This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
By Gilbert Parker
Two men stood leaning against a great gun aloft on the heights of Quebec.The air of an October morning fluttered the lace at their breasts andlifted the long brown hair of the younger man from his shoulders. Hiscompanion was tall, alert, bronzed, grey-headed, with an eagle eye and aglance of authority. He laid his hand on the shoulder of the younger manand said: "I am glad you have come, Iberville, for I need you, as I needall your brave family—I could spare not one."
"You honour me, sir," was the reply; "and, believe me, there is none in
Quebec but thanks God that their governor is here before Phips rounds
Isle Orleans yonder."
"You did nobly while I was away there in Montreal waiting for the NewYorkers to take it—if they could. They were a sorry rabble, for theyrushed on La Prairie, that meagre place,—massacred and turned tail."
"That's strange, sir, for they are brave men, stupid though they be.
I have fought them."
"Well, well, as that may be! We will give them chance for bravery. Ourforts are strong from the Sault au Matelot round to Champigny's palace,the trenches and embankments are well ended, and if they give me but twodays more I will hold the place against twice their thirty-four sail andtwenty-five hundred men."
"For how long, your excellency?"
Count Frontenac nodded. "Spoken like a soldier. There's the vitalpoint. By the mass, just so long as food lasts! But here we are withnear two thousand men, and all the people from the villages, besidesCallieres's seven or eight hundred, should they arrive in time—and, prayGod they may, for there will be work to do. If they come at us in fronthere and behind from the Saint Charles, shielding their men as they crossthe river, we shall have none too many; but we must hold it."
The governor drew himself up proudly. He had sniffed the air of battlefor over fifty years with all manner of enemies, and his heart was in thething. Never had there been in Quebec a more moving sight than when hearrived from Montreal the evening before, and climbed Mountain Street onhis way to the chateau. Women and children pressed round him, blessinghim; priests, as he passed, lifted hands in benediction; men cheered andcried for joy; in every house there was thanksgiving that the imperiousold veteran had come in time.
Prevost the town mayor, Champigny the Intendant, Sainte-Helene,Maricourt, and Longueil, had worked with the skill of soldiers who knewtheir duty, and it was incredible what had been done since the alarm hadcome to Prevost that Phips had entered the St. Lawrence and was anchoredat Tadousac.
"And how came you to be here, Iberville?" queried the governorpleasantly. "We scarce expected you."
"The promptings of the saints and the happy kindness of King Louis, whowill send my ship here after me. I boarded the first merchantman withits nose to the sea, and landed here soon after you left for Montreal."
"So? Good! See you, see you, Iberville: what of t