are a foolish, blundering gentleman."
+
+"A soldier, also, you will admit, who keeps his compact with his
+enemy."
+
+"Otherwise we should not breakfast together this morning," he
+answered. "What difference would it make to this government if our
+private matter had been dragged in? Technically, you still would
+have been the spy. But I will say this, monsieur, to me you are a
+man better worth torture than death."
+
+"Do you ever stop to think of how this may end for you?" I asked
+quietly.
+
+He seemed pleased with the question. "I have thought it might be
+interesting," he answered; "else, as I said, you should long ago
+have left this naughty world. Is it in your mind that we shall
+cross swords one day?"
+
+"I feel it in my bones," said I, "that I shall kill you."
+
+At that moment we stood at the entrance to the citadel, where a
+good pair of horses and a sleigh awaited us. We got in, the robes
+were piled around us, and the horses started off at a long trot. I
+was muffled to the ears, but I could see how white and beautiful was
+the world, how the frost glistened in the trees, how the balsams
+were weighted down with snow, and how snug the chateaux looked with
+the smoke curling up from their hunched chimneys.
+
+Presently Doltaire replied to my last remark. "Conviction is the
+executioner of the stupid," said he. "When a man is not great
+enough to let change and chance guide him, he gets convictions,
+and dies a fool."
+
+"Conviction has made men and nations strong," I rejoined.
+
+"Has made men and nations asses," he retorted. "The Mohammmedan
+has conviction, so has the Christian: they die fighting each other,
+and the philosopher sits by and laughs. Expediency, monsieur,
+expediency is the real wisdom, the true master of this world.
+Expediency saved your life to-day; conviction would have sent you
+to a starry home."
+
+As he spoke a thought came in on me. Here we were in the open
+world, travelling together, without a guard of any kind. Was it not
+possible to make a dash for freedom? The idea was put away from me,
+and yet it was a fresh accent of Doltaire's character that he
+tempted me in this way. As if he divined what I thought, he said
+to me--for I made no attempt to answer his question:
+
+"Men of sense never confuse issues or choose the wrong time for
+their purposes. Foes may have unwritten truces."
+
+There was the matter in a nutshell. He had done nothing carelessly;
+he was touching off our conflict with flashes of genius. He was the
+man who had roused in me last night the fiercest passions of my
+life, and yet this morning he had saved me from death, and, though
+he was still my sworn enemy, I was about to breakfast with him.
+
+Already the streets of the town were filling; for it was the day
+before Christmas, and it would be the great market-day of the year.
+Few noticed us as we sped along down Palace Street and I could not
+conceive whither we were going, until, passing the Hotel Dieu, I
+saw in front the Intendance. I remembered the last time I was there,
+and what had happened then, and a thought flashed through me that
+perhaps this was another trap. But I put it from me, and soon
+afterwards Doltaire said:
+
+"I have now a slice of the Intendance for my own, and we shall
+breakfast like squirrels in a loft."
+
+As we drove into the open space before the palace, a company of
+soldiers standing before the great door began marching up to the
+road by which we came. With them was a prisoner. I saw at once that
+he was a British officer, but I did not recognize his face. I asked
+his name of Doltaire, and found it was one Lieutenant Stevens, of
+Rogers' Rangers, those brave New Englanders. After an interview
+with Bigot he was being taken to the common jail. To my request
+that I might speak with him Doltaire assented, and at a sign from
+my companion the soldiers stopped. Stevens's eyes were fixed on me
+with a puzzled, disturbed expression. He was well built, of intrepid
+bearing, with a fine openness of manner joined to handsome features.
+But there was a recklessness in his eye which seemed to me to come
+nearer the swashbuckling character of a young French seigneur than
+the wariness of a British soldier.
+
+I spoke his name and introduced myself. His surprise and pleasure
+were pronounced, for he had thought (as he said) that by this time
+I would be dead. There was an instant's flash of his eye, as if a
+suspicion of my loyalty had crossed his mind; but it was gone on
+the instant, and immediately Doltaire, who also had interpreted the
+look, smiled, and said he had carried me off to breakfast while the
+furniture of my former prison was being shifted to my new one. After
+a word or two more, with Stevens's assurance that the British had
+recovered from Braddock's defeat and would soon be knocking at the
+portals of the Chateau St. Louis, we parted, and soon Doltaire and
+I got out at the high stone steps of the palace.
+
+Standing there a moment, I looked round. In this space
+surrounding the Intendance was gathered the history of New France.
+This palace, large enough for the king of a European country with
+a population of a million, was the official residence of the
+commercial ruler of a province. It was the house of the miller, and
+across the way was the King's storehouse, La Friponne, where poor
+folk were ground between the stones. The great square was already
+filling with people who had come to trade. Here were barrels of
+malt being unloaded; there, great sacks of grain, bags of dried
+fruits, bales of home-made cloth, and loads of fine-sawn boards and
+timber. Moving about among the peasants were the regular soldiers
+in their white uniforms faced with blue, red, yellow, or violet,
+with black three-cornered hats, and black gaiters from foot to
+knee, and the militia in coats of white with black facings. Behind
+a great collar of dogskin a pair of jet-black eyes flashed out from
+under a pretty forehead; and presently one saw these same eyes
+grown sorrowful or dull under heavy knotted brows, which told of a
+life too vexed by care and labour to keep alive a spark of youth's
+romance. Now the bell in the tower above us rang a short peal, the
+signal for the opening of La Friponne, and the bustling crowd moved
+towards its doors. As I stood there on the great steps, I chanced
+to look along the plain, bare front of the palace to an annex at
+the end, and standing in a doorway opening on a pair of steps was
+Voban. I was amazed that he should be there--the man whose life
+had been spoiled by Bigot. At the same moment Doltaire motioned to
+him to return inside; which he did.
+
+Doltaire laughed at my surprise, and as he showed me inside
+the palace said: "There is no barber in the world like Voban.
+Interesting interesting! I love to watch his eye when he draws the
+razor down my throat. It would be so easy to fetch it across; but
+Voban, as you see, is not a man of absolute conviction. It will be
+sport, some day, to put Bigot's valet to bed with a broken leg or
+a fit of spleen, and send Voban to shave him."
+
+"Where is Mathilde?" I asked, as though I knew naught of her
+whereabouts.
+
+"Mathilde is where none may touch her, monsieur; under the
+protection of the daintiest lady of New France. It is her whim; and
+when a lady is charming, an Intendant, even, must not trouble her
+caprice."
+
+He did not need to speak more plainly. It was he who had prevented
+Bigot from taking Mathilde away from Alixe, and locking her up, or
+worse. I said nothing, however, and soon we were in a large room,
+sumptuously furnished, looking out on the great square. The morning
+sun stared in, some snowbirds twittered on the window-sill, and
+inside, a canary, in an alcove hung with plants and flowers, sang as
+if it were the heart of summer. All was warm and comfortable, and it
+was like a dream that I had just come from the dismal chance of a
+miserable death. My cloak and cap and leggings had been taken from
+me when I entered, as courteously as though I had been King Louis
+himself, and a great chair was drawn solicitously to the fire. All
+this was done by the servant, after one quick look from Doltaire.
+The man seemed to understand his master perfectly, to read one look
+as though it were a volume--
+
+  "The constant service of the antique world."
+
+Such was Doltaire's influence. The closer you came to him, the
+more compelling was he--a devilish attraction, notably selfish, yet
+capable of benevolence. Two years before this time I saw him lift
+a load from the back of a peasant woman and carry it home for her,
+putting into her hand a gold piece on leaving. At another time, an
+old man had died of a foul disease in a miserable upper room of a
+warehouse. Doltaire was passing at the moment when the body should
+be carried to burial. The stricken widow of the dead man stood
+below, waiting, but no one would fetch the body down. Doltaire
+stopped and questioned her kindly, and in another minute he was
+driving the carter and another upstairs at the point of his sword.
+Together they brought the body down, and Doltaire followed it to
+the burying-ground; keeping the gravedigger at his task when he
+would have run away, and saying the responses to the priest in the
+short service read above the grave.
+
+I said to him then, "You rail at the world and scoff at men and
+many decencies, and yet you do these things!"
+
+To this he replied--he was in my own lodgings at the time--"The
+brain may call all men liars and fools, but the senses feel the
+shock of misery which we do not ourselves inflict. Inflicting,
+we are prone to cruelty, as you have seen a schoolmaster begin
+punishment with tears, grow angry at the shrinking back under his
+cane, and give way to a sudden lust of torture. I have little pity
+for those who can help themselves--let them fight or eat the leek;
+but the child and the helpless and the sick it is a pleasure to
+aid. I love the poor as much as I love anything. I could live their
+life, if I were put to it. As a gentleman, I hate squalor and the
+puddles of wretchedness but I could have worked at the plough or
+the anvil; I could have dug in the earth till my knuckles grew big
+and my shoulders hardened to a roundness, have eaten my beans and
+pork and pea-soup, and have been a healthy ox, munching the bread
+of industry and trailing the puissant pike, a diligent serf. I have
+no ethics, and yet I am on the side of the just when they do not
+put thorns in my bed to keep me awake at night!"
+
+Upon the walls hung suits of armour, swords of beautiful make,
+spears, belts of wonderful workmanship, a tattered banner, sashes
+knit by ladies' fingers, pouches, bandoleers, and many strong
+sketches of scenes that I knew well. Now and then a woman's head in
+oils or pencil peeped out from the abundant ornaments. I recalled
+then another thing he said at that time of which I write:
+
+"I have never juggled with my conscience--never 'made believe'
+with it. My will was always stronger than my wish for anything,
+always stronger than temptation. I have chosen this way or that
+deliberately. I am ever ready to face consequences, and never to
+cry out. It is the ass who does not deserve either reward or
+punishment who says that something carried him away, and, being
+weak, he fell. That is a poor man who is no stronger than his
+passions. I can understand the devil fighting God, and taking the
+long punishment without repentance, like a powerful prince as he
+was. I could understand a peasant, killing King Louis in the
+palace, and being ready, if he had a hundred lives, to give them
+all, having done the deed he set out to do. If a man must have
+convictions of that sort, he can escape everlasting laughter--the
+final hell--only by facing the rebound of his wild deeds."
+
+These were strange sentiments in the mouth of a man who was ever
+the mannered courtier, and as I sat there alone, while he was gone
+elsewhere for some minutes, many such things he had said came back
+to me, suggested, no doubt, by this new, inexplicable attitude
+towards myself. I could trace some of his sentiments, perhaps
+vaguely, to the fact that--as I had come to know through the
+Seigneur Duvarney--his mother was of peasant blood, the beautiful
+daughter of a farmer of Poictiers, who had died soon after giving
+birth to Doltaire. His peculiar nature had shown itself in his
+refusal to accept a title. It was his whim to be the plain
+"Monsieur"; behind which was, perhaps, some native arrogancy which
+made him prefer that to being a noble whose origin, well known,
+must ever interfere with his ambitions. Then, too, maybe, the
+peasant in him--never in his face or form, which were patrician
+altogether--spoke for more truth and manliness than he was capable
+of, and so he chose to be the cynical, irresponsible courtier, while
+many of his instincts had urged him to the peasant's integrity. He
+had undisturbed, however, one instinct of the peasant--a directness,
+which was evident chiefly in the clearness of his thoughts.
+
+As these things hurried through my mind, my body sunk in a kind
+of restfulness before the great fire, Doltaire came back.
+
+"I will not keep you from breakfast," said he. "Voban must wait,
+if you will pass by untidiness."
+
+A thought flashed through my mind. Maybe Voban had some word for
+me from Alixe! So I said instantly, "I am not hungry. Perhaps you
+will let me wait yonder while Voban tends you. As you said, it
+should be interesting."
+
+"You will not mind the disorder of my dressing-room? Well, then,
+this way, and we can talk while Voban plays with temptation."
+
+So saying, he courteously led the way into another chamber,
+where Voban stood waiting. I spoke to him, and he bowed, but did
+not speak; and then Doltaire said:
+
+"You see, Voban, your labour on Monsieur was wasted so far as
+concerns the world to come. You trimmed him for the glorious company
+of the apostles, and see, he breakfasts with Monsieur Doltaire--in
+the Intendance, too, my Voban, which, as you know, is wicked--a very
+nest of wasps!"
+
+I never saw more hate than shot out of Voban's eyes at that
+moment; but the lids drooped over them at once, and he made ready
+for his work, as Doltaire, putting aside his coat, seated himself,
+laughing. There was no little daring, as there was cruelty, in thus
+torturing a man whose life had been broken by Doltaire's associate.
+I wondered now and then if Doltaire were not really putting acid on
+the barber's bare nerves for some other purpose than mere general
+cruelty. Even as he would have understood the peasant's murder of
+King Louis, so he would have seen a logical end to a terrible game
+in Bigot's death at the hand of Voban. Possibly he wondered that
+Voban did not strike, and he himself took a delight in showing him
+his own wrongs occasionally. Then, again, Doltaire might wish for
+Bigot's death, to succeed him in his place! But this I put by as
+improbable, for the Intendant's post was not his ambition, or,
+favourite of La Pompadour as he was, he would, desiring, have
+long ago achieved that end. Moreover, every evidence showed that
+he would gladly return to France, for his clear brain foresaw the
+final ruin of the colony and the triumph of the British. He had
+once said in my hearing:
+
+"Those swaggering Englishmen will keep coming on. They are too
+stupid to turn back. The eternal sameness of it all will so
+distress us we shall awake one morning, find them at our bedsides,
+give a kick, and die from sheer ennui. They'll use our banners to
+boil their fat puddings in, they'll roast oxen in the highways,
+and after our girls have married them they'll turn them into
+kitchen wenches with frowsy skirts and ankles like beeves!"
+
+But, indeed, beneath his dangerous irony there was a strain of
+impishness, and he would, if need be, laugh at his own troubles,
+and torture himself as he had tortured others. This morning he
+was full of a carbolic humour. As the razor came to his neck he
+said:
+
+"Voban, a barber must have patience. It is a sad thing to
+mistake friend for enemy. What is a friend? Is it one who says
+sweet words?"
+
+There was a pause, in which the shaving went on, and then he
+continued:
+
+"Is it he who says, I have eaten Voban's bread, and Voban shall
+therefore go to prison, or be hurried to Walhalla? Or is it he who
+stays the iron hand, who puts nettles in Voban's cold, cold bed,
+that he may rise early and go forth among the heroes?"
+
+I do not think Voban understood that, through some freak of purpose,
+Doltaire was telling him thus obliquely he had saved him from
+Bigot's cruelty, from prison or death. Once or twice he glanced at
+me, but not meaningly, for Doltaire was seated opposite a mirror,
+and could see each motion made by either of us. Presently Doltaire
+said to me idly:
+
+"I dine to-day at the Seigneur Duvarney's. You will be glad to
+hear that mademoiselle bids fair to rival the charming Madame
+Cournal. Her followers are as many, so they say, and all in one
+short year she has suddenly thrown out a thousand new faculties and
+charms. Doubtless you remember she was gifted, but who would have
+thought she could have blossomed so! She was all light and softness
+and air; she is now all fire and skill as well. Matchless!
+matchless! Every day sees her with some new capacity, some fresh
+and delicate aplomb. She has set the town admiring, and jealous
+mothers prophesy trist ending for her. Her swift mastery of the
+social arts is weird, they say. La! la! The social arts! A good
+brain, a gift of penetration, a manner--which is a grand necessity,
+and it must be with birth--no heart to speak of, and the rest is
+easy. No heart--there is the thing; with a good brain and senses all
+warm with life--to feel, but never to have the arrow strike home.
+You must never think to love and be loved, and be wise too. The
+emotions blind the judgment. Be heartless, be perfect with heavenly
+artifice, and, if you are a woman, have no vitriol on your
+tongue--and you may rule at Versailles or Quebec. But with this
+difference: in Quebec you may be virtuous; at Versailles you must
+not. It is a pity that you may not meet Mademoiselle Duvarney. She
+would astound you. She was a simple ballad a year ago; to-morrow she
+may be an epic."
+
+He nodded at me reflectively, and went on:
+
+"'Mademoiselle,' said the Chevalier de la Darante to her at
+dinner, some weeks ago, 'if I were young, I should adore you.'
+'Monsieur,' she answered, 'you use that "if" to shirk the
+responsibility.' That put him on his mettle. 'Then, by the gods,
+I adore you now,' he answered. 'If I were young, I should blush
+to hear you say so,' was her reply. 'I empty out my heart, and
+away trips the disdainful nymph with a laugh,' he rejoined gaily,
+the rusty old courtier; 'there's nothing left but to fall upon
+my sword!' 'Disdainful nymphs are the better scabbards for
+distinguished swords,' she said, with charming courtesy. Then,
+laughing softly, 'There is an Egyptian proverb which runs thus:
+"If thou, Dol, son of Hoshti, hast emptied out thy heart, and
+it bring no fruit in exchange, curse not thy gods and die, but
+build a pyramid in the vineyard where thy love was spent, and
+write upon it, Pride hath no conqueror."' It is a mind for a
+palace, is it not?"
+
+I could see in the mirror facing him the provoking devilry of
+his eyes. I knew that he was trying how much he could stir me. He
+guessed my love for her, but I could see he was sure that she no
+longer--if she ever had--thought of me. Besides, with a lover's
+understanding, I saw also that he liked to talk of her. His eyes, in
+the mirror, did not meet mine, but were fixed, as on some distant
+and pleasing prospect, though there was, as always, a slight disdain
+at his mouth. But the eyes were clear, resolute, and strong, never
+wavering--and I never saw them waver--yet in them something distant
+and inscrutable. It was a candid eye, and he was candid in his evil;
+he made no pretense; and though the means to his ends were wicked,
+they were never low. Presently, glancing round the room, I saw an
+easel on which was a canvas. He caught my glance.
+
+"Silly work for a soldier and a gentleman," he said, "but silliness
+is a great privilege. It needs as much skill to carry folly as to be
+an ambassador. Now, you are often much too serious, Captain Moray."
+
+At that he rose, and, after putting on his coat, came over to
+the easel and threw up the cloth, exposing a portrait of Alixe! It
+had been painted in by a few bold strokes, full of force and life,
+yet giving her face more of that look which comes to women bitterly
+wise in the ways of this world than I cared to see. The treatment
+was daring, and it cut me like a knife that the whole painting had
+a red glow: the dress was red, the light falling on the hair was
+red, the shine of the eyes was red also. It was fascinating, but
+weird, and, to me, distressful. There flashed through my mind the
+remembrance of Mathilde in her scarlet robe as she stood on the
+Heights that momentous night of my arrest. I looked at the picture
+in silence. He kept gazing at it with a curious, half-quizzical
+smile, as if he were unconscious of my presence. At last he said,
+with a slight knitting of his brows:
+
+"It is strange--strange. I sketched that in two nights ago, by
+the light of the fire, after I had come from the Chateau St.
+Louis--from memory, as you see. It never struck me where the effect
+was taken from, that singular glow over all the face and figure.
+But now I see it; it returns: it is the impression of colour in the
+senses, left from the night that lady-bug Mathilde flashed out on
+the Heights! A fine--a fine effect! H'm! for another such one might
+give another such Mathilde!"
+
+At that moment we were both startled by a sound behind us, and,
+wheeling, we saw Voban, a mad look in his face, in the act of
+throwing at Doltaire a short spear which he had caught up from a
+corner. The spear flew from his hand even as Doltaire sprang aside,
+drawing his sword with great swiftness. I thought he must have been
+killed, but the rapidity of his action saved him, for the spear
+passed his shoulder so close that it tore away a shred of his coat,
+and stuck in the wall behind him. In another instant Doltaire had
+his sword-point at Voban's throat. The man did not cringe, did not
+speak a word, but his hands clinched, and the muscles of his face
+worked painfully. There was at first a fury in Doltaire's face and
+a metallic hardness in his eyes, and I was sure he meant to pass
+his sword through the other's body; but after standing for a moment,
+death hanging on his sword-point, he quietly lowered his weapon,
+and, sitting on a chair-arm, looked curiously at Voban, as one
+might sit and watch a mad animal within a cage. Voban did not stir,
+but stood rooted to the spot, his eyes, however, never moving
+from Doltaire. It was clear that he had looked for death, and now
+expected punishment and prison. Doltaire took out his handkerchief
+and wiped a sweat from his cheeks. He turned to me soon, and said,
+in a singularly impersonal way, as though he were speaking of some
+animal:
+
+"He had great provocation. The Duchess de Valois had a young panther
+once which she had brought up from the milk. She was inquisitive,
+and used to try its temper. It was good sport, but one day she
+took away its food, gave it to the cat, and pointed her finger at
+monsieur the panther. The Duchess de Valois never bared her breast
+thereafter to an admiring world--a panther's claws leave scars." He
+paused, and presently continued: "You remember it, Voban; you were
+the Duke's valet then--you see I recall you! Well, the panther lost
+his head, both figuratively and in fact. The panther did not mean to
+kill, maybe, but to kill the lady's beauty was death to her....
+Voban, yonder spear was poisoned!"
+
+He wiped his face, and said to me, "I think you saw that at the
+dangerous moment I had no fear; yet now when the game is in my own
+hands, my cheek runs with cold sweat. How easy to be charged with
+cowardice! Like evaporation, the hot breath of peril passing
+suddenly into the cold air of safety leaves this!"--he wiped his
+cheek again.
+
+He rose, moved slowly to Voban, and, pricking him with his
+sword, said, "You are a bungler, barber. Now listen. I never
+wronged you; I have only been your blister. I prick your sores at
+home. Tut! tut! they prick them openly in the market-place. I gave
+you life a minute ago; I give you freedom now. Some day I may ask
+that life for a day's use, and then, Voban, then will you give it?"
+
+There was a moment's pause, and the barber answered, "M'sieu',
+I owe you nothing. I would have killed you then; you may kill me,
+if you will."
+
+Doltaire nodded musingly. Something was passing through his
+mind. I judged he was thinking that here was a man who as a servant
+would be invaluable.
+
+"Well, well, we can discuss the thing at leisure, Voban," he
+said at last. "Meanwhile you may wait here till Captain Moray has
+breakfasted, and then you shall be at his service; and I would
+have a word with you, also."
+
+Turning with a polite gesture to me, he led the way into the
+breakfast-room, and at once, half famished, I was seated at the
+table, drinking a glass of good wine, and busy with a broiled
+whitefish of delicate quality. We were silent for a time, and the
+bird in the alcove kept singing as though it were in Eden, while
+chiming in between the rhythms there came the silvery sound of
+sleigh-bells from the world without. I was in a sort of dream,
+and I felt there must be a rude awakening soon. After a while,
+Doltaire, who seemed thinking keenly, ordered the servant to take
+in a glass of wine to Voban.
+
+He looked up at me after a little, as if he had come back from a
+long distance, and said, "It is my fate to have as foes the men I
+would have as friends, and as friends the men I would have as foes.
+The cause of my friends is often bad; the cause of my enemies is
+sometimes good. It is droll. I love directness, yet I have ever
+been the slave of complication. I delight in following my reason,
+yet I have been of the motes that stumble in the sunlight. I have
+enough cruelty in me, enough selfishness and will, to be a ruler,
+and yet I have never held an office in my life. I love true
+diplomacy, yet I have been comrade to the official liar, and am
+the captain of intrigue--la! la!"
+
+"You have never had an enthusiasm, a purpose?" said I.
+
+He laughed, a dry, ironical laugh. "I have both an enthusiasm
+and a purpose," he answered, "or you would by now be snug in bed
+forever."
+
+I knew what he meant, though he could not guess I understood.
+He was referring to Alixe and the challenge she had given him.
+I did not feel that I had anything to get by playing a part of
+friendliness, and besides, he was a man to whom the boldest
+speaking was always palatable, even when most against himself.
+
+"I am sure neither would bear daylight," said I.
+
+"Why, I almost blush to say that they are both honest--would at
+this moment endure a moral microscope. The experience, I confess,
+is new, and has the glamour of originality."
+
+"It will not stay honest," I retorted. "Honesty is a new toy
+with you. You will break it on the first rock that shows."
+
+"I wonder," he answered, "I wonder, ... and yet I suppose you are
+right. Some devilish incident will twist things out of gear, and
+then the old Adam must improvise for safety and success. Yes, I
+suppose my one beautiful virtue will get a twist."
+
+What he had said showed me his mind as in a mirror. He had no
+idea that I had the key to his enigmas. I felt as had Voban in
+the other room. I could see that he had set his mind on Alixe,
+and that she had roused in him what was perhaps the first honest
+passion of his life.
+
+What further talk we might have had I can not tell, but while we
+were smoking and drinking coffee the door opened suddenly, and the
+servant said, "His Excellency the Marquis de Vaudreuil!"
+
+Doltaire got to his feet, a look of annoyance crossing his face;
+but he courteously met the Governor, and placed a chair for him.
+The Governor, however, said frostily, "Monsieur Doltaire, it must
+seem difficult for Captain Moray to know who is Governor in Canada,
+since he has so many masters. I am not sure who needs assurance
+most upon the point, you or he. This is the second time he has
+been feasted at the Intendance when he should have been in prison.
+I came too late that other time; now it seems I am opportune."
+
+Doltaire's reply was smooth: "Your Excellency will pardon the
+liberty. The Intendance was a sort of halfway house between
+the citadel and the jail."
+
+"There is news from France," the Governor said, "brought from
+Gaspe. We meet in council at the Chateau in an hour. A guard
+is without to take Captain Moray to the common jail."
+
+In a moment more, after a courteous good-by from Doltaire, and a
+remark from the Governor to the effect that I had spoiled his
+night's sleep to no purpose, I was soon on my way to the common
+jail, where arriving, what was my pleased surprise to see Gabord!
+He had been told off to be my especial guard, his services at the
+citadel having been deemed so efficient. He was outwardly surly--as
+rough as he was ever before the world, and without speaking a word
+to me, he had a soldier lock me in a cell.
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+"A LITTLE BOAST"
+
+
+My new abode was more cheerful than the one I had quitted in the
+citadel. It was not large, but it had a window, well barred,
+through which came the good strong light of the northern sky. A
+wooden bench for my bed stood in one corner, and, what cheered me
+much, there was a small iron stove. Apart from warmth, its fire
+would be companionable, and to tend it a means of passing the time.
+Almost the first thing I did was to examine it. It was round, and
+shaped like a small bulging keg on end. It had a lid on top, and in
+the side a small door with bars for draught, suggesting to me in
+little the delight of a fireplace. A small pipe from the side
+carried away the smoke into a chimney in the wall. It seemed to
+me luxurious, and my spirits came back apace.
+
+There was no fire yet, and it was bitter cold, so that I took to
+walking up and down to keep warmth in me. I was ill nourished, and
+I felt the cold intensely. But I trotted up and down, plans of
+escape already running through my head. I was as far off as you can
+imagine from that event of the early morning, when I stood waiting,
+half frozen, to be shot by Lancy's men.
+
+After I had been walking swiftly up and down for an hour or
+more, slapping my hands against my sides to keep them warm--for it
+was so cold I ached and felt a nausea--I was glad to see Gabord
+enter with a soldier carrying wood and shavings. I do not think I
+could much longer have borne the chilling air--a dampness, too, had
+risen from the floor, which had been washed that morning--for my
+clothes were very light in texture and much worn. I had had but the
+one suit since I entered the dungeon, for my other suit, which
+was by no means smart, had been taken from me when I was first
+imprisoned the year before. As if many good things had been
+destined to come at once, soon afterwards another soldier entered
+with a knapsack, which he laid down on the bench. My delight was
+great when I saw it held my other poor suit of clothes, together
+with a rough set of woollens, a few handkerchiefs, two pairs of
+stockings, and a wool cap for night wear.
+
+Gabord did not speak to me at all, but roughly hurried the
+soldier at his task of fire-lighting, and ordered the other to
+fetch a pair of stools and a jar of water. Meanwhile I stood near,
+watching, and stretched out my skinny hands to the grateful heat as
+soon as the fire was lighted. I had a boy's delight in noting how
+the draught pumped the fire into violence, shaking the stove till
+it puffed and roared. I was so filled, that moment, with the
+domestic spirit that I thought a steaming kettle on the little
+stove would give me a tabby-like comfort.
+
+"Why not a kettle on the hob?" said I gaily to Gabord.
+
+"Why not a cat before the fire, a bit of bacon on the coals, a
+pot of mulled wine at the elbow, and a wench's chin to chuck,
+baby-bumbo!" said Gabord in a mocking voice, which made the
+soldiers laugh at my expense. "And a spinet, too, for ducky dear,
+Scarrat; a piece of cake and cherry wine, and a soul to go to
+heaven! Tonnerre!" he added, with an oath, "these English prisoners
+want the world for a sou, and they'd owe that till judgment
+day."
+
+I saw at once the meaning of his words, for he turned his back
+on me and went to the window and tried the stanchions, seeming much
+concerned about them, and muttering to himself. I drew out from my
+pocket two gold pieces, and gave them to the soldier Scarrat; and
+the other soldier coming in just then, I did the same with him; and
+I could see that their respect for me mightily increased. Gabord,
+still muttering, turned to us again, and began to berate the
+soldiers for their laziness. As the two men turned to go, Scarrat,
+evidently feeling that something was due for the gold I had given,
+said to Gabord, "Shall m'sieu' have the kettle?"
+
+Gabord took a step forward as if to strike the soldier, but stopped
+short, blew out his cheeks, and laughed in a loud, mocking way.
+
+"Ay, ay, fetch m'sieu' the kettle, and fetch him flax to spin, and
+a pinch of snuff, and hot flannels for his stomach, and every night
+at sundown you shall feed him with pretty biscuits soaked in milk.
+Ah, go to the devil and fetch the kettle, fool!" he added roughly
+again, and quickly the place was empty save for him and myself.
+
+"Those two fellows are to sit outside your cage door, dickey-bird,
+and two are to march beneath your window yonder, so you shall not
+lack care if you seek to go abroad. Those are the new orders."
+
+"And you, Gabord," said I, "are you not to be my jailer?" I said
+it sorrowfully, for I had a genuine feeling for him, and I could
+not keep that from my voice.
+
+When I had spoken so feelingly, he stood for a moment, flushing
+and puffing, as if confused by the compliment in the tone, and then
+he answered, "I'm to keep you safe till word comes from the King
+what's to be done with you."
+
+Then he suddenly became surly again, standing with legs apart
+and keys dangling; for Scarrat entered with the kettle, and put it
+on the stove. "You will bring blankets for m'sieu'," he added, "and
+there's an order on my table for tobacco, which you will send your
+comrade for."
+
+In a moment we were left alone.
+
+"You'll live like a stuffed pig here," he said, "though 'twill
+be cold o' nights."
+
+After another pass or two of words he left me, and I hastened to
+make a better toilet than I had done for a year. My old rusty suit
+which I exchanged for the one I had worn seemed almost sumptuous,
+and the woollen wear comforted my weakened body. Within an hour my
+cell looked snug, and I sat cosily by the fire, feeding it lazily.
+
+It must have been about four o'clock when there was a turning of
+keys and a shooting of bolts, the door opened, and who should
+step inside but Gabord, followed by Alixe! I saw Alixe's lips
+frame my name thrice, though no word came forth, and my heart was
+bursting to cry out and clasp her to my breast. But still with a
+sweet, serious look cast on me, she put out her hand and stayed me.
+
+Gabord, looking not at us at all, went straight to the window,
+and, standing on a stool, busied himself with the stanchions and
+to whistle. I took Alixe's hands and held them, and spoke her name
+softly, and she smiled up at me with so perfect a grace that I
+thought there never was aught like it in the world.
+
+She was the first to break the good spell. I placed a seat for
+her, and sat down by her. She held out her fingers to the fire, and
+then, after a moment, she told me the story of last night's affair.
+First she made me tell her briefly of the events of the morning, of
+which she knew, but not fully. This done, she began. I will set
+down her story as a whole, and you must understand as you read that
+it was told as women tell a story, with all little graces and
+diversions, and those small details with which even momentous
+things are enveloped in their eyes. I loved her all the more
+because of these, and I saw, as Doltaire had said, how admirably
+poised was her intellect, how acute her wit, how delicate and
+astute a diplomatist she was becoming; and yet, through all,
+preserving a simplicity of character almost impossible of belief.
+Such qualities, in her directed to good ends, in lesser women have
+made them infamous. Once that day Alixe said to me, breaking off as
+her story went on, "Oh, Robert, when I see what power I have to
+dissimulate--for it is that, call it by what name you will--when I
+see how I enjoy accomplishing against all difficulty, how I can
+blind even so skilled a diplomatist as Monsieur Doltaire, I almost
+tremble. I see how, if God had not given me something here"--she
+placed her hand upon her heart--"that saves me, I might be like
+Madame Cournal, and far worse, far worse than she. For I love
+power--I do love it; I can see that!"
+
+She did not realize that it was her strict honesty with herself
+that was her true safeguard.
+
+But here is the story she told me:
+
+"When I left you, last night, I went at once to my home, and was
+glad to get in without being seen. At nine o'clock we were to be
+at the Chateau, and while my sister Georgette was helping me with
+my toilette--oh, how I wished she would go and leave me quite
+alone!--my head was in a whirl, and now and then I could feel
+my heart draw and shake like a half-choked pump, and there was
+a strange pain behind my eyes. Georgette is of such a warm
+disposition, so kind always to me, whom she would yield to in
+everything, so simple in her affections, that I seemed standing
+there by her like an intrigante, as one who had got wisdom at the
+price of a good something lost. But do not think, Robert, that for
+one instant I was sorry I played a part, and have done so for a long
+year and more. I would do it and more again, if it were for you.
+
+"Georgette could not understand why it was I stopped all at once
+and caught her head to my breast, as she sat by me where I stood
+arranging my gown. I do not know quite why I did it, but perhaps
+it was from my yearning that never should she have a lover in such
+sorrow and danger as mine, and that never should she have to learn
+to mask her heart as I have done. Ah, sometimes I fear, Robert,
+that when all is over, and you are free, and you see what the world
+and all this playing at hide-and-seek have made me, you will feel
+that such as Georgette, who have never looked inside the hearts of
+wicked people, and read the tales therein for knowledge to defeat
+wickedness--that such as she were better fitted for your life and
+love. No, no, please do not take my hand--not till you have heard
+all I am going to tell."
+
+She continued quietly; yet her eye flashed out now and then, and
+now and then, also, something in her thoughts as to how she, a
+weak, powerless girl, had got her ends against astute evil men,
+sent a little laugh to her lips; for she had by nature as merry a
+heart as serious.
+
+"At nine o'clock we came to the Chateau St. Louis from Ste. Anne
+Street, where our winter home is--yet how much do I prefer the Manor
+House! There were not many guests to supper, and Monsieur Doltaire
+was not among them. I affected a genial surprise, and asked the
+Governor if one of the two vacant chairs at the table was for
+monsieur; and looking a little as though he would reprove me--for
+he does not like to think of me as interested in monsieur--he said
+it was, but that monsieur was somewhere out of town, and there was
+no surety that he would come. The other chair was for the Chevalier
+de la Darante, one of the oldest and best of our nobility, who
+pretends great roughness and barbarism, but is a kind and honourable
+gentleman, though odd. He was one of your judges, Robert; and though
+he condemned you, he said that you had some reason on your side. And
+I will show you how he stood for you last night.
+
+"I need not tell you how the supper passed, while I was
+planning--planning to reach the Governor if monsieur did not come;
+and if he did come, how to play my part so he should suspect
+nothing but a vain girl's caprice, and maybe heartlessness. Moment
+after moment went by, and he came not. I almost despaired. Presently
+the Chevalier de la Darante entered, and he took the vacant chair
+beside me. I was glad of this. I had gone in upon the arm of a
+rusty gentleman of the Court, who is over here to get his health
+again, and does it by gaming and drinking at the Chateau Bigot. The
+Chevalier began at once to talk to me, and he spoke of you, saying
+that he had heard of your duel with my brother, and that formerly
+you had been much a guest at our house. I answered him with what
+carefulness I could, and brought round the question of your death,
+by hint and allusion getting him to speak of the mode of execution.
+
+"Upon this point he spoke his mind strongly, saying that it was
+a case where the penalty should be the musket, not the rope. It was
+no subject for the supper table, and the Governor felt this, and I
+feared he would show displeasure; but other gentlemen took up the
+matter, and he could not easily change the talk at the moment. The
+feeling was strong against you. My father stayed silent, but I could
+see he watched the effect upon the Governor. I knew that he himself
+had tried to get the mode of execution changed, but the Governor had
+been immovable. The Chevalier spoke most strongly, for he is afraid
+of no one, and he gave the other gentlemen raps upon the knuckles.
+
+"'I swear,' he said at last, 'I am sorry now I gave in to his
+death at all, for it seems to me that there is much cruelty and
+hatred behind the case against him. He seemed to me a gentleman of
+force and fearlessness, and what he said had weight. Why was the
+gentleman not exchanged long ago? He was here three years before he
+was tried on this charge. Ay, there's the point. Other prisoners
+were exchanged--why not he? If the gentleman is not given a decent
+death, after these years of captivity, I swear I will not leave
+Kamaraska again to set foot in Quebec.'
+
+"At that the Governor gravely said, 'These are matters for our
+Council, dear Chevalier.' To this the Chevalier replied, 'I meant
+no reflection on your Excellency, but you are good enough to let
+the opinions of gentlemen not so wise as you weigh with you in your
+efforts to be just; and I have ever held that one wise autocrat was
+worth a score of juries.' There was an instant's pause, and then my
+father said quietly, 'If his Excellency had always councillors and
+colleagues like the Chevalier de la Darante, his path would be
+easier, and Canada happier and richer.' This settled the matter,
+for the Governor, looking at them both for a moment, suddenly said,
+'Gentlemen, you shall have your way, and I thank you for your
+confidence.--If the ladies will pardon a sort of council of state
+here!' he added. The Governor called a servant, and ordered pen,
+ink, and paper; and there before us all he wrote an order to Gabord,
+your jailer, to be delivered before midnight.
+
+"He had begun to read it aloud to us, when the curtains of the
+entrance-door parted, and Monsieur Doltaire stepped inside. The
+Governor did not hear him, and monsieur stood for a moment
+listening. When the reading was finished, he gave a dry little
+laugh, and came down to the Governor, apologizing for his lateness,
+and bowing to the rest of us. He did not look at me at all, but
+once he glanced keenly at my father, and I felt sure that he had
+heard my father's words to the Governor.
+
+"'Have the ladies been made councillors?' he asked lightly, and
+took his seat, which was opposite to mine. 'Have they all conspired
+to give a criminal one less episode in his life for which to
+blush? ... May I not join the conspiracy?' he added, glancing round,
+and lifting a glass of wine. Not even yet had he looked at me. Then
+he waved his glass the circuit of the table, and said, 'I drink to
+the councillors and applaud the conspirators,' and as he raised his
+glass to his lips his eyes came abruptly to mine and stayed, and
+he bowed profoundly and with an air of suggestion. He drank, still
+looking, and then turned again to the Governor. I felt my heart
+stand still. Did he suspect my love for you, Robert? Had he
+discovered something? Was Gabord a traitor to us? Had I been
+watched, detected? I could have shrieked at the suspense. I was
+like one suddenly faced with a dreadful accusation, with which was
+a great fear. But I held myself still--oh, so still, so still--and
+as in a dream I heard the Governor say pleasantly, 'I would I had
+such conspirators always by me. I am sure you would wish them to
+take more responsibility than you will now assume in Canada.'
+Doltaire bowed and smiled, and the Governor went on: 'I am sure
+you will approve of Captain Moray being shot instead of hanged. But
+indeed it has been my good friend the Chevalier here who has given
+me the best council I have held in many a day.'
+
+"To this Monsieur Doltaire replied: 'A council unknown to
+statute, but approved of those who stand for etiquette with ones
+foe's at any cost. For myself, it is so unpleasant to think of the
+rope'" (here Alixe hid her face in her hands for a moment) "'that I
+should eat no breakfast to-morrow, if the gentleman from Virginia
+were to hang.' It was impossible to tell from his tone what was in
+his mind, and I dared not think of his failure to interfere as he
+had promised me. As yet he had done nothing, I could see, and in
+eight or nine hours more you were to die. He did not look at me
+again for some time, but talked to my mother and my father and the
+Chevalier, commenting on affairs in France and the war between our
+countries, but saying nothing of where he had been during the past
+week. He seemed paler and thinner than when I last saw him, and I
+felt that something had happened to him. You shall hear soon what
+it was.
+
+"At last he turned from the Chevalier to me, and, said, 'When
+did you hear from your brother, mademoiselle?' I told him; and he
+added, 'I have had a letter since, and after supper, if you will
+permit me, I will tell you of it.' Turning to my father and my
+mother, he assured them of Juste's well-being, and afterwards
+engaged in talk with the Governor, to whom he seemed to defer.
+When we all rose to go to the salon, he offered my mother his
+arm, and I went in upon the arm of the good Chevalier. A few
+moments afterwards he came to me, and remarked cheerfully, 'In this
+farther corner where the spinet sounds most we can talk best'; and
+we went near to the spinet, where Madame Lotbiniere was playing.
+'It is true,' he began, 'that I have had a letter from your brother.
+He begs me to use influence for his advancement. You see he writes
+to me instead of to the Governor. You can guess how I stand in
+France. Well, we shall see what I may do.... Have you not wondered
+concerning me this week?' he asked. I said to him, 'I scarce
+expected you till after to-morrow, when you would plead some
+accident as cause for not fulfilling your pretty little boast.' He
+looked at me sharply for a minute, and then said: 'A pretty LITTLE
+boast, is it? H'm! you touch great things with light fingers.' I
+nodded. 'Yes,' said I, 'when I have no great faith.' 'You have
+marvellous coldness for a girl that promised warmth in her youth,'
+he answered. 'Even I, who am old in these matters, can not think of
+this Moray's death without a twinge, for it is not like an affair
+of battle; but you seem to think of it in its relation to my
+"little boast," as you call it. Is it not so?'
+
+"'No, no,' said I, with apparent indignation, 'you must not make
+me out so cruel. I am not so hard-hearted as you think. My brother
+is well--I have no feeling against Captain Moray on his account;
+and as for spying--well, it is only a painful epithet for what is
+done here and everywhere all the time.' 'Dear me, dear me,' he
+remarked lightly, 'what a mind you have for argument!--a born
+casuist; and yet, like all women, you would let your sympathy rule
+you in matters of state. But come,' he added, 'where do you think
+I have been?' It was hard to answer him gaily, and yet it must be
+done, and so I said, 'You have probably put yourself in prison,
+that you should not keep your tiny boast.' 'I have been in prison,'
+he answered, 'and I was on the wrong side, with no key--even locked
+in a chest-room of the Intendance,' he explained, 'but as yet I do
+not know by whom, nor am I sure why. After two days without food or
+drink, I managed to get out through the barred window. I spent three
+days in my room, ill, and here I am. You must not speak of this--you
+will not?' he asked me. 'To no one,' I answered gaily, 'but my other
+self.' 'Where is your other self?' he asked. 'In here,' said I,
+touching my bosom. I did not mean to turn my head away when I said
+it, but indeed I felt I could not look him in the eyes at the
+moment, for I was thinking of you.
+
+"He mistook me; he thought I was coquetting with him, and he leaned
+forward to speak in my ear, so that I could feel his breath on my
+cheek. I turned faint, for I saw how terrible was this game I was
+playing; but oh, Robert, Robert,"--her hands fluttered towards me,
+then drew back--"it was for your sake, for your sake, that I let his
+hand rest on mine an instant, as he said: 'I shall go hunting THERE
+to find your other self. Shall I know the face if I see it?' I drew
+my hand away, for it was torture to me, and I hated him, but I only
+said a little scornfully, 'You do not stand by your words. You
+said'--here I laughed a little disdainfully--'that you would meet
+the first test to prove your right to follow the second boast.'
+
+"He got to his feet, and said in a low, firm voice: 'Your memory
+is excellent, your aplomb perfect. You are young to know it all so
+well. But you bring your own punishment,' he added, with a wicked
+smile, 'and you shall pay hereafter. I am going to the Governor.
+Bigot has arrived, and is with Madame Cournal yonder. You shall
+have proof in half an hour.'
+
+"Then he left me. An idea occurred to me. If he succeeded in
+staying your execution, you would in all likelihood be placed in
+the common jail. I would try to get an order from the Governor to
+visit the jail to distribute gifts to the prisoners, as my mother
+and I had done before on the day before Christmas. So, while
+Monsieur Doltaire was passing with Bigot and the Chevalier de la
+Darante into another room, I asked the Governor; and that very
+moment, at my wish, he had his secretary write the order, which he
+countersigned and handed me, with a gift of gold for the prisoners.
+As he left my mother and myself, Monsieur Doltaire came back with
+Bigot, and, approaching the Governor, they led him away, engaging
+at once in serious talk. One thing I noticed: as monsieur and Bigot
+came up, I could see monsieur eying the Intendant askance, as though
+he would read treachery; for I feel sure that it was Bigot who
+contrived to have monsieur shut up in the chest-room. I can not
+quite guess the reason, unless it be true what gossips say, that
+Bigot is jealous of the notice Madame Cournal has given Doltaire,
+who visits much at her house.
+
+"Well, they asked me to sing, and so I did; and can you guess
+what it was? Even the voyageurs' song,--
+
+  'Brothers, we go to the Scarlet Hills,
+  (Little gold sun, come out of the dawn!)'
+
+I know not how I sang it, for my heart, my thoughts, were far
+away in a whirl of clouds and mist, as you may see a flock of wild
+ducks in the haze upon a river, flying they know not whither, save
+that they follow the sound of the stream. I was just ending the
+song when Monsieur Doltaire leaned over me, and said in my ear,
+'To-morrow I shall invite Captain Moray from the scaffold to my
+breakfast-table--or, better still, invite myself to his own.' His
+hand caught mine, as I gave a little cry; for when I felt sure of
+your reprieve, I could not, Robert, I could not keep it back. He
+thought I was startled at his hand-pressure, and did not guess the
+real cause.
+
+"'I have met one challenge, and I shall meet the other,' he said
+quickly. 'It is not so much a matter of power, either; it is that
+engine opportunity. You and I should go far in this wicked world,'
+he added. 'We think together, we see through ladders. I admire you,
+mademoiselle. Some men will say they love you; and they should, or
+they have no taste; and the more they love you, the better pleased
+am I--if you are best pleased with me. But it is possible for men to
+love and not to admire. It is a foolish thing to say that reverence
+must go with love. I know men who have lost their heads and their
+souls for women whom they knew infamous. But when one admires where
+one loves, then in the ebb and flow of passion the heart is safe,
+for admiration holds when the sense is cold.'
+
+"You know well, Robert, how clever he is; how, listening to him,
+you must admit his talent and his power. But oh, believe that,
+though I am full of wonder at his cleverness, I can not bear him
+very near me."
+
+She paused. I looked most gravely at her, as well one might who
+saw so sweet a maid employing her heart thus, and the danger that
+faced her. She misread my look a little, maybe, for she said at
+once:
+
+"I must be honest with you, and so I tell you all--all, else the
+part I play were not possible to me. To you I can speak plainly,
+pour out my soul. Do not fear for me. I see a battle coming between
+that man and me, but I shall fight it stoutly, worthily, so that in
+this, at least, I shall never have to blush for you that you loved
+me. Be patient, Robert, and never doubt me; for that would make me
+close the doors of my heart, though I should never cease to aid
+you, never weary in labor for your well-being. If these things, and
+fighting all these wicked men, to make Doltaire help me to save
+you, have schooled to action some worse parts of me, there is yet
+in me that which shall never be brought low, never be dragged to
+the level of Versailles or the Chateau Bigot--never!"
+
+She looked at me with such dignity and pride that my eyes filled
+with tears, and, not to be stayed, I reached out and took her
+hands, and would have clasped her to my breast, but she held back
+from me.
+
+"You believe in me, Robert?" she said most earnestly. "You will
+never doubt me? You know that I am true and loyal."
+
+"I believe in God, and you," I answered reverently, and I took
+her in my arms and kissed her. I did not care at all whether or no
+Gabord saw; but indeed he did not, as Alixe told me afterwards,
+for, womanlike, even in this sweet crisis she had an eye for such
+details.
+
+"What more did he say?" I asked, my heart beating hard in the
+joy of that embrace.
+
+"No more, or little more, for my mother came that instant and
+brought me to talk with the Chevalier de la Darante, who wished to
+ask me for next summer to Kamaraska or Isle aux Coudres, where he
+has manorhouses. Before I left Monsieur Doltaire, he said, 'I never
+made a promise but I wished to break it. This one shall balance all
+I've broken, for I'll never unwish it.'
+
+"My mother heard this, and so I summoned all my will, and said
+gaily, 'Poor broken crockery! You stand a tower among the ruins.'
+This pleased him, and he answered, 'On the tower base is written,
+This crockery outserves all others.' My mother looked sharply at
+me, but said nothing, for she has come to think that I am heartless
+and cold to men and to the world, selfish in many things."
+
+At this moment Gabord turned round, saying, "'Tis time to be
+done. Madame comes."
+
+"It is my mother," said Alixe, standing up, and hastily placing
+her hands in mine. "I must be gone. Good-bye, good-bye."
+
+There was no chance for further adieu, and I saw her pass out with
+Gabord; but she turned at the last, and said in English, for she
+spoke it fairly now, "Believe, and remember."
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEATS OF THE MIGHTY, PARKER, V2 ***
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