ome, that she indulged these little
rhapsodies, secure of a certain amount of indulgence and even
sympathy from that lady, who had reason to think and speak well of
English gallantry and chivalry.

Madame Drucour occupied a small house wedged in amongst the
numerous strongly-built houses and ecclesiastical buildings of the
upper town of Quebec. The house had been deserted by its original
occupants upon the first news of the fall of Louisbourg. Many of
the inhabitants of Quebec had taken fright at that, and had sailed
for France; and Madame Drucour had been placed here by her husband,
who himself was wanted in other quarters to repel English advances.
The lady had been glad to summon to her side her niece Corinne,
who, since the state of the country had become so disturbed, had
been placed by her father and uncle in the Convent of the
Ursulines, under the charge of the good nuns there.

Corinne had been fond of the nuns; but the life of the cloister was
little to her taste. She was glad enough to escape from its
monotony, and to make her home with her father's sister. Madame
Drucour could tell her the most thrilling and delightful stories of
the siege of Louisbourg. Already she felt to know a great deal
about war in general and sieges in particular. She often
experienced a thrill of pride and delight in the thought that she
herself was about to be a witness of a siege of which all the world
would be talking.

As she stood at the window today, a footstep rang through the quiet
house below, and suddenly the door of the little chamber was flung
wide open.

"Corinne!" cried a ringing voice which she well knew.

She turned round with a little cry of joy.

"Colin!" she cried, and the next minute brother and sister were
locked in a fervent embrace.

"O Colin, Colin, when did you come, and whence?"

"Just this last hour, and from Montreal," he answered. "Oh, what
strange adventures I have seen since last we met! Corinne, there
have been times when I thought never to see you again! I have so
much to say I know not where to begin. I have seen our triumphs,
and I have seen our defeat. Corinne, it is as our uncle said. There
is a great man now at the helm in England, and we are feeling his
power out here in the West."

"Do you think the tide has turned against the French arms?" asked
Corinne breathlessly.

"What else can I think? Has not Fort Frontenac fallen? Has not Fort
Duquesne been abandoned before the advancing